Find an expert

Dr Chase Sherwell is a Research Fellow at the UQ Learning Lab and the Principal Research Technician for the Compassionate Mind Research Group in the School of Psychology. His research combines neuroscientific, psychological, and educational perspectives to provide tools for enacting learning, well-being, and behavioural change in real-world contexts. With a focus on application, Dr Sherwell’s work aims to identify metrics of internal psychological mechanisms that can be easily interpreted and integrated by professionals and end-users to facilitate skill development and mental health in everyday life.

With a background in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and education research, Dr Sherwell leads projects that aim to explain learning, development, and mental health across disciplinary lines: from the level of neural networks through to everyday experience. Integrating multi-modal techniques including digital interaction, biometrics, and neurophysiology, Dr Sherwell develops tools, user experiences, and analytics that provide actionable metrics and insights for professionals and researchers.

Dr Sherwell is a Research Fellow in the UQ Learning Lab: a team of multi-disciplinary researchers, educators, and industry partners who collaborate to transform learning, teaching, and training in diverse school and post-school environments through the science of learning. In this role, Dr Sherwell lends his expertise in cognitive neuroscience and psychology to develop projects aimed at understanding and measuring the barriers, facilitators, and mechanisms of self-regulation in professional contexts. He leads projects designing digital tools providing educators with real-time feedback on learner states and skill development integrating smartphone apps and biometrics from wearable devices.

Dr Sherwell is also the Principal Research Technician for the Compassionate Mind Research Group – the leading research hub for Compassion Science in Australia, based at the UQ School of Psychology. In this role, he oversees research design and development across projects investigating the mechanisms of prosocial behaviour in everyday life, barriers to clinical interventions, and the efficacy of online interventions for mental health.

Associate Professor Christine Slade PhD GCProfLearning BA (Com Plan & Devt) PFHEA ATCL

Assessment and Academic Integrity

In my role as Associate Professor in Higher Education, in the Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI) I contribute to the UQ strategic priorities, with leadership responsibilities in assessment, academic integrity and generative artificial intelligence. In 2023 I received an Australian Award for University Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning for my academic integrity work. In August 2023, I was an invited assessment expert at the TEQSA commissed Assessment Reform in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Forum which developed principles and propositions to support the sector. I also was an expert advisor of the development of the Australian Framework for Generative Artificial Intelligence in Schools.

Digital Ethics

Engaging in technology is part of everyday life, more so since COVID-19. I advocate for the inclusion of digital aspects in curricula and support educators and students in building their digital capabilities for learning and professionals in the workplace. Since 2012 I have advanced folio pedagogies to facilitate students using ePortfolios to demonstrate learning over time, reflect on their developing practices, and to showcase their digital brand to wider audiences. Important aspects of these practices is understanding and applying digital ethics and eProfessionalism principles when engaging online. Therefore, I am a member of the international Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-based Learning (AAEEBL) Taskforce on Digital Ethics and ePortfolios which has produced guiding ethical principles, strategies and scenarios for institutions, educators, administrators and students. I also partnered with the UQ Library to develop a new eProfessionalism digital essentials module for educators and students to use when building their online presence. I have a particular interest in Digital Healthcare and work with international academics and industry representatives to advance student preparation for clinical placements and future work.

Research Interests

My research and teaching interests include innovative pedagogies, assessment, academic integrity, digital curriculum, ePortfolios and ethics. I have written a suite of journal articles and other publications, and presented at national and international conferences about my research and practice (see the 'Publications' tab above).

Associate Professor Stahl's research interests focus on the relationship between education and society, socio-cultural studies of education, student identities, equity/inequality, and social change. Currently, his research projects and publications encompass theoretical and empirical studies of youth, sociology of schooling in a neoliberal age, gendered subjectivities, equity and difference as well as educational reform.

