Call for Abstracts

The 2022 Summit theme is ‘Partnership for Student Success'. Abstracts are invited for submission under one of the following sub-themes:

  • Developing purposeful partnerships
  • Tools and strategies for creating sustainable partnerships
  • Future-proofing learning and teaching through partnerships

The deadline for abstract submission has been extended to Monday 25 July 2022 via the Submit Abstract link in the left menu.

Key dates for abstracts:

  • 25 July – Extended abstract submission deadline
  • 25 July to 12 August - Peer review of abstracts
  • 22 August – Feedback to authors & confirmation of accepted submissions
  • 21 September – Keynote address (morning) and staff presentations from 11.30am AWST/1.30noon AEST

Writing an Abstract

Please review the guidelines on the Writing and Presenting an Abstract page and use this Abstract Template to structure your abstract.

Award Winning Abstracts

To recognize the work of Notre Dame’s educators, awards are given by the Review Panel to the best abstracts. As an example, this submission from the School of Education won the 2020 Award for the Project Demonstrating the Best representation of the Summit theme/sub-theme.

Title: Professional learning and the supervision of pre-service teachers in the early years
Authors: Linda Bellen, Liz McKenna & Lauren Stephenson, School of Education, Sydney.

Abstract: This presentation reports on the initial findings from Phase 1 of a research project which examines the different ways early childhood mentor educators and pre-service teachers understand, interpret, conceptualise the phenomenon of mentoring. The study adopts the use of a phenomenographic approach (Marton, 1981; Marton, 1986) in order to describe the variation in their experiences. The professional experience is a key aspect of initial teacher education programs to help pre-service teachers develop their professional learning and identity, and to begin to understand their role as a teacher (Pendergast, Garvis, & Keogh, 2011; Van Schagen Johnson et al, 2016). In highlighting the ways that mentor educators and pre-service teachers experience mentoring, universities can gain insight into what contributes to successful experiences. Having this understanding is important if initial teacher education programs are to build capacity for excellence in approaches to teaching and learning in order to help improve the overall mentoring experience. To date, the literature base reveals there is scant research in the early childhood domain, particularly in the Australian context. During Phase 1, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with 10 second year early childhood pre-service teachers were employed to explore how they negotiated and navigated their mentoring experiences over the course of a ten-week professional experience in early childhood settings. Data analysis used an inductive approach where meaning units were identified and then categories were constructed by the researchers with relationships between the categories identified. The initial findings reveal the tensions, challenges and successes of the mentoring relationship. The findings can contribute to reconceptualising how the professional experience is negotiated and organised between universities and early childhood education contexts and have implications in the design of initial teacher education courses and professional development opportunities around mentoring offered by universities.

References:
Marton, F. (1981). Phenomenography—Describing conceptions of the world around us. Instructional Science, 10(2), 177-200.
Marton, F. (1986). Phenomenography—A research approach to investigation different understandings of reality. Journal of Thought, 21(3), 28-49.
Pendergast, D., Garvis, S., & Keogh, J. (2011). Pre-service student-teacher self-efficacy beliefs: An insight into the making of teachers. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 36(12), 46-58.
Van Schagen Johnson, A., La Paro, K., & Crosby, D. (2016). Early practicum experiences: Pre-service early childhood students’ perceptions and self-efficacy. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(2), 229-236.

See the video recording of the presentation here.