Kirby Whittington joined the Karen L. Smith Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning in 2022 as a STEM instructional specialist. She graduated with her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on science education from Florida State University where she also received a Masters of Science in Science Teaching for Community College and a Bachelors in Science both with an emphasis on Biology and Education. She has ten years of experience working at various levels of science education in multiple roles. Some of these roles include: a middle school science teacher, a college biology professor, lab instructor, and a science/math teacher educator. Prior to joining the team at the Faculty Center, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Utah developing curriculum to integrate life science and engineering into middle school classrooms.
She views learning as a collaboration between the instructor and the student and, therefore, learning occurs when students are interacting with the material they are being taught. This underpins her use of and championing for active and student-centered pedagogies within STEM classrooms. In her workshops and trainings, participants can expect to be involved in learning about strategies and discussing them but also beginning to utilize strategies in the context of their own courses.
View Kirby’s CV.