1. Something you’d like staff to know about
I was commissioned by Oxford University Press to be an editor/author of the 2022 text: Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement. Since the first edition of this text, over 8000 print copies and 500 e-books have been sold. It is a recommended text in 28 Australian universities and has been rated in the top 10 best-selling books both nationally and internationally for OUP.

2. Something you have recently accomplished
I am the first Macquarie University academic to be awarded a HERDSA Fellowship. The scheme offers academics an opportunity to be part of a vibrant community of practitioners and researchers interested in improving teaching and learning in tertiary education.

3. A Macquarie person you are looking forward to working with
I am delighted to be working in a multidisciplinary HDR supervision team with Dr Francesca Dominello, Senior Lecturer in the Macquarie Law School. Francesca and I are co-supervising a Law PhD study on the NDIS.

4. What you need to do your best work?
To do my best teaching, I need to be aware of the wide-ranging needs of mature age students in the postgraduate units that I teach.  Some might have English as a second language (ESL); or they might have been exposed to a culturally different experience of secondary or tertiary education. I became a regular mentor of refugee students through the University’s Making Connections scheme so that I might learn more explicitly what would assist ESL students’ learning.

5. Something you’ve read recently that has had an impact on you
The architectural concept of universal design refers to the intentional planning of structures so that they are accessible to people of all abilities. A quintessential example is planning buildings without stairs rather than retrofitting them with wheelchair ramps.

Educators have adopted universal design as a metaphor for accessibility in teaching and learning – proposing that education should match the diverse ways that students learn. An interesting recent publication about this is Lessons (Not) Learned: The Troubling Similarities Between Learning Styles and Universal Design for Learning.

6. Your definition of success
Remaining true to myself. I believe that a strong indicator of success is to remain true to one’s values. After all, as Alexander Hamilton said – “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”.

7. A website or app you can’t live without
Children with profound and multiple impairments (PIMD) who appear largely passive and unresponsive can show subtle reliable and consistent signs of engagement or responsiveness across different levels of environment stimulation. So how do I capture those moments of responsiveness? I conduct a lot of my research data collection via video recording and need to be able to quickly analyse hours of video material to capture these responsive moments. I use Adobe Premiere Pro for this and, quite honestly,  I could not work without it.

8. A personal quality you value in others
Honesty is the most important personal quality because it is dependent on integrity – and integrity demands truthfulness.  Integrity is standing up for what you believe is right and living by your highest values.

9. Something you’re trying to do differently in 2021
I work in a very specialised field which has historically received negligible funding (in Australia, national average of research funds granted for intervention or service projects targeting these populations only achieve a six per cent success rate).  Consequently, to increase my research opportunity potential, I have expanded my research field by targeting new constructs and variables, looking at new measures, and using new analysis techniques.

10. A moment you felt proud
Despite working in a highly specialised field, I have a h-index of 13 and i10-index of 15 and over 1000 total citations. I’m very proud that my work is highly valued and that readers are engaging with my publications.

From the everyday practicalities of juggling full-time work with an infant or toddler at home, responding to the emotional needs of anxious teenagers, or trying to get through a day of remote learning without a dramatic meltdown, Macquarie parents and carers have clearly been dealing with a lot.

Webinar host Nicole Gower – herself a working mum with two primary school-aged children – says the University recognises that most parents and carers are “outside their comfort zone” at the moment.

“We’re trying to juggle it all – some days, things work out; other days it’s a disaster,” she says. “It’s really important that Macquarie staff feel confident to ask for flexibility if they need it, and that managers are regularly checking in to make sure their staff are supported.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our panellists for sharing their insights in the webinar – I know I personally found them very useful.”

Missed the webinar?

Professor Garry Falloon, Professor Viviana Wuthrich and Dr Cara Hildreth join Vice-President People and Services Nicole Gower to give you practical advice and expert guidance on positive parenting in lockdown.

Watch the webinar >>

Garry Falloon discusses the impact of lockdown on children’s learning

The Lighthouse spoke to Professor Falloon about the growing concerns around the long-term educational impact of COVID on Australian children. He also shares his advice for parents struggling with their roles as at-home teachers (Step One: “Think of yourself as a “lockdown learning supervisor’, not a teacher.”)

