Music and language: psychological commonalities revealed. People worldwide listen to music while engaged in verbal activities such as reading or talking. This project will reveal the complex influences that background music has on language. Outcomes include scientific advances in music research, cooperative links with the music industry and recommendations for optimal uses of music in education and industry.
Understanding motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. This project examines motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. It applies major theoretical explanations from other domains where optimising motivation and practice quality has consistently been found to increase performance, persistence, learning, creativity, and wellbeing. The expected outcomes of the project address the competitiveness of Australian musicians, particularly in light of significantly lo ....Understanding motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. This project examines motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. It applies major theoretical explanations from other domains where optimising motivation and practice quality has consistently been found to increase performance, persistence, learning, creativity, and wellbeing. The expected outcomes of the project address the competitiveness of Australian musicians, particularly in light of significantly lower funding for music institutions compared to international counterparts. The research endeavours to inform understandings about the nature of motivation and practice more generally, by extending conceptions that have until now been formed largely through research in non-artistic domains of human accomplishment.Read moreRead less
Educating preservice teachers to teach diverse learners. This project aims to investigate links between teacher educators’ reflexive decision making and the preparation of teachers for teaching in socially and culturally diverse Australian classrooms. The project takes a transdisciplinary approach, bridging the fields of epistemic cognition and reflexive decision making, to explore how rigorous teaching can be enacted in socially and culturally diverse classrooms. Expected outcomes include enh ....Educating preservice teachers to teach diverse learners. This project aims to investigate links between teacher educators’ reflexive decision making and the preparation of teachers for teaching in socially and culturally diverse Australian classrooms. The project takes a transdisciplinary approach, bridging the fields of epistemic cognition and reflexive decision making, to explore how rigorous teaching can be enacted in socially and culturally diverse classrooms. Expected outcomes include enhanced capacity of those preparing future teachers for new classroom conditions, which will provide benefits for a quality teaching workforce.Read moreRead less
Observe, Reflect, Improve: a tool to enrich Children’s Learning (ORICL). This project aims to address long-standing concerns about the quality of education and care for children during their critical first two years. It will introduce a promising, future-focused digital tool, co-designed with practitioners and providers of early childhood services, to support infant-toddler educators’ planning and practice. Building on ground-breaking pilot work, we will undertake a national implementation and e ....Observe, Reflect, Improve: a tool to enrich Children’s Learning (ORICL). This project aims to address long-standing concerns about the quality of education and care for children during their critical first two years. It will introduce a promising, future-focused digital tool, co-designed with practitioners and providers of early childhood services, to support infant-toddler educators’ planning and practice. Building on ground-breaking pilot work, we will undertake a national implementation and evaluation of the Observe, Reflect and Improve Children’s Learning (ORICL) tool. Expected outcomes include: enhanced pedagogical practices; enriched learning experiences for children birth-two; effective communication with families; and improved resourcing for providers of early childhood education and care services. Read moreRead less
International collaboration in teaching and learning of Einsteinian physics. Following a previous project that showed that it is possible and beneficial to teach the modern Einsteinian paradigm of space, time, matter, light and gravity to students as young as 8 years old, this project aims to test and evaluate a seamless progression of learning modern physics through primary and secondary school. It will sequence, integrate and test research-informed teaching and learning materials, and assessme ....International collaboration in teaching and learning of Einsteinian physics. Following a previous project that showed that it is possible and beneficial to teach the modern Einsteinian paradigm of space, time, matter, light and gravity to students as young as 8 years old, this project aims to test and evaluate a seamless progression of learning modern physics through primary and secondary school. It will sequence, integrate and test research-informed teaching and learning materials, and assessment instruments developed through a 7-nation collaboration. Research across 24 schools will be reviewed by a panel drawn from professional organisations and curriculum authorities, and learning resources will be widely disseminated, with view to worldwide introduction of Einsteinian science at school.Read moreRead less
