The University of Education in Freiburg (PHFR) is a specialised, public higher education (HE) institution with a mission in both research and teaching, focusing on the field of teacher education and the educational sciences. PHFR offers degrees at all cycle levels for primary and secondary school teachers and future professionals in the broad field of education.
PHFR’s research covers the full span of educational, pedagogic and subject-didactic fields. The University places special emphasis on research that is relevant to improving HE teaching and has earned a particular reputation for its research on, and dissemination of, innovative practices and pedagogies in maths and science education. Several large-scale international and interdisciplinary research, development and dissemination projects have been carried out over the past decade at the maths and science education departments of the PHFR. As a result of this work, the University can currently resort to an international network of stakeholders in maths and science education of over 1000 contacts relevant to the project’s scope. Linking research and teaching, practice-orientation and policy-connections are thus among the PHFR’s distinguishing strengths – in particular in the field of maths and science education.

In 2017 Prof. Katja Maass and her team established the International Centre for STEM Education (ICSE) at PHFR. The ultimate aim of ICSE is to help improve STEM education across Europe, that is, to give students insights into authentic features of STEM subjects and their connection to real-life contexts, to raise achievement levels in STEM and to make science literacy accessible to all students no matter what their gender, their cultural background or their socioeconomic background, and to promote the interest of young people in STEM careers.
Our focus in STEM education research and its transfer into day-to-day practices is therefore on issues such as:

The ICSE team at PHFR is coordinating the ENSITE project. The key persons involved in this project combine a multi-disciplinary background and expertise in (1) coordination and management of international projects, (2) mathematics and science education in initial teacher education (ITE), (3) higher education (HE), and (4) student mobility.
Furthermore, the team has broad experience in coordinating several large-scale European projects focusing on research, materials development and the broad dissemination of innovative teaching and learning approaches in maths and science education. The team’s expertise comprises the management of large-scale projects, including all administrative, legal and financial aspects. Also, the team has extensive experience in organising influential policy events, building successful international dissemination strategies, managing quality in international projects, as well as embedding project-funded activities into broader relevant contexts to ensure long-term impact and sustainability.

Katja Maaß, Director of ICSE and the coordinator of ENSITE, is a researcher, educator and leader of international projects in mathematics and science education. She holds a master’s degree in mathematics and biology, acquired her PhD in mathematics education in 2004 and was awarded professorship in the same year. Her main professional interests are real life applications of mathematics, inquiry-based science teaching and socio-scientific issues in STEM education. Her research has been published widely in the most prestigious journals in the field. Next to teaching and research, her work is characterised by a strong practical and melioristic concern towards advancing science teaching. Katja has successfully coordinated numerous large-scale European projects to foster innovation in STEM education, including award-winning projects like PRIMAS, mascil, COMPASS, MaSDiV, IncluSMe or STEM PD Net. Her work is distinguished by both a local and international orientation and she relies on excellent networks to research, policy and practice. As the founding director of ICSE she aims to take European collaboration in STEM education to a next level so as to maximise quality, equality and innovation in day-to-day STEM teaching.

Director International Centre for STEM Education ICSE

Contact: katja.maass@ph-freiburg.de

Oliver Straser studied Mathematics with a minor in Physics in Essen and Heidelberg, Germany, and graduated from the University of Heidelberg (Diplom). He worked as a scientist at the University of Freiburg and received his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Soergel in Mathematics. Since 2015 he has been working as a vocational school teacher.

Assistant Director and Programme Specialist

Contact: oliver.straser@ph-freiburg.de

Laura Wanckel, the project manager of ENSITE, holds a M.A. in Arts and studied art history, history and literature at the University of Dresden and Hamburg. Before she came to the ICSE she completed a training in project management. Her professional experience includes working as a curator for several exhibitions at a museum and in public relations. In addition to curatorial work, her focus was on exhibition organization and coordination as well as the organization of events. Laura also created marketing concepts and was responsible for the editing and production of the advertising material.

