Michelle Tan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy. Her teaching and research interests include Science Education, outdoor learning, curriculum reforms, and collaborative teacher inquiry. Particularly, Michelle is interested in examining ways teachers could theorize about their own practices within institutional and reform-based settings, where Science Education, outdoor learning and other educational contexts form the backdrop of her work. Michelle’s research is located within different educational levels, spanning from working with teachers to collaborating with policy makers in their curriculum conceptualization efforts.
Michelle’s recent research projects include exploring BC teachers’ engagement with collaborative action research, where she is developing the ‘learning study’ as a professional development model to support beginning teachers. In the project, ‘brain-based theories’ will be introduced to help shape teachers’ discussions around teaching and learning, particularly in the area of demonstrating care for students. Michelle is also involved in a project involving international researchers from Singapore and Hong Kong. The team will critically examine resilience-nurturing environments and classroom practices of “Turnaround” teachers in Singapore. The project explores how at-risk and academically weaker students could be supported in classroom settings, and serves to further dialogues regarding the making of learning accessible to all students.