Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemPencil or Keyboard? Boys’ Preferences in Writing(Nova Southeastern University, 2020)Handwriting is an important subject in primary schools, especially in the Early Years. The importance of writing skill is now seen as a debate with the increasing demand on children to learn technology skills to help them with 21st Century learning—how to write on the keyboard effectively. The topic is important because handwriting is an essential life skill to have with or without technology. In this study, I looked at the importance of both in the context of the qualitative case studies in three schools in Melbourne, Australia. The aim of the research is to explore how do students understand the learning of handwriting and keyboarding in schools? This qualitative case study employed a Thematic Analysis approach in which the central intention was to understand the lived experience of six Year 6 boys across three schools and their attitudes to writing and technology. In this article, I addressed the importance of teaching handwriting to primary school students, especially in the first four years of their school life from Foundation to Year 3. The findings suggest that teachers should continue explicitly teaching handwriting to their students despite the heavy reliance on technology in today’s lifestyle.
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ItemTracking creativity in Arts and Music: A document analysis of national educational goals and curriculum in Victoria(International Society of Music Education (ISME), 2020)An analysis of national educational goals and curriculum documents played an important role in my doctoral study in Victoria, Australia. The study was a mixed methods investigation into teaching for creativity and creative processes for music educators in primary schools. The analysis aimed to explore the place of creativity from an educational goal and curriculum perspective. Documents from a forty-year period were investigated qualitatively to seek the portrayal and contextual meanings of the word “creativity”. The paper is presented in two parts: the influence of three national declarations of educational goals on the changing place of creativity in contemporaneous curriculum, and creativity as communicated to teachers in curriculum documents in Arts and Music. The purpose of the document analysis was to gain a detailed view of creativity within the two specifically selected document types. In doing so, it informed the development of the survey instrument of the study and was distilled to form an adjunct to the literature review. The document analysis showed variation and similarity between historic and recent contexts of creativity in Arts and Music curriculum. The place of creativity in the Music curriculum in Victoria shows a sense of continuity through different iterations of curriculum. Yet, despite this, there are clear shifts in the language that describes or implies creativity in Arts and Music curriculum. Ultimately, the document analysis presented a glocalised and historic perspective of educational goals and curriculum in Victoria and has the capacity to inform future research and teacher practice in creativity and education.
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ItemOnline Citizenship Learning of Chinese Young People(Springer, 2020-01-01)This chapter examines Chinese young people’s citizenship learning through their participatory activities on the Internet. The discussions presented in this chapter are informed by recent developments in citizenship studies which maintain that citizenship learning is a lifelong process of participation in different formal and informal communities and practices (Biesta et al. 2009) and in the meaning-making activities reflected in various forms of social participation (Hoskins et al. 2012). Two intertwined forms of citizenship learning were identified from Chinese young people’s online activities. The first is young people’s learning about online citizenships through engaging with different virtual communities. Their learning of online citizenships is illustrated by their understanding of the norms and communal practices shaped by the shared language, values, attitudes, and joint enterprises for mutual engagement in these virtual communities. The second is their internet-mediated learning about Chinese society. The Chinese internet, in this case, offers a new way of engaging with and learning about Chinese society. The outcome of these two forms of learning constitutes the landscape of practice upon which their notion of Chinese citizenship is drawn. This chapter draws attention to the digital and constitutive nature of young people’s social engagement in defining new forms of citizenship which are meaningful and relevant to their everyday lives (Lister, 2007; Wood, 2014).
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ItemScicurious as method: Learning from GLAM young people living in a pandemic about cultivating digital co-research-creation spaces that ignite curiosity and creativity(Bristol University Press, 2020-10-23)Could COVID-19, this unexpected crisis, act as a comma in a co-research-creation project to become a breathing space and not a full stop? Maybe this pause is a colon: the two different periods of the project (and life in general) on either side of the pandemic, equally important and dependent on each other for full meaning. In this chapter, we tell the story of how a co-research-creation event (the Sci Curious Project) unfolded before and during the COVID-19 pandemic; the lead-up to its irruption (St. Pierre, 1997) and then what came after. ‘Scicurious as method’ emerged out of the unexpected pause and recalibration of the project; a method that emphasizes the creation of research spaces that activate scicuriosity in situated practice. We understand scicuriosity as emerging from collaborative research-creation events that ignite curiosity and creativity. Scicurious as method is presented through an encounter with speculative fiction and scicurious zine travels. Scicurious as method has significant ethical implications, these reify the potential of co-designed speculative inquiries with creativity and curiosity at their heart. This is, in part, due to its contingency on cultivating digital co-research-creation spaces that enfold rather than eschew the analogue and highlight the joyous potential of a deeply situated, co-designed speculative inquiry; an inquiry with galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) young people living in a pandemic.
