The European Council of High Ability honours its former presidents, former secretaries and Editor-in-Chiefs of its scientific journal, High Ability Studies with its Honorary Membership. We are pleased to share the Curriculum Vitae of our Honorary Members below.
Former presidents of ECHA
Kirsi Tirri (president, 2008-2012)
Dr. Kirsi Tirri is a Professor of Education and Research Director at the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is also a visiting scholar with the Stanford Center on Adolescence, USA. Tirri has been the President of ECHA (European Council for High Ability) for the years 2008-2012 and the President of the SIG International Studies at AERA (American Educational Research Association) for the years 2010-2013. Her research interests include moral and religious education, gifted education, teacher education and cross-cultural studies. She has published 12 monographs and numerous journal articles related to these fields. She serves in 13 Editorial Boards of educational journals. She has supervised 16 doctoral dissertations in education and theology and mentored many postdoctoral students who are now professors and researchers in education. She has led the Finnish team in many national and international research projects.
You can read more of her work from Kirsi Tirri’s own webpage or you can visit a webpage of Stanford Center on Adolescence.
Franz Mönks (president, 1992-2000; 2004-2008)
In March 2020 we lost our first elected president of ECHA, Prof. Dr. Franz Mönks.
In 1962 Prof. Dr. Mönks became a staff member of the Department of Developmental Psychology at the University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands), and in 1967 he became full professor of Developmental Psychology and head of the same department. In 1988 he was awarded a professorship on a newly established chair at the University of Nijmegen The Development of the Gifted Child, and he became also director of the newly founded Center for the Study of Giftedness (CSG) at the same University. He published and edited many books and numerous articles about developmental psychology and gifted education.
In 1987 Prof. Dr. Mönks became a member of the Executive Committee of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children (WCGTC), and was elected as Vice President of WCGTC in 1989. After his election as President of the European Council for High Ability (ECHA) in October 1992, he retired as Vice President of WCGTC. He was the director of the Ninth World Conference on Gifted and Talented Children which was held in 1991 in The Hague (The Netherlands) and in the same year he organized in cooperation with the Council of Europe (Strasbourg, France) an Educational Research Workshop on “Gifted Children and Adolescents – Research and Education in Europe”, which was held at the University of Nijmegen (23-26 July 1991). He was the director of the 4th ECHA Conference which was held in October 1994 in Nijmegen. He is also consultant to other conferences like the 5th ECHA Conference in October 1996 in Vienna and the 4th Asia-Pacific Conference on Giftedness in August 1996 in Jakarta, Indonesia. In 1992 at the third ECHA conference in Munich he was elected as President of ECHA and was re-elected at the sixth ECHA conference in Vienna (1996) for a second term. He was also the Chairman of the 8th ECHA conference which took place on Rhodes (Greece), October 9-13, 2002. In 2004 he was for the third time elected as President of ECHA.
Under his Presidency a teacher training program has been developed and established at the University of Nijmegen which leads to the qualification “Specialist in Gifted Education”. This university diploma is known as ECHA-Diploma. During the closing session of the 4th ECHA Conference in Nijmegen (October 11th, 1994) five teachers received the ECHA-Diploma. Throughout Europe there are now more than 3000 teachers who received the ECHA-Diploma. He is one of the four editors (Heller, Mönks, and Sternberg Subotnik) of the second edition of the International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent. Oxford: Pergamon (2000). In the year 2001 this handbook got the award “Outstanding Academic Title” by the American Library Association, published in the independent review journal CHOICE.
More information and contact visit the webpage of Internationales Centrum für Begabungsforschung.
Javier Tourón (president, 2000-2004)
He received a PhD in Education and another in Biology. He is the Professor of Educational Research Methods at the Department of Education of the University of Navarra (Spain). He was the President of the European Council for High Ability (2000-2004), a member of the National Advisory Board of the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University (2003-2011) as well as the founder and director of the Center for Talented Youth CTY Spain, a Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth International Charter Member.
