Michelle Attard Tonna is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Malta, coordinating school-based mentoring on a national level. This role oversees the mentoring of student-teachers during their field placement and whereby teachers based in schools are trained to be mentors. She has also served as Deputy Dean of the Faculty and Head of Department of Leadership for Learning and Innovation for the past five years, between 2018 and 2024.
Before joining the Faculty of Education, Michelle has been engaged by the Ministry for Education and Employment as Head of Project in the Learning Outcomes Framework, which saw the coordination of a national project on the introduction of learning outcomes in the curriculum. She has also represented the Ministry in a number of working groups and fora, both on a local level and internationally. Her primary research interests include the professional development of teachers and comparative studies of the way teachers learn. She has contributed to various European-wide studies in the area of teacher learning and also participated in various conferences and European networks in which she has presented her research. She has published her work in a number of educational journals and books, mostly focusing on teachers, their perceptions, their professional growth and their role as leaders in schools. Her current research interests focus on teacher mentoring, lesson study and teacher professional growth. She has completed a PhD with the University of Aberdeen, UK, basing her research on professional teacher professional learning in Malta.
European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE) International Professional development Association (IPDA) International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT).
Ongoing projects:
Since September 2024 I form part of the NAWA project: Competence Transformations at the University: Peer Tutoring as a Key Element in Supporting Student Development. Since October 2021 I form part of the COST Action 20107: Connecting Theory and Practical Issues of Migration and Religious Diversity Since January 2020 I form part Collaborative Lesson Study Malta (CLeStuM), which is a teacher professional development initiative housed within the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta
Ongoing collaborations with:
Kotebe University of Education, Ethiopia Al Qasemi College, Israel
Ongoing initiatives:
In collaboration with the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation I am supporting a national strategy for the induction of Newly Qualified Teachers
Ongoing research:
Teachers' dispositions towards MOOCs Peer tutoring in higher education The motives for becoming teachers Teachers' narratives about their lives and careers
