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Research Projects

Enriching mathematics and science learning: An interdisciplinary approach

This ARC funded international, longitudinal project aims to investigate the effectiveness of an innovative interdisciplinary learning approach in mathematics and science. Through collaborating primary schools in Australia and the United…

100 Jobs of the future

In this project Deakin researchers worked with researchers and industry experts in key ‘future of work’ clusters to identify what 100 Jobs of the Future might look like, showcasing roles in…

Tech Schools Evaluation

Deakin University researchers are working with the Tech Schools Branch within the Department of Education and Training to conducted an evaluation of the tech Schools Initiative. To learn more about…

An investigation of causal relations between complex classroom practices and science learning using high capacity new research technologies and multiple theory-testing

This ARC project applied multiple theoretical lenses to interpret the nature of student learning in secondary school science classrooms. These lenses included student agency, situated cognition, variation theory, structural functional…

Secondary Mathematics and Science Initiative – Research and Evaluation

In Victoria, the State Government Department of Education and Training (DET) has committed funds to the Secondary Science and Mathematics Initiative (SMSI). Deakin has been contracted to design and deliver…

Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) – Curriculum Teaching Package Project

Stand Up for Your Climate/Future: Youth activism is education Important at this time with youth taking to the streets and climate change education requiring greater support.  This curriculum package was…

Sustainable Schools – Impact in Schools Communities

The research program explored sustainability education practices in Australian schools with a focus on the state-based Sustainable Schools programs and, in particular, the Resource Smart program of Victoria.  The impact…

Climate Change Education Forum (with Sustainability Victoria)

Building from conversations about how Climate Change education requires specialised scaffolding and support in our education systems, this forum plan was designed to give voice to young people and to…

NSW Marine Education Strategy

Contracted by the Department of Primary Industries, NSW, this projects requires consultation and writing the education strategy for the NSW Marine Estate.  The education strategy completes an outcome of the…

The Periodic Table of Sustainable Elements

Chemistry educators from Deakin and Macquarie Universities are developing hands-on activities for lower secondary and upper primary school children, that illustrate the importance of chemistry for sustainability, and that will…

Professional learning at Wenona School: Girls in STEM

This project investigated the professional learning pathways of science and mathematics teachers, and student learning, around inquiry approaches supported by workshops and video capture. Wenona school is a strong STEM…

Evaluation of the STEM Enrichment Academy

The STEM Enrichment Academy, run out of the University of Sydney, is a significant professional learning initiative bringing together mathematics, science and technology teachers over a year, to support planning…

Improving Regional Low SES Students’ Learning and Wellbeing (LP150100558)

The intended impacts of this program include: (a) quantitative improvement in the academic performance of participant students in the subjects of English, mathematics and science, (b) gains in student wellbeing…

Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science (LP160100263)

This project develops and refines a pedagogy focused around multi literacy representation construction, to engage students in science learning in the senior school years. The approach combines Tytler’s representation construction…

SLRC: Science of Learning Research Centre (SR120300015)

In this innovative centre, researchers in education, neuroscience and cognitive psychology worked together with teachers to understand the learning process. This collaboration was designed to establish new criteria to assess…

EQUALPRIME: Exploring quality primary education in different cultures: A cross-national study of teaching and learning in primary science classrooms (DP110101500)

Difficulties in ensuring quality practice in primary school science education are widely acknowledged internationally. This project used contemporary video capture and data analysis technology to study primary science classrooms in…

Enhancing the Quality of Science Learning through a Representation-intensive Pedagogy (DP120101763)

This project investigated the quality of science learning occurring through a representation construction approach to science teaching and learning, supported by students’ use of digital technologies, and new approaches to…

Changemakers in Financial Education

Supporting finance-related curriculum innovation. See https://redi.deakin.edu.au/projects/finance-related-curriculum-innovation/

Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority – Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) of Education Biology Study Design – Curriculum Writing, Advice for Teachers, and Benchmarking Report

The annual curriculum review involved researching a benchmarking report where the VCE Biology Study Design was cross referenced to eight international and national curricula.  Amanda Peters and Mary Vamvakas worked…

Skilling the Bay

Department of Education: STEM and Entrepreneurship in primary schools (SEPS) AUD 60,000.  

