Erin Marie Furtak, PhD, is Professor of STEM Education and Associate Dean of Faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder. A former high school science teacher, Erin transitioned into a career studying how science teachers learn and improve their daily classroom practices through formative assessment. In a series of multiple studies, Dr. Furtak has been partnering with teachers, schools, and districts to learn how teachers can design, enact, and take instructional action on the basis of classroom assessments that they design. Her recent publications have examined the ways in which the design and enactment of classroom assessments can promote more equitable participation in science learning.

Dr. Furtak received the 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and the German Chancellor Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2006). Her research and professional writing has been published in multiple journal articles, research-and practitioner-oriented books, book chapters, humorous essays, and advice columns. She also conducts extensive service to the teaching profession through long-term research and professional development partnerships with school districts and organizations in Colorado and across the US.

_{(from www.colorado.edu/education/erin-marie-furtak)}

Lucia Mason is professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Padova, Italy. Past associate editor of Educational Research Review and editor-in-chief of Learning and Instruction, she is currently an associate editor of Metacognition and Learning and member of the editorial board of several high-rank journals. She has carried out studies on conceptual change, analogical reasoning, epistemic beliefs, and digital reading as evaluation of online informational sources and comprehension of information about controversial issues. A particular research interest has focused on process-data, specifically eye-tracking to study cognitive processing in learning from science text and graphics, and on psycho-physiological data to study the relationships between affect and reading comprehension performance. Her most recent research interest regards the role of natural environment (greenness) on attention and school performance. She has published many articles in international journals, several chapters in international volumes, as well as some national volumes. She has also co-edited two international volumes. She was the recipient of the EARLI publication award in 2003.