The Changemakers in Financial Education

Nov 13, 2025 | Current Events, Spotlight Event

The Changemakers in Financial Education

Calling all South Australian public school teachers!

Commencing 16th February 2026

Collaborative

Self Directed

Remote

About this Course

The Changemakers in Financial Education project is a partnership between Deakin University and the South Australian Department for Education that supports teachers to develop as financial educators through unique and innovative professional learning.

The project centres on the design, delivery and evaluation of the Changemakers in Financial Education course. This short course is offered through Deakin University’s Professional Learning Education Hub (PLEdHub@Deakin) and aims to prepare teachers of Years 5 to 10 to connect the school curriculum with young people’s current and future financial worlds.

Want to learn with us in 2026, click here to read more

Who is this course for?

Calling all South Australian public school teachers!

We prepare teachers of Years 5 – 10 to:

Understand the scope of the Australian Curriculum v9.0 for teaching about finance
Design and adapt lessons that explore real-world financial problems
Tailor learning for students from diverse financial realities

Course dates

Dates are as follows:

Welcome Webinar: 16 February 2026, 4 – 5pm
Commencement Intensive: 19 – 20 February 2026, 9am – 3.15pm
Virtual Workshop: 02 April 2026, 9am – 3.15pm via Zoom
Professional Learning Showcase Friday 26 June 2026: 9am – 3.15pm

Registration

To register for this course, email education.financialliteracy@sa.gov.au to register your interest now!

Testimonials

“We know that young people want finance-related lessons that connect with their present and are useful to their future. Teacher
professional learning offers an effective way to open new possibilities for teachers as financial educators in a short period of time. The Changemakers in Financial
Education course offers a distinctive design, with scope to explore and apply your learning how you choose.”
Carly Sawatzki, Deakin University
“Participating in the Changemakers in Financial Education course was both rewarding and insightful. I witnessed my students’ confidence grow with each lesson, along with their curiosity and enthusiasm for learning practical financial skills. This process has given me valuable insights into my students’ thinking, enabling me to support them in connecting classroom learning with real-life situations, which ultimately strengthened my practice as a financial educator.
Andy Sommers, Brighton Primary School
“This course has transformed my understanding of financial literacy, revealing that it extends beyond just saving, spending, budgeting, and banking. I now feel more confident in identifying opportunities to teach financial literacy in my classroom. When I come across media articles, news reports, apps or websites, I find myself thinking, “How does this relate to finance, and what can my students learn from it?”
Lori-Ann Copping, Grant High School – Independent Learning Centre

Course presenters

The Deakin team is led by Dr Carly Sawatzki and A/P Jill Brown. Carly and Jill support teachers to teach differently, by helping them to connect students’ classroom learning with the real world. They bring extensive experience teaching across primary, secondary and higher education settings, and delivering professional learning and research consultancies for education and curriculum authorities.

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Navigating Relational Uncertainty in the Classroom

Sep 23, 2025 | Current Events, Spotlight Event

Navigating Relational Uncertainty in the Classroom

Professional learning for pre-service and current teachers (K12) backed by evidence-based curriculum research design.

Commences:
Monday 1st June 2026

Self-paced online learning module
Cost: $200

Collaborative

About this Program

This two-hour self-paced module is backed by backed by evidence-based curriculum research design and presents a series of real scenarios, quizzes and reflective practices to develop teachers’ relational pedagogy. The module aligns with the Victorian Curriculum v2: Intercultural Capability curriculum which fosters difference and diversity, and student belonging in the classroom, by focussing on teachers’ racial and cultural competency.

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) Standards:

1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
3.4 Select and use resources
4.1 Support student participation
6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning

Registration

To register for this program, click here

Deakin University staff / students please contact pledhub@deakin.edu.au for a discount rate.

Program staff

Dr Kerri Garrard career twenty-five years teaching in Australian schools. Since
completing my PhD in 2019, I have taught across the MTeach (Secondary)
Humanities course, Research Pathways and Bachelor of Education Primary units.
My research interests have included History and Humanities curriculum,
exploring interculturality in relation to history teaching and learning, the
shifting nature of teacher identity and racial discrimination in schools. My
involvement in collegial research projects, both in Australia and overseas,
draws on my experience and knowledge in curriculum and pedagogy and directly
informs my work with pre-service teachers and higher degree research students.

