Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354538
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$30,000.00
Summary
Enabling Sciences Education (EnSE) Research Network. The Network aims to ensure the long-term ability of Australians to excel in scientific and technological innovation at all levels of community activity. This will be achieved by establishing significant and ambitious research agendas for improving the teaching and learning of Mathematics, Science and Technology in primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors. Of significance will be the productive synergies flowing from uniting, across ....Enabling Sciences Education (EnSE) Research Network. The Network aims to ensure the long-term ability of Australians to excel in scientific and technological innovation at all levels of community activity. This will be achieved by establishing significant and ambitious research agendas for improving the teaching and learning of Mathematics, Science and Technology in primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors. Of significance will be the productive synergies flowing from uniting, across the three disciplines, Australia's most outstanding, experienced and dedicated researchers with new and mid-career colleagues. Expected outcomes include a diverse but cohesive and collaborative research community that provides international leadership in helping students achieve their full potential. Read moreRead less
Discipline and Diversity: Cultural Practices and Dispositions of Learning. This project, based in six primary schools across a number of regions in the Sydney metropolitan area, will examine the links between ethnicity, sociocultural background and 'scholarly habitus' - the embodied dispositions and educational capital necessary for participation in the Australian educational system. It will explore the extent to which such a habitus can be explained by ethnicity, or whether it also relates to a ....Discipline and Diversity: Cultural Practices and Dispositions of Learning. This project, based in six primary schools across a number of regions in the Sydney metropolitan area, will examine the links between ethnicity, sociocultural background and 'scholarly habitus' - the embodied dispositions and educational capital necessary for participation in the Australian educational system. It will explore the extent to which such a habitus can be explained by ethnicity, or whether it also relates to a complex set of factors related to family background and socioeconomic status, manifest in specific home- and school-based practices.Read moreRead less
Facilitating children's transition to school within families with complex support needs. This project aligns with National Research Priority 2: Promoting and Maintaining Good Health. Specifically, it links with the Priority Goals of promoting A healthy start to life and Strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric. A positive start to school promotes future academic and social success, as well as promoting general health and well-being. School failure and lack of engagement with school i ....Facilitating children's transition to school within families with complex support needs. This project aligns with National Research Priority 2: Promoting and Maintaining Good Health. Specifically, it links with the Priority Goals of promoting A healthy start to life and Strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric. A positive start to school promotes future academic and social success, as well as promoting general health and well-being. School failure and lack of engagement with school is related to poor long term outcomes and increased social and economic dependency. The project also relates to the key action areas identified in the National Agenda for Early Childhood and the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy.Read moreRead less
Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI0882815
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$105,000.00
Summary
Conditions for Success to Enhance Aboriginal Education. Aboriginal students remain the most educationally disadvantaged Australians. This research will elucidate the conditions for success in classrooms, schools, and Aboriginal communities that empower primary Aboriginal students to achieve their potential. The outcomes of this research have the potential to 'break the cycle' of underachievement by generating new solutions to: strengthen schooling; shape a better future for Aboriginal students b ....Conditions for Success to Enhance Aboriginal Education. Aboriginal students remain the most educationally disadvantaged Australians. This research will elucidate the conditions for success in classrooms, schools, and Aboriginal communities that empower primary Aboriginal students to achieve their potential. The outcomes of this research have the potential to 'break the cycle' of underachievement by generating new solutions to: strengthen schooling; shape a better future for Aboriginal students by enabling students to reach their potential; build capacity at community, school, classroom, and individual levels; and providing educators with effective strategies that are salient to Aboriginal children for doing so.Read moreRead less
Challenging Pedagogies: Engaging ESL students in intellectual quality. This project will investigate the potential and meaning of intellectual challenge in the enacted curriculum of middle year classes with signficant numbers of English as a second language (ESL) students. It will build on outcomes of our previous research on scaffolding and on productive pedagogies to articulate the nature of linguistic and conceptual support necessary for ESL students to engage successfully with high challeng ....Challenging Pedagogies: Engaging ESL students in intellectual quality. This project will investigate the potential and meaning of intellectual challenge in the enacted curriculum of middle year classes with signficant numbers of English as a second language (ESL) students. It will build on outcomes of our previous research on scaffolding and on productive pedagogies to articulate the nature of linguistic and conceptual support necessary for ESL students to engage successfully with high challenge tasks. In doing so, it will address the priority area of quality teaching in public schools from a classroom prespective and from the perspective of ESL students. The project has implications for teacher education and professional development.Read moreRead less
