GCPPLE

Scientific Committee Members for GCPPLE'23

• 
  Dr. Florentina Halimi
  English Department, GUST
  GCPPLE Chair
  

  Dr. Florentina Halimi has a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from the University of Vienna in Austria. She was a Fulbright visiting professor and post-doctoral researcher at the Graduate School of Education, Fordham University, USA. She joined Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) in 2015 and was an inaugural Director of the GUST-Center for Teaching Learning and Research (CTLR) established in 2016.
  Dr. Florentina does research on positive psychology in education, focusing on student emotional intelligence, active learning strategies, achievement motivation, enjoyment and anxiety in the classroom. She is the author and co-author of several published papers with researchers from the EU, the US, and Kuwait. She is also a co-author of recent papers on foreign language enjoyment of Kuwaiti university learners (Dewaele, Saito & Halimi, 2022a, b).

• 
  Dr. Marta Tryzna
  English Department, GUST
  GCPPLE Co-Chair
  Dr. Marta Maria Tryzna earned her PhD in linguistics from the University of Iowa in 2009, and then joined the American University of the Middle East (AUM) in Kuwait to set up the MBA managerial communication program and the undergraduate English Writing Program. Currently, she is Assistant Professor at Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) where she teaches linguistics, sociolinguistics and second language acquisition. She served as the coordinator of the Writing Program and the President of the Faculty Senate at GUST. Her research interests are in applied linguistics, bilingualism, and language pedagogy. Her research has been published by Springer, John Benjamins, Elsevier and Routledge.
• 
  Dr. Cathy Daniel
  (Head of English Department) , GUST
  Dr. Cathy Daniel is an Assistant Professor of Education at Gulf University for Science &Technology (GUST). In 2000, she received her Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in the USA in the area of Curriculum & Instruction. Her areas of expertise are: Primary and secondary education foundation courses, educational psychology, assessment, language arts methods courses (primary & secondary). Research areas include student achievement, motivation, self-efficacy, literacy and assessment.
• 
  Dr. Fatimah AlHashem
  English Department., GUST
  Dr. Fatimah Alhashem is assistant professor at the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST, and former chair for the center of teaching, learning, and research (CTLR) at GUST. She received a doctoral degree in curriculum and instructions in science education from Arizona State University. She worked as general manager for teacher development department at the National Center for Education Development (NCED) from 2015 until 2018. She is a strong advocate for supporting teachers in general and supporting women in science education in specific. She is involved in different projects with the World Bank, UNESCO and United Nation for Develomental Program (UNDP) that serve the education system mainly clustered around teachers’ development. Her professional interests focus on professional development for teachers, teachers’ practices, teachers polices, STEM education, and TPACK model for teachers. Her current projects are Teacher effectiveness, Teacher License, and STEM education. Her research talk about TPACK model and TIMSS studies. In addition, she worked as director for Ibtikar Initiative to support women and young girls in science and research for two years. She is a member of National Science Teacher Association (NSTA).
• 
  Dr. Inan Deniz Erguvan
  English Department, GUST
  Inan Deniz Erguvan holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration. She joined GUST in 2011 and has taught academic and business writing as an Assistant Professor in the English Department. She is currently the Coordinator of Professional Writing courses. Her research interests include academic integrity, plagiarism, and assessment of writing.
• 
  Dr. Thorsten Botz
  Humanities & Social Sciences Department, GUST
  Thorsten Botz-Bornstein was born in Germany, did his undergraduate studies in Paris, and received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Oxford University in 1993. As a postdoctoral researcher based in Finland, he undertook research for four years on Russian formalism in Russia and the Baltic countries. He has also been researching for three years in Japan on the Kyoto School and worked for the Center of Cognition of Hangzhou University (China) as well as a at Tuskegee University in Alabama. He is now Professor of philosophy at Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait.
• 
  Dr. Angela Brunstein
  Humanities & Social Sciences Department, GUST
  Dr. Angela Brunstein is Associate Professor for Psychology at GUST. She earned her PhD in psychology with minors in computer science and neurology from University of Hamburg, Germany. Her research focusses on optimal learning conditions for skills that apply to novel situations beyond the classroom for many different task domains, including algebra, foreign languages, surgery, health related behaviors, and academic motivation. Together with colleagues, we have found that transfer takes a good mix of instructed and self-directed learning, a limited amount of diversity of examples, and positive emotions to prepare for the unexpected. Her research has been supported among others by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Research Foundation, and Qatar National Research Fund.