Research Groups
Centre for Contemporary Histories Research Group (CHRG) School of Humanities
and Social Sciences, Deakin University.

Transforming Curriculum and Pedagogy Research Group – Deakin University
Research Ecology

Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation

Dr Tebeje Molla research explores various facets of educational disadvantage and policy responses. I focus on understanding how systemic and institutional factors contribute to educational inequality and examine the effectiveness of policy interventions designed to address these issues. My ongoing work explores educational justice and social inclusion across various contexts, including early childhood education, schooling, vocational education and training, and higher education.

Through my DECRA and Future Fellowship projects, I have investigated the educational attainment and integration outcomes of African heritage youth from refugee backgrounds. This research aims not only to contribute to academic knowledge but also to inform policymakers and practitioners about the best practices for supporting the educational and social integration of refugee youth in diverse contexts. My interdisciplinary research draws on critical sociology and the capability approach to social justice and human development. I am also interested in teacher professional learning and research training policies.

As a teacher, I am interested in trauma and learning, sociology of education, critical policy studies, and access to and success in education. In supervising postgraduate research candidates, I adopt a mentorship approach, supporting each candidate to develop into the independent researcher they aspire to be and to achieve the maximum real-world impact in their careers. Through various Researcher Mentorship programs, I mentor early-career scholars.

I am a firm believer in the importance of public-facing scholarship. Beyond academia, I actively participate in advocacy work, accept advisory roles, and engage with the media to disseminate my research and insights. I regularly publish commentaries on platforms such as The Conversation, the AARE blog, and SBS.com.au, and I make appearances on SBS radio (Amharic) to discuss current affairs and educational issues. Engaged scholarship allows me to contribute meaningfully to public discourse, particularly on issues affecting African communities in Australia. I aim to inform policy, influence practice, and support social change by bridging the gap between academic research and the wider community.

Research Groups

Research for Educational Impact (REDI)
Diversity and Social Justice in Education (SoE)
ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child (AI)

Associate Professor Tim Corcoran practiced for a decade as a Psychologist in two Queensland
government departments (Education and Corrective Services) and brings a rich
array of knowledge, skills and expertise to his ongoing research activities.
His academic career has involved posts in Australia, the UK and Singapore. His
research is dedicated to creating sensible theory~practice options supporting
psychosocial ways of knowing/being.

Qualifications
2010 PG Cert Learning and Teaching, University of Sheffield
2008 PhD, School of Social Science and Liberal Studies, Charles Sturt
University
1995 Bachelor of Psychology (Hons), James Cook University
1991 Bachelor of Arts, James Cook University

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Teaching for Science

Jul 9, 2025 | Current Events, Spotlight Event

Teaching for Science for VC2.0 & VTLM2.0

Professional learning for upper primary and secondary teachers.

Submit Expression of Interest

Collaborative

About this Program

A unique opportunity for upper primary and secondary teachers to engage with innovating science teaching and learning through Victorian Curriculum Version 2.0 (VC2.0) and the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTLM) 2.0. The full one day conference includes activities, pedagogy and resources from each of the science disciplines, inquiry skills and contemporary science. Participation will be full day, face to face or online.

To support early career, out-of-field and experienced secondary science teachers or upper primary teachers, to upskill their science content knowledge and pedagogical approaches in teaching and learning. The conference day is developed from the highly successful Graduate Certificate of Secondary Science units and informed by Deakin’s MSET-Ed group science education research.

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) Standards:
• 1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
• 3.3 Use teaching strategies
• 3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs
• 4.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
• 6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice

Registration

To register for this program please contact pledhub@deakin.edu.au

Program staff

Amanda Peters is a recent PhD graduate and science education lecturer at Deakin University. She has a keen interest in teacher professional learning. Over the past five years she has been involved in the Graduate Certificates of Secondary Science, Mathematics and Design & Technologies courses designed to upskill out-of-field teachers to be in-field teachers. Her interests are in STEM education, critical policy analysis and teacher education. Amanda is a secondary science and mathematics teacher with extensive experience in leading and teaching in secondary schools. She is also involved in VCE curriculum and assessment at the state level.