He has published over 130 research papers in Spanish and English journals. He is the author and co-author of several books, some of them dedicated to the issue of high ability and talent development and the evaluation of educational systems. Javier Taurón’s CV is available at the webpage of Universidad de Navarra. You can access selected publications from the Digital Academic Repository of the University of Navarra and you can follow him through the social networks like Facebook or YouTube.
Joan Freeman (founding president, 1987-1992)
Professor Joan Freeman, PhD, the Founding President of ECHA, is a world expert in the lifetime development of gifts and talents. She is an elected Fellow of the British Psychological Society and holds their Lifetime Achievement Award for her work with the gifted and talented, among honours from elsewhere. Joan has written three UK government reports on the educating the gifted, as well as 17 books for scholars and parents and hundreds of academic and non-academic publications. She has given invited presentations in most parts of the world to scholars, practitioners and the public, has made many television programmes and is often in the media. Her private practice in London for gifted children is busy. Joan’s latest book, Gifted Lives: What happens when gifted children grow up, describes the lives of gifted people in her unique intimate 35-year study-up.
More details can be found about Prof Joan Freman at her own webpage.
Secretaries of ECHA
Pieter Span (founding secretary of ECHA, 1987-1990)
During his studies political sciences, psychology and pedagogy at the University of Amsterdam, he already focused on learning processes of children. During and after his education at the university he worked at the famous ‘psychological lab’, founded by the Hungarian experimental psychologist Géza Révész. His personal interest at that time was the interaction between the personality of children and the teaching environmental instruction (Aptitude Treatment Interaction ‘avant la lettre’). In 1965 he continued his professional career at the University of Utrecht, and became a full professor in 1972, after taking his doctors degree (on Field Independency in a teaching/learning situation). In 1983 Dick Snow (Stanford), Eric de Corte (Leuven), some others and he initiated EARLI: the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction. In the same year Franz Mönks invited him to meet with Joseph Renzulli. This started things to move. He managed to get financial support from the Dutch government for scientific research on identification and instruction of gifted students of secondary schools in the Netherlands.
1987 Joan Freeman, Harold Wagner and he founded ECHA. As we know now: very successfully. They even tried to carry out the message on the need of gifted education in African and Asian countries. In his lectures and workshops he emphasized the subject ‘learning to learn’ by gifted students. After his retirement from the university, he and two other colleagues started a private consultancy on giftedness in 1991 (PABU). They have worked with parents, schools and universities to accommodate gifted children. They implemented Renzulli’s idea of Compacting Enrichment into a working model for Dutch schools. At 2013 his part in the PABU is limited. It is a great pleasure for him that the University of Utrecht is willing to incorporate the PABU in the near future. His efforts will be continued.
Harald Wagner (secretary and treasurer 1990 – 2004)
Harald Wagner was born in Ratzeburg, Germany in 1943. He studied Psychology at the University of Hamburg and received his Diploma in 1969 and his PhD in 1979. At the University of Hamburg he was engaged in several research projects and in teaching seminars on developmental psychology and methodology. He was Co-Organizer of the 6th World Conference on Gifted and Talented Children in 1985. From 1988 until 2009 he was Executive Director of “Bildung und Begabung e.V.” in Bonn, an association organizing national competitions in mathematics and foreign languages and providing residential summer programmes for gifted high school pupils. 1992 to 2004 he was Secretary and Treasurer of ECHA; 1999 to 2009 he was Chairman of “Arbeitskreis Begabungsforschung und Begabungsförderung (ABB) e.V., a national association for professionals working in the field of giftedness; from 2007 to 2009 he was Chairman of “Arbeitsgemeinschaft rheinland-hochbegabt e.V.”, a regional association promoting the support of gifted children in the Cologne area.
Johanna Raffan (secretary 2004-2012)
We were shocked and saddened to hear that Johanna Raffan MBE passed away in June 2021.
