Dr. Wolfgang Schneider
Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg

Bio and Research Interest

Wolfgang Schneider is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Germany. He received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Heidelberg in 1979. His research interests include the development of memory and metacognition, giftedness and expertise, the development of reading and spelling, as well as the prevention of reading and math difficulties. He was Vice-president and President of the German Psychological Society (2000-2004), and also Vice-president of the University of Würzburg (2004-2009). He is author and (co-) editor of about 50 books, including a volume on “Memory Development from Early Childhood through Emerging Adulthood” (2015), and (co-)authored more than 500 journal articles and book chapters.  Schneider was President of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD) from 2010 to 2012. He is a member of the Leopoldina (German Academy of Natural Sciences).  

William H. Schubert
Professor Emeritus of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Illinois at Chicago

Research Interest

William H. Schubert retired in 2011 from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where he was a faculty member since 1975. Before his university work he was an elementary school teacher in Downers Grove, Illinois from 1967-1975. Schubert received his Bachelor’s Degree from Manchester College, a Master of Science in Philosophy of Education from Indiana University, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his 36 years at UIC, he held positions of Chair of the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Director of Graduate Studies, Coordinator of the Ph.D. Program in Curriculum Studies, Coordinator of the M.Ed. in Educational Studies, among others. At UIC, Schubert received the College of Education Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award, the University Excellence in Teaching Award, the University Graduate Mentoring Award, and the Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award. He has published 17 books, 200 articles and chapters, several poems, has made over 250 presentations at scholarly and professional organizations, chaired over 60 Ph.D. dissertations and served on committees for over 100 others. In 2005, he was designated as a University Scholar at UIC. Schubert’s primary scholarly interests are curriculum history, theory, inquiry, and development in both school and non-school contexts. In this work he developed ideas such as the synoptic curriculum text, the speculative essay, curriculum genealogies, teacher lore, and fictionalized autobiographies in curriculum studies. During the past decade he has focused especially on education that has emerged in resistance to forces of conquest and colonialism (past and present) in the United States and in diverse countries and cultures. Additionally, based on his interest in teacher lore and in the biographical and autobiographical work of professors of education, he is also writing stories of educational experience as a window to theory and praxis.

Tina Seidel

Friedl Schöller Endowed Chair of Teaching and Learning Research
Technische Universität München

Bio and Research Interest

After studying psychology at the University of Regensburg and Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee), Professor Seidel was awarded a doctorate at the Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) in Kiel in 2002. She was appointed to the position of junior professor of teaching research in 2003. Prior to assuming the position of professor at TUM, she was a visiting professor at Stanford University (2005-2006) and held the Chair of Educational Psychology at the University of Jena (2007-2009). Professor Seidel is a member of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction and the American Educational Research Association. She has been a member of the Research Committee of the German University Rectors’ Conference since 2009.

Richard J. Shavelson
Emeritus Professor

Bio and Research Interest

Shavelson is the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education (Emeritus), Professor of Psychology (Emeritus), I. James Quillen Dean of the Graduate School of Education (Emeritus) and Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment (Emeritus) at Stanford University. His research spans basic psychometric research to measurement of learning, affect and performance to policy. The work includes accountability in higher education (assessment of undergraduates’ learning and college value added), assessment of science achievement, enhancement of women’s and minorities’ performance in organic chemistry, and the role of mental models of climate change on sustainability decisions and behavior.  Other work includes studies of the impact of computer cognitive training on working memory, fluid intelligence and science achievement.

