Colleen Vale is professor of mathematics education in the Faculty of Education. Equity and social justice in mathematics education is a focus of her research and scholarly activity.  She is renowned for her research in gender equity and digital technologies in mathematics education, out-of-field teaching in STEM and learning and teaching mathematical reasoning.  She has received a range of research grants that investigate students’ learning, teachers’ practice and knowledge and that evaluate government policies and programs in STEM education. She is currently conducting an ARC Discovery Project titled Primary teachers adaptive expertise in interdisciplinary maths and science. 

Colleen is co-author of the award winning Tertiary Scholarly Reference: Teaching Secondary School Mathematics: Research and Practice for the 21^st Century.

Colleen has made a significant contribution to the field of gender equity and digital technologies through her PhD study. She was a member of the International Planning Committee for the 17^th International Commission for Mathematics Instruction Study: Mathematics Education and Technology – Rethinking the Terrain.  She is co-editor of an ICME-13 Monograph Uses of Technology in Primary and Secondary Mathematics Education. 

Colleen’s research interest in out-of-field teachers arose through provision of professional learning programs for teachers in low-socio economic schools when employed at Victoria University. She is a member of the international Teaching across Subjects (TAS) Collective and conducted an ARC Discovery Project Out-of-field Teaching: Sustaining Quality Practices Across Subjects and an international study of systemic factors, Teaching science and mathematics out-of-field: Investigating systemic factors from a transnational perspective with colleagues at Deakin University, QUT, UNE and University of Essen-Duisberg, Germany.

Colleen led a team of researchers to conduct research on primary teachers’ perceptions of mathematical reasoning, primary students’ mathematical reasoning, and primary teachers’ planning that promote and enhance students’ mathematical reasoning to advance the theoretical understandings in the field. The team also conducted a Commonwealth Government funded study of the assessment of mathematical reasoning which included the production of teachers’ resources for reSolve: Mathematics by Inquiry for the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers and the Academy of Science.

These and other studies have included research of teachers’ professional learning such as Lesson Study, demonstration lessons and coaches. Colleen has expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research methods. She is an experienced HDR supervisor with a large number of successful completions in mathematics education and related education fields.