Assistant Director and Project Manager, ENSITE

Contact: laura.wanckel@ph-freiburg.de

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The Institute of Instructional and School Development (German abbreviation: IUS) focuses its activities on those who learn and those who teach, on learning arrangements, organisations, and the educational system. It operates in the action fields of research and development, as well as those of teaching and counselling in the educational sphere, and it actively participates in national and international projects. IUS is part of the young and innovative University Klagenfurt (UNI-KLU) in Austria, located at the intersection of three diverse cultures: Austria, Slovenia and Italy.

The University’s scientific achievements regularly earn national and international recognition. The projects carried out here serve as important impulse generators for the business location Carinthia. Teachers, teacher educators and other contributors to the field of education are supported in their professional development (PD) by innovative programmes. These interventions are evaluated both formatively and summative, involving quantitative and qualitative measures. The insights gained are communicated to the national and international community of educators and educational researchers.

The IUS is open for different scientific paradigms. In order to investigate the impacts, evaluation and research of processes and products are conducted continuously and systematically. The IUS is co-ordinating and researching the Austrian-wide Network ECOLOG – Ecologizing Schools for Education for Sustainable Development commissioned by Ministry of Education. Ecological experience gained through this initiative perfectly fits to ENSITE’s objectives concerning environmental citizenship.

Stefan Zehetmeier is an Associate Professor at University of Klagenfurt, Austria. He holds a PhD in education and a Habilitation in teacher education. His research interests include teacher education, school development and action research.

Contact: stefan.zehetmeier@aau.at

Andrea Frantz-Pittner holds a master’s degree in biology and a PhD in science education. Since 1997 she has been the scientific director of the NaturErlebnisPark Science Education Center in Graz. Since 2002 she is involved in the IMST programme of the Alpen-Adria University of Klagenfurt. Her work focuses on the development and research of experiential teaching formats for science education, the linking of teaching and out-of-school learning, education for sustainable development and low-threshold education in urban green spaces.

Contact: andrea.frantz@aau.at

Christina Pichler-Koban holds a doctorate from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. Since 2003 she has been working for E.C.O. Institute for Ecology in Klagenfurt and since 2016 as a research associate at the Alpen-Adria-University of Klagenfurt. She works in inter- and transdisciplinary projects at the interface between ecological planning and social sciences. Her focus is on the development and implementation of innovative educational and school projects on natural science topics and the work with Citizen Science methods.

Contact: pichler-koban@e-c-o.at

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The Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IMI–BAS) celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2017. It is recognised as a leading national organisation for research and applications in the field of mathematics and informatics. It welcomes annually more than 200 guest scientists, conducts about 25 international conferences, workshops and schools, 18 permanent open scientific seminars and 7 scientific and methodological journals thus providing opportunities for direct communication with the world scientific elite.

In addition, IMI-BAS is the only institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences with an Educational department. The education-related activities of the Institute include the professional development of teachers, mentoring PhD and MSc students, and developing the research competences of high-school students who have demonstrated great potential in doing mathematics and informatics.

It should be noted, that IMI-BAS is the main provider of scientific, methodological and technical support in inquiry-based mathematics, informatics and IT education (IBMIE) at all levels and forms, in Bulgaria. This support is carried out by designing strategies and a system for implementing IBMIE in a national context, by organising various types of PD courses and by developing open access learning environments that enhance IBMIE with a focus on the acquirement of key competences.

Thanks to the system for PD of teachers in mathematics, IT and informatics developed by IMI-BAS, a network of such teachers acting as multipliers of the IBL ideas has been established which facilitates and encourages teacher- and practitioner engagement at a national level. The current activities of IMI-BAS as a centre for inquiry-based learning (IBL), and more specifically, for inquiry-based mathematics and informatics education (IBMIE), include various types of PD courses and events, as well as open access learning environments (VirMathLab, VivaCognita, and BG Mascil) related to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics).

Evgenia (Jenny) Sendova is an Associated Member of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy (IMI-BAS), participating in the activities of its Department of Education in Mathematics and Informatics. She has been working with pre-service and in-service teachers, as well as with high school students since 1970 in national and international context.

