Current Projects

This study will generate new knowledge promoting positive transitions to school for all children through analysing the impact of the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum on transition to school and interrogating current pedagogies of educational transition in order to inform the transition to school intentions of the two curricula.

The study uses the policy trajectory model to examine the background and intent of policy at the national, state and local levels. The methods used to explore this will include interviews with policy makers at each level, visits to a wide range of sites across Australia and working with educators who have the responsibility of working across the different curriculum documents. Research outcomes will address the development and implementation of pedagogies of transition at the time of school entry and the impact of national curricula on these.

Starting School Conference, Canberra

The project team recently presented some preliminary results from this project at a conference held in Canberra on February 25.
We are happy to share the presentation from this conference, but also note that data analysis is ongoing – particularly in relation to the survey results.
Download the presentation.

You can also download the original project information sheet.
Download the Project Information Sheet.

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The aim of this project was to provide greater focus on children's transition to school, including the transition to out of school hours care, and the ways in which early childhood services utilising the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF) (DEEWR, 2009) and the National Quality Framework (DEEWR, 2011) can work with children, families, other educators and professionals, as well as communities, to promote positive transitions to school for all children.

This was achieved through the development of a resource package, Continuity of learning through effective transition to school, that was informed by the researchers' expertise in educational transitions,  the Transition to School: Position Statement (2010), a reference group comprised of national practitioners and policy makers, and finally by identifying existing effective practice in educational transitions across Australia.

After extensive consultation and surveys, members of the research team visited 35 sites across the country to document examples of effective transition practice to inform the development of the resource. During these site visits, the team interviewed over 350 participants, children, parents and carers, educators, and community members. It is from these site visits that perspectives in the Continuity of learning resource were developed.

After it was launched, 18, 000 hard copies the Continuity of learning resource were distributed to every early childhood and out of school hours care service around the country.

The research team are still working with the large amount of data that was collected through this research project, and wish to publish more of their findings in the near future.

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Let's Count is an early mathematics education program implemented by The Smith Family. The program materials were developed by the Bob Perry and Ann Gervasoni, with on-line subject material for EMC 101 Lets Count, developed by Amy MacDonald.  This subject is available to students in the B Teach/B.Ed, B.Ed Stud programs and as a general elective. A pilot implementation and evaluation of the program was conducted in 2011 (valued at $66 066). The evaluation was undertaken in five sites in Tasmania, Victoria, NSW, Queensland and South Australia.

The overall aim of this research project is to complete a longitudinal evaluation of the Let's Count program in terms of its success in bringing early childhood educators and the parents and other family members of children attending prior-to-school centres together to enhance children's mathematical engagement, and to measure the effect of the Let's Count program on children's mathematics learning outcomes and dispositions as they make the transition to schooling.

Let's Count is structured around two educator workshops six weeks apart and interaction opportunities for educators and parents and other family members to work together between and beyond these. The purpose of the workshops is to assist educators and family members to develop children's mathematical knowledge and dispositions as they make the transition to schooling. The study uses a mixed methods approach to investigate the impact of Let's Count on educators, parents and carers and children in the year prior to beginning school.

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This study will generate new knowledge about young children noticing mathematics in their everyday lives. The project will involve working with children in both lower primary school and preschool settings, over a period of 6 months on a fortnightly basis. The methods used to explore this will include spending time talking with the children about what they notice about both their own and their peers/teachers mathematics as well as developing artefacts such as drawings, to demonstrate this.

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