To date his scholarship has focused upon:

· Social and educational inequalities

· Learner Identities

· Student mobilities

· Masculinities

· Widening participation

He holds a PhD in Education (University of Cambridge), a Masters degree in International Education (New York University) and a Bachelors Degree in Secondary Education and English (Indiana University). He is a member and former SIG Convener for the Australian Association of Researchers in Education (AARE) and the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Associate Professor Stahl was awarded a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council (2017-2019) where he researched the relationship between extreme disadvantage, masculinities and widening participation (DE170100510). In 2019, he was ranked by The Australian newspaper as one of the top 40 researchers in Australia who were less than 10 years into their career. Dr. Stahl is particularly interested in qualitative research methods, visual research methods and ethnography. At the University of Queensland, Dr. Stahl's teaches at the Undergraduate, Masters and PhD levels.

Recently, he was awarded two ARC Discovery projects: Including the voice of boys and young men in their health and well-being education (DP250102623) and Investigating how boys and young men experience their digital lives (DP250104014).

His research has been published in a range of international journals, including the Pedagogy, Culture and Society, the Journal of Educational Policy and Gender and Education. His books include Identity, neoliberalism and aspiration: educating white working-class boys (2015, Routledge), Ethnography of a neoliberal school: building cultures of success (2018, Routledge), Working-class masculinities in Australian higher education: policies, pathways and progress (2021, Routledge) and Gendering the First-in-Family Experience: Transitions, Liminality, Performativity (2022, Routledge) co-authored with Sarah McDonald.

He has held leadership positions in the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE).

Prior to working as a researcher, Stahl taught in secondary schools in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Damon Thomas is a senior lecturer in literacy education. His current research interests include theories of writing, writing development, pedagogy, and assessment, systemic functional linguistics, argumentation, standardised assessment, and classical rhetoric. Damon's research has made important contributions in the following areas:

• Understanding the complexities of student writing development
• Exploring writing instruction in situ
• Unpacking and critiquing the results of Australia's only large-scale test: the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy.

Damon completed his PhD at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) in 2015. He began lecturing at UTAS in 2014 and was promoted to senior lecturer in 2019. He took up a senior lecturer position at the University of Queensland (UQ) in 2021. Before starting his academic career, Damon taught as a primary school teacher in Tasmania after completing a Bachelor of Education degree with First Class Honours.

Damon was part of a team of Chief Investigators from the University of Tasmania, Deakin University, and La Trobe University that secured a successful ARC Linkage Project in 2015 in partnership with Anglicare Tasmania (LP150100558). The project investigated conditions that improved learning and wellbeing outcomes in regional, low-SES schools in Tasmania and Victoria. Damon oversaw the literacy component across school sites and conducted in-depth case studies in Tasmanian primary and high schools.

Damon is currently a Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery Project investigating talk for learning in early years mathematics classrooms. Damon's main role is to employ several linguistic frameworks to understand the complexities of student dialogue and features of productive talk.

Damon is a member of several professional organisations including the Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association (ASFLA), the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia (PETAA), and the Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA). Damon also translates literacy research for practising teachers via his blog: Read Write Think Learn

Professor Wojtek Tomaszewski is Deputy Director (Research) and a Research Group Leader at the Institute for Social Science Research, and is also Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (the Life Course Centre). He holds a BSc and MSc in Mathematics, as well as an MA in Sociology from the University of Warsaw, Poland and a PhD in Social Sciences from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Wojtek joined UQ from the National Centre for Social Research in London and has specialist expertise in quantitative research methods and advanced statistical analysis.

Wojtek has a strong research interest in the impact of disadvantage on educational and labour market outcomes in young people. He has undertaken a number of research projects for the State and Commonwealth Governments in Australia, and previously for the British Government. He has published in high-profile international academic journals across the fields of social sciences, education, and beyond.

Human-centred design of interactive systems

Stephen Viller is a researcher and educator in human-centred design methods, particularly applied to designing social, domestic and mobile computing technologies, and understanding how people's interactions in everyday settings inform the design of such technologies. He has over 20 years of experience in Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Interaction Design, and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research, where he has focused on bridging disciplines and perspectives. He has concentrated on qualitative methods, particularly observational fieldwork, contextual interviews, diary studies and field trips, but also increasingly on more ‘designerly’ approaches such as cultural probes, low-fidelity prototypes, rapid prototyping and sketching.

