Speaker: Professor Martin Westwell

Martin is the Chief Executive of the SACE Board, the senior secondary curriculum and assessment authority in South Australia. Martin was a Chief Investigator in the national Australian Research Council (ARC) Science of Learning Research Centre, collaborating with classroom teachers to use principles from cognitive science in the development of pedagogical approaches and assessment practices. Martin has worked extensively with education systems and other organisations in using evidence to inform policy, practice, innovation and impact in education. He has worked with UNESCO using evidence to inform strategic planning of education in the Asia-Pacific region and has been a member of the steering group of their research network. He was a Board Member of the SACE Board for five years before taking on the role of Chief Executive.

Building on his research career at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, Martin and his family moved to South Australia in 2007. Here, he took up the position of Director of the Flinders Centre for Science Education in the 21st Century and then Strategic Professor in the Science of Learning at Flinders University. His children attended public schools in South Australia. Martin is the Chair of the South Australian Department of Education’s Expert Advisory Group. This group of Australian and international researchers provide guidance for the Department on evidence-informed policy and practice.

Martin was a member of the Department of State Development Science Council (the science advisory body for State Government chaired by the State’s Chief Scientist) and the DefenceSA Space Council (a body made up of industry, Government and Defence Force representatives to develop space-related industries in SA). Over the last ten years, several reports have been commissioned from Professor Westwell’s group at Flinders University, the South Australian Government’s Department of State Development (DSD) and the Department of Education. These reports have focused on aspects of science and mathematics education, the pipeline of skills, the uptake of STEM subjects, the dispositions of students, and how these factors might be influenced to improve student outcomes and the workforce needs of South Australian businesses. Martin has also been involved with the SA GrowthState Agenda Panel, and the Department for Education’s STEM Industry Advisory Group. In 2018, Martin received the Australian Council for Educational Leaders’ Gold Medal for the Most Outstanding Contribution to the study and practice of educational administration and leadership.