I just graduated from my 8 year cancer journey. Thank you Prof Fran Boyle, Prof Andrew Spillane, Prof Gillian Lamoray, my wonderful family and friends. I'm so glad to be alive.
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| My oncologist, Prof Fran Boyle celebrating my cancer graduation (and I'm wearing my PhD bonnet that was at hand for the photo) |
Congratulations to Dr Kate Margetson who received the Charles Sturt University Higher Degree Research Medal this week at the Bathurst graduation ceremony. There are only three medals per year awarded - only one person per Faculty per year - so this is a very significant achievement. Congratulations Kate - we are so proud of you!
Kate's PhD was titled: Moving Beyond Monolingual Practices with Multilingual Children: Learning from Vietnamese-English–Speaking Children, Families, and Professionals https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/moving-beyond-monolingual-practices-with-multilingual-children-le . Her PhD supervisors were Prof Sharynne McLeod and A/Prof Sarah Verdon.
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| Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod, Dr Kate Margetson, Vice Chancellor Renee Leon |
Potential university medal awardees are nominated by the SubDean (Graduate Studies) based on their examiners' reports, academic prizes and/or scholarships; research outputs from the doctoral or master by research (refereed publications, conference proceedings, journal articles, etc.); and the impact of the research both in terms of actual and potential outcomes for industry, government, professional organisations, business and community (https://www.csu.edu.au/division/vcoffice/ogca/governance/university-medals/higher-degree-by-research-university-medal).
Kate's PhD extended the work of our Australian Research Council Discovery Grant: VietSpeech (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech/overview). She has published and presented many papers from her PhD. Since completing her PhD, Kate has been undertaking a postdoc funded by the Rural Health Research Institute to use implementation science to continue the development of the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages (SACHL, Margetson & McLeod, 2025) (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/sachl).
The Children's Voices Centre staff had a wonderful time celebrating with our graduates, Dr Kate Margetson and Dr. Melissa Brunner during the graduation ceremony.
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| Children's Voices Centre: Dr Helen L. Blake, A/Prof Tamara Cumming, A/Prof Kathy Cologon, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Carolyn Gregoric |
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| Staff from the Children's Voices Centre and School of Education |
Congratulations to my research students who have graduated during 2024.
Due to CSU changing the graduation ceremony dates - they clashed with my previously organised international travel - so I was unable to attend their graduations ceremonies. So, over the past few weeks, I was able to borrow academic gowns and celebrate in person.
Congratulations!
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| Dr. Marie Ireland (celebrating at ASHA 2024) |
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| Sarah Bartlett - Graduate Certificate in Research |
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| Celebrating at The Treehouse during ECV2024 |
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| Dr Kate Margetson |
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| Dr Belinda Downey |
Congratulations Sarah Bartlett - whose manuscript from her Graduate Certificate has just been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
Here are the details: Bartlett, S. & McLeod, S. (2024, in press). Caregivers’ insights into supporting their late talkers using Target Word™ Hanen® Parent Program. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
Here is the abstract:
Purpose. To explore caregivers’ experiences and engagement during the 16-week Target Word™ Hanen Program® for Parents program designed to support late talkers.
Method. Qualitative interpretative description (ID) methodology was used to understand the experience of five caregivers who had completed Target Word™ to support their children (aged 18-36 months). Caregivers attended a focus group to share their perspectives. Transcripts of these focus groups were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.
Result. Two themes were identified. Firstly, that caregivers described explicit roles for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to support their engagement over time: in the beginning (clarify expectations), middle (enable caregiver to link changes in their behaviour to positive child outcomes) and final (empowered caregivers) phases of the intervention. Secondly, that caregiver engagement in learning is individual, influenced by (a) individual needs and expectations, (b) active engagement during key learning moments, (c) influence of the broader environment.
Conclusion. Each caregiver participating in Target Word™ experienced unique engagement journeys over the course of the program. SLPs can explicitly facilitate engagement at each phase of Target Word™ to promote active engagement for learning and ultimately caregiver empowerment to support their children’s language growth.
Here is a photo of Sarah and I wearing our academic gowns this week. CSU changed their graduation dates in 2024 - and I was unavailable on the new dates. It was great to celebrate Sarah's graduation and accomplishments in Bathurst.
