Brief introduction of the Specially-Invited Experts of The 12th Shanghai International Curriculum Forum

1. Andrew Porter

Trained as a statistician/psychometrician, Andy Porter is George & Diane Weiss Professor of Education and Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, his work is supported by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Education, and three grants from the Institute for Education Sciences. His research on teacher decision making created the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) tools for measuring content and content alignment as well as teacher log procedures, and he is senior author of the VAL-ED assessment of school leadership. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education, member of the National Assessment Governing Board, Lifetime National Associate of the National Academies, and past-President of the American Education Research Association.

2. Hilbert Meyer

Prof. emeritus Dr., Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg. His main areas of interest are: general didactics, teaching methods and school-development. He published several handbooks on teaching-learning processes, written for students and for professionals. Four of them have been edited in Chinese by ECNU-PRESS in 2011: defining 10 criteria of good instruction; lesson planning; theory of teaching methods; practice of teaching methods. Together with Werner Jank, he published a book “Didactical models” (not translated in Chinese). Together with his twin-brother Meinert Meyer, Hamburg University, he published a book on the well-known German didactician Wolfgang Klafki (born 1927). At present, he is preparing a book on “instructional development”, which will be published in spring 2015.

3. Sally Thomas

Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol. For over 20 years she has published widely on the topics of educational quality, effectiveness and improvement using a variety of research approaches – both qualitative and quantitative. She has led extensive research studies funded via a variety of sources including UK economic and social science research council (ESRC), UK Department for International Development (DFID), and UK Department for Education (DFE). In particular her research involves developing ‘value added measures of school effectiveness’ and the application of these measures for different, or overlapping, purposes including: school improvement, evaluation and self-evaluation, teacher development, assessing educational quality, international indicators and academic knowledge-base research. Her key research interests are also focused on professional and school learning communities, pupil learning and citizenship and education in developing countries including East Asia, Africa and South America. She has acted as a consultant for many international agencies and education projects and currently directs the “Improving Teacher Development and Educational Quality in China” project funded by UKAID (ieeqc.bristol.ac.uk). Recent publications include Thomas et al (2012) 学校效能增值评量研究. [Research on Value Added Evaluation of School Effectiveness].Jiaoyu yanjiu. [Educational research]. 33 (7), pp. 29-35 Beijing: Zhongyang Jiaoyu Kexue Yanjiusuo.

4. Catherine Walter-Laager

Catherine Walter-Laager has been working since 1993 in the field of the education of young children, first as a teacher and since 1998 by holding university courses at the Universities of Hildesheim, Oldenburg, Zürich, St. Gallen, Thurgau and Fribourg. In recent years, she represented two professorships in educational sciences. One with a focus on school education at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, the other with a focus on socialization and human development, including as well the management of a research center for early childhood education at the University of Fribourg. Since 2011 Catherine Walter-Laager has not only been directing several studies, she is also the head of division of early childhood education in the municipality of Zurich. The research experience of Catherine Walter-Laager includes learning of children especially through different medias; interaction between teachers and children and assessments with the method of observation.

5. Manfred Pfiffner

Manfred Pfiffner is professor of didactics of vocational education and training (VET) at the Zurich University of Teacher Education (PH Zurich), Switzerland. There he works in the field ‘formation – vocation – science’ and participates in the construction and development of the interdepartmental vocational education and training research cluster. The research focus includes the core curriculas for general education and Federal Vocational Baccalaureate, job-specific learning models and qualification procedures and their implementation as well as teaching and learning methods for vocational education and training programmes leading to a Federal VET Diploma or a Federal VET Certificate and Federal Vocational Baccalaureate.Before Manfred Pfiffner was senior lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training SFIVET in Zollikofen, Bern and professor of education sciences at the St. Gall University of Teacher Education (PH St. Gall), Switzerland.Manfred Pfiffner studied educational sciences, communication and mass media sciences, social work and social policy at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He is also a trained vocational school teacher. He taught nearly two decades at several vocational education and training schools and secondary schools in Switzerland.

6. Wang Wen-Chung

Chair Professor of Educational and Psychological Measurement, Associate Vice President (Research and Knowledge Transfer), and Director of Assessment Research Center of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. He obtained a PhD degree on quantitative methods and evaluation from University of California at Berkeley in 1994. He was installed in the 2014 Class of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Fellows. The AERA Fellows Program honors education researchers who have substantial research accomplishments, conveys the association’s commitment to excellence in research and emphasizes the importance of sustaining excellent research in the field. He received President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Research from HKIEd in 2012, Research Excellence Awards from National Science Council and National Chung Cheng University, and the Mu-Dou Award for his contribution to education. He was a Fulbright grantee in 2005 and visiting professor of University of California at Berkeley in 2005 and 2007.

Professor Wang has published more than 170 journal articles. He is an associate editor of Applied Psychological Measurement, and editorial board member of several journals, including Asia Pacific Journal of Educational Development, Bulletin of Educational Psychology, Chinese Journal of Psychology, Contemporary Educational Research, Educational and Psychological Measurement (2006-2010), Journal of Computerized Adaptive Testing, Journal of Educational Measurement, and Journal of Educational Research and Development.

7. Wong Hin Wah

Dr. Wong, Hin Wah, Adjunct professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Hong Kong Institute of Educational Research, CUHK Former Professor & Chairman of the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, supervisor of doctoral student; Former Associate Director, the Hong Kong Institute of Educational Research, CUHK.Served as teacher in three primary schools, two secondary schools, and teaching consultant at The University of Hong Kong.Visiting Professor at Beijing Normal University; Consultant, Curriculum Professional Committee, Chinese Education Society; part-time research fellow of Curriculum & Teaching Materials Institute, People’s Education Press; member of the academic committee of the Institute of Research on Curriculum & Teaching, East China Normal University; Visiting Professor at Northwest Normal University, Southwest Normal University, and Capital Normal University.

8. Chou Shu-ching

Shuching Chou, professor of National Taipei University of Education,focuses on research of curriculum and instruction, acting as director of Graduate School of Curriculum and Instruction, the advisor and editor of several TSSCI journals, central or local level of curriculum councils member, and the external reviewer of Education College of Hong Kong Chinese University. She conducted research under the support from Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology or other institutions and published papers every year, and accordingly to acquire the honor of the “Excellent Researchers” for two consecutive years.

9. Chen Mu-Jin

MuJin Chen is a professor of the Faulty of Education at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. He is also currently the Director of Institute of Teacher Education at the National Chengchi University. He was the Dean of Center of Teaching Development at National Chengchi University . He was also a visiting Professor at The University of Scranton, USA in the year of 2011. He specialises in teacher education, school principalship, educational leadership, as well as school leadership development. He has published numerous articles, book chapters and conference papers.