Meet Chelsea - Senior Lecturer, School of Education
People often find it strange how excited I get about mathematics education, but that’s exactly what makes me tick! As a former primary school teacher and now a Senior Lecturer and researcher at the Mt Gambier campus, I am fascinated by how young children experience and develop mathematical ideas.
What I love just as much, is teaching preservice teachers the joy of mathematics and empowering them to become passionate, confident math educators.
I wasn’t always thrilled about maths as a school student. In fact, I didn’t enjoy it at all, as it often felt meaningless or irrelevant. During my high school years, I was a keen violinist and studied at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. It was only when I decided to study a teaching degree, with the goal of becoming a music teacher, that I realised I had not always been given chances to see how maths connects to real meaning.
This realisation sparked my passion for teaching maths. My experience wasn’t uncommon, and after 10 years in the primary classroom, it led me to pursue further study, and ultimately to where I am today.
My research focuses on how young children explore and develop mathematical ideas through everyday activities, and how these intuitive experiences can be used to build meaningful learning opportunities. I am also passionate about empowering parents and caregivers to support mathematical play, and to build their confidence in recognising their child’s learning capabilities.
How do you start your day?
This is a tricky one, as no two days seem to start the same, other than with my morning coffee! Some days I have classes first thing in the morning, which means setting up the classroom with a range of materials and learning activities to engage my students in the playfulness of mathematics. Other days might begin with research meetings or time spent working on different research projects I’m involved in. I love the variety of my work for that reason.
How do you do your best work?
I’m generally an early bird and like to get the hard stuff done while I feel most energetic. I also find that listening to instrumental music while I’m doing big picture thinking really supports my creativity.
What is the philosophy you live and work by?
Work hard, play hard!
How do you balance health and wellbeing at work?
I’m very fortunate to work with a range of amazing people from across the University. Many of us make a priority of doing a lap of our beautiful campus during the day to get some fresh air and take time to connect with each other.
