Professor Lee S Shulman is a world-renowned educational psychologist, educator and reformer, and the Charles E Ducommun Emeritus Professor of Education at Stanford University.
Professor Shulman holds a BA with a concentration in Philosophy, an MA and a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Chicago. He joined Michigan State University in 1963 where he held a joint appointment in the School of Education and the School of Medicine. At Michigan State, he founded and co-directed the Institute for Research on Teaching (IRT), while also conducting the research that led to his classic volume, Medical Problem Solving, which was published by Harvard University Press. The dynamic interaction between his work on judgement and decision making in teaching and in medicine inspired his work. In 1982, he joined Stanford University where he conceptualised a specialised form of knowledge of teachers and coined "Pedagogical Content Knowledge", which has made a major impact in the world of education and teacher education. His research on medical problem solving resonated throughout his career, specifically the focus on cognition and professional practice under conditions of uncertainty and the specificity of specialised domains. He was appointed the Charles E Ducommun Professor of Education in 1989.
Professor Shulman served as President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching from 1997 through 2008. He has served as President of the American Educational Research Association; as Vice President and President of the National Academy of Education, and was on the Board of Directors of the Spencer Foundation. He has been advisor to organisations such as the Center for Advancement of Scholarship in Engineering Education, the American Hebrew Academy, Olin College, the Mandel Foundation, and the Wabash College Center for Inquiry in the Liberal Arts.
Professor Shulman is a familiar and respected figure in the higher education sector in Hong Kong, and has been invited by the University Grants Committee to advise and speak about the scholarship of teaching. At the University of Hong Kong, he was a keynote speaker at the 2018 International Symposium on Teacher Education organised by the Faculty of Education, and also provided advice to the Faculty on its teacher education programmes. Professor Shulman is very well known in China and has led US delegations to China several times for exchanges in mathematics teaching and teacher education.
Professor Shulman has received numerous awards and has been conferred twenty-two honorary doctorates by prestigious universities globally in recognition of his contributions to the world of education as a teacher, a teacher educator, an education researcher and a former university leader.
In recognition of his contributions to academia and the world, the University has resolved to confer upon him the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa.
