Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, , 4:03:24 to 4:07:38
Dr. Donovan provides an opening statement highlighting AERO's work on AI in schools, early childhood education, and the importance of evidence-based practice for child safety and equity.
Topics: Education, Artificial intelligence, Child safety
Speakers: Dr Jennifer Donovan, Senator Marielle Smith, Unknown Speaker, Senator Paul Scarr
>> Thank you Mr. Neil. That now concludes our questions um for you and your colleagues. So you're free to depart. And I'd like to call the Australian Education Research Organization to the table who I believe are close by. >> Welcome Dr. Donovan. Uh did you have an opening statement?
>> I have which I'd like to read if you don't mind. It's much shorter than a
>> noted. Thank you. No shame.
>> You're encouraging me to comment on the
In previous appearances before this committee, I've described the impactful work that Australia's national evidence body does with schools and school systems. Most recently, we published summaries of the evidence about the use of AI in schools for policy makers and practitioners. ERO has also been charged by education ministers to conduct research in the early childhood education and care sector. And today I want to briefly highlight the important work we do to support achieving equity in education right from the start. At a time when child safety concerns continue to challenge the sector, our focus has remained on identifying the system conditions and practices that make a difference to children's outcomes. Evidence-based practice is a pathway to restoring confidence and improving education quality in the We engage with the state, territory and federal governments who steward the system and key stakeholders across the sector. We also partner with early childhood services. For example, last month we published an intentional teaching model to help educators use intentional teaching to support children's learning. The model was developed in partnership with early childhood services to ensure that the resources are robust and relevant in real world early childhood settings. Also, for the past four years, we've partnered with services to learn about what it takes to successfully implement evidence-based practices, working in 51 services, including long daycare, family daycare, preschool, and kindergarten. It's a genuine partnership where we learn together about how evidence can work in real world contexts. Our early childhood work considers the entire system. We analyze national data sets to examine the impact of system level settings and conditions. We look for what works by examining existing evidence and undertaking research to address gaps in evidence-based practice knowledge and approaches. We investigate what it takes, what is needed to make evidence-based practice stick. And we consider context, engaging with our partners across governments and the sector to understand the context for policy and practice implementation. Our study linking quality and child development in early childhood education and care is the first empirical evidence linking quality ratings with child development. This analysis gives us confidence that our national quality framework is delivering for children. We've also identified specific quality areas that are associated with reducing developmental vulnerability through our work in both early childhood and school sectors. ERO is continuing to examine and strengthen the evidence base and promote practices and approaches that support continuity of learning and development of our children and young people through our system level evidence of what drives excellence and equity in educational outcomes. We're supporting the targeting of effort towards specific and impactful evidence-based practices and helping to bridge the gap between research and action. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. Um so we have uh both yourself and Senate Orman Payne seeking the call so and about 20 minutes. So I'll come to you first Senator Sullivan.