Prior to entering the doctorate program at UW, Dr. Lemberger
taught science at the high school level for three years.
Subjects taught were physical science and biology. Some
of this teaching was in a stand alone ED program in Fond
du Lac. Additionally, Dr. Lemberger spent several years
as a substitute teacher for the Wild Rose School District.
Dr. Lemberger had to opportunity to substitute teach in
almost all subject areas and grade levels. This greatly
expanded his vision of what teaching is all about.
Dr. Lemberger has developed a line of research on conceptual
change learning and teaching that includes several presentations
and publications. Dr. Lemberger also has eight years of
experience helping in-service and pre-service teachers
learn how to teach for conceptual change. From this prior
work, it has become apparent that more knowledge about
the personal epistemologies that students use to support
misconceptions is necessary to develop new, more effective
conceptual change teaching strategies. Current conceptual
change teaching strategies have had mixed results suggesting
that some important variables have been overlooked. Dr.
Lemberger’s current research on personal epistemology
will provide further insight into the kind of teaching
strategies needed to move students’ thinking toward
more scientific conceptions of natural phenomena.
