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Graduate student Le Dolino won the People's Choice for the Three Minute Thesis award at the Association for Science Teacher Education’s annual conference last month.

At the conference, Dolino presented some key findings from his dissertation to an audience and a panel of evaluators, where he challenged what they typically imagined for the formation of scientists, that science teachers were seen as "stepping stones" for students before studying under scientists in higher education. 

“Science teachers actually utilize specialized knowledge and roles for scientist formation, and are therefore important partners,” he said. “Since it was an event focusing on communicating to the public, I made sure to focus not on my methods and data, but on the value of intentional pedagogy in the formation of scientists.”

“It felt great having audience members come up to me after the event, saying mine was their favorite talk, or that it made them think of projects that we could collaborate on,” he added. “Meeting new people and sharing ideas are what motivate me to present and participate in events such as this. It also felt great that there was a lot of IU representation during the awards this conference, all people whom I respect deeply, so I felt I was in very good company.”

Dolino, a Ph.D. student in science education, is studying how to better prepare future scientists by creating a teaching approach that includes supportive, student-centered learning with the high standards of the scientific research community.

“My dissertation is about developing a theoretical framework for what I call a scientist education, a return to intentional pedagogy in the teaching and learning of individuals who would be conducting scientific research,” Dolino explained. “The framework I'm developing, the recognition approach, seeks to reconcile the human-centered expectations of the teacher in students' pursuit of STEM, and the rigorous disciplinary expectations of scientists for the outputs of other scientists.”