Russell Tytler is Deakin Distinguished Professor and Chair in Science Education at Deakin University, Melbourne. He has a background lecturing and teaching physics. He has researched and written extensively on student learning and reasoning in science. He has been influential on science curricula in Australia and is involved in a range of Department of Education teacher professional learning initiatives. His interest in the role of representation as a multimodal language for reasoning in science extends to pedagogy and teacher learning. He researches and writes on student engagement with science and mathematics, socio scientific issues and reasoning, school-community partnerships, and STEM curriculum policy and practice. He is widely published and has been chief investigator on a range of ARC and other research projects, including current projects investigating interdisciplinary mathematics and science pedagogy, representing contemporary science R&D in schools to support an informed Climate Change Education, and directing an innovative program for the Victorian DET for out-of-field teachers of science and mathematics. He is a member of the Science Expert Group for PISA 2015 and 2025 and represents the OECD on an international STEM skills forum. He was deputy chair of an
influential ‘STEM Country Comparisons’ project for the Australian Academy of Learned Academies. He is a Fellow of the Academy of social Sciences in Australia.

Peta J. White is an Associate Professor in Science and Environmental Education at Deakin University. She is the Co-director of the Centre for Regenerating Futures– a transdisciplinary collective attending to Anthropocene challenges and decolonising practices while also building researcher capacity. She is the Editor-In-Chief of the Australian Journal of Environmental Education (Q1 – Web of Science). She led the OECD PISA 2025 Science Framework Environmental Science contribution ‘Agency in the Anthropocene’ and is active in climate change education research and advocacy. Peta’s research leadership has three narratives: science and biology education; sustainability, environmental, and climate change education; and collaborative/activist embodied methodologies.

Peta educated in classrooms, coordinated programs, led and supported professional associations, and prepared teachers in jurisdictions across Canada and Australia. Her PhD (2013) explored learning to live sustainably as a platform to educate future teachers. Peta continues her commitment to initial teacher education and in-service teacher education through research-informed, evidence-based professional learning programs working towards curriculum reform.

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Critical Thinking in Science

Jul 2, 2025 | Current Events, Spotlight Event

Critical Thinking in Science

Professional learning for upper primary and lower secondary science teachers (Years 5-10). Free online tasters

Dates:

Full day, hybrid delivery
Friday 13th February 2026, 9am – 4.30pm
Location: Deakin University Burwood Campus

Cost: Full day or online (4 sessions) is $200 per person

2026:

2nd Feb, 10th Feb, 18th Feb and 26th Feb, 4pm – 5pm
Cost: $200 per person for the 4 sessions
Online

Collaborative

Self Directed

About this Program

Teacher Professional Learning aligned with Victorian Curriculum 2.0 and VTLM 2.0

Deakin University has partnered with the University of California, Nobel Prize Outreach and Global Access Partners to offer an exciting and innovative program in scientific thinking.

The toolkit of cognitive strategies equips students to deal with real-world issues, developing critical thinking skills in reasoning and collaboration when using and evaluating information to make evidence-based decisions.

Suitable for upper primary and lower secondary science teachers (Years 5-10).

In this video Saul Perlmutter describes how scientific thinking techniques can empower students to make wiser decisions. 

Further Information

The MSET Ed research group has a long and proud history of research that makes a difference. Our research has generally been intensely practice focused while advancing theory relating to pedagogy and learning, teacher practice and change, and representation of social and equity issues in curriculum advocacy. Evidence of our status in the field can be found in the large number of ARC projects we have led, and also the significant government funded projects we have been involved in, such as the recent SMSI research focused on out-of-field teachers.

