Search

This study investigated school connectedness, student engagement, academic grades, and student affect. Factor analyses of 331 adolescent students (Years 7, 9, and 11 in Australia), validated a four-factor model of school engagement. The factors revealed in the analyses were described as (1) future and task focus, (2) planning and motivation, (3) positive roles and models, and (4) positive social engagement. Cluster analyses revealed two typologies of students: a thriving group scoring significantly higher on all four factors than a striving group. There was a consistent number of students in each group across Years 7, 9 and 11. Compared to students in the striving group, on average, students in the thriving group scored significantly higher on grades (i.e., mathematics and English). Moreover, students in the thriving group were significantly higher on content and excited affects, and significantly less depressed and distressed compared to the students in the striving group. Limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.

For many Indigenous children living in remote communities, the prerequisites to achieving strong language and learning outcomes include the maintenance of their first languages and progress in learning English as an additional language. This paper reports on data from a Linkage study conducted with families at two Families as First Teachers (FaFT) playgroups in two remote Northern Territory communities. The data highlight the ways parents and carers encouraged very young children to engage in home languages as a foundation on which to develop skills in English during play and book reading activities. Transcripts of mother-child book reading and play sessions and reflections of FaFT Family Liaison Officers are examined to explore the language interactions and the strategies used by mothers to support children’s multilingual learning. The data highlight the importance of early childhood teaching and learning that honours children’s linguistic and cultural resources and prioritises families’ aspirations for children’s multilingual language learning.

There is growing recognition that literacy learning takes place in the years prior to formal schooling and that young children develop literacy-like behaviours through exposure to interactions in shared contexts in which literacy is a component. Despite this, there are few assessments that measure the very early literacy skills that children develop before 36 months of age. This article reports on the design and validation of a new instrument – the Early Literacy Engagement Assessment (ELEA). This tool was developed to provide insights into the impact of Conversational Reading, a key pedagogical strategy implemented at Families as First Teachers playgroups, on young children’s early receptive and expressive vocabulary and literacy skills. The instrument was trialled with 104 children living in locations across Melbourne, Victoria, and 39 Aboriginal children living in remote communities in the Northern Territory. The trial process was undertaken in two phases: (1) a technical assessment to test item consistency, characteristics and placement and (2) concurrent validity testing against items from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-2 tool. The findings from the trial and validation process indicate that overall the ELEA discriminates well between children of high and low ability, and it is a useful tool in the authentic assessment of expressive and receptive vocabulary skills in young children.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the impact of early health risks on young Aboriginal children’s attendance in playgroups and their early learning outcomes. Design: The study used a cross-sectional design to identify associations between children’s early health characteristics, their attendance at a Families as First Teachers (FaFT) playgroup and their early learning outcomes. Setting: A total of 128 Aboriginal children from two remote Northern Territory (NT) communities attending FaFT playgroups participated in the study. Method: Health data were coded as risk factors and associated with children’s attendance and learning outcome data. Results: Children in the cohort experienced relatively high rates of health risks: ear infections (otitis media, 57%), anaemia (37%), skin infections (28%), low birthweight (22%), low weight for age (19%) and a high proportion were born to teenage mothers (26%). However, these rates were lower than previously recorded rates for Aboriginal children in remote NT communities. Despite the presence of multiple health risks, low weight for age was the only risk factor found to be negatively associated with children’s learning outcomes (language skills) and only two health risks (teenage motherhood and lower child haemoglobin levels) were negatively associated with children’s attendance at playgroup. Most children (65%) experienced one or two health risks during the study and no significant associations were found between the number of health risks experienced and children’s attendance or learning outcomes. Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of culturally responsive, evidence-based and integrated health and education programmes within remote Aboriginal Australian communities as a means to mitigate risks to poor learning and development outcomes.

