Our people - Associate Professor Susan Hill
I’ve
been working at UniSA in the area of literacy since the late 1980s.
Before that I was a regional advisor working in schools. I did my PhD in
literacy and since then have been exploring how children learn.
My passion for researching literacy has led to work on large national federally funded projects including 100 children go to school and an important longitudinal study of children from the age of four to 10 years, for which I was project director.
I am convinced of the importance of projects that can have an impact and make a difference, particularly for children who find learning difficult.
This led me to explore how we can help children learn, finding new and alternative ways of teaching effectively. Sometimes we have to branch out and be more dynamic. I’ve learnt that from my daughter, who is autistic - a great challenge - but also a great joy.
For the past two years I have worked with the Department of Education on Mapping Multiliteracies, which looks at how young children use new technologies. The report, sent to every SA school, included a professional development training program for facilitators.
I’m also trialling a new approach to learning – teaching sounds and letters fast – realising that children all learn differently, and that maybe we’re going too slow for some children. The rate at which some children learn is mind blowing so we need to teach in ways that help them thrive rather than teaching what we’ve been doing for years. We need a multimodal approach, where we pick and choose to suit the children.
Writing and publishing has been a major part of my literacy research. My recent textbook, Developing Early Literacy: Assessment and Teaching, is a practical book for student teachers based on classroom research and longitudinal studies.
The book was a joint winner in the Tertiary Education (wholly Australian) category of the 2006 Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing announced by the Australian Publishers Association on July 27.
I am also developing materials for children learning to read, and have written many small books for children.
UniSA allows me to be creative. It has given me support for a range of research and development projects of use to the community. I think working in very practical research areas that enable changes to learning is important. I like the intersection between research, working with people who are learning to become educators, and working with children and the dynamic of putting it all together.
Associate Professor Susan Hill is Program Director for the Master of Education in the School of Education.