Jan Turbill is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia. She began teaching in 1964 for the Department of School Education in New South Wales, teaching Kindergarten - Grade 2 children for 12 years. In 1976 the Department invited her to become a Language Consultant for its schools across the K-12 spectrum in a metropolitan region of Sydney. During the following 9 years in this capacity she was involved in the development and implementation of syllabus documents: Reading K-12 and Writing K-12. It was also during this period that Jan Turbill completed her Master in Education in Linguistics at Sydney University and was made a Fellow of the Australian College of Education for her contributions to early literacy development.
In 1985 Jan Turbill changed careers and began lecturing in Language Education at the University of Wollongong. She was awarded her PhD in 1993 at the University of Wollongong. In 1996 Jan was invited to spend 4 months as a visiting professor at Hamline University, St Paul, MN, USA, where she was awarded Graduate Teacher of the Year.
Jan Turbill’s research has ranged from early literacy development to the professional development of teachers. She has written and co-authored several books in this field. (No Better Way to Teach Writing, 1982; Now We Want to Write 1983; Towards a Reading-Writing Classroom 1984 [with Andrea Butler] and Coping with Chaos, 1987 [with Brian Cambourne]). She recently co-edited with Brian Cambourne, Responsive Evaulation (1995).
In more recent years Jan Turbill’s research has been in teacher learning and professional development. Much of this work has unperpinned the successful staff development program Frameworks co-authored with Andrea Butler, Brian Cambourne and Gail Langton.
Presently Jan spends much of her time working with the Frameworks Program in Australia and the USA, managing and monitoring the program as well as training teachers to become facilitators of this site-based spaced learning program. In 1999 Jan and Brian Cambourne were awarded an Australian Research Grant that will fund a Doctoral Scholarship over three years to further study the relationship between staff development (Frameworks) and change in teachers’ classroom practice and increased student learning.
Jan is currently the Co-Editor of the Australian Journal for Language and Literacy and an active member of the Publications Committee of the International Reading Association.
Jan lives in the southern suburbs of Sydney, about 5 minutes from the beach. Her 83 year old mum lives in a granny flat at the rear of the property. She has three wonderful nephews - 28, 24 and 6! She enjoys playing golf when there is time.
Contact: Email: jan_turbill@uow.edu.au
Frameworks 
