In 2023, the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) and researchers from the Queensland Brain Institute at The University of Queensland partnered to examine how specific aspects of quality relate to learning and development outcomes for children in Australia. This study contributes the first empirical evidence linking quality ratings of…

Government investment in early childhood education and care (ECEC) supports children's ongoing development, learning and wellbeing, and delivers the skills and knowledge required for a thriving society and economy. Assessing the efficiency of this investment, as well as methods for ongoing monitoring are important steps in delivering effective…

This study focused on the importance of developmental assessment in early childhood and the approaches used by teachers in this process. This study examined how teachers conduct assessment processes based on individual differences and child-centered approaches. This study used a mixed-method design and was conducted with 181 preschool teachers in…

Australia has made tremendous progress in building a better early childhood education and care (ECEC) system to serve all Australian children and families. Substantial data already exists about ECEC services in Australia, including access, participation and quality. Large-scale data sets are held by governments (state and federal), research…

Background: In 1994, the African National Congress identified early childhood development as a potential strategy to redress the inequalities of apartheid, however, two and a half decades later, poverty still persists, and South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Aim: This article explores how policy texts based on and with…

Each year, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) releases a list of scientific advances that represent significant progress in the field of autism research. The "Summary of Advances" provides short, plain language summaries of the top research breakthroughs selected by the IACC from a pool of research articles nominated by…

This paper and the four commissioned works on which it is based are guided by the important question: How can we start valuing practices and outcomes of teaching and learning that are difficult to reduce to numbers? As the process of developing indicators for the Post-2015 education targets unfolds, some of the targets are at risk of being dropped…

The purpose of this paper is to review recent developments related to the development of indicators of educational progress in the context of the Post 2015 deliberations to generate a new international architecture for educational investment through to 2030. There have been a plethora of suggestions and several parallel consultation processes…

This report reviews the conceptual debates and existing data sources that relate to three ambiguous and controversial targets included in the post-2015 education framework: Relevant Learning Outcomes; Knowledge, Skills, Values, and Attitudes (for education for global citizenship and sustainable development); and Teachers and Safe, Inclusive, and…