Melinda Kirk

I am a Ph.D. candidate and scholarship holder, Education Research Assistant, and sessional Lecturer at Deakin University, Australia. I am currently registered to teach in Victoria and Queensland and have taught as a Primary Specialist Teacher; Music, Enrichment Science specialist and Gifted Education Mentor (GEM) as well as a generalist Primary Class Teacher across three states (Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales). My research is in Australian Primary Schools and is focused on curriculum design and pedagogy that enables students' critical and creative thinking, within an interdisciplinary (STEAM) Primary classroom. There is a focus on the role of collaboration within an authentic, guided inquiry learning context.

Thesis Title:Enabling student critical and creative thinking, focusing on lesson design and supporting pedagogies, and the role of collaboration, within an interdisciplinary (STEAM) primary classroom.

Research Projects:

2021-Current: Collaborative Ph.D. research partnership with REDI Project: Developing and assessing students’ disciplinary-specific creative reasoning in primary science: Collaborative learning cultivated to support critical and creative reasoning in an interdisciplinary primary classroom

2018-Current: Research Assistant ARC: Interdisciplinary Primary Mathematics and Science (IMS) Learning (2018-2020) (Research Assistant)

2020: Primary Science Renewal through a Specialist Program: This research is in partnership with EdPartnerships, and the Victorian DET, within the Primary Maths and Science Specialist Program. It is a collaborative Melbourne University and Deakin University Project. (Research Assistant)

Awards and Scholarships

2020-2023: Ph.D. Scholarship Deakin University

2022: Higher Education Fellow - Fellowship of Higher Education Australia (FHEA) (PR252857)

2018: University of Wollongong Outstanding Achievement Award – Post Graduate Studies

2018: Alumni Award University of Wollongong

Please click on View my Portfolio to be linked to Google Scholar