Caroline Cohrssen
Biographic Data
| ID | 1112811 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Caroline Cohrssen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Caroline |
| FAMILY NAME | Cohrssen |
| SIGNATURE | COHRSSEN C |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2091-3125 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Exploring Time, Context, and Teacher Practices Associated with Executive Functions in Australian Preschool Settings
The pedagogical practices of early childhood teachers can help to develop executive functions (EFs) in children. However, which practices foster these functions, how much time early childhood teachers devote to supporting EFs, and when such interactions may occur require research attention. Using a quantitatively driven concurrent design, this study employed an exploratory adaptation of the Preschool-Setting Executive Function (PSEF) observationa…
Uncovering Science Education in Australian Early Childhood Teacher Qualifications
Despite the existence of a national Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education agenda highlighting the importance of science education in the years before formal schooling, guiding documents for early childhood curricula and practice in Australia continue to lack systematic integration of science teaching and learning. Without clear guidance on how science (or science as an element of STEM) can be enacted in early childhood…
Improving rural boarding preschoolers’ vocabulary through after-school reading interventions
Early childhood teachers’ understanding of executive functions and strategies employed to facilitate them
Introduction Adult-child interactions have a noteworthy influence over how executive functions develop. However, despite recognising the importance of executive functions in a child’s success, little research has been undertaken to explore the role of early childhood teachers in facilitating the development of executive functions in children through their teaching practice. The current study thus explored what understanding early childhood teache…
The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia and existing measures of child outcomes
The mandated Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF) has guided early childhood education and care (ECEC) since 2009. The EYLF is intended to support improved learning and development outcomes for all children within a nationally consistent regulatory system. Since the implementation of the EYLF, the quality ratings of ECEC services have improved in every Australian jurisdiction. However, the absence of detailed child ECEC participati…
Situating engineering within the Australian pre-tertiary education system
A global shortage of engineers is coinciding with an increasing demand for engineering skills. Clear education pathways are needed to attract future engineers who will work across the traditional boundaries of disciplines. This paper explores the visibility of engineering-related learning in pre-tertiary education as a means to spark students’ interests and skills and encourage them to enter engineering as a profession. The national Early Years L…
Assessing the quality of early childhood education and care in Australia
While access to quality education in early childhood is an international priority, the characteristics of quality continue to be debated. In the Australian context, differing views on the characteristics of quality may be a result of differing stakeholder priorities. Divergent notions of quality may lead to initiatives that emphasize educator practice and frame a dominant discourse that situates responsibility for enactment of quality at Early Ch…
Toward assessment for playful learning in early childhood
In many countries, play is the vehicle for teaching and learning, requiring early childhood teachers to recognize and assess children's demonstrations of knowledge and capabilities as they are displayed during play. In the context of science learning, assessing what children know already, referred to as “assessment for learning,” equips teachers with the knowledge required to make purposeful decisions during these playful experiences and guide ch…
Promoting Equity in Access to Quality Early Childhood Education in China
This paper reviews the Chinese government's efforts and progress towards ensuring equitable access to quality early childhood education (ECE). It begins with an overview of the Chinese context and analysing the reasons for a policy focus on ECE in recent decades. Thereafter, from a historical perspective, it critically reviews policies pertaining to enhancing access to and the quality of ECE in China since 2010. Nationally representative data are…
The Quality of Teacher–Child Interactions during the Enactment of Playful Science Games in Preschool
Research Findings: This research aims to examine the affordances for high quality instructional support offered by the Northern Territory Preschool Science Games, alongside differences between classroom quality during the enactment of this teaching resource and the broader early childhood program. Applying a multiple-case study approach, quality was measured via classroom observations in three preschools at two points, teacher interviews on scien…
Recognizing Early Childhood Education as a Human Right in International Law
There is incontrovertible evidence that early learning opportunities shape long-term development and health. Nevertheless, early childhood care and education (ECCE) is not expressly mentioned as part of the right to education in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This paper argues that the right to education c…
