Working Cooperatively with Other Educators
In September 2010, I considered my situation — "Intellectually, I've been highly productive. Professionally, I haven't followed the standard path. The result of this combination is that, despite developing lots of great ideas in a wide range of areas, so far these ideas aren't widely known or used." (quoted from a brief history of my life in a bio-page) — and decided to seek productive employment (with a job that would let me begin working cooperatively with other educators in a more effective way) in one of these areas:
• working as a lab director for general chemistry at a research university (similar to UW-Madison) to develop science labs that will help students learn scientific thinking skills. A page briefly outlining these Ideas for Lab Education links to a page about My Educational Philosophy for Lab Education, which explains why "as part of my plan for converting ideas into action, I want to work as a lab director for general chemistry at a research university," and tries to answer a question: "As part of your plan for improving the quality of education in your department and school, why might you want to hire me?"
• working in an education think-tank to develop ideas for K-12 education: I'm especially excited about possibilities for using Design Method (and Scientific Method) to help students learn thinking skills more effectively, as explained in An Introduction to Design.
Craig Rusbult, March 2011