20250730 MAV25 synopsis - Flipbook - Page 13
TARA RICHARDSON
Tara is the Mathematics Domain
Leader at Greater Shepparton
Secondary College. She has led her
team through extensive professional
learning over the past five years to codesign and implement a comprehensive
mathematics curriculum from the ground up. A key feature of
this curriculum is the use of the Concrete–Representational–
Abstract (CRA) approach, particularly in the teaching of
linear algebra. Tara is committed to building teacher expertise
and fostering deep mathematical understanding, ensuring all
students experience success through consistent, evidenceinformed practice.
DR SOPHIE SPECJAL
(MODERATOR)
Dr Sophie Specjal has a passion for
understanding the most effective
ways that communication, language,
and learning come together. Sophie
has over 20 years of experience as a
teacher, leader, researcher, and global consultant. Sophie is
the host of the Talking Teaching podcast, for the Faculty of
Education at the University of Melbourne, where she shares
lively and informative conversations with extraordinary people
across the globe on topics such as teaching and learning,
educational research, and innovation.
Sophie is a lecturer and coordinator at the University
of Melbourne and the founding director of Language
of Learning, a consultancy that provides instructional
leadership, dialogic teacher and student talk, high impact
teaching, student voice, and coaching services to schools,
organizations, and individuals. She has strong ongoing
collaborations with K-12 schools, Big Ideas Learning
and National Geographic Learning in the USA, and the
AFL, where she supports coaching staff on effective
communication and feedback. Sophie completed her PhD in
Education at the University of Melbourne in 2022, under the
supervision of Professor John Hattie and Associate Professor.
Jon Quach, focusing on the power of communication,
language, and learning through teacher and student voice to
create deep level understandings.
THE MATHEMATICAL
ASSOCIATION OF VICTORIA
13
