Adesope Named Boeing Distinguished Professor
Adesope named as Boeing Distinguished Professor of STEM Education
By McKenna Miller – College of Education intern
The WSU College of Education has named Sola Adesope as Boeing Distinguished Professor of STEM Education for this academic year.
In this role, Adesope fosters cutting-edge STEM education research at WSU that is in line with Boeing’s vision to “Connect, Protect, Explore and Inspire the World… ”.
“Dr. Adesope is an outstanding colleague, scholar, and most importantly, friend,” said educational psychology professor Brian French. “Sola’s dedication to his work environment and research is a model for others to follow. The Boeing Distinguished Professorship will allow him to continue being such a model at the next level.”
As a Boeing Distinguished Professor, Adesope’s first goal includes providing computing education (programming) workshops to middle and high school students in Pullman in order to increase interest in STEM, particularly programming. Adesope also wants to examine how social problem-solving environments impact student learning, soft skills, retention and attitudes in STEM.
Other goals include researching how individual student differences – including differences in attitudes, abilities and gender – affect STEM students’ use of social problem-solving environments and working with pre-service teachers to develop a more robust understanding of how they can use social problem-solving environments to promote student engagement and learning.
A Q&A with Sola
Q: What does it mean to be a Boeing Distinguished Professor?
A: Being a Boeing Distinguished Professor of STEM Education, I foster STEM education research at WSU in line with Boeing’s vision. More specifically, I connect the College of Education with cutting-edge research in STEM Education around the campus.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish as a Boeing Distinguished Professor?
A: My goals as a Boeing Distinguished Professor are: (a) Provide computing education (programming) workshops to middle and high school students in Pullman – to increase interest in STEM particularly programming; (b) To examine how social problem-solving environments impact student learning, soft skills, retention, and attitudes in STEM; (c) research how individual student differences—including differences in attitudes, abilities, and gender—affect STEM students’ use of social problem-solving environments; and (d) work with preservice teachers to develop a more robust understanding of how they can use social problem-solving environments to promote student engagement and learning.
Q: Do you have any general comments about this acknowledgement?
A: I am deeply grateful for the Boeing award as it will help us ramp up our efforts in working with pre-service teachers and K-12 students and conducting STEM education research that will address the long-standing problems of attitudes, soft skills development and retention in STEM.