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Daniel R. Sewell, Ph.D.
Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA
dsewell@fielding.edu
Abstract
The domains of basic research in the sciences, applied research & practice including engineering and advanced information technology, and education are in modes of explosive growth while finding it difficult to sustain effective collaborations which would benefit the groups focused on each domain. Just as important is the need to integrate basic research, application, and education across each of the domains to benefit students. The Pan American Advanced Studies Institute for E-Science aims to facilitate development of a new generation of scientist engineers capable of integrating advanced networking, science, and education to foster the growth of scholar practitioners. The goal is for these scholar practitioners to sustain the transfer between and integration among research, practice, and teaching; especially as it may be enhanced by advances in computer science and networking applications. In support of this goal CIARA, CHEPREO, and AMPATH have provided various venues for the development of infrastructure and various approaches to overcoming obstacles and moving towards sustained collaboration and integration among basic research, applied research & practice, and education.
These goals have a parallel in the social sciences where scientists, practitioners, and educators have struggled to develop models for collaboration and education that integrate across all three domains. The Boyer Commission set the stage for this work with their 1998 report. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching furthered development of this work by funding numerous research and application projects in the area of Scholarship of Teaching or Learning (SoToL). In a parallel effort, Fielding Graduate University has a 30-year history of integrating basic social science, applied research & practice, and education to produce doctoral scholar practitioners. As a capstone to that history, Sewell & DiStefano (2002) reviewed the Fielding model, the work of the Boyer Commission, the products of the SoToL research, and related social science research to produce an extended model of the scholar-practitioner and the role of basic research, research & practice, and education in the professional life of scientists, practitioners, and educators.
The Fielding model as expanded by Sewell & DiStefano is extensible to individuals and organizations in research, practice, and education in the physical sciences. In this paper, I will implement the scholar-practitioner model for the domains of physical sciences and information technology research, application, and education to illustrate new paths that should be explored to further enhance and facilitate a reduced divide among basic scientists, technical research scientists, engineers, faculty, and other educators to produce both the “collision of ideas” necessary to yield learning success and “the container” to incubate a new generation of scientist engineers.
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