Would more highly-qualified teachers and trainers help to address quality problems in the Australian vocational education and training system? This project examines whether and how higher-level qualifications for vocational education and training (VET) teachers would improve quality in the VET system. Government documents and public commentary indicate that the VET sector suffers from some fairly serious quality problems. This is significant because VET provides training that underpins all Austr ....Would more highly-qualified teachers and trainers help to address quality problems in the Australian vocational education and training system? This project examines whether and how higher-level qualifications for vocational education and training (VET) teachers would improve quality in the VET system. Government documents and public commentary indicate that the VET sector suffers from some fairly serious quality problems. This is significant because VET provides training that underpins all Australian industries. Most VET teachers are qualified only to a Certificate IV level. A more highly qualified VET teaching workforce is likely to lead to improvements in quality; however there is currently no firm evidence to establish this link, as the 2011 Productivity Commission report on the VET workforce pointed out. This project aims to provide much-needed evidence to guide policy.Read moreRead less
Toward an Australian culturally responsive pedagogy. This project aims to examine how teachers in mainstream middle school classrooms can teach young Indigenous Australians in a culturally sensitive way. The large disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous outcomes at school is an urgent problem. Young people are more likely to attend school, learn and reach their potential when they are taught to belong. Teachers, researchers, Aboriginal Education Officers and Elders will develop an Austra ....Toward an Australian culturally responsive pedagogy. This project aims to examine how teachers in mainstream middle school classrooms can teach young Indigenous Australians in a culturally sensitive way. The large disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous outcomes at school is an urgent problem. Young people are more likely to attend school, learn and reach their potential when they are taught to belong. Teachers, researchers, Aboriginal Education Officers and Elders will develop an Australian theory for culturally responsive pedagogy that draws on International and Australian Indigenous Studies, pedagogy studies, and empirical work in schools. This project is expected to inform theory, policy and practice in schools and teacher preparation courses.Read moreRead less
Engaging Students during the Early Years of Secondary School. This project aims to design, test and share sustainable strategies to support teachers and enable students from low socioeconomic communities to achieve success. The greatest decreases in students’ interest and effort occur when they transition into secondary school, with students from low socioeconomic communities at greatest risk of disengagement. What can teachers do to engage their students during this key life transition? This pr ....Engaging Students during the Early Years of Secondary School. This project aims to design, test and share sustainable strategies to support teachers and enable students from low socioeconomic communities to achieve success. The greatest decreases in students’ interest and effort occur when they transition into secondary school, with students from low socioeconomic communities at greatest risk of disengagement. What can teachers do to engage their students during this key life transition? This project plans to identify teacher behaviours that motivate students in their first year at secondary school. Using an experimental design with a representative sample of 150 teachers and 1500 students in low socioeconomic areas across three states, the project plans to test whether an online professional learning program for teachers can improve student engagement and achievement. This cost-effective and scalable intervention is designed for widespread dissemination to Australian teachers.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
Punish them or engage them? Identifying and addressing productive and unproductive student behaviours in South Australian schools. This project will provide a contemporary understanding of productive and unproductive student behaviour, which is a key educational concern in Australia. Evidence will be obtained to inform educational decisions to engage and promote positive student behaviour and improve academic achievement.
Keeping the best: how school leaders engage and retain high quality early career teachers. This project will investigate how school leaders use micropolitical strategies to engage and retain high quality early career teachers. It will develop a framework for school leaders to guide policies and practices to keep the best early career teachers in the profession.
Sustaining effective educational initiatives. This project aims to investigate how educational initiatives can be sustained over the long term. Schools and early childhood and care services deliver programmes to develop students' social and emotional wellbeing, promote mental health, prevent bullying and address eating disorders. However, effective initiatives often fade away when start-up resources run out. This project will review models of implementation and provide exemplars of good practice ....Sustaining effective educational initiatives. This project aims to investigate how educational initiatives can be sustained over the long term. Schools and early childhood and care services deliver programmes to develop students' social and emotional wellbeing, promote mental health, prevent bullying and address eating disorders. However, effective initiatives often fade away when start-up resources run out. This project will review models of implementation and provide exemplars of good practice to better enable sustainability at all phases of implementation, evaluation and long-term maintenance of educational initiatives.Read moreRead less
Renewing the teaching profession in regional areas through community partnerships. Schools are at the heart of community, social and economic regeneration in regional areas but teacher shortages and high turnover put quality of learning at risk. Improving teacher quality, attracting new teachers and retaining more experienced teachers will expand learning opportunities for young people in rural and remote areas, and make the region attractive to other workers recruited to bring their families to ....Renewing the teaching profession in regional areas through community partnerships. Schools are at the heart of community, social and economic regeneration in regional areas but teacher shortages and high turnover put quality of learning at risk. Improving teacher quality, attracting new teachers and retaining more experienced teachers will expand learning opportunities for young people in rural and remote areas, and make the region attractive to other workers recruited to bring their families to the area - for mining, industry, service or professional employment. This partnership study will enable policy makers, employers, country community groups and teacher education faculties to be more strategic in working together in providing necessary teaching staff; with potential implications for other professional groups.Read moreRead less
Innovative learning environments and teacher change. This project aims to bridge a gap between the educational potential of innovative learning environment designs, and their actual performance. Currently, multi-modal technology-enabled spaces are not producing demonstrable benefits for students. Many teachers resist altering their mindset about how students learn effectively in these spaces and thus how teachers should teach differently. The project aims to work with schools, government and ind ....Innovative learning environments and teacher change. This project aims to bridge a gap between the educational potential of innovative learning environment designs, and their actual performance. Currently, multi-modal technology-enabled spaces are not producing demonstrable benefits for students. Many teachers resist altering their mindset about how students learn effectively in these spaces and thus how teachers should teach differently. The project aims to work with schools, government and industry to analyse the relationships between quality teaching and effective use of innovative learning environments. The new understanding gained through the project is expected to guide developments in pedagogy, policy and design and to produce strategies to improve learning in schools across Australia and New Zealand.Read moreRead less
Teaching reading in Australia: An historical investigation of early reading pedagogy, the figure of the teacher and literacy education. This project will make a distinctive national and international contribution to reading pedagogy and literacy research by reconceptualising debates about the teacher of reading and establishing an historical foundation for the study of reading pedagogy in teacher education and professional development practices. Teacher education, already a site of national conc ....Teaching reading in Australia: An historical investigation of early reading pedagogy, the figure of the teacher and literacy education. This project will make a distinctive national and international contribution to reading pedagogy and literacy research by reconceptualising debates about the teacher of reading and establishing an historical foundation for the study of reading pedagogy in teacher education and professional development practices. Teacher education, already a site of national concern, will be reinvigorated by new insights and frameworks for training through access by teacher educators to the corpus of data on a website and through publications and conference presentations that will provide a new vision of the complex processes involved in teaching reading.Read moreRead less