Dr Nola Norris
PhD, MEd(IT), BEd, DipTeach, HFTGN
Dr Nola Norris, the owner of the NELT website, has enjoyed a diverse career in education, having worked in schools (primary and secondary) in both the public and private sectors, and in universities within NSW, Australia.
Nola completed her PhD thesis, A new perspective on thinking, memory and learning in gifted adults with Asperger syndrome: Five phenomenological case studies, in 2014 at the University of Wollongong, NSW. She employed neuroscience and autism research to interpret her findings from her phenomenological research study, which involved gifted adults with Asperger syndrome* (AS) as participants.
Prior to working full-time on her doctoral research, Nola was the ICT Integration Coordinator at a K-12 independent co-educational school on the outskirts of Sydney, where her role was to work in professional development of teachers across the curriculum and across all year groups in the sound, innovative use of information technologies in the classroom.
During this time, the diagnosis of Nola’s husband of 17 years with AS in 2004 led to an interest in the learning environments encountered by gifted students with AS in mainstream schools. In particular, the research fostered her desire to understand the cognitive profile and learning needs of these twice-exceptional learners.
Nola’s research journey led to the development of a conceptual framework for professional development of pre-service and practising teachers to transform understanding of the unique learning needs and strengths of gifted students who have Asperger syndrome. This framework has also been found to be helpful for parents and life partners of people with autism spectrum disorder.
Nola was a recipient of a Non Government Super Scholarship Award in 2011 which funded a study tour to the US, was awarded the Highly Commended Research Award from the Teachers’ Guild of NSW in 2012 and was the recipient of an Australian Post-graduate Award in 2012-2013. In 2015, Nola was admitted as Honorary Fellow of the Teachers’ Guild of NSW.
Nola also has experience as a Year 7-12 teacher-librarian and manager of a theological library, and now works as a Lecturer and Research Coordinator in the Faculty of Education at Morling College, Macquarie Park (Sydney), NSW.
Nola’s PhD thesis has been published online in the University of Wollongong Thesis Collection. See all publications.
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*With the 2013 publication of the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5, (2013), Asperger syndrome was included under the umbrella diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However, many people with a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome continue to identify with that diagnosis and it remains a term used within the research literature.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5 (5th ed.).
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5-TR (Text Revision ed.).