ISSUE 1
2014
The RIPPLE Effect
NEW INTERIM DIRECTOR
Welcome to the first edition of The
RIPPLE Effect for 2014.
We are delighted to welcome Prof
Jennifer Sumsion to the position of
Interim Director of RIPPLE, as Prof
Tom Lowrie moves to take up a new
position at the University of
Canberra.
Sharynne McLeod presenting at the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Studies National Indigenous Studies conference in Canberra
Jennifer is a long-term member and
leader of early childhood research
undertaken through RIPPLE. She
takes on the Interim Director role in
addition to her current position as
Co-Director of the Excellence in
Research in Early Years Education
Collaborative Research Network.
CONTENTS
About Us
The Research Institute for
Professional Practice, Learning and
Education is a multi-disciplinary
research institute that conducts highquality research in the field of
professional practice and applies its
work to advance professional
learning and education in a range of
professions and fields including
education, health and professional
practice more broadly by influencing
practice and practice education.
Vice-Chancellor of CSU, Andrew Vann, and
Bathurst Mayor, Gary Rush, co-opening the
Distant Connections exhibition in Bathurst
Welcome
1
Researcher Profile
A/Prof Barney Dalgarno
2
Recent News
3
Research Fellow Profile
Dr Ameneh Shahaeian
9
A PhD Journey
Sarah Verdon
9
Visiting Scholars
10
New Funding
10
Achievements
11
New Books
12
Contact RIPPLE
12
RESEARCHER PROFILE
A/Prof Barney Dalgarno
As well as Barney’s current position
as an Associate Professor in
Education, he also spent a few years
as Sub Dean Learning and
Teaching, and in 2013 was
appointed Associate Dean
Curriculum Learning and Teaching.
Barney’s passion for combining
technology and education extends
from his teaching and leadership
positions to his major research
interest: how technology can support
learning. “The central theme of my
research is how learning can be
improved through the use of
technology, including fundamental
research informing understanding of
learning, and applied research into
the use of technology in schools and
higher education,” said Barney.
A/Prof Barney Dalgarno has turned
his long-held interests in technology
and education into a challenging and
rewarding research and teaching
career. In fact, his interest in
technology goes right back to
childhood and has been a theme
running through each of his study
and employment choices. “As a
teenager I taught myself to program
computers and since then I have
always had an interest in new
technologies and how they can be
used in creative and innovative
ways,” Barney explained.
“In Year 9 I participated in a ‘crossage tutoring’ program and was
struck by the intellectual and social
challenge of teaching long division to
a Year 5 student.
“These two early experiences
defined my study and employment
pathways, with periods in technology
focused roles and periods in
teaching focused roles before I was
able to bring the two together as a
teacher of technology embedded
subjects and as a researcher in
technology enabled learning.”
After working in the computer
industry, Barney transitioned to an
academic career in 1995, and
completed his PhD in education in
2004 through the University of
Wollongong. He joined Charles Sturt
University in 1998 as a Lecturer in
Information Technology. “Upon
completion of my master’s degree in
Canberra, Val and I were looking for
the opportunity to move back
towards the Riverina and a position
at CSU came up at the perfect time.”
The RIPPLE Effect: Issue 1 2014
He is currently working on a range of
technology-related research
projects. This year he begins work
on an Australian Research Council
(ARC) Discovery funded project,
University learning in the digital age:
Investigating how students learn
online, along with researchers from
the University of Wollongong. “In this
project we will explore the ways in
which university students interpret,
engage with and regulate their
learning while undertaking online
learning tasks.”
In addition, Barney is devoting time
to an Office for Learning and
Teaching (OLT) commissioned
project, National learning and
teaching resource audit and
classification, in which he and his
colleagues will define new schema
and taxonomies and refine the user
interface for the OLT resource
library. He is also working on some
new theorising about the learning
affordances provided by
contemporary polysynchronous
learning environments.
Barney joined RIPPLE in 2010. “With
support from RIPPLE I have worked
on projects relating to the
preparation of teachers for practice
in Second Life virtual classrooms,
pre-service teacher preparedness to
use ICTs in the classroom,
synchronous blended learning using
media-rich real-time collaboration
tools, and teachers’ use of
interactive whiteboards.
“I also led a scoping study on the
use of 3D immersive virtual worlds in
Australian and New Zealand
universities and co-edited a book to
be published by Athabasca
University Press on virtual worlds in
open and distance education.”
Along with two other RIPPLE
researchers, Dr Christina Davidson
and Prof Lisa Given, Barney leads
the Technology and Teaching
Practice research group which
brings together researchers from
across the Faculty of Education and
CSU towards the undertaking of
theoretically informed and
methodologically sound research on
technology and learning. He is also a
Lead Editor of the Australasian
Journal of Educational Technology,
which is well accepted as the leading
educational technology journal in
Australia and the wider region.
It is not surprising that Barney is also
an advocate for using technology to
better support learning—and his
research allows him to advise on the
most effective ways to achieve this
goal. “I think the widespread media
coverage of a small number of
narrowly focused MOOCs [massive
open online courses] has been a
distraction from more important
questions about the nature of quality
online learning environments and the
design elements required to provide
enhanced learning experiences for
students studying online.
“I would like to see governments
acknowledge that online learning is a
mainstream endeavour and as a
consequence refine their evaluative
and regulatory regimes to remove
the implicit focus and bias toward
face-to-face learning contexts.”
“I would like to see
governments
acknowledge that online
learning is a mainstream
endeavour…”
Barney would also like to see the
recent government emphasis on
digital education focus more on longterm impact. “I think that the
Rudd/Gillard government’s digital
education revolution policy, while
providing a short-term injection of
funding for hardware in schools, has
had limited long-term impact due to
at least two fundamental flaws in its
conceptualisation.