As part of our strategic research agenda we have identified five major research programs around which our research sits:
• Teachers and teaching: Teacher learning and practice, leading school and system change
• Innovative and contemporary curriculum: Policy, practice and partnerships
• Justice and equity: Decolonising practices, gender and equity
• Learners and learning: Critical and creative reasoning and learning, modelling
• Methodological innovation

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) Standards:
• 1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
• 3.3 Use teaching strategies
• 3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs
• 4.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
• 6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice

Registration

To register for the program, click here

Deakin University staff / students please contact pledhub@deakin.edu.au for a discount rate.

Program staff

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Supporting Oral Language Development in the Early Years of School

Dec 20, 2021 | Current Events, Spotlight Event

Supporting Oral Language Development in the Early Years of School

A self-paced online professional learning program for teachers

Self-paced online professional learning
Opens: Feb 2026

Cost: $1352 p/p

Introduction to SOLD in Schools

The Supporting Oral Language Development in the Early Years of School Program supports teachers to enhance their knowledge in developing young children’s oral language skills. The program aims to:

build teachers understandings of oral language
use research and collegial advice about how children learn language
focus on diversity and promote practices particular to building children’s oral language
identify aspects of teachers’ talk that are conducive to developing young children’s oral language
reflect on, and critique, practices that specifically aim to support children’s oral language
build a repertoire of effective research-based practices that will support children’s oral language learning and development
use evidence, including mapping against frameworks, to assess and inform practice

The Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) acknowledge the importance of building children’s oral language and communication. Research tells us that children entering school with low levels of oral language are at risk of long-term academic, social, emotional and health consequences, and lower employment prospects.

Closing the educational achievement gap for the next generation requires significant commitment and investment to assist all children to achieve their educational potential. Young children’s home and childhood environments are important in scaffolding their oral language as a precursor to the development of literacy skills. Therefore, by increasing teachers’ awareness of the influences that enhance children’s oral language and communication, practice can be tailored to make it more meaningful in improving children’s language, literacy, and social outcomes.

Aligned with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
2.2 Content selection and organisation
2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

Delivery:

14 self-paced modules available online via a cloud platform.
Cost: $1352 p/p

Registration

To register for this program, visit our Registration page

Got questions, please email pledhub@deakin.edu.au



Watch the introduction video



Sneek peek at the program modules

Academic Staff

Professor Louise Paatsch

Professor Louise Paatsch is the Deputy Director of Deakin University’s Strategic Research Centre in Education – Research for Educational Impact (REDI). Her research focuses on children’s and young people’s communication, language, pretend play, and literacy development, with a strong focus on metapragmatic and pragmatic language use and the link to social communication.

She also investigates teacher’s talk patterns and intention teaching practices in supporting children’s and young people’s communication, language and play abilities. Louise also undertakes research that focuses on the communication, spoken language and literacy abilities of deaf and hard-of-hearing children and young people. She also works with teachers and educators to explore their own practices as reflective researchers to support positive outcomes for children, young people and their families.

Professor Andrea Nolan is a Professor of Early Childhood Education in the School of Education, Deakin University, Australia. She has worked on a number of State, National and international projects concerning literacy development, program evaluation, and the professional learning of teachers.

Since 2007, she has produced a significant body of research focusing on the capabilities of the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) workforce with a specific interest in the professional learning of teachers. Andrea has researched the impact of the current Australian reform agenda on professional identities, mentoring, inter-professional work, and reflective practice. Educator practice is a complementary theme to her research where she has focused on young children’s language development, transition to school practices, and practice that improves outcomes for children and families.

Professor Andrea Nolan

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Supporting Oral language Development Program

Education Support Professional Certificate 2026

Oct 11, 2021 | Current Events, Spotlight Event

Education Support Professional Certificate

Make a positive impact in the lives of children with disabilities by working as an Educational Support officer (Integration Aide or Teacher Aide).

Program is delivered online over 5 days.
Next course commences Thursday 19 Feb 2026

AITSL developments outcomes

Collaborative

Self Directed

Remote

About this Course

Increasingly, more children with disabilities are enrolled in local schools and Educational Support staff (Integration and Teacher Aides) continue to play an important role in inclusive education.

Not only will you gain invaluable knowledge, but you’ll also develop a strong skillset to help children with disabilities to learn and develop.