Rate My Professor Arpana Dhar

Dr. Arpana Dhar is a Lecturer in the Curtin School of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Sciences within the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University, Perth, Australia. She is also part of the teaching staff at Curtin Medical School. Dhar earned her Doctor of Philosophy from Curtin University in 2019, with her thesis titled "Co-Teaching in Health Sciences in Higher Education" supervised by Professor David Treagust and Dr. Georgina Fyfe in the Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Faculty of Humanities. Her doctoral research investigated students' and co-teachers' perceptions and experiences of co-teaching in higher education environments, focusing on health sciences programs. She developed the Co-teaching Perception and Experience Survey (CPES) instrument to evaluate co-teaching settings and enhance collaborative teaching practices. Early in her academic career, Dhar collaborated on research exploring the influence of teachers' beliefs on student outcomes, presenting a case study at the 7th SMTE Conference in 2012 with Rekha Koul.

Dhar has made contributions to pedagogical innovation through conference presentations, including the paper "Co-teaching - Can it be used to improve teacher engagement in higher education?" co-authored with Julianne Crowley at the 2016 STARS Conference. She received a High Commendation in the Faculty of Health Sciences Teaching Excellence and Innovation Awards for her contributions in the School of Biomedical Sciences. As unit coordinator, she lectures in HUMB1000 Human Structure and Function, delivering content on topics such as the nervous system, protein structure and function, and foundational biomedical sciences for health sciences students. Her work supports improved teacher engagement, scholarly profiles for sessional academics, and effective learning environments in health sciences education at Curtin University.