2025 – ACSA

Conference Conversations

Dr Joanne Casey: Leading Curriculum Change with the Social Brain in Mind

Abstract: In the context of nationwide curriculum renewal and the implementation of Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum, this workshop invites participants to reframe curriculum leadership through the lens of social brain theory (Dunbar’s number). While teacher attrition and shortages have gained significant attention across educational sectors, current solutions predominantly focus on triaging the status quo rather than proactively addressing the hidden social and cognitive complexities inherent in curriculum leadership work. A crucial challenge in this space is the tendency to underestimate the social and cognitive complexity of collaborative interactions necessary for effective implementation and renewal of curriculum in schools. As a result, even well-intentioned curriculum leadership efforts can be significantly derailed. This session employs actionable approaches and strategies, underpinned by research, to support participants in leading meaningful curriculum change. Specifically, this workshop empowers educational leaders to develop new understandings of collaboration as an organisational strategy, recognising that collaborative interactions are more socially and cognitively complex than first thought.

Conversation with Dr Joanne Casey

Dr Joanne Casey is an educational practitioner and researcher. She has worked in a range of contexts to support the implementation of system and school-based improvement initiatives. An advocate for contextual, flexible, research-based approaches, she draws on her teaching, coaching, mentoring and leading work in three sectors of education (Government, Catholic and Independent) to bridge and boundary cross research, policy and practice. Her knowledge is also underpinned by her extensive experience in primary, secondary and tertiary settings.

Joanne is keenly interested in organisational change and the impact that has on both the individual and the organisation. Her doctoral research focused on associations among cognitive limitations for interactions, collaboration as an improvement strategy, and school silo mentality. Joanne continues to explore how these findings may contribute further to addressing the changing and evolving nature of educator’s work. More specifically, how this work is usually among multiple demands vying for attention, often simultaneously, in the time available.

ACSA 2025 Presentation

Contact Details:

jcasey1@usc.edu.au

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoanne-casey/

Emeritus Professor David Blair- "Einstein First" University of Western Australia

Abstract: Einstein-First is an evidence-based school science curriculum that has been under development for more than ten years. It is designed to bring school science and maths into the 21st century, using models, toys, plays and novel mathematical approaches designed to allow all students to become familiar with the core concepts of physical reality, and associated fundamental issues such as climate change by year 10, the final year of compulsory science education. Einstein-First is being implemented in 60 schools across the country. Micro-credential courses upskill primary and secondary school teachers. Teachers with or without science backgrounds become confident to teach Einsteinian concepts and most go on to implement programs in their own classrooms. The project aims to provide a framework for a modern national curriculum.

Emeritus Professor Blair and Einstein physics

Bending Light Trailer

For Teachers: Full access is available through Click View

David Blair is a gravitational wave physicist who spent more than 4 decades developing methods for the detection of gravitational waves. In 1984 he invented the sapphire clock. During the 1990s he built the Gingin gravitational wave research centre and developed techniques for preventing instability in the very high optical power instruments needed for detecting gravitational waves detectors. He led a team of 20 physicists who participated in the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015. He is a founding member of the OzGrav Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery.

In 2003 Blair founded the Gravity Discovery Centre – a major Centre for the promotion of science in Western Australia. In 2010 Blair initiated education trials that developed into the Einstein-First Project, that replaces traditional school science with a modern understanding of space, time, matter and radiation to children from age 7. National funding has allowed the project to expand nationally with schools taking it up across Australia

Blair is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the American Physical Society. He shared the International Breakthrough Prize with all members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration in 2016, he was inducted into the Science Hall of Fame in 2018, received the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science in 2020 and his team won the Premier’s Prize for Science Engagement in 2024.

Blair recently published “Uncovering Einstein’s New Universe” that traces the journey of discovery from the confirmation of general relativity in Western Australia in 1922, to the discoveries of gravitational waves that have revealed a universe full of colliding black holes. He has given numerous public lectures and participated in the 2024 documentary Bending Light.

Selected Prizes, Distinctions and Awards:

1988 Marcel Grossmann Institutional Award for Research in Gravitation and Astrophysics

1992 NASA Group Achievement Award

1993 75th Anniversary Award, The University of Western Australia

1995 Australian Institute of Physics Walter Boas Medal.

2000 Citation: Most Outstanding Review Paper, Reports on the Progress of Physics

2003 Clunies Ross National Science and Technology Medal

2003 a) National Medal for Community Service b) Centenary Medal for Service to Science

2005 Australia-New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science Medal

2005 Eureka Prize for Promoting the Understanding of Science

2006 Western Australian Champion Award

2007 Western Australian Scientist of the Year 2007-8

2016 *Gruber Cosmology Prize

2016 *International Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics

2017 *Royal Astronomical Society Group Achievement Award ‘A’

2017 AAS Bruno Rossi Prize Shared award with members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration

2018 West Australian Scientists Hall of Fame

2020 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science

2024 Premier’s Prize for Science Engagement

Shyam Drury: Mathematics teaching anxiety- how to get past it

Abstract: I will present early findings from my research project: Australian Primary Teachers’ Experiences of Overcoming Mathematics Teaching Anxiety. Anxiety is a major inhibitor for the effectiveness of primary school teachers in delivering effective classroom instruction (Ashcraft & Krause, 2007). It also has a detrimental effect on teacher's overall wellbeing and likelihood to remain in the profession (Ahmed, 2018; Stoehr & Olson, 2015). Furthermore, it has been shown that mathematics anxiety held by teachers may be passed on to students, subsequently negatively impacting their learning (Beilock et al., 2010; Chang & Beilock, 2016). In this project I have interviewed 11 primary school teachers from across Australia, from all three sectors. All of the participants were successful in significantly reducing their anxiety around the teaching of mathematics. I have performed phenomenographic and narrative analysis on the interview transcripts and have categorised the different ways in which these teachers experienced a reduction in their mathematics teaching anxiety. I will present a brief overview of my research methods and findings together with potential implications for teachers, school leaders and policy makers.

Shyam's presentation

Shyam Drury is a lecturer in Primary Mathematics Teaching. He loves helping students develop a deep understanding of the mathematics content and effective teaching. This involves translating research into practical direct experience, through explanation, modelling and participatory examples. Focuses are explicit teaching with a CRA approach, games, and challenging tasks and creating a safe, enjoyable and inclusive experience of mathematics.

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