Professor Carol Grech, Pro Vice Chancellor: Student Engagement and Equity recently visited our Mount Gambier Campus and met with USASA Rep, Laurena Byers and other students to discuss the ‘Enterprise25 Transforming our academic enterprise Change Proposal’ and to answer questions from students.

The students who attended were very pleased to hear from Professor Grech and were reassured about the positive changes anticipated from the transformation.

In September this year, I travelled to Bologna and Hamburg to work on a research project between my colleagues in Adelaide and the University of Bologna, and to present my PhD research. The collaborative project was a comparison study of Pre-Service Teachers studying mathematics as their specialisation, and how the use of a 360-video camera can enhance their awareness of their pedagogical presence when teaching. The collaboration extended to a discussion with our partners at UoB for expanding this study more widely to in-service University lecturers.

My time in Hamburg was spent attending the European Educational Research Association’s Emerging Researcher Conference, where I presented my PhD study titled, “Exploring the efficacy of an alternative approach to fraction teaching and learning in the early years of primary school”. My research has been undertaken in regional South Australian schools, and I have explored the role spatial reasoning may play in enhancing young children’s understanding about the size (magnitude) of fractions.

This experience was invaluable as an early career researcher, as I was able to build my networks internationally as researcher, and showcase the possibilities working at a regional university can provide.