Keynote Speakers

Title: Global Trends and Hot Topics in STEM Education

Prof. Yeping Li
Professor, Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture
Texas A&M University

Dr. Yeping Li is a Professor at the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture at Texas A&M University, USA. He was also named by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission as “Eastern Scholar” Chair Professor at Shanghai Normal University, China. His research interests include STEM education, mathematics education and teacher education. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of STEM Education (#1 journal in STEM education research worldwide) and Journal for STEM Education Research, both published by Springer, and is also the editor of several monograph series including, Advances in STEM Education also published by Springer. In addition to publishing over 15 books and special journal issues, he has published more than 100 articles in topic areas that he is interested in. His work has been supported by various funding agencies, including the U.S. National Science Foundation and Spencer Foundation. He also organized and chaired many group sessions at various national and international professional conferences, such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meetings, the 10th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-10) in 2004, ICME-11 (2008), ICME-12 (2012), and ICME-13 (2016). He received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Studies in Education from the University of Pittsburgh, USA.

Keynote address

The emerging field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM, later also STEAM by adding “Arts”, STREAM by adding “Reading”) education presents some fascinating opportunities for transforming school education, not only due to the fact that STEM is important for students’ learning now and in the future. Historically, STEM education as discipline-based education has long been in place with a focus on mathematics and science. Recent calls for a broader focus on STEM education have generated more and more interest in exploring and understanding different forms and approaches of this movement in many education systems. Correspondingly, research development in STEM education has experienced dramatic changes over the past decade, providing much-needed scholarship support to further STEM education within and across education systems. With the rapid increase in the number of scholarly publications on STEM education in recent years, knowing and understanding the status and trends in STEM education internationally support the development of the field. In this talk, I will first provide a review of research development in STEM education with surveys of journal publications in various scopes. The review then provides an empirical base for further discussion of global trends and hot topics in STEM education as presented in literature.

Title: Approaches to conducting STEM research in the Mobile Era

Prof. Gwo-Jen Hwang
Chair Professor, Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology

Dr. Gwo-Jen Hwang is currently a Chair Professor at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. Dr Hwang serves as an editorial board member and a reviewer for more than 30 academic journals of educational technology and e-learning. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (SSCI), Computers & Education: Artificial Intelligence, International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation (Scopus, Q1), and Journal of Computers in Education (Scopus, ESCI). He has also been the principal investigator of more than 100 research projects funded by Ministry of Science and Technology as well as Ministry of Education in Taiwan. His research interests include mobile and ubiquitous learning, flipped learning, digital game-based learning, and artificial intelligence in education.
Dr. Hwang has published more than 700 academic papers, including more than 350 journal papers and 350 conference papers. Among those publications, more than 250 papers are published in SSCI journals. Owing to the reputation in academic research and innovative inventions in e-learning, he received the annual most Outstanding Researcher Award from the National Science Council of Taiwan in the years of 2007, 2010 and 2013. Moreover, in 2016, he was announced by Times Higher Education as being the most prolific and cited researcher in the world in the field of social sciences (https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ten-most-prolific-and-most-cited-researchers).

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) refers to the cross-disciplinary learning design for engaging students in applying integrated knowledge to complete a project or solve a complex problem. It has been recognized by many scholars for its educational significance. On the other hand, it is generally challenging for researchers and school teachers to design STEM research and tasks. This talk aims to introduce the educational objectives and research trends of STEM as well as the methods for designing STEM research. In addition, several learning design approaches and measuring tools for STEM activities are presented as well. This talk will be of great value to researchers and school teachers who are interested in developing STEM research and applications.