Author: Kirsti Lonka

Ph.D., Professor of Educational Psychology. Areas of expertise: university student learning, especially medical education, teacher education and postgraduate education (PhD students). In the area of academic writing, her work has focused around note taking, writing process, portfolios and writing as a learning tool. At the moment, she is working on innovations in higher education and engaging learning environments and student-activating learning and teaching methods. Kirsti Lonka is professor of educational psychology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is the principal investigator of Mind the Gap -project and RYM Indoor Environment WP4, Task 1.1. She is also President of Teachers’ Academy, University of Helsinki (2013-2014). Previously she was Vice Dean of the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences (2011-2013) and Foreign Adjunct Professor, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (2007-2011). Earlier she was working as professor of medical education, Karolinska Institutet (2001-2005). Prof. Lonka has received several awards and honors, including J.H. Bijtel Chair, University of Groningen, The Netherlands (2007-2008). Kirsti Lonka worked as the Director of Development and Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland (1996-2001). During that time the medical program became problem-based. Kirsti Lonka has published numerous refereed articles, conference papers and book chapters. She has also published plenty of text books and popular writings. She has published in Finnish, English, and Swedish, and her texts have also been translated into Estonian and Spanish. Training: Kirsti Lonka finished her Master of Arts Degree in psychology and started her research career as a Junior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki in 1986. She did her PhD course work at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE, University of Toronto, Canada) in 1988-1989. Kirsti Lonka finished her Licentiate Thesis and became a legalized psychologist in 1994. She earned her PhD at the Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki in 1997.