Projects and publications

The creation of the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) was one of the national policy initiatives under the 2020 National School Reform Agreement, aimed at lifting outcomes across Australian education. AERO is jointly owned and funded by the Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments.

AERO’s vision is for Australia to achieve excellence and equity in educational outcomes for all children and young people through effective use of evidence.

In support of this vision, AERO is: generating high-quality evidence, presenting high-quality evidence that is relevant and accessible, and encouraging adoption and effective implementation of evidence in practice and policy. Current research spans: successful transitions from early childhood into schooling, lifting the performance of middle performing schools, measuring and promoting student wellbeing, and identifying practices that support students who are the furthest behind. AERO has also partnered with Ochre Education to provide Australian teachers free access to hundreds of high-quality curriculum resources.

Find out more on their website.

The Centre for Information Resilience (CIRES) is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centre funded for 5 years from 2021. The centre aims at building workforce capacity in Australian organisations to create, protect and sustain agile data pipelines capable of detecting and responding to failures and risks across the information value chain in which the data is sourced, shared, transformed, analysed and consumed.

Building on strong foundations of responsible data science, the centre brings together end-users, technology providers and cutting-edge research to lift the socio-technical barriers to data driven transformation. It supports the development of resilient data pipelines capable of delivering game-changing productivity that position Australian organisations at the forefront of technology leadership and value creation from data assets.

Find out more on their website.

The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child is the world’s first research centre dedicated to creating positive digital childhoods for all Australian children.

The centre’s research innovates and intersects across fields of health, education and technology to offer a holistic view of young children and their digital experiences.

The heart of the research program is a Longitudinal Family Cohort Study: a 7-year study of 3,000 Australian families focussing on children from birth to 8 years of age. The study is designed to identify potential problems and unmet possibilities associated with digital technologies in early childhood. The centre will document and track digital engagement in the early years of life and their effects on the healthy, educated and connected lives of young children.

Find out more on their website.

This Australian Research Council Linkage Project examines the potential of scaled work samples exemplifying A–E standards within a new online moderation method to support teachers’ assessment practices and comparability of judgements. The project develops an assessment framework bringing together standards (A–E), actual exemplars of student work, and related commentaries in a new on-line platform for moderation. The utility of the work samples, combined with commentaries of how judgements of quality were formed, will be studied through teachers’ use of these as the foundation for dependable judgements of students’ work.

The project will generate new knowledge regarding standards in-action and the metacognition of judgement-making for the middle years in Australian education using an innovative approach connecting achievement standards and judgement practice.

Expected outcomes of the project include the development of scaled work samples exemplifying A–E standards of achievement, refined methods for the consistency and comparability of assessment decisions, a new approach to moderating teacher judgements, a repository of A–E work samples illustrating the achievement standards in English, Science, and Maths in Years 4, 6 and 8, along with related commentaries in a new online platform for moderation. This should provide significant benefits in building teachers’ assessment capabilities, shaping policy and teacher preparation.

The project engages with geographically-distributed schools and teachers in two states in Australia across urban, rural, remote and very remote settings.

The project partners are an internationally renowned research team from Australian Catholic University (ACU), University of Western Australia, Queen’s University in Canada, the Queensland Department of Education, the Western Australian School Curriculum and Standards Authority, and Catholic Education Western Australia.

For more information, visit Professor Adie’s ACU webpage.

In an Australian first, the Q Project’s goal is ‘to understand and improve high-quality use of research evidence in Australian schools in order to enhance the quality of teaching’.

During this 5-year partnership between Monash University and the Paul Ramsay Foundation, the project will involve close collaboration with school leaders, teachers, policy-makers, evidence brokers, researchers and other key stakeholders across Australia.

The Q Project is distinctive in: focussing on the quality of evidence use as well as the quality of evidence, exploring evidence use as a professional learning challenge, seeking to understand and improve evidence use, working with education professionals to develop practical tools, and working with system leaders to drive policy impact.

Find out more on their website.

This research aims to investigate how schools transcend refugee students' earlier life experiences by creating the social and educational conditions that enhance their resilience. It focusses on the policies, practices, relationships and events that shape the schooling experiences of refugee students and promote their resilience.

