Dean's Report

MGSE Professional Learning Conferences

Our inaugural MGSE professional learning conferences for school and early childhood centre educators were successfully delivered over the past fortnight. These conferences form an important part of our partner benefits package for schools who take our students on placement and offer high level professional development to the participants. The conferences offered an impressive array of high calibre presenters and workshops on topics of keen interest to the more than 400 participants.

The primary and secondary conferences coalesced around the theme of student voice, agency and participation, currently of great relevance to Victorian schools, in part due to the fact that government schools are now being asked to measure and account for their progress in this area and many schools have strategic goals related to these topics. Professor Helen Cahill delivered the keynote on Using student participation to enhance the social and personal capabilities highlighting the ways opportunities to participate can strengthen school culture and further the personal and social development and contribution of students and staff.

The early childhood conference began with a with a keynote address from Professor Nicola Yelland on STEM: Growing a generation of new learners. She shared her experience and research on the STEM Bridge project which created contexts for collaborations between preschool education and school in six sites across South Australia. Using STEM as the context the project focused on building bridges to support the transition between preschool and school.

Thank you to our Partnership Manager, Angela Pollock, for her impeccable organisation of the two conferences which have both received very positive feedback and to all our academics who participated in the workshops – an excellent example of great teamwork between MGSE professional and academic staff.

We are currently recruiting two key academic roles at MGSE, the Professor Educational Leadership and the Professor Digital Education, and I encourage you to spread the word about these positions to your networks. Please contact the People and Culture team for more details.

Enterprise Professor appointment

The University Academic Promotion Committee has just approved the appointment of Sandra Milligan as an Enterprise Professor. This appointment is in recognition of the considerable knowledge, leadership and entrepreneurial skills that Sandra has brought to MGSE. I’m sure you will all join me in congratulating Sandra on this tremendous achievement.