Dr Damon Thomas is a senior lecturer in literacy education in the School of Education at the University of Queensland. Prior to academia, he taught as a primary school teacher in Tasmania after earning a Bachelor of Education with First Class Honours. He completed his PhD at the University of Tasmania in 2015, began lecturing there in 2014, was promoted to senior lecturer in 2019, and joined the University of Queensland as senior lecturer in 2021. His research contributions include advancing understanding of student writing development complexities, examining writing instruction in authentic classroom contexts, and critically analyzing outcomes from Australia's National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).

Dr Thomas's research specializations cover theories of writing, writing development, pedagogy and assessment, systemic functional linguistics, argumentation, standardised assessment, and classical rhetoric. As Chief Investigator, he led the literacy strand of a 2015 ARC Linkage Project partnership investigating learning and wellbeing in regional low-SES schools across Tasmania and Victoria, and currently analyzes student dialogue in an ARC Discovery Project on talk for learning in early years mathematics. He co-edited the textbook Teaching and Learning Primary English (Oxford University Press, 2022), authoring or co-authoring chapters such as 'An overview of writing', 'Grammar', 'Written genres', 'Oral language', and 'Comprehension'. Notable publications include 'Lexical density and readability: A case study of English textbooks' (To, Fan & Thomas, 2013), 'Rapid decline and gender disparities in the NAPLAN writing data' (Thomas, 2020), 'Figurative language and narrative writing: insights from high-achieving primary school students' (Thomas et al., 2025), and 'Scaffolding collaboration in early years mathematics' (Murphy, Muir & Thomas, 2025). A member of the Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association, Primary English Teaching Association of Australia, and Australian Literacy Educators' Association, he shares insights via his blog Read Write Think Learn.

Professional Email: damon.thomas@uq.edu.au