Advice for managers and staff

Managers and their staff should maintain regular and open communication and have a flexible approach to handling workload and contact hours. Adapting hours beyond typical weekday office hours (where possible) can allow the time and space essential to meeting the demands faced by parents and carers.

The University recognises the challenges currently being experienced by staff with caring duties and staff are encouraged to work flexibly without the need to apply for leave. However, if staff wish to do so, the University has approved access by staff with family or carer responsibility of up to one day a week of Family/Carer Responsibilities leave. Staff can apply for this leave in a block of at least one hour and in increments of 15 minutes. If you have questions about applying for leave, get in touch with your HR Client Team representative.

Resources recommended by the panellists

COVID-19: We’ve got this covered!
A collaboration between the Centre for Emotional Health and School of Education, this website includes a wealth of advice for parents and carers.’

Karitane virtual services
The NSW Government is providing support to families with children under five, with Karitane providing a range of virtual services and video consultations.

Tips from Macquarie University Children’s Services
Our own experts in play-based learning have provided a huge range of activity ideas and useful links in this special guide for staff.

Staff wellbeing site
Resources to support your mental, physical and personal wellbeing, including free counselling and coaching available through our Employee Assistance Program. Visit https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/wellbeing.

The new Specialisation called ‘Online Learning Design for Educators’ is set to revolutionise how educators approach online teaching and arm themselves with the skills, knowledge and confidence to deliver effective and engaging online learning and teaching.

Free to all staff via the Coursera Response Program for Macquarie University, the three-course Specialisation is perfect for educators who are familiar with face-to-face teaching but are now adapting to online environments, as well as those who design or deliver online learning experiences.

Course Instructor and School of Education Associate Professor Iain Hay says the Specialisation is focused on quality professional learning based in research, but with a practical application.

“We have used a research-informed approach to underpin the development of this Specialisation,” Iain explains. “There is a clear need for a Specialisation like this as educators have had to pivot quickly to deliver online teaching that is relevant, engaging, and appropriate for a diverse range of students in varying contexts.”

The Specialisation is split into three courses:

1. Online Education: The Foundations of Online Teaching

This course demonstrates how to reimagine and redesign previous face-to-face offerings into an online environment, and how to optimise online offerings so that students feel connected, engaged and motivated to learn.

2. Create Video, Audio, and Infographics for Online Learning

Course two explores how incorporating video, podcasts, infographics as well as text, makes learning memorable, meaningful and retainable.

3. Online Teaching: Using Zoom to Connect with Learners

This course delves into the Zoom functions that are relevant to teaching a live online class and provides practical, real-world examples of how to use these functions successfully in a live class setting.

Each course takes approximately 15 hours to complete and can be undertaken as a stand-alone course or as a three-course Specialisation. It is estimated that the Specialisation will take three to four months to complete.

Registrations are now open for Courses 1 and 2, with Course 3 opening for registrations on 27 September. Staff can access this Specialisation using their MQ email address through the Coursera for Macquarie Dashboard. More information on Macquarie’s Coursera courses and FAQs are available here.

The Senior Lecturer in STEM Education says her highlights include the initiation of the MyScience@MQ program, which brings scientist mentors into schools to transform the way kids see and experience science;  developing resources for the Dr Egg Adventures Laboratory; co-writing the soon-to-be-published  STEM Education in the Primary School: A teacher’s toolkit; and leading the development of IBM’s Artificial Intelligence for Teachers project, including the recent launch of its Coursera course.

Anne says the course is a great milestone for the Macquarie-IBM partnership, and she hopes it will support more students to enter the IBM EdTech Youth Challenge.

In a nutshell, my job is to…
Find effective ways to open doors to the world of science and STEM for young learners and their teachers.

My definition of success is…
Feeling peaceful.

A person at Macquarie that inspires me is…
My daughter Dr Miri Forbes. She is a world leader working on redefining and shaping future options for evaluating and treating mental disorders.

This year I want to…
Welcome my third and fourth grandchild into the world and begin writing my second Primary Science Education textbook.

