David Geelan

• PhD (Science Education) - Curtin
• Professor at The University of Notre Dame Australia

The paper is part of a pilot study exploring how undergraduate engineering students at one Australian university perceive their own employability development over the span of their degree. The paper outlines approaches to defining employability and the individual factors within employability. Students across a range of year levels were surveyed abo...

Keywords: educational research; research methodology trends; undergraduate thesis; English language education; content analysis The present study thoroughly examines the predominant research methodology trends and topics applied in a specific time frame from 2019 to 2023 in educational research of the online searchable undergraduate theses in Engli...

Formative assessment in K-12 education has been a notable teaching and learning focus area in schools over the last 20 years, as evidenced by numerous recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses investigating and summarizing the evidence for formative assessments’ effectiveness and sustainability. This umbrella review systematically reviews meta-an...

The research objectives describe the CW+R curriculum profile, explore the relationship between the CW+R curriculum and education 4.0, find the impact of model implementation in building a true scientist mentality, predict the completion of doctoral program students. The method used in this research is R&D with steps: describing the existing curricu...

Instructional explanations are sometimes viewed as part of a nonconstructivist, solely teacher-centered learning environment , leading to the perception that they are ineffective or inappropriate for teaching science. Consequently , teacher education programmes seldom focus on preparing teachers to explain scientific concepts effectively. Interesti...

Purpose This study was conducted to gain a better understanding of engineering students' perceptions of the meaning of employability and the activities that contribute to employability development. Design/methodology/approach A survey was used to take a cross-section of student perspectives at key stages in the degree, and was followed by a series...

The pKa(H) value of the benzenonium carbocation (C6H +7 , cy-clohexadienyl cation, Wheland intermediate) is −24.3 [1]. The Hammett’s reaction constant (ρ) value for the deprotonation equilibrium is 14.3 [2].{fx283-01}Using this value, the Hammett substituent constant, (σX) of any substituent (X) and the Hammett equation, pKH − pKX = ρσ, the pKa(X)...

Today’s English teaching and learning speaking in the digital era at the university level is full of challenges but promotes many possibilities. WhatsApp, the most popular social media used for communication, can be interactively utilized to study speaking about daily conversations in a flexible way anytime and anywhere to solve students’ speaking...

Today's English teaching and learning speaking in the digital era at the university level is full of challenges but promotes many possibilities. WhatsApp, the most popular social media used for communication, can be interactively utilized to study speaking about daily conversations in a flexible way anytime and anywhere to solve students' speaking...

It is a common situation in science teaching: A teacher wants to introduce a new concept in physics such as Newton's third law. Of course, several decisions must be made about how to teach the new concept. These decisions might include the ques-tion of whether students should mainly work on their own to discover the concept, or whether the teacher...

Science education is a complex undertaking, on a range of levels and dimensions, and poses challenges in developing abilities on the part of students to engage with global challenges including climate change, water shortages and pandemics. Recent studies in complexity science offer novel ways of thinking about these challenges. This introductory ch...

We hope that the chapters collected here offer a range of research-informed perspectives on simplicity and complexity in science education that will be of value to the international science education research community as we collectively seek to enhance the educational experiences we offer students and the outcomes of those experiences in their liv...

Background This study explored the challenges around enacting change in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subject at an Australian higher education institution and examined key elements required to ensure change. Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the barriers and levers driving change during the collaboration...

Engaging parents in their children’s learning has the potential to improve students’ attitudes and their academic achievements. Until now, however, we have lacked an overview of the ways in which beginning teachers are educated and up-skilled to invite and support parental engagement in Australia’s 350 accredited teacher education programs. To addr...

There is a long history of philosophical inquiry into the concept of explanation in science, and this work has some implications for the ways in which science teachers, particularly in the physical sciences (physics and chemistry), explain ideas to students. Recent work has outlined a constructivist approach to developing, delivering, and refining...

