Rate My Professor Karen Skilling

Professor Karen Skilling is Professor of Educational Leadership and Chair of Discipline for Teacher Professional Learning in the Faculty of Education at Southern Cross University, Gold Coast campus. She leads TeachLab, a research group focused on teacher improvements and student learning outcomes. She holds a DipEd (Primary) from the University of Sydney, MEd (Merit) from Sydney, and PhD from Sydney, funded by the Australian Postgraduate Award (Industry) attached to the ARC-funded MYTEAM Project examining middle years transitions in mathematics learning. After 16 years in the United Kingdom, she joined Southern Cross University in early 2026 from the University of Oxford, where she was Associate Professor in Mathematics Education, directing the PGCE Mathematics programme and the Doctoral Research Programme supporting up to 45 PhD students. Previously, she led the Post Graduate Certificate of Education (Secondary) programme at King’s College London and held a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Oxford’s Department of Education (2013-2014). She remains an Honorary Research Fellow at Oxford’s Department of Education and Honorary Fellow at Kellogg College.

Skilling’s research specializations include student engagement and motivation in mathematics across cognitive, affective/emotional, and behavioural dimensions; teacher beliefs and practices; integrated STEM learning; and vignette methods. She leads Work Package 3 of the SEMPER Project funded by the Research Council of Norway, investigating teacher self-efficacy in mathematics across five schools. She previously led the Oxford-based ORRSEM Project on observing and reporting student engagement in secondary mathematics lessons. Her publications appear in leading journals such as Mathematics Education Research Journal and Research in Mathematics Education, including an oft-cited paper proposing a vignette framework co-authored with Professor Gabriel Stylianides. Key works include the 2022 book Cartoon vignettes for connecting mathematics education theory and practice and contributions to Becoming a Teacher (5th and 6th editions). She serves as editor for Teaching Education and Research in Mathematics Education, sat on the Executive Committee of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics for a four-year term, and is on the Motivation and Learning SIG of the Australian Association for Research in Education.