Developing classroom norms of inquiry-based learning in mathematics. This project aims to study inquiry norms in primary mathematics classrooms, including expert teachers’ signature practices, how norms are developed and their effect on learning. Classroom norms dictate the learning environment in school mathematics, but many students have lost interest in STEM subjects. This project aims to boost inquiry norms that engage students in productive social interactions, improve their mathematical kn ....Developing classroom norms of inquiry-based learning in mathematics. This project aims to study inquiry norms in primary mathematics classrooms, including expert teachers’ signature practices, how norms are developed and their effect on learning. Classroom norms dictate the learning environment in school mathematics, but many students have lost interest in STEM subjects. This project aims to boost inquiry norms that engage students in productive social interactions, improve their mathematical knowledge and their interest in, valuing of and capacity to solve complex problems.Read moreRead less
Eventful learning in quality pre-service science teacher education. The study aims to build a theory that explains quality in science teacher education by identifying successful learning-teaching events across programs of university science teacher education. This theory will guide wider application of eventful learning practices at university to enhance the successful entry of new teachers to the profession.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100421
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$378,442.00
Summary
The Creative Turn: An Australia wide Study of Creativity and
Innovation in Secondary Schools. The Melbourne Declaration's Educational Goals for Young Australians advocate that all young Australians should become 'confident and creative individuals' for whom 'critical and creative thinking are fundamental to becoming successful'. This project addresses how creativity and innovative thinking can be nurtured in Australian secondary schools, to help learners better meet the needs of emerging twent ....The Creative Turn: An Australia wide Study of Creativity and
Innovation in Secondary Schools. The Melbourne Declaration's Educational Goals for Young Australians advocate that all young Australians should become 'confident and creative individuals' for whom 'critical and creative thinking are fundamental to becoming successful'. This project addresses how creativity and innovative thinking can be nurtured in Australian secondary schools, to help learners better meet the needs of emerging twenty-first century creative economies, particularly as they are developing in the Asia-Pacific region. This project addresses this imperative by seeking to define, measure and cultivate creativity in Australian schools and, ultimately, to develop a new theoretical framework with which to compare these findings internationally. Read moreRead less
Connecting mathematics learning through spatial reasoning. This project aims to create a framework based on spatial reasoning that identifies pathways for mathematics learning, pedagogy and curriculum. Realising Australia’s Innovation and Science Agenda fundamentally rests on transforming the nation's mathematical capacity. Spatial reasoning, an emerging transdisciplinary area, is integral to all human learning, particularly for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Thi ....Connecting mathematics learning through spatial reasoning. This project aims to create a framework based on spatial reasoning that identifies pathways for mathematics learning, pedagogy and curriculum. Realising Australia’s Innovation and Science Agenda fundamentally rests on transforming the nation's mathematical capacity. Spatial reasoning, an emerging transdisciplinary area, is integral to all human learning, particularly for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. This project will map the unknown complex systems linking spatial and mathematical concepts, and design, implement and evaluate a longitudinal intervention study of primary students, including tracking of highly able students. This will lead to more highly skilled and adaptive citizens.Read moreRead less
Improving classroom writing by enhancing reflexive decisions and practice. This project aims to contribute new evidence and deliver improvements in writing skills in Australian primary schools. The project will adopt a reflexive approach utilising the team's skills in writing development and pedagogy, reflexive practice and classroom ethnography, in order to build teachers' capacities and improve writing achievement in Australian schools. Expected outcomes include new writing pedagogies that mov ....Improving classroom writing by enhancing reflexive decisions and practice. This project aims to contribute new evidence and deliver improvements in writing skills in Australian primary schools. The project will adopt a reflexive approach utilising the team's skills in writing development and pedagogy, reflexive practice and classroom ethnography, in order to build teachers' capacities and improve writing achievement in Australian schools. Expected outcomes include new writing pedagogies that move beyond dependence-building strategies and target specific types of writers in context. This should provide significant benefits for teachers, enabling them to optimise classroom conditions, and enhance students' effective decision-making in writing to improve their achievement across all school subjects.Read moreRead less