Deborah L. Hanuscin

I began my career in 1995 as an elementary teacher, and later worked as an informal science educator at the Odyssey Science Center and Wonderlab Museum of Science, Health, and Technology. I pursued my graduate studies in science education at Indiana University-Bloomington, minoring in physics education, and in 2004 I completed my doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction.

Currently, I hold a joint appointment in the Department of Learning, Teaching, & Curriculum (College of Education) and Department of Physics (College of Arts & Sciences) at Mizzou. My teaching responsibilities in both departments center on teacher education, including content and pedagogy. This work is very closely aligned with my research interests.

The focus of my research is to better understand teacher learning, particularly elementary teachers’ developing understandings of scientific inquiry and the nature of science. To this end, I have been studying how prospective teachers' views of science are shaped by their university coursework, and collaborating with scientists to develop appropriate science learning experiences for prospective and practicing elementary teachers.