Prof. Berinderjeet Kaur from NIE Singapore

Berinderjeet Kaur, PhD, is a Professor of Mathematics Education and Head of the Centre for International Comparative Studies (CICS) at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. She began her career as a secondary school mathematics teacher and taught in schools for 6 years before joining the National Institute of Education in 1988. She has been at NIE for the last twenty three years working with teachers, heads of departments, vice – principals and principals of schools. For two consecutive years, 2005 and 2006 she was the recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Commendation award at the National Institute of Education. Professor Kaur has been involved in numerous international studies of Mathematics Education and is the Mathematics Consultant to TIMSS 2011. She has given numerous presentations at conferences held in the region as well as in various parts of the world. She has published more than 150 papers in journals, conference proceedings and books. Her publications appear in regional and international journals and also in both pedagogy and scholarly books.

Professor Kaur has been involved in numerous international studies of Mathematics Education and is the Mathematics Consultant to TIMSS 2011. She has given numerous presentations at conferences held in the region as well as in various parts of the world. She has published more than 150 papers in journals, conference proceedings and books. Her publications appear in regional and international journals and also in both pedagogy and scholarly books.

Prof. Maarten Dolk from Uthrecht University, The Netherlands

Prof Marteen Dolk is a researcher and developer at the Freudenthal Institute for science and mathematics education in the Netherlands. He is involved in the development and research of in-service and multimedia in-service materials for teachers, staff developers, and teacher educators in several countries.

Prof. Dr. Lilia Halim from University Kebangsaan Malaysia

PhD (Science Education) (King’s College London, UK), Master of Education (Science Education) (Leeds University, UK), Diploma in Education (UKM), Bachelor of Science (Physics) (Carleton University, Canada).

Lilia Halim is a professor in Science Education at the Faculty of Education in the National University of Malaysia. Her research interest and work revolves around promoting scientific literacy through three main research thrusts; a. Investigating and developing science teachers pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), b. propagating pedagogical model for promoting innovative thinking in science and now known as STEM education and c. exploring the role of nonformal science learning in the Malaysian context.

Lilia was also involved in the roadmap planning for science and mathematics (2015-2020) for the Regional Science and Mathematics Centre (RECSAM) in Penang . In addition, she and the team from UKM was involved in the evaluation of the Malaysian education system that provided inputs to the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025. She worked with the Teacher Education Division, Ministry of Education, Malaysia to diagnose Science and Mathematics teachers’ perception, and mind set regarding STEM education. In addition, to suggest interventions to address the mind set of the teachers as part of their professional development. Lilia has also contributed to the resource pack on pedagogies for Girls in STEM as part of Malaysia/UNESCO –IBE Project, Strengthening STEM Curricula for Girls in Africa and Asia and the Pacific

In terms of publications, Lilia has written research articles in the science and mathematics journals and book chapters in publishers such as Kluwer, Springer, Routledge dan Sense Publishers.

Dr. John Willison from the University of Adelaide, Australia

Dr. John Willison has twenty-five years of experience in formal education, and throughout that time has been most enthralled in how to help students to engage in research-based learning, beginning with Year 8 classes, where he strived to make science laboratories hands-on and minds-on. Dr Willison found that this necessitated a raft of scaffolding and literacy strategies, and resulted in the development of resources called write Science (writing and reading integrated with talking about experiments). As Dr Willison completed his PhD in Science Education he coordinated an Early Childhood and Primary Science course in a Teacher Education program, then subsequently found himself at the University of Adelaide as the Coordinator of the Graduate Certificate in Higher Education. This shift to students who were academics from all disciplines caused Dr Willison to broaden his research agenda to search for something in common across disciplines: a framework representing how all educators may facilitate their students’ research skills.

In collaboration, Dr Willison developed early versions of the Research Skill Development (RSD) framework and colleagues in First Year Human Biology began to trial the RSD, followed by other courses in various contexts showing positive outcomes for students. This success inspired Dr Willison to lead two five-university ALTC Innovation and Development projects, one for course-level implementation of RSD (2007-2009) and the other for program-level implementation (2011-2013). These projects and new AQF 9 research requirements led to demand for RSD to inform coursework Masters Programs and Dr Willison held a National Teaching Fellowship on this theme 2014-2015. As the use of the RSD escalates nationally and internationally, he is currently keen to bring the RSD ‘full-circle’ and begin to influence Faculties of Education through High Schools’ use of the RSD, as well as consolidate RSD use in undergraduate, Masters and PhD studies across all disciplines. This is the focus of the National Senior Teaching Fellowship he holds from the Australian Government's Department of Education and Training.