AARE Conference Papers Abstracts - 2003

Keynote speakers

A

AGB03245  ®  [Paper]
The power of labeling discourse in the construction of disability in Ghana

Joseph Agbenyega, Monash University

In recent times, disability issues have become the major concern for advocacy groups, teachers, school administrators, and policy makers in many countries. There is much work currently being done in many countries in order to find the most appropriate placement for persons with disabilities, particularly in the areas of education, training, and employment. However, there is evidence to suggest that these efforts have been continuously thwarted by the nature and type of labels societies place on individuals with disabilities. These labels vary in nature according to the perceptions, traditions, cultures and beliefs of different societies. This article explores the power of labeling in the Ghanaian society and its effects on the education, treatment and management of persons with disabilities in that country. The paper concludes that unless labeling is removed from the individual and, rather, placed on the problem, our minds will continue to be arrested to see only the negative side of disabled persons, and any consideration for appropriate placement of persons with disabilities is unlikely to work.

AKH03346  ®  [Paper]
Teachers' control and students' motivation

Selina Akhter, The University of Auckland

In a cross-sectional study the relationships among teachers' control versus autonomy orientation, teachers' pupil control orientation, teacher pupil control behaviour as perceived by students, students' intrinsic motivation and social responsibility goals were examined from a sample of 145 teachers and 1400 Year Five students from 50 primary schools from rural and urban areas of Dhaka District of Bangladesh. Based on previous studies a model was developed and tested by using path analysis and multilevel regression design. The findings indicated that the class average for social responsibility goal pursuit scores was higher when the class perceived their teachers' behaviour as less authoritarian which was consistent with theory. In contrast, for intrinsic motivation, in classrooms where students perceived their teachers as more authoritarian, on average, the students perceived themselves as highly intrinsically motivated which was not expected. There were no direct relationships between teachers' orientations and students' intrinsic motivation and social responsibility goals, however teachers orientations were directly related to the perceived teachers' pupil control behaviour indicating teachers who perceived themselves as more autonomous and humanistic were perceived by students as less authoritarian. The results are discussed in the light of previous studies and cultural values

ALI03038  [Paper]
Bloodied But Unbowed - the effect on NZ secondary school teachers' work and lives of the neoliberal reforms of the 90's - a union perspective

Judie Alison, Bronwyn Cross and Rob Willetts, NZPPTA

This paper presents a picture of a union which has survived throughout the 1990's period of neoliberal reform unprecedented attacks on the pay and conditions of work of its members and on its very existence as a union, and today is in a position of considerable strength. The neoliberal mantra of avoidance of 'provider capture' sought to marginalize and ultimately destroy the capacity of education unions to represent teachers in terms of their working conditions and their professional priorities. The paper brings together evidence from successive negotiating rounds, data assembled by NZPPTA through its regular surveys of its membership, schools and teacher education providers, and information from major campaigns, to create a picture of the issues which education unions have had to confront under neoliberal policies and the strategies which have proved to be effective. It also indicates where the union believes it is positioned now under a government which is beginning to move away from deprofessionalising neoliberal policies to a position of engagement with teachers in the development of future education policies.

ANG03607  [Paper]
Why stay on at school? Two stories of student attitudes to school in a rural and a suburban community.

Jill Blackmore, Jennifer Angwin, Geoff Shacklock with Phillippa Hodder

ASH03202   [Paper]
Coercion, Self Regulation and Tertiary Education

Craig Ashcroft, University of Otago

Michel Foucault claimed that the apparent neutrality and political invisibility that existed within certain forms of governance allowed power to be exercised with maximum effect because it was hidden from view.

This paper uses Bentham's panopticon as a metaphorical representation of the role and likely impact of recent reforms in New Zealand's tertiary education sector. I have conceptualised a process of Managerial Panopticism to argue that the reforms initiated by the 1999 Labour/Alliance Coalition Government and imposed upon New Zealand's tertiary education sector employ techniques of coercion that provide individuals with a sense of opportunism if they comply. I argue that this sense of 'opportunism' is actually an illusion used by the government to stifle any possible resistance to the reform process.

ATW03689  [Paper]
International Aid Activities in Mathematics Education in Developing Countries: A Call for Further Research

Bill Atweh, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

AYR03168   [Paper]
Government policies and processes for the support of the education for disadvantaged students in Australian schools

Roberta Ayres, University of New England

Both public and private schools in Australia have access to policies and their accompanying funding to address varying needs of students. This paper focuses on arrangements in Australian schools to support learning for disadvantaged students who are at risk of failing at school. The background to the development of these policies in Australia is discussed.

B

BAH03426  [Paper]
Describing pre-university students' learning strategies using the Rasch Model

Sadiah Baharom, Sharifah Norhaidah Syed Idros and Nordin Abdul Razak, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris

Over the past years, metacognition and cognitive strategies, have been subject of considerable research. This study aims at looking into the cognitive and metacognitive strategies employed by pre-university students through the administration of the MSLQ (Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire) developed by Pintrich et al. (1991). The cognitive and metacognitive strategies scale of this instrument is divided into five sub-scales namely rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking and metacognitive self-regulation. The questionnaire was administered to 284 pre-university students attending a science programme and the data was analyzed using the Rasch Measurement Model. From the analyses a 'Students' Learning Strategies Scale' was developed where the five sub-scale was ordered along a linear line in ascending order of strategies used by the students. The results obtained revealed marked differences in the use of the learning strategies of the pre-university students as compared to the scaled plotted with the mean obtained by the studies of Pintrich et al (1991). These results suggest differences in classroom teaching and learning which could explain individual differences in the learners' cognitive and metacognitive strategies employed in their learning process.

BAH03789  [Paper]
A Comparative and Correlational Study of the Body-image In Active and Inactive adults and with Body composition and Somatotype

Bahram.A & Shafizadeh.M, Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran

Regular physical activities can produce physical as well as psychological benefits. While its physical effects have been acknowledged, the psychological benefits of regular physical need to be assessed through careful and systematic investigations. Psychological benefits including well being, positive mood enhancement, stress reduction, and self-efficacy, and self-concept improvement are among some of the most important results of engaging in regular physical activities.

Self-concept is generally defined as one's knowledge about his/her characteristics and personal limitations and a way in which one looks at such characteristics as different from or similar to others. It is one of the important aspects of social development that is formed through social experiences and interpersonal relationships.

Scales have been purposed to assess self-concept PSDQ has been successfully used to study self-concept. The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the effect of participation physical activity in regular on body - image in the adult population. The subjects for this study included 120 adults (60 males 60 females) between 25-65 years who were randomly selected and then divided into two active and inactive groups through the Median

Split Technique based on the Physical Activity Index scores. 2 x 2 MANCOVA (gender x group) with covariates of body for percent and BMI was used to analysis the data. The result on somatotype showed that, inactive group has higher score on endomorphy and mesomorphy but lower score on ectomorphy than active group.

BAL03226  [Paper]
Current trends in teacher education: Some implications

By Julie Ballantyne, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

BAR03775  ®  [Paper]
Conceptualising students' goals and self-concept as multidimensional and heirarchically structured

Katrina Barker, Dennis McInerney, and Martin Dowson, University of Western Sydney

The purpose of the present study was to examine the potential multidimensional and hierarchical structure of student's motivational goals and academic self-concept (SC). Specifically, this paper tests the ability of a hypothesised second-order measurement model comprising achievement motivation variables (mastery, performance & social goals) and academic self-concept variables (English and math self-concept) to fit data collected over two years from 1 515 Australian High School students, and to test whether the model fits equally well across sex groups. Results of first order Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) demonstrate that the combined General Achievement Goal Orientation Scale (GAGOS) and Academic Self Description Questionnaire II (ASDQ II) provide adequate reliability estimates on each scale and validly measure the constructs. Higher order CFA results provided support for an hierarchical representation (with goodness-of-fit indices for Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2) ranging from .86 to .92). The model fitted the data equally well for males (with goodness-of-fit indices for T1 and T2 ranging from .83 to .92) and females (with goodness-of-fit indices for T1 and T2 ranging from .85 to .92). Thus, the study provides a measurement framework within which the interaction of multiple achievement goal orientations and academic self-concept variables may be examined further.

BAR03777  ®  [Paper]
The impact of transformational leadership style of the school principal on school learning environments and selected teacher outcomes: A preliminary report

Alan M. Barnett, University of Western Sydney, Australia

The purpose of this paper is to report on an investigation of the relationships between the transformational and transactional leadership behaviours of school principals in New South Wales State secondary schools and some selected teacher outcomes and school learning environment constructs.

A survey was carried out in 52 randomly selected schools involving 458 teachers from across New South Wales. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Form 5X (Short) developed by Bass and Avolio (1997) was used to measure leadership behaviour, while, the School Learning Environment Questionnaire developed by Fraser (1986) was used to assess school learning environment. Factor analysis was used to determine the validity of the leadership model developed by Bass and Avolio (1997) and the school learning environment model developed by Fraser (1986) in the Australian school context. A factor analysis of leadership items suggested that one transformational factor (vision), one transformational / transactional hybrid factor (individualised consideration) and one non-leadership factor (laissez-faire) factor were evident. An analysis of school learning environment items identified seven factors. Four outcome factors were incorporated; overall satisfaction with leadership, perceptions of teacher influence, perceptions of teacher effectiveness, and perceptions of teacher control.

Multilevel modelling analysis was used to explore the relationship between leadership behaviours, school learning environment factors and teacher outcomes. Contrary to what might be expected, results from the analysis of the leadership behaviours factors with teacher outcomes suggested that teacher outcomes like overall satisfaction with leadership is more closely and highly correlated with individualised consideration rather than with vision. Further, the leadership behaviour factors demonstrated differential correlations with each of the school learning environment factors, indicating that principals may target their leadership behaviour to have maximum impact in any effort at modifying school learning environment.

BAT03078  [Paper]

Richard Bates, Deakin University

BAT03698  [Paper]
The appropriateness of professional judgement to determine performance rubrics in a graded competency based assessment framework

Andrea Bateman, The University of Ballarat; Patrick Griffin, The University of Melbourne Australia, 2003

BAX03694  [Paper]
Who teaches teachers to teach? Investigating the role of the classroom teacher in teacher education

Ann Baxter, University of Wollongong

Classroom teachers who work with student teachers in the practicum setting play a critical role in pre-service teacher education. Faculties of education acknowledge the importance of this role, but largely overlook and undervalue its importance in conversations about pedagogical practices in teacher education (Loughran & Russell, 1997). While there are many studies that document the work of supervising teachers from the researcher's perspective, there are few studies which provide teachers with the opportunity to explore and examine their own work in the practicum setting or that give consideration to the diversity of backgrounds, experiences and supervisory practices explained from the teachers' own perspectives which influence their work with pre-service teachers in the practicum setting (Clarke, 2002a).

The purpose of this study is to develop a profile of classroom teachers who supervise the practicum experiences of pre-service students from the University of Wollongong and to engage some of these teachers in action research to explore and examine their supervisory practices. A multiple case study design will be used to address this purpose by answering the following research questions:

1. What are the backgrounds and beliefs of the classroom teachers who supervise pre-service teachers from the University of Wollongong during practicum?
2. What supervisory practices do these teachers use when working with pre-service teachers?
3. In what ways do these practices change when teachers engage in an action research group?

Information from this study will be used to gain a greater understanding of the backgrounds, beliefs and supervisory practices of those teachers who work with pre-service teachers in the practicum setting. This knowledge will enhance practicum experiences for all stakeholders (classroom teachers, school administrators, university educators, pre-service teachers, students) and inform the type of inquiry based professional development program which the University of Wollongong can provide with and for our school-based peers.

This conference presentation reports results from the first stage of this study, which involved the participation of primary teachers in the Wollongong area of the Illawarra region (NSW, Australia) in a questionnaire about themselves, as well as their beliefs and underlying assumptions about their current supervisory practice with pre-service teachers.

BEA03433  [Paper]
Balancing Demands: exploring dilemmas that can arise in evaluative research

Fiona M. Beals M.Ed, Research Assistant, The New Zealand Council for Educational Research

BEH03132  [Paper]
Leadership for collaborative practice

Donna Behl, Waikato Institute Of Technology-Wintec

BEL03619  [Paper]
The PlaySmart Programme. -"Thinking through Physical Education."

Tom Bell. Manchester Metropolitan University.

BEN03143  [Paper]
Coeducation: A risky venture still?

Sue Bennett, University of South Australia

Most students in Australia attend coeducational schools. However there has been widespread and ongoing concern that coeducational schools are potentially risky environments for both girls and boys. Much research into coeducation has been framed in the light of these concerns. However, there has been little attempt in the research to identify factors that lead to positive outcomes - in relation to gender equity and construction of gender identity - for both girls and boys in the coeducational environment. This paper reports on some current research which is being undertaken at three schools, each of which has made has made a conscious decision to be coeducational. The project is a qualitative study of the practices and meanings of coeducation as it is being practised at the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the researcher spending extended periods at each site in order to becomeimmersed in the culture of the school. Ultimately the study will aim to identify some key factors pertaining to the coeducational context through which students are encouraged to realise their full potential unrestricted by traditional gender limitations.

BHA03815  [Paper]
Distributed learning environment in multicultural context: A symposium

MadhumitaBhattacharya and Lone Jorgensen, Massey University

Globalization of education in a true sense cannot be achieved only by establishing accessibility, developing cost effective technologies. Due to easy accessibility of information, communication, resources and movement of people from one place to another, teachers in a classroom or outside the classroom have to deal with many more different situations than ever before. Present day classrooms (traditional and virtual) consist of students from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. All these issues, challenges and demands cannot be solved overnight or by an individual. Discussions were held on some of these issues during the symposium session through brainstorming, idea generation and visual representation of distributed cognition. General issues of multicultural setup concerning design, delivery and communication in distributed learning environment were discussed. In this article the authors have summarised the points discussed and emerging ideas for future work to be done in this regard.

BIR03630  [Paper]
Between A Flax And A Mangrove:
Theories of Human Development for Aotearoa

Lise Bird, School of Education, Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, and
Wendy Drewery, School of Education, University of Waikato,, Aotearoa New Zealand

BLA03000
Glasser Quality Schools

Elizabeth Blance, Griffith University

Since the early 80's, some schools in Queensland have been using the ideas of Dr William Glasser to underpin the development of a quality school as well as to teach students responsible behaviour. Glasser (2001) argues that if students perceive the school is needs satisfying, fewer of them will choose behaviours that disrupt playground activities and classroom learning. This presentation will provide evidence from surveys and focus interviews with students about their perceptions of a how a Queensland primary school has become a needs satisfying place for them. Data about referrals for misbehaviour will also be presented of the reductions behaviour incidences. Currently the school's culture is being shaped by the theories and practices of Choice Theory, Reality Therapy and Lead Management (Glasser, 1986). Over the last six years a significant number of staff members at the school have chosen to use their own time to be involved in a considerable amount of professional development focused on achieving the status of a Glasser Quality School. Teachers are using the data I discuss here to reflect on pedagogical and management practices and to plan for further development of the school as a Glasser Quality School.

BLA03738  [Paper]

BOA03130  [Paper]
Academic pressure and expectations impacting upon the educational provision in kindergartens: Investigating the impact of teachers' years of classroom experience and type of specialisation and current school location

Margot Boardman, University of Tasmania

Renewed interest in the early academic preparation of young children, designed to lead to future success in schooling, has been impacting upon the educational provision for many kindergarten students. Academically focussed curricula are becoming more prevalent in kindergarten settings, resulting in traditional play-based approaches being challenged by some parents and educators. This paper reports on a study, which sets out to ascertain the prevalence of more formalised teaching and learning practices being undertaken in Tasmanian kindergartens with four and five year old children, when the teachers' area of specialisation, years of teaching experience and school location are considered. Eighty six kindergarten teachers from three of the six Tasmanian state school districts participated in the study. Results showed that teachers from isolated school locations and those with limited teaching experience were the teachers utilising the most teacher-directed learning experiences in kindergarten. Conversely, teachers from urban locations who had between sixteen and twenty five years of teaching experience were providing the least formalised learning program for their kindergarten students. It is evident that strong leadership is needed for some groups of teachers in Tasmanian schools if these trends towards formalisation of the kindergarten-teaching program are to be addressed. Establishment of strong collegial support networks would also be beneficial, especially for those less-experienced and isolated teachers, to allow informed debate to be undertaken by all kindergarten teachers on this important issue in young children's learning.

BOA03496  [Paper]
Learning Communities' Contribution to educational improvement: Joint Participation for Mutual Gains in Early Childhood education

Dr Margot Boardman, University of Tasmania

BON03117
Measure for measure: curriculum requirements and children's achievement in music education

Trevor Bond, James Cook University, and Marie Bond, Townsville Grammar School

Children in all public primary schools in Queensland, Australia have weekly music lessons designed to develop key musical concepts such as reading, writing, singing and playing simple music notation. Their understanding of basic musical concepts is developed through a blend of kinaesthetic, visual and auditory experiences. In keeping with the pedagogical principles outlined by the Hungarian composer, Zoltan Kodaly, early musical experiences are based in singing well-known children's chants - usually restricted to notes of the pentatonic scale. In order to determine the extent to which primary school children's musical understandings developed in response to these carefully structured developmental learning experiences, the Queensland Primary Music Curriculum was examined to yield a set of over 70 indicators of musical understanding in the areas of rhythm, melody and part-work. Data was collected from more than 400 children's attempts at elicited musical performances. Quantitative data analysis procedures derived from the Rasch model for measurement were used to established the sequence of children's mastery of key musical concepts. Output suggested that the grade allocation for a few concepts needed to be revised. Subsequently, children's performances over several years were also analysed to track the extent to which the children's musical minds had changed as a result of their learning experiences. The empirical evidence suggests that children's musical development is enhanced by school learning and that indicators can be used to identify both outstanding and atypical development of musical understanding.

BOO03095  [Paper]
IS THIS REALLY WHAT YOU MEAN? PROBLEMS OF PERCEPTION IN SCIENCE MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Boo Hong Kwen, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Assessment is an integral part of the teaching-learning process, and typically consumes a significant portion of both the teachers' and pupils' time and energy. The background of this paper concerns the fact that multiple choice questions (MCQs) are used rather extensively in the assessment of science learning outcomes from year three through to year six at the primary school level, and the fact that some of these questions involve a mismatch in perception between the test setter(s) and the test takers.

This discussion paper is based on an investigation into 100 sets of primary school science examination papers from 25 different schools. It discusses specific examples of perceptual mismatch between the question setter(s) and the test takers. It also highlights the concern that too much reliance on the use of traditional MCQs could seriously disadvantage pupils who are more divergent or creative or deeper in thinking, as well as impede the development of creativity in pupils. Suggestions for addressing some of the concerns raised are also included in the paper.

BOO03676  [Paper]
Employment aspirations of newly qualified teachers: A case study of the 2002 cohort from a regional Australian university.

Ted Booth, Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong

Contemporary beginning teachers have a diverse mix of ages and prior experiences and many are seeking teaching work beyond their own state in a rapidly changing national and international market. The purpose of this descriptive study is to investigate the initial and medium term employment aspirations and realistic expectations of a cohort of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) just prior to their entry into the teaching workforce. The case study is a sample of 174 beginning teachers from a regional Australian university.

BOY03329  [Paper]
Innovative Pathways from Secondary School: Gaining a Sense of Direction

Sally Boyd and Sue McDowall NZCER

BOY03449  [Paper]
Putting rural into pre -service teacher education:

Colin R. Boylan, Charles Sturt University

BRO03022  [Paper]
Teachers' Instructional Conceptions: Assessment's relationship to learning, teaching, curriculum, and teacher efficacy

Dr Gavin TL Brown, School of Education University of Auckland

BRO03603  ®  [Paper]
The Self-Defining Other - English as a second language teachers talk about their students

Jill Brown, Monash University

Teacher talk about their students is a powerful way of understanding the unstated ways in which teacher identity and work is constructed. This paper draws on the work of Bakhtin, Hall and Pennycook in an analysis of the part played by student as self-defining other. Data is drawn from a series of unstructured interviews with English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers working in the Victorian State secondary system and is part of doctoral research into ESL teacher identity and work. This section of the study - with its focus on teacher constructions of student identity - comes from the second of three case study interviews with nine ESL teachers of varying degrees of experience working in a range of different settings. Teacher perceptions of student identity influence the teacher identities available to these teachers. Their construction of their students in turn constructs them. Interaction between student ways of being and teacher ways of being may be complementary and enable preferred enactments of teacher identities. Mismatch may result in dissonance in the teacher-student relationship resulting in teacher behaviour at odds with preferred teacher identities.

BUR03114  [Paper]
ARTS-BASED APPROACHES TO CREATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Dr Stephanie Burridge (Australia/Singapore), Senior Lecturer Faculty of Performing Arts, LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts

BUR03764  ®  [Paper]
Breaking the self-concept enhancement conundrum: Re-conceptualising the next generation of self-concept enhancement research

Rhonda Craven and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney, and Paul Burnett, Charles Sturt University

Due to the benefits of a positive self-concept, enhancing self-concept across the lifespan is recognized internationally as a highly desirable goal in diverse settings ranging from the pre-school classroom to the retirement village. Despite this importance placed on the value of enhancing self-concept and the presumed impact of self-concept enhancement on other desirable outcomes, a plethora of self-concept interventions have failed to enhance self-concept. In this paper we encourage researchers to break this self-concept enhancement conundrum. Firstly, we provide a rationale for enhancing self-concept in order to demonstrate that enhancing self-concept is a highly desirable goal and a vital key to maximising human potential and happiness. To underpin this rationale we provide an overview of research evidence from the education sector that demonstrates self-concept's causal impact on subsequent academic achievement and other desirable educational outcomes. Secondly, we present a brief historical overview of self-concept theory and intervention research to illustrate that historically intervention research has been plagued by weak research methodology that continues to dominate enhancement research in this new millennium. Thirdly, we describe advances in self-concept theory, measurement and research that can be capitalized upon to expedite progress in unravelling the self-concept enhancement conundrum. Fourthly, we summarize results from important meta-analyses that critically analyse the effects of a range of self-concept interventions, and outline promising interventions, research designs and methods. Finally, based upon a synthesis of information presented in this paper, we present guidelines to call upon and assist researchers to implement the next generation of self-concept enhancement research to break the self-concept enhancement conundrum.

C

CAL03240  [Paper]
Establishing the validity of a performance assessment in numeracy

Rosemary Callingham, University of New England

Validity is the extent to which the inferences drawn from scores on a test or assessment can be justified empirically and theoretically. Establishing the validity of an assessment can be seen as an ongoing process of judgment, using different forms of evidence for substantiation. Traditionally validity has been defined within an evidential framework of three interrelated aspects: criterion, content and construct validity. Messick's (1989) integrated view of validity led to inferences drawn from the information gathered from the assessment being pivotal to establishing validity and extended the understanding of validity to the consequences of test or assessment use, and led to a consideration of construct validity as the over-arching evidential basis. Performance assessment, in which students provide some form of product or performance, typically takes place under less standardised conditions than traditional test forms. It has been suggested that validity standards should be different for this form of assessment, relating more directly to the specific performance. Students' observed performances on a complex performance task in a numeracy context, as well as on tests of mathematics and mathematical problem solving, were analysed using Rasch modelling techniques. Six criteria suggested by Messick for construct validity evidence, were applied to the data. Findings indicated that the performance assessment information validity was high, and provided data useful for multiple purposes. The implications of these findings for performance assessment are discussed.

CAR03026  [Paper]
Secondary School Principals as Curriculum Leaders: A New Zealand Study

Carol Cardno, UNITEC Institute of Technology, New Zealand, Dallas Collett, Bay of Plenty Polyt echnic, New Zealand

CAR03238  [Paper]
Internships: Are they for all?

Lorelei CARPENTER and Bette BLANCE, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Queensland, AUSTRALIA

CAN03399   ®  [Paper]
Mental Computation Strategies for Part-Whole Numbers

Annaliese Caney and Jane M. Watson University of Tasmania

Mental strategies used by school students in solving problems involving operations with whole numbers have been documented for some time. There is, however, little information about how students solve fraction, decimal, and percent - or part-whole - number problems mentally. This is despite the fact that there is an increased emphasis on facility with these types of numbers as students move from primary to secondary school. In this study 24 students from grades 3 to 10 participated in individual interviews involving mental computation. This paper will document mental strategies used in operations involving part-whole numbers and relationships. Of particular interest are the links to many of the mental strategies that have been observed with whole numbers. As well, responses will be analysed with respect to their conceptual or instrumental usage. Since many students appear to find part-whole number relationships conceptually challenging, understanding the strategies children use when solving part-whole problems mentally is valuable. This knowledge may help teachers in strengthening students' understanding about intuitive ideas for part-whole numbers, in providing transitions to written algorithms, and in reinforcing estimation practices that will assist in checking answers obtained in other ways, including by calculator.

CAR03290  [Paper]
Low-decile schools and teacher attributes: parent voices

Vicki M Carpenter, Auckland College of Education

CAR03480  [Paper]
Pathways, incentives and barriers for women aspiring to principalship in Australian Catholic schools

Dr Helga Neidhart and Paul Carlin, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne

CAR03596  [Paper]
Learning Communities Today -Who benefits?

Lorelei Carpenter, Griffith University (Gold Coast), and Pam Matters, James Cook University (Cairns)

CAR03759  [Paper]
>Artists who teach

Judith Carroll, Australian Catholic University

There is, it could be argued, an enormous symbolic capital invested in the belief that it is artistic practice that informs the pedagogy of artists who teach. Despite the apparent tendency for artists to reproduce stylistic character in their students and apprentices, this paper argues that the instructional relations between student and artist teacher are driven by art educational convention rather than the formalised reproduction of their own practical artistic experience.

This paper reports on research undertaken by the writer into the relation between artistic practice and teaching practice. The belief that the sophisticated practice of artists conforms to an integrated and disciplined pattern is challenged. The study is designed to reveal the concealed frames of reference, which motivate the beliefs of two artists and their practice over time. The methodology focuses on a semantic analysis of the texts and contexts, which form a representation of the underlying folk beliefs of the two respondents. The evidence emergent in the investigation suggests that understanding is not transparent in the two artist's explanation of the works that they make.

CAV03396  ®  [Paper]
Application of Rasch model and traditional statistics to develop a measure of primary school classroom learning culture

Robert Cavanagh, Joseph Romanoski, Geoffrey Giddings, Melinda Harris and Graham Dellar, Curtin University of Technology, and Russell Waugh, Edith Cowan University

The study developed and validated a scale of elementary school classroom culture through sequential application of Rasch model and traditional statistics. The conceptual framework for the study was a theoretical model of elementary school classroom culture comprised of two educational outcome factors (six sub-factors), two class group factors (seven sub-factors), a teacher factor (four sub-factors) and a parental involvement factor. Likert scale items were written for each factor and sub-factors to produce a 108 item scale. The scale was administered to a convenience sample of 622 students in 28 elementary school classrooms.

The psychometric properties of the data were analysed using the computer programs SPSS and Rasch Unidimensional Measurement Models (RUMM). Both programs were then used for scale development and validation. The refined scale contained 59 items organised into five factors and 15 sub-factors. Each sub-factor was internally reliable and factors elicited data on a discreet construct. The items within each sub-factor were arranged in Guttman patterns from 'easy' to 'hard'. Scale development ensured the data from the refined scale fitted the theoretical model.

The study shows that the measurement capacity of a scale can be enhanced by application of both Rasch model and traditional statistics in scale development.

CAV03397  ®  [Paper]
Development of a Rasch model scale to measure student information and communication technology learning self-reported outcomes, behaviours and attitudes

Robert Cavanagh, Joseph Romanoski, Geoffrey Giddings, Melinda Harris and Graham Dellar, Curtin University of Technology

The study applied the Rasch model to construct an ordinal and interval-level scale to measure student use and attitudes towards information and communication technology (ICT). Scale development was based upon a hypothesised model comprising ICT educational outcomes and behaviours and attitudes towards ICT (in-school and out-of-school). Specifically, the study aimed to produce a scale that measured student self-reported outcomes, behaviours and attitudes towards use of ICT; calibrated item difficulties and self-reported outcomes, behaviours and attitudes towards ICT measures on the same scale; and elicited data to fit the theoretical model.

The model was applied to develop a 126 item Likert scale type instrument with items organised into three sections. The educational outcomes section comprised items on self-regulation, productivity, incentivisation and ICT-efficacy. The in-school section comprised items on independent learning, problem solving, creativity, meta-cognition, peer support, peer caring, virtual relationships, student centred teaching, teacher caring, group collaboration, instructional design, teacher-student negotiation, school intranet use, and Internet use. The out-of-school section comprised items on parental involvement in ICT learning, the home ICT environment, and website associations.

Rasch model analysis of data from a sample of upper primary and secondary school students (N = 440) was applied in scale refinement and model validation.

CHA03004  [Paper]
Preservice teachers' epistemological beliefs and conceptions about teaching and learning: Cultural implications for research in teacher education1

Kwok-wai Chan, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Four epistemological belief and two teaching/learning conception dimensions were identified from a questionnaire study of a sample of Hong Kong preservice teacher education students. The epistemological belief dimensions were labelled Innate/Fixed Ability, Learning Effort/Process, Authority/Expert Knowledge and Certainty Knowledge. The somewhat different results on epistemological beliefs from Schommer's findings with North American college students suggested possible influence of cultural contexts. The teaching/learning conceptions were labeled Traditional and Constructivist Conceptions. MANOVA indicated no significant statistical differences across age, gender and elective groups in their epistemological beliefs and conceptions. Canonical Correlation Analysis showed significant relations between epistemological beliefs and conceptions about teaching and learning. Implications were drawn for future research in teacher education with respect to the relations of epistemological beliefs and teaching/learning conceptions in different cultures.

Paper presented at the NZARE AARE Conference 2003 at Auckland, New Zealand from 29th Nov. to 3rd Dec. 2003. Correspondence: The Hong Kong Institute of Education, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, NT, Hong Kong SAR, China. Email: kwchan@ied.edu.hk

CHA03271  [Paper]
Continuing Education in Independent Universities in Taiwan, the Republic of China

Frances F. M. Choi, Department of Applied Foreign Language, Hung-Kuang University Taichung, Taiwan 433, ROC,

In 2002, the Taiwan government passed the Life-long Learning (LLL) Law that provides students with possible subsidies and tuition exemptions. The conventional Higher Educational (HE) market in Taiwan is becoming highly market-oriented following a series of educational reforms durin g the last ten years. There are at least 154 universities (or Independent Colleges) serving a population of about 0.5 million. Therefore, the adult continuing Education (CE) market is of growing importance to those institutions, especially for those with facilities located near metropolitan areas.

Independent universities or colleges involved in CE markets can be classified as General Type 1 Universities, General Type 2 Universities, Medical Universities and Newly Upgraded Universit ies. This study analyzes the enrollment in institutions of Higher Education from 1997 to 2001, which were 97,772, 126,035, 142,532, 160,684 and 202,311, respectively. The ratio of full time to part time teachers was approximately 55% and 45%. The average courses hours per student were between 2.618 and 3.743, however the number has been recently decreasing.

Among all universities, the General Type 1 Universities offered more than half the services provided to the CE market.

CHE03445  [Paper]
Genre learning and development: A Bakhtinian perspective

Dr Honglin Chen, Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, NSW Australia

There has been a growing interest in genre as a powerful means of analysing and understanding texts in cross-disciplinary areas. Genres tend to be conceived as generic structures that constrain individuals and communicative events. In second language writing pedagogy, much attention has been given to raising ESL (English as a Second Language) students' structural awareness of genres as the route to genre development. Following from this pedagogical assumption, learning to write in a particular genre (e.g. academic genres) means learning the formal conventions associated with the genre. Drawing on Bakhtin's conception of dialogic unity between inner genre and genre forms, this paper argues that while structural scaffolding may lead to greater schematic awareness of texts, genre development is a developmental process contingent upon students' epistemological beliefs (inner genre). This conception offers a new perspective on genre development and learning in a second language.

CHI03413  ®  [Paper]
PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS ' EXPLANATIONS OF TWO MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS

Helen Chick, University of Melbourne

There has been growing interest in the role played in mathematics teaching by teachers 'pedagogical content knowledge.This form of teacher knowledge goes beyond mastery of the subject to incorporate how subject matter is actually used in teaching.In particular,it includes knowledge of how to explain concepts and what models can be used to facilitate students ' understanding..In this study two items were used to investigate aspects of teachers 'mathematical pedagogical content knowledge.Pre-service primary and secondary mathematics teachers were asked to give written reasons to (a)justify the procedure of "adding a zero " onto the end of a whole number when multiplying by 10,,and (b)explain the equivalence of 3/8 and 37.5%.Both cohorts of pre-service teachers found the first task difficult,with many struggling to find appropriate language for their explanations.For the second task there was a variety of successful strategies and models,with the pre-service primary teachers having a greater range of pictorial models and the pre-service secondary teachers having more computational strategies.The implications of these results for the preparation of both primary and secondary mathematics teachers will be discussed.

CHO03273  [Paper]
A study of ESL students' English ability on a Taiwan institute entrance examination

Frances F M Choi, Hungkuang University

In the Taiwan's vocational education system, most students, after acquiring a five-year's learning, have to take Institute of Technology entrance examination to get a further 2-year college admission. English is one of the major subjects in the entrance examination and study the scores for an English as secondary Language (ESL) student can provide the information about the problems they have. The research studied English Exam grades in the 1997 Hung-Kuang Institute of Technology's Entrance Examination. The exam had 50 questions in vocabulary (13), grammar (9), dialogue (10), idioms (9) and translation & reading (9). The test results showed that Nursing students had the best overall grades ( =34.09-15.22), followed by Healthcare Administration students ( =29.67-16.09) and Food & Nutrition students ( =30.29-16.41). Normal distributions of the grades were observed while the grades in dialogue section were noted to have a bi-peak distribution. This study also utilized 'difficulty' for analyzing the results of examination and we obtained the conclusion with the following sequence: vocabulary-grammar-idioms-translation & reading-dialogue. This study also applied a Rose-type plot for displaying the relative strength of learning performance for Taiwan ESL students and this may identify ESL students' weakness and help to improve future English teaching techniques.

CLA03134  [Paper]
Reflection: Journals and reflective questions: A strategy for professional learning

Maggie Clarke, University of Western Sydney

Reflective journals have been used widely in teacher education programs to promote reflective thinking (Freidus, 1998; Carter & Francis, 2000; Yost, Senter & Forlenzo-Bailey, 2000). Smyth (1992) advocated that posing a series of questions to be answered in written journals could enhance reflective thinking. It was for this reason that reflective responses to directed questions were introduced in 2002 and subsequently in 2003 in the Bachelor of Education 4th year primary internship program at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. The internship program provides a sustained ten-week period of time in a school that affords student teachers the opportunity to examine their practice in an authentic setting of teaching. The purpose of the study undertaken with these students in the internship program was to examine what evidence of the students professional learning was provided by the internship reflective journal A framework of professional learning described by Dietz (1998) was used as the foundation for the analysis of the student's professional learning. This paper describes the process undertaken to assist internship students to understand the reflection process and their responses to reflective questions. These responses are analysed in relation to the internship students professional learning using the Professional Learning Cycle described by Dietz.

CLA03570  [Paper]
Practical activities: What science teaching can learn from primary classrooms

John Cripps Clark, Deakin University

Although I have been teaching and researching in primary science for the past decade, I began my career in science teaching in secondary and tertiary institutions and my views on science teaching were formed in these environments. Because I have never been a classroom primary teacher it has only been slowly that I have come to recognise some of the unique characteristics of science teaching in primary schools and come to value them. This paper is an attempt to begin a discussion about what science teaching can learn from the culture of teaching in primary schools by examining some of the ways in which science is taught.

This paper is based on research conducted for my doctorate. It was done in two parts: first a pilot study, Current Primary Science Practice, to try and get a feel for the way science is taught in primary schools in Victoria, N.S.W. and the A.C.T., followed by an in study of a term-long unit of science teaching done by four teachers at four different schools in Victoria and N.S.W, The Role of Practical Activities in Science Teaching.

COL03017  [Paper]
Small School Principalship - Is Section 76 Still Adequate?

Graham Collins, Marian Court

COL03056  [Paper]
Criticisms and accommodations: The Thomas Report and Catholic secondary education in New Zealand

Jenny Collins, Massey University

CON03598  [Paper]
A multi-source measurement approach to the assessment of higher order competencies

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

Competency based assessment (CBA) must focus on the complex combination of knowledge and skills required for successful performance in the workplace. Therefore CBA often requires the collection of evidence using multiple assessment methods across a period of time. While the implementation of multi-source assessment is consistent with the extensive body of CBA literature, research investigating the application of multi-source assessment is needed. This paper presents findings from a study investigating the application of a multi-source measurement approach to the assessment of higher order competencies in the public service industry. The aim of the study was to develop and validate a strategy to synthesise multiple sources of evidence to inform judgements of workplace competence. The methodology adopted integrates developments in two fields of study, performance appraisals and psychometrics. Seventy-five candidates were assessed using a combination of portfolio, interview and 360-degree assessment. This paper presents findings from a Rasch based analysis of assessment data. Variations in candidate competence and assessment method difficulty are discussed, and an interpretation of the competency under consideration is undertaken. Implications for CBA practice are considered.

CRA03760  ®  [Paper]
Teaching the teachers Aboriginal Studies makes a real difference: A critical analysis of the impact of core Aboriginal Studies teacher education courses on postgraduate teachers' self-perceptions

Rhonda Craven, Herbert Marsh and James Wilson-Miller, University of Western Sydney

This study was commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under its Education Innovation Program (EIP). The project goals were supported by the NSW Teachers Federation, NSW Primary Principals' Association; NSW Department of Education and Training (NSW DET); NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Inc.; the Aboriginal Studies Association; and the Australian Council of Deans. This paper presents the findings emanating from the quantitative component of the study. The study aimed to: a) critically evaluate the impact of preservice primary teacher education Aboriginal Studies courses on practising teachers' self-perceived abilities to appreciate, understand and effectively teach Aboriginal Studies, Aboriginal perspectives, and Aboriginal children in Australian schools; b) compare and contrast the self-perceptions of teachers who had undertaken a core or elective course in Aboriginal Studies in their initial teacher education course with the self-perceptions of teachers who had not undertaken such courses; c) characterise participating teachers' initial teacher education courses in relation to the Aboriginal Studies content covered; and d) identify teachers' perceptions of useful structure and content to consider including in future teacher education courses. Results demonstrate that preservice Aboriginal Studies courses do make a positive difference. Findings included that teachers who have undertaken Aboriginal Studies courses in comparison to teachers who have not undertaken such courses report: knowing significantly more both about subject matter in relation to Aboriginal history, current issues and pedagogy for teaching Aboriginal Studies and about teaching Aboriginal students; significant higher self-concepts in regards to: their knowledge of Aboriginal Studies subject matter, their knowledge on how to teach Aboriginal Studies, and their overall ability to teach Aboriginal Studies and teach Aboriginal students effectively; and statistically significant higher self-concepts in relation to their ability to teach Aboriginal students and their enjoyment thereof. Preservice Aboriginal Studies teacher education courses were also found to impact more on cognitive components of self-concept (feelings of competence) rather than affective components of self-concept (enjoyment of teaching and learning about Aboriginal Studies). The study also found that the Aboriginal Studies courses currently available to preservice teachers would benefit from review and refinement to better meet the needs of teachers and schools.

