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DrMelinda Kirk

Lecturer in Education, Education-focused

Faculty of Arts and Education/School of Education

Orcid identifier0000-0002-0058-6289 (opens in a new tab)⁠
  • Lecturer in Education, Education-focused
    Faculty of Arts and Education/School of Education
  • Work Phone: +61 3 924 46880
  • Melbourne Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125

BIO

Lecturer in Education

Melinda is an education‑focused lecturer at Deakin University. She has over 25 years of experience across school teaching, educational research, and teacher education. Melinda maintains full teacher registration in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland. Her school-based experience spans regional and metropolitan settings, across both public and private systems, where she has worked as a primary teacher, primary science specialist, primary creative arts specialist, and Gifted Education Mentor (GEM). In her initial teacher education work, Melinda focuses on developing pre-service teachers’ efficacy to support diverse learners in science and across all areas of their teaching.

 

Melinda’s research focuses on pedagogy and transformative curriculum enactment, with particular emphasis on critical and creative thinking, collaboration, primary science, interdisciplinarity, children’s voice, and inclusion. Her PhD research identified enabling pedagogical approaches and learning designs that support students to enact desired, science-informed change in their own lives and within their school communities. Her PhD, Impactful Inquiry in Primary Science, was awarded the Victoria College Foundation Prize. Melinda also holds a Master of Educational Leadership (UOW), for which she received the Outstanding Postgraduate Achievement Award (Education) and the Education Alumni Award in recognition of her contributions to education research in a school–university partnership (2018).

 

Melinda is currently a Special Interest Group (SIG) Convenor for the Australain Association of Research in Education (AARE) - Children and Student Voice across all Sectors, and a member of the ReConnected Review Panel - Australain Council of Student Voice. Since 2018, Melinda has worked at

Deakin University including on the Australian Research Commissioned (ARC) Interdisciplinary Maths and Science (IMS) Learning Project (Research Assistant). She is currently a Lecturer and member of the STEMeez Research Team. 

 

Melinda's research methodological interests include Design Based Research, student voice methodologies, digital-bibliometric literature tool utilisation and self-study. Her research interests include pedaogy; student voice and agency; critical and creative thinking, primary science, interdisciplinarity, differentiation, inclusion, classroom culture and initial teacher educaiton.

DEAKIN UNIVERSITY CURRENT APPOINTMENT

  • Lecturer in Education, Education-focused
    Deakin University, School of Education

DEGREES

  • Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
    Deakin University, Burwood, Australia
  • Master of Education (Educational Leadership)
    University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
  • FHEA - Fellowship of Higher Education Australia
    Advance HE, York, United Kingdom
  • Bachelor of Education (Primary)
    James Cook University, Cairns, Australia

AREA/FACULTY

  • Faculty of Arts and Education

DEPARTMENT/SCHOOL/INSTITUTE/DISCIPLINE

  • School of Education