Recently, a blog in the Chronicle of Higher Education raised the question of who are the most influential “gurus” or thinkers in higher education, mirroring a similar article in the Wall Street Journal.

Now, these lists are great for a community because they are always contentious. Consider for example a top ten list of the best sports teams. Given that we all agree that the Dallas Cowboys are number one, we would have a great conversation arguing over the teams that make up positions two through nine.

As most of you know, my professional background is in low-temperature geochemistry. My own transition from a novice to greater expertise concerning science education has been an interesting and long journey that has punctuated with brief periods of rapid enlightenment. Many of these flashes were catalyzed by finding a particularly interesting reading.

Early on, I recognized that focusing on teaching and learning at a major research university would need to pay attention to the sociocultural characteristics of my university. These characteristics include the values and beliefs of my academic department and disciplinary community, tenure & promotion criteria, and available resources. As many of you are probably aware, these characteristics can strongly guide science faculty from intergrating the scholarship of teaching and learning in any meaningful way.

My own personal journey led me to focus on developing integration and synergy between my scientific scholarship and my education scholarship. I see this as the best strategy to personally thrive as well as contributing significantly to these fields.

I usually suggest a few authors to new graduate students in my own research group including John Bransford and John Seeley-Brown.

John Bransford served as Co-Chair of several National Academy of Science committees. These committees wrote How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom (2005), How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School (1999, 2000), and How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice (1999).

John Seeley Brown writes extensively on the ways technology may serve to transform education. Some papers of his that I particularly liked were:

• Brown, J.S., 2006. New learning environments for the 21st century: Exploring the edge. Change, 38(5): 18-24.
• Brown, J.S. and Adler, R.P., 2008. Minds on fire. Open education, the long tail, and learning 2.0. Educause Review 43(1): 17-32.
• Brown, J.S., Collins, A. and Dugvid, P., 1989. Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1): 32-42.

Finally, with the risk of appearing to pander, I recently have been reading Ann Austin and Jim Fairweather’s work on faculty work life to support my efforts at institutional change including Ann’s book and Jim’s paper on faculty work life.

Rethinking Faculty Work: Higher Education’s Strategic Imperative by Judith M. Gappa, Ann E. Austin, and Andrea G. Trice. Jossey-Bass.

Fairweather, J.S., 2002. The mythologies of faculty productivity: Implications for institutional policy and decision making. Research in Higher Education, 73(1): 26-48.

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