This paper explores strategies that support Aboriginal parents’ mastery of evidence-based early learning strategies, and their impact on young Aboriginal children’s learning outcomes. The three-year study followed 32 parent-child dyads attending Families as First Teachers (FaFT) playgroups in two remote Northern Territory communities in 2015–2017. Trained FaFT staff provided parents with coaching in the use of Conversational Reading—an evidence-based shared reading strategy in first language—at FaFT. The study examined patterns of parent mastery across the three-year study period, the relationship between levels of parent-child participation at FaFT (program dosage) and parent mastery, and the impact of parent mastery of Conversational Reading on young Aboriginal children’s language and learning outcomes. By including measures of parent-child participation and parent mastery of key program strategies at three time points, the study also provides a picture of the fidelity of program implementation across the study period. The findings indicate that parents’ mastery of strategies (and thus the fidelity of program implementation) increased over time in line with the program dosage parents received. Higher levels of parent-child participation at FaFT and parent mastery of strategies at the end of the program were positively associated with children’s language and learning outcomes. This study demonstrates that the provision of coaching at playgroup is an effective way to build parent capacity in the implementation of evidence-based early learning strategies, and that supporting parent mastery of teaching strategies has the potential to improve the learning outcomes of young children in remote Aboriginal communities.

The university sector was hit hard by COVID-19 in early 2020 with global calls for universities to lockdown. The teacher education sector in most countries, including Australia, had not anticipated...

Studies of early writing recognize that learning to write is a complex process requiring students to attend to the composition of the text and the transcription of the ideas. The research discussed here examined six dimensions of early writing—text structure, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and handwriting—and how each dimension relates to message construction. Specifically, this research aimed to consider the relationships between the authorial and secretarial aspects of writing, in order to support formative assessment and teaching. The research also considered whether there were underlying clusters of students who were engaging with the various dimensions in differing ways as they learned to craft texts. The analysis of data showed a clear conceptualization of the authorial and secretarial aspects of writing, as reflected in a tool for analysing writing. The three authorial dimensions and three secretarial dimensions of writing were well defined statistically. Three clusters of students were identified as having varying degrees of competence across the six dimensions of writing: a group with consistently low scores; a group with consistently medium scores; and a consistently high-scoring group. Attainment for SES groups was reflected in the writing dimensions, and gender differences were also evident; however, the variance explained by gender and SES was small to moderate. The study has implications for supporting students who are at present struggling with the challenges of early writing. The results suggest that when teachers address the dimensions of the writing process in combination, based on an informed analysis of students’ needs, they can focus their teaching and select instructional approaches to increase the efficacy of their teaching.

New approaches to support the early learning for young Indigenous children are important to government policies across Australia. This study explores whether the Abecedarian Approach Australia (3a) intervention, with strong cultural adaptations, can boost young Aboriginal children’s early language and learning skills, prior to preschool. Participants in this study were Aboriginal children attending playgroups, Families as First Teachers, in school settings in two remote communities in the Northern Territory. Implementation data on two components (Conversational Reading and LearningGames) of the Abecedarian Approach Australia (3a) intervention are reported, and the level of exposure the children had to the programme during the study period is analysed. Child outcomes were assessed on the Brigance Early Childhood Screen II for 149 children aged from 24 to 56 months. Children’s language and early learning were associated with intervention dosage. Higher exposure to Conversational Reading and LearningGames predicted stronger language and overall development for young children. This study demonstrates that this intervention can be delivered effectively in playgroups in remote settings and is a meaningful and robust strategy to support early childhood learning, with potential to improve educational outcomes for young Aboriginal children in remote communities.

Despite the recent emphasis on oral English language proficiency in the Iranian education system, the teaching of oral communication remains a challenge for secondary school English language teachers. In this article, we suggest that this, in part, relates to the continued emphasis on literacy practices. The article explores the approach taken by three Iranian junior high school English language teachers to teaching oracy during a summer school task-based intervention. Data were gathered through observations and interviews, and third generation activity theory from Engeström (1996; Engeström 2001) was used to analyse teachers’ practices. Findings revealed that, while trialling aspects of task-based pedagogies, the teachers’ attention to oracy increased. However, they retained a strong traditional focus on literacy teaching, which had an effect on their approach to oracy and also appeared to constrain their movement towards less-controlled spoken language. This small-scale study offers insights into approaches to oracy teaching while employing task-based pedagogies in foreign language contexts like Iran. In this context, English literacy has been the historical focus, the Roman alphabet is new for the students, and there is often limited exposure to oracy practices outside the classroom context (Sadeghi and Richards, 2015).

