University of Montpellier

Partner 12 [UM]

The University of Montpellier (Université de Montpellier) is a modern scientific and technological university that is uniquely based in the city of Montpellier, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. With 10 research departments and 15,000 students, it offers a diverse range of education and research and enjoys an international reputation as a world leader in biological research.

The Ecole Supérieure du Professorat et de l’ Education (ESPE) of Montpellier is a university teacher training institute under the supervision of the Ministry of Education. The missions of the IUFM are to deal with:

  • initial teacher training at primary and secondary level
  • in-service teacher training
  • to improve the development of research in the field of education

The research group has a lot of experience in research concerning the pre- and in-service science teacher training about SSI and socio-scientific citizenship. Our focus is on:

  • training of teachers, tutors (PhD and postdoctoral students) and high-school students to inquiry-based and open-ended investigations,
  • training of teachers and students to multidisciplinary approaches of a single theme,
  • training of teachers and students to scientific debate about a SSI and particularly the uses of media coverage (Education with and about the media) in collaboration with science centres (interactions formal/ informal science education)

WP Involvement

Teacher Professional Development in SSIBL-Upper Secondary Education (WP4)


UM local webpage [fr]

UM PARRISE brochure [fr]

Team Profile

Manuel Bächtold is assistant professor in science education at University of Montpellier. He studied physics at EPFL and philosophy at University Paris 1. His current research projects are on: (1) the use of history and philosophy of science for the teaching of energy at high school, (2) the relation between teachers’ knowledge (and especially, their view of science) and their classroom practices in the frame of IBSE, and (3) the development of argument skills by means of online debates on socio-scientific issues.

Lucas Nedelec is a PhD student at Jean Jaurès University in Toulouse. After two master degrees, a first in communication & sustainable development and a second in history, philosophy & science education, he began to study the specific problematic of the uncertainties that cross socio-scientific issues and their teaching. Currently working in two research teams (EFTS at the Ecole Nationale de Formation Agronomique [Enfa] and Lirdef at the Faculty of Education of Montpellier), he is an active actor of the SSIBL implementations developed by the two French partners of the PARRISE project.

European Commission

PARRISE (grant agreement 612438) is a four year programme (2014-2017) funded by the European Commission.

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