Contact: jenny.sendova@gmail.com

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The Faculty of Education (FoE) is one of seventeen faculties of the Charles University (CUNI), Prague, Czech Republic. Its primary goal is to train teachers and other pedagogical personnel for all types of schools and other educational institutions, at various levels of study and forms. The Faculty provides university-level pre- and in-service teacher education in all fields. FoE with about 250 academic staff is currently training approximately 4200 students in BA and MA and Ph.D. study programmes, plus nearly 10 000 students taught within a wide range of combined forms of study programmes. FoE is actively engaged in international collaboration (TEMPUS, 5FP, 6FP and 7FP, ERASMUS+ KA1, KA2, KA3, etc.). For its international activities and collaborations, FoE exploits about 60 bilateral agreements and it has about 190 bilateral ERASMUS agreements (mainly with universities in Germany, France, Slovakia, Spain and Poland). FoE is responsible for the quality of scholarships, cultural development and the education of teachers. Educational and research activities in various areas of STEM teacher’s education are guaranteed and managed by appropriate departments. All involved departments cooperate with representatives of educational practices, mainly with schools at all levels of the Czech educational system and organisations connected with the Czech Ministry of Education but also with companies, research institutions and other organisation in public or private business sectors.

The STEM oriented departments of FoE have a long tradition in ITE. Our STEM ITE programmes involve subject didactics, subject content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. We have gained valuable expertise through providing a multi-perspective teaching approach and will be able to give advice to partners who work on developing teaching materials but also be able to evaluate the outcomes. Our STEM programmes offer many activities that involve cooperation with environmental stakeholders from all over the Czech Republic, mainly with the Centre for Environmental Studies and other non-governmental institutions oriented to environmental education in formal and non-formal learning environments. In our STEM teachers study programmes we include general subjects on “Environmental Education” which offers great possibilities to exchange with our network partners (industry and other businesses and NGOs) on particular SSI topics. In courses of subject didactics, we have included topics related to environmental education, too and are very keen on specialising these courses. Through our various initiatives and activities, we are very experienced in linking educational research and STEM teaching with environmental aspects in different ways, i.e. cooperation with developers of teaching aids, environmental monitoring institutions, companies from the area of food technology, robotics, etc.

Therefore, CUNI leads development of IO5 – decision-making based on confronting (scientific) positions and uses the SSI of global food provision to exemplarily elaborate on relating decision-making processes.

Prof. Dr. Martin Bílek is full-professor at the Department of Chemistry Education (Vice dean of the Faculty of Education) Faculty of Education (FoE) at the Charles University of Prague. He graduated as a chemistry and physics teacher for secondary school at the Pedagogical Faculty Hradec Králové (M. Ed., 1988). In 1996 he received Ph.D. in pedagogy/educational technology at Pedagogical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague, followed by the habilitation (Assoc. Prof., 1999) and inauguration (Prof.) in didactics of chemistry at Faculty of Natural Sciences of the M. Bel University in Banská Bystrica (Slovakia) in 2006. His scientific and pedagogical activities are focused on didactics of natural sciences and technical subjects, with a special focus on chemistry, curricular analysis of natural science education and Information and Communication Technology in science and technical education. He is member of many scientific societies and boards and published about 160 research and pedagogical publications.

Contact: martin.bilek@pedf.cuni.cz

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The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) was founded in 1837. It is a research-oriented institution consisting of 33 departments and offering a variety of undergraduate and post-graduate programs. The Department of Mathematics has 54 academic staff, and over 3000 students. It cooperates, through inter-state and inter-university agreements, with universities and research centres in Europe and internationally, for the promotion of science, scholarly research and exchange of information. The department is responsible for the education of prospective mathematics teachers since about half of the students of the Department of Mathematics follow a teaching career after their studies.

All members of the NKUA team are experts in initial teacher education of future mathematics teachers. We have significant experience in developing a reform-oriented primary and secondary curriculum for mathematics teaching in the context of an initiative of the Ministry of Education (collaboration with the Institute of Educational Policy of Greece). One of the main aims of this curriculum was to exploit real life contexts and situations in mathematics teaching. Furthermore, we designed part of the developed materials and resources to challenge in-service teachers to bring socio-scientific issues into their classroom teaching. Most part of the students, after their graduation, will pursue a career in the educational field. Hence, having a mathematical background, addressing their values and attitudes towards controversial scientific issues and supporting them to include these issues in science and mathematics teaching are one of main aims of our department. This brings added value since we can transfer that knowledge to environmental socio-scientific issues and enhance our scientific scope.

