Shaun Belward

Shaun Belward holds two significant broadscale leadership roles: Associate Dean Learning and Teaching (ADLT) in the College of Science and Engineering and Academic Group Head (AGH) of Physical Sciences (physics, chemistry, mathematics, and data science). Shaun’s role as ADLT followed significant periods in extensive informal leadership roles in learning and teaching that were designed to impart cultural change in learning and teaching practice. The AGH role follows a prolonged period as discipline leader for Mathematics.

Shaun is a great believer in the transformative power of education and is highly motivated by the prospect of JCU increasing access for students from regional Queensland so that they may participate and succeed in higher education at rates closer to the national average. In concert with this Shaun has a great understanding of the important role of visibility in the international arena, so that the impact of JCU’s teaching effort broadens to facilitate access to students from offshore in increasingly large cohorts. Central to these goals is an understanding of the role of pedagogy and technology and how these are utilised to improve outcomes for our students, in flexible delivery, for example. Shaun’s leadership is focussed on empowering the academics in Physical Sciences and Science and Engineering so that they may rise to these challenges.

Shaun’s research has included work in applied mathematics in Laplacian free boundary problems, with specific applications in modelling airflow over mountains. Higher education research has included work on large scale curriculum design related to the goal of developing quantitative skills in science students, learning outcomes for mathematics students, and action research projects in teaching first year mathematics. Shaun’s current HDR focus is on facilitating student projects in any application of mathematics where an appropriate supervisory panel can be assembled. Projects in research in higher education will also be considered.