2
“Firstly, due to the implicit and to
some extent explicit
conceptualisation of the policy as a
mechanism to increase students’
digital literacies, it did not engage in
a meaningful way with the notion of
technology as a tool for improving
learning experiences. Secondly, by
focusing on the provision of
hardware while not resourcing
professional development in relation
to the Technological, Pedagogical
Content Knowledge (TPACK) of
teachers, the policy was always
guaranteed to have a limited impact
on student learning.”
Barney plans to target his research
to make progress in this area. “I’d
really like to bring together some of
the work emanating from the
technology and teaching practice
group on authentic assessment of
teachers’ TPACK,” he said. “I have
had preliminary conversations with
international collaborators towards a
book on this topic.
“I’d like to find ways of bringing some
of the theorising I have done on
polysynchronous learning together
with innovations underpinned by the
Faculty of Education’s online
learning commitments to help bring
CSU forward as a national and
international leader in online
learning.”
RECENT NEWS
Speech pathology prizes
Congratulations to RIPPLE speech
pathology doctoral students—Sarah
Verdon and Sarah Masso—who
were awarded best student paper
and best poster (one of four) prizes
at the recent Speech Pathology
Australia National Conference held
in Melbourne during May.
Best Student Paper Prize
Ms Sarah Verdon, Prof Sharynne
McLeod and Prof Adam Winsler
Language diversity, maintenance
and loss: A population study of
young Australian children
Best Poster Prize
Ms Sarah Masso, Dr Elise Baker,
Prof Sharynne McLeod and A/Prof
Jane McCormack Assessment of
phonological awareness in children
with speech sound disorders: A
systematic review
The RIPPLE Effect: Issue 1 2014
Distant Connections
exhibition
Amanda Bishop (2013): Still image from
the 7-minute film Travelling Memories
Distant Connections: Connecting
Teaching, Research and Art was a
student exhibition held at the Chifley
Home and Education Centre,
Bathurst, from 21 September 2013
until the end of January 2014. As
project leader, RIPPLE researcher
Dr Donna Mathewson Mitchell
exhibited two artworks in the
exhibition while also curating the
overall exhibition.
The event was the outcome of an
innovative teaching and learning
design across two visual arts
curriculum method subjects that was
enabled by partnership with Bathurst
Regional Council and informed by
engagement in a cross-institutional
Office for Learning and Teaching
(OLT) innovation and development
project.
viewpoints that are developed in the
final artworks. As part of this process
they communicated with one another
in an online teaching and learning
environment that traversed
geographical distance, enabling
them to share their experience,
ideas and expertise while also
responding to and teaching one
another. Modelling and
approximating teaching practice in
relation to visual arts was at the core
of this work.
While the initial project outcomes
were designed specifically to
enhance learning and teaching
within higher education, the benefits
have been far reaching. The project
has promoted education, civic
responsibility and community
collaboration as central to the work
of museums, while also promoting
the specific work of Bathurst
Regional Council and the Chifley
Home beyond the Bathurst region. In
addition, the project has generated a
range of research outputs, including
research papers and creative works.
All partners have indicated a
willingness to continue this
relationship into the future with an
aim to grow the concept. This model
of partnership has clear benefits for
the university, students and the
community.
The exhibition can be viewed online
on the Chifley Home website and a
feature article for the Museums &
Galleries of NSW website has also
been published.
As part of their distance education
study in visual arts curriculum,
nineteen students engaged with the
Chifley Home and Education Centre
as an historical site, as a resource
for teaching and as an inspiration for
the creation of artworks.
As a starting point, each student
chose a historical object from their
community but also related to the
Chifley era. Individually they then
investigated and explored those
objects to develop a range of
concepts, interpretations and
Penny Kemp-Jones (2013): Facets of
Time, mixed media and acrylic on
canvas [This painting was purchased by
Bathurst Regional Council and is
currently on display in the office of the
Mayor]
3
Speech pathology
services urgently needed
Researchers from the Sound Start study
team have contributed to senate inquiry
CSU experts have called on state
and federal governments to address
the national shortage of speech
pathology services for people
experiencing communication
difficulties.
A number of CSU researchers have
contributed submissions to a federal
senate inquiry into the prevalence of
different types of speech, language
and communication disorders and
speech pathology services in
Australia. The researchers have
highlighted the lack of services in
rural and remote areas compared to
metropolitan Australia.
CSU speech pathology course
coordinator and RIPPLE researcher,
A/Prof Jane McCormack, said
communication difficulties are
prevalent across Australia and
across the lifespan, but were
particularly challenging for children
and people in rural and regional
areas. “Communication difficulties
can affect people of all ages, from
infants as they learn to talk, children
as they progress through school,
adults as they interact in the
workplace, and the elderly due to
stroke or progressive conditions
such as Parkinson's disease,” she
said.
Jane explained that communication
difficulties can lead to social,
academic and economic problems.
“They may be associated with
various long-lasting and potentially
negative consequences such as
frustration and withdrawal in
childhood, bullying and social
isolation at school, reading and
writing difficulties and reduced
employment options.”
She believes speech pathologists
can effectively intervene to reduce
The RIPPLE Effect: Issue 1 2014
and manage communication
difficulties, “but there are insufficient
speech pathologists and related
services to meet the current demand
across Australia.
“Children and adults are missing out
on vital assistance and this problem
is most noticeable in rural and
regional areas where people have
long waiting times and travel long
distances for services,” Jane said.
“Australian governments need to
address the shortage of speech
pathology services and trained
professionals to manage the growing
problems caused by communication
difficulties in all ages and all parts of
Australian society.”
Jane’s submission is available
online, along with all submissions
received by the committee. CSU’s
School of Community Health, based
in Albury-Wodonga, offers speech
pathology degrees particularly suited
to practice in rural and regional
Australia.
