Caroline Dominguez holds a PhD in Socio-Economics from the University of Toulouse-Le-Mirail (France), as well as a Master degree in Music Therapy from the University Pontifícia from Salamanca. She is Assistant Professor in business/industrial management in several engineering courses at the Engineering Department of the University of Trás-os Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), where she teaches since 2006 (ORCID: 0000-0002-8486-4142). She is a researcher at the Research Center on Didactics and Technology in the Education of Trainers (CIDTFF) of the University of Aveiro and at the Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies (CETRAD) of UTAD.

Her main scientific interests and publications focus on teaching/learning, namely on the development of critical thinking in higher education and on management (project, operations, human resources and quality, environmental and more recently in the field of tourism). Since 2012, she coordinates the multidisciplinary practice community on critical and creative thinking at UTAD (WebPACT). She participates (ed) in national and international projects, namely as coordinator of the Pedagogical Innovation project “Critical Thinking in Higher Education” funded by the Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT) and of the European funded Erasmus + project “Crithinkedu: Critical Thinking Across the European Higher Education Curricula”. She leads the UTAD’s team which participates in the OECD-CERI international project “Fostering and Assessing Creativity and Critical Thinking Skills in Higher Education”. She coordinated two special editions of the Revista Lusófona de Educação on Critical Thinking in Education (nº 32 and nº 44) and a special edition on the same theme in the international journal of Studies in Higher Education, nº 44 (5).

She was (co) coordinator of the publication of the book “Educar para o pensamento crítico em sala de aula (Educating for Critical Thinking in the classroom)” published by Pactor (LIDL). She participates(ed) in several events and/or conferences at national and international levels on promoting critical thinking in teaching/learning, having coordinated, among others, the organization of the 2nd International Seminar on Critical Thinking in 2015, two Special Tracks on the theme of the Tech Edu conferences (2018 and 2020) and the the “1st summit on critical thinking education” in Leuven (Belgium) (2019). She is a member of several scientific e professional bodies like the Portuguese Society for the Teaching of Engineering (SPEE). She delivers training for teachers at all levels of education on Critical Thinking education. Before pursuing an academic career, she was the head manager of organizations dealing with development issues in Peru and Portugal, where she developed, implemented and managed various (international) funded projects.

Dr. Linda Elder is an educational psychologist and a prominent authority on critical thinking. She is President of the Foundation for Critical Thinking and Executive Director of the Center for Critical Thinking. Dr. Elder has taught psychology and critical thinking at the college level and has given presentations to more than 50,000 educators at all levels. She is author of Liberating the Mind: Overcoming Sociocentric Thought and Egocentric Tendencies, and has coauthored four books (including 30 Days to Better Thinking and Better Living through Critical Thinking, Fact Over Fake: A Critical Thinker’s Guide to Media Bias and Political Propaganda, and Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life) as well as 24 Thinker’s Guides.

Dr. Elder has also developed an original stage theory of critical thinking development. Concerned with understanding and illuminating the relationship between thinking and affect, as well as the barriers to critical thinking, Dr. Elder has placed these issues at the center of her thinking and her work. With experience in both administration and the classroom, Dr. Elder understands firsthand the problems facing educators, administrators and business leaders. She is a dynamic presenter who reaches her audience on a person-to-person level.

Egle Sleinotiene is a Lithuanian evaluation expert with experience on both national and international projects and on aspects that are related with curriculum design, adult education and language teaching. She has previously held the position of the Director of the Public Service Language Center and she has served as the President and now as the President of Honour at Language Teachers’ Association of Lithuania.