Prof. Shelley Dole,
Head of School of Education, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Professor Shelley Dole is the Head of School of Education at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Shelley is an educator and mathematics education researcher. Over the 25 years she has been in education, she has taught in primary, secondary and tertiary teaching institutions throughout Australia. Shelley has led two major Australian Research Council projects focusing on numeracy across the curriculum and the development of proportional reasoning, with teachers and schools in Queensland and South Australia. She has been involved in several major research projects in Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia including middle years literacy and numeracy; early years literacy and numeracy and distance education; mental computation, number sense and invented algorithms; teaching and learning percent in the middle school; basic facts in the early years, as well as teacher professional development projects. In 2009, Shelley won a University of Queensland Award for Teaching Excellence, and in 2010 was the recipient of an Australian Award for University Teaching. She is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Speech Title: Teaching to promote connections in Mathematics and Science learning – the case for proportional reasoning.
Abstract: Research has provided strong evidence of the decline in student performance in mathematics and science in the middle years of schooling (MYS), coupled with increasing student disengagement, disinterest and boredom with the study of these subjects. It is imperative that the teaching of mathematics and science in the middle years capitalises on young people’s sense of curiosity and wonder in relation to the sciences, and nurtures, maintains and builds their intuitive mathematical knowledge. To maximise our international competitiveness in a technological world, it is essential that secondary school students continue the study of mathematics and science-related courses at the tertiary level. Schools must engage young adolescents in challenging and innovative programs so they can take up future occupations in these fields to strengthen Australia’s future. This presentation reports on various research projects, undertaken in collaboration with teachers and their students, where the focus has been on teaching to enhance student learning of mathematics and science, through the promotion of proportional reasoning. Proportional reasoning permeates the school mathematics and science curriculum, but it is elusive. And yet it is considered as a key component of both mathematical and scientific literacy. In this presentation, I highlight the complex nature of the development of proportional reasoning and implications for learning and instruction. Teaching approaches that have captured and engaged students’ interest in exploring proportion-related situations will be shared.
Assoc. Prof. Mary Coupland,
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Associate Professor Mary
Coupland is Director of the Mathematics and
Science Study Support Centre of the University
of Technology Sydney, which won the 2017 UTS
Teaching and Learning Award for Academic
Support. She lectures in mathematics for
Engineering students, and also in Quantitative
Literacy across all faculties. She is the
co-leader of “Maths Inside”, a research and
intervention project funded for $1.9 M by the
Federal Government under the Australian Maths
and Science Partnerships Program. This project
involves collaboration with the Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) and the Australian Association of
Mathematics Teachers (AAMT) to produce
innovative resources for teachers of
mathematics, and to research ways to raise
interest and participation in higher levels of
mathematics in schools across Australia. Mary is
a former President of the state and national
professional organisations for teachers of
mathematics – the Mathematical Association of
New South Wales, and AAMT.
Prof. Chris Tisdell,
University of New South Wales, Australia
Chris Tisdell is Professor of Mathematics, Digital Education and STEM Education at The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney. He is best known for contributions to digital education that have positively impacted millions of people around the world by exploring the challenges of scale, flexibility and personalized learning. This includes leading a YouTube educational channel that is ranked within the top 1% worldwide; and authoring textbooks with a readership of 10 million globally. A teacher at heart, the quality and impact of Chris’ work on student learning has been recognized at national and international levels, through fellowships and prestigious awards for educational excellence, including diversity and inclusion.
Chris promotes innovation in education through public engagement and thought leadership at national and international levels as an expert and public figure. He is proud to collaborate with key partners within the education industry, ensuring continuous improvement and collaborative advantage.
Prof. William W. Guo,
Central Queensland University Australia, Australia
William W. Guo is a professor in applied computation and mathematics at Central Queensland University Australia. He received a PhD from The University of Western Australia. His research interests include computational intelligence, data and image processing, modelling and simulation, and geophysics. He has published over 100 papers in international journals, conference proceedings, and edited books, and co-edited two special issues in international journal “Mathematical Problem in Engineering”. He has supervised multiple PhD students and served as a keynote speaker at many international conferences and regional events. He has abundant experience in leadership and academic governance through his services as Dean/Deputy Dean of School, and Members of University Academic Board, Education Committee, and Academic Promotion Committee. He is a member of IEEE, ACM, ACS, and Australian Mathematics Society (AUSTMS).