Shifting the culture of out-of-field professional education for teachers (SCOPE-T)

ARC Discovery Project (2024-2026) There is an urgent need to understand the factors influencing the pattern of uptake of professional education by out-of-field teachers. This project will draw on perspectives…

Systems Thinking in Chemistry for Sustainability: Toward 2030 and Beyond (STCS 2030+)

As the material basis of society and sustainability, chemistry has a compelling role to play as the world approaches 2030, the target date for attaining the UNSDGs. This project builds…

Primary teachers’ adaptive expertise in interdisciplinary maths and science

This project aims to investigate the development of primary teachers’ adaptive expertise in interdisciplinary mathematics and science. As a critical component of quality teaching, adaptive expertise is essential for teachers…

Future STEM Gen – Enabling a Better Future: STEM Making Within Low SES Regions

This project, now titled Future STEM Gen, will empower youth from low socioeconomic status regions to gain leadership and STEM skills and address local and global challenges. Students will be…

Primary Science Renewal through a Specialist Program

Primary Science Renewal through a Specialist Program DET, $40k

Defining and mapping out-of-field (OOF) teaching in Victorian government schools

Defining and mapping out-of-field (OOF) teaching in Victorian government schools DET, $50k

AAS – Evaluation of 3 AAS interactive programs for ITE and PST

AAS – Evaluation of 3 AAS interactive programs for ITE and PST  2020 $20K

Training PMSS presenters to deliver online professional development 

Training PMSS presenters to deliver online professional development DET, $8.7k

Literature reviewing and problem identification for Birth to Year 10 learning and teaching of science

Literature reviewing and problem identification for Birth to Year 10 learning and teaching of science DET, $45.6k

Girls’ Future – Our Future: Updating and elaborating

Girls’ Future – Our Future: Updating and elaborating. $68,000

Exploring the Reciprocal Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematical Resilience: A Cross-Cultural Study

International Collaboration Research Support (Small Faculty Grant Application, Deakin University (Australia) and Kazan Federal University (Russia Federation) (Approved, Grant number: 1914). “Exploring the Reciprocal Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematical…

Victorian Department of Education and Training: Primary Mathematics and Science Specialist Program: Planning committee and provision of training

Victorian Department of Education and Training: Primary Mathematics and Science Specialist Program: Planning committee and provision of training. Cohort 5  $60,000 

ASELL for Schools: Inquiry Science Activities

Advancing Science and Engineering through Laboratory Learning (ASELL) for Schools program is a collective of scientists, engineers, and educators across Australia that run workshops and creates resources to encourage learning…

Exploring STEM curricula in Australia and Taiwan

This project interrogates the perspectives of teachers in Taiwan and Australia concerning interdisciplinary STEM Team members: Dr. Suchi Fang Dr. Lihua Xu Funding body: Department of Science and Technology, Taiwan

Sustainability conditions of a major primary science specialist teacher initiative

This project researched the experiences of primary teachers and their schools, who were involved in the DET funded Primary Mathematics and Science Specialist program, for which Deakin was a major…

FLEX Project: Flexible Pedagogical Problem solving in Implementing Mathematical Problem solving

Despite attempts to change mathematics teacher practice in to more engaging pedagogy, many teachers possess an inertia to such change. This study explores a new angle to overcoming that inertia…

Mathematical resilience: two theoretical perspectives informing each other (Growth Mindset, Engaged to Learn Pedagogy)

The purpose of this study is to build a theoretical framework for examining the building of resilience in contexts where students have the autonomy to problem solve mathematically (Williams) and…

Methodological innovation to support the identifying of student knowledge construction processes: the usefulness of ‘student gaze’

This video study of a student pair learning in a Year 10 mathematics classroom in Helsinki includes video of the teacher, the student pair, and the gaze of one of…

Promoting interdisciplinary secondary mathematics and science teaching through real-world tasks: A cross-national study in Australia and Indonesia

Building STEM capacity across the population and increasing teacher capacity and STEM teaching quality are critical. This project will embed real-world tasks and multiple theoretical frameworks to enhance secondary students’…

Assessing Reasoning

This research aims to investigate teachers’ formative and summative assessment of their students’ mathematical reasoning in the primary classroom. We have explored different sources of evidence, including students’ self-assessment, assessment…

Champions for mathematical reasoning

Mathematical reasoning involves developing and communicating arguments with the intention to convince. We will use a design-research approach to develop resources for the professional learning of a designated reasoning champion…

Conceptualising a Framework of Pre-Service Teacher Integrated STEM Learning

This mixed-method research study is investigating how pre-service teachers negotiate the intersection and overlap of the individual STEM disciplines within their integrated STEM teaching. Classroom observations, teacher collaborative discussions and…

Maximising Affordances of Virtual and Augmented Reality in Science Learning

This project is establishing a body of evidence on the educational affordances of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for learning science in primary and secondary school settings. Through…

Cross-country comparative studies of chemistry education teacher practices

An ongoing collaboration has been established with international chemistry education researchers to develop notable comparative chemistry educational research of direct impact to teaching and learning in schools. The initial iteration…

Re-positioning chemistry as the ‘sustainability science’ through systems thinking

