ABRA: improving foundational literacy through technology in regional and remote schools through a randomized controlled trial. Education outcomes in regional and remote Australia, particularly for Indigenous students, are worsening, to the point of constituting a national crisis. Skilled educators are not consistently available in sufficient numbers to arrest this trend in the early years by giving the intensive, continuous expert instruction required. Under limited pilot conditions, a web-base ....ABRA: improving foundational literacy through technology in regional and remote schools through a randomized controlled trial. Education outcomes in regional and remote Australia, particularly for Indigenous students, are worsening, to the point of constituting a national crisis. Skilled educators are not consistently available in sufficient numbers to arrest this trend in the early years by giving the intensive, continuous expert instruction required. Under limited pilot conditions, a web-based instructional tool known as ABRACADABRA has shown considerable promise as a means of conferring the foundational skills in literacy for emerging learners, despite high workforce turnover. Testing the effectiveness of ABRACADABRA under more stringent experimental conditions is an essential precursor to offering tested solutions based on evidence, not advocacy.Read moreRead less
Using community engagement and enhanced visual information to promote FireWatch satellite communication as a support for collaborative decision-making. Using continuously updated satellite data, FireWatch will repurpose its professional service for use by the wider public, informing community-based decision-making and action. Communication flows and community decision-making will promote informed action at times of fire stress. Complex visual data will be communicated in clear and compelling way ....Using community engagement and enhanced visual information to promote FireWatch satellite communication as a support for collaborative decision-making. Using continuously updated satellite data, FireWatch will repurpose its professional service for use by the wider public, informing community-based decision-making and action. Communication flows and community decision-making will promote informed action at times of fire stress. Complex visual data will be communicated in clear and compelling ways.Read moreRead less
Amplifying Indigenous news: a digital intervention. This project aims to road-test, document and analyse an innovative strategy for amplifying Indigenous voices in news media. The project will deploy and assess the impact of a new digital application designed to enable access to a diverse range of Indigenous voices, stories and agendas. The anticipated outcomes will assist the project’s industry partners meet their strategic goals of increasing the level of Indigenous media representation in Aus ....Amplifying Indigenous news: a digital intervention. This project aims to road-test, document and analyse an innovative strategy for amplifying Indigenous voices in news media. The project will deploy and assess the impact of a new digital application designed to enable access to a diverse range of Indigenous voices, stories and agendas. The anticipated outcomes will assist the project’s industry partners meet their strategic goals of increasing the level of Indigenous media representation in Australia, and consolidate their roles as leading outlets for Indigenous content and coverage. These outcomes are also expected to improve public understanding of issues affecting Indigenous Australians and contribute to more informed and inclusive policy discussions.Read moreRead less
Deadly Start: Enabling Preschoolers’ Literacy, Numeracy and Wellbeing. This project aims to test the effectiveness of a new preschool oral language, literacy, numeracy and wellbeing intervention for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students using powerful interdisciplinary approaches.
The project generates new knowledge about enabling preschool children to have a deadly start to literacy, numeracy and wellbeing, capitalising on research-derived interventions.
Expected outcomes include ....Deadly Start: Enabling Preschoolers’ Literacy, Numeracy and Wellbeing. This project aims to test the effectiveness of a new preschool oral language, literacy, numeracy and wellbeing intervention for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students using powerful interdisciplinary approaches.
The project generates new knowledge about enabling preschool children to have a deadly start to literacy, numeracy and wellbeing, capitalising on research-derived interventions.
Expected outcomes include salient intervention and measures and advances in preschool education that enable a deadly start.
The benefits encompass identifying effective intervention and drivers that support a deadly start to literacy and numeracy, and having adaptive motivation, new theory and developmentally appropriate measures.Read moreRead less
Culturally inclusive language assessments for Indigenous Aboriginal students. This project aims to improve the literacy outcomes for Aboriginal students. It focuses on the assessment of oral language, the foundation for written literacy skills, and the mode of communication most common for this student cohort. The project will collect school-based oral language data from rural and remote educational sites and use it to develop supplementary assessment tools for multilingual education. The assess ....Culturally inclusive language assessments for Indigenous Aboriginal students. This project aims to improve the literacy outcomes for Aboriginal students. It focuses on the assessment of oral language, the foundation for written literacy skills, and the mode of communication most common for this student cohort. The project will collect school-based oral language data from rural and remote educational sites and use it to develop supplementary assessment tools for multilingual education. The assessment tools will be validated in workshops with teachers and expanded with descriptors for assessing Aboriginal students’ communicative competence. The project aims to improve educational outcomes for rural and remote Aboriginal students.Read moreRead less
Digital archives, datadiversity and discoverability: the Strehlow Collection as knowledge resource for remote indigenous communities. How will the digitisation of archives of the Strehlow Collection enable principles of best practice in resourcing Aboriginal cultural and community interests? The outcomes of this project will ensure that those following in their footsteps of traditional cultural owners can become the future custodians of their digital cultural heritage.
