Gemma Scarparolo

Gemma has taught in both primary and secondary school contexts in Western Australia.  She began tertiary teaching at Edith Cowan University in the Bachelor of Education (Primary) and Graduate Diploma of Education (Primary), in a sessional capacity, while completing a Master of Education and teaching in a school.  At ECU she coordinated core units in Educational Psychology as well as curriculum units for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS), English and The Arts (Visual Arts).  

At UWA, Gemma is the unit coordinator for the Humanities and Social Sciences curriculum (M.Teach Early Childhood and Primary), Differentiation (M.Teach Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary) and Educational Psychology (M.Teach Early Childhood, Primary and Seconday).  In 2017 she was awarded an 'Excellence in Teaching' award within the Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Education. This year she has been appointed to serve a 2 year position on the Learning and Teaching Committee at UWA as a representative for the Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Education (2019-2020).

As an early career researcher her research interests include differentiation, gifted education, student voice, professional development and teacher education.  

Refereed conference presentations

Scarparolo, G., & MacKinnon, S. (2018, December).  Differentiation: What do Year 6 boys think?  Paper presented at the London International Conference on Education at the University of Cambridge, London.  

Scarparolo, G., & Subban, P. (2018, July).  Teacher Education: Preparing teachers for diversity through the practice of differentiation.  Paper presented at the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) / Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand (TEFANZ) conference, Melbourne, Australia. 

Conference presentations

Scarparolo, G., & MacKinnon, S. (2018, August).  Differentiation and challenge based learning: What do students learn, create and publish?  HASS Week WA conference presentation at the State Library of Western Australia.  

Scarparolo, G. (2017, October).  Differentiating the Economics and Business curriculum in Years 5 & 6.  AISWA HASS conference at Perth College, Western Australia.

Scarparolo, G. (2017, September). 'Differentiating with Technology'.  Google CS4HS conference at The University of Western Australia.

Professional presentations

Scarparolo, G. (2019, January).  Catering for diversity through differentiation when teaching the HASS curriculum.  Riverton Primary School, Western Australia. 

Scarparolo, G. (2018, November).  Differentiation for Gifted Students.  Presentation for Gifted WA, Western Australia

Scarparolo, G. (2018, August).  Writing to cater for students' interests, readiness and learning profile: A differentiated approach.  ALEA Professional Learning Series, Perth, Western Australia.

Scarparolo, G. (2018, March).  Differentiation instructional strategies - two professional learning workshops. Christ Church Grammar School (Years 5 and 6 teachers), Western Australia. 

Scarparolo, G. (2017, August).  An introduction and overview of differentiation.  Mount Lawley Primary School, Western Australia.  

Professional memberships

• Australian Teacher Education Asssociation (ATEA)
• Gifted WA
• Australian Association for the Education of Gifted and Talented (AAEGT)
• History Teachers' Association of Western Australia (HTAWA)
• Dyslexia SPELD WA
• One World Centre (WA)
• TeachMeet (WA)

2019

HASS week WA event organiser for events hosted at UWA (as the academic partner).  

HASS week WA steering committee member (2019)

Partnership with Riverton Primary School to support teachers to cater for gifted students through differentiation. 

2018

Event organiser for the launch of HASS Week WA at UWA with Dr Loretta Dolan (August, 2018).    

2017

Organising committee member for the Graduate School of Education inaugral digitial technologies conference, 'Bringing learning to life with digital technologies: A conference by teachers for teachers' hosted by UWA at the Centre for Education Futures (28th October, 2017).  

Current research collaborations

Dr Pearl Subban (Monash University)

Dr Fiona Mayne (UWA)

Sally MacKinnon (Christ Church Grammar School, Western Australia)

The University of Western Australia

Master of Teaching Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary

EDUC5514 Differentiating the Curriculum - Unit Coordinator (2016 - present).

EDUC5485 Development, Teaching and Learning: Theory and Practice - Unit Coordinator (2018 - present).

EDUC5501 Integrated Studies: The Humanities and Social Sciences - Unit Coordinator (2018 - present).

EDUC5710 Advanced Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment - Unit Co-coordinator (2018 - present).

EDUC5509 Interventions for Learning  (Early Childhood and Primary) Unit Co-coordinator (2017 and 2019).

EDUC5485 Development of Teaching and Learning: Theory and Practice (2017 - present).

EDUC1104 A world of mobile learning. UWA Broadening unit tutor (2017, 2018).

UWA mentor for the partnership project, Building Leadership for Change through School Immersion - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with Phoenix Academy (3 months, 2017).