Abstracts - 2002

[Paper] indicates a hypertext link to the relevant paper. The symbol ® indicates that the full paper was refereed.

Paper Codes in Alphabetical Order

A

AIL02210  [Paper]
Homogenising Play: Governing preschool childhoods

Jo Ailwood, Charles Sturt University

Play serves as a significant nodal point in the discursive relations of early childhood education. It is predominantly viewed as the natural and intrinsic means through which young children learn. In this paper, however, I wish to 'denaturalise' play considering it instead as a form of governance in early childhood education settings. To do this I take a recent preschool curriculum and consider some of the discursive origins of play in this document, asking how play has been constructed as natural, by whom and with what effects. I then discuss the technologies through which the discourse of play as natural becomes a part of the pedagogical process of early childhood classrooms. Further, I consider the ways in which these discourses may have homogenising effects in the lives of young children and their teachers, suggesting that the dominant discourse of play as natural in the education of young children provides a smokescreen for the governing effects of much play in early childhood settings.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 9, HEN02206 Mediating access to language and literacy learning.

AIT02103  [Paper]
Mothers and school choice: Managing uncertainty

Claire Aitchison, University of Technology, Sydney

In keeping with the global trend amongst governments towards the marketisation of school education, the bulk of Australian parents, newly positioned as education consumers, are generally novice shoppers. In an extension to traditional roles, it is overwhelmingly the mothers who do the 'school shopping'. In choosing high schools for their children, it seems that the mothers of 'Middle Australia' in particular, expend considerable time and energy on an extensive and extended shopping excursion largely informed by a serendipitous array of market research, and driven by a desire to minimise risk of failure in a market place where futures are uncertain and the stakes are high.

This paper outlines some initial findings from a year long research project following the decision-making processes of a group of mothers of year 6 children as they deliberate high school options. The study is sited in Sydney's inner west where there is a volatile demographic of social change and changing school options. Like other studies of school choice this research shows how seriously, if not always willingly, mothers have responded to the 'school choice' agenda. This in-depth study highlights the agony of choice for those who see secondary education as the most significant opportunity available to them to insure against failure for their children. The study offers fascinating revelations of the aspirations, hopes and fears of ordinary mothers for their adolescent children; it speaks volumes for educators.

ALL02332  [Paper]
Interrogating the discourse of 'social literacies' in an era of uncertainty

Andrea Allard and Evelyn Johnson, Deakin University

Originally, the term 'social literacies' was used to suggest the skills, knowledge and processes for addressing multicultural teaching and learning (Kalantzis and Cope, 1983). The meaning of the phrase has since evolved to encompass widely different concepts, including for example, social 'competencies', and/or citizenship education (eg., Arthur & Davison, 2000). Clearly the discourse around 'social literacies' is shifting in response to changing educational policies, both nationally and internationally.

In this paper, we examine how constructs of 'social literacies' have been and might be deployed. Building from a review of the policy, program and theoretical literature, we pose questions concerning how 'social literacies' might be used to interrogate and rework relations, especially those of gender and culture. Questions to be considered include: will the concept of 'social literacies' enable us to better understand the processes of identity and community formations in this era of uncertainty? Which knowledges and skills are identified in the literature and positioned as critical in establishing 'productive' social relations/literacies? Additionally, we begin to theorise the degree to which such constructions of 'social literacies' might enhance and/or limit quality learning at the tertiary levels of teacher education.

AND02005   [Paper]
Opportunities and challenges of conducting comparative analyses of longitudinal data to depict the lives of today's young adults

Lesley Andres, University of British Columbia, Johanna Wyn and Debra Tyler, University of Melbourne

Longitudinal data sets offer a wealth of information and allow researchers to seek answers to complex research questions. Two such data sets currently exist which permit detailed comparative analyses of the lives of today's young adults. Both studies have survey and interview components, contain representative state and province wide samples, and span 10 years. In the Life Patterns Project (1991-2001) a "pathways" metaphor has guided the collection of survey and interview data with high school leavers from Victoria, Australia to determine educational, occupational and other life outcomes. The Paths on Life's Way Project (1988-1998) has examined the lives, choices, and postsecondary education and work experiences of high school graduates from British Columbia, Canada. Both studies focus on respondents' lives in relation to changing social and cultural conditions. The purpose of our presentation will be to focus on the opportunities and challenges of collecting longitudinal data and conducting analyses both within each study and through cross-country comparisons. In doing so, we will address the following themes: staying abreast of current theories and analytical methods; training and maintaining student research assistants and other research staff; challenging our assumptions in order to provide accurate portrayals of the lives under investigation; and examining how funding shapes research.

AND02399   [Paper]
Sustaining and supporting teacher professional development in ICT

Neil Anderson, Colin Baskin and Monica Halbert, James Cook University

This paper describes a local response to recent Australian policy initiatives that call for stronger links between universities and state education authorities to support and enhance the effective use of ICT in schools (Ramsey, 2001; Downs et al 2001). Blackboard has been selected by both organizations (James Cook University and Education Queensland) as the preferred on-line learning environment, so it was this tool that project explored as a means of sustaining and supporting teacher professional development in ICT. Another component of the project was to investigate the use of on-line learning tools by secondary and primary students in a traditional classroom environment. In both cases Blackboard provided a way of extending and supporting local networks by providing links to specifically developed, on-line resources for training and communication outside the boundaries of the school. Use of tools such as Blackboard and WebCT do not automatically guarantee improved learning outcomes but offer an opportunity to support models that change pedagogy and also alter the dynamics of the learning community. Data collected so far from this on-going project illustrate the changing learning relations that occur when these comprehensive web tools are used in combination with collaboration to determine shared goals and implementation strategies.

ARB02612   [Paper]    ®
Problematic futures: Speaking race and ethnicity in globalised times

Ruth Arber, Monash University

Over the last decades, Australian society has been transformed by changed immigration patterns and globalising trends. Changed demographic patterns as well as changed communication and information technologies and administrative and marketing practices have irretrievably altered schools in large cities such as Melbourne, Australia. In this paper, I examine the ways that teachers and parents in one particular Melbourne school speak about race and ethnicity in the midst of these changes. I argue that beneath the ironic relation between difference and sameness that underpins multicultural debate are different understandings that determine ways some belong and some do not belong within the school community. This paradoxical relation remains despite increasingly post-modern definitions of identity that underpin the field of this debate. I conclude that the examination of multicultural debate in globalised times remains profoundly concerned with the normalised ways of making one identity against an - other to which these conversations about race and identity are profoundly implicated.

ARC02557   [Paper]
The power of the situation: Students' motivational responses to studying in psychology and social work

Alex Beveridge, and Jennifer Archer, University of Newcastle

Using the theory of achievement goals as its theoretical framework, the present study investigated university students' reactions to undertaking a psychology course and a social work course. The social work course adopted the principles of problem based learning while the psychology course had a traditional university approach of massed lectures and laboratories. For the current study, 36 first year students studying for a degree in social work (96% response rate) and 34 fourth year social work students (99% response rate) completed two questionnaires: one questionnaire focused on students' perception of the achievement goals encouraged by staff of the social work course, their attributions for success and failure in social work, and the study strategies they used in social work; while the other questionnaire (administered at a separate time) contained the same items in relation to the psychology course. In addition, 14 first year students and 11 fourth year students were interviewed about their experiences of both courses. Both quantitative and qualitative data indicate that students perceived that the problem based features of the social work course encouraged the adoption of a mastery achievement goal while the more traditional psychology course encouraged the adoption of a performance achievement goal.

ARC02619   [Paper]    ®<
The problematics of Citizenship Education within the Australian context

Charles Arcodia, The University of Queensland

A review of the development of the citizenship concept reveals that the educational, social, political and philosophical constructs of citizenship have been consistently problematic. Western educational and political philosophies have provided a series of rich and diverse perspectives on the role of the citizen in society and the way in which education can play a part in the formation of the citizen. Despite an extensive body of literature on citizenship, traditional assumptions have been called into question by worldwide social and cultural changes. In contemporary debates, a variety of educational, social and political influences have been recognised as significant to citizenship formation.

Much of the available literature on citizenship, its role in society and education's role in formation, has been informed by the philosophies, ideologies, conceptual frameworks and experiences constructed in the West. This paper discusses some of the key limitations in the current philosophical foundations that underpin understandings of citizenship education and identifies some key issues relevant to the Australian context..

AUL02383   [Paper]    ®
Why should I present my thesis about computer assisted NdjTbbana on a DVD ?

Glenn Auld, Ballarat University

This paper justifies the presentation of a Phd thesis about Computer Assisted NdjTbbana on a Digital Video Disc (DVD). NdjTbbana is a language spoken by 200 Kunibfdji who are the traditional indigenous Australian landowners of Maningrida in Arnhem Land, Australia. The tools of this study are simple digital talking books that were created in NdjTbbana and then presented on touch screens computers. The data was the interaction around the touch screens that was recorded on digital video. Using DVD technology, the NdjTbbana talking books and the digital video can be integrated into a scholarly text for academics and NdjTbbana narrated report for the Kunibfdji, which can be combined to present a thesis. From a theoretical perspective, a thesis on a DVD can be located in the centre of critical literacy, a critical theory of technology and critical research methodologies. There are also logistical, semiotic and ideological reasons for presenting a thesis on about computer assisted NdjTbbana on DVD. Presenting Computer Assisted NdjTbbana on DVD will link the tools and data of the research with academic discourse to enhance the examination process and will also support the empowerment of the Kunibfdji as they are more informed about the research process.

AYR02061   [Paper]
Teachers' perceptions of the implementation of the new NSW Higher School Certificate

Paul Ayres, Bernice Beechey and John McCormick, University of New South Wales

The NSW Higher School Certificate, a high stakes, public, end-of-schooling examination has recently been reformed with major changes to syllabi, assessment and reporting; the first cohort completed the examination in 2001. The aim of this research was to investigate teachers' perceptions of the impact of the changes on their work and motivation. Eight focus groups were conducted with volunteer teachers in eight randomly selected public high schools. This paper reports these teachers' perceptions of positive and negative aspects of the changes and related processes. The following issues were identified: speed of implementation, workload, teaching the syllabus to students of differing abilities and literacy levels, interpreting the new syllabus, carrying out new assessment procedures, standards referencing, using new technology, development and availability of new resources, accountability and social support within the faculty.

B

BAK02232   [Paper]
Managing the impact of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder on reading achievement

Kathy Baker, Central Queensland University

Significant numbers of ADHD students have associated learning difficulties, the most common of which is reading difficulties. It is widely recognised that the current understanding of ADHD remains incomplete and many aspects of theory and practice remain controversial. However, teachers are still confronted with the realities of teaching ADHD students who are experiencing reading difficulties.

This paper reports a study using Barkley's model, as this still remains the latest understanding of the disorder, to design a reading intervention to remediate reading difficulties in ADHD students.

The intervention will be useful for teachers who are faced with the problems associated with trying to teach ADHD students with associated reading difficulties how to read, since as yet there is a paucity of literature on the topic. The study used a case study methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of this reading intervention for ADHD students who ranged from year three to senior high school.

BAR02394   [Paper]
Describing standards for early childhood teachers: Moving the debate forward to the National level

Lennie Barblett and Carmel Maloney, Edith Cowan University

In Australia, there is no set of agreed upon teaching standards for early childhood teachers. In some states such as Western Australia and Queensland, documents have been produced that outline generic teaching competencies for all teachers. However, research in Australia and overseas shows that one set of standards does not always fit teaching specialisations easily. This paper reports on the culmination of a joint research project between Edith Cowan University and the Department of Education (WA) that undertook to describe the generic teaching competencies for Phase 1 teachers in terms of early childhood teachers' work. The views of early childhood teachers, specialists, principals and policy makers were sought in focus groups with the aim of providing rich descriptions of what WA early childhood teachers should know and be able to do in the first phase of their career. The study found that discussion and debate is needed at the National level in order to ensure the quality of early childhood teaching and to illustrate career pathways for early childhood teachers.

BAR02414   [Paper]    ®
Using job advertisements to understand the employability prospects of event management graduates

Tanuja Barker and Charles Arcodia, The University of Queensland

In an increasingly competitive higher education environment, prospective students are more likely to compare graduate employability prospects of different universities and different courses. Consequently, the viability of courses based on knowledge's sake alone is being increasingly challenged with market viability based predominately on student demand, which is often based on their perceptions of workplace requirements.

Event management has emerged to become a key sector of the Australian tourism industry and this has spurred the need for tertiary educated event managers and for an evaluation of educational curriculum. To provide an indication of current employer requirements, a nationwide study of web-based job advertisements in event management has commenced. This paper reports the preliminary results from a content analysis of 105 job advertisements.

The results reveal the range of industries that require event management specialists or skills, and a series of required skills and key attributes of event managers. The results of this study establish a platform from which to develop a classification of event management skills required by the industry. More importantly however, it can be used as the basis for curriculum evaluation and training needs, and create a better understanding and compatibility between event management education and industry practice.

BAR02572   [Paper]
School and community: Roles and respons(poss)ibilities

Pam Bartholomaeus, Flinders University of South Australia

When several of my children moved to a new school I was struck by the different role constructed for parents through the fortnightly school newsletter. Newsletters are public documents and an important form of communication between an organization and its members or participants. In the case of education the relationship built is between students' caregivers and the school, and signals the role assigned to caregivers in the educative process.

In this paper I shall share some analysis of school newsletters and the nature of the relationships encouraged through these documents. In an era of increased local governance for schools these relationships are important as they shape the recognition of the nature of the local community served by the school and the nature of the educative process that needs to occur given knowledge about the social structure of the community and the aspirations held for and by the young people who are being educated.

BAR02605   [Paper]
"O" for osmosis, "P" for pedagogy: Fixing the postgraduate wheel of fortune

Deirdre Barron, Swinburne University of Technology and Margaret Zeegers, University of Ballarat

Discussions around what constitutes a good supervisory or a good supervisory development program pervade the Higher Education sector. Across Australia universities have developed supervisory training programs around dealing with basic policies and procedures. To think that this fulfils the developmental needs of supervisors would be very nanve. But to impose rigid programs that treat supervisors as empty vessels waiting to be filled with expert knowledge is equally nanve. A simple recommendation for improvement in Research Training would seem to be to increase the level of real communication between supervisors within disciplines and across disciplines. However as Hobart (1993) and McWilliam et al (2000) point out establishing across university dialogue tends to become instruction by expert to non-expert and the definition of expert may have more to do with privileged position than real knowledge. At another level "Instruction by an expert" has also had the effect of non-academic administrators acting as developers of academics who are framed as deficit in regard to leadership, management and applying various policies and procedures. The instructional model tends to raise levels of resistance rather than encourage supervisors to become learners within a collegial space. This paper looks at possibilities that allow academics to work in a collegial manner, that is, they can bring their experience and their problems to the table in a safe environment.

BEA02658   [Paper]
RTS and RPGs: New literacies and multiplayer computer games

Catherine Beavis, Deakin University

Technopopular culture such as computer games immerses young people in highly complex and engaging worlds, worlds in which literacy and communicative practices are significantly reconfigured and extended by the contexts in which they occur. This paper reports on a study exploring the textual engagement, pleasures and literacies entailed in playing on line computer games amongst a group of young people aged 15-16. It explores the ways in which these young people read and utilised intersections between traditional print-based text, visual images, symbols, sound, interactivity and other elements to play and make sense of a range of Real Time Strategy and Role Playing Computer Games; the place of games and gaming amongst other text-based leisure activities in their lives; and issues of interpretation, representation and response entailed in playing with real or virtual partners in cyberspace.

BEC02221   [Paper]
Sharing teacher education in East Timor -
Crossing the boundary and walking the walk

Margie Beck, Australian Catholic University National

The opportunity to work in East Timor for a short time led to a steep learning curve for this writer who moved out of the comforts of an Australian institution into a world where a generator provided the only electricity. Teaching beginning teachers and teachers without any training in a new culture was a period of mutual learning. The relevance of teaching methods and management that is taken for granted in Australia does not appear to be great when confronted with classes without books, paper, pencils

This paper will examine the journey of planning, teaching and preparation for the next trip and the way in which conventional teaching is adapted to meet both the physical and cultural learning in a country that is rebuilding itself and trying to establish its independence. The question remains - can outsiders really contribute to the development when the teaching and cultural contexts?

BET02369   [Paper]
Art as an intervention mechanism to teach social skills to lower secondary school age children

Elisabeth Betlem, Christ Catholic College and Rosaling Bolitho, University of New South Wales

Traditionally, behavioural problems have been explained from either a sociological or a psychological framework. However such exclusive frameworks ignore the interactional effects resulting from individuals within systems. Thus too often within the school system, educationists see curriculum and behaviour management as separate entities.

This paper reports on the findings of a project undertaken to create behavioural change amongst secondary school age students without subjugating curriculum demands. A socio-psychological model is used to explain the way the art process can instigate behavioural change within the social dynamics of the classroom.

This project focused on the psychological constructs involved in the adolescent search for identity. Amongst other developmental changes that occur during adolescence, the young person experiences a heightened period of creativity that may be seen as a response to the growing awareness of options, possibilities and potentials. Such awareness, in conjunction with changes in their social environment may lead to cognitive, emotional and social conflicts often not addressed in discipline based education. In this project the decisions demanded in creating the visual image mirror the choices made in an adolescent's educational, social and cultural experience.

Thus it was concerned with mapping the points of intersection between the individual and the social systems and highlighting the way that such an intersection may better determine alternative teaching practices.

BLA02263   [Paper]
Crossing the Line: - Peer influence on students from low income backgrounds in transition from school to university

Derek Bland, Queensland University of Technology

This study examines how university students from low income backgrounds have been influenced by the views and behaviours of their peers in senior secondary schooling and upon entry to a tertiary course. Using Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital and habitus, the study will explore whether the students' backgrounds, experiences and values have affected their decision-making in regard to tertiary study options. The strategies the students have developed to survive and succeed in the process of transition from school to university will be investigated. This presentation will report on some findings from focus groups conducted to develop a contemporary picture of the experiences of low income students in adapting to the peer culture of a large tertiary institution.

BLA02670   [Paper]
Tracking the nomadic life of the educational researcher:- what future for feminist public intellectal(s) and/in the performative postmodern university

Jill Blackmore, Deakin University (AARE Presidential Address 2002)

Is the idea of the liberal university dead, has the post modern university any chance of being emancipatory, has the theory practice divide merely collapsed in an era of 'new knowledge work', or has the university just become one aspect of market state and global capitalism. Knowledge based economies simultaneously locate universities as central to the commodification and management of knowledge while the legitimacy of the university and the academic as knowledge producers is challenged by post modernist, feminist, postcolonial and indigenous claims within a wider trend towards the 'democratisation of knowledge' and a new educational instrumentalism and opportunism. What becomes of the educational researcher, and indeed for their professional organizations, in this changing socio political and economic scenario? Is our role one of policy service or policy critique, technical expert or public intellectual? In particular what place is there for feminist public intellectuals in a socalled era of post feminism and public-/private convergence? The paper draws on recent debates around the nature of knowledge based societies, trends in relations between policy and educational research, and draws upon feminist and critical perspectives to mount a case for the importance of the postmodern university and the public intellectual.

BOA02341   [Paper]
Full-day or half-day kindergarten?: Kindergarten teachers' voices in the debate

Margot Boardman, University of Tasmania

Over the past decade in Tasmanian state schools the practice of providing full day Kindergarten sessions for children, who are four and five years of age, has been gaining momentum. Research pertaining to the beneficial and/or detrimental impact of full day and half-day Kindergarten attendance for children of this age is limited, with studies conducted overseas focussing on Kindergarten children who are twelve months older in age. To gain a deeper understanding of the perceived value of each attendance option within the Tasmanian school setting, a study was designed to investigate Kindergarten teachers' perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of both half-day and full-day Kindergarten sessions. Fifty-three full day and forty-six half-day Kindergarten teachers (from three Tasmanian school districts) responded to the study's postal survey, which was supported by small group interviews. Preparation of children for full-time schooling and enhancement of their educational and social skills were perceived by teachers to be the main advantages of full-day attendance, whilst they referred to the length of the school day and lack of session continuity as disadvantages. Program continuity, and the preparedness of children to learn, were perceived by teachers as benefits of half-day attendance, whilst they cited the children's lack of experience in full-time school routines, and the challenge for parents associated with their child's half-day attendance as deficits.

BOO02255   [Paper]
Science assessment and its contribution to the nurturing of creativity

Hong Kwen Boo, Nanyang Technological University

In 1997, a nation-wide initiative to promote creativity, lateral thinking and problem solving skills was launched in Singapore. Since then schools have been paying special attention to the development of creativity, lateral thinking and problem solving skills in our school going population. Teachers have been trained to teach such thinking skills explicitly as well as indirectly, through infusion into their science lessons. Teachers have risen to the challenge of nurturing creativity, lateral thinking and problem solving ability among their students. However, an important question needs to be raised: Does formal school science assessment contribute positively towards the drive towards the stimulating of creativity, lateral thinking and problem solving skills among pupils? This paper, based upon an examination of about one hundred sets of school science examination papers from different primary schools, discusses the challenges involved in formally assessing science learning outcomes in the context of the national drive towards stimulating creativity, lateral thinking and problem solving skills. It also discusses how assessment in primary school science could contribute positively towards the nurturing of creativity, lateral thinking and problem solving skills among primary school pupils.

BOR02050   [Paper]    ®
The social attention of children with disabilities during social engagement opportunities

Anna Bortoli and Margaret Brown, The University of Melbourne

The research shows that children with disabilities are challenged by the social demands of inclusive settings. Studies show that when children with a disability interact with their non-disabled peers, they have difficulty maintaining the interaction, they may have fewer interactions and the interaction may be shorter in length. These difficulties are likely to result in reducing their opportunities to becoming socially engaged with their peers. Some researchers propose that delays in linguistic and communicative ability may be the main factors contributing to this difficulty in social interaction. Social interaction has been addressed within the framework of social cognition, and so, social interaction is seen as a social cognitive task to be accomplished through strategic behaviour. The research shows that children who manage their entry and maintenance of social interaction are deemed to be socially competent.

Researchers investigating the skills involved in cognitive tasks in general, suggest that attention both to the context of the task and the performance of the task is critical to a successful outcome. It is hypothesised that successful social interaction also requires attention to the context and the task behaviours. Social attention is dependent on sensory input from several modalities, primarily vision and hearing. Given that attention is a cognitive skill, it is likely, that it also plays a large part in social competence. Within a social context, attention has been investigated through measuring visual behaviour of participants to the task itself, and the task of the environment.

This paper reviews the literature concerned with the nature of attention, attention problems and research into attention. It presents a case for researchers and special educators to consider the attention skills of children with a disability when assessing and intervening in social skills in these populations. It discusses the nature of attention within the context of social interaction and how children with disability manage their attention during social engagement opportunities. A framework for social attention is presented and discussed.

BRI02518   [Paper]
Within the borderlands: The experiences of beginning early childhood teachers in primary schools

Clare Britt and Jennifer Sumsion, Macquarie University

This study investigated the experiences of five beginning early childhood qualified teachers, teaching in primary school settings (State school, Independent, Private, Catholic). The primary concern of the study was to explore the metaphors that these teachers used when describing their lived experience stories; and to analyse what these metaphors indicated about the discourses the teachers perceived were available to them, and where they had chosen to situate themselves within these discourses. The thematic recurrences and discursive positionings within the words, metaphors and narratives of the participants, were critically analysed using a framework of feminist poststructuralism as described by Neilsen (1998), Richardson (1997), Kamler (2001) and Davies (1996). Techniques of thematic analysis described by Ely et al (1997) were used to identify thematic recurrences in the data. Deconstruction and semiotic analysis were used to uncover, decode and analyse layers of meaning in the data. Discourse analysis was used to explore discursive positionings in the data (Neilsen, 1998; Richardson, 1997; Kamler, 2001; Davies, 1996; Ely et al., 1997; Ellis & Flaherty, 1992; Ellis & Bochner, 1996). The findings suggest that the de/reconstruction of existing metaphors, and the creation of new metaphors can be seen as pathways to greater agency and empowerment for beginning teachers (Cook-Sather, 2001; Johnson, 1997; Kamler, 2001; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Neilsen, 1998).

BRO02236   [Paper]    ®
Stop the bus I want to get off: Academics coping in a time of uncertainty

Carolyn Broadbent, Australian Catholic University

During periods of adical organisational change, individuals are confronted with a multitude of new experiences and stresses that impact in varying degrees on their personal and professional lives. The manner in which individuals perceive, define and experience these changes will vary according to a number of factors, including the effectiveness of the strategies chosen to cope with such change. Quantitative methodologies used in studying coping strategies suffer from a number of deficiencies. Qualitative research approaches show promise and form the basis of this study of the approaches utilised by academics to manage and cope with their changing work environment during a period of substantial change. This paper argues that coping is a dynamic process, in which academics are constantly engaged in defining and redefining their environments in order to make sound decisions and take appropriate action. To illustrate this process, the metaphor of the bus journey is used to highlight academics' responses to an ever-changing landscape. There is little doubt the strategies utilised will produce differing outcomes, and the long-term success of these strategies will be partly dependent on the relationship they have to the overall goals and the direction of the organisation.

BRO02314   [Paper]
Tracking a student's Changing social positions within a primary mathematics classroom

Raymond Brown, St Oliver Plunkett Primary School

Changing educational demands related to new basic skills, new organisational structures, and a culturally diverse student population have created challenges for teachers and students to engage in more effective pedagogical relationships. A key sociocultural notion underpinning these relationships is community. Increasingly school classrooms are being referred to as Communities of Learners, Communities of Inquiry, and Communities of Practice. Essential to any notion of community is identity. Multiple types of participation and changing forms of membership are fundamental properties of classroom communities and their activities. However, the formation of a new self within a diverse, but inclusive classroom takes time and is difficult to research. This presentation describes a year-long case study conducted within a broader Ph.D. research programme. The study describes the journey of a student operating in a collaborative upper-primary mathematics classroom as she moves from a social position of dependence on others to a position where she displays a confidence and a willingness to access ideas and solution processes contained within the cultural resources of the classroom. Student journal writings are analysed in accordance with conditions identified as being conducive to establishing classroom learning communities and implications are drawn regarding the organisation of classrooms that facilitate a shared culture of learning mathematics.

BRO02377   [Paper]    ®
Pragmatism and privilege in the crafts including teaching

Neil Brown, University of New South Wales

This paper critically examines the legacy of Deweyan pragmatism for its role in shaping the present cultural status of the crafts, including the practice of teaching. It reveals how the prospect of overturning classical antipathy towards the crafts through Deweyan pragmatism, is overtaken by scientism. Dewey's scientism misrepresents the role of history as habit and naively portrays the way in which habits are cognised in the virtuoso enactment of a practice. The paper concludes that a lingering pragmatism in the West presides over the gradual extinction of professional autonomy in the practical arts.

BUR02368   [Paper]
Streamed Lectures: enhanced pedagogy or simply 'bells and whistles'?

Bruce Burnett, Queensland University of Technology

The paper looks specifically at issues flowing from increased pressure on academics to embrace the delivery of content online by focusing on one of the more problematic aspects of the migration of lecture content from traditional print based and face-to-face modes to those of a digital nature. The point is made that currently an over emphasis on online 'delivery' has come at the expense of online pedagogy. The paper reports on a pilot study undertaken to stream video-taped undergraduate lectures arguing that if the streaming of lecture content is to be successfully undertaken on anything more than a token level, it is essential for universities to support the funding of local professional development structures that allow more academic staff to engage with such 'new technologies'. The paper evaluates both the technical and human resource related issues encountered in the pilot study and proposes several models that allow academic staff to transfer their lectures into a streamed format.

C

CAL02034   [Paper]    ®
Implications of differential item functioning in statistical literacy: Is gender still an issue?

Rosemary Callingham, University of New England and University of Tasmania and Jane Watson, University of Tasmania

Statistical literacy is a complex developmental construct requiring both mathematical skills and contextual understanding. The development of statistical literacy is an important objective of classrooms where the curriculum is approached through considering problems that require the active engagement of learners with relevant social material. Such approaches are often advocated for the middle years of schooling. Little attention has been paid, however, to the effects of these approaches on male and female students. This paper reports on a study that considers Differential Item Functioning (DIF) with respect to gender of questions on a statistical literacy scale derived from archived data. Multi-faceted Rasch models were applied to polytomous data to determine the interactions between gender and item. Three criteria were applied to the results: statistical significance, replicability and substantive explanation of DIF. The results suggested that although there was no overall difference in the average performance of male and female students, items requiring numerical responses or calculations were less difficult for male students and, conversely, items demanding written explanations were less difficult for female students. The implications of these findings for both assessment and teaching are discussed.

CAL02027   [Paper]    ®
Changing places - Making links: A framework for professional development for the middle years of schooling

Rosemary Callingham, University of New England, Pat Smith, University of Ballarat, and Vicky Nicholson, Department of Education, Tasmania.

Changing Places - Making Links are parallel programs that have a focus on improving outcomes for Indigenous students in the middle years of schooling (Grades 4 to 8), through an inclusive approach. In recent years there has been a move to improve the educational experiences of students in the middle years. In addition there are emerging conceptions of curriculum that have a different perspective on fields of knowledge and, as a consequence, demand changed approaches to assessment. This paper describes the framework for professional development in Changing Places - Making Links that was developed to take account of these issues. Overarching organisers are drawn from the new Essential Learnings curriculum in Tasmania. Two major themes run through the professional development: Indigenous cultural and community involvement, and new approaches to assessment. The Essential Learnings are addressed through a focus on literacy, numeracy, and personal development. The professional development both models and encourages inclusive practice.

CAR02106   [Paper]
Principal succession in Catholic primary and secondary schools in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania: Opportunities and challenges

Tony D'Arbon, Helga Neidhart and Paul Carlin, Australian Catholic University

This paper will report on a research study undertaken by Catholic Educational Leadership, a flagship of Australian Catholic University, in collaboration with Directors of Catholic Education in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. The study will analyse data from Catholic Education Offices, principals and aspiring principals in Catholic schools to identify the opportunities and challenges facing principal succession in the twenty first century, and to make recommendations for improving the preparation of aspiring principals. The data will include the following information: adequacy of preparation for principalship; and the appropriateness of selection processes, Diocesan support programs, and continuing professional development of principals. As the task of principalship has become more complex due to continuing changes in society, an increasing number of Catholic leaders in Catholic schools are giving serious consideration as to whether they are willing to take on the demands of leading Catholic school communities. Diocesan authorities, especially those outside metropolitan areas, are finding it increasingly difficult to attract more qualified and experienced leaders to take up principalship, and are concerned for the future well-being of school societies. This goes to the heart of the vision and reality of leadership in Catholic schools. The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria has recognised this concern, and agreed to support the project being undertaken by Australian Catholic University. The final report will be presented early in 2003.

CAR02109   [Paper]
Embedding an Indigenous perspective in Justice Studies

Belinda Carpenter, Michael Barnes and Rachael Field, Queensland University of Technology

With the aid of a large teaching and learning grant funded by the university, the school of Justice Studies has begun the process of embedding Indigenous content and perspectives across the curriculum. This is a unique project in the university and will serve as a template for the Law faculty as a whole as well as other faculties more generally. The purpose of this paper is to chart the progress of this task, as well as to identify the central issues in the creation of an Indigenous perspective. This will include a discussion of the relationship between content and perspective as well as teaching strategies, assessment, and the role of Indigenous people in the process (as both teachers and advisors). Most specifically, however, will be a discussion of the relationship between the cultural construction of whiteness and the process of embedding an Indigenous perspective. As non-Indigenous educators, this theoretical and practical body of work is central to the ways in which we can be involved in the process of embedding an Indigenous perspective. It is argued in fact, that the recognition of whiteness as a race and a colour should precede any attempt to embed an Indigenous perspective and that this can be done irrespective of the content of the subject being taught.

CAR02530   [Paper]    ®
A tale that fiction would envy: Naturalistic inquiry methods in the Visual Arts

Judith Carroll, Australian Catholic University

This paper reports on the range of ethnographic research methods that are currently being applied in the author's investigation of a number of artists who teach in tertiary institutions. The study examines the relation between the artistic practice and the teaching practice of the artist/academic respondents to the study. In particular this paper cites a form of semantic analysis that seeks triangulated endorsement for its claims through the use of a combination of unstructured and structured interviews, unobtrusive observation and documentary evidence.

CAR02573   [Paper] - PANEL DISCUSSION 38
The problematic of developing a school university partnership progam: Challenges, growth and reciprocity

Participants:
Lorelei Carpenter, Griffith University, Jan Davies, Varsity Lakes College and Vic Graham, Nerang State School

School/university partnerships have the potential for both schools and pre-service teacher education faculties to engage in renewal by working in a collegial manner in the preparation of students to become teachers. Furthermore, sustainable partnerships require careful consideration and effective communication with all stakeholders. This presentation critically reviews a pre-service graduate entry teacher education program that is based on a school-university partnership approach currently being piloted by the Centre for Professional Development, Griffith University (Gold Coast). The review led to a refinement of the program that generated changes to the models of implementation as well as assisted new schools entering the program. An unexpected outcome was the professional development of teachers and renewal of teacher partnerships. The discussion consists of three components. Firstly, there will be a brief overview of this initiative offered at Griffith University (Gold Coast campus). Secondly, representatives from the partnership schools will discuss how they have interpreted the suggested university model to suit their local contexts. Finally, the program will be critically reviewed by school based personnel in terms of professional development, program delivery, commitment of teachers and school-university partnerships.

CAR02575   [Paper]   PANEL DISCUSSION 39
Uncertain journeys in teacher professional learning: A case study in a Queensland primary school

Chairperson:
Lorelei Carpenter, Griffith University

Panelists:
Phillip Carlton, Mara Smart, Mary Miller, Annette Vlaanderen, Hope Turner-Hoschke,
Darren Marsh, Musgrave Hill State School
Peter Renshaw, Griffith University

Respondent:
Maxine Cooper, Griffith University

This panel presentation will use a case study of Musgrave Hill State School to explore educational change and innovation with a particular focus on the relationship between teacher professional learning and curriculum change through new pedagogies.

Panelists will relate the narrative of their individual professional and personal journeys as negotiated through the landscape irregularities encountered through curriculum change. Emphasis will be placed on the challenging role of the Quality Teacher Program as an impetus for change and as an opportunity for developing a school university partnership. The paradox of how dilemmas and uncertainties are transformed into agents for change as well as opportunities for professional learning and development will be examined.

CHA02007   [Paper]
Students' epistemological beliefs and approaches to learning

Kwok-wai Chan, Hong Kong Institute of Education

A survey study was conducted to examine the epistemological beliefs and study approaches of a group of Hong Kong teacher education students. Results showed that epistemological beliefs and study approaches of the students were independent of age, gender and electives. Correlation analysis, however, indicated that the students' epistemological beliefs were related to their study approaches. Beliefs in innate/fixed ability, authority/expert knowledge and certainty knowledge were positively related to surface approach, surface motive and surface strategy in learning while belief in learning effort/process was positively related to deep approach, deep motive and strategy in learning. A negative relation was also identified between belief in authority/expert knowledge and deep approach, motive and strategy. The results supported the suggestions in research literature that epistemological beliefs were related to meta-cognitive activities and implications were drawn for teaching and learning as well as future research in this area.

CHE02249   [Paper]
Those who can, do! Teacher education as an act of personal and institutional reflexivity

Brenda Cherednichenko and Tony Kruger, Victoria University of Technology

Teacher education is more popular than ever as a career and employment rates for Australian graduate teachers are increasing. The impact of globalisation, however, disturbs any tendency we have for complacency. In addition, teacher education in Australia continues to be under challenge from the inevitable disruptions created by yet another round of government reviews as well as the emergence of dynamic developments in schooling. The paper will argue against defensiveness as a strategy for teacher education in asserting its active place in higher education. It will outline a proposal for reform which locates teacher education within the reflexive relationships of student teachers and school students, their teachers and with teacher educators. Reconstructing teacher education so that its primary goal is the learning of school students will establish the school-university partnership as a powerful, institutionally reflexive actor in the proposition of new educational policy and organisational techniques. Reformed teacher education will result from the application of the theoretical understanding often derided in the good humoured dig at teacher educators, 'those who can't teach, teach teachers!' If framed by Bernstein's cautionary analysis of curriculum forms and power, theory can initiate teacher education characterised by the agency of 'those who can, do!'

CHE02356   [Paper]    ®
Lexical neologisms in Japanese

Lee Shiu Chen, Swinburne University of Technology

The practically universal promotion of internationalisation and globalisation, coupled with the technological and scientific advances of the preceding decades, has provided a fertile ground for accelerated absorption of lexical neologisms reflecting the rapid changes in the social and material cultures of the different speech communities of the world. However, despite the universality of the language change phenomenon, the type and absorption methods of lexical neologisms differ considerably between languages.

Research in language change has important pedagogical implications for language teaching in the classroom and in preparation of linguistically up to date teaching materials. It is important for students to acquire the contemporary rather than the "petrified" language variety.

This paper, set within the theoretical framework of language change research, focuses on neologisms in the Japanese language. On the basis of data derived from examination of social pages of the Asahi newspaper, vocabulary that has come into being in the past ten years is examined in the categories of native, borrowed and native/borrowed neologisms. Selected examples are included to demonstrate the environments conducive to the birth of new vocabulary and the different ways the unique script used to transcribe the sounds of the language aids in the coining of Japanese neologisms.

CHO02101   [Paper]    ®
Improving behaviour classification consistency: A technique from biological taxonomy

Serene Hyun-Jin Choi, Timo Nieminen, Mark Bahr and Nan Bahr, The University of Queensland

Quantitative behaviour analysis requires the classification of behaviour to produce the basic data. In practice, much of this work will be performed by multiple observers, and maximising inter-observer consistency is of particular importance.

Another discipline where consistency in classification is vital is biological taxonomy. A classification tool of great utility, the binary key, is designed to simplify the classification decision process and ensure consistent identification of proper categories.

We show how this same decision-making tool - the binary key - can be used to promote consistency in the classification of behaviour. The construction of a binary key also ensures that the categories in which behaviour is classified are complete and non-overlapping. We discuss the general principles of design of binary keys, and illustrate their construction and use with a practical example from education research.

CHU02018   [Paper]
Last year in, first year out: A longitudinal study of learning to teach

Rick Churchill, University of Southern Queensland and Jackie Walkington, University of Canberra

This paper presents the outcomes of the first year of a longitudinal > research study and outlines the approach to the second year of the study. The final year cohort of BEd (Primary) preservice teachers at the University of Southern Queensland responded to data collection procedures which were structured around Education Queensland's pilot of 12 "Professional Standards for Teachers". There is considerable preservice teacher interest in the area, as well as concern about the extent to which their program of preservice teacher education has prepared them for the reality of work as a beginning teacher. The paper will describe the framework for a longitudinal study of preservice/beginning teachers over a two-year period, encompassing the final year of their preservice program and the first year of employment as beginning teachers. Results from the data collected from the final year preservice period will be presented and discussed in relation to the body of literature already available, much of which reports beginning teachers' initial feelings of some dissatisfaction with their levels of practical preparation for teaching. The study has important implications for the improvement of preservice teacher education programs and for the design and implementation of induction programs for beginning teachers at both school and system levels.

CLA02237   [Paper]    ®
Researching multimodal texts: Applying a dynamic model

Susan Clancy and Tom Lowrie, Charles Sturt University

The arrival of the digital age requires new approaches to understand the literacies used in making meanings from multimodal communications and a rethinking of the ways in which research into these areas can be used to support learners in the 21st century. This presentation examines the range of literacies children have developed and used to make meanings when engaged with pop-culture multimodel texts. The study encouraged children to share their experiences about texts that are generally marginalised within the traditional school culture, but that are part of children's everyday experiences. The Pokemon phenomena was used as the focus for investigation in this particular study. A model based on the multiliteracy elements identified by Cope and Kalantzis has been developed to show the specific ways children use these elements to construct meanings across multimodal texts. This work has profound implications for educators who want to support children in their development of literacy abilities for life in contempory society.

