Our presenters
Julie Baillie
Julie is the Education and Professional Development Manager of the Primary Division of Oxford University Press Australia. Julie travelled to the UK in 2011 to work with the original researchers of the Numicon project and is the accredited Australian Numicon trainer. Prior to joining Oxford University Press, Julie was an early-years educator with the South Australian Department of Education and Children’s Services. With over 20 years’ experience in education, Julie has worked at the school, district and state levels, and has written curriculum support documents and leading curriculum projects with schools and leaders implementing strategies to support literacy and numeracy improvement.
George Booker
George recently retired as Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education where he taught primary and special education students. He was also the Director of the Mathematics Assistance Clinic at Griffith University. The clinic engaged in research and practice in the learning of mathematics, with particular emphasis on the relationship of language to the development of mathematical concepts, processes and ways of thinking.
George’s latest publication Building Numeracy: From Diagnosis to Intervention brings his research and knowledge of assessment, diagnosis, and planning for intervention to classroom practitioners.
Sally Cash
Formerly a secondary Science and Maths teacher in Australia and abroad, Sally has also worked at the Melbourne Museum and has written numerous science textbooks. Sally is an author on the Oxford Big Ideas Science Australian Curriculum series.
Kate Dullard
Kate Dullard studied English, Linguistics and History at the University of Melbourne before embarking on studies in education. She has taught English at all secondary levels, as well as History and International Politics. Kate recently completed a Masters of Education, looking at the use of Thinking Routines in the English classroom. She is currently teaching English at Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School.
Mark Easton
Mark has taught Geography, History and English for over 20 years and during the last 15 years has been a contributing author to many geography, humanities and atlas titles. In 2010 he joined Oxford as a geography consultant to work on a range of titles and to support the use of these resources in the classroom. Mark continues to teach geography part-time at St Margaret’s School and to develop exciting new classroom resources for Oxford University Press.
Di Fleming
Di is a Director of Accelerated Knowledge Technologies Pty Ltd (AKT) and a board member of the Imaginative Education Advisory Group at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. She is also CEO of the Dūcere Africa School of Leadership and Government located in Botswana, and President of the Africa Australia Business Council (Vic). Di is member of the Victorian Government’s Growth Areas Authority and was the founding director of RMIT’s Centre of Excellence in Design 2003–2007 with an associate professorship in digital design. From 1993–2001, Di was Principal of Kilvington Girls’ Grammar where she was the first educator awarded the 1998–1999 Telstra Victorian Businesswoman of the Year Award for her leadership in digital schooling and the integration of strategic business partnerships.
Terry Gallagher
Terry Gallagher is the Manager (Policy and Implementation) for the Australian Curriculum Branch at the QSA. His role includes resources development activities to support the Queensland implementation of the Australian Curriculum in Queensland. He was recently a member of the ACARA History learning area Advisory Panel and was the writer of the History guidelines. He was part of the team that developed the Studies of Society and Environment Essential Learnings and Standards for the Queensland Curriculum Assessment and Reporting project. Prior to working at the QSA, Terry was a Secondary Social Science Head of Department and a project officer involved in the development of the Qld Years 1 to 10 SOSE Key Learning Area syllabuses. He has taught in a number of state schools throughout Queensland.
Pat Hincks
Pat is Curriculum Manager for Humanities and Social Sciences at the VCAA. Formerly she taught history, English and politics in Victorian Government secondary schools and has also worked as a regional curriculum consultant, a project manager in the Education Department for the national Discovering Democracy project and a senior project manager responsible for history and civics and citizenship education projects at Curriculum Corporation (now Education Services Australia).
Michael Horne
Michael is an experienced teacher of English and Literature. He is currently Head of School: 10-12 at Ave Maria College, and has previously taught at Scotch College. Michael has written a number of textbooks for Oxford University Press, and has assessed the VCE English exam. He is an experienced VATE presenter, and has spoken at English association conferences in a number of states on approaches to the Australian Curriculum.
Dr David Howes
David is the General Manager of the Curriculum Division of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. VCAA manages the development and supports the implementation of the Victorian curriculum from Prep to Year 12, including VCE and VCAL studies and VET in Schools.
Bernie Howitt
Bernie is currently President of the NSW History Teachers’ Association, and has been teaching History since the 1970s. Bernie has worked on syllabus development for both the NSW Board of Studies and ACARA. He has won two NSW Premier’s History scholarships, an excellence in teaching award, and taught in England as a Commonwealth Exchange teacher. He has been a contributor to the Oxford Big Ideas History Australian Curriculum series.
Maria James
Maria is Science Curriculum Manager at the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). She is a former head of science, curriculum leader and head of senior school. Maria is a published author of junior science and senior chemistry texts and is interested in differentiated learning,inquiry and social justice community projects.
