Hello, I'm Marina! I am a Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology. I teach and do research in the area of Cognitive Sciences of Teaching and Learning.

I have taught Thinking Skills and Educational Psychology at the undergraduate level and seven other courses at the graduate level: Applied Cognitive Psychology, Problem-solving and Decision-making, Thinking and Reasoning, Psychology of Attitude Formation and Change, Academic Reading, Classroom Interaction, and Research Methods.

I won the Vice-Chancellor Fellowship Award for Excellence in Teaching from HRH Sultan Sharafuddin of Selangor in 2018.

My research areas include investigating moment-by-moment learning processes, measuring cognitive performance across the lifespan, analyzing interaction in collaborative learning environments, assessing the development of student argumentation and reasoning skills, evaluating classroom interventions aimed at improving children’s cognitive outcomes, and promoting emergent literacy skills among underserved populations.

A previous research member of the University of Illinois’ Center for the Study of Reading, I am currently a research associate at UPM’s Innovative Learning Sciences Research Centre of Excellence (INNOVATE) and Universiti Malaysia Kelantan’s (UMK) Institute for Research and Poverty Management (InsPeK). I am now leading the establishment of TLx.Lab@INNOVATE which aims at spearheading transdisciplinary research on learning experiences in various settings.

I was appointed by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia as a task force member in designing the implementation of curriculum guidelines for transdisciplinary-based academic programs in Malaysian public universities via transdisciplinary makerspaces and guidelines for MOOC credit transfer. Currently, I have been reappointed as a task force member of the Experiential Learning and Competency-based Education Landscape (EXCEL) initiative under the same Ministry.

I have conducted numerous national and international training on promoting use of heutagogical tools and virtual learning platforms to engage digital natives. I have recently served as a consultant to UNESCO-ICHEI's initiative on technology-enhanced innovations in higher education across the Asia Pacific region. I am now a co-founder of the ME4A movement, designing and promoting the country’s first media literacy curriculum to address issues of information disorder.

I'm always learning and love to help, so do say hi through any of the social links below!