Associate Professor Pauline Ross

• Biography
• Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise
• Awards and Recognition
• Publications
• Optional
• Contact Details

Biography

The most significant scientific contributions of Associate Professor Ross has been her research on plant/animal interactions in threatened mangrove, seagrass and saltmarsh communities and on larval ecology. Her work on estuarine habitats is a significant contribution to our understanding of the nation’s biodiversity and has direct applications to fisheries. Its aim has been to determine how habitat loss and fragmentation affect the biodiversity and abundance of microfauna especially gastropods and insects. Her current, internationally awarded research is on the impact of climate change and ocean acidification on oysters.  It was used extensively as cutting edge research in the report on “Research Priorities for Ocean Acidification as part of the Monaco Declaration (2009) from the Second International Symposium on the Ocean in a High CO₂”.  The research detected a synergistic impact of temperature and ocean acidification on larval development for the Sydney Rock and Pacific oysters and potentially an adaptive resilience to climate-proof marine biodiversity. It is funded by an ARC-D postdoctoral fellowship to Laura Parker in 2010 titled.

Climate change research: "Can Sydney rock oysters adapt to chronic multigenerational exposure to ocean acidification and temperature?" (PDF, 87kb)

This project will identify the chronic multigenerational response of an iconic oyster species to ocean acidification (OA) and temperature. Already acute studies have found effects of OA and temperature  on the reproduction and development of oysters  with  selectively bred oyster populations being  resilient. We have, however, no information internationally of the impacts of long term exposure to OA and temperature on marine organisms and ecosystems. We will use chronic multigenerational experiments to determine whether populations of the Sydney Rock oyster Saccostrea glomerata have the potential to adapt to future OA and temperature. Our goal is to determine how the Australian oyster industry will be affected by future climate change and develop strategies to target these effects for the sustainability of other marine organisms and ecosystems.
Partners:  Dr Wayne O’Connor Industry and Investment NSW, Professor Hans Portner, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany – and A/Prof David Raftos, Macquarie University 

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Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

Associate Professor Pauline Ross is an outstanding educator in science, a 2009 recipient of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC),  Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT) in Biology, a 2008 ALTC citation for an outstanding contribution to student learning, a 2007  University of Western Sydney Excellence Award in teaching and 4 other university and national awards for teaching excellence and a 2008 Australian Award for Excellence in  publication of the textbook, New South Wales Biology (2007) published by MacMillan.  She is an Associate Professor and Assistant Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) at UWS, and has extensive experience in science curriculum development in Australia and overseas, known for innovation, creativity and inquiry into the teaching research nexus and conceptual understanding.  Her research and teaching practice is firmly grounded in the scholarly learning and teaching literature.  Her current learning and teaching projects include “Threshold concepts: challenging the way we think and learn in biology”, an ALTC project with the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales.   She has recently constructed a new way to think about the concepts which students (and teachers) find troublesome in Biology and prevent student progress and is actively engaged in determining the impact of climate change on marine organisms and ecosystems with her postgraduate and postdoctoral students. 

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She says in her recent national teaching award
“During my 25 years as an educator, 16 years as an academic in the discipline of biology, I have used the extraordinarily fertile basis of creativity at the heart of the discipline of science to create a pedagogical paradigm shift (sensu Kuhn¹) in the learning, teaching and assessment of biology. Although biology is supposedly the “easiest” of the science disciplines, research on student learning has shown that even high calibre, high achieving biology students at elite institutions taught by universally admired academics, fail to build a scientifically conceptual and contextual foundation in biology, perhaps because learning, teaching and assessment strategies in the discipline of biology have become ritualised. This paradigm shift allows me to communicate a deep conceptual and contextual understanding of biology to students. At the cornerstone of this paradigm shift is creativity²; requiring students and staff to relearn their capacity for creativity and self-belief; inquiring, uncovering and overcoming barriers in their conceptual understanding, so that they think and practise as biologists.  Biology is a discipline which is linguistically and conceptually challenging to learn, but scientifically has the technological potential to change what it means to be human.  Our best hope for the future of learning in biology is to develop a new teaching paradigm and an environment to nurture student talent with an understanding that this talent expresses itself differently in every individual³ and that inquiry and understanding are the cornerstones in student learning.” 