CLA02360   [Paper]    ®
Globalisation and Mathematics Education: From above and below

Bill Atweh, Queensland University of Technology and Philip Clarkson, Australian Catholic University

The concept of globalisation stands for a variety of discourses. Although globalisation has been impacting on education, it has been rarely problemitised and researched in mathematics education. This paper presents an analysis of a discussion held with a number of mathematics educators from Brazil. It is one of a series of such conversations being held with groups of leading educators in South America, South-East Asia and Australia concerning their perceptions of the impacts of globalisation on their professional lives, and on mathematics education in their country and region. The analysis shows that these mathematics educators understand globalisation in terms of two differing discourses of economic colonialism but also in terms of the awareness of the world as one. It will be demonstrated that the different discourses will yield different moral stands one can take on the issue of globalisation. The paper argues that the constructs of the local and the global can not be posited as dichotomies if we were to understand the complexity of identity formations in late modernity. Lastly, this paper discusses new narratives on the role of the Internet in the globalisation of mathematics education.

CLA02481   [Paper]
Internship learning connects the dots: The theory and practice of reflection

Anne Power, M Clarke, and Alison Hine, University of Western Sydney

In a series of papers Clarke, Hine and Power (Hine, Clarke & Power, 2000; Clarke, Power & Hine, 2001; Power, Clarke & Hine, 2002) have investigated how reflection on practice can contribute to professional learning. The University of Western Sydney Bachelor of Education Primary fourth year Internship Program has been the focus of these studies.

This paper continues this journey and investigates how Van Manen's (1977) levels of reflection can be developed by student teachers to frame their understanding of their reflection and assist them in their professional learning. Additional focus group meetings with colleague teachers (classroom teachers) and associate teachers (student teachers) and the introduction of a reflective journal have been added to the repertoire of strategies used in the internship program to support the development and sustaining value of reflection on teaching practice. This study will critically examine these innovations and review their effectiveness in supporting reflective practice.

COL02545   [Paper]
Giving learners a 'Fair Go': Storypath, pedagogy and equality in South West Sydney

Bronwyn Cole, University of Western Sydney, Sonja Apostolovski, Ashcroft Primary School and Kerrie Foord, Cartwright Primary School

This paper reports on research that is exploring links between the Storypath strategy for teaching and learning in the area of Human Society and Its Environment (HSIE or SOSE) and pedagogies that enhance the learning outcomes of primary school students in low socio-economic, culturally diverse, south west Sydney. Key features of the Storypath strategy are the use of story structure to organise learning and student participation in the story to facilitate learning. This paper describes the co-researching methodology of the university and classroom-based researchers implementing the Storypath strategy to give the students a "fair go" in understanding concepts, often perceived as disorganised and distant in the traditional HSIE curriculum. It presents data and findings in relation to children's understandings, development of citizenship skills and their engagement with the learning context. The research is an integral component of the broader Fair Go Fair Share Fair Say Fair Content Project (Fair Go Project), a partnership project between the NSW Priority Schools Funding Program and the School of Education and Early Childhood Studies, University of Western Sydney.

CON02196   [Paper]    ®  Part of Symposium 7
Whiteness processes enigma or reality in disguise. Narratives from the field of difference: White women teachers in Indigenous schools

Jan Connelly, Queensland University of Technology

In the first instance this paper reviews the debates on whiteness and whiteness processes. On the one hand it views the writings of whiteness proponents, and on the other hand it reflects the views of whiteness critics. Both debate the issues that problematise the use of whiteness as an investigative lens through which issues of multicultural education and equity in education can be viewed. Secondly the paper briefly reports on the interpretation of whiteness perspectives in educational research carried out in schools internationally. Lastly the paper offers extracts from research into whiteness processes enacted in an Australian context - an Indigenous school and its community, and presents the reflections of a white female teacher as she navigates her first teaching years inside this context.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 7, SHO02195 Investigating whiteness.

CON02273   [Paper]
From the campus to the chalkface

Lorraine Connell, Northern Territory University

I had been away from the primary school classroom for thirteen years teaching in a pre-service teacher education course and becoming increasingly aware that classroom I was teaching about had changed. However it wasn't only the classroom that had changed, I had too. Postgraduate study had introduced me to new knowledge and values and my own life experiences had influenced my assumptions and values as a person and as a teacher. It was time to return to the classroom to not only affirm my assumptions and values about the teacher I thought I was, but also to put some of my new knowledge into practice. By returning to the classroom I would also attempt to extend the 4 walls to incorporate my assumptions, values and knowledge in practice.

Was I really the teacher I thought I was, was it possible to use the Theory of Multiple Intelligences as a teaching strategy, could I use computers as a teaching and learning tool and how could I use parents as partners in the teaching and learning experience. All of these questions and more would hopefully be answered by returning to the primary school classroom. I returned to the primary school classroom in January of 2000 at a local primary school and spent the next six months with a group of year 1/2/3 children. My research includes my journal of the journey as well as a video of teaching and learning experiences.

CON02274   [Paper]
The Arts on-line

Lorraine Connell, Northern Territory University

In 1996 I developed an on-line unit entitled Dance on-line. I determined that if I could involve students in learning dance on-line then anything was possible. Since this time I have experimented with web based units that have involved on-line discussion groups, web resources and the emailing of assessment tasks. I am now involved in using blackboard.com to prepare on-line units for internal and external students as well as using the blackboard format as a template for print based external materials.

This year I have trailed the Arts in Education, a compulsory unit in the pre-service teacher education course. I have expanded the use of on-line resources to include videos and photographs to compliment internal and external learning experiences and have plans to expand this further by providing exemplars of assessment tasks.

The process while time consuming should provide a unit that is seamless for all students as well as more efficient for staff involved in rewriting new internal and external units. It can also provide our future primary school teachers with the experience of teaching and learning through ICT with an opportunity to explore the possibilities of using a program to store units of work and resources, inform parents of teaching and learning experiences and share programs and ideas with colleagues.

CON02630   [Paper]
An integrated approach to competency based assessment

Justin Connally and Patrick Griffin, University of Melbourne and Ken Jorgensen, Department of Defence

This paper presents the application of a multi source measurement approach to the assessment of higher order competencies in the public service industry. The aim of the paper was to develop and validate a strategy to synthesise multiple sources of evidence to inform holistic judgements of workplace competence. The methodology adopted integrates developments in two fields of study, performance appraisals and psychometrics. The method encapsulates features of a 360-degree feedback model that is widely used in performance appraisals, in which ratings are obtained from a supervisor, peers, subordinates and clients. The present paper expands the traditional observation basis of this methodology by allowing for the inclusion of other forms of evidence, such as a portfolio or interview. Item response modelling techniques allow for the identification of the competence of the candidate and the difficulty of the assessment task or method encountered. They can also identify and control for the influence of the source of evidence (e.g. supervisor, peer or subordinate ratings) on estimates of competence.

COU02272   [Paper]
Fostering educational judgment in teacher action research groups

David Coulter, The University of British Columbia

The difficulty of connecting the knowledge generated by educational researchers and the practice of classroom teachers is familiar. Academics write about the importance of research for understanding and improving classroom practices; classroom teachers dismiss the academics' research knowledge as a poor substitute for actual experience. Here I argue for moving from debates between spectators and actors about knowledge and practice to discussions about how all educators can foster good judgment. After outlining the two major accounts of judgment in Western thought, ristotle's and Kant's--each of which ultimately privileges the spectator over the actor--I introduce the work of Hannah Arendt (1909-1975) who linked thinking and acting via dialogue and imagination. I use my interpretation of Arendtian judgment as a lens to understand the experience of working with groups of teacher action researchers in three Canadian school districts over three years as they studied various aspects of their own practices. I argue that participating in such groups can help foster educational judgment and that focusing on how teachers and researchers might become better educational judges is a crucial, yet neglected, agenda that promises to link these communities.

CRA02433   [Paper]    ®
Forgotten leaders? The role and workload of deputy principals in Queensland government secondary schools

Neil Cranston, Queensland University of Technology

Historically, the deputy principalship in secondary schools has been an under-researched area, despite the significant and on-going changes impacting on schools in recent years. There is no information, certainly for Queensland government schools, about what deputy principals do in terms of their roles and workload nor the underpinning skills and competencies required to undertake these. This paper reports on the findings of a project commissioned by the Queensland Secondary Principals' Association to address this information void. The research, undertaken in December 2001, comprised a literature review and a questionnaire distributed to the deputy principal membership of the association.

Included among a range of significant findings from the study is that despite long work-hours, high pressure and significant changes and an expanding diversity in their roles in recent times, the vast majority of deputy principals are satisfied with their role. Deputy principals also reported differences between the activities in what they saw as a typical week for them and what they envisaged as an ideal week eg. they would like to be more involved in strategic and curriculum leadership and less involved in student and staff issues, and management and administrative matters. The key skills required in the role were seen to be strong interpersonal/people skills, inspiring and visioning change, delegation and empowerment and being a good manager.

CRI02222   [Paper]
What is the role of practical activities in primary science teaching?

John Cripps Clark, Deakin University

Practical activities are widely used in science teaching, yet they are expensive both in time, teacher skills and resources. Why are they used? Many purposes have been posited but it is often difficult to observe practical activities achieving these outcomes. Although practical activities can be, and are, successfully used for motivation, enjoyment and learning practical skills, their role in conceptual learning is, at best, problematic.

This paper reports on a detailed analysis of four primary school classrooms using videotape and interviews. The teachers were all experienced and effective teachers of science and a unit of work (covering term) was observed.

I will discuss:

• the different ways in which each of the teachers used practical activities as part of their lessons:
• the way practical activities affected: functional understanding of information, concepts and principles; process skills; appreciation of the elements of scientific method; and scientific attitudes;
• how these purposes supported and undermined each other;
• the special role of discussion;
• how science teaching is embedded within the culture of primary schools; and
• what are the characteristics of classroom practise that effectively use practical activities to support students' learning.

CRN02420   [Paper]   Part of Symposium 22
Investigating the Mozart effect

Rudi Crncec, Macarthur Auditory Research Centre

Much interest has been aroused among educators by the proposition that playing classical music in classrooms increases learning, This paper reports research into the 'Mozart effect'.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 22, SCO02417 Teachers' work and lives.

CRO02022   [Paper]
New learning and pedagogies: Focussing on recognizing differences to achieve positive outcomes in numeracy for Indigenous students

Rebecca Cronin and Nicola Yelland, RMIT University, and Chris Sarra, Cherbourg State School. Qld

It has long been recognised that Indigenous students are the most disadvantaged group in Australia's education system (e.g. Ritchie and Edwards, 1996). Research has shown that funding (e.g. ABSTUDY) from Federal government initiatives, has not had significant impact on improving outcomes for Indigenous children's education (Gibson, 1998). Research carried out by DETYA (2000) also identified areas of concern, and it is obvious that more needs to be done to improve the educational opportunities for Indigenous students so that they can succeed at school. In this paper we highlight dimensions of teaching and learning with Indigenous students and interrogate ways in which more positive educational outcomes may be achieved. Burnett (1999) postulated that the race of a society or population is "deeply rooted in the material practices and structural relations of power which define meanings and social values"(Burnett, 1999, p. 50). In Australia, since colonization, the Anglo-Australian race has dominated and political policies have enabled this domination to be privileged. This paper will also consider the ways in which teachers can take into consideration the 'material practices and structural relations' for Indigenous students in their classrooms and examine the relevance of this is to improving their educational outcomes. Research has shown that teachers are often preoccupied with planning and pedagogy and fail to consider the real life experiences of Indigenous students, which detrimentally affects their educational outcomes. This paper will examine this and suggest ways in which we recognize difference and incorporate it into a productive pedagogies model.

CRO02522   [Paper]    ®
Teacher commitment and engagement: The dimensions of ideology and practice associated with teacher commitment and engagement within an Australian perspective

Bob Elliott and Leanne Crosswell, Queensland University Technology

Teacher commitment and engagement has been identified as one of the most critical factors in the success and future of education (Huberman, 1997, Nais, 1981). It contributes to teachers' work performance, absenteeism, burnout and turnover, as well as having an important influence on students' achievement in, and attitudes toward school (Firestone, 1996; Graham, 1996; Louis, 1998; Tsui & Cheng, 1999). This paper will investigate the traditional view of teacher commitment as it refers to external referents and propose that the personal value systems of the teachers are more significant than currently recognised by the literature.

This paper will report on an investigation into teacher commitment and engagement in Australia. The analysis indicates that commitment is best conceived in terms of two dimensions- an ideological dimension and a practice dimension. The significant point about these two dimensions is that while the particular characteristics of the ideological dimension are modified across the career span (in response to personal and professional experiences) levels of commitment to particular practices vary (cf. Fraser, Draper & Taylor, 1998; Huberman, 1993). It appears that one of the critical contextual factors that influence this commitment to practice is the extent to which leadership (both at the school and system level) is perceived to understand the teachers' ideological commitment and to express change directions in terms of these. The findings have particular significance for leadership in terms of future change directions.

CUF02169   [Paper]    ®
Law student's experiences of information and information technology - implications for legal information literacy curriculum development

Natalie Cuffe, Queensland University of Technology

Information literacy is well established as an important educational outcome for university graduates of all disciplines, both by universities and employers. The 1997 Goldsworthy Report The Global Information Economy: The Way Ahead, recommended that "all tertiary graduates should be information and communication technology literate in their chosen fields of study by the year 2000" (Goldsworthy, 1997:79). This is being taken up by universities in their statements about graduate attributes which invariably refer to lifelong learning capabilities, information literacy or both. The significance of incorporating legal research skills training in law curriculum has been acknowledged since the 1987 Pearce Report. Despite the growing emphasis on information skills training, research into this area of legal education in Australia has been scant. The aim of the research described in this paper was to examine the extent of law students' use of and their success rates with information and information technology, and their views on the place of information literacy education. The results of the research present a picture of law students present experiences with information and information technology of interest to legal educators in reviewing legal curriculum to foster information literacy and lifelong learning and proposes a curriculum model that inculcates these educational imperatives.

CUL02307   [Paper]
Children's minds and educational policy.

Cedric Cullingford, University of Huddersfield

This paper draws on the accumulation of research into the thinking patterns of pupils, using mainly ethnographic methods. It starts by looking at the inner worlds of young children and the way in which they see the world. The main themes explored are the nature of their intelligent gaze, their vulnerabilites and their resilience, their relationships and the way in which they construct their understanding.

In the light of this questions are asked about their particular fears and sense of truama and compared to their actual experience of school. Many of the policies that cause schools to act in particular ways, like examinations and competition, are difficult to reconcile with pupils' expectations; perhaps this is deliberate. Whilst the U.K might be an extreme case we see similar extensions of policy world wide, particularly in the more industialized world.

We then explore what a representative example of pupils conclude about their years in school, including those going on to University and those leaving as soon as possible. The findings show consistent views about the nature and purpose of school, the curriculum, teachers and peer groups and what they feel they have learned. All this evidence is then related to current educational policies.

CUR02320   [Paper]
Why risk it? Exploring responsible gambling in the school setting

Pamela Curtin and Claire Smith, Queensland Treasury

Problem gambling is becoming increasingly apparent among young people. In order to address this issue and provide preventative measures, the Queensland Treasury Gambling Policy Directorate, in conjunction with the Queensland Studies Authority, has developed responsible gambling curriculum modules and resources for secondary students of Health and Physical Education and primary students of Studies of Society and the Environment. This paper explores the literature surrounding youth gambling and the bureaucratic processes involved in developing and implementing responsible gambling curriculum in the school setting. It also discusses the evaluation of the modules through a state-wide action research project with teachers. Drawing on the narratives and multiple perspectives of two Queensland Treasury project/policy officers, both former teachers, this paper presents a critical post-structrual analysis of spatial, contextual influences and the juxtapositions of theory, policy and practice in relation to risk, responsible gambling education and the younger generation.

CUR02536   [Paper]   Part of Discussions Panel 34
Media, research and the rights of the child

Pamela Curtin and Jenny Nayler, Education Consultants

Article 13 of the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child states that young people have the right to participate in all forms of media. This paper explores what this might mean for research and for futures where young people are becoming increasingly visually and digitally literate.

In the 90s, Green and Bigum (1993) proposed the notion of 'aliens in the classroom' and Smith and Curtin (1997) claimed children of a hi-tech society are constructed differently, engaging with multiple forms of reality distinct from those of previous generations. Where does this then place the young person of the reality TV moment? And how does research incorporate their views of the world?

Various youth participation media research projects of local and global dimensions are presented with the underlying questions? How do young people inform education research today using media, and does the academy hear and act on what young people may be trying to say?

This paper will be presented as part of Discussions Panel 34, NEW02534 Moving from research "on" or "about" to research "with" or "by" ...: Exploring the roles of young people in educational research.

D

DAL02339   [Paper]
The influence of phonological processing and inattentive behaviour on early reading

Kerry Dally, University of Newcastle

Reading research has confirmed that phonological processing has a pre-eminent role in facilitating reading success, while a separate body of research into reading difficulties has shown that poor behavioural adjustment has a close association with reading failure. This paper reports the findings from a longitudinal study in which both phonological processing and inattentive behaviour are hypothesized to have a causal influence on the attainment of early reading skills.

Data from individually administered measures of phonological processing, word-level reading and reading comprehension, as well as teacher and parent ratings of children's behaviour were collected from a cohort of 166 children at 12 month intervals, in kindergarten, first and second grade. The results from multiple regression analyses suggested that teacher-rated inattentiveness and some phonological abilities had a significant influence on subsequent reading. There was also evidence of reciprocal relationships between prior reading and subsequent inattentiveness and phonological awareness. The existence of bi-directional influences and the finding that inattentive behaviour had a significant influence on early reading outcomes over and above phonological processing ability, have important implications for reading instruction as well as for devising appropriate preventative or remedial interventions.

DAR02075   [Paper]
Piecing together the curriculum puzzle: Learning through drama education

Rachel Darell, University of Technology, Sydney

Current research in primary school drama education provides a complex and challenging stage for playing out current theoretical debates in both education and within the specific field of drama. This paper discusses some of these controversies, in particular, the view that education has a modernist agenda, and the conflict this causes in what many see as a post-modern age. Also of interest is how these philosophies play out in the field of drama education.

The focus of the paper will be on the issues faced when attempting to position education research in drama in relation to current learning theory. It will consider how these generic issues are reflected within the journey taken by this researcher when defining and delimiting her research question.

DAV02054   [Paper]
Personal and political: Feminisms, sociology and generations of family lives in the knowledge economy

Miriam David, University of Keele

This paper explores changing feminist research agendas in the context of political transformations over the last thirty years. I consider three phases of liberalism for emergent feminist research agendas, ranging social liberalism, and movements for sexual equality, through economic liberalism, characterised by consumer choice, to neo-liberalism and transformations to critical feminist research ethnographies. Drawing on my own personal biography I review shifting agendas towards more personal, biographic, narrative accounts. I also consider the changes in generations of feminists in involvement in the academy and their perspectives on agendas that are increasingly about subjecting to critical and ethnographic gaze women's changing educational and work lives as personal, public rather than private matters. Studies of generations of women and young people will also feature, attempting to understand women's diverse, classed, racialised lives, and how they are theorised within the context of educational transformations and moves towards a knowledge economy. What does this mean for higher education, particularly postgraduate professional doctoral education, and the lives of women as researchers and students within the new knowledge economy? To what extent have feminist research agendas been transformed and the political become personal, whereas thirty years ago a feminist agenda was framed by the personal as political?

DAV02293   [Paper] Paper 1 of Symposium 13
Introduction. Body knowledge and control

Brian Davies, University of Wales and John Evans, Loughborough University

This session will introduce the theme of the symposium and outline both an agenda for research and a way of looking sociologically at the relations between education, body knowledge, identity and health. Drawing on earlier work,the sociological perspective offered will be strongly Bernsteinian but also point to the merits of social theory more broadly when studying the relationships between the practices of schooling (the curriculum, pedagogy and organisation, etc) and the social production of 'the body', health and identity. The paper will highlight the merits of post-structural concepts and methodologies while leaving the detail of a post structural methodology to Jan Wright's paper, WRI02294.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 13, EVA02292 Body knowledge and control.

DAW02496   [Paper]
Critical literacy at the crossroads

Zoe Dawson, University of Wollongong

Although 'critical literacy' has apparently been a part of the teaching of reading practices of Australian teachers for some time (Luke 2000), there has also been a growing awareness that there is currently a great deal of confusion as to what actually this approach is in respect to both theory and practice (Lankshear 1994, Luke 2000, Comber 2001). This paper argues that rather than being in a state of confusion, or a 'chameleon' (Healy and Knoble 1998), many Australian teachers may be simply unaware of its very existence as a teaching approach.

This total lack of understanding became apparent when, in seeking to find teachers who used this approach in their classrooms in one area of New South Wales, only one teacher could be found who was currently implementing this reading practice. This paper is a 'school story' (Van Manen 1991) of this teacher's ideological approach to developing 'critical literacy' with her class and details the stages, processes and 'critical thinking' practices she implements.

DIE02375   [Paper]    ®
A theoretical framework for multimedia resources: A case from science education

Carmel Diezmann and James Watters, Queensland University of Technology

The availability and purported strengths of information and communication technology has increased the applications of multimedia resources in higher education. Introduction of multimedia resources into courses brings with it problems from a number of perspectives. What constitutes good quality resource material? Is it effective as a learning tool? How credible is the content in terms of professional requirements? These are important questions that teacher educators confront in enabling them to discern good quality material and to contribute to the development of further resources. Our premise is that these questions need to be answered by a consideration of research into the efficacy of multimedia teaching resources. Considerable research has been conducted over the last decade, which has identified certain principles of effective learning. These principles are important to consider in the development of multimedia resources. In this paper we report on the production of a multimedia resource involving CDROMs, Videos and a Website to support the learning of science teaching by primary preservice teachers. The development of these resources was informed by a generative theory of multimedia learning. We describe the features of the multimedia resources that were produced and how these resources were tested for effectiveness as learning tools and as authentic representations of professional practice.

DIN02240   [Paper]
Awards for Teaching Excellence: Intentions and realities

Steve Dinham and Catherine Scott, University of New England.

Two samples of recipients of teaching awards were surveyed in 2002. The first group comprised educators from early childhood, primary, secondary, TAFE and universities who had received inaugural NSW Minister for Education and Training and Australian College of Educators Quality Teaching Awards in 2001. The second sample comprised educators from the USA who had received a variety of awards for exemplary teaching, ranging from local to national.

Both samples were asked to respond to a series of open-ended questions exploring the personal and professional consequences of receiving a teaching award, views on the selection process and criteria employed, and how others had reacted to their award. Opinions of awards for teaching generally were also canvassed.

The parallel studies revealed both intended and unintended outcomes arising from receipt of an award for exemplary or outstanding teaching practice. Implications of the findings are explored.

DIX02053   [Paper]    ®
The introduction, scope and implementation of enterprise and vocational education in a school district.

Kathryn Dixon and Lina Pelliccione, Curtin University of Technology

In 2001, Western Australia commenced implementation of the nationally agreed New Framework for Vocational Education (MCYEETA, 2001). The New Framework recognises that students need generic vocational and enterprise skills as well as industry-specific skills. These elements are captured in three major threads that run throughout school-based Vocational Education which are: VET in schools, Enterprise Education and student support for Career Education. In response to the New Framework for Vocational Education, the Western Australian Department of Education has developed a strategic plan for implementation. 2001 was the first year of the take-up of that plan with nine districts supporting Enterprise and Vocational Education (EVE) by employing coordinators to support the schools to develop programs. This paper investigates the implementation of EVE in one Western Australian metropolitan school district through an examination of the introduction and scope of approaches across nine schools. The research documents methods of enhancing all learning areas through embedding elements of EVE across the curriculum and also discusses implications for higher education and faculties of education in particular with regard to pre-service teacher training in Vocational Education in general.

DIX02119   [Paper]    ®
Professional leadership portfolios: An evaluation of the implementation of professional leadership portfolios in a Western Australian district

Robert Dixon and Kathryn Dixon, Curtin University of Technology

In April 2002, the Swan Education District in Perth, Western Australia, implemented the professional portfolio for principals to a group of voluntary participants. The portfolio focused on the educational leader demonstrating and articulating a school's vision, shaping its culture and facilitating organizational change through a collection of measurable, valid and reliable artefacts linked to a competency framework. This evaluation seeks to understand and elaborate upon what principals consider as the most useful style, content and presentation of the professional portfolio through their experiences in creating one. It will verify and validate the process of using the portfolio, clarify goals and objectives outlined in the initial plan and determine the most efficient method(s) for using the portfolio as a tool for summative and formative, holistic and analytical assessment of performance within a competency based framework. The study will combine a goal-based evaluation; the extent to which the portfolio meets predetermined goals or objectives, with process-based evaluation, how the portfolio works, its strengths and weaknesses.

DOC02072   [Paper]    ®   Part of Symposium 27
Beliefs and expectations of parents, prior-to-school educators and school teachers as children start school

Sue Dockett and Bob Perry, University of Western Sydney

This paper extends the previously reported results of the Starting School Research Project about what various stakeholders see as important in children's transition to school by considering responses from parents, prior-to-school educators and school teachers to 20 statements summarising beliefs and expectations about children starting school. Responses from 149 parents of children who have just started or are about to start school, 102 school teachers and 33 prior-to-school educators are analysed to ascertain differences and similarities among the groups. Results are discussed in terms of key issues raised by the respondents, including readiness for school, age of children starting school, similarities between school and prior-to-school settings, gender, cultural diversity and retention in the first year of school. Some suggestions are made for the educational significance of these as all parties strive to make children's transitions to school as smooth as possible.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 27, MAR02464 Beliefs and backgrounds and starting school.

DOE02121   [Paper]
Forming a professional identity: The preservice experience

Brenton Doecke and Lucinda McKnight, Monash University

The professional development of student teachers during their teaching rounds is shaped significantly by their relationships with their supervising teachers. This paper will explore the way student teachers are inducted into English teaching by examining their professional dialogue with their supervising teachers during teaching rounds. The paper has a pragmatic focus on how to improve supervisory practices. However, the primary concern will be to trace the formation of student teachers' professional identities, as they negotiate their way between various demands made on them by their supervising teachers and the university during the practicum. This latter focus involves investigating the way student teachers' disciplinary knowledge as English graduates provides a foundation for their professional growth. The paper draws on interviews conducted with a small group of student teachers and supervising teachers in the course of the year.

DOO02126   [Paper]
Digital reading pedagogy for novice readers

Karen Dooley and Annah Healy, Queensland University of Technology

In this paper we report on a study of pedagogic practices surrounding novice readers of digital texts in four early childhood classrooms in Queensland, Australia. Until recently, digital literacies have been generally resisted, dismissed or overlooked in early reading agendas by early childhood teachers. However, there is now considerable pressure on Australian teachers to plan within a multiliteracies framework and to include digital texts into their classroom programs. In Queensland, for example, 'New Basics' reforms of public education hold teachers accountable in this regard, especially as the tasks relating to new basics include multiple text forms and modes of delivery. In this context, it is concerning that recent Australian research has found a surprisingly low level of understanding of digital literacies, and confidence in teaching these, on the part of both practising teachers and new graduates. The aim of this paper is to inform professional development in this field by describing and explaining the digital reading pedagogies that some teachers are creating.

DYS02138   [Paper]    ®
An alternative to the traditional educational program for year nine students: A new issue to research in an unchanging system

Michael Dyson and Len Cairns, Monash University.

A remote school located in the Victorian Alps has been established as "a centre for student leadership". Notable amongst the unique features is the fact that the school provides only for Year 9 students over a one term live-in program where a mixed group of students undertake an experientially- based curriculum designed to stimulate leadership ideas and ideals to support an enhanced self-concept. The project research team operating out of Monash University, Gippsland, has gathered data which supports the school and staff in monitoring and evaluating the progress of the programs offered and as a means to assist the school in meeting its accountability obligations. This initiative is placing University staff at the coalface. The students have taught themselves, taught each other and have been assisted in their learning through the one to one intervention of the staff rather than through direct teaching. This study breaks the norms of traditional education from many viewpoints. Year nine students are often difficult to inspire or enthuse yet these students are thriving in this environment. "The best time in my life" is a frequent comment from students at the end of this experience.

E

EAR02400   [Paper]
Science education reform and the impact on the school environment in transitional societies

Jaya Earnest and David Treagust, Curtin University of Technology

This paper discusses science education reform in two transitional societies. The research used an interpretive case study methodology with quantitative and qualitative data to examine how teachers' knowledge, perceptions and experiences impact on the school-learning environment. The societies in transition are Rwanda and Kosovo adversely affected by major social, political, economic, and ethnic upheaval. Rwanda and Kosovo have adopted the following goals - implementation of a durable educational policy, eradication of illiteracy, and capacity building in science and technology. The study made use of questionnaires, interviews, photographs, classroom observations, narratives, personal reflexivity, and historical document analysis. Document analysis indicated that there is a need for greater access to secondary education. Interviews and science lesson observations indicate that it is necessary to develop a curriculum that is contextually relevant and redefine science teacher training programmes. Findings indicated that the school-learning environment will improve through gradual evolutionary reform and requires co-ordination among all stakeholders in the education reform process: the teachers, the curriculum developers, the examination board and the governing structures.

EDW02288   [Paper]
Question: Who was the rich, cool dude who came out on the First Fleet with his two greyhounds? Answer: You don't mean Joseph Banks do you?

Julie Edwards and Jill Flack, Monash University

To date, there has been very little serious and substantial research on the development of historical consciousness in children in schools within Australia. In an attempt to redress this imbalance, the authors are currently undertaking research into The Development of Historical Consciousness in Late Primary and Junior Secondary School Students. The study is similar to work conducted in Europe and the United States where, within the past decade, there have been two major trans-national (Europe) and national (USA) surveys of an area that has, in recent years become of major interest to politicians, media commentators and educators. Data in our study was collected from students (year 6 andyear 9) in inner urban, suburban and rural schools in Victoria. Using their voices, the study provides an insight into the early emerging patterns of student views of history and its importance and relevance to their lives. The researchers would have expected that year 9 students, because of age and experience, to have broader and more in depth understandings of historical concepts than year 6 students and that their levels of explanation would have encompassed more sophisticated, hierarchical levels of thinking about history. This assumption has not been born out by the data collected to date which has implications regarding appropriate pedagogies.

EDW02289   [Paper]
'It must be a two-way street': Understanding the process of internationalising the curriculum in Australian schools

Julie Edwards and Libby Tudball, Monash University

While the idea of internationalisation has a long history in higher education, it is a relatively new phenomenon in the Australian secondary schools sector. Most teachers and schools are developing their views on what internationalisation might mean and the implications it has for restructuring the curriculum, pedagogy and organisational practices. A systematic analysis of the trends and evolving practices of international education in secondary schools is clearly of value to all stakeholders. This paper presents the findings of a research project investigating teachers and schools at various stages in their development of internationalisation. It discusses how they are defining internationalisation; explores the issues at the forefront of school communities, and the opportunities they see in the future, with particular focus on how schools are internationalising the curriculum. The issues are discussed from the point of view of school leaders, teachers and students. It analyses why the challenges can be similar and different, depending on the context of each school. Recommendations are made to inform future policies and practices drawing on their experiences.

EDW02382   [Paper]
Postgraduate s upervision: Is having a Ph.D. enough?

Brian Edwards, Deakin University Student Association

Over the last six months in the UK mandatory training of postgraduate supervisors has grown significantly. Driven partly by quality assurance concerns and the threat of litigation, universities have increasingly required their supervisors to undergo a variety of training schemes ranging from award courses over a year to weekend residential courses. In Australia too, a number of Universities have developed courses and interactive web sites specifically focussed on improving supervisory practices. While such developments are admirable for their efforts to improve postgraduate supervision, they are at the mercy of being transformed into top-down, bureaucratic schemes to satisfy spurious quality assurance and accountability checklists. This paper will seek to outline a means of improving postgraduate supervision which has a focus on empowering supervisors to generate their own definitions of good postgraduate supervision.

ELO02038   [Paper]
Epistemological and methodological issues in a transatlantic research project in inclusive education

Irma Eloff, University of Pretoria,
P Engelbrecht and M Oswald, University of Stellenbosch,
E Kozleski, University of Colorado,
E Swart, RAU and
N Yssel, Ball State University

Inclusive education is affecting educational systems worldwide. This global trend has necessitated broader collaboration and a need to expand our understanding of what it means to have authentic inclusive learning environments. One of the least explored aspects in inclusive education relates to the parents of the children who are being included. In this paper we wish to share some of the epistemological and methodological issues that we have encountered in a research project that is exploring the perceptions and experiences of parents and caregivers who are involved in inclusive education in South Africa and the USA. From the onset the different contexts in which the research was to be undertaken raised the question for culturally sensitive social analysis. The multiplicity of perspectives was recognized early on and was evidenced in the frequency of electronic correspondence between the researchers on epistemological and methodological questions in both the pilot and the main study. In this study we opted for an emergent research design in which we cannot afford to neglect the transformations that take place in the research discourse. This paper will explore some of these transformations and plot the causal sequences that resulted from these discourses.

ELO02046   [Paper]
Representational and conceptual complexities in doing research on how children with HIV/AIDS cope

Irma Eloff and L Ebersohn, University of Pretoria

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is not only changing the world, it is changing the way in which we do research in and about the world we live in. This pandemic is challenging the ways in which we think about the world. In this paper we will discuss the ways in which this pandemic has influenced our research on children coping with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. HIV/AIDS defies linear intentionality in a research design and it provides no point from which it is possible to view the research process comprehensively. Still, in this paper we attempt to signify particular tensions that have been part of our research process. They are tensions between 1) methods and theories, 2) developed and developing contexts, 3) crisis of representation and lived experience, 4) participation and observation, 5) moving from field to texts, and 6) authoring and de-authoring the processes of knowledge production. This research process has considerable challenges, but the benefits include new ways of understanding the representational and conceptual complexities involved in an inquiry process that focuses on a pandemic that defies our existing paradigmatic perspectives.

ELE02336   [Paper]
The impact of volunteering experience on citizenship qualities in adolescent students

Diann Eley, Loughborough University

Studies have demonstrated the personal benefits gained by young people through volunteering (Pancer and Pratt, 1999) that include an increase in confidence, personal development and pro-social identity. Volunteering is also central to teaching citizenship, developing leadership qualities in students and helps promote trust and cohesion within communities.

This research investigated students' reflections on the impact of their volunteer experience over time and how it related to their sense of citizenship and concern for their schools and communities.

Motivations for volunteering (Volunteer Functions Inventory, Clary et al., 1998), levels of leadership skills (Leadership Skills Inventory, Karnes & Chauvin, 2000) and demographics were assessed in 326 students who committed up to 200 hours to volunteering in their communities. Reflections on their experience were assessed over time in terms of their attractions to and reasons for volunteering and their views on citizenship and life values. Longitudinal analysis of the impact of their volunteering experience showed genuine shifts in these variables over a nine-month period. A psychosocial profile of student volunteers is offered and results are discussed regarding strategies to attract adolescents to volunteer work as well as nurture and sustain this pro-social behaviour into adulthood.

EMM02090   [Paper]    ®
Towards a model of collaboration and empowerment in middle years literacy research

Marie Emmitt and Sarah Culican, Deakin University

Government-funded research in education carried out by universities can raise a number of issues regarding research methodologies and ethics. Underlying these issues are deeper tensions emerging from incongruent ideologies, even conflicts of interest, regarding the role and identity of academic research within the context of the corporate marketplace. With the pressure on Faculties of Education to be entrepreneurial in competitive tendering for research projects, issues related to ethics and ownership can get lost amidst the unrealistic timelines and inadequate budgets that characterise many short-term educational research contracts.

This paper will discuss these issues in relation to the Middle Years Literacy Research Project carried out by Deakin University. This Project was part of the Commonwealth-funded Successful Interventions research involving the three education sectors in Victoria. As well as enacting sound principles and ethics in educational research, our aim in the Project was to maximise involvement and ownership of the research by participating case study schools. This was a challenge, given the constraints of the Project brief and the ongoing control of the tendering group.

This presentation will highlight the particular design of this study and ways the research team addressed issues of ethics, ownership and autonomy in school-based educational research.

EMM02264   [Paper]
The Victorian Institute of Teaching

Geoff Emmett, Victorian Institute of Teaching

This paper traces the brief history of the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) and the challenges it faces in addressing the uncertainties in the teaching profession. It considers the genesis of the Institute including the role of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on the Victorian Institute of Teaching, the compromises in shepherding the Bill through the Victorian Parliament, the high and competing expectations key organisations and agencies have for the VIT and key issues that have been resolved or remain problematic.

The relationship between standards of professional practice and conduct, a professional learning framework and professional development for teachers is canvassed in the context of a period between 1992 and 1999 of a market driven approach to school education and the teaching profession in Victoria. This approach was dominated by high levels of devolution of school governance, low levels of collaboration and co-operation, corporate models of school leadership and professional development and low levels of support for the teaching profession. An alternative approach is proposed which engages the profession in defining standards of practice and conduct and supports continuous improvement in the quality of teaching and learning.

Finally the challenges that confront the VIT in developing and implementing professional standards of practice and conduct that engage the profession and embrace a professional learning framework and professional development that is reflective and supports continuous improvement are raised.

EVA02510   [Paper]
Academics' experiences of teaching of Australian 'non-local' courses in Hong Kong

Terry Evans and Karen Tregenza, Deakin University

This paper reports on some research from an ARC funded project conducted by the authors into the ways in which Australian universities establish collaborations with partners in Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea to offer courses in those countries. The research used principally qualitative methods (interviews, observations, document collection and analysis) to develop case-studies of a range of partnerships in Hong Kong. The project commenced in 1999 and is in its final stages. The paper discusses the experiences of staff who developed, administered and taught courses offered in Hong Kong by Australian institutions in partnership with a local provider. It presents and discusses findings on their reasons for working 'off-shore' in Hong Kong, their engagement with local staff and students, and their experience of Hong Kong students' coping with Australian curricula, pedagogies and assessment.

EXL02213   [Paper]    ®
Negotiating culture: Preparing adult learners for cross-cultural pedagogy

Beryl Exley, Queensland University of Technology

In a global knowledge society where English language, science and technological knowledge are all seen as increasingly important for economic development, issues of cultural and local identities seem to have become significant. As Castells argues the late 20th century witnessed the emergence of a politics of identity based on national, regional and local identifications. This paper examines the accounts of teachers working across national boundaries in the Australian education export industry. Specifically it examines how teachers working offshore in Indonesia talk about preparing their Indonesian learners for vocational and university studies with Australian educational providers. In doing so, this article draws on interview data from a group of eighteen offshore educators who teach Indonesian adult learners completing studies at one of five Australian owned educational institutions in Central Java, Indonesia. According to the teachers' talk there are culturally inscribed differences between the Indonesian learners' 'typical' learning style and the learning styles these learners will need to take up as they prepare for their Australian based studies. This article centres on the teachers' talk about strategies they employ in their teaching that enable them to 'challenge' the culturally inscribed learning styles of their learners. This paper utilises Bourdieu's concepts of primary and secondary pedagogic work and Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse and classification and framing to explore these teachers' strategies for challenging culturally inscribed learning styles.

F

FAR02362   [Paper]
Knowledge is something we do: Knowing and learning in globally networked communities

Lesley Farrell and Bernard Holkner, Monash University

This is a paper about knowledge, learning and the idea of community in what we call 'hybrid workspaces'. Hybrid workspaces 'bring together physical place and cyber place' in communication networks (Castells 2001: 131). Many people work in various kinds of hybrid workspaces. A person working on a production line might have realtime co-workers in their own town, just as a colleague might work in a hybrid workspace relying upon others who communicate asynchronously via a website to help them solve problems. Hybrid workspaces, like most workspaces, are centrally concerned with the global production and diffusion of certain kinds of routine and innovative working knowledge. In this paper we think about knowledge as social action that is generated, mediated, negotiated and traded amongst people in the politically charged dynamic of hybrid workspace communities. We consider the ways people adopt, modify and are changed by the technologies they implement in these workspaces. We are especially interested in what people have to learn to know, and to be, to operate effectively in these hybrid communities, and what role formal, informal and non formal education has to play in negotiating what counts as knowledge, and who can say so, in hybrid workspaces.

FER02251   [Paper]
The knowledge needs of doctoral supervisors

Terrie Ferman, The University of Queensland

Australian universities are experiencing an explosion in doctoral enrolments, stimulated in part by the development of professional doctorates. Such increased student cohort sizes, in combination with the reality of poor completion rates, places extra responsibilities on supervisors who need to find effective and efficient means of over-seeing the work of doctoral students. To perform this task successfully, supervisors need a range of knowledge types to inform and drive their practice. What, precisely, are the kinds of knowledge that supervisors need and how can they acquire them? This paper hypothesises that doctoral supervision requires supervisors to have both discipline knowledge and a range of pedagogical knowledge, the latter being of particular importance because supervision is, in reality, a very sophisticated form of teaching.

