Viviane Robinson is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Learning, Development and Professional Practice, Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland and Academic Director of its Centre for Educational Leadership, which has delivered the national induction programme for new school leaders for the last 10 years.

Viviane also leads the Leadership Research Group at the Faculty, which carries out research that covers a broad range of issues in school leadership, educational policy and leadership skills, particularly interpersonal leadership skills that are crucial to effective leadership.

Viviane specialises in school improvement, leadership and the relationship between research and the improvement of practice. She is the author of five books and numerous chapters and journal articles. Her latest book entitled “Student-Centred Leadership” an evidence-based account of how school leaders can make a bigger difference to student outcomes and the knowledge and skills they need to do so.

Viviane has consulted on leadership development and research to government agencies and organisations in England, Singapore, Chile, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Over the last four years she has been running professional development courses in Open-to-LearningTM and conferences on student-centred leadership in Denmark and Norway.

Viviane has received awards from national and international professional organisations including the Australian Council for Educational Leaders and the New Zealand Secondary Principals Association. She is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association for sustained excellence in educational research.

Over the last year, Viviane has been made an Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit for her services to education and won the University of Auckland’s Vice Chancellor’s Medal for Excellence in Research Commercialization. She has also been appointed by the New Zealand Minister of Education as an expert adviser to the OECD conference on the education profession and assigned as one of nine national judges of the Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards.

Dylan Wiliam is Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London.

In a varied career, he has taught in urban public schools, directed a large-scale testing program, served a number of roles in university administration, authored numerous books, and pursued a research program focused on supporting teachers to develop their use of assessment in support of learning.

As one of the United Kingdom's leading experts on assessment, Dylan has an extensive history of research and consultation in this area. His recent work has focused on the use of assessment to support learning, which is sometimes called formative assessment. He was the co-author, with Paul Black, of a major review of the research evidence on formative assessment, and he has worked with many groups of teachers across the globe on developing formative assessment practices. Dylan is also an experienced international presenter who specialises in introducing educators to the principles and practice of assessment for learning.

Qualifications:

BSc: University of Durham, 1976

BA: Open University, 1983

MSc: Polytechnic of the South Bank, 1985

PhD: University of London, 1993

Professional affiliations:

Member, American Educational Research Association

Member, American Psychological Association

Member, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

Member, British Psychological Society

Member, International Testing Commission

Member, National Council on Measurement in Education

Member, Phi Delta Kappan

Academician, Academy of Social Sciences

Fellow, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

Employment:

1976-1977 Tutor of mathematics and physics, St Cloud College

1977-1980 Teacher of mathematics, Christopher Wren School, London

1980-1984 Teacher of mathematics, North Westminster School, London

1984-1986 Nuffield Research Fellow, Chelsea College, London

1986-1994 Lecturer in mathematics education, King’s College London

1994-1996 Senior lecturer in mathematics education, King’s College London

1996-2001 Dean of the School of Education, King’s College London

2001-2003 Assistant Principal, King’s College London

2003-2006 Senior Research Director, ETS, Princeton NJ

2006-2010 Deputy Director, Institute of Education, University of London

2010-2014 Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment, IOE

2014- Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment, UCL

Stephen Dinham OAM is Associate Dean Strategic Partnerships and Professor of Instructional Leadership in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.

Stephen Dinham taught in government secondary schools in NSW before being appointed in 1989 to the University of Western Sydney where he held a number of positions including Head of the Department of Curriculum Studies, Associate Dean (Postgraduate) and Associate Professor. In 2002 he took up a position as Professor of Teacher Education, Pedagogy and Professional Development at the University of New England. In 2005 he took up the position of Professor of Educational Leadership and Pedagogy at the University of Wollongong. In 2007 he took up the position of Research Director of the Teaching, Learning and Leadership research program at the Australian Council for Educational Research. He took up his present position at the University of Melbourne at the beginning of 2011.

He has conducted a wide range of research projects (more than 75 funded in excess of $10,000,000) in the areas of educational leadership and change, effective pedagogy/quality teaching, student achievement, postgraduate supervision, professional teaching standards, teachers' professional development, middle-level leaders in schools, and teacher satisfaction, motivation and health. He has an extensive publication record (more than 340 publications) of books, book chapters, refereed journal articles, and articles in professional journals. He is a frequent presenter at international, national and state conferences (over 520 presentations) and has conducted consultancies with a wide range of educational bodies nationally and internationally.

