Community-Based Research Scheme 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…
Competency Based Assessment Reform in the Republic of Vietnam Project Lead: Dr Cuc Nguyen The Assessment Research Centre has a long and successful partnership, working with the Vietnamese Ministry of Education in Hanoi on a series of large scale reform initiatives. For almost two decades, the Centre has collaborated with Vietnamese counterparts to strengthen the capabilities of educators and researchers in transformative education projects.Largely focussed on building capacity in the development, and subsequent measurement, of standards and achievement, recent…
Competency Based Education Professional Development for Teachers of Primary and Secondary Education (for the Vietnamese Ministry of Education) Dr Cuc Nguyen The Assessment Research Centre (ARC) were contracted to provide professional development workshops for teachers of Primary and Secondary Education in Competency Based Education. ARC held two separate workshops on ‘Understanding CBE’ and ‘Assessing CBE’.The workshops introduced a competency-based approach to teaching/learning and assessment to improve Vietnam’s educational outcomes and to equip the future generation of students with the competencies needed to prosper. This project will…
Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Gender: Mapping of Resource Materials on CSE and Gender Project contact: Prof. Helen Cahill This project included development of evidence informed criteria for mapping and reviewing teaching resources available to assist education systems in the Asia-Pacific region to provide comprehensive sexuality education, and to address the challenges of gender equality, and prevention of gender-based violence. The associated report and recommendations was presented in the context of a three-day regional consultation with Ministry of Education delegates from 12 countries in…
Creating Connections Project contact: Prof. Helen Cahill Creating Connections is a life skills program targeted at adolescents and parents of adolescents.It aims to teach adolescents about sexual and reproductive health and gender rights, and promotes social and emotional skills that can help adolescents to make informed decisions, communicate effectively, look after their own safety and wellbeing, and provide support to peers.It also includes a focus on:violence preventiondrug and alcohol safetyresiliencemental healthpositive copinghelp-seeking.Creating…
Creating Meaningful, Participatory English Language Teaching Pedagogies for Refugee Women and Their Children Dr Julie Choi While government funded adult ESL programs typically, and understandably, approach language and literacy education using functionalist notions of literacy often for employment purposes, such narrowly focused approaches are inappropriate for a majority of refugee women who have very low level language and literacy skills both in English and their native languages. Due to their visa status, living conditions, lack of resources, and other life circumstances,…
Creative Problem Solving (for North Shore Coaching College) Project contact: Dr Zhonghua Zhang This project is undertaken in collaboration with the North Shore Coaching College. A yearly competition is held to test the creative problem-solving skills of students in years 3 to 8 across Australia. Testing is carried out in late October each year and awards are presented to top students in early November. Online testing as well as paper and pencil testing are carried out. Test items…
Creativity, Risk, and Content & Language Integrated Learning A/PROF Russell Cross Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) focuses on the simultaneous teaching of new content and new language, and is now well established as an effective means to not only develop an additional language, but also for its positive contribution to academic achievement and higher order thinking, mother tongue language and literacy, and the development of intercultural competence. Yet teaching content in “a language that students…
Cultivating wellbeing by empowering families: Establishing evidence for and impact of the Now and Next Program Project Lead: Associate Professor Peggy Kern Current policies and programs for disability care often rely on reactive, treatment-based, expert-provided services. Additional benefit may arise from proactive approaches that place parents at the centre of care.The ‘Now and Next’ project is an evidenced-informed program that fosters empowerment, agency, and wellbeing for the family as a whole. Results to date suggest that parent capacity building can successfully be delivered early in a family’s…
Curriculum Policies project Research Assistant: Kate O’Connor In Australia, much of the analysis of curriculum policy has been concerned with particular reports, or with commonwealth developments, or with particular subject areas or the agendas of a single state. This project aims to build a foundation picture of what has been happening across states over the past thirty years: in changes and continuities within as well as between the different states. It is…
Customised Program for Curriculum Leaders from Singapore (for the Ministry of Education, Singapore) Dr Jane Strickland The Ministry of Education, Singapore contacted the Assessment Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne to provide a customised program, known as ‘Overseas Immersion Program for Curriculum Leaders’ focusing on formative assessment.The objectives of the program are to:strengthen school-based assessment practices by focusing on leadership in formative assessment.deepen participants’ knowledge on formative assessment, particularly in the area of using feedback…
DASH! (Dynamic Active Safe Healthy) 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…
Defining the Status of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Young People Project contact: Prof. Johanna Wyn Young people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds represent 25% of all Australian 12-24 year olds. Their specific needs are not addressed by policy or government, and this severely limits their access to opportunities. In collaboration with nine Australian organisations, this project aims to improve the social cohesion of Australian society and the living standards of a significant group of our young people by:…
Designing Australian Schools Project Contact: Professor Julie Willis Designing Australia’s Schools is an historical, cross disciplinary study of innovations in the design of Australian primary and secondary schools across the twentieth century. The project builds upon and integrates the perspectives of educational, social and architectural history to examine innovative school design in relation to developments in government policy, curriculum reform and community expectations.The overarching aims of the project are as follows:to identify the…
