Research Centre members

Director, Associate Professor Wan Ng 

Wan researches in science education, teacher’s development and practice, and technology-enhanced learning across school and higher education that include design technology and mobile technology for learning. She has attracted more than $2 million worth of external funding for innovative STEM projects. She was lead investigator in the $1.64 million, multi-institutional project Smart Science Initiative that was based on an adaptive, personalised-learning platform for school students (see the summary evaluation report). Wan has published widely in STEM education research at the international level, including sole-authoring two books published by Springer and Nova Science and editing/co-editing two books published by IGI Global and Routledge.

Read more about Wan or send her an email at wan.ng@uts.edu.au

 Co-Director & Founding Co-Director, Professor Sandra Schuck

Sandy Schuck is Professor of Education and Director of Research Training in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney. Her research interests include teacher education futures, teacher professional learning, technology-enhanced learning, development of mobile pedagogies, mentoring, retention and induction of early career teachers, and beliefs and practices in mathematics education. She has authored or co-authored over sixty publications, including the co-authoring or co-editing of four scholarly academic books with Springer, over ten book chapters and over fifty journal articles in leading journals. Professor Schuck has been awarded over two million dollars in competitive research grants.

Read more about Sandy or send her an email at sandy.schuck@uts.edu.au  

Founding Director, Professor Peter Aubusson

Peter Aubusson is Professor of Education, specialising in science education.  He is the President of the Australasian Science Education Research Association (ASERA). He is a former President of the NSW Council of Deans of Education. He has been a member of the National Initial Teacher Education Advisory Committee, an Australian Council of Deans of Education Board Member and Chair of the NSW Initial Teacher Education Committee. Peter was awarded the UTS Vice Chancellor Medal for Research and Teaching Integration in 2013.  He led the ARC Discovery Project, Mobilising teaching: improving the quality of learning with mobile-intensive pedagogies and has conducted numerous funded research projects in teacher education futures, science education and mobile or technology-enhanced learning.

Read more about Peter or send him an email at peter.aubusson@uts.edu.au

Professor Lori Lockyer 

Lori Lockyer is Professor and Dean of the UTS Graduate Research School.  She is responsible for leading the strategic direction and policy development for research training across UTS. 

Lori researches learning technology, student learning and teacher practice in school and university settings.  Lori has led and collaborated on research projects supported by $20M+ funding from government and industry sources.  Her work is published through over 130 papers and translated to teaching and learning practice contexts through workshops and engagement with the school and university teaching communities. Learn more about her work on learning design and teacher practice.

Read more about Lori or send her an email at lori.lockyer@uts.edu.au

Professor Didar Zowghi

Dr Didar Zowghi is Professor of Software Engineering and Director of Requirements Engineering research lab in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology. She is also Adjunct Professor at Auckland University of Technology. Professor Zowghi's core research focuses on improving the software development processes and the quality of their products. In particular, her research addresses challenges in the communication rich, multidisciplinary activities of software development. Didar has received competitive research grants of over $2.5 million. She has published over 180 research articles in prestigious peer-reviewed conferences and journals and has co-authored papers with 80 different researchers from 25 countries.

Read more about Didar or send her an email at ddidar.zowghi@uts.edu.au

Emeritus Professor Theo van Leeuwen

Theo van Leeuwen is Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Southern Denmark, Emeritus Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Honorary Professor at the University of Lancaster, the University of New South Wales and the Australian Catholic University. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He has produced many books and articles on multimodal communication, including articles about the use of multimodal communication in print, audiovisual and digital education resources. His most well-known books are Reading Images – The Grammar of Visual Design (with Gunther Kress), Introducing Social Semiotics, and Discourse and Practice.

Read more about Theo or send him an email at theo.vanleeuwen@uts.edu.au

Associate Professor Matthew Kearney

Associate Professor Anne Prescott

Associate Professor Anne Prescott started her career as a secondary school teacher of mathematics. At UTS she lectures in the primary and secondary mathematics teacher education courses and coordinates the Master of Teaching (secondary).

Since 2011 Anne has been conducting mathematics, science and English teacher professional development in a remote region of Nepal. This work was extended to include rebuilding schools, toilets and the Bhawani School hostel. In 2014 Anne was awarded the UTS Human Rights Award for Social Inclusion for her work in making it possible for Nepali girls to continue their education in secondary school. 

Anne’s research interests arise from her experiences as a teacher and teacher educator and include STE(A)M education, dealing with mathematics anxiety, and supporting beginning teachers as they start their teaching career.  

Read more about Anne or email her at anne.prescott@uts.edu.au

Associate Professor John Buchanan 

Dr John Buchanan is an Associate Professor in the School of Education, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UTS, where he also coordinates International and Engagement programs. His main STEM-related research interests focus on environmental sustainability education. He is also interested in teacher quality, attrition and retention, and he has published extensively in these areas. He is currently working on a project exploring teacher identity among first-year Maths and Science teachers. He is a past president of the New South Wales Institute for Educational Research.