Resilience of higher education academics in the time of 21 st century pandemics
Leveraging Languages for Learning
Children are members of families and communities, and the languages learnt within these contexts contribute to a child’s sense of “belonging, being and becoming” throughout life (Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009). Encouraging children to bring their home languages into early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings exposes all children to additional languages and supports key outcomes of the Early Years Learnin…
Kindergarten children’s perceptions of the social unrest in Hong Kong
Hong Kong experienced a period of significant social unrest, marked by protests, from June 2019 to February 2020. Media coverage was pervasive. In July 2020, children aged from 5 to 6 years attending kindergartens in areas both directly and less directly impacted by the protests were asked to draw and talk about what had taken place during the social unrest. Thematic analysis of children’s drawings demonstrates the extent of their awareness and u…
Predicting child outcomes in Bhutan
Between the Red and Yellow Windows
With the decline in Australian school children’s mathematics skills, the spotlight is shining on the quality of early childhood mathematics teaching and learning in the preschool years. Spatial thinking—which includes spatial orientation and spatial visualization—contributes to early mathematical thinking and children have the capacity to demonstrate abstract spatial concepts both verbally and nonverbally, yet may be overlooked in practice. This …
Bilingual children’s language learning in Australian early childhood education and care settings
Early language ability is a strong predictor of later language and reading outcomes. Whilst young children with home languages that differ from the dominant language spoken in their country of residence may lag behind their peers in literacy and academic achievement, effective supports for young dual-language users may be overlooked in mainstream learning contexts. We used data from the Australian E4Kids longitudinal study to test how N = 343 bil…
Supporting children to resolve disputes
Teacher intervention in children’s disputes most commonly features cessation strategies, despite evidence showing the value of modelling problem-solving behaviours. Existing research has categorized strategies used by teachers in early childhood settings, but in this article we aim to illustrate how these practices are realized. Using the method of conversation analysis, we are able to show how children respond to different interventions, and in …
The Sooner, the Better
As reading to children plays an important role in language development, primary caregivers are often encouraged to read to their children from a very young age. However, little is known about the age at which such reading should start. The linguistic skills of 104 children were assessed shortly before school entry. Their parents were asked how old their children were when they first read to them and how often they had read to their children. Almo…
Play-Based Mathematics Activities as a Resource for Changing Educator Attitudes and Practice
This multiple case study explored early childhood educators' implementation of a suite of play-based mathematics activities with children aged 3 to 5 years in six different early childhood education and care programs in Melbourne, Australia. Educators approached the enactment of the activities differently; however, those educators who used the activities reasonably frequently and with attention to the underpinning mathematical concepts reported a…
Children’s mathematical and verbal competence in different early education and care programmes in Australia
This study investigated the relationship between children’s attendance at different types of early childhood education and care programmes and their mathematical and verbal skills. Analyses of data from 1314 children participating in an Australian longitudinal study, the E4Kids project, revealed no relationship between children’s verbal ability and the early childhood education and care programme attended, but mathematics results tell a different…
Supporting children to resolve disputes
Teacher intervention in children’s disputes most commonly features cessation strategies, despite evidence showing the value of modelling problem-solving behaviours. Existing research has categorized strategies used by teachers in early childhood settings, but in this article we aim to illustrate how these practices are realized. Using the method of conversation analysis, we are able to show how children respond to different interventions, and in …
The Sooner, the Better
As reading to children plays an important role in language development, primary caregivers are often encouraged to read to their children from a very young age. However, little is known about the age at which such reading should start. The linguistic skills of 104 children were assessed shortly before school entry. Their parents were asked how old their children were when they first read to them and how often they had read to their children. Almo…
Kindergarten children’s perceptions of the social unrest in Hong Kong
Hong Kong experienced a period of significant social unrest, marked by protests, from June 2019 to February 2020. Media coverage was pervasive. In July 2020, children aged from 5 to 6 years attending kindergartens in areas both directly and less directly impacted by the protests were asked to draw and talk about what had taken place during the social unrest. Thematic analysis of children’s drawings demonstrates the extent of their awareness and u…
