|
Update my staff profile
Teaching commitmentBiographyTeacher for 10 years.
Worked in schools and universities in Papua New Guinea for 6 years.
Extensive experience in research and teaching in teacher education.
Member of the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences panel of the Australian Research Council College of Experts for 2005 to 2007.
Associate Editor, Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education.
Previous employment at Australian Catholic University and La Trobe University.
Currently Professor of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, Monash University.
Research InterestsApplications currently under review:
Influences on students learning goals and their capacity for self-regulation
There is a widely held view that many students in the middle years (ages 10 to 14) are disengaged from school and education. This project seeks to identify key factors that influence student learning and engagement in these school years and to evaluate teaching interventions that improve engagement, learning and achievement. The proposed project tests the proposition that crucial elements in engaging middle year students include their future aspirations and their sense of capacity to influence their own outcomes, and will develop and evaluate interventions designed to connect school experience with students perceived futures, and to enhance students self-regulation of their learning.
Examining the relationship between the documented curriculum, classroom tasks, and the learning of mathematics
This project is about types of tasks that teachers use to teach mathematics. Teachers try to engage all learners in using mathematics to prepare them for life in an increasingly demanding technological society. Teachers also realise that for students to excel in further study they need to learn significant mathematics. It is challenging to do both in classrooms in which there is a diversity in readiness to learn and/or cultural background. The project will examine the ways teachers use particular types of mathematical tasks, the type of student learning that results, any constraints they experience, and the optimal strategies to support student learning.
Current funded projects are:
Maximising Success in Mathematics for Disadvantaged Students
An ARC Discovery Grant (DP0449990), through La Trobe University, with Judy Mousley, Deakin University, and Robyn Zevenbergen, Griffith University, to examine ways that particular lesson structures contribute to effective learning for all students. The project involves working with teachers in a range of schools.
Previously completed projects
Scaffolding numeracy in the middle years: An investigation of a new assessment-guided approach to teaching mathematics using authentic assessment tasks
An ARC Linkage Grant (LP0348448), through RMIT, to investigate frameworks for, and teaching of, multiplicative thinking, predominantly in the middle years.
Overcoming structural barriers in mathematics learning
An ARC Discovery Grant (A00106404) with Judith Mousley and Robyn Zevenbergen, This was supplemented in 2002 with a grant from the Department of Education and Training to explore the project particularly in schools with high proportions of Koorie students.
Using interactive media in enhancing teachers' awareness of key characteristics of effecting teaching
Conducted jointly with Judith Mousley, attracted a number of funding sources, including a large grant from the ARC (1996 to 1998).
SupervisionInterest and expertise in:
Mathematics education
Teaching
Learning
Student engagement
Projects of current and recent students include:
Characteristics of student resilience,
Student teachers intentions for literacy and numeracy teaching,
The effectiveness of games in learning mathematics
Supporting students with difficulties in learning mathematics
Teacher beliefs and understandings and the middle years mathematics classroom
Student efficacy and their orientation to learning.
Models of teacher professional development
PublicationsSelected Publications.
Books
Mousley, J., and Sullivan, P.(1996) Learning about teaching. Adelaide: AAMT. ISBN 0 7300 2164 5. Accompanied by CD-ROM.
Sullivan, P., and Lilburn, P.(2002). Good questions for math teaching. Sausalito, CA: Math Solution Publications. ISBN 0 19 554099-9
Lilburn, P., and Sullivan, P.(2003). PNG Department of Education Grade 6 Mathematics Teacher Book. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019 550871 8 (one of a set of 26 student and teacher resources books)
Chapters in Books
Sullivan, P., and Mousley, J.(2001).Thinking teaching: Seeing mathematics teachers as active decision makers. In Lin Fou- Lai and T. Cooney (Eds.) Making sense of mathematics teacher education (pp. 147-164). Dordrecht; Boston : Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-6985-8
Recent Articles in Refereed Journals
Anderson, J., White, P., and Sullivan, P. (2005). Using a schematic model to represent influences on, and relationships between, teachers beliefs and practices. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 17(2), 9-39.
Sullivan, P., Tobias, S., and McDonough, A. (accepted for publication). Perhaps the decision of some students not to engage in learning mathematics in school is deliberate. Educational Studies in Mathematics.
Sullivan, P., Zevenbergen, R., and Mousley, J. (accepted for publication). Teacher actions to maximize mathematics learning opportunities in heterogeneous classrooms. International Journal for Science and Mathematics Teaching.
Sullivan, P., Mousley, J., and Zevenbergen, R. (2005). Increasing access to mathematical thinking. Mathematical Gazette, 32(2), 105-110. Reprinted in MSOR Connection the U.K. Higher Education Academy for Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research Network, and also in Vinculum, the Journal of the Mathematical Association of Victoria.
Recent Journal Editorials
Sullivan, P. (2001). ICME and teacher education. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 4, 1-2. (guest editorial)
Sullivan, P., and Warren, E. (2001). Mathematics Teacher Education: Some International Approaches, 3, 1-4.
Sullivan, P. (2002). Using the study of practice as a learning strategy within mathematics teacher education programs. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 5(4), 289-292.
Sullivan, P. (2003). Incorporating knowledge of, and beliefs about, mathematics into teacher education. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 6(4), 293-296.
Sullivan, P. (2004). Some ways of knowing mathematics and some implications for teacher education. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 7(4), 295-298.
Sullivan, P. (2005). Not only what and why but also how: Thinking about strategies for mathematics teacher education. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 8(6), 437-440.
Recent Refereed Conference Proceedings
Anderson, J., Sullivan, P., and White, P. (2004). The influence of perceived constraints on teachers problem solving beliefs and practices. In I. Putt, R. Farragher and M. McLean (Eds.). Mathematics Education for the Third Millennium: Towards 2010. Proceedings of the 27th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (pp. 39-47). Townsville: MERGA.
Mousley, J., Sullivan, P., and Zevenbergen, R. (2004). Alternate learning trajectories. In I. Putt, R. Farragher and M. McLean (Eds.). Mathematics Education for the Third Millennium: Towards 2010. Proceedings of the 27th annual conference of Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (pp. 374-382), Townsville: MERGA.
Sullivan, P., McDonough, A., and Turner Harrison, R. (2004). Students perceptions of factors contributing to successful participation in mathematics. In M. Johnsen Joines and A. Fuglestad (Eds.) Proceedings of the 28th annual conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 289-297). Bergen: PME.
Sullivan, P., Mousley, J., and Zevenbergen, R. (2004). Describing elements of mathematics lessons that accommodate diversity in student background. In M. Johnsen Joines and A. Fuglestad (Eds.) Proceedings of the 28th annual conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 257 265). Bergen: PME.
Sullivan, P., Mousley, J., and Zevenbergen, R. (2005). Planning and teaching mathematics lessons as a dynamic, interactive process. In H. Chick and J. Vincent (Eds) Proceedings of the 29th annual conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 4-249 - 4-257). Melbourne: PME.
Sullivan, P. (2005). The beneficiaries of educational research. Australian Association of Research in Education special conference. Cairns, July.
Sullivan, P., McDonough, A., and Prain, V. (2005). Student engagement in the Middle Years: Describing influences and possible teacher actions. Proceedings of the Australian Association of Research in Education annual conference. Sydney, November.
Mills, T., and Sullivan, P. (2005). Mathematics At your service. In Ki Hyoung Ko and Deane Arganbright (Eds) Proceedings of the First KAIST International Symposium Enhancing University Mathematics Teaching (pp.81 95), Daejeon, Korea.
|
