Dr. Ravinder Koul

I am a member of faculty in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, serving at Great Valley Campus (1998-2014) and University Park Campus (2014-present).  My underlying goal as an educator is to help all students reach their academic potential.  My research has focused on the associations of personal, instructional, and contextual factors with motivation and curricular engagement of students.  Fulbright senior specialist awards have enabled me to establish professional ties with universities in Asia and build cross-disciplinary and collaborative international relationships with faculty and students.  I have employed a variety of theoretical perspectives to examine different aspects and measures of student engagement and dis-engagement, which include career aspirations, attitudes toward science, attitudes toward foreign language learning, cheating behavior, and college retention and persistence.  Recently, I have published on career aspirations of high school students and engineering identities of college students in Thailand.  I teach courses in science education, educational research and curriculum development.

My interest and expertise:

• Curricular design and motivational engagement
• Motivational perspectives on questions of equity in STEM education