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Curriculum and Instruction

College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Faculty Research Profiles: Fouad Abd El Khalick

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Associate Professor

Curriculum & Instruction
399 Education Building
1310 S. 6th St. MC 708
217 244-1221
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Research Biography

My past interests include investigating science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge, and global and specific subject matter structures, and the use of concept maps as learning and assessment tools.

My research focuses on the teaching and learning about nature of science (NOS) in grades K-12, and in preservice and inservice science teacher education settings. There are several aspects to this research, including characterizing learners' views of NOS, developing and assessing the effectiveness of instructional approaches targeting learners' NOS views, using history and philosophy of science to promote learners' understandings of NOS, and investigating factors that facilitate or impede the translation of science teachers' NOS views into instructional practice. Currently, I am investigating the developmental appropriateness of NOS understandings that current national reform efforts in science education deem central to developing informed views of NOS. I am also researching the interaction between students' global epistemologies and worldviews, and their learning about more specific aspects of NOS.

Degrees

  • Ph.D., Science Education, Oregon State University, 1998
  • M.A., Science Education, American University of Beirut, 1995
  • T.D., Teaching Secondary School Science, American University of Beirut, 1993
  • B.Sc., Biology, American University of Beirut, 1991

Key Professional Appointments

  • Associate Professor, Curriculum & Instruction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004--
  • Assistant Professor, Curriculum & Instruction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000-2004
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Education, American University of Beirut, 1998-2000

Activities & Honors

  • University Scholar, Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007-2009
  • Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by Their Students (C&I 542), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006
  • Distinguished College Scholar, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005
  • Executive Board Member, National Association for Research in Science Teaching, 2004-2007
  • The NARST Early Research Career Award, National Association for Research in Science Teaching, 2002
  • Journal of Research in Science Teaching Award, National Association for Research in Science Teaching, 2001
  • Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, National Association for Research in Science Teaching, 1999
  • Distinguished Career Teaching Award, College of Education, 1994

Grants

  • Principal Investigator, The development of global and science epistemologies during the school years, Campus Research Board, 2003
  • Co-Principal Investigator, Using Technology to Enhance Echievement in Math, Science, and Literacy: A Middle School-University Partnership, Hewlett-Packard, 2001
  • Principal Investigator, The Development of Views about the Nature of Scientific Knowledge and Knowing in the Middle and High School Years, Campus Research Board, 2000

Selected Publications

  • Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2003). Socioscientific issues in pre-college science classrooms: The primacy of learners' epistemological orientations and views of nature of science. In D. L. Zeidler (Ed.), The role of moral reasoning in socioscientific issues and discourse in science education (pp. 41-61). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
  • Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2001). Embedding nature of science instruction in preservice elementary science courses: Abandoning scientism, but.... Journal of Science Teacher Education, 12(3), 215-233.
  • Abd-El-Khalick, F. & Lederman, N. G. (2000). Improving science teachers' conceptions of the nature of science: A critical review of the literature. International Journal of Science Education, 22(7), 665-701.
  • Abd-El-Khalick, F., & Lederman, N. G. (2000). The influence of history of science courses on students' views of nature of science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 37(10), 1057-1095.
  • Lederman, N. G., & Abd-El-Khalick, F. (1998). Avoiding de-natured science: Activities that promote understandings of the nature of science. In W. McComas (Ed.), The nature of science in science education: Rationales and strategies (pp. 83-126). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.

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