Government & industry research
(this page is presently being updated for additional 2011 funded projects)
Faculty staff currently hold a number of exciting grants with government agencies and industry partners. These grants exemplify the Faculty's commitment to integrating practice and theory in research that "makes a difference".
This page contains a full listing of Gov't & Industry grants (Cat. 2 & 3 plus Cat. 1 non-ARC) awarded within the faculty for first year funding 2007 - 2011. Industry funds received from ARC Linkage partners do not appear in this list - see ARC funding).
Projects do not end at the completion of the funding timeframe. The project team consolidates the research material into publication format and this process normally commences prior to funding completion and quite often continues after funding ceases. Therefore many of the projects below where funding has ceased, will still be current.
Funding commencing 2011
Researching leadership protocols, communication and decision making in school improvement
Dr Shaun Rawolle, Prof Russell Tytler, Dr Louise Paatsch, Dr Carol Campbell, Dr Muriel Wells
DEECD (Barwon South Network) funding 2011, 2012
Project Summary: The research involves a study of a short term School Improvement Cycle model being adopted across 23 schools in the Barwon South Network, focussing on the links between the web of decision making processes around each individual school improvement plan, and classroom practices. The research is designed to contribute to the network, to the broader public and to the researchers in specific and strategic ways. First, the research focuses on the process of school improvement as it is happening in the regional network. The network and principals will be better placed to understand how well these change processes are functioning and will have data and advice to inform future school improvement cycles. This is increasingly important in light of high stakes testing and comparisons between schools. For the broader public the research will produce benefits in providing a research model to support data-driven changes in classroom practice linked to school improvement, which will impact on the learning of students in schools. The ultimate benefits will therefore be research that enhances improvements in network and school performance based on student learning.
Evaluation of the Yached Accelerated Learning Program YALP
Prof. B Doecke, Assoc/Prof. S Groves, Dr M Wells;, Mr B Doig
DEECD funding 2011
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: Evaluation of a 10 minute one on one accelerated learning program for at risk students (including indigenous and non-indigenous students) at 8 schools in the Shepparton and Benalla areas
Enriched Relations: Cultural Diplomacy in Australian-Indian relations, past and present
Prof. D Lowe,
Australia India Institute funding 2011
Administering Organisation: Deakin University, Alfred Deakin Research Institute
Project Summary: This project was funded subsequent to an ADRI convened 2010 workshop in New Delhi. In the wake of the workshop, the Australia India Institute awarded a research grant for a large conference on public diplomacy and Australian-Indian relations. The event entitled Public Diplomacy in Theory and Practice: Culture, Information and Interpretation in Australian-India Relation was held in New Delhi on 8-9 April, 2011 and convened jointly with the University of Delhi.
Non-DU lead projects
Pilot State-wide Professional Mentoring Program for Early Childhood Teachers
Assoc Prof. Andrea Nolan, Ms Catherine Hamm, Ms Jan Hunt, Ms Jenny Aitken, Mr John McCartin, Mr Brian Doig, Ms Louise Laskey, Dr Anne-Marie Morrissey, Dr Sarah Ohi, Ms Liz Rouse,
DEECD funding 2011, 2012
Administering Organisation: Victoria University
Project Summary: This project involves the delivery and evaluation of a pilot mentoring program for 360 beginning or professionally isolated early childhood teachers and training of 72 mentors. It involves a substantial research component to inform the Department and other stakeholder about the range and effectiveness of mentoring provisions for early childhood teachers in Victoria, including the Pilot Study. The outcomes of this project will inform the development of future mentoring programs for early childhood teachers in this state, in the context of the expected transition of the registration of early childhood teachers from Early Childhood Australia to the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT). The findings will support effective planning by VIT and the Department, for the future mentoring of teachers in the unique contexts of early childhood education and care settings.
Funding commencing 2010
Review of the literature on the connections between physical learning spaces and student learning outcomes
Prof J Blackmore, Dr D Bateman, Dr J O’Mara, Dr J Loughlin
DEECD funding 2010
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: This project comprises a literature review on the relationship between redesigned learning spaces, pedagogical practices, and student learning outcomes. Much of the literature has focused on the learning theories underpinning school redesign, on how redesign of schools and classrooms has been undertaken and implemented, but less on the types of teacher professional development and pre-service education required to best use new learning spaces. There is little on how all this impacts on the quality of student experience across a range of learning outcomes
Investigating the relationship between redesigned learning spaces, pedagogical practices, and student learning outcomes
Prof. J Blackmore, Dr J Louglin, Dr J O’Mara, Dr D Bateman, Dr A Cloonan, Assoc. Prof. M Dixon and Dr K Senior
DEECD funding 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: This tendered project studies 12 schools though out Melbourne and Regional Victoria. It builds on the earlier DEECD funded grant to complete a literature review on the relationship between redesigned learning spaces, pedagogical practices, and student learning outcomes.
