Projects

The Access for All training program aims to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of mainstream health services for people with disability by raising awareness of disability and access needs among healthcare providers. The training is available online and is available to all mainstream health providers (such as GPs and dentists) and can be completed by both practitioners and administrative staff/management. The training is funded by…

The Assessment and Evaluation Research Centre (AERC) is currently addressing the need to train teachers in assessment theory and practice, to strengthen assessment in schools. There is a growing interest in assessment literacy, however there is currently a lack of resources and training available that can meet the needs of schools. The AERC designed a suite of nanoMOOC’s in assessment literacy – a series of…

This is a three-year process and impact evaluation of 10 creative arts and wellbeing projects funded by VicHealth under their Arts Strategy.

A partnership between the University of Melbourne and the University of the Philippines supported by the Australian Government

The Assessment Curriculum and Technology Research Centre (ACTRC) is a research partnership between the University of Philippines and the Assessment Evaluation Research Centre (AERC) at the University of Melbourne, established in 2013 with support from the Australian aid program.

ACTRC undertakes empirical research and provides policy advice to the…

Project Lead: Professor Field Rickards

The Assessment Research Centre, together with the University of the Philippines, has established the Assessment Curriculum and Technology Research Centre (ACTRC) as a joint research centre based in Quezon City, Philippines. Supported by the Australian Government, the ACTRC advises and informs an ambitious reform of the Philippine system of education through innovative curriculum, assessment and technology research and implementation.

The ACTRC plays an important transformative and…

Blue EDGE is a program run by Blue Light Victoria that aims to build positive relationships between young people, their peers, and police, providing young people with tools to make healthy, safe decisions now and into the future. It is a twice weekly program run at selected Victorian high schools over eight weeks (one school term) for participating students. The AERC has been engaged by…

MASS (Mansfield Autism Statewide Service)

The purpose of this project was to develop a program logic and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework for the Mansfield Autism Practitioners (MAP) service. The MAP service provides home based practical support to families living with autism. Mansfield Autism Practitioners (MAPs) are available at times when families need support most, working outside of school hours to deliver support at key times…

DASH (Dynamic, Active, Safe, Healthy) is a new in-school, whole-class program being piloted by Blue Light Victoria in rural Victoria for primary school students in Years 5 and 6. DASH aims to increase the wellbeing of students and improve their community connectedness. It involves eight 90-minute sessions delivered weekly over a school term by a trained Blue Light Victoria facilitator, plus an online session for…

The AERC has been contracted by Mattel to explore the feasibility of developing a measurement tool for monitoring the development of STEM identity in children aged 4 – 6 years old. The tool will define and conceptualise the stages of development of a positive STEM identity in the development of children aged 4 to 6, including with specific attention paid to how this development interacts…

At the end of 2022 the AERC was the successful bidder, engaged by AERO to develop and validate the rubric-based tool for early learning educators and teachers that measures their use of evidence-based practice in the area of early childhood language and literacy practice (ECLLP).

The three year process and impact evaluation of the Early Learning Teaching Pilot (ELTP) commenced in 2021, whereby the Australian Government’s Department of Education (DoE) engaged the Research in Effective Education in Early Childhood (REEaCH) and the Centre for Program Evaluation (CPE) to design, deliver and evaluate a new early learning teaching model that strengthens children’s literacy and numeracy learning in early child education and…

The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority have engaged AERC to conduct a 2 year evaluation of the Queensland Certificate of Education.

Introduced in 2019, the new QCE system aims to deliver high quality senior secondary curriculum and assessment that prepares students for a range ofpost-school pathways.

The University of Melbourne is evaluating…

In 2022, AERC (formerly the Centre for Program Evaluation) and the Centre for Healthy Policy were the successful bidders for the evaluation of the VicHealth Local Government Partnership Initiative. This project entails a three-year process and impact evaluation focussing on a place-based initiative to engage young people in the development of municipal health and wellbeing plans, along with supporting councils to adopt a systems-thinking lens…

This is a research partnership with MCRI, LeapEd Services, UNICEF and Ministry of Health Education in Malaysia to build an implementation guide, training program and monitoring systems for implementing the global standards for health promoting schools.

Funded by the Department of Education the AERC has been commissioned to validate and update current MOI and FDOI assessment tools to ensure valid assessment judgements.

The Melbourne Dental School (MDS) is currently undertaking a curriculum and assessment review of the dentistry and oral health courses. This project provides technical expertise to MDS to support the development of construct maps that describe increasing levels of competence of MDS students as they move from novices up to the attainment of the Professional Competencies of the Newly Qualified Dentist and the Professional Competencies…

Co-Project Lead: Pam Robertson

Assessment nanoMOOCs have been designed for busy teachers to build competence in classroom assessment. The nanoMOOCs were developed based on assessment research and practical experience with teachers to engage participants in actionable learning. The nanoMOOCs are innovative, asynchronous and fully online. The nanoMOOCs are presented within courses, each of which addresses a problem of practice. One nanoMOOC takes 45 to 60 minutes to complete. Completion…

The Ngarrngga Project Team has approached the AERC to conduct a Needs Assessment of Indigenous Knowledges in the Early Learning sector, specifically the staff employed by the Early Childhood Management Services (ECMS).

The Needs Assessment aims to investigate the current level of knowledge and attitudes towards embedding Indigenous Knowledges, languages and cultures in early childhood education in order to detail the professional learning needs of these…

Evaluation Lead: Allison Clarke

Ngarrngga is an exciting, nation-building project led by First Nations educators. It is supported by the University of Melbourne and is also proudly supported by BHP.

Ngarrngga is a Taungurung word meaning to know, to hear, to understand. The Ngarrngga vision is for all Australian students to have the opportunity to deeply connect with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems, histories and cultures.

To achieve that,…

First Nations in Education (FNE) is a compulsory subject (EDUC91047) within MGSE’s Master of Teaching. It was first offered in 2022. AERC was commissioned to undertake a two-year evaluation of the effectiveness of this subject. In 2022 we utilised a two-phase approach to the evaluation. In Phase one, the team designed, implemented, and analysed a mid-subject survey (MSS) for first-cohort students. In Phase 2 we…

Evaluation of oral language literacy intervention with primary schools and kindergartens in Mornington Peninsula.

Project Lead: Dr Pam Robertson

The Assessment Research Centre (ARC) has been commissioned by the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) to refine, field test and validate three of their tools:

We will examine the extent…

The AERC was commissioned by Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) to refine, field test and conduct a validation of three tools developed by AERO. The tools are a survey of evidence use and evidence-based practice, formative assessment rubrics and explicit instruction rubrics.

The validation of the tools will examine the extent to which each tool is an adequate and appropriate measure for the three purposes intended…