Australian Aboriginal conversational style. This project aims to re-examine claims that Aboriginal Australians conduct conversations in different ways to Anglo-Australians. It will investigate and compare ordinary conversations in these groups on a large scale. The project expects to provide new evidence to explicate Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal conversational norms, pinpointing differences which may lead to intercultural miscommunication. Expected outcomes include endangered language documenta ....Australian Aboriginal conversational style. This project aims to re-examine claims that Aboriginal Australians conduct conversations in different ways to Anglo-Australians. It will investigate and compare ordinary conversations in these groups on a large scale. The project expects to provide new evidence to explicate Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal conversational norms, pinpointing differences which may lead to intercultural miscommunication. Expected outcomes include endangered language documentation, and evidence-based findings to disseminate to service providers, to communities and to Aboriginal organisations to improve ways of engaging with each other. In addition, the project will benefit Aboriginal communities with new approaches to language revitalisation.Read moreRead less
Raising the literacy bar for economically-disadvantaged students. This project aims to promote higher order literacy skills among economically-disadvantaged students. Higher order literacy is critical for productive engagement in academic, economic and personal spheres of life in literacy-rich knowledge economies. Opportunities for disadvantaged students to develop advanced literacy skills are limited if schools serving these students focus predominantly on basic skills training. This project ....Raising the literacy bar for economically-disadvantaged students. This project aims to promote higher order literacy skills among economically-disadvantaged students. Higher order literacy is critical for productive engagement in academic, economic and personal spheres of life in literacy-rich knowledge economies. Opportunities for disadvantaged students to develop advanced literacy skills are limited if schools serving these students focus predominantly on basic skills training. This project will investigate contradictions in policies and practices in Australia and Hong Kong to understand why and how disadvantaged students are supported or unsupported to learn higher-order literacy skills. It also explores successful practices that promote such learning, alongside basic skills, for disadvantaged students. This will provide significant benefits such as providing new conceptual understandings of the policy-practice interface and empirical evidence to inform the design of effective practices that promote higher-order literacy skills, alongside basic skills, for economically-disadvantaged students in Australia and Hong Kong.Read moreRead less
The Ancient Today: Living Traditions of Classical Language Education. This project aims to compare, for the first time, ancient language education across world cultures with ‘classical’ literatures. It expects to illumine the purpose and value of classical language education in Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit historically and within global education systems today by comparing pedagogic ideals and practices across times and cultures. It aims to test the potential of inclusive classical langua ....The Ancient Today: Living Traditions of Classical Language Education. This project aims to compare, for the first time, ancient language education across world cultures with ‘classical’ literatures. It expects to illumine the purpose and value of classical language education in Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit historically and within global education systems today by comparing pedagogic ideals and practices across times and cultures. It aims to test the potential of inclusive classical language learning to boost educational outcomes for disadvantaged students. Other expected outcomes include two books, scholarly articles, education policy reports, and PhD student training. This should strengthen intercultural understanding and benefit school students, educators, policy makers and the wider public.Read moreRead less
Improving disadvantaged students’ writing engagement and achievement. Economically disadvantaged students are disproportionally represented among those who fail to attain minimum benchmarks in writing in successive rounds of national testing. Our knowledge, however, is limited on why, how and under what circumstances disadvantaged students engage in or disengage from writing. Addressing this knowledge gap, this project examines how disadvantaged students experience and engage in writing, and ho ....Improving disadvantaged students’ writing engagement and achievement. Economically disadvantaged students are disproportionally represented among those who fail to attain minimum benchmarks in writing in successive rounds of national testing. Our knowledge, however, is limited on why, how and under what circumstances disadvantaged students engage in or disengage from writing. Addressing this knowledge gap, this project examines how disadvantaged students experience and engage in writing, and how their writer identities and knowledge about writing develop, as they participate in writing events in different communities in school, out of school and online. The project promotes writing engagement and enhances achievement by making writing personally meaningful and by developing enabling writing communities.
