Our Team
Meet our team
İzmir Democracy University
Full Professor, İlke Evin Gencel completed her Ph.D in Curriculum Development and Instruction field at Dokuz Eylul University,Izmir,Turkey. She has national and international studies on curriculum development, instructional design, experiential learning and teacher education. She carried out her postdoctoral research at Florida State University, USA. She also completed numerous educational projects including educational technologies her scholarly work life.
İzmir Democracy University
Dr. Sibel Yoleri, is an Assoc. Professor at the Department of Preschool Education, Izmir Democracy University, Turkey. After the doctoral study, she was a visiting scholar at the University of Indiana, Department of Preschool Education during 2013 through the research funding of YÖK (Council of Higher Education). Her areas of research interests include temperament characteristics in early childhood, problem behaviors and school adjustment in early childhood. She has published several scientific articles and participated in many international conferences.
İzmir Democracy University
She received her PhD degree in English Language Teaching at Hacettepe University. She is currently a full-time academic at the department of English Language Teaching at Izmir Democracy University. With more than 10 years of experience in the field, she has coordinated, and participated in the steering committees of several national and international education projects. She is also a member of the board of directors of the World Council for Curriculum and Instruction (WCCI), and treasurer of the Turkish Chapter. Her research interests include language teacher education, language testing and assessment, and language attrition.
İzmir Democracy University
Büşra Akyüz continues her doctorate in educational sciences in the Faculty of Education, İzmir Democracy University, İzmir, Turkey. She has been a researcher in many international and national projects and participated in scientific conferences. Her research interests include thinking skills, social-emotional learning, innovative teaching techniques and digitalization in education.
University of Maribor
Dr. Marta Licardo is professor at University of Maribor, Faculty of Education, Slovenia. Her research interests are pedagogy, didactics, social sciences in early childhood education, inclusion, education of children with special needs and immigrant children. She is country coordinator for European Early Childhood Education Research Association for Slovenia. She completed numerous projects on national and international level related to her research interests. See more: Personal Webpage. In 2019 she has been working as host professor at University of Oulu, Finland.
University of Rijeka
Full professor Lidija Vujičić, Ph.D. lectures several undergraduate and graduate courses related to early and preschool education. Her scientific interests include: early and preschool education; new paradigm of the child and childhood, the culture of educational institutions; (co)construction of curriculum, initial education of preschool teachers; professional development of teachers/preschool
educators; action research. She was leading the project entitled “The Culture of Educational
Institutions as a Factor in the (Co)construction of Knowledge.“ She has published numerous scientific papers, participated in many international and national scientific conferences and collaborated in several national and international projects. See more: Personal webpage
University of Rijeka
Associate professor Petra Pejić Papak, Ph.D. lectures several graduate courses as Didactics, Didactical Docimology and Education and Teaching for Leisure Time at Faculty of Teacher Education. Since 2013. she is working as vice dean for education and students and a representative of the Committee for the management and improvement of quality at University of Rijeka. She has published several
scientific papers oriented to new approaches, strategies of teaching and learning, teacher
competence, the importance of using modern technology in teaching, conducting research among teachers and students. She was a member of team experts from Faculty Teacher Education in the Erasmus+ project Games for Teaching Algorithmic Thinking”. Personal webpage
University of Rijeka
Assistant professor Jasminka Mezak, Ph.D. lectures several undergraduate and graduate courses in Informatics as Computer Literacy, Computer in Primary Education, Computer in Early and Preschool Education. Her main professional and research interests are in the field of using ICT and digital tools in education, including blended learning approaches, and implementation and evaluation of new
pedagogical approaches using ICT. From 2017-2019, she was a leader of the project team from
Faculty of Teacher Education as a partner in Erasmus+ project „Games for Teaching Algorithmic Thinking”. Currently, she is researcher at the project “Digital games in the context of learning, teaching and promoting inclusive education” on the University of Rijeka. Personal webpage
University of Rijeka
Assistant Professor Lucija Jančec, Ph.D. lectures several graduate courses as Experience -Based
Learning, Pedagogy of Early and Preschool Education and Encouragement of socio-emotional competences in the classroom. Her general interest is research of the hidden curriculum in any form of education (“theory in practice”), its interrelatedness with other fields of research through interdisciplinary studies as an important feature in the raising of awareness of microelements in pedagogical work, in institutions as well as out of institutional life. Her interests include social competences as well as developing learning to learn competences from the pedagogical aspect especially educational benefits. Personal webpage
Instituto Politecnico de Viseu
Associate Professor Maria Figueiredo, PhD, has been working in Initial Early Childhood Teacher Education since 2000. Currently, she is working in the School of Education of the Polytechnic of Viseu. Her research interests are Pedagogy and Didactics linked to Children’s Rights and to teachers’ knowledge and identity. She is Secretary-General of the European Educational Research Association (EERA).
Instituto Politecnico de Viseu
Valter Alves, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the School of Technology and Management of the Polytechnic of Viseu, where he is the director of the Degree in Multimedia Technologies and Design. He is a researcher at CISeD, interested in promoting the quality of life and development in various contexts, through technology.
Scuola di Robotica
Educated in Philosophy, she collaborated with the Italian Research Council on the social impact of Advanced Robotics applications. In 2000 she founded the School of Robotics Society in Italy, of which he is vice-president today. She contributed to the definition and development of Roboethics (Ethical, Legal, and Societal Issues in Robotics). She is Member of the High-level Advisory Committee for ECWT (EU European Centre for Women&Technology) and Consultant and member of “The Open Roboethics Initiative.”
Scuola di Robotica
Luca Gilardi is a technician in the field of electronics a telecommunications and got a degree in Physics, with broad interest on experimental and hands-on activities. He works at Scuola di Robotica, where he deals with educational robotics, especially in the field of training courses for children and teachers. He was a teacher in a vocational school, and he is also involved in several science dissemination actions.
Educloud
