Philip C. Clarkson

Professor Philip C Clarkson email: <Philip.Clarkson@acu.edu.au> Mailing address: School of Education (Vic) Faculty of Education Locked Bag 4115 Fitzroy, Vic. 3065 Australia Telephone 61 (0)3 9953 3269 Facsimile 61 (0)3 9953 3372 Location: Room 4.34 Main Building St Patrick’s Campus 115 Victoria Pde, Fitzroy

Professional Summary

I have been at ACU since 1985. This followed nearly five years as Director of a Research Centre at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology, and prior to that as a lecturer at Monash University and tertiary colleges in Melbourne. I began my working life as a teacher of mathematics, chemistry, environmental science and physical education in secondary schools.

At present I am an Associate Director of the Mathematics and Literacy Education Research Flagship and Victoria’s State Coordinator of research programs in the Faculty of Education [Ph D, M Phil and M Ed (Research) programs].

I have led a number of major consultancies in evaluation of programs from school level through to system level. As well a number of major ARC funded research projects have been undertaken. More details of these are found below.

I have served as President, Secretary and Vice President (Publications) of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, the peak research association in mathematics education in the region. I was the foundation editor of the research journal Mathematics Education Research Journal in 1989, and continue to serve on the Editorial Board. On the professional side, I have been an editor and a member of the Editorial Boards of the professional teachers’ journals Vinculum published by the Mathematics Association of Victoria, and the Australian Mathematics Teacher published by the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers, where I continue to serve on the Editorial Board. As a regular reviewer for Educational Studies in Mathematics, the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Journal for Mathematics Teacher Education, as well as many general and mathematics education conferences, I am able to keep in touch with current trends in education.

For more details on my professional background, click here.

Consultancies

A major aspect of my work has been conducting consultancies, particularly in the area of evaluation and assessment from school through system level.

The following are a selection of key major projects on which I have worked:

Project Title		Source of Funds
	The importance of qualifications – Credentialism in the 21^st century		Queensland Department of Education and the Arts
	A model for evaluation of the distance taught M. Ed. in Papua New Guinea		PATTF
	An evaluation of the teacher education programs in Papua New Guinea		AusAID, Aust. Govt.
	An evaluation of Ave Maria College		School Board
	Developing guidelines for accrediting middle years pre service degree programs		Victorian Dept of Schools
	Evaluation of the ‘Navigator Schools Project’		Victorian Dept of Schools

I have also worked on the following projects:

Ø Family-School Partnership Action Research Project (funded by DEST)

Ø The Values Education Training and Quality Teacher Education Project (funded by DEST)

Ø Australian Schools Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics Program [ASISTM] (funded by the DEST through the Curriculum Corporation)

I have worked with schools and individual teachers leading and or being a critical friend for such topics as:

Ø Teaching and learning values in the classroom

Ø Whole school change

Ø Language and mathematics; An important relationship

Ø How NESB students learn mathematics

Ø Logical connectives: The language at the heart of rational mathematics

Ø Thinking spatially: What many young mathematical students do (even though there teachers don’t know)

I have also been invited to be a member of various consultation working parties / committees or have been asked to review material by Ministry of Education Victoria, Federal Ministry of Education Science and Training, Curriculum Corporation, a number of professional associations, and various universities both Australian and overseas,

Teaching

I supervise individual research students in their doctoral and masters research programs. I am particularly interested in the interplay of mathematics and language learning, although I have also supervised a broad range of other topics in education (click here for supervised research topics).

Click here to see some further material dealing with undertaking research studies.

At present I teach general education units in the M Ed and tutor mathematics education units in the undergraduate degree.

I am the Victoria’s State Coordinator of research programs in the Faculty of Education [Ph D, M Phil and M Ed (Research) programs], and hence chair all the student research seminars, irrespective of the School in which they are enrolled. (All research students must give at least one seminar each 12 month.)

In the past I was Faculty Coordinator of the Doctor of Education program, as well leading the elective strand 'Teaching and Learning’. Sessions were also taught in the doctoral units ‘Research Methodologies’ and ‘Contemporary Issues in Education’.

Scholarship

I have recently been invited to join a ccommittee of 12 international scholars by the International Commission for Mathematics Instruction for their sponsored study on (Re)Sourcing the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics in Multilingual Contexts.

Funded Research Projects

The major mathematics education research projects that I have lead or co lead are:

Project Title	Source of Funds
Evaluating a professional development program for primary school teachers	Melbourne Catholic Education Office
Bilingual students and Mathematics learning in Melbourne and Sydney	ARC Large Grant; ARC Small Grant, ACU Research Grant
Making values teaching explicit in the classroom	ARC Large Grant ACU Res Grant
Globalisation issues in professional development of Mathematics Educators	ARC Large Grant

I have had the opportunity to be part of research projects or act as a research consultant in Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Fiji, United Kingdom and United States of America.

Research Conferences

I have been involved in organizing many research conferences over the last 25 years.

In 2004 I was invited to co chair the Topic Study Group ‘Students’ motivation and attitudes towards mathematics and its study’ at the four yearly conference of the 10^th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME) held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In 2004 I initiated and co chaired the Research Forum ‘Researching mathematics education in multilingual contexts: Theory, methodology and teaching mathematics’ at the annual conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education held in Bergen, Norway.

In 1996 and 2005 I helped to organize the annual conferences of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia held in Melbourne, Australia.

In 1995 I was one of four who organized the ICMI Regional Conference: Regional Collaboration in Mathematics Education held at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Publications

Click here to view recent publications.

Conference Presentations

Click here to view recent presentations I have given.