SiMERR Final Report: Victorian Hub overview
SiMERR Victoria project activity in brief
The SiMERR Victoria projects have produced a range of outcomes, including conference presentations, applications for external funding for further research, and journal articles in planning.
- Associate Professor Ian Robottom and Dr Coral Campbell presented their research findings from Seachange and ecological sustainability: researching teachers’ and students’ conceptions of coastal ecological sustainability issues at 'Education for Sustainable Development: Local and Global Issues and Action', a conference held at Deakin University’s Warrnambool campus, in June 2007, and also at a SiMERR forum held in March 2008 in Geelong. This project has led to an ARC linkage project application being developed in partnership with the Surfcoast shire, focusing on sustainability education dealing with pressures on Victorian coastal communities.
- Dr Gail Chittleborough and Dr Coral Campbell have presented research findings from Using ICT to support literacy and numeracy in rural schools, an AISV project partly funded by SiMERR, at the National SiMERR conference and the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, New Orleans, respectively. A major report of that project was prepared that will be used to generate a number of journal articles, including one submitted to Teaching Science. Further conference presentations took place at ICASE in July 2007 and at ESERA in Sweden in August 2007.
- Dr Robert Hunting has authored a report based on Early years’ mathematics learning and teaching: a feasibility study; the report outlines a schedule of future research and development in the highly significant area of early childhood education. With further support the researchers intend to gather video material depicting mathematics education at pre-school level and to devise a professional development program linking rural communities to universities by videoconference.
- Professor David Symington, Professor Cliff Malcolm, Professor Russell Tytler and others, have generated a large and rich data set for the Linking school science and mathematics with industry and community project. Three conference papers have been written from this, and an article that is currently ‘in press’ for Teaching Science. The data and analysis are being given wide coverage in a variety of forums, as indicating productive ways forward for science, ICT and mathematics in rural schools. The results and analysis were used to frame a DEEWR funded project developing an innovation framework from case studies of ASISTM innovation exemplars, which the Deakin team reported in September 2007.)
- Dr Caroline Smith and Dr Lyn Carter have generated case studies as part of their research, Sustainability science in rural and regional Victorian schools: documenting best practice, and are preparing publications based on their analyses. They see the potential for their SiMERR findings being used for the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative.
- Dr Kathryn Choules organised an elaborate professional development event as the centrepiece of her project Education for Sustainable Development in South West Victoria. Involving education students at Deakin, Warrnambool, as well as local teachers and community organisations, it took place in June 2007and has had a number of spin offs with partnerships created between Deakin’s Education and Science faculties, schools, teachers, and students.
- Drs Damien Blake, Coral Campbell and William Campbell held a number of meetings to explore support for a Creativity and innovation in science challenge in the Geelong region. They investigated the degree of support for this initiative, from a local grouping of industries in the region committed to opportunities for local youth. This project is currently being extended in a Deakin initiative, and linked with a challenge initiative centred round the Regional Education Centre for Science and Mathematics in Penang, Malaysia, with which Deakin has links. The initiative, along with others involving community and industry, forms the basis of a current ARC linkage proposal centred on assessment of outcomes from innovations involving schools and community organizations.
- Professor Cliff Malcolm, in the project Creating professional pathways for teachers of science and mathematics in rural schools, completed in depth interviews with 6 Regional Project Officers of Science, Technology and Mathematics, 7 principals and 37 teachers from schools across Victoria, to build a picture of professional learning issues for teachers of science, mathematics and ICT in various rural settings. This substantial amount of data has been transcribed, and a report prepared by Professor David Symington, Dr Valda Kirkwood and Professor Russell Tytler, that will be available to schools, teacher educators and educational systems policy personnel, providing insights concerning supports for, and barriers to, teacher professional learning pathways in rural areas. Preliminary findings from this work were reported at the SiMERR national summit in November 2007. Subsequently, a number of conference presentations and journal articles are planned.
- Professor Russell Tytler, Professor David Symington, Dr Valda Kirkwood and Michelle Griffiths have used case studies and analyses of the SiMERR school-community project and the DEEWR ASISTM innovation exemplar project, to develop a professional development package aimed at helping teachers and community personnel frame and manage and sustain these projects that explore science, ICT and mathematics in rural settings. The web based resource is being evaluated, and will be available on-line or in stand alone CD form.
- Dr Gail Chittleborough and Dr Wendy Jobling set up electronic communication facilties for their project Science Challenge which explores software appropriate for developing communication between students of science in rural settings. This project studied the possibility of supporting teachers and students in rural schools to undertake science activities, using on-line technologies. The learning communities did not function as well as had been hoped, and the project identified difficulties with delivering on-line support to busy teachers.
- Planning, including ethics administrative processes, for the Success in Mathematics, Science and ICT for Students with Intellectual Disability project has been completed. Data has not yet been collected because of extended overseas commitments of the researcher, but teams are in place and data collection will commence in the latter part of 2008.
- SiMERR Forum: Charting futures for Science, ICT, Mathematics Education in Rural and Regional Victoria. This two day forum, funded jointly by SiMERR and the Victorian DEECD, provided an opportunity for 46 participants to explore the implications of SiMERR and other research in the wider context of social and demographic movements in rural Victoria. A report from the forum has been prepared which contains a series of recommendations for action, and which will be presented to the government as a potential blueprint for action.
List of projects
SiMERR Victoria’s research program consisted of:
- 12 projects funded by SiMERR
- Seachange and ecological sustainability
- Early years mathematics learning and teaching: a feasibility study
- Linking school science and mathematics with industry and community
- Sustainability science in rural and regional Victorian schools: documenting best practice
- Education for sustainable development in South West Victoria
- Creativity and innovation in science challenge
- Creating professional pathways for teachers of science and mathematics in rural schools
- Science Challenge
- Forum: Charting Futures for Science, ICT, Mathematics Education in Rural and Regional Victoria
- Linking school science and mathematics with industry and community: Developing a PD resource (close to completion)
- Intellectual disability: success in mathematics, science and ICT for students with disability in rural and regional areas (still early stage)
- Using ICT to support literacy and numeracy in rural schools (seed funded by SiMERR and funded by the Association of Independent Schools of Victoria)
- 2 Related projects
- An Innovation Framework based on best practice exemplars from the AustralianSchool Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics (ASISTM) Project. (Funded by the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations)
- Improving middle years mathematics and science (ARC linkage project with the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development)
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8th October 2008