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
Mental Toughness: What Makes a Champion? "Mental toughness" is claimed to be what makes champion athletes; separates winners from losers and those who buckle under pressure. Despite widespread use in sport (business, military, etc.) there exist no well-validated mental toughness measures. In collaboration with Australian Institute of Sport and Westfields Sports High School, we will develop a multidimensional, hierarchical measure of mental toughness, test it across gender, age, and different spo ....Mental Toughness: What Makes a Champion? "Mental toughness" is claimed to be what makes champion athletes; separates winners from losers and those who buckle under pressure. Despite widespread use in sport (business, military, etc.) there exist no well-validated mental toughness measures. In collaboration with Australian Institute of Sport and Westfields Sports High School, we will develop a multidimensional, hierarchical measure of mental toughness, test it across gender, age, and different sports, validate it in relation to relevant outcomes, and evaluate its growth/development in athletes varying in age and sporting development. Potential benefits include improved talent identification, counselling, self-concept, coping strategies, coaching, benchmarking, tracking, and athletic performance.Read moreRead less
Realising Gifted Students' Potential: Elucidating psychosocial determinants and the impact of different educational settings on educational outcomes and psychosocial wellbeing. As current gifted students are expected to provide future leaders in all fields of endeavour, there is an increasing emphasis in Australia and worldwide on how to educate gifted students most effectively. Our proposed research will improve Australia's capacity to educate gifted students by: informing practice on how best ....Realising Gifted Students' Potential: Elucidating psychosocial determinants and the impact of different educational settings on educational outcomes and psychosocial wellbeing. As current gifted students are expected to provide future leaders in all fields of endeavour, there is an increasing emphasis in Australia and worldwide on how to educate gifted students most effectively. Our proposed research will improve Australia's capacity to educate gifted students by: informing practice on how best to select students to participate in gifted education; maximising the potential of gifted young Australians; and providing guidance for future intervention strategies. This research will contribute substantially to further actualising Australia's claim to be the clever country and will have important implications for the future of gifted education.Read moreRead less
Enabling schooling success: Psycho-social drivers & impact of Positive Behaviour for Learning intervention on behaviour, well-being, academic engagement & achievement. Reducing behavioural & emotional difficulties in schools is vital given their pervasiveness & long-term consequences for academic failure, mental health & anti-social behaviour. Consistent with National Research Priorities to promote proactive health & wellbeing effective research-based positive behaviour for learning intervention ....Enabling schooling success: Psycho-social drivers & impact of Positive Behaviour for Learning intervention on behaviour, well-being, academic engagement & achievement. Reducing behavioural & emotional difficulties in schools is vital given their pervasiveness & long-term consequences for academic failure, mental health & anti-social behaviour. Consistent with National Research Priorities to promote proactive health & wellbeing effective research-based positive behaviour for learning interventions will yield important educational & socio-economic benefits by enriching learning, psychosocial adjustment, schooling success & life potential of young Australians. Research outcomes have the potential to seed success by generating new solutions to strengthen schooling; enable students to reach potential; build capacity at individual & community levels & contribute to national socio-economic wellbeing.Read moreRead less
Enhancing basic academic skills of low-achieving students: the role of automaticity in numeracy, reading and comprehension. The project is designed to improve the basic reading and numeracy skills of low-achieving school students. The aim of the research is to investigate the effects of improved automaticity of basic skills on higher-order processes such as comprehension and problem solving. The underlying rationale for the program is that improving automaticity in component skills, such as dec ....Enhancing basic academic skills of low-achieving students: the role of automaticity in numeracy, reading and comprehension. The project is designed to improve the basic reading and numeracy skills of low-achieving school students. The aim of the research is to investigate the effects of improved automaticity of basic skills on higher-order processes such as comprehension and problem solving. The underlying rationale for the program is that improving automaticity in component skills, such as decoding or calculating, frees up working memory resources. This freeing up of resources allows students to focus on inherently attention demanding higher-order cognitive activities, of the sort increasingly required of students in the middle school years.Read moreRead less
New Solutions For Maximising Secondary Indigenous Students' Full Potential: Identifying Causal Constructs That Enhance Indigenous Students' Aspirations and Educational Outcomes. Indigenous students are the most disadvantaged Australians on all indicators.Indigenous students' aspirations are significantly lower in comparison to non-Indigenous peers.Given the vital importance of aspirations for predicating life opportunities this is of dire concern.Capitalising on recent advances this investigatio ....New Solutions For Maximising Secondary Indigenous Students' Full Potential: Identifying Causal Constructs That Enhance Indigenous Students' Aspirations and Educational Outcomes. Indigenous students are the most disadvantaged Australians on all indicators.Indigenous students' aspirations are significantly lower in comparison to non-Indigenous peers.Given the vital importance of aspirations for predicating life opportunities this is of dire concern.Capitalising on recent advances this investigation aims to identify constructs that causally impact on Indigenous students' aspirations and educational outcomes, and test whether the pattern of relations differentially varies for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. This will result in: Identifying new solutions for intervention, sound measurement instruments for Indigenous populations, and distinguishing effective theoretical orientations and research methodology.Read moreRead less