Dr Nicola Johnson
Nicola is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash Gippsland. Nicola's research concerns Internet over-use, the social phenomena of Internet use, technological expertise, and the integration of information and communication technologies within education. Nicola teaches about curriculum, pedagogy and multiliteracies. She is the author of two books, The Multiplicities of Internet Addiction: The Misrecognition of Leisure and Learning (Ashgate, 2009) and Publishing from your PhD: Negotiating a Crowded Jungle (Gower, 2011). Nicola is currently analyzing the data collected from a 2011 research paper entitled, ‘Problematic Internet Use? Exploring contestable notions of Internet obsession and addiction from an educational perspective’.
Ryan Johnstone
Ryan Johnstone has been teaching senior English and Literature for over 15 years and has worked in Perth, London and Melbourne. He has produced a range of English resources for Oxford University Press including the popular text Using Language to Persuade. He has just completed his sixth year of teaching at Scotch College in Melbourne, where he has been the Deputy Head of English since 2008. Ryan also regularly presents for VATE.
Dr David Leigh-Lancaster
David is the Mathematics Curriculum Manager at the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) and an experienced former mathematics teacher and head of faculty. He has been extensively involved in curriculum and resource development, teacher professional learning, and examination and school-based assessment.
Susan Leslie
Susan Leslie first taught at university and then English in schools for a number of years, before moving to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority where she worked as a Project Manager in Assessment and then as Curriculum Manager: English. Since 2007 she has worked as an education consultant, maintaining her keen interest in both curriculum and assessment. In addition to Oxford VCE English, she has also developed and written Oxford Big Ideas English textbooks for Years 7 and 8, based on the new Australian Curriculum.
John Ley
John is currently Assistant Principal at Xavier College, Llandilo, and a member of the 2012 HSC assessment committee. He was formerly Head of Mathematics, Caroline Chisholm College, NSW and his qualifications include B.Sc., Dip Ed UNSW, M.A. Sydney, Grad. Dip in RE ACU, Diploma in Children’s Services. John commenced teaching in 1982, teaching in five schools, holding positions of Technology Coordinator, Mathematics Coordinator and Assistant Principal, and then became Education Officer, CEO Parramatta between 2000-2001. John has published a number of articles in Reflections Magazine since 1995 and is the author of the INSIGHT mathematics series in NSW.
Dr Ian Lowe
Ian has been a professional Officer at The Mathematical Association of Victoria for seven years. He has also worked for the Curriculum Branch of the Education Department, written secondary maths textbooks in three countries, developed teacher support material and run hands-on workshops over many years. He has just returned from his third trip to South Africa and Malawi to promote hands-on teaching methods.
Deb McPherson
Deb has taught English in secondary schools for 28 years. She was the manager of English for the NSW Department of Education and Training from 2003-2006. Deb is the author of four anthologies of Australian nonfiction for Oxford University Press; she co-authored Choices for English, a collection of recommended texts for the 7-12 English classroom and Oxford HSC English.
Gerry Martin
Gerry has been a teacher of Year 7-12 history for eleven years, currently teaching at St Michael’s Grammar School. He has been involved in the Australian Curriculum: History consultation process since 2008. Gerry has just concluded a research thesis analysing the historical understandings in Australian Curriculum: History.
Malcolm McInerney
Malcolm is the Chair of Australian Geography Teachers Association (AGTA) and a member of the ACARA Advisory panel for geography. He is the Curriculum Manager for Geography in the Department of Education and Children's Services in South Australia. Over recent years Malcolm has been heavily involved in promoting the use of technology, particularly GIS in geography classrooms in Australia.
Rennae Miszkurka
Rennae completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours at LaTrobe University in 1993, followed by a Diploma in Education in 1994 and a Masters of Education (Mathematics) at University of Melbourne in 2009. Rennae has taught mathematics to middle and senior years students over her 17 years at Caulfield Grammar School, where she is currently acting as Learning Area Leader Mathematics Years 7–9. She has maintained an interest in the use and impact of technology within the classroom throughout her teaching career, culminating in research for her Masters thesis:From dreams to reality: The impact of CAS on teachers and teaching. She also continues to be involved in developing activity-based inquiry learning to engage students and develop independent learners.
Jennifer Nolan
Jennifer has over 16 years’ classroom teaching experience and has been developing maths education resources for over 20 years. She is now the maths specialist at Oxford University Press.
Dr Sarah Ogilvie
Sarah is Director of the Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC), Australia National University (ANU), and Chief Editor of Oxford Dictionaries, Australia. She has written school dictionaries, historical dictionaries, and general dictionaries, and is now exploring new ways of presenting dictionaries online and opening the dictionary-making process to members of the public, including children.
Dr Thelma Perso
Thelma was a classroom teacher of mathematics for 20 years in remote and low-SES schools. Despite moving into consultancy for the last ten years, she sees herself first and foremost as a teacher. She has held a range of positions around Australia including K-12 Mathematics Consultant, Department of Education Western Australia and President, Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers. She is currently Senior Education Advisor to the Menzies School of Health Research, Centre for Childhood Development and Education. She has given hundreds of presentations to school leaders and teachers, including addresses at national and international conferences, and has authored more than 30 books for teachers on pedagogy, assessment and curriculum.
