Successful Learning Conference 2025

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming education, offering unprecedented opportunities to personalise learning and remove barriers for students with disabilities as well as other struggling learners (Goldman et al., 2024; Smith et al., 2024). This presentation explores the intersection of AI and the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, demonstrating how emerging AI tools can support struggling learners, students with disabilities, and all students in inclusive classrooms. By aligning AI-driven supports with the UDL framework, educators can create flexible, available, and engaging learning experiences that empower all students to succeed. Through research outcomes, real-world examples, interactive demonstrations, and practical applications, this session will showcase how AI can enhance instructional materials, provide just-in-time supports, and foster student engagement (Smith et al., 2024). Participants will gain insights into how AI tools, such as text leveling, adaptive feedback and multimodal content generation, can help educators design more effective and personalised learning environments.

Sean Joseph Smith, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas. He is also the past-president of the technology division for the Council for Exceptional Children, Innovations in Special Education Technology (ISET), and member of the Board for the National Down Syndrome Congress. Dr Smith’s research interests focus on innovations and technology solutions to support struggling learners and those with disabilities, particularly interventions aligned with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework. Dr Smith is the principal investigator on a federally funded project exploring the impact of virtual reality on struggling learners in the area of social emotional development. Sean has authored more than 100 books and articles, given hundreds of scholarly presentations both nationally and internationally, and serves on various boards for journals, organisations, and parent groups focused on enhancing the lives of individuals with disabilities. Dr Smith, with a variety of collaborators, has received and managed more than $25 million of external research and development funds. Most importantly, he is the father of four children, one having Down syndrome. It is through this work as a father that Dr Smith has sought to apply his knowledge of effective practices with parents, family members, and similar stakeholders, with the ambition of enhancing the lives of all children.

In this presentation, Professor Snow will reflect on the decades of tension in reading instruction known as the “reading wars” in order to consider historical, research, and ideological factors that have perpetuated balanced literacy (BL) instruction in Australia, in spite of its weak empirical evidence-base. Professor Snow will identify key weaknesses in BL, from the perspective of both students and teachers and will make an argument for the adoption of structured, explicit literacy instruction, delivered by teachers who are highly knowledgeable about the complex workings of the English language, as well as about the science of learning, and how to leverage the academic and wellbeing benefits of explicit teaching. She will make a case for the role of this knowledge in strengthening teacher professionalism and self-efficacy. Response to Intervention will be considered as an important element in structured literacy teaching, including the central role of progress monitoring tools and early action to prevent academic failure and adverse psychosocial outcomes, regardless of children’s starting point and markers of potential disadvantage in their education journeys.

Pamela Snow, Professor of Cognitive Psychology, Co-director, Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR) Lab, School of Education, La Trobe University
Pamela is both a speech-language pathologist and registered psychologist. Her research concerns language and literacy skills as academic and mental health protective factors in childhood and adolescence and has a particular focus on the language-to-literacy transition in the early years of school and the translation of high-quality evidence into classroom practice.

Pamela’s research has been funded by nationally competitive schemes such as the ARC Discovery Program, ARC Linkage Program, and the Criminology Research Council, as a well as by government and non-government sectors. She has over 200 publications and was a member of the 2017 National Year 1 Literacy and Numeracy Panel, convened by the Hon. Simon Birmingham, Federal Education Minister.  She is a Life Member of Speech Pathology Australia.

In addition to her wide-ranging academic outputs, Pamela writes a popular blog for teachers, parents, and clinicians: The Snow Report  and is a founding Associate Editor of The Reading League Journal. Pamela has also been interviewed on a number of Australian and international education-related podcasts, such as the Education Research Reading Room, The Science of Reading, Melissa and Lori Love Literacy,  Chalk and Talk, and the Teaching Literacy Podcast.

In September 2024, Pamela was named by the Australian Financial Review Magazine as one of the five most powerful people in education in Australia.

Preservice teachers (PSTs) involved in teaching in low socio-economic schools have consistently reported feeling under prepared to deal with the complexities of working alongside young people and children who have been impacted by trauma (L’Estrange & Howard, 2022). In a study conducted by Cacciattolo et al (2021), data findings indicated that Victoria University (VU) preservice teachers and VU graduate teachers lacked the necessary skills and knowledge needed to support trauma impacted young people and children. Graduate teachers in this study also noted that they were ill-prepared to create trauma sensitive classrooms because they were not taught these skills and knowledge in their teacher education programs.  Both preservice teachers and graduate teachers asserted that they lacked the confidence to respond to complex behavioural challenges that school students displayed when they were de-regulated, re-trigged or hyper aroused. They also reported experiencing greater incidences of anxiety, frustration, and uncertainty in their work with learners who had been exposed to complex trauma. Feeling disempowered to support students who exhibited heightened emotional states meant that this cohort of pre-service teachers and graduate teachers were ill-prepared in their work with school students who were impacted by trauma. In contrast, VU preservice teachers who completed a trauma aware unit in their studies spoke about the necessity of having access to different types of trauma informed resources that they could use during their practicum. They also spoke of the importance of exposure to trauma aware frameworks of practice and theoretical standpoints that assisted in the cultivation of a trauma-aware mindset. This presentation focuses on how classroom teachers and school leadership teams can work constructively and collaboratively to create trauma aware mindsets. Drawing on the work of George Couros  (Couros, 2015) and Judith Howard (Howard, 2022), this presentation will provide an overview of qualities and elements that lead to the cultivation of a trauma aware mindset. School projects that embed innovative trauma-aware mindsets, that build social and emotional intelligence, alongside healing spaces, will be presented and explored.

Marcelle Cacciattolo Is a sociologist and the Associate Director (Research Training) with the Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities at Victoria University. For the past 23 years her research has been cross-disciplinary involving health sciences and education-based research. Research projects that Marcelle has been involved in include young people and their well-being, refugee relocation and innovative teaching and learning pedagogies within tertiary settings. Marcelle works closely with preservice teachers and schools to examine how trauma-aware pedagogies can support those children and families who are the most disadvantaged. Marcelle is an expert in trauma-informed pedagogies and is working alongside local and international communities to establish trauma-informed initial teacher education programs. Marcelle is currently an honorary adjunct professor at Mahidol University (Thailand) and Andhra University (India).

Presenter TBA