FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Randy Yerrick, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of
Learning and Instruction
March/April 2012
Photograph by Nancy J. Parisi
Every educator has an operating philosophy that guides their practice and defines their career. If you ask Professor Randy
Yerrick his view of higher education he would give you just two words, “noblesse oblige.” Literally translated, this French
phrase implies responsibility for those who are granted privilege to act in reciprocity with generosity, integrity, honor, and
kindness. Dr. Yerrick has carved out a niche in higher education where his teaching, research, and service all contribute to a
vision of giving back to the community.
After leaving a career as an inorganic chemist and a high school classroom teacher, Dr. Yerrick completed his doctoral
studies at Michigan State University where their National Center for Research on Teaching and Learning inspired him to
explore his own teaching. Since the 1980s, science education leaders in the United States have been committed to the notion
of science for “all Americans.” Dr. Yerrick takes that commitment very seriously as he serves to bring the university and public
school community closer. His work for the past two decades revolved around the improvement of science teaching, especially
for children who are underserved by today’s schools. He has spent much of his university career serving schools teaching
children in K–12 contexts and coordinating his university courses and school collaborations so that pre-service teachers can
join him in the field observing and participating in his science lessons. One of Dr. Yerrick’s more notable projects was
advocating for students in segregated classrooms of the South where under-represented science students with histories of
failure were given another chance. For the entire academic year he videotaped his daily teaching of marginalized, lower track
students in front of pre-service teachers as he negotiated culturally responsive pedagogy for his high school students. It was for
this effort that he received the Journal of Research in Science Teaching award for the Most Outstanding Research Paper of
2001, “Same School, Separate Worlds.”
As a scholar, Dr. Yerrick has written dozens of data driven ethnographies exploring his own teaching, rejecting what he
calls the artificial separation of research and practice. “We get nowhere categorizing each other as either ‘ivory tower’ or ‘in the
trenches.’ We all have much to learn,” says Yerrick. His numerous other articles and position papers span such venues as
Contemporary Issues in Technology Education, Cultural Studies in Science Education, Journal of Multicultural Discourse,
Journal of Science Education and Technology, Journal of Science Teacher Education, and Science Education. Dr. Yerrick’s
book chapters have been included in such titles as Addressing Diversity in Higher Education; The International Handbook of
Science Education; Preparing Mathematics and Science Teachers for Diverse Classrooms: Promising Strategies for
Transformative Pedagogy; and Teaching and Learning Science: A Handbook.
It has only been this past decade that Dr. Yerrick has studied how technology influences the ways inquiry science teaching
is implemented in K–16 classrooms. He has received multiple awards for his innovation and leadership including being named
an Apple Distinguished Educator, NPACI Supercomputing Fellow, PASCO Technology Educator, Smithsonian Laureate, and
Teacher Scholar Fellow for the Center for Teaching and Learning. Dr. Yerrick has also received the 2010 UB Teaching Innovation
Award and has coached a world champion team in the Odyssey of the Mind International Competition.
Dr. Yerrick’s service to UB includes program director for science education as well as the educational technology and new
literacies programs, and associate dean of educational technology for GSE. His service to the larger science education community
includes leadership positions such as member on the board of directors, research chair, and technology committee chair for the
National Association for Research in Science Teaching; reviewer for all top-tier science education journals such as the Journal
of Research in Science Teaching and Science Education; liaison for the Congress of the National Science Teachers Association;
and consultant for technology implementation with dozens of school districts across the U.S. and internationally.