The members of the team have already collaborated in national and European projects such as Mascil (2013-2016) or IncluSMe (2016-2019).

Chrissavgi Triantafillou’s research is centered on mathematics and science teacher knowledge and practices and their development of teaching innovations and materials. She is carrying out research on the professional development of mathematics and science teachers related to inquiry-based learning and on the argumentative practices developed in mathematics and science school textbooks. In the last years she was involved in pre-service and in-service teacher education activities.

Contact: chrtriantaf@math.uoa.gr

Giorgos Psycharis is Assistant Professor in Mathematics Education in the Department of Mathematics (National & Kapodistrian University of Athens). His fields of interest include the design of learning environments for mathematics with the use of digital technologies in middle school and pre-service and in-service teacher education (secondary mathematics teachers). He has worked in five EU-funded projects including Mascil and InsluSMe.

Contact: gpsych@math.uoa.gr

Despina Potari is a professor in Mathematics Education in the Department of Mathematics (National & Kapodistrian University of Athens).  She has been visiting professor in different universities in Europe and US and currently at Linnaeus University in Sweden. Her research interests are mainly on the development of mathematics teaching and learning and teacher development and in particular on the role of different contexts and tools in the classroom setting as well on teacher knowledge and teaching practices. She is associate editor of the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, member of editorial boards and teams and reviewer for international journals and conferences. She has participated in European projects and in Mascil and InsluSMe.

Contact: dpotari@math.uoa.gr

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First established in 1592, the University of Malta (UoM) continues to be the highest teaching and learning institution of the country. The University strives for excellence, is very active on the international scene and has link agreements with many universities in Europe and beyond. The Maltese team comes from the Faculty of Education which was set up within the University in 1978. The faculty provides for national needs in initial teacher education for schools in the primary and secondary school sector and is engaged in research and projects at a national and international level. It also offers several post-graduate programmes at Masters and PhD level. The Faculty has strong links not only with the national Educational authorities but also with all schools in both primary and secondary sectors. Within the Faculty of Education, the Department of Mathematics and Science Education (DMSE) has an extensive experience of initial teacher education. It offers courses in Mathematics Education, Science Education and Geography Education in initial teacher education programmes and post-graduate research programmes. The research activities of the Science and Mathematics teams within DMSE target teacher education and teaching, learning and assessment in Mathematics and Science among other things. The DMSE also collaborates with the local Educational authorities in developing curricula, running professional development for teachers in schools and for organizing national conferences in Mathematics and Science education. The main philosophy which guides the science and mathematics teams within DMSE is the development of reflective teachers who have a commitment towards student-centred learning and who engage all students in relevant, meaningful and enjoyable experiences of science and mathematics that prepare them for life as future citizens.

The team has been involved in collaborations with schools on initiatives related to mathematics and science education. Members of the team participated in several other projects like PRIMAS (Promoting Inquiry in Mathematics and Science across Europe), Capacity Development of Faculties of Education in International Approaches to Teacher Education, E-PLIPS (Implementation of a European Dimension by Peer Learning in Primary School), SPICES (Social Promotion of Intercultural Communication Expertise and Skills), IncluSMe (Intercultural learning in science and mathematics education) and MaSDiV (Supporting mathematics and science teachers in addressing diversity and promoting fundamental values). With this experience, the team will bring in its expertise related to assessment to this project in the development of a module that supports prospective teachers in applying principles of assessment to assess student learning through SSI.

Josette Farrugia is a Senior Lecturer in Science Education and head of the Department of Mathematics and Science Education. She is currently involved in the initial teacher education programmes and post-graduate courses offered by the University of Malta. Dr Farrugia has been regularly involved in teacher professional development courses related to practical work and investigations in science, inquiry-based learning, assessment and design of assessment tools and tasks to develop and assess different skills, among others. Dr Farrugia participated in the FP7 project, PRIMAS, IncluSMe and MaSDiV. Inquiry-based learning, problem-solving and teacher professional development are among Dr Farrugia’s research interests.

