Untitled

Dark trees
Standing against the icy cold.
It is hazy
And yet
Everything is crystalline & clear.
My existence
Is penetrating the forest
The haze, & the universe
And is itself penetrated
By the existence
Of forest, haze, and universe.
From the collection 'Transcendence' (1979-80)

cooking

Gardening  pictures Harvesting   Pictures taken on APR 29, 2003, MAY 18, 2003, SEP 07, 2003, OCT 02, 2003, FEB 22, 2004, APR 25, 2005, and MAY 19, 2005.

Cooking  I am a hobby cook. Here some recipes (with photographs) of dishes I have been making with the products from our garden. Here some of the vegetables we eat harvest and eat in October, November, and February.

Accomplishments  
(Mar 1, 2009) I received the 2009 NARST Distinguished Contribution through Research Award. "The purpose of this award is to recognize scholars who have made continuing contributions to, provided notable leadership in, and had substantial impact on, science education through their research over a period of at least 20 years. This is the single most prestigious award and highest honor that are bestowed by NARST on scholars in the field of science education." (The Ceremony [video]) (Official photo) (The Plaque)
   I have been elected Fellow of the American Educational Research Association in the class of 2009. The fellow program was establish to honor education researchers with substantial research accomplishments, to convey the Association's commitment to excellence in research, and to emphasize to new scholars the importance of sustained research of excellence in the field.
   I have been elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) "For distinguished contributions to research in science education, particularly for development of theory and methods, and exemplary empirical research on learning and teaching science." (See article in The Ring.)

 information about my books
 

Wolff-Michael ROTH and Pei-Ling HSU, Analyzing Communication: Praxis of Method (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2010).

The authors provide insights into the "laboratory" of social science research concerned with the analysis of communication in all of its forms, including language, gestures, images, and prosody. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH (Ed.), Science Education from People for People: Taking a (Stand)point (New York: Routledge, 2009).

In the same way as the sociologist Dorothy E. Smith, who takes a women's standpoint to her research, the authors to this volume take a standpoint on science education that begins in the actualities of peoples' lives, their own or those of others that they are closely working with. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH (Ed.), Mathematical Representation at the Interface of Body and Culture (Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2009).

Two literatures are brought together to produce a coherent account of mathematics as simultaneously embodied and cultural practice. (Contributors include: P. Cobb, R. Núñez, B. Davis, L. Radford, R. Nemirovsky, L. Edwards, G. Krummheuer.) (order here)

Kadriye ERCIKAN and Wolff-Michael ROTH (Eds.), Generalizing from Educational Research (New York: Routledge, 2009).

Leading authors elaborate a perspective of generalizing and generalizations from educational research that go beyond the qualitative/quantitative dichotomy. (Contributors: Shavelson/Webb, Mislevy/Gee/Moss, Tobin, Luke, Solano-Flores, Eisenhart, Becker/Wu, Bachman, Ercikan, Roth) (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Dialogism: A Bakhtinian Perspective on Science Language and Learning (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2009).

Using concrete data from concept mapping in high school science classrooms, the author articulates a Bakhtinian approach to understanding language, learning, and the learning paradox. Particular attention is paid to the carnival nature of the vernacular and the monological nature of the natural sciences. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH and Ken TOBIN (Vol Eds.) (Eds.), The World of Science Education: Handbook of Research in North America (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2009).

Leading authors review the literature of science education with a particular focus on scholars from and the scholarly community of North America. The book highlights the cultural and historical aspects that shaped science education in Canada and the US. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Yew Jin LEE and Leanna BOYER, The Eternal Return: Reproduction and Change in Complex Activity Systems--The Case of Salmon Enhancement (Berlin: Lehmanns Media, 2008).

We propose a radical way of theorizing the dynamic and temporal aspects of cultura-historical activity theory in Nietzschean concept of the eternal return. We use the metaphor of fluid and catastrophe theory to realize change. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Michiel van EIJCK, Giuliano REIS and Pei-Ling HSU, Authentic Science Revisited (Rotterdam: Sense, 2008).

The authors take a new look at the concept of 'authentic science' using as the context recent research conducted while high school students did an internship in a science laboratory or elementary students spent time with environmentalists outdoors. They use cultural-historical activity theory to articulate knowing and learning science in diverse settings. (order here)

Domenico MASCIOTRA, Wolff-Michael ROTH and Denise MOREL, Énaction: apprendre et enseigner en situation (Bruxelles: De Boeck, 2008).