Johanna M. Raffan MBE, HonLCP, FCoT, FRSA has had many years teaching experience and was a head teacher for 25 years in Nursery, Primary and Middle Schools. She was a founding member of the National Association for Able Children in Education (NACE), is a Past President, was the Founding Director for ten years and is currently a Trustee. Her experience in the field of Able, Gifted and Talented education over forty years has led her to lecture around the world. She was the Education Adviser on Able Children to the Government of Madeira, has worked extensively in Denmark and for ten years was the Consultant for More Able and Talented to the Welsh Government. Johanna was an Executive member and Secretary for ECHA and is a UK delegate to WCGTC. She is a Fellow of The College of Teachers and is currently Vice President and Secretary; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; a Federation Councillor for Soroptimist International; and a Churchwarden. In 2013 she was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to Gifted Education.
Lianne Hoogeveen (secretary 2012 – 2016)
Dr. Lianne Hoogeveen is a program director of the Radboud International Training of High Ability (RITHA), a post-academic training at the Radboud Center of Social Sciences, qualified by the European Council for High Ability (ECHA). She coordinates the master specialization ‘Gifted Education’ at Radboud University. As a mental health psychologist, she examines and counsels adolescents and adults with high abilities at CBO Talent Development in Nijmegen. She is president of the qualification committee of the European Talent Centers and member of the Education Board of the European Council for High Ability (ECHA). As part of the Behavioral Science Institute (BSI) of the Radboud University, Lianne Hoogeveen is involved in research on giftedness and education, cooperating with colleagues of Dutch and international universities. She is a guest teacher in several European and non-European universities.
Editor-in-Chiefs of High Ability Studies
Arthur J. Cropley (editor-in-chief of European Journal for High Ability/High Ability Studies, 1989-1997)
Arthur Cropley was born in Australia in 1935. He served for 5 years in the Australian Army, was a schoolteacher for 4 years, then obtained his PhD from the University of Albertain 1965 and taught at the Universities of Reginaand Hamburg, with brief stints in Australia. After retiring he was adjunct professor of engineering at the University of South Australia and visiting professor at the University of Latvia. He was founding editor of High Ability Studies, and is on the board of the Creativity Research Journal. Professor Cropley received the Creativity Award of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children in 1997 and in 2004 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Latvia. In 2008 he was admitted as an Officer of the Order of the Three Stars by the President of Latvia. He is the author of 27 books, with translations into a dozen languages.
Joan Freeman (editor-in-chief of High Ability Studies, 1996-1999)
Professor Joan Freeman, PhD, the Founding President of ECHA, is a world expert in the lifetime development of gifts and talents. She is an elected Fellow of the British Psychological Society and holds their Lifetime Achievement Award for her work with the gifted and talented, among honours from elsewhere. Joan has written three UK government reports on the educating the gifted, as well as 17 books for scholars and parents and hundreds of academic and non-academic publications. She has given invited presentations in most parts of the world to scholars, practitioners and the public, has made many television programmes and is often in the media. Her private practice in London for gifted children is busy. Joan’s latest book, Gifted Lives: What happens when gifted children grow up, describes the lives of gifted people in her unique intimate 35-year study-up.
Albert Ziegler (editor-in-chief of High Ability Studies, 2002-2007; 2015-)
Albert Ziegler, PhD, is the Chair Professor for Educational Psychology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. He has published approx. 350 books, chapters and articles in the fields of talent development, excellence, educational psychology and cognitive psychology. Presently he serves as the Secretary General of the International Research Association for Talent Development and Excellence (IRATDE) and as the Editor-in-Chief of Talent Development and Excellence. His main interests in the field of talent development and excellence are the development of exceptional performances, the Actiotope Model of Giftedness and gifted training programs.
Heidrun Stoeger (editor-in-chief of High Ability Studies, 2007- 2014)
Heidrun Stoeger, PhD is chair professor for Educational Sciences at the University of Regensburg, Germany. She holds the Chair for School Research, School Development, and Evaluation. She is Editor-in-Chief of the journal High Ability Studies and member of the editorial board of the German journal of Talent Development. She also is vice president of the International Research Association for Talent Development and Excellence (IRATDE) and member of the scientific board of the Austrian Center of Giftedness Research. Her publications include articles, chapters and books on giftedness, self-regulated learning, motivation, fine motor skills and gender.