National Institute of Education Senior Lecturer, Dr Chua Bee Leng, has assumed her new role as President-Elect of the World Education Research Association (WERA) on 1 June 2020. She was elected into office on 3 March 2020. WERA comprises 27 national, regional, international specialty research associations dedicated to advancing education research as a scientific and scholarly field for the public good.
Dr Chua told NIEWS that she was extremely honoured to be serving in the Executive Committee of WERA. “Definitely excited to be flying the Singapore and National Institute of Education flags at such an esteemed organisation. As President-Elect, I look forward to more active contributions in the areas of capacity building and education research, as well as bringing the Asian perspective through my role,” she said.
As Associate Dean of Professional Practice at the Office of Teacher Education, Dr Chua spearheads initiatives on the development of pre-service teachers and the use of a digital portfolio to chart teachers’ professional growth. Her research endeavours are focused on how initial teacher preparation programmes develop reflective and inquiring individuals with a strong teacher identity, and how classroom pedagogies enhance students’ learning to bring forth the intended cognitive, affective and motivational learning outcomes.
Aside from her work at WERA, Dr Chua is also an avid researcher and prolific author. She has published journal papers, book chapters, professional books and given more than 30 conference presentations. She is concurrently President of the Educational Research Association of Singapore, Executive Director of Asia Pacific Educational Research Association, Vice President (Asia Pacific) of the International Association of Cognitive Education and Psychology, Executive Board Member of the Asia-Pacific Association-Problem-based Learning in Health Sciences, and Founding Member of the Mediated Learning Laboratory in National Institute of Education. She is also Executive Editor for the Educational Research for Policy and Practice journal.
