AARE Conference Paper Abstracts - 2006
ISSN 1324-9339

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ABSTRACTS of CONFERENCE PAPERS 2006

A

ABD06289    ®   PDF Paper
Implicit Theory of Intelligence Scale: Testing for factorial invariance and mean structure

Sabry Abd-El-Fattah and Greg Yates, University of South Australia

As conceived by Carol Dweck, implicit theory of intelligence concerns the extent to which intelligence is perceived as a malleable trait. This paper presents a new 14-item measure, the Implicit Theory of Intelligence Scale (ITIS). The ITIS was trialled on two samples of 132 and 940 first year university students in Australia and Egypt, respectively. An exploratory factor analysis for each sample retained two factors: entity and incremental. Entity refers to one's perception that his/her intelligence is a fixed, uncontrollable trait that cannot be changed through effort. Incremental refers to one's perception that his/her intelligence is a malleable, controllable quality that can be increased and improved through effort and investment. Entity and incremental factors each incorporated & items and the correlation coefficient between the two factors was found to be around -.3 in each sample. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis revealed that with exception of one item, incremental and entity factors were found to be factorial invariant across both samples. The difference in mean structure was not significant in either sample. Implications of these findings were discussed within the Australian and Egyptian contexts.

Keywords: Motivation and self-concept

ABD06349    ®     PDF Paper
A confirmatory factor analysis of Bath County Computer Attitude Scale within an Egyptian context: Testing competing models

Sabry Abd-El-Fattah and Alan Barnes, University of South Australia,

Developed by Bear, Richards, and Lancaster (1987), the Bath County Computer Attitude Scale (BCCAS) was designed to assess attitudes towards computers within areas of computer use, computer-aided instruction, programming and technical issues, social issues, and computer history. One specific advantage of the BCCAS is that it appears to be suitable for international comparisons, having been used in research in South Africa, India, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Israel. The present study reported on the development of the Arabic language translation of the BCCAS among a sample of 340 undergraduates in Egypt. An exploratory factor analysis technique retained two factors: expressiveness and instrumental. Expressiveness represents the values and enjoyment associated with using computers. Instrumental represents learning with and about computers. Expressiveness and instrumental factors each incorporated 10 items. A confirmatory factor analysis technique revealed that a second-order two factor model fits the data more appropriately than first-order one or two-factor models. Construct validity was established through substantial correlation coefficients values of the BCCAS with two other measurements of attitudes towards computers. Relevance of these findings to teaching computer skills, learning with computer as well as learners' attitudes towards computer is discussed.

Keywords:Information Communication Technology [ICT]

AFA06011    ®     PDF Paper
Future teachers' developing numeracy and mathematical competence as assessed by two diagnostic tests

Karoline Afamasaga-Fuata'i, University of New England, Paul Meyer, Naomi Falo and Perenise Sufia, National University of Samoa

This paper reports the findings of the first year of a longitudinal numeracy project established to monitor the development of some student teachers' numeracy and mathematical competence. The sample included a group of pre-service students who are enrolled in the Foundation and Primary Education Programs. Data presented here is from the Second Mathematics Diagnostic Test (MDT2) administered in October 2005. Student responses from the two diagnostic tests were analysed using the dichotomous Rasch Measurement Model. Results from the First Diagnostic Testing (MDT1) showed that no one achieved mastery level. A comparison of student performance on both MDT1 and MDT2 was conducted to (a) identify any developmental trends for the group between testing and (b) determine the extent of the impact of normal mathematics content and mathematics education courses on students' numeracy and competence levels. Preliminary findings show that there was improvement in the performance of students by the second testing as a group. The paper will present and discuss performance of sub-groups and selected individuals. Findings will inform the development of customized enrichment programs to re-dress students' numeracy needs before exit. Implications for the teaching of primary mathematics and mathematics education courses are provided

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Mathematics

ALB06175     PDF Paper
Issues facing teacher curricular and pedagogical capacity in mature and emerging education systems

James Albright, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Inspired by a two-year scaleable and sustainable action research intervention project in the Singaporean educational system which is focused on improving Normal Technical (the lowest ability stream) teachers' capacity to design and implement authentic and effective pedagogies in three lower secondary core subject areas (science, mathematics and English language), this paper focus on issues raised by such work across various international contexts. Like many in Australia, Britain, Canada and the USA, this project documents and analyses teachers' content and pedagogical capacity (Luke, 2004). The intervention project offers comprehensive training (Wiggins and McTighe's, 1998, 2005) to help them design, share, and improve their lessons and assessments. And like many others, it attempts to impact teachers' professional beliefs and capacity for curricular and pedagogical innovation and, as a consequence, improve student achievement.

Teacher professional development is now a global conversation. Framed with the particular context of this research, the paper will compare similarities and differences in how the problem(s) of teacher capacity are structured across mature and emerging educational systems. Specifically, issues related teacher agency and professionalism, and the teaching of disadvantaged, low performing students, as they relate to systemic issues around school and educational reform will be addressed.

Keywords: School Renewal and Pedagogic Improvement

ALD06755    ®     PDF Paper
Engaging pedagogies in Mathematics and Science Education: Some key ideas, issues and implications for research and teaching

Carol Aldous, Flinders University

This paper discusses six key ideas and issues related to mathematics and science learning and teaching. These ideas encompass notions of (1) Equity, (2) Service to humanity, (3) Literacy, (4) Knowledge dimensions and their changing emphases, (5) Affective as well as cognitive responses to mathematics and science, and (6) Connections to technology. The implications of these ideas in identifying new directions for research in mathematics and science education are considered. In particular the need to explicate the connections between content, process, context and affect in mathematics and science learning and teaching is highlighted. Research in creative problem solving within the field of novel mathematics problem solving is pointing to a way in which these links may be found. Such research, it is hoped will engage the future pedagogy of mathematics and science to be more efficacious to the benefit of all students.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

AMO06388    ®     PDF Paper
Connections among school contexts, teaching contexts and the quality of teaching

Wendy Amosa and Sharon Cooper, University of Newcastle

The question of "what matters most" in terms of impact on student achievement has long been an issue of political and academic focus in Australia, as elsewhere. Current debate separates this discussion into two main factions - those who do, and those who do not believe that quality teaching can compensate for the socio-cultural and socio-economic factors that impact on student achievement. The problem with a debate which separates belief in context and belief in teacher quality, is that it effectively removes consideration of the possible effects of the interaction between these factors, implying that they are mutually exclusive.

In this paper, we investigate the connections between socio-cultural and socio-economic factors as they impact on various school contexts, teaching contexts and the quality of teaching. By investigating these connections, not only do we inform the "what matters most" debate, but we provide insights to guide both local and systemic efforts to improve pedagogy that attend to the specifics of context.