Contact: josette.farrugia@um.edu.mt

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The Freudenthal Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (FI) is part of the Faculty of Science of Utrecht University (UU) in the Netherlands. The mission of the institute is to stimulate and broaden the interest, knowledge and skills of students and teachers in the field of mathematics and the natural sciences, and stimulating reflection on the sciences and their rich multicultural history and foundations. A focal point for this is the relation to the National Science Agenda (“Nationale Wetenschapsagenda”) and the goal to prepare citizens for and educate them to participate in a diverse, quickly changing, technology-oriented society (scientific citizenship). The institute offers support for teachers and provides courses for student-teachers in learning the necessary basic skills (21st century skills) such as combining new information and insights with available knowledge, problem solving skills, creativity, reflection and cooperation. Among these skills, special attention is paid for metacognitive prompts and language-producing activities that foster the importance and role of language in mathematics and science learning, as this learning is largely a social and communicative practice.

The Freudenthal Institute has a longstanding tradition on design, research and development of learning and teaching materials in the STEM area (in particular in science and mathematics education) for science classrooms, initial teacher education and in-service teacher education. This experience was used in prior European projects like Primas, Mascil, MaSDiV, Parrise and IncluSMe. High importance is on producing materials that are easy to access, interpret and use.

The ENSITE-team of the Freudenthal Institute has experience in developing classroom materials for inquiry-based approaches to science and mathematics teaching and with use of socio scientific issues (SSIBL). The SSI-experience is developed in the Parrise project. Furthermore, the institute has a tradition in designing classroom materials for statistics and involving analysis and visualization of big data.

Michiel Doorman works as a researcher and teacher trainer at the Freudenthal Institute of Utrecht University. His interests are context-based mathematics education and coherency between mathematics and science learning. In the past, he has been involved in the Comenius project Compass, the FP7 projects Primas and Mascil and also in the projects IncluSMe and MaSDiV. In addition to these European projects, Michiel Doorman also participates in various national projects on designing educational materials and connecting science and mathematics. He is member of the board of the Dutch association for mathematics teachers.

Contact: m.doorman@uu.nl

Monica Wijers is a researcher, designer and initial teacher educator in mathematics education with a focus on secondary and vocational education. She is an expert in the design of authentic tasks for inquiry-based learning in mathematics that involve group work, creativity and problem solving. She participates in various national projects on designing educational materials for a variety of target groups, from functional illiterate adults to high school teachers and university students in teacher education. Wijers also participates in the national platform for language-oriented education that advocates the importance of language development in all disciplines and she participated in the European FP7 project Mascil, MaSDiV and IncluSMe.

Contact: m.wijers@uu.nlv

Vincent Jonker is a researcher in the area of mathematics education including primary, secondary and vocational education. He has expertise on serious gaming in the field of science and mathematics education and on game design for STEM. In the Mascil project he has been work package leader of WP3 (Classroom materials for inquiry-based science teaching in rich vocational contexts). He is coordinator of the national network of teacher educators for mathematics (ELWIeR). His areas of interest further involve mathematical literacy (functional math) for several target groups, and professionalization of math teachers.

Contact: v.jonker@uu.nl

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The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is situated in Trondheim and is the largest university of Norway with about 36000 students. The Department of Teacher Education at NTNU has Norway’s largest academic environment within teacher education and educational research.

It offers practice-oriented and profession-oriented Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degree programmes. In addition, it has a broad portfolio of further education for teachers and school management. Our research and our performing art and educational development work is directed towards school, classroom and workshop. Our research contributes to the national and international development of knowledge about learning and education in a lifelong perspective.

NTNU is a multi-disciplinary university with a strong profile in science and technology, and a focus on programs of professional study. Therewith, NTNU contributes to competitive Norwegian business and industry sectors as well as supports a capable public sector through collaboration in new practices, processes and products. Three specific trends will be important for NTNU in the strategy period until 2025: more intense competition, strengthened interaction with society, and willingness to change. NTNU wants to prioritize innovative and exploratory learning processes of high quality, grounded in research-based knowledge about learning. They have a long tradition of learning through real tasks and problem-based learning. This closely relates to the university’s understanding of the community assignment and its special responsibility for interdisciplinary skills. Two of the core tasks for initial teacher education at NTNU are 1) Develop research-based teaching materials and learning resources for school and teacher education, 2) Educate teachers that stimulate students to engage in development and innovation work. Thus, the aims of the ENSITE project fit very well into the strategies of our university at all levels.