Bilingual children’s language learning in Australian early childhood education and care settings
Early language ability is a strong predictor of later language and reading outcomes. Whilst young children with home languages that differ from the dominant language spoken in their country of residence may lag behind their peers in literacy and academic achievement, effective supports for young dual-language users may be overlooked in mainstream learning contexts. We used data from the Australian E4Kids longitudinal study to test how N = 343 bil…
Children’s mathematical and verbal competence in different early education and care programmes in Australia
This study investigated the relationship between children’s attendance at different types of early childhood education and care programmes and their mathematical and verbal skills. Analyses of data from 1314 children participating in an Australian longitudinal study, the E4Kids project, revealed no relationship between children’s verbal ability and the early childhood education and care programme attended, but mathematics results tell a different…
Children’s mathematical and verbal competence in different early education and care programmes in Australia
This study investigated the relationship between children’s attendance at different types of early childhood education and care programmes and their mathematical and verbal skills. Analyses of data from 1314 children participating in an Australian longitudinal study, the E4Kids project, revealed no relationship between children’s verbal ability and the early childhood education and care programme attended, but mathematics results tell a different…
The Sooner, the Better
As reading to children plays an important role in language development, primary caregivers are often encouraged to read to their children from a very young age. However, little is known about the age at which such reading should start. The linguistic skills of 104 children were assessed shortly before school entry. Their parents were asked how old their children were when they first read to them and how often they had read to their children. Almo…
Play-Based Mathematics Activities as a Resource for Changing Educator Attitudes and Practice
This multiple case study explored early childhood educators' implementation of a suite of play-based mathematics activities with children aged 3 to 5 years in six different early childhood education and care programs in Melbourne, Australia. Educators approached the enactment of the activities differently; however, those educators who used the activities reasonably frequently and with attention to the underpinning mathematical concepts reported a…
Supporting children to resolve disputes
Teacher intervention in children’s disputes most commonly features cessation strategies, despite evidence showing the value of modelling problem-solving behaviours. Existing research has categorized strategies used by teachers in early childhood settings, but in this article we aim to illustrate how these practices are realized. Using the method of conversation analysis, we are able to show how children respond to different interventions, and in …
Bilingual children’s language learning in Australian early childhood education and care settings
Early language ability is a strong predictor of later language and reading outcomes. Whilst young children with home languages that differ from the dominant language spoken in their country of residence may lag behind their peers in literacy and academic achievement, effective supports for young dual-language users may be overlooked in mainstream learning contexts. We used data from the Australian E4Kids longitudinal study to test how N = 343 bil…
Between the Red and Yellow Windows
With the decline in Australian school children’s mathematics skills, the spotlight is shining on the quality of early childhood mathematics teaching and learning in the preschool years. Spatial thinking—which includes spatial orientation and spatial visualization—contributes to early mathematical thinking and children have the capacity to demonstrate abstract spatial concepts both verbally and nonverbally, yet may be overlooked in practice. This …
Leveraging Languages for Learning
Children are members of families and communities, and the languages learnt within these contexts contribute to a child’s sense of “belonging, being and becoming” throughout life (Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009). Encouraging children to bring their home languages into early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings exposes all children to additional languages and supports key outcomes of the Early Years Learnin…
Kindergarten children’s perceptions of the social unrest in Hong Kong
Hong Kong experienced a period of significant social unrest, marked by protests, from June 2019 to February 2020. Media coverage was pervasive. In July 2020, children aged from 5 to 6 years attending kindergartens in areas both directly and less directly impacted by the protests were asked to draw and talk about what had taken place during the social unrest. Thematic analysis of children’s drawings demonstrates the extent of their awareness and u…
Predicting child outcomes in Bhutan
The Quality of Teacher–Child Interactions during the Enactment of Playful Science Games in Preschool