What a joy to spend a whole day with my postdoc Dr Kate Margetson in Sydney. We had a lovely day celebrating her PhD graduation, working on her implementation science approach to disseminating the Speech Assessment of Children's Home Languages (SACHL), and planning our presentations to Hong Kong.
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| Congratulations Dr Kate Margetson! |
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| Both of my PhD graduates - Kate Margetson and Marie Ireland - are in the same graduation booklet |
Dr Kate Margetson graduated with her PhD today. I am a very proud supervisor of all of her accomplishments. She graduated in Sydney with Dr Van Tran and her family cheering her on. I was in Brazil about to present two keynote lectures before lunchtime - so Yvonne Wren and I contacted Kate while we ate breakfast! Congratulations Kate on your important PhD and how it is changing the world. I am honoured to present work from Kate's PhD in one of my keynote lectures in Brazil (see photos below).
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| Dr Kate Margetson |
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| Dr Van Tran congratulating Dr Kate Margetson - our two VietSpeech PhD graduates |
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| Congratulations Kate! from Yvonne Wren and myeself in Brazil |
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| Presenting work from Kate's PhD in Brazil |
Congratulations to Dr Kate Margetson for passing your PhD with no changes required! This is an important contribution to the world's knowledge to support multilingual children to realize their communication rights.
Title: Moving Beyond Monolingual Practices with Multilingual Children: Learning from Vietnamese-English–Speaking Children, Families, and Professionals
Abstract: Multilingual children’s speech assessment and differential diagnosis of speech sound disorders can be challenging for speech-language pathologists (SLPs), especially if they do not speak the same language as the children they are working with. While best practice recommendations include assessing children in all the languages that they speak, in many English-dominant contexts SLPs often rely on English assessments for diagnostic decision-making. There are few guidelines for how SLPs can assess, transcribe, and analyse speech in children’s home languages. This doctoral research aimed to explore assessment, transcription, speech analysis, and diagnosis of speech sound disorders in multilingual children involving direct speech assessment of children’s home languages. Vietnamese-English–speaking children and their families were the focus of this research. The thesis contained four parts, which included five publications.
Part One, Monolingual Speech-Language Pathologists in Multilingual Contexts (Chapter 1), included an orientation to the thesis, situated the researcher, presented a literature review, and outlined methodology. Linguistic multicompetence (Cook, 2016) and the emergence approach (Davis & Bedore, 2013) were presented as the theoretical frameworks underpinning the research.
Part Two, Vietnamese-English–speaking Children’s Speech described similarities and differences between Vietnamese and English phonology, Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s speech acquisition, and current resources available to SLPs for assessment and intervention with Vietnamese-English–speaking children (Chapter 2). The interaction between Vietnamese and English phonology was explored in a cross-sectional study (n = 149) of Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s and adult family members’ speech in Vietnamese and English (Chapter 3) and found that direction of cross-linguistic transfer in children’s speech was significantly associated with children’s age and language proficiency.
Part Three, Diagnosis of Speech Sound Disorders in Vietnamese-English–speaking Children presented in-depth case studies of Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s speech. Case studies of four children considered the impact of assessing both languages on differential diagnosis (Chapter 4). All four children appeared to have speech sound disorder based on English assessment only, but analysis of children’s speech in both languages revealed that only two children had a speech sound disorder. A longitudinal case study explored four influences on a Vietnamese-English–speaking child’s speech over time (Chapter 5) and found that most speech mismatches could be explained by development, dialect, cross-linguistic transfer, and ambient phonology, and that cross-linguistic transfer reduced over time.
Part Four, Moving Beyond Monolingual Speech-Language Pathology Practices with Multilingual Children presented an evidence-based research protocol, the VietSpeech Multilingual Transcription Protocol, for assessing and transcribing multilingual children’s and adults’ speech, that ensured consistent and reliable transcription (Chapter 6). A clinical protocol, the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages, was proposed, for SLPs to assess, transcribe, and analyse multilingual children’s speech, to account for the idiolects of children, their families, and their SLPs (Chapter 7). The Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages will enable SLPs to collaborate with family members and interpreters to assess speech in children’s home languages, providing opportunities to consider children’s entire phonological repertoires during diagnostic decision-making. Finally, conclusions, contributions of the doctoral research, limitations, and future directions were presented (Chapter 8).
