Open(ing up) goals in physical activity: What works, when, and for whom? This project aims to advance knowledge of open goals as a new goal-setting approach to optimise the adoption and maintenance of physical activity among insufficiently active individuals. This project expects to generate substantive insights into the mechanisms that explain why, when, and for whom open goals are particularly beneficial in this population. Expected outcomes include a theory of open goals that will inform phys ....Open(ing up) goals in physical activity: What works, when, and for whom? This project aims to advance knowledge of open goals as a new goal-setting approach to optimise the adoption and maintenance of physical activity among insufficiently active individuals. This project expects to generate substantive insights into the mechanisms that explain why, when, and for whom open goals are particularly beneficial in this population. Expected outcomes include a theory of open goals that will inform physical activity promotion efforts, with the potential for broad population-level dissemination and scale-up. Significant benefits include the ability to set physical activity goals that are enjoyable and intrinsically motivating to pursue, while also avoiding detrimental effects of current practice (eg high failure rates).Read moreRead less
Playing it Safe: Psychological Safety and Mental Health for Community Sport. At a time when over half of all Australians participate in organised sports it is critical to ensure that these environments are psychologically safe. The problem is that community sports clubs have no clear guidance on how to fulfil this substantial responsibility. There have been urgent calls for the development of psychological safety and mental health guidelines which have yet to be answered. This project will deliv ....Playing it Safe: Psychological Safety and Mental Health for Community Sport. At a time when over half of all Australians participate in organised sports it is critical to ensure that these environments are psychologically safe. The problem is that community sports clubs have no clear guidance on how to fulfil this substantial responsibility. There have been urgent calls for the development of psychological safety and mental health guidelines which have yet to be answered. This project will deliver the knowledge to underpin effective psychological safety and mental health guidelines for community sports with national impact. When implemented, this knowledge will help sports clubs to provide a psychologically safe environment, and promote the mental health and wellbeing of all Australians involved in organised sports.Read moreRead less
Work-life learning to sustain employability: practices and policies. This project aims to explore how Australian workers can sustain their employability across their working lives. The project intends to analyse retrospective accounts from workers in order to identify the kinds of learning required by workers for their life-long employability, as well as the practices and policies that might be adopted by workplaces and tertiary education in order for Australian workers to sustain their employme ....Work-life learning to sustain employability: practices and policies. This project aims to explore how Australian workers can sustain their employability across their working lives. The project intends to analyse retrospective accounts from workers in order to identify the kinds of learning required by workers for their life-long employability, as well as the practices and policies that might be adopted by workplaces and tertiary education in order for Australian workers to sustain their employment and secure advancement. This project will provide significant benefits to a society where the working lives of Australians are lengthening and sustained employability has become a policy priority.Read moreRead less
The commercial provision of schooling and its implications for Australia. This project aims to identify modes of commercial provision of schooling around the globe and the policy networks and changing forms and practices of the state that help this provision. The integration of public schooling and corporate investment has become relatively commonplace around the world, yet there is no academic research on how this phenomenon could affect Australia. The project expects to show how commercial pro ....The commercial provision of schooling and its implications for Australia. This project aims to identify modes of commercial provision of schooling around the globe and the policy networks and changing forms and practices of the state that help this provision. The integration of public schooling and corporate investment has become relatively commonplace around the world, yet there is no academic research on how this phenomenon could affect Australia. The project expects to show how commercial provision of schooling creates relationships between governments and private companies and the implications of this commercial provision for equitable and democratic schooling in Australia.Read moreRead less
A digital twin framework for human mobility measurement in the home setting. Mobility is essential to maintain quality of life and healthy ageing, yet we do not have the capability to perform accurate long-term mobility assessments of a person in their home or community. This project will overcome this engineering challenge by developing a user-friendly ‘digital twin’ that combines wearable sensors, 3D mapping and artificial intelligence to predict and visualise real-time human joint motion and ....A digital twin framework for human mobility measurement in the home setting. Mobility is essential to maintain quality of life and healthy ageing, yet we do not have the capability to perform accurate long-term mobility assessments of a person in their home or community. This project will overcome this engineering challenge by developing a user-friendly ‘digital twin’ that combines wearable sensors, 3D mapping and artificial intelligence to predict and visualise real-time human joint motion and mobility in any location. This digital twin framework will benefit next-generation healthcare for older Australians, including telemedicine and remote rehabilitation for isolated communities, performance monitoring of elite athletes and military personnel, and the gaming and film/animation industries.Read moreRead less