American Educational
Research Association
In April, three RIPPLE researchers
presented at the American
Educational Research Association
(AERA) 2014 Annual Meeting in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Dr Christine Edwards-Groves and Dr
Noella Mackenzie (in absentia) used
the theme of this year’s conference,
The power of education research for
innovation in practice and policy, as
the basis for their two co-authored
presentations. Both papers
examined the shift in understandings
that pre-service teachers (PsTs)
form due to targeted learning
experiences interacting with students
in classrooms.
The first paper, Learning to teach
contemporary literacies: Pre-service
teachers and school students coconstruct multimodal texts,
examined the influence that
interacting with young children in
schools to co-construct multimodal
texts had on PsTs’ understandings
of what constitutes contemporary
literacies, multimodality and
pedagogies. The paper was
informed by the close examination of
data gathered around specific inschool tasks involving focused
interactions with students in schools.
The second paper, I didn’t realise
they knew so much: What preservice teachers learn through
interacting with students in
classrooms, presented findings from
a three-year empirical study
researching what pre-service
teachers learn through listening to
and interacting with students in
classrooms. This focus emerged
from a dearth of research specifically
describing what PsTs specifically
learn through their interactions with
students. The paper investigated
how learning teaching practice is not
only informed but formed through
interrogating the theory-practice
nexus in enactment. A key finding
was that by focusing critically on
listening to and interacting with
students within the intersubjective
spaces of classrooms rather than on
the act of teaching, pre-service
teachers shifted their perspectives
on what teaching practice entails.
RIPPLE researcher, Dr Christina
Davidson, also attended and
presented two papers. The first
paper (co-authored with Prof Susan
Danby from the Queensland
University of Technology), was
presented in a symposium on writing
and literacies; the discussant was
Prof Bill Cope (University of Illinois at
Urbana Champaign). Their paper,
Digital communication in a preschool
classroom: Collaborative social
interaction of children and teachers
writing email, reported qualitative
findings from a current ARC
Discovery project. Presenters in the
symposium addressed children and
young people’s online activity across
a range of institutional contexts
including preschool, school and
higher education.
Christina’s second paper was
presented with Dr Lois Harris from
Central Queensland University. The
paper, Teacher aides’ definitions of
reading: What understandings of
reading underpin their work with
students?, drew on the first stages of
a funded project examining the work
of teacher aides in primary
classrooms. Papers in this
roundtable session addressed the
support of at-risk readers.
Next year’s AERA conference will be
held in Chicago, Illinois (16-20 April
2015). The call for submissions begins 1
June 2014 and concludes 22 July 2014.
4
Building doctoral
research capacity: CRN
goes international
encouraging and inspiring, and has
reinforced for me that research,
analysis and writing are often
lengthy and to-and-fro, even for
those at the top of the field.
The intensive format of the SIQR
was also great for getting to know
other researchers, and to have
multiple occasions for discussion
and debate. Attending also allowed
me to continue discussions about
collaborations on publications and
future research with fellow CRN
member, doctoral student Megan
Gibson (from QUT), and Prof
Jennifer Sumsion from CSU.
L to R: Tamara Cumming (CSU), Megan
Gibson (QUT), Jennifer Sumsion (CSU)
In 2013, the CRN funded three
doctoral students from CSU to
attend overseas doctoral seminars,
along with doctoral colleagues from
other CRN partner universities
(Queensland University of
Technology and Monash University).
In July, Tamara Cumming attended
the Manchester Metropolitan
University Summer Institute in
Qualitative Research (SIQR), and in
August, Kathryn Hopps and Nikki
Masters attended the Pedagogies of
Educational Transitions (POET)
Colloquium at Mälardalen University,
in Västerås, Sweden. Here, Tamara
and Kathryn share some of the ways
they have benefited from attending
these events.
Tamara: The focus of the SIQR was
Putting Theory to Work, and many of
this year’s presenters focused on
their use of post structural theory—
which I am also using in my doctoral
work. Attending challenging
presentations (and debating some of
the issues in the discussion groups
that followed plenary sessions) from
leading international scholars gave
me the opportunity to engage my
existing understandings. The
presentations also helped strengthen
my ability to make connections
between complex concepts and my
own research findings.
Seeing cutting-edge work in the ‘inbetween’ stage was also
The RIPPLE Effect: Issue 1 2014
“The presentations
helped strengthen my
ability to make
connections between
complex concepts and
my own research
findings.”
Kathryn: The colloquium in Sweden
focused on perspectives of diversity,
inclusion and educational transitions.
I benefited from engaging with
transitions researchers who brought
to the colloquium many different
perspectives on educational
transitions, as my doctoral work is in
the area of children’s transitions to
primary school.
Presentations of transition projects
from several countries, including
Sweden, led to discussions amongst
the group which have extended my
knowledge and understanding of
international transitions research.
I also presented an aspect of my
own work that related to diversity
and inclusion and this led me to see
my work in a new light and consider
its implications for pedagogies of
transition. The POET colloquium
provided an international profile for
my work and I was able to talk with
experienced researchers about
possible future publication of the
results of my research. In Sweden I
was also able to develop and
strengthen professional relationships
with international researchers and
doctoral students who are
researching in the area of children’s
transitions, including fellow CRN
doctoral student Lara Fridani (from
Monash University).
Whole-of-network meeting
L to R: Susan Danby (Queensland
University of Technology), Marian Simms
(Australian Research Council), Sharynne
McLeod (CSU)
In early February, members of the
Excellence in Research in Early
Years Education Collaborative
Research Network (CRN) travelled
to Melbourne to participate in their
third and final whole-of-network
meeting. The CRN, funded by the
federal government, has been
building research capacity within
early years’ research since 2011 and
is due to conclude later this year.