Cross-disciplinary researchers have called for a radical re-positioning of chemistry, and a prominent international project has coined the term “one-world chemistry” to describe a systems thinking approach to teaching and…

Collaborative Reflective Experience and Practice in Education (CREPE) Faculty Research Group

Funding: $15818 Faculty of Arts & Education – Faculty Group Research Summary:  Although teaching and learning are at their heart social, at a tertiary level can be an isolating. As…

Understanding Innovation and Change processes in a collaborative European Project

The PARISSE project ( ) was a European Union initiative aiming to develop approaches to science teacher education based on a ‘SSIBL’ framework of socio-scientific inquiry based learning that foregrounds…

ReMSTEP

ReMSTEP – Reconceptualising Mathematics and Science Teacher Education

ReMSTEP is a network of four leading universities dedicated to developing new teacher education approaches that align contemporary practices in the sciences with innovative and engaging approaches to teaching and…

The role of optimism in collaborative problem solving in mathematics: building problem solving capacity

Lack of persistence creates substantial barriers to mathematical problem solving. Successful problem solving that can raise mathematical performance is predicated on a suite of affective characteristics involving optimism (e.g., academic…

TeachLivE project

The TeachLivE project used mixed-reality simulation technology to enhance classroom readiness of pre-service teachers: TeachLivE as the virtual classroom (2017). This was an ongoing research studies with colleagues at University…

Enhancing primary school teachers’ professional noticing through artefact-stimulated recall

Team members: Wanty Widjaja project leader, Wendy Jobling Lihua Xu, Jun Li (Colleen Vale mentor) Funding body: CREFI funding Project published in 2019 book : Widjaja, W., Xu, L., & Jobling, W….

Growing Tall Poppies Program: An authentic science experience for Year 10 students (2015-2017)

The Growing Tall Poppies (GTP) program involves a student-scientist partnerships strategy where, mostly, Year 10/11 female students attend a science organisation for 3 to 5 days wherein they work with…

Evaluation of the Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools project

This project evaluated the model and outcomes of the CSIRO managed SMiS program using a variety of evaluative tools including an economic analysis.  Team members: Dr. Gaye Williams Professor Russell…

The development of mathematical concepts and skills though PASMAP and its potential to foster intellectual dispositions in children and teachers in the early years of school (2018-2021)

This longitudinal mixed methods project will examine the impact of the implementation of the Pattern And Structure Mathematics Awareness Program [PASMAP] (Mulligan & Mitchelmore, 2016) in Foundation to Year 2…

Birth to Level 10 Numeracy Guide

The aim of the Birth to Level 10 Numeracy Guide project is to inspire and build the capacity of a diverse audience for improvement and growth in numeracy understanding and…

Girls As Leaders in STEM (GALS)

Deakin University, in partnership with schools, Upstart, STEM industries, and The Gordon/Skilling the Bay, will provide a project-based learning program for Year 5-8 girls from the Greater City of Geelong…

STEM and Entrepreneurship in Primary Schools (SEPS)

STEM and Entrepreneurship in Primary Schools (SEPS) is a professional learning program specifically designed to build teachers’ confidence and capacities for STEM teaching through inquiry-based approaches. Team members: Dr. Lihua…

Girls’ future: Our future: Invergowrie STEM Report

This project involved an investigation into issues and approaches concerning girls in STEM. It included a comprehensive literature review, building on previous research of the STEME group, and a series…

The Successful Students – STEM Project, “Skilling The Bay”

Professional development program for Year 7 and 8 STEM teachers from 10 schools in the Geelong region. A ‘STEM Vision framework’ provided an overarching structure for the teacher change process….

Secondary STEM Catalyst professional learning program

The program, delivered by the Science and Mathematics teams at Deakin, began in 2016 with an induction program for two teachers, called catalysts, and their Principal, from each of the…

Out-of-field teaching: Sustaining quality teaching (Teaching Across Subject Boundaries [TASB] Project)

Teaching out-of-field (teaching a subject without qualifications) is a rising concern internationally, and is linked to attrition, stress, and reduced student learning outcomes. With a comparatively high percentage of out-of-field…

School-based pedagogies and partnerships in primary science teacher education

This project provided an analysis of school-based approaches to primary science teacher education as it is enacted by five Australian universities. The project responded to international concern about primary teachers’…

Teaching out-of-field: Preparing adaptable teachers (TOPAT) 2013

Alarming numbers of early career teachers are expected to teach subjects they are not qualified to teach, that is, teach out-of-field. This project examines the curriculum of secondary teacher education…

Developing digital pedagogies in inquiry science through a cloud based teaching and learning environment

This project extends innovative, cloud-based teacher planning software in order to develop effective strategies for using digital resources in inquiry science. This project will work with a number of schools…