CRA03800  ®  [Paper]
Indigenous students aspirations: An in-depth analysis of Indigenous students' career aspirations and factors that impact on their formulation

Adrian Parente, Rhonda Craven, Geoff Munns and Kurt Marder, University of Western Sydney

This study was commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under its Education Innovation Program (EIP). This paper reports on aspects of the qualitative component of the study. The aims of this component of the study included to: 1) identify Indigenous secondary school students' aspirations; 2) identify Indigenous students' perceptions of the relevance of their current studies and of further education to achieve their aspirations; 3) identify Indigenous students' preferences for further education in regard to vocational education and higher education; 4) identify the key sources of and quality of career advice Indigenous students have received; 5) identify the ability of Indigenous students to differentiate between desirable and attainable goals and understand perquisites on achieving said goals; 6) elucidate Indigenous students' perceptions of any barriers they may face in attaining their aspirations; and 7) Identify and elucidate what parents of Indigenous students perceive as the value of further education and training. Whilst all students had similar life goals Indigenous students were: more likely to identify lower levels of educational and training aspirations, identify more barriers to achieving their aspirations, have less knowledge about further education and training, were less likely to formulate alternative preferences or strategies to achieve their aspirations, and less of an understanding on the relevance of academic choices as it pertains to further education and training. The results also identified that Indigenous students were more likely to want to work in areas that are beneficial to their communities and identified more altruistic reasons for career choices. Parents of Indigenous students indicated that education systems and schools were more accommodating of Indigenous students today but still needed reform to cater for Indigenous students. Parents also indicated at feeling frustrated in their ability to provide adequate academic and social support for their children whilst also recognizing the significant barriers impacting on and impeding their child's abilities to make informed decisions and to attain their aspirations. Indigenous students also indicated that they were less likely to seek advice about career choices and subsequently lacked the appropriate knowledge and understandings of academic choices and their impact on their overall aspirations. Careers programs whilst trying to assist all students seems to lack resources to adequately cope with Indigenous students' needs. The findings in this component of the project supported and enriched the findings of the quantitative component of the study whilst also providing a significant insight into the mindset of Indigenous students and parents about their dreams and nightmares.

CRO03652  [Paper]
School leaders as mediators of school reform

Leanne Crosswell & A/P Bob Elliott Queensland University of Technology

CUS03620  [Paper]
Managing Technological Effects in Education

Brian O Cusack, Reader, School of Computer & Information Science, Auckland University of Technology

D

DAH03725  [Paper]
Freshmen's and Seniors' thoughts about Education, Professional identity and Work

Hskan Hult, Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren, Lars Owe Dahlgren, Helene Hsrd af Segerstad Linköping University, Sweden

This paper is part of a comparative European research project funded by the European Commission and concentrating on the mediation of university cultures and work cultures as experienced by students in liberal art and professional programmes. The programmes selected are psychology, political science and mechanical engineering. The focus of this particular paper is Swedish students' experiences of the relevance of the studies for the professional work, the level of intensity regarding the workload; the engagement in their studies; the feeling of being visible to the teachers and, finally, the extent to which they develop a professional identity. The results are based on thematic cross-sectional interview data gathered at the beginning and at the end of the programmes and subsequently subjected to qualitative analysis. The feeling of being prepared for future professional work varies between students in the various programmes. The students of psychology seem to feel rather well prepared, even though they still struggle to understand the nature of psychological theoretical knowledge. The political science students have a very vague notion of what political scientists do when they work. Engineering students still express doubts about their professional identity at the end of the programme and the relationship between the university studies and work is not self-evident.

DAN03516  [Paper]
Risks and Dilemmas, Virtues and Vices: Engaging with Stakeholders and Gatekeepers in Australian Traveller Education Research

P. A. Danaher, Geoff Danaher and Beverley Moriarty Faculties of Education and Creative Arts and Informatics and Communication Central Queensland University Australia

Scott and Usher (1999, pp. 129-134) have postulated three possible models of analysing the rights and responsibilities of researchers and researched: covert research; open democratic research; and open autocratic research. While we eschew characterising our research as "covert", we are less definitive about whether and how it is "democratic" and/or "autocratic".

Partly this dilemma derives from uncertainties involved in identifying stakeholders with 'legitimate' involvement in the conduct and outcomes of a research project. Partly this dilemma also reflects the risks attendant on stakeholders becoming gatekeepers, and/or when stakeholders' expectations of the project diverge.

We illustrate these risks and dilemmas by reference to an ongoing research project investigating the educational experiences and opportunities of Australian occupational Travellers - specifically, itinerant circus and fairground people. This critically reflexive illustration is informed by our deployment of selected elements of Pring's (2002) provocative delineation of the "virtues" and "vices" of educational researchers. We argue that Pring's depiction of "the virtuous research community" (pp. 125-126), augmented by the principles of co-operative communities, provides a more contingent and nuanced basis than Scott and Usher's (1999) "democratic" versus "autocratic" research for engaging with the multiple and sometimes conflicting interests of stakeholders and gatekeepers in Australian Traveller education research.

DAN03530  [Paper]
Moralising Risky Environments: The Ethical and Political Nature of Environmental Education Research

This chapter identifies ethical and political risks that are often taken in undertaking research into the whaling debate. These risks illustrate the uncertainties both in moralising about the environment and in science. These uncertainties, as well as strategies deployed to overcome them, are also identified in this chapter. This chapter finds that conclusions reached about the whaling debate are tentative and modest and depend on the cultural contexts of the stakeholders.

DAR03299  [Paper]
Career aspirations of potential applicants for principals of Catholic schools: An Australian perspective

Tony d'Arbon, Australian Catholic University

Recent surveys of leadership succession planning in Catholic schools in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory of Australia have confirmed the growing shortage of persons applying for positions of principal in Catholic schools in those States and Territory, and examined reasons for the decline in numbers.

This paper focuses on a particular aspect of that research in which the career aspirations of those being surveyed, in the pool of potential applicants for principal positions, are analysed.

Possible ways of overcoming this shortage applicants that have implications for the future of Catholic schools in Australia as well as for the future leadership of schools in general, are examined.

DAR03394  [Paper]
Working with teachers: Beliefs, experiences and the creative arts (drama)

Rachel Darell, University of Technology, Sydney

Beliefs and experiences are considered to be central driving forces within teacher education and perceived as influencing views on learning, curricular choice, classroom management and pedagogical decisions. The preliminary findings from the PhD research presented in this paper demonstrate tentative links as to the ways that a teacher's beliefs and experiences relate to their choice and use of drama in their primary school classroom. In addition, it will discuss the initial results of what may happen to these factors as the teachers participate in an arts-focused professional development project.

Structured broadly as a case study involving two schools and six teachers, this research has been collecting its data through the 'Personal Experience Method' as presented by Clandinin & Connelly (1994). This method emphasises and respects the place of individual voice and experience as well as the entwined place of the researcher in the research process. Main data collection tools have involved the application of semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, individual and group conversations as well as ongoing field notes. The reflective journals are seen as a central, yet controversial tool in the collection of data, both generally, and in this project. A number of issues in relation to confidentiality, accessibility, time, content and focus of these journals will also be discussed.

Keynote Speaker
DEL03824  [Paper]
Four Great Gates: Dilemmas, Directions and Distractions in Educational Research

Sara Delamont, Cardiff University

In James Elroy Flecker's poem The Gates of FDamascus, the poet imagines four exits from the safe comfortable city to the outside world. Each gate takes the traveller into a different set of temptations and dangers. The Aleppo Gate leads to trade and commerce, the Mecca Gate is for faith and pilgrimage, the Lebanon Gate is for exploration and the search for enlightenment, and the Baghdad Gate leads to danger and even death. When we educational researchers leave our safe city, or ivory tower, our Damascus, we can choose which gate we take: that is our destination, our goal, our methods. The paper will explore the choices that face educational researchers, and the consequences of those choices. Issues of funding, faith, exploration and danger will be discussed with examples from controversies about educational research.

DEN03360  [Paper]
Dialogue journals: studies of rebellion engage Year-10 English students in reflective thinking

Gaylene Denford-Wood, Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

DIC03191  [Paper]
Pasifika Students in New Zealand Schools:
Some Explanations for their Literacy Performance

John G. Dickie, Senior Lecturer English, Wellington College of Education, New Zealand

DIX03223  ®  [Paper]
Learning 'through' or learning 'about'? The ridiculous and extravagant medium of opera: Gardner's multiple intelligences in pre-service teacher education

Julie White and Mary Dixon, The University of Melbourne, and Lynda Smerdon, Victorian Arts Centre

In recent years, pre-service teacher education has attempted to incorporate into programs an understanding of Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences as it applies to schools. In this paper the tension between 'learning about' multiple intelligences and 'learning through' multiple intelligences supports Gardner's (1993) distinction between 'understanding' and 'coverage'. This paper examines the use of the performing arts in the professional studies component of our teacher education program. During 2002 at The University of Melbourne, a group of primary and secondary students were offered the opportunity to develop an opera in order to learn about assessment and curriculum. Thirty-seven of the students volunteered to be involved and over a period of six months met this challenge. Our action research study asked two critical questions. To what extent is the understanding of multiple intelligences by pre-service teachers improved by 'learning through'? Can pre-service teachers address fundamental issues in curriculum and assessment through the development of a performance? This experience would be of value to other teacher educators.

DIX03347  ®  [Paper]
Constructing globalisation in international higher education

Mary Dixon, The University of Melbourne

The discourse of internationalization is well established but it appears that globalisation has crept 'by stealth' (Currie, 1998) into our international programs resulting in an apparent domination by a neoliberal economic discourse. Clyne, Marginson and Woock (2001), drawing on research regarding globalisation and internationalization in Australian universities, suggest that this domination is so pervasive that the term is "irretrievably lost" to cultural usages of globalisation. This paper arises from a case study of the understandings of globalisation within an international higher education program. Understandings of globalisation were sought from both Australian and Thai policymakers and participants in an international higher education program. It is argued that domination by the neoliberal discourse is evident and predominant but that, in the use of metaphors of globalisation by these educators, a repositioned understanding from lived experience exists alongside the economically dominated experience of international higher education. It is here that divergent understandings of globalisation are constructed. These findings are of value to those involved in the internationalization of higher education.

DIX03778  ®  [Paper]
The Self: How does it relate to locus of control, quality of life and adaptive behaviour for people with mild intellectual disabilities?

Roselyn Dixon, University of Wollongong, Herbert Marsh and Rhonda, University of Western Sydney

Research has found that when people with intellectual disabilities are moved from institutions into smaller community-based services, positive outcomes have been recorded (Emerson and Hatton, 1996; Larson and Lakin, 1989; Young et al., 1998). However, positive outcomes have not been inevitable. It is now recognised that mere placement in the community is not always sufficient (Jahoda, Markova and Cattermole, 1990). Individual characteristics of clients and the nature of services received in the community may be very significant to maintaining normalisation and social role valorisation. Areas that have consistently been found to have an impact on community-based living are the social competencies and affective functioning of people with intellectual disability (Ralph and Usher, 1995). Given the recognised importance, it is surprising that these factors have not been the focus of more research in either the Australian or overseas context. This paper presents results from a study examining the social competence and affective functioning of people with intellectual disabilities. It describes the relations found for this population between multi-dimensional self-concept and locus of control, and quality of life.

DOC03510  [Paper]
Children starting school: Images from picture storybooks

Sue Dockett, Diana Whitton, Bob Perry, University of Western Sydney, Australia

The Starting School Research Project has gathered data from stakeholders in children's transition to school in many different ways. From these data, the following categories of concerns held by children, educators and parents about starting school have been derived: knowledge, adjustment, skills, rules, disposition, educational environment, family issues and physical issues. This paper draws from a sample of over 100 children's books gathered from several countries, which are designed to be read to or by children around the time they are starting school, and analyses them in terms of the previously derived categories. This analysis is then compared with the analysis of concerns undertaken through the project, which has shown that the adults involved in transition see things quite differently from the children making the transition.

The picture books, written and illustrated by adults, reflect the earlier findings about what adults think is important as children start school. As a consequence, they reflect different aspects of this transition from those the children have reported as critical. The consequences of these findings for the curriculum of transition to school in prior-to-school settings and schools are investigated.

DOW03465  ®  [Paper]
Relevance of Vocational Educational Training assessment for classes in industry and Registered Training Organisations

Hayden Downing, The University of Melbourne, Doris Humunicki and Zora Maric, CSM Knowledge

This paper describes a project that compared two forms of assessment of trainees. The project had two aims. First, to extend a trial of assessment materials that were designed for use in Vocational Educational Training (VET) in schools, to include courses run by a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), namely CSM Knowledge.

This was achieved by considering how many trainees were successful in satisfying a series of sequences of criteria from two different units selected from training packages. It was found that the results were not always consistent with perceived levels of difficulty as sometimes people who were not successful with the first, and apparently easiest criterion of a sequence, were successful with later, apparently harder criteria.

Where the anomalies are caused by unclear descriptions of criteria, or by criteria that are too difficult, these observations can be reported to the Assessment Research Centre as part of the nation-wide survey in which this current project is participating.

The other aim of the project was to improve the feedback that was provided to the client organisations whose staff were being trained. The usual form of feedback, in which trainees were rated as Competent or Not Yet Competent is very basic.

More effective feedback has been provided by the self assessment forms that the trainees completed before, and again after, training as they show the extent to which the trainees have improved their confidence and self perception.

Another, more detailed report, based on the criteria-based assessment described in this paper will provide the client with detailed information as to where the trainees could be effective employed. The report will also indicate what further training is required.

Examining the number of trainees who are unsuccessful with particular criteria may reveal deficiencies in the training and so suggest areas that should be improved.

DOW03773  ®  [Paper]
The Chicken and the Egg: Causal ordering of goals and self-concept and its effect on academic achievement

Martin Dowson, Katrina Barker and Dennis McInerney, University of Western Sydney

This study examines causal relations between students' academic achievement and their multidimensional and hierarchically arranged academic goal orientations and academic self-concepts. Specifically, the study tests a series of models (using data collected over three waves from over 2000 students) positing different causal and non-causal orderings of academic goal orientations, academic self-concepts and achievement in mathematics and English. For both English and mathematics achievement, the models positing a goals to self-concept to achievement ordering (with all fit indices exceeding criterion values) were superior to all other causal and non-causal models tested in the research - and also to nested versions of the preferred models. The results of the study suggest that students' interacting goals and self-concepts provide a cogent explanation for students' achievement across domains.

DOW03774  ®  [Paper]
Self in Situ: Locating self-concept and self-concept research in theoretical, individual, and relational contexts

Martin Dowson, University of Western Sydney

The specific purposes of the present paper are to locate self-concept and self-concept research in the broader contexts of:

• educational and developmental psychological research as a whole;
• a model of the self which takes onto account relevant findings from educational and developmental psychological research, and
• a concurrent model of self-in-relationship which takes into account the influence of relationships on the development of self-concept.

In fulfilling these specific purposes the paper attempts to provide an overarching theoretical and operational framework within which self-concept research may be located. This may facilitate the interpretation and evaluation of findings relating to self-concept research, especially in relation to other important constructs in educational and developmental psychological research.

DOW03790  ®  [Paper]
Self-concept during the transition to secondary school: Turmoil or normative adjustment?

Jacqueline Downs, James Cook University

Transition to secondary school embraces substantial changes in the educational environment (in structure, delivery and expectations) and typically coincides with the physiological, psychological, and social changes associated with young adolescence. It therefore provides an opportunity to examine the question of the extent to which adolescent transitions are characterised by turmoil or normative adjustment. From a longitudinal study exploring 74 adolescents' subjective experiences of the transition to secondary and boarding school in North Queensland, this paper reports high levels of stability in self-concept across the school year, as measured by the SDQ-II (Marsh, 1990). Girls' Total Self-Concept and scores on Math, Verbal Ability, Honesty and Trustworthiness scales improved. However, related levels of depression and homesickness (examined as a distinct phenomenon) raise questions about the influence of such factors and the protective function of positive self-concept in perceived adjustment to the transition.

DOY03366  [Paper]
PUTTING LEARNING TO WORK: THE DISTANCE LEARNER AND TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Stephanie Doyle, New Zealand Council for Educational Research, New Zealand

Transfer of learning is a fundamental assumption of educators. We trust that whatever is learned will be retained or remembered over some interval of time and used in appropriate situations (Ripple & Drinkwater, 1982, p.1947).

DRE03675  [Paper]
Developing Restorative Practices in Schools: Flavour of the month or saviour of the system?

Wendy Drewery & John Winslade, School of Education, University of Waikato,, New Zealand.

A team at Waikato completed two projects on restorative conferencing in schools for the Ministry of Education, under the rubric of the Suspension Reduction Initiative. The projects included developing and trialling processes for suspension hearings using restorative conferencing and principles from restorative justice. Objectives of both projects were related to the desire to reduce numbers of suspensions and exclusions, particularly of Maori children. This paper reports on these two projects, and reflects on some of the questions they raised.

DSO03154  ®  [Paper]
Tertiary Students' Views about Group Work in Mathematics

Sabita M. D'Souza & Leigh N. Wood University of Technology, Sydney

DUN03188  [Paper]
Bridging Children's Early Education Transitions through Teacher Collaboration.

Aline-Wendy Dunlop, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.

A longitudinal study of continuity and progression in children's early education reported the significance of the transition from preschool to elementary education for later school success. It was found that the nature of this particular transition is influential for children, parents and educators and therefore for the educational system. An ecological framework was used in order to embrace the complex nature of educational transitions.

Educators in 8 preschool and 4 primary school settings, and their managers, were interviewed to explore beliefs about early education. The same educators were observed as the 28 focus children in a cohort of 150 children were tracked during their final year before school and their first year of school, and their written documentation including planning and reports were scrutinised. It was found that despite the similar language used by early educators in early years preschool and primary settings to describe their intentions and motivations for children, there can be major discontinuities between settings, relationships, pedagogy and curriculum and that consequently there are increased challenges for children and for their parents and educators. It is proposed that educators need to collaborate more and to move on from a shared use of terminology to shared meanings, in order to develop a shared conceptual framework which attends to cognitive, social and emotional aspects of children's learning in transition.

Certain measurable elements of school progress were noted as part of the local authority's value-added record keeping and it has been possible to make links between educational attainment and other variables. The cohort of children is now entering the last year of primary school education and a number of focus children will now be involved in a study of their transition to secondary education.

DUN03189  [Paper]
Social Interaction and Understanding in Autism
Supporting success in mainstream education for pupils with autistic spectrum disorders.

Aline-Wendy Dunlop, Senior Lecturer University of Strathclyde, Scotland Tommy MacKay, Psychology Consultancy Services & Lecturer, University of Strathclyde, Scotland, Fiona Knott, Lecturer, University of Reading, England.

The paper draws from a two-year research study with forty-six children and young people on the autistic spectrum, ranging in age from six to 16 years. All were involved in mainstream services, many having a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome. Of this initial sample, 38 sustained attendance at one of six weekly groups established for developing social interaction and understanding through a programme specially designed for the study. Each of the groups lasted for approximately 16 weeks.

Methods included a variety of standardised measures within an assessment framework, observation and record keeping of group sessions, individual parent ratings and follow-up interviews. Pre-post test evaluation has pointed to highly successful outcomes in terms of statistical analysis, but also in the sense that in many cases they have been personally meaningful and important. Significant effect sizes were obtained for social skills and social competence in comparison with a normative population, and the individual parent ratings showed marked changes in the skills which the groups had targeted.

The paper focuses on the importance of group identity and shared responsibility, the difficulties of sharing interests and planning for them, the capacity of groupwork to support the development of effective social interaction and understanding, and the challenge of generalisation into everyday life.

The results of this study suggest that it has not only made a contribution to the evidence base but that it has also contributed to the quality of life of the children and young people who took part in it, and of their families.

DYS03462  [Paper]
TEACHER EDUCATION: REVIEWED TO THE EYEBALLS BUT WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE OF SIGNIFICANT AND MEANINGFUL CHANGE?

Michael Dyson, Faculty of Education, Monash University Gippsland Campus, Churchill, Victoria Australia

Teacher Education within Australia is in crisis and once again at the crossroads with indicators pointing to another shake up. This is in spite of frequent and invasive change over the last 150 years of formal teacher education with many reviews since the 1980s. Those reviews have all been conducted with the intent of improving the quality of teacher education - in order to improve the learning outcomes for the pupils in the nations schools. This paper, through reviewing the reviews of teacher education undertaken from 1980 until 2003, follows the journey of teacher education from the 1850s to the present day highlighting recurring dilemmas and the frustrations of the educational community. Similar dilemmas and imbalances, including the following, have continued to exert pressure on teacher education: supply versus demand; theory versus practice; profession versus craft and teacher training versus teacher education, without resolution or the achievement of balance. What is next direction and where are we heading within the context of the Nelson/Dow review? Perhaps this review will also call into question the status of the teaching profession?

DYS03470  [Paper]
TIME FOR BALANCE IN PRE-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION:
RENEWAL BASED ON THINKING AND JUDGING

Michael Dyson, Faculty of Education, Monash University Gippsland Campus, Churchill, Victoria, Australia

The social theories of the political commentator and philosopher of modern times, Hannah Arendt (1958), can be used to guide the 'profession of education' towards a re-conceptualisation of teacher education. Within a context of rapid, constant and pervasive change teacher educators are challenged on a daily basis. They too need some time to facilitate personal renewal and change in this post-modern world. Bauman's (2001) concept of 'Tertiary Learning' consisting of breaking regularity, preventing habitualisation and rearranging the fragmentary experiences into patterns, which exist until further notice, can guide teacher educators in their quest for renewal.

This paper argues that if beginning teachers need to be, as Coulter (2001) suggests, "thinking and judging actors and spectators living in a world that that believes in plurality and natality", then so too do our teacher educators need to be free from habitual thinking and habitual judgement. Teacher educators need the ability to stand back and take a bird's eye view of the programs they operate and then be willing, in a mindful way, to return to the play preparing teachers to be good thinkers and judges in their own right.

E

EAR03577  [Paper]
Education Reconstruction in East Timor: The Case Of A Transitional Society

Jaya Earnest, Research Unit for the Study of Societies in Change, Curtin University of Technology

The conclusion of the electoral process in April 2002, paved the way for the declaration of independence of East Timor on 20 May 2002, making the tiny nation the world's newest democracy. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse information on the education reconstruction process, and to make some recommendations about how to better promote a contextually relevant education in this fledgling democracy. This three-phase longitudinal study carried out over two years, is an enquiry into a transitional state struggling with multiple social, political, economic and educational constraints. The research used an interpretive case study approach within a qualitative framework. Multiple methods, sensitive to the context included in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, school visits, accumulation of documentary data and reflective narratives.

ELL03779  ®  [Paper]
Peers Helping Peers: The effectiveness of a peer support program in enhancing self-concept and other desirable outcomes

Louise Ellis, Herbert Marsh, Rhonda Craven, and Garry Richards, University of Western Sydney

This study examined the effects of participation in a peer support program designed to smooth the transition to adolescence and secondary school for seventh-graders by enhancing self-concept and other desirable outcomes. Participants in the study were students from a secondary school in Sydney, Australia. One hundred and thirty Grade 7 students participated in weekly groups facilitated by Year 10 students, and served as the experimental group. The program consisted of 12 fifty minute sessions. Study participants in the experimental and control groups completed an extensive self-report questionnaire on 3 occasions (near the beginning of the year, 12 weeks later, and towards the end of the year). The results suggested that, although the peer support program had no impact on self-concept, significant effects were found for participant's ability to adapt to change, coping strategies, and attitudes towards bullying. Moreover, these effects seemed to be retained over time.

EVA03073  [Paper]
Making a difference? Education and 'ability' in Physical Education

John Evans, Loughborough University

This paper brings a speculative, sociological perspective to the nature of 'ability' in Physical Education (PE) and asks why this aspect of embodiment, with notable exceptions, has received so little critical attention in the professional discourse of PE and associated research in recent years. It is suggested that thinking about 'ability' has become a taken for granted absent presence in the discursive practices of PE in the UK, yet it variously helps configure attitudes towards the body, a sense of status, value, distinction, inclusion/exclusion and embodied self. Drawing on ideas from the theoretical work of Bernstein and Bourdieu the paper raises a number of issues about the ways in which 'ability' is constructed within the disciplines that feed the various sub-cultures of the PE profession, influencing teaching in schools and teacher education. The paper suggests that unless greater attention is given to 'physical education' rather than the interests of sport and health, the profession is unlikely to make an impact either on the 'abilities' or other cultural differences that children and young people bring to schools.

EVA03090  [Paper]
A DECADIC REVIEW OF PHDS IN AUSTRALIA

Terry Evans (Deakin University), Peter Macauley (Deakin University), Margot Pearson (ANU) & Karen Tregenza (Deakin University)

This paper reports on an aspect of a pilot project in 2003 by the authors comprising a bibliographic analysis of all (51,000+) Australian PhDs. The pilot work provides both data and methodological bases for a larger project that investigates the nature and development of PhDs in Australia as they evolved in the context of economic, social and educational changes. This paper reviews the evidence from the bibliographic data held in library catalogues of PhDs in each Australian university. It provides a review of the numbers and range of PhDs in Australia for each decade from 1950 to 2000.

This is contextualised in terms of the changes to Australian tertiary education over the period and other factors that contribute to the rise of PhDs in Australia.

F

FER03339  [Paper]
Student Teachers' use of on-line resources in the preparation for their practicum

Douglas Ferry, Kaye Brunton,Wellington College of Education, New Zealand

FER03456  [Paper]
Working together: Collaborative strategies for developing effective professional relationships in the practicum.

Jenny Ferrier-Kerr, Department of Professional Studies in Education, University of Waikato

FIE03612  ®  [Paper]
Breaking the cycle of office referrals and suspensions: A strategy for Defensive Management

Barry Fields, University of Southern Queensland

This paper focuses on a strategy - Defensive Management - designed to assist teachers to better manage non-compliance and defiance in the classroom, with the ultimate goal of reducing disciplinary referrals and flow-on suspensions and exclusions from school. Non-compliance and defiance are behaviours that teachers find particularly challenging and, traditionally teachers have responded provocatively and often unsuccessfully when faced with instances of such behaviour. Drawing on an analogy with Defensive Driving, two groups of teachers (pre-service and primary) were introduced to a strategy developed to help them avoid unproductive conflict (collisions) with students and the harm that such encounters typically result in. The findings of an exploratory study on the use of Defensive Management are reported.

FIN03384  ®  [Paper]
Conceptualising the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) journeys of future teachers and practising teachers: Findings, challenges and reflections

Glenn Finger, Deborah Charleston, Ros O'Brien, and Lara Pugh, Griffith University

As documented by MCEETYA (2002) and Finger and Trinidad (2002), all Australian States and Territories have embarked upon systemic Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) initiatives. Those initiatives represent evidence of growing momentum in the changing expectations of schools and school systems to require teachers to undertake a professional development journey which enables the successful integration of ICTs, referred to here as the ICTs Journey. This paper, in providing a conceptualisation of that ICTs Journey as requiring effective pre-service teacher education and continuing professional development in ICTs, draws upon recent major Australian reports Making Better Connections (DEST 2001) and Raising the Standards (DEST 2002) aimed at driving the ICTs agenda further. In addition, this paper provides a summary of key findings from the research undertaken by three Bachelor of Education (Primary) Honours students. This research focused on illuminating and identifying challenges posed by the ICTs journey for future teachers, teachers in their first years of teaching, and for more experienced, practising teachers. Specific investigations were conducted with teacher education students in their third year of preservice teacher education, teachers in their establishing phase of teaching, and experienced teachers who had undertaken a formal, 3 day ICTs professional development program. Implications are identified for preservice teacher education and continuing professional development in terms of the ICTs journey. Finally, reflections are presented by the three Honours research students in terms of the tensions and personal sacrifices made in choosing to undertake research during their preservice teacher education. As co-authors of this paper, this paper highlights the demands upon these student teachers in not only undertaking their own ICTs Journeys but also the intellectual demands and potential rewards of accompanying that ICTs journey with their intensive research journeys.

FIN03386  ®  [Paper]
Recommendations for the development of an ICT curriculum integration performance measurement instrument: Focusing on student use of ICTs

Glenn Finger, Romina Jamieson-Proctor and Glenice Watson, Griffith University

An analysis of trends in international methodologies for describing and measuring Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) curriculum integration reveals that there has been an identifiable focus on student access to ICTs, student attitudes toward the use of ICTs, and on teacher training and professional development in the use of ICTs (Jamieson-Proctor, Watson and Finger, 2003). There is now an emerging need for and trend towards the development of performance measurement instruments which measure ICT curriculum integration. This paper provides recommendations for the development of an ICT curriculum integration performance measurement instrument through a summary of recent ICT curriculum integration research, and an examination of international methodologies for describing and measuring ICT curriculum integration. Specific reference is made to the theoretical framework conceptualised to guide the development of the instrument by identifying key strategic ICT drivers, dimensions of ICT use (DETYA, 2000a; DEST, 2002), and the integration of ICTs with the Productive Pedagogies framework (Education Queensland, 2000; 2003b ).

FOR03109  ®  [Paper]
Academics: How do they spend their time?

Helen Forgasz, Monash University and Gilah Leder, La Trobe University

Academics are reported to be working longer hours and have less time for research because of increasing administrative and teaching demands. The traditional pattern of the academic enterprise appears to have changed. To explore whether this is indeed the case, the Experience Sampling Method [ESM], a research technique devised by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, was used in a pilot study to monitor the working lives of 22 university academics from two "Gumtree" multi campus universities in Australia. Participants were asked to complete a specifically devised Experience Sampling Form [ESF] on receipt of a SMS message sent to their mobile phones six times a day for one week. Information was gathered about the activities being undertaken and the respondents' feelings about these activities. Work related tasks reported were sorted into the 17 different categories of academic work devised by Kreber. The findings were examined by gender, university of employment, working hours, and by level of academic appointment.

FRI03007  [Paper]
Knowledge Management in Educational Settings

Barbara Friehs

FUN03302
Collaborative reasoning: Critical thinking-based learning and instruction

Irene Yuen Yee Fung, Michael Townsend and Judy Parr, The University of Auckland

Thinking critically is one of the most important achievement objectives specified in the national curriculum framework for New Zealand schools. However, to date, teachers have received little systematic training or resources in understanding what critical thinking is, or in how to teach it to students. To address this issue, the research project Collaborative Reasoning: Critical Thinking-Based Learning and Instruction was introduced to senior classes in one Auckland primary school in 2002. The project is based on the work of Richard Paul (1990), and is an attempt to explicitly teach children the principles and skills of critical thinking in order to enhance the quality of their content learning, problem solving and decision making. This university-school collaborative project focused simultaneously on three areas: student development, curriculum development, and staff development. The theoretical framework of the project and the teachers' experiences of translating the framework into classroom practices were presented at the 2002 NZARE conference. The new paper will focus on an evaluation of the effectiveness of this project by presenting data on the nature of these classroom practices in teacher-led and peer-led classroom discussions, and data on student learning outcomes.

G

GAL03580  ®   [Paper];
This paper forms part of the Symposium Researching change and literacy development,

organised by Assoc.Prof. Gary Partington

GAR03123  [Paper]
Teaching As Emotional Work:Constructing Positive Professional Relationships Between Teacher-Educators And Pre-Service Teachers

GEO03571  [Paper]
What It Takes To Be The Best: Contradicting Views Of Culture And Pedagogy In The World's Leading Academic Nation

Noel Geoghegan, University of Southern Queensland. Deborah Geoghegan, University of Southern Queensland, Australia

As the highest rating academic nation in the world, Singapore is renowned for high levels of success in all quarters. There are perceptions from outside Singapore that academic rigor is endemic to the local culture and an expectation from a very early age. A recent study examined the views and attitudes of a group of recently retrenched professional women who had decided to retrain as early childhood teachers. The views of the women were sought in an attempt to gauge how their culturally-based views on formal instruction might be challenged by a post- modern humanistic paradigm that rejects "teacher didactic instruction' and promotes "child self-regulated learning." After a pre-treatment attitudinal survey, participants engaged in a five-day workshop exploring the post- modern SEARCH paradigm (Geoghegan, 2002). A post-treatment attitudinal survey was administered. Results indicated a consensus on what constitutes quality in education in Singapore. The data reflected humanistic perspectives that appear at odds with Singapore's international reputation for expecting academic rigor right from the early childhood years.

GEO03572  [Paper]
Re-Search Relationships: A Systems Approach To Mathematics Education Using The Metaphor Of A Search As A Paradigm For Classroom Teaching And Learning

Noel Geoghegan, University of Southern Queensland, Australia

For the last seven years, a research project focused on one North American Grade 2 teacher's efforts to develop young children's early mathematical concepts has given rise to a new paradigm for teaching and learning. By creating a classroom environment that promotes (1) reflexive psycho-pedagogical relationships and, (2) a systems-theory approach to learning, the teacher's pedagogy and children's engagement with learning have been continually refined through the SEARCH metaphor (Geoghegan, 2002). Being less to do with "didactic teaching" and more to do with "self-regulated learning," the research project has sought to highlight children's capacity to confidently generate creative propositions as one of the significant constituent elements of effective mathematics teaching and learning.

Incorporating post- modern and systems-theory perspectives, this paper will discuss and demonstrate how the reflexive nature of self-regulation engages children in creative and productive mathematical thinking from a young age.

GIL03145  [Paper]
Who guards the guardians now? Ethical dilemmas in conducting schoolbased research-

Judith Gill, University of South Australia

Mindful of Foucault's maxim about everything being 'dangerous', this paper will identify some ethical issues associated with school-based research. Features of current ethical requirements are identified, with particular attention to the concept of 'informed consent'. In deconstructing this concept I propose that it calls for a deliberate sleight of hand on the part of University Ethics committees. My argument will be supported by reference to some important educational research which could not have been conducted under the current set of requirements. Evidence also is drawn from descriptions of studies which have undergone major modifications in the light of Ethics requirements and which are consequently unlikely to fulfil their original intent. The paper concludes with a call for educational research in general and the AARE in particular to develop a stance on the conduct of ethical research which does not compromise the integrity of the research nor pose any harm to the participants.

GIL03327  [Paper]
Hot Action: The vulnerability of analysing one's decision-making collegially

David Giles, Senior Lecturer, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, NZ

GOD03015  [Paper]
Are beginning teachers with a second degree at a higher risk of early career burnout?

Richard Goddard PhD, School of Human Services, Griffith University, Australia
Patrick O'Brien EdD, Faculty of Education, University of Southern Queensland, Australia

This study investigated the impact that holding a second university degree has on levels of burnout that is reported by beginning teachers during their first year of employment. This research formed part of an ongoing investigation that aims to identify important elements relating to teacher well-being during the transition from university to a teaching career. One hundred and twenty three teachers responded to a mail survey six weeks after they commenced full- time teaching (T1) and again six months later (T2). On both occasions the survey included the Educators Survey version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI: Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996).

Forty five percent of respondents indicated that they held a second university degree in addition to their Bachelor of Education qualification when they registered as a teacher. A between-subjects MANOVA indicated that there were no significant differences in burnout scores between those respondents holding an additional university degree and those who only held the Bachelor of Education degree at T1.

However, at T2, a similar analysis indicated that the group of respondents with a second degree had significantly higher burnout levels on two of the three MBI dimensions. These results suggest systematic differences may exist between the two categories of graduates and that these differences may impact on the rate at which burnout develops during the first year of a teaching career.

GOD03330  [Paper]
Knowing ourselves: A theoretical model of culture

Elizabeth Godfrey, University of Auckland,

Education has been viewed as a process of enculturation into the beliefs, practices, values and styles of discourse of a particular community. Recognition and awareness of an institution's particular cultural values and norms can be a useful tool to guide actions and reactions to change. A model is proposed to guide a cultural analysis, at the institutional or disciplinary level, based on Schein's (1985) theoretical framework. This model arose from an interpretive case study using ethnographic methods, undertaken at a multidisciplinary School of Engineering. As a tool for cultural analysis, the model provides an accessible framework to facilitate the exposure of the source of observable behaviours and practices in the unconsciously held beliefs and assumptions at the core of the culture of an institution or discipline.

GOW03579  ®  [Paper]
Ethical Research in Indigenous Contexts and the practical implementation of it: Guidelines for ethical research versus the practice of research

Graeme Gower, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia

Indigenous Australians have been widely researched by non - Indigenous Australians which has resulted in the use of inappropriate research methodologies and excluded the involvement, participation and ownership over the research. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has developed national guidelines for the conduct of research in Indigenous communities. These guidelines have precipitated a change in Indigenous control and involvement over Indigenous research to a large extent, which is long overdue.

This paper examines these guidelines and relates them to the practical experiences of researchers engaged in a school based research project in urban, rural and remote locations. The suitability of the guidelines will be analysed.

GRA03014  ®  [Paper]
Developing intellectual, social and emotional literacy through dance education

Susan Graham, Auckland University of Technology

The aim of this research project was to examine the effectiveness of an experiential dance intervention programme in enhancing the social, emotional, and intellectual development of adolescents. A multidisciplinary literature review indicated this aim could be met by focusing on a question that related to global self-esteem, selected facets of self-concept and a Social Partner Dancing Intervention Programme (SPDIP). The research question addressed in this investigation was (1) can a SPDIP contribute to a significant improvement in the global self-esteem and (selected facets of) self-concept level of secondary school adolescents? It was also hypothesized that A) that participants with initially 'Low' Global Self-esteem Group levels would be significantly changed. An intervention, switch and replicate ABACA design was selected to address the research question. The theoretical framework and the basis for the socio-ecological analyses conducted were grounded in the interactional learning theories of Bronfenbrenner (1979) and Vygotsky (1978). Global self-esteem and facets of self-concept were measured before and after a contrast or SPDIP via six administrations of Self-Description Questionnaire II (Marsh, 1988). Results of this investigation revealed that the intervention programme did not significantly alter the global self-esteem levels of the whole participant group. However it did find that the SPDIP supported a significant improvement in the verbal ability self-esteem of the sample population. It also supported hypothesis A) at the .001 level.

GRA03537  ®  [Paper]
'Exemplary practice' - so called? Dilemmas in reporting

GRE03144  [Paper]
Order and Mess in Early Childhood Settings: A Psychological Perspective

Leonid Grebennikov

The importance of order in young children's surroundings and activities is analysed and illustrated in a psychological science context. The paper then argues that the pre-school age is a period when the extent of order in the environment can exert firm, though not immediately obvious, influences on the development of individual cognitive and emotional profiles, and therefore on one's life style and perspectives. The pre-school age has been recognised as corresponding to the final major stage of synaptogenesis when the interconnections between the neocortex neurons are pruned and stabilized. The interconnections are not genetically programmed for their qualitative and quantitative characteristics. This means that the environment contributes to the structure of the interconnections and thus to the uniqueness of one's perception, evaluation, symbolisation, memory - those processes that we call cognitive. They are described to benefit from well-organized surroundings and to have relevance to one's emotional profile, social relations and personality traits. The paper challenges the myth that young children generally want and enjoy creating mess as well as the value of so-called "messy activities" or "messy games". Also included are examples of how messy activities can be reorganised into more constructive, purposeful and informative ones.

GRE03393  [Paper]
Boss of our story.

Dr Janinka Greenwood & Liz BrownChristchurch College of Education

When we talk to people about a Treaty education course we get a variety of reactions. Some eyes get glazed, some burn with evangelical fervour, some shoot daggers, and some close while their owners go to sleep. When we took on the role of joint co-ordinators of the bicultural project at Christchurch College of Education at the end of last year, one of the tasks we faced was the development of programmes within the College that would provide staff and students with the basic knowledge they need about the Treaty and its relevance to teaching and prepare them to apply this knowledge to their own practice.

This paper describes the processes we are engaged in to develop Treaty education programmes and the programme shape that is evolving. It also describes some of the conceptual incongruities that we are finding associated with Treaty education, and it places these against a wider framework of theorisations of learning, of decolonisation, of participatory and reflective practice, and of kaupapa Maori.