CRN colleagues from Charles Sturt
University, Queensland University of
Technology and Monash University
met and attended presentations from
a range of guest speakers including:
• Assistant Minister for
Education, The Hon. Sussan
Ley MP
• Prof Andrew Vann, ViceChancellor of CSU
• Prof Marian Simms, Executive
Director of Social, Behavioural
and Economic Sciences,
Australian Research Council
• Karen Weston, Assistant
General Manager, Quality
Improvement Branch,
Department of Education and
Early Childhood Development,
Victoria
• Prof Anne Graham, Ethics in
Research Involving Children,
Southern Cross University
• Prof Maggie Walter, member of
the steering committee of the
Longitudinal Study of
Indigenous Children, University
of Tasmania
• Deborah Kikkawa and Fiona
Skelton, Department of Social
Services, Longitudinal Study of
Indigenous Children team
The event also provided the valuable
opportunity of showcasing the work
of the CRN to external stakeholders.
5
Indigenous children’s rich
language skills
L to R: Sarah Verdon, Fiona Skelton
(The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous
Children) and Sharynne McLeod at the
AIATSIS conference in March
Research from Charles Sturt
University has shown that many
Indigenous children have
competence in several languages,
and rich and supportive language
and literacy environments. The
research is led by RIPPLE
researcher, Prof Sharynne McLeod
and PhD student, Sarah Verdon.
“Most of the recent and current
research has focused on Indigenous
children's difficulties with English, but
has not considered that they might
speak up to eight languages each.
These include English, Indigenous
languages, creoles, foreign
languages and sign languages,”
Sharynne said.
“Most Indigenous Australian children
are supported by their families and
communities to have rich language
and literacy environments. Children
in remote regions are more likely to
speak and experience Indigenous
languages and cultures, whereas
children in urban environments may
have less exposure to Indigenous
languages and require additional
resources to support Indigenous
language learning.”
The research is from the child cohort
of Footprints in Time: The
Longitudinal Study of Indigenous
Children, a national study of
Indigenous Australian children
supported by Indigenous Australians
and the Australian Government. This
study reports the language
competence of 692 Indigenous
Australian children aged three to
seven years. Cross-sectional and
longitudinal data is based on parent
report and direct assessment.
The RIPPLE Effect: Issue 1 2014
“Worldwide it is important to
recognise Indigenous children's
speech and language competence
and their language learning
environments,” Sharynne said.
“Celebrating Indigenous Australian
children's speech and language
competence and the resources of
their families and communities is one
step toward fulfilling the
recommendation in Article 13 of the
United Nations Convention on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ‘…to
revitalize, use, develop and transmit
to future generations their histories,
languages, oral traditions,
philosophies, writing systems and
literatures…’.
Islander Studies (AIATSIS) National
Indigenous Studies Conference in
Canberra in late March. The
research findings are published in:
McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & Bennetts
Kneebone, L. (2014). Celebrating
Indigenous children’s speech and
language competence. Early
Childhood Research Quarterly,
29(2), 118-131.
Sharynne was also recently
interviewed by Radio 4MW on the
Torres Strait. Click here to listen to
the 24-minute interview:
https://soundcloud.com/tsima4mw/radio-4mw-english-as-aneighth
Intelligibility in Context
Scale update
“The children's language
environments in this study were rich,
with many family members and
friends telling oral stories, reading
books and listening to the children
read. Almost a third of families
wished to pass on their cultural
language, and many indicated that
they would like their child to learn an
Indigenous language at school.
Thirteen new translations of the
Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS)
have been added to the Multilingual
Children’s Speech website, a
compilation of resources for speechlanguage pathologists (and others)
who work with multilingual children
with speech sound disorders.
“While the most common language
spoken among the Indigenous
children in the study is English,
approximately a quarter of children
speak Indigenous languages and
more than ten per cent speak
creoles. Children who speak an
Indigenous language are more likely
to live in more remote areas of
Australia.”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
ܿ ‫ܐ‬
ܵ )
Assyrian (‫ܬܘܪ ܵܝܐ‬
Dari (‫)ﺩﺭی‬
Farsi (‫)ﻓﺎﺭﺳﯽ‬
Fijian (Vakaviti)
Gujarati
Hindi (िहन्द)
Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)
Irish (Gaelige)
Khmer
Sharynne said parental concern
about speech and language skills
was similar to data for nonIndigenous children, with
approximately a quarter of parents
expressing concern.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Korean (한국어)
Polish (Polski)
Serbian (Српски)
Tagalog (Tagalog/Filipino)
“It is important that those within
children's communities, including
teachers, are equipped with
knowledge and resources to support
the development of Indigenous
children's language competence,
and that collaborative partnerships
are sustained to enable families to
play an active role in their aspiration
to pass on Indigenous language and
culture to their children,” she said.
A paper about this study,
Celebrating Indigenous Australian
children's languages: Diversity,
competence and support, was
presented at the Australian Institute
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
ܵ
This means the ICS is now available
in 45 languages. Projects are being
undertaken around the world to add
to this number, and within the next
few months the following translations
will be added: Afrikaans, Auslan
(Australian Sign Language),
Danish, Fiji Hindi, Jamaican Creole,
Sesotho, Tshivenda, Xhosa and
Zulu. To date, the ICS has been
validated in Australian English
(McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack,
2012), Cantonese (Traditional
Chinese) (Ng, To, & McLeod, 2014),
Slovenian (Kogovšek & Ozbič, 2013)
and Croatian (Mildner, 2014).
Research projects are also currently
underway to validate/norm the ICS in
Portuguese, Korean and Australian
English.
6
Measuring up for the start
of school
“Of crucial significance is that their
measurement understandings were
developed for themselves in prior-toschool and out-of-school contexts,”
said Amy.