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Saibai Island language and cultural knowledge project. This project aims to record the Saibai Island Kalaw Kawaw Ya dialect, using the Australian Descriptive Framework. The diaspora of Saibai Islanders, the impact of climate change, and the ageing and passing away of knowledge custodians make it crucial to capture the language and cultural knowledge. Under the direction of elders and cultural knowledge custodians, this project will record and document the dialect, particularly ‘Big’ Sabai langua ....Saibai Island language and cultural knowledge project. This project aims to record the Saibai Island Kalaw Kawaw Ya dialect, using the Australian Descriptive Framework. The diaspora of Saibai Islanders, the impact of climate change, and the ageing and passing away of knowledge custodians make it crucial to capture the language and cultural knowledge. Under the direction of elders and cultural knowledge custodians, this project will record and document the dialect, particularly ‘Big’ Sabai language. It will use recording technology and digital analysis to document cultural knowledge and language for current and future generations of Saibailagal (Saibai people). A culturally appropriate endangered language community methodology that preserves language and cultural knowledge will benefit Indigenous communities and researchers.Read moreRead less
Coding animated narratives as contemporary multimodal authorship in schools. This project aims to investigate a re-conceptualisation of multimodal text creation to include inter-related processes of computer programming (coding) and computational thinking, which have previously been confined to technical fields in education research. The project seeks to generate knowledge of cross-curricular teaching pedagogies and student learning of multimodal composition, coding, and computational thinking i ....Coding animated narratives as contemporary multimodal authorship in schools. This project aims to investigate a re-conceptualisation of multimodal text creation to include inter-related processes of computer programming (coding) and computational thinking, which have previously been confined to technical fields in education research. The project seeks to generate knowledge of cross-curricular teaching pedagogies and student learning of multimodal composition, coding, and computational thinking in schools. The project expects to fortify students' capabilities to participate in new forms of digital authorship, developing their capacity for innovative application of computational thinking and coding. Intended benefits include an established evidence base for strengthening English and technology curricula in Australia and internationally.Read moreRead less
Quality in adult-child interactions during digital experiences. This project aims to address the digital phenomenon with young children by investigating possibilities for adult-child interactions, guidance for educators and ways to measure quality in interactions. The project intends to influence how mobile technologies and applications are created and used in early childhood contexts. Expected outcomes include theory and evidence-based guidelines for adults about how to interact with children d ....Quality in adult-child interactions during digital experiences. This project aims to address the digital phenomenon with young children by investigating possibilities for adult-child interactions, guidance for educators and ways to measure quality in interactions. The project intends to influence how mobile technologies and applications are created and used in early childhood contexts. Expected outcomes include theory and evidence-based guidelines for adults about how to interact with children during digital play. The findings may have implications for educators and families supporting children’s digital experiences as well as app designers creating digital opportunities. The project can therefore contribute to a global agenda focused on young children and technology.Read moreRead less
Sensory orchestration for multimodal literacy learning in primary education. This project aims to advance new learning and pedagogical models of sensory orchestration for the enhanced multimodal and digital literacy learning of primary students. Multimodal literacy is increasingly important in the Australian curriculum and international research, yet research and education largely prioritise visual texts. This project will generate pedagogical and learning models to optimise students’ broadened ....Sensory orchestration for multimodal literacy learning in primary education. This project aims to advance new learning and pedagogical models of sensory orchestration for the enhanced multimodal and digital literacy learning of primary students. Multimodal literacy is increasingly important in the Australian curriculum and international research, yet research and education largely prioritise visual texts. This project will generate pedagogical and learning models to optimise students’ broadened use of the senses in multimodal and digital literacy learning. It will develop new sensory literacy programs with primary schools, community organisations, and art museums.
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Extraordinary yet mundane talk: children navigating palliative care. This project aims to provide foundational evidence of how clinicians and families communicate effectively with children with life-limiting conditions. Finding ways to sensitively communicate with children about matters that will profoundly affect them will support the everyday work of skilled healthcare professionals. In developing the first nation-wide repository of video-recordings of paediatric palliative care consultations, ....Extraordinary yet mundane talk: children navigating palliative care. This project aims to provide foundational evidence of how clinicians and families communicate effectively with children with life-limiting conditions. Finding ways to sensitively communicate with children about matters that will profoundly affect them will support the everyday work of skilled healthcare professionals. In developing the first nation-wide repository of video-recordings of paediatric palliative care consultations, the project will generate new knowledge by using conversation analysis to examine how these conversations occur in real-life clinical settings. The project expects to inform research, policy, and practice, by revealing more effective communication approaches, benefiting researchers, clinicians, healthcare users, and policy makers.Read moreRead less
The integration of language and society. This project aims to seek associations between social and life-style differences and language structure. All human societies show pervasive similarities and all languages share recurrent features. Viewing society and language as an integrated whole, the project will study related groups in contrasting physical and social environments in PNG, Africa, East Asia, Amazonia and Australia. Inductive generalisations about associations between societal and langua ....The integration of language and society. This project aims to seek associations between social and life-style differences and language structure. All human societies show pervasive similarities and all languages share recurrent features. Viewing society and language as an integrated whole, the project will study related groups in contrasting physical and social environments in PNG, Africa, East Asia, Amazonia and Australia. Inductive generalisations about associations between societal and language parameters (e.g. varying techniques of address relating to articulated kin systems and social hierarchy) aim to provide insight into the human dynamic. Findings should benefit programmes for cultural awareness, language teaching and revitalisation and understanding of multicultural situations.Read moreRead less