The scariest thing I’ve ever done is…
Have a baby – four times!

As a kid, I was…
Obsessed with competitive running – now I’m just obsessed with running.

My guilty pleasure is…
Pleasures shouldn’t make you feel guilty – I love ice cream – as frequently as possible.

I’m scared of…
Spiders.

The most important thing I’ve learned this year is…
I need to live my university life on my own terms.

I’m happiest when…
I am creating something – no matter the domain.

When one of Macquarie’s international partners reached out for support in upskilling their staff to deliver online teaching during COVID-19, in just four weeks a team of our experts pulled together a comprehensive program which has just been rolled out.

The latest initiative in an ongoing partnership with Mahidol University in Thailand, the workshop has had 42 keen participants from the fields of social and medical sciences, economics, computing and business, and the university is already requesting a further two workshops before the end of the year.

Professor Garry Falloon from the School of Education assembled a group of learning designers and academics from across the Faculty of Arts, Macquarie Business School and the Faculty of Science and Engineering, to develop and deliver the practical training program.

“Mahidol didn’t have much of a history of online learning before COVID-19 started, and like every institution has had to adapt to the current situation, so they approached us requesting this training for their academics,” says Garry.

“I’ve been so grateful for the enthusiasm from people from different faculties, and to be able to work with such talented people, to deliver this program.

“Improving online learning is not just about improving online teaching, it’s also about learning task and course layout and design, e-assessment and building social aspects of students’ presence and engagement, and our learning designers’ skills at translating courses into really interesting and motivating formats and their knowledge of digital tools and methods, is excellent.

“I hope by being involved in an outward-facing program like this it is a validation of our people’s skills. By collaborating and sharing our content and expertise, we are all learning so much about what each other do, and how we can better work together to improve the online learning experience of students .”

Macquarie’s partnership with Mahidol has gradually expanded since an MOU was originally signed between the two universities in 2015, to include the establishment of the Mahidol-Macquarie Centre for International Education in 2019, international research opportunities for doctoral students, staff exchange in teaching and research, and student mobility.

One of the workshop participants, Associate Professor Astrid Kainzbauer from Mahidol’s College of Management said the experience of being an online student in the program gave her new insights into what her own students might need when learning remotely.

“One thing I really enjoyed was being a student and seeing the other perspective,” Astrid says. “It was really interesting to observe myself and my own reactions to learning, which will allow me to improve my own teaching online.”

“In the end it really depends on the topic that you’re teaching, the level of student you are teaching and also your own personality, because I think you need to find what works for you amongst all the tools that are out there. This course showed an overview of all that is out there, there is so much technology that I haven’t even heard of before, and it takes time to try different things to find out what works for you and what works for your students.”

Mahidol University and Macquarie University are currently working together to plan the delivery of this professional learning course to additional academic cohorts in 2020 and beyond.

Corporate partnership at Macquarie is much more than a business arrangement. It’s about nurturing deep, long-term connections with the best of industry and then working with them to create real-world solutions with impact.

In this new regular series, we’ll be shining a light on successful projects being driven by Macquarie staff in partnership with leading companies and organisations.  We’ll hear about what worked (and sometimes what didn’t) and get some advice for staff interested in building their own industry connections.

We kick off with a collaboration between IBM and the School of Education.

Project aim

To develop a global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Curriculum Framework (K-12) and supporting teacher and student resources to be used by various education sectors and schools to scaffold learning about AI.

The IBM Artificial Intelligence (AI) Curriculum provides a suite of global, open online resources for students with pedagogical support for teachers to develop the knowledge, skills and values needed to understand AI and its implications for society and the world and to use AI to solve authentic problems, now and in the future. 

Project budget

$350,000 funded by IBM Corporation and in-kind support from the School of Education through the Academy of Continuing Professional Development in Education.

Key people

Dr Iain Hay and Dr Anne Forbes from the School of Education collaborated with key stakeholders in the UK, including senior IBM personnel and education experts, on the design of the Curriculum Framework.