From trade to teaching
“Importantly, the results also
demonstrate the significance of the
relationship between content and
context in the learning process. It
was clear that the students who
demonstrated the most profound
development in their content
knowledge also increased their
ability to contextualise this content
through their everyday activities.
New research conducted by a
Charles Sturt University academic
has found children start school with
“highly sophisticated and rich”
understandings of measurement,
which they developed for themselves
during everyday activities ahead of
their formal education.
The study by RIPPLE researcher
and School of Education lecturer, Dr
Amy MacDonald, examined what
children know about measurement
as they start school, and how these
understandings are shaped by their
measurement experiences in priorto-school and out-of-school contexts.
“Results from my study have shown
that children have sophisticated
understandings of measurement at
the start of school,” said Amy. “They
understood how to measure objects,
compare measurements and apply
formal units. They showed a
remarkable awareness of a range of
units. This included an awareness of
units which they would not normally
be expected to know such as
megalitres.”
Amy followed the experiences of 100
children as they prepared to start
school and during their first year in
Kindergarten at two schools in
regional New South Wales. The
children represented their
understandings of measurement
through drawings, photographs and
narratives. The CSU academic
visited children in their classrooms.
The children were also given
disposable cameras so they could
capture measurement activities
outside school such as playing,
cooking or filling a bath.
The RIPPLE Effect: Issue 1 2014
“Educators must recognise and build
on these existing understandings so
they can make measurement
learning in the classroom relevant
and meaningful in early schooling.
“I’ve had a longstanding interest in
how children develop mathematical
meanings and understandings,” said
Amy.
“I wondered whether this interest
developed from my own early
experiences. I recall being a young
child visiting the fabric store with my
dressmaker mother, and watching as
swathes of material were pulled
across the countertop, metre by
metre. To this day, my mind
automatically conjures this image
when faced with the notion of a
linear metre. This recollection, and
my curiosity about the experiences
from which children draw
mathematical meaning, was the
genesis of the study.”
RIPPLE researcher, Dr Annette
Green, has published findings from
her doctoral study which followed
twelve career change teachers as
they moved from other industries to
the classroom. The teachers were all
based in rural, regional and remote
schools in New South Wales.
Annette interviewed the new
teachers to investigate how they
transitioned from a trade background
to develop new identities as
teachers.
She found that previous careers in
industry helped the teachers adapt
to the classroom. They were
resilient, flexible, and able to adapt
workplace learning strategies to the
school environment. A trade
background also meant the teachers
were well equipped to mentor
students who wished to follow a
vocational pathway.
Interestingly, Annette found that
these teachers often saw their
classrooms as ‘work sites’ and their
students as ‘workers’, which assisted
in the building of strong and
respectful relationships. Her findings
suggest that career change teachers
are well able to support students
who struggle with an academic
approach to education.
At the conclusion of the study, nine
of the twelve teachers were still
employed in the profession, with
some moving to positions of
responsibility such as Head Teacher
and Deputy Principal.
Willis’ drawing (Source: Amy
MacDonald)
For further information, please see
Issue 14 (December 2013) of
Research Today, the research
magazine of the Australian VET
Research Association (AVETRA).
7
International alliance
meeting in New Zealand
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The four Australian POETs at the
University of Waikato Marae (L to R: Sue
Dockett, Lysa Dealtry, Amy MacDonald,
Bob Perry)
Four RIPPLE researchers attended
the fourth work package of the
Pedagogies of Educational
Transitions (POET) international
alliance at the University of Waikato,
Hamilton, New Zealand, between 28
March and 20 April 2014.
POET is an international alliance of
members from five universities:
Mälardalen University, Sweden;
University of Iceland; Strathclyde
University, Scotland; University of
Waikato, New Zealand; and Charles
Sturt University, Australia. The
alliance was formed to promote
research exchange, develop
research expertise, and promote
thinking through a series of work
packages led by researchers in each
of the participating countries.
Through this collaboration, the aim is
to reconceptualise educational
transitions and the ways in which
these are researched and theorised.
POET Work Package 4 was
attended by five participants from
Iceland, three from Sweden, three
from Scotland, four from Australia
and fifteen from New Zealand. The
major focus of the work package
was Indigenous early childhood
education and, in particular,
Indigenous children’s transition to
school.
The stated objectives were:
The RIPPLE Effect: Issue 1 2014
To access and engage with
Indigenous understandings and
approaches to transition.
To appreciate and understand
the impact of these on
pedagogies of educational
transition.
To develop expertise in the
appropriate use of Indigenous
research methods.
To debate perspectives and
issues related to ethics and
Indigenous research.
To develop an internal working
document outlining principles of
research involving Indigenous
colleagues, methods and
participants, within the
framework of guiding ethical
principles for POET
collaborations.
The program consisted of a
combination of educational visits to
preschools, schools, the WaikatoTainui College for Research and
Development, Te Wānanga o
Aotearoa, and the Tauranga campus
of the University of Waikato, along
with extensive discussions and
internal presentations among the
POET members. As well, there were
public presentations at the University
of Waikato, Tauranga; the POET
Symposium at the University of
Waikato, Hamilton; and an
Indigenous research conference
held over two-and-a-half days in
Hamilton.
The four Australian POETs—Lysa
Dealtry, Dr Amy MacDonald, Prof
Sue Dockett and Prof Bob Perry—
played an active role in all aspects of
the work package. “We came away
with a much stronger understanding
of Māori culture, worldview and
research approaches, and an
imperative to consider these within
their own work,” said Bob. “While the
Māori approaches to researching
transitions to school have much to
say to us and our approaches, it was
clear that the different contexts for
Indigenous research in New Zealand
and Australia need to be considered
in all that we do.”
