Kathryn Holmes

• B.Sc., Dip. Ed., M.Ed. Stud., PhD.
• Professor at Western Sydney University

Declining enrolments in senior secondary science have heightened concerns for meeting the demands for more STEM-qualified workers and a scientifically literate society. Students' attitudes to science are formed during schooling, particularly in adolescence when they are exposed to a variety of science topics. Students’ perceptions of their ability...

Achievement goals describe patterns of mastery and performance orientation which impact school achievement and motivation. While person-centred analyses have become more prevalent in educational research, few studies have applied this technique to adolescents’ science achievement goals and intentions to take science in secondary school. In this Aus...

It is generally understood that both clear teacher instruction and orderly classroom climates support student achievement in mathematics. However, to what extent does instructional clarity “compensate” for classroom disorder? In this exploratory study, we analyse data from 8,864 Year 8 students sampled by TIMSS 2019 to investigate the relationship...

The development of a strong foundation in primary mathematics is viewed as a critical outcome of schooling (Goos & Kaya, 2020), contributing to students’ future achievement in mathematics (Siegler et al., 2012). While there are many factors that may influence children’s achievement in mathematics, their enjoyment of mathematics and their teacher’s...

It is generally understood that both clear teacher instruction and orderly classroom climates support student achievement in mathematics. However, to what extent does instructional clarity “compensate” for classroom disorder? In this exploratory study, we analyse data from 8,864 Year 8 students sampled by TIMSS 2019 to investigate the relationship...

Providing children with a clear understanding of climate change drivers and their mitigation is crucial for their roles as future earth stewards. To achieve this, it will be necessary to reverse the declining interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education in schools in the UK and other countries, as STEM skills will b...

Menstrual management is recognized as a critical issue for young people internationally. Relatively little published research explores issues pertaining to menstruation in school education. This paper is based on the results of an Australian survey of 5007 young women aged 13–25, which examined their experiences of menstruation and dysmenorrhea. It...

Achievement goals are an important motivational construct which describe patterns of mastery and performance orientations which have wide-ranging impacts on achievement and motivation at school. In recent years, person-centred analytic approaches have become more prevalent in the education literature. However, to date few studies have applied this...

Workforce demand for STEM skills is predicted to grow over the coming decades creating an increased imperative for students to be studying these subjects in school and beyond. The predicted shortfall in skilled workers is further impacted by the significant under-representation of females in some STEM areas. As students progress through the formal...

Objective Menstrual cycle-related conditions, such as dysmenorrhea and heavy bleeding, are common amongst those under 25 years. Despite having significant impact on work, education, and social activities, most do not seek medical advice, preferring to self-manage their symptoms. We aimed to determine if access to a web-based resource was a feasible...

In this study, we examined whether generalised mathematics anxiety, application of mathematics in science anxiety, and positive attitudes towards mathematics influenced adolescents’ intentions to study biology, chemistry, and physics in Grades 11 and 12. Participants were 477 students in Grades 8–10 from two schools in Western Sydney. Girls reporte...

Menstrual health literacy has a direct impact on young peoples’ quality of life, health, academic and professional performance. In Australia, the key learning area of Health and Physical Education [HPE] provides opportunities for students to develop menstrual health literacy. This paper reports on the findings of a survey of 5007 young Australian w...

Deferral and leave-taking behaviour substantially affects enrolment and retention rates across Australian universities. Almost ten per cent of commencing students defer their university offer every year, while over 20 per cent of continuing students take leave from their university within three years of commencing a Bachelor degree. Our research co...

Menstrual cycle-related conditions, such as dysmenorrhea and heavy bleeding, are common amongst those under 25. Despite having significant impact on work, education, and social activities, most do not seek medical advice, preferring to self-manage their symptoms. We aimed to determine if access to a web-based resource could improve health literacy,...

Objective: Menstrual cycle-related conditions, such as dysmenorrhea and heavy bleeding, are common amongst those under 25 years. Despite having significant impact on work, education, and social activities, most do not seek medical advice, preferring to self-manage their symptoms. We aimed to determine if access to a web-based resource could improve...

We launched this Research Topic to elicit new knowledge about teaching STEM subjects through contextualised curricula approaches that engage students by making the learning relevant to them. The six articles in this Research Topic draw on studies examining teacher capacity to develop and deliver integrated STEM curricula, reasons for student diseng...