Building effective school-university partnerships for a quality teacher workforce.
Assoc Prof A Allard, Assoc Prof M Dixon, Assoc Prof S White, Prof Diane Mayer
DEECD funding 2010
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: The National Partnership Agreement on Improving Teacher Quality aims to deliver system-wide reforms through targeting critical points in the teacher ‘lifecycle’ to attract, prepare, place, develop and retain quality teachers and leaders in schools and classrooms. These reforms have implications for the ways in which university and schools work together to build effective partnerships for teacher preparation and education. This project focuses on two reform agendas:
1.
The systemic response to strengthening linkages between initial teacher education programs and transition to beginning teacher and teacher induction, and;
2.
The professional learning implications for pre-service teachers and in-service teachers working together as co-producers of knowledge
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and responds to two recommendations from the Teaching and Learning Council funded report (Ure, 2009):
Recommendation 4.0 – That higher education providers review the design of school placements and the professional learning needs of pre-service teachers
Recommendation 5.0 – That higher education providers develop and evaluate a professional development program for supervising teachers and academic staff who support pre-service teacher placements.
The overall aim of this project is to establish and examine a ‘pilot’ model of effective school-university partnership that engages pre-service and in-service teachers and researchers in the co-production of professional knowledge and practice.
Archival research at the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation and the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam
Dr J Coté
Academy of the Social Sciences, Australia / Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen funding 2010
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary:This small project involved archival research at both instututes in Amsterdam and consolidating links with Dutch colleagues at Universities of Amsterdam and Utrecht working in areas of (Dutch) colonial historiography and postcolonial literature.
Walking with Sir Ebia
Dr J Ritchie
PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd funding 2010, 2011
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: In March 2010, work commenced on a ground-breaking project of researching and writing about the life and times of one of Papua New Guinea’s independence leaders, the late Sir Ebia Olewale, who was a founding member of the Pangu Pati, and senior Minister in the first Papua New Guinean independence government. The work is being undertaken in collaboration with two of PNG’s most respected historians, August Kituai and Anne Dickson-Waiko (who will be Visiting Fellows at the Alfred Deakin Research Institute later in 2010). This project represents a major achievement in partnership with an important Pacific neighbour organisation.
Women and Health in the Western Pacific Region
Assoc Prof E Eckerman
World Health Organisation funding 2010
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: The WHO has commissioned a research project to collect background data and write a report entitled Women and Health in the Western Pacific Region: Remaining Challenges, New Opportunities which is a regional version of the global report Women and Health- Todays Evidence, Tomorrows Agenda which was published in 2009. The Report uses a variety of United Nations and other data bases and original research conducted by the CI for the Report to compile an overview of the status of women’s health, and women’s role in health care, in the 37 countries of the Western Pacific Region. The Report will appear as a published monograph but will also be used as the background document for the WHO, WPRO Regional Committee Meeting (RCM) to be held in Manila in October 2010. At the RCM member states of WHO, WPRO formulate policies and develop health plans based on the data provided. The Report Women and Health in the Western Pacific Region: Remaining Challenges, New Opportunities will be the focal document and a call for action to guide programmes for women’s health for the next decade by Ministers of Health in the 37 countries.
Developing new and effective ways to evaluate intervention in maternal health services in illiterate and innumerate communities in southern Lao PDR: a case study
Assoc Prof E Eckerman, Assoc Prof M Clarke
AusAid funding 2010, 2011
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: Where women are neither literate nor numerate, conventional measures of quality of life are unable to tap the impact of aid policies, practices and programs on their lives. In line with AusAID’s mission to improve gender equity in development outcomes and the OECD (2009) initiatives to develop new paradigms to assess progress in societies (beyond GDP and mortality rates), Deakin investigators will work with the Lao Ministry of Health, Lao researchers, village communities and service providers to generate effective tools to assess the impact on women’s physical, mental, social and economic well-being of intervention programs designed to improve maternal and child health in LaoPDR.