Current Research Projects in Learning and Teaching

Using Threshold Concepts to Generate a New Understanding of Teaching and Learning Biology

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The aims of this Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Funded project are to improve student understanding of biology through the use of novel research (into the definition of a Threshold Concept in Biology) to enable the development of teaching that is appropriate for diverse learning strategies. At the same time we are capturing the process of strategic change in approaches to teaching Biology in Australian Universities, through extensive discussion and consultation with existing networks of tertiary teachers. Initial developments have been guided by the collaboration between a core group of biologists at three universities in Sydney which have been enhanced and supported by workshops and regular communications with a national biology teaching group. As part of this Project we are surveying tertiary biology teachers and asking them to rank difficult concepts in biology.  Recent outputs of this project are housed at the following URL.
http://bugs.bio.usyd.edu.au/thresholds_in_biology/

Crossing Thresholds in Secondary School Biology
Associate Professor Pauline Ross has also been awarded a UWS Research Partnership grant to investigate threshold concepts in biology in secondary schools in the Western Sydney Region with Roy Tasker from the School of Natural Sciences, Dr Betty Gill, College of Health and Science, Dr Charlotte Taylor from University of Sydney and Lachlan Macquarie College, together with NSW Department of Education & Training have ‘To ensure Australia's future prosperity, we need well trained and innovative scientists who actively engage in world-leading research’ says Associate Professor Ross. ‘At present, we have few paradigms which support teachers to deal with the well known conceptual challenges of science and biology. We will use threshold concepts to describe key ideas in biology that lead students to a transformed view and better understanding of Stage 4 of the NSW Science Years 7-10 syllabus. Interventions will be designed to overcome barriers in learning biology and improve student conceptual development and performance in state wide tests including the Essential Secondary Science Assessment.’  Recent outputs of this project are housed at the following URL..
http://www.lmc.nsw.edu.au/teacher-programs/thresholds refer to attached PDF

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Awards and Recognition

British Chevening Fellowship, British Council (1995) University of Liverpool, Isle of Man.

Christine Wieneke Award (1996) UWS; Best New Researcher.

Excellence in Teaching Award (1998), UWS;

International Research Fellowship (2000-2001) Marine Biological Association of the UK;

Excellence in Teaching Award (2002) UWS;

Excellence in Teaching Award (2005) UWS;

Excellence Award in Teaching (2007) UWS;

Excellence in Australian Publishing Joint Winner (2008). Best Secondary Textbook; Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC)

Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning(2008).

Australian Award for University Teaching  (AAUT) from Australian Learning and Teaching Council for Excellence in Teaching in Biology and Health Related Fields (2009)  http://tdu.uws.edu.au/qilt/teaching/awards_2009.html

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Publications

Ross PM,  Parker LM and WA O’Connor   The impact of Ocean Acidification on Reproduction, Early development and Settlement of Marine Organisms in “Ocean Acidification” W Burns (Ed)   Cambridge University Press In review.

Aitchison, C., Catterall, J.,  Ross, P.M., and S. Burgin Tough love and tears: learning doctoral writing in the sciences  Studies in Higher Education In review.

Aitchison, C., Catterall, J.,  Ross, P.M., Burgin, S Pedagogical approaches that facilitate writing in postgraduate research candidature in science and technology  Higher Education Research and Development In review

Parker, L. M., Ross, P. M., and O’Connor, Adaptive Capacity of a Mollusc to Elevated CO₂ and the Potential to Ameliorate Climate Change Marine bology  In review.

Parker, L. M., Ross, P. M., and W O’Connor, (in review) Comparing the effect of elevated pCO₂ and temperature on the fertilization and early development of two species of oysters Marine Biology In press.

Ross, P.,M., Taylor, C., Hughes, C., Lutze-Mann, L., and V, Tzioumis, (2010) Threshold Concepts: Challenging the way we learn, think and teach Biology. Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding. Sense Publishers Boston Massachusetts, In press.

Ross, P.,M., Taylor, C., Hughes, C., Lutze-Mann, L., and V, Tzioumis, (2010)  On the threshold concept of Evolution  Biology International In press.

Ross, P.M., Minchinton, T.E. and W Ponder (2009). The ecology of molluscs in Australian Saltmarshes.  In Saltmarshes of Australia, Saintilan N (Ed).  CSIRO Publishing Pp 67-107.

