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The Mathematics, Science, Environmental and Technology Education (MSET-Ed) Research Group operates within a strong and vibrant educational research culture at Deakin. Education at Deakin is ranked equal 7th in Australia and 41st in the world (QS Index – 2024).

Our research is intensely practice-focused. We engage with teachers, school and education systems to improve teacher learning and practice, student engagement and capability, and to find solutions for system enhancement.

MSET-Ed research is theoretically sophisticated; our researchers generate contemporary theory that shapes the field.

MSET-Ed researchers have been singularly productive with government and industry funding and with Australian Research Council (ARC) grants and philanthropic organisations and have a history of influence on STEM curriculum and policy at state, national and international levels.

We have a range of innovative professional learning programs for teachers based on research informed practices co-designed and trialled in schools.

We host an active program at the doctorate and masters level producing graduate students who contribute to the field through attending to contemporary challenges and practising innovative, flexible research methodologies.

We are a large and diverse team of researchers with commitments to a variety of professional associations and educational jurisdictions and leadership across a portfolio of research organisations.

Welcome

MSET-Ed researchers welcome you to our website. We invite you to explore this site which we use as a portal to showcase our research practices.

News items highlight our researchers’ practices and offer opportunities. Blog posts share key ideas about important contemporary issues. We offer invitations to our communities though Events.

We introduce our team of MSET-Ed researchers, associate researchers and our current and graduated HDR students in the Members tab.

We showcase the diverse MSET-Ed research program with details of relevant research projects in the Research tab and exemplify research outputs in the Publications tab.

Drawing on this rich research activity, the website contains a variety of evidence-informed resources for classroom teaching and learning. MSET-Ed researchers are able to offer packaged, and bespoke Professional Learning programs.

The portals below provide specific insights to our key stakeholder colleagues. Please choose the portal through which you want to explore our site.

Teachers
Researchers
HDR Students

MSET-Ed Researchers are often in the media or presenting at conferences (see News items).

MSET-Ed researchers successfully lead ARC and funded projects and enjoy international collaborations. We collaborate closely with our HDR colleagues and colleagues across the educational field.

MSET-Ed Research Agenda

Teachers and Teaching: Teacher learning and practice, leading school and system change – This program has a strong focus on researching teacher learning approaches including design based research, developing and promoting evidence-informed pedagogies, supporting out of field teachers, and approaches to school change.

Learners and Learning: Critical and creative reasoning and learning, modelling – This program involves research into the development of key disciplinary and interdisciplinary capabilities and expanding the focus of disciplinary learning to include higher level thinking and practice, and student agency. Researchers explore affective outcomes, identity and belonging, and aesthetics, language and learning, and modelling.

Innovative, Contemporary Curriculum: Policy, practice, and partnerships – This program involves a range of innovations in school-industry partnerships, STEM models and exploration of wider notions of interdisciplinary curricula particularly involving futures thinking for Anthropocene challenges.

Justice and Equity: Decolonising practices, gender equity – This program involves a range of justice and equity themes including theorizing and innovative approaches to gender and STEM, indigenous knowledges and decolonizing practices.

Methodological Innovation – Across all MSET-Ed programs there is an explicit focus on methodological innovation and theory practice relations. The annual CAR symposium is a continuing test bed for the group’s research deliberations.

If you are thinking about embarking on a higher degree by research you might begin here by exploring the range of research interests, topics and projects our members are involved in.

Our researchers link to a rich research culture within Deakin through the Research for Educational Impact (REDI) Strategic Research Centre and the Centre for Regenerating Futures, across Australia through our mathematics, science and environmental education communities where members play significant leadership roles, and internationally through partnerships and a variety of research programs.

The MSET-Ed research community hosts regular research events and cultivates a strong research environment that nurtures our HDR students. Our annual Contemporary Approaches to Research symposium continues to provide impetus for methodological innovation and is a strong training event for researchers and research students alike.