Dr Paul Unsworth

Paul is appointed as a lecturer within the Education Futures Unit located on the University of South Australia's Magill Campus, Eastern Adelaide, Australia.

His current teaching and course coordination responsibilities embrace Primary Science and Mathematics Education, and Digital Literacies in the Undergraduate Program, and Educational Leadership and Complexity Studies in the Master's of Educational Leadership Program.

Paul has become involved with teaching and research activities based in the newly established Samsung SMART School exploring the the potential benefits that immersive technologies may provide when used in educational learning design.

Paul has a strong background in Aboriginal education having worked extensively across rural and remote communities in South Australia and the Northern Territory. He was appointed as the Chair of the NT Indigenous Education Portfolio (2005-2006) and more recently appointed as a Chief Investigator & Project Manager of the $1.3 M National Excellence & Equity Indigenous Mathematics And STEM Education research project leading the completion of this project in 2018. His current research aims to explore how culturally responsive pedagogy can be positioned within a learning design framework that incorporates application of immersive technologies.

With qualified backgrounds in science, sociology, leadership & complexity studies Paul has accumulated considerable expertise in the fields of project management, applied research, policy development, education and teacher training. He has been formally recognised by Chief Executive Officers as giving outstanding service in education to rural and remote communities. His entrepreneurial interests include the applied use of STEM-XE education and immersive digital technologies to develop projects that enhance regional engagement, community sustainability and productivity.

VR AR Association (International), Mathematics Education Research Group Australia MERGA, South Australian Science Teachers Association SASTA, Association of Australian Researchers in Education AARE, Cooperation Science International, European Association for the Studies of Science and Technology

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy University of South Australia

• Master of Education Studies (Aboriginal Education) University of South Australia

• Graduate Diploma in Public Sector Executive Management Charles Darwin University

• Bachelor of Education (In-Service) University of South Australia

• Diploma of Teaching Primary Murray Park College of Advanced Education

Work history

Since 2016, Paul has been active in roles encompassing course delivery within the undergraduate program (Primary Mathematics Education, Science Education & Digital Learning); the Master of Educational Leadership program  (Complexity Studies), undertaking and completing recent post graduate study (Digital Learning), and servicing teacher's professional development and regional outreach programs using Virtual Reality Technologies in learning design. Paul has continued to foster innovative and responsive teaching approaches that  improve the educational experience and outcomes for student learners, their school communities and teacher's professional learning.

Paul's research interests include exploration of how future SMART technologies; such as video annotation and video analytics can positioned in educational learning design to enhance pre-service teacher's learning outcomes. This work led to collaboration with the University of Bologna, and was incorprated intio the fabric of the National Excellence and Equity Indigenous Mathematics & STEM Education research project (2018).

Recently, Paul and close colleagues working from within the auspice of the SAMSUNG SMART SCHOOL - Future Orientated Learning Group - have sought to push teaching and learning boundaries with regard to how teachers and students can co-design and co-construct virtual tours and or virtual geo-trails using a newly developed 'creator' immersive technology. This work generated strong and successful engagement with the Catholic Education SA schooling sector with one participating school winning both state and national technology in education awards (2019). 

As a successful grant recipient of the University of South Australia's Research Themes Investment Scheme (2020) Paul and close colleagues are undertaking research to explore how immersive techology can be used in culturally responsive learning design to transform Aboriginal Education. This work is planned to seed the establishment of regional school hubs whereby clusters of schools are able to access immersive technologies and training so as to create local virtual products that ultilise the social, cultural and intellectual captial of elders and other community members.

Paul's previous roles in schooling and education include Primary and Middle School teacher (10 years), Teacher Coordinator Social Learning (3 years), Regional Project Officer Aboriginal Education (5 years), Principal Murputja Community Education Centre (5 years), Executive Principal Yuendumu Community Education Centre (5 years), and Chair of Principal's Portfolio Indigenous Education NT (2 years).

Significant career highlights include: co-establishment and delivery of integrated Child Care and Pre-School community education programs (MEC, YCEC), co-establishment and delivery of flexible post school engagement programs (YCEC), Interagency Collaboration and Review Strategy Indigenous Education (PLRG, YCEC), and commendations of excellence in education.