Keywords: School renewal and pedagogic improvement

AND06181    ®     PDF Paper
Teaching common fractions in primary school: Teachers' reactions to a new curriculum

Judy Anderson and Monica Wong, University of Sydney

This paper presents teachers' views about changes to a new mathematics curriculum in NSW (BOSNSW, 2002), which significantly increased the expectations of learning about common fractions for primary school children. While current research was used to development a continuum of key ideas for the learning of rational numbers, early consultation suggested teachers were anxious about the new expectations. A range of resource materials were developed and professional development opportunities made available for teachers to support knowledge building and to provide practical advice about the teaching of common fractions. However, while teachers generally report an increase in confidence, there still appears to be concern particularly in relation to fraction equivalence.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Mathematics

AND06868     PDF Paper
French across the curriculum

Andrew Francis and Judith Plessis, University of British Columbia

UBC is a leading university in a bilingual country. UBC students who are able to speak French and English, Canada's two official languages, greatly increase their chances of employment as well as their leadership opportunities in the community, the government and in Canadian businesses.

UBC's proposal is geared towards all students interested in learning any subject in French and is not dedicated to a particular discipline. Students taking French sections of regular credit courses may in the future receive "bilingual" recognition with their UBC degree; however, the main goal of UBC's proposal is to educate bilingual Canadians and International students who will be able to work anywhere in Canada.

To receive the full support of the Francophone Community and to enable native speakers or second-language speakers with a good command of French to practice French in the field of their choice, the Centre must be open to the community. The recent creation of Access Studies at UBC allows non-traditional students who are not necessarily pursuing a degree program to take some credit courses either for credit or audit. Tuition and student service fees are the same as those for regular credit students.

Keywords: Languages and new literacies

ARB06133    ®     PDF Paper
Tenuous belonging: International students, multiculturalism and the manifestation of cosmopolitanism in local schools.

Ruth Arber, Deakin University

This paper is concerned with the 'imagination of community within local/global contexts such as those of Australian schools. In particular, it explores the ways that school community representatives in urban and rural Victoria, Australia discuss the presence of international students within their school communities and the consequences of these understandings for the ways that these students can belong. The paper argues that recent and globalising changes, particularly the impact of international students within schools, have meant that school communities understand the presence of others and therefore themselves in new ways. Arguments derived from mono-cultural and multicultural thought, always ambivalent, take on new forms as school representatives are concerned with a more individualistic and market driven world shaped within a cacophony of local/ global tensions. The paper concludes that in the tenuousness of belonging within local /global communities such as those of Australian schools, understandings of community and its outsiders need to be understood in relation to the contradictory but increasingly pervasive logics of cosmopolitan discourse.

Keywords:Identity, globalisation

ARB06350    ®     PDF Paper
Transmitting music through culture: A way forward to harmonise a discordant world

Ruth Arber and Dawn Joseph, Deakin University

This paper situates itself in an Australian society that has become increasingly globalised and cosmopolitan. It is concerned with the implementation programs and policies that reflect a context of diversity as one that promotes respect for a multicultural society and one that promotes respect for diversity across the community. Considering the contradictory and ambivalent understandings that underpin these discussions and their implications for the conceptual and material conditions that structure the debate, the authors explore the use of teaching African music at tertiary level as a pathway for change. The authors further reflect whether such a diffusion of intercultural dialogue through music can promote cultural tolerance and diversity in our changing world.

Keywords: Multicultural education

ARD06291     PDF Paper
Who's teaching PE/Sport in NSW primary schools? The 'Specialist teacher': A case study

Kathie Ardzejewska, Macquarie University

The delivery of primary education has undergone considerable change. Since the introduction of school based management a practice that anecdotally appears to be gaining ground is the employment of 'specialist teachers' to teach individual Strands or Key Learning Areas. This paper defines a specialist teacher as a person who is employed to teach in a specific Key Learning Area or a Strand or activity of a Key Learning Area. The term specialist does not include 'career specialists' (eg. librarians, special education teachers) employed by DET. How this specialisation has come about is difficult to locate. We know very little about these teachers: how they contribute to teaching, learning, assessment and reporting; and how their performance is managed. This paper describes some of the current practices of specialists in general, and specifically PE/Sport teachers in NSW primary schools. It reports the results of a questionnaire distributed to all principals in government primary schools. There were 372 responses (response rate of 25%). It also details, where specialists are employed, the relationships between the decision making of the school principal and implementation of the decision. More specifically it attempts to detail why PE/Sport is being given to 'specialists'.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

ASH06126    ®     PDF Paper
Languages teaching in Tasmania: A Critical Discourse Analysis perspective

Greg Ashman and Thao Le, University of Tasmania

Language teaching and learning have received great attention from researchers, teachers, and the public around the world. However, the rational for teaching languages and the associated curriculum vary a great deal depending on the discourses in which languages teaching is situated. Traditionally, languages teaching is seen as a subject which promotes intellectual development in learners. As language, society and culture are deeply linked, the traditional view does not reflect this intricate connection. Languages teaching and learning can be powerfully examined from the CDA perspective as CDA does not pay attention only to surface manifestations and explicit rationales for understanding languages teaching discourse, but more importantly it critically examines powerful messages implicitly and explicitly embedded in the discourse. This paper examines the discourse of language teaching in Tasmania. It initially focuses on the historical development of languages teaching and moves to the emerging discourses in Tasmania.

Keywords: Languages and New Literacies

ASK06453     PDF Paper
"If you are just sick you could make your own chicken soup. But if it's a mental illness - you can't fix yourself." Teaching secondary school students about mental illness

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

This paper reports a classroom based investigation into the MindMatters curriculum resource "Understanding Mental Illness" (UMI). We observed the teaching of the UMI module in three secondary classrooms. We measured students' knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions in relation to mental illness both before and after the teaching of the UMI module. We also held focussed discussions with teachers about teaching the UMI module and teaching about mental illness and mental health in general. Paired sample t-tests on students' knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions, showed statistically significant improvements in students' scores from pre-teaching to post teaching. Students' in-class comments also indicated their increasing awareness of issues related to mental illness. Discussions with teachers raised pedagogical issues such as, finding ways to teach about profound issues such as mental illness in non-trivial ways; accommodating differing levels of development of students' conceptual understandings; and the value of stories for changing people's knowledge and attitudes. Teachers highlighted a lack of teacher expertise about mental illness and the implications this has for integrating modules such as UMI across the curriculum. Teachers also indicated a need for frameworks of scope and sequence to guide teaching about UMI in particular, and mental health in general.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

ASK06454     PDF Paper
"Well the first thing I done was to ask my Mum to go on the internet" A classroom based investigation into Year 8 students' knowledge about learning