FIE02082   [Paper]    ®
Managing disruptive student behaviour: The involvement of law enforcement and juvenile justice in schools

Barry Fields, University of Southern Queensland

In the search for more effective ways of managing juvenile violence and youth alienation in schools and in the broader community, a closer relationship between schools and a range of government and community agencies has developed. Cooperation between schools and the police and the juvenile justice system has brought benefits, but has also created tensions and exposed differences in viewpoints about how best to manage student behaviour. The control/punishment paradigm dominates the thinking of large sections of the community, as well as politicians, many government agencies, and some educational administrators and policy makers. This viewpoint has made it difficult for promising responses to anti-social behaviour to find a place in the behaviour management strategies of schools.

FIT02120   [Paper]
Markets in education: the impact of twelve years of school choice and diversity polices in the UK

John Fitz, Stephen Gorard and Chris Taylor, Cardiff University School of Social Sciences

The 1988 Education Reform Act gave all families the right to express a preference for any school, and denied schools the right to refuse anyone entry until a standard or published admission number was reached. Thus all publicly funded schools in England and Wales are "choice schools", and all publish raw-score outcome figures termed "performance" tables Previously, local authorities assigned children to schools almost entirely on the basis of where they lived. Funding to schools now follows students per capita, making this effectively a national "voucher" scheme.

This paper presents the first synopsis of findings from over 24,000 schools over 12 years, the largest study ever undertaken to investigate the impact of school choice in publicly funded schools. The study is also the first to consider changes, over time, in the characteristics and performance of students in an entire national school system (England and Wales). The findings include, in contradiction to some smaller studies reported previously, that the socio-economic stratification of school students declined after the introduction of choice policies. A number of key explanations for these impacts have been identified and empirically explored. This paper provides a synthesis of the various mechanisms that have influenced the impact of school choice policies. As such the paper refers to empirical evidence over a twelve year period from the UK, evidence concerning the long-term impact of markets in education.

FIT02492   [Paper]    ®
Kick starting the inner site: Reading to see and feel

Phil Fitzsimmons, University of Wollongong

Although in its infancy, research into the relationship between memory and learning suggests that when challenged to do so, the first reaction of both children and adults is to draw up vivid emotional pictures and ideals of those who have deeply affected their past experiences and graphic details of these experiences (Crawford, Kippax, Onyx, Gault and Berton 1992; Asseslin 2000). In seeking to explore this process further, this paper details the findings of the 'burrowing' interviews undertaken with 20 adults in regard to the nature of the 'reading memories' of their favourite teachers. While the findings suggest their first reaction was to remember their personal traits of being compassionate (Elbaz 1992), thoughtful (Clark 1995) and passionate (Fitzsimmons and Bilbo 2000), more importantly these respondents appear to remember and value their experience due to an understanding of 'emotional distances' and 'self monitoring' (Beers, Lassiter and Flannery 1997. While it seems that this group of respondents were drawn into the reading experience because the 'emotional distances' of power, culture and relationships between themselves and their teachers were narrowed This paper suggests that these teachers unintentionally taught these respondents to become highly aware of interpersonal relationships. It would appear that teachers of reading needs to consider the emotional elements of teaching in a much more focused way to ensure engagement with the learning to be literate process specifically, and learning in general is maximised.

FLA02541   [Paper]   Part of Symposium 35
Learning in the G-rated classroom: Great expectations, Great for kids, Great to be different ... and Great for me!

Jill Flack, Monash University

Students come to school armed with values and attitudes, skills and knowledge of various kinds, which have in part been shaped by the people and experiences that make up their world. Ideally, their teachers will draw on these experiences and knowledge in ways that empower their learning. The task for teachers is demanding, complex and problematic and it is sometimes easier for them to overlook the external influences on their students in favor of developing classroom programs that are, from their perspective, safe, familiar and generic. This paper describes one teacher's attempts to develop a culture of learning in her classroom through practices that focus on making learning explicit and which encourage children to make links between their time at school and their lives outside of school. It highlights three aspects of learning: the personal (understanding of self as a learner), the metacognitive (understanding how to learn), and the social (understanding how learning works in their world). The paper draws on the voices of students, students' work, teacher reflections and classroom vignettes from the primary classrooms shared by the teacher and her students. What emerges from this account is the value of students being explicit about their learning as a way of acknowledging their identity and agency in the learning process. The paper also highlights the importance of teachers developing pedagogies that are inclusive of all students as a consequence of practice that is more thoughtful and strategic.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 35, GAL02538 Negotiating the cultural terrain of schooling: Identity, agency and community.

FOR02438   [Paper]
Listening to the voices of teachers: How should we define and implement Civics and Citizenship Education in the future?

Anita Forsyth and Libby Tudball, Monash University

The publication of the Discovering Democracy program (Curriculum Corporation, 1998-2001), and the associated financing of substantial national teacher professional development, has led to renewed interest in Civics and Citizenship Education (CCE) in schools. Debates about how CCE should and can be implemented have diversified as teachers have developed their views about appropriate classroom and whole school approaches. Their rationale for CCE goes far beyond the 'civic deficit model' as a justification for curriculum space for CCE and as well important links to other curriculum priorities have been identified.

This paper draws on research the authors have conducted as part of their work in CCE teacher professional development in Victoria in 1998-2002. Case studies of the various ways teachers define and implement CCE are discussed, along with debates about the scope of CCE now and into the future.

While teachers argue that the development of civic knowledge is an important part of CCE, they also express strong views about the role of CCE in empowering students to be able to participate as active and informed citizens in their own local, national and global communities. In the paper, we present and analyse the opinions of teachers, and discuss their views of CCE.

FRA02436   [Paper]
The emergence of Visual Culture as a case study of political discourse in Art Education

Althea Francini, University of New South Wales

The concept of visuality is a defining aspect of art, fundamental to the identity of visual arts in education. Meanings related to the concept are diverse and develop broad extension over time. Using case study method this paper focuses on one debate concerning arguments for reconfiguration of the field to that of Visual Culture. Engaging in popular cultural sites, Visual Culture undertakes the study of mass media in order to consider the political and economic characteristics of dominant power structures. Other meanings attending the possibilities of the concept of visuality are excluded or diminished, including the skilful production of artefacts. Identifying how understandings of visuality are revised in this way, it can be seen how art education is currently shaped in part by political and economic agendas which use the term visuality to privilege particular sociological and cultural frameworks in the field.

FRI02585   [Paper]    Part of Symposium 41
Diversity and learning in the early years of school

Tracey Frigo, Australian Council for Educational Research and Isabelle Adams, Vision Network WA

This paper will be based on a longitudinal study being conducted by ACER and a team of Aboriginal consultants in thirteen schools across Australia, which is following the progress of a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in their early years of schooling. The data collected includes measures of early literacy and numeracy, complemented by qualitative data gathered through interviews, questionnaires and observation. The paper will describe the diverse learning environments experienced by this group of children, and the many ways that schools and teachers are attempting to maximise effective learning environments for these children in their early years of schooling.)

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 41, DEL02581 Early childhood education in a changing world: A comparative perspective of policies, practices and research in early childhood education.

FUN02329   [Paper]
The contextual aspects of supervisors' judgment of the pre-service teachers' classroom performance

Wally Yik Wo Fung, Hong Kong Institute of Education

This paper presents the contextual background of a doctoral study that investigates the process of assessment of teacher competence based on supervisors' judgment of the pre-service teachers' classroom performance. The study approaches classroom observation as a process conducted under time constraint. As such it is regarded as a process that reflects only restricted aspects of the teacher's competence. The variables in this study are identified and linked by a model of the decision-making process following models of cognitive process in performance appraisal. The variables are within the scope of competence, criteria for assessment, the supervisors' perceptions of the teacher appraisal, supervisor's observation of classroom performance and the determinants of the judgment process. The subjects in this study are supervisors of pre-service teachers in an institute of education in Hong Kong. The organizational and contextual aspects are considered as important determinants in the process of supervisors' judgment of the pre-service teachers' classroom performance. The paper presents a brief introduction to the institution, a discussion on its demands on teacher practicum, practice and procedure in classroom observation and a report on the preliminary findings of supervisor's views on classroom observation.

FUR02187   [Paper] Paper 1: of Symposium 6
Educational research capacity in Wales: The challenge of devolution

John Furlong, Cardiff University

The establishment of the National Assembly for Wales in 1998 has marked the growing separation of Wales from England in both educational policy and practice. No longer can it be said, if it ever really could 'For Wales see England'. There is now a growing confidence and difference in educational policy which is perhaps expressed most explicitly in the Assembly's ambitious educational policy document 'The Learning Country' ( 2001). Where there is a continuity with England however, and with many other countries, is the commitment to establish a growing role for educational research at all levels of the educational system. As in Australia, the mantra of 'evidence based policy' has been warmly embraced by the fledgling Assembly. But how well prepared is the higher education system in Wales to contribute the development of educational policy and practice and how experienced are educational institutions in Wales in effectively utilising educational research when it does exist? This paper will report findings from a recent review of Educational Research Capacity in Wales (Furlong and White 2001) which examined both 'producers' and 'users', and trace its subsequent role in the development of a national strategy for Educational Research in Wales.

FUR02333   [Paper]
Australian Catholic Education in new times: New policy contexts and critical perspectives on educating for the common good

Michael Furtado, Queensland University of Technology

Recent Commonwealth school funding policy implementation, unexpected in the first instance, and placing temporary closure on a seven year cycle of rapid policy change, highlights the need for a new analysis and new research into new ways for researchers and policy-makers to understand and influence the next phase of funding policy reform.

A new point of entry and reconfiguration of the problem of funding schools is available through abandoning the public versus private neo-modernist construction of past debates, and embarking instead on a critical exploration of common good as opposed to positional advantage rationales for Australian schooling.

While common good rationales for education are notionally the preserve of state education, in fact the Giddensian paradox shows how public education has become the vehicle through which statist forces are unleashed to serve the neo-liberal project, thereby rearticulating discourses of public education to introduce individualist values and positional advantage intentions into public education.

Such a rearticulation has also brought ideological and reformist pressure to bear on Catholic and similar non-government schools, philosophically wedded to an education for the common good by pooling their resources for reasons of supporting intra-systemic compensatory educational practices, to adopt anti-systemic practices inimical to their common good ethos.

My paper proposes that such a policy, breathing new life into the supposedly dead embers of the sectarian state-aid debate of the fifties and sixties, has potentially distracted and divided protagonists from diverse quarters of common good positions in the educational arena.

To specifically arrest such a development would therefore envisage the integration of Catholic and similar systemic schools into a diverse public education framework, offering greater choice to parents while tendering assurances as to their special character, especially in terms of their common good aspirations.

The conceptual and ideological challenges and contradictions entailed in such a proposal are explored by me in this refereed paper.

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GAR02330   [Paper]
Lines of inquiry: Negotiating instructional resources in the age of information

Victoria Garnons-Williams, Queensland University of Technology

The author presents the final outcomes of PhD research undertaken in Queensland secondary schools over five years. The design of the study models a constructivist paradigm using grounded theory methodology with analysis supported by computer software (NUD*IST 4). Recurring dimensions in the use of instructional resources across seven case studies form the basis of a theoretical model. The study reveals the interrelationship between factors used in decision-making, the variation in complexity of those decisions and the relative saliency of decisions in the belief structure of the teachers. The model represents a provisional definition of effective practice, demonstrating the virtuosity of a group of exemplary art educators in the age of information.

GIL02423   [Paper]
The sunlit plains extended: Young Australians talk about life in the country

Judith Gill and Sue Howard, University of South Australia

This paper reports on an ongoing study of young people's understanding of what it means to be Australian. Data is drawn from conversations with children in the upper primary years about what they think about the country they live in and their relationship to it. In this paper we look particularly at the responses from children in remote and rural primary schools for whom the traditional mythology of life in the bush is more of a daily experience than for those from the city schools. However in our investigation of the iconography of Australia through the eyes of children we are able to show that the symbolic representation of country is largely shared by young people regardless of their place of residence. The paper ends by reflecting on the origins of images of contemporary Australia, their longevity and resistance to change and the understandings they perpetuate in the future generation, all of which have profound educational implications.

GIL02454   [Paper]
School's out: Homosexuality, bullying and suicide

Gerard Sullivan and Heidi Gilchrist and Glennys Howarth, The University of Sydney

Suicide is now the leading cause of death by injury in Australia ahead of car accidents and homicide, and it is the largest single cause of death in Australian men. In recent years, several reports have linked homosexual orientation to youth suicide. Studies estimate nearly 30 percent of gay youths attempt suicide (Nicholas and Howard, 1998), but the complex relationship between the two has not been studied. This paper, therefore, focuses on the cultural context of suicide and asks questions about how it comes to be constructed as an option for young people experiencing harassment due to sexual orientation. The data are based primarily on interviewee responses to a scenario that describes the experiences of Chris, a young person, who confides in a teacher that s/he is considering suicide due to the marginalization s/he feels as a result of a gay identity. This paper explores the views of young people, teachers, youth counsellors, parents and community leaders about the role of school communities and key actors within them in the development of this situation and their role in overcoming it. The paper concludes with an investigation of implications for pastoral care of gay youths and professional practice in schools.

GOD02471   [Paper]
Gender differences in student engagement in small group literature

Sally Godinho and Brad Shrimpton, The University of Melbourne

Anecdotal evidence on the widening literacy achievement gap between boys and girls suggests that boys are disadvantaged by their reluctance to communicate and explore their feelings and ideas through talk. This paper, which is a work in progress, discusses the preliminary findings of a research project funded by an Early Career Researcher Grant from the University of Melbourne to explore gender differences in the way children engage in small group literature discussions. The school settings chosen for the study ensured that student participants were representative of a diverse range of socio-economic backgrounds. Emergent findings discussed in this paper include: the significance of teacher expectations in ensuring equal participation of boys and girls in literature discussion; specific discourse patterns used by teachers that enhance the students' level of engagement in the discussion process; and the influence that students' socio-cultural backgrounds have on the way teachers framed the literature discussion to meet student needs. Clips from the video-taped literature discussions, teacher interviews and student interviews will be used to support the study's emergent findings.

GOO02058   [Paper]
Building learning communities to support beginning teachers use of technology

Merrilyn Goos and Anne Bennison, The University of Queensland

This paper reports on the early stages of a three year study that is investigating the impact of a technology-enriched teacher education program on beginning teachers integration of computers, graphics calculators, and the internet into secondary school mathematics classrooms. Whereas much of the existing research on the role of technology in mathematics education has been concerned with effects on curriculum content or student learning, less attention has been given to the relationship between technology use and issues of pedagogy, in particular the impact on teachers professional learning in the context of specific classroom and school environments. Our research applies sociocultural theories of learning to consider how beginning teachers are initiated into a collaborative professional community featuring both web-based and face to face interaction, and how participation in such a community shapes their pedagogical beliefs and practices. The aim of this paper is to analyse processes through which the emerging community was established and sustained during the first year of the study. We examine features of this community in terms of identify formation, shifts in values and beliefs, and interaction patterns revealed in bulletin board discussion between students and lecturers on the role of technology in mathematics teaching.

GOO02388   [Paper]   Part of Symposium 19
Practical wisdom: exploring the hidden dimensions of professional practice

Joy Goodfellow, Macquarie University

Practical wisdom in professional practice requires sound judgement in the use of personal/professional, theoretical, and practical knowledge. Many aspects of such knowledges encompass 'the invisible elements of practice' (Fish, 1998). This paper draws on three sources of data to explore the nature of being an early childhood professional. The first source of data is recent reviews of the status and standing of early childhood teachers. The second source is the child care standards found within the revised Quality Improvement and Accreditation System for long day care centres (NCAC). The third source is position descriptions for early childhood teachers/Directors. The reflective, affective and experiential qualities found within the hidden dimensions of professional practice are part of the being, living and experiencing that occurs as teachers engage in professional practice. Evidence suggests that a contributing factor to low status and morale within the profession may be failure by individual professionals to 'get inside' their practice and gain an appreciation of the nature of being a professional. Standards of excellence are more likely to be achieved where there is greater acknowledgment of the person-in-the-process.

GOR02267   [Paper]
Exploring "Productive Pedagogy" as a framework for teacher learning

Jennifer Gore, The University of Newcastle

Much is made of teacher learning as a corrective to the ills of our education systems. Recruitment and accreditation schemes, codification of standards for accomplished practice, teacher education reform, and professional development initiatives are just some of the ways in which teacher learning is being addressed. Teacher learning is of particular importance when the concern is promoting a form of teaching that emphasises high standards of intellectual quality as explicated in models like 'Productive Pedagogy (PP).' In this paper, we report outcomes from a study designed to address the fundamental question of whether it is possible to change teaching to more closely match such standards. In the study reported here, PP was used to assist inservice teachers to improve their teaching. Drawing on data from coded observations of the participants' teaching before and after professional development activities, as well as interviews about their experience of learning and applying PP, some principles for enhancing both professional development programs and preservice teacher education will be elaborated. A comparison of the results gained in this study with those gained in related studies is used to elaborate arguments to refine the potential use of PP in teacher learning.

GOR02317   [Paper]   Paper 2 of Symposium 15
Some certainties in the uncertain world of classroom practice: An outline of a theory of power relations in pedagogy

Jennifer Gore, The University of Newcastle

This paper explores power relations in pedagogy and suggests some 'certainties' in the uncertain context of classroom practice. Drawing upon a Foucauldian analysis of power, past empirical studies of pedagogy, and a study of power and pedagogy conducted in four different settings, this paper outlines five theoretical propositions for the functioning of power in pedagogy. These propositions are that: pedagogy is the enactment of power relations; pedagogy proceeds via a limited set of specific techniques of power; bodies are the object/instrument of pedagogical power relations; the kind of knowledge produced in pedagogy interacts with the location of the site and the techniques of power employed there; in pedagogy, different differences matter. Each of these propositions is elaborated and implications are considered.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 15, OFL02315 Foucault and the aesthetic of uncertainty.

GOR02645   [Paper]
Changes in approaching to learning: A qualitative investigation of international students in an Australian university

Mira Gordon, The University of Newcastle

This paper reports on a three year study involving an initial group of 30 international students studying at an Australian university.

It was found that students did not necessarily construct knowledge in the same way. This may have a cultural basis. That the construction of knowledge may not necessarily be universal is consistent with other research evidence (Kember et al., 1997). Transcripts of student interviews also suggests that a number of broad orientations to learning can be identified. These approaches could be characterised as holistic/deep; serialist/deep; holistic/surface and serialist/surface.

In general, while most students expressed willingness to adjust their particular approaches to specific tasks, their beliefs about knowledge and learning were found to be relatively stable over time. Even though students seem willing to adjust their learning to particular task, this is within the framework of the broad approaches to learning available to them. It would also appear that some students, in particular holistic/deep learners, are more willing to consider adjusting their learning strategies than other types of learners.

Although the categories identified in this study use different terminology, it is possible to equate them with Kember's (2001) recent research findings on student orientations to learning. These finding also support Kember's conclusions that a student's epistemological beliefs coupled with learning approaches should be considered when assisting students to make the transition to tertiary study.

GOU02326   [Paper]
Democracy, global transitions, and education: Using speculative fictions as thought experiments in anticipatory critical inquiry

Noel Gough, Deakin University

The purpose of a thought experiment, as the term was used by quantum and relativity physicists in the early part of the twentieth century, was not prediction (as is the goal of classical experimental science), but more defensible representations of present 'realities'. Indeed, one of the best-known examples of a thought experiment ('Schrodinger's cat') demonstrates the impossibility of prediction at the quantum level. Speculative fictions, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to the Star Wars saga, can be read as socio-technical thought experiments that can help us to apprehend and comprehend present 'realities' and uncertainties, and to anticipate and critique possible futures. In this paper I will demonstrate how two examples of popular speculative fictions, Frank Herbert's Dune (1965) and Ursula Le Guin's The Telling (2000), can be read as thought experiments that describe problematic aspects of contemporary social and cultural transformations. I will argue that critical and deconstructive readings of these novels can help us to produce anticipatory critiques of possible ways in which democratic institutions are being transformed by globalisation. I will conclude by considering the implications of such anticipatory critiques for generating questions, problems and issues in educational inquiry and for choosing appropriate methodologies for investigating them.

GRI02632   [Paper]
Teaching strategies in problem solving

Patrick Griffin, Andy Mak, Margaret Wu and Mark Dulhunty, The University of Melbourne

In November, 2001, a problem solving test was administered to 1500 students in Australia. Questions in the test were grouped into three categories: application, reasoning and classifications. They were to test the problem solving skills of the students rather than their mathematics knowledge. The results showed that students in general performed better in problems on application which are more knowledge oriented. Performance in the other two categories revealed that there was a lack of cognitive and metacognitive skills related to problem solving among the students.

Based on these findings, a 20 unit problem solving course is designed for the students. The course material is organised into two parts. Part I (Units 1-5) focuses on four essential cognitive processes generally applicable to all problem solving tasks. Part II focuses on specific problem solving strategies and problem types. The intention of the sequencing of the units is to first promote key metacognitive awareness so that students can apply these principles in the latter part of course.

The paper discussed the design of the teaching material and the classroom interaction of the teachers and the students during the course. The progress of the students through out the course will also be examined.

GRI02636   [Paper]
Scored assessment for Senior Secondary Certificates - A national project

Patrick Griffin and Shelley Gillis, University of Melbourne and Michael Taylor, Australian National Training Authority

This project follows on from a national analysis of VET in Year 12. In a previous report "Assessment and Reporting of Vet Courses in Senior Secondary Certificates" a national approach to the development of scored assessments was recommended. In studying the situation through out Australia the initial report identified a need for separating the purposes for VET assessments. These were classified as 'selection' and 'recognition'. The tensions that existed between these purposes in the VET sector were accentuated when vocational subjects in senior secondary courses were considered for tertiary entrance. In resolving this tension, consideration had to be given to issues concerning the need for competency decisions in the workplace and the differentiation scores needed for he development of university entrance scores. Three broad areas of concern were identified. These were associated with a need for emphasis on quality of performance, the quality of assessment task development needed for this and a serious lack of quality control over interpretation of evidence. Use of a Standards Referenced Framework established a clear interpretation of skills; Assessment task design emerged that recognised quality of learning and performance; quality control over various influences on judgement in a competency context were identified.

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HAN02173   [Paper]
The relationships between teachers' extra-role behaviours, job attitudes, stress and student's quality of school life

Rachel Hannam,. The University of Queensland

Recent research on teacher stress in primary schools (e.g. Leonard, Bourke & Schofield, 1999) has shown that higher levels of teacher stress are associated with lower levels of student stress and higher levels of student satisfaction. The present paper seeks to explain this surprising finding by considering a construct discussed widely in the organizational behaviour literature known as extra-role or organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). Teacher OCBs may include extra efforts to make lessons enjoyable and interesting, organizing extra-curriculum activities and spending personal time talking with students. The current model of analysis also draws on literature relating to 'burnout' (Maslach et al, 2000), which generally suggests that the three components of chronic stress - exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced accomplishment - occur together. However, this paper proposes that although teachers who engage in more OCBs experience more stress, they may simultaneously increase their feelings of personal accomplishment and work identification, which in turn helps to avoid burnout. It is argued that only with this particular set of job attitudes are the effects of stress caused by OCBs sufficiently buffered to avoid burnout, and thus positively influence students' quality of school life. The development and piloting of an instrument to measure teachers' OCBs will be discussed, along with implications for organizational practices in schools.

HAN02218   [Paper]    Part of Symposium 10
Applying CDA to the analysis of productive hybrid discourses in inclusive science classrooms

Mary Hanrahan, Queensland University of Technology

Alienation from science has sometimes been linked to the dominant discourse practices of secondary science classrooms. Differences in primary language practice have been related to social class, which has been a major referent in the discussion of equity issues in education (cf. Bernstein, 1990; Bourdieu, 1974; Lankshear, 1994). A mismatch between the expectations of educators and the primary language practices of the majority of students is seen as leading to a cycle of increasing disadvantage for already disadvantaged students. This is no less true for other kinds of difference, hence the advocacy for "a pedagogy for multiliteracies" (New London Group, 1996). In some areas of the curriculum, mass education in recent decades has prompted empowering curriculum reform--with accompanying changes in pedagogic discourses--to accommodate the needs of students from a wide range of backgrounds and promote social justice. However, in secondary science education, with its tendency towards elitism (Lemke, 1990; O'Loughlin, 1992), evidence of such changes is harder to find. However, it does exist and I believe it should be highlighted. My current project will use CDA to explore hybridity and challenges to the dominant discourses in teacher-student interactions in inclusive science classrooms (cf. Luke, 2002).

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 10, MOR02214 Border Terrain: Expanding the range of critical discourse analysis.

HAR02049   [Paper]    ®
John Dalton's atomic theory: Using the history and nature of science to teach particle concepts

Allan Harrison, Central Queensland University

The atomic philosophy began with the Greeks and the atomic theory emerged in the 50 years following John Dalton's research. Two views of matter competed among the Greeks and during the 18-19th Centuries: Aristotle, Dalton and Faraday saw matter as continuous in-contact particles. Boyle, Gay-Lussac and Avogadro envisaged dynamic particles separated by space. Scientific assumptions that encouraged acceptance of the continuous view of matter stalled the development of the atomic theory between 1810-60 and the atomic ideas of school students are similarly inhibited by the no-space-between-particles conception. The paper reviews the historical development of the modern atomic concept and students' alternative theories of matter and particles. Students and some textbooks insist that the macroscopic properties of a substance are manifest by isolated atoms and molecules of the substance. This projection from the macro- to micro-level appears to be a source of student misconceptions. The presentation argues that there are excellent pedagogical reasons for retracing the history of atomism and shows how and why scientists from Newton to Avogadro insisted that matter is composed of dynamic, invisible and indivisible particles. The implications for improved teaching about particles are discussed.

HAR02110   [Paper]    ®
Discourses of regionality, masculinity and boys' non-completion of secondary school

Ingrid Harrington, James Cook University

An area that has received considerable attention in recent years, is the relationship between gendered discourse and knowledge. Within the particular context of boys' education, studies have focused on the discourse of masculinity and its effects on boys' school experiences. In Australia, research has identified school participation, academic performance and retention as particular problems in the education of boys. This paper seeks to question the exact nature of the relationship between regional context and the issues that surround boys in secondary schools.

This paper will report on a section of a longitudinal study of boys' non-completion of school which considers the connections between boys' decision-making and discourses of masculinity from a rural region in Queensland. The study is based on an ARC/SPIRT research grant between Ed/QLD and James Cook University Townsville, entitled "Factors affecting boys' engagement with schooling at the Secondary level". The current research questions how boys construct their views of schooling, education, employment, and the destinies they see for themselves, and how these are related to discourses of masculinity. In analysing these constructions, the study examines how non-completers are positioned within the discourses made available to them through the cultures operating at a local scale.

HAR02112   [Paper]
Having a baby and being in school: Researching pregnant and parenting young people and their educational transitions

Lyn Harrison, Jennifer Angwin and Geoff Shacklock, Deakin University

This paper reports on the 2002 pilot phase (in a provincial city) of a continuing study of pregnant and parenting young people and their movements in and out of school (and other educational) settings. It presents an overview of methodological approaches employed and dilemmas encountered, data collected and readings of that data, and an indication of how issues identified from the pilot study have informed the directions and emphases of an expanded investigation for 2003 and beyond. The paper draws on specific cases to identify how young people negotiate their way in and out of school during this phase of their lives. It offers an insight into how young people see themselves ''becoming somebody'' in and around other identity work they engage in while pregnant and parenting at school. The research provides knowledge about the intersection between the institutional and individual complexities of leaving and staying-on at school, including an account of the academic and social reasons for leaving or returning to school and school responses to student pregnancy and parenting.

HAR02128   [Paper]
Going online: A review of policy, practice and emerging trends in school uses of online learning

Susan Harriman, University of Technology, Sydney

This paper will provide an appraisal of the current state of understanding about the growing use of online learning activities in school settings. Following from the significant investment made by education systems and individual schools to introduce computer-based technologies to teaching and learning, the emphasis on online learning has appeared as a new wave of priority. Online learning practice is an emerging area, characterised by rapid growth, and driven by political, commercial and 'inevitability' pressures, both locally and internationally. Much is promised in terms of cost savings, collaborative benefits and flexible course provision, beyond even the promises surrounding the integration of computer-based technologies in general.

The paper will present an analysis of current policy and the developing range of practices occurring in NSW and at a national level, set against the emerging trends in recent literature from school-based studies.

HAR02149   [Paper]
The learned teacher: Teachers' constructions of themselves as members of a professional learning community

Ian Hardy, The University of Queensland

Recent literature, in the field of teacher education (and associated fields of school reform and school improvement), has placed considerable emphasis upon the role of teacher learning as a means of reinvigorating the learning process (for both students and teachers). This presentation investigates how several teachers, working as members of a cross-school teacher professional learning community, responded to their ongoing learning. In terms of the literature in the arena of "teacher professional learning communities," the context of the reform initiative is unique; it involves a group of teachers from four primary schools and one secondary school who are striving to develop and implement a "seamless" curriculum (across primary/secondary schools) for students. The initiative is truly teacher-driven, with administrative support. Teachers' responses, (during interviews & meetings), will be used to 1) critique teachers' constructions of a particular type of learning community; 2) contextualise current conceptions of "professional learning community," in the teacher education literature, and to 3) suggest how this literature may be informed by an empirical study of this nature. Theoretically, the study draws upon the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and methodologically, it reflects a case-study approach.

HAR02398   [Paper]
"Everything will be different for us" Emirati student teachers as 'agents of change' in classrooms

Barbara Harold, Peter McNally and Tracey McAskill, Zayed University

The United Arab Emirates are embarking on a wide-ranging reform of their education system, that aims to move classroom practice from a predominantly teacher-directed and exam-driven system to a more student-centred one based on varied methodologies and integrated with modern technology. The international faculty at Zayed University are charged with helping student teachers towards this goal. This paper reports on some initial findings of a longitudinal study that will map the progress of a cohort of Emirati women student teachers through their two years of teacher education and into their first year as beginning teachers. The project aims to document experiences of these students in their school-based practicum courses and to analyse the extent to which they are they able to introduce new practices to Government schools. The project focused on the following research questions. What are the key issues influencing their teacher education experiences. To what extent are they able to introduce alternative approaches to teaching and learning in their practicum? To what extent are student teachers' expectations values, beliefs, and experiences at Zayed University influenced and altered by their practicum experiences?

The paper also discusses some methodological challenges in conducting a project where the participants have Arabic as their first language but experience their teacher education in English.

HAR02431   [Paper]    ®
Analogical transfer - interest is just as important as conceptual potential.

Allan Harrison, Central Queensland University

Analogies and models are frequently used in science and science teaching and much research is devoted to examining their effectiveness. Little research, however. has been conducted into their affective benefits and this paper reviews five studies by the author and his colleagues to find examples of interest enhancing cognition. The rolling wheels refraction analogy, a comparative study of a class that received the wheels analogy and one that did not, two teacher interview studies and the bursting-balloons analogy for molecular shapes are re-examined for instances of motivation and interest contributing to concept learning. The motivational literature insists that conceptual change learning will only proceed when students are interested and engaged. The re-examined analogies and teacher views support this claim. I recommend that a resource of interesting and effective analogies be compiled for teachers, that teachers are encouraged to systematically present their analogies in a model like the FAR guide, and that dedicated research be conducted into the affective aspect of analogy and model-based teaching.

HAR02616   [Paper]
Engaging boys in the Arts

Scott Harrison, Clairvaux MacKillop College

The problem of the "missing males" in the arts has been the subject of discussion for some time. This presentation examines the extent of this, particularly in performing arts, based on historical data and recent fieldwork. It reflects on the level of involvement by males in schools and in the broader community. In studying the cause of this trend, it discusses the construction of masculinity in the arts thorough societal forces including the media, school influences, peer expectations, parental wishes, teacher attitudes and texts. It also refers in detail to the nature of stereotypes that prevent boys from participating in the arts. As such as there is a focus on aspects of bullying as a contributing factor. The session will draw on current research and bring together some strategies for engaging boys through the examination of best practices employed by individuals, schools and broader communities.

HAT02080   [Paper] Paper 3 of Symposium 1
Towards a theory of the devolved teacher

Robert Hattam, Flinders University of South Australia

There has been a shift in these new times towards understanding the politics of teachers' work in terms of a productive theory of power. Simply put, in the case of schools and teachers, the state implements its policy imperatives through getting at the soul of teachers. Teachers, like their students, are involved in identity work, in and around the prevailing policy discourses. In this paper I want to ponder how teachers engage in identity work around what it means to be a 'good teacher'. Given that local school management is the only game in town, then teachers have little choice but to construct themselves as the devolved teacher. But as this paper outlines, the devolved teacher is multiple and historical, and finds ways to work with and against the tendency of contemporary policy that implicitly aims at dumbing-down the profession, enforcing compliance, and bifurcating the ethical and the practical.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 1 SMY02077 Guerillas in the midst: The struggle for a socially just approach to local school management.

HAY02033   [Paper]
The use of student evaluations as an indicator of teaching quality in higher education

Bruce Haynes, Edith Cowan University.

Student evaluations of compulsory units in a Graduate Diploma of Education course have been conducted over the past 20 years. For most of this time, these units have been taught by the same lecturers and have not had major structural change. There have been significant changes in the context in which these units are taught. Comparisons of the student evaluations over time may indicate changes in teaching quality in these units and serve as a basis for comment on wider changes in higher education.

HAY02132   [Paper]    ® Part of Symposium 3
What does "enhanced learning through computer based technologies" actually look like?

Debra Hayes and Lyn Yates, University of Technology, Sydney

A multi disciplinary interagency team is currently undertaking research in NSW government schools funded by the Australian Research Council through the Strategic Partnership with Industry - Research and Training Scheme (SPIRT). In this paper we outline the early stage problems associated with researching a question that seems such a straightforward one: what does enhanced learning through computer-based technology actually look like? We argue that the apparent "straightforwardness" of the problem may be partly attributed to the many "commonsenses" that have come to be associated with computers in schools. At the core of these is a pervasive belief that technology will improve learning. Our efforts to pin down the purpose of our research have been made more difficult by the fact that we are trying to get at good practice, in a context that is changing. We outline three changing sets of practices in which this is true and important for our project and for thinking about technology and schools. These practices relate to how technology functions in schools, what counts as knowledge and is valued as performance, and how new subjectivities and relationships mediated by technology.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 3 YAT02131 How DO you research and theorize technological innovation and education? A forum discussing projects across sectors, states, funding sources.

HAY02494   [Paper]    ®
Beyond the letter; or the structure and strangeness of creativity in schools

Felicity Haynes, The University of Western Australia

This is the first of a pair of papers investigating the complexity of creativity in the classroom. Art teachers know that the act of trying to capture or measure creativity in the classroom can have the effect of completely destroying it. Rhetorically, it is recognised as having value in generic outcomes but it is often eliminated from practice in teacher education programmes or maps of curriculum outcomes at the classroom level, because it is seen as intuitive, irrational and beyond any systemic evaluation. By grounding creativity in the process of making purposive connections between logical systems and holistic perceptions, by defining it as purposive reassembling of parts into new wholes, I demonstrate that creativity cannot be programmed, or controlled but nevertheless, it depends enough upon sufficient "reasonable and purposive" structuring to make it amenable to guidance and evaluation in the classroom. I use examples from Hofstadter's futile attempt to formulate and programme the rules of original alphabet fonts because part of his ambition to do so rests on his desire to train students in creativity in a step-by-step programming sequence. I show that Hofstadter contradicts himself by denying the autonomy of the creative artist and how creativity, even collaborative creativity, can be systematically evaluated without destruction of spontaneity or the deliberate expression of personal meaning.

This paper concludes that creativity must accommodate reasonableness rather than the logic of a closed system. Part two will show the "reasonableness" of the creative relationship between our intellectual constructions and the constraints of the physical world. Both parts of this paper require educators to shift from an atomistic or hierarchical rational structuring which seeks certainty and control to an open systems process of bricolage or heuristic understanding.

HEI02334   [Paper]    ®
The interview in Mathematics Education: The case of mental computation

Ann Heirdsfield, Queensland University of Technology

Use of clinical interview is becoming a significant aspect of many numeracy projects. It is important for teachers to identify children's understanding and misconceptions at all stages in the learning cycle. The clinical interview appears to be an appropriate technique for gathering information on children's thinking. This paper explores the development of a conceptual framework used as a basis for an investigation into cognitive aspects associated with mental computation. Examples of tasks from clinical interviews are described.

HEN02209   [Paper] Paper 3 of Symposium 9:
Disrupting Homogeneity: When being different is breaking school rules

Robyn Henderson, James Cook University

School documents, such as a school prospectus or an annual report, often say that a school is proud of the diversity displayed by its students and of the social justice or equity policies that supposedly underpin its day-to-day operations.; However, despite the rhetoric acknowledging diversity and promoting equity, some school policies attempt to mould students into a homogeneous group. To illustrate this apparent paradox between policy and practice, this paper draws on a case study of a primary school student whose parents were itinerant fruit pickers working in Australia for three years. The student puzzled teachers because he scored highly on state-wide literacy tests but did not demonstrate this ability at school. Indeed, he was often "in trouble" and spent a lot of time at the principal's office. This paper will consider the school's attempts to change his behaviours. Using critical discourse analysis to examine the student's experiences within the institutional context of the school, the paper investigates issues of language, literacy and power, arguing that schools can sometimes unwittingly work against their policies that promote diversity.

HER02447   [Paper]   Paper 2 of Symposium 24
A comprehensive tutor training program: collaboration between academic developers and teaching staff

Debra Herbert, The University of Queensland

The management, training and support of sessional teaching staff, including tutors, is not only varied across universities but also within universities. This paper describes the trial of a comprehensive tutor-training program in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland. This program was developed as a collaboration between the University's academic development unit (TEDI) and the School of Psychology. The program involves a number of different components, including peer mentoring, training workshops, "brown-bag" lunch seminars, and senior tutoring positions. One of the strengths of the tutoring program, is the structure for first-time tutors. The School runs two large first-year psychology courses each semester, involving up to 26 tutors, including a small number of 'lead' tutors. These courses have a very structured tutorial program that supports the 'apprenticeship' of first time tutors. Most tutors then move on to tutor in 2nd, 3rd and 4th year courses after they have spent a year tutoring in the first-year program. An evaluation of each of the components of the training program, as well as the effectiveness of the whole program was carried out and the results will be discussed.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 26, COO02445 Sessional staff in the university context: Moving forward.

HER02448   [Paper]   Paper 3 of Sumposium 26
Enhancing the training, support and management of sessional teaching staff

Debra Herbert, Denise Chalmers and Rachel Hannam, The University of Queensland

For several reasons, the number of staff who are employed as lecturers, tutors, demonstrators or lab assistants on a casual or sessional basis are increasing across the university sector (DETYA, 2001). These sessional staff typically include postgraduate students, industry-based professionals, and people regularly employed on a course by course basis to lecture, tutor or demonstrate. The management, training and support of these staff is not only varied across universities but also within universities, and often this group is overlooked when developing policy relating to teaching staff. This paper describes a national project commissioned by the Australian University Teaching Committee (AUTC) in 2002 that aims to enhance the quality of the management, support and training of sessional teachers in Australian universities. Particular focus will be given to issues involving policy, management and training, including a review of the current environment, what is needed, and possible models of good practice. The findings of the project and the resources developed as a result will be disseminated using a variety of mechanisms, including an existing network of academics around Australia and via a project web-site.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 26, COO02445 Sessional staff in the university context: Moving forward.

HER02474   [Paper]    Part of Symposium 28
Completion of twelve years of schooling or its equivalent

Jeannie Herbert, James Cook University

The capacity of Indigenous peoples to reach their full potential, experience success and exercise control over their lives depends greatly on the level to which schooling provides them with the necessary knowledge, understanding and skills to lead productive and fulfilled lives. It is widely known that students who complete Year 12 or its equivalent have better chances in life, and are more likely to gain employment and/or post-school qualifications than those who don't. This research project examines current programs and issues which impact on Indigenous outcomes in Queensland. This paper will present the results of the research carried out across twenty three State, Catholic and Independent schools. It investigated current practices in providing clear and recognized pathways to employment and life long learning, successes experienced by and alternative pathways for Indigenous learners. It also identified issues impacting on year 12 retention.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 28, MCG02472 Challenges and tensions in implementing current directions in Indigenous Education.

