Peter Rillero

Peter Rillero is an associate professor of science education at Arizona State University. He has been a science educator for more than 30 years.

Professor Rillero joined the U.S. Peace Corps in 1982 and taught grades 8 to 10 in a rural school in Kenya for three years. He taught high school general science, physics, biology, and science research for four years in a public school in Bronx, NY, while earning a masters degree in science education (Teachers College, Columbia University) and a masters degree in biology (City University of New York). Professor Rillero accepted a tenure-track faculty position in science education at Arizona State University in 1994 after earning his doctoral degree in science education from The Ohio State University with Stan Helgeson as his major advisor. He was an exchange professor at the National University of Costa Rica, a Fulbright Lecturer in science education in Iceland, STEM consultant in Cebu, Philippines, andcChair of the department of secondary education.

Professor Rillero has authored and co-authored dozens of books with the goal of improving science education. His scholarship interests focus around science education and include deep conceptual learning, problem-based learning, inquiry, teacher education, program evaluation, modeling, graphing, international education, and the history of science education. He is working on a U.S. Department of Education grant which combines problem-based learning with methods for helping English language learners in an approach called Problem-Based Enhanced-Language Learning (PBELL).