Richard Duschl is a Professor of Science Education at Rutgers University. Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, he chaired Science Education at King's College London, and prior to that was Professor of Science Education at Vanderbilt University. One focus of his research examines how the history and philosophy of science can be applied to science education. The research agenda is to better understand the social and cognitive dynamics for making science classrooms inquiry and epistemic communities. Scientific inquiry, then, is seen as fundamentally focusing on the evidence and the argumentation discourse processes that lead to scientific decisions. A second focus of his research is the design of instructional sequences that promote assessment for learning. With NSF support from several grants, this research has led to many new ideas about how formative assessment strategies can help learners and teachers make scientific thinking visible. He also has expertise in informal science education and in earth science education. Respected among scholars in science education and learning domains, Duschl publishes widely in U.S. and international journals on inquiry, science teaching, learning, cognition, and assessment.  Dr. Duschl has served as editor of Science Education and was a member of the NRC committee that wrote the Inquiry Addendum for the National Science Education Standards. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Title(s): Professor

Education: Ph.D.- Science Education, University of Maryland-College Park

Affiliations:

Chair, National Academies study committee "Science Learning Kindergarten through Eight Grade"   
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/

Member, Wellcome Trust Advisory Board for ReDiscover Funding Program

Associate Editor, Cognition and Instruction

Editor Emeritus, Science Education

Memberships:

American Educational Research Association

European Assoc. for Research on Learning and Instruction

European Science Education Research Association

History of Science Society

National Association for Research in Science Teaching

Philosophy of Science Association

Research interests:

History and Philosophy of Science and Science Teaching

Argumentation

Assessment

Recent publications:

History and Philosophy of Science & Science Teaching:

Duschl, R. (1990) Restructuring Science Education: The importance of theories and their development.  New York:Teachers College Press.

Duschl, R. & Hamilton, R. (1992).  Philosophy of science, cognitive psychology, and educational theory and practice.  Albany, NY:SUNY Press. 

Duschl, R. (2000).  Making the nature of science explicit.  In R. Millar, J. Leech & J. Osborne (Eds.)  Improving Science Education: The contribution of research. Philadelphia:Open University Press.  pp 187-206.

Argumentation:

Goldman, S., Duschl, R., Ellenbogen, K., Williams, S.  & Tzou, C. (2003).  Science inquiry in a digital age:  Possibilities for Making Thinking Visible.  In H. van Oostendorp (Ed.) Cognition in a Digital Age.  pp. 253-283. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Publishers.

Duschl, R.  (2003). The Assessment of Argumentation & Explanation: Creating and Supporting Teachers' Feedback Strategies.  In D. Zeidler (Ed.)  The Role of Moral Reasoning on Socio-Scientific Issues and Discourse in Science Education. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Press.

Jimnez-Aleixandre, M.P., Rodrigues, A. B., & Duschl, R.A.  (2000)  "Doing the lesson" or "doing science": Argument in high school genetics.  Science Education, 84(6).

Assessment:

Duschl, R.  (2003) Assessment of Inquiry.  In M. Atkin & J. Copffey, Eds., Everyday Assessment in Science Classrooms.  Washington, DC: NSTA.

Duschl, R. & Gitomer, D.  (1997).  Strategies and challenges to changing the focus of assessment and instruction in science classrooms.  Educational Assessment, 4, (1), 37-73. 

Gitomer, G. & Duschl, R. (1998).  Emerging Issues and Practices in Science Assessment. In B. Fraser and K. Tobin, (Eds.), International Handbook of Science Education. pp. 791-810.  Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.