HIL02657   [Paper]
Reflecting on professional practice with a cracked mirror: Productive pedagogy experiences

Geof Hill, "The Investigative Practitioner"

Part of the mandatory professional development agenda in a number of Queensland schools is reflection on teaching practice using the Productive Pedagogy framework. The introduction of this framework has generated substantive conversations among teachers concerning the development of the framework and what is and is not listed as productive pedagogies. This paper is presented in the context of practitioner investigation from the perspective of a critical friend working with groups of teachers in the implementation of the New Basics curriculum in Queensland. It reports on a professional development program that encourages the use of the framework for reflection on teaching while at the same time acknoweldging that the framework might be flawed.

HIR02208   [Paper] Paper 2 of Symposium 9
Engaging Heterogeneity: Tertiary literacy in new times

Elizabeth Hirst, James Cook University

The nature of tertiary education has changed significantly in the current economic and global conditions.  Within the constraints of the current funding model for tertiary education, key changes facing regional universities are, on the one hand the imperative to recruit greater numbers of students to ensure viability, and on the other the increasing diversity of student populations coupled with the lowering of tertiary entrance requirements.  We can no longer operate with homogenous assumptions about students' competence in the literacies that will enable them to participate in and appropriate the literate practices of the academy. This paper presents a review of programs and interventions designed to support students in their engagement with and appropriation of a situated academic literacy. The design of these programs is underpinned by sociocultural theory, where learning is viewed as a process of entering into the community by adopting its practices in order to contribute to on-going conversations. Learning to engage in literate activities is accomplished, I argue, more as a function of participation within multiple contexts of social interaction than through completing specific sets of tasks.

HON02009   [Paper]    ®
Departmental advisers as official interpreters: Torchbearers and holders of official knowledge

Eileen Honan, Deakin University

The work undertaken by departmental advisers who assist teachers to implement particular state education policies such as syllabus and curriculum documents is the focus of this paper. The author's doctoral thesis involved an analysis of the interactions between teachers, the texts of the Queensland English Syllabus, and two women who worked as 'official interpreters' guiding teachers in their uses of the texts. This paper examines the complex positions taken up by these interpreters. On the one hand, their expertness is demonstrated by the official knowledge they hold and by the torchbearing work they do with teachers. But on the other hand, the choices and selections made during this torchbearing work are governed by the interpreters' regulation by the discourses surrounding their official knowledge. The research undertaken on these interpreters' work informs the author's final call to recognise the complexity surrounding implementations of new curriculum and syllabus documents. Such recognition would include making use of the departmental advisers' expertness and depth of knowledge in particular curriculum areas in innovative and collegial projects crossing over traditional boundaries between academic research and teachers' practices.

HON02552   [Paper]    Part of Symposium 36
Double moves

Eileen Honan, Deakin University

"The more a practice is mastered, the more fully subjection is achieved. Submission and mastery take place simultaneously, and this paradoxical simultaneity constitutes the ambivalence of subjection"   (Butler, 1997, p. 116).

In this paper, this quotation from Judith Butler is used as a framework for an analysis of the construction of the subject within the texts of the Queensland English Syllabus. Dr Honan describes the ways in which the rationalities of the syllabus construct this ambivalent subject position, of a subject who is at one and the same time, required to master the practices of literacy mandated in the syllabus, while becoming subjected to the requirements of these practices. In her recently completed doctoral thesis, Dr Honan found that the Queensland English Syllabus works as a governing mechanism, where "to govern, in this sense, is to structure the possible field of action of others" (Foucault, 1982, p 221). This governing works to construct the 'double' subject Judith Butler refers to who must, necessarily at one and the same time, be master of certain literacy practices, and submit to these practices.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 36, YOU02546 Performative possibilities: Education research in/and the promise of uncertainty.

HOO02012   [Paper]    ®
Participatory action research and the struggle for legitimation

Neil Hooley, Victoria University of Technology

There is little reason why educational research should be consolidated in Australia given that its history and development are subject to the economic and political determinants of an increasingly globalised and uncertain world. Whether or not educational research is an entirely derivative field or a semi-distinctive social science, is essentially qualitative or quantitative in character, desires knowledge that is vaguely accurate or accurately vague, seeks epistemological or ontological explanation, remains to be seen as history works itself out. It cannot be considered a neutral endeavour and demands that researchers identify a political perspective or worldview from which knowledge is described and interpreted. Such fundamental questions have confronted the design and implementation of Nyerna Studies, a Bachelor of Education program being conducted in partnership between Victoria University of Technology and the Indigenous peoples of the Echuca region of Australia. In developing an approach to participatory action research, a number of challenges and knowledges have emerged from Nyerna Studies involving cultural reconciliation, two-way enquiry learning and educational public sphere. Participatory action research as outlined here may be the only framework appropriate for democratic community research although it is not as yet legitimated within the pantheon of available methodologies and philosophies.

HOP02177   [Paper]    ®
Making judgments about school effectiveness: Enhancing value-added assessment by analyzing differential effectiveness

Sarah Hopkins, Edith Cowan University

The importance of considering initial achievement in school effectiveness assessment is reflected in the continuing search for measurement methods that allow for fair and valid comparisons to be made between schools with varying student intakes. 'Value-added' measures of performance have emerged as a popular approach. A criticism of value-added methods is that they consider the average child and do not identify how effective schools are for different subgroups of learners. In this paper, a new analysis technique for enhancing value-added assessment is proposed and its usefulness is demonstrated with longitudinal data on reading development. The analysis revealed that in one school that was identified as performing particularly well in relation to other schools, children with low reading skills were making exceptional progress. In another school where poor progress was identified, children who started with above average reading skills were not being extended. The additional information provided by the analysis is most useful for school decision makers wishing to address performance issues.

HO02439   [Paper]
An analysis of written errors in Chinese language

Fuk-chuen Jim Ho, Hong Kong Institute of Education

The Hong Kong language teachers used to classify Chinese written errors into "wrong characters" or "substitute characters". The "wrong characters" are those written errors in using wrong strokes to write the characters as well as placing radicals or phonetic components in inappropriate positions. The "substitute characters" are the confusion of characters, which share similar or related pronunciations or meanings. This practice of classification, however, does not assist teachers much in identifying the difficulties, which children encounter in their writing. This study, therefore, used a more detailed analysis approach to classify the Chinese written errors. A number of 6 experienced language teachers were chosen to read the common written errors in the Assessment Handbook for Written Errors (Poon, 2001) and categorized the errors into semantic, phonological, graphic, semantic/phonological, semantic/graphic and phonological/graphic errors. A high percentage of phonological errors were observed.

HOR02183   [Paper]
Aunties in Action: Citizens in the Classroom

Jennifer Horn, James Cook University

"Aunties in Action: Citizens in the Classroom" examines the specific role of women volunteers in Education Queensland's innovative "New Basics Project". Several schools throughout Queensland are involved in a four-year trial of the new curriculum, which is designed to improve student performance by challenging them intellectually with real-world, assessable activities. Through a series of Rich Tasks, students will interact with local citizens to examine individual rights and responsibilities in communities, cultures and economies and explore life pathways and social futures. "Aunties", I propose, are extraordinary community volunteers who can work with students as mentors in achieving the pedagogical goals of the Rich Tasks. These goals include interacting within local and global communities; collaborating with peers and others; operating within shifting cultural identities; and understanding the historical foundation of social movements and civic institutions. Aunties can be engaged in specific Rich Tasks that are designed to ensure that students value a range of cultures, create positive human relationships, respect individuals and help to create a sense of community. The Productive Pedagogies that will be enriched by the interaction of students and citizens include citizenship; connectedness to the world; engagement; cultural knowledge; social support; substantive conversations; group identity and knowledge integration.

HOW02342   [Paper]
Resilient teachers: Resisting stress and burnout

Sue Howard and Bruce Johnson, University of South Australia

Across Australia, the incidence of teacher stress and burn-out causes serious concern. Studies of teacher stress have largely focused on the dysfunctional strategies of individual teachers - in other words they have adopted a deficit approach to the problem with the focus firmly fixed on 'what's going wrong'. From this perspective, failure of some teachers to cope has generally been defined as a personal rather than an institutional weakness and the solutions that have been promoted have been largely palliative or therapeutic.

The study being reported in this paper adopted a different approach to the question of teacher stress and burn-out. Instead of asking 'what's going wrong' we asked why are some teachers able to cope successfully with the samekinds of stressors that appear to defeat others - in other words, we looked at 'what's going right'.

We interviewed 20 primary school teachers in hard-to-staff schools in disadvantaged areas. Using a screening device we had developed, principals identified teachers who were 'at risk of stress and burnout' but were 'persistently and successfully coping with stress' (i.e. 'resilient'). Our findings indicate that these teachers' sources of coping with stress are many, varied and largely (but not exclusively) located outside the individual.

HOW02535   [Paper]   Part of Discussions Panel 34
Talking about youth participation - where, when and why?

Sue Howard and Linda Newman, Queensland Commission for Children and Young People

The notion that people should have a say in decisions that affect them has been around for a long time. Much of the recent writing about youth participation draws on the work of community development officers like Arnstein (1969) in the area of citizen participation, based on explorations of democracy. This paper will review some of the broader discussions of youth participation and invite the audience to consider their application to education, and educational research in particular.

This paper will be presented as part of Discussions Panel 34, NEW02534 Moving from research "on" or "about" to research "with" or "by" ...: Exploring the roles of young people in educational research.

HUG02642   [Paper]   Part of Symposium 44
Evaluations: Purposes, possibilities and practicalities

Clair Hughes, Queensland University of Technology.

Evaluations in higher education serve a range of purposes relating to the improvement and assurance of the quality of student learning and elements of the learning and enabling environment, such as courses, units, teaching and administration. Evaluation practices are increasingly shaped by innovation in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, and university and government policies and procedures associated with quality assurance, industrial conditions and resourcing. Evaluation practices are also shaped and expanded by the possibilities offered by digital technologies.

To be effective, evaluation needs to occur in a contextually integrated system where logical alignment exists between individual and institutional purposes and between the nature of evaluation findings and the way they are used. However, while examples of effective evaluation practice exist, contemporary university contexts are not always integrated and evaluation practices are not always aligned. Significant areas of integration and alignment to be explored in this paper relate to:

• evaluation and professional development
• conceptualisations of effective teaching
• the implications, possibilities and limitations of digital technologies
• staff beliefs about students - clients or customers?

I

IZA02378   [Paper]
Using assessment strategies to inform student learning

John Izard, RMIT University

Curriculum statements describe intentions: without valid student assessment practices the actual achievements are never compared in a legitimate way with the intentions. Valid student assessments provide quality assurance for certification of school achievement or professional recognition, for informing management, and for evaluation of innovations and development intervention. In Australia, National and State-wide testing programs seek to monitor pupil performance and raise standards of achievement. But improving achievement requires more than good tests. To use a farming analogy: the farmer's maize will grow better if appropriate nutrients and water are provided in timely fashion. Measuring the height of the maize frequently is not going to improve the yield at all.

This paper evaluates the contributions of assessment to provision of effective learning opportunities for all pupils through the:

• strategies used to measure and evaluate progress of students,
• effectiveness and usefulness of the scoring approaches for the tests,
• extent to which teacher-friendly methods of interpreting assessment evidence exist,
• availability of suitable teaching strategies which can follow identification of student achievement levels, and
• effects of other uses made of the tests by classroom teachers, school administrators, and Ministry of Education officers.

J

JAN02265   [Paper]
Decoding the mentoring experience: A conversation with Parker Palmer

Beverley Jane, Deakin University

"I think it would be awesome for everyone to be involved in a mentoring group. A lot of the time I don't think we needed 'guidance' but it was just great social interaction with people you would otherwise not have met" says one student in a University-wide First Year Initiative designed to assist students with the transition to University studies. Parker Palmer (1998, p. 21) describes mentoring as "a mutuality that requires more than meeting the right teacher; the teacher must meet the right student. In this encounter, not only are the qualities of the mentor revealed, but the qualities of the student are drawn out in a way that is equally revealing". In the Faculty of Education's 'pilot program' 54 students (25% of those enrolled in the Bachelor of Education, Primary) were randomly selected to participate. Mentoring groups consisted of six students who chose to meet volunteer staff mentors for six weeks. This paper is a reflection on the mentoring experience of one group that continues to meet regularly. The research question: What was it about the group members that allowed successful mentoring to happen? is addressed through a conversation with Parker's ideas, thereby decoding this rich mentoring experience.

JAS02508   [Paper]
Facing up to the fading face of the university: The nature and quality of school-university partnerships

Anne Jasman, Department of Education Science and Training and University of Sydney, and Maxine Cooper, Griffith University

Jasman (2002) argues that teacher educators are marginalized and have become largely invisible in both schools and universities. In this paper the perceptions of teachers in schools, student teachers and university staff involved in innovative attempts to develop school-university partnerships are considered. The nature and quality of relationships are discussed with reference to three examples of school-university partnerships.

These are explored through the use of the metaphor of 'face' derived from one student teacher's comment that s/he wanted was "Someone who has a permanent face at the University". This discussion will focus on a range of strategies designed to create more certainty in school-university partnerships. These include ways of maintaining continuity in relationships, increasing the opportunities for communication and conversations, both face-to-face and virtual, and networking between schools and the university.

JAY02348   [Paper]
"If they willingly share their puppets -you know they will share their knowledge" - a study of teacher leadership in Early Childhood

Jenny Jayatilaka, Edith Cowan University

This presentation is an initial investigation, written as a requirement for a Doctorate of Education course into the concept and work practices of 'teacher leaders' in Early Childhood classrooms in Western Australia. Are those in the field with the potential to be leaders, strong advocates and excellent practitioners being encouraged and nurtured? Are Early Childhood teacher leaders left unable to spread their knowledge and skill within an environment that has seen a loss of formalised network groups, a reduction of district level early childhood support staff and the dismantling of the Early Childhood directorate? The initial research into these questions has led the researcher to investigate significant events in the lives of three beginning Early Childhood teachers who were identified with leadership potential. The investigation examines factors and experiences that have impacted on the professional attitudes and work of these three teachers in different educational settings in Western Australia. Also through their experiences, the understandings of an experienced Early Childhood teacher educator and a level three Early Childhood teacher the researcher begins to explore the qualities of a teacher leader. This is a work in progress which raises more questions than it answers and seeks to challenge Early Childhood practitioners to strengthen the way in which the philosophy of the Early Childhood is reflected in the ways they share their knowledge and experience in the best interests of the profession.

JEF02002   [Paper]
Equity in Education Tax Credit

Anne Jefferson, University of Ottawa

January 1, 2002 the Government of Ontario established the "Equity in Education Tax Credit". The tax credit provides parents who send their children to an eligible independent school a rebate in tuition fees paid. This is a first in the history of Canada and has been received with mixed reviews. The Equity in Education Tax Credit is directed at the parent not the school and has thus required a change in the Income Tax Act. The change parallels one that is common in the provision of small businesses. The paper looks at reasons that motivated the Government to establish the Tax Credit as well as what exactly does this Tax Credit mean to parents.

JOH02035   [Paper]    ®
Lessons for 2003 from 1993; Primary teacher standpoint on policy backlash against the gender inclusive curriculum

Evelyn Johnson, Deakin University

In this paper, I provide evidence of policy 'backlash' against feminism from the standpoint of the practitioner. When asked, in a case study of Victorian primary schools how the gender inclusive curriculum was conceptualised and enacted, practitioners critique the conservative policy shift that they observed. I premise this paper on the notion that critical reflection on the specificities of policy discourse from the previous decade represents transformative work for the contemporary policy context. I conclude with a discussion of how research agendas in the current era of uncertainty can be re-assessed in the light of this study.

JOH02092   [Paper]    ®
A focus on teaching in online pedagogy

Richard Johnson and Colin Warren, Deakin University

As the Internet continues to grow in popularity and educational institutions feel the need to have a presence online, 'learning and teaching online' has become somewhat of an IT cliche. In most cases course material is made available online and it is left up to the learner to learn. In this paper we question the assumption that online teaching is merely making course material available online. We report on our study of what is involved in the act of teaching online and on the theoretical underpinning of an initiative to use a 'mobile teaching laboratory' to enable a focus on teaching in the online environment. We reflect on models of teaching online and on how a group of academic staff are responding to online teaching. Details of professional development workshops, hardware and software solutions and working with the complexities of pedagogy will also be discussed.

This paper is about our findings, our recommendations and our plans for future explorations.

JOH02430   [Paper]    ®
Re-articulating research design and research goals

Greer Johnson, Griffith University

This paper discusses how a study of reflective practice was designed to increase the likelihood of moving teachers to more critical reflection. The design facilitates a 2 stage guided pathway. Stage 1 helps teachers establish their institutional status quo in visual-verbal form. Stage 2 is more subversive in that it encourages teachers to challenge their perceived realities. This paper demonstrates how the research design was operationalised by one student teacher (Thad) and an interviewer. First, Thad is 'heard', in sound clips juxtaposed with image clips of the pages of a self-authored picture book, explains his plans for a non-hegemonic approach to student higher order thinking. Second, Thad and the interviewer co-construct an alternative or negotiated reading of his (first) personal reading, but the student teacher refrains from questioning in a resistantinstitutional constraints. The paper argues that the interviewer could have recognised more visual-verbal gaps and silences in the dialogue and manipulated those spaces to help the student teacher become more critically reflexive. Finally, post-interview the analyst discusses a fragment of the picture book, demonstrating how to exploit more fully the critical reflection methodology.

JOH02562   [Paper]
The transition to high school: A journey of uncertainty

Kate Johnstone, Charles Sturt University

This paper presents the stories of the transition to high school for thirteen students from four primary schools in regional New South Wales. Interviews, journal keeping and questionnaire data were used to elicit the students' expectations of their high schools during their final weeks of primary school. These methods were also used to follow-up the students' thoughts of high school during their first three terms of Year 7. A discussion of the variety of concerns students express before making their transition to high school, and the students perceptions of their high schools will be presented. The students' different perceptions of their high schools raises the question; "Do students perceive their 'uncertainty' of their high school environment as an ultimately 'good' or 'bad' aspect of their transition?". This paper will explore the data that has been gathered in order to understand this journey of uncertainty from a student perspective.

JON02560   [Paper]    ®
In an era of uncertainty, dissatisfaction is certain: The reality of the teaching profession in the New Millennium

Tamara Jones, Charles Sturt University

This paper presents the analysis of data collected during the first phase of the researcher's three-phase project entitled "A Time of Change: Teacher Perceptions of their Profession in the New Millennium". The project seeks to reveal and understand the perceptions of twenty teachers within the Riverina region of NSW and compare them with the perceptions of approximately 250 teachers across NSW. This first phase involved interviews with 20 non-government secondary school teachers from three schools within the Riverina, taking place from May 2000 to July 2001. This paper seeks to reveal their perceptions of their profession, focusing on the professional and personal satisfaction and the factors relating to such. Grounded theory methodology was used to tell the story of those interviewed and discuss the concepts and themes that characterise their lived realities. Issues highlighted include but are not limited to: status of the profession; role intensification; how the teachers feel they are perceived by the community; extrinsic and intrinsic motivations of teaching; and how they believe the profession could be improved. The second phase of this research project, involving a state-wide questionnaire is currently being implemented. The questionnaire was developed in light of the data from the qualitative interviews.

JUS02459   [Paper]
Keeping the Faith: A case-study of adherence to the foundational values of Christian Parent Controlled Schools in Australia

Charles Justins, Tony d'Arbon and Shukri Sanber, Australian Catholic University

Low fee Protestant Christian schools, including Christian Parent Controlled (CPC) schools are an increasingly significant component of the non-government, non-Catholic schooling sector in Australia. CPC schools, which commenced in the 1960s, now enrol over 22 000 students. CPC schools have frequently asserted that they promote explicitly Christian values, but their foundational values had not previously been identified or recorded. This paper reports on research to identify these values and the extent to which the foundational values are put into practice. While the research found that prevailing practices in CPC schools generally give faithful expression to the foundational values, there were a number of areas where CPC schools struggled to consistently engage with these values. The implications for future leadership of these schools is discussed.

JUS02461   [Paper]
Faith-based schooling and the modern market economy - Whose values?

Charles Justins and Shukri Sanber, Australian Catholic University

Policy makers in education increasingly regard education as being critical to micro-economic reform, to economic reconstruction and to economic competitiveness. This paper evaluates the capacity of a group of schools founded on Christian values to survive in a climate in which the prevailing values are those of the market-place, without withdrawing completely from engagement with the broader culture.

Arising from research undertaken on the relationship between the foundational values and the current practices of Australian Christian Parent Controlled (CPC) Schools, this paper will consider the increasing dissonance between schooling practices intrinsically aligned with faith-values and those conceived on the basis of rationalist economics. These issues are considered from the perspective of faith-based schools, with a particular emphasis on CPC Schools in Australia, which find their heritage in the Dutch immigrants of various Reformed denominations who arrived in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s. Research for this paper involved surveys and interviews with the founders of CPC schools and current members of these school communities, including parents, teachers, senior students and graduates.

K

KAM02252   [Paper]
Abstract art or the politics of getting read

Barbara Kamler, Deakin University, and Pat Thomson, University of South Australia.

The writing of academic abstracts is more than a tiresome necessity of scholarly life. It is a practice which goes beyond genre and technique to questions of identity and the promotional economies of academic work. In this paper we deconstruct a series of abstracts from a variety of refereed journals and conferences and develop a set of questions that allow us to 'read' the representation of data, argument, methodology and significance. We argue that the rules of abstract engagement are fluid and increasingly important with the advent of online journals and global citation indices. We suggest that abstract art is now an obligatory aspect of postgraduate supervision.

KAM02261   [Paper]
Motivation in second language learning: Ethnolinguistic vitality or psychological construct that counts?

Michael Chi-keung Kam, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

The present paper tries to identify the societal factors and psychological factors that motivate students to have better performance in English as a second language and to postulate a theoretical model subsuming these socio-psychological variables to explain and predict the performance in English as a second language for Hong Kong students in Australia. Since the proposal of socio-educational model of second language learning by Gardner (1959), a number of studies have focused on identifying the potent factors in second language acquisition. Giles and Byrne (1982) emphasized the need to have variables intended to determine the perceived relationships operating between ethnic groups. Kraemer (1993) included ethnolinguistic vitality perception construct in her study on social psychological factors in the learning of Arabic in Israeli schools. 247 students of ethnic Chinese in the Sydney metropolitan area who were studying in weekend Chinese schools and 628 Hong Kong students who were studying in primary and secondary schools were sampled. Path analysis was used to determine the relationship between the performance of Chinese and English with societal and psychological variables.

KEA02127   [Paper]    ®
Ian's Story: the complex interaction of ethnicity, class and masculinities

Ron 'Kim' Keamy Deakin University

In this paper, a narrative is used to convey the complex connectedness that exists between class, ethnicity and masculinity. The story is of Ian, a successful academic who describes himself as Eurasian, and traces his development through parts of his childhood and into his professional career, using what Gough (1994) describes as a 'realistic fiction'. Relevant literature on masculinities and ethnicity is considered. There is some evidence to suggest that Ian has developed a fluid version of masculinity as a result of his Asian-Australian upbringing, and that he expresses different masculinities according to the social settings in which he finds himself. The paper concludes, just as Ian's story does, that masculinity interacts with class and ethnicity. This accords with Connell's (1995) caution that it is dangerous to think that there is a colored masculinity or a working class masculinity, and that the milieux of class and race need to be considered as well.

KED02055   [Paper]    ®
Multiple readings: The interventionary deployment of essentialism within a feminist poststructural framework

Amanda Keddie, University of Southern Queensland

Through a description of the methodology informing a study into the potency of boys' peer culture in shaping dominant masculinities, this paper describes the strategic and interventionary deployment of essentialist theories of 'identity' construction within an anti-essentialist framework. Through a feminist poststructural engagement with multiple narrative positions (Prain 1997; Lather 1992) or readings the study's methodology embraced the essentialist theory of group socialisation as useful in organising the study's data and providing a framework to begin analysis and interpretation. Additionally, this unified lens was effective in foregrounding what seemed to be a fixed line of power unifying the boys' dominant and collective masculinities. The anti-essentialist or feminist poststructural reading, on the other hand, exposed the seeming unity of these dominant understandings as multifaceted, contradictory and unstable. Rather than conceiving of the essentialist reading as a foundational premise within the objectivist/relativist binary from which other positions might be 'objectively' judged (Cherryholmes 1988), however, the study's feminist poststructural methodology deployed essentialism within Derrida's construction of difference (in Adams St. Pierre 2000) In this regard, the essentialist reading was positioned as one among many contextual, partial and historically contingent truths.

KED02056   [Paper]    ®
It's more than a game: Little boys, masculinities and football culture

Amanda Keddie, University of Southern Queensland

Through a description of a study into children's (young males) informal peer group relations this paper illuminates the gender and (hetero)sexual binaries underpinning boys' dominant understandings of masculinity and how these binaries parallel with their understandings of, and investments in, football culture. This paper foregrounds, through a snapshot of the study's data presented as narrative, the significant role football played in providing a vehicle through which the boys could successfully perform, validate and perpetuate a desired masculinity as epitomised by physical dominance and violence within essentialist perceptions of gender and (hetero)sexuality as difference and opposition. Through feminist poststructural analysis which enables a theorising of masculinities as fluid, tenuous and often characterised by contradiction and resistance, the paper argues the importance of interrupting and re-working these understandings and explores practical ways through which these binaries might begin to be deconstructed in the sphere of early primary education. Within a framework of social justice, underpinned by anti-sexist and anti-homophobic principles, ways through which schools can facilitate the development of more affirmative but equally legitimate understandings and embodiments are explored.

KEL02014   [Paper]    ®
Understanding museum learning from the visitor's perspective: A sociocultural approach

Lynda Kelly, University of Technology, Sydney

Museums are increasingly positioning themselves in the market as places for rich learning experiences. When asked why they visit institutions such as museums people often say 'to learn' but there has been little exploration into what this actually means. As current theories of learning focus on the meanings an individual makes based on their experiences, both alone and as part of a community, we need to better understand learning from an individual's perspective within a sociocultural context. As sociocultural theory emphasises the importance of people, culture, tools and the environment in every learning event, it is especially relevant for understanding and researching museum learning because museums are visited by multi-generational groups, are free choice with a range of mediated experiences provided.

My research seeks to understand learning from an individual's point of view through the question "how do adult museum visitors describe learning in relation to sociocultural theory?" Through a series of in-depth interviews people were asked to describe their views of learning and how these related to their museum experiences. This paper will explore how learning was described through an analysis of preliminary research findings and, from this, discuss the potential for developing a sociocultural model of museum learning.

KEN02087   [Paper]
Assessing the learning environment of an extended practicum - the development and initial application of a research instrument

Joy Kennedy and Jeffrey Dorman, Australian Catholic University

Many variables impact on the learning environment of students participating in practicum experiences. The study reported in this paper focusses on the learning environment of an extended practicum of a teacher education course at a Catholic university. The paper will outline the development, validation and initial application of an instrument designed to explore the perceptions of different members of the extended practicum learning environment. Recognising that there are a number of dimensions to the learning environment of the extended practicum, the perceptions of student teachers, supervising teachers, school principals and other members of school administration teams will be collected. Following trial of an instrument, a 72-item questionnaire was developed with 12 underlying scales (viz, Supervising Teacher Support, Administration Support, Fellow Teacher Support, Fellow Student Teacher Support, Student Teacher Involvement, Peer Cohesion, Task Orientation, Autonomy, Work Pressure, Clarity, Control and Physical Comfort) All items employ a 5-point Likert response format with anchors of 1 (Strongly Agree) and 5 (Strongly Disagree). A sample of 266 students responded to the questionnaire. The development, validation and administration of the instrument will be explained and initial results presented.

KIF02151   [Paper]    ®
Harnessing assessment and feedback to assure quality outcomes for graduate capability development: A legal education case study

Sally Kift, Queensland University of Technology

In recent times, employers, graduates, government and professional bodies have all called upon tertiary educators to embrace a notion of graduate quality that is concerned, not just with knowledge acquisition, but equally with how to use and what to do with that discipline knowledge once acquired. Legal educators have also responded to this stakeholder mood. Under two Teaching and Learning Large Development Grants, the QUT Law Faculty has been progressing an integrated and incremental approach to the development of both generic and discipline-specific capabilities in core undergraduate curriculum. Particularly, the challenge has been to ensure the alignment of assessment and feedback practices with the revised course goals and identified learning objectives.

This paper will detail the formulation of a coherent, incremental and holistic framework that has been mapped onto law curriculum for the teaching, learning and assessment of embedded capabilities. It will outline the intent and methods of curriculum design for more authentic learning and assessment tasks. It will also examine some of the implications and issues that arise for tertiary education and educators when the academy embraces graduate capability development as an aspect of graduate quality and embarks on, what is essentially, wholesale curriculum review committed to assuring that these broader learning outcomes are directly linked to course assessment and feedback methods supportive of this new learning.

KIG02111   [Paper]
Relating the structure of the oral narrative to literacy

Mutuota Kigotho, Macquarie University

This paper addresses the issue of literacy among secondary school students. Increasing secondary school students' awareness of the structure of fables could help them improve their narrative writing competence in English. In a control and experimental group design, the researcher carried out an intervention where the experimental group received instruction on narrative structure while the control group was uninterrupted. Preliminary data involving 177 lower secondary school students in Kenya suggests that prior to the intervention, most of the students wrote narratives that had similar shortcomings and similar strengths. However after a six-week intervention period, students that received instruction on narrative structure wrote more coherent and elaborate narratives than those students that had not received similar instruction, suggesting that teachers could use an awareness of narrative structure to enhance narrative writing competence in English.

KIG02280   [Paper]    ®
Understanding and exploring the relationships of a knowledge building community in teacher education

Julie Kiggins, University of Wollongong

This paper explores the relationships of preservice teachers as they embarked upon an alternative model of teacher education known as the Knowledge Building Community Project (KBC) at the University of Wollongong. The KBC Project was initiated as a response to research that suggested preservice teachers needed more experience with the day-to-day operation of schools, and how the daily work of teachers related to the culture of schools and classrooms. A series of revisions since the Project's inception now means that the KBC model is underpinned by four outcomes to support student learning: (i) Community collaboration, (ii) Taking responsibility for own learning, (iii) Professional problem solving using the principles of PBL and (iv) Reflective practice. The research showed that the students involved in the KBC Project benefited from the support of the community triad (the KBC facilitators, school based teachers and each other). The data showed that being members of the community triad enabled students to develop friendship and trust, which made working in collaborative school groups advantageous. The students said that the community triad supported their learning. The paper demonstrates that there are key components needed in order to implement a KBC in teacher education. The key feature highlights the importance of a structure to promote social interaction between the key stakeholders. When students are given the opportunity and support of the community triad, they can develop an ownership and responsibility for their learning. A key trait is the ability of the students to link theory to practice as well as developing an increased understanding about the culture of schools and the way that they operate.

KIG02379   [Paper]
Planning since Boxing Day: Addressing some of the perceived problems of beginning teachers

Julie Kiggins, University of Wollongong

Two recurrent themes emerge from studies that seek to follow-up graduates of teacher education courses. Many students report that they leave university with feelings of being under-prepared for life in classrooms and confused what confronts them when they arrive at schools. Secondly, the schools, which employ beginning teachers, report that a majority are unaware of how school and classroom cultures operate. Beginning teachers are often unable to see the connections between what they've studied at university and how that can be translated into classroom practice that produces effective student learning (MACQT, 1998). Research by Armour and Booth (1999) supported these themes when they reported that most schools who worked with final year primary education students felt that they needed more experience with the day-to-day operation of schools, and how the daily work of teachers relates to the culture of schools and classrooms. In 1999 the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong began an alternative model of teacher education known as the Knowledge Building Community (KBC) Project to address these issues. The NSW Training and Development Directorate of the Department of Education, and the NSW Teachers Federation supported the KBC Project. In December 2001 the pioneer students of the 1999 KBC cohort graduated. This paper sets out to examine the experiences of several of these students who have begun full time teaching in 2002. In particular it will seek to demonstrate how the students prepared for the start of the school year and how they coped with bridging the transition between the campus and the classroom.

KLE02231   [Paper]
Evaluating the work of teachers in Australian schools: Vision and reality

Elizabeth Kleinhenz and Lawrence Ingvarson, Australian Council for Educational Research, and Rodney Chadbourne, Edith Cowan University

Given the importance of effective teacher evaluation to successful teaching and learning, it is surprising that many of the research findings in this area are being ignored. Discredited procedures continue to survive and are even born again within reinvented systems of bureaucratic and corporate control.

This paper argues for an approach to teacher evaluation that reflects the findings of contemporary research. It falls into two parts. The first part reviews the relevant literature and distils some features and principles that underpin successful policy and practice. The second part draws on information from a research project, begun in 2000, that is investigating teacher evaluation in Australian state education systems. The "reality" of the current situation across Australia is assessed against the "vision" provided by the identified features and principles of good practice. In this way an attempt is made to discover how well Australia is being served by methods currently used to assess the work of its teachers. Finally, some directions are proposed for the future.

KNI02171   [Paper]    ®
Young people in education and employment: The data trail

Sally Knipe, La Trobe University

A loss of employment opportunities touches all aspects of the Australian labour market, and over the past thirty years those within the 15 - 24 year old age bracket experienced a downturn in the availability of full time work and this in turn impacted positively on the education and training sectors.

Throughout the changing relationship between young people and their participation rates in education, training and employment, governments have produced a plethora of reports examining various aspects of this relationship. Many of these reports have relied on national databases to provide statistical information on the level of involvement by young people in each of the sectors.

This paper presents findings from a study that has drawn together national data, published by various Australian government departments, on the education, training and employment rates of 15-24 year olds for one calendar year, 1998. The findings from this study illustrate that while it is possible to gain a sense of the general trends regarding young peoples involvement in each of the sectors, it is difficult to acquire a clear picture due to the incongruencies and anomalies that exist in the reporting between various databases, thereby creating an ambiguous picture of young people's participation rates.

KOO02139   [Paper]
The missing Critical Friends' voices: An angel's heart or a beautiful mind?

Marianne Koo, Hong Kong Institute of Education

The inclusion of Critical Friends in Action Research is often considered as providing a methodological warrant for the trustworthiness of the data and operating the study. Two Critical Friends, a male teacher educator and a female secondary school teacher were involved in the study which employed an Action Research approach as critical, collaborative and recursive. The details of their participation were well negotiated before the data collection period.

This paper is to examine the identity of Critical Friends in Action Research. On the one hand, the two Critical Friends tell their stories retrospectively in individual interviews. Summarising, reflecting and evaluating the research participation of these two Critical Friends are significant for enriching and refining the body of literature since the references of critical friendship in a Southeast Asian context are found almost missing. Moreover, the two Critical Friends are provided with opportunities for sharing the stories. Emerging themes from their narratives and conversations are analysed and reported. On the other hand, the researcher's ongoing reflections provide another window for reviewing the role and contribution of Critical Friends. All this may form a useful base for generating the identity of Critical Friends in Action Research and provides some methodological insights for cross-cultural investigations and gender awareness.

KOS02346   [Paper]
Teaching literacy in multicultural classrooms: Towards a pedagogy of 'Thirdspace'

Alex Kostogriz, University of Queensland

This paper explores the possibilities of what can be called a 'Thirdspace' pedagogy for ESL literacy education; one that interrogates some of the assumptions commonly held by politicians about the acquisition of 'cultural literacy' and, related to this, social, political and historical perceptions of cultural-linguistic difference. By drawing on the concept of 'Thirdspace', the paper seeks to challenge dichotomising and essentialising tendencies in thinking about the education of L2 learners, with the aim of locating literacy learning on the fault-line between cultures - in the space of radical openness. The 'trialectic ' of pedagogic spaces and the political strategy of Thirding in classroom communities of difference is examined, to suggest how this approach may be used productively in reconceptualising literacy pedagogy in/for conditions of multicultural life.

KOU02003   [Paper]
Science classroom learning environments in India

Rekha Koul and Darrell Fisher, Curtin University of Technology

For the first time in Jammu (India) multiple research methods from different paradigms were used in this interpretive study to explore the nature of classroom environments. A sample of 1,021 students from 32 science classes in seven co-educational private schools completed the questionnaire on What is Happening in My Class (WIHIC) and attitude scale. Data analyses supported the validity and reliability of the instrument when used in this context. Significant positive relation between WIHIC scales and attitude scale supports the predictive validity of the WIHIC. To identify which classroom environment scales contribute to the variance in student satisfaction, only three scales namely investigation, task orientation and equity were positively and significantly related to student's attitudes. The quantitative data provided a starting point from which other qualitative methods (such as interviews and observations) were used to gain a more in-depth understanding of the classroom environments there. An educational critique has been used to describe the social, cultural, economical and political factors that may be responsible for the present prevailing learning environments. The findings of quantitative data are supporting the findings of interviews and observations.

L

LAB02589   [Paper]   SYMPOSIUM 42
Service learning and efficacy for social engagement

Presenters:
Mark McFadden, Charles Sturt University and Australian Catholic University,
Elizabeth Labone, Kristin Johnston, Peter Howard, John Finneran and Jude Butcher,
Australian Catholic University,
Marilyn McMeniman, Griffith University,
Susan Groundwater Smith, University of Sydney,
Kay Martinez, James Cook University,
Karen Malone, Monash University and
Michael Bailey

The diversity of student backgrounds and the increasing number of students from low socio-economic areas requires teachers to have an understanding of students' worlds and to be committed to social justice in the school's structures and curriculum as well as in the life of the wider community. As such, community service learning in teacher education is becoming increasingly important. Yet social engagement with marginalised people, such as that experienced during community service learning, can be confronting as it is usually outside a person's previous life experiences. This symposium examines the role of community service and service learning within teacher education nationally and internationally. The key focus areas are:

• Community engagement and service learning - national and international perspectives
• Theory into action - Insights from case studies
• Student teacher individual and collective efficacy for social engagement

LAB02593   [Paper]
The role of teacher efficacy in the development and prevention of teacher burnout

Elizabeth Labone, Australian Catholic University

Teacher burnout is a significant problem within the teaching profession, yet investigations of burnout have not adequately addressed teacher beliefs that contribute to burnout, or strategies that build resilience in teachers. This study aimed to address these two issues through the investigation of the role of teacher efficacy beliefs in the development and prevention of teacher burnout. A two-phase research design addressed these issues. Phase one aimed to assess the predictive value of changes in personal teaching efficacy on the three dimensions of burnout over a period of three years, and to establish whether changes in personal teaching efficacy mediate the effects of organisational stressors on burnout. Phase two aimed to develop self-regulated use of a heuristic strategy with preservice teachers, to maintain or enhance their level of personal teaching efficacy. Analysis of the phase one models using LISREL found teacher efficacy to be a direct predictor of burnout and to also mediate the impact of key organisational stressors. Phase two results revealed significant gains in levels of efficacy for teachers who engaged in the strategy training. The paper reports on this research and discusses implications for building resilience in teachers through efficacy enhancement.

LEO02063   [Paper]
Student quality of primary school life: Some relationships

Carl Leonard and Sid Bourke, University of Newcastle

This paper presents the results of a study incorporating a multilevel analysis of student quality of school life differences between four primary schools and classes within these schools in the Lower Hunter Valley, NSW. The Quality of School Life scales (Ainley & Bourke, 1992) were administered in 2000 to 448 Year 5 and 6 students in the last weeks of Term 2 and again in Term 3. A causal model linking all components, namely the student and teacher background information, two measures of student and teacher absence, and the specific and general QSL scales, was hypothesised and developed for testing.

Results indicated that student perception of the quality of their school life in Term 2, student absence in Term 3, and to a lesser extent Term 2 provided the bulk of the explanation of variance in student quality of school life in Term 3. At the classroom level, student quality of school life in Term 3 was significantly related to class streaming, teacher years teaching, and Term 3 teacher absence, while at the school level, significant school differences were evident for various aspects of quality of school life and absence. Possible explanations of these relationships are discussed while implications including the apparent importance of positive peer relationships and an exciting and enjoyable curriculum in ensuring students have a high quality of school life are described.

