Subhashni Appanna
Understanding student emotion to enhance science inquiry teaching practices
Science inquiry is one approach used to engage students, develop their knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, improve scientific literacy, and model how scientists explore phenomena. Existing research has found that students’ emotions present obstacles and opportunities for learning science, however there is scant research into students’ emotions in science inquiry, which negates the opportunity for developing science inquiry teaching practices that consider emotionally receptive learning environment. This study addresses the need for exploring social interactions and emotional experiences of Year 10 Chemistry students during science inquiry to inform teaching practice. New understandings about students’ emotional experiences during science inquiry will be developed through a post-paradigmatic study design that combines interpretive and the participatory paradigms through a methodology informed by ethnomethodology and microsociology. Read Subhashni’s PhD thesis here.
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Alberto Bellocci
Associate Supervisor: Dr James Davis
Jo Bell
Following the Actors in Gifted Education Policy and Practice: An Australian Ethnographic Multi-Site Case Study
Gifted and talented students are entitled to appropriate educational opportunities. However, the literature demonstrates a disparity between gifted education policy and practice. In Australia, gifted education policy implementation varies amongst the states and territories. This multi-site case study investigated gifted education policy and practice within Queensland regional schools. Employing Actor-Network Theory (ANT) blended with enthnographic methods, this study was conducted over two phases. This investigation focused on four state primary schools, and analysed the diverse human and non-human networks connected to gifted education policy and practice. Findings from this study aim to illuminate the dynamic relationships between the policy actors, and how they shape gifted education policy and practice within some Queensland state primary schools.
Principal supervisor: Dr Carly Lassig
Associate supervisors: Associate Professor Deborah Henderson and Dr Mallihai Tambyah
Tshering Dolkar
Because happiness matters: Exploring 13-year-old children’s lived experience of happiness in a rural Bhutanese context
Positioned within the social constructionist research paradigm, this study explores 13-year-old children’s lived experience of happiness in a rural context in Bhutan through a collective case study design. The study is situated within Bhutan’s emphasis on Gross National Happiness (GNH) as a development philosophy and Educating for GNH as an education policy. Despite this emphasis on happiness, there is limited knowledge about Bhutanese children’s experience of happiness and their participation in conversations about what matters for their happiness. This study will provide insights for GNH from children’s perspectives. It will further contribute to children’s perspectives of the phenomenon of happiness, which has been receiving increasing global attention but dominated by western perspectives, quantitative measurements, and adult views.
Principal Supervisor: Dr Jenna Gillett-Swan
Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Deborah Henderson
Jeanine Gallagher
Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD): An institutional ethnography of student funding
There is an expectation students with disability will attend their local school, on the same basis with similarly aged peers (Commonwealth of Australia, 2005). Teachers are expected to plan learning for students with disability that ensures full access to, and participation in, the mandated curriculum. Inevitably the issue of additional resources that may (or may not) be needed to meet the educational needs of students with disability is raised. The new national policy, the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD), collects information about the number of students with disability, their location, and the level of educational adjustments they receive. This data will be used to inform Commonwealth Government planning and funding for school students with disability. In seeking to understand how teachers enact this policy, it is anticipated the outcomes of this research will provide important insights for school leaders, and education authorities, as they develop and implement structures to support teachers in this work. Read Jeanine’s PhD thesis here.
Supervisor: Associate Professor Jill Willis
Associate supervisors: Dr Nerida Spina and Professor Gordon Tait
Cicilia Evi
Mothers’ perceptions of their own smartphone use in the family setting
This research explores the way mothers use their smartphones within Australian family contexts. The findings suggest that the use of smartphones by mothers has both affordances and challenges. Smartphone use is perceived as mediating parent-child interactions, supporting mothers in managing work and personal life, and supporting children’s learning process. These affordances challenge the prevailing negative connotations of parental smartphone use portrayed by the media. Challenges in relation to smartphone use by mothers were also acknowledged, including continuous use of smartphones by mothers and how such usage sets the example for children’s smartphone use. Read Cicilia’s MPhil thesis here.
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Jenna Gillett-Swan
Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Kate Williams
Tshewang Namgyel
Exploring emotional engagement during explicit nature of science instruction among pre-service science teachers
The Nature of Science (NOS) is a concept developed by science education researchers to understand and explain scientific epistemologies, and the ways science may be considered a process for generating knowledge, as a human endeavour. Science education research illustrates the benefits of NOS instruction in teaching scientific literacy. Existing research on NOS instruction fails to address student emotions and their role in learning about NOS. This is despite more than a decade of research in science education which has investigated and established the role of emotions in learning science. My study explores the interplay between pre-service science teachers’ emotional engagement during explicit NOS instruction in the context of science inquiry.
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Alberto Bellocchi
Associate Supervisor: Dr James Davis
Tanya Taylor
Teacher attitudes towards the inclusion of students with ASD in primary mainstream settings
The prevalence of students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) within educational settings has continued to rise during the past decade. There is very little research conducted into how Australian teachers’ attitudes influence the inclusion of these students in mainstream primary educational settings. Using a mixed methods research design, this study will examine the barriers teachers experience within a mainstream classroom setting when catering to the academic and social needs of students on the autism spectrum within a primary school setting. Furthermore, this study aims to investigate possible solutions to assist educators to overcome perceived barriers when providing inclusive curriculum drawing on attitude theory and social constructionism.
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Beth Saggers
Associate Supervisor: Professor Suzanne Carrington