Dr William Coventry

Senior Lecturer - Faculty of Medicine and Health; School of Psychology

William Coventry

Phone: +61 2 6773 2846

Email: william.coventry@une.edu.au

Twitter: @willcovarmidale

Biography

Dr Coventry's  research is in quantitative genetics and educational psychology, addressing numerous questions that pertain to student trajectories throughout schooling. The databases he uses are typically longitudinal – with students measured on 4 occasions. These databases collectively span all school years and are either of twins and their parents or are population-level. A particular focus has been on the NAPLAN testing (i.e. national school assessments of literacy and numeracy). Dr Coventry uses structural equation modelling to delve questions around nature-nurture and longitudinal causation – to the extent such claims are possible!  In addition, he researches ways of presenting the probabilities commonly used in statistics (e.g. p-values and confidence intervals).

Qualifications

B Ag Eco, University of Sydney; Grad Dip Soc Sci, University of New England;  1st class Honors in Arts (Psych major), University of Queensland;  Ph.D., University of New England

Teaching Areas

PSYC372/472 Advanced Research Methods and Statistics

Primary Research Area/s

Behaviour Genetics ; Educational Psychology

Research Interests

Dr Coventry's research is in two areas – behaviour genetics and educational psychology – and has been funded by grants from the ARC.  The former uses twin and family studies to tease apart genes and the environment in explaining individual differences, while the latter addresses questions of student trajectories throughout schooling.  These inquiries employ large pre-existing databases that collectively span all school years.  The databases are all longitudinal – the students are measured on 4 occasions – and they are either of twins and their parents or are population-level.  The analyses typically employ structural equation models - given they afford insights into questions around nature-nurture and longitudinal causation. Beyond this, Dr Coventry has research ongoing into ways of presenting the probabilities commonly used in statistics (e.g. p-values and confidence intervals).