Attracting, preparing, and sustaining quality teachers in early education. This project aims to address the chronic shortage of early childhood teachers in Australia, which is compromising quality and return on investment in early education. The project expects to generate new understandings about this specialist teacher workforce through an innovative, ecological, longitudinal design that will track early childhood teachers’ career trajectories and develop a world-first tool to assess early chi ....Attracting, preparing, and sustaining quality teachers in early education. This project aims to address the chronic shortage of early childhood teachers in Australia, which is compromising quality and return on investment in early education. The project expects to generate new understandings about this specialist teacher workforce through an innovative, ecological, longitudinal design that will track early childhood teachers’ career trajectories and develop a world-first tool to assess early childhood teacher quality. Findings are expected to inform policy— including the Australian Government-endorsed 10-year national Workforce Strategy and the Australian Government's Early Years Strategy— to support the future sustained supply of a quality early childhood teacher workforce and improve outcomes for young children.Read moreRead less
Reconceptualising early mathematics learning: The fundamental role of pattern and structure. The critical shortage of mathematicians, statisticians and scientists in Australia today can be traced in large part to inadequacies in early mathematics learning. Many students fail to achieve a basic understanding of mathematics, although the subject is crucial to participation in a technology-based society and the building of a knowledge culture. The innovative program for the first year of formal sc ....Reconceptualising early mathematics learning: The fundamental role of pattern and structure. The critical shortage of mathematicians, statisticians and scientists in Australia today can be traced in large part to inadequacies in early mathematics learning. Many students fail to achieve a basic understanding of mathematics, although the subject is crucial to participation in a technology-based society and the building of a knowledge culture. The innovative program for the first year of formal schooling, to be developed and tested in this study, will provide a much firmer foundation for later development. The project will enhance the achievement of national numeracy goals by enabling a high quality, effective mathematics education for all Australian children. Read moreRead less
A multi-modal investigation of current and proposed structures and processes determining and sustaining quality in Australian centre-based child care. Access to good quality government-regulated child care is a national policy direction, underpinned by Australia's quality assurance and accreditation mechanisms, and based on evidence that high quality care positively affects children's developmental wellbeing. Of concern is that care of poorer quality is linked with adverse outcomes, especially f ....A multi-modal investigation of current and proposed structures and processes determining and sustaining quality in Australian centre-based child care. Access to good quality government-regulated child care is a national policy direction, underpinned by Australia's quality assurance and accreditation mechanisms, and based on evidence that high quality care positively affects children's developmental wellbeing. Of concern is that care of poorer quality is linked with adverse outcomes, especially for more vulnerable children. The effective provision of high quality care requires a thorough understanding of the structures and processes that contribute to and sustain quality outcomes. The results of this study will provide invaluable information to guide the decisions of policy makers and service providers in determining new directions in child care quality assurance.Read moreRead less
Interacting with knowledge, interacting with people: web searching in early childhood. This study investigates the extent of pre-school children's Web searching, what they access and in what social contexts. Findings will inform educators and families about Web use for socially interactive learning and knowledge-building.
Face-space: linking three-dimensional shape and human perception across changing viewing conditions. People, and increasingly machines, use faces to identify and interact with people. One source of information available for this is the three-dimensional (3D) shape of the face. This information, unlike a photograph, does not change with lighting and viewpoint. This project will link measurements of face shape to the perceived similarities and differences between faces we use to make decisions. ....Face-space: linking three-dimensional shape and human perception across changing viewing conditions. People, and increasingly machines, use faces to identify and interact with people. One source of information available for this is the three-dimensional (3D) shape of the face. This information, unlike a photograph, does not change with lighting and viewpoint. This project will link measurements of face shape to the perceived similarities and differences between faces we use to make decisions. This will facilitate the use of 3D databases in diverse applications including establishing identity, making facial reconstructions of victims of crime or disaster, making databases searchable, computer animation, archaeology, and plastic surgery. In particular the work will make physical databases relevant to human perception. Read moreRead less
The development of causal induction. An ability to reason inductively is an essential prerequisite for effective learning and decision-making. Inductive thinking is also closely related to creativity and innovation. By acquiring a better understanding of how such reasoning develops we will contribute to the enhancement of techniques that help children to learn and refine inductive reasoning skills, and will provide a foundation for the development of programs to assist children who have partic ....The development of causal induction. An ability to reason inductively is an essential prerequisite for effective learning and decision-making. Inductive thinking is also closely related to creativity and innovation. By acquiring a better understanding of how such reasoning develops we will contribute to the enhancement of techniques that help children to learn and refine inductive reasoning skills, and will provide a foundation for the development of programs to assist children who have particular problems in inductive reasoning and generalisation (i.e. those with autism or an intellectual disability).Read moreRead less
Risk, Urban Fire Protection and Security Networks. Urban fire prevention is a critical field for public security and economic development. As such, it has always been shaped by factors beyond those of simple technological growth. These include major unanticipated events and the responses to them by many state and non-state agencies with divergent interests and knowledge bases. By analysing the resulting 'technological politics', the project will examine the ways in which this strategic field ....Risk, Urban Fire Protection and Security Networks. Urban fire prevention is a critical field for public security and economic development. As such, it has always been shaped by factors beyond those of simple technological growth. These include major unanticipated events and the responses to them by many state and non-state agencies with divergent interests and knowledge bases. By analysing the resulting 'technological politics', the project will examine the ways in which this strategic field has taken on a risk-based preventative orientation. This will contribute new perspectives and considerations for the assessment and development of fire prevention and urban security in the 21st century.Read moreRead less
Education meets play: a sociological study of how the new compulsory national learning framework for children zero to five years influences educators' practice. New theorising about play and education in early childhood settings has challenged traditional notions of play. This project investigates how educators respond to the requirement for play-based learning by identifying characteristics of successful educators and professional leaders, and strategies and practices that merge education and p ....Education meets play: a sociological study of how the new compulsory national learning framework for children zero to five years influences educators' practice. New theorising about play and education in early childhood settings has challenged traditional notions of play. This project investigates how educators respond to the requirement for play-based learning by identifying characteristics of successful educators and professional leaders, and strategies and practices that merge education and play.Read moreRead less
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
Continuity and change in curriculum and pedagogies as children start school. This project considers the impact of the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum on transition to school in Australia. Through extensive interviews and surveys, it gathers evidence to influence theoretical, policy and practice approaches to transition to school and, hence, the future schooling of all Australian children.