In 2017, 5019 educators from primary and preschool settings across Victoria, Australia took part in joint professional learning around effective transition to school processes. Upon registering for this professional learning workshop, participants were invited to identify the most significant challenges associated with transition to school. The…

Design thinking is often proposed as an educative strategy to enhance growth mindset, problem solving, and creativity, but there are very few evaluations of the impact of experiential design thinking programs. The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether an online design-thinking workshop provided to outdoor education staff could…

Purpose: Despite a growing awareness of the gap between professional expectations and competence, there has been no comprehensive appraisal of sustainable food systems (SFS) education within dietetics and nutrition programs to date. Dietitians and nutritionists play important roles in promoting sustainability yet many perceive themselves to be…

The need for a new measure of social-emotional wellbeing for children 6--12 years emerged in our collaboration with schools and community agencies in a disadvantaged region of Brisbane, Australia. Our search for an age-appropriate medium led us to develop "Clowning Around", a computer game generating data which was assessed for validity…

This paper describes the research protocol for the Educational and Developmental Gains in Early Childhood (EDGE) Study, which will examine the implementation of two years of funded kindergarten prior to the first year of school in Victoria, Australia. EDGE will examine whether children's language, cognitive, social-emotional, and behavioural…

Background: Coaching is grounded in three knowledge components: professional, interpersonal and intrapersonal knowledge. Coach development research has shown that coaches value contextual, in situ, learning with mentors more highly than formal, mediated programs that are offered by sporting bodies, which often provide generic content. Purpose: The…

There are increasing demands for teachers to continue to improve the quality of education. This focus is evident in the Early Childhood Education and Care sector in Australia where the professionalisation agenda is tied to teacher professional learning. While the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL) has strengthened expectations…

To prepare sport management students, curricula should align with industry. Given recent changes in sport management, the first step in aligning curricula with industry is to review current curricula. This study reviewed Australian sport management curricula using content analysis of the Common Professional Components based on the Commission on…

This longitudinal study modeled children's complex executive function (EF) development using the Groton Maze Learning Task (GMLT). Using a cohort-sequential design, 147 children (61 males, 5.5-11 years) were recruited from six multicultural primary schools in Melbourne and Perth, Australia. Race/ethnicity data were not available. Children were…

Play, while complex, is essential for children's learning and development. It is well established in the literature that there is a strong link between children's pretend play abilities and their language skills, particularly in relation to the use of language in social contexts. For many children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH), pretend…

Whole-of-course approaches have emerged as an important topic in the contemporary outcomes-based education environment. While research-informed accounts of whole-of-course approaches exist, most take undergraduate education as the default. Few examples feature postgraduate education where students seek career enhancement rather than entry.…

In order to graduate as professional engineers in Australia, engineering students undertake internships as part of their degree programmes. The heart of a productive internship programme is the relationship between the workplace supervisor and the student, yet there are significant gaps in the knowledge about the nature and type of professional…

Parents have the option of enrolling their children in the first stage of early childhood education (from 0 to 3 years of age). However, not all parents decide to do so, waiting until the second stage of early childhood education to enrol them in the education system (from 3 to 5 years of age), or even until compulsory education when their…

Improving schooling outcomes is a preoccupation facing school leaders globally. At the heart of such an agenda is the school leader's capacity to make professional learning decisions that best support the professional learning needs of their teachers. Thus, this paper investigates the extent to which principals' control to make professional…

This paper examines capacity building and professional development in Western Australia's contemporary popular music sector. It reports on a mixed-methods qualitative-quantitative study into the lived experiences and needs of musicians and industry practitioners alike. It examines learning which is undertaken outside of formal education settings,…