People

Professor Jan Van Driel

BSci, MSci, PhD
Jan van Driel is a Professor of Science Education and leader of the Mathematics, Science & Technology Education Group in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. His research interests include science teacher knowledge, teacher education and professional learning, and interdisciplinary science and STEM education. Currently, Jan is one of the Chief Investigators on an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project Primary Teachers’ Adaptive Expertise in Interdisciplinary Mathematics and Science Education involving collaborations with RMIT, Monash University and Deakin University.

Dr Esther Chan

BA (Psych. and Crim.), GradDipSci (Psych.), MEdPsych, PhD
Dr Esther Chan is a Lecturer in the Educational Psychology Programs and an Educational and Developmental Psychologist. Dr Chan is interested in the knowledge construction process involved in research and in teaching and educational psychological practices. Her work focuses on understanding the role that research discourse plays in the day-to-day professional practice and learning of teachers and educational and developmental psychologists. She has extensive research experience having worked on multiple Australian Government funded national and international projects on student wellbeing and achievement, early literacy assessment, school retention, collaborative problem-solving (The Social Unit of Learning project), and professional learning of mathematics teachers (Learning from Lessons project). Dr Chan is currently leading a project investigating teacher in-the-moment decision making using classroom video research methodology and computer assisted quantitative analysis (multimodal learning analytics) involving collaborators from the University of Melbourne, RMIT, and New York University.

Dr Carmel Mesiti

BA (Mathematics), GDipEd, BTeach, PGDipEdSt, MEd, PhD

Dr Carmel Mesiti is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education and the Master of Teaching (Primary) course coordinator in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. Dr Mesiti’s research has centred on exploring, through international video-based research, the nature of teaching and learning in mathematics classrooms. Dr Mesiti worked as project manager of The International Classroom Lexicon Project, funded by the Australian Council of Research, which resulted in a published volume with contributions from 46 researchers. This collection of 21 chapters presents and interrogates the nature of pedagogical lexicons of 10 education communities worldwide.

Dr Mesiti has delivered professional development workshops for in-service teachers and early career researchers worldwide. She began her career in government schools as a secondary school mathematics teacher teaching mathematics across years 7 to 12 and held significant leadership positions including head of the mathematics faculty.