Securing the future: Optimising the success of remote Indigenous students at post-secondary education. A cross-cultural study. Supporting remote Indigenous students to complete post-secondary education is a national and international imperative. Remote Indigenous student success in VET and University education is a key to the success of Indigenous families, communities and the nation as a whole. Post-secondary education provides students with 'capstone' skills, abilities and understandings that ....Securing the future: Optimising the success of remote Indigenous students at post-secondary education. A cross-cultural study. Supporting remote Indigenous students to complete post-secondary education is a national and international imperative. Remote Indigenous student success in VET and University education is a key to the success of Indigenous families, communities and the nation as a whole. Post-secondary education provides students with 'capstone' skills, abilities and understandings that enable them to function at a high-level both socially and economically. Effective Indigenous participation in post-secondary education enhances economic and social self-sufficiency, reduces the likelihood of dependency on welfare, and provides powerful role-models for younger Indigenous students to be successful at school, and beyond compulsory school educationRead moreRead less
Building the future for Indigenous students. The relationship of future vision, learning, and motivational profiles to school success. Indigenous students are the most severely disadvantaged group in Australia. Education as currently provided is failing them in the NT. Future Directions for Secondary Education in the NT states that 20% of secondary-aged Indigenous students are not enrolled in school, with only 6% completing the NTCE in 2002. Education is the corner stone of social justice becaus ....Building the future for Indigenous students. The relationship of future vision, learning, and motivational profiles to school success. Indigenous students are the most severely disadvantaged group in Australia. Education as currently provided is failing them in the NT. Future Directions for Secondary Education in the NT states that 20% of secondary-aged Indigenous students are not enrolled in school, with only 6% completing the NTCE in 2002. Education is the corner stone of social justice because it is the basis of opportunity (Burney 03). This research will provide critical hard data on the relationship of Indigenous students' future vision and aspirations, motivation, self-concept and self-regulation, language and culture to school achievement in order to design and provide culturally relevant education to maximise Indigenous opportunities and futures.Read moreRead less
Mathematical Modelling Of Bacterial Carriage In Children
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$421,746.00
Summary
Children exposed to larger numbers of other children are at risk of persistent bacterial infections. Such circumstances explain the high rates of ear and chest infections, and skin sores seen in children in historical times. Changing social circumstances (smaller families, better housing, nutrition and hygiene), as well as the introduction of antibiotics, explain the decline of such infections in affluent communities since the early 20th century. However, even today, in affluent countries, child ....Children exposed to larger numbers of other children are at risk of persistent bacterial infections. Such circumstances explain the high rates of ear and chest infections, and skin sores seen in children in historical times. Changing social circumstances (smaller families, better housing, nutrition and hygiene), as well as the introduction of antibiotics, explain the decline of such infections in affluent communities since the early 20th century. However, even today, in affluent countries, children attending group child care are at high risk of ear infections. As many bacteria are resistant, antibiotics are now much less effective than when they were first introduced. Furthermore, there is a continuing load of infection for children in Aboriginal communities, in PNG and other developing countries, causing hearing loss, chronic respiratory problems, and heart disease and renal disease in later life. Using data previously collected from other studies in Indigenous communities and children in child care, mathematical models allow us to ask what if?, and answer important public health questions: 1. What environmental and public health measures can reduce the cycle of cross-infection in child-care and high-risk populations? 2. What coverage rates with pneumococcal vaccine will eliminate the vaccine-specific bacteria from child care centres, from the wider community, and from high risk populations? 3. Will infections with bacteria not covered by vaccine then increase? 4. Will the resistant bacteria tend to disappear if antibiotic use is restricted? 5. Under what circumstances will antibiotics help to control infection? The modelling will promote understanding of the social and health costs of bacterial infection in Aboriginal communities and child care and use educational scenarios to promote uptake of the most cost-effective and socially acceptable interventions.Read moreRead less
A Study To Investigate Alternative Regimens For Pneumococcal Vaccination Of Infants In A Developing Country
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,622,210.00
Summary
Streptococcus pneumoniae (Pnc) is the leading vaccine preventable cause of serious infection in infants. The current Pnc conjugate vaccine is very expensive (approximately USD $200-infant) so it is unlikely to be affordable for most developing countries. Moreover, as health care access in developing countries may be episodic and unreliable, many children do not receive either complete or timely vaccine courses. Therefore, it is important to investigate affordable and flexible ways to deliver thi ....Streptococcus pneumoniae (Pnc) is the leading vaccine preventable cause of serious infection in infants. The current Pnc conjugate vaccine is very expensive (approximately USD $200-infant) so it is unlikely to be affordable for most developing countries. Moreover, as health care access in developing countries may be episodic and unreliable, many children do not receive either complete or timely vaccine courses. Therefore, it is important to investigate affordable and flexible ways to deliver this vaccine, which are safe and effective. A recent WHO-GAVI meeting to address impediments to the introduction of these vaccines in developing countries recognized the need to evaluate other regimens of Pnc conjugate vaccine as an important research priority. This study has been deliberately formulated with that need in mind. The site for this research is Fiji. Although health services are good, Pnc disease, particularly pneumonia, remains the commonest cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. Fiji has good vaccine coverage and was the first Pacific country to introduce Hib vaccine. The arrival of the new, expensive Pnc conjugate vaccine presents a dilemma for Fiji and many similar countries. The expense of this vaccine would consume a large portion of the health budget. This study has two components: 1. A Phase 2 immunogenicity study (involving 750 infants) to evaluate regimens using reduced numbers of doses of Pnc conjugate vaccine, and using timing of dosing and combinations with the Pnc polysaccharide (PS) vaccine that may be more suited to the epidemiology of Pnc disease in developing countries. 2. An epidemiological study will measure the burden of invasive Pnc disease and pneumonia in Fiji. This will be part of a global effort to address these issues, and will be used to develop rapid assessment tools for these diseases in developing countries. We will seek cofounding for this component.Read moreRead less