Melbourne Graduate School of Education Early Learning Centre (ELC) and Boorai - The Children's Art Gallery

research Centre Research

 

Research Focus

The Early Learning Centre is committed to ongoing reform, innovation and development that is achieved through research and evaluation. A diverse range of early childhood issues have been investigated and debated through formal research and community-based projects. These have included:
  • Coming Closer: sharing Australian Aboriginal stories through drawing, painting and words
  • Children’s experiences of their sonic environment
  • An investigation of the musical ability of three year old children
  • Assessing the mathematical abilities of preschool children
  • Empowering early childhood practitioners to critically examine their current practice
  • Young children’s understandings of the world of work
  • The relevance of preschool theory and practice for primary school teachers
  • The integration of young gifted children into mainstream preschool programs
  • The development of a community resource to aid literacy development for children aged birth to five years
  • The role of the arts in the establishment of innovative teaching and learning

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Research Projects 2008
Young Learners Project

Associate Professor Margaret Brown
 
Literacy is a gateway to knowledge, provides access to cultural interactions and services and is a measure of success and capacity. 

The personal and community benefits of attaining high levels of literacy are widely recognized, as are the costs of low- or non-attainment. Yet evidence shows that many students leave school without attaining adequate levels of literacy. 

How and when to redress the low levels attained by some students are questions of pressing national and international importance to educators and politicians. This project contends that, to ensure the best possible start to a childs introduction to formal literacy experiences, and to reduce the potential for failure, intervention or support in the preschool years is necessary. 
 
The Young Learners Project is a longitudinal study with two aims:

  • To identify the factors in a four-year-old preschoolers educational program, home-life or personal characteristics that are positively associated with high outcomes in literacy in their first and second years of school-education. 
  • To develop a primary level intervention (Pianta, 1990) where strategies will be developed for use by teachers and parents/carers to foster and support the factors that have been shown to have a positive association with high outcomes in literacy for young learners.

Operationalising Social and Emotional Coping Competencies in Preschool Children

Assoc Prof. Erica Frydenberg & Ms. Jan Deans
 
To assess a childs competence in the social and emotional domains it is necessary to have an understanding of the types of stresses and problems children face at that developmental stage. The purpose of this project is to further understand social and emotional development of 4 year olds, the differences between children, as well as to determine the consistency between parent, teacher and childrens own understandings.  The aim of this project is to operationalise the socio-emotional competencies of early years children in order to enable the development of both assessment and curriculum.

 

In Perfect Harmony: singing and community practice in an early learning centre

Dr Berenice Nyland, Dr Jill Ferris, Ms Jan Deans
 
The aim of this research is to explore the role and professional positioning of the specialist music teacher in a general program of an early learning setting. In particular to study the impact of a staff choir, established by the music specialist, and its impact on teachers musical confidence.

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Research Projects 2009
Thinking, Feeling and Relating: Young Children Learning Through Dance

Ms Jan Deans

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of a dance program in relation to the cognitive, social and emotional learning of 4-5 year old children. The data gathering process will be guided by the following questions:
  • Does involvement in dance support children's cognitive, social and emotional
    learning and if so how? and
  • How might the teacher structure and develop the dance program to accommodate
    children's learning?

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Early Years Coping Research (Survey) 2008

To complete the Early Years Coping Questionnaire please click here


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Demonstration & Research Facilities

The Early Learning Centre offers early childhood professionals, students and researchers the opportunity to view exemplary programs. It provides lecture / demonstrations and program interpretation as well as tutorial and seminar spaces for visiting researchers and students.

Visits to the Centre include an introductory lecture, observations of two playrooms and a reflective summary. Bookings can be arranged during Victorian School Terms via Centre Administration.
Maximum group size is 35 persons.

 

Contact the Centre for information.

 

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SAM

SAM is a Self Assessment Manual suitable for use by early childhood practitioners and pre-service practitioners.

Research on quality in early childhood has consistently shown that staff are the cornerstone of excellence, and that staff training makes a difference to services provided to children and families. There is also a growing awareness of the importance of adopting a planned approach to career development and that this begins with self assessment, and can be enhanced with guided reflection.

The Early Childhood Consortium Victoria (ECCV) has developed a unique theoretically-based framework, designed specifically to address issues of service quality through continuing professional development. A Self-Assessment Manual (SAM) has been developed around the framework and this has been applied in a number of early childhood settings both locally and internationally. By working through the process as outlined in the manual, early childhood practitioners and pre-service practitioners are empowered to critically examine their current practice and plan for their future in a more systematic way. 

 

SAM: The Manual

Building Capacity: a Strategic Approach to Professional Development in Early Childhood (2006) by Bridie Raban, Manjula Waniganayake, Andrea Nolan, Robert Brown, Jan Deans & Christine Ure

The Self-Assessment Manual is now available as a book and accompanying CDROM. For details of how to purchase this book go to Thomson Learning Australia.
 
Publications About SAM
  • Raban, B., Nolan, A. Waniganayake, M. Ure, C. Deans, J. Brown, R. (2005). Empowering Practicitoners to Critically Examine Their Current Practice. Journal of Australian Research in Early Childhood Education, Vol.2, Issue 2, pp.1-16.
  • Nolan, A., Raban, B. & Waniganayake, M. (2005). Evaluating a Strategic Approach to Professional Development Through Guided Reflection. Journal of Reflective Practice, Vol.6, No.2, pp.221-229.
  • Raban, B., Waniganayake, M. Deans, J. Brown, R. Ure, C. & Reynolds, B. (2003). Quality Assurance in Practice: Developing a Framework. Journal of Australian Research in Early Childhood Education, Vol.10, Issue 1,pp.56-68.
  • Raban, B. Ure, C. & Waniganayake, M. (2003). Multiple Perspectives: Acknowledging the Virtue of Complexity in Measuring Quality. Early Years, Vol.23, No.1, pp.67-77.
Contact Details

For further information about charges related to the mentoring service available by the ECCV in the use of SAM as a whole-of-centre approach to professional development please contact:

The Early Learning Centre
40 Clarke Street
Abbotsford
Victoria 3067
Australia
Ph: 61 3 94194089
Fax: 61 3 94194308
Email: j.deans@unimelb.edu.au

 
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