I joined the School of Interdisciplinary Studies in December 2018 as Senior Lecturer in Education. Iholds a PhD in science education from University of Leeds. My doctoral work examines school experience of secondary students and how it affects their choice to take science post-16. My primary research interest involves the pedagogical design of technology-enabled active learning environments to teach science. I investigate how students respond to learning science concepts as they participate in active learning involving technological tools. My research also focuses on project pieces that are inherently interdisciplinary for solving problems in the teaching and learning of STEM subjects. Some examples include examining the attitudinal and conceptual changes related to citizen science; use of models by physics and biology teachers in science teaching; and the development of scientific critical thinking and reasoning skills in students.

Ihas supervised many postgraduate students investigating a variety of diverse topics such as English as implementation of Additional Language resources in Scotland; the experiences of male primary teachers; resilience in trainee teachers and the impact of wall displays on science teaching. Some of these student dissertations have been published in science education journals.

My current doctoral students are researching implementation of technology enabled active learning in engineering courses at a Sri-Lankan university; the role of teacher feedback in improving student outcomes; and exploring the educators role in prison education.

I am a visiting associate professor at Universiti Teknolgi Malaysia (UTM), an advisor for the Conference of Science and Mathematics Education in Malaysia and was keynote speaker at the International Conference on Emerging Technologies in Islamabad, Pakistan. I have  written sections in several GCSE science and biology textbooks that are currently used in schools.

• citizen science;
• technology-enabled active learning;
• mathematics mastery; 
• science graduate attributes;
• females in STEM careers;
• experiences in STEM subjects;
• evaluation of citizen science; 
• technology in learning and teaching;
• science critical thinking skills;
• teaching science;

List by: Type | Date

International Partnership Development Fund £3600 – November 2015.

British Academy / Newton Fund Mobility Grant £7230 – October 2016 workshop on technology-enabled active learning in Malaysian pre-service science teachers.

Santander Mobility Fund £1000 - April 2017.

• Wang, Di
  Teaching Design through Enquiry Learning in STEM Education.
• Zhou, Yingying
  Why do the highest achieving students not choose to take up STEM careers? A mixed method comparison between the UK and China.

Grant committees & research advisory boards

• 2017: UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowships programme, Global Challenges Research Fund

Professional & learned societies

• 2014: Fellow, Advance HE (HE Academy)

Selected international presentations

• 2017: Keynote speaker (Johor, Malaysia)
• 2016: COSMED (Penang, Malaysia)
• 2015: HONET-ICT (Islamabad, Pakistan)

Book sections:

• OCR 21st Century Science Additional Science Student book. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0007415229
• AQA GCSE (9-1) Life and Environmental Sciences for combined science: synergy student book. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0008174958 
• AQA GCSE (9-1) Biology Grade 8/9 booster workbook. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0008194338
• AQA GCSE (9-1) Biology Grade 5 booster workbook. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0008194369
• AQA GCSE Biology for combined science: Trilogy. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0008174958 

Conference proceedings:

Shirazi SM (2014, March) Using the storyline method to explore student experiences of school. Paper presented at triennial meeting of the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults, Magdeburg, Germany.

Shirazi SM (2015, November) Exploring the relationship between students’ experience of school science and their choice to take science or not. Paper presented at the Sixth Conference on Science and Mathematics Education. Penang, Malaysia.

Shirazi SM (2016, December) Technology enabled active learning in higher education. Keynote presented at the HONET-ICT conference, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Shirazi SM (2017, February) Lessons learned: An application of flipped teaching in an undergraduate classroom. Paper presented at the Higher Education Academy STEM Conference, University of Manchester, England.

Shirazi SM (2018, Sept) Evaluating citizen science projects. Paper presented at 2018 BERA conference 15-18 Sept 2018. Newcastle University, UK

Shirazi SM (2018, Sept) Mathematics Mastery: A case-study. Paper presented at 2018 BERA conference 15-18 Sept 2018. Newcastle University, UK