Academic Committee

Tan Oon Sen

Professor Tan Oon Seng is Centre Director, Centre for Research in Child Development (CRCD) at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. He is an inaugural Chen Yidan Visiting Global Fellow of Harvard University. He is also a Fellow of the International Academy of Education. Professor Tan was previously Director of the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore where he played a significant role in enhancing teacher education and revitalising NIE’s training programmes to raise the image and professionalism of teachers. His many contributions included helping to initiate the Teaching Scholars Programme, enhancing international practicum opportunities for NIE student-teachers; and spearheading technology-enhanced learning and design-thinking infrastructural improvements. His leadership in NIE’s education research proposal helped secure a 25% increase in funding for educational research resulting in a total funding of S$127 million for FY2018-2022. Prof Tan is convener of the World Educational Research Association (WERA) International Research Network on Teacher Education. He has been an Expert Panel Member of the Social Science and Humanities Research for Singapore. He is also an Expert Panel Member of the Tertiary Education Research Funding. Professor Tan was President of the Educational Research Association of Singapore (ERAS, 2005-2008) and President of the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association (APERA, 2008-2010). He is Editor-in-Chief of the Educational Research for Policy & Practice (ERPP) journal published by Springer. He is also the Lead Editor of the Asia Pacific Journal of Education (APJE) published by Routledge. Professor Tan was previously board director of several key education agencies including the Singapore Exams and Assessment Board (SEAB), Singapore Centre for Chinese Language (SCCL), NIE International (NIEI) and the National Institute of Early Childhood Development (NIEC). Professor Tan has authored/edited over 20 books and published extensively in the areas of teacher education, cognitive psychology and problem-based learning.Prof Tan was a winner of The Enterprise Challenge (TEC) Innovator Award from the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore. In 2014, Prof Tan was conferred the Public Administration Medal (Silver) by the President of the Republic of Singapore. He also received the Service to Education award from the Ministry of Education. Prof Tan has been a keynote speaker in major international conferences in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China, the Arab states and Southeast Asia. His keynotes include the National Science Foundation (NSF) Education & Human Resource (EHR) Distinguished Lecture in Washington, D.C., American Educational Research Association Annual Meetings presidential sessions, the Royal Swedish Academy of Science international symposium, and international education summits. He has also been a consultant to many global companies as well as government bodies andinternational organisations.

 A. Lin Goodwin

A. Lin Goodwin is Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong, and holds the Evenden Foundation Chair at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is immediate past Vice President of the American Educational Research Association—Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education, and the inaugural Dr. Ruth Wong Professor of Teacher Education at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. In 2015, Dr. Goodwin was honored as a Distinguished Researcher by AERA’s Special Interest Group: Research on the Education of Asian and Pacific Americans. Dr. Goodwin’s research focuses on teacher and teacher educator identities and development; multicultural understandings and curriculum enactments; the particular issues facing Asian/Asian American teachers and students in U.S. schools; and on international analyses/comparisons of teacher education practice and policy. Recent publications include “Who is in the classroom now? Teacher preparation and the education of immigrant children” in Educational Studies, and “Devenir enseignant aux États-Unis: politiques, norms et tensions (Becoming a teacher in the U.S.: Policies, standards and tensions, with J. Snyder) in Revue Internationale D’Èducation-Sèvres). Her latest book, co-authored with E.L. Low and Linda Darling-Hammond: Empowered educators in Singapore: How high-performing systems shape teaching quality, was recently released by Jossey-Bass. Dr. Goodwin has served as a consultant to a wide variety of organizations including school districts, philanthropic foundations, and higher education institutions, around issues of diversity, educational equity, and teacher education. Her work has taken her to many different countries such as Brazil, Jordan, Mongolia, Latvia, Singapore, China, France, and Bermuda among others, where she has collaborated with local educators to bring about teaching and curriculum reform.

Rebecca A. Maynard

Rebecca Maynard is a leading expert in the design and conduct of randomized controlled trials in the areas of education and social policy. She has conducted influential methodological research, including co-developing PowerUP! to support efficient sample designs for causal inference studies, and she has been influential in advancing the application of research synthesis methods in education and social policy. She designed and directed the University’s Predoctoral Training Program in Interdisciplinary Methods for Field-based Education Research, which served more than 75 Ph.D. students from Arts and Sciences, Business, and Education between 2004 and 2016. From 2010 through 2012, she served as Commissioner of the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), where she oversaw the Institute’s evaluation initiatives, the What Works Clearinghouse, the Regional Education Laboratories, and the National Library of Education.

She is a Fellow of the American Education Research Association, an elected member of the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology, and recipient of the Peter H. Rossi Award for Contributions to the Theory and Practice of Program Evaluation (2009) and the Society for Research on Adolescence Social Policy Best Book Award for Kids Having Kids (1998). She also is past President of both the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) and the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness. Prior to joining the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1993, she was Senior Vice President at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

Eric Alan Hanushek

Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He is a leader in the development of economic analysis of educational issues. He has authored numerous, highly cited studies on the effects of class size reduction, high stakes accountability, the assessment of teacher quality, and other education related topics. He introduced the idea of measuring teacher quality through the growth in student achievement that forms the basis for the development of value-added measures for teachers and schools. Most recently, Hanushek shows that the quality of education is closely related to national economic growth.

