Investigating the effectiveness of teacher education for early career teachers in diverse settings: a longitudinal study. This project investigates the effectiveness of teacher education programs in Victoria and Queensland in preparing teachers for the variety of school settings in which they begin their careers. The findings will inform state and national policy, as well as the work of professional regulation authorities and teacher education providers.
Pursuing equity in high poverty rural schools: improving learning through rich accountabilities. Poor performance of students in schools located in high poverty communities is a pressing educational problem for Australia, with educational disadvantage in poor rural communities in particular demanding amelioration. The evidence suggests the equity and quality of schooling outcomes are centrally important to the nation's economic future, the strength of Australian democracy, social inclusion and a ....Pursuing equity in high poverty rural schools: improving learning through rich accountabilities. Poor performance of students in schools located in high poverty communities is a pressing educational problem for Australia, with educational disadvantage in poor rural communities in particular demanding amelioration. The evidence suggests the equity and quality of schooling outcomes are centrally important to the nation's economic future, the strength of Australian democracy, social inclusion and a unified nation. In strengthening policy and practice knowledge about educative usage of performance data and the development of rich forms of accountability, the research will advance the academic literature and provide an evidence base for success of the national partnership on low socio-economic status schools.Read moreRead less
Career change teachers: Addressing teacher shortages in Australia . Australia is facing a teacher shortage crisis. Consequently, there have been concerted efforts by governments to attract people into teaching from other sections of the workforce. However, career change teachers often do not stay longer than five years in the profession. There is little evidence on how their retention can be enhanced. This project aims to better understand the differing motivations and experiences of these teach ....Career change teachers: Addressing teacher shortages in Australia . Australia is facing a teacher shortage crisis. Consequently, there have been concerted efforts by governments to attract people into teaching from other sections of the workforce. However, career change teachers often do not stay longer than five years in the profession. There is little evidence on how their retention can be enhanced. This project aims to better understand the differing motivations and experiences of these teachers from diverse backgrounds, and to determine how they can be better prepared and supported through their early years of teaching. A clear benefit of this project will be the longer term success for career change teachers and their schools and will ensure young people are not disadvantaged by high teacher turnover. Read moreRead less
Community variations in crime: A spatial and ecometric analysis. Collective Efficacy (CE) is a new theoretical construct (that has never been investigated in Australia). It is a task-specific process for mobilising social capital to tackle specific neighbourhood problems. Research in Chicago finds that communities with high levels of CE experience lower levels of violence regardless of poverty levels. We will conduct a spatial and ecometric analysis of CE and crime using a survey of 3000 residen ....Community variations in crime: A spatial and ecometric analysis. Collective Efficacy (CE) is a new theoretical construct (that has never been investigated in Australia). It is a task-specific process for mobilising social capital to tackle specific neighbourhood problems. Research in Chicago finds that communities with high levels of CE experience lower levels of violence regardless of poverty levels. We will conduct a spatial and ecometric analysis of CE and crime using a survey of 3000 residents in 50 Brisbane communities. We will compare similar data from Chicago and Stockholm to investigate the Australian contribution of CE to spatial crime patterns and its potential for future crime prevention programs.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.
More than a Roof Overhead: Meeting the Need for a Sustainable Housing System in Remote Indigenous Communities. Many Indigenous Australians live in substandard and over-crowded accommodation, and experience poor health, education, family stability and child-safety outcomes as a result. The lack of improvement in this situation is largely due to levels of funding and approaches to construction and management inadequate to the scale of the problem. This situation is changing and new funding and po ....More than a Roof Overhead: Meeting the Need for a Sustainable Housing System in Remote Indigenous Communities. Many Indigenous Australians live in substandard and over-crowded accommodation, and experience poor health, education, family stability and child-safety outcomes as a result. The lack of improvement in this situation is largely due to levels of funding and approaches to construction and management inadequate to the scale of the problem. This situation is changing and new funding and policies are being established. The researchers will work alongside housing providers and selected Indigenous communities in Western Australia and Northern Territory to develop procurement, construction and housing management practices that will meet the critical need for more affordable, appropriate and sustainable housing.Read moreRead less
Securing the next generation in farming and food careers. This project aims to investigate why and how young people (aged 15-35 years) enter, stay or leave jobs and careers in the agri-food sector, including farming, farm services and food processing. This project expects to generate new knowledge to improve youth career trajectories through using an innovative, interdisciplinary and engaged research design with young people. Expected outcomes include the co-design of youth-appropriate industry ....Securing the next generation in farming and food careers. This project aims to investigate why and how young people (aged 15-35 years) enter, stay or leave jobs and careers in the agri-food sector, including farming, farm services and food processing. This project expects to generate new knowledge to improve youth career trajectories through using an innovative, interdisciplinary and engaged research design with young people. Expected outcomes include the co-design of youth-appropriate industry and education policy proposals, new models of youth engagement in agri-food and better career outcomes for young people. This should provide significant benefits to the sustainability and growth of the agri-food sector and to rural and regional communities and their economic prosperity. Read moreRead less
Improving regional secondary students' learning and well-being. Given the academic under-performance and lower life opportunities of Australian regional and rural students compared to their metropolitan counterparts, this research has the potential to make a significant social, cultural and economic contribution to the community. This research will be useful in developing an evidence-based framework to guide policy and practice in implementing an effective systematic approach to regional educati ....Improving regional secondary students' learning and well-being. Given the academic under-performance and lower life opportunities of Australian regional and rural students compared to their metropolitan counterparts, this research has the potential to make a significant social, cultural and economic contribution to the community. This research will be useful in developing an evidence-based framework to guide policy and practice in implementing an effective systematic approach to regional education and, where appropriate, other contexts. The research's economic benefit centres on gains for individuals, local communities, and the nation in enhancing regional students' academic achievements, sense of well-being and aspirations; leading to more productive citizens.Read moreRead less
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
A best practice framework for playgroups-in-schools. This project aims to identify the processes, practices and/or policies informing productive relationships between families and school-staff. Playgroups-in-schools are a burgeoning field of integrated early childhood service provision. Research shows that playgroup participation benefits parental capabilities about children’s play. High levels of parental knowledge, skills and confidence in providing children with play-experience are known to h ....A best practice framework for playgroups-in-schools. This project aims to identify the processes, practices and/or policies informing productive relationships between families and school-staff. Playgroups-in-schools are a burgeoning field of integrated early childhood service provision. Research shows that playgroup participation benefits parental capabilities about children’s play. High levels of parental knowledge, skills and confidence in providing children with play-experience are known to have a positive development and learning impact for children. An expected outcome from this project will be a best practice framework for playgroups-in-schools, which should directly inform policy and practice in schools via Playgroup Victoria's increased capacity to advise school-leaders on playgroups-in-schools.Read moreRead less