Our current 2012 projects include:
Serious Play: Using digital games in school to promote literacy and learning in the twenty first century
Digital games have an enormous impact on the lives of children but their potential to improve learning in schools has not yet been realized. This project focuses on literacy, learning and teaching in the digital age in the games-based classroom.
- Professor Catherine Beavis, Dr Sarah Prestridge, Dr Leonie Rowan, Professor Claire Wyatt-Smith, Dr Jason Zagami
Enhancing practice-based learning experiences: towards a curriculum, pedagogy and epistemology of practice
Focussing on healthcare work, this ARC Futures Fellowship project seeks to maximise and improve learning experiences in workplaces and integrate them effectively into educational programs to improve occupational competence.
Using professional standards: Assessing work integrated learning in initial teacher education
This ALTC Research project draws on recent literature that highlights the importance of professional standards and of developing effective strategies for school-based professional preparations of teachers. It is specifically focused on professional learning and assessment practices in the WIL component of teacher preparation.
Improving disadvantaged students? Reading outcomes through overcoming reading avoidance and building reading engagement
This ARC Discovery project aims to produce new conceptual and empirical knowledge to inform the development of effective teaching practices to promote reading engagement for disadvantaged students.
Expansion of Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities (PALLIC)
This Government-funded DET project aims to develop the capabilities of Principals to lead literacy learning in their schools and to develop their knowledge and understanding of literacy in order to do so.
An Investigation of School and Teacher Use of National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) for Student Learning Improvement
Clearing the path towards literacy and numeracy: Language for learning in Indigenous schooling
The Australian and State Governments are committed to halving the gap between Indigenous and other Australians, notably in education outcomes. This project will provide a platform for a better understanding of how language is used in Indigenous classrooms, and set foundations for improving practices for teaching these students, in particular for literacy and numeracy. The project will investigate how children's language use differs from Standard Australian English. Where teachers are aware of such differences, and adapt their classroom communication styles, greater engagement from children can be expected. This will ultimately lead to improved retention rates and learning outcomes, giving Indigenous students a better start to life.
Gender Injustice, cultural diversity and social change: Productive strategies for schools
What makes for successful numeracy education in remote Indigenous contexts: A grounded approach
Developing refugee resilience and effective settlement through drama-based intervention
The Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants in Australia (LSIA) indicates that recent outcomes for Humanitarian entrants have deteriorated across a range of social and economic indicators (DIAC, 2009). Refugees are experiencing lower levels of employment, workforce participation rates, levels of income, and increased health problems (DIAC, 2009). The Chief Investigators intend to address this problem by implementing drama education programs to support refugees in developing resilience. The significance of this research will develop new knowledge in the refugee and drama education field, create innovative interdisciplinary applied projects in partnership with community stakeholders, and construct a creative framework for policy consultation.
- Professor Michael Balfour, Professor Bruce Burton, Professor Keithia Wilson, Associate Professor Penny Bundy, Associate Professor Julie Dunn, Dr Merrelyn Bates
Playful Engagement and Dementia: understanding the efficacy of applied theatre practices for people with dementia in residential aged care facilities
- Professor Michael Balfour, Professor Wendy Moyle, Professor Marie Cooke, Associate Professor Julie Dunn
Change, work and learning: Aligning continuing tertiary education and training
- Professor Stephen Billett, Professor Amanda Henderson, Dr Fred Beven, Dr Sarojni Choy, Dr Darryl Dymock, Dr Ann Kelly, Dr Ian James, Raymond Smith, Jason Lewis
Social and geographical backgrounds: Implications for mathematics teaching and learning
Australians and Americans Talking: Culture, Interaction and Communication Style
The difficult return: arts-based approaches to mental health literacy and building resilience with returned military personnel and their families
Captive audiences: The impact of performing arts programs in Australian prisons
The project Captive Audiences examines performing arts programs in Australian prisons in regard to the impact
they have on the wellbeing of prisoners and their lives after imprisonment. The outcomes of the research will assist with the development, implementation and evaluation of future performing arts programs in Australian prisons.
Both Smart and Healthy: Learning Communities as a Settings-based Approaches to Health Promotion
This project will use a collaborative learning model to build health promotion capacity. The project brings together two innovative approaches to develop new knowledge about how setting-based approaches to health care can be implemented in future. This approach could potentially address chronic disease at a national and international level by promoting healthy communities that can effectively manage chronic disease through collaborative learning and knowledge-building. The project represents an important collaboration between a university and its community with a view to improving health capacity.
- Professor Elizabeth Kendall, Associate Professor Heidi Muenchberger, Dr Naomi Sunderland, Professor Parlo Singh
Smart Education Partnerships: Testing a Research Collaboration Model to Build Literacy Innovations in Low Socio Economic Schools
The social and economic benefits of success at school are felt at individual, local and the national levels. Literacy is a significant factor in school success. This project will build and test a model of school improvement that will develop increased capacity for effective literacy teaching, and will address significant issues of equity in the provision of high quality schooling for Australian students from diverse cultural, linguistic and/or socio-economic backgrounds. The project has both local benefit, addressing needs in some of Queensland's most challenged schools, and will inform policy for school change in many of Australia's socially disadvantaged communities.