Dr Robert Petrulis
BA; MA (Antioch); PhD (Washington)
Research Associate (2006 - Aug 2008)
0114 2225275
Email: r.petrulis@sheffield.ac.uk
My role at CILASS is to develop and carry out research and evaluation projects related to our program and mission. As a researcher, my interest is to better understand how inquiry-based learning (IBL) works in various university contexts; as an evaluator, I engage with academic staff and others who are implementing CILASS-funded projects. Since CILASS´s mission is to support the development of IBL strategies and curricula at the University, the evaluation process is framed in terms of what we are learning through the IBL projects that are supported by CILASS, and how this learning might be shared among the academic staff, and more widely throughout higher education. I work with Sabine Little and Pam McKinney on evaluations of CILASS learning development projects.
A major research project is a three-plus-year study of the undergraduates entering the University in autumn, 2006. We are interested in the undergraduate learning experience, and specifically in the ways that inquiry-based learning affects this experience. Another priority for the 2006-7 academic year will be a study of the ways that academic staff conceptualize and practice inquiry-based learning.
I have come to CILASS from the United States, where, most recently, I was Associate Professor of Leadership and Innovation in the Doctoral Program at Wilmington College in the state of Delaware. I serve on the peer review panels of two publications, the Journal of General Education, and the International Journal of Education and Development Using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT). Previously, I directed an institutional transformation project at a private college in the Midwestern US. My research and practice interests have been related to learning and teaching in higher education, including learning-focused institutional structures, new learning assessment processes, learning communities and field-based learning.
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