Albert Casals Ibáñez

EMP Boarding Group, Catalonia (Spain)

Lecturer in the Faculty of Education

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

Ph. D. in Music Didactics (UAB)

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Dr. Albert Casals holds a BA in Social and Cultural Anthropology and a Diploma in Primary Music Teaching (both in UAB). After ten years working as a music specialist in the primary school, nowadays he’s professor of Music Didactics in initial teacher training at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Moreover, he leads courses and seminars for in-service music and generalist primary teachers.

His PhD and his main line of research are focused on singing didactics and on the relationship between music and other school subjects, always from a theory-practice approach. In addition, he is carrying out research on how ethnomusicology can contribute to innovation in primary school education.

He is member of different research groups and authored several publications in music didactics and ethnomusicologist fields.

Laia Viladot Vallverdú

EMP Steering Group, Catalonia (Spain)

Postdoctoral position in the Department of Music Education,

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Catalonia.

Ph.D. in Music Didactics (UAB)

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Website: http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/musicaieducacio

Laia holds a BA in Psychology (UAB) and a Professional Degree in flute and violin (Conservatory of Sabadell). She has been teacher in music schools, secondary schools and in-service music teacher’s courses. Since 2005, she has been working as Assistant Professor of Music Education at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in initial teacher training.

Her PhD thesis and research interests include music composition and creativity, interaction in the classroom, cooperative learning, interdisciplinary learning, curriculum design and educational discourse analysis. She belongs to different research groups.

Laia is a co-author of five chapters on psychopedagogy of music education books and has collaborated in the design of learning materials. Moreover, she has also published several papers on Music Education and Research as well as Psychology of Education.

Anna Batlle Panadès

EMP Pioneer Teacher, Catalonia (Spain)

Music teacher in a state primary school

CEIPM Pau Vila (Barcelona)

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Anna holds a MA in Music Didactics, a BA in Sociology and a Diploma in Primary Music Teaching (all them in Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). She has experience in non-formal education programmes and has been a specialist music teacher in different primary schools since 2007. She has participated in some courses to learn and improve choir conducting and nowadays she leads a kinder choir. Moreover, she is an active member of SCIC (national organisation of kinder choirs) and she belongs to a mixed working team of in-service teachers and professors from UAB since 2005.

Analysing and establishing criteria to introduce World Music in the primary curriculum is Anna’s Master thesis topic. She has also participated in national and international conferences.

Maria del Mar Suárez Vilagran

Lecturer / teacher trainer at the Language and Literature Teaching Department, Teacher Training Faculty, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics, English Philology Department, Universitat de Barcelona

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website: www.ub.edu/dll

Maria del Mar holds BAs in English and Spanish Philology and a Diploma in Applied Linguistics (Philology Faculty – UB).  Her PhD is on testing foreign language aptitude in young learners.  Her research interests include the role of individual differences and of analytical abilities in SLA and the interactional processes in learning and teaching languages in the classroom and in VLEs. She studied music theory and flute in the Conservatori Professional de Música de Badalona as well.

After 4 years as a research assistant in the Barcelona Age Factor Project, coordinated by Dr. Carmen Muñoz, she has been teaching English and Language Teaching Methodology in the Teacher Training Faculty (UB) since 2006. She also taught English to children, teenagers and adults in a private language school for 6 years.

At present, Maria del Mar organises courses for university teachers who want to teach content subjects in English. In addition, she teaches general ICT skills and how to use Moodle to university staff. She is also a member of the project Espai Comú per a l’Aprenentatge de Llengües (Common Space for Language Learning), the main aim of which is the elaboration by university students of a unique language portfolio that evidences their language learning processes in Catalan, Spanish and English.

Marta Gimeno Grané  

EMP Pioneer Teacher, Catalonia (Spain)

English and ITC teacher in a state primary school

CEIP Josep Ventalló i Vintró (Terrassa)

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