A West Virginia University professor known for inspiring students to become top-notch educators has become one of the first recipients of a newly created Fulbright Award that allows the nations leading educators to study abroad for short terms.
p. Eric Pyle, a WVU associate professor of education, leaves Monday (May 13) for Croatias University of Split where he will spend two weeks working with faculty at the European school.
Dr. Pyle is among the first nationally to receive a Fulbright Senior Specialist short-term grant. The new program offers two-to-six week grants to leading U.S. academics and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at academic institutions in 140 countries worldwide. The traditional Fulbright Scholars Program offers grants ranging from two months to a year.
WVU College of Human Resources and Education Dean William Deaton calls Pyles award impressive.
“Dr. Pyle is an incredible educator,”Dr. Deaton said.”Those who have the opportunity to teach and study with him will be well pleased and inspired.”
Dr. Pyle said,”I am just thrilled to receive this award. My father, who also is an educator who has traveled to Croatia, has suggested for awhile that I apply for a Fulbright, that teaching abroad is an incredible experience not to be missed. So, I finally did it, and I am glad. This will be a fantastic opportunity.”
While there, Pyle will conduct needs assessments among teachers who are potential candidates for a new program of post-graduate study for mathematics and science teachers.
He also will identify specific opportunities for collaboration between the University of Split and U.S. institutions and individuals with expertise in science and math education, such as teacher and graduate student exchange programs and joint research opportunities.
Recently named one of WVU s most outstanding teachers, Pyle is highly regarded for inspiring students to become professional educators and for his many projects to enhance how math and science instructors teach.
Since the summer of 2000, Dr. Pyle has led the Teams of Interdisciplinary Graduate fellows Engaged to Reinvigorate Students (TIGERS) program as project director and co-principal investigator. Funded by a National Science Foundation GK-12 Teaching Fellows grant, TIGERS places graduate students in the sciences, mathematics and engineering in contact with middle school mathematics and science teachers and their students. TIGERS currently works with 11 middle schools and 23 teachers in West Virginia.
He also serves as the principal investigator for a development grant for the West Virginia
Center for Rural Mathematics&Science Integration and has recently been named Director of the Governors School for Mathematics and Science.
Pyle is president-elect of the West Virginia Science Teachers Association. He has published two books, one CD-ROM and multiple journal articles in science education. In 1999, he and two colleagues were awarded National Science Teachers Associations Gustav Ohaus Award for Innovations in Science Teaching for their science inclusion project.
Pyle joined the WVU faculty in 1995 as an assistant professor of science education and was promoted to associate professor in 2001. The College of Human Resources and Education gave Pyle one of two Outstanding Teaching Awards for 2000-2001.
He earned a B.S. in earth science from the University of North CarolinaCharlotte (1983), an M.S. in geology from Emory (1986) and a Ph.D. in science education from the University of Georgia (1995).
Created to complement the 55-year-old traditional Fulbright Scholar Program, the Senior Specialists Program aims at increasing the number of faculty and professionals who have the ability to go abroad on a Fulbright.
The Fulbright Scholarship Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and managed by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars. The programs purpose is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.