Sarah Frankland

When did you start your role in the School? What were you doing beforehand?

March 2023, I am the Director of First Year Bachelor of Agriculture, I coordinate three first year undergraduate subjects focused on fundamental science and co-coordinating the capstone for the Bachelor of Agriculture.

What career path led you here?

I have a bachelor’s degrees in Archaeology and Biochemistry, and along the way have researched coral symbioses and the workings of malaria parasites.

What do you love about your discipline?

Working on ways to help students maximise their learning is very satisfying. As a teaching specialist I get to work with a couple of hundred students each year to help shape their education journey and their understanding of what agriculture is and its contribution to the health of the planet. The science that lies behind the ways we grow our food and feed ourselves is amazingly complex and being able to help those students see that and think about how their careers are going to shape the future is a privilege.

What is your research focus?

My research looks at self-regulated learning behaviours and assessment literacy. I collaborate with several education focused academics across the Faculty of Science as well as those in MDHS and FEIT.

Self-regulated learning describes the self-directed processes that allow learning-related thoughts and feelings to be used to develop contextually useful and goal-oriented academic skills. Alongside this is the ability to recognize their academic strengths and weaknesses, making appropriate behavioural adjustments where necessary.

Differences often exist between student and academic perceptions of assessment tasks, this can also be accentuated when their assignment tasks require academic judgement (the skill of being able to self-evaluate your work, and the work of others). Investigating the effect of specific interventions might help bridge this disconnect.

A couple of recent papers include:

• Willems-Jones et al (2023) Perceptions of an assessment literacy module to improve academic judgement – a pilot study. Proceedings of The Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education. https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/IISME/issue/view/1181
• N. L. Higgins, Joseph A. Rathner & Sarah Frankland (2021) Development of self-regulated learning: a longitudinal study on academic performance in undergraduate science, Research in Science & Technological Education, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02635143.2021.1997978

Are you involved in any other Science or University groups?

BRITE, MAVALT, SBS-ERG

What are your research / career goals?

I was selected for Homeward Bound 8, where I get to work with 108 women in STEM from 17 countries for a 12-month online leadership program focused on creating better outcomes for the planet. We are just starting our collective impact projects so I’m excited to see where that leads.