Volume/Issue :

Article type :

Short communication

Page No :

33-55

Abstract :

Dr. Brian P. Coppola is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. He was born in 1957, the same year that Sputnik launched, and was educated by many of the progressive school science movements of the 1960s. He excelled in the college preparatory program at Pinkerton Academy, in Derry, NH. He received his B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1978 from the University of New Hampshire, where he also pursued his interest in art, particularly drawing. In 1980, during graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, while volunteering as the first study group leader in organic chemistry for the Greater University Tutorial Service (GUTS), Coppola had a chance encounter with Harry Behrman. Behrman invented the GUTS program as a part of his PhD in Education, and he ended up sitting in the back of Coppola’s study group room, taking field notes for his thesis. Every week, Behrman and Coppola had a few hours of intense conversation about education as a field of scholarly endeavor, the integration of which into science formed the foundation of Coppola’s professional interests and future plans.

Keywords :

chemistry knowledge, interview, Brian P. Coppola

References :

Coppola, B. P. (1998). Progress in Practice: Three plenaries. I. Richard N. Zare, enhance, enable, and elucidate. The Chemical Educator, 3 (3), s00897980215a.
Coppola, B. P. (2001). Full human presence. In A. G. Reinarz, & E. R. White (Eds.), Beyond teaching to mentoring. New directions in teaching and learning no. 83 (pp. 57-73). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Coppola, B. P. (2002). Strength in numbers. Making the large lecture course work for you. In C. A. Stanley, & M. E. Porter (Eds.), Engaging large classes. Strategies and techniques for college faculty (pp. 257-268). Bolton, MA: Anker.
Coppola, B. P. (2007). The most beautiful theories. Journal of Chemical Education, 84 (12), 1902-1911.
Coppola, B. P. (2013). The distinctiveness of a higher education. Journal Chemical Education, 90 (8), 955-956.
Coppola, B. P., Ege, S. N., & Lawton, R. G. (1997). The university of Michigan undergraduate chemistry curriculum. 2. Instructional strategies and assessment. Journal Chemical Education, 74 (1), 84-94.
Coppola, B. P., Hovick, J. W., & Daniels, D. S. (1994). I scream, you scream ... A new twist on the liquid nitrogen demonstrations. Journal of Chemical Education, 71 (12), 1080.
Coppola, B. P., Krajcik, J. S. (2013). Discipline-centered postsecondary education research: Understanding university level science learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 50 (6), 627-638.
Coppola, B. P., & Lawton, R. G. (1995). Who has the same substance that I have? A blueprint for collaborative learning activities. Journal of Chemical Education, 72 (12), 1120-1122.
Coppola, B. P., Noe, M. C., Abdon, R. L. II, Konsler, R. G. (1993). A new observation of limiting case 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. Evidence for a highly unsymmetrical transition state structure with the reactions of mesoionic compounds. Journal of Organic Chemistry, 58 (26), 7324-7327.
Coppola, B. P., Noe, M. C., & Hong, S. S.-K. (1997). Regiocontrol in the 1,3-dipolar cycioaddition reactions of mesoionic compounds with acetylenic dipolarophiles. Tetrahedron Letters, 38 (41), 7159-7162.
Coppola, B. P., & Zhao, Y. (2012). U.S. education in Chinese lock step? Bad move. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/US-Education-in-Chinese/130669/ (February 15, 2017).
Ege, S. N., Coppola, B. P., & Lawton, R. G. (1997). The university of Michigan undergraduate chemistry curriculum. 1. Philosophy, curriculum, and the nature of change. Journal Chemical Education, 74 (1), 74-83.
Gottfried, A. C., Sweeder, R. D., Bartolin, J. M., Hessler, J. A., Reynolds, B. P., Stewart, I. C., Coppola, B. P., & Banaszak Holl, M. M. (2007). Design and implementation of a studio-based general chemistry course at the University of Michigan. Journal of Chemical Education, 84 (2), 265-270.
Heisenberg, W. (1958). The physicist’s conception of nature. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.
Hoffmann, R., & Coppola, B. P. (1996). Some heretical thoughts on what our students are telling us. Journal of College Science Teaching, 25, 390-394.
Hoffmann, R., Schleyer, P. v. R., & Schaefer III, H. F. (2008). Predicting molecules ̶ more realism, please! Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 47 (38), 7164-7167.
Huber, M. T. (2004). Balancing acts: The scholarship of teaching and learning in academic careers. Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Jones, P. R., & Coppola, B. P. (1978). Animated alchemy. Journal of Chemical Education, 55 (1), 6.
Pienta, N. J. (2013). Online courses in chemistry: Salvation or downfall? Journal Chemical Education, 90 (3), 271-272.
Varma-Nelson, P., & Coppola, B. P. (2005). Team learning. In N. J. Pienta, M. M. Cooper, & T. J. Greenbowe (Eds.), Chemists’ guide to effective teaching (pp. 155-169). Saddle River, NJ: Реаrsоn Education, Рrеntiсе Hall.
Zusho, A., Pintrich, P. R., & Coppola, B. P. (2003). Skill and will: The role of motivation and cognition in the learning of chemistry. International Journal of Science Education, 25 (9), 1081-1094.

Cite as :

Cardellini, L. (2017). The passion to teach: A dialogue with Brian P. Coppola. Švietimas: politika, vadyba, kokybė / Education Policy, Management and Quality, 9(1), 33-55. https://doi.org/10.48127/spvk-epmq/17.9.33