Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
My research is inter-disciplinary in nature, drawing on methodology, theory, and practice in the fields of education, cognitive science, and psychology. In the area of early childhood development, I am interested how young children think about number and quantity, and how these basic skills (often referred to as number sense) support growth in mathematical skills. As part of this work I also examine how the development of cognitive skills, such as working memory or the ability to self-regulate behaviour, contribute to children’s typical (and atypical) development. I have also conducted research involving children and adults with hearing loss, and am keen to pursue studies examining how synchronous multi-sensory information (or a lack of) impacts on how we represent and activate numerical information.
My research also looks at the important environments in which children are learning and developing – the home environment and the classroom. This has included a focus on the informal numeracy interactions that may happen between children and parents, as well as the pedagogical approaches to numeracy that educators use in day care environments, and the quality of educator-child interactions.
Research findings from these studies have been used to examine early risk indicators of later mathematical difficulties, and have informed the development and implementation of classroom-based intervention.
Finally, and getting back to my initial roots as a cognitive psychologist, I am involved in a number of studies examining the conditions under which individuals activate semantic representations of magnitude. For example, when asked if two presented numbers are the same colour, do we still activate semantic information about those numbers, such as their magnitude or their position on a mental number line, even when we are not required to do so.
Teaching
EDUC8250 Effective Instruction in Mathematics, Science and Technology
EDST8000/EDUC7000 Educational Research
EDST1010 Learning and Development: An Introduction for Educators
Research student supervision
I would be happy to hear from students who are interested in undertaking research in any of the following areas:
1. Numerical cognition (experimental studies from a psychological/cognitive science perspective investigating how we represent and activate numerical information).
2. Numeracy in the preschool / early primary classroom (e.g., pedagogical approaches, instructional quality, intervention for low achievers).
3. Assessment and development of working memory and executive functioning/self regulation in young children.
4. Impact of hearing loss on child development and learning
5. Informal opportunities for learning numeracy and mathematics in the home and classroom environment.
6. Assessment and intervention for children with mathematical learning difficulties.
7. Impact of teacher-child interaction quality (in preschool) on children's longer term learning and development.
External positions
Principal Research Scientist, National Institute of Education
1 Dec 2011 → 4 Nov 2018
Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Reader, University of Aberdeen
2000 → 2011
Teaching Fellow, University of St Andrews
1997 → 2000
Fingerprint
- 1 Similar Profiles
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MQSN 21: Observe, Reflect, Improve: a tool to enrich Children’s Learning (ORICL)
Harrison, L. J., Wong, S., Degotardi, S., Bull, R., Davis, B., Ballsun-Stanton, B., Alexander, W., Williams, K. & Elwick, S.
21/09/21 → 20/09/22
Project: Research
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MRFF: Harnessing the health communication power of the early childhood sector
Degotardi, S., Amin, J., Bull, R., Harrison, L. J., Waniganayake, M., Hadley, F., Wong, S., Zurynski, Y., Donovan, M., Mendham, M., O'Connell, M., Highfield, K., Death, E., Boehm, N., Fox, S., Cannen, E., Paterson, A., McNicholas, J., Payne, R. & Dahm, M.
1/02/21 → 1/10/21
Project: Research
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MQRIS: A Test Library for Educational Researchers at Macquarie
Van Bergen, P., Wang, H., Degotardi, S., Andrews, R. & Bull, R.
1/01/20 → 31/12/20
Project: Other
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Whole number and fraction magnitude understanding in kindergartners
Múñez, D., Cheung, P. & Bull, R.
2/09/19 → 30/11/21
Project: Research
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NSW Preschool Assessment Study: Review of Formative Assessment Practices in Early Childhood Settings
Harrison, L. J., Wong, S., Bull, R., Davis, B. & Elwick, S.
2/09/19 → 30/11/19
Project: Other
Research Outputs
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Culture shapes preschoolers’ emotion recognition but not emotion comprehension: a cross-cultural study in Germany and Singapore
Möller, C., Bull, R. & Aschersleben, G., May 2022, In: Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science. 6, 1, p. 9–25 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Non-symbolic ratio reasoning in kindergarteners: underlying unidimensional heuristics and relations with math abilities
Muñez, D., Bull, R., Cheung, P. & Orrantia, J., 11 Feb 2022, In: Frontiers in Psychology. 13, p. 1-12 12 p., 800977.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Downloads (Pure) -
Order processing of number symbols is influenced by direction, but not format
Wong, B., Bull, R., Ansari, D., Watson, D. M. & Liem, G. A. D., 1 Jan 2022, In: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 75, 1, p. 98-117 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Working memory and numeracy training for children with math learning difficulties: evidence from a large-scale implementation in the classroom
Muñez, D., Lee, K., Bull, R., Khng, K. H., Cheam, F. & Rahim, R. A., 10 Feb 2022, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Journal of Educational Psychology. 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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A bifactor model of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System in preschool and early intervention classrooms in Singapore
Ng, E. L., Bull, R., Bautista, A. & Poon, K., Aug 2021, In: International Journal of Early Childhood. 53, 2, p. 197–218 22 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Activities
- 1 Editorial work
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Child Development (Journal)
Rebecca Bull (Member of editorial board)
Jul 2019 → …Activity: Peer-review and editorial of research outputs › Editorial work