Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100080
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$389,352.00
Summary
Closing the Disadvantaged Gap: Self-Beliefs and Task Value as Drivers of Educational Choices During the Post High School Transition. Australia's economic future requires education to close the gap between disadvantaged and advantaged students. Even successful interventions, however, typically increase the gap with advantaged students benefitting more. Whilst most efforts focus on test scores, evidence suggests that non-cognitive outcomes (such as, self-concept, task value, motivation and social ....Closing the Disadvantaged Gap: Self-Beliefs and Task Value as Drivers of Educational Choices During the Post High School Transition. Australia's economic future requires education to close the gap between disadvantaged and advantaged students. Even successful interventions, however, typically increase the gap with advantaged students benefitting more. Whilst most efforts focus on test scores, evidence suggests that non-cognitive outcomes (such as, self-concept, task value, motivation and social context) are critical in closing the gap. This project will test these predictions for successful educational transitions by disadvantaged students, using an innovative blend of multiple large-scale primary and secondary data sources, and new, evolving statistical models. This project will provide potential actions for strengthening the economic and social future of disadvantaged youth in Australia and beyond.Read moreRead less
Young Australians and their identification with Australia: Implications for schooling and school success. Aims
*Identify adolescents' conceptions of and commitment to Australian national identity (ANI) and compare gender, regional and ethnic variations.
*Examine images of Australia promoted in schools (subject curricula, celebrations, special events, extra-curricula activities).
*Explore relationships between adolescents' ANI, academic achievement, personal aspirations, personal and social de ....Young Australians and their identification with Australia: Implications for schooling and school success. Aims
*Identify adolescents' conceptions of and commitment to Australian national identity (ANI) and compare gender, regional and ethnic variations.
*Examine images of Australia promoted in schools (subject curricula, celebrations, special events, extra-curricula activities).
*Explore relationships between adolescents' ANI, academic achievement, personal aspirations, personal and social development.
Significance
*Locates ANI within contect of adolescent training and development.
*Timely research given the current 'clever country' push.
Expected Outcomes
*Development of a reliable and valid measure of ANI.
*Assisting educators, and relevant political and social agencies in development of curricula and national policy, heedful of adolescents' conceptions of ANI.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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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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Creating Safer Communities: Addressing Risky Behaviour in Young People Through Self-Regulation. Young people make choices about whether to engage in risky behaviours. If they do engage in risky behaviours, this can result in delinquency, self-harm, or death. This project examines: (i) young people's decision-making and the consequences of risky behaviour, and (ii) the effectiveness of a self-regulatory intervention that promotes positive lifestyle choices. The project provides an integrated and ....Creating Safer Communities: Addressing Risky Behaviour in Young People Through Self-Regulation. Young people make choices about whether to engage in risky behaviours. If they do engage in risky behaviours, this can result in delinquency, self-harm, or death. This project examines: (i) young people's decision-making and the consequences of risky behaviour, and (ii) the effectiveness of a self-regulatory intervention that promotes positive lifestyle choices. The project provides an integrated and co-ordinated approach to crime prevention across government departments by offering long-term preventative solutions for at-risk adolescents and alternative treatments for offenders. The project is consistent with Government commitments to safer, more supportive communities to reduce youth crime.Read moreRead less
Connecting and generalising arithmetic into powerful abstract systems: Year 2 to 5 children's cognitive development with respect to algebraic reasoning. Algebra is a fundamental area of mathematical thinking. In spite of the wealth of research at both the national and international level, algebraic thinking still persists as a barrier to secondary and tertiary mathematics. This project will develop new research integrating alegbra and arithmetic at the primary level as a key for access to higher ....Connecting and generalising arithmetic into powerful abstract systems: Year 2 to 5 children's cognitive development with respect to algebraic reasoning. Algebra is a fundamental area of mathematical thinking. In spite of the wealth of research at both the national and international level, algebraic thinking still persists as a barrier to secondary and tertiary mathematics. This project will develop new research integrating alegbra and arithmetic at the primary level as a key for access to higher levels of algebra. The investigators will engage teachers and students from 5 primary schools to construct a model of Year 2 to 5 children's cognitive development with regard to algebraic reasoning and develop instructional strategies and teaching episodes to facilitate this.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR120300015
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$16,000,000.00
Summary
The Science of Learning Research Centre. In this innovative new Centre, researchers in education, neuroscience and cognitive psychology will work together with teachers to understand the learning process. This collaboration will establish new criteria to assess the impact of different types of learning and strategies to inform teaching practices of benefit to all Australians.
Transforming Lives and Communities: Impact of Quality Indigenous Education. The project aims to advance knowledge, policy and practice by exploring the impact of Indigenous education programs in transforming lives and communities. There is a revolution in Australian education whereby private boarding schools are actively enabling Indigenous students to reap the rewards of a quality education. While there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that these programs have long-term and far-reaching effects ....Transforming Lives and Communities: Impact of Quality Indigenous Education. The project aims to advance knowledge, policy and practice by exploring the impact of Indigenous education programs in transforming lives and communities. There is a revolution in Australian education whereby private boarding schools are actively enabling Indigenous students to reap the rewards of a quality education. While there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that these programs have long-term and far-reaching effects for the students that extend to Indigenous communities, non-Indigenous peers, and the whole-school community, the actual impact of and pathways through which these benefits are achieved is unknown.Read moreRead less
E-Learning Advocacy : Understanding Students' Experience of New Learning Environments to Promote Quality Sustainable Developments. Increasing investment in new learning environments (NLEs) including e-learning is guided by limited empirical research. Learning in NLEs involves more than a set of skills - it requires a new mindset. This project will delineate the different opportunities and demands, the nature and development of undergraduate students' experiences of NLEs and compare those with eq ....E-Learning Advocacy : Understanding Students' Experience of New Learning Environments to Promote Quality Sustainable Developments. Increasing investment in new learning environments (NLEs) including e-learning is guided by limited empirical research. Learning in NLEs involves more than a set of skills - it requires a new mindset. This project will delineate the different opportunities and demands, the nature and development of undergraduate students' experiences of NLEs and compare those with equivalent programs taught in more traditional ways. Major outcomes involve understanding learners' experiences when engaging in ICT settings, and an understanding of the mutual constructions of the experience. Such understanding will inform development of e-learning programs and the nature of support necessary for optimising learning.Read moreRead less