Researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) have published a free guide that gives teachers a structured method for capturing young children’s perspectives on school. It addresses what one of its authors describes as a blind spot in relying on observation alone.
“The challenge is that young children don’t always tell us how they’re feeling or what is engaging about learning through words alone,” said Dr Amelia Ruscoe of ECU’s Early Childhood Research team, who co-authored the guide with fellow ECU researcher Leanne Lavina. “They communicate in many ways, and if we rely only on what we observe, we can sometimes miss part of the story.”
The Children’s Learner Engagement Monitor, detailed in the guide Monitoring Children’s Learner Engagement: The Early Years, combines two methods: Dialogic Drawing and LIVE Threads. They give teachers a consistent way to gather that evidence directly from children and feed it into engagement plans.
How the tool works in practice
The tool was co-designed with 10 early childhood teachers from Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia (AISWA) member schools across Perth and the South West. It was built on 140 Dialogic Drawing events with 75 children aged three to five, plus three primary school children.
The approach echoes broader efforts to bring the best of early childhood learning into primary school settings, a conversation gaining traction across Australian schools.
A companion ECU report on the project also outlines a “Qualities of Engagement” framework. This is intended to help teachers track shifts in engagement across social, emotional, cognitive and behavioural dimensions over time.
“The early years of school are such an important time in a child’s life,” Ruscoe said. “It’s when they’re not only learning what full time school is all about and building new relationships but also starting to develop their identity as a learner.
“Using contexts such as drawing or focussed play for reaching shared understanding is particularly important for children from diverse language backgrounds and those with specific learning needs, ensuring every child has an equal opportunity to be heard, understood and supported in their learning journey,” she said.
What it offers schools and teachers
The guide is designed to align with the National Quality Standard and Belonging, Being and Becoming: the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia Version 2.0 (EYLF V2.0). It also sits alongside existing measures such as the Preschool Outcome Measures, positioning it as evidence schools can fold into existing reporting rather than a separate process.
The research behind the tool was funded through a $24,553 AISWA grant in 2025, part of a longer AISWA–ECU collaboration on classroom engagement dating back to 2020.
Ruscoe said teachers who trialled the tool reported it strengthened relationships with students, built trust and brought previously invisible aspects of engagement into view. These findings are consistent with research on the critical role of wellbeing in the classroom and student success.
“The teachers who used this guide also said it reminded them of why they decided to become teachers in the first place, revealing the benefits are not just for children, but also for building and sustaining a love of teaching,” Ruscoe said.
“The Children’s Learner Engagement Monitor helps give children a voice, providing schools with meaningful insights into how students are feeling and engaging with their learning,” she said. “That understanding allows schools to respond earlier, tailor support where it’s needed most, and create learning environments where every child has the best chance to thrive and succeed.”
The guide is freely downloadable from ECU’s Research Online repository under a Creative Commons licence.