Dr. Angel Urbina-GarciaLecturer in Early Childhood; Director of Postgraduate ProgrammesUniversity of HullI am a developmental psychologist with extensive experience as a lecturer - both face-to-face and online - in three continents, Asia, Europe and America. My research and work focuses on listening to what children have to say, their wellbeing and transitions from a psycho-educational perspective in addition to investigating how digital technologies can be used to ease developmental/educational transitions. I have a strong background as online lecturer having worked for a number of universities with different platforms via blended and fully online-learning. I have wide experience in working in schools with children, parents, teachers, teaching assistants and headteachers, as well as child psychologists, pedagogists, social workers, nutritionists, educators and paediatricians. I have also been governmental advisor in topics such as curriculum development, educational and developmental assessments and psycho-educational interventions.
My main interests focus on working with international researchers to come up with better ideas to use technology to help children voice their needs/interests as well as to ease developmental/educational transitions around the globe and specifically in Latin American countries. Research regarding children’s transitions and the use of technology to improve children’s lives has been underestimated in this region. As academics, we have a big responsibility and thus we need to do something about this. |
Summary of my research:
I have two main areas of interest: Firstly, I am particularly interested in how students’ motivation, emotions and instructors’ feedback play a role in students’ academic achievement in virtual environments (e.g., synchronous and asynchronous, hybrid, blended and fully online learning), mainly in higher education institutions. Secondly, I am interested in the preschool transition to first grade of primary school from a psycho-educational perspective, looking at the way in which this period of change has an impact on children’s skills namely cognitive, emotional and social. More importantly, I have now started to include ideas in my research, regarding the way in which the use of digital technologies (e.g., tablets, mobile phones, PC’s along with social media, blogs, videos, photographs etc.) can be used to actually facilitate this transition by working with the most significant adults for children namely parents, grandparents, teachers and teaching assistants.
Motivation for this workshop
I am keen to work, and more importantly to learn, from more experienced colleagues who have been involved in the education sector (i.e., formal and non-formal) whose perspectives will help me broadening my views and skills as a researcher, having a direct impact on my cultural competence-skills when carrying out research at international level. Given my status as early career researcher, there is still a lot to learn from other researchers around the world who have carried out different and more specific fieldwork in different cultural settings focusing on the implementation of digital technologies to educational matters.
I have a profound interest in helping people learn new knowledge and develop new skills. Non-formal education takes place everywhere (i.e., marginalised settings, remote communities and rural areas –even in highly industrialized cities!) and is a growing field of research which must not be left behind. The use of digital technologies play a major role in urbanized and industrialized societies to promote the acquisition/generation of knowledge, and marginalised societies must not be the exception. I am keen to learn how to carry out research in these type of settings to further propose future studies in different regions around the world and above all, help people from these social groups to have access to globalized information.
I have a profound interest in helping people learn new knowledge and develop new skills. Non-formal education takes place everywhere (i.e., marginalised settings, remote communities and rural areas –even in highly industrialized cities!) and is a growing field of research which must not be left behind. The use of digital technologies play a major role in urbanized and industrialized societies to promote the acquisition/generation of knowledge, and marginalised societies must not be the exception. I am keen to learn how to carry out research in these type of settings to further propose future studies in different regions around the world and above all, help people from these social groups to have access to globalized information.
Future research intentions:
I look forward to working with international researchers whose interests are in line with mine with regards to the use of technology in formal and non-formal settings, marginalised settings, urbanized and rural areas. I would be interested in designing, planning and conducting cross-cultural research with children and the use of technology to gather empirical evidence to better understand how we -as academics- can help children have access to the wealth of information we have now a days in order to improve their quality of life and well-being.