Renewing Rural and Regional Teacher Education Curriculum
Dr S White, Prof M Devlin, Ms W Hastings, Assoc Prof G Lock
ALTC funding 2010, 2011
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: This is an Australian Learning and Teaching Council grant under its Priority Project Program with funding to commence in 2010. It is a national project developing contemporary curricula for teacher education courses. The project, focusing on the higher education sector, aims to develop a forward thinking curriculum that caters for rural education needs. It aims to meet a growing need for well prepared teachers as rural and regional areas face a teacher shortage.
Sportsaccess: Evaluation and Future Directions
Assoc Prof C Hickey
Trust Co. Philanthropic Services funding 2010
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: In 2008/2009 the not for profit organisation Leisure Networks funded a pilot project in the northern suburbs of Geelong having the aim of providing primary/secondary aged children from low socioeconomic areas the opportunity to join and participate in a sporting club of their choice. The program had the potential to continue and develop but required research to identify its impact and to scope future opportunities. The Trust Co. Philanthropic Services funding enables research into the impact that this intervention had on the young people and their families and whether they have continued in the sport, and to scope the development of a wider spread intervention with the business community as a sustainable funding measure. This research will provide Leisure Networks with an evidence base with which to approach government, business, and other key potential stakeholders about the worth of such an intervention.
Non-DU lead projects
Economic Shocks: Reducing Vulnerability and Increasing Resilience in the Pacific
Alberto Posso (RMIT), Matthew Clarke, Heather Wallace (Deakin University), Vijay Naidu, Manoranjan Mohanty and Miliakere Kaitani (University of the South Pacific) and May Miller-Dawkins (Oxfam Australia)
Australian Development Research Award (ADRA) 2010-2013
Administering Organisation: RMIT University
Project Summary: n/a
Addressing institutional and social barriers to science impact
CSIRO Flagship Collaboration funding 2010, 2011, 2012
Lead investigator: Prof D Wood
Deakin personnel - Assoc Prof K O’Toole, Dr A Macgarvey, Dr A Wallis, Assoc Prof G Wescott, Prof G Quinn, Assoc Prof M Keneley, Dr H Scarborough and Dr K Miller
Administering organisation: Curtin University of Technology.
Partner organisations: Deakin University, Flinders University, The University Adelaide, Sunshine Coast, University Tasmania, University of Wollongong
Project summary: CSIRO is funding a research cluster led by Curtin University of Technology principally designed to help Australians sustain their coastline for future generations by enabling them to make better use of the knowledge produced by scientific research. Researchers from CSIRO and seven universities across Australia are involved, working on five research themes. Under this wider program, Deakin University and the University of Tasmania are jointly investigating how knowledge about Australia’s coastal areas is gathered and exchanged by different stakeholder groups focussing on three regions: Victoria’s Portland Basin and the Huon-Derwent area and Cradle Coast in Tasmania. The project involves a truly interdisciplinary approach with the Deakin team comprising experts in marine science, politics, environmental and wildlife management, economics, coastal policy, and sociology.
Funding commencing 2009
Homework Club Evaluation Project
Assoc Prof C Hickey
Bethany Community Support funding 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: This research (located in a regional context) explores the experiences of participants involved in Homework Clubs set up to capture and support young people with particular learning needs in the Corio- Norlane area. The membership of these Homework Groups comprises students from Indigenous, ethnic (refugee) and socially disadvantaged contexts. Successful participation in a Homework Club has the potential to build learning and connection.
ID Scanners in the night-time economy: social sorting or social order?
Dr D Palmer, Dr I Warren, Dr P Miller
Criminal Research Council funding 2009, 2010 (Category 1 grant)
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: The project investigates the introduction of ID scanners in 'high risk' entertainment venues in Geelong (Vic) as part of an attempt to enhance community safety. Recently the inner city area of Geelong has been transformed into a significant 'night-time economy'. However, such developments come with potential harms, such as increases in crime and anti-social behaviour. Networked ID scanners are a unique innovation introduced to address these issues. The project documents what has been done, why, with what impact and what potential (or actual) harms exist to serve as a model for future policy and programme development.
Authentically Assessing Beginning Teaching: Professional Standards and Teacher Performance Assessment
Prof D Mayer, Assoc Prof M Dixon, Dr A Gallant, Dr A Allard
DEECD funding 2009, 2010
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: This project will develop and trial the implementation of a capstone summative assessment – a teacher performance assessment (TPA) – designed to authentically assess teacher education graduates’ readiness for beginning teaching as defined by the VIT Standards of Professional Practice for Graduating Teachers, and research the processes and outcomes of this development and implementation. The trial being proposed will draw on the work that various members of the Deakin School of Education team have been involved with in California – PACT (Performance Assessment for California Teachers) - and in Malaysia in developing a TPA linked to the newly developed Malaysian Teacher Standards.
