Alumni

Achmad Badrun Kurnia is a PhD candidate in the faculty of Education at the University of Canberra. He is working on developing an assessment framework to investigate Indonesian high school students’ statistical literacy. His PhD study is looking in detail at the students’ statistical literacy levels and the students’ strategies in responding to data-based information.

As part of SERC, Badrun is is a facilitator for a group of mathematics teachers from Indonesia who have been invited to have professional training at UC.

Badrun holds a MSc from the University of Sriwijaya (Indonesia) in collaboration with Utrecht University (The Netherlands), focusing on Design Research and Realistic Mathematics Education (RME).

Badrun hopes that his PhD journey will enrich his expertise in assessment studies. In particular in the field of statistical literacy of students in developing countries. Badrun has recently published some of his PhD work in the Mathematics Education Research Journal: ‘The development of high school students’ statistical literacy across grade level‘.

Ida is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education at the University of Canberra. Her supervisros are supervised by Professor Thomas Lowrie, Dr Sitti Patahuddin and Dr Tracy Logan.

Ida is studying under scholarships from the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA) of Republic of Indonesia. She is currently working on research related to professional development programs for teachers in remote areas in Indonesia. This program focuses on Spatial Reasoning based on the local context.

Ida holds a Masters of Education, focusing on mathematics for primary schools from the Yogyakarta State University, Indonesia. She has worked as a lecturer in the Primary Teacher Education department in the Institute of Islamic Religious Al-Khairaat, South Halmahera, Indonesia.

Previously, Ida gained experience as a mathematics teacher for eight years. Her research interests are in accordance with the SERC goals to explore spatial reasoning in mathematics education through innovative research programs.

Ida is currently lecturing in the Faculty of Mathematics Education.

Putra is a PhD student in Mathematics Education with the Faculty of Education at the University of Canberra.

Putra’s work focuses on how to spatialise mathematics learning to promote algebraic reasoning in arithmetic. He designs learning tasks, tools and trajectories that support and encourage students to use their spatial reasoning to conceptualise algebraic principles embodied in arithmetic. In addition to spatialising mathematics learning, his research interests include: digital technology in mathematics education, Realistic Mathematics Education, design-based research in mathematics education, numeracy and early algebra. 

Putra completed his master’s degree through the International Master Program on Mathematics Education (IMPoME), a collaborative program between Surabaya State University (Indonesia) and Utrecht University (the Netherlands). As a part of the degree, he conducted a study on implementing Realistic Mathematics Education when learning area measurement at primary schools.

Putra has participated in several academic and research activities on mathematics education. He was involved in the Indonesian Ministry of Education project on designing distance learning modules for primary mathematics. He has authored several books and journal articles to support mathematics teachers enhance their teaching skills. And, together with his colleagues, he also established a research institution to promote and organise collaborative research, focusing on technology in education.

Destina Winarti is an Australia Awards scholar who completed a PhD at the University of Canberra. Destina’s research focused on spatial skills and school mathematics. Destina’s groundbreaking PhD work was published in Educational Studies of Mathematics.

Destina holds a MSc degree, focusing on Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) from The State University of Surabaya, Indonesia. Part of her study for this degree took Destina to The Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

Destina was previously a mathematics teacher in primary and middle school in Indonesia. She also has experience teaching pre-service teachers at the Institute of teacher training in Indonesia.

While working on her PhD, Destina was also a tutor for the Ngunnawal Centre at The University of Canberra, supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and employed on a SERC project funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to promote mathematics education in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. In this role she acted as a module reviewer and a facilitator for teachers Professional Development (PD).

After submitting her dissertation in 2020, Destina went back to Indonesia and worked at the Philanthropic organisation, Tanoto Foundation in Jakarta, as a Program Leader. Her team developed and managed a digital platform named e-PINTAR (Pengembangan Inovasi dan Kualitas Pembelajaran) and provided a Professional Development  (PD) program for middle school teachers all around Indonesia.

After receiving her doctorate in 2021, Destina shifted to academia, where she now works as a lecturer at Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII) in Depok. To date she has been teaching three units, namely Learning Design & Technology, Educational Research Methodology and Statistical Analysis.

At the same time, Destina is involved in the SMERU Research Institute in Jakarta as a qualitative researcher, where she has recently published a working paper entitled Nurturing Learning Culture among Teachers: Demand-Driven Teacher Professional Development and the Development of Teacher Learning Culture in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Ajay is a mathematics educator at the Mauritius Institute of Education. His research interests are in children’s mathematics, teacher knowledge, spatial reasoning, and STEM education, particularly the intersection between mathematics and scientific disciplines.

He is also actively involved in curriculum development at the primary and secondary school levels.

Ajay was a postdoctoral fellow when SERC was established in 2015. He was the lead author on the widely-used Spatial Reasoning Instrument.

Ajay remains actively involved in the research within SERC, co-authoring many publications in recent years.