Project Team

[Paula Cowan]

Paula Cowan has over seventeen years experience of teaching in primary schools. Her breadth of experience includes teaching in schools for pupils with moderate and severe learning difficulties but principally teaching in mainstream schools. There she has taught across the primary spectrum as a full time class teacher, as well as in part-time team teaching and job-sharing positions.

Paula was a freelance educational writer during the period 1994 –2001, and a frequent contributor to the education pages of The Scotsman, The Herald and the TES Scotland Supplement. In November 2001, Paula took up a full-time position as a Lecturer in Education within the School of Education of the University of Paisley.

Most of Paula's teaching on campus is a combination of teaching undergraduates on the BEd (Hons) course and postgraduates on the PGCE (Prim) course. Paula is module co-ordinator for English Language and Health modules for PGCE (Prim) and BA Childhood Studies students respectively. In addition, she teaches Social Subjects, Primary Education, RME and PSD, and supervises 4th year BEd (Hons) students during their small scale research study.

Paula also provides courses for local authorities on teaching the Holocaust in primary and secondary schools and is a member of CiCe (Children’s Identity and Citizenship in Europe). CiCe is an interdisciplinary group of about 258 academics from some 79 different institutions in 29 nations in Europe who share an interest in the way in which children and young people construct their identity and citizenship in the context of contemporary Europe.

[Vicente López-Brea Fernández]

I am an English teacher and have been that for 15 years. I was recently appointed Head of the English Department at the Spanish Lycée in Neuilly sur Seine (Paris). Formerly I was a Language and Humanities Consultant at the Teachers' Resource Centre of Alcorcon (Madrid) where I could have some experience in dealing with Teacher training and managing and collaborating in a Comenius 2.1 project (History E-Learning Project). My specialty is and has been Foreign Language Teaching, English to be more precise. As a member of the History E-Learning Project, I was in charge of the English version of the documents generated by the Spanih participating centre and my friend and colleague, Juan Carlos Ocaña. In other aspects my main contribution with my knowledge of English Language Teaching was raising awareness of the main problems that history teaching may have in non-native students.

From my present position at the Spanish Lycée in Neuilly sur Seine (http://exterior.cnice.mecd.es/liceo.espanol/) we develop quite a number of educational projects locally, but are eager to expand our work to international matters. We have a long and fruitful tradition of developing Spanish culture all over Paris and France. Moreover, the resource centre (http://www.sgci.mec.es/fr/site/centro_recursos/centrorec.htm)

which helps, produces, publishes and distributes materials for all the network of Spanish institutions

in France and throughout the world has backed teh project which implies adding a greater dimension to the project. Three languages are developed in our Lycee: Spanish, French and Englis. We offer the open participation of all the language departments together with the Philosophy department, which is the department in charge of that subject (when it finally is included in our curriculum) and the contribution of materials and experiences in all three languages. Definitely we are eager to experience and collaborate in such a relevant project, especially relevant if we notice the varied background of our students..

Let me add that the principal, and the governing body in general back the project. In a nutshell we have all our institution and what it represents behind our active implication and participation in the project.

Edited October 18, 2005 by Vicente López-Brea Fernández

[Pedro Reis]

My name is Pedro Reis and I live in Lisbon, Portugal. I have a degree in Biology and a PhD in Science Education. I teach Biology and Science Education in pre-service and in-service teacher education courses (for K-6 grades) at Superior School of Education in Santarém (a city near Lisbon). My tasks also involve coordinating the Science and Mathematics teachers’ course (teachers for the 5th and 6th grades) and the practicum for beginning teachers' professional development.

I work also as a teacher (Master programs) and as an educational researcher at the Faculty of Sciences - Lisbon University.

For some years I have been coordinating the Education Section of Portuguese Biologists Association.

I have experience in international projects: (1) “Spring Day in Europe” (Supported by the European Commission); (2) “PICTTE – Profiles in ICT for Teachers Education” from Socrates Programme (Financial Agreement nº 71135-CP-1-1999-PT-ODL-ODL); (3) “SciencEduc” (Supported by the European Commission); (4) “Science as Culture: Implications on Scientific Communication” (Cooperation programme between Portugal and Brazil); (5) “myEurope2005” (Supported by the European Commission); (6) "Third International Mathematics and Science Study" coordinated by Boston University; (7) “Cross-Curricular Competencies” from OECD.

During the last years I have been author or co-author of several projects related with ICT. Some examples:

(1) the Portuguese webpage of "Spring Day in Europe 2005"

(http://nonio.eses.pt/primavera2005/indexa.htm);

(2) BioQuest (http://nonio.eses.pt/bioquest/);

(3) Eu Sei! (http://nonio.eses.pt/asp/eusei/).

As a hobby, I enjoy swimming and scuba-diving. You can see more about my work and projects at my website:

http://pwp.netcabo.pt/PedroRochaReis/

[Christiane Berton-Heinen]

I am a language teacher (English as a foreign language and German as a foreign language), and therefore, I am no specialist of the subject of citizenship. But my colleague Martine insisted to have someone who was able to follow discussions in English, so she asked me whether I would agree to enter the project with a colleague of mine, Rosalie Speciale, who will be more of a specialist of the subject than myself. So we agreed to help each other out, so to say, each with our specific experience. Of course as a foreign language teacher I am also interested in issues like cross-cultural education and Belgium is certainly a living example of the living together of different communities, with all the political implications that this can have!

[Andy Schofield]

Andy Schofield is Headteacher of Varndean School, Brighton, UK, an 11-16 mixed comprehensive technology college. Varndean was listed as an outstanding school in OfSTED's recent roll of honour and under Andy's leadership has also developed as both a centre of innovation and a school that works in partnership with others. The school's software company, Varndean e-Learning, has over 400 schools and colleges nationwide as customers.

Andy has taught in schools in Sheffield, Devon, Essex and East Sussex. He is a member of Futures Vision, the think tank of the Specialist Schools & Academies Trust, as well as being a member of the Trust's Headteachers' National Steering Group.

Andy is also a freelance journalist, writing for the Times Educational Supplement, as well as about football.