His latest book, The Knowledge Capital of Nations: Education and the Economics of Growth, identifies the close link between the skills of the people and the economic growth of the nation and shows the economic impact of high quality schools. This analysis is the basis for estimating the economic benefits of a world development standard based on achieving basic skills (Universal Basic Skills: What Countries Stand to Gain). His prior book, Endangering Prosperity: A Global View of the American School, considers the performance of U.S. schools from an international perspective and identifies the costs of not improving student outcomes. In terms of U.S. education policy, Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses: Solving the Funding-Achievement Puzzle in America's Public Schools describes how improved school finance policies can be used to meet our achievement goals. Earlier books include Courting Failure, the Handbook on the Economics of Education (five volumes), The Economics of Schooling and School Quality, Improving America’s Schools, Making Schools Work, Educational Performance of the Poor, and Education and Race. His over 250 scholarly articles on a wide range of education topics are very widely cited both in professional journals and in policy discussions.

He is chairman of the Executive Committee for the Texas Schools Project at the University of Texas at Dallas, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the area coordinator for Economics of Education of the CESifo Research Network, and a research fellow of the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. He recently served as a commissioner on the Equity and Excellence Commission of the U.S. Department of Education. He was chair of the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences during 2008-2010 and was Deputy Director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1983-85.

He previously held academic appointments at the University of Rochester, Yale University, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education along with being a fellow of the Society of Labor Economists and the American Education Research Association. He was awarded the Fordham Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in 2004.

He is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and completed his Ph.D. in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1965-1974.

Christoph Metzger

Christoph Metzger studied Business Education at the University of St. Gallen / Switzerland where he got his masters degree in 1969 as teacher in Business Education and his PhD in 1972. Between 1973 and 1987 he first taught Business Administration, Economics and Law at a High School and then taught as a Senior Lecturer in Business Education at the University of St. Gallen. In 1985 he finished his habilitation on "Formative Evaluation in Higher Education". In 1987, after a stay as visiting scholar at the University of Texas in Austin, he became Associate Professor of Business Education and Business Administration at the University of St. Gallen and in 1989 Full Professor in the same field. In St. Gallen he taught courses in Vocational Education, Performance Assessment, Learning Strategies, Didactics of Business Education, Marketing, and Research methods.

From 1993 to 1995 he acted as Dean of the School of Business Administration. From 1988 to 2009 he was also Director of the Institute of Business Education and Educational Management at the same University. Since August 2009 he is Professor emeritus of the University of St. Gallen, since 2011 he is Professor of Business Education at the Steinbeis University in Berlin. He was acting as visiting professor at the universities of Vienna (Austria), Innsbruck (Austria), Göttingen (Germany), Berlin (Humboldt, Germany), Pecs (Hungary) and Zürich (Switzerland).

His main interests and activities in internationally oriented research, development and consulting, also shown by his publications, are in the fields of Vocational Education, Higher Education, Curriculum, Educational Evaluation and Performance Assessment, Learning Strategies, and Teacher Training.

Most recent international activities on research and development, consulting and teaching focusing on Asian compared to Western countries have been:

• Conference on School-Enterprise Cooperation in Vocational Education, Yantai Vocational College, China: Speaker and expert.
• Hospitality Program Thailand: Consulting the Ministry of Education.
• Eight-Nation Education research Project (including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, South Korea, Thailand, USA): Member of the steering committee and leader of the project "A Comparative Study of Educational Systems and Secondary to Postsecondary Transitions in Six Nations", chair of several conferences.
• Six-Nation Education Research Project on Education and economic growth (including China, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, USA, Germany): Member of the steering committee and leader of the project "Vocational education and economic growth", chair of several conferences.
• Conference on Enhancing Quality and Building the 21st Century Higher Education System, Hiroshima University: Chair and presenter.
• International Conference on 60 Years of Korean Education, Seoul: Achievements and Challenges: Chair and presenter
• Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok and SWISS-Asian Institute of Technology-Vietnam Management Development Programme: Teaching, Counseling a doctoral student.

Rebecca Winthrop

Her research focuses on education globally, with special attention to the skills children need to succeed in their lives as workers and citizens. Of particular interest is improving quality learning for the most marginalized children and youth, including girls and children affected by extreme violence. Dr. Winthrop works to promote quality and relevant education, including exploring how education innovations can leapfrog progress. She advises governments, international institutions, foundations, and corporations on education issues, and provides guidance to a number of important education policy actors. Prior to joining The Brookings Institution in June 2009, Dr. Winthrop spent 15 years working in the field of education for displaced and migrant communities. As the head of education for the International Rescue Committee, she was responsible for the organization’s education work in over 20 conflict-affected countries. She has been actively involved in developing the evidence base around and global attention to education in the developing world. In her prior position, she helped develop global policy for the education in emergencies field, especially around the development of global minimum standards for education in contexts of armed conflict and state fragility. Winthrop has authored numerous articles, reports, books, and book chapters, including most recently Leapfrogging Inequality: Remaking Education to Help Young People Thrive with Adam Barton and Eileen McGivney. Other recent publications include: Millions Learning: Scaling Up Quality Education in Developing Countries with Jenny Perlman Robinson; What Works in Girls’ Education: Evidence for the World’s Best Investment with Gene B. Sperling; and Why Wait 100 Years? Bridging the gap in global education with Eileen McGivney. Her work has been featured in the BBC, Newsweek, Time Ideas, NPR, Economist, and The Financial Times, among others. She was educated at Columbia University, Teachers College (Ph.D., 2008), Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs (MA, 2001), and Swarthmore College, (BA, 1996).