The early communicative environment prior to and following cochlear implants: impact on children's early communicative and cognitive development. This research with children with cochlear implants will examine the effect on language development of being in an oral environment or one that also includes sign language. The outcomes will provide information for parents and professionals enabling informed decision about the management of the children to promote the best possible outcomes.
Forensic reasoning and uncertainty: identifying pattern and impression expertise. Maintaining high standards of evidence is vital for an effective justice system and ensuring that innocent people are not wrongly accused. This project aims to improve the reliability of forensic evidence and the value of expert testimony in the criminal justice system by examining forensic decision making.
Investigating the effectiveness of teacher education for early career teachers in diverse settings: a longitudinal study. This project investigates the effectiveness of teacher education programs in Victoria and Queensland in preparing teachers for the variety of school settings in which they begin their careers. The findings will inform state and national policy, as well as the work of professional regulation authorities and teacher education providers.
Supporting teachers and teaching in flexible and non-traditional schools . This project aims to address a critical gap in knowledge about the experiences and conditions of people who teach in flexible and non-traditional schools in Australia. These schools provide a second chance at education for young people with challenging behaviours and/or learning problems. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the experiences and needs of these teachers, using a combination of in-depth resea ....Supporting teachers and teaching in flexible and non-traditional schools . This project aims to address a critical gap in knowledge about the experiences and conditions of people who teach in flexible and non-traditional schools in Australia. These schools provide a second chance at education for young people with challenging behaviours and/or learning problems. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the experiences and needs of these teachers, using a combination of in-depth research methods. Expected outcomes include detailed understanding of support needs for this workforce. This will significantly benefit teachers, sponsors and principals through recommendations on best practice management of this important work, along with evidence-based training artefacts for staff recruitment and retention.
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Community-based STEM professional learning for teachers of middle years. This project aims to develop a novel community-based program that focuses on a museum-based, teacher professional development program which is based awareness and performance of middle year students in School Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. Improving STEM workforce readiness is critical to producing a more creative society and a leading, dynamic economy. Building STEM education capacity th ....Community-based STEM professional learning for teachers of middle years. This project aims to develop a novel community-based program that focuses on a museum-based, teacher professional development program which is based awareness and performance of middle year students in School Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. Improving STEM workforce readiness is critical to producing a more creative society and a leading, dynamic economy. Building STEM education capacity through access to professional learning and museum and STEM professional community resources is critically important for improving students’ proficiencies, attitudes, and interest in STEM. The project outcome will be to develop a STEM professional learning model that can be used to create a more skilled and educated STEM workforce. Read moreRead less
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
Nurturing Australia's Little Multilingual Minds. Despite its substantial multilingual capacity of more than 300 languages, Australia has been described as a 'graveyard for languages'. In partnering with community organisations we will facilitate polyglot early learning, commencing with Spanish and Vietnamese. Expected outcomes are a deep understanding of multilingual families’ experiences, a model to support lifespan multilingual education, and openly-accessible database of child language in her ....Nurturing Australia's Little Multilingual Minds. Despite its substantial multilingual capacity of more than 300 languages, Australia has been described as a 'graveyard for languages'. In partnering with community organisations we will facilitate polyglot early learning, commencing with Spanish and Vietnamese. Expected outcomes are a deep understanding of multilingual families’ experiences, a model to support lifespan multilingual education, and openly-accessible database of child language in heritage languages. Benefits include a pivotal contribution to early childhood education with the creation of a tailor-made, principle-based program, which will enhance children’s academic achievement, familial social and mental wellbeing, and cultural and economic opportunities for all Australians. Read moreRead less
Creating perceptual experts in Australia's policing and security agencies. This project aims to create the next generation of experts in Australia’s policing and national security agencies, by improving crime scene evidence interpretation. Agencies are under pressure to develop more rigorous training practices that go beyond mere intuition and tradition. This project will use a novel approach that directs learning toward the most diagnostic perceptual cues. Expected outcomes include a solid empi ....Creating perceptual experts in Australia's policing and security agencies. This project aims to create the next generation of experts in Australia’s policing and national security agencies, by improving crime scene evidence interpretation. Agencies are under pressure to develop more rigorous training practices that go beyond mere intuition and tradition. This project will use a novel approach that directs learning toward the most diagnostic perceptual cues. Expected outcomes include a solid empirical basis for national training programs designed to create experts that are accurate, reliable, and continuously improving. Improving the training of experts will ensure the integrity of forensics as evidentiary tools available to police, lead to more reliable courtroom convictions and help safeguard Australia from terrorism and crime.Read moreRead less
The emotional psychology of blood donors: understanding and using the affective key to donor return. Every week in Australia 27,000 blood donations are required to meet medical needs. Though donors are continually recruited, each year around 40per cent of Australian donors fail to re-donate. Why this occurs and how to prevent this is not well understood. Using an approach grounded in psychology and affective science, this project comprises a program of studies that aims to advance understanding ....The emotional psychology of blood donors: understanding and using the affective key to donor return. Every week in Australia 27,000 blood donations are required to meet medical needs. Though donors are continually recruited, each year around 40per cent of Australian donors fail to re-donate. Why this occurs and how to prevent this is not well understood. Using an approach grounded in psychology and affective science, this project comprises a program of studies that aims to advance understanding of the affective factors that contribute to blood donor return and translate that understanding into interventions to increase donor return. The project aims to advance the psychological conceptualisation of blood donation by integrating insight from affective science, while also enabling the Blood Service to meet the nation's demand for blood products.Read moreRead less
Career change teachers: Addressing teacher shortages in Australia . Australia is facing a teacher shortage crisis. Consequently, there have been concerted efforts by governments to attract people into teaching from other sections of the workforce. However, career change teachers often do not stay longer than five years in the profession. There is little evidence on how their retention can be enhanced. This project aims to better understand the differing motivations and experiences of these teach ....Career change teachers: Addressing teacher shortages in Australia . Australia is facing a teacher shortage crisis. Consequently, there have been concerted efforts by governments to attract people into teaching from other sections of the workforce. However, career change teachers often do not stay longer than five years in the profession. There is little evidence on how their retention can be enhanced. This project aims to better understand the differing motivations and experiences of these teachers from diverse backgrounds, and to determine how they can be better prepared and supported through their early years of teaching. A clear benefit of this project will be the longer term success for career change teachers and their schools and will ensure young people are not disadvantaged by high teacher turnover. Read moreRead less