Professor Christine McDonald

Biography

Christine McDonald is Dean (Academic) of the Arts, Education and Law (AEL) Group and a Professor of Science Education. She completed both of her undergraduate degrees at Griffith University prior to undertaking a PhD in science education at Queensland University of Technology, which was conferred in 2008. Christine has over a decade of teaching experience in preservice science teacher education, and more recently in higher degree research training, with her scholarship in learning and teaching receiving formal recognition via numerous citations and awards. She has held a range of leadership positions at Griffith, with her most recent roles including Higher Degree Research Advocate and Deputy Dean (Learning & Teaching) for the AEL Group.

Christine’s research primarily focuses on how epistemic cognition in science (nature of science) is conceptualised by teachers and students, and represented in science education curriculum materials. She has a highly regarded, international reputation in the field of science education both as a sole author, and as a collaborator with internationally renowned researchers. Her recent Routledge book, Representations of Nature of Science in School Science Textbooks: A Global Perspective (McDonald & Abd-El-Khalick, 2017) provided the first international compilation of studies in this area with contributions from 20 leading science educators. She also led the Australian leg of a large-scale, international study investigating students’ views of scientific inquiry (Lederman et al., 2019) with over 5000 students in 37 countries. Her commissioned review of best practice in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education (McDonald, 2016) underpinned the development of the current Queensland Department of Education STEM Strategy, and she has designed and delivered online professional learning programs to over 400 Queensland science teachers as part of funded government initiatives.

Christine has held a number of external leadership positions, most recently as Director of the Australasian Science Education Research Association (2017-2020) and Chair of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (USA) Early Career Research Award Committee (2019-2020). She is currently an Associate Editor of the top-ranked international science education journal (Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2020-2025), and has been nominated as a candidate for the 2021-2024 Board of Directors for the National Association for Research in Science Teaching in the USA.