Rate My Professor Rebecca Cooper

Rebecca Cooper is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, where she serves as Assistant Dean of Initial Teacher Education and Director of Initial Teacher Education. With a background as a secondary school teacher of science, physics and mathematics, she brings practical expertise to her academic roles in curriculum teaching and inclusive education. Her research specializations center on pedagogy in science teacher education, pedagogical content knowledge, the development of teacher knowledge, professional learning and initial teacher education. She leads projects addressing teacher shortages, co-design processes for pre-service teachers and flipped classroom effectiveness, while contributing to programs such as the Bass Coast South Gippsland Program and Elevating Teacher Training Programs in the United Arab Emirates.

Cooper has received multiple awards, including the 2025 Dean’s Award for Teaching & Learning – Industry & Community Education Programs, the APJTE Outstanding Reviewer of the Year 2023, the Best Paper Award at the 2nd International STEM in Education Conference in 2012, the European Science Education Research Association Early Career Researcher Travel Award in 2015 and the Jeff Northfield Memorial Award for Excellence in Teacher Research in 2008. She has produced over 100 research outputs, including recent publications such as “Addressing teacher shortages in an international context: implications for the quality and status of teacher education” (2025), “Career transitions in teacher education: ‘stories’ from three teacher educators” (2025) and “Creating effective co-design processes for supporting pre-service teachers on school placement as part of a university-school partnership” (2025). She serves on the accreditation committee of the Victorian Institute of Teaching, acts as a panellist for Australian teacher education course accreditation and delivers invited international keynotes on teacher education.