معرفی
Dr. Dana L. Zeidler serves as Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of South Florida's College of Education. His international influence extends through honorary professorships at Ewha Womans University (South Korea), Beijing Normal University (China), and The Hong Kong Institute of Education, alongside leadership roles as past President of NARST and Series Editor for Springer's Contemporary Trends in Science Education.
Zeidler's research pioneers Socioscientific Issues (SSI) as a sociocultural framework integrating moral reasoning, epistemic development, and scientific literacy. His work examines how ethical dilemmas in science education foster character formation through argumentation, place-based immersive scenarios, and nature of science understanding. This approach transforms classrooms into spaces where students develop critical reflection and global citizenship through real-world scientific controversies.
Recent publications reveal accelerating focus on SSI implementation in elementary education, digital learning environments, and cross-cultural contexts. The 2023-2025 output demonstrates expansion into environmental ethics, epistemic insight development, and integration of humanities/social sciences to deepen socioscientific reasoning, with increasing attention to practical classroom frameworks and teacher decision-making.
Major recognitions include:
- Distinguished University Professor (2016)
- NARST Distinguished Contributions to Science Education Award (2016)
- USF Outstanding Faculty Award (2017)
- President’s Faculty Excellence Award (2003)
- Outstanding Mentor Award from Association for Science Teacher Education (2008)
- Journal of Research in Science Teaching Award (2006)
Zeidler has mentored over 70 doctoral students while leading international collaborations across 20+ countries, delivering keynotes on SSI-based pedagogy. His editorial leadership as Co-Editor of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (2015-2020) and Handbook of Research on Science Education (3rd Edition) has shaped global research agendas. Current work includes developing SSI frameworks for climate change education and examining moral reasoning in digital learning environments.
His research team actively investigates cross-cultural SSI implementation, elementary curriculum integration, and the role of place-based scenarios in developing scientific habits of mind. Ongoing projects with international scholars focus on epistemic insight development through socioscientific inquiry, with emerging work on AI-assisted argumentation in science classrooms.