This doctoral research sought to bridge a gap between research and practice in multilingual children’s speech assessment by demonstrating the importance of speech assessment of home languages, describing ways of analysing multilingual children’s speech to identify four potential mismatches (development, dialect, cross-linguistic transfer, ambient phonology), and outlining how SLPs move beyond monolingual practices in the way they assess, transcribe, and analyse multilingual children’s speech using the VietSpeech Multilingual Transcription Protocol and the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages.
PAPER 1 (Chapter 2)
Margetson, K., McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Tran, V. H., & Phạm, B. (in press). English + Vietnamese speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.
Margetson, K., McLeod, S., Verdon, S. (2024). Cross-linguistic transfer in Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s and adults’ speech [Manuscript in preparation]. School of Education, Charles Sturt University.
PAPER 3 (Chapter 4)
PAPER 4 (Chapter 5)
Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2023). Cross-linguistic transfer and ambient phonology: Impact on diagnosis of speech sound disorders in a longitudinal bilingual case study. Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech, 4(3), 311-339. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmbs.23672
PAPER 5 (Chapter 6)
Margetson, K., McLeod, S., Verdon, S. & Tran, V. H. (2023). Transcribing multilingual children’s and adults’ speech. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 37 (4-6), 415-435. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2022.2051073
Today the Charles Sturt University Graduate Research Office acknowledged that Kate Margetson's PhD has been finalised and she is ready for graduation. Congratulations Kate!
Her PhD is titled: Moving Beyond Monolingual Practices with Multilingual Children: Learning from Vietnamese-English–Speaking Children, Families, and Professionals
Here is the synopsis: This thesis explored multilingual children's speech development through the analysis of Vietnamese and English speech from 66 children and 83 adults. The research focussed on speech assessment, transcription, analysis, and differential diagnosis of speech sound disorder. A new evidence-based clinical protocol, the Speech Assessment of Children's Home Language(s) (SACHL), was created to assess multilingual children's speech in their home languages.
Here is the abstract:
<Multilingual children’s speech assessment and differential diagnosis of speech sound disorders can be challenging for speech-language pathologists (SLPs), especially if they do not speak the same language as the children they are working with. While best practice recommendations include assessing children in all the languages that they speak, in many English-dominant contexts SLPs often rely on English assessments for diagnostic decision-making. There are few guidelines for how SLPs can assess, transcribe, and analyse speech in children’s home languages. This doctoral research aimed to explore assessment, transcription, speech analysis, and diagnosis of speech sound disorders in multilingual children involving direct speech assessment of children’s home languages. Vietnamese-English–speaking children and their families were the focus of this research.
The thesis contained four parts, which included five publications. Part One, Monolingual Speech-Language Pathologists in Multilingual Contexts (Chapter 1), included an orientation to the thesis, situated the researcher, presented a literature review, and outlined methodology. Linguistic multicompetence (Cook, 2016) and the emergence approach (Davis & Bedore, 2013) were presented as the theoretical frameworks underpinning the research.
Part Two, Vietnamese-English–speaking Children’s Speech described similarities and differences between Vietnamese and English phonology, Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s speech acquisition, and current resources available to SLPs for assessment and intervention with Vietnamese-English–speaking children (Chapter 2). The interaction between Vietnamese and English phonology was explored in a cross-sectional study (n = 149) of Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s and adult family members’ speech in Vietnamese and English (Chapter 3) and found that direction of cross-linguistic transfer in children’s speech was significantly associated with children’s age and language proficiency.
Part Three, Diagnosis of Speech Sound Disorders in Vietnamese-English–speaking Children presented in-depth case studies of Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s speech. Case studies of four children considered the impact of assessing both languages on differential diagnosis (Chapter 4). All four children appeared to have speech sound disorder based on English assessment only, but analysis of children’s speech in both languages revealed that only two children had a speech sound disorder. A longitudinal case study explored four influences on a Vietnamese-English–speaking child’s speech over time (Chapter 5) and found that most speech mismatches could be explained by development, dialect, cross-linguistic transfer, and ambient phonology, and that cross-linguistic transfer reduced over time.
Part Four, Moving Beyond Monolingual Speech-Language Pathology Practices with Multilingual Children presented an evidence-based research protocol, the VietSpeech Multilingual Transcription Protocol, for assessing and transcribing multilingual children’s and adults’ speech, that ensured consistent and reliable transcription (Chapter 6). A clinical protocol, the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages, was proposed, for SLPs to assess, transcribe, and analyse multilingual children’s speech, to account for the idiolects of children, their families, and their SLPs (Chapter 7). The Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages will enable SLPs to collaborate with family members and interpreters to assess speech in children’s home languages, providing opportunities to consider children’s entire phonological repertoires during diagnostic decision-making. Finally, conclusions, contributions of the doctoral research, limitations, and future directions were presented (Chapter 8).
