Dacian Dolean (Principal Investigator) is an educational psychologist with expertise in language and literacy development of early elementary school children. His work was published in journals such as Learning and Instruction, Developmental Science, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, The Journal of Experimental Education, Language Teaching Research, System, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, Frontiers in Psychology, or Psychology of Music. Dr. Dolean has more than 20 years of experience working at elementary, middle and high school level as well as at college level (researcher and professor) in Romania and US (South Carolina and Georgia). Dr. Dolean has written, secured funding and coordinated 5 research projects (3 of which are international).
Laura Visu-Petra is a developmental psychologist with expertise in the field of emotional regulation and the impact of executive functions on the children’s academic and socio-emotional development. Her expertise supports the longitudinal measurement of school engagement of Roma and their non-Roma peers on academic achievement. Dr. Visu-Petra’s work was published in journals such as International Journal of Behavioral Development, Journal of Individual Differences, Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, Early Child Development and Care, Memory and Cognition, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Frontiers of Psychology, Child Neuropsychology, or Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Andreea Dolghi brings unique expertise in this project with her background in multicultural education (both in Romania and US) and working with children with learning difficulties (including Roma). She was a keyperson in ELIRA and she will continue contributing in ELIRA 2.0 by creating instructional materials for the intervention program and by monitoring the correct implementation of the project.
Ioan Dolean has over 40 years of experience working as an Elementary School Inspector, elementary school teachers’ trainer, educational expert in school quality assessment (ARCIP), educational expert for minority children and elementary school teacher. His large field work experience in rural areas (particularly in schools with Roma children) provides unique contribution to this project by ensuring its feasibility, and by training the intervention teachers and monitor the implementation of the intervention.
Raluca Pop is a doctor in educational sciences with background in linguistics. Her main contribution will be to provide support to curriculum development, to assist with the training of interventionists, to monitor the intervention program, and to disseminate the results.
Daniela Vasvari is an elementary education expert with 25 years of experience as a classroom teacher. Her expertise and sets of skills provides important support to the team by contributing to the creation of instructional materials for the intervention programs, by providing support to monitor the implementation of the program and by providing meaningful and professional feedback to the classroom teachers who implement the intervention.
The Norwegian team brings a wealth of expertise and knowledge, as their work was published in top journals in the field, including Psychological Bulletin, Perspectives in Psychological Science, Psychological Science, Child Development, Developmental Science, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Journal of Educational Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Child Development Perspectives, Scientific Studies of Reading, Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Research in Reading, Reading and Writing, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, The Journal of the Learning Sciences, Learning, Culture and Social Interaction.
Monica Melby-Lervåg (Team leader) is an expert in the field of special education specialized in educational intervention studies. Her area of expertise is early reading development / dyslexia, and besides her experience in ELIRA, she has lead several research projects in the field of early literacy development among which one focused on language and literacy development of minority children from Norway.
Arne Lervåg is an expert in literacy development. He provides a unique expertise to this project with his ability to conduct advanced statistical analysis (structural equation modelling), his knowledge in the field of the development of reading comprehension and his experience to lead multiple longitudinal studies focused on early literacy development.
Crina Damsa is a qualitative methodologist and she brings a unique contribution by helping to identify to other potential factors that explain some of the growth of literacy skills of Roma children, which were not captured in the quantitative analysis. Her Romanian background helps consolidating the collaboration between the University of Oslo and Babes-Bolyai University.