Rate My Professor Mark Clayden

Mark Clayden is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle campus. He holds a BSc, Graduate Diploma in Education, Master of Education (Religious Education), and Master of Education (Leadership and Management). With over 20 years of experience in secondary schools across government and Catholic sectors in Western Australia, Clayden has held roles such as Head of Health and Physical Education, Head of Year 10-12, and Acting Deputy Principal - Middle School at CBC Fremantle. He joined the University of Notre Dame Australia in 2017 as a sessional lecturer and was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2021.

In his current role, Clayden is responsible for the development and delivery of physical education pedagogy within the Bachelor of Health and Physical Education degree, covering Health and Physical Education for both primary and secondary levels. He has a strong interest in student leadership and has coached junior basketball for over 20 years. Clayden supervises honours students and collaborates on research examining student engagement and inclusive sport practices. His publications include co-authorship on "Benefits and barriers of participating in community sport for individuals with an intellectual disability" (Fraser, Clayden, Piggott, & Picknoll, 2025, Journal of Intellectual Disabilities) and "Get with the program: a mixed methods study of specialist sport programs and their impact on student engagement" (Culnane et al., 2025, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy). He presented "Building partnerships to increase engagement: A case study from the Health & Physical Education degree" at the 2022 Educator Scholar Summit alongside colleagues Andrew Boxsell and Ben Piggott. Clayden has been nominated twice for excellence in teaching awards in Western Australia.