This doctoral research sought to bridge a gap between research and practice in multilingual children’s speech assessment by demonstrating the importance of speech assessment of home languages, describing ways of analysing multilingual children’s speech to identify four potential mismatches (development, dialect, cross-linguistic transfer, ambient phonology), and outlining how SLPs move beyond monolingual practices in the way they assess, transcribe, and analyse multilingual children’s speech using the VietSpeech Multilingual Transcription Protocol and the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages.
Here are the papers in her thesis:
PAPER 1 (Chapter 2)
Margetson, K., McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Tran, V. H., & Phạm, B. (in press). English + Vietnamese speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.
PAPER 2 (Chapter 3)
Margetson, K., McLeod, S., Verdon, S. (2024).
Cross-linguistic transfer in Vietnamese-English–speaking children’s and adults’ speech [Manuscript in preparation]. School of Education, Charles Sturt University.PAPER 3 (Chapter 4)
Margetson, K., McLeod, S., Verdon, S. (2024). Diagnosing speech sound disorder in bilingual Vietnamese-English–speaking children: Are English-only assessments sufficient? In E. Babatsouli (Ed.), Multilingual acquisition and learning: An ecosystemic view to diversity (pp. 217-245). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
PAPER 4 (Chapter 5)
Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2023). Cross-linguistic transfer and ambient phonology: Impact on diagnosis of speech sound disorders in a longitudinal bilingual case study. Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech, 4(3), 311-339. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmbs.23672
PAPER 5 (Chapter 6)
Margetson, K., McLeod, S., Verdon, S. & Tran, V. H. (2023). Transcribing multilingual children’s and adults’ speech. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 37 (4-6), 415-435. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2022.2051073
Last week Dr Belinda Downey graduated with her PhD in Bathurswhile I was in Perth at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference. I celebrated with her before I left for my 7-week trip - and was so pleased to see the photos and congratulate her this week on my return.
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| DVC-A Gavin Brown and Dr Belinda Downey |
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| Dr Kelly Tribolet, Dr Andi Salamon, Dr Belinda Downey, Dr Doreen Rorrison, Dr Shukla Sikder |
Belinda's PhD was titled: Staying in the Early Childhood Education and Care Profession: Struggle, Hope and Connection
Her supervisors were: A/Prof Will Letts, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Tamara Cumming, Dr Leanne Gibbs and Dr Doreen Rorrison.
Abstract:
Retention of early childhood educators (ECEs) has become a ‘wicked problem’ with estimates that more than 39,000 ECEs are currently required to meet workforce demands and projections that an additional 24,000 ECEs may be needed by 2025. Attrition or turnover of ECEs can negatively affect the relationships held with children and families, the quality of care and education and the educators’ workload. Wages and working conditions have been identified as one concern, but additional complex issues affecting retention, include professional recognition, administrative and regulatory burden and the intensity of the ECE role as well as compounding effects from these issues on those ECEs’ who remain. Retention in ECEC, specifically focused on the Northern Territory of Australia, provides a unique perspective regarding complex issues affecting retention in the ECEC sector. Therefore, this research investigates factors that enable or constrain ECEs’ retention in the Northern Territory.
The 34 participants were recruited through purposive random sampling across the ‘top end’ of the Northern Territory in Australia. Yarning sessions (cf. focus groups) were undertaken that discussed the ECEC profession, national sector reforms and retention. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used, and constant comparative analysis of the data was undertaken. This process led to the generation of a substantiative grounded theory to explain attrition and retention in the ECEC field, building connection builds retention. The relationships that educators built with the children, families, colleagues, their wider professional networks and their profession were identified as supporting retention.
