Today Sarah Bartlett, Holly McAlister and I spent an hour looking at the formula for writing their final PhD chapters (then they write their first PhD chapter).
I always ask my students to print the work they have written and read it in hard copy before summarizing it in their final chapter. We were very impressed with Sarah's large pile of double-sided printing!
I had a lovely meeting with Cathie Matthews today finalising her thesis revisions after examination. One famous examiner from USA recommended no changes! Her thesis is titled "Supporting 2-year-olds’ communication: Collaborations between caregivers, early childhood educators, and health professionals in rural Australia". Congratulations Cathie - nearly there!
This morning Cathie Matthews and I discussed her examiners' feedback for her Masters of Philosophy. She is close to finalising her thesis for resubmission. Congratulations Cathie.
Congratulations Cathie Matthews who submitted her Masters of Philosophy thesis today. Her thesis is titled "Supporting 2-year-olds’ communication : Collaborations between caregivers, early childhood educators, and health professionals in rural Australia". What a huge achievement! Cathie's research was supervised by myself, Julian Grant and Libbey Murray.
This morning I was an external examiner for a University of Alberta PhD Candidacy Exam (online). It was a privilege to be involved in the examination process with colleagues from across Canada. Congratulations to the candidate and her supervisory team, chaired by Prof Karen Pollock.
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| Prof Karen Pollock and Prof Sharynne McLeod |
This week I have enjoyed visiting the University of Cambridge. I have been hosted by Prof Jenny Gibson and Prof Karen Forbes from the Faculty of Education and Prof Napolean Katsos from the Faculty of Linguistics.
A highlight of my visit was examining the PhD thesis of Mélanie Gréaux (supervised by Prof Gibson and Prof Katsos) and presenting a lecture on communication rights and social justice.
I have learned about the 31 colleges of the University of Cambridge and have been able to dine at Cambridge's newest college, Homerton College with Prof Forbes and one of its oldest colleges, Trinity College with Prof Katsos. Prof Gibson is co-chair of PEDAL: Play in education learning and development. I look forward to ongoing conversations and collaborations.
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| Prof Karen Forbes at Homerton College |
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| Prof Sharynne McLeod, Prof Napolean Katsos, Mélanie Gréaux, Prof Jenny Gibson, Prof Karen Forbes |
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| Lunch at Trinity College with Mélanie Gréaux and Prof Napolean Katsos |
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| A squirrel on campus! |
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| The dining hall at Homerton College |
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| Prof Jenny Gibson and Prof Sharynne McLeod at Faculty of Education |
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| Sharynne at Trinity College |
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| Trinity College |
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| Trinity College |
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| Trinity College library |
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| Trinity College entrance to the chapel |
Congratulations to Caitlin Hurley who is submitting her thesis titled "The impact of maxillary incisor extractions on children's speech" for her Doctorate of Clinical Dentistry (Paediatric Dentistry)(DClinDent) at the University of Western Australia tomorrow. She will be sharing her work with the following examiners: Prof Nicola Innes (Cardiff), Prof Nigel King (Hong Kong Kong, SAR China), and AProf John Winters (Perth Childrens Hospital, WA). It has a pleasure to be her associate supervisor and to support her important research.
Congratulations Sarah Bartlett on the submission of your thesis for the Graduate Certificate in Arts and Social Science (Research). Sarah's thesis was titled "Caregivers’ insights into supporting their late talkers using Target Word™ Hanen® Parent Program". We had a happy online submission party to celebrate the occasion:
Background: Children who are late talkers benefit from interventions such as Target Word™ Hanen Program® for Parents. Understanding caregivers’ experiences can assist speech language pathologists (SLPs) to promote caregivers’ active engagement to positively impact child outcomes from interventions.
Aim: To explore caregivers’ experiences and engagement during the 16-week Target Word™ intervention.
Method: Qualitative Interpretative Description (ID) methodology was used to understand the experience of five caregivers who had recently completed Target Word™. Caregivers attended a focus group to share their perspectives. Transcripts of these focus groups were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis.
Results: Two themes were identified. Firstly, that caregivers described explicit roles for 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: Caregivers 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.
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.
September/October is a very busy time for writing grants, theses, chapters, articles, conference abstracts and books. It's head down for us all. I have 4 students who will submit their theses/major reports in October - so they are busy finalising drafts. An exciting time of pulling together years of work.
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| Sarah F and Sarah B submit their theses in October |
I have just finished reading through the final version of Marie Ireland's PhD by Prior Publication thesis that consists of 13 chapters. Ten chapters are publications and three are exegesis chapters. I have been reading her thesis on planes and across different countries - so it is was exciting to send her the final email moments ago to approve the content for her to finalise and submit when we meet with her co-supervisor Kate Crowe in Iceland next week. It is a shame that her other co-supervisor Sarah Verdon can't join us in person - but will be there cheering from Australia. Congratulations Marie.
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| Reading Marie's thesis in Salzburg |
This week my daughter submitted her Masters thesis to Queensland University of Technology. I'm really proud of her. Soon our whole family will have a Masters degree!
Dr Ben Pham and I received special gift this evening - an email and this photo:
"I have [attached] a photo when Prof. Sharynne talked after I defend[ed my thesis]. I want to send it to you as a souvenir so that you always remember there is a Vietnamese practitioner who is me."
Thank you to our masters' students - we are very proud of all you have learned and achieved over the past two years and wish you all the best for your future careers as you change the lives of people in Vietnam.
I am very proud of Van and Hang who have recently submitted a draft of their whole thesis. It is such a pleasure to co-supervise these students with Dr Ben Pham from Ha Noi National University of Education.
It is always very exciting when a thesis is due for submission. Today Holly McAlister submitted her honours thesis. I have been honoured be Holly's honours co-supervisor (with Dr Suzanne Hopf as primary supervisor). Her thesis is part of her Bachelor of Speech and Language Pathology (Honours) and her thesis is titled: "Fiji English speech sound acquisition and disorders in Fijian children". Best wishes for finalising your thesis and for a great outcome Holly.
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| SUBMITTED! |
"It's really exciting how close we're getting"
(Cronin, 2020, personal correspondence).
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| Suzanne on Skype with her supervisory team: Audrey, Sarah and Sharynne |
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| Sharynne, Sarah, and Sandie discussing Sarah's exegesis |