Rate My Professor Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips is Professor of Digital Transformation in the Faculty of Education, School of Curriculum Teaching and Inclusive Education at Monash University. Prior to joining Monash in 2013, he spent 15 years as a senior teacher in secondary schools, an experience that informs his research connecting theory to classroom practice. Appointed Professor in 2020, he is Co-Director of the Monash Virtual School, which offers pre-service teachers authentic opportunities to design and deliver high-quality online learning for young people facing disadvantage and displacement, including students in conflict-affected regions such as Ukraine and Myanmar. The school's innovative data-informed coaching model uses digital trace data to facilitate reflective conversations, linking practice and theory in real time while tracking pedagogical decision-making and professional identities via epistemic network analysis. Phillips' research and development initiatives have attracted more than $9 million in funding from UNESCO, the British Academy, the Australian Research Council, the Australian Office for Learning and Teaching, and the Victorian Department of Education. He has produced over 100 books, book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers in collaboration with more than 90 colleagues worldwide.

Phillips' scholarship centers on how digital technologies enhance teaching and learning, with emphasis on pre- and in-service teachers' decision-making in technology-rich contexts, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), assessment feedback, quantitative ethnography, and virtual schooling. Key publications include the monograph Digital Technology, Schools and Teachers' Workplace Learning: Policy, Practice and Identity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016); the co-edited Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) for Educators, 3rd edition (Routledge, 2026); What makes for effective feedback: Staff and student perspectives (Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2019); The challenges of feedback in higher education (Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2019); and Describing increasing proficiency in teachers’ knowledge of the effective use of digital technology (Computers and Education, 2020). His impact is evidenced by national and international recognition, including the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (2015), Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Programs that Enhance Learning (2016), Dean’s Award for Outstanding Research by an Early Career Researcher (2017), Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Industry and Community Education Programs (2022), Best Paper Awards at Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education conferences (2016, 2019), and Outstanding Global Educator of the Year from the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (2023).