Over the past decade, researchers have called for a reconceptualisation of school connectedness. A review of literature between 1990 and 2016 was completed to define school connectedness and identified four factors: attending, belonging, engaging, and flow. The review of the published literature from 1990 to 2016 that related to the four factors was undertaken to define each of these terms and their relevance to school connectedness.Subsequently, based on the four factors, a sequential, four-level model of school connectedness was proposed. The model suggests a progression from minimal connection to a deep level of acculturation and shared meaning relevant for adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age. It is argued that the four factors form the foundation for engagement and suggests the possibility of an experience of flow as a result of a student's connectedness with school. The literature on which the model is based draws together social, emotional, behavioural, and cognitive terms central to learning. The purpose of the review is to move beyond individual factors to propose an explanation for the sequence of graduated connection. Practically, the model provides a template for establishing the student's current experience of school to facilitate interventions to optimise connectedness with school.

Using video as a mode of data generation in research involving young children and their teachers has become a more common practice in educational research. Digital video recordings provide the opportunity to capture the complexity of interactions that occur between people, time, space and objects, however, working with this methodology and form of data can be complex and challenging. This paper focuses on the use of video as a methodology to understand teachers’ tacit knowledge of practice that supports young children’s oral language. This study explores four specific viewpoints that have been employed to investigate teachers’ practice: (1) camera, (2) teacher, (3) researcher and (4) peers. From our analysis of the affordances of the differing viewpoints, we propose that what can be ‘seen’ is directly impacted by the understandings of those involved in the research process in relation to data capture, viewing and analysing the data. We argue that these viewpoints are not neutral or mutually exclus...

Students who fail to make effective progress with literacy learning during their early years often continue to struggle in the later years of schooling and beyond. Without adequate skills in reading and writing, these students are seriously disadvantaged in a literate society. This pertains to all students and is particularly relevant for Indigenous students as we work to “close the gap” in literacy achievement. This chapter reports on an empirical study that aimed to address the literacy achievement of Indigenous students in the early years of schooling, attending schools in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, through the adaptation of preventive processes involving systematic teaching approaches. Specifically, it details implementation processes at three levels of engagement—with the community, with teacher learning, and with classroom practice.

Provision for students learning English as an additional language (EAL) frequently overlooks the linguistic resources these children bring to the classroom. This is despite international research that highlights the facilitative links between support of the home language and the acquisition of new languages. This article reports on a longitudinal study of Karen–English bilingual learning in the early years at one culturally and linguistically diverse primary school. It analyses classroom observation and student achievement data, work samples, staff interviews, parent questionnaires, and student self-assessments to build a rich evidence base that attests to the advantages afforded by plurilingual opportunities in what are often staunchly monolingual classroom contexts. The importance of additive language policies and pedagogies for EAL students in mainstream classes is reinforced by this study, and a framework is proposed whereby bilingual education focusing on community languages can be successful...

Writing is a key area of literacy in the early years, however writing receives less research attention than reading despite its impact on students’ learning generally, and literacy development specifically. Writing skills have also been shown to be quite stable−good writers in the early years stay good writers in the later years. Therefore it is critical to better understand the aspects of writing central to development that might support teaching and learning. In this paper we share findings from the analysis of 500 writing samples from 250 students. The students were in Year 1, which is the second year of school in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia. Samples were collected at two points in time (approximately four to five months apart) and analysed using a writing analysis tool developed by the authors in an earlier stage of the study. The results reported and discussed here show levels of attainment and changes in students’ writing in the areas of text structure, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and handwriting, and also highlight relationships between these dimensions as students develop increasing control over writing. Socio-educational advantage, gender differences, and findings specific to children who learn English as an additional language are also reported. The findings have implications for practice in the early years of schooling. They also offer a conceptualisation of students’ early writing based on an analysis process that integrates the authorial and secretarial dimensions of writing and provides teachers with relevant data to plan instruction.

Teacher education in universities continues to diversify in the twenty-first century. Just as course offerings, course delivery, staffing and the teaching/research mix varies extensively from university to university so does the procedure for pre-service teacher selection. Various factors bear on selection procedures and practices however few university courses have rigorous testing procedures for candidate selection. Further, there has been an over-reliance on grade scores and interview as preferred selection methods. A method of selection based on a comprehensive and broad spectrum set of tests and questionnaires is proposed on which to base selection. We suggest that a model comprised of previous achievements, tests of ability and reasoning, self and social interaction are the best indicators and that scores on these factors should be taken into account to provide valid and reliable data on which to make good decisions when selecting candidates.

