Catherine Martin

Assistant Professor - Science Education Department
Science Education & Liberal Studies Liason - Department of Liberal Studies

Office: FO5 - 118
Phone: 562-985-9312
Email: cmartin7@csulb.edu

Website: www.ced.csulb.edu

Biography

I began teaching at CalState-Long Beach in the Science Education Department as a part-time lecturer in 1999, just after I had completed my Masters degree at USC. Between 2001-04, I had a full-time lecturer's contract while I pursued my PhD at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia. This "distance education" program enabled me to keep my teaching position at CSULB as well as encouraged me to conduct my research in the science capstone course that I was teaching - SCED 401: Processes of Science. Over two years, 525 students particpated in my study that assessed attitudes towards science, perceptions of the learning environment, and understandings of the nature of science.

In February 2005, I received my doctoral degree from Curtin University of Technology. I now have a joint position with the Science Education Department (75%) and the Liberal Studies Department (25%). I continue to build international linkages with colleagues from around the world. This effort enriches my role as Recording Secretary in the International Education Committee and as a member of a campus team that is involved in a project called, "Shared Futures: Global Learning for General Education" sponsored by the American Association for Colleges and Universities. This year, our team's goal is to help scientists in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics realize the potential benefits of having students study abroad. My experience in teaching biology, environment science, and mathematics in three different countries, from elementary through secondary level, has definitely been an asset to me as a university science teacher educator.

Degrees

PhD-Science Education , Curtin University of Technology , 2005
Master of Science Education , University of Southern California , 1999

Research Interests

My research interests include assessment of students' attitudes and perceptions of learning environments in science classrooms and laboratory settings, understandings of the nature of science among both students and instructors, gender issues in science education particularly in relation to all-girls schools, action research to improve university science teaching, and integrating a global perspective into science teacher education programs.

Representative Publications

Martin-Dunlop, C., & Fraser, B.J. (2006, in press). Learning Environment and Attitudes Associated with an Innovative Science Course Designed for Prospective Elementary Teachers. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education.

Martin-Dunlop, C. (2006, Sept.) Science learning environments and action research. Science Scope, 30, 44-47.

Martin-Dunlop, C., & Fraser, B.J. (2006). Improving the learning environment of university science courses: A key to better elementary teacher education. Conference proceedings from the Fourth International Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Conference, Victoria, BC, Canada.

Pine, J., Aschbacher, P., Roth, E., Jones, M., McPhee, C., Martin, C., Phelps, S., & Foley, B. (2006). Fifth graders' science inquiry abilities: A comparative study of students in hands-on and textbook curricula. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43, 467-484.

Martin-Dunlop, C. (2003). Chapter entitled, Nature of science for prospective elementary teachers in a texbtook "ExCELLence in Life Sciences, Flaagan, K., & Pelaez, N. (Eds.). Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co.

Campus Leadership

Recording Secretary, 2005-07. CSULB International Education Committee, Academic Senate.

American Association for Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), 2007. Member of a CSULB team participating in the Shared Futures: Global Learning for General Education initiative.

Faculty Interviewer, 2004-07. International Study Abroad Programs for CSULB students.

College Curriculum Committee, 2006-07.

Editorial Board Member and Peer Reviewer, 2006-07. Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning Online and Teaching (MERLOT), Teacher Education Strand.

Proposal Reviewer for professional conferences: National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE), American Educational Research Association (AERA-Learning Environments SIG), Fourth International Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Conference, National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), California Science Teachers Association (CSTA).

Dissertation External Examiner, 2005-06. Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia.

Coordinator/Liason, 2001-07. For Liberal Studies capstone course which has multiple sections of SCED 401-A Process Approach to Science.

Current Projects

Using Students’ Concept Maps on Nature of Science to Evaluate a Guided-Authentic-Inquiry Activity (GAIA) in a Course for Prospective Elementary Teachers. This SCAC project will analyze, interpret, and draw conclusions from concept maps that were created in SCED 401, a required course for all Liberal Studies majors. Concept maps are an effective teaching and learning strategy that is popular at all school levels. However, no studies exit that investigate how concept maps can be used to assess perceptions of nature of science. By using and expanding the developers’ original coding and scoring scheme, I will produce quantitative data to enrich the qualitative data generated from the concept maps previously.

Book in-progress: Embedded Nature of Science-The Missing Link in Secondary School Science, Corwin Press. This professional development book will help practicing science teachers teach nature of science.

Article in-progress: Science Educator–Scientist Collaboration + A Scientific Database: Does the Combination Improve Understanding of Nature of Science? This study compared two groups of prospective elementary teachers and their understandings of nature of science. As science educator for the intervention group (six classes), I collaborated with the scientist and, together, we developed an activity that required students to use a database on Antarctic seabirds for a culminating assignment. The 21 classes in the non-intervention group completed the assignment as well, but students chose their own topic and did not have the scientist involved in their class. Understandings of nature of science were assessed using Nature of Scientific Knowledge Survey (NSKS) and comparisons were made between the intervention and non-intervention classes. Also, interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of students in the intervention classes. A statistically significant higher average item mean was found for the Creative scale (effect size of 1.03 standard deviations) for the intervention group. More telling were interview responses that indicated scientific “habits of mind” as well as aspects of nature of science that have not been previously discussed in the literature.

Last update: 7/19/07