I am a Senior Lecturer in Education at the School of Social & Environmental Sustainability. My PhD in science education from University of Leeds examines school experience of secondary students and how it affects their choice to take science post-16. My primary research interest is how children and young people can be enthused in STEM careers through STEM education taught in schools and colleges. My focus is on two aspects; firstly, how the active active learning approach can help develop motivation and interest and, secondly how technology enabled environments can stimulate sustained interest. My research focuses on projects that are inherently interdisciplinary for solving problems in the teaching and learning of STEM subjects. Some examples include examining the attitudinal and conceptual changes in citizen science projects; the development of scientific critical thinking and reasoning skills in students; experiential learning and its role in developing graduate attributes.

I am a visiting associate professor at Universiti Teknolgi Malaysia (UTM), an advisor for the Conference of Science and Mathematics Education in Malaysia and a reviewer for a number of STEM and Science Education journals. I also review for the GCRF grant and have contributed to several GCSE science and biology textbooks that are currently used in GCSE courses.

• STEM education
• citizen science;
• technology-enabled learning;
• graduate attributes;
• STEM careers and aspirations;
• experiences in STEM subjects;
• critical thinking skills;
• teacher education in STEM subjects

List by: Type | Date

International Partnership Development Fund £3600 – November 2015.

British Academy / Newton Fund Mobility Grant £7230 – October 2016 workshop on technology-enabled active learning in Malaysian pre-service science teachers.

Santander Mobility Fund £1000 - April 2017

British Council Catalyst Grant £49750 - January 2021

Royal Society small grant £1392 - Sept 2022

Currently, I have three doctoral students who are carrying out projects in STEM education and career aspirations. Another doctoral student is exploring the post-school experiences of looked-after children.

• Zhou, Yingying
  Why do the highest achieving students not choose to take up STEM careers? A mixed method comparison between the UK and China.

I am the Subject Lead in education at the School of Social & Environmental Sustainability. I am also Programme Lead for PGDE Primary (Dumfries) and PGDE Secondary STEM subjects. 

I convene the undergraduate STEM across the primary curriculum and the postgraduate Understanding Learning and Teaching programmes. In addition, I contribute to various research methods courses as well the Building Racial Literacy course.

Grant committees & research advisory boards

• 2017: UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowships programme, Global Challenges Research Fund

Professional & learned societies

• 2014: Fellow, Advance HE (HE Academy)

Selected international presentations

• 2017: Keynote speaker (Johor, Malaysia)
• 2016: COSMED (Penang, Malaysia)
• 2015: HONET-ICT (Islamabad, Pakistan)

Supplementary

• Visiting associate professor - Universiti Teknolgi Malaysia (UTM)

Book sections:

• OCR 21st Century Science Additional Science Student book. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0007415229
• AQA GCSE (9-1) Life and Environmental Sciences for combined science: synergy student book. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0008174958 
• AQA GCSE (9-1) Biology Grade 8/9 booster workbook. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0008194338
• AQA GCSE (9-1) Biology Grade 5 booster workbook. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0008194369
• AQA GCSE Biology for combined science: Trilogy. HarperCollins ISBN 978-0008174958 

Conference proceedings:

Shirazi SM (2014, March) Using the storyline method to explore student experiences of school. Paper presented at triennial meeting of the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults, Magdeburg, Germany.

Shirazi SM (2015, November) Exploring the relationship between students’ experience of school science and their choice to take science or not. Paper presented at the Sixth Conference on Science and Mathematics Education. Penang, Malaysia.

Shirazi SM (2016, December) Technology enabled active learning in higher education. Keynote presented at the HONET-ICT conference, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Shirazi SM (2017, February) Lessons learned: An application of flipped teaching in an undergraduate classroom. Paper presented at the Higher Education Academy STEM Conference, University of Manchester, England.

Shirazi SM (2018, Sept) Evaluating citizen science projects. Paper presented at 2018 BERA conference 15-18 Sept 2018. Newcastle University, UK

Shirazi SM (2018, Sept) Mathematics Mastery: A case-study. Paper presented at 2018 BERA conference 15-18 Sept 2018. Newcastle University, UK

Shirazi SM (2021, April) The STEM Gap.Presented online to Imperial College Postgraduate Conference 3April2021. Imperialcollege.

Shirazi SM (2021, March) Women and the STEMGap. Presented at the International Women’s Day Conference 11March2021. University of Glasgow.

Shirazi S (forthcoming) Antiracism education in Initial Teacher Education: the Scottish context. Manchester Metropolitan University