By McKenna Miller, College of Education intern
PULLMAN, Wash. – The WSU College of Education has named Sola Adesope as Boeing Distinguished Professor of STEM Education for 2017-18.
In this role, Adesope fosters cutting-edge STEM education research at WSU Pullman that is in line with Boeing’s vision to “Connect, Protect, Explore and Inspire the World.”
“Adesope is an outstanding colleague, scholar and, most importantly, friend,” said educational psychology professor Brian French. “Sola’s dedication to his work environment and research is a model for others to follow. The Boeing Distinguished Professorship will allow him to continue being such a model at the next level.”
As a Boeing Distinguished Professor, Adesope’s first goal includes providing computing education (programming) workshops to middle and high school students in Pullman in order to increase interest in STEM programming. Adesope also wants to examine how social problem-solving environments impact student learning, soft skills, retention and attitudes in STEM.
Other goals include researching how individual student differences — including attitudes, abilities and gender — affect STEM students’ use of social problem-solving environments and working with pre-service teachers to develop a more robust understanding of how they can use social problem-solving environments to promote student engagement and learning.
“I am deeply grateful for the Boeing award, as it will help us ramp up our efforts in working with pre-service teachers and K-12 students, while conducting STEM education research that will address the long-standing problems of attitudes, soft skills development and retention in STEM,” said Adesope.
Contact:
- Brandon Chapman, communications director, College of Education, 509-335-6850, b.chapman@wsu.edu