Helen Askell-Williams and Michael Lawson, Flinders University

Students require knowledge that allows effective self-management of their learning. When students learn they use and construct knowledge in different domains. For example, they develop knowledge about subject-matter, knowledge about themselves and others, knowledge about their learning situations and knowledge about the learning process itself. This paper reports a classroom based investigation into interactions that occur between different knowledge domains. We conducted taped, in-class interviews about learning with a class of Year 8 students before, during and after their engagement with a self-selected independent investigation that ran during a whole school term. We used NUD*IST data analysis software to thematically code the students' statements. Certain themes were well represented, such as personal interest, planning and organising, information gathering and asking questions. Other themes were less well represented, such as metacognitive monitoring and higher order thinking about the gathered information. Students focussed upon the collection and presentation of gathered information, but did not appear to engage in thinking that allowed them to "go beyond the information given". More precise knowledge about the interactions between students' knowledge domains, such as between subject matter knowledge and learning process knowledge, will enable teachers and students to act more effectively during teaching and learning.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

AUH06592    ®     PDF Paper
Perceptions of Primary School Teaching by First Year Education Students

Myung-sook AUH, University of New England

The purpose of the study was to investigate first-year Education students' perceptions of selected aspects of primary school teaching. This information can be useful for teacher educators to understand where the first-year Education students stand in terms of their views on primary education, and to provide appropriate support system if their perceptions change over the four year program. Participants were 99 first-year Education students in Bachelor of Education in Primary Education at a regional university in NSW, Australia. Data were collected using the Primary Teaching Questionnaire (PTQ), devised by the investigator, and were analyzed using statistical analysis and coding methods. Results showed that their perceptions about primary school teaching were positive, and in some cases, idealistic. They wanted to make an impact on children's life and make a difference as future leaders. They listed personal qualities appropriate for primary school teachers, such as a caring mind, enthusiasm, humour, passion for teaching, patience, flexible, engaging, open-minded, and rated themselves highly for these qualities. They think creativity is important in order to motivate children and to develop creative potential in children. Many students think they will be happy staying in primary teacher positions for many years to come.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education programs

AUH06593    ®     PDF Paper
Developing a Model for Primary Music Pedagogy Course to Build Student Teachers' Confidence in Teaching Music

Myung-sook AUH, University of New England

The purpose of the study was 1) to determine whether a primary music pedagogy course utilizing two research-based pedagogical approaches significantly improve primary student teachers' confidence in teaching music, and 2) to develop a model for a primary music pedagogy course based on findings of this study. The National Review of School Music Education (Australian Government, DEST, 2005) pointed out the urgent need for quality teacher education for primary music due to the poor quality of music education in schools. Participants were 83 student teachers enrolled in Bachelor of Education at a university in NSW, Australia. Data were collected using the Primary Music Teaching Questionnaire (PMTQ), administered as pretest and posttest, and from student teachers' reflection notes. Results showed that: 1) Student teachers' confidence improved significantly at the end of the course (p < .05). 2) Many student teachers wrote that the group singing performances in front of peers were enjoyable and made them confident in music. 3) Individual teaching presentations gave them an opportunity to actually teach music. 4) Their posttest responses showed that the primary music pedagogy course provided them with sufficient music teaching skills, strategies, and resources. A model for a primary music pedagogy course is suggested.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education programs

AUL06613    ®     PDF Paper
Reconsidering study guides for distance education: A methodological framework for digitising study guides

Glenn Auld and Holli Tonyan, Monash University

Kress and Van Leuwen's (2001) theory of multimodality identifies elements of discourse, design, production and distribution in multimodal texts. This study uses the above-described four elements to analyse the digitisation of study guide materials for a group of Singaporean students studying in off-campus mode for a Master of Education (Early Childhood). The study guide was presented on CD with digital videos, quotes from assigned readings and stimulus questions to which the students could type in their responses and save to a disk. Although some students had problems accessing the study guides in Singapore, this research highlights the strengths in using the four elements of multimodality as a methodological framework for transforming tertiary study guides from print to digital media. Understandings of Rogoff's (1993) concept of guided participation and Feenberg's (2002) critical approach to technology strengthened the methodological framework by providing a strong social justification for embarking on multimodal transformations of study guides for tertiary students.

Keywords: Languages and new literacies

AZA06731     PDF Paper
Use of portfolios for assessing practice teaching of prospective science teachers

Saiqa Azam and Hafiz Iqbal, University of the Punjab, Pakistan

The present study is an effort to see the impacts of an effort of introducing portfolios as a part of assessment during teaching practice in a pre-service science teacher education program. The present assessment model for practice teaching is based upon classroom observations. This pilot study was designed to see the impact of including portfolio as an assessment tool to assess and hence to make student teachers to reflect and learn from their own practice. One of the purposes was to minimize the disturbance caused by classroom observation during practice teaching and to prepare students teachers to take responsibility of their own learning. One of the purpose behind this effort was not only to assess the teaching practice but to develop an increased interest in teaching practice and hence in the profession of teaching. This study also intended to develop among prospective science teachers the confidence of teaching and reflect on their teaching experiences as well as to understand teaching as an innovative and creative endeavour to develop them as professional science teachers to take up challenging role of science teaching and hence become an instrument for educational reform in a developing country like Pakistan.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education programs

B

BAG06488      ®        PDF Paper
Collaboration: The Prodigal Process

Margaret Baguley, University of Tasmania

Collaborative processes are beginning to play an increasingly important part in global efforts to control pollution, population and more recently, the threat of terrorism. Technological advances in communication have resulted in a greater sense of the global community in which we live and interact. Traditional concepts and roles are being overturned at a progressively faster rate, resulting in us living in a period of 'necessary interdependence', (Brufee, 1993: 172). As a result, society has become increasingly aware of and more willing to accommodate difference. Socialisation in Western society emphasises competitiveness and self-promotion, factors which do not prepare individuals wishing to undertake a collaborative process characterised by interdependence and mutual compromise. The increasing acceptance and extent of collaborative practice in areas such as contemporary arts is all one reflection of this global situation. An understanding of the creative and innovative approaches, utilising the arts will contribute to an ever-increasing interest, and relevance in contemporary society, particularly as the benefits of collaborating link to creativity in problem-solving. This paper will investigate why collaborative processes are being encouraged in various sectors such as education, and why such processors have appeared only in recent times.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - arts

BAG06504   ®      PDF Paper
Nurturing the research spirit: Confessions of a Generation X-er.

Margaret Baguley, University of Tasmania

Keywords: Post graduate and early career researcher

BAI06026     PDF Paper
Teacher education for effective literacy teaching

Joyce Bainbridge, University of Alberta

This paper presents the findings from the first year of a three-year study that aims to determine the factors that support or hinder the preparation of teachers to teach literacy, specifically reading and writing, at the elementary (Kindergarten to Grade 6) level in Canada. The study, conducted at two large Canadian universities, explored the connections between the literacy courses students are required to take in their basic teacher education program, the students' field experiences, and their expectations and needs as beginning teachers. The study was framed by the following question: What impact does a teacher education program have on beginning teachers' theory and practice of literacy teaching?