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ItemExploring self-concept, wellbeing and distress in therapeutic songwriting participants following acquired brain injury: A case series analysis(Taylor & Francis, 2020-02-07)Acquired brain injury (ABI) presents a significant threat to sense of self and necessitates a complex process of psychosocial adjustment. Self-concept changes remain understudied in the early stages of inpatient rehabilitation. The aim of the current study was to examine changes in self-concept, distress, wellbeing and functional skills for five inpatients undertaking a music therapy intervention within a subacute rehabilitation centre in Victoria, Australia. Participants completed a six-week, 12-session therapeutic songwriting programme to produce past-, current- and future-self-focused songs. A range of self-concept, subjective wellbeing and distress measures were completed pre-, mid- and post-intervention. A descriptive case series approach was applied to determine trends in pre-post scores for five individual cases. Participants showing the greatest gains across self-concept and subjective wellbeing indices also showed the greatest functional gains on the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) from admission to discharge. The current study highlights the importance of examining early changes in self-concept, wellbeing and distress in subacute rehabilitation, and suggests that individualised songwriting programmes warrant further research attention in neurological populations.
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ItemGirls as leaders in STEM: The impact of industry relationships(Association of Women Educators (AWE), 2020-12)Coral Campbell, Linda Hobbs, Lihua Xu, Jorja MacKinnon and Chris Speldewinde are Science and STEM education researchers at Deakin University. They are a vibrant team who work across a range of science and STEM education programs and projects with teachers and schools to build knowledge and understandings in science and STEM.
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ItemAssessing spatial reasoning during play: educator observations, assessment and curriculum planning(Springer, 2020-06-12)Children are innately mathematical and explore mathematical concepts through play. However, educator beliefs about mathematics can impact the inclusion of mathematics in early childhood education (ECE). Recent research has suggested that spatial reasoning is a key concept which forms the foundations of mathematics learning. The theoretical argument underpinning this research is that young children benefit from intentional teaching specifically focused on supporting the development of children’s spatial reasoning skills during play. This mixed-methods research project investigated the effects of the implementation of a suite of play-based, spatial reasoning activities on educators’ teaching practices—including observations, assessment and evidence-based planning—and educator beliefs about mathematics in ECE. Twenty-seven participants were educators from 15 early childhood centres for children age 3–5 years, based within culturally and socio-economically diverse populations. Participant qualifications included diplomas, graduate and postgraduate degrees in early childhood and primary education, with teaching experience ranging from 6 months to 35 years. The investigations found reciprocal influences between the three key areas of the research project which included: the implementation of the activities by educators, educator beliefs about mathematics, spatial reasoning and mathematics teaching practice. The findings have implications for further research and curriculum design and practice. These include the need for research methodologies which contribute to sustained professional learning outcomes and the uptake of research findings in practice, play-based spatial reasoning assessment strategies and the contribution of a focus on spatial reasoning to early childhood curricula.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableMuslim cosmopolitanisms in a transnational world: implications for the education of Muslims(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2020-01-02)In a transnational world, Muslim cosmopolitanisms are both numerous and diverse. These cosmopolitanisms constitute a broad spectrum of views and practices, representing a range of interpretations and expressions of Islam, some of which are polarized and polarizing. In this reflective, theoretical paper, I discuss the potential implications of Muslim cosmopolitanisms for the education of Muslims in a transnational world and argue that the teachings of Islam are sufficiently open to interpretation to support various Muslim cosmopolitanisms. While resistance to change has typified the education of Muslims historically in many parts of the world, this resistance is being challenged in new ways, characteristic of the Information Age, wherein near-instantaneous, transnational exchanges of information and ideas are democratizing and adding complexity to Islamic hermeneutics and praxis. In this context, I contend that Muslim cosmopolitan discourses have become necessary, and the outcomes of these discourses will be crucial in shaping the future education of Muslims. Given historical precedents, however, I posit that the triumph of Muslim educational orthodoxy is expected if these discourses lead to or reinforce polarization.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableMadrassa (Madrasah)(Springer International Publishing, 2020)
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ItemApprenticing the jazz performer through ensemble collaboration: A qualitative enquiry(SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2020)The one-to-one teacher–student relationship is a common learning configuration within jazz education. However, opportunities to learn through engagement in ensemble performances and industry-level recording opportunities with esteemed jazz performers are rare classroom environments the tertiary jazz music institutions offer. This qualitative study examines ‘real-world’ jazz performance contexts within an Australian tertiary music course, exploring students’ learning experience spanning three diverse collaborative projects. Bandura’s Social Cognition Theory is utilized to elucidate an ecological system of musical development, where learning occurs in a social context within dynamic, reciprocal interactions between learners, environment and students’ adaptive behaviours that are bounded by context, culture and learner history. Findings from pre- and post-participation interviews reveal student and educator perspectives of engaging in authentic experiential learning situations. A stratum of positive influences impacting students included metacognitive, behavioural, emotional affordances, as well as the cultivation of a wider social, environmental and cultural/creative confidence and an expanding collaborative community influencing individuals’ learning decisions. Students and educator participants expressed professional-level expectations, real-world outcomes, and a deeper musical connection and understanding by students of the guest artist/composers’ intention, musical aesthetic and expert band direction. The authors maintain that inclusion of experience-based education and embedding of authentic professional industry experience and creative music-making contexts within educational settings enhance the learning of students and potentially enculturate richer musicianship in students and their developing creative communities.