Catherine Thiele is an educator, lecturer, and researcher at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Since beginning her career in Education over 20 years ago, Catherine has taught in primary schools and tertiary institutions.
As a confirmed PhD student, Catherine’s doctoral studies seek to gain deeper understandings about the impact of school-based assessment infrastructures, such as physical data-walls and electronic business intelligence tools, and the conversations that teachers have surrounding them (eg; data-wall conversations and planning). Her research work experiments with data-driven practices, and how these practices affect teachers. Catherine’s PhD is titled “The affective intensities of effective measures: shifting the conversation around standardised data visualisations in schools”. Catherine’s other research interests include transformative and socially responsible practices informing teacher professional development, preservice teacher preparation (particularly for rural and remote education) and mathematics education.
Her recent research projects include:
- Rural and remote education and leadership
- Preservice teacher placement preparedness and rural and remote placement experiences
- The tensions between academic performance and student wellbeing
- Mathematics (mental computation) in primary schools
Previously (2017-2021), Catherine held the leadership position of the Professional Experience Coordinator for the School of Education. During this time, she supported the partnerships between education-based learning environments, university personnel and pre-service teachers. Such partnerships saw the placement of 1200+ pre-service teachers for their Professional Experience (PEx), involving hundreds of learning sites, including many regional, rural, and remote school locations.
Professional Memberships
- Australian Association Research Education – AARE
- Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre Member - ITRC
- Mathematics Education Research Group Australasia - MERGA
Professional Social Media
Awards
- 2019 “Australian Rural Education Award” Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) USC School of Education
Research areas
- The affective intensities of school-based standardised data
- Data(-wall) conversations and practices
- Rural and remote education and leadership
- Preservice teacher placement preparedness and rural and remote experiences
- Tensions between academic performance and student wellbeing
- Mathematics (mental computation) in primary schools
Teaching areas
- Teaching Mathematics in the Early Years
- Teaching Primary School Mathematics
- Placement: Orientation to Teaching and Learning
- Thiele, C., Simon, S., Dole, P., Eager, L. & Casey, J. (2022). The contribution of partnerships-powered and peer-supported leadership strategies to attract and retain preservice teachers in Far North Queensland. Final Report. Sunshine Coast, the University of the Sunshine Coast.
- Thiele, C., Heimans, S., Manathunga, C., Barry, S., Cherry-Smith, B., Farrelly, K., Grogan, T., Kemble, R., & McIlwain, L. (2022). Collective, vulnerable, nascent (post) qualitative inquiry-writing. The Qualitative Report, 27(5), 1196-1205. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2022.5623
- Thiele, C., Dole, S., & Carmichael, P. (2021). An EVERY-day approach to teaching number facts. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom Journal. 26(2), 9-13
- Munge, B., Black, A., Heck, D., Manathunga, C., Davidow, S., Thiele, C., Dwyer, R., Heimans, S., & Schriever, V. (2021). Thinking (now) out of place? Scripting and performing collective dissent inside the corporatized university. Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, 21(5), 413-423 https://doi.org/10.1177/15327086211029365
- Willis, A., Thiele, C., Dwyer, R., Grainger, P., & Simon, S. (2021).The pressing need to raise the status of the teaching profession: the launch story of the Teachers of Australia social media campaign. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 46(2), 16-28 http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2021v46n2.2
- Hudson, S., Young, K., Thiele, C., & Hudson, P. (2021). Preparing preservice teachers for rural and remote schools: Is classroom readiness enough? International Journal of Arts, Humanities & Social Science, 6(9), 82-94 https://ijahss.net/assets/files/1631390722.pdf
- Willis, A., Grainger, P., Menzies, S., Dwyer, R., Simon, S., & Thiele, C. (2020). The Role of Teachers in Mitigating Student Stress to Progress Learning. Australian Journal of Education, 65 (2). 123-138 https://doi.org/10.1177/0004944120982756
- Thiele, C. (2020). A Review of Laurel Richardson’s “Lone Twin: A True Story of Loss and Found”. Art Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal, 5(2), 562-566, doi.org/10.18432/ari29534
- Hudson, S., Young, K., Thiele, C., & Hudson, P. (2020). An Exploration of Preservice Teachers’ Readiness for Teaching in Rural and Remote Schools. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, 30(3), 51-68. https://journal.spera.asn.au/index.php/AIJRE/article/view/280
- Thiele, C., Dole, S., Carmichael, P., Simpson, J., & O'Toole, C. (2019). Teaching number fact and computational fluency: teachers’ perceptions and impact upon practice. In G. Hine, S. Blackley, & A. Cooke (Eds.). Mathematics Education Research: Impacting Practice (Proceedings of the 42nd annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia), pp. 715-722. Perth: MERGA
- Grainger, P., Steffler, R., de Villiers Scheepers, M. J., Thiele, C., & Dole, S. (2019). Student negotiated learning, student agency and General Capabilities in the 21st Century: The DeLorean Project. The Australian Educational Researcher, 46(3), 425-447; doi:10.1007/s13384-018-0287-6
- Dole, S., Carmichael, P., Thiele, C., Simpson, J. & O’Toole, C. (2018) Fluency with number facts – Responding to the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. In Hunter, J., Perger, P., & Darragh, L. (Eds.). Making waves, opening spaces (Proceedings of the 41st annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia) pp. 266-273. Auckland: MERGA
- Dole, S., Carmichael, P., Thiele, C., Simpson, J. & O’Toole, C. (2018). Fluency with number facts in Year 3 and Year 4, Final Report. Sunshine Coast, the University of the Sunshine Coast.