Within science and mathematics education, the research profile encompasses several internationally and nationally esteemed research projects (e.g. Learners Perspective Study – LPS, EU PRIMAS, Teaching better Mathematics – TBM, TransMaths Norway, and MathTextbook Scandinavia, EU mascil, EU FaSMEd, EU INSTEM, Literacy, LOCUMS, IncluSMe). Our expertise includes ICT and learning, entrepreneurship in education, inquiry-based science and mathematics education, conceptual understanding and literacy. The Norwegian ENSITE team are experienced teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers from the field of science education and ICT.

Dr Ragnhild Lyngved Staberg holds a Ph.D. in biology and science education and is an Associate Professor at NTNU, Department of Teacher Education. She has taught bachelor and master courses at college and universities for 20 years, and has 12 years’ experience from teacher education at NTNU. Staberg participates in different national research projects in science education (e.g. dealing with use of IBST-based strategies in primary school and use of ICT-technology). Since 2010 she has taken part in several EU funded projects – mainly dealing with teacher professional development; PRIMAS, mascil and FaSMEd, partly as Work Package-leader. She has also co-authored a textbook on biology for science education courses for the Norwegian teacher education programme. She was a member of the European Advisory and Impact board for the EU project MaSDiV and also worked for the IncluSMe project.

Contact: ragnhild.l.staberg@ntnu.no

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Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (CPU), Slovakia, has been formed as a modern European general university where a dominant role is played by science and by open and vivid communication both within local environment and within the world.

The university offers a variety of study programmes at bachelor, master and doctoral level, providing strong flexibility, innovation and diversity in programmes and courses with respect to contemporary research and educational practice. In addition to its long tradition in training of teachers for primary and secondary schools, CPU also offers study programmes for future social workers, experts for cultural organizations and institutions, political scientists, catechists, journalists, archaeologists, historians, musicologists, biologists, environmentalists, mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, psychologists, gemmologists and other professionals. During the period of existence of the institution, students who graduated at the university have influenced education of several generations and the institution has built up a network of cooperating teachers and schools in the whole Slovakia. Teacher trainees accomplish pedagogical practise at schools not only in Nitra region, but also in other regions, villages and cities in Slovakia. Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, as one of the first universities preparing teachers in Slovakia, responds to the current lifelong education system for teachers very actively. Lifelong, continuing, further educational programmes for pedagogical employees are accredited at most of the university departments. In-service teachers participate in educational activities, research projects focused on mapping different attributes of pedagogical practice. The University is well recognised as a reliable partner of various formal or informal contacts within the regional institutions and educational bodies and enterprises. Impact of the projects and activities of the university is very well recognised within the whole Slovakia. University teachers are regularly invited to various Slovak national educational bodies, councils and expert groups to fulfil important mission concerning their expertise in general research as well as in research in education. These contacts open the possibility to propose, discuss, disseminate and influence the educational and research policy bodies in Slovakia towards innovations in education and educational research.

The uniqueness of CPU in education is represented by teacher training programmes in Hungarian language tailor made for future teachers in the ethnically mixed areas of Slovakia and the training of teachers, social workers and public education for Roma ethnicity. The Faculty of Natural Sciences belongs to the leading faculties in Slovakia which offer an education in the field of natural sciences, mathematics and informatics. Following the tradition of more than fifty years the faculty fulfils its mission in teachers’ education in mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics and computer science as well as in cross curriculum subject ecology and environmental studies.

At Constantine the Philosopher University, project teams consist of experienced university teachers, experts, complemented by young pedagogical post-doctoral staff as well as by doctoral students in study programmes oriented on scientific research in pedagogy, general didactics (theory of instruction) as well subject didactics such is: mathematics, physics, ecology, computer science and technics. University teachers and researchers from Faculty of Natural Sciences have been involved and successfully completed several high-quality research and educational projects. Project with the most valuable impact to teacher’s education and professional development of teachers are: FP7 PRIMAS, MaT2SMC, DynaMAT, MOTIVATE ME in Maths and Science, Math2Earth, COMPASS and IncluSMe.

