Three CRDG faculty members were honored at the May 2012 meeting of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa College of Education’s Congress.
Dr. Francis Pottenger III received the 2012 COE Lifetime Achievement Award. Pottenger joined CRDG in 1966, where he led the science faculty in the creation of award winning inquiry- based curricula for elementary and secondary school science. His groundbreaking Developmental Approaches in Science, Health and Technology (DASH), a six-year sequence for elementary school; Foundational Approaches in Science Teaching (FAST), a three-year middle school program; and The Fluid Earth/The Living Ocean, a high school marine science course, have been used in Hawai‘i, throughout the mainland United States, and internationally. Over the course of his career Pottenger has engaged in science curriculum collaboration and experimentation with colleagues in Japan, Korea, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand. CRDG His nomination for the award read, in part, “For the last 45 plus years, Dr. Pottenger’s work in science education as part of CRDG can only be described as extraordinary, innovative, seminal, diverse, impactful, cross-national, collaborative, award-winning.”
Dr. Paul Brandon was the recipient of the 2012 COE Exceptional Contributions to Scholarship Award. Brandon has been with CRDG since 1989 as a professor of education with a focus on research and evaluation. He has published several evaluation instruments that have been developed and validated in projects and regularly serves as a consultant on developing research and evaluation designs. He has won two best evaluation awards from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and was selected by the AERA Research on Evaluation Special Interest Group as their first annual Distinguished Scholar in April 2011. Beginning January 2013, he will serve a three-year term as Editor-in-Chief of the American Evaluation Association’s topical journal, New Directions for Evaluation. CRDG Director Kathleen Berg wrote that “I nominated Paul for this award based on recent awards and recognitions that come on the heels of an already outstanding, long, and productive scholastic career. He is most deserving of an award for his scholarship, which is well-respected both locally and nationally.”
Dr. Truc Nguyen was awarded the 2012 COE Leadership Award. Nguyen’s role within CRDG as a faculty member in Learning Technologies includes authoring and teaching science and computer literacy courses; developing instructional strategies for existing science curricula; overseeing the development of science, economics, and computer distance-learning courses; developing evaluation and assessment modules; and coordinating professional development workshops and conferences. This year, she also chaired the College of Education Faculty Senate, represented the college on the Mānoa Faculty Senate, led the Faculty Distributed Learning Advisory Committee on the All Campus Council of Faculty Senate Chairs, and served as president of the Hawai‘i Educational Research Association (HERA). Her nomination for this award read, in part, “She exemplifies exceptional leadership that demonstrates commitment in ways that move programs, departments, units, and the entire college in positive directions.”