Back in Australia, a cohort of interested teachers was recruited to trial online resources through the University’s Academy of Continuing Professional Development in Education (ACPDE). In consultation with Dr Hay, Dr Forbes led a team of academics in developing the online course materials, designing the research protocol to measure impact, and creating and delivering accredited professional learning to classroom teachers. Dr Markus Powling developed key teacher learning resources while Dr Iliana Skrebneva conducted the online research surveys and participant interviews.

How did this partnership come about?

There was an existing relationship from a 2006 project between Dr Forbes and Bettina Cutler, IBM’s Education Program Manager in Corporate Social Responsibility. The project now has partners in India, UK and US, who initially came together to develop the curriculum and related resources. However, Macquarie remains the lead organisation in developing teacher professional development, resource quality assurance and research on impact.

Who else at Macquarie helped make it happen?

Professor Mary Ryan, the Dean of the School of Education, provided the support and strategic advice on how best to engage with key business units in the University, who were responsive and supportive in progressing the project throughout its stages. Professor Ryan’s support enabled the project team to move forward from the initial IBM-funded seeding grant to the second phase of a fully funded project with global reach.

Daniel Johnston (Research Partnerships Manager), Dr Hay and Leanne Bamford Barnes (Manager of the ACPDE) were key to managing and progressing the long process of procurement which involved establishing Macquarie as a bona fide provider of services for IBM.

How did you approach project management? Any cultural or business process differences you had to navigate?

Leanne Bamford Barnes oversaw project management, supporting Dr Forbes and Dr Hay to progress project activities and to meet milestones. Weekly video conference meetings kept the immediate project team informed of progress and enabled trouble shooting when issues arose.

We learned that the following were key to a successful outcome:

• good project governance
• having the right people in crucial roles
• managing project expectations
• learning about the culture of a large international corporation
• clearly defining how each partner would manage the various parts of the project activities.

The biggest learning has been the procurement and on-boarding processes required for a project of this nature.

And, the most important question – what were you able to achieve together?

We have successfully developed a collaboratively designed Global AI Curriculum Framework which underpins the development of teacher resources (in partnership with Macquarie University in Australia, and Learning Links Foundation in India) and student resources (in partnership with the International Society for Technology in Education in the United States and IBM India Software Lab).

In working in partnership with IBM Corporation, we were able to share resources, knowledge and connections. Each partner brought their own expertise to the project, which was mutually respected and embraced.

Where to from here?

In 2020 the project is being expanded to include a global IBM EdTech Youth Challenge with Australian student teams using AI to solve a local issue caused by climate change and other factors.

Any advice for staff that are thinking about partnering with industry?

• There is a need to have a set of guiding principles that underpins the partnership work. For us these included trust, respect and reciprocity.
• Be clear on what the partners will get out of the relationship, listen to each other and respond with open channels of communication.
• Give yourself and your project partner/s TIME, TIME and TIME – this is absolutely key. Be prepared to spend time discovering each other’s ways of working and ways of communicating. In our case, we needed to bridge the gap between industry and education in the development of material, by translating corporate language into terminology used by and understandable to teachers.
• Finally, understand that the partnership work ebbs and flows over time and this is natural – but always come back to the project’s intended outcomes as a means to keep partners focused on the main goal of the work.

Learn more about research collaboration and partnerships.

Her research into memory is integrated into her teaching of undergraduate education students, giving them a powerful understanding of how people retain and understand new information. Here she shares her insights into memory and why we so often misunderstand its role in learning.

Memory underpins everything we do. Everything we know is held in long-term memory. It also underpins higher-order thinking. Anytime we want to think critically about an issue, or solve a problem, we recruit knowledge from long-term memory to help us do it.

In conducting research into memory and learning, particularly in educational contexts, I’ve realised how badly misunderstood the role of memory in schools and universities can be.

In educational contexts, memory is often associated with rote recall. The common concern is that students may regurgitate information by rote, rather than genuinely understanding it. But we know from research that memory is the storage system. Shallow understanding of a topic is a different problem, and not one that can be abolished by discarding memory.

Helping students to remember information shouldn’t be seen as a negative. When we ask students what they remember, we are simply asking what knowledge they have.

One of the best things we can do is to help students themselves understand how they learn: that is, how the brain interacts and works with new knowledge to produce better or worse learning outcomes. When students understand their own memory systems, they are empowered to build and extend new knowledge.

