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Department of
Science Education

Research in Science Education

  • explores how science is learned, taught, and imagined, and why certain practices or ideas should be encouraged or discarded in a particular pedagogic context.
  • relies on its inherent multidisciplinarity and draws from varied discourses such as the history and philosophy of science, methodologies and practices of pedagogy, cognitive sciences, language and linguistics, and socio-cultural frameworks of classrooms.
  • seeks, in the long term, to inform curriculum development and policies on science education at local, national, and global levels. 

Science education as a discipline is still in its nascent stages in India, and IISER Pune is uniquely poised to take it ahead in a formal and informed manner since it is already well-established in the field of teaching and research in the natural sciences.

Faculty Hiring and Department Coordination Committee 

The Department of Science Education (DSE) is keen to engage with all aspects related to science education and seeks faculty applicants who are interested in the theory and praxis of science education, especially at the undergraduate level, in the Indian context. The department is equally committed to research and practice, and considers the two inextricably intertwined.  

 

The DSE is currently being developed by the Coordination Committee comprising these faculty members of IISER Pune:

Prof. Bhas Bapat (Chairperson)

Dr. Anirban Hazra

Dr. Aparna Deshpande

Dr. Joy Monteiro

Dr. Pooja Sancheti

Dr. Supriya Pisolkar

 

The Coordination Committee has set up an Advisory Board of senior faculty, researchers, and teachers to guide the process of designing short and long-term projects, initiating collaborations, creating a curriculum, and hiring full- and part-time faculty members. The current members of this Advisory Board are: 

 

Dr. Ashok Rao (Former Head, Network Project, DESE, IISc, Bangalore) 

Dr. Jyotsna Vijapurkar (formerly at HBCSE, Mumbai) 

Mr. Kamal Mahendroo (Vidya Bhavan Society, Udaipur)

Dr. Padma Sarangpani (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai) 

Dr. R. Ramanujam (formerly at IMSc, Chennai)