Project in Literacy Intervention

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2015:

340 hours

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the HDisability Liaison Unit websiteH: Hhttp://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/H

This subject arises out of the work in subjects of the department and which involves study of an aspect of the student's professional work. The nature of the Integrative Study is determined through consultation with staff.

On completion of this subject students should be able to:

• Identify the key features of an action research study; to ask a worthwhile research question, collect credible evidence to answer the question, analyse the data and use the evidence to guide further improvement in teaching.
• Comprehend the key concepts in an action research, such as intervention, data, dependent, independent and confounding variables, observable change in skill, types of measurement ('interval' measurement, 'ordinal' measurement and nominal or categorical measurement), pilot research study, contextualising an intervention, empirical scaffolding of learning.
• Apply the steps in action research to investigate the efficacy of a literacy teaching procedure. This includes literature review, identification of a researchable issue, research question, selection of appropriate task measures and experimental design, implementation of study and collection and analysis of clinical evidence, analysis, interpretation and evaluation of the data collected and recommendations for future study.
• Write a report that documents the intervention, what was done, the indicators of student progress, the outcomes, how you would recommend its future use.
• Identify strategies for communicating the outcomes of the study in a school context.

A written paper of 8,000 words (100 per cent).

Attendance at all classes (tutorial/seminars/practical classes/lectures/labs) is obligatory. Failure to attend 80% of classes will normally result in failure in the subject.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.