Dr Van Bergen’s tips for remembering your new password

To remember information effectively, it helps when the information is personally meaningful. It also helps to process that information actively in some way (e.g. creating a mind map, applying it to a new problem, or discussing the topic with a friend). Rote repetition is actually quite ineffective!

One advantage we have these days is our smartphones. But Google can only take us so far. To use Google, or other search engines, effectively we need to have some established knowledge about the topic. It is only then that we become effective at asking the right questions and vetting the outcomes.

Moreover, Google can’t help us with things like passwords, which have no intrinsic meaning. We all maintain multiple passwords – for our OneID, email, myGov, internet banking – and sometimes it seems that just as we finally remember the current password, we are asked to enter a new one.  In this case, it can help to use a mnemonic: creating a more meaningful rhyme, song or some other association that might be better remembered than the information itself. By creating this association, we’re also actively processing the to-be-remembered information.

Contrary to popular belief, brain training won’t give you a stronger memory system. By using active processing, however, anyone can enhance their recall of specific topics.

Work stuff

I’ve been at Macquarie for…
Less than a month! Everything is extremely new to me.

In a nutshell, my job is to…
Do studies on interesting topics; write papers and books with interesting titles; edit academic journals to publish interesting papers; and teach students who are interested in early childhood education.

The top three things on my to-do list today are…
Email! Papers! Meetings!

If I could do any other job at Macquarie, it would be…
Run a Chinese restaurant for staff and students!

I get my campus coffee fix from …
I get my Chinese tea from my home town and enjoy it in the kitchen.

If you were given $50 million to create or build something at Macquarie, what would you do with it?
An escalator link between the train station and the library, to help those with special needs to get easy access to our library.

Personal life

My ethnic heritage is…
I was born in China. I’ve worked in Beijing and Hong Kong during the past three decades and just came to Australia in the last few weeks!

If I could have dinner with anyone (living or dead) it would be…
Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple.

The last great book I read was…
A Tale of Two Cities.

The last great movie I saw was…
Dunkirk – the 2017 war film which was written, directed and produced by Christopher Nolan. The Dunkirk evacuation of World War II has been studied and presented in many ways. But this movie is well done!

In ten years from now, I hope to be…
Able to see that all our young children in Australia can have whole-day preschool education for free.

Work stuff

I’ve been at Macquarie for…

Not long! My family and I have just moved to Sydney from London, where I was Professor of Autism Education and Director of the Centre for Research in Autism and Education at University College London.

In a nutshell, my job is to…

Combine genuinely world-class, experimental research with the deepest possible engagement with the communities who that research is intended to benefit. All too often, autistic children, young people and adults are excluded from so many opportunities largely because people don’t understand what it’s like to be autistic. I want to change that.

If I could do any other job at Macquarie (with instant qualifications/knowledge) it would be…

I’d love to be the person designing all the new buildings. It is amazing to be on a campus that’s changing so much around us.

Name a Macquarie staff member that impressed you last week…

Justin Dewhurst, who is Workplace Equity and Diversity Consultant for Macquarie’s Equity and Diversity Unit – we had an excellent discussion on ways to build a more inclusive Macquarie community for all.

I get my campus coffee fix from…

Actually, any of the outlets! I don’t think I have had a bad coffee since being in Sydney (don’t tell my old London friends that, though!).

Personal life

My ethnic heritage is…

I grew up on a dairy farm in Western Australia. My dad’s family were Italian, my mum’s were from Northern Ireland.

My favourite subject at school was…

I quite liked maths. I was always really curious and wanted to know about why things happened the way they did.

Outside work, you’ll often find me…

Running after my two-year-old daughter, Freya! Her favourite hobbies – reading Hairy Maclary, going to the park, playing hide and seek – have suddenly become mine.

The most amazing place I’ve ever visited is…

There are so many! We caught the ferry across to Taronga Zoo a few weekends ago – the view of Sydney Harbour was just stunning and the animal exhibits were amazing.

If I could have dinner with anyone (living or dead) it would be…

Definitely Mark Webber. I would have loved to have been a Formula One driver!