Facilitating Public Consultation in China through Deliberative Polling
Prof. B He, Prof J Fishkin
Stanford University funding 2009, 2010
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: A collaborative project between Deakin and Stanford Universities, building on previous work in China relating to deliberative polling. The project aims to spread the process and train local officials and practitioners in its methodology. The process could achieve wide application in China. Such a result would help realize some key democratic values: responsiveness of policy to informed and representative public opinion, transparency of decision making, a sense of efficacy among ordinary citizens, expectations among citizens that government must respond to their concerns, and the spread of democratic norms among public officials.
Evaluation of BHP Billiton Science Awards
Prof. R Tytler, Dr P Hubber, Dr G Chittleborough, Dr C Campbell,
BHP Billiton funding 2009, 2010
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project summary: The BHP Billiton science awards are a national scheme for recognising students who engage with investigative science research and teachers who contribute significantly to school science education. This study researched the impact of the BHP Billiton awards on students and teachers over a number of years. The research involved a student online survey and interviews with students, teachers, award winners and others to build insight into the operation and the outcomes of the awards. For students the study focused on their attitudes towards and knowledge of science, and on their perceptions of their futures in relation to STEM careers. The study concluded that the award system was effective in providing support for enthusiastic and innovative teachers and students, and that open investigation work was highly valued by those involved. A number of case studies were constructed that provided insight into how schools operate to build a culture of research, and the nature of the experience for teachers and students. Interviews with the teacher awardees demonstrated the role of enthusiastic teachers in promoting innovation and sustaining professional learning in the schooling system. A number of papers are in preparation, arising from the study.
ADA Body Armour Analysis
Assoc Prof K Vincs
Australia Defence Apparel (ADA) funding 2009, 2010
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: n/a.
UNESCO Museums Capacity Building Program -Lampang Temples
Dr J Sweet
UNESCO funding 2009
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: The UNESCO Museums Capacity Building Programme includes a research project that is currently being conducted by UNESCO Bangkok (with assistance from Deakin University). The research is designed to help identify a range of museum management needs and priorities for museums and collecting organizations in the Asia-Pacific Region and to provide guidance for the development of relevant UNESCO museum programmes. The Lampang Temples Pilot Training in Collections Management was designed to contribute to an understanding of the collection management needs of religious organizations in Northern Thailand with strong community connections; to understand the nature of a sustainable relationship (in this context) between the resources available for the care and preservation of cultural material and the appropriate level of access to it for a range of visitor interests; and, to begin to identify and develop appropriate competencies in strategic collections management within the local community, to enable the custodians to achieve their ambitions.
Headspace Warrnambool: Evaluation Research Project
Assoc. Prof. K O’Toole, Dr A MacGarvey
Brophy Family Youth Services funding 2009, 2010
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: n/a
Researching and Writing The Wintringham Story
Ms K Le Rossignol, Ms Elaine Farrelly
William Buckland Foundation funding 2009, 2010
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: n/a
Rural Disadvantage and the Law
Dr R Coverdale, Dr D Palmer
VicLaw Foundation funding 2009, 2010
Administering organisation: Deakin University, School of Law
Project summary: This project, being administered through the Faculty of Business and Law, is a state-wide study investigating the disadvantages people living in rural and regional areas may face in dealing with the law compared with those living in the metropolitan area. The enquiry process is compiling numerous examples of issues of disadvantage and will bring it all together to give a clearer picture of the state of rural disadvantage and the law.
Non-DU lead projects
Understanding Attitudes to National Identity in Melanesia
Dr M Leach, Assoc. Prof M Clarke, Dr H Wallace, Dr S Feeny
AusAid funding 2009 – 2010
Administering organisation: Swinbourne University
Project Summary: This research will develop and implement a survey of popular attitudes to nation and national identity in four Melanesian states (Solomon Islands, PNG, Vanuatu, and East Timor). It will achieve this by conducting a medium scale survey of tertiary students (n=300+ in each target country) in the respective national capitals. The data generated will improve understandings of regional, ethnic, intergenerational and linguistic faultlines in the region. The premise of this research is that a better understanding of challenges of nation-building will inform more effective state-building agendas, and enhance the effectiveness of aid initiatives.