The next POET work package will be
held at the University of Iceland,
Reykjavik, Iceland, in September
2014, with the theme of continuity of
curriculum in the transition to school.
The Australian contingent is
expected to be at least as large as
that to New Zealand.
Ongoing cooperation with
the University of Western
Ontario
Sandy De Luca (Marnie Wedlake’s
supervisor), Jodi Hall, Sally Denshire
(CSU), and Michelle Pajot from the
University of Western Ontario
Researchers from RIPPLE and the
University of Western Ontario
continue to collaborate on a number
of research projects.
Recently, Canadian doctoral
candidate, Marnie Wedlake,
completed her PhD, Releasing the
self from the diagnostic strait jacket:
Making meaning and creating
understanding through dialogic
autobiography. Marnie was
supervised by Adjunct A/Prof Sandra
De Luca, from the Faculties of
Health Sciences and Education at
the University of Western Ontario
(Western). Members of the thesis
defence panel (via Skype in March)
included Adjunct A/Profs Alan
Pitman and Kathy Hibberd with Dr
Sally Denshire as an external
examiner.
Secondly, a research volume to be
published by Springer, The body in
professional practice, learning and
education, will be available either in
late 2014 or early 2015. Many of the
authors and interested others
participated in three successive
symposia around questions of
body/practice held at Charles Sturt
University in 2010, at the University
of Technology, Sydney (UTS) in
2011, and at Western (via Skype) in
2012. Edited by Emeritus Prof Bill
Green and Dr Nick Hopwood, the
book includes contributions by
colleagues from UWO, UTS and
elsewhere, as well as RIPPLE
researchers Prof Jo-Anne Reid, Dr
Donna Mathewson Mitchell and Dr
Sally Denshire.
8
RESEARCH FELLOW
Dr Ameneh Shahaeian
“I have already acquired
considerable new statistical skills,
and working with the CRN team has
given me a unique opportunity to
learn collaborative and team work,
which I would not perhaps have
gained all at once otherwise.”
“Working with the CRN
team has given me a
unique opportunity to
learn collaborative and
team work…”
Dr Ameneh Shahaeian relocated to
Bathurst in November 2013 to join
the Excellence in Research in Early
Years Education Collaborative
Research Network (CRN) team full
time, after beginning two days a
week as part of an extended
collaborative staff exchange.
Ameneh was born in Iran and
developed an interest in children’s
learning at a young age. “Being born
as a ‘surprise’ child, I had the luxury
of growing up with my nephews and
little niece [who turned 27 this year,
so not so little any more] just when I
was at the right age to think about
children’s learning processes.
“I remember my interest in thinking
about how children learn and how to
teach them developed from a very
young age, when I read a lot of
psychology books till I started my
official training in psychology in
1999.”
Ameneh has worked in different
areas of research and practice
including school and clinical
psychology, family therapy and
lecturing; usually working with
children, teenagers and young
adults. She has completed two
degrees in clinical and educational
psychology and received her PhD
from the University of Queensland in
the area of developmental
psychology.
The RIPPLE Effect: Issue 1 2014
“My main research focus is
children’s cognitive development and
understanding of others’ minds,
referred to as Theory of Mind”,
Ameneh explained. “I am also
interested in the origins of human
cultural cognition and cross-cultural
work. I am interested in investigating
how culture speaks to our
understanding of the world as the
‘human’ species.
“My third research line would be the
role of parents in children’s
development and the dilemma of
nature versus nurture. As an
educational psychologist I am also
interested in children’s mathematical
thinking and the role of technology in
teaching mathematics.”
Ameneh works closely with Program
1 of the CRN: Children’s
development, learning and wellbeing
in the early years. She also joins a
group of CRN researchers in
developing Australian Research
Council Linkage proposals.
“I found working with the CRN an
excellent opportunity to learn within
a multidisciplinary team. So when I
was invited to work with RIPPLE I
saw it as an excellent opportunity,”
Ameneh said.
“It is great to be around scholars in
early childhood education with
various expertise and experiences.
Since I have started I feel like I learn
more every week as my expertise
and knowledge grows.
Outside of work, Ameneh also
enjoys diverse interests. “Besides
these professional and research
interests I love playing table tennis,
dancing and playing music, and as I
said, I am a fabulous auntie!”
A PhD JOURNEY
Sarah Verdon
Sarah Verdon and Sharynne McLeod
presenting at a conference in Chicago
Sarah Verdon is a RIPPLE doctoral
student supervised by researchers
Prof Sharynne McLeod and Dr
Sandie Wong. Sarah recently
travelled to collect data from
educators and speech pathologists
working with multilingual children. “In
December I completed five months
of international data collection for my
PhD,” she explained. “My travels
took me to four continents to collect
data from five countries: Brazil, Italy,
Hong Kong, Canada and the US.
“The data collected have provided
me with a great deal of insight into
practices with culturally and
linguistically diverse children from
around the world and given me the
opportunity to now write a series of
papers reflecting upon western
practice and opportunities for
9
working in more culturally
appropriate and inclusive ways with
children and their families.”
Sarah recently published the first two
papers from her PhD: in the
International Journal of SpeechLanguage Pathology and Early
Childhood Research Quarterly. She
has another two papers accepted for
publication (in Speech, Language
and Hearing and the International
Journal of Language and
Communication Disorders), with a
number of others in preparation and
submission.
During her travels, Sarah was
supported by a RIPPLE student
conference grant so that she could
attend three conferences to present
preliminary findings from her
research. She attended the
International Association for
Logopedics and Phoniatrics
conference in Italy; the Asia Pacific
Conference of Speech Language
and Hearing in Taiwan; and the
American Speech-Language and
Hearing Association convention in
the United States (which was
attended by over 15,000 delegates).
