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Dr Deanne Gannaway

Lecturer in Higher Education

Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation
d.gannaway@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 52890

Overview

My career has been firmly based in education, with experience gathered in both the school and higher education sectors. I have taught in schools, colleges and universities in both Australia and South Africa. My work on curriculum design has been primarily focused on large generalist programs such as the BA. My research in this area has led to commissioned projects and collaborations with the council of Deans of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (DASSH). This research has led to invitations to participate in program reviews and planning days with a number of universities in Australia and engagement with the Deans of Arts network in New Zealand.

Research Interests

  • Professional Learning for higher education staff
    Understanding more about how students learn has led to the introduction of innovative pedagogical strategies in higher education. A similar case can be made for the learning of professionals. A pedagogy that informs support for continuing professional should proceed from research into how professionals continue to learn and under what circumstances that learning leads to changes enhancing the quality of practice.
  • Curriculum Design in Bachelor of Arts programs
    Interdisciplinary curriculum development in the humanities, arts and social sciences and subsequent implications for academic conceptions of curriculum design; Planned, enacted and attained curriculum in generalist programs; Outcomes of Liberal Arts education
  • Curriculum Design in Higher Education
    Processes associated with curriculum-making are well-researched, particularly in school-level education. However, in higher education, research tends to be focused on at the level of discipline and therefore at the sequence of study rather than on a whole-of-program basis.
  • Workplace learning
    There is an increasing trend at Australian Universities towards offering workplace-based learning activities in undergraduate degree programs. In a professions-based program such as engineering or dentistry, the shape and nature of these courses may be obvious. It is less so in the generalist programs such as the Bachelor of Arts and the Bachelor of Science.

Research Impacts

I have been a key team member and project leader in nationally funded projects focusing on strategies for effective dissemination strategies of teaching innovation projects. These projects developed a series of resources and guidelines to support future applicants and application assessors.

My work in dissemination and evaluation of innovative teaching practices is recognised in the invitations to give presentations and facilitate workshops on these issues, both nationally and internationally. International workshops include those organised by the Higher Education Academy (HEA), SEDA and the Scottish Quality Assurance Agency. I have also been invited to act as an external reviewer of OLT and internal grant applications and awards at a number of different Australian universities and have been commissioned as an external evaluator on a range of nationally funded projects and fellowships.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Flinders University
  • Master of Education, University of Southern Queensland
  • Higher Diploma of Education, University of the Witwatersrand
  • Bachelor of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

  • Experiential learning preferences and success factors in business education

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Exploring group professional learning practice, in the form of professional learning communities (PLC's), to enable deep collaboration and improved teaching practice (curriculum and pedagogy) in a University setting.

    Master Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Understanding the contribution of humanities, Arts and social science (HASS) programs to learning in higher education

    There is an opportunity for a qualified applicant who is interested in higher education research to become a MPHIL/PhD student to exploreHASS-specific pedagogies. This project aims to identify practices and opportunities in HASS disciplines that enable and develop innovation, critical thinking and reasoning, creativity and entrepreneurial skills. It will identify problems in leading curriculum reform that particularly affect teaching into the BA in the contemporary context where there is increasing pressure to meet the needs of the growing knowledge and innovation based economy of Australia.

  • Interdisciplinary learning in Generalist programs

    Generalist programs such as the Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Science (BSc) are often defended by arguments that contend that BA students have a unique opportunity to integrate knowledge and skills from disparate disciplines and that new, personalised learning occurs through generating the connections and forming coherence between the different disciplines studied. Learning in the spaces in between disciplines, fundamental to interdisciplinary learning, is described as promoting a heightened understanding of the complexities of the contemporary world. A key strength of BA and BSc programs is the capacity to engage with multiple disciplines. Yet, there is little evidence that this kind of interdisciplinary learning actually occurs. An investigation of the actual graduate attributes attained and sustained over time through this cross-discipline learning is required. Suitably qualified applicants interested in interdisciplinary higher education research are invited to become a MPHIL/PhD student to investigate this question.

  • Approaches to actualise curriculum design in higher education

    There is an opportunity for a qualified applicant who is interested in higher education research to become a MPHIL/PhD student exploring the efficacy of design-based thinking as an approach to program design in higher education. Design-based thinking has been used as a process to design services and products and marketing and as a tool to teach students creativity and innovation and to strategies. It has also been used as a process to highlight and address curriculum challenges in K-12 education. This research posits that design-based thinking approaches can be used to encourage a whole-of-program view and to refresh and renew existing higher education curricula. This approach also firmly places students as partners in curriculum design

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Experiential learning preferences and success factors in business education

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Exploring group professional learning practice, in the form of professional learning communities (PLC's), to enable deep collaboration and improved teaching practice (curriculum and pedagogy) in a University setting.

    Master Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Understanding the contribution of humanities, Arts and social science (HASS) programs to learning in higher education

    There is an opportunity for a qualified applicant who is interested in higher education research to become a MPHIL/PhD student to exploreHASS-specific pedagogies. This project aims to identify practices and opportunities in HASS disciplines that enable and develop innovation, critical thinking and reasoning, creativity and entrepreneurial skills. It will identify problems in leading curriculum reform that particularly affect teaching into the BA in the contemporary context where there is increasing pressure to meet the needs of the growing knowledge and innovation based economy of Australia.

  • Interdisciplinary learning in Generalist programs

    Generalist programs such as the Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Science (BSc) are often defended by arguments that contend that BA students have a unique opportunity to integrate knowledge and skills from disparate disciplines and that new, personalised learning occurs through generating the connections and forming coherence between the different disciplines studied. Learning in the spaces in between disciplines, fundamental to interdisciplinary learning, is described as promoting a heightened understanding of the complexities of the contemporary world. A key strength of BA and BSc programs is the capacity to engage with multiple disciplines. Yet, there is little evidence that this kind of interdisciplinary learning actually occurs. An investigation of the actual graduate attributes attained and sustained over time through this cross-discipline learning is required. Suitably qualified applicants interested in interdisciplinary higher education research are invited to become a MPHIL/PhD student to investigate this question.

  • Approaches to actualise curriculum design in higher education

    There is an opportunity for a qualified applicant who is interested in higher education research to become a MPHIL/PhD student exploring the efficacy of design-based thinking as an approach to program design in higher education. Design-based thinking has been used as a process to design services and products and marketing and as a tool to teach students creativity and innovation and to strategies. It has also been used as a process to highlight and address curriculum challenges in K-12 education. This research posits that design-based thinking approaches can be used to encourage a whole-of-program view and to refresh and renew existing higher education curricula. This approach also firmly places students as partners in curriculum design

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Higher education, curriculum, Bachelor of Arts

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

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ResearcherID: E-6605-2015

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