Centenary Professor Tom Lowrie
Position
Centenary Professor
Contact details
E: thomas.lowrie@canberra.edu.au
T: +61 2 62012568
L: Building 18 Room B11
Click to view Centenary Professor Tom Lowrie's Research profile
Biography
Tom was appointed as one of the University's Centenary Professors in 2014. Tom is the Director of the STEM Education Research Centre (SERC).
His previous positions include working as a primary school classroom teacher, teaching mathematics education and research method courses to undergraduate and postgraduate students and working with classroom teachers on curriculum frameworks. Previous administrative positions include being a Head of School, Head of Campus and Research Director of a multidisciplinary research institute.
Tom has an established international research profile in the discipline area of mathematics and STEM education. His concentrated and sustained (over 20 years) body of work has focused on the extent to which primary-aged students use spatial reasoning and visual imagery to solve mathematics problems and the role and nature of graphics in mathematics assessment. More recently, his research has expanded to include students' use of digital tools and dynamic imagery to solve problems and developing spatial curriculum for primary and secondary classrooms.
Tom is the Program Director for the Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) project. A nation-wide Australian Government initiative to increase the participation of Australian children in STEM and improve their digital literacy.
In the past 6 years, Tom has attracted more than $19.7 million in nationally competitive research projects, including five ARC Discovery Grants, the Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) project and a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Government Partnerships for Development Grant. He works closely with industry partners including the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), the World Bank, The Pearson Foundation and a number of education jurisdictions.
Research Interests
- STEM Practices
- Mathematics education
- Spatial reasoning
- Information graphics and dynamic imagery