Practitioner-led Research Grants Program
In 2010, Research grants of $5,000-$15,000 were made available to schools, networks/clusters and children’s services to undertake practitioner-led research to address one of the following themes:
- developing and trialling approaches to literacy particularly in oral language development for 3-8 year olds
- improving transition points and pathways
- trialling and documenting coherent curriculum at whole school level or at key transition points, or
- evaluating innovative practice in assessment as learning.
The Department received 51 applications; of which eight were successful in receiving a research grant. All of the successful applicants have or will have a research partner, such as a university, while conducting their research project.
The successful applicants, title of applications, research themes and summary of the research questions are presented below.
Ballarat Specialist School
The title of this research project is: The impact of an intervention program to improve school readiness skills in children with disabilities in their pre-school year: parent perspectives and children’s' skill development. The research theme is improving transition points and pathways.
This research project aims to evaluate the impact of the Ballarat Specialist School (BSS) School Ready program on specific functional skills identified in the literature as contributing to school readiness and on parents' perception of their child's readiness to commence school. The functional skills examined in this research will include the children's interactive peer play skills, their functional task performance of everyday school activities such as drawing, cutting and gluing, and their language development. Parent perception of their child's progress in developing readiness for school will also be examined.
The project aims to address the following research questions:
1. Do children attending the BSS School Ready program improve in the following domains of school readiness over a six-month period (June - December 2010)?:
- interactive peer play skills as measured by the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale
- functional task performance of everyday school activities as measured by the School Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (SchoolAMPS)
- pre-school language skills as measured by the Pre-School Language Scale.
2. Does parent perception of their child's readiness for school change in this period of time, as indicated by a parent-completed questionnaire?
Corporate Research Project ID: 2010_000758; Research in Schools Project ID: 2010_000770
Bentleigh West Primary School and Centre Road Kindergarten
The title of this research project is: Improving transition pathways for preshool children: a collaborative pedagogical approach involving kindergarten and preparatory teachers. The research theme is improving transition points and pathways.
In this project, the data that will be collected will be both qualitative (the data derived from focus group discussions with teachers and the informal discussion during the workshops and school/kindergarten visits) and quantitative (questionnaires completed by teachers and parents). The data derived from teacher focus groups will also be analysed using thematic content analysis. The teacher questionnaire pre- and post-test data will be analysed using a parametric statistical procedure. Parent survey data for 2011 will be compared with data collected using the same survey in 2009 and 2010.
The project aims to address the following research question:
- Does a collaborative pedagogical approach involving kindergarten and preparatory teachers improve transition pathways for preshool children?
Corporate Research Project ID: 2010_000765
Birregurra Primary School
The title of this research project is: Using data to inform our whole school approach to teaching and learning. The research theme is trialling and documenting coherent curriculum at whole school level or at key transition points. The project aims to address the following research questions:
- How does a quality written curriculum translate into an effectively delivered curriculum that leads to engaging, challenging, meaningful and relevant classroom experiences for our students?
- Does this have the same effect in other settings, why or why not?
Corporate Research Project ID: 2010_000759
Hopetoun Secondary College
The title of this research project is: Evaluating 'learner centredness' in high school distance education: teacher and student perspectives within the Mallee cluster. The research theme is evaluating innovative practice in assessment as learning.
This project aims is to develop a framework that assists schools within the Mallee cluster to develop collaborative pedagogical practices aimed at building students metacognitive capacity so that they are adequately prepared to be autonomous learners when using ICT to broaden their subject choices. The project also seeks to establish a framework that identifies the needs of both schools and practitioners that will enable them to further embrace technology.
The research addresses the following research questions:
- Can collaborative use of ICT practices within the Mallee cluster met student learning needs?
- Why? To:
- assess whether or not student currently using both the WVS and video conferencing are capable of using these ICT platforms
- identify the issue the cluster may have in relation to'learner centredness'
- develop a cluster wide scope and sequence that address the 'learner centred' needs identified from the research
Corporate Research Project ID: 2010_000761
Pascoe Vale Primary School
The title of this research project is: Evaluating student use of technology in a one-to-one computing program. The research theme is evaluating innovative practice in assessment as learning.
This project will adopt an action-research approach to investigate students’ perceptions of assessment AS learning in the context of a one-to-one computing program. The researchers envisage designing an online student survey. During the research, it is anticipated that the research participants (students) will complete rich literacy tasks and reflect on how the use of technology enhanced their learning. Following each rich task, students will complete an online survey indicating what they have learned and how the technology assisted learning.
The project aims to address the following research questions:
- How can our technology-infused literacy program use assessment to monitor student progress and inform future learning goals?
- How do students in a one-to-one computing program use technologies to reflect on, monitor and inform their learning?
- What are the students' perspectives on how effective the use of technologies are in helping them to learn and develop their own learning goals?
- How can we use information about student learning to inform our planning?
Corporate Research Project ID: 2010_000757; Research in Schools Project ID: 2010_000700
Roxburgh Park Primary School
The title of this research project is: A comparison of student performance on on-line tests and pen and paper tests. The research theme is evaluating innovative practice in assessment as learning. The project aims to address the following research questions:
- What factors are impacting on student performance and results in an online testing situation. How does this compare with pen and paper testing?
- Are there differences in student behaviour, attitude and results when the same test is given in both forms?
- Are there observable differences in teachers' behaviours and attitudes under the two test conditions?
- How are the two types of testing perceived by students and teachers? Is there a preference for one test over the other?
Corporate Research Project ID: 2010_000762
St Georges Road Primary School
The title of this research project is: School-wide neighbourhood oral language program. The research theme is developing and trialling approaches to literacy particularly in oral language development for 3-8 year olds. The project aims to address the following research questions:
- Which teaching strategies give the most proficient learning outcomes in oral language, and how do these relate to the continuum for oral language through the primary school years?
- How does planning and building specific oral language foci develop students’ ability to process, transfer and articulate information in spoken and written forms?
Corporate Research Project ID: 2010_000764
Vermont Primary School
The title of this research project is: The use of sound field technology in the classroom. The research theme is developing and trialling approaches to literacy particularly in oral language development for 3-8 year olds.
This project is concerned with examining the impact of using Sound Field technology in the classroom to improve the academic outcomes in the language development area for all students within Vermont Primary School’s junior grades. The project aims to address the following research question:
- Will the use of Sound Field technology improve the English data for Vermont Primary School students in Prep, Grade 1 - 3?
Corporate Research Project ID: 2010_000763