Crain Soudien
Chief Executive Officer, Human Sciences Research Council (South Africa)

Bio and Research Interest

Professor Crain Soudien is the Chief Executive Officer of the Human Sciences Research Council and formerly a Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cape Town. He is a joint professor in Education and African Studies. He has published over 190 articles, reviews, reports, and book chapters in the areas of social difference, culture, education policy, comparative education, educational change, public history and popular culture. He is also the co-editor of three books. He was educated at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and holds a PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo

Ulrich Teichler
Professor, International Centre for Higher Education Research (INCHER-Kassel),
University of Kassel (Germany) from 1978 to 2013

Bio and Research Interest

Ulrich Teichler was for 35 years professor on higher education at the International Centre for Higher Education Research (INCHER Kassel) and at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Kassel (Germany), and he was about half the period Director of the Centre. Already as a student (at the Free University of Berlin), he became member (from 1965 to 1978) member of the Max Planck Institute for Educational Research in Berlin, when he also submitted his doctoral dissertation to the University of Bremen. His research activities and publications focused on higher education and the world of work, systems of higher education in comparative perspective, international mobility and cooperation in higher education, the academic profession as well as the situation of higher education research. He analyzed the search of higher education to strike a balance between accepting societal expectations and playing a proactive, “unexpected” role for society. For example, he emphasized that logics of national higher education systems varied more substantially that widespread assumptions on global trends suggest, he undertook many research projects funded by “political” and governmental agencies. He spent extended periods of research in Japan, the U.S. and the Netherlands, he was guest lecturer or visiting professor in ten countries, and his academic activities brought him to more than 80 countries. More than 500 publications each were written by him in German and in English, and more than 200 articles were published into 20 other languages. He was the founder in 1988 of the internationally most active association of researchers in his area of expertise, i.e. the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers (CHER).

Albert C. Tuijnman

Managerial Advisor for Education and Public Research
Innovation and Competitiveness Department
European Investment Bank

Bio and Research Interest

Albert Tuijnman is Managerial Advisor in the Education and Public Research Division at the European Investment Bank. He is responsible for the economic appraisal of large-scale investment projects in the education and science systems of all European countries, covering the continuum from preschools to vocational training centres and elite universities, public research institutes and science councils. The outstanding investment portfolio exceeds € 20 bn in present value. Earlier in his career he was Principal Administrator in the Education and Training Division at OECD and Professor and Director of the Institute of International Education at Stockholm University.

Servaas van der Berg
Professor (National Research Foundation Chair in Social Policy) at Stellenbosch University (South Africa)

Bio and Research Interest

He joined the Department of Economics at University of Stellenbosch in 1982, currently holding the rank of Professor of Economics. He teaches courses in Poverty and Distribution, Development Economics, and Economics of Education.  During his career he has served as a consultant for numerous national and international organizations and agencies, including the World Bank, UNICEF, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Development Bank of Southern Africa, the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), and the Institute for Policy Analysis (AIPA).  He also has worked collaboratively on a number of economic and educational projects.  His most recent project is called “Binding Constraints in Education,” and is a multi-part study financed by the Project to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development, a partnership project between the South African Presidency and the European Union. This multifaceted project is investigating all facets of the school education system to assist in identifying the major constraints to improved learning in schools.  His research interests include economic development, poverty, income distribution, and social policy.

Maris A. Vinovskis
University of Michigan Bentley Professor of History, Institute for Social Science Research Professor, and Professor at the Gerald R. Ford of Public Policy.

Bio and Research Interest

Vinovskis was born in Riga, Latvia and is a naturalized citizen of the United States.  He was Deputy Staff Director to the U.S. House Select Committee on Population in the late 1970s and a frequent consultant on population and adolescent pregnancy issues in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in the early 1980s. He worked in the U.S. Department of Education in the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations on educational research and policy. He was a member of the congressionally-mandated Independent Review Panels for Goals 2000 and No Child Left Behind during both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. He also was a member of the Bush-Cheney Transition Education Advisory Committee.

Stella Vosniadou
Strategic Professor 

Bio and Research Interest

Stella Vosniadou is currently a Strategic Professor at Flinders University in South Australia and an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Philosophy and History of Science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her research interests are in the areas of learning, cognitive development and conceptual change in the learning of science and mathematics. She has more than 150 publications including authored and edited books, articles in refereed journal and edited volumes and over 14,000 citations. She is well known internationally for her research for which she received the 2011 Distinguished International Contributions to Child Development Award by the Society for Research in Child Development.