The study provides education sectors, schools and refugee service providers with crucial new knowledge about how school-based policies and practices can foster refugee student resilience. Outcomes of this project will include the development of research-based guides to good policy and practice in refugee education, and improved educational and social outcomes for refugee students.

Find out more on their website.

This Australian Research Council linkage project is investigating the link between innovative learning environments and teacher change.

In the 6 years prior to the study, the Australian and New Zealand governments invested AU$16 billion of public funding to build Innovative Learning Environments (ILEs) in schools. These environments are designed to meet the changing needs of learners and education reform priorities, with multi-modal, technology-infused and flexible learning spaces.

New learning environments require new teaching methods, and apart from a small number of examples, teaching practices in ILEs remain the same as in traditional classrooms.

This project is looking at how teachers can harness the untapped potential of ILEs to improve learning outcomes for students. It will identify whether there is a link between quality teaching and effective use of ILEs and develop practical tools to assist teachers to adapt their teaching practices to maximise deeper learning.

For more information, visit the Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change project.

A survey conducted in the first phase of the project, gives a snapshot of the current "state of play" when it comes to the nature of school spaces. Responses from 822 school principals indicate that:

1. approximately 75% of all spaces are traditional classrooms
2. the dominant teaching approach is teacher-led pedagogies
3. participants from schools with a higher prevalence of traditional classroom spaces reported a lower assessment along the teacher mind frame continuum, with the reverse in more flexible learning spaces.

While the findings are based on perceptions of leading teachers, they still suggest there's evidence of a relationship between types of learning environments, teaching practices, teacher mind frames, and student deep learning.

For more information, visit the ILETC survey reports.

All students, and disadvantaged students especially, need to be able to communicate emotions in a variety of ways. Research shows that teachers are not always equipped to teach them how.

The Strengthening Effective Language of Feelings In Education (SELFIE) research project aims to develop new approaches for strengthening low SES students' language of emotions across multiple modes and media. It also aims to document the students' language of emotions across modes and media.

The project brings together schools, visual media experts, and policy makers to develop innovative approaches to strengthen students' language skills for emotional expression and wellbeing, and e-learning resources for teachers and students.

For more information, visit the SELFIE research project.

The proportion of adolescents who are disengaging from school, being suspended and experiencing emotional problems, continues to rise. This research is testing how the learning, behavioural and social outcomes of adolescents can be improved, by embedding social and emotional wellbeing into:

• school-wide policies
• classroom practices
• self and social strategies.

The rationale for the research is that whole of school approaches are needed to build resilient youth and improve their social participation and wellbeing. A whole of school approach recognises that teacher wellbeing is an integral component of enhancing the wellbeing of students.

To see how teachers are using the project to enhance their own wellbeing, view the Mindful Practice 4 Teachers video.

Recruiting and retaining quality teachers for disadvantaged schools is a persistent problem, both in Australia and globally.

A unique teacher education program aims to prepare quality teachers for schools in low socio-economic communities. This Australian Research Council project investigates how graduates of that program understand and enact 'quality' in their practice. It brings together theory on disadvantage and the lived experience of teachers.

It builds on a successful partnership between the department and Queensland University of Technology.

For more information, visit the Social Ventures website and watch the National Exceptional Teachers for Disadvantaged Schools video (YouTube).

This project is looking at ways to grow and sustain a professional early years workforce – investigating the factors that enable and impede recruitment, retention, engagement and the ongoing professional qualifications of early years educators, taking account of national and state policies and strategies, and local workforce ecosystems.

Partners include QUT, Charles Sturt University, Department of Education and Goodstart Early Learning.

In 2016, the project brought together early childhood educators, policy makers, peak organisations, and regulators to discuss the findings of a national survey of early childhood professionals.

For more information, view the Money, Love and Identity: Initial Findings from the National ECEC Workforce Study report (PDF, 3.1MB) .

The Kids in Communities Study (KiCS) is working to understand how different factors in our communities-physical environment, social environment, socio-economic factors, access to services, and governance-influence the way that children develop.

We know that the early childhood years have a profound and lasting impact on children's health and developmental outcomes. We also know that there are different factors in our communities that play a major role in the healthy development of children, particularly the resources that families can access. We don't know exactly which community factors impact child development, and how we can modify those factors to help all children to have the best start in life. The what and the how is what KiCS wants to answer.