Determining implementation drivers in resilience education Project lead: Prof. Helen Cahill An ARC Linkage project was awarded in 2016, to be led by Helen Cahill. This 3-year study aims to investigate how training and school factors influence the uptake, implementation and impact of the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program in the state of Victoria. This education program was developed by Helen Cahill and colleagues for use in Victorian Primary and Secondary schools. The project will…
Developing an ethical framework and web-application to study adolescent wellbeing Dr Gavin Slemp Australian adolescents use social media for 2.7 hours daily on average. Computer science offers tools to gain unique insight into the impact of social media on its users, as it brings the possibility of unobtrusively studying psychological functioning using substantial amounts of online data. However, these methods raise numerous ethical concerns about how such research ought to be conducted, and require very sophisticated computer science…
Developing an ethical framework and web-application to study adolescent wellbeing Project Lead: Dr Gavin Slemp Australian adolescents use social media for 2.7 hours daily on average. Computer science offers tools to gain unique insight into the impact of social media on its users, as it brings the possibility of unobtrusively studying psychological functioning using substantial amounts of online data. However, these methods raise numerous ethical concerns about how such research ought to be conducted, and require very sophisticated computer science…
Developing an instrument for measuring student well-being in schools Dr Tan Chyuan Chin In Australia, 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness and over 75% of these individuals will have their first episode before 25 years of age. Schools are ideally placed to identify and address the mental health needs of young people firstly as most young people attend school and secondly because schools can deliver a whole school approach to well-being without the negative connotations typically attached…
Developing individual Wellbeing and Academic Plan Prof. Lindsay Oades The foundations for this program include the use of wellbeing science, strategic linkages (with BUPA, TCFS staff and University of Melbourne) and ongoing involvement of TCFS students’ in the development, design and delivery of the wellbeing program. The essential proposition is that students can enhance their own personal wellbeing and academic success through the acquisition and application of contemporary knowledge about wellbeing. This goal is…
Discussion Paper – Social Emotional Learning Support for Students in Transition Project Lead: Prof. Helen Cahill The Northern Territory Department of Education commissioned a review of the literature and the fashioning of a teacher-friendly report to guide NT schools in their efforts to strengthen positive school transitions. The report reviewed the research from over 100 articles. It featured consideration of methods to ensure that schools use culturally appropriate, trauma-informed and relationship-centric approaches to supporting transitions for students entering primary, secondary and…
Dream Gap Measurement Tool 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…
E4Kids Project Director: Prof Collette Tayler Effective Early Educational Experiences, or E4Kids, is the most extensive longitudinal study ever conducted into the impact and effectiveness of early childhood education and care in Australia, as well as outcomes for children who do not attend programs.Over five years, we followed almost 2,500 children in Victoria and Queensland, measuring their progress as they participate in childcare, pre-school and family day care programs.Our research examined…
Early Childhood Language and Literacy Practice Project 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).
Early Childhood Learning at the Museum Project Lead: Dr Sarah Young ‘Early Childhood Learning at the Museum’ was a collaboration between REEaCh researchers, and the Education Program Coordinator and program presenters at Museum Victoria, supported by the McCoy Seed Funding Scheme. The project explored language and concepts used in museum programs for young children, and how this learning was embedded in the early childhood curriculum after museum visits. Findings from the project illustrate key elements of…
Early Childhood Learning in Museum Experiences Assoc. Prof. Patricia Eadie Museums provide rich learning environments for all children. With the opening of the Children’s Gallery at Melbourne Museum (MV) there is a unique opportunity for University early childhood education researchers to collaborate with Museum educators to research and evaluate early childhood museum programs, available through incursion (Backyard Bugs) and excursion (Grandad’s Shed) experiences. The research will link the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework…
Early Language in Victoria Study (ELVS) Project Lead: Professor Tricia Eadie This project is led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, and Deakin University. ELVS is a longitudinal epidemiological study of the emerging communication, language and literacy skills of approximately 1800 Victorian children born in 2002. ELVS is internationally unique in its coverage of the pre-school period and in its depth of data from multi-source informant…
Early Learning Teaching Pilot Project Lead: A/Professor Jane Page The REEaCh Centre, in partnership with the Centre for Program Evaluation, have been engaged by the Australian Government’s Department of Education to deliver the Early Learning Teaching Pilot, an initiative under the Commonwealth Closing the Gap Implementation Plan. The pilot will involve the design and implementation, informed by consultation, of an Australian-first new early learning and teaching model in three sites. It will focus on…
Early Learning Teaching Pilot 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…
Early Years Assessment for Learning Tool Project Director: Jayne Johnston Melbourne Assessment, in partnership with the Research in Effective Education in Early Childhood Centre (REEaCh), has worked with the Victorian Government Department of Education and Training to develop and validate an evidence-based tool designed to support all children in funded 3 and 4-year-old kindergarten programs to have the best start in life. The Early Years Assessment and Learning Tool (the Tool) has been developed to…
EDGE - The Educational and Developmental Gains in Early Childhood Study Prof. Patricia Eadie The Educational and Developmental Gains in Early Childhood (EDGE) study is a partnership with The Front Project and the Victorian Department of Education and Training for a five-year evaluation of the state-wide roll-out of Three-Year-Old Kindergarten in Victoria.The University of Melbourne (UoM), in partnership with the Front Project and the Victorian Department of Education and Training, are undertaking a five-year evaluation of the state-wide roll-out…