La passione per l’insegnamento: un dialogo con Brian P. Coppola

In this interview Brian P. Coppola provides some glimpses of his private life. Probably because of dedicated teachers very soon fell in love with the school and during graduate school, he volunteered in the service of teaching. For his love of physical organic chemistry he describes some of the results obtained in the laboratory. But Coppola is known to be one of the most dedicated and passionate teacher of organic chemistry and the interview tries to steal for readers some secret in the success he has with students. For Coppola’s teaching does not consist in a formula or a sequence of actions, but in the belief of the opportunity to discover students with the personal skills that they possess. The passion for teaching involves a straight ethics and a belief that the example is perhaps even most important of the examples that we use when we teach. In this interview, Coppola discusses effective methods of teaching, the impact of the laboratory, the role that may have the technology and motivation and the role of research in chemical education. Offers his perspective on the scholarship of teaching and his experience on the professional development of teachers and the globalization of chemical education. But what shines through most is his dedication and the profound impact that Brian Coppola and his teaching has in the lives of students.