Sona Ceretkova is associate professor of mathematics education in the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, CPU Nitra. She is an experienced team leader of national and international projects in mathematics and science education, co-author of textbooks of mathematics for lower secondary school and organizer and lector of courses of professional development of mathematics teachers. She works as regional expert in Mathematics Olympia competition and national contact person for contests Mathematics B-day and IMMC. She is supervisor of PhD students of Theory of Mathematics Education; Faculty of Natural Sciences Scientific Board member and ICMI Slovakia representative. The main focus of her research is inquiry-based education in mathematics, interdisciplinary and didactical principles of mathematical tasks and teachers’ education and evaluation of teachers’ competences.

Contact: sceretkova@ukf.sk

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Hacettepe University (HU) is a major state university in Turkey with over 30,000 students and 3,500 academic staff. The university has 13 faculties, 9 schools, 1 conservatory, 13 institutes and 35 research centres. The Faculty of Education is able to meet the challenge of contemporary education through its highly qualified academic staff, who are open to change and development and who also benefit from international experience and cooperation. The Faculty of Education has strong links between research and schools, and has a collaboration agreement with more than 50 kindergartens, and primary and secondary schools.

Hacettepe University STEM & Maker Lab was established in 2009. They have researchers with extensive experience in STEM curriculum development, in-service teacher training activities and public engagement of STEM to improve the quality of education. Our team member at the Hacettepe STEM & Maker Lab has involved in several EC Erasmus+ projects (ENSITE, MaSDiV, EMERGENT, STEM, STEM PD Net, STING, and INSTEM), FP7 projects (e.g., S-TEAM, SAILS, MaScil), and H2020 project (e.g. MOST).

Beside the development of an intellectual output, the Turkish team support the ENSITE project with its outstanding experience in dissemination and use of media technologies. Hacettepe University STEM & Maker Lab has been collaborating with the University of Education in Freiburg since 2010. This collaboration also enhanced our partnership with other PD centres in Turkey. As a result, we contributed to the Turkish Academy of Science PD courses, and worked closely with the Turkish Ministry of National Education on Professional Development activities to promote STEM education nationwide. For instance, our team member, Prof. Gultekin Cakmakci, has been involved in many STEM teacher training workshops organised by the Turkish Academy of Science and/or the Turkish Ministry of Education or funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). His workshops centred on the nature of STEM practices, classroom norms and the nature of classroom discourse to build socially inclusive approaches in STEM education. Prof. Gultekin Cakmakci, among others, has developed the new Turkish Science Curriculum, which has been implemented in Turkey since September 2017.

Since 2015, in collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of National Education and partners from the industry, we organise STEM & Makers Festivals in different cities. Until now, more than 200,000 participants (ages three and up) have attended and engaged with IBL activities. tiny.cc/xvd8az

Hacettepe University STEM & Maker Lab has experience in widespread dissemination of EU projects’ resources through PD courses, STEM Festivals and press. STEM News Aggregator,  which aggregates science, technology, health, education and business news content from a variety of sources (e.g. online newspapers and popular magazines) and feeds them to its users.

Gultekin Cakmakci is a Professor of Science Education at Hacettepe University and has been teaching courses on STEM education and public engagement with STEM. He is the director of Hacettepe STEM & Maker Lab and also director of Hacettepe Science Center. We do believe that formal, informal and non-formal education should engineer the future of a society by empowering their imagination, creativity and innovation. That is what we aim to achieve within our activities.

He has involved in several national and international projects such as European Commission H2020 (e.g., MOST) and FP7 projects (e.g., SAILS, S-TEAM, and MaScil). He, among others, has developed the new  Turkish Science Curriculum, which has been implemented in Turkey since September 2017.

Gultekin Cakmakci is a board member of the “Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST)”, ,  and “Journal of Research in STEM Education” and has been elected a life member of the PCST Network. This award is given in recognition of exceptional service to individuals who have made a distinguished contribution to the international science communication community.

