She is the Director of Learning and Professional Development Unit 'Teacher makes a difference' and a consultant of several projects in the area of teacher training and professional development from Basic and Secondary Education. She is a member of the group “Web Peer Assessment and Critical Thinking” – webPACT. She has two patent registers in the field of teacher training and professional development. Her main research interest concerns cooperative learning; formative assessment; critical thinking; professional learning communities; teacher-student and student-teacher feedback in students' school achievement. E-mail: helsilva@utad.pt