Professor Jill Fielding
Professor STEM Education - Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education; School of Education
Biography
Jill Fielding is a Professor of STEM Education and the School of Education Research Co-ordinator in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education at the University of New England. She has international recognition as a researcher in mathematics and statistics education.
Jill commenced her career in adult training and development before discovering a passion for teaching, leading to study to qualify as a primary teacher. Her experience as a teacher has provided insight into the extent to which children were/are disengaged with mathematics from the earliest years of formal schooling. This realisation led her to research teaching approaches in search of ways to spark students' enthusiasm and love of mathematics while, at the same time, developing deep conceptual understanding. Over subsequent years, Jill divided her time between classroom teaching and research until she completed her Doctor of Philosophy (Developing Argument-Based Inquiry in Primary Mathematics: The Role of Evidence and Context). In 2014, Jill made the jump to academia, commencing as a Lecturer in Mathematics Education at the University of Tasmania. Working in this role made her increasingly aware of many significant issues in mathematics teacher education that were yet to be addressed in research. Subsequently, Jill took a Research Fellowship at the University of Queensland before moving to the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education at the Australian Catholic University as a Senior Research Fellow. Jill commenced her current role at the University of New England in 2021.
Jill's research program has attracted significant external funding (~3 million AUD) including two competitive ARC Discovery Grants (DP170101993) into developing classroom norms that are conducive to Inquiry-Based Learning and (DP220101015) into Teacher ‘noticing’ of students’ critical mathematical thinking. Her research is classroom-based as she has a desire to make a pragmatic difference to teaching and learning and values the collaborative partnerships she has with schools and teachers.
As School Research Coordinator within the School of Education, Jill provides leadership, support and mentoring to Early and Mid-Career Researchers, across grant writing, ethics, project development, budgeting and grant administration. She has established several research groups within the School and leads the UNE STEM Education Network.