GRE03873  [Paper]
First to Fourth to Thirteenth and (in all Probability), Still Dropping? New Zealand's International Literacy Results: Some Personal Thoughts About the Reasons For The 'Gap'

Dr Keith Greaney, Massey University, College of Education

GRI03172  [Paper]
Methodology and Interpretive Procedures in Educational Research: risk, imagination and reflexivity

Associate Professor Elizabeth M. Grierson, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

'Methodology and Interpretive Procedures' acknowledges the vital importance of methodology as I construct a discourse that examines discourses. Through Ball (1994) this paper considers methodological terms such as critical, analyst, risk , imagination, reflexive and reflective. Accepting that the naming of any field is contestable therefore risky, the educational field of focus is 'the arts'. The discussion raises questions about institutional thought, organisational limits , and ways of analysing the discursive practices of which Michel Foucault speaks. Also raised are political issues surrounding the constitution of knowledge, including normalising assumptions in discourses of art education, as I seek a Nietzschean historical sense in educational research through a demystification of poststructuralist theories within applied fields of educational practice.

GRI03259  [Paper]
Knowledge and Understanding of Asia:Using a Common Item Pool to Gain a National Picture

Patrick Griffin and Kerry Woods, Assessment Research Centre, Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne

A series of tests, attitude and questionnaire scales were developed to assess the proficiency of Australian Year 5 and Year 8 students in studies of Asia. Questionnaires were administered to students, teachers and school principals to identify appropriate issues related to outcomes in terms of classroom, curriculum, and teaching and learning practices. This paper presents results of analyses that in volved calibrating items distributed over 14 overlapping subtests, developed to cater for state and territory curricula and two year levels. This allowed for state and year level preferences to be selected from a common pool of 105 items representing the three key learning areas of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE/HSIE), English and the Arts. The project used common item anchoring to map all students and items onto a single, underpinning scale that was identified and interpreted using concurrent equating procedures and a skills audit of items.

GRO03194  [Paper]
Holding a Mirror to Professional Learning

Susan Groundwater-Smith, Centre for Practitioner Research, University of Sydney, Nicole Mockler, Loreto Normanhurst/University of Sydney

This paper reports on the ways in which professional learning groups in schools can contribute to whole school improvement. It discusses two sites in which there has been a review of the evidence that has been collected at the school or through the literature over time in order to explore the implications for the continuing improvement of teaching and learning. It has long been argued that there are links between school-wide development, staff development and classroom development for improvement to occur. In these studies, all three elements have been present. The paper discusses the strategies adopted for the creation of professional learning groups across the schools where those groups are structured in such a ways that they are founded upon learning that is evidence-based, visible and collaborative, and where the agreed purpose has been whole school improvement.

GRO03195  [Paper]
Seeing museum learning anew

Susan Groundwater-Smith, University of Sydney and Lynda Kelly, Australian Museums

This paper will report upon a joint project undertaken with the Australian Museum and the Coalition of Knowledge Building Schools, a network of seven schools of varying size and from varying socio-economic locations, that is hosted by the Centre for Practitioner Research in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, at the University of Sydney. The project has been designed to examine ways in which the museum's presentation of its collection and special exhibitions may assist or inhibit learning. The project has been undertaken in two phases. In the first instance education staff and interpretive officers of the museum have collected photographic images which they see to relate to learning in the museum. These have been constructed as conceptual posters. Posters have been discussed in small groups, using a strategy that ensures that each participant's voice is documented. In the second phase school students, their teachers and their parents have engaged in school based learning workshops and have then, as a result of visits to the museum, followed the same procedures as those undertaken by museum staff. The posters from both groups have been compared and contrasted and formed the basis for a discussion regarding ways in which the museum might better support learning. The project is of interest both in terms of its substance and its methodology. While image based research is now being increasingly recognised in the qualitative research community as a legitimate means of documenting social phenomena, there is still some hesitancy in adopting it. In this case the research tool which is principally in the hands of practitioner researchers, in the schools and the museum, is seen as a means of contributing to professional learning in both settings. It also contributes, more broadly to a wider understanding of how learning is apprehended when it takes place in contexts other than classrooms.

GUI03018  [Paper]
Writing educational research as a script for a stage-play

Gary Guiver, Curtin University of Technology

My doctoral thesis was focused primarily on the development of middle school programs. The research lead me to believe that it might be helpful if there were alternatives to the usual middle school curriculum models, alternatives that were neither subject-oriented, in the traditional manner, nor integrated programs, as they are commonly understood. The thesis concludes with some suggestions for a possible new model based on Surrealism, and specifically Rene Magritte's painting, "Time Transfixed." Briefly, I suggest that like Magritte's painting the Surreal curriculum would be one where each element (subject) would retain its integrity, be presented with flawless technical mastery, yet when juxtaposed with other elements (subjects) present new and challenging questions for both observer and participant.

Interestingly, and probably not unsurprisingly, I found that writing this part of the thesis became very difficult when bound by the conventions of formal academic style which tended to punctuate the work in unhelpful ways. I, therefore, experimented with writing this chapter in the form of a script for a stage play, that script, and, why I chose that particular genre is the basis of the following paper.

GUL03731  [Paper]
'Educational Renovation': Analysing the relationship between education policy and urbanrenewal in Islandton, London

Kalervo Gulson, School of Education, Australian Centre for Educational Studies, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia

This paper is based on two case studies in two 'transnational' cities, Sydney and London, with a focus on 'Islandton' in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It will use an analysis of interview data from a range of educational administrators, school principals, and community workers, to explore educational policy developments that target 'crisis populations' in an area of urban disadvantage.

This area is also undergoing processes of urban renewal.

It is argued that central government policy of 'Excellence in Cities' resulting in the creation of educational priority zones in this disadvantaged urban area has been reinterpreted and applied by those working with, 'crisis populations'. It is proposed that the result is the practice of what is termed 'educational renovation'.

Subsequently, the concept of 'educational renovation' is tentatively applied as an analytical tool to explore the spatial relationships between schools and areas undergoing urban renewal. This concept is premised on the suggestion that educational policy change in areas of urban renewal has ramifications for both schools and the areas surrounding the schools.

H

HA03781  ®  [Paper]
Taking a closer look at adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa: How different are they to non-clinical adolescent girls in terms of self-concept and body image?

My Trinh Ha, Herbert Marsh and Christine Halse, University of Western Sydney

Anorexia nervosa is a serious problem that affects a significant proportion of the world's adolescent population yet research in this area has predominantly focused on adult women. As such, the disorder remains poorly understood in this younger population. A plethora of research has been conducted in an attempt to identify the causes and risk factors of anorexia nervosa. This literature generally suggests that anorexia nervosa is associated with a low self-concept and distorted body image. However, much of this literature has taken an unidimensional approach to the study self-concept rather than a more in-depth and descriptive multi-dimensional model of the self-concept. This paper presents a proposal for a study that will firstly attempt to test the generalisability of the multidimensional model of the self-concept in an eating disordered population, and to investigate the various relationships between the specific dimensions of the self-concept and eating disorder symptomology. Second, the proposed study will attempt to investigate the actual and ideal body images of adolescent girls with and without a clinical diagnosis of anorexia nervosa.

HAI03263  [Paper]
Enhancing creativity through investigative practical work in science

Dr Mavis Haigh, Principal Lecturer, Auckland College of Education, Auckland, New Zealand

School leavers who can think creatively are frequently perceived as desirable, with creative abilities recognised as being valuable for personal, social, technological and economic reasons. Many science curriculum documents assert that creativity can be taught and that engaging in practical work in science can enhance creativity in students. However, recipe following practical work had become pervasive in a majority of New Zealand science classrooms in the late 20 th Century. One of the outcomes of such recipe following for most students was that they carried out their practical work unthinkingly. In contrast, many students who were engaged in doing 'research' for Science Fair projects were able to successfully engage in problem posing and problem solving. Some questions arose: Could practical work in the regular science classroom become more openly investigative in nature? If so, would this result in increased learning of science and about science? Could such an approach encourage creativity in students?

HAL03027  [Paper]
Teachers and academics co-constructing the category of expert through meeting talk

Graeme Hall and Susan Danby, Centre for Innovation in Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane

It is not uncommon for education university academics and schoolteachers to create opportunities to collaborate in projects of various kinds - particularly professional development and research activities. While a number of studies have highlighted the advantages of school-university partnerships, there has been little work investigating how these partnerships actually work. This study shows how one such partnership was managed interactionally, focusing on how the participants undertook the delicate and complex work of partnership building. Specifically, the study investigated how a group of teachers and academics developed a project to improve Mathematics teaching in the school. The activity was collaborative, occurring in the context of on-going Professional Development.

This paper focuses on one episode of meeting talk to show how the participants constructed the business of doing partnerships. In so doing, they constructed categories of 'expert' in their meeting talk. . The meeting talk was audio-taped and analysed using membership categorization and conversation analysis. Of particular interest was the emergence of expertise as a co-constructed category accomplished by participants. Teachers and academics alike constructed themselves as experts. This paper shows that the practical tasks of the meeting were concerned with connecting expert status to the business of partnerships.

Such orientations shape what can be said in meeting talk, who gets to speak, and the types of relationships that can be constructed.

HAN03041  [Paper]
Questions of recruitment and retention from Auckland's south west

Tracy Hansen, Waiuku College; Mavis Haigh, Auckland College of Education; Lynne Ashman, Auckland College of Education

The current problems we are facing in our state secondary schools of retention, quality and the availability of New Zealand trained secondary teachers, remain largely unsolved. Before any long term solutions are found the right questions need to be asked. This study follows the early teaching careers of three teachers, all from the same Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Secondary) programme. During the study, the three were all teaching together in a semi rural co- educational state secondary school.

The individual reflections of these teachers are explored with a focus on their experiences and the challenges facing them as they work(ed) toward full registration. Sources of data include their personal reflections, lesson observations, evaluations and individual interviews with the teachers. These will be analysed to ascertain their long term career goals.

The findings are presented as a series of questions which need to be urgently addressed if we are to learn what is required of a school and of our profession in its support of beginning teachers. These questions may be crucial if we are to assuage the worsening secondary teacher shortage ahead of us.

HAN03087  [Paper]
"Do South Korean Adult Learners like Native English Speaking Teachers more than Korean Teachers of English?"

Song-Ae Han, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia

Suppose you were an English as a foreign language (EFL) learner. Who would you prefer to learn from, a native English speaking teacher (NEST) or, a Korean teacher of English (KTE)? Some factors may influence your decision on this matter such as learning experience, level of English proficiency, motivation, interest, personality, occupation, age, gender, and so on. NESTs may use English more accurately and appropriately than KTEs. They may use the language more fluently and confidently. However, does native proficiency in English mean better English teaching? In EFL contexts, although non-native teachers may not have native English proficiency, they have intercultural knowledge bridging between their learners' culture and English language culture which NESTs do not usually have. Using a language fluently and confidently is different from teaching the language effectively and in ways appropriate to the learners' culture. This paper focuses on South Korean adult learners' viewpoints of NESTs teaching English at language centres and universities in South Korea. The learners indicate NESTs' lack of understanding of Korean culture. They wish to learn English from NESTs who are well qualified and culturally sensitive. However, on the basis of the learners' experience, they expect that NESTs will be neither.

HAR03043  [Paper]
Drawing on a Foucaultian genealogy to consider the constructions of psychopathology and sexualities in young people

This paper employs genealogical strategies to analyse examples from our own research in education relating to the construction of psychopathology and sexualities. We consider the application of four angles of scrutiny, discontinuity, contingency, emergences and subjugated knowledges (Foucault 1977, 1980, 1988). We explain the four angles of scrutiny and consider how these can be used to produce research practices commensurate with Foucaultian inspired genealogical strategies. For instance, we argue that subjugated knowledges form a critical component of the four angles of scrutiny. We propose that through their subjugation, these knowledges offer a different perspective to dominant knowledges on sexuality and psychopathology. It is our argument that it is precisely via this subjugation that these types of knowledges offer valuable perspectives to the construction of young people. Furthermore, highlighting contingency, discontinuity, emergences and subjugated knowledges makes for provocative moments, both substantively and methodologically, in the task of qualitative analysis.

HAR03171  [Paper]
How are human relations practiced in language? English and Indigenous students at university

Neil Harrison, University of New England

There is an alarming gap between what we want from students and what we do as lecturers in teacher-education courses at university. While we want preservice teachers to develop harmonious, collaborative relations in their classroom, and to recognise the positions of each and every student, they themselves are positioned in relation to their own ego. Students are usually positioned through the discursive techniques practiced at university to take a metaphorical stand in their talking and writing rather than consider how their position might be linked to others. They are learning to argue rather than to negotiate. While we would like students to consider all the positions carefully, we require them at every point to be judgmental and egotistical about a world which is constituted as objective through the scientific discourse of the university. Students are simultaneously expected to make appeals to authority in their writing whilst also acting in that position themselves. They learn a scientific methodology that requires them to describe, compare, categorise, analyse and interpret. But such a methodology produces a competitive, individualist and judgemental approach to human relations. While it makes the ego stronger, it undermines the possibility of Indigenous students negotiating any sense of belonging in the university classroom.

HAR03248  [Paper]
Class size and student attainments: Research and strategic implementation

Richard Harker, College of Education, Massey University

HAR03448  ®  [Paper]
Exciting teaching and learning when multiple models are used to explain chemistry ideas

Allan Harrison, Central Queensland University,

This case study describes the multiple models used to teach chemical equilibrium and examines the teacher's reasons for using models. Three consecutive Grade-12 lessons were studied and the teacher presented the 'school dance', the 'sugar in a teacup', the 'pot of curry', and the 'busy highway' analogical models. The data yielded the following outcomes: The teacher used the students' prior knowledge wherever possible and responded to student questions with exciting stories and analogies. He planned to discuss where each analogy broke down but did not. Students enjoyed the teaching but built variable mental models of equilibrium and female students disliked some masculine analogies and other students did not recognize all the taught processes. Most students learned that equilibrium reactions are dynamic, occur in closed systems and the forward and reverse reactions are balanced.

HAR03469  ®  [Paper]
Inquiry learning, modelling and a philosophy of chemistry teaching

Allan Harrison, Central Queensland University

Scerri and Erduran (2002) recently resurrected the question: How is knowledge developed and justified in chemistry? Scerri (2003) denies a role for constructivism in chemical education even though chemistry courses use humanly constructed models to represent sub-microscopic particles. The unobservable nature of most chemistry means that humanly constructed mental imagery is an essential element in chemical descriptions and explanations. Scientific models begin life as mental models and help chemists and students develop and learn chemistry. This paper claims a role for history, philosophy and epistemology/ontology in chemical education. The paper argues that most chemical models are negotiated by experts and teachers and are interaction products of prior knowledge and experiences, current problems and evidence and reflect the preferences and commitments of their makers. Thus, constructivism deserves a place in the epistemology and philosophy of chemistry.

HAR03578  [Paper]
Project-based learning meets the Internet: Students' experiences of online projects

Susan Harriman, University of Technology, Sydney

Project-based learning, building on problem-based approaches, often lays claim to the creation of learning environments that are student-centred and interdisciplinary, where students engage in longer-term, complex assignments linked to the world outside school. The claims for the role of information and communications technologies (ICT) in enhancing project-based activities have evolved from the use of specific ICT applications in aspects of a project to the design of online learning projects, which aim to capitalise on the information and communications promises of the Internet.

Recent studies of online learning projects have been characterised by an 'overview' approach, mapping the occurrence and nature of projects or documenting individual cases, with an emphasis on implementation issues and suggestions for their successful operation. This paper presents initial findings from intensive case studies of a set of very different online projects, focussing on the activity and learning of students, using multi-faceted sources of data.

HAS03541  ®  [Paper]
Behavioural Studies as a humanistic alternative to APS accredited Psychology courses: Escaping the Skinner box

Maurie Hasen and Francesca Collins, Monash University

This paper reviews the establishment of the Behavioural Studies discipline at Monash University as a scholarly alternative to traditional Australian Psychological Society accredited university Psychology courses. Starting out in 1998 with two first year subjects offered as alternatives to Introductory Psychology, Behavioural Studies has grown into a discipline in its own right having generated sufficient student demand for 10 subjects to be run on three campuses, attracting over 1000 enrolments annually. Administered through the Faculty of Arts, Behavioural Studies shares many subject areas with, but is independent of, the science-based Psychology discipline. The disciplines can be seen as differing in two important ways: while Behavioural Studies promotes a humanistic approach to the study of the mind and its content is driven by staff interest and student demand, the traditional Psychology discipline promotes a predominantly scientific approach and its content is prescribed by the Australian Psychological Society. Given these differences, the two disciplines should be seen as complementary rather than in competition with one another for enrolments. The authors conclude that the evolution of the academic teaching of psychology has created space for a humanistic approach to the study of the mind and that this has been eagerly received by students.

HAT03512  ®  [Paper]
Designing an innovative regional teacher preparation program: Reflections on early phases

Suzanne Cooper and Elizabeth Hatton, Edith Cowan University

Professional workers in rural and regional areas are often required to be more multi-skilled than their urban counterparts. Education workers are no different from other professional, regional workers in this respect. This paper provides reflections on the early phases of development and implementation of an innovative degree designed to provide for multi-skilled professional rural/regional workers in education. This degree program has a 1-10 focus that delivers innovative primary and middle schooling preparation with particular attention to living and working in rural and regional contexts. This paper discusses two significant challenges evident in early phases of the development of this degree.

HAU03756  ®  [Paper]
Relations between academic self-concept and achievement in mathematics and language: Cross-cultural generalisability

Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney, and Kit-Tai Hau, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Despite students' achievements in mathematics and language being positively related, the corresponding self-concepts are nearly uncorrelated. The universality of this paradoxical pattern of relations was examined in a large cross-cultural study of nationally representative samples of 15-year-olds from 26 countries with a total of more than 50,000 students. In this Internal/External Frame (I/E) Model, it was also postulated that math achievement had positive effects on math self-concept, but negative effects on verbal self-concept, and vice versa for language achievement on language and math self-concepts. Multigroup structural equation models demonstrated good support for the invariance of results across 26 countries participating in this PISA project.

HAU03758  ®  [Paper]
Negative effects of academically selective schools on academic selfconcept: Cross-cultural comparisons of Australian results with those in 26 countries-

Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney, and Kit-Tai Hau, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Contrary to the belief of many parents, empirical research demonstrates that academically selective schools tend to have negative effects on students' self-concept. The big-fish-little-pond-effect (BFLPE), an application of social comparison theory to educational settings, posits that the same student will have a lower academic self-concept in an academically selective school than in a nonselective school. The present investigation is the largest and strongest cross-cultural study of the BFLPE even undertaken, testing theoretical predictions for nationally representative samples of approximately 4,000, 15-year olds from each of 26 countries (total N = 103,558) including eight Australian states and territories, who completed the same self-concept instrument and achievement tests. Consistent with the BFLPE, the effects of school-average achievement were negative in all 26 countries and in the Australian States/Territories examined. Our study is particularly important, demonstrating the cross-cultural generalisability of the theoretical and empirical basis of our claims.

HAW03086  [Paper]
Coaching Teachers: Effective professional development but difficult to achieve

Kay Hawk and Jan Hill

In 2002, the nine AIMHI schools (urban, secondary, multicultural) each began a programme of 'coaching' to provide effective, ongoing, classroom-based professional development for teachers. Each school developed its own approach and delivery strategies. The current programmes are mainly funded by the Ministry, as a collective AIMHI project. They are ongoing and in their second year, so the knowledge gained is evolving.

This paper looks at the underpinning philosophical and research base for coaching and at the earliest decisions made by the schools about their individual approaches. It explores the setting up processes used by the schools and the adaptations that have been made as the various approaches were trialled.

While the learning is ongoing, it has been possible to draw some conclusions about what works and what has been difficult. The overall aim is to find ways to help teachers improve their classroom practice and, therefore improve student learning and achievement. The challenge is how to manage and sustain this type of development in a large, urban state secondary school with the time and financial constraints that are a daily reality. They also involve a culture shift in the way teachers think about professional development and having other professionals in their classrooms.

HAY03146  ®  [Paper]
Leading technologies: a mid-term analysis of a longitudinal study into the integration of learning technologies in NSW public schools

Debra Hayes, University of Technology, Sydney

The e.ffects research project commenced in 2001 with funding from the Australian Research Council and the NSW Department of Education and Training. Members of the research team are pursuing a number of lines of interest in the field of computer-based learning (CBL) including: what do classrooms that integrate CBL look like; what are the effects of CBL; practices and trends in online projects; and how do different types of schools develop effective CBL practices? Our approach has been to identify a small number of schools that are actively attempting to integrate CBL. A key factor in choosing these schools has been the support and involvement of their principals. In this paper, we report on our interviews with these principals and discuss their leadership practices within the contexts of their diverse schools. An important feature of this research is its longitudinal component and this analysis is being undertaken just past the mid-way point in our study. Emerging themes reflect the complexity of leading the integration of educational technologies in schools and relate to infrastructure development, human resource development, curriculum design, pedagogical practices and futurist thinking.

HAY03416  [Paper]
Leading technologies: a mid-term analysis of a longitudinal study into the integration of learning technologies in NSW public schools

DEBRA HAYES, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

The effects research project commenced in 2001 with funding from the Australian Research Council and the NSW Department of Education and Training. Members of the research team are pursuing a number of lines of interest in the field of computer-based learning (CBL) including: what do classrooms that integrate CBL look like; what are the effects of CBL; practices and trends in online projects; and how do different ty pes of schools develop effective CBL practices? Our approach has been to identify a small number of schools that are actively attempting to integrate CBL. A key factor in choosing these schools has been the support and involvement of their principals. In this paper, we report on our interviews with these principals and discuss their leadership practices within the contexts of their diverse schools. An important feature of this research is its longitudinal component and this analysis is being undertaken just past the mid-way point in our study. Emerging themes reflect the complexity of leading the integration of educational technologies in schools and relate to infrastructure development, human resource development, curriculum design, pedagogical practices and futurist thinking.

HAZ03335  ®  [Paper]
Third Age Learners and New Technology: Issues affecting use and access

June Hazzlewood, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania

This paper reviews twenty Australian and overseas research studies about older men and women in the 'third age' of active retirement, learning by choice or necessity in an age of constantly changing new technology. The review of these 'core' papers, selected for their correlation with a list of education, ageing and technology descriptors, is part of a study which asks how, when, where and why seniors learn to use computers to access information and communication technology, what is learned from the interaction and what is done with new skills and knowledge acquired. Emergent themes are briefly outlined and inform the third and final phase of a naturalistic ethnographic PhD research project. The number of older adults in Australia accessing new technology is increasing with the ageing of the population and the entry of the first of the baby boomers into the third age.

This has implications for 21 st century policy makers, public and private sector employers and NGOs as well as course developers and training providers. Research into the availability and relevance of training and support provision, which matches learners' needs and expectations, is seen as critical and timely.

HAZ03477  ®  [Paper]
An overview of a learning community in regional Tasmania from a third age perspective

Ju ne Hazzlewood, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania

A study of a group of older adults crossing actual and virtual community boundaries as they learn about and via new technology in retirement, has enabled a picture to be formed of a vibrant multi-faceted learning community in northern regional Tasmania. These third age learners range along lifelong and lifewide learning pathways, which stretch from crystal set byways to crystal chip highways, as they come to terms with yet another of the many changes they have experienced over the past decades. A closer look at their community networks reveals the macro level strategies and visions which established and continue to shape Launceston as a learning city at the heart of a learning community. The paper also touches on some of the varied learning opportunities that are available in the adult community education (ACE) sector. As well as at formal and informal courses and classes, learning takes place at special interest groups, clubs, organisations and associations, through membership of peer networks and service on a range of government and non-government committees and working parties. As the first of the 'baby boomers' are adding to the numbers in the third age learning community population, new approaches are called for. Risks and dilemmas facing service providers, policy makers, NGOs and individuals themselves are identified and strategies are sought to match new 21 st century needs and interests.

HEA03768  ®  [Paper]
The Macarthur Model for comprehensive intervention in bullying in schools: A methodology for a customised response

Jean Healey, University of Western Sydney

Bullying in schools has become a major educational issue of concern to teachers, students and parents in the new millennium. As evidence mounts of the destructive, pervasive and at times lethal impact of the phenomena within the education milieu it has become apparent that an approach which comprises a pragmatic, comprehensive intervention, informed by new and innovative theoretical and psychological perspectives, is urgently required. This paper describes an attempt to address this requirement through the Macarthur Model for intervention in bullying in schools customised to address local issues and needs, based on data collected at the specific location.

The first component of the Model involves an initial investigation of the parameters of bullying in the setting using the School Safety Survey adapted and developed for use in this research. The instrument yields substantive baseline data related to student perceptions, experiences and attitudes in relation to bullying in the school.

The next five components of the model are initiated on the basis of the data collected in the educational setting and should be applied simultaneously and progressively to ensure efficacy.

The second component involves identifying and delivering staff development needs and training and the appropriate focus of community education programs; this component provides the opportunity to for the school community to examine their own data and begin to develop customised products and processes.

The third component facilitates the development of a specific school policy based on the levels, types and locations of the bullying reported in the setting.

The fourth component involves the school in determining the level, focus and types of organisational restructuring required to address the issues of student safety and supervision raised in survey responses for the particular setting.

The fifth component involves schools implementing generic, widely applied curricula for the general student population to provide education in regard to origins, indicators and appropriate responses to bullying at the school.

The sixth component involves assisting teachers to address the psychological needs of individuals involved in the bully/victim paradigm, including the acquisition, through training, of personal attributes to facilitate resistance and resiliency to bullying.

Analyses of the evidence gathered in a range of educational settings in which bullying was present provided the structure for the model and revealed several insights into the psychological bases of the phenomenon. The fundamental thesis presented here is that schools have the capacity to effectively intervene in bullying utilising the structured and customised Model described in this paper.

HEA03769  [Paper]
New Theoretical Perspectives on Bullying: Broadening our Understanding of the Psychology of Peer Abuse

Jean B. Healey
Self-concept Enhancement and Learning Facilitation Research Centre
University of Western Sydney, Australia

Research into bullying in recent years has focussed primarily on defining its parameters and describing the experiences, attitudes and perceptions of individuals involved in the paradigm.

The nature of bullying in terms of frequency, types of behaviours and the characteristics of bullies and victims have been thoroughly explored and reported. We can describe cultural, gender and age-related differences in involvement as well as the impact of the behaviours.What has not been fully addressed in recent times are several psychological components of bullying in young people and this is the focus of the research reported here. As an outcome of analysis of a substantial database of responses from over three thousand high school students several new theoretical perspectives emerged, specifically: resiliency as a critical factor in resisting bullying, and the practicality of teaching this attribute to victims; he notion of Peer Advocacy as a functional response to support victims of bullying is also reviewed and described; peer abuse as a correlate of child abuse and the applicability of child protection legislation to the issue is reviewed for the first time; and the perception that violence viewing influences young people to engage in violence is challenged.

HEE03494  [Paper]
Social Investment ...fact or fiction

Helen Heery Linda McLuskie and Dr Mark Sinclair Central Queensland University Australia

Australia's youth rank only fifteenth in the OECD in their levels of post-compulsory schooling retention.

Early school leavers are more likely than their counterparts, who complete at least twelve years of schooling, to experience short and long term unemployment, lower average salaries, incarceration in prisons and poor health. In the Queensland context the present investment in The Education and Training Reforms of the Future (State of Queensland, 2002) initiatives is designed to enhance engagement in post-compulsory schooling and further, it is intended to boost social capital resources and contribute to national productivity and innovation. This paper will explore common understandings of the concepts of social and human capital in the knowledge economy and investigate the connections between the two. It will examine how these concepts are embedded in the ETRF and draw some conclusions concerning the validity of the premises upon which its proposals are based. While it may appear that social investment inevitably results in enhancement of human and social capital, this is an assumption yet to be scrutinised.

HER03635  [Paper]
Indigenous Research - a communal act.

In this paper, an Indigenous researcher who has just submitted a doctoral thesis that examines Indigenous success within the context of university study, reflects upon the research methodology she used to embed a sense of 'community', within the research act. She indicates that she had sought to use the research process as a means of providing opportunities for Indigenous respondents to take control of what they wanted to share in terms of their own knowledge and understandings of the issue. She also sought to use a process that would encourage respondents to contextualise their own learning so that, in developing such skills, they could make more informed decisions concerning the outcomes they sought from their own engagement with the academe.

HIL03122  [Paper]
Achieving is Cool: What we learned from the AIMHI Project to help schools more effectively meet the needs of their students.

Jan Hill and Kay Hawk, IPDER, Massey University: Albany, Auckland

The AIMHI Project comprises nine multi-cultural, low decile high schools that have been working together, with support from the Ministry of Education, since 1996. For the first six years of the Project, 1996-2001, a research team worked in the schools, formatively evaluating the developments undertaken by individual schools and others that were undertaken collectively by the nine schools. This paper discusses what the schools did that made a positive difference to their students' learning opportunities. Many of the issues we discuss relate to how the schools organised themselves to meet student needs - should the forms be vertical or horizontal? How should tutor/whanau periods be organised? What strategies work well to smooth the transition from Year 8 to Year 9? What lessons were learned about wagging, truancy and lateness? Much was learned about the importance of seeing the student as a whole child - the value of having a significant adult, and providing services that allow teachers to teach and students to get their wider needs met where they present - at school. Some of the schools made physical and image changes that gave students back pride in themselves as well as in their school. Finally, the paper talks about the importance of the attributes and skills of the teachers and how the schools are working to improve teacher quality.

HIN03776  [Paper]
Positive and Negative Ability Beliefs among Navajo High School Students: How do they Relate to Students' School Achievement Goals?

John W Hinkley, Dennis M McInerney, and Herbert W Marsh University of Western Sydney, Australia

The purpose of the present research is, using Structured Equation Modeling (SEM), to structurally validate the constructs of Navajo high school students' positive and negative ability beliefs within a model of achievement motivation. We also examine the role of these ability beliefs from the perspectives of stereotype threat and social identity theory. According to Steele and Aronson (1995) one of the affects of stereotype threat is that students stigmatized as poor academic achievers will have lower ability beliefs than students who are not labeled so. Deyhle (1995) posits that factors such as stigmatization may explain Navajo and Ute Native Americans negative attitudes toward school. A central tenant of social identity theory is that individuals strive to achieve and/or maintain a positive social identity.

For low-status minority groups, one response that social identity theory predicts is that the low-status groups can contest the dominant groups right to its superior position. In fact, Deyhle (1995) hypothesizes that the stronger the social identity the more likely students are to succeed in school.

HIR03304  [Paper]
Opening Pandora's Box: Ethical dilemmas in literacy research

Robyn Henderson, James Cook University

In recognising literacy as a social practice, some educational research has investigated the nexus between school and home or community literacy practices. In doing this, however, researchers sometimes find themselves opening a Pandora's Box, where the expected jewels of wisdom have been replaced by unexpected ethical dilemmas.

This paper presents some of the dilemmas experienced by one researcher in interviewing teachers, students and parents from one school site over a two-year period. Whilst some of the ethical dilemmas were to do with confidentiality and the wellbeing of participants, others revealed quite complex issues that needed consideration. In particular, the paper focuses on the issue of researcher responsibility to participants, schools and academic audiences, as well as how to best balance deconstructive and reconstructive notions of critique.

HO03108  [Paper]
Reading errors of students with dyslexia in Chinese

Fuk-chuen Ho, Hong Kong Institute of Education

The purpose of this study is to explore different types of reading errors made by Chinese students with reading disabilities. Based on dual-route model of reading, readers may use either the lexical (words are recognized as wholes) or sub-lexical (words are recognized through grapheme-phoneme correspondence) procedure to read. Siegel (1993) suggested that the reading disabled children made more semantic errors in English language. This is due to the fact that many of these children use the lexical route to read. In the case of Chinese reading, results of this investigation show that. Primary students made more visual errors and secondary students displayed another pattern that they made more phonological errors.

HOL03697  [Paper]
Student Learning in the Arts

Dr. Peter O'Connor, Auckland College of Education, Chris Holland, Auckland College of Education, Ann Brodie,, Merryn Dunmill, Dr. Tina Hong, UNITEC

HON03136  [Paper]
Research or Professional Development?

Eileen Honan, Deakin University.

Generally, teachers' contact with academics tends to take two forms: either they are the 'subjects' of research which is done on or for them; or they are the recip ients of professional development which is again done to or for them. In both cases the teachers are positioned in relatively passive and powerless relationships.

This paper describes a research project undertaken in 2002 wherein I explored the possibilities of constructing research as a collaborative project between academics and teachers. In this project I attempted to establish a relationship with teachers as co-researchers who conducted parts of the research process themselves, including data collectio n and analysis.

This paper explores the differences in perceptions of this research relationship and reflects on the contradictions in the statements made by the teachers during discussions on the benefits of the research project. These contradictory statements have led me to ask questions of myself as an academic and a researcher, and of the research process I designed. These questions are the focus for this paper and include: Was I engaging in 'research as usual' under the guise of engaging teachers in co-researcher practices? What kinds of discourses were operating in our discussions and how did these discourses work to position the teachers?

How am I implicated in the construction of these positionings?

HOO03266  [Paper]
Pragmatic Science: Establishing Non-Racist, Non-Hegemonic Learning From a Deweyan And Bourdieuian Perspective

Neil Hooley, School of Education, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne Australia

It is inevitable that formal systems of education will promote the dominant ideology, political and economic interests and culture within which they are located. For citizens who desire a more democratic, equitable and inclusive schooling, strategies for change must be developed that will realistically combat such factors and for which, general support can be won. The curriculum of all regular schools therefore must be appropriate for Indigenous and non-Indigenous children, not only in terms of cultural awareness but in the creation of new insights and understanding across knowledge that encourage children to be autonomous and independent learners. School science is a significant site of transformation in this direction because of its uncertain character, capacity for experimentation and the range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies encountered.

The paper briefly outlines these issues and proposes both a curriculum and subject design based on pragmatic philosophy and cycles of reflective investigation. Within a context of Deweyan inquiry, preliminary connections are made with the ideas of Bourdieu in analysing the problem. It is proposed that a pragmatic curriculum and science to diminish the impact of racism and educational hegemony are in the interests of Indigenous and non-Indigenous children alike.

HOR03112  ®  [Paper]
Elaboration Of The Student Self And Persistence In Higher Education

Louise Horstmanshof & Craig Zimitat Griffith Institute for Higher Education, Griffith University, Australia

Higher education institutions around the world have invested decades of research and employed countless interventions to address low first year retention rates, as such rates impact negatively on funding, enrolments and public perceptions. The increased diversity of the contemporary first year student population, and their competing identities of student, worker, partner, parent and friend has further complicated an already complex issue. Persistence is used in this study to understand the individual student's efforts to seek encouragement and support to persevere in his/her studies despite the challenges that he/she may face. Social Exchange Theory is proposed as a model for understanding student decision-making behaviour regarding continuation of study. We propose that students continually evaluate the cost -benefits associated with each of their life roles, and invest in those roles that are relatively rewarding and disinvest in those that they perceive as relatively costly. We explore the notion of an elaborated student self as a means of negotiating increased time and energy for study. We also consider ways in which such elaboration may lead to positive student behaviour.

HUD03040  [Paper]
Evaluating a Specific Mentoring Intervention for Preservice Teachers of Primary Science

Peter Hudson & Campbell McRobbie

Using a two-group posttest only design, 60 final year preservice teachers (control group) and 12 final year preservice teachers (intervention group) from the same university were compared after a four-week professional experience program. The intervention group received a mentoring program for developing primary science teaching practices. The survey measured both the control group and intervention group perceptions of their mentoring in primary science across previously established mentoring factors (i.e., personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modelling, and feedback). Results indicated that those in the intervention group perceived they had received more mentoring experiences on each of the five factors, and ANOVA results indicated that these differences were statistically significant for the first four of the five factors. It is argued that the specific mentoring intervention designed for developing specific aspects of primary science teaching has the potential to enhance the degree and quality of teaching experiences within a preservice teacher's professional experiences.

HUN03520  [Paper]
Meeting The Challenge Of Providing Higher Education For 'At Risk' Students: The Dilemmas, Risks And Opportunities Of Addressing The Issue Of Stakeholders And Gatekeepers In Experiential Learning Research.

Laurel Hunt

Given the low access rate and high attrition rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at universities across Australia, it is reasonable to consider them as 'at risk' students when it comes to higher education. It is imperative that universities find a way of providing learning opportunities that lead to successful completion of the programs studied. This paper explores the risks and dilemmas associated with researching the possibilities offered by experiential learning in meeting the challenge. It focuses on two areas: risks and dilemmas in identifying and working with the stakeholders; and the role of ethogeny as a research tool as well as a strategy for addressing the dilemmas and risks.

I

IRV03664  ®
>Learning to listen to Indigenous voice: Dialogue and dilemmas

Faith Irving, Monash University

National education policy decrees that all Australian students should have an understanding of and respect for Aboriginal traditional and contemporary values. However, historical and social factors which long served to silence Indigenous 'voice' in Australia have resulted in a dearth of factual information, leading to stereotypes and inaccuracies that continue to disadvantage Indigenous people in all aspects of life. Now, many teachers would like to increase their own knowledge by establishing a cross-cultural dialogue with Indigenous community members and building relationships based on respect and understanding, congruent with the aims of Aboriginal Reconciliation, inclusiveness and self-determination. This paper reports on a study to chart the experience of a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators who created a collegial network with the purpose of sharing ideas, forming mentoring relationships and collaborating on education programs. Consideration is given to some of the successes and problematic issues, as well as the challenges that emerged for non-Indigenous people in learning to listen to Indigenous 'voice'.

J

JAN03155  [Paper]
The dilemma of incorporating a spiritual perspective in science education

Beverley Jane, Monash University

'Deep ecology' has the potential to solve the current dilemma facing science and science education. In this paper the argument is for a paradigm shift, a move from an outdated worldview to a holistic approach, where science embraces an ecological perspective. It is argued that an ecological paradigm, inclusive of spiritual and subjective viewpoints, may lead to a sustainable future for our pla net. Some scientists recognise the spiritual in their work and have described a spiritual feeling in their research. One such scientist was Barbara McClintock who revealed the 'participatory' nature of her scientific investigation of the interaction of genetic forces in corn plants. She stressed the need to have a 'feeling for the organism' and wrote of affection, love and kinship for her plants. This way of knowing called 'participatory knowing' results when all pre-occupation with self is given over to a state of complete attention. Such participatory consciousness was "set aside for a hundred years for ideological, political, scientific and technological reasons"

(Heshusius, 1994:18). It is now time for a science curriculum in schools that fosters participatory knowing and science as a way of being.

JEF03002  [Paper]
Support of elementary and secondary education for the "regular" student population: Some concerns

Anne Jefferson, University of Ottawa

Support of elementary and secondary education for all is the operating premise for most governments. The exceptions are under constant external pressure to conform. This stance of inclusiveness is one we can say is the accepted norm. With this norm various expectations have developed as to what education looks likes and how it should be supported. Unfortunately, the what and the how have not easily coexisted. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a growing dilemma between the what and the how. The importance of lobby groups skewing the concept of "equity" so that "adequacy" of funds has less of a chance with respect to the regular student population is used to illustrate the dilemma.

JEF03075  [Paper]
Testing for Teaching: A longitudinal formative assessment project

John Izard, RMIT University and Peter Jeffery, Professional Resources Services Pty Ltd

This paper comprises a progress report on an on-going longitudinal, public-private project [PPP] between the whole school staff at Monbulk Primary School, Victoria, Australia and two consultants connected with Professional Resources Services Pty Ltd. The project involved establishing a climate for change to assessment practices in the school by introducing a more informative model of formative assessment with associated teaching actions. The project included assisting teachers to select appropriate instruments, publishing those instruments, collecting and publishing item response model [IRM] data for the instruments, applying them annually and facilitating follow-up teaching to utilize the results. The project began in December 1995 and has been subject to two independent reviews by government authorities since then. Learning gains consistent with those reported by Black and William [Black, P. and William, D. (1998a) 'Assessment and Classroom Learning', Assessment in Education, Vol. 5, pp. 7 - 74 and Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998b) 'Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment', Phi Delta Kappan, p,139 (Also at www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kbla9819.htm)] are being demonstrated every year and the project continues.

