Reasonable Adjustments to Maths for Students with Intellectual Disabilities. Reasonable adjustments to secondary mathematics – parents want it, students need it, the Australian law requires it – but how do teachers achieve it? The aim of this project is to find ways to adjust, teach and assess secondary mathematics for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The significance of this study is in solving a problem facing teachers who are required by law to teach mathematics with ....Reasonable Adjustments to Maths for Students with Intellectual Disabilities. Reasonable adjustments to secondary mathematics – parents want it, students need it, the Australian law requires it – but how do teachers achieve it? The aim of this project is to find ways to adjust, teach and assess secondary mathematics for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The significance of this study is in solving a problem facing teachers who are required by law to teach mathematics without evidence informed approaches. Expected outcomes are an evidence-base for reasonable adjustments to secondary mathematics and approaches and strategies for teachers for inclusive practices. If ways for teaching year-level mathematics to learners with intellectual disability are developed, many more students may benefit.
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Peopling educational policy: realising the new Australian English and mathematics curricula. Implementation of Australian curricula in English and mathematics provides an opportunity for school systems to re-examine practice. This project will identify resources and teacher learning opportunities needed to facilitate implementation of these curricula and use findings to develop interventions identified as likely to optimise implementation.
Constructing a rich curriculum for all: ‘Insights into practice’ . Not all students in Australia have access to the same high quality curriculum. The curriculum is often differentiated in ways designed to make outcomes achievable for marginalised young people. While this is often well meant, it has worked against the interests of these young people by denying them from a young age the same levels of access to curriculum options as their peers. This narrows the range of their future opportunities ....Constructing a rich curriculum for all: ‘Insights into practice’ . Not all students in Australia have access to the same high quality curriculum. The curriculum is often differentiated in ways designed to make outcomes achievable for marginalised young people. While this is often well meant, it has worked against the interests of these young people by denying them from a young age the same levels of access to curriculum options as their peers. This narrows the range of their future opportunities. This project aims to provide the foundations for strategies that can be implemented by teachers, schools and systems to address this problem. This projects works closely with teachers to determine a framework that can encourage pedagogical approaches that make a rich curriculum accessible to all. Read moreRead less
Australian screen content in primary, secondary and tertiary education: uses and potential. This project will investigate the educational market for Australian screen content and the ways students use and engage with that content. This will inform policy development, stimulate content production and distribution, and increase awareness of the availability and utility of Australian screen content in educational settings.
Pursuing equity in high poverty rural schools: improving learning through rich accountabilities. Poor performance of students in schools located in high poverty communities is a pressing educational problem for Australia, with educational disadvantage in poor rural communities in particular demanding amelioration. The evidence suggests the equity and quality of schooling outcomes are centrally important to the nation's economic future, the strength of Australian democracy, social inclusion and a ....Pursuing equity in high poverty rural schools: improving learning through rich accountabilities. Poor performance of students in schools located in high poverty communities is a pressing educational problem for Australia, with educational disadvantage in poor rural communities in particular demanding amelioration. The evidence suggests the equity and quality of schooling outcomes are centrally important to the nation's economic future, the strength of Australian democracy, social inclusion and a unified nation. In strengthening policy and practice knowledge about educative usage of performance data and the development of rich forms of accountability, the research will advance the academic literature and provide an evidence base for success of the national partnership on low socio-economic status schools.Read moreRead less
Senior secondary certification: meeting the national agenda? Senior secondary certificates are subject to multiple sets of national demands that create the risk of weakening their important historical roles and undermining stakeholder support. This project will provide a deeper understanding of the nature of the tensions that need to be balanced within the design and management of the certificates and provide information for future design options in the context of national developments in secon ....Senior secondary certification: meeting the national agenda? Senior secondary certificates are subject to multiple sets of national demands that create the risk of weakening their important historical roles and undermining stakeholder support. This project will provide a deeper understanding of the nature of the tensions that need to be balanced within the design and management of the certificates and provide information for future design options in the context of national developments in secondary and tertiary education. The project has the potential to assist state and territory agencies that are responsible for senior secondary curriculum and certification in making their contributions toward the national goals and targets for education participation set by the Australian Government.Read moreRead less
Moments in time: investigating a national history curriculum in early childhood settings and primary classrooms. The focus of this project will be the teaching and the learning of History in early childhood settings and primary classrooms located in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Findings from the project will provide evidence-based curricular and pedagogical theorising of effective and productive teaching and learning of History in those contexts.
Storythread pedagogy: transforming teachers' and students' knowledge and values regarding environmental sustainability. In this project an innovative teaching method, Storythread, is investigated as an effective way of developing in primary school-aged students a commitment to the values and practices of sustainability. Acquiring knowledge about the environment is important but not sufficent to transform everyday practices and values. Storythread not only assists students to develop relevant kno ....Storythread pedagogy: transforming teachers' and students' knowledge and values regarding environmental sustainability. In this project an innovative teaching method, Storythread, is investigated as an effective way of developing in primary school-aged students a commitment to the values and practices of sustainability. Acquiring knowledge about the environment is important but not sufficent to transform everyday practices and values. Storythread not only assists students to develop relevant knowledge, but links that knowledge to specific actions and consequential decisions that people make with regard to the environment. By assisting teachers to use Storythread effectively with diverse groups of students, this project will provide a way of developing future citizens with clear environmental values and practices so necessary in contemporary society. Read moreRead less
Improving student outcomes: coaching teachers in the power of feedback. This project aims to investigate how student outcomes can be augmented through coaching teachers in effective feedback practice. The project addresses a critical problem of stagnating levels of student achievement in Australian schools with the innovative research design combining evidence-based, pedagogies of feedback, formative assessment and instructional coaching to improve teacher practice and ultimately raise student a ....Improving student outcomes: coaching teachers in the power of feedback. This project aims to investigate how student outcomes can be augmented through coaching teachers in effective feedback practice. The project addresses a critical problem of stagnating levels of student achievement in Australian schools with the innovative research design combining evidence-based, pedagogies of feedback, formative assessment and instructional coaching to improve teacher practice and ultimately raise student achievement levels. The project aims to guide policy implementation in pedagogy to raise the quality of teaching standards and to improve learning outcomes for Australian students. Ultimately, outcomes from the research will help close the gap for low achieving students, and challenge and extend those who may already be meeting required benchmarks. Read moreRead less
Recruit to Retain: From Medical School to Rural Practitioner. In order to make use of assets and resources the Government is providing for medical training and to address the problem of inequitable distribution of GPs in Australia this project aims to develop a theoretical yet practical understanding of the personal attributes of medical students, residents, registrars and general practitioners that are directly applicable to their recruitment and retention into rural practice. Application of th ....Recruit to Retain: From Medical School to Rural Practitioner. In order to make use of assets and resources the Government is providing for medical training and to address the problem of inequitable distribution of GPs in Australia this project aims to develop a theoretical yet practical understanding of the personal attributes of medical students, residents, registrars and general practitioners that are directly applicable to their recruitment and retention into rural practice. Application of this theoretical perspective will inform and help modify existing training for medical professionals at all levels who have opted for a rural pathway in order to better equip and retain them for life in rural practice.Read moreRead less