The study applied both qualitative and quantitative methods. A total of 721 undergraduate students volunteered to complete a paper and pencil survey instrument, and 40 of them volunteered for in-depth interviews, 20 at each institution. Questions addressed areas such as course assignments and readings; links between the campus program and the field experience; the emerging views and practices of student teachers in the literacy area; and supports and challenges. The presentation highlights the findings and the challenges teacher educators must overcome. Program changes and new ways of working with pre-service teachers will be explored.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education programs

BAK06505    ®     PDF Paper
Nurturing the research spirit: The ivory tower and the teaching-research nexus in developing early career research

Bill Baker, University of Tasmania

After 17 years as a school music educator I feel that I am only now commencing my career as a researcher. Whilst teaching I completed my postgraduate studies out of a sense of personal curiosity and a professional desire for challenge, but also with a view to possibly entering the tertiary sector at some stage in the future. The catalyst for that change came as my role became increasingly that of an administrator and human resource manager - labels that removed me further from the areas of teaching, scholarship and inquiry. In my first year in the tertiary environment starting the research journey has however proven to be more complex than I thought, and I have entered an environment in which my previous perceptions of the 'ivory tower' have been seriously challenged. The need to get "runs on the board" with articles and conferences before applying for grants, the need to generate data in order to do either, and the pressure to "teach more" whilst developing a research profile contribute to this complexity. In this paper I will explore some of the ways in which I have sought to solve this dilemma through optimising the teaching-research nexus.

Keywords: Post Graduate and Early Career Researcher

BAR06191    ®     PDF Paper
A leadership enrichment program for Research Higher Degree Students: an experiential learning approach to leadership training.

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

Enrichment programs for Research Higher Degree (RHD) students are an endeavour undertaken by all Australian Universities. Most of these enrichment programs have in the main been centred on the generic skills required to expedite the research program, for example software skills, information gathering and collating skills, language development programs and seminars on various methodologies. There are some examples where enrichment programs have focused on leadership. These programs often assume not only that leadership can be taught, but also that a traditional seminar/lecture approaches to such a curriculum is a practical, efficient and effective approach to leadership education. This paper questions these assumptions by arguing for a more experientially-based approach to leadership education at the RHD level. This approach has demanded a consideration of pedagogical approaches outside, or peripheral, to the traditional approaches of RHD training. A specific example of a leadership program that incorporates experiential learning in is presented. The paper delineates a brief overview of experiential approaches to education, followed by a more specific review of the potential role these approaches can play in leadership education.

Keywords: Doctoral Education Research

BAR06280     PDF Paper
Case study of a senior executive group in a NSW state secondary school

Kerry Barnett and John McCormick, University of New South Wales

It is widely acknowledged that effectively leading a small group (fewer than twenty members) differs from leading many followers. Most views on small group leadership have emphasized the role of a leader in the development of group processes relevant to social interaction as well as those relevant to task interaction.

A case study of a Senior Executive group comprising the principal and two deputy principals was conducted in a NSW state secondary school which was going through a process of renewal. The purpose of the case study was to investigate the role of leadership within this small group. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. The results suggest leadership processes influenced cognitive, motivational, affective and, coordination aspects of group processes and the latter, in turn, influenced leadership processes in this Senior Executive group.

BAR06568   ®     PDF Paper
Science, technology in its teaching and learning in rural South Australia: Problems and prospects

Alan Barnes and Bruce White, University of South Australia, Carol Aldous and Julie Clarke, Flinders University, and Jim Davies, Australian Science and Mathematics School

Metropolitan students achieve higher scores at year 12 in areas of mathematics, the sciences and technology than their rural counterparts. The exact nature of these relative deficits, and their origins in rural schooling is less well understood, as is an understanding of the types of interventions that can redeem them. This paper ex examines the South Australian situation, outlining aspects of under achievement as identified by staff, students and teachers in the four rural schools. It identifies major priority areas for interventions and suggests some prospects for improving learning outcomes. The work is part of an ongoing initiative supported by the National Centre of science, ICT and mathematics education for Rural and Regional Australia (SIMERR).

Keywords: Education policy

BAR06851    ®     PDF Paper
Interactions between students' goal orientations and academic self-concept: A more comprehensive model of student motivation

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

This study aims to unify two substantial literatures relating to student motivation by proposing a more comprehensive model of students' motivation than has recently been provided to date. Notably, students' goal orientations, as operationalised by the General Achievement Goal Orientation Scale (GAGOS), and students' academic self-concept as operationalised by the Academic Self Description Questionnaire II (ASDQ II); are combined in one instrument in order to: (a) examine the psychometric properties of the combined instruments and (b) investigate the interrelated multidimensional and hierarchal structure of motivation and self-concept. Data collected over three years from 535 Australian High School students confirm the hypothesis that students' goals and academic self-concepts are interrelated components of an overall model of student motivation. Furthermore, this model remains stable and invariant across sex and over time. The model presents a unified framework within which the interaction among students' goals and academic self-concept may be investigated more fully.

Keywords: Motivation and self-concept

BAR06866    ®     PDF Paper
Investigating flexible delivery strategies that meet the needs of Remote Area Teacher Education Program (RATEP) Diploma of Education (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) students

Claire Bartlett, Charles Darwin University

This paper reports on the findings of research which investigated RATEP Diploma of Education (ATSI) students' opinions, attitudes and perceptions of flexible delivery strategies. The three students who participated in this qualitative research studied the Diploma of Education (ATSI) between 2003 and 2004. Data was collected via semi-structured, open ended interviews and presented as case studies.

The research findings highlight the complexities of student-centred flexible delivery. This study found that all participants needed regular interaction, support and feedback from peers and teaching staff, however, the focus on self paced, independent learning inhibited this. Each case highlighted a preference for different delivery modes and strategies, however, participants could cope with delivery modes and strategies that did not match their preferred way of learning if there were high levels of support, convenience and flexibility. Conversely, timelines for participation were necessary in order for participants to develop independent learning skills.

In conclusion, recommendations for practice are suggested. These include increased group paced delivery in order facilitate regular interaction, support and feedback. Strategies include more face to face block delivery and the facilitation of an online community of learners. Production of a student handbook containing course information, delivery plans and due dates for assessment needs would assist students to develop independent learning skills.

Keywords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education

BEA06516     PDF Paper
Leaning into our fears: A new masters course prepares principals to engage with the emotions of leadership

Brenda Beatty, Monash University

In response to Department of Education and Training Victoria's tender call for a new Master in School Leadership, Monash created its pathway to the principalship. Sergiovanni's leadership philosophy prompted the creation of a transformational delivery design based on the author's theoretical framework of emotional epistemologies which positions emotional silence and resilient emotional relativity at opposite ends of a continuum. A cohort structure supports the developmental unit sequence: Inner Leadership, Leading Learning Communities, Understanding Environments and Leading Change Through Professional Action Research.