Stephen is an Associate Professor and leader of the Human-Centred Computing discipline in the School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and UQ's Theme Leader for the Digital Worlds and Disruptive Technologies theme in the QUEX Institute. From 2016-2019 he was the Director of Coursework Studies (Chair of T&L committee) and from 2011-2016 he was Program Director of the Bachelor of Multimedia Design and Master of Interaction Design. His publications span various interdisciplinary journals and conferences in HCI/CSCW and technology design. He has a BSc (Hons) Computation (UMIST), MSc Cognitive Science (Manchester) and PhD Computing (Lancaster).

Dr Wheeler is a proud Ngarabal person and Accredited Exercise Scientist (ESSA). Dr Wheeler specilises in implementation science in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.

Dr Wheeler was the first Aboriginal person to graduate with a PhD from the University of the Sunshine Coast.

Dr Wheeler’s research examines how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities can co-design programs that build community capacity and engage children and young peoples in a broad range of development areas. Dr Wheeler’s research strengths consist co-designing physical movement-based programs, ensuring a trauma informed and culturally-responsive approach towards community engagement and empowerment.

Dr Wheeler has led high performing teams working on education programs that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families through a strength-based and holistic framework. Extending this work, Dr Wheeler's research focuses on developing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce to better address the complex health needs of community. Dr Wheeler has provided FIrst Nations leadership to a range of projects that have catered for the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and through this experience has partnered to deliver diverse governance solutions and educational engagement frameworks.

Dr Wheeler also specialises in biomechanics, sport analytics and performance analysis as well as strength and conditioning research. Dr Wheeler works currently with a range of sporting organisations to implement best-practice sport servicing, testing and athlete management to achieve excellence. Dr Wheeler is the lead researcher in partnership with Indigenous Basketball Australia. Dr Wheeler has worked with a variety of professional sporting organisations and teams such as the Wallabies, Brumbies Rugby and World Rugby as well as the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra Raiders, Canberra Comets, Canberra Meteors and GWS Giants. Dr Wheeler co-design training programs to promote optimal performance in a range of sports. Dr Wheeler is a passionate about how sport and exercise can be used to enrich community as well as health and wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Dr Wheeler is the Chair of the ESSA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy Working Group for Exercise and Sport Science Australia.

Dr Wheeler is the Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy for the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences.

Dr Wheeler is the Program Convenor for Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Sciences, the University of Queensland.

Dr Wheeler was named in the top 52 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people changing the world from COSMOS.

Awards

2022 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scientist Award from the Australian Academy of Science

2022 LSQ Merck Life Science Rural and Regional Service Award from Life Sciences Queensland

2020 Accredited Exercise Scientist of the Year Award from Exercise and Sport Science Australia

2021 Science Peoples Choice Award from National Science Week

2021 Outreach Award from National Science Week

2020 Science Leadership Excellence Award from National Science Week

2017 NAIDOC Award from Fraser Coast NAIDOC Committee

Helen has over 30 years’ experience as a clinician (orthoptist) and an innovative educator. She was the Academic Lead Assessment in the Academy for Medical Education from mid 2017 to March 2024. Helen’s expertise has been built on a career spanning clinical practice in rural and urban settings fuelling a passion for learning from her early mentor, the late Prof Fred Hollows. Her career in higher education has spanned several roles including lecturing and reforming the orthoptics curriculum, leading elearning projects across five health facilities at the University of Sydney before moving to lead academic development at Charles Darwin University. She has worked in three medical schools (University of Sydney, Flinders University and the University of Queensland) inspiring educators to enhance clinical skills teaching, developing clinical supervisors in Northern Australia and most recently leading assessment design for the new Doctor of Medicine program at University of Queensland. She has received multiple teaching and learning awards at University of Sydney (2003, 2004), Flinders University (2016) and the Australian Awards for University Teaching: Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2017).