Gauging informed public opinion on sentencing sex offenders: a national study. Sex offences appear to attract the greatest community condemnation and desire to punish, particularly when involving predatory stranger rapists or when the victims are children. This national study aims to ascertain informed public opinion on sex offender sentencing by exploring the views of jurors in sex offence trials in all higher courts in Australia.
Managing family objection to autopsy: a case study of the Queensland coronial system. Exploring how coroners, police, counsellors, and pathologists engage with families after the shock of a sudden or violent death, and the resulting development of an e-resource, enables a consistent and transparent whole system approach to be established. The expected benefits for the Coronial system will include: a decrease in unnecessary autopsies, a flow on to minimising staffing shortages, and an overall de ....Managing family objection to autopsy: a case study of the Queensland coronial system. Exploring how coroners, police, counsellors, and pathologists engage with families after the shock of a sudden or violent death, and the resulting development of an e-resource, enables a consistent and transparent whole system approach to be established. The expected benefits for the Coronial system will include: a decrease in unnecessary autopsies, a flow on to minimising staffing shortages, and an overall decrease in the cost of a death investigation. The benefits to the community will include: enhanced police relations with families, including those from minority religions and cultures, more informed and appropriate decision making by coroners, less invasive autopsies by pathologists, and more focused intervention by counsellors.Read moreRead less
Understanding the relationship between mental illness and offending: implications for crime prevention and the management of mentally ill offenders. The criminal justice system struggles to cope with the challenge of mentally ill offenders. Yet unfortunately increasing numbers of mentally ill people are coming into contact with police, the courts and correctional institutions. Using a life-course criminological perspective, this project aims to understand the links between mental illness and of ....Understanding the relationship between mental illness and offending: implications for crime prevention and the management of mentally ill offenders. The criminal justice system struggles to cope with the challenge of mentally ill offenders. Yet unfortunately increasing numbers of mentally ill people are coming into contact with police, the courts and correctional institutions. Using a life-course criminological perspective, this project aims to understand the links between mental illness and offending. Such an understanding will provide the criminal justice system with strategies for managing and treating mentally ill offenders. More importantly, such an understanding can be used to intervene in circumstances that result in mentally ill people offending, improving their well-being and increasing community safety.Read moreRead less
Australian human rights complaints: Litigation, mediation or conciliation. This project will assess the effectiveness of the mechanisms used to resolve human rights complaints in Australia – conciliation, mediation and litigation. It will be the first project to evaluate the effectiveness of these mechanisms in a human rights context. Working with industry partners from the legal sector and four human rights commissions, this project will generate new knowledge on human rights complaints and on ....Australian human rights complaints: Litigation, mediation or conciliation. This project will assess the effectiveness of the mechanisms used to resolve human rights complaints in Australia – conciliation, mediation and litigation. It will be the first project to evaluate the effectiveness of these mechanisms in a human rights context. Working with industry partners from the legal sector and four human rights commissions, this project will generate new knowledge on human rights complaints and on the views of key stakeholders about the effectiveness of the mechanisms used to resolve human rights complaints. This new information will inform legal and policy reform throughout Australia. The expected outcomes include developing a robust evidence-based model for human rights dispute resolution in the Australian context.Read moreRead less
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.
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
Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. This project aims to develop discipline-specific pedagogies in senior physics, chemistry and biology to improve disadvantaged students’ engagement and achievement. Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds fail to develop the linguistic precision and symbolic representational dexterity needed to comprehend and communicate senior school science concepts. T ....Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. This project aims to develop discipline-specific pedagogies in senior physics, chemistry and biology to improve disadvantaged students’ engagement and achievement. Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds fail to develop the linguistic precision and symbolic representational dexterity needed to comprehend and communicate senior school science concepts. These pedagogies will ‘infuse’ multiliteracies in senior school science to improve access to science-based pathways for these students, and enable them to understand progressively more complex scientific concepts and demonstrate this in examinations. This project is expected to improve student retention, arrest declining enrolments in senior school science, and increase young people working in science.Read moreRead less
Images, perceptions and resources: enhancing Australias role in China's English language education. Education, being the third largest export industry, plays an extremely important role in Australia's engagement with the Asia region. Chinese students are by far the largest single group of overseas students studying in Australia. However, there is little evidence regarding Australia's presence in the English language market in China, nor of how Chinese language learning businesses draw on Austral ....Images, perceptions and resources: enhancing Australias role in China's English language education. Education, being the third largest export industry, plays an extremely important role in Australia's engagement with the Asia region. Chinese students are by far the largest single group of overseas students studying in Australia. However, there is little evidence regarding Australia's presence in the English language market in China, nor of how Chinese language learning businesses draw on Australian sources and resources. The association with two premier Chinese language learning and publishing houses through this joint research project will promote Australian content for language learners in China and provide information for Australian language resource developers focusing on the Chinese market.Read moreRead less
Accelerating the mathematics learning of low socio-economic status junior secondary students. This project aims to develop theory that will enable mathematics programs to be constructed to accelerate Years 8-9 students’ learning to the point that Years 10-12 mathematics can be accessed and employment and life chances increased.
Developmental engineering education in the primary school. Primary school students will learn about engineers and how engineering shapes our society. Students will develop important design processes in solving authentic, engineering-based problems. Their learning in the increasingly important science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) area will be enhanced, providing a foundation for addressing the increasing skills shortage in engineering.