The research findings generated one core category that was central to the data, adjusting practices and accommodating values, and two properties, struggle and hope. A basic social process of attrition and retention was identified that formed a three-stage process that became the basis of this thesis. In the first stage (becoming a professional), second stage (belonging in an organisation) and third stage (engaging with policy and legislation), participants either found hope in the connections developed and were retained, or they struggled to build connections through these stages, which led to turnover or attrition. The findings identified that ECEC retention could be supported when becoming a professional through the development of trusted, collaborative relationships, practice-level mentors and scaffolded examples of documentation and assessment. Similarly, belonging in an organisation was fostered through leadership that encouraged and supported inclusive practices and values-based approaches through robust conversations that encouraged professional autonomy and agency. Participants who engaged with the policy and legislation found that their understanding of practice and the terminology provided in the policies assisted participants’ ability to articulate and advocate for their profession.
The factors that increased ECEs’ retention was enabled through the connections these ECEs developed, which increased their motivation to ensure high-quality care and education and the probability of their retention. These findings supported the substantive grounded theory that building connection builds retention, which provides a possible solution moving into the future of the ECEC field’s ‘wicked problem’ of retention.
During April/May, some of my research students graduate at Charles Sturt University. I am unable to celebrate with them at the graduation ceremonies, because the graduation dates changed from December 2023- so coincided with my international travel. I cheered loudly from the other side of the world - and had an opportunity to celebrate Belinda in Bathurst.
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| Pre-graduation celebration with Dr Belinda Downey |
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| Congratulations Sarah Faulks on your honours graduation in Albury in April. I am glad A/Prof Sarah Verdon was with you to celebrate |
While at the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group Retreat, Belinda Downey learned the news of her successful PhD outcome. She has been approved for graduation - after receiving outstanding examiners' reports. Congratulations Belinda from your very proud PhD supervisory team.
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| Belinda with her supervisors A/Prof Will Letts, Dr Leanne Gibbs and Prof Sharynne McLeod |
Belinda Downey's PhD is now available online. It is titled: Staying in Early Childhood: Struggle, Hope and Connection. Here is the link: https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/staying-in-early-childhood-struggle-hope-and-connection
Congratulations Belinda.Belinda also will co-chair the Early Childhood Voices 2024 conference with me - so there was another reason to celebrate.
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| Dr Belinda Downey, Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Prof Sharynne McLeod |
Today was graduation for the students in the Faculty of Health and Education at Manchester Metropolitan University. It was wonderful to celebrate with the students and staff.
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| MMU Faculty staff |
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| Prof Julie Marshall and Prof Sharynne McLeod |
Dr Van H. Tran graduated with her second PhD on Thursday 18th August at 10am in Sydney.
Here is the URL for the livestream of the ceremony: https://www.facebook.com/charlessturtgraduations
Her PhD thesis is here: https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/home-language-maintenance-among-vietnamese-australian-families
Van's PhD was part of our Australian Research Council Discover Grant: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech/overview
Van's supervisory team were: Prof Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Sarah Verdon, Dr Cen (Audrey) Wang. Unfortunately Sarah was unable to attend the graduation ceremony, but Kate Margetson who also worked on the VietSpeech grant was able to attend.
Van has published a number of papers from her PhD including:
Tran, V. H., McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & Wang, C. (2021). Vietnamese–Australian parents: Factors associated with language use and attitudes towards home language maintenance. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1904963
Tran, V. H., Wang, C., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2021). Vietnamese–Australian children’s language proficiency and use. International Journal of Bilingualism, 25(6), 1735-1763. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069211034587
Tran, V. H., Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Wang, C. (2022). Family language policies of Vietnamese–Australian families. Journal of Child Science, 12(1), e67-e78. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1743490
Congratulations Dr Dr Van Tran! We are so pleased you were a member of our VietSpeech team and that we were able to learn so much from you.
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| Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Dr Van Tran, Dr Audrey Wang, Kate Margetson |
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| Dr Van Tran, Sharynne, A/Prof Sarah Verdon |
My daughter graduated with a Masters of Philosphy last night. I am a very proud mother and grateful to her excellent supervisors: A/Prof Jenna Gillett-Swan and Dr Nerida Spina
Today was the graduation of the first Master of Speech and Language Therapy (MSALT) students in Vietnam. I was honoured to work with Dr Ben Pham to co-supervise the research undertaken by two of these students: Hằng Nguyen and Vấn Phạm.
