Education

Ph. D. in Curriculum and Instruction, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, VA, 2005
M.S. in Secondary Education, Radford University, Radford, VA, 1983
B.A. in English, Bluefield College, Bluefield, VA, 1980, Summa cum Laude

Bio

After graduating from Bluefield College in 1980 and teaching in public schools for 16 years, Dr. Watson came back to her alma mater to work as an Adjunct Instructor in Education, delighted to work with her former professor, Dr. Gerald Clay. Upon completing her doctoral degree in 2005, she became full-time faculty; and in the following year, she was named the Chair of the Division of Education upon Dr. Clay’s retirement.  In August 2012, she became the Dean of the newly formed School of Education.  Dr. Watson’s years of teaching mathematics in middle school in neighboring McDowell County, WV, along with providing professional development for teachers in the region, provided a strong foundation of authentic experience for teaching the education courses.  Her dissertation, Learning Mathematics in Central Appalachia: Life Histories of Beginning Elementary Teachers, connected a research base to that rich experience in public school teaching.  Dr. Watson’s enthusiasm for teaching is often evident, such as when she dresses like a triangle to read aloud a children’s book, when her students make paper in science methods class, or when she tries out a new recipe to share with the student teachers.  Always intrigued by innovative teaching strategies, she models the use of technology tools and hands-on manipulatives for learning.  But most of all, Dr. Watson believes that caring is an essential quality for good teaching; she often tells the student teachers at the end of seminar each week, “Now go out to spread goodness and light.”