The International Research Group on Physics Teaching / Groupe International de Recherche sur l'Enseignement de la Physique (GIREP) Malta Webinar 2020, entitled 鈥楶hysics Teacher Education - What matters?', was successfully held between the 16th and the 18th November. This event was a first collaboration between the University of Malta and GIREP.
The Local Organising Committee composed of three academics from the University of Malta, namely , and , who worked with board members of GIREP to organise the GIREP Malta Webinar 2020. Initially, the Local Organising Committee planned the organisation of a face-to-face Seminar, but with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic plans had to change and a webinar was instead organised, projecting towards a GIREP Malta Seminar in 2021. The webinar attracted a lot of interest with more than 200 registered participants from all over the world.
The Rector, Prof. Alfred Vella, the Dean of the Faculty of Science, Prof. Emmanuel Sinagra and the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Dr Colin Calleja, participated in the introduction to the webinar, each providing a welcome address to participants. Apart from keynote speeches, the webinar held a number of working groups which helped participants to actively interact. During these working groups, participants shared short presentations and discussed the topics presented. This synergy shall lead to publications of papers and working papers written by the leaders of the work groups.
The was supported by the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Science. It is hoped that this initiative will lead to further collaborations between UM and GIREP in the future.
