Bell Burkhardt Daro Shell Centre Award for Aspiring Educational Designers

The Trustees of the Bell Burkhardt Daro Shell Centre Trust are pleased to announce that Sarah Porcenaluk has been chosen as recipient of the 2025 Bell Burkhardt Daro Shell Centre Award for Aspiring Educational Designers in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics. 

Sarah completed her PhD last year, in which she used design-based research to iteratively develop educative curriculum materials (ECMs) for use in primary schools. Through four design cycles, taking place over two years, Sarah and the teachers collaboratively designed the ECMs, used them in classrooms, and evaluated their effectiveness. Teachers who worked on designing the ECMs reported significant shifts in how they taught mathematics. They asked more higher-level questions of all students and used maths talk as a key pedagogical approach to teaching critical thinking skills.

Sarah plans to use the Award to share the ECMs with schools that serve marginalised communities. She will train teachers in using the ECMs and continue collecting feedback to improve the design. She will also explore the design and development of resource videos and additional guides to help teachers, and will make the ECMs available to all primary schools in Ireland.

Congratulations to Sarah on her $1000 prize!