Here is the background about the 2-year course
The Master of SALT (MSALT course) is a component of the Project. UMP HCMC and MCNV collaborated to run this MSALT course with technical consultancy from TFA. The goal of cooperation was to train a group of 14 SALT Master trainers for future SALT education at four medical universities of HCMC, Da Nang, Hue, Hai Duong and the medical secondary school of Tay Ninh in Vietnam. The course ran for two years from November 2019 to November 2021. During the MSALT course, the 14 students did 14 research for their graduation. The students successfully defended their theses in November 2021 and were awarded with graduation degrees on 28th April 2022.
Here is the background about the funding
For the period from 2017 to 2022, through the DISTINCT project by VietHealth, MCNV received a fund from USAID to run the “Development of Speech and Language Education in VietNam”. The Project aimed at establishing a solid foundation for development of an official education system of speech and language therapy (SALT) profession in Vietnam. The University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh city (UMP HCMC) and Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy (DUMTP) participated in this Project as implementing partners to MCNV. Trinh Foundation Australia (TFA) participated in this Project as a technical consultation partner to MCNV.
Congratulations Hằng Nguyen, Vấn Phạm and your colleagues. What a wonderful day. We look forward to your impact on the speech and language therapy profession in Vietnam.
Congratulations to Professor Lindy McAllister whose >20 year vision for the profession of speech and language therapy in Vietnam has been realised through this graduation ceremony.
Today I attended the Macquarie University graduation ceremony for education graduates. This week saw the first gradations at Macquarie University since the COVID pandemic began in 2020. I was so proud to see my daughter graduate, and also to see many of my early childhood education colleagues at the ceremony.
Congratulations to the CSU Speech Pathology Team led by Dr Sarah Verdon on your Successful Graduates RED nomination and the great work you have been doing! Here is the nomination that is on the CSU website:
Speech Pathology Team
Names: Sarah Verdon, Lisa Brown, Marijke Denton, Catherine Easton, Laura Hoffman, Suzanne Hopf, Alex Spiller, Linda Wilson.
What is the nomination for: The Speech Pathology team are nominated for their development and implementation of the Master of Speech Pathology (MaSP) course. The MaSP is recognised as a world-leading blended online professional training course for speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The MaSP was the first Australian blended online speech pathology (SP) course to be awarded the maximum five-year course accreditation with Speech Pathology Australia, the national governing body for speech pathologists in Australia. Throughout this course the speech pathology team applies the Charles Sturt online learning model (2018) and an evidence-based constructivist approach to learning and teaching to deliver an innovative, high-quality student-centred university experience. Student and community feedback on the MaSP consistently identifies a rewarding and flexible student experience that prepares sought after work-ready graduates.
Why is this Excellence Award worthy: A 2018 Speech Pathology team research project revealed over 92% of MaSP students chose the Charles Sturt course over other courses because it was offered online, with more than one third of participants stating they would not have attended university at all without this course. MaSP students see benefit in the constructivist pedagogy for their future practice, as indicated by the following student comment: "I've really learned to embrace the style of learning … because I can transfer it to so many other areas that I may not be directly taught about." (Student feedback forum, 20/05/2021).
The national peak body of the profession, Speech Pathology Australia, acknowledged the strength of the Charles Sturt MaSP course stating: “the flexible and unique online learning offers prospective students an opportunity to commence a new profession. Students strongly advocated for the unique offering of the Masters ‘online’ program” (Speech Pathology Australia, accreditation feedback, 2020).
Today, Nicole McGill graduated with her PhD at the Charles Sturt University graduation ceremony in Wagga Wagga. Dr Kate Crowe, Dr Suzanne Hopf and I were proud supervisors. She was meant to have graduated at the same ceremony as Dr Anna Cronin - but could not attend due to COVID restrictions in her state.
I was delighted that Nicole graduated at the same ceremony as Holly McAlister who graduated with first class honours. It was such a pleasure to be Holly's associate supervisor with Dr Suzanne Hopf being her primary supervisor.
It was a really special day for Suzanne Hopf who supervised both of these wonderful researchers' theses. Suzanne was in Fiji and unable to travel due to COVID restrictions - but was able to watch the graduation online in real time.
It was wonderful to celebrate the occasion with Nicole and Holly's families, some of the speech pathology graduates from Albury, and the other happy graduates.
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| Dr Nicole McGill, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Holly McAlister |
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| CSU Speech pathology graduates from the Bachelors and Masters program with Dean of Science Megan Smith, Head of Speech Pathology Dr Sarah Verdon, and Prof Sharynne McLeod |
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| Dr Nicole McGill celebrating with her family |