GLOBAL CHALLENGES AND THE LEGACY OF IOSTE
Svein Sjøberg is professor emeritus in science education at Oslo University, Norway. He is educated as a nuclear physicist (cand.real), later in education (MA) and in educational psychology (PhD). He became the first professor in the field of science education in the Nordic countries.
Svein has worked with children's conceptual development, with gender and science education and education in developing countries. His current research interests are the social, ethical and cultural aspects of science education, in particular the impacts and influence of large scale assessment studies like PISA and TIMSS. He has worked with international and comparative aspects of science education through e.g. UNESCO, OECD and the European Union. He has won several international prizes and awards for his research, teaching and promotion of science literacy and public understanding of science. Svein is from 2024 a member of the judging committee of the Hong Kong based Yidan Prize for Educational Research
Svein has been an active member of IOSTE since the early 1980s, also as board member and chair. He organized the ROSE project (The Relevance of Science Education) in the period 2002- 2019, with participation from some 50 countries, mainly with IOSTE members as research partners. A revised and updated follow-up of ROSE is currently underway under the acronym of ROSES, led by Swedish science educators.