Special Education, Inclusion and Disability Studies
As outlined on his professional page, Mike's research expertise is in the areas of inclusive education, the development of interpersonal skills and emotional competence, and psychological well-being and adjustment to transitions. His projects often involve the use of questionnaires, and gathered data is often analysed using multivariate analysis and structured equation modelling (SEM). Qualitative data from open ended questions is also often analysed to augment results.
Recent Research Projects
Predicting Academic Achievement: Screening Social and Academic Enablers
In 2007 Mike was invited to be the principal Australian researcher in an external competitive research grant, funded by the Vanderbilt University International Opportunities (US$25 000). The project was led by Professor Stephen Elliott (now the Mikelson Professor of Education, Arizona State University), with Assistant Professor Ryan Kettler (now at Rutgers University), and Professor Patrick Griffin (Director of the Assessment Research Centre and Deputy Dean, University of Melbourne). Their research on social and academic enablers of achievement in NAPLAN was presented at the AERA conference in San Diego in 2008, and was subsequently published (Elliott, Kettler, Davies, & Griffin, 2011), with another article planned.
Mike is a critical research friend to a project in Logan to evaluate social skills development programs for primary students and their impact on NAPLAN achievement results for students in this region.
Current Research Projects
Inclusive Assessment
Currently Mike is researching the gap between espoused policy of inclusion for students with disabilities and a lack of access to NAPLAN assessments. This research has been published in a recent book chapter (Davies & Dempsey, 2011), and two journal articles have been accepted for publication in early 2012 (Davies, 2012) and Elliott, Davies, and Kettler (2012). With Professor Elliott of Arizona State University, he is guest co-editor of a special March 2012 issue on 'Inclusive Assessment and Accountability: Policy to Evidenced-Based Practices' for the International Journal of Disability, Development and Education. An application for a grant for further research aims to demonstrate the application of a range of cutting edge US practices that can be applied to the NAPLAN testing regime.
Stress and Parents of Young Children with Autism
Mike is also researching stress and adjustment of parents of young people with disabilities, especially autism. He has published on article on parental stress when young adults transition to post-school options (Davies & Beamish, 2009). He is currently leading a team of researchers investigating well-being and burden, and coping of families with young children with autism attending an early intervention service (to be presented at the Asia Pacific Autism Conference, 2011). The next phase of the research will focus on the experience of fathers of young children with autism.