JEN03641  ®  [Paper]
Frameworks for transcribing and analyzing discourse of the classroom

Marie-Therese Jensen, Monash University

Classroom discourse, which includes the interactions of teacher with students, students with teacher, and students with students, may reveal much about learning and teaching. Frameworks for recording, transcribing and analyzing classroom discourse are widely used in second language acquisition research. These frameworks may be used more generally in any classroom-based research which investigates, for example, roles of teachers and/or of learners, or collaborative behaviors of learners. This paper describes the use of such a framework in a recent study of adult ESL classrooms. From audio and video recordings of ten lessons, patterns of interactional moves were identified. The main purpose of this analysis was to explore the extent to which four teachers offered specific kinds of corrective feedback to learners. A second purpose was to quantify noticing behaviours on the part of learners. Results of such analysis allow comparison of one classroom or group of classrooms with another. In this case, intensive English classes in Melbourne were compared with intensive English classes in Montreal, Canada and striking similarities and differences were found.

JES03035  [Paper]
Union Educators: hidden strategists?

Chris Walker and Joce Jesson

The paper considers the role of union educators in New Zealand unions and argues that their particular skills and strengths are not utilised sufficiently in developing a strong democratic union movement, that union educators play an important role in the process of promoting worker participation in union activity and social change, and should be regarded as the hidden strategists of the union movement

JIA03341  ®  [Paper]
Children's self-concept in relation to the quality of school Physical Education programs

Xiaoli Jiang, University of Ballarat, Ken Hawkins, Central Queensland University, and Laurie Prosser, K.I.D.S. Foundation

Past research indicates that physical activity can contribute to the development of children's self-concept. However, the impact of the quality of school physical education programs on children's self-concept has not been properly examined. This research was designed to answer the key question: is the quality of school physical education programs correlated with the self-concept of children in grades four to six in Australian provincial schools?

The sample comprised 1,149 children, from grades 4 to 6 (10-12 year olds), at 12 selected Australian provincial schools. The 1,149 children answered the Self-Description Questionnaire I (SDQ I) which identifies the levels of children's self-concept. A program evaluation was also conducted in the 12 schools, to assess the quality of their physical education programs. Results indicated that there was no positive relationship between the quality of school physical education programs and the levels of children's self-concept.

The variations in the quality of the physical education programs implemented at the 12 selected primary schools did not affect the children's self-concept levels as assessed by the SDQ I. Previous studies that demonstrated an improvement in self concept were based on interventions in addition to the normal physical education curriculum. This suggests that specially designed additional programs are needed in order to improve children's self-concept. The current physical education curriculum does not have the capacity to achieve a significant change.

JON03441  [Paper]
Defining Learning Communities

Sue Kilpatrick, Margaret Barrett and Tammy Jones, Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Australia

The beginning of the twenty-first century heralds a shift in emphasis from learning with the focus on the individual to learning as part of a community. The concept of "learning communities" is currently one that is to the fore of much educational and organisational literature and discussion.

In the literature, however, the term "learning communities" is being defined and used in diverse and flexible ways. As well as learning communities that are geographically defined, there has been growth in accessing learning through participation in "communities of common purpose".

Information and communication technologies have facilitated the emergence and rapid growth of learning communities whose members interact from remote corners of the globe to form online learning communities.

This paper explores the ways in which learning communities are defined, and the commonalities, blurred boundaries and close associations that are apparent between learning communities and other contemporary areas of interest, such as lifelong learning, social capital, communities of practice and distributed cognition. The Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania has acknowledged the potential that learning communities offer for the new century, and the benefits that can flow from an improved understanding of the concept, by adopting learning communities as the key metaphor of its research. It is apparent that learning communities can be a powerful means of creating and sharing new knowledge.

JON03700  [Paper]
Child panic and child protection policy: A critical examination of policies from NSW and Queensland

Judyth Sachs and Lise Mellor, The University of Sydney

In this paper child protection policies from NSW and Queensland will be compared and contrasted. Following Dean (1999) I argue that these policies are informed by both technologies of agency and performance, especially as these relate to management of risk consciousness and risk anxiety. These technologies provide for both the content of the policies and the surveillance mechanisms to oversee and monitor their application.

K

KAM03608  [Paper]
Reactions and responses: The concept of learning networks

Annelies Kamp, Deakin University

In Victoria, Australia, the potential of networks to respond to issues of risk for young people has been identified. Learning networks have become a means to reform resulting in a number of policy strategies by the Victorian Labour government since 2000 and including School Networks and Local Learning and Employment Networks (LLENs). At the same time organic learning networks continue to form at a 'grass roots' level as communities respond to perceived needs. This presentation draws on research into the foundation, formation and practice of the Smart Geelong Region Local Learning and Employment Network (SGR LLEN) and considers the opportunities and tensions when government policies take up and institutionalise solutions in ways that potentially work against the conditions that make them effective, viable and sustainable.

Kee03625  [Paper]
Habermas and the lifeworld of the principal in the lawful governance of inclusion in schools

Mary Keeffe Queensland University of Technology

In this paper, Habermas's concepts of lifeworld and systems world are introduced and related to the principal's governance of inclusion in school settings and the requirements of the disability discrimination legislation. The lifeworld relates to the known body of cultural knowledge that the principal is able to access to make decisions about inclusion. The systems world, on the other hand, includes strategic, external and imposed influences such as the legislative requirements of the disability discrimination legislation, in particular, the Australian Disability Discrimination Act (Cth.) 1992 or DDA. Considered together, the lifeworld of the principal and systems world of the disability discrimination legislation create tensions that impinge on the way that principals make decisions about inclusion in school settings. A lifeworld model that has been adapted from Habermas (1987, p 127) is proposed in this paper to illustrate the conceptual representation of the lifeworld of a principal in an inclusive setting. The proposed lifeworld model brings into sharp focus the tensions that exist between the DDA and the principal's governance of inclusion.

KEO03269  [Paper]
Enterprising Students In An Enterprising School

Jayne Keogh and Anne Goodwin

KER03352  ®  [Paper]
A model for in-school teacher professional development: Extending on action research

Lisa Kervin, University of Wollongong

As the knowledge base around the way children learn literacy skills has expanded, so too have the expectations placed upon teachers' classroom practice. In response to the changing nature of Literacy instruction I worked with a cohort of six teachers, teaching in the "beginning years" (Early Stage One/Stage One), over the course of 2001. The aim of this was to investigate how they teach writing within their classrooms and the changes that occurred to their teaching practice through the use of action research as a model of professional development.

The action research spiral was used to facilitate increased understanding of this curriculum area and to also change/consolidate their teaching practice. What this study presented was an extension to the action research spiral. Towards the end of 2001 there was a transfer of responsibility where the teachers took ownership of the project and began directing me as the researcher. Through this process the participant teachers took real ownership of the writing pedagogy we had developed. The study began with me as a researcher, involved the teachers as co-researchers and resulted in us being a team.

The final result of this study, I believe, is the development of a grounded theory for curriculum change.

KIL03498  [Paper]
The use of structured data to facilitate informed school based decision making and planning

At the end of 2002 the Esk District in Tasmania embarked on an ambitious project to provide common structured data to schools to facilitate informed school based decision making. The prime audience for the data is the school leadership team with the premise underlying the project being that educational decision making must be based on accurate data.

The data supplied to schools is collected from various sources and relates primarily to areas identified by schools as critical: student performance, attendance, behaviour management and staffing. The collection of similar data-sets for all schools facilitates identification of relative strengths and weaknesses. Charts are the primary presentation method, allowing the data to be readily used in decision making and discussion forums.

There is a basic common data-set which evolves differently in each school to meet individual needs. Schools are provided with individualised support where required. Additional analysis is based on needs expressed by principals and in most cases where a principal has identified additional follow-up areas this is done for all schools.

This paper examines the nature of data supplied to schools and the support given with it, the type of analysis conducted and the response of school decision makers to the data.

KLE03793  ®  [Paper]
Metacognition: Self-concept, cognitive styles and cognitive correlates

Sabina Kleitman, and Lazar Stankov, The University of Sydney, and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

This paper reports the outcomes of a large study in which the metacognitive processes which take place during test-taking were assessed. The focus is primarily on confidence judgements that people assign to their answers to cognitive test items. There are pronounced individual differences in these judgments defining a Self-confidence factor, the exact nature of which remains unclear due to a lack of psychological correlates. The main findings presented in this paper show that self-confidence is a stable, broad psychological trait, affected by the dynamics occurring during decision-making in test-taking activities. An extensive battery of different thinking dispositions relating to the way in which people react to, and deal with, uncertainty was employed together with measures of personality and self-concepts. Structural Equation Modelling techniques were employed to provide a broad path model summarising the relationship between these measures and the Self-confidence trait. Self-confidence during test-taking was related only to the Metacognitive Beliefs factor as defined by specific self-concepts. These self-concepts assess competence in the fundamental cognitive abilities used by people in test-taking-memory and reasoning.

KNI03053  [Paper]
An evaluation of the quality of teacher feedback to students: A study of numeracy teaching in the primary education sector

KNI03515  ®  [Paper]
Linking statutory child protection / youth justice systems and schools in an Australian context: the useful role of a social worker

Daniel Teghe, Bruce Knight and Cecily Knight, Central Queensland University

This paper describes progress made within an Australian project (the Social Worker in Mackay Schools [SWIMS] Project) towards developing a model of practice for social work within state schools that:

1. links formal state structures for child protection and youth justice with educational contexts resulting in a more effective delivery of both educational and child protection services;
2. constructs and implements strategies for the early identification of students 'at risk' of needing child protection/ youth justice services;
3. identifies and then draws on resources within the school community to develop locally-effective processes through which preventative action can be taken to prevent students becoming 'at risk'.

Following a description of the SWIMS project, the paper provides a brief review of the cogent literature on social work in schools and interagency cooperation within educational/child protection contexts. An outline is then provided of the format of the action research methodology employed by the main stakeholders in the project to inform the task of developing a model for school social work. The paper argues that this methodology also serves to provide an ongoing participatory and collaborative process because of the cyclical 'nature' of action research. At the same time, the argument continues, action research introduces a high level of accountability to the community from those involved in the project - because in this methodology there is not only a need to consult regularly with each interest group in this community, but also to provide timely and meaningful feedback to it. The last section of the paper suggests that the success of the SWIMS project to date is due at least in part to the employment by the social worker of community development principles. Examples of such principles include networking, developing and maintaining trust relationships and empowering members of the community by enabling them to develop ownership of the project.

KON03493  [Paper]
Assessing Phonemic Awareness Using Children's Writing: What does "BoBiBlokhed" tell us?

There is a wide body of research to support the view that children with low levels of phonemic awareness on entering school are more likely to be poorer readers and spellers than those with high levels (Adams, 1990; Bradley & Bryant, 1983, 1985; Frith, 1985; Mann, 1993; Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998). Because academic success is largely dependent upon reading, teachers need a quick and accurate way to identify potential problems as early as possible.

Current phonemic awareness tests are relatively lengthy and time-consuming because they need to be individually administered. The Astronaut Invented Spelling Test (AIST), however, is a group-administered, single-page assessment device designed to measure children's phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge from their written language. It is a game -like activity that children perceive as fun, and which incorporates familiar tasks used in classrooms every day.

This paper provides an overview of the rationale behind, and development of, the AIST, including administration and scoring guidelines. The AIST is presented as a very useful tool for teachers of children in the first three years of schooling, for special educators, and for speech and language therapists.

KOS03602  [Paper]
Teacher education and critical inquiry: The use of activity theory in exploring alternative understandings of language and literacy

Brenton Doecke and Alex Kostogriz, Monash University

This paper explores the challenges of espousing a critical pedagogy within the managerial climate that presently shapes teacher education. It argues that current discourses of professionalism are incommensurate with a view of literacy as social practice and that they disregard complex semiotic ecologies in which both school and university students operate. Graduate teachers are constructed as the 'providers' of decontextualised literacy skills to school students whose existing communication networks are ignored. Rejecting this narrow view of professional practice, we draw on activity theory to analyse the social configuration of tertiary students' identities and the textual resources that mediate their professional learning. This kind of research is needed to reveal the contradictions within and between activity systems in which tertiary students participate as well as to construct possible solutions to the contradictions identified.

KOS03791  ®  [Paper]
Self-esteem, depression and risk-taking behaviour in adolescent girls

Marion Kostanski and Madeline Wishart, Victoria University

Self-esteem has typically been conceptualised as a global, unidimensional construct. However, recent research has focused on the multi-dimensionality of self-esteem (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001). The current research examines the relationship between this proposed multi-dimensionality and psychosocial health in adolescent girls. A survey of 166 female adolescents (age range: 12 - 19years, M = 14.91, SD = 1.57), examined the degree to which psychosocial wellbeing is dependent on an individual's contingencies of self-worth and global self-esteem. Analyses indicate that external contingencies of self-worth have a strong significant association with global self-esteem. Furthermore, global self-esteem is strongly associated with depression, whereas specific external aspects of self worth are related to risk taking behaviour. The results of this study may explain the lack of efficacy in existing prevention/intervention programs aimed at reducing risk-taking behaviours in young girls, by focusing on global rather than specific aspects of self-esteem.

L

LAI03206  [Paper]
Profiling reading comprehension in Mangere Schools: a research and development collaboration

Lai, M.K., McNaughton, S., MacDonald, S., Hall, A., MacDonald, B., McKee, D., Nicholls, J., Reeves, J., Swann, J., Valgrve, D., Weir, P., Farry, S & Warren, S.

LE03008  [Paper]
What Does a More Knowledgeable Peer Mean? A Socio-cultural Analysis of Group Interaction in a Vietnamese Classroom

Huong Le, School of Education, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ

Following Vygotsky, sociocultural research has argued the educational value of more knowledgeable peers in helping others to learn. The notion of a "peer", however, is not well defined. Peers may not all be the same and the better informed may not all operate in the same manner in situations of interaction. A study carried out in a Vietnamese classroom where young adults were studying English as a foreign language addressed this dilemma by comparing the processes within two different types of group. One type consisted of five students at the same class level and the second also consisted of five, but one was a student from a more senior class. Sociocultural analysis is used to explain the processes that created a "zone of proximal development" in each of the two group settings. The results showed that the differences were more complex than the simple presence of a better- informed peer would suggest.

LEA03337  [Paper]
Changing Institutional Cultures to Improve Student Outcomes: Emerging Themes from the Literature

Linda Leach and Nick Zepke Massey University at Wellington, New Zealand

Tertiary institutions in New Zealand, as elsewhere, are under pressure to improve student outcomes such as retention, persistence and graduation (Tertiary Education Advisory Commission, 2001a; 2001b; Ministry of Education, 2002). The reasons for early student withdrawal have been well researched in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom (Tinto, 1975, 1988, 1993; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Astin, 1993, 1997; Yorke, 1999; McInnis et al, 2000). In 2002, the New Zealand Ministry of Education commissioned a study into improving student outcomes. Our study found two different discourses (Prebble et al, 2003; Zepke et al, 2003). One predominates, centring on what institutions can do to fit students into their existing cultures. Tinto's work is at the heart of this discourse. The study also discerned an emerging discourse challenging Tinto's model (Braxton, 2000). Rather than require students to fit the existing institutional culture, it suggests that cultures be adapted to better fit the needs of increasingly diverse students. This paper has three sections. First we describe how we conducted the study. Second we discuss the dominant discourse and eleven propositions for practice that arise from it. Finally we explore two propositions that synthesise research from the emerging discourse.

LEC03358  [Paper]
Exploring perceptions of 'significant change' in reforming schools

Rosie Le Cornu and Judy Peters, University of South Australia, and Margot Foster, Robyn Barratt and Diane Mellowship, Learning to Learn Project

In South Australia, schools in the Learning to Learn Project receive funding for teachers to engage in professional development and trial educational reforms aimed at improving learning opportunities for teachers and students. Designated change leaders from each school attend Learning Circles with project and university colleagues to develop their understanding of educational change and the associated benefits, risks, dilemmas and tensions. This year, to deepen understanding of the complexity of change, the Learning Circles have been using the 'Most Significant Change Approach', a process designed by Rick Davies as a tool for evaluating change projects and promoting organisational learning among participants (Davies, 1996). This process involves participants writing stories about what they perceive to be 'significant change' as a result of involvement in the project, and engaging in a process of discussion and selection to identify those stories that are considered to be most illustrative of significant change. This paper will elaborate the process as it has been interpreted in Learning Circles, and the insights that participants have derived about what is valued as significant change.

LEE03219  [Paper]
An investigation of Fit: Comparison of the 1-, 2-, 3-Parameter IRT models to the Project as aTTle Data.

Heidi Leeson & Richard Fletcher

LEF03185  [Paper]
Designing Video-Based Multimedia Curriculum for Teacher Learning

Deidre LeFevre, Washington State University Vancouver, USA

Recent technological developments enabling web -based and random-access multimedia platforms to be more readily available significantly impact what it means to create video-based multimedia curriculum for teacher learning. There is a need therefore to gain a clearer understand of what video offers as a tool for teacher learning. There is also a need to better understand the work of designing video-based multimedia curriculum in order to provide a better understanding of the actual curriculum, it's potential use, intended outcomes, and the resources needed for future curriculum development work.

This paper addresses two questions: Why incorporate video into curriculum for teacher learning? and, What challenges do professional development designers face in harnessing the potential of video records of practice into an educative tool for teacher learning? The potential affordances of video as a tool for teacher learning include the capability to represent the complexity of teaching, the provision of a relatively unfiltered representation of practice, the provision of a common text from which to ground talk about practice, and the capability of making practice accessible that is temporally, geographically, and pedagogically distant. Some of the challenges that designers face in designing video based multi-media curriculum include determining achievable goals for teacher learning, designing for the facilitation of the learning context, changing the current cultural script of professional development, and designing for the scaling up of the curriculum.

LEO03079  [Paper]
Affective outcomes in the context of school reform

Carl Leonard, New South Wales Department of Education and Training, and Sid Bourke and Neville Schofield, The University of Newcastle

The late 20th Century saw the rapid rise of quality assurance in most industries and organisations, and in education quality assurance was epitomised as a concern with school effectiveness. Effectiveness measures most often took the form of standardised measures of student achievement in basic skills, and these measures remain the most salient today. While student cognitive development is an essential outcome of schooling, it is argued that interpretations of quality and effectiveness that do not include affective outcomes are inadequate as measures of desirable schooling outcomes.

The argument is supported that school effectiveness is best seen linked with school improvement, with a particular focus on methods of enhancing the school experience for students. In this, a potential future of schooling that involves a realignment of academic and affective outcomes is advocated. Student quality of life and consistent school attendance are suggested as important criteria of school effectiveness and improvement and are contextualised as such. Suggestions are made of how teachers can enhance at least these two criteria by improved mentoring and providing a focus on children's future, health, equity and access to quality education.

LEU03802  [Paper]
Chinese student teachers' achievement goal orientations - Does collectivism really matter?

Man-tak Leung and Kwok-wai Chan, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Over the past several decades of research, consistent differences in academic achievement among students of various racial groups and of different nations have been well-documented. More recent models in accounting for cross-national differences in academic achievement centered on the importance of cultural values (Chen & Uttal, 1988; Stevenson & Lee, 1990). Chen, Stevenson, Hayward, and Burgess (1995) advocated that cultural values and beliefs would be important antecedents affecting students' motivation and learning behaviour, subsequently lead to the academic achievement.

Hau and Salili (1996) asserted that: "Cultural values of collectivism and emphasis on hard work, effort and perseverance have important implications on Chinese achievement orientations. There is some converging empirical evidence from a number of researches suggesting that Chinese are learning goal oriented and attribute their performance more to their effort than to their ability" (p. 129). Based on these speculations, it appears that cultural values such as collectivism and individualism may have influence on the motivational orientations adopted by the students. Recent researches on achievement goals had identified two goals: learning goal and performance goal. There are quite a number of researches that linked achievement goals and the learning strategies/cognitive engagement endorsed/spent by the students. Nolen's (1988) study implicated that task orientation (learning goal oriented) was positively correlated with use of strategies requiring deep processing of information. Greene and Miller's (1996) study had its significance in identifying that performance goals are positively correlated with shallow cognitive engagement. Kong and Hau's (1995) study implicated learning goal orientation is more adaptive in Chinese students. Therefore, with respect to the above findings, converging and significant conclusion can be drawn that achievement goal orientations have direct influences on the learning strategies/cognitive engagement endorse/spent by students in academic achievement behaviours.

In sum, students' learning behaviours should be studied through the mediational effects from cultural and socio-cultural factors. However, most of the studies were based on speculations rather than empirical investigations. It is therefore advocated to examine the relationships through systematic investigation of cultural values, achievement goals and learning strategies.

LI03077  [Paper]
Cultureand Classroom Communication: A Case Study of Asian Students in New Zealand Language Schools

Mingsheng Li,

This paper reports findings of a qualitative study conducted from December 2002 to March 2003 at two New Zealand English language schools. Forty Asian students participated in the survey. The study reveals that, in spite of the positive learning experiences in the schools, there also exists a significant mismatch with Asian students' learning expectations. The recurring themes that reflect Asian students' negative perceptions and experiences relate to issues of teacher competence, teacher quality, teaching approaches, course content and learning materials. It was found that the interactive teaching methods adopted by New Zealand teachers are culturally incompatible with Asian students' learning conceptualisations. The findings suggest that some teachers' adoption of the communicative or interactive teaching approach led to Asian students' negative learning experience in New Zealand. The paper recommends that New Zealand teachers develop three sets of interrelated skills in order to cope with the complex ESOL teaching situations and to ensure quality teaching: linguistic skills, pedagogical skills and intercultural communication skills.

LLO03060  [Paper]
A connected community: Teachers' perceptions of using ICT to meet the needs of Indigenous students living away from home

Margaret Lloyd, Faculty of Education, QUT, Australia

In 2001-2002, an innovative project entitled Reach In-Reach Out was begun 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. The study described in this paper is the second (of three) to investigate the impact of this project and in this, is a direct continuation of research begun in 2002. Its focus is on the teachers of the secondary boarding schools and residential colleges attended by the children of Loc khart River and who are directly involved in maintaining the remote links of the project. The study described in this paper adopted an interconnected activity system (Engestrom, 1987) as its framework for analysis. The study was funded through a QUT Faculty of Education grant.

LOC03398  [Paper]
Constructions of primary teaching practice in the wake of 90s reforms

Terry Locke, & Mary Hill, University of Waikato

This paper draws on collaborative research undertaken with Graham Vulliamy and Rosemary Webb from the University of York on the impact of 1990s "reforms" on the nature of teachers' work and their sense of professional identity. In this paper, we focus on the reflections of 12 Waikato teachers on their sense of themselves as classroom practitioners. In particular, we discus findings which summarise their reflections on changes that have become embedded in their practice and the extent to which they see these changes as a break from the past and affecting their sense of professional identity. In particular, we will be looking at ways in which certain concepts central to their sense of themselves are being deconstructed (or erased) and reconstructed in discourse - concepts such as integration, assessment, child-centredness and creative teaching. In conclusion we discuss briefly some of the implications of this process for teacher education and teacher professional development.

LOV03402  [Paper]
The Impact of Using Strategy Windows to select an Appropriate Form of Assessment for Students' Numeracy Learning

Jenny Young-Loveridge University of Waikato Hamilton, New Zealand

This paper reports on the use of so-called "strategy windows" to select an appropriate assessment form for identifying a student's stage on the number framework as part of the New Zealand Numeracy Development Project. Results for 2002 were compared with those for 2001, before strategy windows were introduced into the diagnostic interview. Although strategy windows have enabled greater consistency in assessment procedures across widely different year levels (years 0 to 10), there are some disadvantages. Some teachers appear to have chosen a less challenging form than might have been appropriate for a student with particular competencies. Choice of assessment form varied as a function of gender, with twice as many boys as girls given Form C, despite equal numbers in the two groups. The influence of teacher expectations on the choice of assessment form is discussed.

LOV03680  [Paper]
Ways of knowing in assessing the PhD and ramifications for the role of the supervisor

Terence Lovat, Allyson Holbrook, Sid Bourke, Kerry Dally, and Kellie Morrison, The University of Newcastle

The paper draws together a number of findings from the PhD Examination Project conducted by the authors as part of the SORTI (Centre for the Study of Research Training and Impact) program conducted at The University of Newcastle. Its particular focus is on an analysis of the roles of examiner and supervisor, and the interface between these, as seen through the lens provided by Habermas's 'Ways of Knowing' thesis. Early scripts appraised of examiner comment directed to the candidate seemed to reveal a preponderance of text that conformed with Habermas's 'empirical-analytic' way of knowing, displaying a fairly technical approach to the task and positioning the examiner in the role of 'expert'. At the same time, there was little evidence of 'self-reflective' knowing that might betray a more sophisticated task being undertaken and a role of some asymmetry between the examiner and candidate. Since the latter way of knowing would seem to fit better with a regime dealing with original thought and new contributions to knowledge, it has been postulated that the dominant text in PhD examination may work to constrain the generation of new knowledge rather than encourage it. A recent paper (Lovat & Morrison, 2003) explored this postulation with special reference to those aspects of examination script that made explicit mention of the role of the supervisor, finding essentially the same phenomenon, but with a slightly different balance in favour of 'self-reflective' text. This paper will draw strands out of SORTI's more comprehensive work that might inform this particular analysis, expand on the analysis itself and indicate ways in which the analysis could inform the practicalities of research training and especially the role of the supervisor.

LOW03359  ®  [Paper]
Multimodal texts: Numeracy development in naturalistic learning contexts

Thomas Lowrie and Susan Clancy, Charles Sturt University

As part of their leisure many children are spending increasing amounts of time engaged in playing technology-based games. Such games come in a number of forms and use a range of technologies. These require game players to use a variety of different literacies in order to participate in this culture and to interpret the dynamic flow of texts. As part of this process the players engage in ongoing learning opportunities that have their foundations in numeracy understandings. This presentation focuses on the Pokemon phenomena as an example of multimodal text and highlights examples of numeracy learning within this popular culture in naturalistic learning contexts. The case study investigations encouraged children to share their learning about texts that are generally marginalised within the traditional school culture, but that are part of children's everyday experiences. It provided evidence that numeracy learning was established in both deep and authentic ways as the children navigated their way thought the technology-rich environment. This work has important implications for stakeholders who want to support children and their numeracy learning.

LOW03476  ®  [Paper]
Posing and solving problems in open-ended investigations: Authentic tasks with Grade 1 children

Thomas Lowrie, Charles Sturt University

One way to provide young children with the opportunity to engage in more diverse and flexible thinking is to encourage them to pose their own problems. Problem-posing activities reveal much about the understandings, skills and attitudes the problem poser brings to a given situation. This investigation explored the way in which a Grade 1 child (6 year old) posed and solved open-ended investigations over a three-week period. The participant was able to identify and discuss the type of mathematics knowledge and related processes that would needed to complete the task. Moreover, she was able to recognise aspects of the task that would be difficult to solve and was able to propose alternate pathways when it was apparent that her initial approaches were not appropriate. It is argued that the meaningful and empowering nature of the problem-posing environment was influential in the success achieved by the participant.

LUC03005  [Paper]
Roadblocks, detours, dead-ends and thoroughfares: Creating a road map to navigate through the research methodology labyrinth

Jo Luck, Central Queensland University

Creating the theoretical framework, conceptual tools and design of a doctoral research project is a very complex undertaking. The intent of this paper is to help to demystify the process and give some practical guidance for new researchers in order for them to avoid (or overcome) obstacles and minimise the time and effort required to complete their research proposal and thesis.

When starting out on my doctoral research odyssey, a labyrinth of potential research methodologies confronted me. Finding a way through this labyrinth to complete my journey (doctoral thesis) seemed to be a daunting task. This paper describes the iterative processes I used to create a road map for myself to help me navigate through the plethora of research methodologies available when conducting educational research. To progress in my journey I had to negotiate roadblocks and detours and learn how to recognise when I was heading toward a dead-end and needed to back track in order to find a thoroughfare to my destination.

The theoretical framework I used in my doctoral research was the sociology of innovation theory or actor-network theory (Latour, 1987; Law, 1992). ANT is also referred to as the sociology of translation (Callon, 1986).

Roadblocks were incidents such as my principal supervisor and methodology specialist moving to another university. Detours were episodes when I digressed in my reading or in my thinking or both.

Sometimes this was on purpose in order to understand a key concept; at other times I had wandered off on a tangent. Dead-ends were occasions when my reading didn't help me to move forward in my thinking. One technique that I found helpful to assist me in overcoming the roadblocks, returning to the main road after a detour or spotting a dead-end was to take a helicopter ride to move above the roadway and the traffic and to view the research landscape. This allowed me to put my doctoral research into perspective and view the thoroughfares (the theory, research methods and techniques which would allow me to answer my research questions) that would lead me towards my final destination - the completed thesis!

LUC03521  [Paper]
You think you have problems with your research participants? My research subjects don't have a pulse!

Jo Luck, Central Queensland University, Australia

As a lecturer in information systems I am very interested in information technology and its uses, in particular the design and implementation of educational technologies used to support teaching and learning in higher education. I use actor-network theory (ANT) as a conceptual framework to research these technologies. ANT employs a sociotechnical approach that requires all actants (human and non-human) to be treated equally for the purposes of analysis. As a human and an ANT enthusiast, I found myself on the horns of a dilemma: is it intellectually desirable and politically responsible that 'agency' may be ascribed to non-human entities that cannot speak for themselves, thereby constructing them as potential stakeholders and/or gatekeepers?

In this paper I will draw on ANT to investigate reflexively the risks and dilemmas of researching non-human entities. A nonhuman entity is a technical artefact such as a computer (it could also be an animal such as a scallop - see Callon (1986) - or a book or a policy). I will explore the various types of stakeholders and the types and roles of gatekeepers in an ANT informed study. Finally I will discuss using the metaphor of performativity as a tool to overcome the dilemmas and/or reduce the risks of researching socio-technical systems. Examples will be drawn from a study that investigates the implementation of an interactive video-conferencing network at a multi-campus, regional university in Australia.

LYN03383  ®  [Paper]
Promoting innovation and scholarship in university teaching: Risks and dilemmas for academics

Julianne Lynch, Deakin University

Over the last two decades, university systems world-wide have been subject to government initiated, top-down restructures in the name of greater effectiveness, accountability and quality. Within this timeframe, government interest in the university teaching has increased,and innovation and responsiveness in teaching have been increasingly prioritised by both government and university policies. Academic interest in the teaching has also increased, and much research and discussion has focused on defining teaching as a source of scholarship and expounding its role in the promotion of innovation, and in the recognition and rewarding of teaching work. In this paper I draw on a study of academics' views, which I have reported at previous AARE conferences and elsewhere, to raise questions about recent and ongoing developments in the work environment of university educators. I raise the possibility that systems and processes whose express purpose is to facilitate and support university educators' efforts to improve teaching are, in fact, inhibiting innovative practice by institutionalising an aversion to risk that is anathems to innovation.

M

MAC03391  [Paper]
Governing Communities: The Real Possibilty Of Parent Choice In Schooling

Kym Macfarlane

MAC03415  [Paper]
Beyond Instructional Leadership: Towards Pedagogic Leadership

Neil MacNeill, Principal Ellenbrook Primary School; Rob Cavanagh Department of Education Curtin University of Technology; Steffan Silcox, Principal Ballajura Community College

In the wash-up of the school effectiveness research and a growing disenchantment with the lack of change in schools, instructional leadership was promoted as the harbinger of change and the salvation of schooling. While the concept of instructional leadership has been predominant in theorising about school leadership and is supposedly widely applied in schools, it has inherent limitations. These limitations centre firstly upon instructional leadership, typically concerning principal- leadership and not teacher- leadership. This is inconsistent with contemporary leadership approaches that emphasise the need for multiple leadership throughout the school. Secondly, the notion of instruction implies focus on teacher actions rather than on student learning.

The notion of pedagogic leadership is proposed as an alternative to instructional leadership. Pedagogy concerns enabling the learning and intellectual growth of students in contrast to instruction that treats students as the object of curriculum implementation. Successful classroom pedagogy requires that teachers understand how students learn and have the autonomy to design, implement and assess educational activities that meet the needs of individual and all students. The role of pedagogical leaders circumscribes informed teacher practise and reflection, empowering teachers to exercise professional responsibility and discretion, and demonstrating credible knowledge of learning and teaching processes.

MAH03094  [Paper]
Addicted to ACE: Exploring the experiences of adult learners

Jane Stewart (Department of Education, Professional Development Unit); Marg Cartner (Literacy Waikato/Tertiary Study Skills Centre) ;
Kelly Gibson (Research Coordinator Maori, Faculty of Social Science) Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec), Hamilton - Aotearoa / New Zealand

MAN03133  ®  [Paper]
Developing interdisciplinary research graduates: Educational opportunities and dilemmas

Catherine Manathunga, University of Queensland

Attempting to solve the complex problems of the 21st century requires research graduates that have developed a sophisticated array of interdisciplinary teamwork and communication skills. Although universities, governments, industry and the professions have emphasised the need to break down disciplinary silos in order to produce graduates, who can respond more effectively to the needs of the knowledge economy, much of this work has centred on undergraduate programs. While there are some research higher degree students who choose to work on interdisciplinary research topics, very little has been done to develop interdisciplinary research education systematically. This paper explores the educational opportunities and dilemmas involved in developing systematic programs of interdisciplinary research activities in two research centres at the University of Queensland. Framed by Bruhn's (2000, p. 58) theoretical discourse about interdisciplinary research as 'a philosophy, an art form, an artifact, and an antidote', this paper emphasises the need for such programs to embed the development of students' interdisciplinary research skills and attitudes within their research projects. The two diverse programs also emphasise experiential, active and interactive learning techniques and are centred upon the development of students' reflective practice skills.

MAN03690  [Paper]
Aesthetic Modernism

Dr. Janet Mansfield, Auckland University of Technology

This paper maps definitions of modernism extracting some of the features of aesthetic modernism as it discusses Descartes, the Enlightenment, Cartesian rationalism and the notion of 'aesthetics'. Within modernism, I consider its major assumptions, values, (or its aesthetic), the theoretical sources of formalism and the ideas and outstanding figures associated with modernism, such as Immanuel Kant whose work established the notion of the aesthetic as an end in itself. While recognising that the origins of art as a discourse were in the Renaissance and the Enlightenment project with its eighteenth century faith in reason, progress, and individual autonomy, the paper focuses upon aesthetic modernism as a twentieth century phenomenon.

MAR03057  [Paper]
Assessing self-efficacy and agency of secondary school students in a multi-cultural context: Implications for academic achievement

Deepa Marat, Student: Auckland University of Technology, School of Education & School of Social Science, New Zealand Staff member: UNITEC Institute of Technology, School of Education & Centre for Educational Research and Development, New Zealand

The concept of self -efficacy is based on the triadic reciprocality model symbolising a three way reciprocal relationship between: (a) personal factors i.e. cognition, emotion, and biological events (b) behaviour and (c) environmental factors (Maddux, 1995). Cognition, emotion and behaviour are the domains of personality which form the basis of research in self -efficacy. Research has been extensive on the relationship between self-efficacy and performance attainment in academic settings. Self -report scales are common in the assessment of self-efficacy. Guidelines to construct scales to assess self -efficacy have been specified by Bandura (2001). These guidelines highlight the importance of developing self -report measures which are task specific, and take into consideration all three domains of self -efficacy and three levels within each domain. Suggestions to develop measures which are reliable and have content validity have been provided. The major aims of this present research were to assess students' self -efficacy in mathematics, and explore agency. Participants were from multi-cultural secondary schools in Auckland. A scale was developed incorporating New Zealand curriculum specific items in mathematics for Years 11, 12 & 13, and items on related constructs which impact on self -efficacy such as: (a) motivation strategies, (b) cognitive and metacognitive strategies, (c) resource management, (d) self -regulated learning, (e meeting others' expectations, and (f) self -assertiveness. A qualitative self -report measure was designed to explore self -efficacy and agency in students. This paper reports the findings from this research in-progress, and discusses the implications for student achievement.

MAR03309  [Paper]
Gendered constructions of space: Experiences and negotiations of 'malespaces' by women enrolled in IT degrees.

Katrina Markwick, Faculty of Education Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

This paper presents a descriptive analysis which looks at the gendered experiences of women studying undergraduate degree courses in a faculty of IT. The numerical make-up of male and female students on these courses reflects wider global trends describing women's under-representation in IT, which have been well documented in the literature (Gurer & Camp, 2002; Lang, 1996; Panteli et al., 1997; Teague et al., 1996; Wright, 1997). This work arises from a feminist concern with the relationship between notions of 'femaleness' and 'technical competence' which are discursively constructed as incompatible and problematic in dominant discourses of gender and technology (Gilbert, 2001; Stepulevage, 2001; Volman et al., 1995). How this is implicated in the relationship between women and politically powerful bodies of knowledge such as technology and the ways that women as active agents resist and negotiate such discourses is central to this research.

Adopting a feminist post-structuralist framework, interview data revealed that women who are studying IT courses view these spaces as gendered. The question central to this research was: How do individual women respond to such spaces and what identities do they construct in response to the gendering of such a context? This question forms the subject of discussion in the following paper.

MAR03617  ®  [Paper]
Methodological challenges in evaluating the cognitive constraints of children's reasoning in art

Karen Maras, Lecturer, School of Education NSW

Research has shown that during middle childhood children's theories of mind undergo significant qualitative change. Understanding such shifts in cognitive resources has significant implications for teachers in gauging the breadth and flexibility in children's theory development according to age within specific domains of inquiry. Psychologists have linked children's use of defining ontological discrimination to the development of more complex theories of mind when dealing with different kinds of phenomena in the world. In domains of knowledge within the humanities little is known about the constraints underlying theories children have about cultural artefacts. When dealing with artefacts, evidence of this qualitative cognitive shift in children's theories of meaning is manifest in reasoned explanations that favour recourse to beliefs about intentionality and agency. This paper proposes a methodology used to map characteristic-to-defining shifts in the pictorial reasoning of younger and older children when asked to curate an exhibition of portrait paintings. Curatorial reasoning is analysed according to classifications representing aesthetic and psychological constraints of different kinds of pictorial reasoning, thereby describing the terms underlying increasingly sophisticated theory development in relation to art.

MAR03755  [Paper]
A Reciprocal Effects Model of the Causal Ordering of Academic Self-Concept and Achievement

Herbert W. Marsh
Self-concept Enhancement and Learning Facilitation Research Centre, University of Western Sydney, Australia

The rationale for this presentation is a theoretical model indicating that people who perceive themselves to be more effective, more confident, and more able accomplish more than people with less positive self-perceptions (I believe, therefore I am). Support for this prediction is strongest in academic self-concept research where a substantial body of research in support of the reciprocal effects model now exists. Prior academic self-concept has a positive effect on subsequent achievement beyond what can be explained in terms of prior academic achievement. Subsequent academic self-concept is also affected by priori achievement beyond what can be explained in terms of prior academic self-concept. In this presentation we review existing research and present new results evaluating the generality of these results in developmental research with young children and cross-cultural research.

Do changes in academic self-concept lead to changes in subsequent academic achievement? The causal ordering of academic self-concept and academic achievement is, perhaps, the most vexing question in academic self-concept research. This critical question has important theoretical and practical implications, and has been the focus of considerable research.

MAR03770  ®  [Paper]
Academic resilience and the four Cs: Confidence, Control, Composure, and Commitment

Andrew Martin and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

Academic resilience is defined as the ability to effectively deal with setback, stress or pressure in the academic setting. Although there is a large body of research focusing on general or life resilience, there has been little research into the issue of academic resilience. This paper utilises the Student Motivation Wheel (Martin, 2003a, 2003b) as a basis for conceptualising academic resilience and the Student Motivation Scale (SMS - Martin, 2001, 2002) as a basis for measuring it. The study found that academic resilience comprises self-belief (confidence), a sense of control, low anxiety (composure), and persistence (commitment) as assessed through administration of the SMS (that measures each of these four dimensions) to 400 Australian high school students. Implications for pedagogy are discussed.

