Measuring and modelling the childhood determinants of human capital formation and human capability expansion. This project aims to address significant gaps in the data infrastructure needed to advance Australian's current human capital reform agenda. It will draw on existing population and longitudinal datasets and collect specific community and family data to analyse how the social, economic and ecological contexts of child development enable life-course outcomes in health and human capability ....Measuring and modelling the childhood determinants of human capital formation and human capability expansion. This project aims to address significant gaps in the data infrastructure needed to advance Australian's current human capital reform agenda. It will draw on existing population and longitudinal datasets and collect specific community and family data to analyse how the social, economic and ecological contexts of child development enable life-course outcomes in health and human capability. Existing human capital measures will be refined to develop data standards to support the monitoring of the reform agenda. New modelling techniques to predict patterns of economic, civic and social participation in individuals and populations will also be developed and tested.Read moreRead less
Touching scenes: intelligent haptic guidance for supporting learning with complex graphic displays. Complex visual information is a defining feature of 21st Century life because advances in graphics display technology permeate all aspects of our society. For Australian citizens to prosper in a world reliant on rich informational graphics, they must be able to use these depictions effectively and efficiently. Touch-based approaches, using a haptic tablet, could facilitate processing of key visual ....Touching scenes: intelligent haptic guidance for supporting learning with complex graphic displays. Complex visual information is a defining feature of 21st Century life because advances in graphics display technology permeate all aspects of our society. For Australian citizens to prosper in a world reliant on rich informational graphics, they must be able to use these depictions effectively and efficiently. Touch-based approaches, using a haptic tablet, could facilitate processing of key visual information in challenging circumstances where displays are complex or vision is limited. Improving visually-based performance and learning will benefit education and training, increase productivity and safety across the industrial, professional and service sectors, enhance security monitoring, and broaden community information access.Read moreRead less
Using machine learning and automated document analysis methods to support English composition training. The project has the potential to further strengthen Australia's Higher Education industry by providing scalable solutions for teaching academic writing, a core competence for students in the tertiary sector. It is also a contribution to the E-learning industry in general. Innovating with these respective technologies will have a significant impact on the quality of online training. Australian ....Using machine learning and automated document analysis methods to support English composition training. The project has the potential to further strengthen Australia's Higher Education industry by providing scalable solutions for teaching academic writing, a core competence for students in the tertiary sector. It is also a contribution to the E-learning industry in general. Innovating with these respective technologies will have a significant impact on the quality of online training. Australian organizations will be able to reap the benefits of a well-tested platform, with the exclusive added capabilities that this project will develop. One of the software systems to be used in this project is an open source Learning Management System that is available to every Australian institution without any licensing cost.Read moreRead less
Comprehensive support for collaborative writing: Visualising argument, text and process structures. This project will provide benefits on a national level due to the importance of collaborative writing (CW) in business, government, and research. Most writing in professional contexts is, to some extent, accomplished collaboratively, but writing is taught almost exclusively individually. This research will yield a suite of integrated software tools to support all aspects of the CW team process, an ....Comprehensive support for collaborative writing: Visualising argument, text and process structures. This project will provide benefits on a national level due to the importance of collaborative writing (CW) in business, government, and research. Most writing in professional contexts is, to some extent, accomplished collaboratively, but writing is taught almost exclusively individually. This research will yield a suite of integrated software tools to support all aspects of the CW team process, and the effectiveness of the main innovations will be empirically tested. This has the potential to contribute to the competitiveness of Australia's businesses and to the efficiency of its administrative systems. Further benefits include improved e-learning tools in the secondary and tertiary education sector, such as online team learning.Read moreRead less
Effects of training teachers in communication skills during cooperative learning on classroom discourse, social inclusion, and learning among middle-year students. Helping children work together, communicate effectively, and think constructively are critically important if children are to engage in learning, develop self-efficacy as learners, and respect for the unique contributions of others to their learning experiences. Teachers play a key role in creating leaning environments that are conduc ....Effects of training teachers in communication skills during cooperative learning on classroom discourse, social inclusion, and learning among middle-year students. Helping children work together, communicate effectively, and think constructively are critically important if children are to engage in learning, develop self-efficacy as learners, and respect for the unique contributions of others to their learning experiences. Teachers play a key role in creating leaning environments that are conducive to learning, responsive to children's needs, and supportive of their endeavours. This project will help teachers enhance children's strategic and metacognitive thinking and learning through the promotion of interactions and relationships that are inclusive of all children regardless of their diverse learning needs and social and ethnic identities.Read moreRead less
Comparative effectiveness of two strategic and meta-cognitive questioning approaches on children's explanatory behaviour, problem-solving, and learning during cooperative, inquiry-based learning. Teaching children to ask and answer questions is critically important if they are to engage effectively in reasoned argumentation, a cornerstone of inquiry-based learning. Unfortunately, in many schools, students are not consistently taught to pose and answer questions that challenge others' perspective ....Comparative effectiveness of two strategic and meta-cognitive questioning approaches on children's explanatory behaviour, problem-solving, and learning during cooperative, inquiry-based learning. Teaching children to ask and answer questions is critically important if they are to engage effectively in reasoned argumentation, a cornerstone of inquiry-based learning. Unfortunately, in many schools, students are not consistently taught to pose and answer questions that challenge others' perspectives, understandings, and learning, nor are they taught to simultaneously monitor, regulate, and evaluate their own thinking and learning. This project builds on the benefits widely attributed to promoting higher-level thinking by helping teachers to enhance students' use of strategic and metacognitive questioning and the development of explanatory discourse during inquiry-based learning.