Read more about John or mail him at john.buchanan@uts.edu.au

Associate Professor Annette Hilton

Annette Hilton has a background in mathematics and science teaching in both middle years and senior secondary schooling. Annette’s current research interests include conceptual development in mathematics and science, the use of digital technologies to enhance teaching and learning, teacher professional growth, teachers as practitioner researchers. Her research in this area was recognised in 2013 when she led a team that received the Best Research and Practice Project Award from the European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning.

Read more about Annette or email her at annette.hilton@uts.edu.au

Dr Keiko Yasukawa

Keiko Yasukawa is a researcher in numeracy policy, pedagogy and practice. Keiko’s research focuses on the tensions between policy, pedagogy and practice, and is located in contexts including workplaces, vocational education and training, community adult education and adult basic education. Her research is informed by a socio-material view of numeracy. She is currently the lead editor of Literacy and Numeracy Studies: an international journal in the education and training of adults. Her book Numeracy as Social Practice: local and global contexts, co-edited with Alan Rogers, Kara Jackson and Brian Street will be published by Routledge in mid-2018.

Read more about Keiko or email her at keiko.yasukawa@uts.edu.au

Dr Mary Coupland

Dr Mary Coupland is the Director of the UTS Mathematics and Science Study Centre and lectures in mathematics and quantitative literacy. She joined UTS in 1990 after ten years of secondary school teaching in Mathematics. She is passionate about improving the participation rate of all students in advanced maths, especially those from equity target groups. Her research interests include curriculum, assessment, and engagement. In recent years Mary has been President of both the NSW and national professional associations for teachers of mathematics, MANSW and AAMT. Currently, she is co-leader of the “Mathematics Inside” project, funded by the federal government AMSPP program.

Read more about Mary or email her at mary.coupland@uts.edu.au

Dr Damian Maher

Dr Damian Maher is a senior lecturer in the School of Education. His research focuses on educational technologies and how they can support teaching and learning. His research interests range from focusing on the use of the interactive whiteboard to ways mobile devices can be incorporated into lessons. He is also looking at some emerging technologies which include the 360-degree camera as well as Virtual and Augmented reality. The focus of part of Damian’s research is at a micro level where the practices of teachers and students as they undertake work in the classroom (and beyond) are of particular interest. 

Read more about Damian or email him at damian.maher@uts.edu.au

Dr Jane Hunter

Dr Jane Hunter is a former primary and high school teacher. She is a senior lecturer currently conducting a series of research studies to build teacher capacity in STEM in schools using inquiry pedagogies. Her work reinforces the importance of continuous teacher professional learning through ongoing school-university partnerships. The pedagogical framework for technology-enhanced learning featured in her book Technology integration and High Possibility Classrooms: Building from TPACK is leading innovation and changes to practice in Australian schools. She is interested in artificial intelligence in school education and its impacts on young people and learning. Catch her on Twitter @janehunter01.

Read more about Jane or email her at jane.hunter@uts.edu.au

Dr Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn

Dr Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn is a Senior Lecturer in Teacher Education programs at UTS. Her research focuses on how interest and motivation develop in science learning contexts, both in school and out-of-school, for students, teachers and families. Kimberley’s current projects include research evaluations of Primary Connections and Science by Doing (Australian Academy of Science, 2017–2018). She also is a member of a large research team which will be evaluating Phase 2 of the NSW Department of Education’s K-2 Numeracy and Literacy Strategy (2018–2021). Kimberley is the UTS School of Education’s Director of Partnerships, which engages her in initiating and growing a range of collaborative endeavours with schools and other learning organisations.

Read more about Kimberley or email her at kimberley.pressick-kilborn@uts.edu.au

Twitter: @PressickK

Dr Kirsty Young

Kirsty Young has an interest in the use of technology across the lifespan, having conducted research into children's use of the Internet, through to older Australians (70+ years) learning experiences when using popular technologies. Kirsty's research has explored the impact of social media dating back to the MySpace era and subsequently the role of Facebook in adults’ construction of identity.  Kirsty is currently investigating the use of mobile devices to support adolescents’ literacy development and has an interest in exploring the use of mobile devices to support traditional methods of data collection when conducting research in schools.

Read more about Kirsty or send her an email at kirsty.young@uts.edu.au

Dr Simon Knight

Dr Simon Knight is a lecturer in the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Learning Analytics. Simon researches how people find, use, and evaluate evidence. Simon has researched how people evaluate sources on socio-scientific topics, such as climate change, impacts of technology, and nutrition topics, seen through the lens of epistemic cognition. Simon is particularly interested in how educators use and evaluate evidence, including their use of learning analytics – the use of data from learning activity, to understand and support that learning. Learn more about learning analytics in education, and ‘epistemic cognition as a lens onto fake news’, and building data curiosity.

Read more about Simon or send him an email at simon.knight@uts.edu.au

Dr Marco Angelini

Dr Marco Angelini is the Centre Manager for STEM Education Futures. His professional background is in academic skills development and the transition to higher education and equity; his research interests include student engagement, Maths literacies and philosophical thought.

Read more about Marco or send him an email at Marco.Angelini@uts.edu.au