CONTACT

Phone (Australia) 03 5327 9327

Phone (International) :+61 3 5327 9327

Email: m.zeegers@ballarat.edu.au

Postal:

School of Education
University of Ballarat
University Drive
Mt Helen
Victoria, 3353

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:

PhD: Deakin, Vic.

Thesis: A Mercantilist Cinderella: Deakin University and the Distance Education Student in the Postmodern World

MEd, Deakin, Vic

Curriculum Design and Development, Cognitive Development, Systemic Linguistics, Classroom Research Methods, Statistical Analysis

Thesis: Rhetoric, Reality and the Practicum: Teacher Training in Papua New Guinea

BA, DipEd: La Trobe University, Vic

Cert IV Workplace Assessor Trainer University of Ballarat

Cert TESL, Massey, New Zealand

Grad Cert Education (Tertiary) University of Ballarat, Vic

IELTS: Certificated International Language Testing System (IELTS) Examiner-Examiner No. 003581

Personal History

I have been in the Education Industry for a long time now, starting in Victorian Secondary schools, moving into teacher education.  I have worked in Papua New Guinea in Primary Teacher Education and English Language (plus TESL).  That took me into all sorts of other areas in the Community Schools, In-Servicing, Professional Development programs, the National Adult Literacy Campaign, the development and use of the Our English for Melanesia materials, in the villages, and in the cities like Port Moresby.  Having gone down that track, I followed up with Secondary Teacher Education at the University of Phnom Penh in the Quaker managed Cambodian English Language Training Program (CELT), and with the United Nations Interpreter Training Program for the first elections held there after 20 odd years of civil strife and the Pol Pot regime. 

In Australia I have worked at Universities as academic, administrator and researcher.  I have worked with undergraduates, postgraduates and with adult learners in their various workplaces.  I have taught very young children and the middle and senior secondary students.  I have worked with convicted criminals in jails, and I have worked with community groups in their education programs.  I have been some form of Warden or another when I have taken over supervision of  institutional academic residences and took on responsibility for the academic, social and personal welfare of students resident in such establishments. I have participated in Distance Education innovations, working with people in the production of Interactive Television programs tied to web sites and I have used the principles involved in reaching out to isolated teachers in Cambodia and Vietnam where the technical wherewithal simply did not allow for anything much beyond clever thinking and instructional design in getting the message through. 

Associations

-President of IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People)Australia

-President of Deakin University's Faculty of Education Doctoral Alumni Network (FEDAN)

-Board Member of ACLAR (Australiasian Children's Literature Association for Research)

-Committee Member of the Victorian Branch of the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA)

-Member of the Editorial Board : International Journal of the Book

-Community Coordinator and International Adviser to the Conference organising Committee: International Conference of the Book

-Member of the European Affective Learning Network

Currently

-Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, University of Ballarat, where I have worked sinced 2000

Supervision:
PhD students x 5
Professional Doctorate in Education x 3
Masters by Research students x 1
Masters by Coursework students (supervising Minor Thesis) x 3

Research topics of students:
Children's literature and Literature Circles
Teacher Professional Development and Teacher-as-Researcher
Teaching and Learning in Primary School Mathematics: the Affective Dimension
Changes in Children's Literature at Primary School
Teaching Children's Literature in Chinese Primary and Secondary schools
Explorations in Postgraduate Pedagogies
Restorative Practice and Classroom Management
Issues in Language Education
Inhibitors to Boys' Language Learning
Family Immersion in Language as Language Learning

Also Supervised
Visiting Scholar (from China) x 1
Visiting Research Fellow (from China) x 3

Course coordination: Graduate Certificate of Education (Tertiary)

Units taught

Language and Literacy

Approaches to Teaching English

Changing Literacy Education

Inclusive Learning Environments

Successful Learners

Practicum/School Experience

Teaching Language Arts

Communities of Learners

Studies in Society and Environment

Unit Coordination:

Approaches to Teaching English
Changing Literacy Education
Language and Literacy
Successful Learners
Teaching the Arts (including Teaching the Language Arts)
GradDip (Primary) Unit: Learners and Learning

Year Level Coordination

Shenzheng Polytechnic Training Program

Click here for Research Projects

Click here for Consultancies

Click here for Conference Presentations