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Ravinder Koul, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Program Coordinator, Curriculum and Instruction

Education

Expertise

    • Physics education
    • History, philosophy, and sociology of science and science teaching
    • Curricular analysis of educational programs
    • Semantic and modeling tools in science and technology education

Professional Activities

    • Present
      • Associate Professor of Science Education and Coordinator of Curriculum and Instruction, The Pennsylvania State University - Great Valley, Malvern, PA.
    • 1998-2004
      • Assistant Professor of Science Education, Department of Education, The Pennsylvania State University - Great Valley, Malvern, PA.
    • 1997-1998
      • Research Associate, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, West Virginia, University, Morgantown, WV.
    • 1994-1997
      • Research Assistant, College of Education, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
    • 1992-1994
      • Graduate Assistant, Department of Physics and Physical Sciences, Marshall University, Huntington, WV.
    • 1987-1991
      • Physics and Math Instructor, Tutume McConnell Secondary School, Tutume, Botswana, Southern Africa.

Honors

    Editorial Work and Professional Honors

    • Member, Editorial Review Board, Electronic Journal of Science Education
    • Program Proposal Reviewer, National Association for Research in Science Teaching and American Educational Research Association
    • Executive board member, Division on International Studies, American Educational Research Association, 2006-07
    • Recipient, Fulbright Senior Specialists Award, King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thailand, 2007. Fulbright Scholar Programs provides academic opportunities to prominent U.S. faculty and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at post secondary, academic institutions around the world.

Education

    • Ph.D. - Pennsylvania State University, Science Education
    • M.A.T. - Marshall University, West Virginia
    • Teaching certifications in Physics (9-12), Math (5-12), and Chemistry (9-12), West Virginia Department of Education

Courses

    Current Courses

    • C I 400 - Introduction to Research Literature
    • C I 550 - Overview of Contemporary School Curriculum
    • SCIED 551 History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science and Science Teaching
    • SCIED 597 Computer Tools for Inquiry based Science Teaching
    • SCIED 597 Science Education Curriculum
    • C I 595 - Internship in Curriculum, Supervision, or Instruction
    • C I 596 - Individual Studies

    Previous Courses

    • SCIED 559 Analysis of Instruction in Science
    • SCIED 458 Teaching Science in Schools
    • SCIED 497 Nature of Science and Curriculum
    • EDLDR 562 Methods of Classroom Supervision
    • EDLDR 551 Curriculum Design: Theory and Practice
    • EDLDR 560 Principles of Instructional Supervision
    • EDLDR 563 Designing staff development programs

Research Interests

    • Semantic and modeling tools in science curriculum and assessment
    • Epistemological beliefs across content and national cultures
    • Individual and cultural differences in students' attitudes towards plagiarism

Citations

Sample Publications in Refereed Journals:

Ontakharai, S., Koul, R., Neanchaleay, J. (in press).  Religious outlook and attitudes towards environment.  Journal of Values and Beliefs. 

Clariana, & Koul (2008).  The effects of learner’s prior knowledge when creating concept maps from text passages.  International Journal of Instructional Media, 35(2).

Koul, R. (2006).  Relationship between religious outlook and attitudes towards school science.  Journal of Values and Beliefs, 27(3), 251-267.

Koul, R. (2006).  Curriculum analysis—helping educators recognize personal and education program philosophies.  The Journal of Educational Alternatives, 2(2), 65-74. 

Koul, R., Clariana, R., & Salehi, R. (2005).  Comparing several human and computer-based methods for scoring concept maps and text summaries.  Journal of Educational Computing and Research, 32(3), 227-239.

Koul, R. (2003).  Revivalist thinking and student conceptualizations of science/religion.  Studies in Science Education, 39, 103-124.

Koul, R. (2002).  The relevance of public image of science in science education policy and practice.  Science and Education, 11(1), 1-10.

Koul, R., Wiesenmayer, R. W., & Rubba, P. A (2001).  Evaluating RuralNet: Teaching with Internet.  Journal of Educational Computing and Research, 25(2), 129-140. 

Wiesenmayer, R, & Koul, R. (1999)  Level of Use of Internet in a professional development project. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 8(2), 123-135.

Koul, R., & Rubba, P. A. (1999). An Analysis of the Reliability and Validity of Personal Internet Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Scale. Electronic Journal of Science Education, 4(1)

Wiesenmayer, R., & Koul, R. (1998). Integrating Internet resources into the science classroom: Teachers’ perspectives. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 7(3), 271- 277.

Koul, R., & Dana, T. (1997).  Contextualized science for teaching science and technology.  Interchange, 28(2 & 3), 121-144.