LEW02507   [Paper]
Who'd be a teacher? The voices of year 12 students

Ed Lewis and Jude Butcher, Australian Catholic University

School education and the teaching profession are at crisis point in addressing issues of teacher supply and demand. Government and non-government school sectors are exploring new incentives for attracting people into teaching. As governments and society generally strive to address these issues and to enhance the public status of teachers it is important that the voices of prospective teachers are heard.

Butcher and Lewis (2000) surveyed Year 12 students about their views upon intending to become teachers. The students considering teaching exhibited a strong personal sense of efficacy and communicated socially orientated and altruistic reasons for becoming teachers.

The survey data showed differences across female and male students. Female students were more influenced by the notion of being able to help others, the security of employment offered by teaching and the attractive working hours and holidays. Male students were more influenced by status, salary and promotion and career opportunities.

This paper reports on the next stage in this study in which Year 12 students participated in focus group interviews so that the reasons and factors influencing their career choices regarding teaching could be studied at more depth.

LLO02042   [Paper]     ®
A community of teachers: Using Activity Theory to investigate the implementation of ICTE in a remote Indigenous school

Margaret Lloyd & Rebecca Cronin
mm.lloyd@qut.edu.au
bec.cronin@bigpond.com.au
School of Maths, Science and Technology Education
Faculty of Education QUT

In 2001-2002, an innovative project entitled Reach In-Reach Out has been conducted in Far North Queensland. Its aim was to use telecommunications and Internet tools to facilitate communication between the children of Lockhart River who attend secondary school in such centres as Cairns, Townsville and Herberton and their families. This study was the first (of three) to investigate the impact of this project. Its focus is on the teachers of Lockart River State School and the changes made to their practice by the implementation of the project.

The study described in this paper was conducted in Lockhart River which is situated on Kanthanumpu (Southern Kuuku Ya'u) land in Far North Queensland. The current population is estimated between 650 (Education Queensland, 2001a) and 800 (Lockhart River Land and Sea Management Agency, 2001) residents. The student population of Lockhart River State School in 2001was 26 (Kindy), 105 (Primary) and 30 (Alternate secondary/VET) programs) (Education Queensland, 2001a). At the end of 1999, the secondary school of Lockhart River was closed following a community decision to do so. This necessitated the majority of post-primary students having to leave Lockhart River to continue their education at boarding school. At the beginning of 2002, 38 students left the Lockhart River Community to attend boarding schools (and 8 remained to take part in the Alternate Secondary/VET program offered at the school). Table 1 details the secondary enrolments of Lockhart River students from 1998 to 2001, including the period covered by this study (2001).

LON02122   [Paper]
Rethinking peer teaching

Jeni Wilson, Sally Godinho, Graham Parr and Lynette Longaretti, The University of Melbourne

In order to better prepare student teachers there has been a shift away from teacher-centred pedagogies in pre-service education courses. A substantial peer teaching assignment is undertaken by students in the Bachelor of Teaching and Diploma of Education courses (primary and secondary) at the University of Melbourne. The process of peer teaching involves students working in collaborative teams to plan, teach and evaluate a lesson on a topic related to curriculum and teachers' work. The roles and the skills of students and teachers in this process require some rethinking. This paper will report on students' perspectives on peer teaching and learning, the related assessment and how these impact on their own learning.

LOV02282   [Paper]
Examiner comment on theses requiring resubmission

Terence Lovat, Allyson Holbrook, Sid Bourke, Kerry Dally and Gavin Hazel, University of Newcastle

Previous research on PhD examination found that much of the examiner comment on PhD theses was 'instructive', and could be divided into three categories of comment: 'formative instruction', 'prescription' and a non- prescriptive, general strand of comment best described as 'instructional commentary'. Moreover it revealed that most of the formative comment was negative or highly critical in tone. This paper takes the study of PhD examination further by investigating the differences in examiner comment on theses by the same candidate before and after major revision. The paper highlights changes in examiner tone and in the qualities of the revised and resubmitted thesis. Six student cases (18 reports) from one institution are the subject of the analysis (6% of the total sample). The paper also explores the role of the examiner as 'gatekeeper'. The paper is one in a series emerging from a larger mixed methodological study of examination undertaken by a team at the SORTI Centre.

LYN02030   [Paper]    ®
The scholarship of teaching: Risky business in ICT Education

Julianne Lynch, Judy Sheard, Angela Carbone and Francesca Collins, Deakin University

The idea of the scholarship of teaching was introduced by authors such as Boyer (1990) and Rice (1991). Since then a considerable body of literature has developed, discussing what the scholarship of teaching might look like, and how it might be encouraged. The scholarship of teaching has been described as including the activities involved in designing, implementing and evaluating teaching and learning, and associated dissemination activities. Over the last few years there has been a resurgence of interest in the role that scholarship might play in the promotion, recognition and reward of good university teaching. This paper presents qualitative data that were collected as part of a national study of the major university discipline of Information and Communication Technology. The data were used to generate a framework for describing the context of university teaching and for examining how conducive this context is to the scholarship of teaching. The framework comprises two domains: that of the individual teacher and that of the organisational environment. Components of the individual domain are orientation to risk and skills and knowledge. Components of the organisational domain are organisational culture and allocation of resources. The paper highlights the importance of, and interaction between, these four components, and the role they play in promoting or discouraging the scholarship of teaching.

LYN02031   [Paper]    ®
Re-visioning McLuhan: Electronic communication technologies and schooling

Julianne Lynch, Deakin University

In the 1960's, Marshall McLuhan predicted that schooling, among other things, would be transformed as society embraced electronic communication technologies. McLuhan and other medium theorists have provided the most evocative, and perhaps the most controversial, discussions of the effects of technological development on society and its institutions. McLuhan's ideas were widely criticised by his contemporaries, particularly educationalists; however, his ideas are not so radical today and visions similar to those of McLuhan can now be found in mainstream educational literature. Predictions made by medium theorists about the future of schooling are consistent with both the reforms advocated by current-day educationalists and the speculations of technologists.

In this paper, I revisit McLuhan's predictions for the future of education and the criticisms that they attracted. I then ask: What can we take from McLuhan today? And I propose that medium theory can help us explain teachers' responses to the new communication technologies currently being promoted in schools.

M

MAC02250   [Paper]    ®
Information and communication technologies: Institutional strategies revealed through a longitudinal case study

Lina Pelliccione and Geoff Giddings, Curtin University of Technology

Growing pressure is being placed upon educational institutions as students, employers and governments look at the economic, demographic and technological environments of the present, expecting them to have the answers for the future. Many institutions are turning to information and communication technology (ICT) for some of these answers. The focus of this paper is two fold - the use of ICT in teaching and learning by teaching staff within an Australian tertiary institution (Curtin University of Technology) and the mechanisms the University has established in order to realign themselves with the information age. At certain stages these two coincide to provide an insight into the organisational culture and teaching environment of one Australian University. This paper specifically reports on the relationship between the ICT behaviour of University teaching staff and the strategies used to implement the University's ICT strategic planning initiatives. The data revealed that a number of factors emerged which affected the adoption of ICT. These factors included: leadership across the university, attitude toward the use of ICT; the perceived benefits of adopting ICT in teaching and learning; incentives, modeling mechanisms, the provision of adequate support structures; the time factor; training; facilities and resources.

MAC02278   [Paper]
Problematising research about partnerships in curriculum leadership

Ian Macpherson, Tania Aspland and Eve Cuskelly, Queensland University of Technology

This paper is based on a year-long study in which four school sites theorised their development of outcomes-based curriculum frameworks at the local level. A number of lessons learned emerged from this study, among them, the importance of collaboration with partners both within each of the schools and their local communities and within the system and the wider professional community. There is research evidence which suggests improved learning outcomes through collaborative efforts. These efforts are characterised as partnerships in curriculum leadership.

This paper, then, proposes a theorised position about partnerships in curriculum leadership. A number of levels at which partnerships in curriculum leadership occur are identified and elaborated. Methodological possibilities for empirically-based research about partnerships in curriculum leadership across these levels are then considered.

The problematising relates to a decision-making base for choosing methodological approaches that are appropriate for such empirically-based research. A blending of phenomenography and case study within a broader Action Research framework is proposed.

The paper sits within the conference theme in that it develops on the assumption that partnerships as a phenomenon is something that is obviously valued in much of the futures-oriented rhetoric about education. However, what is problematic and uncertain is how partnerships in curriculum leadership are defined and operationalised beyond the rhetoric of policy documents and vision statements. There are also implications for considering the quality of partnerships in such a diversity of contexts and levels. The problematising regarding methodology is an element of this "problematic uncertainty".

MAC02279   [Paper]
Professional practice research: Conversations about the uncertainties

Ian Macpherson, Tania Aspland and Eve Cuskelly, Queensland University of Technology, and Ross Brooker, The University of Tasmania

This paper builds on the symposium presented at the 2001 AARE Conference in Fremantle. It proposes an expanded definition of professional practice research; it raises a number of ideas about professional practice; and it highlights the uncertainties associated with professional practice research by posing a series of questions; and it addresses these questions with reference to a range of examples of what the presenters characterise as professional practice research.

The definition of professional practice research is situated within an approach to Action Research which is critical, collaborative and reconstructive. The definition is as follows:

The paper reports conversations and incites further conversations about what are considered to be the problematics and uncertainties of professional practice research. These conversations are framed within the definition of, as well as the ideas and questions about professional practice research as outlined above.

MAK02629   [Paper]
Filling the void - the role of coaching centres in the 21st century

Anson Mak and Andy Mak, North Shore HSC Success College

As the Australian education landscape succumbs to globalisation, economic, social, and cultural changes, the role of coaching centres have aroused increasing interest in the Australian education setting.

Coaching centres are integral in filling a void that has arisen in response to this change. Education is not just about time spent at school but involves activities outside of school. Parents are an integral fulcrum in a child's upbringing. However, as adults work longer hours, increasing number of non-English speaking migrants emigrate to Australia and as parents have less time to spend nurturing their children, the education of children must continue to remain a priority and should not occupy a lesser priority in response to such changes. Less attention to children could lead to children developing poor learning habits, less enthusiasm at school, increasing propensity to play video games and watch television and lack of appreciation of the importance of education, other undesirable consequences and potentially a less prosperous nation in the long-run.

An investment in education is an investment in the child. A good education and learning support structure is fundamental to the upbringing of the child, their development, career and ultimately the prosperity of Australia. Just as sporting coaches offer support to and develop future sports persons, coaching centres fill a void, as a support structure, offering not only academic courses for student learning, but also other innovative courses to encourage critical thinking, competitions to reward excellence, development of effective study methods and exam technique, development of important skills, interaction with other students, sharing of ideas and a positive attitude to learning.

MAL02114   [Paper]   Part of Symposium 19
Redefining the early childhood profession: Bridging the great divide

Carmel Maloney and Lennie Barblett, Edith Cowan University

This paper addresses those issues recognised as perpetuating the divide between care and education. Whilst the OECD Report (2000) placed Australia at the crossroads in terms of the tensions reflected in the divide between care and education, it would appear that the gulf is widening rather than shrinking. Issues such as professional status and standing, working conditions, and training and qualifications are discussed. Data are drawn from a survey conducted with students enrolled in a Bachelor of Education (ECS) course. Students' perceptions of the major issues indicate that the divisions continue to be reinforced. This further highlights the need to redefine the knowledge base and practices of care and education to reflect quality preservice training and education which will provide a seamless approach to structures and practices.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 19 FLO02385 Revisioning the early childhood profession.

MAL02185   [Paper]    ®
Is schooling good for Indigenous children's health?

Merridy Malin, Northern Territory University

Overseas research has found a correlation between parental schooling and child and individual health, and between literacy levels and population health. Research in Australian Indigenous contexts does not point to such a straightforward connection. This paper will extrapolate to the Indigenous schooling context from correlational studies which implicate lack of control over destiny and social exclusion for poor health with stress hormones being the plausible pathway. Alternatively, 'social support' and certain cultural factors have been found to moderate stress. Revisiting data from two classroom ethnographies, I propose a scenario where the broader societal picture is lived out in the microcosm of the classroom. The degree to which Indigenous students are socially incorporated and supported within the organisation of the classroom could have significant implications for their health in the longer term. I will also bring attention to an innovative, Aboriginal controlled learning and community development program which fosters 'mastery,' 'social and cultural inclusion' and 'support' by bringing the family into the school.

MAL02419   [Poster Session]    Part of Symposium 22
Communicative musicality and infant directed speech

Stephen Malloch, Macarthur Auditory Research Centre

Insights into the musical nature of human communication and the disruptions to relationships associated with failure of 'musicality' are being applied to studying classroom communication. This paper reports an investigation into the musicality of effective and ineffective classroom communication in primary schools.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 22, SCO02417 Teachers' work and lives.

MAL02539   [Paper]   Part of Symposium 35
Hop Scotch versus Hip Hop: Questions of culture, power and resistance in school life

Karen Malone, Monash University

Culture here signifies the particular ways social groups live out and make sense of their given circumstances and conditions of life. It is defined as the set of practices, ideologies and values from which different groups draw to make sense of the world. Questions of culture and the value contributed to certain cultures over others help us to understand who has power and how it is reproduced and manifested in the social relations of schools and their communities. This paper explores the role of young people in negotiating the cultural terrain of schooling characterised by their varying degrees of accommodation, contestation and resistance. School life from this authors perspective is understood as a plurality of conflicting languages and struggles, a place where classroom and youth cultures often collide and where teachers, students and communities often differ as to how school experiences and practices are defined and understood.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 35, GAL02538 Negotiating the cultural terrain of schooling: Identity, agency and community.

MAN02172
The influence of current school reforms on experienced teachers' work and professionalism

Alison Mander, University of Southern Queensland

In a context of rapid educational change, in-service teachers are exhorted to be more professional, while at the same time they are asked to do more with less (Brendan Nelson, 2002). This paper investigates the work of a small number of experienced teachers from different school contexts and examines their beliefs and practices through the lens of school reform and the rhetoric of teacher professionalism. Data was collected from observations of these teachers at work, from detailed work diaries, focussed conversations and from a series of semi-structured interviews. The investigation showed that the complexity of teachers work is clear, and strategies of teacher resistance, compliance and differential coping were evident. A clearer understanding of the complexities of teachers' work is essential before a culture of change in schools can be effectively implemented. The role of teachers as drivers of change needs further investigation.

MAR02178   [Paper]
Structuring critical reflection in professional experience

Kay Martinez and Gail Mackay, James Cook University

Critical reflection persists as a widely advocated technique to bridge the theories-practices divide for teacher development. However, it is our experience that when teachers engage in critical reflection, the focus is often limited to intuitive responses or technicalities. Seldom is the focus on theoretical concepts of teaching and learning, and seldom are learners and learning outcomes at the center of teachers' considerations. Effective critical reflection is even more difficult for preservice teachers who are often overwhelmed by high-stake appraisal and by the wide range of knowledge and skills demanded by the exigencies of teaching.

In order to structure preservice teachers' critical reflections, a series of strategies for inclusion in the final year professional experience program were developed in collaboration with school-based teacher educators. This built on earlier research that redirected the focus of practicum supervision from exclusive consideration of developing teacher competence, to include a focus on classroom learners and their learning outcomes. In a classical critical reflection cycle, preservice teachers were required to collect data on learners and their evaluation of learning, and use those data to inform their own subsequent teaching practices. This paper is a report on research investigating participants' perceptions of the effectiveness of this structured learner-focussed process of critical reflection.

MAR02465   [Paper]    Part of Symposium 27
Do personal characteristics influence children starting school?

Kay Margetts, University of Melbourne

The influence of children's personal characteristics can influence how well they start school. This paper will report a study of 212 children after 9 weeks of schooling and the influences of age, gender, language spoken at home, and order of birth on their early social adjustment. Results are discussed in relation to teacher-rated levels of cooperation, confidence or assertion, and self-control. The importance of identifying particular sub-populations at risk of difficulties in these areas is identified and some implications for practice are addressed.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 27, MAR02464 Beliefs and backgrounds and starting school.

MAT02162   [Paper]
Teaching and assessing teamwork in students who are studying Bachelor of Laws legal research units

Dr Ben Mathews and Natalie Cuffe Queensland University of Technology

Despite being a necessary graduate attribute for workplace entry, tertiary legal education has historically ignored the task of developing in students the ability to work in a team. Recent attempts to encourage the development of this skill have failed because of several deficiencies: Students have not been given any preparation in how to work as a team member; students in 'teams' have not actively worked as members of a team; and there has not been any quality control process to ensure that students in teams actually do work as teams. As a result of these shortcomings, students have grown to dislike teamwork.

In this presentation we discuss the method used to prepare students for teamwork activities in a final year core research unitt in QUTs undergraduate law degree. We also present the method used to ensure that students actively work as teammates rather than as a collection of individuals, and we present the tool used to exert quality control over the entire teamwork process. We analyse empirical evidence from students about the success of their teamwork, and about their evolving self-perception and self-development, and their positive reception of the process.

MAT02380   [Paper]
Mentoring: Cornerstone of teaching and learning excellence

Pamela Matters, James Cook University

Mentors are appreciated within society and considered to be remarkable within their chosen fields. Long recognised as experienced others who assist neophytes (mentees) to enculturate themselves within a range of professions, their influence has been investigated, explained and recommended to colleagues and successive generations as a desirable asset to ensure the maintenance of exemplary professional standards, the continuation of the achievement of excellence and integration of new knowledge within diverse careers and workplaces. Until now little attention has been devoted to the powerful, enduring qualities of the types of learning which occur between mentoring dyads. Enhanced learning outcomes derived from mentoring experiences and demonstrated by mentors and mentees in workplace teams in a multiplicity of organizations has been ignored. Derived from recent doctoral research (Matters, 1999), this paper will delineate teaching strategies which are used effectively between mentoring pairs and detail enhanced learning outcomes which occur when the relationships mature and become up close and personal! The Millennium Mentoring Model generated by this study will be used to contextualise the types of teaching and learning found to be most influential and successful in education e.g pre-service interns, beginning teachers, aspirant and experienced principals; Pre-school - Y2 students and their grandparent mentors; Yr 10 adolescent females and accelerated university studies; drop out, "at risk" sixteen year old adolescent males and TAFE studies.

MAT02381   [Paper]
Internships: Effective transitions from pre-service to beginning teacher status within the teaching profession

Pamela Matters, James Cook University.

Internships are used to assist final year undergraduates in education to move smoothly from pre-service student to beginning teacher status. Diverse views concerning their efficacy abound. James Cook University (Cairns) Professional Experience Unit has completed its two year pilot study of its project based beginning teacher internships. Findings indicate that timing of the internships, their content, context, explication of professional standards and the attitudes and experience of co-teaching mentor colleagues have dramatic effects upon the success or otherwise of internship experiences. In this paper, case studies of project based pre-service teacher internships Pre-school to Y12 conducted after completion of final year teaching practica will be explicated with emphasis to be placed upon the collegial, community and contextual interactions which occurred and their contributions to our new knowledge of teacher education strategies designed to assist the retention of beginning teachers.

MAT02555   [Paper]
Disrupting notions of collaboration: The problematic engagement of museums and schools

Donna Mathewson and Penny McKeon, University of New South Wales

In investigating relationships between museums and schools, this presentation examines what is concealed within public discourse through an exploration of how implicit forms of power operate to create, maintain and silence barriers to engagement on the part of school-based educators. In the analysis extant research from the museum and education fields will be drawn upon and pertinent readings will be extracted to illuminate different conceptions of how interactions between museums and schools enact, construct, enable and constrain educational opportunities. Based on this analysis, suggestions are made for approaches to the development of museum/school relationships that make explicit the determining nature of social practices and increase the visibility of previously under-represented school-based perspectives.

MCC02344   [Paper]
Law, policy, practice: Is it working for teachers in child protection?

Faye McCallum, University of South Australia

Australia began to acknowledge the existence of child abuse and neglect during the 1960's which led to legislative reform and Australia signing the 'United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child' in 1981. In South Australia, compulsory reporting of child abuse and neglect was introduced in 1969 by amendments to the Children's Protection Act. Further amendments have been made but the current legislation of the Children's Protection Act, 1993, mandates certain professionals to report suspicions of child abuse and neglect to child protective services. On 25th march, 2002, in South Australia, it was announced that a review into child protection laws was to occur.

Teachers are listed as one of the groups of professionals mandated to report. However, research indicates that law, and the mandatory training that must be undertaken by all teachers, does not necessarily mean that it is effective in dealing with child protection issues in the classroom. This paper will report on the history of child protection law, the development of child protection policy in the education sector, and finally the impact and effects that child protection law and subsequent policy has for teachers involved in child protection prevention.

MCC02407   [Paper]   Part of Symposium 20
The reality of uncertainty: The plight of beginning casual teachers

Ann McCormack and Kaye Thomas, The University of Newcastle

Whether by choice or necessity, a significant number of newly qualified teachers are initially employed as casual teachers. This paper reports the experiences and concerns of teacher education graduates from a New South Wales university who entered the teaching profession as casual teachers. These perceptions are then considered by a focus group of teachers, university and NSW DET personnel as they offer suggestions for improving the preparation and induction of beginning teachers.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 20, THO02403 Professional support in the first years of teaching: Some perceptions of newly qualified teachers.

MCG02476   [Paper] - Part of Symposium 28
Community capacity building

Sue McGinty, James Cook University

It is important to recognize and acknowledge the relationship between low educational outcomes and poverty, poor health, overcrowded housing and poor access to government services and infrastructure. Just as important is the need to recognize that improved educational outcomes will go a long way towards addressing these severe social disadvantages. But education itself cannot solve these social issues in isolation. As community assets, schools are central to a community's learning and development, and therefore are best placed to provide a learning community that has the potential to build the capacity of the whole community to address collaboratively educational disadvantage. This research project examined current strategies and initiatives relating to whole-of-government approaches that impact on education. It case studied effective practices in establishing learning communities and the delivery of cross agency services in a collaborative and cooperative manner. This paper will present the results of this research project.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 28, MCG02472 Challenges and tensions in implementing current directions in Indigenous Education.

MCI02079   [Paper]   Paper 2 of Symposium 1
"We've changed the rules now": Counting and accounting for social justice in the devolved school

Peter McInerney, Flinders University of South Australia

How does a self managing school address the needs and aspirations of the most disenfranchised members of its community? What responsibilities should reside with the state and education centre in the quest for more equitable schooling outcomes? This paper explores the nexus between school-based management and socially just schooling. In the neo-liberal state a discourse on social justice is couched in language of 'parental choice', 'diversity' and 'equity standards'. Responsibility for addressing educational disadvantage has been devolved to schools through the mechanism of global budgeting, re-defining social justice solely in terms of new funding formulae and accountability mechanisms in the form of standardised testing regimes. There are disturbing signs that these measures are not working for the most marginalised students and that far too much is left to the integrity and hard work of principals, teachers and local communities. This paper highlights the struggles and tensions at the school level for more equitable schooling outcomes, and points to the need for a socially just bureaucracy to complement a socially just approach to local school management.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 1 SMY02077Guerillas in the midst: The struggle for a socially just approach to local school management.

MCI02517   [Paper]
Developing informal written computation

Alistair McIntosh, University of Tasmania

Recent Federal and state mathematics curriculum documents have shifted from a requirement that all students should learn the standard algorithms for the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to stating that all students should develop strategies for calculating mentally and should then acquire secure and understood, but not necessarily standard, written computation methods. While the move towards a greater emphasis on mental computation through the development of strategies is generally well developed in Australia, the implications of 'not necessarily standard written computation methods' has received very little attention. This paper describes preliminary work from a research project designed to explore the interface between mental computation and non-standard written methods. In particular the impact on teachers and students in grades 2 to 4 of at least delaying the introduction of formal written algorithms for addition and subtraction and the development of practical ways of building secure but informal written methods on children's mental computation strategies are described.

MCI02542   [Paper]    Part of Symposium 35
Re-imagining school-community relations: The case of Wattle Plains School

Peter McInerney, Flinders University of South Australia

Much is made of the importance of nurturing school-community relations. The Disadvantaged Schools Program was underpinned by a commitment to participatory decision making and a language of 'partnerships' and 'empowerment' seeps through rationales for devolved school systems. There is little doubt that the notion of school as a collaborative learning community (McRae, 1995) has entered the lexicon of educators alongside a contradictory model of the school as a business organization competing for customers in market economy. What is happening around the notion of school-community today? Is it possible for schools to contest the utilitarian and individualistic values of the neo-liberal state? How might schools develop an 'ethos of community' that strengthens social bonds and promotes democratic practices? This paper explores the metaphors in play around school-community (Hattam et al, 1999) and presents an account of a culturally diverse, working class school community that is striving to promote school-community dialogue and curriculum that is responsive to the cultural, social and economic concerns of the community.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 35, GAL02538 Negotiating the cultural terrain of schooling: Identity, agency and community.

MCL02596   [Paper]
Service learning: A new pedagogy for Australian teacher education?

Julie Hinde McLeod, The University of Newcastle

Service learning is a "pedagogical model that connects meaningful community service experiences with academic course learning" (Howard 1993) preparing teachers to "teach populations who are culturally and linguistically diverse and different from them" (Alexandrowicz & Kujawa, 1998).

Data from US indicates that service learning in pre-service teacher education programs supports the development of teachers' understanding of the multiple contexts of teaching and the diverse roles of the teacher.

The challenges of implementing service learning programs in the Australian context include the contextualisation of community networks and the role of community and university partnerships in the management and direction of the program. Within the university, implementation of such programs involves the articulation of links between multi-disciplinary theory and practice and cross discipline and faculty collaboration.

This paper examines the development of a service learning program within a Bachelor of Teaching/Bachelor of Arts degree preparing teachers for primary contexts.

MCL02637   [Paper]    ®
Researching quality: What does it mean for curriculum and assessment in E-Learning environments?

Catherine McLoughlin, Australian Catholic University

While the quality agenda has been embraced by tertiary education institutions and policy makers and research continues to proliferate, many practitioners are seeking quality guidelines that can be applied to the curriculum design in relation to online environments. The last decade has seen the convergence of traditional distance education with on-campus modes of delivery and work-based training signalling new models of flexible delivery. In addition, demand driven education accentuates the learner's role and needs while the teacher has become a manager, mediator and motivator of student learning. Issues raised by national and international bodies and quality assurance agencies now seem to be addressing the same questions. How can a teaching and learning process that differs so markedly from what has been practiced for hundreds of years maintain and support quality? Who will be the guardians of quality and the innovators of learning and assessment design?

This paper addresses current definitions of quality in curriculum design and examines emerging expectations of what constitutes appropriate online delivery and assessment. An exemplary learning environment web-based assessment framework are presented where learning is both interactive and product-oriented and involves learners in a 'participatory curriculum'. Directions for a future research agenda are presented

MCS02081   [Paper]
Academics' metaphors and beliefs about university teaching (and learning)

Kim McShane, The University of Sydney

University teaching is becoming more professional (Hativa and Goodyear, 2002); the discourse of 'the student experience' drives quality assurance processes, and lecturing staff are feeling compelled by institutional incentives and impositions to demonstrate improved curriculum and effective, efficient teaching. Cherished beliefs and teaching methods are changing. According to McWilliam and Palmer (1995), the certainty of 'standing and delivering' (lecturing) is coming to an end. How are academics experiencing these challenges to their teaching role and practices?

The qualitative research into academics' teaching beliefs and self-concept is meagre, with the most sustained research being the phenomenographic literature which attempts to identify and categorise lecturers' 'conceptions' of teaching. We know little about how academics actually see themselves as lecturers.

This paper discusses the teaching metaphors of a group of Australian academics who each teach in different disciplines and in online and face-to-face contexts. In the course of extended individual interviews with the researcher, the lecturer participants have shared images or metaphors that they believed represent them in their teaching role. In this presentation I will introduce the academics through their metaphors, before presenting an interpretive analysis of these images as a commentary on the online academic in the modern university.

MCW02254   [Paper]    ®
Danger and grieving in the university

Erica McWilliam, Queensland University of Technology, and Peter Taylor, Bond University

The purpose of this paper is to draw on understandings of danger and grieving as ways to make sense of academics' experience of change in the university. Following the anthropological work of Mary Douglas (1966), we theorise risk as 'danger' rather than 'odds'. We argue that the management of 'risk-as-danger' that is, the danger of waste, of failure, of lowering standards requires that all academics plug in to new systems of communication designed to minimise risk to the university as a large and complex organisation. This involves engaging with and valuing knowledge which is outside disciplinary know-how policy, marketing, ICT development, conflict resolution, and so on. Where academics experience a widening gap between their disciplinary 'know-how' and their 'professional expertise' (disciplinary know-how plus organisational know-how), it is possible that they will grieve the loss of their former claim to expertise. This grieving can appear to university managers to be a symptom of the refusal to change, rather than a part of the process of change. We argue that such grieving needs to be understood as more than simple resistance.

MID02618   [Paper]
Top of their class? On the subject of 'Education' doctorates

Sue Middleton, University of Waikato

Foucault's work has been taken up by many educational researchers.Foucault's 'data' included texts for professionals and administrators and the 'case records' of those who were objects of their surveillance, confinement, or regulation - as patients, prisoners, pupils, citizens, etc. This approach appeals to educationists who analyse documents.

Ethnographic projects are also increasingly based on Foucaultian concepts. Yet Foucault did not study 'living breathing persons', but rather the 'subject-positions' that apparatuses of administrative and professional surveillance, regulation and monitoring made available. He described his method, genealogy, as "a form of history which can account for the constitution of knowledges, discourses, domains of objects etc, without having to make reference to a subject..." Such concerns may seem the antithesis of methods such as life-history, a term that may seem to imply autonomous individuals engaged in processes of 'development.' If genealogy requires that we 'get rid of the subject itself' and life-history involves individuals' 'stories of the evolution of curiosity and attention', does a methodology that braids these together necessarily unravel into oxymoronic incoherence? This paper explores dissonances and affinities between life-history and genealogy in educational research. To illustrate, I discuss my recent project on New Zealand Education PhDs.

MIL02540   [Paper]    part of Symposium 35
Assuming an alias: Revealing student identities in schooling

Carmen Mills and Trevor Gale, Monash University

In this paper we examine the restructuring of students' habitus; specifically, the pedagogical messages of schooling that frame what it means to be identified as a student. Drawing on the voices of students from a secondary school located in a regional area of Australia, a township characterised by its high welfare dependency and indigenous population, we explore the tensions between how marginalised students see themselves, what some teachers want them to become, what other teachers expect them to become, and the regard held for the ways in which these students name themselves. In analysing student interview data, we suggest that some teachers are in the habit of attempting a transformation of students, projecting onto them identities without regard for the communities they embody. Others, however, are more concerned to transform schooling; to construct school-community relations that produce students 'as a fish in water', who do not feel the weight of foreign expectations as one might if removed from what is familiar, accommodating and secure. We conclude that for students to identify with schools in this way involves democratic conceptions of the relations between school and community; structures that produce a student habitus more in tune with their immediate social world.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 35, GAL02538 Negotiating the cultural terrain of schooling: Identity, agency and community.

MIZ02350   [Paper]    ®
Discourse structure as a component of comprehensible input

Tokuya Mizuno, Swinburne University of Technology

Since 1980s when Krashen (1982) first began to advocate the importance of comprehensible input in foreign language teaching, a substantial body of research has emerged to substantiate his claim. To date, the importance of comprehensive input has been attested to by numerous researchers investigating pedagogical strategies in a variety of teaching/learning environments, eg ESL classroom in Japan (Mizuno,1998), Spanish language classes in USA (Steele and Johnson, 2000), etc. Discussions of the latest pedagogical theories (eg Gillford and Mullaney,1999; Krashen, 2000) also focus on the importance of teacher input in the classroom. However, on the premise that language is being learnt primarily for the purpose of communicating with native speakers of that language outside the classroom, it is important to put the efficacy of classroom teaching/learning to the test. With this aim in view, this paper compares discoursal strategies of two speakers of Japanese interacting informally with a group of intermediate level learners of Japanese. The data are analysed for discourse features that aid learners' comprehension and ability to maintain conversation, in other words the desired comprehensible input on the discourse structure level.

MOC02157   [Paper]
Building knowledge, building professionalism: The Coalition of Knowledge Building Schools and teacher professionalism

Susan Groundwater-Smith (University of Sydney), Nicole Mockler (Loreto Normanhurst)

This paper will discuss the processes used to form the Coalition of Knowledge Building Schools under the auspices of the Centre for Practitioner Research at the University of Sydney. Currently six government and non-government schools are working together in the CKBS. They have defined as their purposes:

• To develop and enhance evidence based practice;
• To develop a knowledge building community using appropriate technologies;
• To contribute to the professional knowledge base with respect to educational practice; and
• To build research capability in member schools.

The processes which they aspire to adopt are:

• Developing new practitioner research methods;
• Sharing methodologies which are appropriate to practitioner inquiry;
• Engaging in cross researching in member schools;
• Considering forms of documentation;
• Reporting and critiquing research;
• Engaging in collaborative writing and reflection;
• Planning professional development to support practitioner research; and
• Considering ethics in practitioner research.

This paper will both report upon the progress of the formation of the coalition and the ways in which it can be said to be contributing to current and emerging notions of teacher professionalism.

MOC02328   [Paper]
A crisis of identity? Teacher professional identity and the role of evidence-based practice

Judyth Sachs and Nicole Mockler, The University of Sydney

This paper will investigate emerging notions of evidence-based practice in education in the context of changing and often conflicting agendas on the part of governments, systems, schools and teachers. Within this conflict, the relationship between teacher research/evidence-based practice and the development of a range of teacher professional identities will be addressed, particularly in the light of ongoing debate in Australia and elsewhere around the issue of professional standards and teacher professionalism. In particular, the paper will focus on teacher professional identities which involve an activist or participatory role for teachers and the ways in which different approaches to 'evidence' help and hinder their development.

MOR02051   [Paper]    ®
Structuring the curriculum for different years of undergraduate programs

Chris Morgan, Geoff Watson, Tony McKenzie, David Roberts and Kerry Cochrane, The University of Sydney

Undergraduate degree programs at universities are normally broken down into discrete units of study. It is usual for students to follow a pathway through their degree that commences with units specifically designed for new students. Those studies become their platform to move onto more intermediate level units before undertaking the more advanced units towards the end of their program. Little research, however, has been undertaken into how universities make their decisions about categorising the 'level' of each of their undergraduate units of study. This paper reports how an investigation of this and related issues in a faculty situation led to a national survey of current practice in the wider Australian university context.

The survey showed that levels of units are a commonly used means of constructing Australian university programs to guide and control the progression of students. Thus the classifying of levels is important for curriculum design, student unit selection, university teaching, and student progression. Despite this, the survey revealed that universities have not developed policies with explicit definitions of what these levels imply and that expectations are not clearly stated nor linked with educational theory. Some thoughts are developed in this paper to begin to address these challenges using the case study context of a faculty situation in which curriculum development requires a more structured approach to determine unit levels.

MOR02060   [Paper]    ®
Building rapport and motivating remote students through technological connections

Chris Morgan, The University of Sydney

Having rapport with and being valued by others within their learning cohort is a critical motivational element for many students. To achieve that while being geographically separated from others in their cohort presents particular challenges for educators. This paper explores the need for educators to develop strategies that can build personal bridges with their remote students and a case study is presented to dramatically illustrate the positive effects that can be achieved by utilising technology for such purposes. The findings from this case study have wide applicability as they suggest that students are more likely to complete their studies if they have a sense of commitment to others with whom they have bonded throughout the course of their learning experience.

MOR02216   [Paper] Paper 2: of Symposium 10
'Here be monsters': Emergent discourses of hybrid identity in students' hypertextual constructions

Wendy Morgan, Queensland University of Technology

It has been argued (Luke, 2002) that Critical Discourse Analysis needs to expand its range into studies documenting the more emancipatory use of discourses and genres which offer new forms of representation and identity. So too Janks in her keynote address to AARE in 2001 suggested that Critical Language Awareness teachers need to take their students beyond the cognitive and analytical into more playful, affective modes of engagement. Taking up these arguments, in this paper I first analyse a recent form of textual configuration literary (fictional, auto/biographical) hypertext which already deconstructs its own unitary meanings and discourses. I then explore the hypertextual representations of multiple, fragmented selves in the multimodal hypertexts of tertiary education students. Finally I trace the ways in which the practice of this electronic mode of collage leads many of the students beyond their reluctance to engage with poststructuralist discourses about textualised subjectivity while also noting the ways in which this textual practice may be recuperated for more traditional forms of self-representation, according to older discourses of identity.

MOR02365   [Paper]
Physical educators' perceptions about physical education: An analysis of the prospective and practising teacher

Philip Morgan, Sid Bourke and Kerry Thompson, University of Newcastle

Prospective teachers enter teacher training with a broad range of experiences affecting attitudes and beliefs about methods of teaching and the value of different subjects. The existence of quality physical education (PE) programs depends largely on the way PE is perceived and valued by those with responsibility for its teaching. This paper reports on the use of four constructs to measure both specialist (n=196) and non-specialist (n=485) teachers' attitudes and beliefs about the teaching of primary school PE. Data were collected from 570 preservice teachers in 2nd, 3rd and 4th year at the University of Newcastle and 111 inservice teachers from state and private schools within New South Wales. The interaction between gender, year level and specialisation was investigated for each attitudinal measure. As hypothesised, non-specialist teachers had significantly lower scores on all measures than specialists. However, post-hoc examination revealed a contrasting pattern of attitudinal development from preservice to inservice. Although non-specialist scores for all constructs were higher for more advanced cohorts in preservice education, their scores were consistently lower at the inservice level. Conversely, specialist scores were higher through preservice to inservice. Gender differences also emerged. The relevance of these findings to teacher educators and the importance of continuing professional development for inservice teachers will be discussed.

MOS02115   [Paper]
"I do lots of things that the University would not approve of": Teacher educator perceptions of pre-service teacher professional knowledge

Julianne Moss, University of Melbourne and Mary Fearnley-Sander, University of New England

This paper reports recent research on teacher educator perceptions of the take-up by beginning teachers of values and practices advocated in pre-service education. Methodologically grounded in a critical ethnographic account, two teacher educator/researchers retell their understanding of the one-month experience as middle school classroom teachers in an allocated urban school. The paper examines the consequences of what counts as professional knowledge in the eyes of pre-service and beginning teachers and the implications of the encounter for the role of teacher educators in pre-service preparation. The purpose of the research is to consider the well-researched issue of the rejection of academic training (to greater or lesser extents) that is experienced by very many pre-service and beginning teachers at some stage after experience in schools. As an exemplary colleague teacher said to us as we negotiated our participation in the school: "I do lots of things that the University would not approve of". Our argument is that teacher education needs the kind of participatory inquiry represented by the undertaking and methodology of this project.

MOS02453   [Paper]
Phenomenology: Discovering new meanings of pedagogy within the lived experience

Willemina Mostert, University of Southern Queensland

Teachers in Education Queensland (E.Q.) schools are currently being challenged to examine their pedagogy with the view to raising the quality of classroom learning experiences and enhancing student learning outcomes. This paper will explore phenomenology as a methodology to explore the phenomena of teaching and teacher pedagogy in E.Q. schools. It will present an alternate view of pedagogy through the phenomenological lens of West European educational thought of the era 1940-1970. In this context pedagogy will refer to the activity of teaching, parenting, educating or generally living with children, that requires constant practical acting in concrete situations and relations. (Van Manen, 1990 p.2)

This paper will propose that phenomenological pedagogy, in taking us to the lived experience of teachers in their classrooms, will allow teachers to discover new meaning about themselves as teachers and their pedagogy in their lifeworld. It will be suggested that this inquiry may be facilitated through the Schoolwide Pedagogy (SWP) element of the IDEAS Project currently available to E.Q. schools.

This paper will report on the work-in-progress of a school-based learning circle of classroom teachers exploring the lived experience of aspects of their personal pedagogy through phenomenological inquiry. This learning circle is in dialogue with leading human science researcher Max van Manen (University of Alberta, Canada).

MUN02359   [Paper]
The messy space: Research into student engagement and the social relations of pedagogy

Geoff Munns, University of Western Sydney, Mark McFadden, Charles Sturt University and John Koletti, Carramar Public School

This paper recognises the important continuing contributions that the 'sociology of pedagogy' can make within current theoretical and empirical work into productive classroom pedagogies. It reports on research into student engagement in a primary school in Sydney's South West. The research forerounds the voices of both students and teachers as they explore the discourses and pedagogic spaces of their classroom experiences. In particular this research looks keenly to the insights provided by students to construct clearer solutions to the challenge of providing engaging pedagogies.

