The Young Learners' Project: Identifying personalised teaching strategies for early literacy in children in preschool and the first year of school. High quality learning experiences coupled with personalised, evidence-based adult support in the preschool years shape children's life-long attitudes and motivation for learning, and form the basis of strong outcomes in adulthood. Of particular importance is the development of literacy. Not all children, however, have such experiences and some need ....The Young Learners' Project: Identifying personalised teaching strategies for early literacy in children in preschool and the first year of school. High quality learning experiences coupled with personalised, evidence-based adult support in the preschool years shape children's life-long attitudes and motivation for learning, and form the basis of strong outcomes in adulthood. Of particular importance is the development of literacy. Not all children, however, have such experiences and some need extra support from their families and teachers. From this study knowledge will be gained that will assist teachers and parents to support children before beginning school so that they are prepared for formal literacy learning. This will lead to greater prospects of financial and social benefits in adulthood. Read moreRead less
Enhancing quality in long day care: Investigating professional beliefes and practices of child care workers. The Commonwealth Government's National Agenda for Early Childhood recognises the importance of quality of staff in children's services to ensure overall program quality. This research focuses on the vocational training for child care workers. It advances knowledge about how contextual and personal factors contribute to the development of epistemological beliefs about teaching in early ed ....Enhancing quality in long day care: Investigating professional beliefes and practices of child care workers. The Commonwealth Government's National Agenda for Early Childhood recognises the importance of quality of staff in children's services to ensure overall program quality. This research focuses on the vocational training for child care workers. It advances knowledge about how contextual and personal factors contribute to the development of epistemological beliefs about teaching in early education that enables child care workers to become more critical and reflective practitioners. The research recognises the directions of the National Strategy for Vocational Education and Training, 2004 -2010 which emphasise that vocational education needs to provide skills and knowledge which enhance employability and lifelong learning.Read moreRead less
Young student's generalisation in arithmetic and algebra: patterns and mathematical structure. The ability to generalise is at the heart of the development of most computer based mathematical models, models utilised to assist us in addressing our National Research Priorities. The short fall of scientists and mathematicians is a national concern. These issues begin at an early age. Presently, increasingly more young students are making minimal progress on numeracy measures and consequently failin ....Young student's generalisation in arithmetic and algebra: patterns and mathematical structure. The ability to generalise is at the heart of the development of most computer based mathematical models, models utilised to assist us in addressing our National Research Priorities. The short fall of scientists and mathematicians is a national concern. These issues begin at an early age. Presently, increasingly more young students are making minimal progress on numeracy measures and consequently failing to engage in higher levels of mathematics. The basis for this problem is experiential. This research promotes in-depth understanding of how young students generalise mathematics in the early years, thus allowing them access to the powerful ideas of algebra, leading to improved outcomes in mathematics. Read moreRead less
Parents as Partners: Getting children off to a healthy start in literacy. Our nation is best served by children getting off to a healthy start in literacy. However, almost one in six children fails to do so. This group has reduced academic and vocational options, increased social, emotional and mental health problems, higher youth unemployment, and is significantly over-represented among offenders. The nation bears the costs of these problems through reduced productivity and expenditure on unemp ....Parents as Partners: Getting children off to a healthy start in literacy. Our nation is best served by children getting off to a healthy start in literacy. However, almost one in six children fails to do so. This group has reduced academic and vocational options, increased social, emotional and mental health problems, higher youth unemployment, and is significantly over-represented among offenders. The nation bears the costs of these problems through reduced productivity and expenditure on unemployment benefits, social programs, mental health services, and incarceration. This project targets both these sources of loss to the nation by utilising a hitherto untapped community resource: Training parents of preschoolers to develop critical pre-literacy skills in their children at home before they begin to fail. Read moreRead less
Challenging Disadvantage: The Social Outcomes of an Early Educational Intervention with the Family. Theory and observation indicate the importance of early parent-child interactions in determining the well-being of individuals in society. However, rigorous research is needed to explore whether early intervention in family life can enhance such development, particularly the proposed capacity of changed parenting roles and family interactions to interrupt the trans-generational perpetuation of so ....Challenging Disadvantage: The Social Outcomes of an Early Educational Intervention with the Family. Theory and observation indicate the importance of early parent-child interactions in determining the well-being of individuals in society. However, rigorous research is needed to explore whether early intervention in family life can enhance such development, particularly the proposed capacity of changed parenting roles and family interactions to interrupt the trans-generational perpetuation of socio-economic disadvantage. This project investigates the usefulness of an early intervention program new to Australia, the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY). It examines the processes of HIPPY and possible consequent mediating effects of family relationships on child development outcomes, in a disadvantaged Australian-born community in Geelong.Read moreRead less
