Held on the 28th Mar 2019
at 6pm to
7:30pm
Educators increasingly recognise the need to develop understandings about learning and wellbeing in regional low SES areas in Australia. Disparities in academic outcomes persist for student cohorts from low SES primary and secondary schools despite the introduction of a national curriculum and standardised testing over the past decade.
The "Improving Regional Low SES Students’ Learning and Wellbeing" collaborative project aimed to study the conditions that enable a successful curricular and wellbeing program. Specifically, the project focused on curricular strategies linked to five pillars: personalised learning, student wellbeing, team planning and teaching, flexible use of space, and use of digital technologies. The project entailed collaborating with teachers and students to research this range of curricular strategies in Tasmanian and Victorian schools based in areas which have a high level of unemployment, a large proportion of low SES students, and recognized disadvantage.
This presentation reports on the emerging findings of the project, through a focus on the individualised approaches to supporting learning and wellbeing that developed in three Tasmanian schools over the three years of the project, as they responded to the interests, needs and potentials of their students.
About the Speaker
Professor Vaughan Prain is a Professor in Science Interdisciplinary Education Research at Deakin University. His research interests include the use of representations in learning in school science and the influence of new blended learning areas on teacher and student learning.
Professor Prain will be joined by researchers, teachers and school staff involved in the project.
Refreshments from 5.30pm
Acknowledgements: This paper is an output of the Australian Research Council grant Improving Regional Low SES Students’ Learning and Wellbeing [LP150100558, Prain, Waldrip, Tytler, Deed, Meyers, Blake, Muir, Farrelly, Mooney, Thomas, Swabey, with collaborator Anglicare Tasmania]