MUR02021   [Paper]
Professionalism and teacher educators: The gender politics of pedagogy in initial teacher education

Jean Murray, Brunel University

This paper focuses on the place of pedagogy in teacher educators' constructions of their professionalism. Case studies conducted in two different Departments of Education within English Universities show teacher educators resisting changes to their established pedagogical practices. On first sight the resistance seems superficial and unnecessarily defensive in the face of pragmatic changes which, ironically, are designed to decrease the amount of teaching the tutors need to undertake. But analysis shows that the established ways of teaching and the discourses underlying them are at the heart of personal professionalism for the tutors interviewed.

The paper uses a theoretical framework derived from the work of Bourdieu to argue that the tutors' constructions of professionalism are influenced by both gendered, pastoral discourses within the field of Initial Teacher Education (ITE), and their habitus as individuals who commenced their teaching careers in the primary school sector. The paper analyses some of the tensions resulting from conflicts between these gendered constructions of professionalism and the changes in teaching methods enforced at both universities.

MUR02024   [Paper]
Teacher education students' knowledge about how class discussions help them to learn

Rosalind Murray-Harvey, Michael Lawson and Helen Askell-Williams, Flinders University

Self-regulatory perspectives of learning imply that students need to possess knowledge about 1) themselves as learners, 2) how to build effective knowledge structures, and 3) how to further develop and apply their knowledge. In a teacher education context we would hope that students would be able to explicitly articulate such knowledge, not only in relation to themselves as learners, but also as potential teachers of other learners. This paper describes one part of a study that sought to investigate pre-service teachers' knowledge about learning. We asked final year Bachelor of Education students to provide a short written answer to the question, "What happens in your university classes that helps you to learn. "The students' most frequent response was, "Discussions." We then conducted follow up interviews where students elaborated upon their written responses. We created a framework for analysing students' responses based upon principles of classroom climate, motivation, self-regulation and psychological- and social-constructivism. We draw conclusions about 1) the value of discussions as a teaching and learning technique, 2) the quality of participants' knowledge about how discussions help them to learn, and 3) the implications of participants' knowledge about discussions for their future roles as teachers.

MUR02145   [Paper]    ®
Teaching primary principals: Their issues, challenges and concerns

Daryl Murdoch and John Schiller, The University of Newcastle

Limited research has been conducted into the teaching primary principalship in Australia as the focus has tended to be on full time school principals. It has often been assumed that principalship role in smaller primary schools is a 'scaled down' version of a full time primary principalship and that similar leadership and management approaches apply. There is limited recognition of the unique challenges of teaching primary principals who have the dual roles of school management and classroom teaching responsibilities in devolving school systems. A mixed method research design was developed to explore the current issues, challenges and concerns of teaching primary principals in three school systems in New South Wales. In-depth interviews with teaching primary principals informed the development of a survey which was forwarded to Department of Education and Training, Catholic and Seventh-day Adventist teaching primary principals in New South Wales. The paper will explore results which indicate that teaching primary principals face heavy workloads and role conflict resulting in guilt and frustration as they endeavour to cope with the dual roles of teaching and administration. Teaching principals maintain a strong classroom focus and adopt a unique 'situational' approach to management. Issues of adequate administration release time, isolation, professional preparation and support, capacity for instructional leadership, and career advancement are compared across school systems.

N

NAJ02039   [Paper]    ®
Learning science concepts in a secondary school classroom environment in Papua New Guinea

Samuel Najike, Campbell McRobbie and Keith Lucas, Queensland University of Technology

This paper reports part of a wider study that investigated classroom-learning environment, and the enacted teaching and learning practice in a Grade 9 high school science classroom in Papua New Guinea. Findings from the study revealed that the informal traditional practice of teaching and learning in Papua New Guinea differed significantly from the modern approach adopted by the country based on imported models from the West. There was evidence to show that the informal traditional teaching and learning practice in Papua New Guinea of "story telling" and "apprenticeship style" models did not readily facilitate learning for understanding and students taking responsibility for their own learning. Accordingly, there were conflicts in students' roles as learners between the new approach and the traditional expectations of students which impeded progress in learning. The study recommended that in order to maximise students' learning and understanding of science concepts in the Papua New Guinea classroom observed, cultural sensitivity should be incorporated in the pedagogy.

NAY02415   [Paper]
Socially just pedagogy: Exploring the spaces

Jenny Nayler, University of Southern Queensland

This paper reports on the methodology and early findings of the research project, Socially just pedagogy: Exploring the spaces. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to examine methodological approaches to encourage practising teachers to explore their practice and to consider some of the early findings.

The purpose of the research is to investigate the discourses that promote or inhibit socially just pedagogy. The theoretical framework on which the research is based acknowledges the importance of modernist-influenced critical pedagogy, while highlighting problematic aspects that are addressed, to some extent, by post-structural and feminist theorising. The fieldwork consists of three main phases: a forum, a series of two focus groups and subsequent substantive conversations. The data are re-presented in narrative form and then analysed in terms of the discourses that promote or stymie socially just pedagogy. Early indications, not surprisingly, are that some teachers view pedagogy in technical ways, while others see it as a much more emancipatory agenda. It is the discourses which shape these views that are of greatest interest.

NG02462   [Paper]
Relations among motivational beliefs, self-regulation and learning outcomes: A longitudinal study

Chi-hung Ng, Open University of Hong Kong

The study reported in this paper investigated the complex relationships between motivation and cognition of university students in a distance learning mode. Using questionnaire items adapted from established self-report instruments, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and Study Process Questionnaire, distance learners' motivational beliefs (achievement goals, efficacy beliefs, control beliefs and intrinsic values), self-regulated learning (time management, effort management, help-seeking, self-regulated strategies), and learning strategies (deep, achieving and surface) were assessed. Distance learners' attitudes towards the course (enjoyment and values) and their course results were taken as the indicators of learning outcomes. In total, 1200 distance learners studying at a distance learning university were asked to complete two survey questionnaires sent at the beginning and near the end of the academic year. Valid cases available for analysis consisted of 431 students who responded to both surveys. Results showed that mastery goals and efficacy beliefs were the most important variables predicting the use of different forms of self-regulated and learning strategies both at the beginning and near the end of the academic year. The findings of this study were discussed in light of self-regulated learning in distance education.

NG02463   [Paper]    Part of Symposium 32
A sociocultural analysis of evolving motivation in the study of computing knowledge and skills

Chi-hung Ng, Open University of Hong Kong

Within the cognitive paradigm, learning motivation is often investigated either as antecedents to or consequences of learning using standardized self-report instruments. Such conceptualization often fails to capture the developmental nature of motivation and loses sight of the possible impact of different contextual influences originated from the social milieu in which learning occurs. Drawing on sociocultural theories concerning social interaction and learning, this study provides evidences showing how motivation to learn is developed through collaborative participation in learning, and therefore, forming an inherent part of the learning process. The learning experiences of a selected group of elderly learners studying computing knowledge and skills at a social centre were described. Data generated from classroom observation, interviews and survey were used to develop a model of evolving motivation that explains how this group of anxious novices has gradually developed into motivated experts capable of showcasing their computing achievement to the public in various occasions. The model highlights the significance of scaffolding derived from the extended social network in helping elderly learners make sense of their learning and develop lasting interest in computing.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 32, MAC02528 Motivational change in social contexts.

NIC02194   [Paper]    ®
Interpreting teacher talk in culturally diverse schools: The significance of critical realist and social constructionist understandings

Helen Nicolson, Queensland University of Technology

This paper details the critical realist and social constructionist understandings underpinning the analysis of teacher talk in classrooms and interviews in culturally diverse schools in low socio-economic communities. Critical realist and social constructionist perspectives are not normally used together to provide a context for research design. This paper describes the features of both perspectives and the tensions between them. Despite these tensions, the critical realist and constructionist frameworks were relevant to the analytic method for examining the talk in interviews and in English lessons. Using examples from the data set, which included teacher professional talk in the research interviews and in lessons, the talk is analysed using ethnomethodological tools and related to a Bernsteinian theoretical framework on classroom practice. Through these examples, the critical realist and constructionist concepts underpinning the analytic process in this research are made evident and shown to be relevant.

NOO02457   [Paper]
Pedagogical relationships: Unfolding possibilities

Genevieve Noone, University of New England

I believe that the main aim of education is to assist children to develop to their full potential: to become 'the best people that they possibly can be' ('Neville' 2001, personal communication, 13 August). But what is 'the best'? What is our human potential? David Bohm (1996:94) believes that, despite current cynicism and pessimism, 'the human race has great possibilities', and that we need to contemplate what our potential might be.

My current research is a study of the nature of the pedagogical relationships between children and community members in a primary school. The study aims to discover the nature of these pedagogical relationships; the possibilities and potential. I have used the philosophy of phenomenology as explicated by Max van Manen (1997) to inform my methodology. He proposes phenomenological research as an appropriate methodology for studying pedagogical relationships, as it has, as its ultimate aim, 'the fulfilment of our human nature: to become more fully who we are'(p.12). The study has employed the analytical processes of poeticisizing, dramatizing, performing, dialoguing, dwelling, and writing to discover some of the possibilities of these relationships. In this presentation I will present an overview of the methodology of this research, discussing the data it produced and the processes employed in the phenomenological analysis.

NOR02305   [Paper]    ®
Feedback, scaffolding, syntactic structure and an ILS algebra tutor

Stephen Norton, Tom J Cooper and Campbell McRobbie, Queensland University of Technology,

The support for the use of computers in teaching and learning is widespread. Some educationalist say that the most powerful use of computing technology is as a tool for cognitive amplification or to enable students to explore mathematical concepts, and through this exploration construct mathematical understandings. Others note that the increasing power of computers enables them to exhibit artificial intelligence that can be used as surrogate tutors of mathematics. The most recent of such programs are Integrated Learning Systems (ILS) that present lessons, assess student responses and provide remedial feedback as well as monitor student progress. This study examines how a student used the feedback and cognitive scaffolding potential of a new generation ILS algebra tutor, The Learning Equation, in her learning. It was found that the student did not follow the carefully constructed intended sequence of learning provided by the ILS. However, she used a just-in-time approach to accessing feedback and a reliance on syntactic structure that enabled her to use the software in a way that accounted for most of her cognitive support needs.

O

OBR02357   [Paper]
"School is for me": Student engagement and the Fair Go Project

Mary-Lou O'Brien and Kerry Johnson, NSW Priority Schools Funding Program, and Justine Lawson, University of Western Sydney

This paper reports on a research collaboration between the NSW Priority Schools Funding Program and the School of Education and Early Childhood Studies, University of Western Sydney. The research partnership, the Fair Go Fair Share Fair Say Fair Content Project (Fair Go Project), has been established to explore, evaluate and describe in detail the kinds of classroom pedagogies that bring enhanced outcomes for educationally disadvantaged students in primary schools. The theoretical and empirical foundations of the research are that student engagement is a pivotal element in classroom pedagogies, both determining and illuminating the quality and effect of student outcomes. In this sense engagement is not narrowly defined as on-task behaviour, but has a wider sense that students feel that school and education is "for them". For students in NSW Priority Schools Funding Program Schools, this feeling is of critical importance to their future educational identities. Student self-assessment and therefore student voice is utilised as an important way to explore engagement.

OBR02638   [Paper]    ®
New pedagogies in the knowledge society: Why this challenge is an epistemological one

Mia O'Brien, University of Queensland

As Australian higher education continues to evolve within an era of unprecedented change, academic professional development needs are becoming increasingly multifaceted and complex. Recent notions of 'new pedagogy' and 'the knowledge society' reflect a contextual and conceptual shift that places fresh demands and new dilemmas upon university teaching, curriculum development and program design. In particular, the question of how we conceptualise knowledge within the growing number of cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary fields continues to challenge our epistemological and pedagogical understandings.

This discussion paper outlines some of the issues arising from these trends, and will outline the implications for reflective practice and professional development. It will draw upon recent research on teacher epistemology and the nature of knowledge in professional practice, to problematise this trend.

In doing so, several questions are raised for consideration and exploration:

• What are the epistemological implications that underpin the growing concern for universities to provide 'work-ready' graduates'
• How do we conceptualise knowledge in an era of cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary fields of application'
• Given the curricular and pedagogical challenges we currently face, and how do we respond effectively to them'
• What are the implications for our theories of practice, our epistemological understandings and our personal philosophies of teaching'

The paper concludes by examining the broader issues for academic professional development as an ongoing concern for staff development, and for conceptualising quality of teaching within revised understandings of quality in curriculum and learning experiences in higher education.

OLI02625   [Paper] Paper 7 of Symposium 13
Bodily knowledge, culture and schooling

Kimberley Oliver and Rosary Lalik, University of Georgia

This session will centre attention on how culture, mediated by schooling, shapes girl's attitudes towards their own and others' bodies. It will raise important questions relating to race and racism in the curriculum and highlight both the limits and possibilities of interventions and action for social and cultural change.

OME02006   [Paper]    ®
Designing a research agenda to examine the implementation of the heath and physical education curriculum standards framework II

James O'Meara and P Swan, University of Ballarat

When researching the implementation of any curriculum, is it realistic to expect that a research agenda can be generated that will lead to a 'theory' capable of predicting the outcomes of future reforms? The conference paper documents an ongoing research project examining the implementation of the Health and Physical Education Curriculum Standards Framework II into Victorian secondary schools. The project examines the ability of a scientific model (Bernstein's Pedagogic Device, 1993) to predict human behaviour during this reform. An absence of Victorian data was the justification for the case study. The research design replicates a previous study (Marsh 1987), however the inclusion of qualitative data and the examination of 'Invigoration Configurations' represent significant extensions to the original work. During the presentation, some possible effects of an 'outdated' paradigm' on an investigation of a 'Living System', such as a school, will be discussed. In questioning the predictability of reform outcomes that are reliant upon a teacher's actions, the terms 'theory' and 'theorizing' are compared and contrasted. The expected outcomes of the research are enhanced reform fidelity levels and a reduction in the frequency of future curriculum reform efforts.

ORE02020   [Paper]
Competition, fair play, and morality in secondary school physical education: New meaning for old games

Ellen Singleton, University of Western Ontario

It is the purpose of this paper, through an examination of the commonly accepted moral structure of fair play, to interrupt the assumptions of immutability and inevitability surrounding the presence of competition in the secondary level school physical education class experience. In doing so I attempt to call into question the masculinist assumptions of dominance, power, and control often associated with competitive team sport that have been unquestioningly attached to even the most innocuous team activity. I argue that it is possible that these practices, when supported by notions of fair play that exclusively emphasize strict adherence to game rules, are largely responsible for unethical student/player behaviour. Finally, using recently collected research data from interviews with female physical educators, I discuss the possibility of understanding competition and fair play in a different way. Rather than connecting fair play exclusively with an ethic of justice focused on rights and rules, it may be useful and productive to think of fair play and competition in terms of an ethic of care, one that highlights relationships and responsibilities, and encourages students to develop moral behaviour that fosters the production of a social web of relations for one another as they play.

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PAR02351   [Paper]
Presenting ADHD through a theory of inhibition and self-regulation: A call for identification and management skills

Jennifer Parker, University of Southern Queensland

This paper offers educators the most recent development of research into ADHD through a current theoretic discovery that characterizes ADHD as a problem in inhibition and self-regulation of executive functions. Impairment in these higher thinking areas has been described as the most crippling and often the most intractable of disorders, as executive functions deal with how or whether a person goes about doing something, not in terms of what they can do or how much they know. In linking ADHD to deficits in executive functions, a heightened understanding is gained of this disorder.

This presentation aims to identify the salient features of Barkley's theory of Inhibition and Self-Regulation and present practical implications for assessment and management through this view. Examples of executive dysfunction observed in ADHD participants during recent research at the University of Southern Queensland will be offered to illuminate specific problems in the classroom. Links will be drawn between Barkley's theory and significant features of these cases to substantiate the teaching recommendations that will be offered.

PEE02345   [Paper]
Changing culture, changing practice: Overseas born teachers in Victoran educational contexts

Eleanor Peeler, Monash University

The nature of teachers' work extends beyond the school to encompass social and political aspects of their lives. Migrant teachers who work in local educational contexts face vague, abstract, and culturally laden concepts often unfamiliar to them. Such knowledge embraces intuition, sentiments and values that are innate and unspoken within educational communities, and for migrant teachers new to this system of education it is unfamiliar, unknown and mysterious. In their teaching roles and in broader sociocultural contexts of their lives migrant teachers negotiate tensions between their former ways of knowing and acceptable local practice. Consequently their perceptions of selfhood as a person and as a teacher are in a constant state of flux as they navigate two systems of knowledge and undergo pressures to adapt.

This paper discusses the experiences of two migrant teachers and explores tensions in perceptions of their identity as a person, as a member of their educational community and as a teacher in both their former and current teaching contexts. It is part of a larger study that adopts narrative interview methodology to explore shifts in their self-perceptions, the changes that occur in their understandings, and the implications of these in their professional development.

PEN02258   [Paper]
Sport Education in Physical Education: An exploration of place, purpose and pedagogy

Dawn Penney, Loughborough University, and Ross Brooker, University of Tasmania

Amidst the sustained international development of Sport Education it has frequently been stressed that Sport Education should not be seen as either equivalent to or a replacement for physical education. Yet, both research and professional debates have largely addressed Sport Education in isolation, such that how Sport Education should be developed and positioned in pedagogical terms within the subject (or learning area) remains unclear. This paper seeks to extend debates by critically exploring a number of key questions centring on issues of pedagogy that it seems essential to address if the potential contribution of Sport Education to physical education is to be realised. It specifically considers the parallel developments that Sport Education needs to inter-relate with if the physical education curriculum as a whole is to succeed in promoting the full range of learning that it is associated with and/or formally required to address. Discussion focuses on the proposal that Sport Education should be viewed and developed as one of a number of pedagogical frameworks that need to feature in teaching and teacher education in physical education, and the ways in which different frameworks may be most effectively combined.

PEN02298   [Paper] Paper 6: of Symposium 13
Policy, pedagogy and the politics of the body and health

Dawn Penney and Jo Harris, Loughborough University

This paper will interrogate ways in which 'the body' and health have been represented and constructed through contemporary policies relating to physical education and health in schools. Focusing on England but drawing on comparable developments elsewhere, it will explore the discursive boundaries inherent in 'official' texts and in teachers' texts arising in implementation; the origins of the boundaries identified; and their implications for children's developing understanding of healthy activities and healthy bodies. In so doing it will highlight the key linkages between the texts and contemporary educational and sporting agendas. Finally it will consider the role of pedagogy in challenging current boundaries of legitimate knowledge and extending understandings amongst teachers and pupils about bodies, health and physical education.

PET02043   [Paper]
Getting started: Initiating partnerships for success or failure

Judy Peters, University of South Australia

The initiation phases of many school/university research and development partnership projects are often hurried affairs because time-lines for funding have to be met. As a result participants often have little time to engage in processes of consultation and equitable selection. Nor are they able to negotiate processes for democratic management, mutually beneficial priorities, goals and expectations or compatible views of teaching, learning, research and partnership. This paper draws on research that shows that these aspects have a significant impact on the success of partnerships. It suggests that the initiation phases of partnership projects need to be more carefully structured to meet a range of conditions that enable the foundations to be carefully laid.

PET02044   [Paper]  ®
Anticipating the problems and uncertainties of research and development partnerships

Judy.Peters, University of South Australia

This paper reports on the findings of PhD research into the conditions that supported and hindered the achievement of expectations in a school/university research and development partnership. It presents a framework for anticipating the personal, structural and cultural conditions that are influential in three phases of partnership projects: 1) the initiation phase; 2) the implementation phase; and 3) the reviewing outcomes phase. It explores a number of themes that are interwoven with these conditions: ownership; the affective dimension; time and workload; views of teaching, learning and research; and professional development and educational change through partnershi ps. A series of recommendations is made for improving future school/university research and development partnerships.

PET02184   [Paper]    ®
Gender in communication: Micropolitics at work

Carole Peters, Murdoch University

Although interpersonal and relational skills are clearly relevant to successful performance in many jobs and roles, there is evidence that these skills are not valued in the same way as technical skills (Cleveland, Stockdale & Murphy, 2000) or the skills of self-promotion and 'managing up'. The label 'women's work' is often linked to interpersonal competence with an accompanying negative impact and devaluing effect. In this paper I look at some of the themes emerging from the literature on gender and communication as part of a small project to develop a series of workshops on communication within a university workplace. Difference discourses and leadership styles, a peak masculinist culture and socialization patterns are discussed. Traditional values and perceptions of merit are questioned. My search and interpretation of the literature was influenced by the insights I gained through interviews with seventeen women who chose to leave leadership and management positions in a large educational bureaucracy (PhD research in progress). The stories of their experiences, interpreted from a feminist perspective, revealed the micropolitical processes at work as they disrupted a management hierarchy embedded in tradition and comfortable with 'the way we do things around here'.

PRE02416   [Paper]    Part of Symposium 32
Research in your own backyard: Recognising assumptions and redefining identities

Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn and Erica Sainsbury, University of Sydney

To a teacher or lecturer, a classroom is familiar turf. Many practices are taken for granted and rarely questioned by the students or teacher. When the classroom becomes the context for a research project, however, the teacher often doubles as researcher. The teacher/researcher already has an established identity and roles in the field and while there are benefits to such insider knowledge, the challenge exists in seeing the familiar site through new eyes. This challenge is shared by the students as they negotiate the multiple roles that the researcher will play. Studies of student learning and motivation from a sociocultural perspective are facing such challenges as research is increasingly conducted in real-life classroom contexts over time.

Following a literature review of research in familiar settings, this paper draws on two research projects, one conducted in a primary classroom and the other in a tertiary institution. Aspects such as the researcher's construction of self and the nature of multiple identities, the making of the familiar strange, the revelation of the concerns and aims of the project to participants and the impact of the research on the field site will be considered. Strategies used to address and manage these issues will also be discussed, so that an integration of theoretical and practical concerns is achieved.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 33, WAT02533 Motivation, learning and participation.

PRI02475   [Paper]    Part of Symposium 28
Teacher Education

Kaye Price, Australian National University

Without quality teacher training, both pre-service and in-service, teachers will not be adequately prepared to teach Indigenous learners within diverse settings. The failure to provide teachers with the understanding, skills and confidence to teach across cultures results in teachers struggling to adopt culturally inclusive, appropriate and effective approaches to teaching, In addition, teachers need ongoing support, leadership and professional development if they are to adopt productive pedagogy and effective teaching and learning strategies and ultimately achieve equitable and appropriate learning outcomes for all students. This research project examined current programs in teacher education and on-going professional development in Queensland. All eight Queensland universities and twenty three schools across State, Catholic and Independent schools were included in the study. This paper will present the results of this research project.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 28, MCG02472 Challenges and tensions in implementing current directions in Indigenous Education.

PRI02553   [Paper]
The role of schools in the enhancement of social tolerance and cohesion

Warren Prior, Deakin University and Suzanne Mellor, Australian Council for Educational Research

It is generally assumed that education will be good for a country and its inhabitants. But if the educational experience does not support those aspects of a culture the inhabitants believe to be most important, it does not contribute to social cohesion. Societies adjusting to 'modern' forces, question the 'benefits' of education, when they have poorly-funded, centralised education systems, uneven access to schooling, and where student progress is determined by academic exams and post-school employment options are few. In such circumstances, citizens are uncertain how to use education to cohere their culture and society.

This World Bank funded consultancy project sought the views of citizens of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu on the role of schools in maintaining culture and in promoting social tolerance and harmony. Researchers also developed an educational framework for promoting social cohesion and democratic participation in schools in the Pacific region.

This presentation will consider :

• The context of the study in the Pacific region
• Research and the World bank
• Issues associated with case study research
• Case study findings
• The educational framework developed.

Q, R

RAD02070   [Paper]    ®
The economy of uncertainty, marketisation and the direction of educational change

Helen Raduntz, University of South Australia

The paper argues that while the experience of uncertainty is universal in times of radical social change, in the current era of capitalism's globalisation it is in fact the latest expression of an inherently unstable and volatile capitalist market economy the source of which can be traced to its inner contradictions driven by the imperative to maximise and expand profit. This makes problematic the future development of education as it is integrated through marketisation into a market regulated economy which seeks not only to expand its regime globally but also to penetrate almost all areas of social life, particularly education on which it has become increasingly dependent. In order to analyse the dynamics involved in which education is being shaped for an economy of uncertainty a contemporary Marxian critique is employed from the materialist historical standpoint which draws on Marx's foundational critique of capital to show why uncertainty is a vital stimulus to capital growth and how this is currently determining the direction of educational development. The study highlights the problem of evaluating in practical terms whether or not marketisation compromises the role of education in promoting human rather than profit-making needs.

RAD02071   [Paper]    ®
Developing a Marxian critique for educational change in an economy of uncertainty

Helen Raduntz, University of South Australia

The intention of this paper is to clarify the nature and development of a contemporary Marxian critique as a practical tool for comprehending the dynamics underlying educational change in a rapidly changing and highly volatile global economy dominated by uncertainty. In the past the study and development of the Marxian critique, which proved itself to be a powerful analytical method in the hands of Marx, has been the most neglected aspect of his work. It is therefore apposite in circumstances where marketisation is problematic for education's future to present an account of the aims and inner logic of the critique, its formulation by Marx specifically for his analysis of capital and its power and possibilities for understanding, for evaluating from the standpoint of human needs and development and for acting upon the current trends in education towards marketisation. Such a critique challenges the mainstream, ahistorical ideology that claims there is no alternative to capitalism and the marketisation of education because it is a normative part of social progress to which we have to adapt. In historically critical terms this makes capitalism a closed market regulated economic system constituting a contradiction in relation to the educative human development project.

RAM02617   [Paper]
Japanese language education: Serving citizenship

Yuko Ramzan, University of Wollongong

The purpose of this study is to articulate the need for citizenship education in the Australian primary school, and to examine the possibility of Japanese language teaching as one of the tools to serve citizenship education in Australia.

A draft framework for LOTE K-10 was published by the Board of Studies NSW in 2001. The framework shows an emphasis on intercultural competence as objective. This emphasis fits in well with the major trends in education which give consideration to the multiple diversity in the multicultural society. Also. questions of nationalism and civic responsibility are increasingly significant themes in discussions of education and cultural practice, although citizenship education is not yet an established component within the Australian school curriculum.

This study will present actual process of teaching intercultural consciousness, and discusses capability of applying Japanese language learning experience to citizenship education in Australian primary schools. An action research has been conducted in grade 5 primary school classroom.

Results of the study indicate ways for teachers to help students to develop a delicate balance of cultural, national, and global identifications through Japanese language learning experience.

REE02067   [Paper]
Problematic futures? Challenging self-fulfilling prophecies through mentoring

Michelle Aniftos, University of Southern Queensland

This paper will provide an interim report on a longitudinal study of the Mentoring Program for Women at the University of Southern Queensland. This systematic examination of the ways participants interact with each other and with their broader higher education community will identify aspects of the mentoring program and the education environment that promote a sense of well-being and achievement for women in education.

A greater understanding of women's positive experiences in a higher education context has implications for those in other education contexts. In this paper, feedback obtained from a mentoring programme is used as a basis for identifying attributes of job satisfaction and achievement. Mentoring is explored as a strategy for dealing with dissatisfaction in the workplace and subsequent negative self-fulfilling prophecies that limit achievement of individuals and organisations.

REI02228   [Paper]    ®
Learning about statistics and statistics learning

Anna Reid, Macquarie University, and Peter Petocz, University of Technology, Sydney

In the last two decades, awareness of students' conceptions of learning has altered the way in which we approach student learning, teaching and development. Recently, such 'generic' ideas about learning are being challenged by learning research in different disciplines. In this paper, we make connections between how students see statistics as a profession and how they go about learning in statistics. We base our argument on the analysis of a series of interviews carried out with students of statistics, linking their conceptions of the profession with ideas about how they learn statistics.

Statistics is only one subject area that we have investigated: others include music, theology, design and law. Each shows evidence of an overarching notion of professional work and its connection with learning. This Professional Entity is a manifestation of a strong relation between students' perception of professional work and their conceptions of the discipline and learning within that discipline. Our investigations have had a profound effect on our teaching. We explore the ways in which our discoveries about learning of statistics in particular, and professional areas generally, have changed our practice in teaching, academic work and our approach to research.

REY02137   [Paper]
Mentoring in a university/senior high school colligate - A study of the learning environment and the mentor/protTgT relationship

Ruth Reynolds and Kath Grushka, The University of Newcastle

The oral tradition of mentoring within the secondary school learning environment has been identified as an area in which more research is required. Insights into the phenomena experienced between mentor and protege may inform the meaningful design and implementation of future mentoring relationships. Key factors contributing to the cognitive skills development of the protege appear to be linked to the development of a mutually agreed upon set of operational dynamics in the mentor relationships. These operational dynamics are dependent upon the affective and social development of both parties within the learning environment. The factors of particular interest to this study, are the student centredness of the teaching, the motivational techniques, the extended learning processes, the ways in which the class time is used and the overall classroom climate.

The University of Newcastle, the Faculty of Education and Arts and the Callaghan Collegiate have established links to support the collegiate's strategic plan (2001) to provide quality teaching and learning environments. Within this plan mentoring has been identified as a key strategy. Tertiary education students have been engaged as mentors in school programs across a variety of Key Learning Areas over a two year period. This paper explores contrasting mentoring styles that have evolved in response to the subject matter and skills expected from different discipline areas. Diary reports from mentor and protege provide the raw material for the analysis in this paper.

REY02432   [Paper]    ®
Educational visioning processes: A modern footnote on an ancient task

Peter Reynolds, Canning College and Graham Dellar, Curtin University of Technology

This paper takes a philosophical look at educational visioning processes. It seeks to show that the tasks associated with visions and educational visioning processes are more involved than would at first appear to be the case. It draws the conclusion that visions seem to represent a contemporary equivalent of what educational philosophy has traditionally termed 'the aims of education'; which, despite the efforts of many luminaries in the field, presents a minefield of questions that remain unresolved. The paper uses an inductive methodology to assay some of the philosophical issues currently concerned with visions. In this respect a 'definition of education' is presented as a centrepiece for making three postulations or 'axioms' about visions and visioning processes. These underscore arguments that may be used to support the formulation of questions for further research. The authors suggest that a review of the lessons of educational philosophy would not be entirely out of place if the worst aspects of managerialism were to be avoided at this stage in the development of educational visioning processes.

RHE02408   [Paper]
Questioning diversity: practices and theories for the early childhood education profession

Jeanette Rhedding-Jones, Oslo University College

Given economic rationalism, diversity is construed as a competitive advantage, the production of hidden potential for the benefit of employing institutions. Seen as another word for difference, diversity admits complexity, a crossing of boundaries, a questioning from peripheries. This paper focuses on who works in the professions and higher education for early childhood education. Here information about race, home language, religion, social class, ability and sexual preference may be seen as private, without public surveillance. Further, the effects of cultural normalizations (in higher and on-going education for early childhood, in day care centres and classrooms) construct not cultural transformations but assimilations in practice. So positive potentials of diversity in the professions disperse. The research around the paper is funded by the Norwegian Research Council to investigate pedagogical institutions for children aged 0-10. Its foci are gender, complexity and diversity. In Norway much work is currently being done to recruit people of difference and of minority groups to the early childhood professions. To revision the professionalism of teachers, carers, lecturers, researchers and policy makers (paid in the name of education and care) is to see the possibilities differently, to hear the voices and see embodied people of difference, and people positioned otherwise.

RHE02409   [Paper]
Leading a qualitative review in Bangladesh: Girls at school, with funding from Norway

Jeanette Rhedding-Jones, Oslo University College

The paper presents some of the problems in working between cultures and languages on a project regarding teenage girls and young women at school in Bangladesh. It follows my work as an Australian researcher and international consultant and team leader (for the Female Secondary Education Stipend Project, final review 2001), with funding from the Norwegian Government. As such the paper analyses the practices and policy arising from international attempts to (1) get girls going to school and (2) keep them going to school. Bangladesh is ranked number one on world corruption scales, with acute poverty and illiteracy, and the status of women affected by class-division and religion. Institutionalised education is problematic. Working with two Bangladeshi consultants (a man economist and a woman sociologist) I conducted field work in Bangladeshi schools, interviewed (with a translator) students, teachers and father/guardians; and liased with Bangladeshi Government and Education Department officials, World Bank and Asian Development Bank consultants. The resultant two volume written review (Rhedding-Jones et al 2001) recommended the continuation of the Norwegian donor project into another phase. It also presented a range of information, photographs, critiques and deconstructions. For a theorizing researcher to undertake such work requests some professional relocations.

RIC02309   [Paper]
ICT integration, e-portfolios, and learning as an activity-reflection cycle

Cameron Richards, National Institute of Education

While ICT integration in education may be easy in theory, rhetoric and policy, its generally not so easy in practice (ask any teacher). Despite all the talk about the constructivist or student-centred implications of ICT, institutional imperatives for ICT integration typically still reflect in practice traditional notions of learning as a process of transmission, delivery, and information or skill acquisition. Where ICT integration is concerned, teaching and learning 'design' needs to be reconstructed in terms of a progressive and interdependent (yet an open-ended or 'just-in-time') relation between resources, pedagogy and curriculum, and learning and assessment in order to overcome traditional binaries such as theory vs. practice, content vs. process, and formative vs. summative assessment. In short, new approaches to teaching, learning and assessment are needed which more effectively harness the possibilities of new educational technologies. This paper outlines an innovative model of 'e-portfolios as a learning and assessment tool and strategy for promoting ICT integration in education. It further reports on action research studies of the use of this model in teacher education pre-service foundation and elective courses as an exemplary focus for identifying and engaging with both the key challenges and possibilities of ICT integration in education.

RIC02556   [Paper]    ®
A survey investigation of influences and choices in attracting graduates into teaching

Paul Richardson, Monash University and Helen Watt, University of Sydney

The present study investigated reasons behind graduates' decisions to pursue teaching as a career, in a Graduate Diploma course at a Melbourne university (N=74). A survey collected data about respondents' reasons for choosing teaching as a career, with open-ended questions eliciting rich qualitative data to elaborate on rating-scale responses. Five factors relating to community benefits, career fit, prior considerations, financial reward and time for family were identified through factor analyses. Responses were independent of previous level of qualification and having children or not, with little evidence of gender effects. Three distinct clusters of students showed that different combinations of reasons were relevant to each group's choice of teaching as a career, and these reasons were further illustrated and discussed in relation to qualitative data from open-ended survey questions.

ROB02023   [Paper]    ®
Children, on-line learning and authentic teaching skills in primary education

Margaret Robertson and Andrew Fluck, University of Tasmania

This paper reports on a pilot study conducted in the latter part of 2001 in Tasmanian government primary schools. The purpose of the project was to assess the validity and reliability of systems-wide testing approaches which form part of a three-year research project funded by the Australian Research Council under the LINKAGE scheme. A survey questionnaire was distributed to 41 schools, 21 of which were considered to be low in terms of ICT usage and the remaining 20 considered being above average in terms of ICT curriculum activity. From these schools data were obtained from 63 classrooms. An index of classroom computer climate (CCCI) made comparative analyses possible with scores on national literacy and numeracy tests for children within these classrooms. Analyses of data indicate the following important influences on literacy and numeracy outcomes - availability of professional development, perceived ICT skills, and home access to computers (both students and staff). Case studies in three classrooms selected from schools in contrasting socio-economic contexts provided rich corroborative evidence for the survey findings. For full integration of computers across the curriculum, children's behaviours highlight the importance of teachers' ICT skills and the need for infrastructure support, both in the classroom and the wider school environment.

ROB02241   [Paper]
Thinking in a vacuum versus three interrelated stories: A sociocultural perspective on young children's thinking

Jill Robbins. Monash University

For a long time there has been a tendency in research to examine young children's thinking as though it occurs in a vacuum and is separate from the kinds of activities and experiences in which they participate (Rogoff & Chavajay, 1995). The consequence of this may be that much of the breadth, depth and complexity of their thinking may have been missed. When, however, a sociocultural approach is brought to the research context, the focus can broaden from the individual child as a unit of analysis to include three interrelated stories - a trilogy of the personal, interpersonal and community or contextual factors - thus presenting a more complex and thorough picture of their understandings. Drawing upon research conducted into children's ideas of natural phenomena such as the sun, the moon and rain, this paper will illustrate how employing a sociocultural approach to the data gathering and data analysis can reveal this richness in their thinking, and present a more comprehensive picture of children.

ROU02147   [Paper]
Association between intended and implemented Algebra curriculum in TIMSS 1998/1999 for ten countries

Alla Routitsky and Susan Zammit, Australian Council for Educational Research

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study- Repeat 1998/1999 (TIMSS) assessed the mathematics and science achievement of students in their second year of high schools. In addition to achievement tests, extensive information was collected from students and teachers. Of the 26 countries that took part, the overall results in mathematics of eleven countries, including Australia were not statistically different.

Following the TIMSS research model, this article examines the association between three levels of curriculum, the intended curriculum, the implemented and the attained curriculum. In particular, this paper will compare the achievement in each algebra topic for those students whose teachers reported that the students had not been taught this topic, yet, with those who had been taught this topic for more than 5 hours. The results indicated that across the 10 countries, in some instances, there were significant differences in achievement between those students whose teachers reported that they had taught the topic and those who did not. However, it was not true for all algebra topics. Examples of items in each topic will be presented and discussed to illustrate where the differences lie.

ROW02074   [Paper]
An uncertain role for literacy in elementary school science

Patricia Rowell, University of Alberta, and Margaretha Ebbers, Concordia University College of Alberta

Many researchers are probing school science from a sociocultural perspective, giving particular attention to the ways in which language events of the classroom shape the school subject, as well as how the school subject, in turn, shapes the classroom discourse. The recognition by researchers of literacy practices in science communities is not, for the most part, shared by either teachers or policy makers in the Canadian province of Alberta. While one of the features characterizing the work of scientists is the construction of tentative explanations and the social validation of these by a science community, scant attention has been paid to inducting students into such discursive practices. Although the mandated provincial curriculum is framed by science inquiry, limited support is provided for the literacy events needed to move from description of natural phenomena to the construction of explanatory models. In this paper, we draw on case studies of school science in two Grade 6 classrooms. Data are derived from field notes made during observations of lessons comprising two complete instructional units, transcripts of audiotaped lessons and teacher interviews, and copies of student work. We focus analysis on the literacy events contributing to construction of explanations.

RUS02495   [Paper]    ®
Gender issues in Visual Arts Education? A comparison of student teachers' background and confidence in Visual Arts Education in relation to gender across five countries

Deirdre Russell-Bowie, University of Western Sydney

Research has indicated that fewer boys are involved in the arts than girls (Senate Committee, 1995). This study examines this issue and involves 939 pre-service non-specialist primary school student teachers from Australia, Namibia, South Africa, USA (Illinois) and Ireland. Initially it investigates if a reliable set of scales relating to enjoyment and confidence in visual arts teaching and to students' background in visual arts could be derived from the data using exploratory principle component analysis. Secondly the study identifies the students' perceptions of their background and confidence in relation to visual arts and visual arts education. Finally it examines if there is a difference between male students' and female students' perceptions of their own background and confidence in relation to visual arts. Two scales are developed and tested for reliability. They are based on a) students' background in visual arts, and b) their confidence and enjoyment in relation to visual arts and visual arts teaching. Results indicated that only about 16% of the students felt they had a good visual arts background and male responses were generally similar to female responses in relation the group of items under this scale. In relation to the second scale, significantly more females (59%) indicated that they felt confident and enjoyed teaching and being involved in visual arts and visual arts education than did their male counterparts. This paper examines issues related to these results, teacher training and primary school education in the arts.

RUS02623   [Paper]
Factors perceived by students in a University College of Education as influencing academic self concept

Barbara Russell, Massey University

Students bring a range of perceptions to the tertiary institution that impact upon their learning in that institution. This research is part of a qualitative and quantitative study of the perceptions students in a University College of Education have of their academic abilities. It considers whether these perceptions change during the time students are involved in gaining their degree and examines the ways in which peer interactions, assignment marks, lecturer comments and gain in knowledge and skills impact either negatively or positively upon academic self concept. The factors of age, gender, culture and previous educational experiences were examined for their significance in student's academic self concept.