Introduction Menstrual cycle-related conditions, such as dysmenorrhea and heavy bleeding, are common amongst those under 25. Despite having significant impact on work, education and social activities, most do not seek medical advice, preferring to self-manage their symptoms. This pilot pre- and post-test study aimed to determine if a web-based inte...

Student engagement and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields in primary and secondary schools is increasingly being emphasized as the importance of STEM skills for future careers is realized. Localized learning has been identified as a group of pedagogical approaches that may enhance learning in STEM by making t...

Australia has seen declining numbers of students choosing mathematics and science subjects in the senior secondary years, running counter to economic projections of accelerating need for STEM skills. Many students become less engaged with these subjects in the junior secondary years but attitudes like self-concept, utility value, and intrinsic valu...

Women continue to be under-represented in science fields in Australia and internationally. Efforts to fix the ‘leaky pipeline’ producing this inequality are frustrated by declining enrolments in higher-level school science subjects. Researchers and policymakers need a better understanding of the factors which influence girls’ decisions to take scie...

Adolescent populations have become increasingly accessible through online data collection methods. Online surveys are advantageous in recruiting adolescent participants and can be designed for adolescents to provide informed consent without the requirement of parental consent. This study sampled 338 Australian adolescents to participate in a low ri...

Background: Poor menstrual health literacy impacts adolescents' quality of life and health outcomes across the world. The aim of this systematic review was to identify concerns about menstrual health literacy in low/middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs). Methods: Relevant social science and medical databases were searc...

Background: Poor menstrual health literacy impacts adolescents’ quality of life and health outcomes across the world. The aim of this systematic review was to identify concerns about menstrual health literacy in low/middle (LMIC) and high-income (HIC) countries. Methods: Relevant social science and medical databases were searched for peer-reviewed...

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many teachers around the world to make a sudden switch from face-to-face to online teaching. This shift in practice has provided an opportunity to reconsider how technology use in mathematics education can be utilised to improve student engagement. In this study, we explore four case studies of Australian secondary math...

Study Objective To explore key aspects of menstrual health literacy and menstrual management in young women at school or in tertiary education. Design Cross-sectional online survey. Setting Australia-wide. Participants A total of 4202 adolescent and young women (13-25 years of age; median age 17 years), having reached menarche, living in Austral...

Young people often are asked what they want to be when they grow up. How do their aspirations change as students move through childhood and adolescence? To investigate the formation of career aspirations, we analysed 6308 questionnaires from 4213 students aged 8 to 18 years arranged in an accelerated longitudinal design. Using a person-centred anal...

Australia has seen declining numbers of students choosing mathematics and science subjects in the senior secondary years, running counter to economic projections of an accelerating need for science and mathematics skills. Many students become less engaged with these subjects in the junior secondary years but attitudes such as self-concept, utility...

Study Objective To explore the prevalence and impact of dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain and menstrual symptoms on young women at school or in tertiary education. Design and setting: Cross-sectional online survey in Australia. Participants 4202 adolescent and young women (13-25 years; median age 17 years), having reached menarche, living in Australia an...

This chapter provides a critical synthesis of research onTechnology technology-related classroom practice from the early yearsEarly years of schooling through to tertiaryTertiary and initial teacher mathematics education. The synthesis considers ways in which research has explored the use of digital technologiesDigital technologies through the thre...

In the spirit of Jonathan Borwein’s opportunistic and inventive use of computers in the development of the field of Experimental Mathematics, this paper recommends a computational ‘turn’ in school mathematics. At a time when students are increasingly moving away from mathematics in the senior years of schooling, we need to reconsider the relevance...

This report details the findings of research conducted for Infrastructure NSW assessing the impact of teaching curriculum resource about Hawkesbury‑Nepean Valley on students’ understanding of natural hazards, community preparedness and responses to flooding. This research project was conducted in 2019 with teachers and schools by Western Sydney Uni...

Despite the predicted need for a more mathematically capable workforce, the proportion of students undertaking advanced mathematics courses in Australia and other comparable countries has stagnated or fallen, in part due to a lack of student engagement with mathematics in school. In society in general, technology use is commonplace, leading some ed...

