Cristian Hatu

Cristian Hatu is the chair of the Center for Assessment and Educational Analysis. He studied Geophysics and Philosophy at the University of Bucharest and attended a training stage at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. During the first part of his career, he worked in geophysical research (among others, he was director of the Geophysical Observatory of Romania). Later, he specialized in the field of philosophy of science (he got his PhD in the field of history and philosophy of science in 2005). He was teaching at the Department of Philosophy (University of Bucharest) until 2009.

At the beginning of his work in the area of public policies in education, he tried to understand the starting points of the educational reforms in other countries. Another area of focus was, at that moment, to understand the mechanism of the learning process in the classroom. His effort was based on several theoretical resources, such as the theory of scientific knowledge, the philosophy of science, and cognitive sciences.

The most important of his educational programs was the reform of the way physics is taught in schools and high schools in Romania, which started in 2011. His team organized trainings on inquiry based learning for about 30% of all Romanian physics teachers. Using this method, teachers are able to help their students to develop skills like critical thinking, problem solving and creativity.
Slowly but surely, the way in which sciences are taught in Romania changed.