With the recent publication of the Early Years Learning Framework for all Australian children during the years before they start school, there is now for the first time a national document to guide the work of all Australian early childhood educators. This document identifies five learning outcomes designed to capture the integrated and complex learning and development of all children in the birth to five years age range. In particular, learning outcome five addresses children as effective communicators; and one of the key components of this outcome is children gaining meaning from a range of texts. This paper reviews issues surrounding early literacy in the years before school and seeks to identify a definition of early literacy which will clarify early childhood educators' understanding of this important area of young children's learning and development, and support their practice more specifically.

This paper examines how literacy is defined and enacted by teachers in early childhood programmes pointing to the differing ways views of early literacy impact practice. It is argued here that early literacy development during the years before school is dependent on children's experiences of having literacy activities modelled around them and the ways in which adults include them in their everyday literacy interactions. Early childhood teachers reveal differing understandings of early literacy during the years before formal school and this impacts their decisions concerning literacy activities and practice within their preschool rooms. Three early childhood teachers are presented here, through video clips and video-stimulated interviews around their literacy activities with preschool children. They demonstrate a range of practice which is shown to depend on their views of young children's literacy development. These vignettes have implications for further professional discussion and learning.

This paper introduces the Young Learners’ Project, which is a large scale longitudinal study that aims to identify a number of factors associated with positive outcomes in literacy in the first year of school: the role of the preschool teacher, home life and child characteristics. In particular, it presents the design of one sub-study within the larger project that is focusing on the beliefs, theoretical constructs and literacy practices of 25 preschool teachers. The paper deliberates the methodological choices of a group of researchers who set out to represent in diverse ways, and for diverse purposes, the layered meanings inherent in preschool teachers’ beliefs and practices in relation to early literacy development. In particular, through reference to illustrative extracts of a single case analysis, the paper explores the possibilities and complexities of adopting mixed methods and in doing so, responds to a call for researchers to make explicit the purposes and challenges of case study methodologies.

Reynolds and Wheldall reviewed research relating to Reading Recovery (RR) and concluded that “RR has provided an excellent model in demonstrating how to plan, promote, and implement an intervention across an educational system and how to design a professional development programme” (2007, p. 218). They balanced this praise with concerns about the research base for RR, its effectiveness for the lowest‐performing first‐grade students, long‐term change in literacy achievement for RR students and RR’s cost‐effectiveness. This response aims to address these concerns by discussing four central issues of evidence‐based practice from their review: evidence of effectiveness; sustained gains; programme evaluation data from a response to intervention perspective; and cost‐effectiveness versus cost‐benefit.

The aim of the research reported here was to investigate why a percentage of students experience continued difficulty in literacy learning while participating in Reading Recovery. It was hypothesized that this is to do with particular aspects of teacher—learner interactions. Accordingly the study used ethnographic methodology to describe teacher—learner interactions generally and to then examine selected dimensions of the interaction between particular cohorts of students and their teachers. Specifically investigated were the characteristics of this group, mapping students' learning trajectory, and identifying key points and events that impact on teacher decision-making processes with regard to student learning. The learners who participated in this study were 10 children identified as being at risk of literacy failure. Their participation in one-to-one literacy support resulted in six of the children making considerable progress, with the other four identified as requiring ongoing support beyond the short-term intervention provided by Reading Recovery. The reasons for the successful outcome for the six learners are related to the ways that their teachers orchestrated positive reading and writing opportunities through closely focused verbal support. While this `helping talk' appeared to be decisive in the six successful cases, it was productive but inadequate in the remaining four.

This paper examines the oral language resources that enhance children’s reading and comprehension processes. Using data from a study of 16 children, the microanalysis of the three more successful readers, identified salient factors from the individual children’s learning profiles that were observed as associated with their positive comprehension outcomes. The results indicate vocabulary knowledge, syntactic competence and an understanding of narrative grammar as important to the concurrent development of children’s oral language abilities commensurate with text reading. The study emphasises the facilitative role of oral language to early reading acquisition processes, the need for teachers’ detailed knowledge of children’s oral language competencies and improved access to assessment tools that capture a range of complex language skills to inform classroom practice.