Declining numbers of students electing to study mathematics and science is a significant issue as our society increasingly relies on workers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields (Kennedy, Lyons, & Quinn, 2014). Many students become less engaged in mathematics and science in the early years of high school (Plenty & Heub...

Quality education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is critical to increasing student engagement and uptake of these subjects in school and beyond. Accordingly, the National STEM School Education Strategy, 2016 – 2026 identifies five areas for national action in STEM Education, one of which is to “increas(e) teacher capacity and...

In recent decades, China has observed increasing numbers of rural–urban migrant children seeking education in Chinese cities, resulting in pressure on urban schools to accommodate these children. Drawing on pre- and post-survey and interview data with 215 primary school teachers in a metropolitan city in East China, the objectives of this article a...

Introduction: Dysmenorrhea (period pain) is common and affects around three quarters of all young women under the age of 25. The majority of young women, for a variety of reasons, think of period pain as ‘normal’ and something to be managed or endured. This normalisation of pain often is reinforced by family and friends and results in young women u...

Introduction: Dysmenorrhea (period pain) and associated symptoms are very common in young women <25 years. This time corresponds with a significant stage in adolescents and young women's academic lives at both school and in higher education. Dysmenorrhea may cause absenteeism from class or result in reduced classroom concentration and performance....

Misalignment between career and education aspirations has been associated with poorer achievement during adolescence and unstable employment in adulthood. In this study, we evaluated whether a brief in-school intervention improved career decision self-efficacy and aspirational alignment. We sampled 211 teenagers living in disadvantaged areas of Wes...

The Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies provides an opportunity for teachers to integrate coding and computational thinking within their STEM teaching practices. However, this opportunity has proven to be a challenge for many teachers, as their self-efficacy with respect to teaching these new skills is often low. This research explores the...

In many areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), and despite attempts by governments and other agencies to address the issue, females remain significantly underrepresented. Research has shown that parents play a significant role in shaping the aspirations of children with regard to higher education. However, there is a pau...

Despite gains in access to and participation in higher education, students from low-SES backgrounds continue to be under-represented. By exploring differences among these students, this paper brings new insight into ways of achieving greater equity. Using a mixed method approach and data from 6492 school students, we utilise Bourdieu’s concepts of...

Since the 1960s, a few, yet very influential, educational researchers have investigated how computer programming can be used to foster mathematics learning. However, since the term ‘computational thinking’ was popularised by Jeannette Wing in 2006, the number of studies in this area has grown substantially. In this article, we present a systematic...

Higher education institutions routinely use Learning Management Systems (LMS) for multiple purposes; to organise coursework and assessment, to facilitate staff and student interactions, and to act as repositories of learning objects. The analysis reported here involves staff (n=46) and student (n=470) responses to surveys as well as data collected...

Research on young people's aspirations and their capacity to aspire to higher education has proliferated in recent decades, however, very little attention has been paid to the creative arts. Diversity in the arts remains a persistent issue in many nations, and repeated attempts to promote diversity in the Australian arts community have had limited...

The educational inclusion of rural–urban migrant children in Chinese urban schools has been promoted in the past decades. This paper provides a contextualized interpretation of recent policy developments governing large Chinese cities and evaluates its impact upon the status of migrant children's education. Drawing on data collected from 1,331 migr...

Transition pedagogies and specialised curricula have been found to enhance student academic performance and experiences in an ‘en/abling’ first-year tertiary program (Atwa et al 2018). However, would the benefits of transition approaches be of use to ‘abled’ first-year university students’? Will similar skills in collaborative learning, contextual...

China's fast-developing urbanization has promoted a great number of rural families migrating to urban areas. The objective of this study is to address the existing situation of urban migrant parents' parenting for infant and toddlers and the association between co-parental self-efficacy and child developmental outcomes. A sample of 387 parents of r...

Objective Given that the current shortage of nurses threatens the quality of health care globally, we urgently need to find new ways to bolster recruitment. This paper aims to understand patterns and predictors of interest in a nursing career among school students in order to inform ways of ensuring a viable future workforce. Design A four-year lon...

Objectives: Students from lower socio-economic status backgrounds continue to be under-represented in medical education. Although various initiatives have been implemented by universities to widen participation, their effectiveness and their timing remain contentious. Prior studies have primarily focused on students already on a medical pathway, w...