Research Findings: This research aims to examine the affordances for high quality instructional support offered by the Northern Territory Preschool Science Games, alongside differences between classroom quality during the enactment of this teaching resource and the broader early childhood program. Applying a multiple-case study approach, quality was measured via classroom observations in three preschools at two points, teacher interviews on scien…
Recognizing Early Childhood Education as a Human Right in International Law
There is incontrovertible evidence that early learning opportunities shape long-term development and health. Nevertheless, early childhood care and education (ECCE) is not expressly mentioned as part of the right to education in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This paper argues that the right to education c…
Resilience of higher education academics in the time of 21 st century pandemics
Assessing the quality of early childhood education and care in Australia
While access to quality education in early childhood is an international priority, the characteristics of quality continue to be debated. In the Australian context, differing views on the characteristics of quality may be a result of differing stakeholder priorities. Divergent notions of quality may lead to initiatives that emphasize educator practice and frame a dominant discourse that situates responsibility for enactment of quality at Early Ch…
Toward assessment for playful learning in early childhood
In many countries, play is the vehicle for teaching and learning, requiring early childhood teachers to recognize and assess children's demonstrations of knowledge and capabilities as they are displayed during play. In the context of science learning, assessing what children know already, referred to as “assessment for learning,” equips teachers with the knowledge required to make purposeful decisions during these playful experiences and guide ch…
Promoting Equity in Access to Quality Early Childhood Education in China
This paper reviews the Chinese government's efforts and progress towards ensuring equitable access to quality early childhood education (ECE). It begins with an overview of the Chinese context and analysing the reasons for a policy focus on ECE in recent decades. Thereafter, from a historical perspective, it critically reviews policies pertaining to enhancing access to and the quality of ECE in China since 2010. Nationally representative data are…
Early childhood teachers’ understanding of executive functions and strategies employed to facilitate them
Introduction Adult-child interactions have a noteworthy influence over how executive functions develop. However, despite recognising the importance of executive functions in a child’s success, little research has been undertaken to explore the role of early childhood teachers in facilitating the development of executive functions in children through their teaching practice. The current study thus explored what understanding early childhood teache…
The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia and existing measures of child outcomes
The mandated Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF) has guided early childhood education and care (ECEC) since 2009. The EYLF is intended to support improved learning and development outcomes for all children within a nationally consistent regulatory system. Since the implementation of the EYLF, the quality ratings of ECEC services have improved in every Australian jurisdiction. However, the absence of detailed child ECEC participati…
Situating engineering within the Australian pre-tertiary education system
A global shortage of engineers is coinciding with an increasing demand for engineering skills. Clear education pathways are needed to attract future engineers who will work across the traditional boundaries of disciplines. This paper explores the visibility of engineering-related learning in pre-tertiary education as a means to spark students’ interests and skills and encourage them to enter engineering as a profession. The national Early Years L…
Exploring Time, Context, and Teacher Practices Associated with Executive Functions in Australian Preschool Settings
The pedagogical practices of early childhood teachers can help to develop executive functions (EFs) in children. However, which practices foster these functions, how much time early childhood teachers devote to supporting EFs, and when such interactions may occur require research attention. Using a quantitatively driven concurrent design, this study employed an exploratory adaptation of the Preschool-Setting Executive Function (PSEF) observationa…
Uncovering Science Education in Australian Early Childhood Teacher Qualifications
Despite the existence of a national Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education agenda highlighting the importance of science education in the years before formal schooling, guiding documents for early childhood curricula and practice in Australia continue to lack systematic integration of science teaching and learning. Without clear guidance on how science (or science as an element of STEM) can be enacted in early childhood…
Improving rural boarding preschoolers’ vocabulary through after-school reading interventions
Psychology (14 works) · Developmental psychology (13 works) · Early childhood (12 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (12 works) · Early childhood education (11 works) · Mathematics education (9 works) · Pedagogy (9 works) · Political science (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works)