Univarsity of Nicosia

Cyprus

Opportunity institution of higher education, which offers a wide range of programmes to students from around the world. The Department of Education employs 13 full-time faculty and offers degrees in Primary and Preprimary Education, Masters’ degrees in Education (with 8 specializations), and PhD in Education. It has links with several pre-primary and primary schools with which it collaborates on several projects. The Department of Education currently has over 5500 students enrolled and around 28% of its student population are non-Cypriots, something which makes it a multicultural institution where diversity and pluralism are valued. The Department of Education has extensive experience participating in EU funded projects. One of the tasks of the research group within the Department is to conduct research to contribute to the improvement of education. In addition, we are experienced coordinators and participants of projects funded by the EU and the Research Promotion Foundation in Cyprus. The Department of Life and Health Sciences offers programs in the disciplines of Nursing (BSc), Human Biology (BSc), Sports Science (BSc), Nutrition and Dietetics (BSc, PhD), Pharmacy (BPharm), Physiotherapy (BSc, PhD), Environmental and Energy Management (BSc), Exercise Science and Physical Education (MSc, PhD), Clinical Dietetics (MSc), Sports Nutrition/Dietetics & Nutrition Intervention (MSc), Contemporary Nursing (MSc), Mental Health Nursing, Orthopedic Science & Rehabilitation (MSc), and Biomedical Sciences (MSc). The Department of Life and Health Sciences participates in the proposal through colleagues from the Human Biology Program.

Our organization has strong expertise on projects focusing on teacher professional development, science education, technology-based learning and inquiry-based learning. Our latest funded project (DIALLS/Horizon 2020) received 4 million Euros and is focusing on teacher professional development on argumentation and dialogue. The School of Education has extensive experience participating in research, dissemination, and teacher-funded projects, mostly funded from the EC competitive calls. Faculty from the School of Education (partners in the current proposal) served as coordinators and working package leaders in a large number of funded projects, and have demonstrated strong expertise in science, technology mathematics education, and intercultural education. Faculty have published widely in scholar journals and books, especially in the research fields mentioned above, the research findings of various projects, including among others PRIMAS, MASCIL, ENGAGE (FP7, SiS projects), PrEESSes (Comenius, LLP), IncluSME (ERASMUS+) and the recently funded DIALLS project (H2020-SC6-CULT-COOP-2016-2017) focus on collaborative with teacher and schools. In our current network of schools we work closely with more than 25 public and private schools across Cyprus, including pre-primary, primary and secondary schools. Our faculty has been engaged in organising large research and teacher conferences in Cyprus, including the ESERA and EARLI international conferences, and faculty from the Department are involved in teacher professional development in issues pertaining to science, technology, mathematics and 21st century skills. The interdisciplinary team of our research group has a vast experience in developing programmes for higher education (undergraduate and graduate level) science education and technology, in initial teacher education and in-service teacher education, and for elementary and secondary school students (e.g. ENGAGE and Mascil projects). A special focus in the learning resources developed has been placed on inquiry-based learning, on modelling, and on diversity in science and STEM education, including a focus on language and migrant students (IncluSME, ENSITE and GEM projects), and in making the connection between science, and everyday life.

Finally, a lot of the projects place an emphasis on the understanding and discussion of socioscientific issues (PreSEES, ENGAGE, ENSITE), something relevant to the current project.