Blended learning in schools, TAFE and universities: experience, principles, patterns and practice. Effective use of technology in education depends upon the teacher's understanding of good ways to support learning. New uses of technology to improve learning are emerging constantly: the challenge is to share good practice. This project focuses on investigating the quality of blended learning experiences and using the outcomes to identify and share good practice using a format called a 'design pa ....Blended learning in schools, TAFE and universities: experience, principles, patterns and practice. Effective use of technology in education depends upon the teacher's understanding of good ways to support learning. New uses of technology to improve learning are emerging constantly: the challenge is to share good practice. This project focuses on investigating the quality of blended learning experiences and using the outcomes to identify and share good practice using a format called a 'design pattern'. Design patterns combine research-based evidence and the knowledge of experienced practitioners in a format which is relatively easy to communicate, learn and apply. They are not yet used in teaching with technology. We will generate and test design patterns for learning through discussion in technology-based and other classroom settings.Read moreRead less
Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI0561141
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$37,942.00
Summary
New Solutions For Maximising Secondary Indigenous Students? Full Potential: Identifying Causal Constructs That Enhance Indigenous Students' Aspirations and Educational Outcomes. The proposed research offers important educational and social benefits for righting the disadvantaged status of Indigenous Australians within the secondary education system. Identifying specific psychological constructs that act as potent keys directly impacting on Indigenous students educational aspirations will eventua ....New Solutions For Maximising Secondary Indigenous Students? Full Potential: Identifying Causal Constructs That Enhance Indigenous Students' Aspirations and Educational Outcomes. The proposed research offers important educational and social benefits for righting the disadvantaged status of Indigenous Australians within the secondary education system. Identifying specific psychological constructs that act as potent keys directly impacting on Indigenous students educational aspirations will eventually assist Indigenous students in reaching their full potential. In identifying these causal constructs, potent new interventions can then be created to enhance Indigenous schooling, create a stronger capital base in Aboriginal communities, and ensure a stronger Indigenous Australian representative population who will aid in shaping a better future for Australia.Read moreRead less
Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI0882472
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$180,000.00
Summary
Bubalamai Bawa Gumada. Healing the Wounds of the Heart: A Research-Based Intervention Diminishing the Impact of Racism and Stereotype Threat. Indigenous students are not achieving academic outcomes commensurate with non-Indigenous peers. Although research has identified contributing factors, little is known of the effect of cultural stereotypes on Indigenous students' academic outcomes. This research will implement an innovative new intervention to address stereotyping in secondary schools for I ....Bubalamai Bawa Gumada. Healing the Wounds of the Heart: A Research-Based Intervention Diminishing the Impact of Racism and Stereotype Threat. Indigenous students are not achieving academic outcomes commensurate with non-Indigenous peers. Although research has identified contributing factors, little is known of the effect of cultural stereotypes on Indigenous students' academic outcomes. This research will implement an innovative new intervention to address stereotyping in secondary schools for Indigenous students and evaluate the intervention's impact on mental health and academic functioning. This research offers important educational and socio-economic benefits by enriching the psychosocial adjustment and life potential of Indigenous Australians. This will foster schools free from racism and stereotyping that will contribute to individual, community, and national wellbeing.Read moreRead less
Middle Years Transition, Engagement and Achievement in Mathematics - The MYTEAM Project. It is a Commonwealth policy objective that all students attain essential numeracy skills. In reality, 30% of 15 year olds do not attain these skills. Alongside this are declining enrolments in mathematics, a trend away from advanced mathematics courses, and an emerging 'skills shortage' in mathematics-related pathways. The MYTEAM project provides new solutions to national problems associated with disengageme ....Middle Years Transition, Engagement and Achievement in Mathematics - The MYTEAM Project. It is a Commonwealth policy objective that all students attain essential numeracy skills. In reality, 30% of 15 year olds do not attain these skills. Alongside this are declining enrolments in mathematics, a trend away from advanced mathematics courses, and an emerging 'skills shortage' in mathematics-related pathways. The MYTEAM project provides new solutions to national problems associated with disengagement, under-participation and underperformance in mathematics and empowers more individuals to aspire to and realise mathematics-related employment opportunities. Addressing such a shortfall in the labour market will have a positive impact on the future economy, the nation's social well-being, and individuals' pathways beyond school.Read moreRead less