Contact: cakmakci@hacettepe.edu.tr

Website: http://gultekincakmakci.weebly.com

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University of Nicosia (UNIC) is the largest private university in Cyprus with over 7000 students. It is an independent, co-educational, equal opportunity institution of higher education, which offers a wide range of programmes to students from around the world. The University through its five Schools (Medical School, School of Business, School of Education, School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, School of Science and Engineering), offers 40 Bachelor degrees, 32 Master degrees and 11 doctoral programmes in business, science, medicine, education and the liberal arts. International in philosophy, the University hosts students from all over the world, in a multicultural learning environment, promoting friendship, cooperation, and understanding. The University pursues excellence in education through research and high teaching standards, in a continually improving academic environment.

The School of Education employs 22 full-time faculty and 32 part time while it offers degrees in Primary and Pre-primary Education, Masters degrees in Education (with 8 specializations), and PhD in Education. UNIC’s degree programmes are accredited by the Cyprus Government, the NCA of USA and some European Accrediting Bodies. It currently has over 5500 students enrolled and around 28% of its student population are non-Cypriots, something which makes it a multicultural institution where diversity and pluralism are valued. The School of Education at UNIC has extensive experience participating in EU funded projects. One of the tasks of the research group within the School of Education is to conduct research to contribute to the improvement of education. In addition, we are experienced coordinators and participants of projects funded by the EU, the US Department of Education, and large corporations focussing on research, material development and the broad dissemination of innovative teaching and learning approaches, namely DIALLS (Horizon2020), CSRC (Teaming/Phase1) Mascil, Engage, Primas (FP7 SiS), IncluSMe and Masdiv (Erasmus+), PreSSES (Comenius). We have strong expertise on special education, educational psychology, adult education, technology-based learning, science education inclusive education, school improvement, social inclusion, intercultural education, teacher development, ICT, e-learning, distance education, collaborative inquiry, research, and evaluation.

The interdisciplinary team at UNIC for the ENSITE project comprises of experts in mathematics education, science education, and psychometrics, along with a number of other colleagues and PhD students. Our research team has strong expertise and relevant publications in the areas of science education and socio-scientific issues, development of teaching and learning materials in higher education, teacher professional development in socio-scientific issues and designing of evaluation tools. A special focus in the PD courses has been dealing with socio-scientific issues, making science relevant and support citizenship science. We are highly interested in transferring our knowledge to particularly improve ITE programmes across Europe and deepen our own knowledge, in particular with regards to European diversity and how it influences global decisions and environmental issues.

Dr. Maria Evagorou is an Assistant Professor in Science Education at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus. Her research focuses on exploring and enhancing students’ argumentation and system thinking skills within science education with the use of technology. More specifically, the emphasis of her work is on students’ talk when they engage in the discussion of socio-scientific issues and how the use of online technologies can enhance students’ argumentation skills and inquiry-based learning. Her work combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Maria has published in referred journals and books, has co-edited a book titled Trends in Science Education (in Greek) and has received EU funding to work on projects on argumentation in science. Maria is currently a strand coordinator for the European Science Education Research Association conference, and a member of the editorial board of JRST.

Contact: evagorou.m@unic.ac.cy

Nicolas Mousoulides is an Assistant professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Nicosia. Mousoulides is a well-established researcher in the area of mathematics and engineering education. His research interests include: (a) Mathematical Modeling and Metacognition, (b) Development of Engineering Problem Solving Skills through Mathematical Modeling, (c) Integrating ICT in Mathematics and Science Teaching and Learning, and (d) Curriculum development in STEM. Mousoulides has published more than sixteen original articles in peer reviewed academic journals and chapters in books, and more than thirty-five research papers in international conference proceedings. Mousoulides has experiences in working as a lecturer in education and engineering departments in five universities in Cyprus and Greece. He has also worked as a coordinator, senior researcher, and researcher in ten research projects, funded by the European Commission, the NSF, and the Research Promotion Foundation. He is currently the coordinator of the ModelMath project (funded by Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation), and senior researcher in one FP7 (Science in Society) and one NSF (Technology and Mathematics Education) funded projects.

Contact: nmousoulides@moec.gov.cy

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