Brønsted (log kB = β pKaHB + C) and Taft (log k = ρ*σ* + log ko) linear free energy equations are applied to the interfacial tension data of N-substituted anilines. The significance of the values of the constants Brønsted β (0.096) and Taft ρ* (0.091) are explained in terms of proton transfer from the acid to the aniline, which is accelerated by el...

Non-associative behavior of thiophenols is explained on the basis of Trouton’s rule, proton acceptor-donor cites and application of Hammett equation to the surface tension data of thiophenols.

Measuring teachers' skills to carry out the complex tasks required in teaching is an important means of evaluating the effectiveness of teacher education but remains a challenging activity to conduct in practice. It is necessary to optimise approaches for usability and effectiveness along a continuum from low-effort and low-authenticity measures su...

This study investigated the effectiveness of a novel inquiry-based instructional sequence using interactive simulations for supporting students’ development of conceptual understanding, inquiry process skills and confidence in learning. The study, conducted in Beijing, involved two teachers and 117 students in four classes. The teachers participate...

Science education has a role in developing thinking skills and approaches to reasoning and evidence on the part of students who will be citizens of the future. These skills include tolerance for, and the ability to function within, environments characterised by complexity and ambiguity. Science education can also help to develop a more global visio...

In this chapter, we aim to unsettle and unmask the discourse of e-mediated instruction and personalised learning. We look to re-see and rethink these terms through trajectories other than those often now provided to us. There is considerable literature that trumpets successes, but the literature also suggests that at present it is really difficult...

This chapter considers the ways in which the new affordances of computers for learning have influenced learning. While the general scope is broad, the focus is on the ways in which computers make it possible to personalise learning in novel ways for learners. The simple move from reading the same text on a page to a screen and completing the text w...

In this chapter, we explore the possibilities e-mediated learning might offer to personalise learning in health education in the higher education sector. This is considered in the specific context of inter-professional learning (IPL) which has been adopted with relative vigour in the health education field. IPL is defined as “[L]earning arising fro...

In this chapter, we ponder the challenge of evaluating the effectiveness of personalised learning in e-mediated higher education contexts. We argue that we must first decide what constitutes success. Higher education is a complex learning space, so the goals of teaching and learning will be necessarily complex and diverse. This chapter ends with a...

This chapter explores our own experiences as a means of exploring the tensions and constraints that arise when educators seek to foster (their own developing visions of) personalised learning in their pedagogical practices, within the contexts of degree-granting university courses. In telling those stories and reflecting on those experiences, we li...

The term e-mediation has been defined earlier in this book. Our interest in this chapter is how the term is enacted in practice. Seale (2014) observes that much of the literature around e-mediated learning as accessible learning is written by those who do not have to enact these policies. If the twenty-first century requires a different type of sch...

In this chapter, we highlight some of the recent international debates informing personalised learning as it impacts on pedagogy, with a focus on e-mediated tools. We then reflect on the experience of being on-campus in the past, in the present, and then we look to the possible future. We consider significant challenges impeding technology adoption...

In this chapter, we explore who inhabits higher education and what implications this has for personalised education , especially utilising electronically mediated environments. We do this by placing a sociocultural lens over the people who inhabit tertiary education using generational theory as a way to consider a broad-brush approach to what this...

In this chapter, we query whether personalised learning is about the person, the technology, or the state, and if the latter, how the person might then act and react. This chapter begins with a discussion of the policy terrain internationally and then provides a narrative of constructed accounts of the personalisation agenda in one university. Work...

This chapter introduces understandings of the concept of personalised learning, as distinct from individualised and differentiated learning, in the context of electronically mediated higher education learning and teaching. We begin a conversation that is revisited across the book about the role of teacher and the role of student and their interacti...

This book examines the theoretical underpinning of the concept of personalised education and explores the question: What is personalised education in the contemporary higher education sector and how is it implemented? A broad, sophisticated definition of personalised learning has the potential to serve as a basis for more effective educational prac...

