Prof. Eleni Vasilaki has studied Psychology at the University of Dundee and at the University of Edinburgh (BA in Educational Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland (DIKATSA Accreditation), M.Ed in Educational Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, PhD in Psychology, University of Dundee, Scotland). She is a member of staff at the Department of Primary Education, School of Educational Science at the University of Crete. She has held many academic and administrative positions: Head of Dept. (2013-2017), Vice Head of Dept. (2023 – 2026), member of the Postgraduate Studies Committee of UoC (2011-2012), Department’s External Evaluation Coordinator (2013-2014), Director of the PTDE Postgraduate Studies Program & Responsible for its Reformation (2013-2015), Member and vice head of the Research Ethics Committee (2012 – 2018), Director of the Department of Educational Psychology & Research Methodology (2018 -2019, 2020–2021, 2021–2022), Director of the Psychology Lab. (2018 -2019).
Her main scientific interests include cognitive models of emotion production, coping strategies in academic settings, critical life events and stress, interaction between cognition and emotion. Her research includes effects of state – trait anxiety in working memory and students’ performance, relationship between performance, anxiety and bibliotherapy, use of Pedagogical Agents as Assistants for Developing Metacognitive Strategies, utilization of the theories of dual coding and cognitive load in the learning process, math’s anxiety. Metacognitive skills and written language anxiety in high school students: Effects on their writing performance in the context of Greek as a mother tongue and English as a foreign language. She has published research articles in peer-reviewed journals and serves as a reviewer in international journals focusing on psychological and educational research. Her latest research project consists of the application of a cognitive model for emotion production in students with learning disabilities. She has taught in various institutes in Greece and abroad, in undergraduate and graduate level various subjects: Introduction to Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cognition and Emotion: from order to disorder, Memory: Function and Disfunction, Brain, learning and behavior, Cognitive Psychology in Mathematics Education