International Visiting Professors
Mauri Kalervo Ahlberg (Full Professor of the University of Helsinki, Biology and Sustainability Education)
My main research interests include
- International NatureGate® R&D program, providing an online learning environment for lifelong biodiversity education at species level, http://www.naturegate.net The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) writes about this project: http://www.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/cec/?2614/
- Research on collaborative knowledge building using ICT. We have used mainly Knowledge Forum as a platform. Ours is a multi-method approach. We use both qualitative and quantitative research methods, mostly multi-case study approach. One of our papers is accepted for publication in the British Journal of Educational Technology in 2009.
- Research on Education for Sustainable Development. In my research group, we have concentrated mainly on teachers as researchers. Several doctoral theses have been done and several are under construction.
- Research and development of quality of learning, integrating theories and methods. In particular, I have researched and developed improved concept mapping and Vee heuristics.
In 2008, I had an honour to act as External Examiner for Lisa Jane Hayes, PhD in Education candidate at Exeter University. It was an enjoyable and good experience.
I appreciate very much this opportunity as being a visiting Professor at the University of Exeter. There are excellent colleagues, working facilities and libraries. I have found the city of Exeter as beautiful and peaceful. In the University of Exeter, I have worked mostly with Professor Patrick Dillon. I am open for all kind of international collaboration.
homepage: www.helsinki.fi/people/mauri.ahlberg
Helen Haste (Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Bath and Visiting Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education).
Helen Haste has a long record of research and publication in moral, social and political values, and on the interface of science and culture, including issues in gender and science. Her work includes research on culture and metaphor, on the public image of science particularly in the media, and on ethics and citizenship education. She is currently working on citizenship and education, and on the concept of ‘competence’.
She is the author or editor of five books, and numerous research reports. She has published in popular science journals and news media as well as extensively in the academic literature. She regularly broadcasts on radio and television. She also frequently gives public lectures, in addition to her university work. She has been involved for thirty years with the British Association for the Advancement of Science, of which she has been a Vice-President, and was Chair from 2004-5. She is on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals.
Helen Haste is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK). She was President of the International Society for Political Psychology in 2002. She received the Nevitt Sanford Award for lifetime contributions to political psychology, from the International Society of Political Psychology in 2005.
Jun Kato (Professor of Nagoya University of Foreign Studies (NUFS), Sociology of Education)
I am working on a comparative study on initial teacher training between Japan and the UK. I was fortunate that the Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter, not only offered my research base but they provided me with everything I needed for my research, such as library services, local school observation and useful advice from everybody there.
The motive of my study lies in the necessity of ITT reform in Japan. Japanese ITT system has put more emphasis on general knowledge and experience for teaching careers rather than teaching practice while training in higher education. Consequently we have NQT (newly qualified teacher) with only two to four weeks teaching practice at their undergraduate period before standing in front of pupils as professionals.
That finally causes malfunction for parents’ needs and social relevancy. This is why we are endeavouring to find an alternative type of ITT in Japan. Having done my research to some extent, I found that Exeter PGCE system could be one of the models for us to introduce to Japan in the future with some modifications.
I have enjoyed conducting my research at the University of Exeter together with many kind staff and teachers at local state schools. It was a real time of sharing the same purpose of social construction through education. Of course I never forget to enjoy walking down the public footpaths around Exeter and fish and chips. University of Exeter is the perfect place for my official and private purposes.
(NUFS: http://www.nufs.ac.jp/index.html)
Antonio Marmolejo (Full Professor of Research Methodology in Education at Málaga University (Spain))
Antonio Marmolejo is interested in the research on teaching reading. His collaboration with the Exeter Graduate School of Education was initiated with the need to interchange knowledge and strategies used in the British University and School System in the teacher’s initial and continuous training to teach reading.
He got his doctorate at Teachers College (Columbia University, NY), while holding a Fulbright Grand. He is participating in different doctoral programs in Portugal and Venezuela. He is a member of the Evaluation Team of the Asociación Universitaria Iberoamericana de Postgrado (AUIP).
Antonio Marmolejo has been a member of the International Development in Europe Committee of the International Reading Association, Newark, DE. EE.UU. He is the founder of the Asociación Española de Lectoescritura.