MAR03801  ®  [Paper]
PhD students' evaluations of research supervision: Issues, complexities and challenges in a nationwide Australian experiment in benchmarking universities

Herbert Marsh and Andrew Martin, University of Western Sydney, and Kenneth Rowe, Australian Council of Educational Research

Two versions of the Postgraduate Research Experience Questionnaires (PREQ), a multidimensional measure of PhD and research Masters students' evaluation of the quality of research supervision, were administered to recent graduates (n=1832) from 29 Australian and 3 New Zealand Universities. At the level of the individual student, responses had reasonable psychometric properties. Consistent with a potential use of these instruments to benchmark the quality of supervision across all Australian universities, the present study evaluates the extent to which responses reliably differentiate between universities, academic disciplines, and disciplines within universities. Based on fitting two-level (individual student, university) and three-level (individual student, discipline, university) multilevel models to the data, the responses failed to differentiate among universities, or among disciplines within universities (although there were small discipline differences across universities). The results demonstrate that responses that are adequately reliable at one level (individual student) may have little or no reliability at another level (university). We conclude that PREQ responses should not be used to benchmark Australian universities or disciplines within universities. Furthermore, we argue that PREQ responses, as presently formulated, are unlikely to be useful for most other conceivable purposes.

The RADFORD LECTURE

About the Radford Lecture.

MAR03831  [Paper]
Markets in Higher Education: The next generation?

Simon Marginson, Monash University

In the last two decades, market and quasi-market forms of education have spread throughout the English-speaking world, and much of the rest of the globe as well. There has been an apparently unbreakable policy commitment to market reform, particularly in the international agencies and in national economic ministries such as Treasury, despite the evident unpopularity of market reforms and the absence of proofs that marketisation generates better outcomes. In higher education, market reform has been the only policy game in town: it has seemed impossible to focus government attention on other agendas. Education markets are not conventional economic markets, and have several particular features. These derive from the positional character of education, the simultaneous development of national and global markets in education, the role of governments in constructing these markets, and the continued power of equity, social inclusion and other non-economic goals. The paper analyses the market in Australian higher education, while also locating domestic competition and system differentiation in the context of the global market. It explores contradictions within, between and around those higher education markets, reflecting on the capacities and potentials of education in a market area

MAT03277  [Paper]
Reconceptualising educational engagements between museums and schools

Donna Mathewson and Penny McKeon, University of New South Wales

The author's analysis of recent research exposes a disjunction between the school-based pedagogical role of secondary school-based educators and their educational engagements with museums, that has yet to be adequately explored. In seeking explanation, this paper presents a theoretical framework that interrogates the characteristic practices of school-based educators in relation to museums to expose how concealed and misrecognised relations of domination operate to undermine the authentic representation and engagement of school-based perspectives in the museum setting. On the basis of this analysis the author presents a model for engagement with museums embracing the notion of a critical museum pedagogy that, in challenging perceptions of certainty and inevitability and allowing for the active negotiation of meanings, aims to undermine processes of domination. The model constitutes an alternative framework that draws on research emanating from the museum and school-based fields, and the particular field of art education and utilizes the social theories of Pierre Bourdieu.

MAW003099  [Paper]
Breaking new ground: implementing a cross-centre combined assessment task

Brent Mawson Principal Lecturer, Centre for Technology Education Auckland College of Education

This paper documents the experience of staff in a College of Education as they developed and implemented a cross-centre assessment task. Themes arising from the experience are identified and implications for similar collaborative efforts discussed.

MAX03425  [Paper]
Disaggregating Rural Education in NSW: Methodological and Ethical Issues in Making Public Data Public Knowledge

T W Maxwell, Greg Burnett (UNE), Matti Novak (CSU) and Cathryn McConaghy

This paper is part of a larger project in which we are interested in producing forms of system-based and other government agency data as abasis for understanding the phenomena associated with the gaining, training and retaining teachers in rural and remote NSW - the ARC Linkage project entitled the "Rural [Teacher] Education project (R[T]EP)". Our position is that more than inducements need to be identified to attract teachers to the bush and keep them there. In this paper we consider the issues associated with what data are most useful and how these data might be presented in responding to our research questions. Technical issues are discussed. In the paper we present examples of processes and protocols to obtain access to educational and sociological data and suggest ways they might be utilised to more ably equip teachers for life and work in rural NSW schools and their communities. The issues of public data and public knowledge emerge as generate ideas for our analysis.

MAY03367  [Paper]
Some Factors associated with high and low achievement in PISA

Authors: Steven May, Fiona Sturrock, Shane Martin, Maree Telford.Ministry of Education

This presentation examined data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to identify characteristics that differentiate high and low performing students within specific subgroups. Students from low socio-economic families or from Maori or Pasifika backgrounds are often considered to be more at risk of lower achievement.

However within each of these groups there is a wide range of performance with many students achieving very high levels of reading as measured by PISA. The analysis presented here attempts to look beyond ethnicity or level of income as explanations of low achievement by exploring factors that underlie the diversity evident within sub-groups of students. The focus is on those factors that may be amenable to intervention by parents or teaching practitioners. These may relate to student attitudes or behaviours, to teaching practice or to other environmental characteristics.

This presentation was based on work in progress. A report is expected in the first half of 2004 and will be available from the Ministry of Education website when ready.

MCC03224  ®  [Paper]
Using mentored learning to support pre-service teachers in child protection

Faye McCallum, University of South Australia

The issues and problems associated within a specific context where pre-service teachers were found to be ill prepared to fulfil part of their teaching responsibilities is explored. The issues arose out of a review of Mandatory Notification Training, which aims to prepare mandated notifiers to report incidences of suspected child abuse and neglect to Child Protective Services. The review highlighted factors that inhibited pre-service teachers to fulfil the legal mandate. These focussed on conceptual understanding of content, and connections between learning and personal experiences. It was found that the training was based on assumptions about knowledge, learning, and teaching that differed from the assumptions underlying prevailing practice. This raises the following questions: Are the assumptions of existing training actually consistent with identifying and reporting practices? What content and processes of preparing pre-service teachers to report are necessary to move them towards confident practice? Mentored learning was adopted as a strategy that explored and tested these assumptions. An evaluation of pre-service teachers' knowledge, understanding and confidence to report suspected child abuse and neglect prior to graduation indicated that this approach enabled them to acquire more effective skills and familiarity with the mandated role.

MCC03306  [Paper]
InSide/OutSide Cultural Hybridity: Greenstone as Narrative Provocateur

Tess Moeke-Maxwell (PhD), Ngati Pukeko. Ngai Tai (Umupuia), Aotearoa/New Zealand

This paper is a revised chapter located in my PhD thesis 'Bringing Home The Body: Bi/multi Racial Maori Women's Hybridity in Aotearoa/New Zealand (2003). An earlier version of this paper is to be published as a chapter in Provocations: On Sylvia Ashton-Warner and Excitability in Education. Editors: Cathryn McConaghy (University of New England) and Judith P. Robertson (University of Ottawa).

MCC03148  [Paper]
"I my own professor": Ashton-Warner writes theory, 19401960-

Professor Sue Middleton, Dept of Policy, Culture & Social Studies in Education (PCCSiE)' Tari mö ngS Kaupapa, Tikanga me te MStauranga Noho HSpori.' School of Education, University of Waikato

MCD03044  [Paper]
How Policy About Entry To Secondary Education Turned into a Dispute About Female Brains

Geraldine McDonald, Wellington College of Education, New Zealand

One of the dilemmas in educational policy is how to reconcile individual rights with social demands and ease of administration. In 1978 the Hong Kong Department of Education introduced a competitive secondary school allocation procedure (SSPA) based on Internal Assessment (IA) in primary schools. It was designed to match pupils to appropriate secondary schools. Every year the girls performed better than the boys. At first the Education Department solved this "problem" by taking marks away from the girls and subsequently by employing separate gender ranking, gender banding, and gender quotas for co-educational schools. In 1995 a Sex Discrimination Ordinance was passed and an Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) set up. Complaints from girls soon came to the EOC and the department's policy was judged by judicial review. Documents presented in court will be used to illustrate the arguments about gender and cognition.

MCD03262  [Paper]
Evidence-informed education policy advice - the role of research in a national review

Author: E. McDonald, Department of Education, Science and Training

Governments take an interest in the impact of educational research as is evidenced by the research commissioned by them to answer this question. Different contentions appear in the literature and in the commentary of influential policy actors about the 'value' of educational research. At the same time in the discourse around professions and policy making 'evidence-based' is a descriptor that has gained some prominence, whether as a wish, intent, or a claim to legitimacy. A recent national review, The National Review of Nursing Education, commissioned a body of research and a number of literature reviews to inform its advice to Government. The review provides some insight into the role research can play in the development of advice about policy, the limitations imposed by the lack of available research and the breadth of research that is required to ensure the advice is indeed informed by evidence. This paper examines these three issues and in doing so demonstrates the interconnection between 'educational' research and research into 'practice' in the context of professional education.

MCD03504  [Paper]
Exploring possibilities through critical race theory: Exemplary pedagogical practices for Indigenous students

Helen McDonald, James Cook University

This paper draws from a research project designed to investigate exemplary pedagogical practices for Indigenous students in a secondary school in northern Australia. In the paper, I examine the contribution that critical race theory (Ladson-Billings, 1998, 1999, 2000) can make to understandings of the experiences of Indigenous students in Australian schools, which continue to be a site of both struggle and possibility for Indigenous people. Recent government reports (Department of Education Science and Training, 2002 Yunupingu, 1995) have concluded that there have been considerable improvements in the educational status of Indigenous Australians since the introduction of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy (Department of Employment Education and Training, 1989). However, inequities remain. These inequities are clearly evident in the area of secondary education where, for example, in 2001 the national retention rates to Year 12 for Indigenous students who were in Year 10 in 1999 was 43.6% compared to 76.2% for non-Indigenous students (Department of Education Science and Training, 2002). This failure of Australian schools to provide Indigenous students with outcomes at the same levels as their non-indigenous counterparts provides a ongoing challenge to the legitimacy of Australian educational systems and their assumptions and an ongoing challenge to educational researchers committed to social justice.

MCI03765  ®  [Paper]
What Indigenous students think about school and is it any different from the Anglos?

Dennis McInerney, University of Western Sydney

Survey research was conducted with indigenous (Aboriginal N = 271, and Navajo N = 866) and non-indigenous students (Australian Anglos N = 729) to investigate their attitudes towards school and future education, their thoughts about school motivation, and their perceived reasons for the success or failure of students within school settings. The survey instrument consisted of open-ended items that supplied a frame of reference for respondents' answers, but put a minimum of constraint on the answers and their expression. Among the questions asked were ones specifically designed to elicit information concerning the perceived difficulties students had in continuing schooling. These data were content analysed to discover key themes, and frequency counts of the most salient themes were made. This paper reports on the results of this study and compares the responses of indigenous and non-indigenous students.

MCI03767  [Paper]
Multiculturalism in Today's Schools: Have Teachers' Attitudes Changed Over Two Decades?

Valentina McInerney ,University of Western Sydney, Bankstown

A key element of effective multiculturalism in schools is anti-racist attitude development through intercultural understanding. Multicultural and anti-racist programs and resources are provided by governments to schools to assist in ensuring that all students and staff can learn and work in an environment characterised by positive attitudes and intercultural understanding. A total of 345 teachers and administrators at 10 schools (6 secondary and 4 primary), of varying cultural diversity in New South Wales, completed an open-ended survey examining beliefs about, and attitudes towards, multiculturalism within schools. These findings were compared with those collected over twenty years ago, when the first government policy on multicultural education was mandated in NSW schools.

MCK03100  ®  [Paper]
Planning an experimental methodology for measuring cognitive performance: Involving spatial relations and logical reasoning

Elspeth McKay, RMIT Business School of Business Information Technology

This paper describes a comprehensive experiment which spanned four years, with a total of 280 volunteer students participating. To complete the work a novel, interdisciplinary, conceptual framework was implemented comprising: instructional science (for the concept learning models), cognitive psychology (for defining the cognitive style construct), and educational research (to provide the measurement tools for the instructional outcomes). In order to do this, the methodology contained the following elements: a procedure to determine participant's cognitive style, testing instrumentation, which included: a pre-test to evaluate prior domain knowledge, and a post-test to measure improved performance; a cognitive performance measurement tool, capable of accurately positioning participant performance relative to each other, and a test analysis tool to articulate the significance of the findings. The overarching goal of the research was to evaluate the contextual components of instructional strategies, for the acquisition of complex programming concepts. Therefore, a clear definition of the parameters of each research variable was required to determine whether the instructional conditions had an effect on the cognitive performance outcomes. The key research parameters used included: the method (learning content, instructional conditions, presentation mode, learner characteristics), the measurable learning outcomes (the interaction of instructional method and cognitive style construct). Overall, there were two exploratory studies and a final experiment conducted. Each of the experiments consisted of four stages: cognitive style screening test, pretest to determine prior domain knowledge, instruction period, post-test. The Cognitive Style Construct provided the 2-ways of describing an individual's approach to organizing and representing information (Riding and Cheema, 1991): Wholist-Analytic (the individual's mode of processing information, Verbal-Imagery (the representation of information during thinking). This cognitive style construct proved to be a useful cognitive modelling tool. Richard Riding's Cognitive Styles Analysis (a computerized program), was used as the screening test.

MCL03296  [Paper]
On Track Toward Inclusive Education

Michelle Aniftos, University of Southern Queensland, Linda McLuskie, Central Queensland University

Research findings from across the globe indicate that schools and teachers are struggling to respond to the wide array of students (Wills & Cain, 2002). Proponents of inclusivity argue that inclusive education is a better education for all participants in schooling and that "differences can be a resource for community development" (Frank, 1999). At the school level, inclusive education seeks to address the learning needs of all with "a specific focus on those who are vulnerable to marginalisation and exclusion" (UNESCO, 1994). UNESCO promotes inclusive school communities as the most effective way of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all.

While teacher education programs engage participants in knowledge construction and for classroom teaching and learning, it is essential that teacher training institutions provide relevant opportunities for preservice teachers to develop personal philosophies that promote classroom environments that are supportive of participation and achievement for all learners.

Although much has been written about integration, the construct of inclusive curriculum in Australia is still an emergent topic in need of much research and discourse. The current paper represents the collaborative thoughts of lecturers in two Queensland universities as they prepare to re -examine their inclusive education courses. Such shared dialogue may serve to engage others in the critical reflection that is needed to progress educators on the track toward the philosophical and practical ideals of a socially just education.

This discussion paper commences with a consideration of legislative and policy mandates for inclusion in the context of teacher education in Queensland, Australia.

Secondly, the paper attempts to reconcile the broad and somewhat disparate interpretations of inclusivity and diversity in the context of schooling. Finally, we shift the focus from inclusive education as a product to inclusive education as processes of attitudinal change and development of collaborative learning communities. With a focus on learner-centredness, Queensland schools are leading innovative improvement processes toward inclusion. Critically informed teachers are central to those processes.

MCL03616  [Paper]
Shaping the self through psychotherapeutic means: Gender and crossgenerational perspectives-

Julie McLeod and Katie Wright, Deakin University

This paper explores psychotherapeutic themes and modes of thought emerging in interviews with mothers and daughters participating in a cross-generational study of young women 'on the margins'. The focus of the discussion is two-fold. First it discusses current theoretical debates concerning the ascendancy of psychotherapeutic modes of constituting the self, and argues that we require closer attention to the gendered and differentiated ways in which these are registered and articulated. Second, it considers the significance of 'happiness' and the ways in which pairs of mothers and daughters draw upon a repertoire of psychotherapeutic discourses to represent their relation to schooling, self, family, and work. It concludes with some speculative observations about the significance of attending to the psychotherapeutic turn for understanding contemporary femininity, the desire for openness as a measure of a good relationship (and of democracy), and contemporary aspirations of happiness.

MCM03411  [Paper]
He Rangahau ki tS Te Huarahi MSori Rangahau Kaupapa MSori:
Reflections on Research Methodologies for MSori Contexts

Ripeka Martin, Te Whanau S Apanui Colleen McMurchy-Pilkington, Ngati Pikiao, Ngati Rongomai Tauwehe Tamati, Tuwharetoa, Tuhoe, Waikato, Maniapoto Noki Martin, Ngati Kuri, Tuhoe Hemi Dale Te Uri o Tai, Te Rarawa

In this paper a group of MSori discuss their research journey beginning from novice researchers in a Western paradigm through to discoveries of emerging Kaupapa MSori paradigms. The context for their journey is their teaching and research with their MSori students in teacher education . The researchers share their process of data analysis whereby 'outside experts' and 'authorities' were called upon to verify and comment upon the validity of their data interpretation (Smith, 1999). Utilising Fanon's (1990) three levels of becoming 'native intellectuals' as a framework, the researchers discuss their shift in moving from hegemonic spaces and their progress in a journey 'back over the line.'

MCW03291  [Paper]
Safety in Numbers? Teacher Collegiality in the Riskconscious School-

Erica McWilliam and Parlo Singh

Teacher collegiality comes with the friendliest of epithets. This is the case despite the widely disseminated concerns of Andy Hargreaves (1994) about the pernicious effects of what he calls "contrived collegiality", and the warnings of Milbury McLaughlin (1993) that more apparent collegiality does not automatically translate into more effective teaching practice. The driving logic of contemporary discussions of teacher culture, in general, still appears to be that teacher collegiality is an essential ingredient of any school that claims to be an "emotionally healthy workplace" (Jarzabkowski, 2001: 4). It is, ipso facto, a good thing. In this paper, we cautiously attempt to write against the grain of this prevailing moral-ethical tale about teacher collegiality, at the same time working to undo the binary formulation of 'positive' as distinct from 'negative'collegiality, of the sort that Andy Hargreaves finds useful.

MEA03349  ®  [Paper]
changing their answers?

Tamsin Meaney Kathryn C. Irwin University of Otago University of Auckland New Zealand New Zealand

Students are asked questions to show teachers and other stakeholders both what they know and what they do not know. In mathematics, the terms that they use and the way in which they phrase their answers are an indication of their increasing understanding of the topic. This is reflected in the Mathematics Curriculum that accepts everyday language for lower levels and expects mathematical language for higher levels. This paper reports on how different questions resulted in differences in whether or not students used everyday or mathematical terms in talking about the activity they were undertaking. The students whose responses are discussed in this paper were part of the National Educational Monitoring Project's assessment of mathematics in 1997. Analysis includes differences between responses of Year 4 and Year 8 students, between students from upper and lower decile schools and between boys and girls.

MER03374  [Paper]
Diversity discourses / diversity experiences:
Teaching for and with cultural diversity

Jennifer M Merton, Faculty of Education, Deakin University, Melbourne

The contexts for 'cultural diversity education' usually reported in the research literature typically involve white middleclass people being prepared for teaching in ethnically diverse classrooms. The emphasis is thus on 'diversity' 'out there' in the classroom, with little acknowledgement of what such diversity education might mean for trainee teachers who themselves either identify as or are classified as culturally diverse. This study examines intercultural interactions reported by ethnically and culturally diverse teacher education students. Their difficulties with making sense of these interactions are described as 'intercultural disjunctions', often affecting personal or professional identity. I ide ntify three dominant discourses in the research literature that attempt to describe such disjunctions and analyse these in relation to the participants' stories. I conclude by outlining some implications for teacher education.

MID03782  ®  [Paper]
Mental Toughness: Is the mental toughness test tough enough?

Cory Middleton, Herbert Marsh, Andrew Martin, Garry Richards, Jacqueline Savis, Clark Perry Jr, and Robert Brown, University of Western Sydney

This represents the first stage of "research in progress" into the construct definition and validation of the mental toughness construct. The study evaluated the construct validity of responses to Loehr's (1986) mental toughness test, the Psychological Performance Inventory (PPI), by 263 student-athletes from an elite sports high school. As confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) yielded poor model fit and an improper solution for the a priori model, exploratory factor analysis was carried out using all the original PPI items. Item deletion and exploration of three through to ten alternative factor structures yielded a five-factor model that fitted the data well. Whereas the alternative structure yielded a much better model fit than the original PPI structure, further analyses showed that a variety of key correlates of mental toughness were more strongly correlated with the factors based on the original structure than factors based on the alternative structure. In conclusion, neither the original PPI nor the subset of PPI items in the better-fitting alternative model were sound measures of mental toughness, indicating that a good fit is a necessary but not sufficient condition for construct validation. Good instrumentation must be strong in terms conceptual/theoretical considerations, psychometric properties, and relationships to key correlates hypothesised to be meaningfully related to it. Examining definition and validation of the mental toughness construct is the crucial next stage of this "research in progress."

MOO03761  ®  [Paper]
Teaching pre-service teachers Aboriginal Studies: What really works?

RhondaCraven and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney, and Janet Mooney, University of Sydney

The study was commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under its Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Programme (IESIP). The project goals were supported by the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Inc.; New South Wales Teachers Federation, New South Wales Primary Principals' Association; New South Wales Department of Education and Training (NSW DET); the national Aboriginal Studies Association; and the Australian Council of Deans of Education. This paper reports on the quantitative component of the study. The aims of this component of the study were to: a) critically evaluate the impact of mandatory Aboriginal Studies subjects on preservice primary teachers' perceived abilities to appreciate, understand and effectively teach Aboriginal Studies and Aboriginal students in Australian schools; b) identify key content being addressed in mandatory Aboriginal Studies subjects; and c) identify potential new strategic directions to strengthen the teaching of Aboriginal Studies in teacher education courses. Mandatory subjects impacted more positively in comparison to elective or perspectives courses on preservice teachers' knowledge of subject matter, Aboriginal Studies teaching self-concepts in a range of desirable self-concept facets, values in regards to teaching both Aboriginal Studies and Aboriginal students, preservice teachers' perceptions of the extent to which they intend to teach their future students Aboriginal Studies, and their perceived ability to implement departmental requirements. Preservice teachers who have undertaken mandatory subjects compared to preservice teachers who undertake perspectives courses, feel they are more capable of teaching Aboriginal students and Aboriginal Studies and furthermore are more likely to enjoy doing so. Given the consistency of these results across a diverse number of variables considered in this study, these results suggest that mandatory subjects can have a powerful positive effect on desirable educational outcomes. Preservice teachers participating in teacher education courses with a mandatory Aboriginal Studies subject were also more likely to be taught a diverse range of Aboriginal Studies content. In addition, preservice teachers also offered a number of useful suggestions in relation to possible content and modes of delivery that could strengthen future teacher education courses.

MOO03783  ®  [Paper]
Teaching the teachers Aboriginal Studies: Illuminating successful strategies

Janet Mooney, University of Sydney, Christine Halse and Rhonda Craven, University of Western Sydney

The study was commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under its Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Programme (IESIP). The project goals were supported by the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Inc.; New South Wales Teachers Federation, New South Wales Primary Principals' Association; New South Wales Department of Education and Training (NSW DET); the national Aboriginal Studies Association; and the Australian Council of Deans of Education. This paper reports on the qualitative component of the study (Craven, Halse, Marsh, Mooney & Wilson-Miller, in press a, in press b). The qualitative component of the project consists of in-depth interviews with Heads of Schools, Directors of Aboriginal Education Units and teacher educators and includes three Case Studies. Fifteen institutions in Australia offer Aboriginal Studies as a core, perspective or elective program in Primary Teacher Education Courses in Australia. Of these institutions seven institutions from four States responded to the invitation to participate in the study. From these institutions three were engage to submit a case study of their institution as they had demonstrated that they had successfully introduced core Aboriginal Studies teacher units in their course. This paper presents the findings and discusses teaching Aboriginal Studies, its inclusion in curriculum and its worth for fostering reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians within universities, schools and the wider community.

MOO03808  ®  [Paper]
Postgraduate teachers' commitment to teach Aboriginal Studies in Australian schools

Janet Mooney, University of Sydney, and Christine Halse and Rhonda Craven, University of Western Sydney

This study was commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under its Education Innovation Program (EIP). The project goals were supported by the NSW Teachers Federation, NSW Primary Principals' Association; NSW Department of Education and Training (NSW DET); NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Inc.; the Aboriginal Studies Association; and the Australian Council of Deans of Education. This paper presents the findings emanating from the qualitative component of the study. The qualitative component of this project followed and elaborated on the quantitative study which aimed to: a) critically evaluate the impact of preservice primary teacher education Aboriginal Studies courses on practising teachers' self-perceived abilities to appreciate, understand and effectively teach Aboriginal Studies, Aboriginal perspectives, and Aboriginal children in Australian schools; b) compare and contrast the self-perceptions of teachers who had undertaken a core or elective course in Aboriginal Studies in their initial teacher education course with the self-perceptions of teachers who had not undertaken such courses; c) characterise participating teachers' initial teacher education courses in relation to the Aboriginal Studies content covered; and d) identify teachers' perceptions of useful structure and content to consider including in future teacher education courses. The responses from telephone interviews with teachers in schools and responses to open-ended questions in surveys are discussed. The findings identify congruence and dissonance in the areas of: the contribution of preservice teacher education; benefits of preservice Aboriginal Studies for students in schools; the place of Aboriginal Studies in schools and the curriculum; Aboriginal Studies and student ethnicity; strategies for teaching Aboriginal Studies; and the content of preservice courses.

MOR03097  [Paper]
What do teachers gain from pre-service research?

Wally Moroz, Edith Cowan University

Are there personal and professional benefits for teacher education students engaging in pre-service research?

Three Edith Cowan University graduates describe the outcomes of the research they undertook for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Education (Honours) in 1999.

Each studied the attitudes of young adolescent learners to the teaching of social studies (now known as 'Society and Environment', or 'S & E') in a Western Australian secondary school.

Their research showed that, in general, the learners were unhappy with both the content and the teaching and learning strategies and did not engage in the learning process as effectively as they could have done. It emphasised the need for teachers of S & E to review what they were teaching and how.

While somewhat depressing, these findings could have led to the beginnings of an improvement process if the young teachers had been able to apply what they had learned to their own classroom teaching and to disseminate their findings among their school colleagues.

For the most part, while the teachers who undertook the research achieved significant personal and professional gains, there was little effect on their colleagues.

MOR03113  [Paper]
Local area education planning and the reform of secondary education in Western Australia

Rose Moroz, Department of Education & Training, Western Australia

The Department of Education and Training in Western Australia has developed a Local Area Education Planning Process involving groups of schools and the wider community. The purpose of the process is to plan for improved provision of education across the years of schooling from Kindergarten to Year 12.

The established criteria determine improved access to a better range of curriculum choices, specialist programs and quality facilities. Strong partnerships with Universities, the business community and the Training Sector are evolving as communities seek to provide flexible pathways to enable students to move confidently into the changing world of the twenty-first century. Innovative, sustainable, and flexible programs that are unique to each local area have developed across the State.

This paper focuses on the challenges of providing secondary education across a vast area and the creative models that have emerged from this process are discussed.

MUN03451  [Paper]
Insiders' voices: Self-assessment and student engagement

Helen Woodward and Geoff Munns, University of Western Sydney

In this paper we consider the importance of student self-assessment in classrooms where teachers are working towards real, powerful and enduring levels of student engagement. Here student engagement is defined and characterised by students becoming fully involved as 'insiders' in the learning culture of their classrooms. How to recognise this level of engagement and bringing the students into the 'insider' culture needs careful consideration. The paper draws on current research in the Fair Go Project. This research in a Priority Schools Funding Program (PSFP) school is investigating ways that teachers can support students in processes of reflection and evaluation of their own learning. This support is concentrating on self-assessment probes that bring together affective and cognitive reflections in a process of increasing intellectual challenges. The suggestion here is that student engagement is most likely to be found when there are high levels of both feeling and thinking. Student self-assessment is recognised world wide as an interesting and vital way for children to learn. Through self-assessment they can more fully understand both the content and processes of their learning. As well, a focus on student self-assessment can provide a powerful impetus on important changes to the learning culture of classrooms. While it is well documented that self-assessment is beneficial to both the students and the teachers (Bryant & Timmins, 2003; Hart, 1999; Black & William 1998), not a lot has been done that takes self-assessment beyond reflection on what was learnt and what was liked to a higher level of intellectual quality and student engagement. As a response to this need the research reported in this paper has developed a multi-dimensional reflective framework to promote deeper student reflections about learning and critical changes to teachers' pedagogies.

MUN03798  ®  [Paper]
"Because I stayed": Australian Indigenous secondary school students who remain at high school

Geoff Munns and Adrian Parente, University of Western Sydney

This paper is based on the recognition that there is much to learn about the successful paths that some Indigenous students are negotiating through school and into further studies and the workplace. It reports into qualitative research with a number of Indigenous students in both urban and rural settings. The students, in the post-compulsory years of secondary school, were identified by their schools as likely to complete their schooling. In taking up a focus on those remaining at school, the paper offers a different perspective from the large body of research into resistant and disengaged Indigenous students (see, for example Malin, 1990, Keefe, 1993, Munns, 1996, Munns & McFadden, 2000). While this previous research has told us much about the reasons leading to Indigenous students leaving school, it has offered few insights into why some remain at school and try to win the educational battle that has defeated many in their communities. This paper takes up the challenge of listening to and learning from a particular group of successful students and so bringing forward important insights into how more students from Indigenous backgrounds might become engaged with school and education.

N

NAS03501  ®  [Paper]
Developing primary students' group metacognitive processes in a >computer supported collaborative learning environment

Christina Chalmers and Rod Nason, Queensland University of Technology

This study investigated the development of group metacognition by three small groups of middle-grade primary school students engaged in the collaborative construction of computer-based mathematical models. The three groups of students were part of a cohort of 30 Grade 4-5 students engaged in the construction of mathematical models within the context of a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. These three groups were chosen for the group metacognition study because they were seriously malfunctioning; little co-operation was evident and most of their time was spent on non-productive conflict. During the six week period of the study, the three groups were provided with sets of metacognitive scaffolds and strategies to facilitate group metacognition. The design of the metacognitive scaffolds and strategies was informed by a conceptual framework that was derived from the literature in the fields of metacognition, cooperative learning, cooperative group metacognition, and computer-supported collaborative learning. The study found that providing the students with metacognitive scaffolds and strategies resulted in positive changes in the students' cooperative work and increased levels of knowledge-building activity. The students formed a 'collective cognitive responsibility' for their group work and developed an understanding of how to contribute effectively to the knowledge-building progress of the group.

NEI03599  ®  [Paper]
Year 12 student as leaders: An inclusive approach

Helga Neidhart and Shane Lavery, Australian Catholic University

The focus of this research was Year 12 student leadership in three Catholic schools. Pivotal to the study were the leadership experiences and self-perceptions of the schools' Year 12 students. Two theoretical propositions underscored the enquiry: all year 12 students are called to some form of leadership within their school; and schools should strive to build a leadership culture inclusive of all Year 12 students. For each of the three case study schools, data collection took the form of a document search, an interview with a key informant staff member, a Year 12 student survey questionnaire using both qualitative and quantitative questions, and two Year 12 student focus group interviews. Findings indicated a strong belief among senior students from all the schools that every Year 12 student should have the opportunity to participate in leadership. Furthermore, students saw leadership as entailing duty, a sense of service, and involvement with younger students. Students also highlighted a range of benefits associated with leadership participation, as well as certain pressures, notably the need to balance study commitments with leadership responsibilities, and the demands of having to be a role model 'all the time'.

NEV03672  [Paper]
Like I wasn't there, I didn't exist': The invisible students in New Zealand today

Mollie Neville -Tisdall, Massey University (Albany); Ann Milne, Principal, Clover Park Middle School

NG03121  [Paper]
Re-conceptualizing achievement goals from a cultural perspective

Chi-hung Ng, Open University Hong Kong

Past studies on achievement goals showed that mastery and performance goals would have distinguished effects on both learning processes and outcomes. Recent studies in the field have begun to explore these goals within different learning contexts. One important contextual consideration is how cultural influences affect the operation of achievement goals. While achievement goals can still be considered as individual's cognitive purposes for learning and achievement, these cognitions within a specific cultural context are exposed continually to the impact of different cultural values, beliefs and practices. This paper argues that achievement goals can be recast as a cultural construction solidified after internalization of cultural values at the individual level. To forge a cultural re-configuration of achievement goals and their effects, I first reviewed research on achievement goals among Asian students, mainly from different Chinese societies, highlighting some notable cultural differences in findings. I then proposed a model showing how both mastery goals and different forms of performance goals interact within a complex goal network among Chinese students. It is argued that achievement goals not only provide these students with a personal sense of purposes for learning, they also help them adjust effectively to sociocultural norms or demands related to learning and achievement.

NGO03582  [Paper]
Investigating the classroom practices of secondary mathematics teachers in the township schools of South Africa

Mapula G. Ngoepe, University of South Africa, and David Treagust, Curtin University of Technology

This paper examines the practices of mathematics teaching in three township secondary schools by conducting a detailed investigation of lessons of eight teachers. The Secondary Teaching Analysis Matrix- Mathematics (STAM- Mathematics) was used to categorize teachers' classroom practices along a three pronged continuum, namely didactic, transitional and conceptual teaching for the purpose of determining the status of teaching mathematics in secondary schools about the content, the teaching, the assessment practices, the interactions between the teacher and the student and the resources availability. The study provided research-based evidence for appropriate intervention to improve mathematics teaching and learning from didactic to conceptual teaching as prioritized by the Department of Education since the inception of the democratic government in South Africa in 1994.

NGU03217  [Paper]
Measuring Attitudes of Vietnamese Parents and Students to Schooling

Nguyen Thi Kim Cuc and Patrick Griffin, Assessment Research Centre, Faculty of Education The University of Melbourne

The attitudes of parents and students towards schooling are often considered to be important factors associated with students' educational outcomes. To evaluate the extent to which attitudes influenced students' outcomes, it was important to have appropriate measures of attitudes. Up to date in Vietnam, parents and students' attitudes have generally been assessed by one item asking how they felt about school. This paper presents the process of constructing and calibrating two scales to measure the attitudes of students and parents, and then linking these two scales to compare the two groups. Previous research in Vietnam supported the proposition that development and opportunity were important aspects that parents and young people valued and expected from education.

Therefore, to measure attitudes to schooling, a set of items which covered both development and opportunity aspects of education was designed. After the items were trialled, a final version of the 13 items was compiled. The two scales were shown to have logical, face, content and construct validity. Parents and students surveyed can be grouped into five levels of attitudes: "negative", "development", "strong belief in development", "opportunities" and "positive".

The proportions of parents and students included in each level were different, but these differences were minor. The similarity in response to each item added weight to the argument that the two constructed scales were valid.

NIC03181  [Paper]
Competent / Not yet competent: What does this mean in a manual handling training program?

Kathryn Nicholson and Shelley Gillis, The University of Melbourne

Competency based training underpins vocational education and training in Australia. With the release of the Health Industry Training Package in 2002 the nebulous requirement to 'work in a safe manner' and been replaced by a number of units of competence against which students are required to be assessed. This paper explores the appropriateness of using a standards referencing framework to define levels of competence in manual handling training. This framework is a form of criterion referencing where levels of performance are defined along a continuum of increasing competence (e.g. novice to expert) and used for interpretive purposes to infer a competency decision. The paper compares the Australian Qualification Framework levels with the standard referenced framework for a construct of competency. It develops an assessment and reporting procedure to show how task components are identified, specified and scored. The procedure allows assessment designers to simultaneously satisfy the demands of the training package for a competency decision but also allows the assessor (and the assessee) to recognise quality in the performance. The implications of this approach in relation to the principles of assessment and the integration of this preliminary work into a larger research project are discussed.

NIC03186  [Paper]
Cultivating "The Seventh Sense" - metacognitive strategising in a New Zealand secondary classroom

Helen Nicholls New Zealand

NOB03242  [Paper]
GRADUATE PROGRAMS FOR STUDENTS WORKING IN THE ECEC SECTOR

Karen Noble, School of Human Services, Griffith University

The preparation of graduates to work effectively in the early childhood education and care sector is of particular relevance in times of dramatic policy reform (Griffith University, 2001). Graduates entering the workforce can find themselves working in contexts of which they have limited experience. As such, preparatory university programs of study need to reflect these changes and ensure that degree programs that are offered do indeed meet the ever-changing needs of the students that enrol, providing them with the necessary knowledge and skills that are transferable across this broad community sector. This paper attempts to highlight the ways in which degree courses may be structured, so as to better meet the diverse needs of students who aim to work with young children and their families.

NOR03084  [Paper]
An intruder in my own world: Critical reflective methodology

Beverley Norsworthy, Lecturer Bethlehem Institute of Education, Tauranga NEW ZEALAND

This paper maps my journey as a developing researcher in teacher education. Setting out to study student teachers' professional development with particular attention on the role of reflection and active learning, I found myself an intruder in my own world, embarking on an intrepid journey which would challenge and change my understanding of both research methodology and my own practice. The research became personal professional development.

At the beginning of this journey my expectations of research methodology were of a linear approach -clean, predictable and sequential. However what was discovered was a dynamic, complex and apparently unpredictable reality. A search for authenticity required a methodology that would overcome the barriers my expectations of a linear framework presented.

A critical interpretive 'interactional dynamic' between experience, enquiry and examination led to an increased awareness of the powerful influences of past learning and beliefs, combining to make a study where the methodology modelled reflective practice and led to the researcher's professional growth.

The developing methodological framework allowed the building of integrity and authenticity because of a greater degree of alignment between subject and method which in turn allowed the symbiotic relationship between these two to emerge.

O

OAT03595  [Paper]
Bastards of the Bush: Towards an Indigenous Australian Research Methodology

William Oates, Central Queensland University

Australian identity is shaped by a 'bastard complex' supported by foundation events/myths in the early colonial period and reinvented by each generation. Occupancy of the land and the sense of 'belonging' to place is still a sensitive issue as Aboriginal people did not die off as expected. Australians continue to have an obsession with 'legitimacy'. Over the last twenty five years Aboriginal involvement in higher education as staff members has significantly increased. Are we showing signs of a similar 'bastard complex'? The sense of illegitimacy experienced in university life can be acute for an Aboriginal. Are Aboriginal researchers the bastard children of colonisation? Is there a place for Aboriginal research beyond being Aborigines who research? The paper calls for both Aboriginal and non-Aborigines who see themselves as 'Indigenous to place' to move towards an Indigenous Australian research methodology. A way forward is suggested.

OBR03295  [Paper]
Professional development in nonaversive intervention strategies: Bridging the divide between the academic institution and the workplace

Patricia O'Brien, Margaret McLean & Deborah Espiner, Auckland College of Education

This paper describes a programme designed to teach the principles of nonaversive behavioural intervention to course members undertaking a degree programme within a tertiary institution. The students who were also in full time employment were invited to bring a colleague from their workplace to participate in a professional development programme. Course members worked in both human service and educational settings. As a "seeding pair", the student and colleague returned to their workplace to set up a team to implement a behavioural intervention for a focus person who displayed challenging behaviour. Post intervention interview data were collected from students and colleagues as well as from third party participants independent of the implementation of the intervention. Where appropriate, interview responses were verified through document analysis. The findings indicated that staff had adopted a new approach to behavioural intervention, which was built on an understanding of the function of the person's behaviour. Staff engaged more positively with the focus person and co-operated more with their colleagues as a result of adopting a more committed team approach. For the focus person, it was considered that his/her quality of life had been enhanced through the intervention, which reflected both the increased knowledge and changed practices of staff. Both survey and case study findings reported demonstrate the value of the student and the colleague working together to gain a shared understanding of what constituted nonaversive-intervention prior to its field based implementation.

