Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Research Publications

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    Inclusion of LGBTIQ-parented Children in Early Childhood Settings: What Are the Lessons from the Literature?
    Liang, Xinyun ( 2018)
    The recent social and legislative understanding of diverse families has extended to include those headed by people of diverse gender and sexuality, but children and their lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) parents are still experiencing stigma and not adequately catered for in early childhood education and care (ECEC). This paucity motivated the current study to explore factors influencing the ways that LGBTIQ-parented families are catered for in ECEC settings. Using an ecological model initially proposed by Bronfenbrenner as a conceptual framework, this study systematically reviewed contemporary scholarly discourse relating to the experiences of LGBTIQ-parented families when using ECEC services (2013 – 2018). A hypothesised ecological model for inclusion was developed based on preliminary reading and refined after a thorough assessment of twenty-three contemporary scholarly articles that focused exclusively on the ECEC context (birth to 5). By doing so, this review presented a synthesis of existing knowledge to identify stakeholders who should be influenced in making ECEC programs accountable for LGBTIQ-parented children. Despite some progress in this field of study, considerable gaps remain in current understanding. Missing or limited research areas are discussed to imply future research needs.
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    ePoster Mathematics and assessment in early childhood education
    Pollitt, R ( 2017)
    https://vimeo.com/230711323/44d98316b5
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    Spatial reasoning and mathematics in early childhood education
    Seah, W ; Pollitt, R ; Cohrssen, C (Early Childhood Australia Inc, 2017)
    Spatial reasoning is a set of cognitive functions, processes and skills that enable us to understand and describe representations and spatial relationships between objects, ourselves and our environment—it is a life skill. Spatial reasoning is at the core of mathematical thinking. There are three key areas of spatial reasoning associated with mathematics ability in early childhood: perspective taking, mental rotation and spatial visualisation.
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    Positive early childhood education: Expanding the reach of positive psychology into early childhood
    Baker, L ; Green, S ; Falecki, D (National Wellbeing Service, 2017)
    There are inherent links between early childhood educational theory and practice and the science of positive psychology. Opportunities exist for the implementation of positive psychology interventions and the harnessing of synergies between early childhood services and global pedagogies (such as the Reggio Emilia approach and Nature pedagogy), yet they currently lack articulation, connection and application. Early childhood history, theory and practice recognise child wellbeing as complementary to education and both educator and child wellbeing are critical for the delivery of quality early childhood education services. Globally there exists regulation, pedagogy, standards and learning and development frameworks that mandate a focus on wellbeing but provide the profession with little to no tools, training or interventions in the science of wellbeing. Future directions for research into the rich connectivity of positive psychology and early childhood education are called for. Identification, design and implementation of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) along with training of educators and educational leaders in the science of wellbeing (for themselves and their students) is timely and required.
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    What Videogames have to Teach Us (Still) about Subject English
    Bacalja, A (Australian Association for the Teaching of English, 2018)
    This paper reports on a participatory action research project which used videogames as the central texts for play and study in a middle-years English classroom in Australia. Ongoing questions about the nature of subject English have often focused on the discipline's ability to accommodate twenty-first century literacies. Videogames, as increasingly popular and digital forms of texts, are often praised for their ability to engage students (Gee, 2003), yet less is understood about the pedagogies necessary to enable the rigorous study of these texts in classroom contexts. This study found while that existing conceptual and pedagogic models of subject English can be adopted and adapted to suit the unique affordances of this text type, issues associated with play and interactivity complicate the use of videogames in the classroom. It offers a new contribution to the evolving field of study associated with games as texts (Beavis, Dezuanni, and O'Mara, 2017). The study has implications for those seeking to engage more closely with students' textual worlds but unsure of how to negotiate videogames' intrinsic textual features
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    What critical literacy has to offer the study of video games
    Bacalja, A (AUSTRALIAN LITERACY EDUCATORS ASSOC, 2018-10-01)
    Through the proliferation of digital technologies and the increasing accessibility of video games, young people are engaging with these texts today, more than ever. However, there is a growing concern regarding what exactly young people are taking away from these textual experiences. This paper responds to the call made by Comber (1993), to document multiple cases of critical literacies developed in different contexts. It reports findings from a study which used video games as the focus texts in a middle-years English classroom in Melbourne, Australia. It found that critical literacy pedagogies could be effectively used to build new understandings with this everyday text-type.
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    Teaching Mathematics through Problem Solving
    Stacey, K (Sociedad Canaria Isaac Newton de Profesores de Matemáticas, 2018)
    This paper offers two ways to combine the teaching of mathematics and problem solving: teaching mathematics to solve problems or teaching mathematics through problem solving. By means of examples of activities, teaching through problem solving is proposed.
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    Science and Mathematics Literacy: PISA for Better School Education
    She, HC ; Stacey, K ; Schmidt, WH (SPRINGER, 2018-08-01)
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    Enlivening STEM education through school-community partnerships
    Tytler, R ; Symington, D ; Williams, G ; White, P ; Jorgensen, R ; Larkin, K (Springer Singapore, 2017-08-09)
    A major response to the growing concern with diminishing engagement and participation of students in STEM pathways, in Australia and internationally, has been the involvement of the STEM community in school outreach activities. In Australia there has been a proliferation of links between scientists and schools, with the aim of engaging students in authentic activities and providing models of what STEM work pathways might entail. This chapter will draw on a series of projects studying partnerships between the professional science/mathematics communities and schools, to explore a range of partnership models, the experience and outcomes for students and teachers, and challenges for crossing the boundary between school and STEM professional communities. Such school/STEM community partnerships are particularly suited to studies related to environmental and sustainability issues, a focus explored in the chapter. Further, we will draw on a recent evaluation of the Australia-wide, CSIRO-led Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools (SMiS) program. That study provided insight into the use and outcomes of the SMiS model. We will explore some of the challenges of working across the school-STEM professional practice boundary, implications for curriculum, and differences in partnerships for mathematics compared to science.
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    Topic Study Group No. 27: Learning and Cognition in Mathematics
    Williams, G ; Van Dooren, W ; Dartnell, P ; Lindmeier, A ; Proulx, J (Springer International Publishing, 2017)