Lieven Verschaffel#
Short laudation by Erik De Corte#
Dr. Verschaffel is currently one of the leading international scholars in the field of research on mathematics learning and teaching, and as will become obvious here below, he has been involved substantially in the past two decades in the development of this research community. Lieven Verschaffel obtained in 1984 the degree of Doctor and in 1993 the degree of Special Doctor in Educational Sciences at the University of Leuven. Until 2000 he obtained several subsequent research positions at the Fund for Scientific Research, Flanders (Belgium). From 1988 on he has combined this with a part—time teaching position at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Leuven. In 2000 he was appointed as full Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Leuven.
After initially focusing his research on the analysis and improvement of young children’s solutions of elementary addition and subtraction word problems, Dr. Verschaffel’s program of research progressed to a wider area of topics in the domains of educational psychology and mathematics education, such as teaching and learning of problem-solving and learning skills, strategy choice and strategy change in (mathematics) learning, metacognitive and affective aspects of (mathematics) learning, computer-supported (mathematics) learning, conceptual change in (mathematics) in learning. Based on his scientific contributions, he is at present recognized in Europe but also more widely, especially in the USA, as one ofthe leading experts on mathematics education.
As evidence of this fact, Dr. Verschaffel’s vita contains about 120 international journal articles (of which about 70 in SSCI journals), about 120 national journal articles, about 25 international and national books (as author or editor), about 110 chapters in international and national books, and about 70 full papers published in international congress proceedings. Many of his articles appeared in leading journals in the fields of educational psychology (e. g., Journal of Educational Psychology, Cognition and Instruction, Learning and Instruction), mathematics education (Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, Educational Studies in Mathematics, and Mathematical Thinking and Learning), and experimental psychology and cognitive neuropsychology (e.g., Neuropsychologia, Cortex, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Experimental Psychology, European Journal of Cognitive Psychology). Several of his book chapters appeared in leading international handbooks, such as the Handbook of educational psychology (1996; New York: Macmillan), Handbook of research on the psychology of mathematics education (2006; Rotterdam: Sense Publishers), Handbook of child psychology (6th edition, 2006; John Wiley & Sons), and Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (2007; Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing). His books were published in leading series such as the Advances in Learning and Instruction Series (Oxford: Elsevier) and the Mathematics Education Librag Series (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer).
Lieven Verschaffel’s contribution to international scholarship is also illustrated by the fact that he was the coordinator of the Scientific Network on "Design, development and implementation of powerful learning environments" ofthe Fund for Scientific Research, Flanders, which supports collaboration between 14 leading European research teams on this topic (January 2002 — December 2006). Currently he is the coordinator of its successor, the Scientific Network "Stimulating critical and flexible cognitions" (F turd for Scientific Research—Flanders, January 2007 - December 201 1). Dr. Verschaffel international reputation is also uderscored by several keynote and invited presentations he has made to research organizations and professional associations worldwide, including invited lectures and symposia in Denmark, Germany, Finland, Hungary, Japan, Portugal, Switzerland, U,K. Further, he is a regular contributor at the meetings of EARLI (European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction), PME (International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education), and ICME (International Congress on Mathematics Education).
Since the beginning of his academic career, Lieven Verschaffel has been actively involved in the reform of the elementary school mathematics cruriculum, both nationally and internationally, as a member of several programming or evaluation committees. For instance, in 2008-2009 he was member of a Mathematics Education Advisory Panel installed by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academic voor Wetenschappen (KNAW; Royal Academy of Sciences in The Netherlands) and since 2009 he is member of the "Education Committee" ofthe European Mathematical Society (EMS).
Furthermore, he has served as editor of Pedagogische Studien, the leading Dutch scientific journal in educational research, and as editorial assistant for Learning and Instruction. He is currently member of the editorial boards of leading research journals, including Mathematical Thinking and Learning, Educational Studies in Mathematics, Learning and Instruction, Educational Research Review, Human Development, and Cambridge Journal of Education. Since 2005 he is series editor of the book series New Directions in Mathematics and Science Education published by Sense Publishers.
Lieven Verschaffel is at the moment principal investigator of the research proj ect "Developing adaptive expertise in mathematics education" (October 1, 2005 — September 30, 2010) funded by a research grant of the Research Council of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven: 1.25 0.000 euro). During the past 20 years he obtained many other grants from important funding organizations, i.e. the Research Council of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders. His commitment to the research community also extends to the next generation of scholars. For instance, he has supervised the PhD research of 7 students, and several of his former students have already begun to make their mark in the field of educational research. He has been a member of the evaluation committee of about 40 doctoral dissertations in other tmiversities in Belgium, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Finland, and Spain.
Over the past years, he organized several colloquia and workshops. For instance, he was Chair of the International Workshop in honour of Erik De Corte (Leuven, September 2006) on "Instructional psychology: Past, present, and future trends" sponsored by EARLI and the Fund for Scientific Research—Flanders, and Chair of the EARLI 2009 Advanced Study Colloquium on "Cognitive neuroscience and mathematics education”, Brugge, Belgium, March 2009.
During his academic career Lieven Verschaffel has been involved in a lot of research policy and research assessment committees, both nationally and internationally. From 1996 until 2006 he was member of the Research Committee for Psychology and Educational Sciences of the Fund for Scientific Research, Flanders (Belgium) and he ` chaired that committee from 2003 till 2006.
As recognition for his contribution to research in his domain, Lieven Verschaffel has received several awards and honours. In 1987 he received the NCTM Research Award of the Advisory Committee of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in the U.S. for an article (together with Erik De Corte) "The effect of semantic structure on 'first graders' strategies for solving addition and subtraction word problems" published in the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. In 2004 he was Laureate of the "Special recognitions to distinguished Belgian scholars" by the World Cultural Council/Conceil Culturel Mondial, November 2004, Université de Liege, Belgium. Finally, in 2009 he was elected as member of the Royal Academia for Sciences and Arts of Belgium.
Taking all this into account there is in my opinion that Dr. Lieven Verschaffel is an excellent candidate for membership of the Academia Europaea. 24 January 2010.
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