Rate My Professor Jane Carroll

Dr. Jane Carroll serves as a Senior Professional Practice Fellow in the College of Education and a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago. Holding a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Otago, she brings a background in speech-language therapy and primary teaching to her academic career. Her research centers on early literacy development, oral language skills, school-entry assessments, and parent-mediated interventions designed to support preschool children, particularly those at risk for literacy difficulties. Carroll investigates how shared book reading and reminiscing practices influence parent-child interactions, children's narrative skills, emergent literacy, and socio-emotional outcomes, with longitudinal effects tracked into the first years of primary school.

Carroll is a key contributor to the Tender Shoots program, a randomized controlled trial evaluating two shared-reading approaches to enhance preschoolers' oral language, literacy, and self-regulation skills. Notable publications include 'Tender Shoots: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Two Shared-Reading Approaches for Enhancing Parent-Child Interactions and Children’s Oral Language and Literacy Skills' (Scientific Studies of Reading, 2022), 'Tender Shoots: Effects of a Preschool Shared Book Reading Preventive Intervention on Parent–Child Reading and Parents’ Involvement in the First Year of School' (School Mental Health, 2022), 'Tender Shoots: a parent book-reading and reminiscing program to enhance children’s oral narrative skills' (Reading and Writing, 2023), 'Tender Shoots: A Parent-Mediated Randomized Controlled Trial With Preschool Children Benefits Beginning Reading 1 Year Later' (Reading Research Quarterly, 2023), 'School-Entry Skills and Early Skill Trajectories Predict Reading After 1 Year' (School Psychology, 2023), and 'Contributions of school-entry oral language, early literacy skills, and name writing to writing in the first 2 years of school' (2023). Earlier works encompass 'Explicit Phonological Knowledge of Educational Professionals' (Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing, 2012), 'How Do New Zealand Teachers Assess Children’s Oral Language and Literacy Skills at School Entry?' (New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 2019), and 'Concurrent validity of the Preschool Early Literacy Indicators with a New Zealand sample of 5-year-olds entering primary school' (International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 2022). She lectures in PSYC327 Psychology of Language and provides resources on assessments like DIBELS.