Self-regulation in very low birthweight/very preterm 2 and 4 year olds: A comparison study. Increasing numbers of extremely low birthweight children are surviving, and the majority go on to have learning problems. The difficulties these children experience and the resources that are devoted to the task of improving their academic skills have personal, social and economic costs. This project will assist in the identification of areas of difficulty that contribute to their problems in learning, es ....Self-regulation in very low birthweight/very preterm 2 and 4 year olds: A comparison study. Increasing numbers of extremely low birthweight children are surviving, and the majority go on to have learning problems. The difficulties these children experience and the resources that are devoted to the task of improving their academic skills have personal, social and economic costs. This project will assist in the identification of areas of difficulty that contribute to their problems in learning, essential for developing effective interventions. Success will bring substantial benefits at both the level of the individual and of society. The study will be undertaken by a PhD candidate as part of a multidisciplinary team, an experience that will provide an exceptional training in research with vulnerable children.Read moreRead less
Concept-procedure interactions in addition and subtraction development. The research explores the possibility of different pathways to mathematical knowledge by examining how key concepts and procedures interact in the course of development. Studies 1 and 2 address early addition and subtraction concepts and problem solving in the physical world, Studies 3 - 6 focus on the effects of problem-solving practice and concept-based training and Studies 7 and 8 address children's knowledge of conceptu ....Concept-procedure interactions in addition and subtraction development. The research explores the possibility of different pathways to mathematical knowledge by examining how key concepts and procedures interact in the course of development. Studies 1 and 2 address early addition and subtraction concepts and problem solving in the physical world, Studies 3 - 6 focus on the effects of problem-solving practice and concept-based training and Studies 7 and 8 address children's knowledge of conceptually advanced problem-solving procedures. The results are expected to show that addition and subtraction concepts and procedures influence each other in different ways among children, signifying different pathways of cognitive development.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354816
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000.00
Summary
Development of the Foundations for a Research Network for Schooling the Knowledge Society. This initiative will develop the foundations for a network of researchers and practitioners by identifying and establishing directions for research required for schooling the knowledge society. The initiative will engage research leaders across a number of fields, early career researchers and trainee researchers in a collaborative strategy that harnesses the power of information and communications technolo ....Development of the Foundations for a Research Network for Schooling the Knowledge Society. This initiative will develop the foundations for a network of researchers and practitioners by identifying and establishing directions for research required for schooling the knowledge society. The initiative will engage research leaders across a number of fields, early career researchers and trainee researchers in a collaborative strategy that harnesses the power of information and communications technologies (ICT) to make smart use of research knowledge and to make it available to innovation teams in schools as they respond to the emerging challenges. The initiative will use a leading-edge learning communities Internet platform that is itself the product of an international collaborative effort for which the Commonwealth Government has provided funding of $1.3 million over the last 3 years.
The outcome of the initiative will be the development of the foundation for a fully-fledged Research Network, identification of the key research questions and directions for the next decade, a web-based resource to support the Research Network, and an archive of relevant research for researchers, policy makers and educational practitioners to utilise in enhancing the impact of research on everyday practice and the economic productivity of the nation.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100412
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$316,376.00
Summary
Self-regulation in children. This project aims to reconcile insights from education and cognitive psychology to develop an integrative model of self-regulation and evaluate it using a low-cost self-regulation intervention compatible with existing practices. Children with low self-regulation in the preschool years are likelier to have poorer intellectual, health, wealth and anti-social outcomes in adulthood. However, this knowledge has not yet yielded a framework for understanding self-regulatory ....Self-regulation in children. This project aims to reconcile insights from education and cognitive psychology to develop an integrative model of self-regulation and evaluate it using a low-cost self-regulation intervention compatible with existing practices. Children with low self-regulation in the preschool years are likelier to have poorer intellectual, health, wealth and anti-social outcomes in adulthood. However, this knowledge has not yet yielded a framework for understanding self-regulatory change, nor generated particularly successful methods for enacting this change. This project is expected to provide theory- and evidence-based strategies for parents, educators and governments to give young children the best possible start in life.Read moreRead less
Language for learning: Developing learning-oriented talk in long-day-care. This study aims to identify, for the first time, key features of infant-toddler long day care (LDC) environments that support or constrain the development and use of language as a critical tool for early learning. This project expects to generate new knowledge by investigating early LDC predictors of preschool language skills, and will deliver much-needed new evidence to inform LDC pedagogy and curriculum development and ....Language for learning: Developing learning-oriented talk in long-day-care. This study aims to identify, for the first time, key features of infant-toddler long day care (LDC) environments that support or constrain the development and use of language as a critical tool for early learning. This project expects to generate new knowledge by investigating early LDC predictors of preschool language skills, and will deliver much-needed new evidence to inform LDC pedagogy and curriculum development and practice and, ultimately, to improve long term educational outcomes. This will provide significant benefits, such as improving the quality of infant-toddler LDC programs, which stands to enhance children’s learning and life-long outcomes.Read moreRead less