Murray School of Education
Liisa Uusimaki
Position: Lecturer
Phone: (02) 605 19885
Fax: (02) 605 19424
Campus: Thurgoona
Room: 114
Email: luusimaki@csu.edu.au
Biography
Liisa S. Uusimaki is the Director of Professional Experience as well as a lecturer at the Murray School of Education. She joined Murray School of Education in March 2008 and is a secondary school teacher. She comes with a background as a course-coordinator/lecturer in Early Childhood mathematics from the University of the Sunshine Coast and designer/lecturer of a workshop program titled Teaching with Confidence that prepare pre-service teachers for their professional field experiences.
Research
- Teacher Education
- Teacher Identity.
- Middle Schooling
- Professional Field Experience
- Internationalisation and Global studies
- University-School relationship building
- Social Justice
Research Grant
Faculty of Education Innovation in Learning & Teaching Fund, CSU ($30 000.00) - “Professional learning to support site-based educators. A pilot” (2009). This project is to develop a mentoring workshop program that:
- to foster collaborative and positive relationships between CSU university teacher educators, field experience office personnel and site-based educators or classroom teachers, and preservice teachers and site-based educators or classroom teachers;
- to support site-based educators in mentoring preservice teachers in school settings;
- to encourage site-based educators to take on further study (Masters).
Teaching
- Social Contexts: Education and Society – EEP101(Early Childhood)
- Schools Communities and Adolescent Perspectives – EED314 (Middle School)
- Research and Practice – EER303 (Distance) - ( Birth to 5 )
- Teacher as a Researcher – EER403 (Early Childhood /Middle School)
Professional Engagement
- Murray School of Education Assessment Committee – Albury
- The National Centre for Research in Professional Experience and Teaching (NCR PET), ACT.
- Middle Years of Schooling Association (MYSA), QLD.
Publications
- L.S. Uusimaki. (2009). Pre-service teacher education and the development of middle school teacher identity: An exploratory study. Brisbane, QLD. (Forthcoming)
- Uusimaki, L. (2009). The shaping of Middle School teacher identity in the mature-age graduate learner. Paper presented at ATEA Conference 28 June 2009, Albury, NSW.
- Uusimaki, L & Campbell, H. (2008). International Professional Experience Placements: Challenges, Opportunities and Outcomes for Inland Australian Pre-Service Teachers. Paper presented at CSU Conference 18-20 November 2008 – Wagga Wagga, NSW.
- Uusimaki, L & Campbell, M.A. (2007). Supportive pedagogy for excessively anxious pre-service education students. Paper to be presented at the 3rd International Conference on Pedagogies and Learning: Meanings Emerging in Practice held 27 & 28 September 2007 Pedagogies USQ, Springfield, QLD August 2007
- Campbell, Marilyn A & Uusimaki, Lisa (2006) A pilot study in challenging pre-service education students’ anxieties about their practical experiences in professional education. In Haigh, Mavis and Beddoe, Elizabeth and Rose, Dennis, Eds. Proceedings Practical Experiences in Professional Education Conference, pages pp. 60-67, Auckland, New Zealand
- Uusimaki, L. (2005). The Nature of the Good and Effective Mathematics Teacher. Paper presented at Women in Research (WiR) “Women doing Research” 2005 Conference, 24-25 November. Central Queensland University Gladstone Campus.