A passionate teacher with a strong profile in educational research is the new leader of UQ’s Teaching and Educational Development Institute (TEDI).
Professor Merrilyn Goos took over as Director of TEDI on February 1, 2008, a time when increasing emphasis is being placed on teaching and learning.
“The teaching and learning landscape is changing, both inside and outside the University,” Professor Goos said.
“The creation of the Carrick Institute and the introduction of teaching-focused academic positions at UQ are indicators of the increased importance attached to excellent teaching, and of the reconceptualisation of university teaching as a scholarly activity.”
When Professor Paul Greenfield took over as UQ’s Vice-Chancellor, his first major administrative move was to create the portfolio of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning), suggesting he too considers this area very important.
Professor Deborah Terry, who was appointed to the new position, said she was pleased that someone with great enthusiasm for teaching and learning, as well as a high profile in academia, had been selected to lead TEDI.
“TEDI plays an absolutely key role in ensuring that both excellence and innovation in teaching and learning at UQ are strongly encouraged and supported,” Professor Terry said.
“Professor Goos is a highly respected academic in education, who brings considerable expertise and vision to the position.
“I am looking forward to working closely with her in her new role.”
TEDI’s role is to provide support services and staff development opportunities which enhance teaching, learning and other aspects of educational development.
Professor Goos, whose career in education began in 1986, said she hoped to build on the already exceptional work which TEDI does through a more engagement-focused approach.
“TEDI is a very well known and respected "brand" in teaching and learning in higher education in Australia, and TEDI’s academic and professional staff are noted for their dedication and expertise in supporting UQ’s teachers.
“I’m looking forward to strengthening TEDI’s relationships with faculties and other organisational units to achieve what the Carrick Institute refers to as “engaged dissemination” of teaching and learning initiatives, or “dissemination for action”.
“That means we need to do more than provide resources, websites, and workshops – all of which can still be very effective ways of raising awareness and distributing information – and additionally engage with teaching staff and teaching and learning leaders in ways that are evidence-based and action-oriented in order to improve practice, and ultimately to improve student learning.
“Achieving this kind of engagement should place TEDI at the centre of a thriving community of teaching scholars and scholarship,” she said.
Granted a UQ Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003, an Australian Award for University Teaching in 2004, and a Carrick Associate Fellowship in 2006, Professor Goos clearly has a talent for all things educational.
Her previous career, however, was in quite a different area.
“After an initial career as a food technologist (graduating from UQ with a BSc in 1977), I returned to UQ in 1986 to complete a Diploma in Education and then taught secondary school mathematics and chemistry in Brisbane and Darwin,” Professor Goos said.
In 1992 Professor Goos took up a tutoring and research assistant position with UQ’s School of Education and enrolled in a PhD in 1994.
Since 1999, she has held a continuing academic position within the School, where her teaching and research activities have focused on mathematics education.
“I’m a professional educator and an education researcher – all of my academic life has been committed to teachers and teaching, students and learning,” Professor Goos said.
“It felt like a natural progression for me to move from teaching school students to teaching university students, and to investigate how my research on the professional learning of school teachers could help me understand and support the professional learning of university teachers.”
Professor Goos succeeds Ms Beth Cavallari, who served as TEDI’s Acting Director for the past two years following the departure of long serving Director Ms Denise Chalmers, who joined the Carrick Institute, and was recently appointed Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning at the University of Western Australia.
MEDIA: Professor Goos (07 3365 1075, m.goos@uq.edu.au)or Penny Robinson at UQ Communications (07 3365 9723, penny.robinson@uq.edu.au)
