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Associate Professor, The University of Melbourne

Dr Wesley Imms is a skilled educator with teaching awards spanning his primary, secondary and tertiary teaching career. He holds education degrees granted in Australia and Canada, including a research MA and a PhD in Curriculum Studies from the University of British Columbia. Dr Imms is an Associate Professor in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, is that Schools Head of Visual Art and Design Education, and its Research Domain Coordinator for Curriculum and Teaching. In addition, Dr Imms provides research leadership through his secondment to the Lesrning Environments Applied Research Network, an industry and academic collaboration founded by the universities faculties of Education, Architecture and Medicine. LEaRN is an international leader in applied research aimed at improving the design and use of learning environments across all educational sectors. In that centre, Dr Imms is Lead Chief Investigator on two cutrrent Australian Research Council Linkage Projects, involving eighteen industry partners from the USA, Sweden, most Australian States, and New Zealand. In his graduate school teaching Dr Imms has developed over seventeen coursework subjects at the bachelor, Master of Teaching and Master of Education level. Current teaching activities include coordinating seven subjects spanning curriculum and studio practice, innovative learning spaces, and Masters-level learning spaces capstone and teacher/practitioner subjects. He currently supervises more than sixteen Doctoral, Master of Education/Philosophy and Master of Teaching honours theses. Doctoral students include interstate and overseas residents. Dr Imms has a developing research profile, with in excess of $11m in solo and collaborative external grant earnings since 2000, over forty peer-reviewed publications, many invited national and overseas lectures, and major reports completed for state and national governments. Past research projects include a $220K ALTC grant in collaboration with RMIT investigating effective use of professional development for educators in the tertiary setting, the Teacher as Art-maker Project (TAP) longitudinal study of early-career teachers career trajectories, and for four years was seconded to the Australian Federal Governments Boys Education Lighthousev Schools Project, where as Research Manager he supervised more than 50 intervention projects in 500 schools across Australia, investigating how teaching practices can improve the quality of schooling for boys. In recent years Dr Imms has conducted more than fifty research workshops in schools in most Australian states, and has conducted evidence-based research projects in schools on topics such as student inhabitation of curriculum, linking learning spaces to pedagogy, improving the learning outcomes and school experience of boys, utilising ICT in teaching and teacher education, and trans-disciplinary curriculum.

Experience

  • –present
    Associate Professor, University of Melbourne