Driving high-quality research to improve children’s lives
The Fraser Mustard Centre brings together leading Australian child development researchers and innovative government policy makers and planners to improve the development, education, health and wellbeing of young Australians.
The Fraser Mustard Centre is a unique approach to research translation between the University of South Australia and the Department for Education.
The Fraser Mustard Centre aims to:
- improve and promote the health and wellbeing of all children and young people in South Australia through the unique application of multidisciplinary research;
- help shift focus from the historical delineation between health and education services to an integrated approach with a focus on ‘child development’;
- build capacity amongst public sector staff and academic researchers to design, undertake and use research to improve the environments in which children live and the service systems which support families;
- attract research funding for shared priorities for research that leads to improved developmental, health, wellbeing and education outcomes for children
Current Projects
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Self-Regulated Learning
Self-Regulated Learning is described as a process in which learners actively take control of their own learning experience by setting goals, planning, monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting their learning strategies to optimize their performance and achieve desired outcomes. These abilities have been shown to be a predictor of educational success and lifelong outcomes, such as income and health. Although self-regulation is frequently noted within School curriculum, we are unaware of any subjects or lessons dedicated to the development of self-regulated learning skills being delivered in Australia. A scalable, low-cost intervention targeted at year 1 students in Germany was found to have substantial effects on impulse control and self-regulated learning, with sustained impacts on long term academic success. This research project seeks to replicate the Schunk (2022) randomised trial, adapted to the Australian context and extended to year levels 2, 4 and 6.
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Self-Regulated Measurement
Overall, there is a lack of consistency and standardisation of outcomes for tools measuring self-regulation. Noting that the idea of self-regulation draws from a range of other constructs the Department wishes to develop a measure suitable for use across the South Australian public education system from early childhood to school completion. The aim of this project is to source, adapt, pilot test and assess the psychometric and utility of the items to assess self-regulation within the Wellbeing and Engagement Data Collection.
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Rapid Literature Reviews
The Department for Education is committed to the implementation of evidence-based practices with the aim of improving children’s learning and wellbeing. Policy makers within the Department should be abreast of the latest scientific evidence. For instance, evidence might be required regarding the prevalence of an issue/need, the efficacy of a particular program/intervention, or best practice processes in helping to address a particular challenge. A rapid-response evidence review model, which has the capability to interrogate the current evidence base in a short timeframe, has significant utility for the Department.
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Metacognition rapid review
This Rapid Review will be focussed on metacognition, specifically to understand the latest scientific evidence behind the characteristics and frameworks of metacognition. The review will capture the evidenced trajectories of metacognition over age and developmental stage, the relationship with academic and wellbeing outcomes, prevalence rates, risk factors impacting on the development of metacognitions and frameworks for metacognition within educational contexts.
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Evaluating the WEC as a Screening Tool for Student Wellbeing and Performance
This report, commissioned by the South Australian Department for Education, evaluates the potential of the Wellbeing Engagement Collection (WEC) items as a diagnostic screening tool for mental health issues and academic underachievement in individual children. Results showed that WEC items alone are insufficient for diagnosing mental health concerns or academic performance issues at the individual student level, however this does not dimmish the WECs value as a population measure as it was originally intended for.