Parker, L. M., Ross, P. M., and W, O’Connor, (2009) The effect of ocean acidification and temperature on the fertilisation and embryonic development of the Sydney Rock Oyster Saccostrea glomerata (Gould 1850). Global Change Biology, Global Change Biology 15:2123-2136.

Ross, P. M., (2008). Future Directions in Representing Learning in Biology. Symposium Proceedings of Visualisation and Concept Development, UniServe Science, Sydney, Australia 104-107.

Jefferies, C., and P. M., Ross, (2007) New South Wales Biology. Mc Millian Press, Melbourne.

Ross, P. M., and Tronson, D. A., (2007) Intervening to Create Conceptual Change. Symposium Proceedings of Teaching and Learning, UniServe Science, Sydney, Australia.

Jelbart, J. E., Ross, P. M., and R. M. Connolly, (2007) A test of the species area relationship and landscape ecology theories. Journal of Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. 87, 1297-1307 IF = 0.745 ISSN 00253154.

Jelbart, J. E., Ross, P. M., and R. M. Connolly, (2007) Fish assemblages in seagrass beds are influenced by t Jelbart JE, Ross PM and RM Connolly (2006). Edge effects and patch size in seagrass landscapes: an experimental test using fish Marine Ecology Progress Series 319, 93-102. IF = 2.315 ISSN.

Jelbart. J. E., Ross, P. M., and R. M. Connolly, (2007) Fish assemblages in seagrass beds are influenced by the proximity of mangrove forests. Marine Biology 150, 993-1002. IF = 1.754 ISSN 0025 3162.

Ross PM (1997). Investigating Coast and Marine Environments through Science in
Fein J. J. Ferraria (eds) Griffith University Press.

Ross, P. M., Tronson, D. A., and S. Seigenthaler, (2006) Assessment for learning and motivation Symposium Proceedings Assessment in Science Teaching and Learning, UniServe Science, Sydney Australia 120-125.

Ross, P. M., and Tronson, D. A., (2005) Providing quality feedback - Where to from here? Symposium Proceedings of Teaching and Learning, UniServe Science, Sydney, Australia.

Ross, P. M., (2005) Modelling Creativity in Tertiary Science Teaching. Effective Teaching and Learning Conference, University of Queensland, Griffith University and QUT Brisbane. (Reviewed Abstract).

Ross, P. M., (2006) Connecting: Learning and Emotion Effective Teaching and Learning Conference, University of Queensland, Griffith University and QUT Brisbane. (Reviewed abstract Ross, P. M., (2001) Larval supply, settlement and survival of barnacles in a temperate mangrove forest. Marine Ecology Progress Series 215, 237-249 IF = 2.3145 ISSN 0171 8630.

Ross, P. M., (2006) Macrofaunal loss and microhabitat destruction: The impact of trampling in a temperate mangrove forest, NSW Australia Wetlands Ecology and Management 14, 167-184. IF = 1.274 ISSN 0277 5212.

Hawkins SJ, Allen JR, Ross PM, and MS Genner (2002) Marine and coastal ecosystems in Handbook of Ecological Restoration Perrow, MR and AJ Davy (Eds)  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Pp 121-149.

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Optional

Conferences

Ross, P. M., (2008). Future Directions in Representing Learning in Biology. Symposium Proceedings of Visualisation and Concept Development, UniServe Science, Sydney, Australia 104-107.

Ross, P. M., and Tronson, D. A., (2007) Intervening to Create Conceptual Change. Symposium Proceedings of Teaching and Learning, UniServe Science, Sydney, Australia.

Ross, P. M., Tronson, D. A., and S. Seigenthaler, (2006) Assessment for learning and motivation Symposium Proceedings Assessment in Science Teaching and Learning, UniServe Science, Sydney Australia 120-125.

Ross, P. M., (2006) Connecting: Learning and Emotion Effective Teaching and Learning Conference, University of Queensland, Griffith University and QUT Brisbane. (Reviewed abstract).

Ross, P. M., and Tronson, D. A., (2005) Providing quality feedback - Where to from here? Symposium Proceedings of Teaching and Learning, UniServe Science, Sydney, Australia.

Ross, P. M., (2005) Modelling Creativity in Tertiary Science Teaching. Effective Teaching and Learning Conference, University of Queensland, Griffith University and QUT Brisbane. (Reviewed Abstract).

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