Funded Research Project

Project Title: The Young Learners’ Project: Identifying personalised teaching strategies for early literacy in children in preschool and the first year of school.

Chief Investigators: Associate Professor Margaret Brown, Dr Esther Care, Professor Bridie Raban, Professor Field Rickards,and Mr Terry O’Connell (from ASG)

Partner Organisation: Australian Scholarships Group (ASG)

Funded by: ARC Linkage Project Grant 2008–2012

Project Summary: This collaborative four-year research project identifies effective personalised teaching strategies for early literacy used with children in preschool and the first year of schooling.  Employing quantitative and qualitative methods, we will establish child profiles to enable the teachers to plan personalised goals and implement strategies for early literacy.  For the teachers, we will use direct observations, self-reflections and interviews to identify effective teaching strategies specifically for early literacy.  Child progress will be measured through an early literacy instrument.  The project will inform teacher education and the preparation of teacher and parent resources for early literacy.