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Internationalisation of higher education:Sociocultural dynamics of group learning. A better understanding of the challenges created by social and cultural diversity in the context of internationalisation of higher education will lead to educational and social benefits. The research will provide a conceptual basis for the development of innovative teaching practices, which address these challenges and capitalise on diversity to enrich the learning of both international and local students. It dire ....Internationalisation of higher education:Sociocultural dynamics of group learning. A better understanding of the challenges created by social and cultural diversity in the context of internationalisation of higher education will lead to educational and social benefits. The research will provide a conceptual basis for the development of innovative teaching practices, which address these challenges and capitalise on diversity to enrich the learning of both international and local students. It directly addresses the national research priority of enhancing Australia's capacity to interpret and engage with its regional and global environment, through greater reciprocal understanding of the interface of diverse cultures and societies.Read moreRead less
The effects of teacher and student dialogues during cooperative learning on students' discourse, problem-solving, and learning. Teaching students to dialogue effectively together is critically important if they are to think and reason constructively and develop new understandings and learning. While cooperative learning experiences provide students with opportunities to interact with others, research clearly indicates that discourse can be enhanced when students are taught how to dialogue togeth ....The effects of teacher and student dialogues during cooperative learning on students' discourse, problem-solving, and learning. Teaching students to dialogue effectively together is critically important if they are to think and reason constructively and develop new understandings and learning. While cooperative learning experiences provide students with opportunities to interact with others, research clearly indicates that discourse can be enhanced when students are taught how to dialogue together so they learn to seek and answer thought provoking questions to construct new understandings and learning. This project builds on the benefits widely attributed to cooperative learning by helping teachers to enhance students' strategic and metacognitive thinking and facilitative communication patterns.
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Productive co-regulation of learning at university: A situative approach. Fostering graduates' capacity to learn productively from and with professional peers is of educational and economic significance for professional education and for the workplace. The research will establish how learning from clinical cases in interactions with a group of peers at university can be enhanced, with direct benefits for conceptual understanding and professional practice. Social benefits are also expected from b ....Productive co-regulation of learning at university: A situative approach. Fostering graduates' capacity to learn productively from and with professional peers is of educational and economic significance for professional education and for the workplace. The research will establish how learning from clinical cases in interactions with a group of peers at university can be enhanced, with direct benefits for conceptual understanding and professional practice. Social benefits are also expected from broadening individual approaches to study to include preparation for the social nature of work. Read moreRead less
Transforming the organisation of schooling: Technology and organisational change in the junior years of secondary school. Qualitative methods will be used to document ruptures in the traditional organisation of junior secondary schooling and to explore the role played by information and communication technology (ICT). Literature on the integration of ICT across the curriculum, generic capabilities in school-aged learners and the middle years of schooling suggests that a multi-dimensional constru ....Transforming the organisation of schooling: Technology and organisational change in the junior years of secondary school. Qualitative methods will be used to document ruptures in the traditional organisation of junior secondary schooling and to explore the role played by information and communication technology (ICT). Literature on the integration of ICT across the curriculum, generic capabilities in school-aged learners and the middle years of schooling suggests that a multi-dimensional construct will be developed, accommodating changes in the organisation of time, space and knowledge and in the roles played by teachers, students and parents. An analysis of the qualitative data will inform the development of a questionnaire which will then be tested and validated.Read moreRead less