The Development of Young Children's Mathematical Abilities: A Longitudinal Analysis. Many people have problems learning maths. Although maths is often seen as an esoteric subject of limited interest, poor maths skills are as great a handicap in education and employment as poor literacy, with similar costs for the individual and society. One cause of poor maths skills is developmental dyscalculia, a disability in which children's understanding of number is affected by underlying cognitive deficit ....The Development of Young Children's Mathematical Abilities: A Longitudinal Analysis. Many people have problems learning maths. Although maths is often seen as an esoteric subject of limited interest, poor maths skills are as great a handicap in education and employment as poor literacy, with similar costs for the individual and society. One cause of poor maths skills is developmental dyscalculia, a disability in which children's understanding of number is affected by underlying cognitive deficits. As yet there is no reliable way of identifying children with dyscalculia or other maths problems. Our research examines children's developing maths competencies as they enter and progress through primary school. Our aim is to develop diagnoses of different maths disabilities, so effective interventions can be implemented.Read moreRead less
Concept-procedure interactions in addition and subtraction development. The research explores the possibility of different pathways to mathematical knowledge by examining how key concepts and procedures interact in the course of development. Studies 1 and 2 address early addition and subtraction concepts and problem solving in the physical world, Studies 3 - 6 focus on the effects of problem-solving practice and concept-based training and Studies 7 and 8 address children's knowledge of conceptu ....Concept-procedure interactions in addition and subtraction development. The research explores the possibility of different pathways to mathematical knowledge by examining how key concepts and procedures interact in the course of development. Studies 1 and 2 address early addition and subtraction concepts and problem solving in the physical world, Studies 3 - 6 focus on the effects of problem-solving practice and concept-based training and Studies 7 and 8 address children's knowledge of conceptually advanced problem-solving procedures. The results are expected to show that addition and subtraction concepts and procedures influence each other in different ways among children, signifying different pathways of cognitive development.Read moreRead less
Category learning and conceptual change in children. Fundamental to children's cognitive development is the ability to form concepts and generalize beyond direct experience. This project examines the effect of pre-existing beliefs and new empirical observations on concept learning by children. The cognitive processes involved when children of various ages integrate these different sources of information to form new concepts will be investigated in several knowledge domains. In addition to addre ....Category learning and conceptual change in children. Fundamental to children's cognitive development is the ability to form concepts and generalize beyond direct experience. This project examines the effect of pre-existing beliefs and new empirical observations on concept learning by children. The cognitive processes involved when children of various ages integrate these different sources of information to form new concepts will be investigated in several knowledge domains. In addition to addressing key theoretical questions about the role of exemplar diversity and sub-typing processes in concept learning the project will develop and evaluate innovative techniques for teaching science concepts to young children.Read moreRead less
Memory Consolidation and Educational Achievement in Children. The National Report on Schooling in Australia 2006 reports that between 7-12% of children in Years 3 and 5 failed to meet literacy and numeracy benchmarks. Evidence suggests that poor working memory skills may be a key feature in children's failure to achieve in school. By investigating the cognitive factors that underlie variation in working memory ability, the proposed research has the potential to improve educational outcomes in Au ....Memory Consolidation and Educational Achievement in Children. The National Report on Schooling in Australia 2006 reports that between 7-12% of children in Years 3 and 5 failed to meet literacy and numeracy benchmarks. Evidence suggests that poor working memory skills may be a key feature in children's failure to achieve in school. By investigating the cognitive factors that underlie variation in working memory ability, the proposed research has the potential to improve educational outcomes in Australian children. If memory consolidation is found to be important, this would guide the development of effective teaching strategies and early intervention programs for 'at-risk' children in line with the National Literacy and Numeracy Plan.Read moreRead less
Young Australians and their identification with Australia: Implications for schooling and school success. Aims
*Identify adolescents' conceptions of and commitment to Australian national identity (ANI) and compare gender, regional and ethnic variations.
*Examine images of Australia promoted in schools (subject curricula, celebrations, special events, extra-curricula activities).
*Explore relationships between adolescents' ANI, academic achievement, personal aspirations, personal and social de ....Young Australians and their identification with Australia: Implications for schooling and school success. Aims
*Identify adolescents' conceptions of and commitment to Australian national identity (ANI) and compare gender, regional and ethnic variations.
*Examine images of Australia promoted in schools (subject curricula, celebrations, special events, extra-curricula activities).
*Explore relationships between adolescents' ANI, academic achievement, personal aspirations, personal and social development.
Significance
*Locates ANI within contect of adolescent training and development.
*Timely research given the current 'clever country' push.
Expected Outcomes
*Development of a reliable and valid measure of ANI.
