Transforming primary teachers' representational practices: effects on students' scientific reasoning and discourse within contemporary sciences. Training teachers to appropriately represent and communicate scientific information is critically important for promoting scientific thinking and learning in students. This research is critical to securing Australia's future interests in developing new and emerging frontier science and technologies through the engagement and retention of students.
Conceptualising digital play: The role of tablet technologies in the development of imaginative play of young children. Interacting with digital technologies is no longer restricted to the desktop. Portable devices have become more affordable and accessible resulting in their increased use by young children. How to optimise the influence of interactions with the devices in ways that they enrich rather than hinder child development becomes critical. The aim of this study is to investigate the int ....Conceptualising digital play: The role of tablet technologies in the development of imaginative play of young children. Interacting with digital technologies is no longer restricted to the desktop. Portable devices have become more affordable and accessible resulting in their increased use by young children. How to optimise the influence of interactions with the devices in ways that they enrich rather than hinder child development becomes critical. The aim of this study is to investigate the inter-relationship between the technologies and imaginative play - the renowned developmental force in the early years. By utilising theoretically based criteria, and considering the perspectives of children and their families, this study will develop principles for developmentally sound use of tablet technologies in children's digital play.Read moreRead less
Solving the inert knowledge problem. A central goal of education is for students to transfer what they learn to new contexts or problems. Indeed, expert reasoning is often characterised by seeing the deep structural commonalities across seemingly disparate situations. However, the knowledge students acquire is notoriously inert, tied to the specifics of the learning examples. This project aims to move towards solving 'the inert knowledge problem' by investigating how humans learn concepts define ....Solving the inert knowledge problem. A central goal of education is for students to transfer what they learn to new contexts or problems. Indeed, expert reasoning is often characterised by seeing the deep structural commonalities across seemingly disparate situations. However, the knowledge students acquire is notoriously inert, tied to the specifics of the learning examples. This project aims to move towards solving 'the inert knowledge problem' by investigating how humans learn concepts defined by abstract relational structure, and by designing educational applications that enhance the use of relational learning mechanisms in students with a wide range of cognitive abilities.Read moreRead less
Multiliteracy testing: a criterion-referenced tool to assess secondary students’ multiliteracy learning within a technology-rich, multimodal domain. Evidence shows that while multimodal learning in schools is occurring, a valid measurement and diagnostic tool to provide reliable scores and accurate diagnostic information does not exist. This project aims to develop a criterion-referenced tool to measure students' multiliteracy learning within technology-rich, multimodal domains.
Using immersive virtual reality to enhance students’ science visualisation. This project aims to investigate the potential of advanced visualisation technology, immersive virtual reality, as a collaborative learning environment to support students to explore their ideas and learn a core chemistry concept, molecular structures and functions. Incorporating both data analytics and qualitative video analysis, the project will establish a deep understanding of how students learn about the molecular w ....Using immersive virtual reality to enhance students’ science visualisation. This project aims to investigate the potential of advanced visualisation technology, immersive virtual reality, as a collaborative learning environment to support students to explore their ideas and learn a core chemistry concept, molecular structures and functions. Incorporating both data analytics and qualitative video analysis, the project will establish a deep understanding of how students learn about the molecular world within an immersive virtual reality environment in relation to the learners’ experience, chemistry content, visual representations, learning tasks, and design features. The project will recommend evidence-driven design considerations for learning resources development and further educational research with advanced technologies.Read moreRead less
The online future of Science and Engineering education: The essential elements of laboratory-based learning for remote-access implementation. Laboratory classes are a critical part of science and engineering degree programs, but there has been little research into what actually takes place within them. Remote laboratories, in which students control equipment via the internet, are one potential solution for accommodating rising numbers of students, but the interfaces must be developed to effectiv ....The online future of Science and Engineering education: The essential elements of laboratory-based learning for remote-access implementation. Laboratory classes are a critical part of science and engineering degree programs, but there has been little research into what actually takes place within them. Remote laboratories, in which students control equipment via the internet, are one potential solution for accommodating rising numbers of students, but the interfaces must be developed to effectively support student learning. This project will investigate how students interact with equipment, each other, and with laboratory demonstrators in order to determine the crucial components of effective laboratory learning experiences. It will identify and characterise the interactions of students in laboratory classes, and develop mechanisms to support these interactions remotely.Read moreRead less
