Doctor Lois Harris Higher Education Division Research / Higher Education Division

Dr. Lois Harris is currently working on the Reading Self-Monitoring and Regulation Tactics (Reading SMART) Project, funded by a HEPPP grant. This project is designed to evaluate the implementation of a reading intervention for students in Years 6 and 7 that are reading below grade level. This intervention will be using trained teacher aides to deliver reading materials to students that are focused on improving their comprehension and self-monitoring. Additionally, the project will be examining the nature of professional learning for teacher aides and contributing to knowledge about the ways students understand and use reading strategies and feedback to help them comprehend texts.

Lois also currently lecturers subjects in the Masters of Learning Management program relating to information literacy and the research process.

2006- Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Postgraduate Travel Award

2005-2006- Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship

Irvin, L. (2007). Teacher conceptions of student engagement in learning: A phenomenographic investigation. Unpublished PhD, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton.

1.     Brown, G. T. L., & Harris, L. R. (2012). Student conceptions of assessment by level of schooling: Further evidence for ecological rationality in belief systems. Australian Journal of Educational & Developmental Psychology, 12, 46-59.

2.     Brown, G. T. L., Harris, L. R., & Harnett, J. A. (2012). Teacher beliefs about feedback within an Assessment for Learning environment: Endorsement of improved learning over student well-being. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(7), 968-978.

3.     Harris, L. R. (2011). Phenomenographic perspectives on the structure of conceptions: The origins, purposes, strengths, and limitations of the what/how and referential/structural distinctions. Educational Research Review, 6(2), 109-124.

4.     Harris, L. R. (2011). Secondary teachers’ conceptions of student engagement: Engagement in learning or in schooling? Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(376-386).

5.     Irving, S. E., Harris, L. R., & Peterson, E. R. (2011). “One assessment doesn’t serve all the purposes” or does it?: New Zealand teachers describe assessment and feedback. Asia-Pacific Education Review, 12(3), 413-426.

6.     Harris, L. R., & Brown, G. T. L. (2010). Mixing interview and questionnaire methods: Practical problems in aligning data. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 15(1), 1-19.

7.     Harris, L. R. (2010). Delivering, modifying or collaborating? Examining three teacher conceptions of how to facilitate student engagement Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16(1), 131-151.

8.     Harris, L. R., & Brown, G. T. L. (2009). The complexity of teachers' conceptions of assessment: Tensions between the needs of schools and students. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy, & Practice 16(3), 365–381.

9.     Brown, G. T. L., & Harris, L. R. (2009). Unintended consequences of using tests to improve learning: How improvement-oriented resources heighten conceptions of assessment as school accountability. Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation 6(12), 68-91.

10.  Harris, L. (2008). A phenomenographic investigation of teacher conceptions of engagement in learning. Australian Educational Researcher. 35(1), 57-79

11.  Irvin, L. (2005). Using theories of awareness to strengthen phenomenographic analysis. International Journal of Learning, 12(4), 285-292.

·         Student engagement, classroom assessment, and literacy development in compulsory schooling

·         Teacher and student attitudes, beliefs, and conceptions in compulsory schooling and how these relate to enacted educational practices

·         Qualitative and quantitative research methodology and methods