Defining and Understanding Intoxication and Drunkenness: the Individual’s Response
Drinkwise Aust funding 2009-2010
Assoc Prof P Kelly, Assoc Prof C Hickey, Dr J Lindsay, Dr L Harrison,
Administering organisation: Monash University
Project summary: This is a multidisciplinary literature review documenting understandings and definitions of the terms ‘intoxication’ and ‘drunkenness’ from the perspective of the individual. There is very little consensus on what these terms mean to policy-makers, researchers and drinkers themselves – a perusal of daily newspapers and our emerging research findings show that some people define ‘intoxicated’ on the basis of very low levels of consumption, including the NHMRC recommendation of ‘2 standard drinks’ (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2009) and others fall on the other end of the continuum where intoxicated is defined as ‘severely affected by a large amounts of consumption’ or ‘staggering’, ‘throwing up’ or ‘passing out’. In this literature review we document how individuals in Australia, the UK, Europe, the US and other international contexts define intoxication and drunkenness. A key element of the review is that we compare individual, lay understandings of intoxication and drunkenness to those held by ‘experts’ in key fields and disciplines. We examine the definitions of intoxication and drunkenness used in Australian and international policy guidelines, and those held by experts in key fields including medicine and public health, politics and law, sociology and criminology, anthropology and cultural studies.
Scaling Up Aid and the Millennium Development Goals in the Pacific: Absorptive Capacity, Sustainability and Efficiency
Dr S Feeny, Prof. T Fry, Dr M Rogers, Assoc Prof M Clarke.
AusAid funding 2009
Administering organisation: RMIT University
Project Summary: The research examines four important questions concerned with how aid can assist Pacific countries with progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
1. What are the absorptive capacity constraints faced by Pacific countries and how can aid be used to relieve them?
2. How should donors respond to absorptive capacity constraints in their aid allocation decisions?
3. How sustainable are the impacts of foreign aid in the Pacific and how can sustainability be improved?
4. Which Pacific countries convert foreign aid flows into improvements in health and education most efficiently and what factors determine this efficiency?
Volunteering and wellbeing: Individual outcomes and organisational practice
R Hoye, M G Nicholson, K Brown , A Stukas
Dept of Planning & Community Development funding 2009
Administering organisation: Latrobe University
Project summary: The specific research aims of this project are to identify-
1. The nature of the relationship between involvement in volunteering and perceptions of wellbeing, including the differences between volunteers and non-volunteers;
2. The nature of the relationship between individuals’ motives, involvement in volunteering, perceived organisational support, and perceptions of wellbeing, social inclusion and connectedness;
3. How involvement in volunteering impacts on the social connectedness and social inclusion experienced by individuals and their subsequent wellbeing; and
4. The role of formalised volunteer-based organisations in facilitating or supporting social inclusion and connectedness of individuals.
Identifying strategies to sustain professional learning communities for teachers ion remote primary schools in Papua New Guinea - DU work component
AusAid funding 2009
Prof E Honan, Prof T Evans
Administering organisation: University of Queensland
Project summary: The purpose of the study is to identify and implement models and best practices that will support and sustain professional learning for teachers in remote parts of PNG. The findings of the study will contribute towards the improvement and the sustainability of ongoing teacher learning and effective teaching practices amongst teachers. Improving the quality of teachers’ professional learning will ultimately lead to continuous and sustained improvement in student achievement.
Learning to be Drier
Funding received from Deakin University Ballarat University Partnership Fund 2009
B Golding, M Brown, A Foley, E Smith, C Campbell, L Grace, CSchulz, J Angwin
Administering organisation: Ballarat University
Project summary: This project identified problems associated with drying across the southern Murray-Darling Basin, and the additional issues of learning to cope with and address these problems. The areas covered in the study were an alpine area in Victoria, a mid-river site in the Western Riverina in New South Wales, a lower river site in the Riverland in South Australia, and a dryland area of the northern Wimmera and Southern Mallee of Victoria. It focussed on how people in regional communities learnt to deal with the impact of reduced water availability as a result of drought or climate change. The resultant data indicates significant changes are being made to local practices as a result of the learning taking place and that there are a range of processes enabling adult learning across the communities. Results have been put into published form.
Funding commencing 2008
Impact and Experiences of Racism on the Health and Wellbeing of Young Australians
Prof. F Mansouri, Dr M. Leach
The Foundation for Young Australians funding 2008 – 2009,
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: This project responds to an identified need for Australian youth-focused research into experiences of racism for young people of Indigenous, migrant and refugee backgrounds. It will map out the experience of racism for these groups of young people and how this impacts on heath and wellbeing. The project will also investigate mainstream attitudes of young people in relation to key issues in contemporary race relations, such as cultural diversity, tolerance and privilege.