In June, Sarah will travel to Sweden
and Scotland with the support of
RIPPLE to present at two further
conferences: the International
Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics
Association conference in Sweden,
and the Professional Practice,
Education and Learning (ProPEL)
international conference in Scotland.
As this issue went to print, it was
announced that Sarah won the best
student paper prize for her co-authored
paper at the Speech Pathology Australia
conference in Melbourne in May.
VISITING SCHOLARS
RIPPLE Adjunct, Prof Hannu
Heikkinen and PhD student Matti
Pennanen, both from the University
of Jyväskylä, Finland, visited
RIPPLE from 3 to 20 February.
The RIPPLE Effect: Issue 1 2014
Hannu and Matti made the most of
their time in Australia by working
with RIPPLE researchers, including
Emeritus Prof Stephen Kemmis, Dr
Laurette Bristol, Dr Christine
Edwards-Groves (CSU) and A/Prof
Jane Wilkinson (Griffith University).
Hannu and Matti, along with Laurette
and Jane, worked on a comparative
paper on mentoring using case
studies from Finland and Australia.
The researchers also participated in
a lunch with PhD students, with the
group sharing the stories of their
research interests. The collaborative
work over the three-week visit was
characterised by intellectual
interrogation and shared laughter as
they established a research
connection that may last an
academic lifetime.
Adjunct Prof
John Sharp
also visited in
February from
Bishop
Grosseteste
University in
Lincoln (UK).
John worked
with
academics
and HDR candidates in the School of
Education. He presented several
seminars and workshops on
research capacity building,
undergraduate student boredom and
achievement, critical reading for
doctoral study, and writing from
within a doctorate.
Dr Ingrid
Berglund
from
Stockholm
University
visited
RIPPLE for a
month from
early May.
Ingrid worked
with A/Prof
Ros Brennan Kemmis, Dr Annette
Green and Ms Susanne Francisco.
Ingrid is an expert on the topic of
apprenticeships. Her research
interests focus on pedagogical
issues in vocational education and
issues related to assessment of
vocational skills. She currently leads
a project for the Swedish National
Agency of Education on upper
secondary apprenticeship education.
NEW FUNDING
ARC Discovery funding
Congratulations to the following
RIPPLE researchers who were
named on two new Australian
Research Council Discovery grants
commencing in 2014.
A/Prof Jane Torr, Dr Sheila
Degotardi, Prof Ben Bradley
Administering Organisation
Macquarie University ($258,000)
Very young children’s participation in
language rich experiences form a
foundation for their subsequent
learning and wellbeing. Most studies
focus on mother-child interactions
but this project analyses the
conditions for rich interactions in
long day care centres, specifically
educator-infant talk and infant-peer
communication. High quality infant
childcare can provide a buffer
against social and educational
disadvantage and, with one in four
Australian infants attending long day
care centres, our findings will
provide evidence-based knowledge
to support best practice in infant
pedagogy and curriculum. Strategies
to promote the best possible infant
care and education will ultimately
strengthen our nation’s human
capital.
A/Prof Susan Bennett, Prof Lori
Lockyer, A/Prof Gregor Kennedy,
A/Prof Barney Dalgarno
Administering Organisation
University of Wollongong ($180,531)
Learning in higher education has
become more complex since much
of the founding research 40 years
ago, with online technologies
increasingly used to engage a
diverse university student population
in student-centred learning. The
proposed study aims to update our
understanding of student learning to
this contemporary university context.
The project will focus specifically on
how students interpret online tasks
set by their teachers, how they
complete those tasks by tracking
their activities in real-time, and what
outcomes they achieve. This study
will advance fundamental
understanding of these inter-related
processes, and provide the stimulus
to change thinking about educational
design, teaching practices, and
support for students.
10
Office for Learning and
Teaching grant
Community Hubs
Program evaluation
A team consisting of A/Prof Philip
Hider (lead, CSU), RIPPLE member
A/Prof Barney Dalgarno (CSU),
A/Prof Sue Bennett (University of
Wollongong), Dr Ying-Hsang Liu,
Carole Gerts and Carla Daws (all
CSU), along with Lance Deveson,
Barbara Spiller and Robert Parkes
(from the Australian Council for
Educational Research) were
successful in their application for a
$149,000 Office for Learning and
Teaching (OLT) grant, for their
project titled: National learning and
teaching resource audit and
classification. The OLTcommissioned funding is a Category
1 grant scheme listed on the
Australian Competitive Grant
Register.
Congratulations to the Charles Sturt
University-led team who have been
awarded a $150,000 tender to
independently evaluate the National
Community Hubs Program.
The OLT maintains an online
database of resources associated
with approximately 450 projects and
fellowships carried out over the last
17 years under the banner of the
OLT, the Australian Learning and
Teaching Council (ALTC) and the
Carrick Institute. The focus of this
new project is a research informed
analysis of the requirements of the
various stakeholders who currently
or might in the future use this
resource bank, with a view to
improving its searchability,
maintainability and general usability.
The project will include:
• A high level examination of the
breadth and type of existing
resources available on the
website.
• An examination of the existing
meta-data, categorisations,
keywords and synopses
associated with existing
resources.
• Development of a strategy, in
consultation with a reference
group of key stakeholders from
the higher education sector, for
the use of keywords,
categorisations and other metadata which can be applied to
existing and future resources to
improve accessibility.
• Implementation of the strategy,
including the re-categorisation
and revision of keywords,
synopses and other meta-data
associated with existing
resources.
The RIPPLE Effect: Issue 1 2014
Community Hubs are funded by the
Australian Government in
partnership with the Scanlon
Foundation, the Migration Council
Australia and Refuge of Hope. The
National Community Hubs Program
aims to link families and their
preschool children to services and
support, learning opportunities and
the wider community. Hubs are
located in areas with many families
from low socioeconomic, refugee or
migrant backgrounds, and are
particularly concerned with the social
inclusion of migrant families.
