Adam Fontecchio, PhD, an advocate for and expert in STEM education and teacher training, has been elected as the next Director of the Center for the Integration of Research Teaching and Learning (CIRTL). Fontecchio, professor of electrical and computer engineering in Drexel Engineering, succeeds founding director Robert Mathieu.
CIRTL is a network of 42 research universities in the United States and Canada that provides evidence-based, forward thinking professional development to students at the graduate level. The goal of CIRTL is to improve the STEM learning of all students at every college and university, and thereby to increase the diversity in STEM fields and STEM literacy of the nations.
“When students get a PhD, they then often go on to a faculty job, but getting a PhD is primarily and necessarily technical training — how to write papers, do research, write grants, professional conferences,” he says. “CIRTL tries to fill in the other parts: what do you do in a classroom, how do you build a class, how do you evaluate your class and know that what you’re doing is working?”
Fontecchio is also director of Drexel’s Center for the Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence (CASTLE). Founded in 2014, CASTLE also aims to improve STEM education by conducting research and implementing best practices across curricula. The center has been a consistent hub of funded research at Drexel. Fontecchio says that, ultimately, the work of CASTLE and CIRTL is to make STEM education more accessible to more people.