The last great movie I saw was…

Sadly, with a two-year-old, my husband and I don’t tend to get out too much! But we do watch a great deal of TV series. We very much looked forward to the second series of The Crown which started recently!

Male teachers may face extinction in Australian primary schools by the year 2067 unless urgent policy action is taken. In government schools, the year is 2054.

This finding comes from our analysis of more than 50 years of national annual workplace data – the first of its kind in any country.

We found a sharp decrease in the percentage of male teachers since records of teacher gender began in 1965. This includes classroom teachers, head teachers, and principals.

This rapid decline of men is not limited to primary schools. From 1977, when numbers of primary and secondary teachers were first recorded separately, we find an equally rapid decline of male representation in Australia’s secondary schools. In primary schools, there has been a steady decline from 28.5% to 18.3%; in secondary schools, it has dropped from 53.9% to 40%.

Looking at the data by state and school sector, the lowest representation of men in primary schools is just 12.2% in Northern Territory Independent schools and 36.4% in Queensland government secondary schools.

Causes of the decline

Factors that deter men from teaching have been discussed in both the media and research literature. While some men (and women) may be deterred from teaching because it is perceived to have low salary and status, men also face social pressures to conform to particular masculine ideals. And teaching is often seen as “women’s work”. It is unclear if these pressures have intensified over the last 50 years.

There may also be a social stigma in advocating for more male teachers when women still face adversity in many other fields. In this way, policymakers may assume that declining male representation in schools is not a problem, or of less importance compared to other professions.

Alternatively, hiring policies may play a role.

We have little data on the hiring policies of different teacher employers around Australia. When looking at the percentage of male teachers in government, Independent, and Catholic sectors separately, we see that government schools show the sharpest drop over time. Independent primary and secondary schools and Catholic secondary schools also show a drop in male teachers, yet at a less rapid rate.

The impact on students

While teacher gender has little effect on student achievement, and students’ role models are often their peers, there are important social and psychological reasons for Australian schools to include more male teachers.

Students themselves tell us that they want to be taught by both women and men. Just as some boys and girls find it easier to relate to female teachers, others find it easier to relate to male teachers. A teaching workforce that is diverse – in gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation – is most likely to appeal to diverse groups of students.

The decline in male representation in schools also limits opportunities for students to observe men outside their families who are caring, nurturing, and concerned about education. This may lead students to assume that only women are suited for such work, or that such traits are atypical in men.

Finally, for students with risky home lives, male representation may be particularly important. The presence of male and female teachers within the school environment allows students to see men and women interacting in positive, equal, and non-violent ways, and to observe men working with female leaders. In this way, male representation in schools may help to challenge misconceptions of what men can and cannot do.

The impact on schools

There are also important workplace reasons for Australian schools to include more male teachers.

Across professions, workforce diversity is pursued because it creates an inclusive environment, facilitates multiple perspectives, and ensures that various groups are included in decision-making processes. Importantly, links have also been found to job satisfaction and performance.

Extending these findings to Australian schools, we suggest benefits for the school community when men and women are more equally represented.

Given the importance of diversity, the Australian government has committed to ensuring that the teaching workforce broadly reflects both the student population and Australian community. There are policies that aim to increase the representation of Aboriginal people, racial and religious minority groups, people under the age of 25, people with a disability, and women in leadership positions.

But there are no current workforce diversity policies to redress the sharp decline in male teachers.

What can be done

We now know where the male teacher population is headed. It is becoming increasingly unlikely that Australian schools will genuinely reflect the student population or broader community. A review of Australian workforce diversity policies is urgently needed.

Fortunately, much can be learned about increasing male representation in schools by looking to professions where the representation of women has been increased. These include STEM and business. As we suggest elsewhere, targeted scholarships could be used to increase the number of men studying education.

Additionally, increasing teachers’ salaries and permanent teaching positions may benefit the profession more broadly, while also providing incentives for men (and women) who consider a career in teaching later in life. Challenging negative perceptions is also important, and may require large-scale campaigns.

Both men and women are capable of being excellent teachers, and we want both in our schools. A more diverse teaching workforce benefits everyone – students, parents, and teachers alike.