Qu'est-ce l'énaction ? Tout se passe en action et en situation : apprendre, connaître, penser, réfléchir, se développer, enseigner, coopérer, combattre, exercer une profession et même théoriser une pratique.

Ian STITH and Wolff-Michael ROTH, Students in Action: Cogeneratives Dialogues from Secondary to Elementary Schools (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, JUL 2008).

For a 2-year period, we worked with an elementary school teacher and her fifth-grade class to see how cogenerative dialoguing would work with students much younger than those with which this method of involving students in the curriculum design and planning was pioneered. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH, In Search of Meaning and Coherence: A Life in Research (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2007).

Using auto/biographical and cultural-historical accounts, I contextualize and present 11 articles that I have published in my career, which has been shaped in and through the work on these articles. The cultural-historical commentary highlights the fact that individual careers and autobiographies are constituted by the possibilities of the community, and, in turn, shape the community in return. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Doing Teacher-Research: A Handbook for Perplexed Practitioners (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2007).

Using six teacher-researcher studies that I have conducted while teaching full time and while being a department head of science in a secondary school, I exemplify the different dimensions of conducting research in one's own classes and of analyzing the data from different theoretical and methodical approaches. Ideal textbook for research methods. (order here)

Domenico MASCIOTRA, Wolff-Michael ROTH and Denise MOREL, Enaction: Toward a Zen Mind in Learning and Teaching (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2007).

This book develops an enactivist perspective on knowing, learning, and teaching. We show, using practical examples such as gardening, doing mathematical puzzles, fighting karate, and teaching science lessons, how educators can develop a Zen mind for themselves and assist their students in developing an enactivist approach to knowing. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH and Ken TOBIN (eds), Science, Learning, Identity: Sociocultural and Cultural Historical Perspectives (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2007).

This book cutting edge chapters and interactive metalogues by leading science education researchers about the different dimensions of identity as these become salient by participating in a variety of science-related settings. (order here)

Ken TOBIN and Wolff-Michael ROTH, The Culture of Science Education: Its History in Person (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2007).

This book features the auto/biographies of the professional lives of 22 science educators from 11 countries situated in different places along the career ladder within an ongoing narrative of the cultural history of the field. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Learning Science: A Singular Plural Perspective (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2006).

In this book, I take a dialectical and phenomenological perspective on learning, which means, through the eyes of individual learners, who act according to the things that are given to them in their perception and thereby concretely realize cultural (plural) possibilities. I do close analyses of student learning in tenth- and twelfth-grade science classrooms and episodes from my own life. (order here)

Kenneth TOBIN and Wolff-Michael ROTH, Teaching to Learn: A View from the Field (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2006).

We place coteaching and cogenerative dialogues within a theoretical and empirical matrix that shows what it offers above more traditional methods of professional development and teacher education. The rich theoretical underpinnings are supported by thick descriptions of sophisticated analyses and the associated methodologies. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH, SungWon HWANG, Yew Jin LEE and Maria Ines Mafra GOULART, Participation, Learning, and Identity: Dialectical Perspectives (Berlin: Lehmannns Media, 2005).

We present the products of our thinking about learning across the lifespan in and of mathematics and science, which we developed in intense discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of taking a dialectical materialist (embodied) approach. Detailed case studies are provided from kindergarten to professional practice. coming April/05 (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Doing Qualitative Research: Praxis of Method (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2005).

Here, I do not teach research methodology with general descriptions--i.e., I do not put the cart before the horse--but begin with careful descriptions of practical research situations, what I do, how I do it, and why I do it, and the various questions that arise in the course of doing research. Ideal textbook for research methods. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH and Kenneth TOBIN (eds), Teaching Together, Learning Together (New York, Peter Lang, 2005).

Science educators from Australia, Canada, Ireland, and USA report from classrooms in which new and seasoned teachers taught together and, in this, learned from each other. In some classrooms, students and teachers regularly meet to theorize what they are doing for the purpose of improving teaching and learning.

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Talking Science: Language and Learning in Science Classrooms (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).