Reported on are connections among course and theoretical framework elements and corresponding impacts upon participants' personal, professional & scholarly development and changes in their views and practices of leadership.

Data drawn from interviews, written reflections and open-ended survey responses suggest participants are reframing leadership as highly relational, trust oriented work. Emotional meaning making processes help leaders identify and lean into fears and create relationally safe spaces by working in new ways with others. Increased leadership self-efficacy, promotion success, inner well being and optimism about making the principalship a place for their authentic selves is associated with modelling and making explicit, the role of emotion in evidence based school improvement that relies on resilient teams and whole school community learning.

Keywords: Educational leadership

BEL06236    ®     PDF Paper
Voices of lay principals: Promoting a Catholic character and culture in schools in an era of change

Angelo Belmonte, Catholic Education Office, and Neil Cranston and Brigid Limerick, University of Queensland

This paper reports a qualitative study of the practice of leadership in Catholic schools to ascertain the perceptions of lay principals, who as positional leaders play a critical role in embracing and creatively rebuilding the Catholic vision of life within the reality that the Catholic school principalship is now a ministry of the laity. The methodology included semi-structured interviews, field notes, reflexive journals, direct observation, and document analysis. The study examined both individual human behaviour and the structure of the social order in Catholic schools.

The findings point towards successful leadership in Catholic schools being highly influenced by the cultural and spiritual capital that a principal brings to a school signifying a fundamental importance of appointing principals who are not only professionally competent but spiritually as well. In an era of unprecedented social, educational and ecclesial change, and with an ever widening role description, lay principals are challenged to redefine and re-articulate their Catholic character and identity, and will need to look for new ways to make this explicit. Embracing a new leadership paradigm of shared leadership, the preparation and on-going formation of lay principals were identified as critical for the continuance of the Catholic school's distinctive mission in the future.

Keywords: Educational leadership

BER06304    ®     PDF Paper
Ethics of Care - A dilemma or a challenge in education?

Ulrika Bergmark and Eva Alerby, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden

Daily there are a vast number people within educational systems around the world. The school can be regarded as a meeting place for both adults and children with different backgrounds and expectations. A meeting between humans means for example that we are talking and acting together. Consciously or unconsciously one of the factors that govern our actions are our values - the morals or ethics one has.

The aim of this paper is to elucidate, interpret and understand ethical situations in a Swedish secondary school. To develop an understanding of this, teachers were invited to formulate in writing their reflections on ethical situations in their profession. The phenomenology of the life-world is the theoretical basis in this study.

During the analysis of the empirical data different themes gradually crystallised, and the picture of ethical situations in a learning community that emerged consists of three themes: Relations to the Other, Conflicts of Values, Ethical Maturity. The findings are discussed according to the philosophers Emanuel Levinas and Nel Noddings. The comprehensive understanding of the results is thatn the teachers are trying to achieve ethics of care. Finally we raise the question if ethics of care can be considered as a dilemma or a challenge in education.

Keywords: Teachers' work

BEU06809    ®     PDF Paper
Teachers' understandings of pedagogic connectedness

Denise Beutel, Queensland University of Technology

This doctoral thesis is an attempt to operationalise the productive pedagogy initiative of Education Queensland. The study identified qualitatively different ways in which middle years teachers may experience pedagogic connectedness with their students. Mentoring relationships between teachers and students were found to be the optimum approach to increasing and sustaining student engagement and consequently improving the educational outcomes of boys in the middle years of schooling. The findings also provide insight into nature of teacher-student interactions that may lead to pedagogic connectedness, a useful set of data to guide the design, development and implementation of pre-service teacher education programs.

Five categories of pedagogic connectedness emerged from the phenomenographically-inspired study. These categories should be seen as developmental and teachers should be encouraged and supported to progress through these stages as they mature professionally. The emergent categories in order of increasing complexity are information providing, instructing, facilitating, guided participation and mentoring.

Keywords: Doctoral education research

BEV06625     PDF Paper
Motivational implications of problem-based learning for the preparation of social workers

Alexander Beveridge and Jennifer Archer, University of Newcastle

A cross-sectional study was undertaken with Social Work students. Achievement goals formed the theoretical basis of the study which examined the extent to which a problem-based (or experience-based) approach influenced students' motivation to learn and approach to studying. Thirty-six first-year Social Work students (96% of intake) and thirty-four fourth-year Social Work students (98% of intake) completed two questionnaires, one about their Social Work courses and an identical questionnaire about a compulsory Psychology course. The questionnaires focused on students' perception of the achievement goals encouraged by lecturers, reported study strategies, and attitude towards the course. Fourteen first-year and twelve fourth-year students also participated in interviews about their reaction to Social Work and Psychology courses. Analyses of the data showed that students perceived a stronger mastery achievement goal in the Social Work courses and a stronger performance goal in the Psychology course. Perception of a mastery goal was associated with reported use of effective study strategies and a positive approach to studying. The interview data supported the questionnaire data and provided additional information about motivational factors associated with PBL. The study concludes with a discussion of the relative contribution of long-term personality factors and situational cues to students' motivation to learn.

Keywords: Motivation and self-concept

BEZ06674     PDF Paper
Engagement in action: University - School system partnership for teacher development

Michael Bezzina, Catholic Education Office, and Jude Butcher and Wendy Moran, Australian Catholic University

Over a period of over 15 years, the system of schools in the diocese of Parramatta and the Australian Catholic University have built a partnership which is significant for its scope and its penetration. It has involved the individual schools and the system as a whole in a wide range of initiatives with three of the university's schools within the Faculty of Education - Educational Leadership, Education and religious Education. The partnership has touched on innovative delivery of preservice methodology courses on school sites, support for classroom teachers, jointly delivered post graduate courses (and programs), international study tours, extended residential leadership programs, secondments and joint appointments, adjunct appointments, joint research initiatives (including Linkage grants), review activities and innovative school focused leadership for learning programs.

In the context of increasing interest in university engagement, this paper will describe the key joint activities and will seek to determine the factors which have contributed to the evolution of such a rich and textured relationship, which has found expression in so many different ways. It will explore, among other factors, the significance of commitment of key personnel, a sense of the importance of mutual benefit, strong ongoing structures for communication and a capacity to support innovative practice.

Keywords: School - University engagement

BLA06053     PDF Paper
Overcoming disadvantage through the innovative classroom

Rosalyn Black, Education Foundation Australia

Australia is recognised as a high performing but low equity country with regards to educational attainment. Low socioeconomic background students and schools with large numbers of these students perform less well than higher socioeconomic students and schools. Yet some schools are turning around student learning outcomes despite the impact of disadvantage.