History of the Jewish Holocaust Museum & Research Centre
Ms P Maclean, Assoc Prof M Langfield, Assoc Prof A Witcomb, Dr L Young
Jewish Holocaust Museum & Research Centre funding 2008, 2009
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: This project involves construction of a book on the Centre's history. The project will focus on the origins of the Centre, document the importance of its community base and analyse its collections and exhibitions.
Developing Children's Literature Scholarship: Collaboration between Australia and India
Prof C Bradford
Australia India Council funding 2008
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: n/a
Funding commencing 2007
Connecting disengaged rural young people with lifelong physical activity
GippsSport funding 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
Dr K Meldrum
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: A pilot program titled “Girls Rule” had been previously developed in Gippsland in response to low connectivity to school and peers. That program involved local community groups and professionals offering their support and incorporated mental health, emotional health, and physical health components. This project follows on from that pilot study and with a focus on rural and remote areas of Gippsland, aims to-
- Increase physical activity participation in disengaged rural youth
- Increase connectedness of participants with each other, their school and community
- Establish and maintain sporting and active recreation links with the community
- Sustain the program through an active mentoring program at school with strong ties to the community
Deakin Travel Smart Travel plan
Assoc Prof L Hancock, Dr J Garrard and Assoc Prof P Beech
Victorian Department of Transport funding 2007-2009
Project Summary: TravelSmart is a State Government program with the objective of motivating ongoing sustainable travel behaviour. TravelSmart aims to reduce people’s dependency on cars and encourage them to choose sustainable travel alternatives such as cycling, walking and public transport. Smarter travel choices can be made by changing one or two trips per week, or by reducing the number of car journeys. The Deakin University TravelSmart Project, has been successful with the implementation of a number of activities. An integral component of the program involved extensive staff and student surveys and evaluation processes, with the results added to the ‘library’ of information available to planners and policy makers for the establishment of better communities.
Essentials Course and Thinking with Technology
Ongoing Evaluation undertaken by the Centre for Educational Leadership and Renewal
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: The 'Intel Teach Program Essentials Course' is a professional development program designed to assist teachers integrate technology into their curriculum. Emphasis is on effective use of ICT/eLearning in the classroom to enhance learning, research, communication, productivity strategies and working in teams to solve problems. Over 10,000 teachers have undertaken the Essential Course in Australia and over 5 million globally.
Evaluation is an integral and ongoing part of the 'Essentials Course and Thinking with Technology'. Evaluators appointed within each country, use consistent but localized instruments and approaches to gather and report on the training outcomes and longer term impact. Deakin University, through the Centre for Partnerships and Projects in Education has been conducting this evaluation in Australia. Their work also contributes to the global evaluation of the Intel Teach programs.
Non-DU lead projects
‘What a great night’: The cultural drivers of drinking practices among 14-24 year-old Australians
Drinkwise Aust funding 2007 - 2009
Assoc Prof P Kelly, Dr J Lindsay, Dr L Harrison, Dr C Hickey
Administering organisation: Monash University
Project summary: The purpose of this research was to gather information about the cultural drivers of alcohol consumption by young people in Australia. While there is a substantial amount of quantitative information available on alcohol consumption patterns there is limited research on why different groups of young people consume alcohol in high-risk, risky or low-risk ways. There is little nuanced qualitative and socio-cultural research which explores young people’s alcohol related practices and activities and why they engage in these activities. This report presents these findings which will be a crucial platform for developing effective public health interventions on youth drinking in Australia.
Young people’s alcohol consumption is a complex field and a variety of cultural drivers have an impact on consumption patterns. These include broader social processes such as individualization, globalization, demographic and labour market change which makes youth a less certain and longer phase in the life-cycle for this generation of young people. At the same time, local drinking settings, drinking cultures and social networks of families and peers also have a direct impact on youth drinking. Finally, social location in terms of gender, age, social class, ethnicity, religion and geography shape drinking practices in important ways. We illustrate the meaning alcohol has for young people and connections with risk taking, identity and social context.
This project involved two complementary and largely qualitative studies: (1) the drinking biographies study involved in-depth interviews and a quantitative questionnaire with young people, aged 20-24 and (2) the sporting clubs study involved in-depth interviews and focus groups with young people and key informants at Victorian sporting clubs. The research was conducted in inner and outer suburban settings plus provincial and rural locations in Victoria to identify the most salient cultural drivers of youth alcohol consumption.