Researching the design and implementation of systemic, sustainable, school-based teacher professional development in K-6 Science and Technology using e-learning approaches. Effective, sustainable teacher professional development is a critical issue for large operationally diverse, geographically dispersed education systems. Yet, research into designing professional development, particularly ICT-mediated (e-learning) approaches, is sparse. This project uses an innovative e-learning environment ( ....Researching the design and implementation of systemic, sustainable, school-based teacher professional development in K-6 Science and Technology using e-learning approaches. Effective, sustainable teacher professional development is a critical issue for large operationally diverse, geographically dispersed education systems. Yet, research into designing professional development, particularly ICT-mediated (e-learning) approaches, is sparse. This project uses an innovative e-learning environment (developed by the CI and previously used for initial teacher education and developing school student learning), as a research tool for eliciting and operationalising teachers' e-learning-based professional development designs, in K-6 Science and Technology. It will deliver a model of teacher self-renewal, of wide theoretical and practical value, developing new understandings and strategies of professional development, and insights into the potential of new technologies.Read moreRead less
Mathematics in the digital age: Reframing learning opportunities for disadvantaged Indigenous and rural students. This project offers considerable scope for revisioning mathematics curriculum for our most disadvantaged students, as they come to terms with learning in a digital age. Moreover, it will provide opportunities for Indigenous students, and other disadvantaged cohorts, to have improved access to digital technologies that have the potential to enhance their mathematical understandings. T ....Mathematics in the digital age: Reframing learning opportunities for disadvantaged Indigenous and rural students. This project offers considerable scope for revisioning mathematics curriculum for our most disadvantaged students, as they come to terms with learning in a digital age. Moreover, it will provide opportunities for Indigenous students, and other disadvantaged cohorts, to have improved access to digital technologies that have the potential to enhance their mathematical understandings. The project will inform policy makers about the economic viability of investing in digital resources that have the potential to enhance mathematics outcomes, and thus contribute to the national endeavour of reducing the gap between these disadvantaged cohorts and other children across Australia.Read moreRead less
School-University e-Learning research partnerships for scaling up innovation. Despite optimism about new technologies for learning, e-learning innovation has been slow to scale up. This project tests a novel research strategy for engaging schools sustainably with e-learning. Teams of students (school and university), teachers (including beginning teachers), community members, consultants and e-learning researchers are constituted, in schools, to identify, collaboratively, hard-to-learn (technolo ....School-University e-Learning research partnerships for scaling up innovation. Despite optimism about new technologies for learning, e-learning innovation has been slow to scale up. This project tests a novel research strategy for engaging schools sustainably with e-learning. Teams of students (school and university), teachers (including beginning teachers), community members, consultants and e-learning researchers are constituted, in schools, to identify, collaboratively, hard-to-learn (technology-and-science) concepts and effective teaching approaches, develop ways of exploiting new media to teach such concepts and scale up their solutions within and beyond their schools. Re-conceiving the problem so students and teachers gain equity as e-learning researchers yields a model for scholarly, future-oriented educational renewal.Read moreRead less
The influence of evidence-based decisions by collaborative teacher teams on student achievement. National testing and concerns about literacy and numeracy skills as enabling competencies for learning have had a central focus for decades. Recent studies by Griffin and Care have established large gains in student reading comprehension in an uncontrolled study of years 3 to 6 in primary schools. This study seeks to determine if the process can be manipulated, scaled up and applied in a sustainable ....The influence of evidence-based decisions by collaborative teacher teams on student achievement. National testing and concerns about literacy and numeracy skills as enabling competencies for learning have had a central focus for decades. Recent studies by Griffin and Care have established large gains in student reading comprehension in an uncontrolled study of years 3 to 6 in primary schools. This study seeks to determine if the process can be manipulated, scaled up and applied in a sustainable manner across a larger number of year levels, systems of education, and subject areas.Read moreRead less
Systemic Implications of Pedagogy and Achievement in NSW Public Schools. The NSW Department of Education and Training, in consultation with the Chief Investigators, recently developed an innovative model of pedagogy, as part of a major effort to raise the standard of teaching practice in NSW government schools. This project is designed to provide vital information for the Department, by examining the relationships between professional development, pedagogy, and student outcomes, and to make sig ....Systemic Implications of Pedagogy and Achievement in NSW Public Schools. The NSW Department of Education and Training, in consultation with the Chief Investigators, recently developed an innovative model of pedagogy, as part of a major effort to raise the standard of teaching practice in NSW government schools. This project is designed to provide vital information for the Department, by examining the relationships between professional development, pedagogy, and student outcomes, and to make significant contributions to educational research on these central educational phenomena. Combining research with the resources of the NSW DET in a large longitudinal study, the project can make a major impact on schooling, school reform and educational research.Read moreRead less