Plenary Speakers
Prof. Wernhuar Tarng, National Tsing Hua
University, Taiwan
Wernhuar Tarng is currently a professor in the
Institute of Learning Science and Technology,
National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
He was the director of Computing and Networking
Center, National Hsinchu University of
Education, Taiwan from 1993 to 2004 and the
chairman of the Graduate Institute of Computer
Science from 2008 to 2012. From 1980, Prof.
Tarng conducted his undergraduate study at
National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
and he was graduated from the Department of
Control Engineering in 1984. He received his
M.S. degree (1987) and Ph.D. degree (1992) from
the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, State University of New York at
Buffalo, USA. Prof. Tarng has received more than
20 grant projects funded by Ministry of Science
and Technology (MOST), Taiwan and published over
100 research papers in the field of computer
science, engineering, networking, and learning
technologies. Prof. Tarng was a visiting
professor of Distant and Online Learning Center,
Oxford University, UK in 2002 and a visiting
scholar at Hear and Say Centre, Brisbane,
Australia from 2014 to 2015. His current
research interests include: e-Learning
technologies, virtual reality, augmented
reality, game-based learning, image processing,
pattern recognition, computer architecture, and
computer networking.
Speech Title:
Applications of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
in Astronomy Education
Abstract: Astronomy education is
an important area of science education because
its scope ranges over all celestial bodies and
their interactions in the universe. Observing
celestial bodies such as the sun, the moon, and
stars is essential in astronomy education
because it can enhance observation and inference
skills by using scientific methods to find the
answers. However, observing the moon and stars
has to be conducted during nighttime, and the
observation is easily affected by weather or
obstructed by surrounding high buildings. When
observing the sun, the teacher usually teaches
students to use a shadow stick to measure the
sun’s direction and elevation and use a
transparent dome to record the sun trajectory
across the sky. Such activities are easily
affected by a cloudy or rainy day and students
may suffer from heat stroke when staying under
the sun for a long time. In our previous
studies, several astronomical observation
systems were developed using the virtual reality
(VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies to
help students observe and record astronomical
phenomena. Students can conduct observation
anytime and anywhere to understand the
astronomical concepts through real-time
interaction, and thus the VR/AR systems are very
helpful for enhancing the astronomical knowledge
and concepts. Teaching experiments have been
conducted to analyze their learning
effectiveness and the results show that they are
effective in learning astronomical concepts. The
questionnaire results also reveal that these
systems are useful, easy to operate, and can
enhance students' learning interest and
motivation.
Dr. Lily Li, Central Queensland University Australia, Australia
Dr. Lily Li is the Head of
Course for Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) at CQUniversity,
responsible for the academic leadership and
oversight of all aspects of ICT Undergraduate
degree courses including quality enhancement,
program accreditation, staff recruitment and
managing relevant academic committees.
Lily has
been working as an academic in ICT for 18
years. Lily has coordinated units in Software
Development, Internet Applications, Business
Intelligence, ICT Capstone Projects, ICT
Industry Work Placement and ICT Internship and
supervised industry projects under the
Queensland Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
scheme. Lily has gained extensive experience in
curriculum design and course management.
Speech Title: Teaching and Learning
Management in a Hybrid Domain – Opportunities
and Challenges
Abstract: A
large number of Australian universities have
multiple campuses, which provide a much needed
effective and flexible learning environment. In
the meantime, teaching and learning management
in such a hybrid domain encounters many
challenges. Geographically dispersed, multiple
disciplines, multiple learning modes, cultural
diversity and large cohort of staff and student
numbers, etc., all those complicate much more
than the conventional single campus teaching and
learning. This presentation will provide a
brief overview of CQUniversity’s Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) courses
delivered across its nine campuses including
distance learning. Dr Li will share the
experiences in dealing with course management
challenges and discuss particularly the
supervision models, consistency, communication
effectiveness, quality assurance and learning
engagement aspects.