Invitation to participate

Invitation to participate for all Department of Education and Training – Victoria primary, secondary and P – 12 schools and principals

The University of Melbourne (led by Emeritus Professor Patrick Griffin), in partnership with the Department (led by Dr Elvira Vacirca, Director of Improvement and Accountability), invite all Victorian Departmental Schools (Primary, Secondary, Colleges and K-12) to participate in the Realising the potential of Australia’s high capacity students (REAP) study.

Background

Research has shown that there is a ‘flat line’ in the achievement levels of high ability students. While their lower ability peers are making rapid gains, the performances of high ability students are not improving at the same rate. The aim of the REAP study is to work with schools to find teaching strategies to address this problem so that all students can improve their achievement levels. The study is jointly funded by the Australian Research Council and the Department of Education and Training Victoria to address specific issues in teaching and learning of reading comprehension, mathematics and problem solving.

Invitation

The University/Department is seeking schools and teachers of students in years 5-8 to participate in the study across one or more research areas – mathematics, reading comprehension and problem solving, based on the subject/s they teach. Each school is expected to have at least four teachers involved in the research, except in the case of smaller schools.

The data will be captured for this study online on a testing platform that includes the Assessment Research Centre Online Testing System (ARCOTS). Participating teachers will have access to the ARCOTS platform through this research. Data collection begins in March 2016.

A certificate of completion will be available to participants who complete all aspects of the study, as an acknowledgement of the contribution made to furthering this work. The certificate could also be used as evidence of professional development to support VIT teacher registration requirements.

Contact

For further information regarding the research, contact Dr Susan-Marie Harding at the University on 9035 8595 or REAP - Research@unimelb.edu.au.

The study also has a Facebook group, to join please go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/REAP.vic/