OER03502  ®  [Paper]
Student dilemmas - responses to systemic policy change at the grassroots

Karin Oerlemans and Lesley Vidovich, University of Western Australia

This paper reports the findings of a study of students' perceptions of top-down educational change initiated by government policy. Much educational change involves shifts in power and responsibilities between the different actors, such as governments, school administrators, teachers, parents, the community and students. Despite this widespread interest in educational change it is usually the macro level policy elite who exert the most influence, using their power, privelege and status in order to propogate particular versions of schooling, and students continue to be the 'objects' of policy initiatives, submerged in what Freire referred to as a 'culture of silence'. Students are most often excluded as participants in both the process and decision making phases of change, although they may be influential, especially when it comes to protecting the status quo. The research involved in-depth case studies of three schools undergoing educational change as the result of the implementation of multiple, macro level policies in the state of Western Australia. Data collection methods for this study included focus group and semi-structured interviews with students in the school. The analysis concludes by raising questions about 'In whose interests?' the changes are promulgated and the implications for viewing students as participants in change.

OKA03098  [Paper]
Becoming an adult, and negotiating class-gender-ethnic identity in Japan: The 10 years since leaving school

Kaori Okano, School of Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

OMA03786  ®  [Paper]
Evaluating self-concept interventions from a multidimensional perspective: A meta-analysis

Alison O'Mara, Rhonda Craven, and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

Through a comprehensive meta-analysis, self-concept interventions that specifically target self-concept and evaluate self-concept domains relevant to the intervention were found to be more effective than interventions that do not. These findings integrate notions of domain specificity, multidimensionality, and construct validity that have not been fully incorporated into self-concept intervention and practice. Building on previous self-concept (SC) and self-esteem (SE) meta-analyses by Hattie (1986) and particularly Haney and Durlak (1998), the present meta-analysis was based on a much larger and more recent database (154 studies, 200 interventions, and 544 effect sizes), and incorporated a multidimensional perspective. Other variables found to be predictors of intervention efficacy included: treatment administrator, theoretical basis of intervention, and methodological features (type of design and control group). It was further found that benefits did not dissipate over time, although only a small number of studies conducted follow-up testing.

ONG03274  [Paper]
Educational research - from post-/structural dilemmas to communicational trilemmas

Sigmund Ongstad, Faculty of Education, Oslo University College

This theoretical paper tries to show, by relating the so-called Sokal-debate and communicational theory to educational research, that the opposition between structual and poststructural methods seems unfruitful. The either/or as well as the restricted both/and of the two is an unfruitful opposition, that can be, if not solved, so perhaps resolved by framing research in relation to communication, not to language. Thus moving from a Saussurean understanding of the sign as oppositions between signifiers and signifieds to a Bnhlerian understanding of signs as communicative, that is, as simultaneous shifts of expression, representation and appeal, research can be seen as positively trilemmatic. Such a view is hence risky, but perhaps more fruitful, as it admits that research as focusing will leave behind a blind spot. Research methodologies should therefore be accompanied a philosophical framework. Such a frame will not remove the risk of researching education discursively, but may help different approaches to recognise their partial compatability. The approach called discursive positioning is outlined briefly, related to a model of communication. The paper ends with questions for discussion.

ONG03276  [Paper]
Teacher Education between Aesthetics, Epistemology and Ethics - focusing Mother Tongue Education

Sigmund Ongstad

Ancient rhetorics tried to balance patos, logos and ethos. Classical and romantic education searched in the 18th and 19th century for beauty, truth and goodness. Pestalozzi pinpointed his pedagogy in the three metaphorical h'es heart, head and hand. However in the evermore differentiated curricula of the 20th century these basic triadic understandings got lost in increased specificity and complexity. Especially teacher education became fragmented and non-coherent by prioritising the restricted and shifting goals of school subjects facing modernity.

This theoretical paper argues that researchers in education should understand their 'object' and their research as communication. By departuring from the communicative utterance, communication can be seen as balancing syntax, semantics and pragmatics of discourse both in narrow (micro) and a broad sense (macro). This theoretical positioning can help teacher educators to trace how the educational goals of the school subjects and knowledge in general have to relate to and balance aesthetics, epistemology and ethics simultaneously. The paper exemplifies, by applying a framework based on theories of triadic communication (Bakhtin, 1986 and Habermas, 1984), how major curricular aspects and textbook ideologies for teacher education can be seen as educational and communicational trilemmas. In addition it is claimed that research methodologies have to take the implication of a triadic approach into consideration when validating.

OSB03488  [Paper]
Assessment and learning styles; mix and match or a mismatch?

Dr Monique Osborn & Ms Margaret Plunkett Faculty of Education Monash University Australia

049  ®  [Paper]
'The power of collegiality and collective thought' in effective schoolbased teacher learning-

Susanne Owen, University of South Australia

The school has increasingly become the focus for teacher professional development and school leaders are maximizing teacher learning through restructuring time and meeting structures to create additional opportunities for collegial work within the school day. This research paper is the second part of a three-stage research design investigating South Australian teachers' experiences of school-based professional development and how this relates to emerging teacher learning trends. This second stage of research focuses on professional development and professional growth, by interviewing fifteen staff in three enlightening cases schools to obtain greater detail about the implementation of quality teacher learning strategies. This paper reports some of the findings from the interviews concerning school-based professional development in relation to previous teacher learning research. Using case studies, key issues identified in this report include creating time, teams and the role of leadership, thereby highlighting the power of collegiality and collective thought in effective school-based Teacher Learning.

OWE03340  [Paper]
Gendered experiences in the drama classroom

Debbie Owens, Griffith University

This work-in-progress explores the effects of implementing a unit of study in a Senior Drama classroom and the responses of the students to the context and content of the unit. The unit of study focuses on drama constructs, images, imaginings and voices, examined through the lens of gender. This study is based on an assumption that the institutional practices of schools influence curriculum directions and student choices that in turn result in implicit subject gendering and explicit gendered student learning outcomes. The researcher is a teacher of Senior Drama and has had 25 years experience teaching both Drama and English. The research site is the campus of a boys' boarding/day school. The participants are Year 12 Senior Drama students in a shared - subject learning environment comprised of boys from the research site and girls from the nearby girls' boarding/day school who travel to the researcher's campus to attend Senior Drama.

OWE03049  [Paper]
'The Power Of Collegiality And Collective Thought' In Effective School-Based Teacher Learning

Susanne Owen, University Of South Australia

The school has increasingly become the focus for teacher professional development and school leaders are maximizing teacher learning through restructuring time and meeting structures to create additional opportunities for collegial work within the school day. This research paper is the second part of a three-stage research design investigating South Australian teachers' experiences of school-based professional development and how this relates to emerging teacher learning trends. This second stage of research focuses on professional development and professional growth, by interviewing fifteen staff in three enlightening cases schools to obtain greater detail about the implementation of quality teacher learning strategies. This paper reports some of the findings from the interviews concerning school-based professional development in relation to previous teacher learning research. Using case studies, key issues identified in this report include creating time, teams and the role of leadership, thereby highlighting the power of collegiality and collective thought in effective school-based Teacher Learning.

P

PAR03550  ®  [Paper]
Research at arm's length: the risks of doing research in remote locations.

Gary Partington Edith Cowan University

Conducting research in centres remote from home has many risks associated with it. In this paper, these risks are described in relation to the events that occurred while a research project was being undertaken. The project involved researching community perceptions and attitudes towards involvement in a school in a small town in a remote part of Western Australia. Distance, cultural differences, communication difficulties, lack of knowledge of the community and personnel problems were some of the risks that were evident. The paper provides advice on strategies to avoid the risks that remote management of research entails, and examines literature related to the topic.

PAR03581  ®  [Paper]
Receptivity of teachers to implementing new strategies for literacy teaching

Gary Partington, Edith Cowan University

The teaching strategies that work with Anglo-Australian children in urban settings are not appropriate for all children. Indigenous children, in particular, are less amenable to the kinds of instruction used with other children. As a result, Indigenous children are more likely to demonstrate lower levels of learning and less commitment to school than other children. In rural and remote areas, these features are particularly noticeable. While part of the explanation for the failure of the usual range of strategies lies with the social and cultural characteristics of the students - partic ularly when there are language differences - the inability to achieve change among teachers is a significant contributing factor. Adaptation of teaching strategies to the particular needs of Indigenous students is more likely to bring about change in student learning and retention than attempting to change the students' culture and social backgrounds.

In this paper, a project designed to improve literacy acquisition among Indigenous students with conductive hearing loss is described. The professional development program used with teachers to get them to implement the appropriate strategies is outlined and the continuing impediments to effective utilisation of the strategies are discussed.

PAR03757  ®  [Paper]
Multidimensional vs. Unidimensional perspectives of self-concepts in adolescent mental health

Herbert Marsh and Roberto Parada, University of Western Sydney, and Violaine Ayotte, Montreal Department of Public Health, Canada

In this study we demonstrate that the relations between self-concept and mental health are best understood from a multidimensional perspective. For a new French translation of the Self Description Questionnaire II (SDQII), confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a well-defined multidimensional factor structure of reliable, highly differentiated self-concept factors, supporting its cross-cultural validity. Consistent with a priori predictions, correlations between 11 SDQII and 7 mental health problems (Youth Self-Report, YSR) varied substantially (+.11 to -.83; mean r = -.35). Externalizing factors (delinquent, aggressive behaviors) were almost unrelated to physical, appearance, and peer self-concepts but were substantially related to parents and honesty self-concepts (-.46 to -.70); anxious/depressed and attention problems were substantially related to emotional stability self-concept (-.71, -.83). Relations among 11 SDQ factors could not be explained in terms of one higher-order SDQ factor, relations among 7 YSR factors could not be explained in terms of one higher-order YSR factor, and relations between the 11 SDQ and 7 YRS factors could not be explained in terms of two higher-order (SDQ & YSR) factors. This highly differentiated multivariate pattern of relations supports a multidimensional perspective of self-concept, not a unidimensional perspective that is still prevalent in mental health research and assessment.

PAR03762  ®  [Paper]
Unlocking Indigenous educational disadvantage: Indigenous community

Rhonda Craven and Adrian Parente, University of Western Sydney

The aims of this research project were to elucidate New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group's (AECG) members' perspectives of: a) the importance of undertaking self-concept research to address Aboriginal Education issues from an AECG perspective; b) the potential influence of self-concept on other desirable educational outcomes valued by Aboriginal community members; c) strategies that help/hinder the enhancement of Aboriginal students' self-concepts in schools; d) some areas of Aboriginal students' self-concept that are valued by Aboriginal community members; and e) some strategic research directions in relation to self-concept research. Focus group discussions were held with 18 AECG regional representatives, and 20 members of the AECG. Individual follow-up interviews were conducted with 11 AECG regional representatives deriving from 7 AECG regions and the State Secretariat. Focus group discussions and individual interviews were transcribed and content analysis undertaken by two coders to identify key themes and narratives illustrative of these themes. Results were scrutinized by the State Executive of the AECG who served as experts in checking the results. The results of this study were illuminating and offered insights on strategic directions for future research and strategies to enhance current educational practice. The results demonstrated that AECG members view the attainment of a positive self-concept as a vital goal and outcome of schooling. Self-concept research was also perceived as critically important for addressing the enduring educational and economic disadvantage Aboriginal students experience as a good self-concept was perceived by AECG members to be an important goal in of itself and to have a causal influence on other desirable educational outcomes valued by Aboriginal community members. AECG members also identified a number of strategies that could enhance and hinder the development of Aboriginal students' self-concepts in the schooling context along with some key facets of self-concept valued by Aboriginal community members. In particular AECG members emphasized a wealth of strategic research directions that attested to the significance and viability of a concerted self-concept Aboriginal Education research program.

PAR03763  ®  [Paper]
Disentangling Indigenous students' aspirations: A critical analysis elucidating dreams and realities

Rhonda Craven, Adrian Parente and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

This study was commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under its Education Innovation Program (EIP). This paper reports on aspects of the quantitative component of the study. The aims of this component of the study were to: a) identify Indigenous secondary school students' aspirations; b) elucidate the relation of key variables to Indigenous students' aspirations; c) identify Indigenous students' perceptions of the relevance of their current studies and of further education to achieve their aspirations; d) identify Indigenous students' preferences for further education in regard to vocational education and higher education; e) identify the key sources of and quality of career advice Indigenous students have received; f) elucidate Indigenous students' perceptions of any barriers they may face in attaining their aspirations; and g) compare and contrast the pattern of results for Indigenous students to results for non-Indigenous students. Indigenous and non-Indigenous secondary students from urban and rural regions completed a survey to ascertain students' self-perceptions pertaining to the study aims. A total of 1686 students (517 Indigenous and 1151 Non-Indigenous) from urban and rural regions from 3 Australian States participated in the quantitative component of the study. Significantly more Indigenous students, aspired to leaving school early and going to TAFE in comparison to non-Indigenous students. Indigenous students perceived TAFE to be more useful to helping them to achieve their aspirations compared to non-Indigenous students and were less likely to know much about what sort of job they would like to undertake or what sorts of further education and training they could undertake after they left school. Indigenous students were significantly more confident in being able to make a contribution to society and their community. Indigenous students value most school subjects as more useful in helping to achieve their schooling aspirations and entry into TAFE compared to non-Indigenous students, with the exception of English subjects which were equally valued. Family and friends were the most frequently consulted sources for career advice for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, however, the amount of advice Indigenous students reported receiving from most sources was very little with the exception of family where advice was sought often. Indigenous students identified a lack of family support as a key barrier to achieving their aspirations, followed by the amount of career advice they had been given, their knowledge of what further education or job training they needed to do, and their academic achievement. It is particularly disconcerting to note that Indigenous students compared to non-Indigenous students rated 9 potential barriers with significantly higher scores compared to non-Indigenous students in regard to limiting or stopping them from achieving what they want to do. Indigenous students were also found to have statistically significantly lower academic (school, maths, verbal) self-concepts. The results in relation to self-concept are of particular concern given positive academic self-concept predicate academic achievement and other desirable educational outcomes. Results based on a series of multiple regression analyses were able to disentangle correlates of students' aspirations whereby academic self-concept was found to have an important relation to schooling aspirations and future aspirations.

PAR03780  ®  [Paper]
Do my self-beliefs lead me to bully or be bullied? An investigation into the causal relations between bullying, victimisation and self-concept

Linda Finger, Roberto Parada, Herbert Marsh, and Rhonda Craven, University of Western Sydney

The present investigation evaluated relations between bullying, victimisation, multiple dimenstions of self-concept, sex and age over two occasions for a large sample of students (N =3445) from six high schools in Year 7 to 11. In Study 1, there was strong psychometric support (confirmatory factor analysis and reliability) for two new instruments; a new short version of the widely used Self Description Questionnaire II (SDQII-S) that measures 11 different components of self-concept and Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument that measures three Bully factors (Physical, Verbal, Relational) and the corresponding three Victim factors. In Study 2, males used all three types of bullying (Physical, Verbal, Relational) and experienced two types of victimisation (Physical and Verbal) significantly more than females. Whereas levels of victimisation and bullying both increased during early high school years, vitimisation tended to decrease during subsequent high school years whereas bullying did not. In Study 3, longitudinal causal models indicated that victimisation and bullying are positively correlated and multually reinforcing constructs. Bullying leads to continued bullying but also becoming a victim, whereas being a victim leads to continued victimisation but also becoming a bully. Victim and low social self-concepts had multually reinforcing negative effects. Contrary to predictions, however, increased bullying did not enhance subsequent social self-concepts. The results suggest that increased social consciousness about the negative effects of bullying may have undermined the ability of bullies to use anti-social bullying tactics to enhance their self-concepts.

PAR03784  ®  [Paper]
The Beyond Bullying Program: An innovative program empowering teachers to counteract bullying in schools

Roberto Parada, Herbert Marsh and Rhonda Craven, University of Western Sydney

As with other damaging behaviours, prevention for aggression and violence should begin as early as possible. Bullying may be one early indicator of a group of behaviours that contribute to the development of antisocial and/or aggressive behaviour patterns in late adolescence and adulthood. The 'Beyond Bullying Program' is an entirely new bullying management and prevention program. It has been developed at the SELF Research Centre, University of Western Sydney, Australia in collaboration with Westmead Hospital's Department of Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatry, and the Marist Education Centre, a psychoeducational and welfare unit for catholic schools in the Parramatta Diocese of Sydney. This novel anti-bullying program takes a multi-modal approach which, unlike previous interventions, not only highlights school climate but also stresses school and teacher empowerment by training school staff in specific techniques to enhance self-concept, create a positive school climate and manage bullying incidents. In this paper we review the rational for the key components of the intervention program, particularly concentrating on the Teacher Interaction Module.

PAT03300  [Paper]
Where are beginning teachers' stories about learning to teach inculturally and socially diverse secondary school classrooms?

Rachel Patrick, Whitireia Community Polytechnic and Deakin University

This paper reviews the literature related to an in-depth, narrative study currently being carried out on how beginning secondary teachers in culturally and socially diverse classrooms in New Zealand shape their professional knowledge and practice. Recent governmental reports from New Zealand, Australia and the UK highlight ongoing concern about beginning teacher retention and about the variability of the quality of new teacher induction programmes. The literature explored in this paper also discusses the issues for teachers arising from recent social and technological changes and the development of new teachers' professional knowledge. Little research has been found, to date, about the perspectives of the beginning teachers. This paper argues for the need to find out, from beginning teachers themselves, how they experience and represent the professional, political, social and cultural issues they face. This is presented as necessary if we are to understand better how to harness their expertise and commitment in schools, and prepare teachers who have a positive impact on the quality of outcomes for diverse students.

PAY03101  [Paper]
School governance as the management of dilemmas: Markets or mission?

Lesley Payne, Murdoch University

Major difficulties for schools in all sectors are in balancing: the desire to be mission driven with the demands of the market; the aspirations for community empowerment with the need to be effective and professional; and the provision of a well rounded education with the need to demonstrate school performance. For those involved in school governance, consumerist attitudes of parents, competition with other schools, and the need to maintain the confidence of stakeholders are some of the challenges ahead. When the Western Australian School Education Act 1999 is fully implemented, all government schools are to have decision-making groups constituted as School Councils. The research analyses the governance structures and processes of thirteen independent primary schools and one government primary school in Perth, Western Australia. the government school os the only school that has been operating with a school council for more than ten years and has the greatest level of parent involvement in management and curriculum so far implemented for a government school. the research offers insight into the governance issues these schools face, how the roles and structures of these governing bodies have evolved, and illustrates the type of dilemmas and tensions that lie ahead for government school councils.

PEE03083  ®  [Paper]
Mentoring: Bridging the identity crisis for beginning teachers

Eleanor Peeler and Beverley Jane, Monash University

New teachers who enter Australian educational systems must acquire suitable knowledge that enables them to function effectively as a teacher here. Whether they are beginning teachers or overseas born professionals new to the system, mere transfer of knowledge does not suffice; neither does it satisfy their professional perception of self. While beginning teachers lack knowledge about teaching and learning, teachers born and trained overseas lack culturally specific educational knowledge. These shortfalls can initiate unforseen dilemmas for their professional development and shifts in their definition of self. Acquiring new knowledge requires teachers to understand the social knowledge of learning and teaching in local contexts and to apply this appropriately. Mentoring relationships are a means of bridging the gap between the newcomers' former ways of knowing and current practice, thus mobilising their capacity to operate effectively as a teacher in their new contexts and develop a positive professional identity. In this paper our conversation draws on experiences of two studies, one involving interviews with overseas born teachers, the other a mentoring initiative that facilitated beginning teachers' transition to university life.

PEN03118  [Paper]
Can we promote collaboration in and amidst a culture of performativity?

Dawn Penney, Edith Cowan University

This paper explores some of the policy tensions inherent in the development of Specialist Schools in England under the New Labour Government, and ways in which research may potentially assist in alleviating those tensions. It outlines the dual agendas currently at play in the Specialist School policy that is central to the government's moves to transform secondary education and raise standards in teaching and learning. Schools achieving specialist status are automatically recognised as being 'different from', but at the same time, inherit a clear remit to work closely with neighbouring schools in the drive to raise educational standards and spread innovative practice. The expectation is that Specialist Schools will be proactive in collaborative activity, yet they continue to be publicly judged by their ability to outperform other schools. Data and experiences from a project focusing on Specialist Sports Colleges within England is used to illustrate the ways in which these collaborative-competitive tensions are being played out in practice. Attention is drawn to the partnerships that colleges have been inclined to pursue and have yet to firmly establish. Discussion then addresses whether researchers may be proactive in challenging the dominant reference points used in evaluations of performance and thereby encourage a greater commitment to inclusive and collaborative practice.

PER03409  [Paper]
Parent-professional partnerships in Special Education

Barbara Perry, University of Otago

This paper will review current literature and present models of parent professional partnerships for working with children with special needs in educational settings. The models will then be broken down into components and material will be given to participants around how to implement these models in a practical way. the initial premise for the paper is based on the fact that often parents are the only constant influence in a disabled child's life.

PER03785  ®  [Paper]
Relations between elite athlete self-concept and international swimming performance

Clark Perry and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

A swimming specific adaptation of the Elite Athlete Self Description Questionnaire (EASDQ) instrument was designed to measure six physical self-concept factors: Skills; Body; Physiological Competence (aerobic); Physiological Competence (anaerobic); Mental Competence; and Overall Performance. The adapted questionnaire will be referred to as the Elite Swimmers Self Description Questionnaire (ESSDQ). In collaboration with the Australian Institute of Sport and Australian Swimming, Incorporated we measured Elite Athlete self-concepts of all participants in the Pan Pacific swimming championships and the World Short Course Championships in Greece. Top swimmers (n=275) from 30 countries completed ESSDQ on the first day for each of their events. Also available for all participants were world rankings, personal bests and country rankings. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated good support for the invariance of ESSDQ a priori factor structure across country and events. Results show that:?ESSDQ responses are positively related to individual world rank and personal best swimming achievements;??Consistent with the big-fish-little-pond effect, country ranking had a negative effect on ESSDQ responses;? Consistent with "reflected glory effects" pride with national team had positive effects on ESSDQ; and?ESSDQ contributed to performance beyond world rank and personal best. Extending the generalisability of results based primarily on educational psychology, prior self-concept had a significant effect on actual performance at the championship beyond the effects of prior personal bests.

PET03071  [Paper]
Curriculum, in New Zealand Physical Education

Kirsten Petrie

T his paper investigates how social hierarchies, as one aspect of a hidde n curriculum associated with physical educat ion, contribute to gender construction within co-educational secondary schools in the New Zealand context . It stems from a broader study, investigating how teacher beliefs , prog ammes and practices contribute to gender construction within co-educational secondary schools in the Canterbury region. In this paper I explore how physical education supports the replication and legitimisation of socially desirable forms of masculinity and femininity . It is in essence, acritique of the ways in which school physical educat ion and the hierarchies that exist within it draw on and reinforced ominant discourses of gender, and the effects this has on both males and female s.

PET03250  ®  [Paper]
The importance of adults' conceptions of the environment for education

Peter Petocz, University of Technology, Sydney, Anna Reid, Macquarie University, and Tony Loughland, Charles Sturt University

Environmental education is an important strategy in achieving environmental improvement. Previously, we have analysed school children's conceptions of "environment" using a phenomenographic approach. An important qualitative difference was found between conceptions that treat the environment as an object and those that treat it as a relation. The findings reinforced other calls to locate environmental education beyond the formal school situation, using industry bodies and government departments. It seems that it may be more effective to take environmental education out of the formal school system and locate it in the community. In this paper, we report on the results of a survey of adults carried out by one such government department, the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, and describe the responses to the question "What does the environment mean to you personally?" Real change in thinking about the environment requires a creative approach to pedagogy, combining the conceptions of adults as well as the views of the students in their care. Environmental education needs an integration between formal and informal learning situations to effect change in people's thinking.

PET03355  ®  [Paper]
Constructing Relationships for Learning

Dr Judy Peters, Dr Rosie Le Cornu, University of South Australia and Dr Janet Collins, The Open University

Recent developments in South Australia have emphasised the importance of constructivism as a theoretical basis for curriculum development and implementation, and associated school reform, in government schools. This paper reports on some initial insights from a qualitative study investigating ways in which teachers who are committed to a constructivist philosophy construct teaching and learning. The study is a collaborative project between the University of South Australia, The Open University and the South Australian Education Department. It is based around the work of four primary teachers in two schools in South Australia. These teachers have been involved in a South Australian Education Department innovative curriculum redesign project entitled ‘Learning to Learn’. This project promotes a view of teaching and learning that values teaching and learning through: consciousness of who you are and why you do what you do, personal/social relationships and learning as construction. This paper will draw on examples to highlight a number of emerging themes in relation to the learning relationships, conversations and tasks that characterise classroom cultures that are moving towards a constructivist orientation.

PIH03342  [Paper]
Kaupapa Maori Theory:
Theorizing Indigenous Transformation of Education & Schooling

Professor Graham Hingangaroa Smith, The University of Auckland & Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi: tribal-university; New Zealand

PLE03640  [Paper]
Building on a successful conference: The genesis of a textbook

Judith Plessis, The University of British Columbia

This presentation outlines the creation of the textbook, Women Filmmakers: Refocusing (Eds. Levitin, Plessis, Raoul), used in courses from Women's Studies to Cultural Studies. The book started as a call for papers for an international conference on women filmmakers held in Vancouver in 1999. Published by UBC Press and co-published by Routledge, it will be launched throughout North America in 2003. This case study takes you through each phase of this five-year project (1998 - 2003). The partners were the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University on Vancouver, three academics (Jacqueline Levitin, Judith Plessis and Valerie Raoul) and several departments at each university (such as the French, German and Comparative Literature departments, Theatre, Film and Creative Writing, Cultural Studies, Women's Studies and Continuing Studies). The challenges and risks of this type of collaboration are addressed as follows:

• Interdisciplinarity: Each of three academics was able to represent her discipline and contribute to a cohesive academic discussion. Traditional boundaries of the university were erased to create innovative research accessible to undergraduate and graduate students in the form of a textbook.
• Funding: Creative funding sources subsidised the various phases of the project. Cultural organisations and government grants could advance their causes through cooperation with the universities on this project.
• Collaboration: Drs. Levitin, Plessis and Raoul were able to extend the mandate of the original conference to include academic experts, filmmakers and graduate and undergraduate students who helped with the organisation, research, editing and bibliography. there were many challenges in working with a team of three editors in organising a book with 50 international contributors.
• International Focus: Participants from over twenty countries remained in contact after the conference. On-line collaboration made new contributions, edited materials and reorganization of the original conference proceedings possible.

Participants will be able to apply the principles in this case study to the planning of projects in other academic fields. Dr Plessis will provide handouts and flowcharts of the collaborative models that contributed to the success of all phases of Women Filmmakers: Refocusing.

POD03233  [Paper]
Innovation and Collaborative Research Development in an Early Childhood Centre

Jan Taouma & Tanya Wendt-Samu, A'oga Fa'a Samoa, Valerie N. Podmore, Victoria University of Wellington; Ene Tapusoa & Malo Moananu A'oga Fa'a Samoa

The ECE centres of innovation policy framework specifies that "Centre of Innovation-researcher partnerships" are valued. This paper summarises the development of an early childhood centre of innovation, and describes the aiga concept and the research involvement of a community/parent reference group. There is an overview of the philosophy of the centre, with specific reference to culture and language. Related background research literature is outlined, with a focus on children's transitions within and from Pacific early childhood centres.

POD03236  [Paper]
A Samoan-Language Immersion Centre's Journey Into Action Research

Valerie N. Podmore Victoria University of Wellington; Tanya Wendt & Samu Jan Taouma A'oga Fa'asamoa

This collaborative paper outlines the implementation of participant research within an "early childhood centre of innovation". The research is designed to examine the relationship between learning and language continuity as children and educators at a centre make transitions from the point of entry through to beginning school. Findings from the first phase of the research, and the development of the first spiral of an action research cycle, are outlined. This includes reference to critical incidents analyses. Research processes are discussed, including the implementation of the action research design. The research approaches chosen for the study are appraised for cultural appropriateness.

POS03312  [Paper]
New Zealand national curriculum exemplars: Mist or must for teachers?

Jenny Poskitt, M. Brown, N. Maw and K. Taylor, Massey University

This paper provides a background to the development of New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars, and a focus on the implementation during 2003. Issues surrounding implementation relate to confusions over their purpose, the extent to which they need to be adopted or adapted, wide variation in understanding and use in the classroom and the ongoing professional development needs of teachers. Recommendations are made on a theoretical and practical level to allow clearing of the mist so more teachers consider National Curriculum Exemplars a 'must' in their classroom practice.

POW03447  [Paper]
The accomplished teacher as mentor

Anne Power and Alison Hine, University of Western Sydney

The systematic identification of professional standards is increasingly coming to be seen as providing an important catalyst for re-vitalising the teaching profession. Professional teacher associations have identified qualities of an accomplished teacher. The experienced and successful teacher is at the heart of the smooth running of a school organisation. This small set of case studies aims to uncover connections between these qualities and successful mentoring of beginner teachers. It will report on data from mentoring teachers in Primary school settings in NSW. From these perceptions, some implications can be drawn.

PRI03106  [Paper]
School and District Culture as Reflected in Student Voices and Student Achievement

Ruie Jane Pritchard Dept. of Curr. & Inst. NC State University; Jon C. Marshall Marshall Consulting; Donna Morrow Ed. Techn. & Prof. Studies Christchurch College of Ed

The research looked at the relation between positive and negative student attitudes about schools, district culture, and student achievement. In this study, perceptions of students as expressed in more than 2,000 essays written about their schools are explored to see if they represent the norms, assumptions and beliefs of the larger school district. The study identified seven categories of culture in student essays. Differences across grade levels and across districts in the frequency of these categories were determined. Statistical differences were found for three categories according to whether the district culture was rated as positive or negative, and whether students revealed a positive or negative view of their schools. Statistically significant predictors for writing achievement were found for three of the culture categories. This study confirms Kanter's notion that a Culture of Pride fosters a Climate of Success. Further, it suggests that district culture has a noticeable effect on school culture and is felt in the lives of students.

PUR03795  ®  [Paper]
Australian National Identity: Adolescents' conceptions of what it means to be Australian

Nola Purdie, Queensland University of Technology

Just as membership of a social group, such as a sporting club, can foster a sense of belonging and identity for individuals, membership of a national group, too, can foster a sense of belonging and identity, and influence certain aspects of an individual's behaviour. This paper reports the results of a study of Australian national identity among a group of 1242 school students. Seven underlying factors of being Australian were identified: Democracy, Diversity, Security and Wellbeing, Agreeableness, Rules of Citizenship, Sporting Prowess, and Outdoor Lifestyle. More than half of the students had only moderate to low identification with being Australian. Males strongly endorsed Sporting Prowess and Outdoor Lifestyle factors, whereas females were more likely to endorse Diversity. Rural students had more traditional views of being Australia (Sporting Prowess and Outdoor Lifestyle), and were more conservative in their views (higher Rules of Citizenship and lower Diversity) than their urban counterparts. First, second, and third generation Australians differed in their identity constructions, and level of affiliation. Indigenous students had the highest ratings on all factors.

PUR03796  ®  [Paper]
Self-identity and positive outcomes of schooling for Indigenous Australian students

Nola Purdie, Queensland University of Technology

This paper reports on an investigation of the role of positive self-identity in affecting school outcomes for Australian Indigenous students. Positive self-identity has been suggested as one of the factors which result in greater commitment and connection to schooling by Indigenous students, leading to better school outcomes. Consultations were conducted with a national sample of Indigenous community members (students, parents/carers, teachers, Aboriginal and (Torres Strait) Islander Education Workers-AIEWs), and non-Indigenous teachers. Overall, the students expressed positive self-identity as Indigenous people, but this did not necessarily translate into successful educational outcomes. The crucial link to school outcomes seemed to be positive self-identity as a learner. A number of factors involved in developing positive learner identity were proposed by study participants, including those related to (a) teachers; (b) school climate, organisation, and curriculum; (c) family and community support; and (d) role models.

Q, R

RAB03740  ®  [Paper]
Insider research: The implications of conducting research in your home locale.

Elaine Rabbitt, Edith Cowan University

Conducting research in your home locale can be a risky business. This paper examines the implications of conducting research in a small community where the researcher and the project respondents, know or know of each other.

An examination of an 'insider approach' to qualitative research is undertaken based on a study using the medium of oral history. Established or hearsay relationships between the researcher and the project respondents had bearing on the research methodology. Local, prior knowledge affected how the project respondents were accessed and the type of information given. 'Insider research' has its advantages and disadvantages and unexpected outcomes are a certainty. The paper provides strategies for maintaining credibility when conducting research interviews in one's home environment.

RAT03232  [Paper]
The Failure of Biculturalism, Implications for New Zealand Education

Dr. Elizabeth Rata, Faculty of Postgraduate Studies and Research Auckland College of Education

Biculturalism has undergone three major shifts since the 1980s. This paper examines the shifts from biculturalism to bi-ethnicism, and then to neotraditionalism. I argue that biculturalism, in education as elsewhere, has been diverted from its earlier ideals of social justice though the recognition of difference. The outcome of this diversion is that a neotraditionalist ideology dominates cultural discourse in New Zealand. The implicatins for education are discussed and an alternative discourse is proposed.

RAZ03429  [Paper]

REI03127  [Paper]
SUPPORTING VIRTUAL LEARNING TEAMS WITH DYNAMIC FEEDBACK

Peter Reimann, University of Sydney - Faculty of Education;
Jörg Zumbach University of Heidelberg - Institute of Psychology

This research examines two different kinds of feedback-mechanism to scaffold problem solving as well as interaction in computer-mediated seminars. An automated feedback mechanism has been used to enhance interaction and group well-being during computer supported collaborative learning. We tracked individual contribution behaviour as well as learners' motivation during collaborative problem-solving by means of an asynchronous communication platform. These data have been used to automatically generate visual aids, providing feedback about group members' participation as well as motivational clues. A second feedback mechanism has been applied by aggregating learners' problem solving discourse into a meta-document.

This document revealed groups' problem-solving strategies as well as their progress during different problem solving stages. We examined how this feedback method based on a group's own behaviour enhanced problem-solving outcomes. Results suggest positive influences of feedback mechanisms on problem-solving as well as motivational parameters.

REI03249  ®  [Paper]
Students' ideas about their future work: using research approaches for curriculum development in legal studies

Anna Reid, Macquarie University

Research in higher education has clearly demonstrated that students direct their learning towards aspects of their discipline that they consider to be relevant or interesting. For students who are intending to enter specific professions, their ideas about that profession determine what that relevance may be. In the bustle of covering course content, constructing learning and assessment tasks teachers often neglect to explore variation in the ways that students expect that their studies may contribute to their futures. This paper reports on the outcomes of a research project which focused on exploring the relationships between students' understanding of learning in law and their anticipations about working as a legal professional. The research outcomes demonstrated that students with limiting ideas about professional work also focused on atomistic and technical components of their course, whilst students who had a broad idea about work were able to learn within a range of paradigms. This finding has clear implications for the development of curriculum that supports the expansion within an institutional learning framework of students' ideas about their future profession.

REN03387  [Paper]
Online Curriculum Delivery as a Means of Assisting At-Risk Students to Complete Subjects at Senior Secondary School Level

Bronte Nicholls and LTonie J. Rennie Curtin University of Technology

This paper reports a longitudinal study that investiga ted the factors affecting students' success in using an online curriculum delivery mode to complete Year 11 South Australian Certificate of Education subjects. All students were at-risk of not completing school due to their inability, for a variety of reasons, to receive in-class instruction. Students' experiences, perceptions and progress were monitored during the semester-long subject units. Data collected from interviews with students and teachers, analysis of students' work, electronic communications and other documents, and records of meetings were used to prepare case studies for each of seven students.Three clusters of factors relating to personal situations (reason for entry to the program, access to a home computer and continuity of schooling), skill factors (level of ICT and English literacy skills), and attitude to learning (willingness to persist and level of self-directedness) were identified as major contributors to students' ability to complete the subjects. The findings of the study also highlight the importance of teacher-student relationships as a factor determining students' success in the online environment.

RHE03254  ®  [Paper]
Complexity in research: the risky business of including it.

Jeanette Rhedding-Jones, Professor Faculty of Education Oslo University College NORWAY

This paper is a result of the research funded by the Norwegian Research Council and titled 'Gender, complexity and diversity in pedagogical institutions for children aged 0-10: theoretical and empirical investigations' As such it presents the third part of the project: complexity. Earlier papers regarded diversity (AARE 2002) and gender (BERA 2003). Complexity may be seen not only methodologically but theoretically, textually and ontologically.

To include complexity in a research project, as the ways that the research functions and as the matters it takes up, is not a simple business. Nor is it easy to get published, to win funding or to explain what is 'meant'. Deciding then to include complexity becomes a matter of ethics, of positioning regarding cultural shifts and of the generic competence or the writing and reading researcher. When these are not matched by the research audience of examiners, referees and others, the researcher must re-write, re-think and reconceptualize. All of this constructs a process more like the writing of a play or a novel than the traditional texts of research in modernity.

The complexities of the project described in this paper include languages, cultures, generations, non-fixed locations and the complex realities of children and adults. Instead of trying to make these readily understandable the project seeks to show and to theorize something else. This puts the researcher in a risky place. For an Australian funded by a research council in Scandinavia the complexities of doing such research are both challenging and possible.

RIC03173  [Paper]
International Education: Homestay Theory Versus Practice

K. Richardson

The concept of homestay as an industry arose in the mid 1980's in response to accommodation needs of international full-fee paying students studying in Australian secondary and tertiary educational institutions. Homestay accommodation is theoretically ideal for several reasons. It ensures an institution's duty of care is fulfilled after school hours for students under eighteen and is an ideal setting to assist students with their acquisition of the target language, and their cultural knowledge. For some students it is an initial step before launching into other forms of accommodation, such as rental. Homestay provides a unique family environment where different cultures intercept within the home. While homestay appears to be ideal, in practice there is uncertainty about the extent to which it fulfils the expectations of students, hosts and organisations alike. Questions regarding the adequacy of training provided for homestay providers and hosts have also emerged. The issues arising in the unique environment of the homestay, such as cultural tensions, need to be addressed. This paper reports on recent research on the organisation of homestay programs and problems within the homestay itself. This indicates a need for training of homestay hosts and homestay organisers.

RIC03647  [Paper]
Graduates' Perceptions of University Study and it's Contribution toward the Development of Workplace Competence.

Alan Richardson, School of Management, Queensland University of Technology,; Prof. Boris Kabanoff School of Management, Queensland University of Technology

A high level of personal capacity and relevant professional competence and skills is essential for a graduate's successful transition into the workplace. The extent to which graduates attribute the success of this transition to their university study can be gauged from feedback they give regarding their university experience and their employment outcomes. This research outlines the development of a new scale based on an analysis of graduates' responses to the open-ended questions of the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ). The new, seven-item Workplace Skills Development scale when added to the CEQ and used to survey graduates from three Australian universities proved to be a reliable measure of a graduates' perception of the relevance of their studies to the skill demands of their workplace. This scale provides a unique graduate survey instrument that contributes to benchmarking and quality assurance processes for any educational institution. An analysis of management graduates compared to graduates from all disciplines supports its relevance for both groups and also shows a strong correlation with graduate satisfaction.

RIC03648  [Paper]
Qualitative Analysis Of Graduate Comments And The Development Of Course Domains

Alan Richardson, School of Management, Queensland University of Technology.

Qualitative analysis of graduates' comments provides an opportunity to hear a multitude of graduates' voices mentioning an array of issues as a single collective voice of the graduate cohort. This research is designed to understand conceptually the social reality of graduates from their post graduation workplaces. Particular emphasis regarding the graduate's outcomes from study will inform this research on new ways of measuring graduate experience and outcome to study. Outlined are three different and triangulated analyses conducted and includes; the original Faculty Education Committee funded analysis of QUT business graduate comments which attracted further Chancellery funding to analyse all QUT graduates comments from the last eight years, a DEST funded project to implement a national analysis of graduate comments and creation of a software package to replicate this analysis and finally a Leximancer concept map of 46,000 QUT graduate comments. The research highlights that graduates perceive their course experience as an open system with staff and technical resources and student support being the university inputs, the engagement of the graduate in course and assessment domains results in outcomes.

