The Australian Psychological Society College of Educational and Developmental Psychologists is running their exciting annual conference for psychologists:

Supporting throughout the ages and stages of life

Friday 12 – Saturday 13 June 2015
The Spot*
198 Berkeley Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

*Please note the Saturday Workshops will be held at 234 Queensbury Street, 4th Floor (The University of Melbourne)

View the Conference Program

Please click here to download the Conference Program.

The conference brings together researchers and practitioners in the field of Educational and Developmental Psychology to reflect on the contribution of theory and research to practice.

The 2015 program includes an exciting combination of keynote addresses, a number of reviewed paper presentations, networking opportunities, and workshops.

Conference sessions will run on the Friday with half day workshops taking place on the Saturday. 

Keynotes Presenters

At the 2015 conference, delegates will be able to access high profile presenters and internationally recognised keynote speakers including Professor Andrew Martin (University of Sydney), Dr Kate Jacobs (Monash University), Dr Richard Burns (Australian National University), and Associate Professor Erica Frydenberg (The University of Melbourne).

Workshop facilitators will be hosted by Professor Andrew Martin, Dr Kate Jacobs in conjunction with Dianne Watts, and Wendy McKenzie. 

About Professor Andrew Martin

Andrew Martin, PhD, MAPS, is a Registered Psychologist, Member of the College of Developmental and Educational Psychologists, President of Division 5 (Educational, Instructional, and School Psychology) of the International Association of Applied Psychology, and Professor of Educational Psychology in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales. His research focuses on motivation, engagement, and achievement as well as work into boys’ and girls’ education, gifted and talented, disengagement, academic buoyancy, ADHD, and parenting. Andrew is in the Top 25 of International Rankings of the Most Productive Educational Psychologists. He is Associate Editor of British Journal of Educational Psychology and on Editorial Boards of numerous journals, including international journals (Journal of Educational Psychology; Contemporary Educational Psychology). He was listed in The Bulletin magazine’s SMART 100 Australians and in the Top 10 in the field of Education. His books, "How to Motivate Your Child For School and Beyond" (Bantam) and “How to Help Your Child Fly Through Life: The 20 Big Issues” (Bantam) are published in five languages and have been enthusiastically received by schools and parents across Australia and beyond. His latest book is “Building Classroom Success, Eliminating Academic Fear and Failure” (Continuum). 

About Dr Kate Jacobs

Dr Kate Jacobs (B.A., Post.Grad.Dip.Psych., PhD/M.Psych., MAPS, MCEDP) is an Educational Psychologist and Lecturer in psychological assessment at Monash University. In addition to lecturing and conducting research on cognitive theory and assessment, Kate works in private practice where she specialises in assessment and intervention for learning difficulties. Kate will present on recent advances in the field of cognitive assessment afforded by Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory based methods of cross-battery assessment (XBA). In addition to furthering understanding regarding the multiple cognitive abilities important for literacy and numeracy acquisition, CHC theory and XBA has enabled new and empirically based insights into the comprehensiveness of major cognitive, academic achievement, and neuropsychological test batteries. It will further be argued that application of XBA in practice allows for greater understanding of the underlying causes of learning difficulties, thus enabling the development of individualised and focused interventions. 

About Dr Richard Burns

Dr. Richard Burns is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing within the Research School of Population Health at the Australian National University. Dr. Burns is predominantly a research methodologist with particular expertise with advanced research methodologies, including Multi-Level and Latent Variable Modelling, particularly within longitudinal contexts. Consequently, he has a diverse research programme within a developmental-lifespan perspective which primarily focuses on areas relating to mental health, cognitive function and wellbeing, with a specific emphasis on issues relating to ageing and late life. 

About Associate Professor Erica Frydenberg

Erica Frydenberg, PhD is an educational, clinical and organisational psychologist who has practised extensively in the Australian educational setting as a Guidance Officer in Victoria. She is currently an Associate Professor in psychology at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. She is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and was an elected member of its Board from 2007 to 2009. She has authored and co-authored over 100 academic journal articles and chapters in the field of coping; co-developed psychological instruments to measure coping, namely the Adolescent Coping Scale and Coping Scale for Adults, as well as created programs to teach coping skills, including The Best of Coping and Coping for Success. She has received numerous Australian Research Council and philanthropic grants. In 1999, she was the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award of the American Educational Research Association’s Special Interest Group, Stress and Coping in Education. In 2003, she received the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education Award for Research Excellence and in 2008, the University of Melbourne Knowledge Transfer Award.