Reforms to curriculum and pedagogy are under way in Victoria and a number of other states. What is missing in the reform picture are proven and transferable models of how schools in our most disadvantaged communities are breaking the pattern of low student engagement and achievement.

Informed by a review of research and practice and case studies of ten schools, the Education Foundation Australia is documenting what classroom strategies schools are employing to engage low socioeconomic background students in the crucial middle years, what supports or hinders them in their work and how successful models can be implemented across other schools serving high poverty communities.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

BLA06548     PDF Paper
Leadership development in UAE undergraduate programs

Peggy Blackwell, Zayed University

Zayed University was founded to prepare leaders who will envision the possibilities and create the opportunities for the future of the UAE. Students take increasing responsibility for their own learning, become active participants and leaders in the learning community and master the art of learning with others and from self reflection. The specific leadership learning outcome states that ZU graduates will be able to assume leadership roles and responsibilities in a variety of life situations and accept accountability for the results. To this end students have a range of opportunities to develop leadership capabilities. This paper will identify and discuss formal and informal leadership learning experiences. These include the University's formal leadership program, University clubs and societies, specific course work assignments, the internship program, the final Capstone project and the contribution of internal and external mentors.

Keywords: Educational leadership

BLO06777     PDF Paper
A new discourse of teacher professionalism: Ramsey, standards and accountability

Di Bloomfield, University of New England

The release of the policy document Quality Matters - Revitalising Teaching: Critical Times, Critical Choices (Ramsey 2000) in retrospect served to signal an escalating agenda to fashion new versions of the teacher and teacher education as well as a new discourse of professionalism. This discourse serves to link teacher professionalism with quality teaching and learning within mandated structures and processes of explicit accountability and standardisation. The establishment of the NSW Institute of Teachers and the development of its Framework of Professional Teaching Standards are serving to demand new versions of student teacher and teacher subjectivities as well as new pedagogical orientations and responses within teacher education. Drawing on a policy-as-discourse approach, a critical reading of the Ramsey Report provides the foundation for discerning the disciplinary effects of such changes in policy and practice. In constructing a binary between what is termed 'a quality profession' and 'a mass profession', a version of the (student) teacher as strongly individualistic yet standardised, entrepreneurial yet accountable and self-accounting has been created. Whilst teacher educators need to productively respond to this standards agenda, it can be argued that an imperative exists at this time to establish and maintain counter discursive and pedagogical spaces within teacher education.

Keywords: Education policy

BOO06088     PDF Paper
A comparison of trained and untrained science teachers' views about certain aspects of the nature of science

Hong Kwen Boo and Hoh Yin Kiong, Nanyang Technological University

This paper reports on results of a simple paper-pen questionnaire study involving certain key aspects of the nature of science. The questionnaire covers, among other things, aspects such as uniqueness of the scientific method, objectivity of scientific data, and immutability of scientific laws. The survey was given out to trainee teachers enrolled in the pre-service post graduate diploma in education (secondary) i.e. PGDE (S) programme while they were doing their curriculum studies at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore. A similar questionnaire was given out to in-service teachers at the beginning of their in-service courses at the same institute. These trained teachers comprised two groups. One group was enrolled in a diploma in departmental management (DDM) course in secondary science. The other group comprised teachers enrolled in the part time Master in Education (Science Education Specialization) i.e., the MEd (Sc Ed) course. The views of these trained or in-service teachers were compared with those of the trainee teachers in this paper.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Sciences

BOU06655     PDF Paper
Relationships of PhD candidate, candidature and examination characteristics with thesis outcomes

Sid Bourke, Allyson Holbrook and Terence Lovat, University of Newcastle

This paper provides information relevant to the increasing interest in studies of PhD candidates, candidature and thesis examination in Australia in the past five years. The introduction of the research training scheme and more general funding pressures on universities has meant that myths and claims about relative success of higher degree research candidatures are increasingly likely to drive university and government policies, without the benefit of supporting evidence. The paper provides data in support or denial of various claims made.

The characteristics of 804 completed PhD candidates across eight universities included here are age on commencement, gender, whether a scholarship was held, whether a local or overseas candidate, and English proficiency. Candidature information includes discipline, entry qualification, nature of enrolment, number of supervisors, and two measures of enrolment time - total elapsed time and candidature time expressed in equivalent full-time semesters of enrolment. Examination information consists of the number and locations of examiners, time taken for the thesis examination process, and length of examiner reports. Thesis outcomes are assessed by examiner recommendations and the university's decision on the thesis. Relationships of candidate, candidature and examination characteristics with thesis outcomes are considered.

Keywords: Doctoral education research

BOW06172    ®     PDF Paper
Curriculum design in Vocational Education

Helen Bowers, Macquarie University

The future of competency-based training may well contain surprises and the results of strategic planning can only be faintly seen through future misty proposals. Knowledge of the learning approaches by students, the benefits of communities of practice in the classroom and the quality of competency-based curriculum in Vocational Education and Training is the epistemological key to applied learning. This has to be combined with an ontological focus to ensure that curriculum encourages teaching, knowing and learning and becomes part of who we are rather than just something a teacher must follow. Curriculum designers are urged to limit the content so students can be led to investigate, explore and draw inferences from their own research. However, it is important that curricula retain links with the real world while at the same time retaining flexibility that allows ideas to be expanded and explored in a scholarly way. The curriculum design also needs to accommodate varied learning styles while stimulating the learner to evoke interest in the content. The curriculum is an essential and important element in the educational environment and the supporting assessments act as a driving force in capturing the objectives of the educator. If well designed and developed, then vocational curriculum will provide the basis for good learning and teaching.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Technology Education

BOY06081    ®     PDF Paper
The role of face and perception of self in the Arabic maritime learner

Anthony Boyle, Australian Maritime College

This paper will report on a study conducted during 2006 at the Australian Maritime College (AMC) involving native Arabic speaking students. The initial phase of maritime training undertaken by these students is their first experience of tertiary education in their second language. It has been observed that difficulties have been experienced by some students in adapting to the English speaking maritime learning environment. These difficulties have sometimes resulted in the manifestation of negative behaviours including lack of engagement in the learning process, defiant behaviour, an unwillingness to socialise with class peers, poor academic performance, and non-participation in remedial student support programs. This study has been conceived in order to identify and better understand relevant cross cultural issues that may be underlying the negative behaviours observed to date. Data will be gathered using semi-structured interviews with student focus groups. A sample will be selected from current Arabic AMC students who have completed, or are currently enrolled in their first phase of maritime training. It is anticipated that the findings of this study will provide information on the role factors such as student identity and face, as well as the way in which they contribute to the observed behaviours in maritime training context.