He is a past president of the Australian College of Educators (2014-15) and past president of NSW Branch of ACE (2000-02). In November 2011 he was appointed to the Council of the Victorian Institute of Teaching. Dinham is a recipient of the following awards:

• Fellow of the Australian College of Educators (1999)
• Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Administration (2000)
• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management (2002)
• Sir Harold Wyndham Medal (ACE NSW 2005)
• National Carrick Australian Award for University Teaching - Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2006) “For pivotal leadership in the teaching profession, linking teaching educators, professional bodies and practitioners through his research, award structures (QTA) and policy guidance on key committees.”
• Sir James Darling Medal (ACE Victoria 2010)
• Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) “For service to educational research, and to professional associations” (2011)
• Ann D Clark Medallion, Catholic Education, Diocese of Parramatta (2011).
• Richard von Weizsäcker Fellowship, Robert Bosch Foundation, Germany (2014).

Dr Stephen Heppell concurrently holds a number of senior roles in education institutions across the world. He is:

• Professor The Felipe Segovia Chair of Learning Innovation, Universidad Camilo José Cela, Madrid;
• Professor, Chair in New Media Environments, Bournemouth University;
  
• Emeritus Professor, Chair in New Learning Environments, Anglia Ruskin University; and
• Executive Chairman Learning Possibilities+ from 2010-on

Stephen's ICT career (he is widely credited with being the person who put the C into ICT), began with the UK government's Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP) in the early 80s, after he had been teaching in secondary schools for some years - which he enjoyed enormously.

Stephen founded and ran Ultralab for almost a quarter of a century, building it into one of the most respected research centres in e-learning in the world - at one time Ultralab was the largest producer of educational CD-ROMs in Europe - before leaving it in 2004 to found his own global and flourishing policy and learning consultancy heppell.net which now has an enviable portfolio of international projects all round the world.

An early pioneer of multimedia - heading Apple Computer's Renaissance Project (kickstarting the development and use of CD ROM in education), Stephen went on to pioneer, and be the guiding "father" of, early social networking in Learning with seminal projects including:

• the pre-internet Teletext and email social networking project *ESW in the 1980s,
• the pioneering nationwide Schools OnLine for the UK Department of Trade and Industry in 1995/6
• Tesco Schoolnet 2000 from 1999 - the then Guinness Book of Record's largest internet learning project in the world.
• Think.com with Oracle from 1999,
• Talking Heads linking every English headteacher into an on-line community of practice;
• Stephen created in 1997, and guided for ten years Notschool.net, at the time a uniquely effective project to re-engage children excluded from school by behaviour or circumstances;
• In 2003 Stephen led the creation of the remarkable on-line, work placed, research based, undergraduate degree ultraversity, variants of which are running in a number of universities today.

Stephen's long track record of supporting children in making, creating and programming with their computers, rather than just using them (from Logo and Prolog through HyperCard to Scratch today), has led to a string of constructivist projects including the EU funded éTui robotic project for 4 year olds, or Maker4Maker.net with Syrian refugee children, in Jordan

In recognition of much of this work, along with just 51 others including Sam Mendes, Damien Hirst, Zaha Hadid, Jarvis Cocker, Harrison Ford, Lauren Bacall, Muhammad Ali, Stephen became an Apple Master in the 1990s. Apple were the initial sponsors of his first chair as a young professor in 1989 in his 30s.

Stephen's learning design work extends beyond the virtual. Pioneering designs in the UK "Classrooms of Tomorrow" project (see Ingenium), much work in the UK Building Schools for the Future initiative, pivotal research for CABE and RIBA on schools design and more have led to Stephen being in considerable demand to transform physical learning spaces.

Much of Stephen's work is on-the-ground, practical project based. Around the world a string of innovative schools are proud to trace their remarkable progress back to his direct involvement. Complementing the work designing on-line communities, Stephen is at the heart of a global revolution in physical learning space design, with a string of major new projects worldwide.

Current building projects include the Lindfield transformation of UTS in NSW from a university into a cluster of schools within school, and school transformation locations from the Caribbean to Scandinavia, an adviser to the redevlopment of Melbourne City Libraries, Thinker in Residence at the wonderful Mark Oliphant College in South Australia, the redevelopment of the old Naval College at Portland into an all-through building at the heart of stage-not-age, all-through, tech rich learning, and much more.

Stephen was a founder board member for Teachers.TV - a UK public service TV and broadband channel for professional development of teachers. Today, Stephen is proud to hold the fairly recently (2014) created Felipe Segovia Chair of Learning Innovation at Universidad Camilo José Cela, Madrid.

Recently, Stephen was asked by UK government ministers Michael Gove (then Secretary of State for Education), David Willetts (then Minister of State for Universities and Science) and Matthew Hanccock (then Minister of State for Skills and Enterprise) to chair their Education Technology Action Group formulating policies for the next decade.

Much of Stephen's work is on-the-ground, practical project based. Around the world a string of innovative schools are proud to trace their remarkable progress back to his direct involvement. Complementing the work designing on-line communities and computing in learning, Stephen is at the heart of a global revolution in physical learning space design, with a string of major new projects worldwide including 0-21+ academies, and a complete makeover of a national education system in the Caribbean.

