The Great Australian Spelling Bee sparks media frenzy for spelling expert Tessa Daffern

The Great Australian Spelling Bee has been a huge hit on Australian TV over the last few weeks, and its popularity has sparked a great deal of media interest in the work of Charles Sturt University PhD student Tessa Daffern. Tessa is a member of the RIPPLE speech, language and literacies strand and has been inundated with media coverage from around the country on the radio, in newspapers and online.

Below is a summary of the online links to Tessa's interviews and media coverage.



‘Researcher raises concern over spelling bee TV show’, Friday 31 July 2015, Education Review
‘Smart kids on Spelling Bee not the norm’, Tuesday 4 August 2015, Yahoo
‘Parents told not to freak out if their kids aren’t as smart as Spelling Bee contestants’, Wednesday 5 August 2015, The Daily Telegraph
‘Parents told not to freak out if their kids aren’t as smart as Spelling Bee contestants’, Wednesday 5 August 2015, news.com.au
‘Parents told not to freak out if their kids aren’t as smart as Spelling Bee contestants’, Wednesday 5 August 2015, The Adelaide Advertiser
‘Parents told not to freak out if their kids aren’t as smart as Spelling Bee contestants’, Wednesday 5 August 2015, Herald Sun
‘Great Australian Spelling Bee: don't buy into the buzz of television show’, Thursday 6 August 2015, Central Western Daily
‘GREAT AUSTRALIAN SPELLING BEE: Don't buy into buzz of television show, says literacy expert’, Thursday 6 August 2015, The Daily Liberal
‘The Morning Grill’, Thursday 6 August 2015, The Wellington Times
‘Australian Spelling Bee should not be taken seriously, says spelling expert’, Thursday 6 August 2015, The Educator
‘Don't buy into spelling bee buzz, expert warns’, Friday 7 August 2015, The Daily Liberal
TBC Early Education Review

In the next few weeks Tessa and her PhD supervisors Noella Mackenzie and Brian Hemmings will head overseas to share her work on an international scale with the following conference presentations:

Daffern, T. (August, 2015). Spelling out assessment: The development and testing of an innovative tool. European Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, Cyprus.

Daffern, T., & Mackenzie, N. (August, 2015). Does proficiency in spelling, grammar and punctuation predict success in writing? European Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, Cyprus.

Daffern, T., & Hemmings, B. (September, 2015). Students’ linguistic transitions in spelling between Grades 3 and 6.  European Conference on Educational Research, Budapest, Hungary.

Daffern, T., & Mackenzie, N. (September, 2015). Does Triple Word Form Theory provide a useful framework from which to assess proficiency in spelling? European Conference on Educational Research, Budapest, Hungary. 

  

Congratulations Tessa!!