Modelling complex learning spaces. The growing use of digital tools and resources means that students' learning activities are no longer tied to unique physical places. Their work is distributed across increasingly complex mixtures of physical and digital spaces, which both shape and are shaped by students' activity. This project aims to identify productive ways of modelling the characteristics and uses of complex learning spaces in higher education. Evidence and models generated by the project ....Modelling complex learning spaces. The growing use of digital tools and resources means that students' learning activities are no longer tied to unique physical places. Their work is distributed across increasingly complex mixtures of physical and digital spaces, which both shape and are shaped by students' activity. This project aims to identify productive ways of modelling the characteristics and uses of complex learning spaces in higher education. Evidence and models generated by the project aim to strengthen the logic connecting the use, management and design of learning spaces. A better understanding of the relations between pedagogy, activity and space will improve the work of architects and other designers, campus managers, university teachers and students themselves.Read moreRead less
Tracking towards a complete model of skilled reading comprehension. This project aims to promote the development of the first complete computational model of reading comprehension. Many computational models of sub-components of reading have been developed, but none fully explain the complex co-ordination of perceptual, attentional and cognitive processes required for successful comprehension. The project intends to use eye tracking studies to test and refine Über-Reader, a new computational mode ....Tracking towards a complete model of skilled reading comprehension. This project aims to promote the development of the first complete computational model of reading comprehension. Many computational models of sub-components of reading have been developed, but none fully explain the complex co-ordination of perceptual, attentional and cognitive processes required for successful comprehension. The project intends to use eye tracking studies to test and refine Über-Reader, a new computational model that aims to provide a complete account of the memory systems and cognitive processes involved in reading comprehension and how they differ with reading skill. The outcomes will advance understanding of the causes of success and failure in reading and contribute to diagnosing and remediating reading difficulties.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL100100203
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,744,127.00
Summary
Learning, technology and design: architectures for productive networked learning. Learning how to tackle new challenges is more important today than ever before, yet learning is also becoming much more complicated. This project will investigate better ways of supporting people in learning what they need to learn. It will provide ways of analysing and improving the increasingly complex systems in which learning takes place, especially those where computer technology plays a strong role. This proj ....Learning, technology and design: architectures for productive networked learning. Learning how to tackle new challenges is more important today than ever before, yet learning is also becoming much more complicated. This project will investigate better ways of supporting people in learning what they need to learn. It will provide ways of analysing and improving the increasingly complex systems in which learning takes place, especially those where computer technology plays a strong role. This project will focus on networked learning - where people learn through collaboration that is wholly or partially online. It will explain how better tools and resources for networked learning can be designed, and how everyone can play a significant role in improving how, where and what they learn.Read moreRead less
The Quality of Learning as Students Create Digital Explanations of Science. University science learners will become our future scientists and science teachers and thus need to develop content expertise and communications skills during their studies. This interdisciplinary project will examine the quality of learning as university science students create digital explanations of science concepts. Learning with digital technologies is increasingly common across many science contexts and this projec ....The Quality of Learning as Students Create Digital Explanations of Science. University science learners will become our future scientists and science teachers and thus need to develop content expertise and communications skills during their studies. This interdisciplinary project will examine the quality of learning as university science students create digital explanations of science concepts. Learning with digital technologies is increasingly common across many science contexts and this project aims to develop evidence about the quality and durability of the science learning as well as theoretical insights about multimodal literacy development in the process of creating digital explanations. Research into the quality of learning resulting from innovative strategies to learn science through digital technologies is significant for the future of Australia’s knowledge economy and creating a digital explanation shows promise for enhancing both engagement and quality of learning among university science students.Read moreRead less