Belinda Hopwood

• Bachelor of Arts, BTeach, PhD
• Lecturer at University of Tasmania

Transitioning across different schooling sectors presents various challenges for young people. This is evident in the transition from primary to secondary schooling, when factors such as student belonging and positive connections are vital. Students with learning support needs or living in isolated localities may experience additional challenges. T...

Australian and international research has consistently revealed that children residing in Out of Home Care (OOHC) experience low academic achievement, high rates of suspension, high rates of early school drop‐out and poor representation in post school study. To address the issues experienced by many students in OOHC, trauma informed policies have b...

Developing students’ reading and numeracy skills remain key goals of contemporary schooling. In Australia, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests have assessed these skills since 2008. Previous research found a significant gender gap in favour of females for the NAPLAN writing test, yet no study has examined whether...

The proportion of Australian students enrolling in a fully distance, online mode has been increasing over the past decade across a range of courses, including initial teacher education (ITE). The COVID-19 pandemic has further increased the need to teach and design courses in ways that successfully engage students online. This research set out to ga...

Although there is ample research into student engagement in online learning, much of this investigates the student experience through surveys administered at a fixed point in time, usually at the exit point of a single unit of study or course. The study described in this paper, by contrast, aimed to understand online student engagement over a whole...

Adolescent literacy achievement has been, and continues to be, a hot topic in the educational community, with concerns about students’ literacy capabilities consistently dominating the educational landscape, particularly in the area of reading. What is known from years of educational research, high stakes testing and teacher testimonials is that re...

The transition from primary school to secondary school has long been recognised as one of the most challenging times in a young adolescent students’ education, particularly in regard to their academic achievement. Research evidence from the last 30 years has identified a consistent pattern in students’ academic achievement across transition, sugges...

There is a growing awareness that it is teachers’ level of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) that is a critical influence on students’ learning. To date most of the initiatives associated with understanding PCK have come from researchers investigating teachers’ PCK in the subject areas of mathematics, science and technology, with limited PCK rese...

Educators and educational researchers are committed to better understanding the needs of young adolescents and developing the most effective and efficient ways to support students through school. One area which has received ongoing attention in the research field is adolescent students' achievement in literacy. The aim of this chapter is to identif...

The common expectation surrounding students and education is that students will advance in their literacy ability as they progress through school. Although there is support for this expectation from large scale longitudinal studies, for some middle school students, advancement in literacy ability is not always the case. The transition from primary...