Queensland schools are engaged in change as they shift Year 7 from primary to high school settings from the start of 2015 and implement Junior Secondary in all public schools in Years 7, 8, and 9. This agenda signals one of the most significant reforms undertaken in Queensland education and is accompanied by a systemic policy commitment, including...

Science fiction and the ‘technofantasies’ of the future that it provides may attract some students to study physics. The details and assumptions informing these ‘imaginaries’ may, on the other hand, be unattractive to other students, or imply that there is not a place for them. This forum discussion complements Cathrine Hasse’s paper discussing the...

This is a short paper, a precis of other research work, that I wrote for a teacher audience. It was published (without peer review) in the Queensland Science Teacher journal, published by the Science Teachers Association of Queensland (STAQ).

Teaching is challenging in part because, although school structures are to some extent modelled on industrial approaches in which the ‘raw materials’ are assumed to be very similar, human beings are endlessly diverse. Understanding the many differences amongst students, and treating these differences as teaching resources rather than deficits, is a...

The concept of ‘weak measurements’ in quantum physics is a way of ‘cheating’ the Uncertainty Principle. Heisenberg stated (and 85 years of experiments have demonstrated) that it is impossible to know both the position and momentum of a particle with arbitrary precision. More precise measurements of one decrease the precision with which the other ca...

Understanding how teachers make sense of education policy is important. We argue that an exploration of teacher reactions to policy requires an engagement with theory focused on the formation of ‘the subject’ since this form of theorisation addresses the creation of a seemingly coherent identity and attitude while acknowledging variation across dif...

Discussion forums used for teaching and other purposes in university courses are most often 'closed',in the sense that they are located within course management systems (CMSs) and password protected. This also means that they typically only last one semester and are associated with a particular course. This approach has advantages, but also costs,...

China has implemented curricular reforms with a focus on inquiry learning in physics education. As has been the case in other countries around the world, teachers have generally supported the intentions of the curriculum in relation to inquiry pedagogy but, in the face of high stakes assessment and other issues, have struggled to implement it appro...

Queensland state schools are engaged in significant change as they implement the major reform, A Flying Start for Queensland Children. One of the most significant of the reforms is the transition of Year 7 to high school in all Queensland schools from 2015 and the introduction of Junior Secondary for Years 7, 8 and 9. The research team have been wo...

Inquiry instruction is a well-respected and well-supported teaching approach in science education, although the extent to which teachers are able to implement it in classrooms around the world is somewhat disappointing, despite a strongly expressed desire to do so. Reasons for this include pressures on teachers to ‘teach to the exam’, over-full cur...

This paper explores the impact of a Teaching and Learning Audit of all government schools in Queensland, Australia. This audit has a concern with the extent to which schools ‘differentiate classroom learning’. We note that in England, since September 2012, one of the standards that teachers have been expected to demonstrate is an ability to ‘differ...

Scientific visualisations such as computer-based animations and simulations are increasingly a feature of high school science instruction. Visualisations are adopted enthusiastically by teachers and embraced by students, and there is good evidence that they are popular and well received. There is limited evidence, however, of how effective they...

Research provides compelling evidence linking music-making to academic achievement and increased wellbeing for disengaged students. However, in the Australian context, education policy has narrowed its focus to literacy and numeracy, with an associated ‘accountability’ framework of mandated assessment and reporting practices. Within this context te...

(From the publisher) Informed by the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL), Connected Science presents a new approach to college science education for the 21st century. This interdisciplinary approach stresses integrative learning and pedagogies that engage students through open-ended inquiry, compelling real-world questions, and data-rich ex...

Recent empirical work in the field of 'weak measurements' has yielded novel ways of more directly accessing and exploring the quantum wavefunction. Measuring either position or momentum for a photon in a 'weak' manner yields a wide range of possible values for the measurement, and can be done in such a way as to only minimally effect the wavefuncti...

This paper reports case studies of five Chinese secondary physics teachers‟ beliefs and instructional decisions in relation to inquiry-based teaching (IBT). It is part of a larger study intended to explore Chinese secondary physics teachers‟ beliefs and the ways in which their beliefs influence their classroom practices in the context of the curren...

