Designing effective learning experiences: Investigating novice and expert teachers’ design processes. Quality teaching leads to quality learning outcomes for students. Primary school teachers are responsible for designing learning experiences for their students in an increasingly complex environment. This project will advance understanding by: characterising and identifying differences in how novice and expert teachers approach the design of learning experiences for their students; capturing exp ....Designing effective learning experiences: Investigating novice and expert teachers’ design processes. Quality teaching leads to quality learning outcomes for students. Primary school teachers are responsible for designing learning experiences for their students in an increasingly complex environment. This project will advance understanding by: characterising and identifying differences in how novice and expert teachers approach the design of learning experiences for their students; capturing expert design processes through practice examples; and investigating how expert practice examples stimulate novice teachers to design learning experiences. This new understanding of teachers' design processes is necessary to enhance teacher preparation and continued professional learning.Read moreRead less
Pathways to work engagement, wellbeing and positive teaching among mid-career teachers: The role of personal and workplace resources. Teaching is a highly demanding, yet rewarding career for many. It is also a decidedly stressful occupation associated with high burnout. By following a large sample of teachers recruited ten years earlier into their mid-career, this project investigates the coping and motivational resources that keep them engaged, allowing them to thrive personally and professiona ....Pathways to work engagement, wellbeing and positive teaching among mid-career teachers: The role of personal and workplace resources. Teaching is a highly demanding, yet rewarding career for many. It is also a decidedly stressful occupation associated with high burnout. By following a large sample of teachers recruited ten years earlier into their mid-career, this project investigates the coping and motivational resources that keep them engaged, allowing them to thrive personally and professionally in different kinds of school environments, versus pathways that predict to burnout, ill-being and negative teaching behaviours. Selected subgroups who were most at risk and most positively engaged earlier in their career will be the focus of longitudinal case studies to uncover more nuanced processes promoting positive and negative pathways.Read moreRead less
Promoting scientific literacy of secondary science students through studying socioscientific issues and argumentation. This project will develop a model of professional development and effective classroom strategies to improve 12-16 year old school students' decision-making about socioscientific issues. Key outcomes will be improved scientific literacy and willingness by young people to use scientific evidence when making personal and community decisions.
Social and geographical location and its impact on mathematics teaching and learning. Too many students from poor urban backgrounds or from rural communities are at risk of underperforming in school mathematics. This project identifies the critical factors that contribute to this failure and seeks to develop improved practices to enable greater access to school mathematics.
Developing classroom norms of inquiry-based learning in mathematics. This project aims to study inquiry norms in primary mathematics classrooms, including expert teachers’ signature practices, how norms are developed and their effect on learning. Classroom norms dictate the learning environment in school mathematics, but many students have lost interest in STEM subjects. This project aims to boost inquiry norms that engage students in productive social interactions, improve their mathematical kn ....Developing classroom norms of inquiry-based learning in mathematics. This project aims to study inquiry norms in primary mathematics classrooms, including expert teachers’ signature practices, how norms are developed and their effect on learning. Classroom norms dictate the learning environment in school mathematics, but many students have lost interest in STEM subjects. This project aims to boost inquiry norms that engage students in productive social interactions, improve their mathematical knowledge and their interest in, valuing of and capacity to solve complex problems.Read moreRead less
Using pedagogical reasoning to explicate expert practice that aligns with national teaching standards. Standards and accountability are being used to measure and judge teachers, thus the ability to determine pedagogical expertise is increasingly important. Standards alone give little about the teacher reasoning and expertise required to demonstrate them. This project will research how pedagogical reasoning (PR) can be used to understand expert teachers’ professional knowledge, to offer richer wa ....Using pedagogical reasoning to explicate expert practice that aligns with national teaching standards. Standards and accountability are being used to measure and judge teachers, thus the ability to determine pedagogical expertise is increasingly important. Standards alone give little about the teacher reasoning and expertise required to demonstrate them. This project will research how pedagogical reasoning (PR) can be used to understand expert teachers’ professional knowledge, to offer richer ways of interpreting and using standards in judging expertise in practice. This project intends to map the PR of science teachers whose pedagogy generates deep understandings and high levels of engagement onto the standards and research how to represent the outcomes to provide others with scaffolds and expertise to make the standards meaningful in daily practice.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
Eventful learning in quality pre-service science teacher education. The study aims to build a theory that explains quality in science teacher education by identifying successful learning-teaching events across programs of university science teacher education. This theory will guide wider application of eventful learning practices at university to enhance the successful entry of new teachers to the profession.
Learning for Teaching in Disadvantaged Schools. This project focuses on what and how primary school teachers learn about improving classroom practices from co-inquiry interventions. The effective diagnosis of student learning difficulties and the design of educational interventions based on such diagnosis is a core component of quality teaching. Yet many teachers have not acquired the knowledge and skills to undertake such learning diagnostic and design work. The project plans to engage practiti ....Learning for Teaching in Disadvantaged Schools. This project focuses on what and how primary school teachers learn about improving classroom practices from co-inquiry interventions. The effective diagnosis of student learning difficulties and the design of educational interventions based on such diagnosis is a core component of quality teaching. Yet many teachers have not acquired the knowledge and skills to undertake such learning diagnostic and design work. The project plans to engage practitioners in co-inquiry through collaborative analysis of professional learning conversations and classroom practices across disadvantaged public schools in urban and regional locations across Queensland. It aims to examine the sustainability of co-inquiry models to improve student learning.Read moreRead less
Optimising teaching and learning with mobile-intensive pedagogies. Mobile technologies are ubiquitous in Australia but knowledge about their widespread effective application for school education is patchy. This research investigates the complex factors that promote or inhibit quality teaching and learning with mobile technologies in secondary schools. This project brings together multidisciplinary expertise to investigate mobile learning. It aims to support the development of effective teaching ....Optimising teaching and learning with mobile-intensive pedagogies. Mobile technologies are ubiquitous in Australia but knowledge about their widespread effective application for school education is patchy. This research investigates the complex factors that promote or inhibit quality teaching and learning with mobile technologies in secondary schools. This project brings together multidisciplinary expertise to investigate mobile learning. It aims to support the development of effective teaching practices and school initiatives that exploit mobile technologies to improve education outcomes in mathematics and science. The project aims to establish cutting edge instruments, validated and tested in Australian contexts, which can be adapted for future large scale work in the field of technology-enhanced learning.Read moreRead less