*Assisting educators, and relevant political and social agencies in development of curricula and national policy, heedful of adolescents' conceptions of ANI.Read moreRead less
Effects of training teachers in communication skills during cooperative learning on classroom discourse, social inclusion, and learning among middle-year students. Helping children work together, communicate effectively, and think constructively are critically important if children are to engage in learning, develop self-efficacy as learners, and respect for the unique contributions of others to their learning experiences. Teachers play a key role in creating leaning environments that are conduc ....Effects of training teachers in communication skills during cooperative learning on classroom discourse, social inclusion, and learning among middle-year students. Helping children work together, communicate effectively, and think constructively are critically important if children are to engage in learning, develop self-efficacy as learners, and respect for the unique contributions of others to their learning experiences. Teachers play a key role in creating leaning environments that are conducive to learning, responsive to children's needs, and supportive of their endeavours. This project will help teachers enhance children's strategic and metacognitive thinking and learning through the promotion of interactions and relationships that are inclusive of all children regardless of their diverse learning needs and social and ethnic identities.Read moreRead less
Comparative effectiveness of two strategic and meta-cognitive questioning approaches on children's explanatory behaviour, problem-solving, and learning during cooperative, inquiry-based learning. Teaching children to ask and answer questions is critically important if they are to engage effectively in reasoned argumentation, a cornerstone of inquiry-based learning. Unfortunately, in many schools, students are not consistently taught to pose and answer questions that challenge others' perspective ....Comparative effectiveness of two strategic and meta-cognitive questioning approaches on children's explanatory behaviour, problem-solving, and learning during cooperative, inquiry-based learning. Teaching children to ask and answer questions is critically important if they are to engage effectively in reasoned argumentation, a cornerstone of inquiry-based learning. Unfortunately, in many schools, students are not consistently taught to pose and answer questions that challenge others' perspectives, understandings, and learning, nor are they taught to simultaneously monitor, regulate, and evaluate their own thinking and learning. This project builds on the benefits widely attributed to promoting higher-level thinking by helping teachers to enhance students' use of strategic and metacognitive questioning and the development of explanatory discourse during inquiry-based learning.
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Connecting and generalising arithmetic into powerful abstract systems: Year 2 to 5 children's cognitive development with respect to algebraic reasoning. Algebra is a fundamental area of mathematical thinking. In spite of the wealth of research at both the national and international level, algebraic thinking still persists as a barrier to secondary and tertiary mathematics. This project will develop new research integrating alegbra and arithmetic at the primary level as a key for access to higher ....Connecting and generalising arithmetic into powerful abstract systems: Year 2 to 5 children's cognitive development with respect to algebraic reasoning. Algebra is a fundamental area of mathematical thinking. In spite of the wealth of research at both the national and international level, algebraic thinking still persists as a barrier to secondary and tertiary mathematics. This project will develop new research integrating alegbra and arithmetic at the primary level as a key for access to higher levels of algebra. The investigators will engage teachers and students from 5 primary schools to construct a model of Year 2 to 5 children's cognitive development with regard to algebraic reasoning and develop instructional strategies and teaching episodes to facilitate this.Read moreRead less
Positive Pathways to Reading for Disadvantaged Children: Identifying Psychosocial Antecedents and Implementing Effective Intervention to Enhance Literacy, Self-concept, and Motivation. Early intervention to combat reading difficulties in primary schools is vital given the pervasive long-term academic and mental health consequences. Consistent with National Research Priorities (Promoting/maintaining good health/well-being),our research offers important educational/socio-economic benefits by: enri ....Positive Pathways to Reading for Disadvantaged Children: Identifying Psychosocial Antecedents and Implementing Effective Intervention to Enhance Literacy, Self-concept, and Motivation. Early intervention to combat reading difficulties in primary schools is vital given the pervasive long-term academic and mental health consequences. Consistent with National Research Priorities (Promoting/maintaining good health/well-being),our research offers important educational/socio-economic benefits by: enriching disadvantaged children's reading achievement, promoting psychosocial adjustment and life potential, and elucidating multiplier effects of the intervention on volunteers administering the intervention, home life, and school engagement. Synergies between substantive research, methodological rigour, and practice will ensure real solutions and a research framework that will make a substantial contribution to Australia's future.Read moreRead less
Learning to read words: Beyond alphabetic skills. Up to 20% of Australian children experience difficulties in learning to read. Many of these children are unable to sound out words, and a focus on teaching these skills in Australian classrooms was a key recommendation of the recent National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy. However, some children make slow progress in reading despite having good sounding out skills, demonstrating that more than just this ability is needed for proficient rea ....Learning to read words: Beyond alphabetic skills. Up to 20% of Australian children experience difficulties in learning to read. Many of these children are unable to sound out words, and a focus on teaching these skills in Australian classrooms was a key recommendation of the recent National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy. However, some children make slow progress in reading despite having good sounding out skills, demonstrating that more than just this ability is needed for proficient reading. This project explores how children progress in reading once they have learned to sound out, and examines why some poor readers have difficulty doing so. The findings will inform the teaching of reading and will assist in the development of interventions for children with reading problems.Read moreRead less