Isabel Ruiz Mallen

Professor Agregat Psychology and Educational Sciences Department

Expert in::

co-creation
natural environment
research methods
participatory approaches
STEM education
didactics and educational organization

Research group: TURBA Lab
Area: Social sciences
Area of specialization: City and Community, Education and ICT,
Membership Center: Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3)
UNESCO codes:: 5403, 580107, 580302, 531204
Collaborates with: e-Learn Center

ODS:

My profile

Isabel Ruiz Mallén is an associate professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences and a senior researcher in the Urban Transformation and Global Change Laboratory (TURBA) research group at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). From 2017 to 2022, she was a Ramón y Cajal researcher.

As a researcher, her R&I activity focuses on contributing to the understanding of socio-environmental urban transformations through the study of knowledge production and human behaviour related to sustainability issues. In particular, she analyses how different actors perceive, experience, share and engage in learning about sustainability and how they interact with their environment, in order to respond to current socio-environmental challenges.

Her main research interests are transformative learning processes in the field of environmental education, inclusive and innovative methodologies in science education (STEAM), and co-creation in the fields of sustainability and urban resilience.

With the JPI ERA-NET project she is currently coordinating through TURBA Lab, COOLSCHOOLS (coolschools.eu), her research activity also focuses on exploring the co-benefits of transforming school environments through the implementation of nature-based solutions in playgrounds and spaces that are better adapted to climate change and provide better learning opportunities to the students.

Files (CV)

My links area

coolschool.eu

Lines of research

Grassroots co-creation of sustainable solutions (coordinator)

This line of research studies the processes of knowledge co-creation at both community and institutional levels, as well as individual and collective initiatives, in different learning environments. We analyse practices and methods of science education relying on performing arts in formal and non-formal educational settings. We explore the pedagogical implications of transforming school environments into greener and more inclusive spaces that are better adapted to climate change. We contribute to the research on the competences that environmental educators need to promote transformative learning processes, based on reflection and critical thinking.

Political ecology of socio-environmental change

This line of research studies the processes of reshaping environmental governance and socio-ecological resilience in a framework of economic, technological and social change, with a particular focus on water resources, water infrastructure and food. We are interested in understanding the drivers, impacts, barriers and possibilities, as well as the winners and losers, of socio-environmental transformation processes carried out by private investors or the public administration, or emerging from the grassroots level.

Projects

Transfer results

Technology Solutions

Patents

Spin-Offs

What can we offer

Advice on issues related to education for sustainability, environmental education (theoretical, conceptual and methodological approaches, design and evaluation of projects and programmes, competence building).

Advice on issues related to the teaching of experimental sciences and STEAM education (arts-based methods).

Advice on climate change issues from a social science perspective (perceptions, local knowledge, governance).

Advice on learning processes concerning environmental or scientific issues through co-creation and co-design.