The role of social-emotional learning in attaining literacy and numeracy. This project aims to characterise variability in developmental pathways to literacy and numeracy, and the factors that contribute to this variation, utilising innovative analytical approaches and population data. This project expects to generate new knowledge regarding the role of school-based social-emotional learning programs in supporting children’s achievement of literacy and numeracy. Expected outcomes of the project ....The role of social-emotional learning in attaining literacy and numeracy. This project aims to characterise variability in developmental pathways to literacy and numeracy, and the factors that contribute to this variation, utilising innovative analytical approaches and population data. This project expects to generate new knowledge regarding the role of school-based social-emotional learning programs in supporting children’s achievement of literacy and numeracy. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced collaboration with government to deliver policy-relevant information on the most effective targets and timing for delivering social-emotional programs that maximise academic learning. This should assist policy makers to develop better strategies to support every child’s academic achievement.Read moreRead less
Academic Buoyancy and Academic Resilience: New Approaches to Examining and Understanding Adversity and Setback in the Academic Domain. Although Federal & State/Territory governments inject millions of dollars into schools, multitudes of students fall short of their academic potential due to an inability to deal with academic adversity. Essentially, these students are not academically buoyant or resilient. This diminishes their personal capacity through life & ultimately Australia's capacity to c ....Academic Buoyancy and Academic Resilience: New Approaches to Examining and Understanding Adversity and Setback in the Academic Domain. Although Federal & State/Territory governments inject millions of dollars into schools, multitudes of students fall short of their academic potential due to an inability to deal with academic adversity. Essentially, these students are not academically buoyant or resilient. This diminishes their personal capacity through life & ultimately Australia's capacity to compete globally. The proposed Research Program conducts a comprehensive analysis of academic buoyancy & resilience & the attributes pivotal to them. In so doing, it seeks to promote & maintain young people's good academic health. According to Australian authorities (eg. Australian Bureau of Statistics, The Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs), young people's academic health is vital to our nation's economic, cultural, & social success.Read moreRead less
Dissecting endocardial signals required for cardiac muscle regeneration in zebrafish. Unlike humans, zebrafish have an extraordinary ability to regenerate their damaged hearts. This project will study the endocardium, a thin layer of cells lining the inner heart, to find important genes for regeneration. Results from this study may provide insights into proper repair of human hearts after injury.
Why remembering together is crucial as we age. This project will test whether remembering everyday information or important past events with a long-term partner compensates for, predicts and/or reduces the risk of memory and cognitive decline. The project will identify and then target for treatment the strategies that spouses use to help each other remember, especially as they age and memory starts to fail.
Understanding bilingual language acquisition in northern Indigenous Australia: phonological, lexical, orthographic, and family factors. Children's language outcomes are critical for health, social inclusion, education and employment. In northern Australia many Indigenous children grow up as Kriol/English bilinguals in disadvantaged communities; this research will establish the linguistic, educational, and family factors in successful language acquisition for these children.
Developing a research focus on the health and quality of life of adolescents in the Northern Territory. The Youth Futures program will focus on the health and well being of adolescents in the Northern Territory, 40 per cent of whom are Indigenous. This project will provide an evidence base to inform health policy, identify transformative life skills and the ways to translate these into practice.
A longitudinal study into the development of personal vulnerabilities and well-being in adolescence. This longitudinal study examines the temperament and environmental factors that promote character strengths in adolescents. Character strengths such as empathy and emotion-management skills are potentially teachable and help prevent an adolescent from experiencing difficulties in social, emotional and academic adjustment.
Enhancing language learning via auditory training and parent-infant interaction. This project aims to improve adult language learning. Most adults struggle to pronounce foreign speech, because their native processing skills cannot process foreign sounds. During infancy, native sound perception is tuned through listening to variants of speech sounds while interacting with care-givers. This project aims to show that adults can reprogram their processing skills if placed in the rich environment ava ....Enhancing language learning via auditory training and parent-infant interaction. This project aims to improve adult language learning. Most adults struggle to pronounce foreign speech, because their native processing skills cannot process foreign sounds. During infancy, native sound perception is tuned through listening to variants of speech sounds while interacting with care-givers. This project aims to show that adults can reprogram their processing skills if placed in the rich environment available to infants. Rigorous testing will show whether auditory training improves processing of foreign speech sounds in adults and children and leads to successful understanding and pronunciation of foreign words. This project could benefit many Australian monolingual families who have not fully engaged with neighbouring cultures due to a language barrier.Read moreRead less
Attention please! Selective attention and human associative learning. Selective attention allows us to pick useful pieces of information out of the mass of stimulation that we're faced with every moment. This project investigates how what we've previously learnt about the significance of events influences whether we'll pick them out as useful in future, and how this might be impaired by old age or mental disorder.