A questionnaire was used to collect data anonymously from first, second and third year students in the undergraduate programme. A semi structured interview based on the questionnaire was carried out with third year student volunteers enabling questions to be considered in greater depth.

RUS02624   [Paper]
Moving on: Beginning again. Transitions between schools and Colleges of Education

Barbara Russell, Massey University

This research study examines the perceptions twenty five mentor teachers involved in the processes of transition in moving from school to lecturing in a College of Education. A qualitative research methodology based on semi-structured interviews is employed to generate data for analysis.

The aim of the study is to explore the nature and quality of induction practices being offered to neophyte teachers at the tertiary level within the contexts a College of Education. The study investigates the extent to which the teachers' perceptions and expectations have prepared them for their new roles and responsibilities. It considers the support systems and structures provided by the institution and it comments on the factors responsible for their perceived success, or otherwise. Parallels are drawn between these experiences and those of beginning teachers. Recommendations for improving transitions within and between institutions are suggested.

RYA02041   [Paper]
Refueling the practicum: From 'neophytes' and 'experts' to collaborative, reflective relationships

Janette Ryan and Robyn Brandenburg, University of Ballarat

In 2001, the University of Ballarat introduced a new Bachelor of Education course, and a new model for professional experience aimed at changing the focus away from assessment of the placement, to the learning that occurs within it. As part of this re-generation of the program, we wanted to ensure that the initial enthusiasm generated (Brandenburg & Ryan, 2001) continued to provide the 'fuel' for new approaches to student learning. One of the key themes that emerged from students' responses about their experiences in the program, was the relationships that they were developing. As part of a further development of the program, this year we introduced a mentoring system, where the placement is self-assessed, in collaboration with a mentor/teacher. This is aimed at encouraging not only a shift in the learning that occurs within the placement, but also a fundamental change in the nature of the relationships within it. One of the aims of this shift is to encourage a reflective approach amongst our pre-service teachers as well as their teacher-mentors, and in the development of the program itself, so that a more collaborative framework is emerging, and in this paper we report on the resultant changes in students' attitudes.

RYA02390   [Paper]
Forging diplomacy: The Carnegie Corporation and the "Art of Australia" Exhibition

Louise Ryan, University of New South Wales

This study is a museum based historical analysis of the "Art of Australia 1788-1941" exhibition which toured the USA and Canada from 1941-42. This exhibition presents an unexamined case of the use of cultural and aesthetic material deliberately to form values and educate public perceptions. The exhibition is examined for the role it played in alliance building and promotion of a range of cultural/political agendas. The study uses a theoretical framework based on the work of Tony Bennett and Brian Wallis. I examine the goal of the US State Dept to safeguard and extend domestic and foreign policy through establishment of closer cultural and military links with Australia. Additionally, this well funded exhibition assisted dissemination of an elitist American ideological/cultural hegemony and promoted belief of shared national identity.

The study's significance is its unique contribution in illustrating the cultural influence of the Carnegie Corporation's educational philanthropy. The "Art of Australia" show is a paradigm case of the cultural application of exhibitions. Museums have become significant arenas intervening in the formation of public values and the education of group sensibilities. This investigation provides a window into one such instance.

RYM02150   [Paper]
Putting textbooks to work

Richard Rymarz, Australian Catholic University

This paper will examine the impact of a very large and significant introduction of textbooks into the classroom and many of the implications this has for teaching and learning. The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne has produced, for use in its schools, a series of religious education textbooks, which are directed to be used as key texts in religious education curricula. Textbooks have been produced for every level of the school from Preparatory to Year 10, and will be phased in over the two-year period of 2001 and 2002. This paper reports on research conducted during 2002 on the use of the Years' 7 and 9 textbooks. It examines the impact of a new series of textbooks on teachers' preparation and work in the classroom, especially in the selection of content, the use of teaching and learning strategies, student work and assessment and the professional development of teachers. Data will also be presented on the ways in which the textbooks have affected curriculum development as well as their interaction with educational technology. Some implications will be raised about the continuing role of textbooks in education.

S

SAC02165   [Paper] Paper 2 of Symposium 5
Tracking trends in principal and teacher supply

Judyth Sachs, The University of Sydney and Barbara Preston, Barbara Preston Research

It is possible that in the future there may be a conjuncture of mass retirement of existing principals with a teacher shortage. We examine a range of data sets to examine this proposition. We consider the age profile of principals and teachers, the expressed career preferences of young teachers and the trajectory of teacher supply. We also examine employment statistics from three major state systems to see existing patterns of application, promotion, and retention. We come to the tentative conclusion that the shortage scenario does have some justification.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 5 THO02163 Are Australian schools running out of potential principals?

SAH02413   [Paper]   Panel Discussion 21
Principals, research knowledge, and policy making in schools

Presenters:
Bruce Biddle, The University of Missouri and Lawrence Saha, The Australian National University

Discussants
Sid Bourke, The University of Newcastle, Grant Harman, The University of New England, and Marie Brennan, University of Canberra,

For many years educational research has been criticized by prominent figures in the English-speaking world who have made striking claims about its supposed shortcomings and lack of impact. Interest in these claims has been intense among researchers, scholars, and governments, but are these charges justified? Is educational research seriously flawed, and does it have only minimal impact on practices in education?

Surprisingly, almost NO systematic research has yet appeared on such questions, however the proposers have just completed a major study designed, in part, to address them. Our study was based on interviews with 120 school principals sampled from key types of schools in Australia and the United States. A major book on our study is now being published, and the panel we propose will draw materials from that book. Our results challenge time-honored beliefs about educational research and its impact. In addition, they indicate intriguing differences between research knowledge use and policy making in Australia and America.

We will begin the session by quoting charges made about educational research and will then describe our study and some of its key findings. Discussants will then comment on our study, and additional questions will be solicited from the audience.

SAV02622   [Paper]    ®
Japanese language interactive online reading, listening comprehension project

Val Clulow, Kay Salehi and Theresa Savage, Swinburne University of Technology

Students learning foreign languages need frequent exposure to the target language. Japanese, as a character based language, requires more hours of study than European languages in order for English background students to master the complex Japanese writing system and acquire vocabulary and expressions. The most efficient way for learners of Japanese to master the writing system is to read as much as possible. Textbooks provide a paper-based means of exposure to Japanese written text but the work for the students often becomes monotonous and tedious, involving the use of several dictionaries. The need to provide reading passages students would find more engaging that are less cumbersome and therefore more likely to be used frequently has been a recognized problem amongst Japanese language teachers. In order to teach students how each character is pronounced, improve pronunciation and encourage students to read larger quantities of Japanese more often, reading passages were recorded, digitized and put onto the Web using an interactive multimedia authoring package. Focus groups were conducted to review student perceptions and experiences of using the Japanese reading and listening interactive passages and exercises. This paper analyses student responses to which recommendations for computer assisted language instruction and learning are made.

SCO02141   [Paper]    ®
The impact of an in service course for teachers

Rowena Scott, Curtin University of Technology /Central Queensland University

Reform is now common, with people from nearly every nation engaging in improving science teaching as political leaders recognise that knowledge of science has economic consequences (Gallagher, 2000). A purpose of this study was to preserve the voices of teachers who had participated in a university course as a "special treatment" program with those of "control" teachers. A program was launched for the training of Specialist primary science teachers in twelve schools. These 17 teachers attended a unique, four-week, in-service course (Zaitun, 1999) and regular school-based workshops. It was hoped that teaching methods would become less traditional and less teacher-directed. Also, it was anticipated that the ability of participants to use questioning techniques to probe students' understanding would improve (Zaitun, 1999). Three male and three female Specialist science teachers, experienced and less experienced, were chosen from various Project schools for interview including one male and one female teacher from the same school. Four teachers from Project schools, who were not involved in the Specialist science teaching Project, including two from the same school, were also interviewed to seek out and capture the essence of different participants' experience.

SCO02418   [Poster Session]
Exploring motivation to teach

Kathy Skinner, Learning Systems for Performing Excellence

'Motivation' is a concept with considerable commonsense appeal as an explanation for human actions. Not surpisingly, then, teachers' occupational motivation has been a popular topic of research from some decades. The 'motivation' behind this interest in motivation has itself varied. It has included teacher centred interest in practitioners' experiences of their profession. Less teacher centred 'motives' have been the desire to discover the 'right' motivation to teach to assist more efficient selection of teacher trainees or the search for ways to manipulate teacher motivation in order to control teacher performance via rewards.

Many systems to categorise motivation, general and occupational, have been designed, including the familiar 'intrinsic/extrinsic'. Motivaton to teach has also been conceptualised as either 'student centred' or 'subject centred'.

This paper reports the results a pilot study of an instrument designed to explore the structure of motivation to teach. Participants completed a web based survey composed of items used in a previous international study of teacher motivation and satisfaction, plus extra items designed to tap the 'student/subject centred' dimension(s). Factor analysis revealed that the current data were not 'dimensionally structured', that is that the model proposed did not fit the data. The generally rather unsatisfactory factor analysis results revealed that people either wanted to teach or they did not, but that reasons to teach are a complex mix not amenable to description via scores on linear scales.

SHA02340   [Paper]    ®
It seemed like a good idea at the time: The difference between planning and planning to teach: A constructivist approach

Susan Krieg and Sue Sharp, Edith Cowan University

The Joondalup Edith Cowan University K-7 Program is designed to prepare teachers to educate children across the kindergarten, pre-primary, and primary years of education. The course enacts a new type of teacher education program in several aspects of its intent and design. The collaborative processes and structures within the university and the partnership with the Joondalup Education District have facilitated relationships and a sense of learning community that enables coherence and connection between content, people and pedagogies. Collaborative planning, professional development and reflection between the team of university staff involved in the program is fundamental to developing responsive teaching and learning.

Our planning processes thus far have revealed the difference between generalised, overarching planning and the specific planning to engage students in constructivist learning. Although we are committed to a belief that most of our students knowledge is not acquired ready formed, by some sort of direct perception or absorption but is constructed, developing a shared understanding of operationalising our beliefs requires a different level of reflection and discussion. The paper will explore processes involved in developing constructivist teaching and is intended to promote dialogue about collaborative planning in a university setting

SHA02586   [Paper]
Teacher trade unionism: The global and the local

Farzana Shain and Ken Jones, Keele University

Drawing on the initial phases of research into teacher trade union activity in England and in Italy, this paper explores new contexts for teacher unionism, those formed on the one hand by international policy agendas - such as privatisation and performance management; on the other, those arising from other, less managed aspects of globalisation - including migration (refugees, asylum seekers, new migrant communities) and the social and political agendas arising from north-south tensions.

The paper will examine the contention that in responding to such issues, new forms of teacher unionism are emerging. These go beyond established sectoral boundaries to establish relationships with community organisations and social movements; and attempt to develop an understanding of, and response to, the remaking of aspects of national education systems under the impact of globalised policy agenda.

SHI02016   [Paper]
Assuring quality in the assessment of social and relational generic capabilities - a case study in the teaching of Equity and Trusts

Melinda Shirley and Wendy Harris, Queensland University of Technology

In its major review of the Federal Civil Justice System (ALRC DP 62, August 20 1999) the Australian Law Reform Commission concluded that legal education should be more concerned with "what lawyers need to be able to do" as distinct from the traditional Australian approach which has been centred around "what lawyers need to know". As a result, the QUT Law Faculty has integrated professional competencies within the content of substantive undergraduate law units to ensure incremental capability development throughout the degree.

This initiative has required : The identification of appropriate competencies; The balancing of substantive content and skills; Optimal utilisation of student contact time for interactive sessions; and Assessment guidelines, staff development and resources. This paper will examine each of those factors, with particular focus on the challenges faced in assuring quality in the assessment of social and relational generic capabilities using a case study in the teaching of Equity and Trusts.

SIL02239   [Paper]    ®
Associating school principal behaviours and behavioural dispositions with proclivity for change and school renewal

Steffan Silcox, Education Department, Western Australia, and Robert Cavanagh, Curtin University of Technology.

The study concerned leadership and school renewal. Literature on the leadership of change in corporate and educational organisations was examined to identify leadership attributes anticipated to be conducive to organisational and school change. These attributes were investigated by administering a leadership profiling instrument to 39 school principals from a Western Australian education district. The data were examined by statistical analyses to distinguish patterns of leadership behaviours and to explore associations between behavioural patterns and behavioural dispositions. Four orientations towards school leadership were revealed; self-promotion, organisational compliance, leadership of change, and maintenance of routines.

The four empirically derived leadership orientations are discussed in relation to theoretical conceptions of leadership of school renewal. The study concluded that school renewal leadership is characterised by: change agentry; discovery of issues; people focus; team approach; visioning; coaching; proactivty, risk-taking dominance; impatience; and unconformity.

SIL02449   [Paper]
Monitoring student learning using assessment data

Gina Silis and John Izard, RMIT University

The monitoring of student progress has always been essential to Education Systems. Current expectations require analysis of data by school management. This paper looks at the procedures applied to longitudinal data relating to students in mathematics gathered at an outer urban Primary School.

Groups have been monitored since their fourth year of schooling (Grade 3 in Victoria, Australia) to their seventh (Grade 6 in Victoria, Australia). Information is analysed at the start of the school year improving student achievement by using evidence gained.

This paper describes the process of data collection and analysis undertaken featuring Item Response Modeling [IRM]and how teachers used the information to make student learning more effective.

SIM02531   [Paper]
The past and future of literacy training for teachers

Claire Wyatt-Smith, Cheryl Sim and Neil Dempster, Griffith University

In this discussion, we present data on teacher knowledge in literacy education. The data were collected through the Teachers in Australian Schools Study of 1999. This is a census-style study funded by the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA). It repeated and extended three previous studies (in 1963, 1979 and 1989) sponsored by the Australian College of Education. For the 1999 study, the College carried out the research with the assistance of researchers connected with the Griffith University Centre for Leadership and Management in Education and the University of Queensland. The research questions included in the study were negotiated with officers of DETYA, on the basis of the survey instrument used in earlier studies. Consistent with those studies, certain core items were retained and other items that addressed issues or information needs pertinent to today's context were added.

As a result of Commonwealth priorities in recent years several questions in the survey related to teachers' experiences of pre-service and in-service literacy training. In our paper we present and discuss the data on the literacy in-service education experiences of teachers and we argue that the results suggest deficiencies, which need to be addressed both at the policy level and in professional development practice. This situation is of considerable significance given other recent research findings concerning the ways in which literacy demands present barriers to student success in schooling, having implications for student retention rates beyond the compulsory years and their life trajectories.

SIM02621   [Paper]
Issues for teacher preparation in Indigenous Australian studies

Cheryl Sim and Barry Malezer, Griffith University

In this discussion, we draw on data related to the initial teacher preparation for teaching Indigenous Australian studies. Some of the data used is from an exploratory research project conducted by Mr Malezer investigating concepts of teaching, learning and understanding held by pre-service teachers at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Other areas investigated were the dynamics of teaching (cross-culturally) Indigenous Australian Studies and its benefits to formal learning in relation to 'informal' knowledge and what learning outcomes are achieved. The data from a 1999 national study profiling Australian teachers (DETYA/ACE 2001) - in which Dr Sim was a co-researcher - identified the small percentage of teachers with any formal preparation in Indigenous studies. Further to the data from these studies, the DETYA funded National Inquiry into the Teaching of History in Australian Schools (2000) identified the "strong concerns about the perceived inadequacies in teacher preparation for dealing with the content and the sensitivities of indigenous history"(p.vi). This paper seeks to present the issues and contribute to the future planning by Education faculties to address the concerns.

SIN02180   [Paper]    ®
Navigating cultural sensibilities: Respect and provocation as pedagogical partners

Parlo Singh and Catherine Doherty, Queensland University of Technology

This paper explores how teachers employed in preparatory programs designed specifically for international tertiary students construct and navigate the moral dilemmas arising from differing cultural sensibilities, and how their positions can be shaped by an on-shore or off-shore setting. Teacher interview talk pertaining to the selection and avoidance of certain topics and pedagogical activities is analysed to display the ambivalence and moral dilemmas for teachers embedded in these programs as they try to show respect for cultural differences, yet seek to prepare students for a culturally biased, and potentially insensitive educational setting. Interviews with teachers teaching similar programs in on-shore and off-shore programs are contrasted to display the impact place has on teacher positions and discourses. A major dilemma arises for language teachers committed to communicative pedagogy, as they try to provoke classroom discussion for language learning, and participatory student behaviours as desirable western pedagogic behaviour, through the use of controversial topics.

SIN02181   [Paper]    ®
Knowledge economy and higher degree research training

Parlo Singh and John Knight, Queensland University of Technology

This paper examines three factors driving Australian universities generally, and Faculties of Education specifically to develop explicit higher degree research (HDR) training curriculum. These three factors are considered to be: (1) imperatives of the knowledge or informational economy, (2) state policies based on progress and performance measures and (3) accountability to knowledge users/ consumers. A case study of how one institution responded to these demands in terms of an explicit, structured HDR training programme is explored. Specifically, the paper examines the design of the HDR curriculum, its enactment and outcomes. It is argued that research supervision should be regarded as one of the most complex and advanced forms of teaching, and one that requires urgent attention.

SMI02019   [Paper]
Getting through and getting help: Students' expectations of off-campus support

Alison Smith, UNITEC Institute of Technology

The nature of good teaching and teacher performance in higher education has been subject to ongoing research and debate. This paper reports the results of the reconnaissance phase of an action research project which examined the provision of off-campus support- that is, the way in which academic staff respond to students concerns and problems at a distance. Two data-gathering activities were carried out: (i) the administration of a questionnaire designed to investigate students perceptions and expectations regarding off-campus support; and (ii) the collection and analysis of data about the types of support actually provided to students by academic staff. While students identified support related to their academic work as being the most important component of an off-campus support system, issues related to the availability and accessibility of this support were also highlighted. The actual provision of this support was confirmed as a significant component of distance teaching for academic staff. These findings led to the development of a model for the effective delivery of off-campus support in the context of advanced level, distance learning programmes in education management at UNITEC.

SMY02078   [Paper] Paper 1 of Symposium 1
Strategic incoherence, corporate boo-boos, and oppositional identities in teachers' work, around local school management

John Smyth, Flinders University of South Australia

There is a significant struggle going on at the moment in most western countries over the meaning attaching to local school management (LSM). The attempt is to control teaching "at a distance" employing a policy ensemble of devolved school management, set within a context of evolving accountability frameworks and market-driven performance indicators. But what is being created by these ideological policy relays are "oppositional identities" as teachers actively engage in "acts of refusal" (Schultz, 1999, p. 3) as they construct identity narratives for themselves of what it means to be a successful teacher. The central argument of the paper is that educational policies that have taken a turn in this direction are having the rhetorical effect of constructing the teacher as a particular type of person - but this construction is far from unproblematic. Teachers are continually engaged in constructing biographies that are relational, pedagogical and educative - and these are considerably at variance with the wider policy aspirations and images constructed of schools as being entrepreneurial, responsive, competitive, stand-alone, cost-centres. The paper explores what the move to LSM means to teachers in a high school and how LSM works on/through teachers at the level of teachers' subjectivities.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 1 SMY02077Guerillas in the midst: The struggle for a socially just approach to local school management.

SNE02468   [Paper]
The spectacle of authenticity in the assessment of students in art and design

Kim Snepvangers, University of New South Wales

This study reports a rich localised cultural narrative of what it is like to be an art and design teacher and conduct assessment in the provincial setting of a visual arts classroom. The rhetoric of traditional assessment, literature and readiness of teachers to take up the language and acts of convention, conceal a strata of other agendas in the practice of art and design assessment.

Examples of case study research and interviews with art and design teachers inform a critique of authenticity in the assessment of students. This research is now well configured, using naturalistic methodologies, participant observation and interviews.

The projects significance lies in the promise of practical examples to model an emergent theory of assessment articulated by visual arts and design teachers. The work exists within an emergent framework of case studies which anticipate a spectacle, as articulated by Guy Debord (1983). My emergent theory aims to test the proposition that assessment is a spectacle and seeks to disconfirm the spectacle of authenticity in visual art and design. By exposing gaps in authenticity, between appearance and reality some of the motives behind the public face of assessment are revealed.

SNE02478   [Paper]
Transition 101: Technology, engagement and the art of conversation in first-year Art and Design Education

Kim Snepvangers, and Alicia Yorke, University of New South Wales

This paper reports on a research project investigating student transition into university life. The population comes from two undergraduate programs in Art and Design Education at UNSW, College of Fine Arts. The method entailed strategic intervention and intrusion into traditional course content, assessment and delivery responding to issues of student engagement with the discipline of visual arts and design. It addressed novice perceptions of a lack of relevant tertiary skills. A diverse range of strategies crossing academic, technological and social conversations have fostered inclusiveness, increased retention and promoted settlement. Student feedback and website innovations will vivify the reported outcomes of the project.

SNY02037   [Paper]
Building equitable literate futures: Home and school computer-mediated literacy practices and disadvantage

Ilana Snyder, Lawrie Angus and Wendy Sutherland-Smith, Monash University

This paper examines the complex connections between literacy practices, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and disadvantage. It reports the findings of a year-long study which investigated the ways in which four families use ICTs to engage with formal and informal literacy learning in home and school settings. The research set out to explore what it is about computer-mediated literacy practices at home and at school in disadvantaged communities that make a difference in school success. The findings demonstrate that the 'socialisation' of the technology - its appropriation into existing family norms, values and lifestyles - varied from family to family. Having access to ICTs at home was not sufficient for the young people and their families to overcome the so-called 'digital divide'. Clearly, we are seeing shifts in the meaning of 'disadvantage' in a globalised world mediated by the use of new technologies. New definitions of disadvantage that take account not only of access to the new technologies but also include calibrated understandings of what constitutes the access are required. The article concludes that old inequalities have not disappeared, but are playing out in new ways in the context of the networked society.

SOL02076   [Paper]
Managerialist discourses and the shaping of the English National Literacy Strategy

Janet Soler, The Open University, United Kingdom

A considerable body of literature argues that there has been a shift from a liberal humanist discourse in schooling towards a managerialist one in the United Kingdom. In England, this debate has had a profound impact, moving schools away from the liberal humanist understandings of the 1970s and early 1980s and towards stronger linkages between the curriculum, the labour market and national economic performance. Along with this managerial discourse comes a technicist/rationalist notion of learning and a view of the individual as a subject to govern and/or be governed.

Historically, literacy has long been a key site for such struggles. Following the early 1990s cries for a return to basics in education, literacy now occupies a central role in educational thinking. It has been key to the development of New Labour electoral platforms in 1997 and 2001, and to the educational policy initiatives that have proliferated during the New Labour administration.

This paper examines recent developments literacy policy and practice in England associated with the National Literacy Strategy (NLS). It argues that these developments exemplify the acceptance and growing dominance of new managerialist discourses in the construction of literacy programmes and pedagogies.

SOR02045   [Paper]    ®
Walking the walk and talking the talk: Adequate teacher preparation in these uncertain times?

Reesa Sorin and Mary Klein, James Cook University

Changing educational agendas in the twenty-first century make new and urgent demands on teacher education programs. The emphasis on the construction of robust intellectual knowledges and inquiring habits of mind in schools necessitates the implementation of innovative inquiry-based teaching/learning relationships that have not been experienced by many preservice teachers nor teacher educators. The question arises as to the role that teacher education might play in preparing teachers for these new-ways-of-being an educator, of working with students in collaborative engagements where learners are authorised and encouraged to construct their own understandings in personally relevant and powerful ways.

This paper examines our attempts at promoting and sustaining an inquiry based culture in a teacher education program at a regional university. We believe that the ability and inclination to inquire is not only cognitive but constituted or produced in teaching/learning activities that actively foster student participation and thinking 'outside the square'. To this end, we attempt to position ourselves and the students as co-learners; we reflect on and analyse case studies of instructional practice, engage in role plays and participate in student initiated support networks. This paper reflects on the possibilities and limitations of our practices in an era of uncertainty.

SOR02663   [Paper]
Promoting emotional health and wellbeing through partnerships - a parent/teacher/community collaboration

Reesa Sorin, James Cook University

The research described in this presentation is about children's fear and how, through forging strong bonds, or partnerships, between teachers, parents and children, we may be making positive strides towards addressing fear and other emotions in young children. This can be through partners sharing information about children's fears and other emotions to develop an increased awareness of the emotional spectrum of young children, and through sharing ideas about best practice in responding to these emotions as a way of helping young children to understand and develop appropriate ways of expressing these emotions. Through supporting children's growing understanding of emotions, we encourage the development of emotional literacy, which helps children to achieve both within the school setting and in life in general.

SPE02537   [Paper]    Paper 3 of Discussions Panel 34
Peer Research: Experiences, perceptions, issues

Anna Spencer, Brisbane City Council, Lee-Anne Hoyer and Sharna Maltmann, Youth Advocacy Centre and Sue Howard and Cass Scully, Queensland Commission for Children and Young People

The focus of this paper is the experiences of young people (including school students) who have been involved in peer research on a range of youth issues. Others who work in youth policy and youth advocacy will also share their experiences of facilitating the voices of young people in this way. These experiences will be contextualised by references to the literature on young people and students as researchers. As research on or about youth begins to embrace this approach, there are many issues that arise which need to be explored.

This paper will be presented as part of Discussions Panel 34, NEW02534 Moving from research "on" or "about" to research "with" or "by" ...: Exploring the roles of young people in educational research.

SPR02412   [Paper]
Holding up a mirror - harnessing the reflective potential of EE perspectives

Michelle Springer, Socio-Environmental Solutions

Two premises underlie this paper: firstly, that the environment, unarguably a current, contentious, and global area of concern, is representative of many social problems; and secondly that a society reveals its approach to such problems in its philosophies and methods of education. A recent doctoral study proposes that Environmental Education (EE), as the synthesis of these areas, therefore provides a valuable tool with which to examine not just environmental but wider developmental and social issues. The application of such a methodology, within a comparative education context, proved to be conceptually challenged but was ultimately tremendously successful, enabling insights into many other spheres of human activity. Conclusions relating to future directions in educational research are twofold: 1) that current isolationist perspectives must make way for new transversal approaches; 2) that a broadening of the comparative education methodology can yield deep insights outside of the educational sphere.

STA02096   [Paper] Part of Symposium 2
The impact of change in the early years of schooling on school based relationships

Elizabeth Stamopoulos, Edith Cowan University

Currently in Western Australian schools the early childhood profession is facing profound educational change. Such a change is the 'P1', the combination of pre-primary and year one students in a classroom. The new structures were implemented without consultation with the early childhood professional community. This paper draws on a five year study that examined the conceptual and behavioural position developed by school staff towards P1. The study revealed that the way in which school staff responded to P1 was complex, multi-faceted and dynamic. Their conduct was 'situated' in their workplace and school-based relationships and although commonalities existed, school staff's response to P1 varied. Decisions about the construction of P1 classes affected how school staff responded to the P1 context. This study found that this change forced school staff to re-examine their own beliefs, re-define their situation, re-construct their realities through interaction, negotiation and compromise. Recommendations from this study include the development of processes to monitor the impact of P1 class structures on school staff, relationships and student learning.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 2 The power of partnership: Creating robust relationships in education.

STE02004   [Paper]
Short term dissemination workshops: Can a small dose make a big difference?

Greg Stefanich, University of Northern Iowa

This study investigated the awareness, preparation, practices (environmental, curriculum, instructional, and testing), and attitudes of elementary, middle level, high school, and university science educators in the area of teaching science to students with disabilities. Data were obtained from three surveys: one in 1996, prior to the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 (IDEA), a second survey conducted with a similar sample of educators in 2001, and a third survey conducted in 2002 that included participants in National Science Foundation dissemination workshops varying between four and fifteen hours during the years 1993-2001. Analytical induction interviews were conducted with at least two teachers from each of the four categories and five administrators. Groups of respondents were compared using parametric (t-test) and non-parametric (Chi Square) analysis. The evidence indicates that science teachers feel ill prepared to address the needs students with disabilities in their classrooms and are seeking information to help them in their work. The evidence also clearly indicates that, contrary to criticisms of short-term professional development programs, the workshops have had a major impact on perceptions of preparedness, responsiveness to make accommodations for students with disabilities, and attitudes towards including students with disabilities in regular classrooms.

STE02291   [Paper]    ®
Primary school students' approaches to design activities

Sarah Stein, Campbell McRobbie. and Ian Ginns, The University of Queensland

There is little documented evidence about the actions and the processes engaged in by novice designers of primary school age students. The study described in this paper attempts to fill that gap by presenting a graphical notation which was used to provide a picture of students' design actions. The notation, developed from an earlier version used to analyse science students' activity, and used to map the designerly thinking and action of pre-service teachers, is used to present insights into the designing actions of small groups of Year 6 students, who were involved in open-ended design and make projects. The graphical notation supported the analysis of the development of the students' designing actions and associated ideas across the period of their design projects. Some insights provided by the maps of the students' activity included the heavy reliance of students upon the concrete realities they were creating and developing as their designing took place, and the differences in the overall activity as some groups made decisions early and adhered to them, while others made many alterations along the way. The analysis of the students' actions in this way provides educators some detailed information about the nature of design processes primary school students actually use, an advantage, we suggest, over assumptions using theoretical or empirical models derived from professional designers' actions.

STE02311   [Paper]
The understanding of mind/body issues and children's development in Art

Julie Stevens, University of New South Wales

This paper purports that induction into socialization formulates and advances children's understanding of mind/body issues. This understanding is crucial in the development of children's artistic cognition.

Freud's theory of socialisation is used to explain how induction into socialisation equips children with an increasing awareness of the significance of the reciprocal relationship that exists between mental functioning and the physical world. Understanding of this relationship together with acceptance of the requirements of socialisation enable children to successfully represent their interests in mental and physical modes as well as grasp the mental and physical representations of others. Freud's theory of socialisation advocates that the development of the super-ego makes immersion into socialisation possible.

This paper argues that deepening comprehension of the nature of mental functioning and its connection to the physical world allows children to understand and at the same time fully engage with the conceptual demands of the visual arts practices. This counters the misconception that exposure to a broader range of learning experiences in each of the visual arts practices and the allocation of additional time to teaching and learning are sufficient conditions to extend the development of children's understandings in the visual arts.

STR02384   [Paper]
Early childhood teachers in primary school contexts

Tina Stratigos and Catherine Patterson, Macquarie University

The majority of teachers working in Australian primary schools are believed to have completed a primary teacher education course. Early childhood teachers may also work in this context, encountering colleagues and principals who have had a different training, and possibly different philosophies and practices, from their own. There is evidence of support by Australian senior policy makers for early childhood approaches to education in the early years of school, however this is not necessarily being translated into practice at an individual school level. The influence between the teacher and their working context is increasingly an area of research interest. This research explored how early childhood teachers working within school environments negotiated the influences of their teacher education in early childhood pedagogy and philosophy, the school environment and culture, and their personal beliefs and experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six early childhood teachers working in the early years of primary school. The teachers' perceptions of the impact of the school environment and culture upon their classroom practices were identified. Characteristics within individual teachers and schools that supported or discouraged early childhood practices within the early years of school were also explored.

SUL02098   [Paper]    ®   Part of Symposium 2
Pursuit of goals in partnerships: Empowerment in practice

Anna Sullivan, Curtin University of Technology

Enabling students to pursue multiple and complementary achievement and social goals should positively affect student achievement. Empowering students could facilitate such pursuits. A descriptive study using ethnographic techniques was conducted to examine the nature of student empowerment in a primary school classroom. Findings suggest that there are two dimensions of student empowerment: intrapersonal and interpersonal empowerment, supporting existing literature. Intrapersonal empowerment is the ability and capability of students to pursue appropriate and complementary social and achievement goals through the establishment of agendas. Interpersonal empowerment is the pursuit of goals by students that are not in conflict with peers or the teacher. This research indicates that student empowerment is a fluid and fragile phenomenon to which the teacher can contribute.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 2 The power of partnership: Creating robust relationships in education.

SUL02200   [Paper]
Enhancing peer culture in a primary school classroom

Anna Sullivan, Curtin University of Technology

Enabling peer culture, as opposed to adult culture, to emerge and flourish in classrooms is important because it has been shown to enhance student motivation and learning. This descriptive study examined how a primary teacher enabled students to develop and maintain a peer culture so that it coexists with the school culture. Ethnographic techniques were used to collect data in one primary school classroom. The findings showed that the teacher's beliefs and the establishment of structures, processes and an environment conducive to empowering students are central to peer culture. The study highlighted the importance of peer culture in enabling students to pursue and coordinate multiple goals.

SUM02460   [Paper]
Identifying generic skills through curriculum mapping: A critical evaluation

Jennifer Sumsion and Joy Goodfellow, Macquarie University

This paper describes processes involved in a curriculum mapping exercise that constituted the first phase of a project aimed at furthering the integration of generic skills in a Bachelor of Education program. The purpose of the mapping exercise was to identify the generic skills currently fostered in the program, and those that appear to be overlooked. The paper draws attention to the complexity of issues associated with curriculum mapping and highlights the need to refine the somewhat simplistic curriculum mapping techniques advocated in much of the existing literature. The centrality of collegial dialogue, if curriculum mapping processes are to lead to curriculum change, is also emphasised.

SWA02376   [Paper]
The 1992 Senate Inquiry - Analysis of submissions and interviews by key personnel

Karen Swabey, University of Tasmania

The Senate Report into Sport and Physical Education was presented in December, 1992. The process involved submissions by interested members of the community, subsequent interviews of selected individuals in each State/Territory and the completion of the Report taking into account the submissions and interview comments and findings. This paper is part of a larger investigation that involves document analysis of the 219 submissions, the relevant Hansards, and the Report itself. This presentation focuses on data gathered from the submissions and interviews (as reported in the Hansards) as received for the review as well as subsequent interviews of selected key personnel by the researcher. It questions why some individuals appeared more influential than others and raises some important issues about the impact of the Senate Inquiry. Goodson's (1987) theoretical framework underpins this investigation. His work, centered around the shaping of school subjects, is particularly relevant.

T

TAI02233   [Paper]    ®
The philosophy of behaviour disorders: Free will, moral responsibility and ADHD

Gordon Tait, Queensland University of Technology

One of the oldest problems in philosophy concerns the relationship between free will and moral responsibility. If we adopt the position that we lack free will, in the absolute sense - as have most philosophers who have addressed this issue - how can we truly be held accountable for what we do? This paper will contend that the most significant and interesting challenge to the long-standing status-quo on the matter comes not from philosophy, jurisprudence, or even physics, but rather from psychology. By examining this debate through the lens of contemporary behaviour disorders, such as ADHD, it will be argued that notions of free will, along with its correlate, moral responsibility, are being eroded through the logic of psychology, which is steadily reconfiguring large swathes of familiar human conduct as pathology. The intention of the paper is not only to raise some concerns over the exponential growth of behaviour disorders, but also, and more significantly, to flag the ongoing relevance of philosophy for prying open contemporary educational problems in new and interesting ways.

TAL02062   [Paper]
Teacher-child relatedness in the forefront: Mia Mia

Ayshe Talay-Ongan and Margaret McNaught, Macquarie University

Traditional measures of quality in early childhood settings have focused on structural attributes such as group size, educational preparedness, skills of caregivers and child-to-staff ratios. More recent reports, however, acknowledge the quality of teacher-child relationship, which may be indicated by the security of teacher-child attachment, as being uniquely significant in children's development. The aim of this project is to pilot a systematic investigation of the nature and developmental consequences of teacher-child relationships in an early childhood setting, Mia Mia Child and Family Study Centre at Macquarie University, Sydney. The investigation was conducted as a series of videotaped conferences with Mia Mia staff, and teacher-child interrelatedness episodes. Teachers explained in depth, their understandings of relatedness and connectedness with children, and elaborated on the daily applications of this construct which they felt was the essence of their work. Qualitative analyses of the transcripts and descriptions of child-teacher relatedness vignettes are presented. The overall outcomes of the project yield support to the emerging evidence that underlines the significance of the quality of the teacher-child relationship as a determinant of quality in childcare. Attempts have been made to operationalise the construct of teacher-child relationship within valid theoretical frameworks such that it can be utilised for staff development purposes in early childhood settings.

TAR02064   [Paper]    ®
Teachers and the temporal

Pina Tarricone and Tony Fetherston, Edith Cowan University

How teachers spend their time in the classroom is and continues to be an area of discussion and debate. What time do teachers spend on various activities including teaching practices and duties especially in class-time? What proportion of classroom time is allocated to certain activities, interactions with students, delivery and vast number of incidences that occur in a classroom? Which activities are consistently time consuming? How much time do teachers spend on these activities? How does the time on particular tasks relate to pedagogy? Interestingly, there has been limited research carried out on these issues. Many studies have investigated student engagement and time but rarely have the above questions been specifically addressed. Applying an innovative method we observed teacher time usage in typical classrooms and have made a start on answering the question - What do teachers do?

TAW02253   [Paper]
Student perceptions about senior secondary education in Papua New Guinea

Sunema Pani Tawaiyole, Macquarie University

In a time of uncertainty and problematic futures, choices pertinent to education goals, curriculum reforms, school restructuring and school outcomes are made. Often choices and decisions are made by professionals in the field without proper consultation with important stakeholders; the consumers - students and parents. In this paper, issues identified through a survey of students from a senior secondary school in Papua New Guinea regarding subject choices and how these choices impact upon the students' perceived school outcomes are discussed. In this era of diminishing employment opportunities especially in the small economies, with uncertain and problematic futures, student voices can no longer be ignored. Their points of view need to be listened to, systematically recorded and analysed, and recommendations for their integration into education planning encouraged. Education researchers operate at the frontier in this endeavour and their input is fundamentally important. And so, as we engage in a review of our research approaches, agenda and methods it is equally important to consider how our research can be of benefit to students who are constantly reminded of the uncertain and problematic future or world they will graduate into.

TAY02215   [Paper] Paper 1 of Symposium 10
CDA in education policy research - to what ends?

Sandra Taylor, Queensland University of Technology

Allan Luke (2002) has argued that 'new times' have created theoretical and empirical challenges for CDA, and that CDA needs to augment its strong focus on ideology critique with studies which document the emancipatory use of discourses in new contexts. This paper explores the possibilities of extending CDA in this way in education policy research, drawing on recent research on Education Queensland's new policy directions. It is argued that in the context of late modernity CDA is of particular value in documenting multiple and competing discourses in policy texts, and in highlighting marginalised and hybrid discourses. However, it is argued that such analyses are not in themselves necessarily emancipatory, and that it is important that researchers give more attention to how their work can be used as a political resource in struggles for social change.

TEN02259   [Paper]    ®
Integrated service hubs: Potential outcomes for children and communities?

Lee Tennent, Collette Tayler and Ann Farrell, Queensland University of Technology

Worldwide, growing evidence attests to the importance of effective early care and education services. Initiatives such as the Early Excellence Centres in the UK suggest that access to, and awareness and responsiveness of community services are enhanced when the services are integrated. It is also possible that service integration has the potential to build community social capital.

This paper presents some of the findings from phase one of a collaborative study between QUT and several government and non-government organisations into the establishment and ultimately, effectiveness, of two community hubs in Queensland. These hubs are community-driven initiatives funded by the Queensland Department of Families that aim to meet the diverse needs of children and families within a community. The hubs are focused on the provision of integrated child care and early childhood services but also include, family support services, parenting support, health services, community activities and education services. The investigation was underpinned by social capital theory. The paper reports on data collected from community surveys (N =143) and child interviews (N = 138) in a rural and urban Queensland locality. Community surveys elicited insights about existing services, suggestions for potential hub services and their perceived benefits. Questions designed to determine levels of social capital were also asked. Analysis of returned community surveys revealed widespread support and enthusiasm for the hub and numerous ideas for potential services and activities. Also found in the rural locality were high levels of community social capital, particularly for the dimensions of community participation, feelings of trust and safety and value of life. In the urban community, however, levels of social capital were substantially lower. Interesting differences were also found between the responses of rural and urban children on several dimensions of social capital.