RIC03701  [Paper]
"My drawing sucks!' Children's belief in themselves as artists

Rosemary Richards, Massey University College of Education

It is commonly held that children show a decline in spontaneous art at the age of about seven and that the messages children receive impact on art confidence. Despite this prevailing view little research has been undertaken with children to explore the relationship between art confidence and messages. Therefore research was undertaken with 136 four to nine-year-old children to investigate drawing self-efficacy and the messages children give and receive. The findings show that there were significant differences in drawing self-efficacy levels when both year level and gender were considered, and statistically significant findings for preference for art, vicarious experience, emotional responses, effort and persistence and levels of difficulty. Themes that were generated by interviews and observations include those of participation, teachers' roles, experiences of boys and girls, nature of verbal interactions and topics of drawings, comments about scribbling, good and bad drawing, art based discussion, concepts of effort and ability and links between literacy and drawing. This paper concludes with recommendations for educational practice including encouraging full participation, theme and inquiry-based programmes, art-based language and discussion, children teaching children, teacher professional development, and understanding drawing self-efficacy.

RIC03771  ®  [Paper]
The physical self-concept. What does it mean to be old: What does it mean to be young?

Garry Richards and Kate Johnson, University of Western Sydney, and Jeannine Stiller, University of Leipzig, Germany

Does the concept of physical self remain stable across age? Or does the concept of physical self change as the body wearies and changes in shape? Do the components emphasised in our evaluation of our physical selves change with age or remain stable? Without evaluating such questions it is inappropriate to talk about Physical Self-Concept as though it is the same thing, with just different scores, for the elderly and for the young. This research evaluates the Physical Self-Concept of two distinctly different groups, the elderly (over 60 years of age) and a group of young people (aged 11-15 years). It also evaluates the relative importance of the various dimensions of Physical Self-Concept. Data were collected in Sydney, Australia, using the Physical Self-Concept Scale (Richards, 1987), from volunteer older people (average age 69 years) and a representative group of high school students (average age 13.5years). Internal reliabilities and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were used to determine if the instrument was suitable in terms of reliability and factorial structure for each of the groups. Sound psychometric properties were found for the Richards Physical Self Concept Instrument across age and gender. Analyses showed factor scores are differentiated by sex and by age for some factors. Remarkable similarities and only some significant differences were found for older and younger and also male and female groups.

RIC03772  [Paper]
We are born and we die.
But what happens in-between? A study of the physical concept of males and females across the age span.

Garry E. Richards, University of Western Sydney, Australia

The most fundamental truth in life is that we carry that life in a capsule we refer to as the body. We cannot escape the fact that often, just like a fluid, the shape of that life is influenced by the shape of the container. The role of the physical self-concept in the lives of individuals is central and inescapable but there is a paucity of reliable psychological instruments for the measuring of physical self concept, especially instruments designed to remain stable by gender and age right across the span of life. The Richards Physical Self-Concept Scale was designed for this purpose and has now been used to evaluate the Physical Self-Concept of thousands of Australians from childhood through to old age. This major large sample study has been able to track the overall changes in physical self-concept at different ages and according to gender.

Using various forms of evaluation on the instrument itself it has proven stable and reliable and of consistent factorial structure so that the normative results can be interpreted with confidence. This study will report on both the structure and psychometric properties of the Richards Physical Self-Concept Scale and also the results of this large cross-sectional study of males and females across the age span.

ROB03308  [Paper]
Anti-homophobia education in teacher education: Perspectives from teacher educators in NSW, Australia

Kerry Robinson and Tania Ferfolja, University of Western Sydney

This paper, based on surveys and in-depth interviews with teacher educators across universities in NSW, explores the in/exclusion of anti-homophobia education / lesbian and gay issues, in pre-service teacher education. A number of major areas were examined, including: the history of inclusion/exclusion within the teacher education program; the perceived relevance to teacher education across early childhood, primary and secondary educational sectors; the theoretical and pedagogical frameworks utilised; systemic and/or student attitudes to the inclusion of anti-homophobia education; experiences of resistance; the professional and personal impact of addressing anti-homophobia education on teacher educators, and ; teacher educators' confidence and comfort with addressing these issues. The research highlighted that the in/exclusion of anti-homophobia education / lesbian and gay issues, was primarily dependent on the lecturer's personal interests or awareness of the relevance of this area in relation to schooling; was generally, (with some important exceptions), marginalised at the expense of other social justice issues; and that it was often resisted by pre-service teachers. Issues pertaining to geographical location was also highly relevant. Moreover, it was found that a string, theoretical perspective, beyond liberal tolerant approaches, was most effective in counteracting student resistances as well as increasing their understandings of the issues.

ROB03324  [Paper]
The Team Balancing Act - Enhancing Knowledge-building Activity in On-Line Learning Communities

Alan G. Roberts & Rod Nason, Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Queensland University of Technology

Online learning in the university sector is a given. Constructivist views of learning (often team based) and the notion of knowledge-building, mediated through the use of ICTs seemingly address many of the imperatives to equip individuals for emergent knowledge-age work practice. While teamwork has many perceived advantages, teams also inexplicably fail despite the apparent quality of the participants. Teams are successful when members address what is a relatively narrow range of actions. However, even within this limited range of actions individuals demonstrate definite preferences towards certain activities and roles. This paper reports on the findings from a study that investigated if knowledge-building activity can be enhanced in tertiary education CSCL environments through the use of groups balanced by Team Role Preference (Margerison & McCann, 1995, 1998). The study found that higher quality knowledge-building activity was more likely to occur in balanced groups than in random groups. The analysis of data revealed that a diversity of ideas was more likely to emerge from within balanced groups than from within random groups particularly when the random groups were heavily skewed towards one team role preference. This provided a compelling reason for explaining why balanced groups may lead to better knowledge-building activity.

ROB03351  [Paper]
'My teacher exclaims, "That's stupid!" and rolls her eyes': The risks and dilemmas of student teachers working in two communities of practice

Marilyn Fleer and Jill Robbins Monash University

Particular communities of practice tend to have their own context-specific ways of thinking, values, histories and artefacts or tools that they use (Fleer & Robbins, 2003). Traditionally within early childhood education, a developmental approach to observing, documenting and planning for the learning and deve lopment of young children has been the most commonly used tool or 'way of doing things'. Increasingly, though, sociocultural theory has become influential for informing early childhood educational theory. However, translating theory into practice has been slow and there is still a great deal to learn about the dynamics of this process. This paper will report on a study of 75 early childhood pre-service student teachers as they moved through the participatory appropriation of sociocultural theory (Rogoff, 1995, 1998). As student teachers engaged in new ways of thinking and were able to make informed analyses and decisions about planning and teaching, risks and dilemmas were often encountered when they entered practical teaching situations where participants continued to recycle traditional constructivist-developmental approaches.

ROB03474  ®  [Paper]
E-Learning - 'Re-Envisioning' pedagogy in schools

Margaret Robertson, Andrew Fluck, Ivan Webb and Julie Browett, University of Tasmania

In search of 'authentic pedagogy' our longitudinal three year study (2002-04, funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Scheme) with children and teachers in Years 3, 5 and 7 of Tasmanian Government and Catholic Education Schools is providing a rich data set from teacher questionnaires and classroom observations. The problem is to identify the variables and their relationships in the space that brings together all the intersecting interests, both inside and outside schools. Our aim is to develop, trial and publish a professional development package for teachers that will offer training for authentic ICT related pedagogy.

Within the wider sphere of Learning Communities this project has far-reaching potential. Learning communities are built upon the concepts of distributed cognition and social capital. E-learning has the potential to considerably extend learning opportunities for all members of a community irrespective of their geographic situation relative to administrative centres. E-learning also has considerable potential to change the primary role of the school building as a focal hub of community activity.

ROB03669  [Paper]
An Application Of Basil Bernstein To Vocational Education And Training Policy In Australia

Ian Robertson, RMIT University and Monash University

Elements of the work of Basil Bernstein's (Bernstein, 1996, 2000) are used in this paper to analyse the national structure and policy of vocational education and training (VET) in Australia. The analysis is part of work towards a Doctor of Education degree at Monash University which aims to investigate the impact of online technology on the teaching practice of teachers employed in Technical and Further Education (TAFE). The constructs of classification and framing are found to be useful in identifying consistencies and inconsistencies in the ways that the prevailing pedagogic device manifests itself in national structures and policy. The analysis reveals that policy intends to influence the distributive and evaluation rules of VET, that the official pedagogic discourse of VET is dominated by industry, and training for work. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the work reported here is intended to underpin the Doctoral studies.

ROD03418  [Paper]
Beginning the journey of widescale ICT infusion into a B.Ed (Teaching) programme: Understanding change processes

John Roder Senior Lecturer Information Technology, Auckland College of Education
Ruth Williams, Programme Leader B.Ed (Teaching) Auckland College of Education

The imperative that schools address the needs of an information age and prepare children for an increasingly technological society is gaining momentum. Foremost in schools' thinking are issues surrounding how the use of information and communication technology (ICT) can best enhance children's learning. Critical to the success of such an initiative is the preparation of teachers who have the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to meet these challenges. Consequently a commitment on the part of teacher education providers to change their programmes to meet the challenges has been necessary. This paper tells the story of ICT infusion into a B.Ed (Tchg) programme. A commitment on the part of leadership to avoid top down edicts and mandated practices was made. The emphasis has been on developing collaborative leadership and a shared vision based on the mutual core values of the group representing staff across the programme. The perceptions of the key leaders in this change process provide the basis of the paper.

ROS03218  [Paper]
Student Self-Grading in a Bachelor of Physical Education Course: The Direction of Reflection

Bruce Ross PhD, Head of Centre, Centre for Health and Physical Education, Auckland College of Education

ROS03665  [Paper]
Hothouse: Learning and teaching styles across the art museum, teacher education and schools

Julie Rosewarne Foster

This paper sets out Elliot Eisner's qualitative methodologies as a basis for the design of innovative curriculum through the 'Hothouse Art Appreciation Project'. The main aim of the project is to explore teaching and learning strategies in the design of materials and activities around the experience of students' encounter with art works. The project elucidates how different types of audiences received and processed ideas and meaning about a group of artworks. Although the project takes as its focus a specific group of images that are contemporary and traditional works of art that comprise the Hothouse exhibition, the project has application to the understanding of learning and teaching styles across the broader visual culture. As the theoretical under-pinning of the design, this paper presents several significant aspects of the work of educational research by the educator and philosopher Elliot Eisner. Reflection on the philosophy of Elliot Eisner, as well as the adoption of his specific proposals as the basis for our curriculum design was integral to the initiation of the project.

ROW03430  [Paper]
Back from the Brink: Reclaiming 'Quality' in the Pursuit of a Transformative Education Agenda

Dr Leonie Rowan, Quality Learning Research Priority Deakin University.

RUB03048  [Paper]
Great Expectations: Implications For New Zealand Students

Christine Rubie-Davies, John Hattie, Richard Hamilton

RUS03766  ®  [Paper]
Is there a gender issue? Primary student teachers' perceptions of their background and confidence in relation to music and music teaching

Deirdre Russell-Bowie, University of Western Sydney

This paper reports the findings of a study involving 387 NSW student teachers (Sex: 90% females and 10 males; TER score: 0 - 16%: 24%; 61 - 100%: 55%, Not applicable: 21%; Socio-economic status: low: 28%; medium: 66%; high: 6%; Home language: English: 86%; other: 14%)). Initially the paper investigates if a reliable set of scales relating to, background in music and confidence in music teaching could be derived from the data using exploratory principle component analysis in order to identify the students' perceptions of their background and confidence in relation to music education and music teaching. Secondly it examines how generalist primary student teachers perceive their own background and confidence in relation to music teaching and music education. Thirdly, it ascertains whether or not there is a significant difference between male and female students in relation to their music education background and their confidence in music teaching. Results indicated firstly, that two scales were developed and tested for reliability and these related to students' formal music education background and their confidence in music teaching. Secondly, that 20% of students had a good background in music, and 52% felt confident in teaching music. Thirdly, although 20% of the females and 13% of the males had a good background in music and 52% of females and 53% of males felt confident in music teaching, there were no significant differences between the means of the two groups in either background or confidence. Based on the results of this survey suggestions are made to enhance the teaching of music education given that so few students enter with a strong music background.

S

SAN03039  [Paper]
'Generic Skills for Employability': Educational Colonisation or Educational Opportunity?

Jill Sanguinetti, School of Education, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

SAN03203  [Paper]
"A voyage of critical discovery"- Examining our conceptions of social justice

Susan Sandretto Faculty of Education, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

This interactive symposium/workshop has two primary goals: to create a space for conference participants to critically reflect on their conceptualisation(s) of social justice and the relationship between their personal beliefs and professional practices; and, to report some results from doctoral research into beliefs and practices of a group of New Zealand teacher educators committed to social justice. The term 'social justice' is a contested and contentious concept. One finding that has arisen from the collaborative self-study is the multiplicity and complexity in the ways the participants conceptualise social justice, as well as the difficulty of articulating the beliefs and assumptions that underpin our understandings of social justice.

A research participant used the metaphor "voyage of critical discovery" to describe the journey the group undertook in exploring our understandings of social justice. Symposium/workshop participants are invited to begin a conversation around teacher education and social justice. The conversation will be informed by a metaphoric writing task to elic it participants' conceptualisations of social justice and small group discussion using questions from the thesis research. As noted by one of the research participants "I think just being able to talk with others who struggle with these things [is valuable], instead of being in isolation".

San03373  [Paper]
A collaborative self-study into teacher education and social justice

Susan Sandretto Faculty of Education, University of Otago ; , Catherine Lang , Pamela Schon, Barbara Whyte School of Education, University of Waikato

This paper is a co-constructed reflection of the research process and outcomes of a collaborative self-study that examined the personal beliefs and professional theories and practices of a group of New Zealand teacher educators committed to social justice. The authors represent three participants and one doctoral student researcher/participant. Self-study of teacher education involves teacher educators reflecting on their professional practice for the purpose of improving their practice and the practice of others (Hamilton, 1998). The research participants submitted their beliefs, theories and practices to critical analysis and reflection. It was clear by the end of the research that the group had provided support and professional development for the participants, although they had not explicitly considered it as such at the onset of the project. We invite others to form similar collaborative, self-study groups as a means to investigate their teaching practice and implement change.

SAN03506  [Paper]
Troubling identities: teacher education students' constructions of class and ethnicity

Ninetta Santoro and Andrea Allard, Deakin University

This paper reports on a research project that explored how student teachers understand ethnic and classed difference as it relates to themselves and their students. Discourses of schooling can shape students ethnic and classed identities, frequently positioning non-mainstream students as 'other' and marginalizing them. Significant numbers of our teacher education students have limited experience of diverse educational settings, having mainly attended white middle-class schools as students and as student teachers. Working with diverse student populations productively depends on teachers recognising and valuing difference. The ways in which they engage with students whose ethnic and classed identities are different from their own is important in creating learning environments that build on and engage with diversity.

In a preliminary stage of the research we asked eight third-year teacher education students to explore their own ethnic and classed identities. The complexities of identity are foregrounded in both the assumptions we made in selecting particular students for the project and in the ways they did (not) think about themselves as having ethnic or classed identities.

In this paper we draw on these findings to interrogate how categories of identity are fluid, shifting and ongoing processes of negotiation: troubling and complex. We also consider the implications for teacher education.

SAN03543  [Paper]
Teaching for the 'New Work Order': Empowerment or Exploitation?

, Ninetta Santoro Deakin University, Australia

Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs addressing the needs of workers in the 'New Work Order' have increasingly emphasised the development of communication, analytical, negotiation and decision- making skills over technical skills. Education for work has often been seen as a means of empowering workers to take up the opportunities available to them in the new 'democratic' workplaces of the last twenty years by developing the skills to contribute to workplace change through participation in collaborative decision- making processes.

This paper is based on the findings of a study that explored the ways in which trainers take up and work within the current discourses of VET. Data from interviews with trainers as well as observations of them at work are analysed and presented in this paper to highlight the ways in which they inadvertently position their students as compliant and powerless workers, despite the rhetoric that learning- for-work will prepare them to become active agents of change in democratic workplaces. I argue that this contradiction is due, in part, to the ways in which the trainers' classed identities intersect with discourses of VET in powerful and complex ways. Their understanding of work, learning- for-work and teaching- for-work is constructed and mediated through their social class positionings and is enacted through classroom practices.

SEA03251  [Paper]
The challenge of researching learning technology accessibility practices within Higher Education: An exploration of "shared enterprises" or "political games"?

Jane K Seale, University of Southampton, UK.

The 2001 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA, 2001) made it an offence for educational institutions in the UK to discriminate against a disabled person by treating him or her less favourably than others for a reason relating to their disability. Learning technologists have therefore been charged with the responsibility of ensuring that electronic teaching materials can be accessed by disabled students, which is requiring them to develop new practices. In an attempt to explore how learning technologists are developing these practices this paper will present a review of the accessibility literature and identify key issues that may influence the "accessibility" practices of learning technologists. These issues are explored and interpreted using Wenger's (1998) Communities of Practice, which focuses on the development of "shared enterprises" and Konur's (2000) Institutional Theory Tool, which focuses on the "games" that educational institutions might play when creating rights for disabled students. This interpretation suggests that educational research will face a challenge of providing a detailed and rich description of the "shared enterprises" that contribute to a developing accessibility practice and an explanation of the political games that may block or hinder this practice.

SEA03252  [Paper]
Researching home page authorship of adults with learning disabilities: Issues and dilemmas

Jane K Seale, University of Southampton, UK,

Being able to use the Internet is a normal and highly valued skill in our society and people who have a learning disability, like many others, are highly motivated to use the Internet and experience all that it has to offer. Access to the Internet can help people with a learning disability to link to the wider world, access and publish information, communicate with friends and others as well as improve their general ICT literacy skills. Whilst there are barriers to Internet access for people with a learning disability, most barriers are not insurmountable. Curiously, there is not an abundance of research describing or evaluating the use of the Internet by adults with a learning disability, but what little there is, focuses on two key areas: accessing the Internet to find information and publishing information on the Internet about self and others. This paper will present an overview of current research and practice that has explored Home Page authorship by adults with a learning disability. Key methodological issues for researchers will be discussed and potential dilemmas for those supporting and working with adults with learning disabilities will be highlighted. The implications of these issues and dilemmas for future research will be explored.

SEA03534  [Paper]
Moving beyond "tips for teachers": Learning to be a gender equity consultant

Leonie Seaton, University of Technology, Sydney

This paper outlines current EdD research drawing on the writer's reflexive experiences as a teacher consultant. The focus of the paper is on the ways in which practice as a gender equity consultant develops in an attempt to make productive connections with primary school teachers' professional development in the area of gender equity. The aim is to move beyond a "tips for teachers" approach.

Current research in the area of professional development indicates the importance of taking into account teachers' personal perspectives and school culture, amongst other factors, when planning professional development activities in schools. Factors such as the gender politics operating within a school will also impact on the success of gender reform in schools.

The research presented is a self-study of teacher education practices. Employing narrative inquiry methodology, the data gathered will form the basis for stories of professional development by both the writer and teachers with whom she works. This paper presents a work in progress as the research continues to explore and develop practice through reflection and as informed by discussions with teachers and workplace colleagues who act as critical friends. Additional data collection tools used in the research includes journal entries, field notes and autobiographic writing.

The focus for discussion will be on issues of power that have been enacted at various school sites within the study and the ways in which these have informed reflection and subsequent reframing of practice for the gender equity consultant.

SEA03594  [Paper]
The professional socialisation of teachers in transition: A values perspective

Wee Tiong Seah, Monash University

Teachers in transition bring with them personal cultural baggage of professional beliefs and values, which are embodied through their 'folk pedagogies' (see Bruner, 1996, Chapter 2). Socialisation experiences of these teachers involve the encountering of differences in values between home and host cultures, or between established practices and ways of teaching suggested by educational reforms. Potential for dissonance (and consonance) exists in different cultural contexts, including epistemological, pedagogical, general educational, and organisational. Through examining the socialisation experiences of immigrant teachers of mathematics in Australia, this paper highlights how these 'folk pedagogies' interact with teaching practices in mathematics classrooms in the new culture. The notion of 'culture-freeze' is introduced. The dominance of pedagogical considerations in each teacher's personal negotiation of value differences has led to the adoption of a range of responsive approaches. An understanding of related contextual factors presents practical implications for successful socialisation of teachers across geographical locations and institutional systems, as well as for promoting teacher critical consideration of educational reform.

SED03668  [Paper]
Beyond states and markets: Centralised and decentralised networks in education

Terri Seddon, Monash University

This paper develops an institutional analysis of teachers in vocational education and training. It considers the impact of neo-liberal reform and the consequences of marketisation in Victoria, Australia, and documents the way TAFE teachers are negotiating their work practices. The implications of these developments for TAFE teachers and the TAFE teaching workforce will be discussed in the context of the recent Ministerial statement which presents TAFE teachers as key knowledge workers in economic and social development.

SHE03033  [Paper]
Listen to the Learner/Whakaronga Ki Te Akonga.
Behaviour management: reframing classroom practice

Jeanne Sheehan: and Anne Sinclair: Auckland College of Education, Auckland, New Zealand

How do your assist students in pre-service teacher education programmes to understand that managing children's behaviour to support learning is a complex matter? How can students develop an understanding that managing children is not solely reliant on a set of recipes or techniques? A challenge for pre-service teachers is the difficulty they have in interpreting the complexity of behaviour management from literature and decontextualised discussions and readings. This method of learning can lead to a perception that 'behaviour management' is a technical matter when what is required is a deeper understanding of the multi-layered approach to managing children for learning. This paper outlines the research undertaken by a team of lecturers at the Auckland College of Education filming in a variety of Year 7 - 10 classrooms. Data on managing young adolescents in the classroom were collected in an audio-visual form so that student would have an authentic context for learning. An explanation is given on how the video is used in both the secondary and primary sectors to help students understand the philosophical, theoretical and pedagogical aspects of managing children for learning.

SHI03814  [Paper]
Towards the autodidactic worker: A new corporate learning strategy?

James Shields, Monash University

Early evidence suggests the 'knowledge and information' flood, as it is linked to the transformed workplace, has rocked teaching and learning structures for corporations. In some ways this has indeed been necessary, allowed for variations in how knowledge is transferred and learning happens, more dynamic and 'speed to market' in design. Exciting new tools based on new 'kinds' of technologies, new programs and new kinds of people are changing, streamlining corporate processes and challenging traditional strategies in teaching and learning. Structural and operational diversity has allowed market driven forces to impact the range of learning styles within organisations. Learning practitioners are experiencing new levels of 'autonomy' previously unfamiliar to them outside the classroom. The cross section of staff who participate in teaching at work, and new levels of sophistication in technological tools, have changed traditional views about the teaching role. These changes have in turn, influenced new corporate learning strategies.

The sheer scope of the phenomenon may also have bamboozled organisations to some degree. Anecdotal evidence suggests a 'chicken with no head' strategy for corporate learning. Some firms are using the 'silo' business model to decentralise in an attempt to regain control and cover learning volumes. New kinds of teaching foot soldiers are being introduced as 'knowledge experts' taking on coaching and mentoring roles. New learning styles appear to be evolving and there is evidence that the teaching/learning dualism, (as this involves human to human interaction) is under threat. Within corporations, working people more and more must learn without being taught, or at least without the need for another human as the interface. Some people comment that strategies and structures for teaching and learning within corporations are difficult to find. Others remark that quality and content control in teaching and learning is market driven thus at the whim of business unit heads. Some argue that these 'exciting developments' are going to be only short term as technologies are found wanting or individuals, whose role is not teaching, abandon this burden to their main task.

The inquiry seeks evidence for a shift in corporate education policy. A shift towards the autodidactic worker as a strategy for dealing with transformed workplace under continual change. The capacity for corporations to achieve rapid change in knowledge flows across global networked has impacted management capabilities for dealing with the expanding knowledge resource. The ability for employees to problem solve individually, is seen as an emerging strategy to cope. The possible emergence of the 'autodidactic worker' invites an investigation of education policies for corporations. Evidence needs to be gathered about whether a managerial approach 'to all things' includes the worker abilities to manage their own learning. The hypothesis for this paper is that managing new knowledge at work is being passed to a new kind of worker, the 'autodidact worker', as part of a new 'administration' paradigm for teaching and learning within corporations. The role of educational specialist or learning practitioner at work is being modified. The search within the inquiry is for evidence that corporate education policy has altered to accommodate the self-teaching employee as a legitimate learning strategy.

SHU03265  [Paper]
Development of a New Measurement Tool for Individualism and Collectivism

SIE03241  [Paper]
Identifying and describing teachers' scaffolding practices in mathematics

Dianne Siemon and Jo Virgona, RMIT University, Australia

Significant developments in our understanding of how children learn mathematics have prompted renewed interest in the role of the teacher in mathematics classrooms. A recent study, aimed at identifying and evaluating a range of numeracy teaching approaches in a structured sample of Victorian primary schools, demonstrates the efficacy of a structured process of peer observation and review as a powerful means of making explicit what teachers know and exercise intuitively in the context of primary mathematics classrooms. As part of this study, three groups of teachers participated in an activity referred to as Behind-the-screen. Teachers took turns to teach a small group of children from their own class in a room with a one-way mirror. Observing teachers were asked to comment on what they noticed and suggest labels or metaphors that captured the essence of the teacher's communicative acts. Analysis suggests that this technique is a valuable tool in identifying and describing scaffolding practices in mathematics teaching and enhancing teachers' understanding of their professional practice.

SIL03419  [Paper]
PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL RENEWAL

Steffan Silcox, Principal, Ballajura Community College; Neil MacNeill, Rob Cavanagh, Principal Department of Education Ellenbrook Primary School Curtin University of Technology

SIM03235  [Paper]
Academics researching in schools - making first contact

Cheryl Sim & Kerryn McCluskey, School of Curriculum, Teaching & Learning, Griffith University,, Brisbane Australia

It is almost one hundred years since Dewey stated that the purpose of research in all its forms and disciplines was an "effort to understand and help others understand what teachers and learners do during the process of learning and what this means potentially for the education of teachers" (Dewey, 1904/1974). Early in 2003 the author of this paper began a research study that investigates the development of relationships between teacher mentors and preservice teachers. The aim of the study seeks to examine the extent to which the concept of community of practice influences the construction of professional identity through the situated learning of preservice teachers in selected school settings. Associated with this aim is to identify the potential for 'communities of practice' to address the anxiety of teachers in the context of seemingly overwhelming levels of change in education and society affecting their professional roles and identities right now. Ironically the researchers found that the anxieties of teachers actually affected their efforts to entice schools and teachers to be involved in the study. This paper focuses on this first stage of the research study. It examines the dilemmas experienced by the researchers as they endeavoured to encourage schools and teachers to participate in the research. It raises issues about the relationship between academics in teacher education and schools and how we can facilitate teachers' involvement in future research in schools.

SKE03838  [Paper]
'Kia Mate Ra Ano a Tama-nui-te-ra'

SMI03009  [Paper]
The internationalisation of the New Zealand secondary schooling sector: reviewing the recent trends.

Richard J M Smith, School of Education, UNITEC Institute of Technology

Aotearoa/New Zealand, like a number of other Anglo-phone countries has experienced significant increase in the number of international students in the past decade. This trend is more apparent in the secondary schooling sector (than in primary), for example there was a 258 per cent increase in the number of students from 1,748 in 1993 to 6,254 in 2000 (Ministry of Education, 2001a). This paper is a preliminary/scoping study which explores the recent legislation in relation to international students and highlights the trends and reviews the literature on the impact of 'foreign' full fee paying (FFFP) students in the New Zealand secondary education context. Some recent trends reported include: Asia was the main source region of secondary FFFP students (over 90 per cent in 2000); and that two thirds of secondary schools had at least one FFFP student in 2000 (Ministry of Education, 2001a). Further issues explored in this paper include: the lucrative financial impact of FFFP students on schools; the polarisation effects of the majority of FFFP students attending middle to higher decile socio-economic status schools and the concentration of students mainly in the larger urban areas.

SMI03031  [Paper]
Boys, Education And Spirituality: A Forgotten Factor

Andrew Smith, Lecturer Bethlehem Institute Tauranga New Zealand

In considering the research literature on masculinity as it relates to boys, five themes are evident. These themes are briefly overviewed. Within the writing on all five themes there is a growing awareness of issues of spirituality and personal faith. Despite this new awareness, little work has focussed directly on the significance or visible characteristics of spirituality in the lives of young males. This seems surprising, given that such work as there is suggests that spiritual issues are of importance to the teenagers themselves. This paper, then, seeks to review the literature on male adolescent spirituality, consider the implications of that literature for education, and suggest directions for future research.

SMI03182  [Paper]
The dilemmas of bicultural education policy in art education practice in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Jill Smith Auckland College of Education New Zealand

Methodological risks in conservative times - Kaupapa Maori Research and some of its applications

Linda Tuhiwai Smith, University of Auckland, Sandy Brown and Josie Keelan, Auckland University of Technology, and Danny Hona and Dawn Hill,Te Whare Wananga O Awanuiarangi

Kaupapa Maori research has provided an approach, framework and tools that have enabled Maori educational researchers to conduct research with their communities, to experiment with new methodologies and seek answers to new kinds of questions. Although innovative research is fostered in the academy and in the research and development domain there is also hightened anxiety about the state and quality of educational research that can also be characterised as a new conservatism about what counts as real educational research, what counts as excellent research and what counts as effective research. This symposium takes the risk of examining new methods and approaches in this period of conservatism.

SOR03064  [Paper]
Student mobility - reasons, consequences and interventions

Reesa Sorin, James Cook University, and Rosemary Iloste, Education Queensland

Mobility in education can mean families moving from city to city or state to state as employment and housing changes for them. However, it can also mean families moving their children from one school to another within the same area, for other, more personal reasons. As student mobility increases, concerns about its impact on the young learner increase (Wright, 1999). Research studies report mobile students to be lower achievers in academic as well as social domains of schooling (Mantzicopoulos & Knutson, 2000; Rumberger & Larson, 1998; Wright, 1999).

Student mobility can adversely affect children's success rate in school, leading to lower levels of engagement and reduced chance of high school completion. This research investigated student mobility in Cairns, where mobility rates increase each year. This included factors in families' lives that appear to give rise to mobility; perceptions of the effects of mobility on children, families and schools; and intervention strategies to address perceived negative effects of mobility. This paper discusses findings based on interviews with families and school personnel in five state primary schools.

SOR03065  [Paper]
Webfolio - Using electronic portfolios in preservice teacher education

Reesa Sorin, James Cook University

The Webfolio project was developed at James Cook University to extend students' professional learning beyond what is taught in lectures or gleaned through the practicum. The Webfolio project trialled alternative platforms and approaches to teaching and learning. It was developed as an online learning environment that incorporated both real people and virtual web resources.

Through web-based case studies, early childhood and primary preservice teachers explored topics of professional significance to their growth as teachers. Each case study included a range of media, such as: work samples; audiotaped conversations; links to other websites; telephone and in-person professional opinions from practicing teachers, principals, social workers and welfare agents; and online discussion with other participants, including student teachers, teachers and university lecturers.

The approach taken was an inquiry one, which focuses on case study as an entry point; challenging participants to think substantively as they research and explore topics of professional significance to solve the problems presented in the case studies. Case studies were based on authentic classroom situations; ones which student teachers may never encounter during their practicums, therefore requiring them to immerse themselves in the professional world of teaching into which they are moving.

There were no single, correct solutions; rather learners were encouraged to reflect, imagine and develop multiple and often non-traditional solutions. This exploration was supported within a learning community, where participants were positioned as co-learners, scaffolding each other's learning while building links to the professional world. These links may assist in bridging the gap that some neophyte teachers feel when beginning their professional teaching careers.

As students developed their ideas, they were encouraged to document their ideas and the processes they went through to resolve each case, and from this documentation to create components of an electronic portfolio that address generic skills for teachers and graduates of James Cook University. The university is currently developing plans for electronic portfolios for students, and it was hoped that the work done in Webfolio could be transferred to the university's model once it is complete. At the moment, this documentation can be used in hard copy as part of a professional portfolio.

SPR03230  ®  [Paper]
Framing leadership in Queensland Catholic schools

Gayle Spry and Patrick Duignan, Australian Catholic University

This paper outlines a research project that seeks to develop a framework for principalship in Queensland Catholic schools. This project is an initiative of the Queensland Catholic Education Commission and is conducted by Catholic Education Leadership, a Flagship of Australian Catholic University. The need for a framework for principalship was identified as a consequence of on-going dialogue regarding leadership succession and shared leadership. It is thought that such a framework would establish the expectations of principalship within a changing context and also guide individuals and employing authorities in job design, career planning and professional development. This project is situated within a constructivist research paradigm and a theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism guides moments of data collection, analysis and interpretation. Phase 1 of the project explores principalship through the use of individual and group interviews. Phase 2 investigates specific issues using electronic data collection. This project is currently in progress with a final report expected in Feb 2004.

STE03518  [Paper]
Restructuring Towards Mainstream

Monte Himone Aranga BMS, MMS, Cert Adult Tchg

In this paper I argue that in restructuring Education programs at Te Whare WSnanga o AwanuiSrangi, we need to be mindful that we do not become like Mainstream institutions. That is, there is an inherent difference between Te Whare WSnanga o AwanuiSrangi and the constellation of Mainstream institutions and that this difference is based on MSori spirituality, Shuatanga MSori and tikanga MSori.

STE03535  [Paper]
Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi ,The Cultural Interface of the Kaupapa Maori Praxis - Its not a Wananga phenomena

Meremaihi Williams

STI03500  [Paper]
Biculturalism in New Zealand Secondary Schools

Carolyn Stirling, Te Uru Maraurau/Maori & Multicultural Education Te Kunenga ki Purehuroa/Massey University Aotearoa/New Zealand

SUL03343  [Paper]
It's a risky business: the place of risk within the curriculum

Ros Sullivan, Auckland College of Education

This is a discussion document, which explores the notions of risk and safety within the Health and Physical Education Curriculum. The focus on risk management and safety are a consequence of concerns and recognition of 'risk' in communities; risks to children's health and safety issues when keeping children safe. The Nationa l Administration Guideline 5 (i), which directs schools to provide a 'safe physical and emotional environment for students' is a manifestation of this concern. Mention is made of the effect that this emphasis on 'risk' and safety has on our teaching 'spaces' and children's learning.

SUL03797  ®  [Paper]
Motivational goals and school achievement Lebanese-background students in South Western Sydney

Rosemary Suliman and Dennis McInerney, University of Western Sydney

Theory of Achievement Motivation stresses that personal goals direct and guide students' cognition and academic behaviour and that the goals stressed by schools play an important role in determining whether students are motivated and succeed at school or not. Personal Goals are defined as cognitive representations of the different purposes that students may have in different achievement situations, and are presumed to guide students' behaviour, cognition, and affect as they become involved in academic work (Roche, McInerney and Marsh, 1997; Pintrich, Max and Boyle, 1993; Ames, 1992; Wentzel, 1991; Dweck and Elliot, 1983). In examining students' school achievement, it is, therefore, important to examine their motivational goals. This study examines the Motivational Goals of Lebanese-background students in South-Western Sydney and the relationship between these and their school achievement.

SUT03046  ®  [Paper]
Hiding in the shadows: risks and dilemmas of plagiarism in student academic writing

Wendy Sutherland-Smith, Deakin University

Effectively dealing with plagiarism in student academic writing poses considerable dilemmas for teachers in all educational spheres. Ineffective management of student plagiarism issues also poses risks to academics and may contribute to the often untenable situations we, as teachers, face when dealing with student plagiarism issues. In this paper I describe the issues tertiary academic staff face when dealing with student plagiarism in the classroom. My research indicates that not only is it difficult to reach an agreed definition of plagiarism, but plagiarism is a multi-layered phenomenon encompassing a spectrum of human intention. The aim of this paper is to encourage policy-makers and academic teaching staff to acknowledge the concerns about uniform and equitable implementation of plagiarism policy. Collaborative re-thinking of plagiarism is needed to reach a workable solution. Until we, as teachers, openly discuss plagiarism in academic writing with our students and amongst ourselves, we risk compounding the problem. Plagiarism then, indeed, will remain a dilemma for us all.

SWE03001  [Paper]
Transition from primary school to secondary school: The beginning of a journey

Gay Sweetser, University of Queensland

This paper encompasses a review of the literature, a description of the intended study, and some preliminary data from the primary school part of the study. A review of the literature has exposed an oversight in that students who were diagnosed with learning difficulties have been the subject of only a few research studies in regard to transition from primary school to high school (Feeney & Best, 1997). In order to contribute to the present research on this topic, case studies will be undertaken to track 15 students of varying abilities and needs as they move through the process of the transition and beyond into their first year of high school. Literacy has been selected as the main focus as research has revealed that students who were described by their primary school teachers as being capable achievers and developers of literacy were better able to cope with change (Luke, 2001). It has also been reported that the students least able to cope with the transition would be the most affected by it (Cairney, Buchanan, Sproats & Lowe, 1998). Some preliminary data from the current study supports the literature especially in regard to students' expectations of the impending transfer to high school.

T

TAI03685  ®  [Paper]
The ADHD debate and the Philosophy of Truth

Gordon Tait, Queensland University of Technology

There is ongoing and wide-ranging dispute over the proliferation of childhood behaviour disorders. In particular, the veracity of the category Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), has been the subject of considerable scepticism. With no end to the debate in sight, it will be argued here that the problem might effectively be approached, not by addressing the specific features of ADHD itself, but rather by a philosophical analysis of one of the terms around which this entire problem revolves: that is, the notion of truth. If we state: 'It is true that ADHD is a real disorder', what exactly do we mean? Do we mean that it is an objective fact of nature? Do we mean that it fits seamlessly with other sets of ideas and explanations? Or do we simply mean that it works as an idea in a practical sense? This paper will examine the relationship between some of the dominant models of truth, and the assertions made by those in the field of ADHD. Specifically, the paper will contrast the claim that ADHD is a real disorder, with the claim that ADHD is a product of social governance. The intention is, first, to place some significant qualifications upon the validity of the truth-claims made by ADHD advocates, and second, to re-emphasise the potential and promise of philosophical investigation in providing productive new ways of thinking about some obstinate and seemingly intractable educational problems.

TAL03051  [Paper]
Online teaching as a reflective tool in constructive alignment

Ayshe Talay-Ongan Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, Sydney

Online learning has infiltrated tertiary learning and teaching applications. It has also presented some serious challenges for learning and teaching outcomes, not the least of which is reducing / eliminating meaningful contact and interaction with students. Nevertheless, online learning presents enrichment in the construction of meaning in student learning through opportunities unfathomable for most university teachers when they were students. In this review, we present our ongoing journey in integrating web-support into teaching undergraduate units in early childhood within a constructive alignment framework (Biggs, 1999), the lessons we learned, and the pedagogical / curriculum reflections and revisions we undertook in quest of maximising teaching learning outcomes for our students. We conclude at this point in our journey, that online learning is an indispensable reflective tool that contributes to student empowerment when it enriches but does not displace face-to-face teaching. Additionally, we maintain that relational and socio-emotional contexts of learning enriched with online communications are paramount in obtaining deep learning.

TAN03096  [Paper]
Assessing the Nature of Science Views of Singaporean Pre-service Teachers

Tan Lip Thye, Boo Hong Kwen

Despite the many developments in the teaching of science, an aspect that contin-ues to be neglected appears to be the character and nature of science (NOS). This is becoming especially important in the light of recent developments in pedagogy, as, for example, more teachers adopt constructivist methodologies and computing technology enables simulations that may blur the lines between models and reality. From the literature, it is known that teachers' modern NOS conceptions, though not a sufficient condition for transmission of modern NOS views, is necessary. In this study, pre-service teachers' NOS conceptions are assessed with an adapted Views of the Nature of Science (VNOS) instrument, originally designed by Lederman, Abd-El-Khalick, Bell, and Schwartz (2002). The modified instrument is an eight-item, open ended questionnaire designed to elicit descriptive responses to common NOS misconceptions. Responses were analysed into coded categories of informed, ill-informed, and ambiguous. It was found that a significant proportion of teachers possessed ill-informed views. Some implications for teaching and teacher educa-tion are presented in this paper for discussion.