I present a radically different perspective of knowing a language than is common in science education. Knowing a language is no different to and integral part of knowing one's way around the real, lived-in world generally. It is a non-representational view of language and how students develop it through their experiences. coming 5/05

Wolff-Michael ROTH (ed), Auto/biography and Auto/ethnography: Praxis of Research Method (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2005).

Rather than telling readers about how to do autobiography and autoethnography, the contributors use auto/biography and auto/ethnography as method. The contributors do not teach research methodology with general descriptions but begin with careful autobiographical and autoethnographic descriptions. Ideal textbook for research methods. (order here)

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Lilian POZZER-ARDENGHI, and JaeYoung HAN, Critical Graphicacy: Understanding Visual Representation Practices in School Science (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer-Kluwer, 2005).

This book is about understanding and competently using visual representations, without which science as we know it would not exist, and which are of tremendous frequency in science textbooks. Concrete recommendations are provided for better designing textbooks and for using visuals in the classroom.

Randy YERRICK and Wolff-Michael ROTH (eds), Establishing Scientific Classroom Discourse Communities: Multiple Voices of Research on Teaching and Learning (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005).

This book is unparalleled in discussing current reform issues from sociolinguistic and sociocultural perspectives. The need for a revised perspective on enduring science teaching and learning issues is established and a theoretical framework and methodology for interpreting the critique of classroom and science discourses is presented.

Wolff-Michael ROTH and Angela Calabrese BARTON, Rethinking Scientific Literacy (New York: Routledge, 2004).

Rethinking Scientific Literacy presents a new perspective on science learning as a tool for improving communities. By focusing on case studies inside and outside of the classroom, we illuminate teh relevance of science in students' everyday lives, offering a new vision of scientific literacy linked to social responsibility and community development. !! AERA Div K Award 2005 !!

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Toward an Anthropology of Graphing (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003).

In this book, I present the sesults of several studies involving scientists and technicians. Surprisingly, when given tasks, scientists were not the experts that they are generally believed to be. In the workplace, however, scientists and technicians use graphs in competent ways because they are deeply embedded in and connected to the familiarity with the workplace.

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Being and Becoming in the Classroom (Westport, CT: Ablex, 2002).

This book is about the continuous becoming of teachers in teaching. It is about coming to understand teaching not through the objectifying gaze of some observer but through my own lived experience of teaching, which I nevertheless reflect upon critically and with radical doubt.

Wolff-Michael ROTH and Kenneth TOBIN, At the Elbow of Another: Learning to Teach by Coteaching (New York: Peter Lang, 2002).

This book is about teaching and learning to teach, written from the perspectives and experiences of two educators who teach with other teachers and, in doing so, learn to teach. Teaching with others provides us with different understandings and a new epistemology of teaching. !! CHOICE AWARD 2003 !!

Wolff-Michael ROTH and Jacques DÉSAUTELS (eds), Science Education for/as Socio-Political Action (New York: Peter Lang, 2002).

This book is about alternative ways of looking at science education. The contributors focus on the role of science education by taking as starting point either social or political action. Concrete descriptions for curriculum design are provided.

Derrick LAVOIE and Wolff-Michael ROTH (eds), Models of Science Teacher Preparation (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001).

Each contributor to this edited volume provides background, theoretical and research-based frameworks, guidelines, and concrete examples for the implementation and assessment of innovative models of science learning, teaching, and professional preparation.

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Kenneth TOBIN, and Steve RITCHIE, Re/constructing Elementary Science (New York: Peter Lang, 2001).

The central issues in this book are framed in terms of three dichotomies that reflect contradictions in science education--individual vs collective, science vs technology (applied science), and material world vs concepts describing it. Exemplary case studies show the tremendous capabilities of elementary students to talk technology and, in the process, to learn and learn about science.

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Designing Communities (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998).

A rich set of theoretical frameworks is used to yield a panorama of research findings about individual and collective learning in science classrooms, where students learn by designing artifacts of their choice and by having control over appropriate tools that mediate their engagements with the materials.

Wolff-Michael ROTH, Authentic School Science: Knowing and Learning in Open-Inquiry Science Laboratories (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995).

This is a first-hand report of knowing and learning in middle and high school science, where individual and groups of students design investigations of their own interest. Because students own their investigations, the tools they use, and the representations they produce, this form of learning has been termed authentic science.