The Centre for Child and Family Studies is delighted to be hosting our first visiting scholar in almost 3 years, Dr Kaisa Pihlainen from The University of Finland.
Centre members had the wonderful opportunity to hear from Dr Pihlainen on Wednesday when she shared her current research with the staff from the Centre and the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education. Dr Pihlainen studies topics concerning children on the Autism Spectrum in inclusive classrooms, student teacher well-being and older adults’ digital literacy learning.
Dr Pihlainen’s PhD study was based on understanding children and families’ interests in technology clubs. She interviewed families to ask about their involvement in clubs and developed a deeper interest in understanding how parents and children’s perspectives stood out in the data. From her work Dr Pihlainen was able to develop a model to support and advise on the best practice running of technology clubs.
Currently, Dr Pihlainen is researching strategies that support the social participation of children on the autism spectrum and their peer interactions in inclusive classrooms. The project employs eye tracking and conversation analysis to investigate peer interactions, and video stimulated accounts to understand children’s perspectives and gain an insider’s view of how to support children on the autism spectrum within the classroom. We are really looking forward to reading the results of this research.
We are also looking forward to hearing how Dr Pihlainen’s work supports professionals. With teacher retention rates a key concern in Australia, we are always keen to expand our knowledge on how we can support and retain beginning teachers in the work force.
If you would like to read more about Dr Pihlainen’s studies, you view a copy of her slide presentation here.