Sponsorship/Exhibition

Opportunities for sponsorship at the Conference are still available. For further information on these and to see a prospectus, please email Kelly Allen via [email protected]

Registration details

Online registrations are now open. 13 CPD Points. 

Conference registration

Friday conference registration includes: Morning/afternoon tea and lunch, conference satchel, and promotional material.

Keynote 1 Dr Kate Jacobs

In this keynote presentation Kate will outline recent advances in the field of cognitive theory and assessment afforded by the advent of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory of cognitive abilities and the associated method of cross-battery assessment. These advances have resulted in a paradigm shift in the way in which cognitive assessments are approached and interpreted, with the results of such assessments lending themselves greatly to the development of individualised and targeted learning interventions.

Keynote 2 Professor Andrew Martin

This presentation outlines a major model of motivation and engagement – the Motivation and Engagement Wheel – as well as the concept of academic buoyancy. Dr Martin then identifies some of the key motivational issues and strategies relevant to maximising academic success, building persistence and control, reducing academic anxiety and fear of failure, and promoting personal bests (PBs). 

Keynote 3 Dr Richard Burns

This presentation will summarise key theories of wellbeing and emphasise the importance of extending the focus of clinically-relevant mental health to notions of psychological functioning and flourishing. A key question to be explored will be the extent to which changes in wellbeing and mental health are associated with age or a consequence of other health states (e.g. chronic disease, physical function, mortality). Mechanisms to promote wellbeing and mental health will be summarised.

Keynote 4 Associate Professor Erica Frydenberg

Resilience is the magic bullet that everyone wants to acquire – our teachers want to put it into the curriculum, our administrators want their staff to be the best they can against all odds, parents want their children to be resilient as much as they want to be resilient against the challenges of 21st Century parenting. This presentation addresses how best to meet those challenges through coping skills. It is focused on how the key theories of coping assist us to think and act differently about what we do everyday as our world throws up challenges because we have the strategies to cope. My search has focused on the best way to provide the core skills for life, to children, adolescents and adults, and how that is best achieved through the contemporary theories of coping. The language of coping that has been developed through psychometrically validated tool and incorporated into programs for adolescents, children and their parents will be presented along with insights that we have gained that can be used for professional practice.

Workshop registration

Saturday workshops will be held at 234 Queensbury Street, 4th Floor, Carlton (University of Melbourne). Registration includes: Morning tea and conference materials.

The workshops are running from 9am - 1pm on Saturday 13th June 2015.

Workshop 1 - Professor Andrew Martin

Following from Dr Martin’s Keynote, this workshop focuses more specifically on students at risk of academic failure and underachievement (with some emphasis on students with ADHD and related challenges relevant to academic achievement). Motivation and engagement issues particular to this group are identified, along with evidence-based strategies to enhance their connection to school and assist them to realise their personal potential. 

Workshop 2 -  Dr Kate Jacobs and Dianne Watts

This half-day workshop details and demonstrates recent advances in the field of cognitive assessment afforded by Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory based methods of cross-battery assessment (XBA). In addition to gaining an understanding of the multiple CHC abilities important for literacy and numeracy acquisition, attendees will be able to classify major intelligence batteries according to the CHC abilities they measure.

Considered by many scholars in the field as providing the most accurate representation of the structure of human cognitive abilities currently available, CHC theory provides a greatly expanded understanding of the individual differences of cognitive functioning. This expansion in understanding identified a significant theory-to-practice gap in cognitive assessment. To address this, the cross-battery assessment approach was developed which provides researchers and practitioners with a series of psychometrically defensible guidelines that enables the valid and reliable integration of results from different test batteries.

Workshop 3 - Wendy McKenzie

This workshop will explore ways in which frameworks such as healthy ageing, successful ageing, active ageing, and positive ageing are used to develop strategies to promote the mental health and well-being of older adults. Discussion will include reflection on and shared examples of psychological practice with older adults.  

Registration enquiries

For registration enquiries, please contact the Conference Organising Committee:

APS CEDP 
Australian Psychological Society
PO Box 38
Flinders Lane, VIC, 8009
Ph: (03) 8662 3300 or 1800 333 497
Fax: (03) 9663 6177
Email: [email protected]

Thank you to our Sponsors