Alan Power
Alan has been exploring technology-based teaching and learning of mathematics for the past 10 years. Prior to that he was involved in computer information services both in Australia and internationally, and was an early proponent of online information services. He identified a natural link between the teaching and learning of mathematics with web-based services and subsequently started MyMaths in Australia last year. He works with key associates in authoring web-based lesson content and is a frequent speaker at conferences and to school mathematics faculties.
Geoff Quinton
Geoff was one of the team of writers for the Australian Curriculum Science and in 2010 was Senior Project Officer for Science at ACARA, overseeing the final revisions of the F-10 Curriculum. Geoff has taught science in England and Australia for 22 years, including as a head of learning area. He has produced digital learning materials for senior secondary chemistry courses, and has been an examiner for TEE and WACE examinations. He is an active member of the Science Teachers Association of WA and has been an ASTA councilor. He currently coordinates work between the sectors of education in WA supporting Australian Curriculum implementation. Geoff is an author and series consultant of the Oxford Big Ideas Science Australian Curriculum series.
Lisa Saffin
Lisa completed a Bachelor of Science at Monash University in 1987 followed by a Diploma in Education in 1988 and a Graduate Diploma in Computer Education at the University of Melbourne in 1996. She is currently studying a Masters of Education. Lisa has taught mathematics to middle and senior years students over the past 22 years in a number of Melbourne independent schools, and has been a VCE and IB examiner and NAPLAN item writer. Throughout her teaching career Lisa has witnessed many changes, especially in the use of technology on the classroom. Lisa is a maths teacher at Caulfield Grammar School and her focus continues to be activity-based inquiry to engage students and develop independent learners.
Jane Sherlock
Jane has taught in government secondary schools for 34 years. Currently Jane is the HSC student days project officer for the NSW English Teachers Association and presents at a range of educational forums. Jane received the prestigious "Australian College of Educators" award in 2009 and believes that there is no better job than teaching English. Jane is an experienced assessor and a published author of several books, including the award- winning Oxford HSC English.
Dr Di Siemon
Di is Professor of Mathematics Education in the School of Education at RMIT University. She has directed a number of large-scale research projects in mathematics education, and is well known for her work with teachers, schools, and State and Territory Departments of Education on the ‘big ideas’ in Number, the development of multiplicative thinking, and the use of rich assessment tasks to inform teaching. Di is past President of the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers and the Mathematical Association of Victoria
Shawn Taggart
With 15 years’ experience is schools, Shawn has worked with students and teachers from all learning areas and with all levels of it literacy. As an eLearning manager and Apple Distinguished Educator since 2009, he has integrated digital technology into all parts of the curriculum, including developing a 1:1 iPad program, introducing the ‘flipped classroom’ and is leading a series of school-wide challenge-based learning units to help his students become better 21st century learners.
Jennifer Vincent
Jennifer has nearly 30 years’ experience in education, including teaching primary students and tutoring pre-service educators at tertiary level. She also held the position of Senior Project Officer during the initial development of the Early Years Numeracy Program. Jennifer has authored a number of mathematics primary resources and presented at various professional development sessions. She currently works with students who need intervention in mathematics and literacy.
Eva de Vries
Eva is the Principal Project Officer: RoleM at the Australian Catholic University, Brisbane Campus. She is currently working on the RoleM project, which focuses on Indigenous schools and ways to support the development of oral language and representations in mathematics in the early years.
Professor Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth has been involved for many years in mathematics education. She is presently the principal researcher for a large 4-year longitudinal study: Representations, oral language and engagement in mathematics. This study is situated in a number of Indigenous and low-SES communities across Queensland. She has also conducted research in, and written extensively about, patterns and algebra, particularly with regard to its implication for teaching in the elementary and middle years of schooling. Underpinning her contribution to both research and curriculum in this area of mathematics education is the premise that generalising patterns is the key to developing mathematical thinking and algebraic understanding.
Dr Gaye Williams
Gaye, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education at Deakin University, and Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne, holds an Australian Research Council Fellowship. The quality of her teaching and classroom research have been recognised variously (e.g. University of Melbourne Chancellor’s Prize 2007, Victorian National Excellence in Teaching Award 1994). Gaye has taught and provided professional development in rural, metropolitan, girls', boys', co-ed, independent, government and Catholic schools. As a member of David Clarke’s International Learners’ Perspective Study, she visited Year 8 mathematics classrooms in five countries. Her research focus includes designing group problem-solving tasks as learning tools.
Carmel Young
Dr Carmel Young is a History consultant with Oxford and has taught History Curriculum and Methods at the University of Sydney. With Tony Taylor, she wrote History: A guide to the teaching and learning of history in Australian schools.
