Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Research Publications
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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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ItemUsing interviews with non-examples to assess reasoning in F-2 classrooms(Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA), 2021)The development of mathematical reasoning is a key proficiency for mathematics within the Australian Curriculum. However, reasoning can be difficult for teachers to assess, particularly with pen and paper tests. In this study, interview tasks were designed across three curriculum areas at three different levels to assess student reasoning through the use of examples and non-examples. Non-examples can be used to assist in building boundaries and deepening conceptual understanding. Through the interview, teacher and student dialogue can help students to demonstrate reasoning and clarify concepts through explanation and justification.
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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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ItemOnline citizenship learning of Chinese young adults(SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2021-05-23)This paper explores the citizenship learning of Chinese young adults through examining their participation on Weibo (the biggest micro-blogging service in China). Interview data collected from 31 young mainland Chinese adults contained their reflections on their everyday online participation on Weibo. Using the theory of communities of practice, this paper describes the citizenship learning that occurred in the context of their online participation in two intersecting dimensions. One dimension is their learning of digital citizenship in the Weibo community, manifested in their understanding and grasp of language, values, attitudes and shared commitment in this virtual space. The other is their learning of Chinese citizenship which is embodied in their understanding of Chinese society arising from their reflections of their internet-mediated social participation. This paper brings new insights into the concept of citizenship exhibited in the everyday online participation of Chinese young people, and the mutually constitutive relationship between their learning of citizenship and the forging of new citizenship. The implications of this informal learning for the content and pedagogy of formal citizenship education is discussed.
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ItemEncountering a Pedagogy of the World in a University Setting(Taylor & Francis, 2021)Taking up Biesta’s (2019) notion of a pedagogy of the world, we ask: How might participating in an arts-based educational program with/in a university enable young people from schools with low Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) values to encounter the world of higher education differently and become different in that encounter? This chapter comes from our engagement with empirical material generated during a (post)qualitative inquiry into the pedagogy of The Art of Engagement-a multi-arts studio program involving relational pedagogy and a/r/tography as curriculum located in SPACE, 1 whereby secondary school students from schools in less socio-educationally advantaged communities came together with undergraduate university students for a five-day intensive within a University of Melbourne breadth subject. The program’s rationale was to connect with secondary school arts students completing their schooling in lower ICSEA value schools 2 through the design of authentic university encounters with/in site, practices and communities. It welcomed the secondary school students into the world of our university and enhanced their capacity to “be at home” in this world, creating the conditions for considering and potentially living different post-school futures.
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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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ItemNo Preview AvailableAboriginal children's health, playgroup participation and early learning outcomes in two remote Northern Territory communities(SAGE Publications, 2021-03-09)Objectives: This study aimed to explore the impact of early health risks on young Aboriginal children’s attendance in playgroups and their early learning outcomes. Design: The study used a cross-sectional design to identify associations between children’s early health characteristics, their attendance at a Families as First Teachers (FaFT) playgroup and their early learning outcomes. Setting: A total of 128 Aboriginal children from two remote Northern Territory (NT) communities attending FaFT playgroups participated in the study. Method: Health data were coded as risk factors and associated with children’s attendance and learning outcome data. Results: Children in the cohort experienced relatively high rates of health risks: ear infections (otitis media, 57%), anaemia (37%), skin infections (28%), low birthweight (22%), low weight for age (19%) and a high proportion were born to teenage mothers (26%). However, these rates were lower than previously recorded rates for Aboriginal children in remote NT communities. Despite the presence of multiple health risks, low weight for age was the only risk factor found to be negatively associated with children’s learning outcomes (language skills) and only two health risks (teenage motherhood and lower child haemoglobin levels) were negatively associated with children’s attendance at playgroup. Most children (65%) experienced one or two health risks during the study and no significant associations were found between the number of health risks experienced and children’s attendance or learning outcomes. Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of culturally responsive, evidence-based and integrated health and education programmes within remote Aboriginal Australian communities as a means to mitigate risks to poor learning and development outcomes.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableParent Mastery of Conversational Reading at Playgroup in Two Remote Northern Territory Communities(SPRINGER, 2021-01-21)This paper explores strategies that support Aboriginal parents’ mastery of evidence-based early learning strategies, and their impact on young Aboriginal children’s learning outcomes. The three-year study followed 32 parent-child dyads attending Families as First Teachers (FaFT) playgroups in two remote Northern Territory communities in 2015–2017. Trained FaFT staff provided parents with coaching in the use of Conversational Reading—an evidence-based shared reading strategy in first language—at FaFT. The study examined patterns of parent mastery across the three-year study period, the relationship between levels of parent-child participation at FaFT (program dosage) and parent mastery, and the impact of parent mastery of Conversational Reading on young Aboriginal children’s language and learning outcomes. By including measures of parent-child participation and parent mastery of key program strategies at three time points, the study also provides a picture of the fidelity of program implementation across the study period. The findings indicate that parents’ mastery of strategies (and thus the fidelity of program implementation) increased over time in line with the program dosage parents received. Higher levels of parent-child participation at FaFT and parent mastery of strategies at the end of the program were positively associated with children’s language and learning outcomes. This study demonstrates that the provision of coaching at playgroup is an effective way to build parent capacity in the implementation of evidence-based early learning strategies, and that supporting parent mastery of teaching strategies has the potential to improve the learning outcomes of young children in remote Aboriginal communities.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableDeveloping and Validating a Tool to Assess Young Children's Early Literacy Engagement(SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2021-03-31)There is growing recognition that literacy learning takes place in the years prior to formal schooling and that young children develop literacy-like behaviours through exposure to interactions in shared contexts in which literacy is a component. Despite this, there are few assessments that measure the very early literacy skills that children develop before 36 months of age. This article reports on the design and validation of a new instrument – the Early Literacy Engagement Assessment (ELEA). This tool was developed to provide insights into the impact of Conversational Reading, a key pedagogical strategy implemented at Families as First Teachers playgroups, on young children’s early receptive and expressive vocabulary and literacy skills. The instrument was trialled with 104 children living in locations across Melbourne, Victoria, and 39 Aboriginal children living in remote communities in the Northern Territory. The trial process was undertaken in two phases: (1) a technical assessment to test item consistency, characteristics and placement and (2) concurrent validity testing against items from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-2 tool. The findings from the trial and validation process indicate that overall the ELEA discriminates well between children of high and low ability, and it is a useful tool in the authentic assessment of expressive and receptive vocabulary skills in young children.
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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.