By age 30, early career researcher Dr Carla Valerio has covered some impressive ground, from her home country Portugal to Southern Cross University on Queensland's beautiful Gold Coast, and in her journey from elite athlete and coach to academic.
"There is no right or wrong in pedagogical approaches – I think every pedagogical approach is designed to suit a purpose," Dr Valerio says.
"At least in my work, the majority of my research is in student-centeredness and student voice.
"We are preparing students for an unknown future. We need to think about creativity and cognitive development."
She pauses and says: "Think about a PE lesson. You can get students down to an oval and have them do laps and drills.
"Or you can ask them to invent their own game. What are the rules? How do you measure success? How can you test that it is working?"
"The teacher still has a voice in the class, but it may not be the 'big' voice."
Growing up Dr Valerio excelled in the highly competitive, fiercely individualistic pursuits of gymnastics and sprint canoeing.
As would naturally follow, she enrolled to study sports science. What came next was unexpected, but would profoundly change her trajectory.
"The first subject I took was called the Pedagogy of Sport with one of the oldest professors in the faculty," she said. "Everyone said it was so boring.
"It wasn't for me. I was completely absorbed from the moment I looked at sport through that philosophical lens."
Dr Valerio's studies included a full semester on gymnastics, which brought her into contact with one of Portugal's top coaches.
She joined the same club and coached as her studies continued.
Over time Dr Valerio developed an interest in social learning theory – which covers the learning we do with others. It is at the far end of a spectrum from more traditional approaches such as explicit learning, in which knowledge is passed in a linear way from teacher to student.
When Dr Valerio embarked on doctoral studies it was at this intersection between sport, education and social learning.
For two years, she immersed herself with pre-service physical education teachers, exploring the value of what was occurring in their collaboration together.
"We can see explicit teaching and direct instruction coming back in some ways," Dr Valerio says. "This is not necessarily a bad thing in my view.
"But collaboration to me is what I see at the social forefront in education.
"It is very easy to say, 'This is what we'll do'. It can be much more challenging for a teacher to say, 'What can we do with this?'"
Dr Valerio's focus is now primarily in two areas. She continues to research initial teacher education and the impacts of social learning strategies, engaged in a project which evaluates the collaboration between outdoor education teachers and the teachers whose classes visit the Tallebudgera Outdoor and Environmental Education Centre facility.
Her work aims to understand how outdoor practices can be translated into school-based settings.
And she is teaching Southern Cross University education students how to deliver gymnastics lessons in a way which are game-based and inclusive for students of all interests and abilities.
Having covered so much ground so quickly, it begs the question of what might be in the next phase of Dr Valerio's career.
"I am still exploring," she says. "I am fairly ambitious with what I want to do, but I want to be somewhere where what I do matters. And I feel that at Southern Cross."
Dr Valerio is part of the TeachLab Research Group, which focuses on school leadership, teacher education and effective teaching practices.
It is one of three research groups in the Faculty of Education, along with SEAE (Sustainability, Environment and Arts in Education) and the Early Years Research Lab.
Faculty Executive Dean Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles said early career academics such as Dr Valerio were extending a proud legacy of evidence-based research at Southern Cross.
"Our research breaks new ground on approaches which are best for an increasingly complex world, supporting the best outcomes for students, teachers and school leaders," she said.
"We then use this in the way we prepare graduates so they are class-room ready and can make a contribution from very early in their teaching careers.
"All of this responds to the interrelated crises facing the national education system that were recently addressed by the Teacher Education Expert Panel.
"We feel the Faculty of Education at Southern Cross University has a significant contribution to make."