Keywords: Post-compulsory education

BRA06135    ®     PDF Paper
Living by the clock: the tyranny of the secondary school timetable

Kathy Brady, Flinders University

This paper focuses on how the secondary school timetable impacts on the lives and work of a group of women teachers in secondary schools. It is based on interviews with six women secondary teachers of various ages, teaching career profiles and family circumstances, and begins with an explanation of why they chose to become secondary teachers. Their daily work is then investigated, highlighting in particular, the ways in which the secondary school timetable mediates their relationships with the students and other staff, and their careers. This theme is continued in the third section of the paper which describes how the secondary school timetable influences other aspects of these women's lives outside of their paid workplace. More broadly, the paper is underpinned by three notions: that teaching is work, secondary schools are work places and that some of the workers are women.

Keywords: Teachers' work

BRA06511    ®     PDF Paper
Physical self-concepts and gender differences in children, adolescents and young adults

Nicki Brake, Australian Catholic University

Objective: The purpose of this research was to examine physical self-concepts in children, adolescents and young adults and to observe gender differences between groups. Physical self-concepts included thoughts and feelings about the body, physical activity and appearance.

Methods: This study used a cross-sectional design with several groups, including children (N=84), adolescents (N=103) and young adults (N=68). Cognitive and affective self-evaluations were elicited through self-report questionnaire.

Results: There was little difference for children in the relationship of physical self-concepts with gender, with only movement self-concepts being slightly higher for boys. There were some differences in adolescent physical self-concepts in relation to gender, with boys yielding higher scores than girls in relation to body image and physical activity. There were only slight differences in physical self-concepts between the sexes for young adults enrolled in Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) degrees.

Conclusions: Overall there appeared to be a steady decline in physical self-concepts from childhood to adolescence, particularly for girls, and then an increase in physical self-concepts in young adulthood for those enrolled in PDHPE degrees. The outcomes of this research contribute to understanding how children, adolescents and young adults think and feel about their bodies, physical activity and appearance.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

BRE06378     PDF Paper
Addressing the needs of at-risk students in middle years numeracy

Margarita Breed and Jo Virgona, RMIT University

Recent research has identified an 'eight-year' range in student mathematical achievement in any one year level in the middle years of schooling. In particular, it has identified the learning needs of at-risk students and the critical importance of finding ways to address those needs. This paper will share some of the findings from a recently completed teaching experiment with 9 'at-risk' Year 6 students conducted as part of the overall study over an 18 week period spanning terms 2 to 4, 2005 in two of the participating schools. Results indicate that the program was successful in improving at-risk students' ability to engage in tasks requiring multiplicative thinking. Shifts in students' understanding from inefficient additive approaches to more efficient multiplicative strategies and hurdles to student learning will be illustrated. The implications of adopting this program more broadly will be explored.

Keywords: Mathematics; Assessment and measurement

BRO06187    ®     PDF Paper
The public construction of values in education: A synthesis of case studies.

Raymond Brown, Annette Woods, Elizabeth Hirst and Debbie Heck, Griffith University

This paper identifies the approaches taken by a selection of schools in the South-East region of Queensland to values education as explicated in public texts freely available on school web sites. Documents such as Behaviour Management Policies and the School Prospectus are subjected to a multi-level analysis to determine how schools construct values education to the public and what approach/es to values education are being advocated. A suite of case-studies are presented that employ qualitative methodologies in the identification of how value-laden texts and curricula offerings are deployed by schools to endorse preferred identities. A synthesis of the findings of the cases studies presented provides evidence that schools employ the repertoires of language/practice used in public texts to develop cultural identities suitable for marketing themselves as being values rich in competitive times. Possible refinements to the methodologies used in the case studies are discussed in order to identify opportunities to develop a qualitative methodology for identifying school approaches to values education.

Keywords: Primary schooling; secondary schooling

BRO06198     PDF Paper
Queensland teachers' conceptions of teaching, learning, curriculum, & assessment : Comparisons with New Zealand Teachers

Gavin Brown, University of Auckland and Robert Lake, Lake Corporate Consulting

In 2003, Education Queensland conducted a survey of over 1500 primary and secondary teachers into their conceptions of teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment. Four different inventories were used (Pratt's Teaching Perspectives Inventory, Entwistle, Tait, & Velda's Approaches to Learning, Cheung's Conceptions of Curriculum, and Brown's Conceptions of Assessment) and the fit of each inventory to the data was established with confirmatory factor analysis. The relationship of the conceptions to each other was determined using multi-battery factor analysis and validated with confirmatory factor analysis.

Initial analyses suggest that the teachers had four major conceptions: (a) surface learning is transmitted and accountability assessments measure it validly, (b) invalid assessment is ignored, (c) deep humanistic, nurturing learning is assessed for improvement, and (d) curriculum and teaching is about social change. Small but statistically significant differences were found between primary and secondary teachers. This paper will report these findings and compare them to similar data collected in 2001 in New Zealand and reported by Brown in 2003 at the AARE/NZARE conference in Auckland.

Keywords: Post-graduate research and supervision

BRO06369    ®     PDF Paper
Numeracy in a reform-based learning environment

Natalie Brown, Jane Watson, Kim Beswick and Noleine Fitzallen, University of Tasmania

Curriculum reform in Tasmanian schools centres around the implementation of an Essential Learnings framework. This framework has provided a catalyst for pedagogical change; for teachers to work collaboratively and in cross-curricular ways and; for assessment to be authentic and to support learning. The place of numeracy in this reform-based learning environment is the focus of a research project which commenced in 2005. A Professional Learning program for Middle years' teachers with a goal to improve student outcomes in numeracy has been co-constructed with participants and will be evaluated at several stages through the project. An important component of the project involves working with teachers as they continue to implement the Essential Learnings. This paper reports on the baseline data received via a teacher profile and discusses teachers' responses to questions on planning and implementing units of work in the area of numeracy.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Mathematics

BRO06609    ®     PDF Paper
Planning for flexible approaches

Natalie Brown, University of Tasmania

The changing demands on tertiary students together with increasing advancement in technology have provided the impetus for growth in tertiary units and courses which are available in flexible delivery mode. Although flexible is often synonymous with 'on-line', the adoption of the term at the University of Tasmania (UTas) is applied more broadly. Here, flexible teaching is about good teaching and learning practices for all students, which are necessarily learner-centred yet are less time and place dependent than more traditional forms of teaching. At UTas, there is encouragement for all teaching to adopt more flexible approaches however, this goes beyond simply adding to what is currently offered. Reviewing offerings to choose the most appropriate learning, teaching and assessment methods for subject and students is therefore necessary. This paper describes a planning model for designing units using flexible approach. Curriculum content, including skills and understandings are taken as a starting point from which appropriate delivery and assessment options can then be determined.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

BRO06630    ®     PDF Paper
Singing for real: Using high stakes assessment strategies as authentic learning experiences in the development of vocalists at the tertiary level

Judith Brown, Central Queensland University

This paper considers the results of a preliminary investigation into the way that high stakes assessment strategies can be used as authentic learning experiences in the development and training of vocalists within a tertiary music environment. The paper begins by defining the nature of live performance and the way that high stakes assessment strategies emulate live performance experiences. They can therefore be used as authentic teaching and learning tools through both formative and summative assessment processes that can positively contribute to the development of the student vocalist as they strive to achieve their performance goals. Finally, the paper suggests areas for future research to optimise the performance outcomes of these authentic learning experiences in the context of the tertiary music environment.