His research project in 2003 exploring for CABE and RIBA in the UK on the impact of new pedagogies on the design of learning spaces began a new rhetoric of third millennium school design in the UK and beyond. Stephen is designing, with his daughters Juliette and Melissa, a signature suite of affordable third millennium school furniture.

Awards this century include:

In June 2006 Stephen was awarded the Royal Television Society's Judges Award for Lifelong Services to Educational Broadcasting.

In 2008 he received the prestigious BETT Award for Outstanding Achievement in ICT Education

In 2014 he was honoured to receive the UK's NAACE Award for Lifetime Achievement in educational technology.

Eddie Woo is arguably the most famous teacher in Australia: a maths teacher by day and an internet sensation by night. He started posting videos online in 2012 for a student who was sick with cancer and missing a lot of school.

Other students in the class then wanted to watch Mr Woo's videos on his free YouTube channel and website, so he started sharing them across the country and beyond.

Wootube now boasts more than 38,000 subscribers and has attracted almost 4 million views worldwide — and counting.

"I did some rough back-of-the-envelope calculations, as a maths teacher would, and if you add it up, that's about 11 million minutes of people sitting there watching me run around in front of my whiteboard explaining concepts to my classes, which is just mind-boggling!" Mr Woo said.

Businessman, benefactor and author of the much-quoted Gonski report into education reforms, David Gonski, is a big fan.

He was a judge for this year's Commonwealth Bank Teaching Awards and said Mr Woo's application was a standout.

"There is no doubt that Eddie is conquering any fears of mathematics, making it something that we can all aspire to, and allowing it to be the brain matter, the fodder for the future," Mr Gonski said.

He said his own life was changed by a couple of inspirational teachers, and he believed Mr Woo would also change the lives of students both in the Cherrybrook classroom and online.

"I would say that my maths career was in two parts — prior to meeting a wonderful teacher, and when I got a teacher who helped me not be tentative anymore. Then, the world became my oyster," he said.

Cherrybrook Technology High School principal Gary Johnson said Mr Woo was helping address a chronic shortage of maths teachers in Australia, and making maths popular again.

As recently as April 2018, Eddie was a top ten finalist in the Global Teacher Prize. Still in front of students each week, Eddie has been seconded to School Operations and Performance as the Leader, Mathematics Growth.

Mark Scott AO is the Secretary of the NSW Department of Education and has a distinguished record in public service, education and the media.

The department is the largest education system in Australia, operating 2,200 public schools for almost 800,000 students.

Mark’s career began as a teacher in Sydney. He built on his interest in education with senior policy and leadership positions with two NSW education ministers, Terry Metherell and Virginia Chadwick.

Mark held a number of senior editorial roles at Fairfax, including Education Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and Editor-in-Chief of metropolitan, regional and community newspapers.

From 2006 to 2016, Mark was Managing Director of the ABC, overseeing the creation of new services like iview, News 24, ABC3 and digital radio and the expansion of online and mobile services, such as the ABC News site and podcasting.

He led a shift within the organisation from a process-based culture to one that emphasises the values of respect, integrity, collegiality and innovation.

Mark was named an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2011 for distinguished service to media and communications, and to the community through advisory and governance roles with a range of social justice and educational bodies.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Diploma of Education and a Master of Arts from the University of Sydney; and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University. He has also been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Sydney and UNSW.

As the NSW Department of Education Deputy Secretary, School Operations and Performance, Murat is responsible for over 2,200 primary, secondary and special schools. With a clear focus on people and a commitment to students being at the centre of all decision making, Murat is driving a culture of change to individualise school improvement for ongoing system improvement in NSW.

Murat has been a key contributor to the development of vibrant, sustainable and inclusive school communities throughout his career. This includes time as Principal of Punchbowl Boys High School and Yuzyil Isil International High School in Istanbul, Turkey, as a Senior Principal across Punchbowl and Belmore Boys High Schools, in senior executive roles in Granville and South Western Sydney and most recently as the Executive Director of the Ultimo Operational Directorate.

In recognition of his outstanding contribution to educational leadership, Murat was awarded the Australian College of Educators’ Alan Laughlin Perpetual Award in 2015 and the Australia Day Public Service Medal in 2016.

Murat was recently honoured to be the recipient of the Public Education Foundation Executive Scholarship to Harvard Business School.

Murat is also:

· an adjunct professor in the School of Education, Western Sydney University

· a member of the University of Sydney’s Alumni Council, Teacher Education Advisory Board and STEM Teacher Enrichment Academy

· an alumni of the Australian and New Zealand School of Government Executive Fellows Program

· a graduate of the Public Service Commission Delivering Business Results Executive Leadership Program.

Education is his life’s passion and he champions the work of highly effective school leaders to achieve a ‘level playing field’ for all public school students in NSW so that every student, every teacher and every school can improve every year.