Secondary school science teachers have a wide variety of teaching approaches available to them as they support the development of their students’ scientific literacy and knowledge of, and about, science. Information technologies, on computers and other devices, offer potentially valuable ways to supplement this ‘toolkit’ of teaching approaches. Thi...

Reconciling sexual orientation with religious and spiritual beliefs can be challenging for Christian homosexuals, since many Christian churches teach that homosexual behavior is sinful. A qualitative study of 10 male and 10 female Christian homosexuals was conducted via semistructured interviews. This article seeks to explore the potential conflict...

Video recordings of Year 11 physics lessons were analyzed to identify key features of teacher explanations. Important features of the explanations used included teachers’ ability to move between qualitative and quantitative modes of discussion, attention to what students require to succeed in high stakes examinations, thoughtful use of analogies, s...

The ways in which science teachers explain science concepts to students are complex and rich phenomena. Science teaching explanations have identifiable features, with some of these features being shared with formal scientific explanations and some with everyday explanations. This chapter reviews the existing research on science teacher explanations...

Sexual identity development among gay men and lesbians consists an important component of coming out. Coming out is considered a vital component in the sexual identity development among gay men and lesbians. This paper explores the experiences of gay men and lesbians with respect to sexual identity development particularly in issues relating to sex...

This study investigated whether conceptual development is greater if students learning senior chemistry hear teacher explanations and other traditional teaching approaches first then see computer based visualizations or vice versa. Five Canadian chemistry classes, taught by three different teachers, studied the topics of Le Chatelier's Principle an...

Explanation is an under-researched area in science education. The ways in which successful physics teachers explain physics concepts to their students were studied in Australia and Canada using video analysis of classroom teaching. This paper outlines the technical features and analytical approach of the study as well as describing the findings.

Most organized religions including Christianity still regard homosexuality as being against their teachings, as sinful and contrary to scripture. Thus the matter of reconciling sexual orientation with religious and spiritual beliefs can be a very challenging and complicated process for those homosexual persons who uphold Christianity as their relig...

This paper reports a project conducted in twelve Grade 11 Physics classrooms in Edmonton, Canada, that used close analysis of video recordings of teacher explanations to explore the ways in which physics teachers explain concepts. The focus here is on discussion of the research methods and associated technological and methodological issues rather t...

Classroom narratives and stories are rich and powerful in offering deep insights into classrooms and the reality of teaching-a reality critically re-examined in this forum. Discussing Maria's narratives led to reflections about what it takes to support teachers to become agents of more equitable science practices. Factors such as time and identity-...

In late 2006, Southeast Queensland, where I live, was in the grip of a drought, with severe water restrictions that were on the verge of becoming more severe. Brisbane had Level Three water restrictions: gardens could only be watered with a bucket and cars couldn't be washed with a hose. Prisoners in the city's jails had the length of their showers...

Visual modes of representation have always been very important in science and science education. Interactive computer-based animations and simulations offer new visual resources for chemistry education. Many studies have shown that students enjoy learning with visualisations but few have explored how learning outcomes compare when teaching with or...

The issue of the "research-practice gap"--the problematic relationship between research in education and educational practice--has been widely reported in the literature. This critical literature review explores some of the causes and features of the gap and suggests some possible approaches for addressing it. These solutions involve changes in the...

During 1996, in my role as a science teacher and researcher, I conducted an intensive participant observational study in an innovative Australian middle school. The activity involved team teaching with a group of five teachers attempting to implement curricular innovations such as portfolio assessment, integrated curriculum, and teacher collaborati...

Response to a review by Perla and Carifio of Geelan's book 'Undead Theories'.

This forum discussion focuses on seven themes drawn from Sonya’s fascinating paper: the terminology of “cogenerative dialogues,” the roles of participants and their power relations within such dialogues, the use of metaphor and analogy in the paper, science and science education for all students, the ways in which students’ expectations about learn...