Curriculum and pedagogy

Overview

Peformance

Evidence of research quality

ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia) 2012 score:

• 4 (above world standard) -
  • Curriculum and Pedagogy (FOR 1302).

Developing new researchers

HDR students

113

Early career researchers

15

Publication output

2010

Total

40

Research income

2012 ERA total

$4,050,297

2010 total

$1,098,998

Key grants

2008-2013

• Accelerating the mathematics of learning of low socio-economic status junior secondary students
• Developmental engineering education in the primary school
  
• Digital learning and print literacy: a design experiment for the reform of low socio-economic, culturally diverse schools
• Emotional learning in socioscientific issues for enhancement of scientific literacy
• Emotional transitions: exploring professional transitions of science teachers
• Enhancing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education through collaborative research partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region
  
• Developing culturally-fair assessment practices to achieve greater equity and success for indigenous students
• The International Baccalaureate in Australian schools: a sociological case study
• How young (2-4 years) Indigenous learners come to know and not know early mathematical language and processes
• Investigating standards-driven reform in assessment in the middle years of schooling
• Mandated literacy assessment and the reorganisation of teachers' work
• New literacy demands in the middle years: learning from design experiments
• Restructuring statistical reasoning in the early school years: a longitudinal study of data modelling
• The role of subject-matter knowledge in teaching science and mathematics: practices of teachers with advanced qualifications in the sciences
• Sustainable selves: a new assessment model for marginalised secondary students
• What teachers do with the official curriculum: a quantitative study of factors influencing the curriculum-in-use

People

• Barbara Comber
• Tom Cooper
• Carmel Diezmann
• Cathie Doherty
• Karen Dooley
• Lyn English
• Beryl Exley
• Peter Hudson
• Val Klenowski
• Allan Luke
• Kathy Mills
• Helen Nixon
• Ji Yong Park
• Steve Ritchie

Projects

• Statistical literacy in the primary school: beginning inference
• Developmental engineering education in the primary school
• New Literacy Demands in the Middle Years: Learning from Design Experiments
• Emotional Learning in Socioscientific Issues for Enhancement of Scientific Literacy
• Ethical leadership: A collaborative investigation of equity-driven evidence-based school reform
• Images, Perceptions and Resources: Enhancing Australia's Role in China's English Language Education
• Industry-school Partnerships: A Strategy to Enhance Education and Training Opportunities
• Digital Learning and Print Literacy: A design experiment for the reform of low socio-economic, culturally diverse schools

Partnerships

International linkages

North America:

• York University, Canada
• Indiana University, USA

United Kingdom:

• Queen's University, Ireland
• National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, Ireland

Asia:

• Beijing Normal University
  

Significant corporate partnerships

• Queensland Teachers' Union
• Department of Education and Training (Queensland)
• Department of Main Roads (Queensland)
• Construction Skills Queensland
• Energy Skills Queensland
• Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy
• Engineers Australia
  

Cross-disciplinary engagement

• Engineering
• Policy and Administration
• Sociology
• History and Philosophy

Impact

Evidence of impact

• Principles of assessment co-developed by Queensland Studies Authority now used by the Australasian Curriculum, Assessment and Certification Authority.

Our research:

• including the 4 Resources Model and Critical literacy, has had a direct impact on literacy education curriculum and policy in Canada and several US states, is used in other parts of the world (e.g., Latin America), and has been applied to other curriculum areas (e.g., science)
• reports on how, and against what odds in the contemporary socio-political climate, teacher-researchers involved in an ARC Linkage project in secondary schools in a low SES region redesigned their pedagogy to incorporate young people's funds of knowledge in order to improve literacy outcomes and support students' aspirations for the future
• provides alternatives ways of thinking about the education of low literate refugees. It looks at possibilities for critical and intellectually substantive teaching and highlights linguistic politics that work against the students' participation in the Australian classroom
• challenges the validity of conventional literacy pedagogies, and demonstrates how to engage students from varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds into new forms of communication with digital technologies
• drives effective teacher preparation for standards-driven reform beyond provision of standards and exemplars
• informs national and international (US and Europe) use of mathematical modelling in the primary school mathematics curriculum - a new and powerful approach to future-oriented problem solving. Model-eliciting problems take students beyond computation towards conceptualisation, description, and explanation, where students generate their own mathematical ideas
• provides implications of policy and practice for enhancing scientific literacy internationally and led to a new program of research in hybridised writing that provides compelling evidence for practices to engage students in science and the achievement of scientific literacy.