June 10, 2014

Queen’s Birthday Honour for ‘significant service to education’

Honorary Fellow from UOW’s School of Education, Dr Brian Cambourne, was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Dr Cambourne from Woollamia in the Shoalhaven received the honour for his significant service to education in the field of language and literacy, to professional skills development for teachers, and as an author.

Dr Cambourne has served as an educationalist at both the main Wollongong campus and at the Shoalhaven Campus in Nowra. He started at UOW in 1982 and from 2004 he taught the first group of Graduate Diploma of Education (Primary) students at Nowra. Dr Cambourne officially retired in 2006 but continued teaching part-time under contract at Nowra up until 2010.

During his long career, Dr Cambourne has received numerous awards and citations including being inducted into the United States Hall of Fame for literacy teaching.

He has had a prolific impact on teaching at the university level and schools in his illustrious career.

A program he helped develop called the Knowledge Building Community (KBC) received a national award for teaching.

The KBC Program is a model for training teachers that combines problem-based learning with regular practical experience in schools.

Dr Cambourne said he was “very honoured and a little humbled” to be recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

“I am not sure who initiated my nomination for the award but I do know that the process is like applying for a complex ARC grant.”

Dr Cambourne said schools today should be producing highly productive, critically aware literate people.

He said politicians need to keep apace of the needs of children today who are facing much more complex literary demands upon them than the school days of his own generation.