For more information, visit the KiCs website.

Aim of the project

CREATE is an acronym: Collaborative; Relationship-driven; Early in the pathway; Accountable; Training-focused; Evidence-driven. This long-term project is ultimately about reducing youth crime and promoting human and community development.

Where the project came from

The CREATE Project emerged from the Pathways to Prevention project.

The Pathways to Prevention project began in 2001 with the aim of involving family, school and community in a broad set of planned interventions to prevent anti-social behaviour among 4 to 6 year olds, as there is a strong evidence base that problem behaviour by young children is one of the strongest predictors of both adult delinquency and later adult offending. The program focused on enhancing the communication and social skills of young people and empowering their families, schools and ethnic communities to provide supportive environments for positive development.

The Pathways Project ran from 2001 to 2011 as a partnership between national community service agency Mission Australia, 7 local primary schools and Griffith University, in several ethnically diverse, socially disadvantaged, and high-crime Brisbane suburbs.

Building on the Pathways project

An important outcome of the Pathways Project has been a longitudinal database of child outcomes. Including data from nearly 5,000 children, Department of Education records, and case studies – this database provides an unprecedented wealth of long-term data.

An Australian Research Council Discovery Project (2013–16) entitled Crime, poverty and early prevention: a Longitudinal study of social and developmental pathways to wellbeing through the Pathways to Prevention Project, analysed this data and added official youth justice data for the original preschool cohort (2002–03).

The CREATE project

It is an attempt to strengthen collaborative practices around clear, measurable goals that are achieved through evidence-based initiatives. These principles underpin a model of preventative action that:

• empowers schools and community agencies to transcend system silos
• fosters ethical practices and respectful relationships
• delivers goal-directed, quantitatively evaluated, evidence-based resources that promote child wellbeing in disadvantaged communities
• helps deflect children from antisocial and criminal behaviours.

These principles are being applied in the CREATE-ing Pathways to Child Wellbeing in Disadvantaged Communities Project, 2013–2022. This project seeks to keep improving prevention delivery systems by applying and testing a Prevention Translation and Support System which consists of both human and electronic infrastructure in order to put the CREATE principles into practice.​

The Science of Learning Research Centre (SLRC) was set up in 2013. Its vision is to improve pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary learning outcomes through scientifically-validated tools and strategies.

The SLRC brings together neuroscientists, psychologists and education researchers from across the country, collaborating on programs to better understand learning, using a range of innovative experimental techniques and programs.

The SLRC is partnered by 3 state education departments, 4 international universities, the Benelovent Society and Questacon in Canberra.

For more information, visit the SLRC website.

Effective Early Educational Experiences, or E4Kids, is Australia's most extensive study of the impact and effectiveness of early childhood education and care. It was conducted by the University of Melbourne and Queensland University of Technology, with funding support from the Australian Research Council, and the Victorian and Queensland governments.

Over 5 years, the project followed almost 2,500 children in Victoria and Queensland, measuring their progress as they participate in childcare, preschool and family day care programs. These children were compared with another group who did not attend formal early childhood services before school.

Researchers investigated:

• the importance of quality early childhood experiences
• the effect of growing up in disadvantaged circumstances
• what types of programs had the greatest benefit.

They used the Classroom Assessment Scoring System to rate early childhood education and care services against 3 quality domains:

• emotional support
• room organisation—that facilitates learning and participation in a range of stimulating activities
• instructional support—also referred to as intentional teaching.

The E4Kids study findings provide strong evidence that the quality of educator-child interactions makes a real difference to child outcomes.

It found that early childhood education and care services are generally better at providing emotional support to children and organising the learning space than they are at intentional teaching. The findings suggest a need to strengthen intentional teaching practices to better support children's learning in early childhood services and the early years of school.

The study also found that kindergartens generally rated higher in terms of the quality of care and learning compared to long day and family day care settings. This finding, from 2012, reinforces the government investment in universal kindergarten program access.

It should be noted that the study started in 2010 before the implementation of the National Quality Agreement, National Quality Framework and the approved learning frameworks. These may have lifted quality in early childhood education and care.

For more information, visit the University of Melbourne E4Kids website and watch the official launch of the E4Kids study final report (YouTube).​