by Maria Cindy F. Cardona
The College of Education, with its distinction as a Center of Excellence for Teacher Education, aims to establish linkages and strengthen collaboration with international partner schools. Among its partner schools is Kasetsart University, a public research university and one of Thailand’s oldest universities. It is known internationally for academic excellence and the work of world standards. Amidst this Covid-19 pandemic, the College of Education invited a visiting professor, Dr. Sasithep Pitiporntapin, who is currently the head of the Department of Education, Faculty of Education at Kasetsart University. As a visiting professor, he will be sharing his expertise in Science Education, Socio-Scientific Issues, and other related topics through virtual lectures and a series of webinars.
Associate Professor Dr. Sasithep Pitiporntapin has a Ph.D. in Science Education and earned his Postdoctoral Training on Reimagining & Researching STEM Education at ReSTEM Institute, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA. He also had an International Research Internship at the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of British Columbia, Canada. His dedication as a teacher brought him recognition as a National Outstanding University Teacher Award, National Science Teacher Award, and Excellent Staff in Research and Innovation. In 2016, he received a Best Paper Certificate from the International Journal of Educational Science and Research (IJESR). His research passion made him both a Conference Proposal Reviewer and an Ad-hoc Journal Manuscript Reviewer and a recipient of various university research grants. Dr. Pitiporntapin also published numerous research and review articles and authored several books and E-books in Science and Math. Moreover, he was invited to various radio and TV programs and online workshops to share his expertise.
For a one-month duration as a visiting professor, he will be giving professional lectures to MSciEd and Ph.D. students as well as the faculty members of the College of Education via Zoom on the following topics:
September 11, 2020 Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI) and STEM Education Crash Course on Developing SSI-Based Instruction Lesson Plan (bit.ly/Sep11Session)
September 14, 2020 Design Thinking Crash Course on Developing Design Thinking Lesson Plan (bit.ly/Sep14Session)
September 21, 2020 Computational Thinking Crash Course on Computational Thinking Lesson Plan (bit.ly/Sep21Session)
October 1, 2020 Class Conceptualized of Proposals Research Collaboration Meeting (bit.ly/Oct1Session)
October 5, 2020 Publishing Research Paper in ISI and Scopus Journal Book Development: Thailand Experience (bit.ly/Oct5Session)
As part of this engagement, there will also be research consultations with Dr. Sasithep Pitiporntapin among the CED Graduate students and faculty members to gain future research insights. Hence, it is with great hope that this endeavor will form a big part of the College of Education’s continuing effort towards achieving excellent and world-class education.