EDCP faculty

Dr. Erickson's research interests include students' understanding of science concepts, development of curriculum materials and strategies to implement a constructivist approach inscience instruction, the role of gender in science achievement, school based collaborative research, and pre-service teacher education.

Dr. Erickson chaired the Student Performance Component of the British Columbia Assessment of Science Provincial Report: 1991, a project funded by the Ministry of Education.This Reportreceived international recognition as the unanimous choice for the award for outstanding research by the American Educational Research Association.

Since 1984 Dr. Erickson has received several grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.Among the activities these grants supported are the Students' Intuitions and Science Instruction--or (SI)2 Project--a group of classroom teachers, pre-service teachers, graduate students and other science educators, coordinated by Dr. Erickson. While the focus of this group continues to evolve, over the past several years the emphasis is always on the implementation of a constructivist perspective on learning and teaching with a view towards improving the quality of classroom learning and teaching.Other recent grants have included:Classroom Assessment Techniques of Students' Pre-instructional Beliefs (1984-85); The Development of an Instructional Approach Based on a Cognitive Perspective (1985-87); Analysis of a Constructivist Approach in a Teacher Education Context (1987-88); Constructivist Teaching for Preservice and Inservice Science Teachers (1988-89); On Becoming a Science Teacher: An Analysis of Factors Which Enhance Reflective Practice (1989-90). His current SSHRCC project is Investigating Science Teaching Using a Collaborative Approach (1992-95), which not only supports the (SI)2 Project, but also the STEPP (Science Teacher Education Preparation Project). These grants have also supported the related research ofmany of his graduate students.