Predictive Biomechanics for Modelling Gait Stability and Falls Prediction. Efficient, adaptive locomotion is critical to our independence, but it is adversely affected by neuromuscular disorders due to trauma, ageing and other impairments that increase the risk of balance loss and falling. This project investigates the extraordinary possibilities of advancing from the traditional laboratory-based, retrospective, gait research paradigm, to real-world gait monitoring using predictive biomechanics. ....Predictive Biomechanics for Modelling Gait Stability and Falls Prediction. Efficient, adaptive locomotion is critical to our independence, but it is adversely affected by neuromuscular disorders due to trauma, ageing and other impairments that increase the risk of balance loss and falling. This project investigates the extraordinary possibilities of advancing from the traditional laboratory-based, retrospective, gait research paradigm, to real-world gait monitoring using predictive biomechanics. By employing artificial intelligence, wearable sensors' data will predict balance loss and alert the user. The outcome will be fundamental knowledge for developing wearable systems to reduce the catastrophic impact of falls, with public health cost savings and improved quality of life for people with restricted mobility.Read moreRead less
Developing Accessible Playgrounds for Children with Vision Impairment. Children who are blind or have low vision (BLV) often have difficulties accessing and interacting with playgrounds, most of which are not equipped to support them. Through consultation, collaboration and co-creation with the BLV community, foundational knowledge on the user experience of playgrounds, an evaluation framework for auditing existing playgrounds and design guidelines for creating or retrofitting playgrounds will b ....Developing Accessible Playgrounds for Children with Vision Impairment. Children who are blind or have low vision (BLV) often have difficulties accessing and interacting with playgrounds, most of which are not equipped to support them. Through consultation, collaboration and co-creation with the BLV community, foundational knowledge on the user experience of playgrounds, an evaluation framework for auditing existing playgrounds and design guidelines for creating or retrofitting playgrounds will be developed that support the unique challenges of BLV children and carers. Importantly it will promote access, orientation, physical and social play for BLV children, with improved cognitive, physical and social development, thus enabling a more inclusive and healthy society.Read moreRead less
Private Literacy Tutoring: A sociology of shadow education. This project intends to investigate the extent and impact of private academic tutoring in Australia. Markets in private academic tutoring or ‘shadow education’ are growing. Globally, studies point to both positive and negative social, economic and educational impacts. In Australia, the federal government briefly funded private tutoring vouchers for students who did not meet literacy benchmarks (2004–08), but in 2013 equity concerns abou ....Private Literacy Tutoring: A sociology of shadow education. This project intends to investigate the extent and impact of private academic tutoring in Australia. Markets in private academic tutoring or ‘shadow education’ are growing. Globally, studies point to both positive and negative social, economic and educational impacts. In Australia, the federal government briefly funded private tutoring vouchers for students who did not meet literacy benchmarks (2004–08), but in 2013 equity concerns about families’ tutoring investments helped prompt a senate inquiry into the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). This project plans to study private tutoring across Australia. It aims to investigate families’ investments in shadow education and the implications of this for Australian literacy education policy. This may also be relevant in other countries where shadow education is also rapidly expanding in response to growing educational competition and testing agendas.Read moreRead less
Targeting the genome and epigenome of the exercising skeletal muscle. This project aims is to discover epigenetic and genetic biomarkers that predict fitness changes, following exercise intervention. Individuals are remarkably variable in their responses to exercise interventions, and a large portion of these responses is attributed to genetics, and epigenetics (the effect of the environment on the expression of genes). Using controlled exercise training as a model, this project expects to disco ....Targeting the genome and epigenome of the exercising skeletal muscle. This project aims is to discover epigenetic and genetic biomarkers that predict fitness changes, following exercise intervention. Individuals are remarkably variable in their responses to exercise interventions, and a large portion of these responses is attributed to genetics, and epigenetics (the effect of the environment on the expression of genes). Using controlled exercise training as a model, this project expects to discover epigenetic and genomic markers in skeletal muscle predictive of exercise adaptations. This will contribute to the development and future delivery of targeted and personalised exercise programs for the general population. This has important implications for improving health in the Australian population.Read moreRead less
School Exclusionary Policies and Practices and their Impact. This project aims to investigate how and why Australian schools use exclusionary practices to manage disorderly students. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of school discipline about the extent and impact of these practices. It will provide a detailed analysis of the political, legislative and policy frameworks that impact on exclusion rates. Expected outcomes of this project include alternative policy and prac ....School Exclusionary Policies and Practices and their Impact. This project aims to investigate how and why Australian schools use exclusionary practices to manage disorderly students. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of school discipline about the extent and impact of these practices. It will provide a detailed analysis of the political, legislative and policy frameworks that impact on exclusion rates. Expected outcomes of this project include alternative policy and practice recommendations for legislatures and education systems. This should provide significant benefits, such as reducing youth alienation from schooling; creating inclusive schools; reducing the financial burden of exclusion on individuals and governments; and improving the health and wellbeing of young people.Read moreRead less