ACU Researcher

Dr. Wade Naylor

Lecturer
National School of Education (NSE)

Areas of expertise: physics; mathematics & stem education. psychometric testing in conceptual physics and mathematics inventories

Email: wade.naylor@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Brisbane Campus

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: HDR Supervisor (Provisional)

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2133-7924

Dr. Wade Naylor (MInstP) is a former Associate Professor of Theoretical Physics at Osaka University (2010-2015), where he served as the physics course coordinator for the Chemistry-Biology Combined Major Program. During this time, he taught international students and supervised Masters and PhD candidates in the Department of Physics. After moving from Japan to Australia in 2015, Wade transitioned from andragogy to pedagogy, becoming a certified Queensland teacher in 2016. He also worked as a sessional academic at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Currently, Wade is a lecturer in Physics, Mathematics, and STEM education at ACU, with research interests in Physics Education Research (PER) and understanding misconceptions in physics and STEM through Concept Inventories (CIs). He is also a visiting senior researcher at the Department of Physics, University of Johannesburg, where he actively contributes to improving student outcomes through PER initiatives.

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Select publications

Chrysostomou, A., Cornell, A. S., & Naylor, W. (2024). Dominant misconceptions and alluvial flows between Engineering and Physical Science students. ArXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.12083

Naylor, W., Rubab, S., Wang, Y-J. & Qiu, X-L. (in press). Issues relating to CAT and Gain in psychometric testing of STEM subjects using Item Response Theory. In: White, P., Tytler, R., Ferguson, J. (eds), Methodological Approaches to STEM Education Research, Vol. 5. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Digan, S., Puslednik, L., Naylor, W., Geiger, V. (in press). Developing evidentiary practices in initial teacher education students' scientific reasoning. In: White, P., Tytler, R., Ferguson, J. (eds), Methodological Approaches to STEM Education Research, Vol. 5. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Chrysostomou, A., Cornell, A. S., & Naylor, W. (2024). A three-year comparative study of dominant misconceptions among first-year physics students at a South African university. Physics Education, 59(1), 015036-015036. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ad14ea

Naylor. W., Chrysostomou. A., Carleschi. E. and Cornell. A. S. (2022). Using technology to understand student 'misconceptions' in classical mechanics. In K. Menon, K. Naidoo, G. Castrillon (Eds.) Teaching innovation for the 21st century - showcasing UJ teaching and learning 2021 (pp. 94-101). Jacana Media:
https://www.mydigitalpublication.co.za/uj/teaching-innovation-dte/data/mobile/index.html

Carleschi, E., Chrysostomou, A., Cornell, A. S., & Naylor, W. (2022). Probing the effect on student conceptual understanding due to a forced mid-semester transition to online teaching. European Journal of Physics, 43(3), 035702. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6404/ac41d9

Alinea, A. L., & Naylor, W. (2017) Gender gap and polarisation of physics on global courses. Physics Education, IAPT 33 (2017), Issue 2. https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.03302

Alinea, A. L., Kubota, T., & Naylor, W. (2016). Logarithmic divergences in the K-inflationary power spectra computed through the uniform approximation. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2016(02), 028-028. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/02/028

Alinea, A. L., & Naylor, W. (2015). Polarization of physics on global courses. Physics Education, 50(2), 210-217. https://doi.org/10.1088/0031-9120/50/2/210

Alinea, A. L., Kubota, T., Nakanishi, Y., & Naylor, W. (2015). Adiabatic regularisation of power spectra ink-inflation. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2015(06), 019-019. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2015/06/019

Naylor, W. (2015). Vacuum-excited surface plasmon polaritons. Physical Review A, 91(5). https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.91.053804

Cho, H. T., Cornell, A. S., Doukas, J., Huang, T.-R., & Naylor, W. (2012). A New Approach to Black Hole Quasinormal Modes: A Review of the Asymptotic Iteration Method. Advances in Mathematical Physics, 2012, 1-42. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/281705

Projects

2023 - 2024, ACU Faculty Research Discovery Grant: (PI: Digan, S.), Naylor, W., Geiger, V., Developing initial teacher education students' evidentiary practices in scientific reasoning. $9,900

2023 - 2024, UniSQ Research Capacity Building Grant: Puslednik, L., Digan, S., Naylor, W., Developing primary teachers' use of scientific evidence in the classroom.

2022 - 2025, ACU Faculty Education Grant (PI: Naylor, W.) Investigation of conceptual physics understanding in international / ethnically diverse cohorts. $5390

2008 - 2010, Ministry of Education (Japan) Kakenhi: Grant no. A20340060: https://nrid.nii.ac.jp/nrid/1000030411028/ (PI: Seishi, M.) Study of the Dynamical Casimir effect. $200,000 AUD

2007 - 2015, Ministry of Education (Japan) Scholars Fund Investigation of Black Hole Quasinormal Modes using the asymptotic iteration method. $2500 AUD per year (2005 - 2010)

Awards

2023, Lead Academic on Round 1 of the Microcredentials Pilot in Higher Education for Maths & Science iSTEM micro-credentials: https://www.education.gov.au/microcredentials-pilot-higher-education/approved-providers-and-courses-round-one

2023 - 2024, ACU Faculty Research Discovery Grant 2023 (PI: Sarah Digan)

2022 ­- 2024, Faculty of Education and Arts Grant, ACU: Project Code No: 50-905300-111 (equipment & travel grant) - $5390 (2022-2025)

2015, Highlights of Physics Education (2015), Phys. Ed. (IOP), https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0031-9120/page/Highlights of 2015

2003 - 2005, 21^st Century Centre of Excellence Research Fellowship, Kyoto University, Japan

2001 ­- 2003 JSPS Research Fellowship Stipend. $50,000/yr.

2001 Royal Society (UK) Nomination for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship (JSPS).

1997 - 2001, Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) UK, PhD Stipend, $40,000/yr.

Appointments and Affiliations

2023 - present, Member of the ACU STEM Centre for Education Excellence, Academic Disciplines Working Group

2022 - present, Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) member

2020 - present, Visiting Senior Research Associate, Dep. of Physics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

2016 - present, Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) - Full Registration: 893537

2010 - 2015, Specially Appointed Associate Professor, International College, Osaka University, Japan

2008 - present, full member of the Institute of Physics (MInstP), UK

Editorial roles

2024 - present, Assistant Editor, Journal of International Students

2020 - present, Content Reviewer, TeachEngineering

International journal review panels

F1000Research, Education (2024 - present)

Australian Mathematics Education Journal (2020 - present)

Physical Society of Japan (2005-2015)

Canadian Journal of Physics (2005-2015)

Grant agency review panels

Enhanced Creative Works and Research Grant (ECWRG) Program of the UP System, University of the Philippines (2018)

Public engagement

Active Learning and Teaching in STEM, Two Day Workshop, Sri Lanka, 16-17^th September 2024, approved by the Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka.

The Rise of AI and what STEM teachers can do, Uni Taster Program Star Lectures - Education, September 2023, Townsville.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7109838009134415872/

Data in our lives, ACU University Taster Program Star Lectures - Education, September 2022, Townsville.