THO02163   [Paper]
Silly us! Of course the grid doesn't work': reading methodologies and policy texts on principals' work

Jill Blackmore, Pat Thomson, Judyth Sachs

This symposium presents work in progress from an ARC (discovery grant) funded investigation of principal supply, conducted by Jill Blackman, Judyth Sachs and Pat Thomas. Our research goals are to examine claims of an impending shortage of school principals in particular schools and localities, critically evaluate a range of possible reasons for this shortage, and ultimately, through woprk with principals' organisations, to develop some possibilities for policy action. In this symposium we focus on: (1) existing studies of principal supply (2) trends apparent from demographic and employment data, and (3) a text and interview based study of 'human resources' policy. We invite discussion on the implications of this first stage for the next - a national survey and interviews with teachers in pre-service training and in their first years of teaching.

THO02166   [Paper]
High stakes principalship - sleepless nights, heart attacks and sudden death accountabilities: Reading media representations of the US principal shortage

Pat Thomson , Pat.Thomson@unisa.edu.au
Jill Blackmore, jillb@deakin.edu.au
JudythSachs, J.Sachs@secretariat.usyd.edu.au
Karen Tregenza, karent@deakin.edu.au

The possible shortage of applicants for principal positions is news in both Australia and abroad. We subject a corpus of predominantly US news article to deconstructive narrative analysis and find that the dominant media representation of principals' work is one of long hours, low salary, high stress and sudden death from high stakes accountabilities. However reported US policy interventions focus predominantly on professional development for aspirants. We note that this will be insufficient to reverse the lack of applications, and suggest that the dominant media picture of completely unattractive principals' work, meant to leverage a policy solution will perhaps paradoxically perpetuate the problem. This picture is also curiously at odds with research that reports high job satisfaction among principals. We suggest that there is a dominant binary of victim and saviour principal in both media and policy which prevents some strategic re-thinking about how the principalship might be different.

THO02587   [Paper]
Creativity as the exchange of symbolic capital in the transactions between an art teacher and his senior art students

Kerry Thomas, The University of New South Wales

This research, involving a qualitative study, investigates creativity as an exchange of symbolic capital in transactions between an art teacher and his senior students who are making artworks for the NSW HSC Visual Arts Examination.

Following Pierre Bourdieu's theories of the habitus and symbolic capital, the study mounts a challenge to more conventional views of creativity.

It argues that the micro-history and peculiarities of the cultural context and the linguistic exchanges between the art teacher and students at moments of creative origination may be highly significant to conceptions of creativity. It asserts that in the exchanges of symbolic capital between the teacher and his students his agency will be misrecognised in his own and their thinking, actions and artworks. Further it claims that students' artworks will evidence degrees of originality that vary consistently with the subtlety of misrecognition transacted in these exchanges.

The study identifies the teacher's critical function as a creative and intentional presence in the students thinking and performances and in the artefacts they produce. It concludes that there are very good social reasons why this misrecognition occurs which cannot be reduced to low inference explanations. The design, methods and emergent results of the study will be reported.

TIL02256   [Paper]
Resilience and male identity for at-risk males in alternative programs

Julia Tilling, The University of Queensland

This paper deals with the discourses of power and gender that influence the way in which at-risk adolescent boys think and solve problems within a specific educational context. The focus is how some adolescent boys perceive their masculinities, identity, and support after they have completed an alternative education program. Rather than simply studying which child, environment or family factors are involved in resilience, researchers have moved to understand how such factors may contribute to positive outcomes. Intervention can be conceptualised as a protective process by which one deliberately attempts to steer development in more favourable directions. This point is pertinent to my research in understanding how such protective processes/preventative programs contribute or interrupt dominant acts of masculine behaviour among some of these at-risk adolescent boys. The position being presented in this paper is that for recovery from adversity, at-risk boys must be provided with protective processes that address masculinities and the impact of power relations within masculinities. In doing so, the research connects gender and protective processes and the role that gender construction plays in successful educational outcomes. It is also argued that for successful reintegration of at-risk adolescent males into an educational setting requires opportunity to be provided with the environment to challenge the legitimacy of traditional masculine performances.

TIM02529   [Paper]
Changing the conditions for success: the introduction of school-assessed coursework and student performance in the VCE

Robyn Timmins, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority

This paper considers the changes to assessment practice in the Victorian Certificate of Education and the relationship between school-based assessment, the conditions under which it is taken and the outcomes for the whole cohort.

In 1998, more stringent conditions for school based assessment were introduced to counter the claims of plagiarism, cheating and undue assistance around the existing school based assessment program of Common Assessment Tasks (CATs). The new program of school assessed coursework has resulted in improved outcomes for students from disadvantaged schools, improved outcomes for boys and levelled the playing field.

These outcomes are analysed in terms of the constraints the new assessment program imposes on curriculum design and its capacity to engage and retain students in post-compulsory education.

Finally the structure of senior secondary curriculum and assessment is considered in relation to recent research from Dr Bob Birrell of Monash University and earlier work by Associate Professor Richard Teese from the University of Melbourne. Both propose quite different solutions to the issue of retention and performance of students in the senior secondary years.

TRI02473   [Paper]    part of Symposium 28
Challenges and tensions in implementing current directions in Indigenous Education

Penny Tripcony, Queensland Indigenous Education Consultative Body

For over 20 years various National and State Education policies have been in place and little seems to have changed in terms of outcomes for Indigenous peoples. But there are strange anomalies in Queensland Indigenous Education. What are the current directions in policy making, implementation strategies and outcomes in Queensland? In 2001 the Queensland Indigenous Education Consultative Body commissioned six research projects: Completion of 12 years of schooling or equivalent, The pre-schooling experience, Teacher Education, Standard Australian English and languages, Community Capacity Building, and Accountability. This symposium will review the outcomes of these research projects, setting them in the larger frameworks of national policy and state directions.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 28, MCG02472 Challenges and tensions in implementing current directions in Indigenous Education.

TSU02499   [Paper]
A pre-service science teacher's pedagogical content knowledge: The story of Linda

Chi-Yan Tsui and David Treagust, Curtin University of Technology

This paper explores teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) through the story of Linda, a pre-service science teacher, who had her first field experience teaching genetics in a Year 10 classroom. The study is part of a larger project about teaching and learning genetics with multiple representations using an interpretive, case-based research methodology with multiple sources of data that include interviews, observations, and ICT. Linda used multiple representations of genetics and ICT in her teaching. Our findings indicate that although Linda's content knowledge of genetics appeared inadequate, she was able to expand her content knowledge in response to students' learning demands and ongoing classroom contextual factors. She used her pedagogical knowledge well in her teaching despite constraints and difficulties she encountered in the unfamiliar situation. Classroom observations indicated that students had been highly motivated and actively engaged on tasks during Linda's teaching. Her expectations and reflections in the interviews corroborated with our view that she had undergone some conceptual change in her understanding of genetics and substantially improved her PCK. We believe such change can have a long-term impact on her professional development as a new science teacher. We finally discuss some implications of this study for pre-service science teacher education.

TUR02193   [Paper]    ®
The transition of international students into postgraduate study: An incremental approach

Melanie Jepson and Tari Turner, Swinburne University of Technology

Globalisation presents a number of opportunities and challenges to education. Increased international student numbers, the wide variety of cultural and educational backgrounds of these students and the impact of differing study locations and time zones all act to increase the complexity of the educational environment

The Centre for eBusiness and Communication, Swinburne University of Technology, Lilydale, is increasingly facing these challenges as it provides graduate programs to students both internationally and locally, in face-to-face and online modes.

This paper explores current research being undertaken into the ways in which the Centre can best support the learning journey of students with diverse experience, needs and perspectives. It details the implementation of an ongoing orientation program for international students studying in face-to-face mode and a parallel, online program for overseas online students.

Not only is orientation provided for students at the outset of the program, but also at each stage (Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma and Master) as the approach becomes more learner-driven and independent, ensuring clear communication of the requirements of a self-directed approach and a jointly developed understanding of the roles of staff and students within each new level.

The paper aims to elaborate the importance of managing expectations, both of staff and students, in order to most effectively and authentically aid the learning experience for the global student.

U, V

VAL02347   [Paper]
Empirical study of boys' school and boys' motivation

Roger Vallance, University of Notre Dame

An empirical study was commenced in 2002 to investigate what works in the education of adolescent boys. The research is being conducted in collaboration with the staff of a secondary boys' school in metropolitan Perth. The paper will report work in progress.

The research project is investigating classroom practices that are suggested to be helpful to boys' learning. A rich data source is being developed which includes surveys; non-participant, structured observations; and focus groups developing qualitative data. The focus groups are being conducted with parents, staff and groups of students.

Several instruments have been developed for this study. In particular, the student (i.e. boy's) motivation survey instrument extends earlier work to concentrate on the self-perceptions of 13 to 15 year old boys [Yrs 8 and 9 in Western Australian schools]to report motivational factors regarding their school work and approach to study. Staff and parent focus group interviews develop a range of opinions and practices considered relevant and useful in boys' education which can be contrasted to the boys' reported experiences. The student interviews conducted target boys' experiences in classrooms, their academic aspirations and reported coping mechanisms to give a rich sense of the adolescent male's experiences of single sex education.

VAL02364   [Paper]
Secondary principals describe excellent teachers

Roger Vallance, University of Notre Dame

This paper reports a case study of interviews with school principals. Principals in four Catholic secondary schools in metropolitan Perth were asked to nominate teachers they considered to be excellent. The sample of nineteen teachers nominated comprised a two year longitudinal study: their experiences of classrooms, career aspirations and professional development. The four principals were re-contacted towards the end of the teachers' study. This paper reports the principals' expressions of why they selected particular staff as excellent teachers and what excellence in teaching means to these principals.

The interviews of this study were conducted towards the end of the longitudinal teachers' study. The interviews were semi-structured, conducted in the principal's office and were audio recorded with their explicit permission. These principals had each over twenty five years in education, had been principal of at least one previous school and had been at least four years as principal in their present school. The interviews tapped a depth of tacit knowledge of educational leadership in secondary schools.

This paper explores how principals understand quality education and the personal qualities they associate with good teachers. The conversations reflect on their understanding of what teaching means and the nature of professional teachers. Each of these principals develops a strong model of the professional teacher in a Catholic secondary school.

VIA02437   [Paper]
Selective students' views of essential characteristics of effective teachers

Wilma Vialle, University of Wollongong

There would be little argument that the key to the success of any educational program is the teacher. Renzulli's (1968) survey of twenty-one experts in gifted education, for example, determined that the most important element in the success of programs for gifted students was the teacher. Most teacher training programs include statements of the competencies, attributes or qualities that their graduates will gain but these tend to be generic. The assumption seems to be that the attributes of a good teacher are the same for all students. For gifted education, the question remains as to whether the qualities that make a teacher effective are the same for gifted students as they are for those who are not gifted.

This research explores gifted students' perceptions of the most desirable qualities in their teachers. The first phase involved the administration of a questionnaire to students at an academically selective high school in New South Wales. These were followed up by semi-structured interviews. Gender, age and ability differences were found in the students' preferences. The paper describes the three areas of importance to students- personal qualities, intellectual characteristics and teaching styles-and makes recommendations about the training of teachers of the gifted.

VID02146   [Paper]    ®
Globalising the curriculum: A case study of global - local curriculum policy tensions for an 'independent school'

Lesley Vidovich, University of Western Austalia

This paper reports a single case study from a larger research project on curriculum policy in non-government schools in a variety of countries. This Singapore 'case' school is exceptional in terms of its rapid development of policy and practices aimed at globalising its curriculum. The strategies it employs provide valuable insights into curriculum policy development generally.

Globalising the curriculum of the school is a process which is being negotiated within constraints at the local level in Singapore. Such constraints include a government mandated central curriculum framework; pressures from parents that the school continue to perform at the top of the league tables based on local external examinations; and time limitations.

A series of curriculum policy tensions were revealed when teaching staff were interviewed, and many of these tensions coalesce around contradictions in global-local orientations. There is no intention to imply that these tensions will necessarily be mirrored in other schools in other countries. However, many schools are now developing curriculum within a context of globalisation, as well as national/state outcomes-based curriculum frameworks and league tables. Thus, this exploratory study provides 'food for thought' in supporting work towards the most desirable effects of a global curriculum orientation, while helping to avoid the least desirable effects.

VID02168   [Paper]
'Acceding To Audits': New Quality Assurance Policy as a 'settlement' in fostering international markets for Australian higher education

Lesley Vidovich ,University of Western Australia

Establishment of the national Australian Universities' Quality Agency (AUQA) in 2001 heralded the second incarnation of 'quality' policy in Australian higher education. The new approach contrasts with that of the early 1990s in a number of important ways, including the involvement of State governments, through their accreditation function. Universities are now acceding to audits by AUQA with less overt resistance than during the 1990s. Arguably, the main reason is the threat that without a national system of auditing, Australia's universities would lose lucrative customers who now expect assurance of quality from universities operating in the global marketplace. Lack of regulation of private, on-line providers became a flashpoint which served to entrench the momentum towards audits.

This paper offers an analysis of new quality assurance mechanisms in Australian higher education, based on interviews with members of the AUQA Board who represent the major constituencies of Commonwealth and State governments, industries and universities ('customers' are a notable absence). The analysis reveals that new quality policy processes represent not only changing Commonwealth-State relations, which have a long and colourful history in Australian education, but a broader 'settlement' as the interests of the various constituencies coalesce around the need to forge international markets in a changing global high education landscape.

W

WAL02199   [Paper]
Pairs on practicum: Early childhood students collaborate with peers in preschool/kindergarten

Kerryann Walsh, Leona Elmslie and Collette Tayler, Queensland University of Technology

Uncertain futures demand that early childhood student teachers emerge from teacher education programs with capabilities to engage in teamwork, to collaborate in curriculum decision-making and to develop practices for critical reflection. This paper reports on a pilot project for pairing early childhood students for their first practicum in preschools and kindergartens at an Australian University. It draws on evaluative research conducted while the students were undertaking a 20 day practicum. The paper discusses the benefits and challenges as reported by the participants in interviews and surveys, and analyses findings in relation to the extant literature on best practice in practicum and methods for facilitating learning in preservice teacher education.

WAL02220   [Paper]    ®
Elements of a model of effective teachers

Julia Walsh and John Cripps Clark, Deakin University

It is important to have a clear, evidence based model of an effective teacher if we are to educate teachers and grow as teachers ourselves. We need to understand the components of effective teachers and how these components interact. Current models of effective teachers are limited because they fail to give sufficient emphasis to many important aspects of effective teachers and fail to integrate these components into a coherent model and so provide a useful conceptual framework for discussing and developing teacher education.

This paper discusses the components of an effective teacher and presents a preliminary model. This model emphasises not only the aspects of effective teaching which receive most of the attention in teacher education and evaluation, namely discipline content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and skills, including pedagogical content knowledge, and knowledge of context, but also integrates the personal qualities of the teacher. The model shows how these components interact within an effective teacher and how an effective teacher continues to develop, associated with growth in confidence.

An examination of the effective teacher challenges not only teacher educators to rethink the way we educate teachers but also the way we assess, judge and reward existing teachers.

WAT02243   [Paper]    ®
School students' understanding of stacked dot (line) plots

Jane Watson, University of Tasmania

This study considers students' understanding of a relatively new form of graph in the data-handling curriculum: the stacked dot plot, or as it is more commonly known, the line plot or dot plot. Students in grades 5 to 10 were presented with various forms of a task asking for comparison of two stacked dot plots, one with usual scaling of the base line and the other with gaps for zero-values omitted. Of interest were students' abilities to interpret the information as presented in the graphs, to put the information in context, and to distinguish the statistically appropriate form of graph with an explanation. Performances across grades and forms of the task are compared. For a subset of students in grades 5, 7, and 9 performance is compared for one form of the task before and after a unit of study on chance and data. Discussion includes implications for the classroom in relation to current interest in statistical literacy across the curriculum.

WAT02306   [Paper]    ®
Part of Symposium 33
A qualitative investigation of perceived influences shaping adolescents' plans to pursue (or not pursue) maths-related careers

Helen Watt, University of Sydney

Students' unrestricted interview responses regarding why they plan to either pursue (or not pursue) maths-related careers are the focus of the present study. Within the Expectancy-Value theory of achievement motivation of Eccles, Wigfield and colleagues, success expectancy beliefs and values are posited to be the main predictors of choices to participate in maths, with indirect influences of task demand, where participation choices are operationalised in terms of high school maths course enrolments. The present study extends consideration of participation choices to maths-related career plans, being a longer-term outcome with clear social relevance. Open-ended qualitative techniques are employed, rather than correlational approaches common within this perspective, to investigate students' reasons for participation in maths-related careers. Findings corroborate influences identified within the Expectancy-Value framework, providing strong support for these factors as sources of students' intentions to pursue (or not pursue) maths-related careers.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 33, WAT02533 Motivation, learning and participation.

WAT02393   [Paper]    ®
To skill or to construct? Effective Information and Communication Technology professional development within the context of current school reform

Sarah Prestridge and Glenice Watson, Griffith University

Within the context of a current school reform , professional development in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is seen as a necessary ingredient for all stakeholders involved in educating the children of tomorrow. This paper reports on an initial stage of a research project that is concerned with models of teacher ICT professional development that achieve multiliterate outcomes. The paper explores the alignment between the teachers' understandings of their need for ICT professional development and the demands presented within the reform itself. Initial findings suggest that a conflicting paradigm exists in that the teacher's demand for skill based ICT professional development does not equate with the constructivist ideology present within the school reform. This has consequently led to two key propositions. Firstly that skill based training in ICT may not enable the transition to a more constructivist approach to the use of ICT within the classroom. Secondly that the school based reform itself has created an antithetical position that is limiting to the potential educational use of ICT and can be seen as driving the form and function of professional development.

WAU02010   [Paper]    ®
Linking classroom environment with educational outcomes using a Rasch measurement model

Russell Waugh, Edith Cowan University and Robert Cavanagh, Curtin University of Technology

There are many studies relating the classroom environment to student outcomes as part of the pursuit of what makes an effective school. An eight-aspect model involving Classroom Learning, Classroom Support, Student Discussion, Student Planning, student views of Teacher's Decision-Making, Teacher's Caring, Teacher's Expectations, and Parental Attitudes with student self-reported Educational Values and Formal Learning Outcomes has been proposed, but has never been investigated by measuring all these aspects on the same scale. This study aimed to create an interval-level, unidimensional scale of student self-reported Classroom Environment, based on the hypothesised classroom model involving eight-aspects, with two-aspect classroom outcomes. It aimed to calibrate item difficulties and student self-reported Classroom Environment measures on the same scale. The person sample was 521 students from two secondary schools in Western Australia and the item sample was 66. Items were written in ordered-by-difficulty patterns for each aspect, in line with a conceptualised measurement model. Data were analysed with a Rasch Unidimensional Measurement Model computer program (Andrich, Sheridan, Lyne & Luo, 2000). The proportion of observed variance considered true was 0.96 (Cronbach Alpha was 0.96). The eight Classroom Environment aspects were found to be linked to the two student outcome aspects. Nearly all items for each aspect were found to be ordered from 'easy' to 'hard' in line with the hypothesised model. The Rasch model was very useful in creating a scale of classroom factors and student outcomes in which student measures and item difficulties are calibrated on the same scale. The Classroom Environment is linked to student outcomes.

WAU02011   [Paper]    ®
Measuring quality of student experiences at a university using a Rasch model

Russell Waugh, Edith Cowan University

The Community College Student Experiences Questionnaire, involving eight aspects of quality, was revised and re-written for a university in Australia. The eight quality aspects are: My Course, The Library, My Lecturers, Student Acquaintances, The Arts, The Sciences, Writing, and Vocations. Stem-items were created for each aspect and conceptually ordered-by-difficulty. Each of the stem-items was answered from two perspectives, Ideally, this is what I think should happen, and These are my experiences during this semester. The two response categories were Not at all, and Yes, on one or more occasions. The convenience sample was 372 students studying education at an Australian university and data were analysed with a Rasch measurement program (Simple Logistic Model). The difficulties of the items were calibrated and ordered from easy to hard on the same scale as the student measures of Quality. The final item sample was 52 (26 stem-items times 2). The proportion of observed student variance considered true was 0.81 and the proportion of item variance considered true was 0.92. The results supported most of the model behind the construct of Quality for the eight aspects in which the stem-items were ordered-by-difficulty and the difficulties of the items in the ideal perspective were easier than their corresponding difficulties in the experience perspective.

WEB02086   [Paper]    ®
Existentialism: Providing an ideal framework for educational research in times of uncertainty

Scott Webster, Monash University

Issues such as anxiety, alienation, crises and concerns over self-identity typify this era of uncertainty. These are also recognized themes of Existentialism and have implications for educational practice and research. The purpose of this paper is threefold. Firstly, it aims to clarify Existentialism, as too often it is mistakenly assumed to refer to an atomistic view of the individual, who is able to exercise absolute freedom. This clarification refers primarily to the works of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Heidegger.

The second purpose is to present an outline of a particular existential framework. This is mainly structured around the notion of the learner, who is characterized as being in relation, culturally embedded, alienated and a meaning-maker. These attributes have direct implications for the ideal of 'the educated person' - an often articulated 'aim' of education programmes. Becoming educated, according to this framework, means becoming authentic, critical, empathetic, spiritual and having personal identity.

A third purpose is to argue how educational researchers may usefully employ such a framework. By engaging with it, educators are able to examine effective pedagogical approaches using notions of 'the existential crisis' and anxiety.

In this way, educational programmes, policies and curriculums can also be critiqued using this framework.

WEB02088   [Paper]    ®
Spirituality: Providing guidance through uncertainty

Scott Webster, Monash University

Spirituality has all too often been neglected by both the practices and the profession of education. In these times of great uncertainty the spiritual dimension needs to be developed in order for people to more effectively navigate their way. This paper specifically examines what is understood by 'spirituality' and argues why and how it should be developed. Briefly, this dimension refers to what the meaning of life and one's self-identity are understood to be. Every person can therefore be considered to be spiritual to some extent, not just the religious.

Furthermore it considers that meaning-making, self-identity, choices, decisions and motivation, largely emerge from one's spirituality. By developing this dimension, personal well-being is enhanced and people can gain a more effective understanding of themselves and their world, elucidating what purposes are worthwhile for them to pursue.

There is an increasing interest being given to spirituality mainly from the fields of psychology, the work-place, some aspects of the New Age movement (especially self-help courses) and now also by education. It is argued that spiritual development, which is claimed to be facilitated by philosophical approaches within communities of inquiry, benefits both the learners of educational programmes and also ourselves as researchers.

WEB02411   [Paper]
The impact of friendship on primary school children's ability to effectively collaborate with peers: Learning outcomes on two scientific reasoning tasks

Sean Webber, University of Queensland.and J Robinson, Flinders University

Peer collaboration, in which pairs of equally skilled partners work together in problem solving, is widely used in Australian schools. Previous research has shown that collaboration is a learning context that has immediate and long-term cognitive benefits. The present study examined whether peer collaboration between friends and acquaintances differed with respect to performance on two scientific reasoning tasks and in the social interaction between the partners. Sixty children aged 10-to-12 completed friendship and familiarity ratings. Pairs of friends and pairs of acquaintances were matched on familiarity. Children then worked together to solve two 'isolation of variables' tasks. Two weeks later children were tested individually on a similar task to determine the extent of cognitive gains (post-test). Results indicated that friends outperformed acquaintances in the collaboration, but not in the post-test. Social interactions between friends and acquaintances differed only in the frequency with which disagreements ended amicably (acceptance) and the extent to which children monitored their progress toward their task goal. Only acceptance was associated with task performance, and this acted as a mediator between friendship and task performance. The results confirm that peer collaboration is an effective learning strategy for primary school children, and indicate that collaborations between friends are equally or more effective than collaborations between peers who are not friends.

WHE02569   [Paper]    Paper 4 of Symposium 26
Teaching and learning development of casual academic staff: An institutional approach

Karen Whelan, Georgia Smeal and Jane Grealy, Queensland University of Technology

In 2002, Queensland University of Technology is once again offering the Casual Academic Staff Teaching and Learning Program. The program which is sponsored by the University Teaching and Learning Committee, is unique in a number of ways including:

• Casual Academic Staff are paid for their attendance at the program;
• Organisation of the program is coordinated by Teaching and Learning Support Services Department but is done in consultation with the Professional Association of Part Time Academics;
• The program has grown and evolved such that the 2002 program includes up to eight parallel sessions of both seminars and workshops and will attract an attendance of around 300 staff in each semester.

This paper will discuss the program and the processes that have been embedded to continuously improve the offerings to meet the needs of a diverse range of casual academics across QUT. The feedback from Casual Academics is overwhelmingly positive about the program and in particular, many feel that it gives them a sense of belonging to the institution, the lack of which is often a criticism of the increasing casualisation of the university workforce.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 26, COO02445 Sessional staff in the university context: Moving forward.

WHI02118   [Paper]
Teaching swimming in secondary school physical education

Peter Whipp, Edith Cowan University

Teaching swimming in schools is becoming problematic. Secondary School Physical Educators deliver a wide range of sport related content. Swimming programmes in schools present a diverse range of issues, and it may well be that swimming in schools will meet a watery grave - for reasons not dissimilar to that which accounted for the new millennium gymnastics dinosaur.

This quantitative and qualitative research incorporated case studies in 2 schools (4 intact classes), including teacher and student interviews, and surveys together with Teacher in Charge of Physical Education and teacher questionnaires in government and independent Western Australian secondary schools.

Teachers' views on swimming in schools, curriculum content knowledge, swimming skills, preferred pedagogical strategies, existing aquatic curriculum, student achievement and perceived student swimming abilities are presented. To better understand and evaluate the data a conceptual model incorporating the 'differentiated classroom' (Tomlinson, 2001), pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1987), and the curriculum dimensions as identified by Choi (1992) are embodied within and through this research.

WIL02059   [Paper]    ®
Embodying women's leadership

Jane Wilkinson, Charles Sturt University

This paper utilises Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of bodily hexis and habitus to explore the interrelationship between gender, class and ethnicity in the construction of a sense of identity amongst Australian female educational leaders.

In particular, it focuses on one of the key themes which arose from interviews conducted in 2000 with a group of tertiary women leaders from a range of class and ethnic backgrounds - the way in which the women were positioned as embodied individuals - that is, women first and leaders second. It explores the differing strategies the women adopted to accommodate, resist and at times, potentially disrupt, this construction.

WIL02491   [Paper]    ®
Experimenting with quasi-variables in the teaching of Algebra

Anne Williams and Tom Cooper, Queensland University of Technology

A teaching experiment with two Year 8 classes facilitated early understandings of algebra by focusing on the meaning of equals, expressions, equations, and the variable x. Activities highlighted the similarities between arithmetic and algebra by developing generalisations in arithmetic that could be applied in algebra. Knowing that an arrangement of numbers such as in 78-49+49=78 is true because the same number is being added and subtracted has been termed quasi-variable understanding (Fujii & Stephens, 2001). This paper focuses on one component of the teaching experiment, the mediation of quasi-variable worksheets in the development of variable understanding of changes that leave expressions and equations invariant. In particular, these changes were associated with the doing and undoing of expressions and the doing the same thing to both sides of equations. Results showed that these quasi-variable ideas were difficult for students to grasp, but there was evidence that they mediated the development of similar variable understandings.

WIL02520   [Paper]
Telling tales: Stories from new teachers in country schools

Cheryl Williams, University of Newcastle and Department of Education NSW

The focus on recruitment and retraining schemes can often overshadow the issue of retention of teachers in schools (Adams, 2001). Merrow (1999) noted, "the teaching pool keeps losing water because no one is paying attention to the leak. That is we're misdiagnosing the problem as 'recruitment' when it's really 'retention'". Research findings from studies of new teachers undertaken by the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers (PNGT) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Novice Teacher Support Project at the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign, support Merrow's observation. A recognition of the changing nature of teachers' career plans, the need for professional development strategies such as systematic school-based induction and the implementation of effective supervision and mentoring programs (Ramsey 2000, Ingersoll 2000,Carter 2000), could assist schools in retaining their newly appointed teachers, particularly in country/rural areas.

An ethnographic research study aimed at understanding and interpreting the 'imagined', 'real' and 'reflective' experiences of new teachers in their first year of appointment in country schools may assist policy-makers, teacher educators and schools in perceiving 'new ways' of both recruiting and retaining newly appointed teachers. In my dual roles as a doctoral research student and Academic Associate for a school district in country NSW, I intend to undertake this project to examine the lives and experiences of newly appointed teachers in country schools. The 'tales they tell' explores the notion that the school site is 'where teachers must find success and satisfaction. It is there they will decide whether or not to continue to teach' (PNGT 2001). This paper discusses the background to the study and proposals for its scope and impact on the retention of newly appointed teachers in country NSW schools.

WON02083   [Paper]
The validation of measures of self-efficacy, motivation and self-regulated learning among Thai tertiary students

Nongkran Wongsri and Robert Cantwell, University of Newcastle

This paper reports the first part of a broader study examining potential cultural and disciplinary differences in self-directed learning among tertiary students. Specifically, the research compares student self- efficacy (Greenglass, Schwarzer & Taubert., 1999), motivation (Chan, 1994; Midgley et al, 1998), and reported self-regulatory and volitional behaviour (Cantwell & Moore, 1996; MCCann & Garcia, 1999) from a cultural perspective (Thailand and Australia) and from a disciplinary perspective (nursing and psychology). As the research is based on instrumentation developed in western cultures, the first stage of the project, and the subject of this report, is the validation of the instruments for use among Thai tertiary students. Methodology employed for validation was based upon the cross-cultural translation technique developed by Vallrand (1989), later confirmed by Banville, Desrosiersad refined by a bilingual committee.

Content validity was assessed using a bilingual group of Thai students who responded to both English and Thai versions. Consistency of item responses was assessed using pair t-test and Pearson correlations. Among the 134 items, seven items were found to be marginally less reliable in translation. Construct validity was then assessed using a group of 150 Thai university students who responded to Thai version only. These responses were then analysed using single factor principal component analysis. Data indicated only five items with low factor loadings on the prescribed scale. Overall, the validation process indicated an acceptable level of fit between the English and Thai versions of the questionnaires.

WON02391   [Paper]
Links between parental and children's friendship networks

Belinda Wong and Cathrine Neilsen-Hewett, Macquarie University

The study explored relations between parental and children's friendship networks using the Friendship Network Circle Activity (FNCA). Thirty third-grade children were asked to identify important relationships in their lives by putting names in each of three concentric circles. These circles represented friendships of different levels of intimacy within each child's network. Mothers (n = 15) and fathers (n = 15) separately completed the Friendship Network Circle Activity. Measures of network satisfaction were also attained. Information gathered from the FNCA was used to explore both structural (e.g., size and intimate structure) and relational (e.g., relationship types and geographic location of friends) links among parents' and children's networks. The size and composition of children's friendship networks was related to the size and composition of their mother's and father's networks. These results highlight the need for teachers to support child and parental friendship networks outside the classroom, as well as recognizing the potential influence of parental friendships on children's friendship relations.

WON02514   [Paper]    Part of Symposium 31
An investigation of the social construction of early childhood education in The Sydney Morning Herald, 1893 - 1975

Sandra Wong, Macquarie University

This paper reports on a 'work in progress' investigating the construction of early childhood education (ECE) in the newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald (1893 - 1975). To date, articles substantially relating to ECE in the first (1893 - 1897) of four, five year, historical periods have been examined. Working within the framework of critical discourse analysis, the research illustrates how this reportage produces particular constructs of ECE. These constructs are explored and critiqued, to expose hidden power relations, the subject positions they support, and highlights how these various constructs contribute to social justice. The research aims to contribute to the understanding of historical constructions of ECE. Such understanding provides an essential basis for reflecting on contemporary meanings of ECE.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 31, WHI02511 Generational change: Continuities and discontinuities in early childhood practices in Australia.

WOO02113   [Paper]    ®
Teaching reading in the upper primary school -A comparison of two teachers' approaches

Teresa Woolacott, University of Southern Queensland

A variety of approaches to the teaching of reading has been applied in primary classrooms. While much information is available on the teaching of reading in the early school years, little is forthcoming to guide teachers of older students. This qualitative research served to identify the philosophies and pedagogies of two experienced year seven teachers in regard to the teaching of reading. A series of interviews with each of these teachers was designed to elicit information on how each teacher approached the teaching of reading, and to trace possible influences on the pedagogical decisions made. The study revealed the importance of personal philosophy on shaping reading instruction, providing for rather different approaches even though perceived aims were similar. The findings of this research have application to classroom practice and to understanding teacher decision making.

WOO02227   [Paper] Part of Symposium 33
Second language speaking anxiety of learners of English for academic purposes in Australia

Lindy Woodrow and E Chapman, The University of Sydney

This study examines second language speaking anxiety SLSA of international students attending English for academic purposes (EAP) courses prior to entering university courses. SLSA is defined as a situation specific anxiety that occurs in second language learning and use environments. Research has indicated that anxiety is a significant negative influence on language performance, particularly speaking. The study reports on an aspect of a proposed model of adaptive learning for English language learning involving motivational constructs. A five point Likert type scale was devised to measure SLSA. This study conceptualises SLSA as a two-dimensional construct comprising in class and out of class anxiety. Reliability and validity of the instrumentation was established using confirmatory factor analysis. The scale was given to 275 advanced EAP learners at language centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, 50 of whom were also interviewed. Most of the participants students come from Asian countries. Ethnicity and anxiety scores were analysed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The differences in results according to ethnic group were significant. The most significant stressors were identified from qualitative analysis. Finally suggestions for optimising language learning and tertiary learning of international students are considered.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 33, WAT02533 Motivation, learning and participation.

WOO02363   [Paper]
Digital portfolios in pre-service Teacher Education

Helen Woodward and Philip Nanlohy, University of Western Sydney

With the pre-service student portfolio process and product well in hand in a paper-based format, in the Bachelor of Education (Primary) at University of Western Sydney, (Woodward 1997, 2000) new horizons have presented themselves These new possibilities are facilitated by developments in ICT's but should not be driven by them. In this study the impetus comes from the changing context in which the students will work and from the rapidly evolving mediums of communication employed by the society these future teachers will serve. With new technologies being developed, the introduction of digital portfolios has begun to emerge.

Current literature and research about digital portfolios make a variety of findings. These findings focus on the value and purpose of portfolios themselves as well as the attributes peculiar to the inclusion of technology. It is purported that digital portfolios when compared to paper-based documents provide the audience with greater insight in the achievement and successes of the author due to the variety of data sources able to be used (Kimeldorf, 1997).

This paper will describe the process that was put in place to facilitate students in the introduction of technology to the development of their teaching and learning portfolios as part of the on-going assessment of their development towards becoming a teacher. Issues of the advantages of the use of such technology and of the results of the process during the initial implementation will be discussed.

WOO02660   [Paper]
Policy-Research partnerships for ICT related research in the schooling sector

Brian Croke, Heather Woods and Jillian Dellit, MCEETYA ICT in Schools Taskforce

Research is a high priority for the ICT in Schools Taskforce of the Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. The priority is partly driven by the imperative to demonstrate outcomes from government investment in ICTs over the last decade, partly by the pressure from innovations and research policies and partly by public interest.

In June of this year, the Taskforce held a forum in Melbourne to bring together representatives of peak schooling sector jurisdictions and peak research organisations. The Forum looked for common ground between policy makers and researchers in the schooling sector. The Forum was followed by a visit from Dr John Willinsky of the University of British Columbia based Public Knowledge Project and a report to the Taskforce.

The ICT Schools Taskforce is committed to identifying some priorities for research into the use of ICT in Australian schools. It is also hoping to take forward a proposal to use ICT to make schooling sector-focused research accessible to the education community in a way that supports and promotes professional interaction between researchers, practitioners and policy makers. The taskforce is looking at ways in they, as a peak body of the education industry, could partner with universities to build an educational service of this kind in Australia.

The paper and presentation will outline work done on these projects to date, future directions and opportunities for engagement by AARE.

WRI02015   [Paper]
From rhetoric to reality - piloting a Faculty Pedagogical Framework

Mary Wright and Petrea Redmond, University of Southern Queensland

In the new 'learning organisation' of the post-industrial era, the collaborative team rather than the individual, Hough (1997) argues, is the basic unit of work. Such organizational structures foreground the fundamental democratic principle of shared values including inclusivity, collaboration and social responsibility. In the context of a Faculty of Education, addressing changes to organizational and management structures and pedagogical approaches to enhance learning outcomes for students is a significant challenge.

Teacher educators have a responsibility not only to ensure that teachers are responsive to the changing face of schooling, but also to model these new constructions of pedagogy and shared leadership within their Faculty. In order to do this there is a need for teacher educators to re-examine their own pedagogical and organizational structures. In the Faculty of Education at the University of Southern Queensland, this need was conceptualised as a 'Faculty Pedagogical Framework', which emerged from an extensive research based review. This paper describes and analyses initiatives that have facilitated the implementation of selected sections of the Pedagogical Framework.

WRI02327   [Paper]    ®
Multi-modality in a new key: The significance of the Arts in research and education

Susan Wright, Queensland University of Technology

Multi-modality, synesthesia, somatic knowing and the use of symbolic expression often can be suppressed in institutionalised education. This is largely due to the social and cultural dominance of literal language and written modes of expression. However, artistic forms of expression are significant avenues for making cognitive, emotional and "spiritual" connections that are key to deep learning. Artistic meaning making integrates the visual, spatial and bodily-kinaesthetic modes, which may, or may not, involve the verbal mode. Artistic discourse utilises a range of "texts" that include the worlds of still and moving images, sounds, and gesture discourses that connect the body, thought, emotion and symbolic representation in ways that cannot be replicated in other areas of the curriculum.

This paper discusses a multi-modal approach to literacy education, which encompasses the integration of body, mind and "soul" through spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic and other forms of expression. It describes how children construct and manipulate symbols to represent the abstract concept of "what the future will be like" through the transduction of meaning from the visual mode in relation to the spatial, oral and bodily-kinaesthetic modes using graphic depiction (stemming from imagery and visual memory) in collaboration with the verbal mode (creating story to accompany their artworks). An example of one 8-year-old boy's drawing/story illustrates how the visual-verbal domains enriched and informed each other as he manipulated and organised images, ideas and feelings using a rich amalgam of both fantasy and reality. Several examples from the sample of 120 children illustrate somatic forms of communication, where children embellished their works with expressive vocal inflection, hand gestures and body posture.

X, Y

YAN02312   [Paper]
Ideo-political education in China's universities: A study of the challenges in the 1990s

Rui Yang, The University of Western Australia

Since the 1990s, dramatic sea changes of world situation have again brought political education into the spotlight, echoing its "bull market" in the 1950s and the 1970s. Under this scenario, the ideo-political education in China deserves our special attention. As one of the few communist countries in the present world, China has long been seen as a propaganda state. A core part of its Leninist one-party system of government is the indisputable official ideology, which has been the dominant content of ideo-political education in Chinese universities, known as indoctrination, brain wash, propaganda and totalitarianism in the West.

Since China's adoption of the open door policy in the late 1970s, its ongoing changing situation has increasingly problematised the ideo-political education. This paper investigates the challenges faced by the ideo-political education in Chinese universities, with a focus on the 1990s. It examines the impact of some contextual factors of Chinese higher education reform, particularly the introduction of the market, on the contemporary ideo-political education in China's universities. This paper reveals that the discrepancy between the fundamental and instrumental levels of the Chinese official ideology has become increasingly prominent, and is especially reflected on the ideo-political education in universities.

YEU02281   [Paper]
Teaching motivation, stress and satisfaction: Do teachers in a secondary and a tertiary institution differ?

Nancy Tsui Yee Yeung, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Survey data from 15 lecturers in a tertiary education institution and 39 teachers in a secondary school in Hong Kong were analyzed to investigate their work motivation and its relationship with job-related stress and satisfaction. The relationship between job-related stress and job satisfaction was negative. However, both levels of stress and job satisfaction were high. In terms of work motivation, for both groups, achievement and affiliation orientations were high but power orientation was not. These results indicate that the job nature of teaching itself may have a driving force that makes teachers strive for professional development that is stressful yet satisfying and fulfilling. Analysis of variance found that the two groups (lecturers vs. teachers) did not differ in work-related psychological outcomes (job stress and satisfaction), nor did they differ in their power orientation. For both groups, the achievement and affiliation orientations were higher than power orientation whereas between-group comparisons found that achievement and affiliation orientations were significantly higher for lecturers in the tertiary institution. The relatively high stress level of both the lecturers and teachers warrants attention. Further work should focus on effort to reduce teacher stress and increase job satisfaction.

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ZEE02032