TAY03357  [Paper]
The Logic of Equity Practice in Education Queensland 2010

Sandra Taylor and Parlo Singh, Queensland University of Technology

This paper reports on an interview based study relating to the implementation of Education Queensland's new policy directions, with particular attention to social justice issues. Three main areas of the bureaucracy were represented in the interviews: strategic directions, performance and measurement; curriculum and assessment; and workforce and professional development. The study investigated the ways in which equity and 'difference' were being conceptualised in the implementation process. In particular we were interested in how the tensions between redistributive and recognitive approaches to social justice were being managed. We suggest that these tensions reflect the different 'logics of practice' (Bourdieu 1998) operating within the bureaucracy, and that in the pursuit of social justice in education, the 'balance' between redistributive and recognitive approaches may need to change depending on the particular field of practice involved. In addition, we explore the dominant discourses about equity and social justice pervading the logic of equity practice, namely, 'evidence as ideology' or 'evidence based practice'. How, do dominant discourses of 'evidence as ideology' attempt to resolve the contradictory and paradoxical tensions between the redistributive and recognitive aspects of social justice? Moreover, how do policy activists inside the educational bureaucracy manage these tensions/contradictions? This paper, through a systematic analysis of interview data attempts to explore these issues.

TAY03565  [Paper]
Do we know who we are teaching? Teacher education undergraduates' views of the world

Anthea Taylor, University of Western Australia

A prevailing notion exists suggesting contemporary university students are conservative in their views and lacking a commitment to socio-political issues traditionally associated with the varsity. If this is the case, it is of particular concern with regard to those who would be teachers. Such conservatism can represent a worldview that normalizes one's own experience of schooling and indicate a lack of understanding and acceptance of different socio-cultural logics and life experiences . But how conservative are today's teacher education undergraduates and how do their views and opinions sit with their wider youth cohort? This paper draws on the results of a Western Australian state-wide youth survey and compares these with the findings from two cohorts of first year university undergraduate teacher education students. The minor differences found suggest that students are no more or less socio-politically passive than their wider youth cohort.

TEM03237  [Paper]
Fostering physical activity for children in child care

Viviene A. Temple Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and Justen P. O'Connor Monash University Churchill, Victoria, Australia

Australian children spend considerable time in child care. Caregivers and the care environment can appreciably influence the physical activity patterns of children placed in day care centres. The amount and type of physical activity young children engage in can have an impact on later motor skill competence and activity seeking behaviour. This paper is an evaluation of the social and environmental variables that influence physical activity behaviour for children aged 3 - 5 years in centre based long day care environments. Centre based care usually caters for up to 35 children aged from birth to 5 years providing care all-day, or for part of the day, in facilities specially built or adapted for child care. Within Gippsland, Victoria, long day care (N = 3) centers were evaluated to identify affordances and constraints for physical activity. An environment analysis using quantitative techniques was used to describe influencing environmental factors, while three focus group interviews were conducted with staff and administrators exploring feelings towards physical activity. The environment analysis revealed that the opportunities for movement were influenced by the availability of appropriate equipment, time spent outside, weather, rules and regulations, length of stay, and most importantly available space (particularly outdoors). Focus group interviews revealed that all groups valued physical activity for young children, however staff was concerned about their ability to promote physical activity for young children. Issues concerning social and environmental barriers to appropriate physical activity experiences are raised that have implic ations for planners, administrators, carers, and parents of children associated with long day care.

TEM03523  [Paper]
Employers' and students' perceptions of electronic employment portfolios

Viviene A. Temple, Garry Allan, Brad W. N. Temple Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Portfolios are systematic and purposeful collections of an individual's work. Generally there are two types of portfolios: working portfolios, which are intended to be an all encompassing historical record and selection portfolios , where individual items are drawn together for a specific purpose. Portfolios are increasingly being used in educational settings for the purposes of learning and assessment, and in organizational contexts, for documenting professional accomplishment and competence as part of employment selection processes. In teacher preparation programs portfolios are commonly used to demonstrate teaching skills and expertise. Both working and selection portfolios have the potential to capture large amounts of data and as a result, are frequently created in electronic form. Electronic portfolios may potentially include text graphics, audio and video elements. This paper describes action research undertaken within in the School of Medical Sciences at RMIT University focusing on (a) the strengths, weaknesses, and impediments to the effective use by students of electronic portfolios as a means of systematic reflection and presentation of professional competence; and (b) prospective employers satisfaction with the structure and content of electronic portfolios as an aid in employment selection processes.

Summative evaluations of tertiary physical education students' perceptions of using electronic portfolios were obtained via questionnaire, and employers' (i.e., principals and representatives from the Department of Education and Training) perceptions were investigated via a focus group interview. This paper will outline the generic electronic platform used, describe students' and employers' perceptions of the portfolio system, and provide suggestions for future development of electronic working and selection (i.e., employment) portfolios.

TEO03389  [Paper]
Metacognitive Intervention Strategy and Word Problem Solving in a Cognitive-Apprenticeship-Computer-Based Environment

Teong Su Kwang

This paper reports on one strand of a larger investigation to examine the extent to which metacognitive training plays a part in primary students' word problem solving in a computer environment. Four 11 to 12-year-olds from a primary school participated in the study which lasted over a period of eight weeks. Students worked collaboratively in a WordMath (Looi & Tan, 1998) environment where a metacognitive intervention strategy was introduced to promote students' awareness of their cognition. The study adopted a case study design where analysis of two pairs of students' think aloud protocol data during word problem solving was used to explore the role of metacognition in word problem solving in WordMath environment. Findings of the think aloud protocol data suggested that students had distinctive progressions of word problem solving activity which could be represented by cognitive-metacognitive word problem solving models. These progressions of word problem solving activity seemed to relate to students' success in word problem solving.

THO03684  [Paper]
Bridging Theory and Practice in Leadership Development: A Case Study

Keith Thomas, Graduate School of Management, La Trobe University.

This paper is based on a doctoral study of leadership development within the Defence Force Academy, a pre-commissioning training and education institution for the Australian military. Leadership is a core capability for the military. The paper highlights the changed emphasis in leadership style for the leader and explores evidence of consequent change in the leadership development processes. In examining the relative influence of educational processes, this study highlights a gap between espoused theory and practice, the result of personal and social culture. This fact invites an understanding that development is not entirely an individual issue and suggests an important strategy, in order to bridge the gap between theory and practice, is to understand learning within the social context.

THU03025  [Paper]
Is There A Need For Cyberethics In The Middle School Curriculum

Sharmini Thurairasa, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Dr. Richard Johnson, Deakin University Australia

This research in progress is a qualitative and quantitative case study that is exploring the need for the integration of cyberethics into the curriculum for the middle school years 6 through 8. The broader research question in the study investigates: 'Is there a problem with how school students in the middle years use the Internet in and out of school?' The study has been exploring the level of understanding the group of students have of ethical behaviour on the Internet. This research helps identify areas where an understanding of cyberethics will increase students' current and future understanding in the use of the Internet and their interaction with other aspects of the Internet and its environment. If a student encounters unsafe behaviour on the Internet, the student will be able to behave and act appropriately. The research is also investigating teachers and parents perceptions of the evidence of problems associated with their students/children's access to the Internet.

THW03167  [Paper]
Whistle While You Work? Copyright, education, and the 'man in the street'

Jonathan McKeown-Green - School of Philosophy, University of Auckland; Trevor Thwaites - Centre for the Arts, Auckland College of Education

In a globalised world which purports to encourage the rapid dissemination of information and knowledge there is an increasing use of constraints which set up limitations and boundaries, and often silences many in the so-called 'knowledge society'. This paper questions the fairness and effectiveness of copyright law as well as the coherence of the Intellectual Property doctrine that motivates it. We illustrate with aspects of music, but our remarks apply to copyright everywhere.

We will argue that any Copyright Act unfairly imposes an arbitrary boundary between the activities it protects and those it does not. We will also argue that those who create and develop bear a parental, not proprietary, relationship to their output and cast doubt on the notion of ownership as a creative and intellectual pursuit. In viewing education as a significant casualty of draconian copyright practices, our arguments seek to empower those whom it most effects, both creator and perpetuator.

TIL03311  [Paper]
One Language - Three Nations: perspectives on experiences in the teaching of reading

Jane Tilson, Lecturer and Practicum Co-ordinator School of Education University of Otago
Joan Turner, Senior lecturer English Department Dunedin College of Education

TIL03721  [Paper]
Future directions for intervention programs addressing masculinities and resilience for at-risk boys

Julia Tilling, The University of Queensland

This paper will address the need for gender issues and the discourses of power to be explored within resilient frameworks for successful outcomes for at-risk males in intervention programs. Due to the western valorisation of traditional masculinities, the 'backlash politics' debate internationally constrains the challenges to the existing gender order within intervention programs. The discussion will deal with the notion of hegemonic masculinities and how boys with behaviour problems act out traditional masculinities to gain a sense of male power. It will focus on the notion of at-risk which defines these boys into the new victims of accepted social values and does not address the issues of how men victimise other men from different ethnic, class and sexual preference minority groups, through violent and aggressive tactics. For these boys to explore the interplay of hegemonic masculinities within society, will enable them to move into connecting protective processes/factors within alternative programs and the community. Finally, I make suggestions for the design and implementation for future intervention/preventative programs that will integrate gender construction and resilient protective processes/factors.

TIM03813  [Paper]
Enhancing Family Literacy in Rural Atlantic Canada

Dr. Vianne Timmons, Tracy MacGillivray and Beverly Gerg The University of Prince Edward Island Canada

TRA03142  [Paper]
Why University? A case of socio-cultural reproduction in disadvantaged secondary schools

Deborah Tranter, University of South Australia

This paper draws on research undertaken as part of my doctoral thesis on the influence of school culture on the higher education aspirations of secondary students in one of the most educationally disadvantaged regions in Australia, the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide. Using a case study approach, I am investigating the attitudes towards higher education of students from three schools in this area, with a particular focus on how and why these students make personal decisions about higher education.

Bourdieu's theory of reproduction in education and the concepts of field, capital and habitus offers one explanation of the ways in which the environments in which people are raised, their conditions of cultural and material existence, shape their attitudes, their means of interpreting the world, and their capacities to engage with academic discourse (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977). Using the voices of the students and teachers, I will use Bourdieu's theories to begin to explore and analyse how the culture of the three schools I am studying shapes the aspirations of students and contributes to their eventual post-school destinations.

TRI03517  [Paper]
Review of the West Australian Department of Education Regulatory Framework

Karen Trimmer, WA Department of Education and Training

In readiness for promulgation and implementation of the new School Education Act 1999 a review of the Western Australian Department of Education's policy framework was commenced in 1999. This included review of the policy framework for governance of schools. Following the 1999 review, significant work was undertaken centrally by the Department to provide coordinated access to all documentation related to policy in a consistent format. Policy and procedures documents for the Department are now maintained and disseminated in a regulatory framework. The regulatory framework is the repository for all mandatory policy and procedures documentation required for governance and is used by principals in decision-making within the school environment. A review of the regulatory framework was recently conducted to determine its current use and establish an empirical base on which to determine the future purpose and structure of the regulatory framework, associated policy documentation and its publication so that these will be in alignment with the strategic direction of the Department. This paper reports the findings of this review and comments on the efficiency and effectiveness of the current regulatory framework and its use in decision making by school principals.

TUR03076  [Paper]
Student teacher professional agency in the practicum

Margaret Turnbull, Auckland College of Education

Withon Giddens' (1984) theory of structuration, all human beings are described as knowledgeable agents or actors. The knowledgeability or competence of an actor is contingent on her or his discursive consciousness. This refers to the actor's ability to articulate reasons for her or his actions. In this paper, utilising Giddens' theory of structuration, the professional practice of six student teachers on their final practicum is analysed and they are depicted as actors who operated with agency. However, when the concept of professional agency was applied through a traidic assessment process, distinct gaps in the professional practice of three of the student teachers are revealed. Professional agency in the practicum refers to the capacity of the student teacher to operate with professional knowledge, skills dispositions and understanding in all professional practice contexts. Factors that contributed to and detracted from student teacher professional agency in the final practicum are identified and a model for promoting student teacher professional agency is presented.

TUR03734  [Paper]
'I was fine last year:' A Study of why student-teachers fail on the final long teaching placement.'

Dr. Rosie Turner- Bisset and Mrs Shirley Revitt, Dr. Rosie Turner-Bisset

This paper presents a study of the reasons for failure of final year students on a four-year initial teacher training course. The situation which gave rise to the research question was that a number of students, who seemed to pass at an average level on the first three teaching placements, struggled to attain an adequate standard on their final placement. As a department we wanted to know if we could avoid this situation through knowing more about the reasons for failure in the final year. Accordingly, our aims were:

• to investigate reasons for student-teacher failure on the final teaching practice;
• to develop a model of teacher development based on shared understandings of the process of learning
• to teach, between university supervisors, teachers in partnership schools, and student-teachers.

There were three strands to the methodology:

1. Analysis of a sample of observation booklets from all four years of the BEd, including all failing students, and a selection of 'average' and 'outstanding' students. In the institution where the research took place, all of the observations of teaching, student self-assessments, professional development plans, interim and final reports from the school, are contained in one document: the observation booklet. Students have one of these for each placement they undertake.
2. Group interviews with a sample of teachers who have had outstanding or failing stud ents on the final placement in 2001
3. Group interviews with a sample of full and part time supervisors.

Transcripts of interviews and observation booklets were analysed according to categories developed partly from the data themselves, and partly from Turner-Bisset's (2001) model of levels of reflection. The findings from this study have the potential to inform teacher development and initial teacher education in Europe and beyond. Issues of wastage, failure and retention are of considerable importance especially in contexts of teacher shortages.

U

USS03287  [Paper]
Community and belonging online: Factors affecting student enthusiasm, attitude and learning in a teacher education programme.

V

VAD03507  [Paper]
Activity Theory and the construction of a community of scholarship amongst postgraduate research students

John Cripps Clark (Deakin University)

This paper pursues two intersecting but independent paths of description and analysis

1. We discuss how Activity Theory has been used by a group of postgraduate research students at Deakin University; and
2. use an Activity Theory analyses to examine the role and functioning of this group which formed to circle of discussion of Activity Theory (codat).

VER03682   [Paper]
Understanding scaffolding and the ZPD in educational research

Irina Verenikina, University of Wollongong

As the focus of Australian educational research has shifted to studying the quality of teacher intervention, the notion of scaffolding is becoming increasingly popular among educators in different areas such as literacy and numeracy, early childhood education and educational psychology for adults. Vygotskian socio-cultural psychology, and the zone of proximal development (ZPD) in particular, is commonly referred to as the theoretical underpinnings of scaffolding. However, the interpretation of the term and its implementation varies significantly from study to study. An oversimplified approach to scaffolding can lead to its interpretation as direct instruction which is a concern. This paper examines the ways that scaffolding has been interpreted, defined and implemented in educational research. The definitions and explanations of scaffolding in modern texts on educational psychology for pre-service teachers are also reviewed. The ways that different aspects of the concept of the zone of proximal development have been reflected and utilised are analysed.

W

WAL03460  [Paper]
Building interactive relationships: The risks, dilemmas and learning initiatives associated with partnerships with 'real' purpose

Colleen Cooling, Trudy Graham, Teresa Moore and Bernadette Walker-Gibbs Waraburra State School and Faculty of Education and Creative Arts, Central Queensland University

WAL03644  [Paper]
Entering the field of Research - A Beginning Indigenous Researcher's Experience

Val Wallace School of Indigenous Australian Studies James Cook University

Entering the field of research can pose many dilemmas for beginning researchers. Learning the meaning of new terms; developing new knowledge and skills and applying all this to the practical situation can be a daunting experience. Working as an individual on your own project also adds to the pressure of acquiring skills one needs to become confident in achieving outcomes. Entering the field of research can be even more complex for beginning Indigenous researchers who may be faced with dealing with conflicting knowledge and values, as traditionally research has been very much in the non- Indigenous domain therefore reflecting such values and methodologies. This symposium paper examines the experiences of a beginning Indigenous researcher in identifying and addressing the issues involved.

WAR03165  [Paper]
Teacher practice and the integration of ICT: Why aren't our secondary school teachers using computers in their classrooms?

Lorrae Ward The School of Education, The University of Auckland

The integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is seen as a priority by governments and schools here and overseas. Yet despite the resultant provision of infrastructure and professional development little appears to be happening in secondary school classrooms. This paper describes a study undertaken in four New Zealand secondary schools recommended as being successful in their implementation of ICT. Data obtained during this study regarding the current levels and types of use as well as potential constraints are discussed. Findings from the study support the contention that there is only limited use of computers in classroom practice. They also show that there is a clear need to do more than provide infrastructure and professional development if this level of use is to increase and the current level of expenditure be justified in terms of improving teaching and learning. Finally a theory of action for increasing the use of computers in classroom practice is suggested.

WAR03832  [Paper]
Actor Network Theory goes to School

Wendy Warren, Deakin University

Actor Network Theory (ANT) is explored as a useful tool in researching the intersection of English teaching and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), to understand the complex interaction of influences, both human and non-human, that combine to achieve a particular outcome, in this case the uptake of ICTs by English teachers in an Australian school. What this means is that alongside interviewing the teachers, administrators and technical support people, recognition is given to the influence of inanimate objects such as computers, bluestone walls and curriculum documents. This constructs a more complex picture of the change process accounting both for the invisible ideology of teacher beliefs as well as the technical capacity and incapacity of machines, buildings and policies. At the heart of ANT lies the metaphor of the heterogeneous network which is made up of diverse, not simply human, materials. Often these networks become consolidated as single point actors e.g. the English curriculum, the computer laboratory, the library, which are then seen as fixed entities rather than an amalgamation of parts prone to change. ANT allows for the constituent parts to be investigated, and following Bruno Latour's Aramis, (1996) this can be done creatively by literally giving voice to inanimate objects such as computers.

WAT03244  ®  [Paper]
re(Forming) the 'Physical' in a curriculum / pedagogy for Health: A socio-ecological perspective

Brian Wattchow and Justen O'Connor, Monash University

This paper argues for an inclusive and socio-ecological approach to health, physical education, outdoor and environmental education curriculum and pedagogy. Recent changes to school Health and Physical Education (Australia), and Health, Physical Education and Home Economics (New Zealand) curricula has created new possibilities and challenges for educators and learners. These reforms require learners, teachers and teacher educators to carefully consider how such a curriculum will be enacted in practice. The paper presents a paradigmatic reconnaissance of the discourses that have informed these changes which is matched with reconciliation at the pedagogical level. An analysis of the implications of this change will be presented together with a socio-ecological perspective of health through the 'physical'.

WAT03297  ®  [Paper]
The vocabulary of statistical literacy

Jane Watson and Ben Kelly, University of Tasmania

This paper considers the development of school students' understanding of three terms that are fundamental to statistical literacy: sample, random, and variation. A total of 738 students in grades 3, 5, 7, and 9 were asked in a survey to define and give an example for the word sample. Of these, 379 students in grades 7 and 9 were also asked about the words random and variation. Responses were used to describe developmental levels overall and to document differences across grades on the understanding of these terms. Changes in performance were also monitored after lessons on chance and data emphasising variation for 335 students. After two-years, 132 of these students and a further 209 students who were surveyed originally but did not take part in specialised lessons, were surveyed again. The difference after two-years between the performance of students who experienced the specialised lessons and those who did not was considered, revealing no differences in performance longitudinally. For students in grades 7 and 9 the association of performance on the three terms was explored. Implications for mathematics and literacy educators are discussed.

WAT03713  [Paper]
Post-Progressivism and the Body of Writing

Megan Watkins University of Western Sydney

WAU03410  ®  [Paper]
Aligning secondary school classroom culture and pedagogy with attitudinal and achievement outcomes

Russell Waugh, Edith Cowan University, Robert Cavanagh and Graham Dellar, Curtin University of Technology

The study was grounded on theoretical propositions and empirical research concerning school effectiveness, classroom effectiveness, school improvement and school renewal. In particular, the notion that improving student learning outcomes through improving and renewing schools is dependent on changing classroom cultures of learning and teaching.

A model of classroom culture consisting of student educational values (dependent variable), formal learning outcomes (dependent variable), and the attitudes and behaviours of students, the teacher and parents (independent variables) was proposed. Hypothesised relationships between the dependent and independent variables were tested by multiple regression analysis of data from 988 students obtained from administration of a Rasch model classroom culture instrument. The classroom learning attitudes and behaviours of students were found to directly relate to educational outcomes, as were teacher expectations and parent attitudes and behaviours. The attitudes and behaviours of students and teachers towards classroom collaboration and caring were not confirmed to directly relate to learning outcomes.

The findings of the investigation are discussed in consideration of the theoretical assumptions upon which the study was based. This discussion includes identification of the implications of the empirical results for understanding and facilitating renewal of secondary schools with the intention of improving educational outcomes in classrooms.

WEB03438  ®  [Paper]
Is 'education' becoming irrelevant in our research?

Scott Webster, Monash University

It is argued in this paper that in a culture of 'performativity' research into 'education' is often avoided. It is observed in many research publications that attention is given to techniques of learning, teaching, management, social equity, identity formation, leadership and delivery of the curriculum, without a justification being offered as to why such instrumental approaches should be regarded as being 'educational'. Often research quite unproblematically adopts rational-economic justifications couched in terms of 'efficiency' and 'effectiveness'. Such approaches are however identified as nihilistic and not educational (Blake et al., 2000).

In his book After Virtue (1984), Alasdair MacIntyre argues that the language of morality is under a state of grave disorder. It is here argued that similarly the language of education is also under threat of becoming 'irrelevant' in a highly technocratic world. Pring (2000) describes the discourse of education as consisting of five concepts: learning; teaching; process; worthwhileness; and personhood. It is proposed here that these latter three in particular are too often being neglected in our research. This paper seeks to examine how these two concepts of 'worthwhileness' and 'personhood' are integral to education, and how researchers may usefully integrate these into their own research practices.

WEL03198  [Paper]
Online Teaching - the experience of a 'new' academic

A 'new' academic will share her first experience of online teaching in a university environment. As an experienced user of computer technology this academic who is new to teaching in a university environment shared the experience of being 'new' to online teaching and learning with Masters level students. This paper explores the issues associated with online learning from the perspective of the 'teacher' as well as that of the 'learners'. The learners in this study participated in project-based learning experiences in an online unit taught by staff in the Faculty of Education. It will consider the issues that arose during the semester including the use of a new technology (new to the university) as well as the experience of participation in project-based learning in an online learning environment. The manner in which students dealt with the issues associated with this learning experience in an online environment will be presented.

WER03088  [Paper]
Comprehension after one year at school

Susan Werner & Stuart McNaughton, The University of Auckland

WHI03074  [Paper]
A Struggle to be Human

Greer White and Gayle Spry, Australian Catholic University

This paper draws on doctoral research that explores boys' understandings of masculinity. It reports on a doctoral study conducted in an all boys' Australian, secondary college with almost 300 Year 12 students. This paper presents boys' descriptions of the qualities they consider make for masculinity and the processes involved in becoming masculine. It highlights the dichotomy experienced by some of these boys between ideal expressions of masculinity and humanity. This research has implications for gender education within schools. It illustrates that boys' life education into masculinity is limited. This is a work in progress.

WHI03354  ®  [Paper]
Professional paradoxes: Context for development of beginning teacher identity and knowledges

Julie White and Julianne Moss, The University of Melbourne

It is anticipated that the current workforce of teachers in Victoria, Australia will retire within the next 5-15 years. The paradox for teachers at the career entry point is that while they are expected to quickly assume responsibility for education in this state, beginning teachers are reporting dissatisfaction with teaching and describing it as an 'unprofessional' profession. Drawing from recently commissioned research for the Victorian Institute of Teaching, a study of sixty beginning teachers and a micro study of the 'internship' experience of teacher educators, this paper explores the consequences of what counts as professional knowledge. By problematising identity issues for beginning teachers it is hoped that greater understanding of the complexities of their realities is revealed. The aspirations for the (re) generation of a profession are entangled in discordant displacement of meanings of what it is to become a teacher. What do 'othering' and power(less) positions of beginning teachers mean for the immediate future of the profession? What then are the implications for school contexts, colleague support and pre-service teacher education?

WHI03605  [Paper]
Learning to be a teacher - Examining the role of self as researcher in a phenomenological study

Dr Simone White, Faculty of Education, Deakin University, Australia

Many qualitative studies position the researcher as either an impartial observer or as an active participant in any given gathering of humanistic data. This paper presents the researcher in a different paradigm and emphasises the importance of the researcher's story being told as well as those of the participants. The paper presents the research of a doctoral study that used a phenomenological framework and adopted a narrative inquiry approach. Narrative inquiry was used as it recognised that particular research interests often have their genesis in the researcher's own experience and background. This study focused on how you can explore the role of self -as-researcher in order to be open to listen and report on the findings of those who we study.

WIL03050  [Paper]
Student Performance and Spatial Orientation - a Qualitative Perspective.

Mrs Judy Williams Christchurch College of Education & Mr. Randall Gibson Wellington Institute of Technology

WIL03428  [Paper]
Compulsory Testing: Salutory Tales And Their Implications For New Zealand Education

Ruth Williams, Acting Programme Leader, Bachelor of Education (Teaching). & Helen Dixon, Principal Lecturer, Faculty of Postgraduate Studies and Research, Auckland College of Education, Auckland, New Zealand

In order to solve some of the complex problems facing education systems in recent years, governments in many Western capitalist societies have attempted to make schools and teachers more accountable. How the profession is made accountable is dependent both on how teachers' work is defined and on assumptions about how their work can be monitored and improved. The proponents of compulsory national testing, in arguing that such regimes are necessary to improve the quality of schooling and teachers, are advocating for a bureaucratic model of accountability. In the United States and in England, the introduction of compulsory testing reflects that accountability agenda.

Much of the most recent literature, however, emphasises the negative effects that compulsory testing is having on various education systems and their constituent populations: pupils, teachers, districts and communities. While currently in New Zealand, we do not currently have compulsory national testing we are not immune to the possibility and should never become complacent that such a prospect is unlikely to occur. The argument is made in this paper that the introduction of compulsory testing here in New Zealand must be resisted at all costs.

WIL03788  ®  [Paper]
Re-thinking Aboriginal History: Self-concept for a nation

James Wilson-Miller, University of Western Sydney

It has been said that history is written by the victors and this is certainly true of the Australian experience over the last 215 years, as regards Indigenous history. Early history has largely been written from ethno-centric perspectives with writers believing they were witnessing the dying embers of an almost extinct society. Many writers had no intimate knowledge of Indigenous society and as such their writings often misrepresented the whole foundation of Indigenous society by their recordings of what they found interesting and ignoring those aspects of our society we consider central. Aboriginal history research still seems to be carried out largely by non-Indigenous academics with only small-scale focused studies that are often 'one-shot' in nature undertaken by Aboriginal researchers who are usually fulfilling the requirements of tertiary education. Aboriginal history research still tends to follows existing methodologies rather than developing new synergistic methodologies. The purpose of this presentation is to: provide a rationale for rethinking Australia's Aboriginal history from an Indigenous perspective; present a new dynamic holistic model for reconceptualising the analysis of and value of Aboriginal history that incorporates past, present and future perspectives; and advocate stronger methodological approaches to the study of Aboriginal history.

WON03264  [Paper]
Using an e-learning platform to craft 'National Education' project tasks

Choon Lang Quek, Shanti Divaharan and Angela Wong, Nanyang Technological University Singapore

Project Work (PW) is implemented across all levels in all schools in Singapore. The objective is to help students develop creative and critical thinking, communication, collaborative learning, self-directed inquiry and life-long learning skills. In the initial stages of PW implementation, the teachers were provided with detailed guidelines and resource packages to help them get started. After that period, teachers were expected to design authentic project tasks of their own. Often, they had to schedule and hold numerous face-to-face discussions with their colleagues to discuss the requirement, scope and depth of a project task. We feel that the technology, that is, the e-learning platform, could be better deployed to hold these discussions more effectively. In addition, since the National Education (NE) issues have grown in importance as Singapore matures as a nation, the crafting of NE theme-based PW tasks will expose the teachers to a wide variety of topics that are current as well as pertinent. This paper documents how a group of trainee teachers used the e-platform to design NE theme-based projects collaboratively. The activities they engaged in will be shared. Suggestions and the feasibility of adopting such an online learning approach for PW in schools will also be discussed.

WON03819  [Paper]
Toward an agenda for helping the beginning teacher: Perceptions of concerns and best help strategies

Yuen-Fun Isabella Wong, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

The study outlined in this paper in one element of a research project that was designed to determine, from the beginning teachers' perspective, the nature and extent of professional and personal concerns beginning teachers have; to investigate existing assistance and support dtrategies available to them; to hear the beginning teachers''voices on what best facilitates the solution to their concerns; and to determine if current induction programs and practices meet thei professional and personal needs. The study used a Q-technique factor analytic method, which allows factoring across a series of test items resulting in clusters of persons relative to a given construct. Results suggest that the instrument is useful in clarifying how beginning teachers''concerns may be configured. This study indicated that although all beginning teachers seem to have some of the same concerns and problems, beginning teacher concerns cannot be seen in isolation. Rather, individuals have their own unique models of concerns and unless these are understood, the strategies, school leaders and induction programme planners employ to help and support the beginning teachers may be rendered ineffective. The study also looked at the types of support given to new teachers and how the beginning teachers valued them. The results suggested that teachers valued support practices that were more personal and interactive. This paper concludes with suggestions that may be adopted by teacher preparation institutions, school leaders, induction programme planners and school staffs to help beginning teachers feel confident and competent in their new profession.

WOO03385  [Paper]
Collegial learning and collective capacities

Helen Woodward and Cynthia Hall, University of Western Sydney

According to MacGilchrist, Myers and Reed (1997) schools have a range of collective capacities and depending on how those capacities are utilized as to the degree of benefit that can come from the resulting collaboration. Looking at school as a learning organisation Yinger and Hendricks-Lee (1993) argue that 'ecological intelligence' is more that a crude sum of the parts. There is not much doubt that this 'ecological intelligence' and the collective capacity of any group, used wisely, advantage all involved. This process has been proven yet again through a research program as part of the "Fair Go" research concentration at the University of Western Sydney. This is a program where is it expected that the people within the school community (teachers parents and children) will collaborate and together develop 'new' or 'improved' classroom pedagogy. We have taken this collaboration one step further.

This paper will describe the processes and the results of forming not only a collaborative group within one school but also of the forming a collegial network across five schools in the Western Sydney. After several meetings participants decided on a common core of professional development, that of student engagement leading towards improved student outcomes. While each school took its own pathway there were many commonalities. A collegial network was formed and a network team developed. The benefits of such a network at both individual school level and at the collegial level are great with the collegial learning and collective capabilities profiting all those involved.

WRI03286  [Paper]
Keeping ourselves honest? Research relations in data collection

Natasha Wright and Jo-Anne Reid, School of Teacher Education, Charles Sturt University

The research process rarely evolves as originally expected, and unforseen ethical dilemmas often require consideration. The authors raise several issues that confront student and supervisor, as an early-career researcher is constituted as an educational researcher in relation to professional research subjects. This paper discusses the uncertainties that a new researcher experiences in the field as she collects interview data from more experienced and obviously older teaching professionals than herself. We reflect on the issues arising when research appears to be compromised by gatekeepers to schools pre-selecting participants prior to the researcher entering the site? What are the ethics of gaining participants' consent without coercion, especially in school settings? Using these as illustrative of the sorts of ethical dilemmas that have arisen in the process of doctoral data collection, we explore the tensions and contradictions inherent in the construction of new educational researchers.

X, Y

YAR03483  [Paper]
ECU Swan partnership: The Greenmount Primary School experience

Beverley Yardley, Edith Cowan University

Edith Cowan University is undergoing a program of renewal with a view to build mutually productive relationships with partner schools. A pivotal component of this initiative is the professional practice of student teachers. The paper will examine the perceptions and experiences of a group of fourth year Bachelor of Education student teachers, undergoing their final 9-week teaching practicum in a partner school. Professional practice in a partner school is seen as one that promotes the engagement of students in professional activities that lead to enhanced teaching and learning. A focus of this paper will be the nexus between how the school viewed the contribution of the student teachers and incorporated these into the school initiatives and priorities. The paper explores the relationships between the Principal, the mentor teachers, student teachers, the university liaison member and the degree to which this has enhanced student teacher and school staff professional learning and development.

YAT03139  ®  [Paper]
Gender differences in perceptions of school climate: A longitudinal study of school reform

Shirley Yates, Flinders University

While several studies attest to significant relationships between student perceptions of school climate and educational achievement, these associations have not been studied over time in the context of school reform. Co-education was introduced into a single sex non-government boys' school in South Australia in 1999. The restructuring of the school took place initially at the secondary school level, with girls admitted to the primary school grades in 2000. Educational progress and perceptions of relationship and personal dimensions of school climate were measured annually in all primary and secondary students in the school over a four-year period from 1999. Structural equation modelling has revealed significant relationships between students' gender, educational progress and perceptions of the relationship dimensions of cohesiveness, friction and satisfaction and the personal dimensions of competitiveness and difficulty of schoolwork. In particular, perceptions of interpersonal friction within the school play a significant pivotal role in students' educational progress and perceptions of the school's learning environment's psychosocial climate. These results have clear implications for the ongoing debate of whether boys and girls should be educated separately or together.

YOR03010  [Paper]
A History of the Frames

Alicia Yorke, PhD Candidate, College of FineArts, The University of New South Wales

YOU03135  [Paper]
Getting to the heart of servant leadership: An exploration of multi-strategy methodology

Howard Youngs, Bethlehem Institute, Tauranga, New Zealand

The initial journey that a developing researcher takes down the methodology 'road' can be fraught with confusion and dilemmas. Epistemological arguments can pull the researcher first one way and then th e other. This paper describes and illustrates the research journey I experienced as a developing researcher while carrying out a case study of the practice of servant leadership in a higher education institution.

The first part of this paper describes the dilemmas that were faced and how these lead to me employing a technical approach (Bryman, 2001) to the research methodology rather than an epistemological one. This enabled the context of the research to shape the methodology and subsequently I was able to employ both qualitative and quantitative research tools for the case study. The second and more substantial part of this paper draws on the research data from the case study to illustrate the research design that employed triangulation, facilitation, and complementary approaches to multi-strategy research (Hammersley, 1996). The aim of employing these approaches was to establish more rigor in the research process, particularly since there has been a paucity of research carried out in the field of servant leadership (Foster, 2000; Laub, 2000; Russell & Stone, 2002).

YOU03353  [Paper]
An Investigation into the Influences of Teachers' Classroom Management Beliefs and Practices on Classroom Procedures

Germine Youssef, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne

YOU03454  ®  [Paper]
Predicting patterns of early literacy achievement: A longitudinalstudy

Janelle Young , Australian Catholic University

Research has shown that children who commence school with advanced language and literacy-related knowledge and understandings are more likely to become successful readers and writers (Clay, 1966, 1979; Hall, 1987; McNaughton, 1995; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002; Teale & Sulzby, 1986; Wells, 1985; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 2001; Yaden, Rowe, & McGillivray, 2000). In contrast, those who commence school with poorly developed oral language skills and little personal experience and conscious awareness of print, have a much greater chance of experiencing early literacy difficulties. A study with 114 young children investigated predicting patterns of early literacy achievement in Year 1 by examining the relationship between children's phonological awareness skills and understandings in the prior-to-school period (preschool) with a range of measures of literacy after five months in Year 1. The study took place in three large metropolitan schools in the state of Queensland, Australia. Results showed preschool measures of phonological awareness correlated with literacy achievement five months after commencing Year 1. Cluster analyses too were utilized and these results also predicted Year 1 results and identified best performing and poorest performing clusters of children.

YOU03459  ®  [Paper]
Parent partnerships in primary schools: An emerging model

Janelle Young and Elizabeth Warren, Australian Catholic University

Despite almost universal acceptance of the need for parents and school personnel to develop shared goals and work together, barriers exist, and few schools have developed and maintained successful partnerships. Parent involvement in schools has been acknowledged as having a positive effect on learning outcomes for children, and educational policies in English-speaking nations reflect these findings. Schools now are being encouraged and even expected to develop collaborative partnerships. A study of schools where successful parent partnerships were operating, investigated this question. Principals in Catholic schools in Queensland were asked to volunteer for the study if they perceived their school demonstrated a successful parent partnership. Nine schools volunteered for the study and this paper addresses data from two middle class similar-sized schools located in different regions in Queensland, Australia. While both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered for the larger study, qualitative data only gathered from interviews with parents and school personnel were utilised for this paper. Analyses showed distinct common stages of development for building partnerships and an emerging model, the Parent Partnership Model is reported.

Z

ZIP03298  [Paper]
Collegiality: The foundation of a successful internship program

Linda McLuskie and Reyna Zipf, Central Queensland University

A best practise internship model, will lead to enhanced learning outcomes for interns and stronger relationships between all partners. While this is true regardless of the setting of the internship, this paper focuses on interns in the field of education.

We present two case studies. One case study examines the experience of interns in a small Central Queensland primary school with a teaching Principal, and the other examines the experiences of four students in a primary school in Coalsville - a small, coalmining town situated 400 kilometres from the Central Queensland coast.

Conclusions will be drawn about the effectiveness of the 2003 Central Queensland University (CQU) Bachelor of Learning Management (BLM) internship program as a bridge that connects interns with their new career paths and supports them as they walk across the great divide through the development of collegial relationships. It also draws conclusions about the BLM program as one that prepares inclusive educators.

ZUN03107  [Paper]
Can Big Brother watch? The challenges of Interactive Video teaching.

Lucie Zundans and Natasha Wright, School of Teacher Education, Charles Sturt University

The authors of this paper present their perspectives on the effectiveness of interactive video teaching (IVT) as an educational tool. This method has been used to teach science and technology and educational psychology at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst. New technological advancements constantly challenge academics in their quest to provide quality educational programs. This is particularly overwhelming for early career academics still adapting to the higher education environment. The School of Teacher Education has been using interactive video teaching for the past few years to deliver subjects to the Dubbo campus with varying success. This hybrid mode of delivery presents many challenges. Due to the practical elements embedded in the subjects taught, the instructors felt it necessary to implement alternative teaching and assessment strategies. Other challenges included the reliability of the system, interaction capabilities and the development of human relations.

ZYN03472  [Paper]
Engaging programs: How are Australian schools responding to low student retention?

David Zyngier and Trevor Gale, Monash University

Currently, there is significant interest and concern within Australian schooling in relation to low student attendance, retention and achievement. Many schools are responding to these issues by developing and implementing alternative programs and/or utilising or modifying programs developed elsewhere, adapting them to their own local understandings of their students' specific needs. This paper reports research focused on the programs employed by twelve such schools, clustered on the edge of a major city and experiencing comparatively high rates of student disengagement. The intent of this research was to examine how schools understand the 'problem' of student disengagement and its potential 'resolution' and to compare this with students' own understandings of these issues, particularly for students 'at risk'. Data collected in the research includes surveys and interviews with teachers and students involved in programs that offered alternatives to the schools' traditional curricula. Preliminary analysis of the data indicates that more than 50% of these programs were concerned with helping students to 'fit in' with school expectations, focusing on student 'well-being', behaviour modification and life skills. And, in almost 70% of programs, student entry / enrolment was determined by teachers. In examining these and other data, we argue that program 'success' needs to take account of students own reasons for why they are disengaged from schooling and what changes schools and teachers themselves might need to consider, including the interests and involvement of students in decision-making processes

Engaging programs: How are Australian schools responding to low student retention?