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
Scholarship in Science Teaching: an examination of the relationships between science content, teaching and learning. Excellent science teachers have profound impact on the students they teach. A central core of their excellence is the intertwined understandings they have of the content they teach and pedagogies for teaching this (termed pedagogical content knowledge). This knowledge is largely implicit, and hence not available to others. This research will develop enhanced methodologies to doc ....Scholarship in Science Teaching: an examination of the relationships between science content, teaching and learning. Excellent science teachers have profound impact on the students they teach. A central core of their excellence is the intertwined understandings they have of the content they teach and pedagogies for teaching this (termed pedagogical content knowledge). This knowledge is largely implicit, and hence not available to others. This research will develop enhanced methodologies to document and disseminate the knowledge of practice that underpins claims of professional excellence. Such research is crucial to the national and international moves to recognise, articulate, document, justify/validate, and share professional teaching excellence.Read moreRead less
Conceptual complexity and student engagement with science in secondary school. Research demonstrates that negative student attitudes to school science are associated with the subject's difficulty and its lack of relevance to real-world experience. However, teachers who link learning to students' experience may exacerbate the difficulty of science, because real-world applications of concepts are complex. This study will initially investigate teachers' perceptions of this dilemma, and then focus ....Conceptual complexity and student engagement with science in secondary school. Research demonstrates that negative student attitudes to school science are associated with the subject's difficulty and its lack of relevance to real-world experience. However, teachers who link learning to students' experience may exacerbate the difficulty of science, because real-world applications of concepts are complex. This study will initially investigate teachers' perceptions of this dilemma, and then focus on two classrooms where teachers acknowledge the complexity involved. Using a novel conceptual framework and an innovative data collection technique the study will explore how the students? experiences of complexity shape their attitudes to science. The findings will help improve student engagement with science.Read moreRead less
The role of representation in learning science. School science is a core area for the future prosperity and health of Australia. Poor student attitudes to science and low involvement in post compulsory science are of national concern. This project, by taking a fresh perspective on key learning issues in middle years science, when student attitudes and future plans are being forged, has the potential to lay the groundwork for more successful learning, increased retention into post compulsory scie ....The role of representation in learning science. School science is a core area for the future prosperity and health of Australia. Poor student attitudes to science and low involvement in post compulsory science are of national concern. This project, by taking a fresh perspective on key learning issues in middle years science, when student attitudes and future plans are being forged, has the potential to lay the groundwork for more successful learning, increased retention into post compulsory science, and enhanced public science literacy. By focusing on effective and innovative pedagogies and assessment strategies the project has the capacity to enhance science students' capacity for innovation, potentially laying the groundwork for increased productivity in the longer term. Read moreRead less
Values in mathematics and science education: mapping the relationships between pedagogical practices and student outcomes. Mathematics and science in schools both involve the teaching of values. Some value outcomes are intended by the teachers and are explicitly taught, particularly in science, while other values are only implicitly present in classroom practices, as is typically the case with mathematics. What is not yet known is what values students learn from different teachers and from their ....Values in mathematics and science education: mapping the relationships between pedagogical practices and student outcomes. Mathematics and science in schools both involve the teaching of values. Some value outcomes are intended by the teachers and are explicitly taught, particularly in science, while other values are only implicitly present in classroom practices, as is typically the case with mathematics. What is not yet known is what values students learn from different teachers and from their practices, and how these learned values impact on student engagement with these subjects. This project will explore the relationships between the values embedded in the pedagogical practices of primary and secondary teachers of mathematics and science, and student values outcomes.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
Learning outcomes in mathematics and science classrooms in Australia, Finland and China: Interrogating the alignment of curriculum, instruction and assessment. Our capacity to promote effective instruction depends upon our ability to recognize and assess useful knowing and to identify the instructional practices through which such knowing is engendered. International achievement tests are impacting educational policy in Australia, with significant attention on top-performing Finland and the cons ....Learning outcomes in mathematics and science classrooms in Australia, Finland and China: Interrogating the alignment of curriculum, instruction and assessment. Our capacity to promote effective instruction depends upon our ability to recognize and assess useful knowing and to identify the instructional practices through which such knowing is engendered. International achievement tests are impacting educational policy in Australia, with significant attention on top-performing Finland and the consistent success of Asian classrooms. Recent research has raised concerns about what forms of knowing (i) find their expression in student test performance, or (ii) remain unrevealed by most available forms of testing (particularly international testing). This project looks closely at classroom practices and learning outcomes in China, Finland and Australia to provide new guidance on these issues.Read moreRead less
ENHANCING SCIENCE LEARNING THROUGH A FOCUS ON MULTIPLE AND MULTI-MODAL REPRESENTATIONS OF CONCEPTS. This project draws on recent theoretical accounts of multiple and multi-modal representations of science understandings to devise, trial and evaluate new approaches to teaching and learning science concepts. These approaches, catering for diverse learning pathways, focus on student understanding that representations of scientific knowledge are multi-modal and interconnected. The project is signifi ....ENHANCING SCIENCE LEARNING THROUGH A FOCUS ON MULTIPLE AND MULTI-MODAL REPRESENTATIONS OF CONCEPTS. This project draws on recent theoretical accounts of multiple and multi-modal representations of science understandings to devise, trial and evaluate new approaches to teaching and learning science concepts. These approaches, catering for diverse learning pathways, focus on student understanding that representations of scientific knowledge are multi-modal and interconnected. The project is significant in providing an innovative way to engage upper primary and junior secondary students in regional and rural Australian contexts in learning science, and is expected to promote more effective learning and more positive student attitudes to the subject.Read moreRead less
Space to Grow: The Faulkes Telescope and improving science engagement in schools. Exceptional opportunities exist to engage, develop and enrich science students and their teachers through access to the cutting-edge Faulkes Telescopes (FTs). The FT South (sited in Australia) is the world's largest dedicated to educational use with Australia enjoying a 15% share as the host country of this exceptional educational initiative. Operated remotely via the internet, the FT provides natural links to ICT, ....Space to Grow: The Faulkes Telescope and improving science engagement in schools. Exceptional opportunities exist to engage, develop and enrich science students and their teachers through access to the cutting-edge Faulkes Telescopes (FTs). The FT South (sited in Australia) is the world's largest dedicated to educational use with Australia enjoying a 15% share as the host country of this exceptional educational initiative. Operated remotely via the internet, the FT provides natural links to ICT, on-line learning, physics, astronomy and mathematics. Given appropriate support, it can play a valuable role in re-engaging students in science and enhancing science education and literacy outcomes in Australian schools over the next 20 years.Read moreRead less
An investigation of causal relations between complex classroom practices and science learning using high capacity new research technologies and multiple theory-testing. The strategic importance of science and the need for high-quality science teaching is being highlighted at national and state levels. A variety of science education initiatives have been funded by government to address this priority. Policy makers and curriculum developers rightly demand that the advocacy of educational innovatio ....An investigation of causal relations between complex classroom practices and science learning using high capacity new research technologies and multiple theory-testing. The strategic importance of science and the need for high-quality science teaching is being highlighted at national and state levels. A variety of science education initiatives have been funded by government to address this priority. Policy makers and curriculum developers rightly demand that the advocacy of educational innovations be supported by empirical evidence, which, to now, has been limited by available research methods. This study exploits recent advances in the sophistication of educational theories, research designs and available technology to generate much more compelling evidence of the effectiveness of specific classroom practices for improving student knowledge and understanding of science.Read moreRead less