The CSU-led tender builds on a
program of commissioned research
into integrated/interagency service
provision and inter-professional work
that A/Prof Frances Press and Dr
Sandie Wong (with some
involvement by Prof Jennifer
Sumsion) have been undertaking
over the past few years.
The involvement of Excellence in
Research in Early Years Education
Collaborative Research Network
(CRN) colleagues from the
Queensland University of
Technology (A/Prof Annette Woods
and Dr Melinda Miller) and Monash
University (Dr Corine Rivalland)
enables the team to undertake a
cost-effective evaluation of
Community Hubs in three states:
New South Wales, Queensland and
Victoria.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Refugee literacy practices
awarded Outstanding
Paper of 2013
A paper by Dr Annemaree Lloyd, Dr
Mary Anne Kennan, Dr Kim
Thompson and Dr Asim Qayyum has
been selected by the Journal of
Documentation's editorial team as
the Outstanding Paper for 2013.
Their paper, titled Connecting with
new information landscapes:
Information literacy practices of
refugees (vol. 69, issue 1, pp. 121-
144), focused on how refugees learn
to engage with complex, multimodal
information landscapes, and how
their information literacy practices
are constructed to enable them to
connect and be included in their new
information landscape.
The Journal of Documentation is an
international journal regarded as one
of the important journals in library
and information science with an
acceptance rate of 20 percent.
Improving learning
through technology
Barney Dalgarno and Caroline Steel
A passion for improving learning
through the use of technology is
what motivates Charles Sturt
University education academic and
RIPPLE researcher, A/Prof Barney
Dalgarno, who has been recognised
with a national award.
Barney was made a Fellow of the
Australasian Society for Computers
in Learning in Tertiary Education
(ascilite). The prestigious award
recognises his contribution over the
past 17 years in research, practice
and leadership in technology and
learning in higher education, and
puts him in the company of some of
the world leaders in technology and
learning.
"There's often a tendency for people
to jump on the bandwagon when it
comes to new technology," said
Barney. "But it's important to think
about the way people learn and to
consider if this new technology will
allow them to do that in a different
way."
The award was presented by ascilite
president, Dr Caroline Steel, at the
Society’s 2013 conference held at
Macquarie University in Sydney.
11
NEW BOOKS
Lived Spaces of InfantToddler Education and
Care
Profs Linda Harrison and Jennifer
Sumsion are the editors of a new
volume in the Springer series,
International perspectives on early
childhood education and
development.
Their book, Lived Spaces of InfantToddler Education and Care:
Exploring Diverse Perspectives on
Theory, Research and Practice,
conceptualises the ‘lived spaces’ of
infant and toddler early education
and care settings by bringing
together international authors
researching within diverse
theoretical frameworks.
It highlights diverse ways of
understanding the experiences of
very young children by exposing the
ways that the authors are grappling
with the unknown. The work
explores broadly the construct and
meanings of ‘lived spaces’ as
relational spaces, interactional
spaces, transitional spaces,
curriculum spaces, or pedagogical
spaces operating within the social,
physical and temporal environment
of infant-toddler education settings.
The book invites interchange
between and among diverse theories
and approaches, and through this
build new understandings of infants’
and toddlers’ experiences and
interactions in early education and
care settings. It also considers the
implications of this work for policy
and practice in infant and toddler
education and care.
The RIPPLE Effect: Issue 1 2014
Handbook of Research
Methods in Early
Childhood Education
The Handbook of Research Methods
in Early Childhood Education has
been released by Information Age
Publishing. Prof Olivia Saracho is
the Handbook’s editor, which
contains chapters written by an
international array of authors
including RIPPLE researchers and
CRN leaders: Profs Sue Dockett,
Bob Perry and Linda Harrison.
The Handbook brings together in
one source research techniques that
researchers can use to collect data
for studies that contribute to the
knowledge in early childhood
education. To conduct valid and
reliable studies, researchers need to
be knowledgeable about numerous
research methodologies.
This Handbook is designed to be
used by students of early childhood
education at all levels of professional
development as well as mature
scholars who want to conduct
research in areas needing more indepth study. It is hoped that this
Handbook will serve the needs of
many in the research community.
Scholars seeking the current state of
research knowledge in various areas
should find this volume useful.
Similarly, practitioners who are trying
to seek knowledge of research and
its practical implications should find
this volume helpful as well. This
Handbook with its individual
chapters presents several research
methodologies to address a variety
of hypotheses or research questions
that will contribute to the knowledge
of the field in early childhood
education.
Classroom Talk:
Understanding Dialogue,
Pedagogy and Practice
Dr Christine Edwards-Groves, Dr
Michele Anstey and Dr Geoff Bull
have released a new book,
Classroom Talk: Understanding
Dialogue, Pedagogy and Practice,
published by the Primary English
Teaching Association Australia
(PETAA).
In times of curriculum change, a
book describing the importance of
classroom talk, and how talk shapes
the learning encountered in lessons,
is both necessary and timely. The
role of talk is often overlooked as a
key element of effective pedagogy.
This book shows how classroom
practice unfolds in the dimensions of
the language used in classrooms,
the activities encountered in
classroom literacy learning, and the
relational arrangements for teaching
and learning.
Contact RIPPLE
RIPPLE
Charles Sturt University
Locked Bag 588
Boorooma Street
Wagga Wagga NSW 2678
Australia
Tel: +61 2 6933 2966
Fax: +61 2 6933 2962
Email: [email protected]
www.csu.edu.au/research/ripple
Follow RIPPLE on Twitter
Newsletter Editor: Kim Woodland
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