My research interests are primarily within the field of science and mathematics education, with specific emphasis on intelligent learning that promotes connections between the area of learning and the student's everyday life. Intelligent learning is based on understanding, and facilitated by the instructor through providing concept related experiences for the student, thus allowing him/her to distil the concept from the concrete, based on personal experiences. This kind of learning is more time consuming, but it is longer lasting and far more adaptable than rote learning. It is also innately motivating, because it makes the learning meaningful, and generates the positive affect inherent in intellectual growth that makes it a self-perpetuating process. While there is an element of rote learning associated with every field of study, the high degree of regularity in math and science significantly reduces this component, and increases the intelligent learning component that is based on pattern recognition, logic, and reasoning.
