Rate My Professor Simone Smala

Dr. Simone Smala is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Queensland. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland in 2007 with a thesis on anti-sectarian adult education in Northern Ireland, a Masters of Education from the Rheinish-Westphalian Technical University, and a Bachelor of Education from Universität Bielefeld. Drawing from her experience as a middle years and secondary teacher, Smala's research centers on teacher education, educational psychology, and multilingualism in education. Her interests encompass Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), second language learning, teacher wellbeing, collaboration, professional development, German language teaching, immersion programs, and the application of artificial intelligence in teaching. She applies socio-cultural learning theories, educational policy analysis, and blended learning approaches in her work, maintaining extensive research collaborations in Europe and the United States. Smala publishes in both English and German, contributing to international dialogues on bilingual and immersion education.

Key publications include the co-authored book Languages and social cohesion: a transdisciplinary literature review (2022, Routledge), Educational psychology (2019, Wiley), and book chapters such as 'CLIL, immersion, and bilingual education programmes in Australia' (2025, Cambridge University Press) and 'Situated emergence of CLIL: New discourses of bilingual education in Australian government schools' (2022, Routledge). Notable journal articles feature 'Prompting for pedagogy? Australian F-10 teachers’ generative AI prompting use cases' (2024, The Australian Educational Researcher), 'Teacher relationships and social connectedness' (2025, Teachers and Teaching), and 'Second language teachers’ perceptions of their pedagogical practices, collaborations, and relationships with other teachers through professional development' (2021, Australian Journal of Teacher Education). Her projects include developing a generative AI prompt taxonomy for F-10 education in Queensland (2023) and an overview study of second language immersion education in Queensland (2009-2010). Smala coordinates courses in educational psychology and contributes to advancements in active learning and AI integration in teacher training.