This study explores students’ post-school aspirations for vocational education and training (VET), focussing on the interest in vocational training among both primary and secondary school students, from the perspective of the students. The views of more than 6000 students from Year 3 to Year 12 in New South Wales government schools were canvassed...

Indigenous students remain vastly under-represented within higher education in Australia. While aspirations have been a key focus of the widening participation agenda, the aspirations of Indigenous students have largely been overlooked. Drawing on survey data collected as part of a mixed methods longitudinal study conducted with students in Years 3...

There has been a worldwide decline in interest and achievement in mathematics in young people. Despite the extensive benefits of physical activity, the majority of children are not sufficiently active. Schools have the potential to arrest both concerns through innovative teaching that challenges and complements traditional approaches. The aim of th...

While access to higher education has increased for Indigenous Australians, participation and completion rates remain lower than those of non-Indigenous Australians. A sound evidence base is needed to ground equity initiatives if they are to address the specific needs of Indigenous students. This paper presents the results of a scoping review of emp...

Demand for higher education in Australia has doubled since 1989, increasing the number of students from diverse social, economic and academic backgrounds. Equity targets have seen a proliferation of programs and interventions aimed at encouraging school students, particularly those from low socio-economic status backgrounds, to participate in highe...

Declining enrolments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and a lack of interest in STEM careers are concerning at a time when society is becoming more reliant on complex technologies. We examine student aspirations for STEM careers by drawing on surveys conducted annually from 2012 to 2015. School students in year...

Modern military organizations are making a concerted effort to recruit a more diverse range of people, with the role of women in the military at the forefront of debate. In Australia, in response to the changing role of the military and with the aim of positioning the military as an “employer of choice” for women, females are targeted as early as h...

Since 2009, Australian governments and educational institutions have focused on enabling access to university for students from historically underrepresented groups, particularly those from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. However, just 15% of students from the lowest SES quartile undertake degree-level education in Australia. Policymake...

Internationally, the quality of teachers is a growing focus of educational reform, with new policies attempting to ensure that only the ‘best and brightest’ are selected for the teaching profession. This article tests the assumption underpinning these developments that prospective teachers lack the desired academic and personal qualities. Drawing o...

Australian economic and social policy since 2009 has been directed at enabling access to higher education for students from historically underrepresented groups, particularly those from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. However, Australian universities remain predominantly middle and upper-class institutions, with just 15% of students fro...

Online learning is increasingly ubiquitous in higher education. However, research regarding online teaching often focuses on the affordances of the online environment rather than on the quality of pedagogy. In this paper we consider how online learning could be enhanced using rich pedagogical models that are consistent with a wealth of existing kno...

Abstract: The role of teachers in shaping and supporting students’ intentions to pursue university education has largely been overlooked. Many studies have addressed factors impacting on the under-representation of students from low SES and other disadvantaged backgrounds in universities in general, and in high status universities and degrees more...

Type of paper: Abstract refereed Abstract: Indigenous students remain significantly underrepresented in Australian higher education. Although some progress has been made in recent years, Indigenous people comprised 2.2% of the overall population but only 1.4% of students enrolled at university in 2010 (Behrendt, Larkin, Griew, & Kelly, 2012). Despi...

http://www.genderandstem.com

http://qct.edu.au/pdf/research/WhyPeopleChooseTeachingLiteratureReview.pdf

A decade of economic and social policy in Australia has been directed at enabling access to tertiary education for students from historically underrepresented social backgrounds. The drivers behind these policy settings have included the need to staff an increasingly knowledge-based economy and a concordant desire for greater social mobility from t...

https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Choosing-University-The-Impact-of-Schools-and-Schooling.pdf

Teaching and Digital Technologies: Big Issues and Critical Questions helps both pre-service and in-service teachers to critically question and evaluate the reasons for using digital technology in the classroom. Unlike other resources that show how to use specific technologies – and quickly become outdated, this text empowers the reader to understan...

A decade of economic and social policy in Australia and the Anglosphere more broadly has been directed at enabling access to tertiary education for students from historically underrepresented social backgrounds. The drivers behind these policy settings have included the need to staff increasingly knowledge-based economies and a concordant desire fo...

To evaluate the impact of a primary school-based physical activity integration program delivered by teachers on objectively measured physical activity and key educational outcomes. Ten classes from eight Australian public schools were randomly allocated to treatment conditions. Teachers from the intervention group were taught to embed movement-base...