The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has outpaced existing research and regulatory frameworks in higher education, leading to varied institutional responses. Although some educators and institutions have embraced AI and generative AI (GenAI), other individuals remain cautious. This systematic literature review explored teaching academics' attitudes, perceptions and intentions towards AI and GenAI, identifying perceived benefits and obstacles. Utilising the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology framework, this study reveals positive attitudes towards AI's efficiency and teaching enhancement, but also significant concerns about academic integrity, accuracy, reliability, skill development and the need for comprehensive training and policies. These findings underscore the necessity for institutional support to navigate the integration of AI and GenAI in tertiary education. Implications for practice or policy: Attitudes towards AI and GenAI integration are diverse with educators recognising benefits but raising ethical and practical concerns. These concerns indicate a need for a more comprehensive understanding and dialogue within academic communities. Academics' intentions to use these technologies are contingent upon the development of robust ethical guidelines and supportive institutional policies. Institutional support and training shape behaviours. The scarcity of formal training, systematic guidelines and policy frameworks currently limits effective integration.

Bookreading is known to benefit young children’s language and literacy development. However, research has demonstrated that how adults interact around a book with a child is probably even more important than reading the complete text. Dialogic or interactive reading strategies can promote children’s language development more specifically. Little is known about how fathers engage in bookreading with their children. This study examined the differences and similarities in interaction style during bookreading among low-income fathers and mothers in the US at child ages two and three, in particular focusing on immediate and non-immediate talk. Results demonstrated that fathers used more non-immediate talk, or talk not directly related to the book, than mothers did, at both child ages. Fathers also used more engagement strategies than mothers did.

A substantial research base documents the benefits of attendance at high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) for positive behavioural and learning outcomes. Research has also found that the quality of many young children’s experiences and opportunities in ECEC depends on the skills, dispositions and understandings of the early childhood adult educators. Increasingly, research has shown that the quality of children’s interactions with educators and their peers, more than any other programme feature, influence what children learn and how they feel about learning. Hence, we sought to investigate the extent to which evidence-based professional development (PD) – focussed on promoting sustained shared thinking through quality interactions – could improve the quality of ECEC and, as a consequence, child outcomes. The Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) study is a cluster randomised controlled trial for evaluating the benefits of a professional development (PD) programme for early childhood educators, compared with no extra PD. Ninety long-day care and preschool centres in New South Wales, Australia, will be selected to ensure representation across National Quality Standards (NQS) ratings, location, centre type and socioeconomic areas. Participating centres will be randomly allocated to one of two groups, stratified by centre type and NQS rating: (1) an intervention group (45 centres) receiving a PD intervention or (2) a control group (45 centres) that continues engaging in typical classroom practice. Randomisation to these groups will occur after the collection of baseline environmental quality ratings. Primary outcomes, at the child level, will be two measures of language development: verbal comprehension and expressive vocabulary. Secondary outcomes at the child level will be measures of early numeracy, social development and self-regulation. Secondary outcomes at the ECEC room level will be measures of environmental quality derived from full-day observations. In all cases, data collectors will be blinded to group allocation. This is the first randomised controlled trial of a new approach to PD, which is focussed on activities previously found to be influential in children’s early language, numeracy, social and self-regulatory development. Results should inform practitioners, policy-makers and families of the value of specific professional development for early childhood educators. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN) identifier ACTRN12616000536460 . Registered on 27 April 2016. This trial was retrospectively registered, given the first participant (centre) had been enrolled at the time of registration.

This study examined verbal and non‐verbal features of mother–infant shared book reading in Australia during the first year of life and explored the relationship between these features and infant cognition. Mother–infant dyads were observed in this cross‐sectional study reading an unfamiliar book in a laboratory setting when infants were aged 6 months (n = 17), 9 months (n = 14), or 12 months (n = 17). High frequency maternal behaviours coded from video were the production of attention attracting behaviours, immediate talk, and verbal encouragement to maintain infant book engagement. Few significant relationships were found for infant problem‐solving scores. Infant communication scores were however associated with non‐immediate talk at 6 months, maternal questions at 9 months, and non‐book related talk at 12 months. Shared book reading provides opportunities for verbal responsiveness and literacy engagement which likely serve as an important vehicle for facilitating early cognitive development.