Keywords: Motivation and Self-Concept

BRO06796     PDF Paper
Health and physical education as an essential learning in contemporary school education: Issues in curriculum making

Ross Brooker, University of Tasmania and Anne Clennett, Mount Erin College

Elsewhere (Brooker & Clennett, 2006a, b) it has been argued that Health and Physical Education as an area of school learning is being redefined in the context of contemporary school education where traditional learning areas are being expected to contribute to the development of more generic curriculum outcomes. Such expectations create new spaces and challenges for schools and teachers (and systems) with respect to curriculum design. Schools and teachers are required to think differently about how the curriculum is structured and the processes of curriculum making to support the implementation of the new curriculum. In these circumstances where teachers, curriculum leaders, and school administrators may have had little or no history of involvement in curriculum making, the challenges are significant. The purpose of this paper is to explore a number of key discourses that frame curriculum making for contemporary school education.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

BRO06797     PDF Paper
Teaching physical education in contemporary Australian school education: Rethinking teachers curriculum and pedagogical work

Ross Brooker, University of Tasmania and Anne Clennett, Mount Erin College

Traditional approaches to teaching Physical Education (PE) in schools have been characterised by content structured around popular sports and recreational activities and teaching approaches that have focused on the development of prerequisite skills (techniques) and tactics and strategies. More recently in some school contexts, approaches such as Teaching Games for Understanding (Bunker & Thorpe, 1982) and Sport Education (Siedentop, 1994) have challenged traditional approaches to teaching PE. However, in contemporary school education in Australia, the role of PE has been redefined and expected to contribute to more generic outcomes for schooling (Brooker & Clennett, 2006a, b). The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which teachers' curriculum and pedagogical work is being redefined and to suggest how teachers might be better prepared to respond to teaching PE in new times and in new spaces.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

BUR06132     PDF Paper
Using reflective practice to inform school based change and innovation

Ashley Burnett and Rick Baldock, Department of Education and Children's Services

'Be active - Let's go', is a South Australian Department of Education and Children's Services initiative developed to engage inactive children and young people in physical activity and, investigate the effects of physical activity on other aspects of learning engagement.

This presentation will report findings from the project investigating pedagogical change using reflective practice with educators in ten preschools, primary and secondary schools. The project known as the 'be active Innovation Sites Project', uses qualitative research methods with a case study approach. Teacher participants in the project are engaged in a reflective spiral process to initiate multidimensional change in their teaching pedagogies to support change that is sustainable beyond the life of the project. Semi-structured interviews, participant journals and researcher field notes are providing data for qualitative analysis throughout the project. A framework for professional learning has been developed to support teacher participants by using a cycle of generative conferences and site meetings. This paper will present a preliminary analysis of the project and emergent findings from the overall initiative informing the future development of professional learning for newly qualified teachers, specialist educators in secondary settings and educators across Districts in the field of physical activity.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

BUR06182     PDF Paper
Does spiritual wellbeing have a place in public education?

Leigh Burrows, Department of Education and Children's Services

Increasingly, when we talk about 'learner well-being' in education circles the dimension of spiritual well-being is included along with the physical, cognitive, emotional and social dimensions (DECS, 2005). While many policy makers and educators appear to wish to retain the of spiritual well-being, there is by no means universal agreement as to what it is what it means for education.

The need for an inquiry into spiritual well-being emerged as a result of feedback to the DECS Well-being is Central to Learning Working Paper circulated in 2005. A number of respondents asked for clarification on what was meant by the term and what implications its inclusion might have in the future for educators.

This led the Steering Committee to commission a discussion paper that could help to facilitate a deeper consideration of the issues and implications of the inclusion of spiritual well-being in the overall Wellbeing Framework. The purpose of the discussion paper was to encourage readers to contribute to an inquiry into the dimension of spiritual wellbeing in relation to education. Feedback was sought at site, district and central levels, via surveys, focus groups and workshops.

The richness and diversity of responses highlighted the complexity and sensitivity of the topic under inquiry. This paper outlines the issues in the literature on spirituality and spiritual wellbeing in relation to education, including indigenous understandings, and reports on the outcomes of the inquiry project conducted in 2006.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

C

CAM06102    ®     PDF Paper
Theorising Habits of Mind as a framework for learning

John Campbell, Central Queensland University

In recent years, learning and the attributes of successful learners have re-emerged as key issues in educational research. Although a capacity to learn has been identified as an individual's key to future success, 21st century learners represent particular challenges to teachers and schools who strive to remain relevant to new kinds of learners in a constantly changing world. In this context, Habits of Mind has emerged as a framework of attributes that, proponents (Marzano, 1992; Costa & Kallick, 2000) claim, comprise the myriad of intelligent thinking behaviours characteristic of peak performers, and are the indicators for academic, vocational and relational success. The issue for this paper is that, despite its importance for understanding how successful learners learn, HOM are presented as an a-theoretical body of knowledge, underpinned by little more than 'intuitive common-sense' and experts' testimonials. In this paper, the theoretical underpinnings for HOM are explored and linked with existing learning theories.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

CAM06468     PDF Paper
The National Partnership Project in England: Dilemmas and difficulties in commissioned evaluation research

Anne Campbell, Liverpool Hope University, Olwen McNamara and Sarah Lewis, Manchester University, John Furlong, Oxford University, and John Howson, Education Data Surveys

The Teacher Training Agency (TTA) was established in 1994 as a non-departmental public body, accountable to the government for the recruitment of teachers and the funding and administration of teacher training. Since then there has been a period of radical change when almost every aspect of teacher education in England has been transformed and brought under the direct control of the TTA.

The TTA launched the National Partnership Project (NPP) in October 2001. The project was designed to support the development of school partnerships and increase their effectiveness in the delivery of ITT. The evaluation, conducted by the authors, commenced in March 2004 and aimed to:

• evaluate the impact of the NPP against its objectives:
• involve stakeholders in developmental ways in the project's evaluation;
• work within an ethical and professional code of practice that recognised the importance of equality of opportunity.

Currently, most large-scale government programmes in the UK are subject to evaluation research, though the results of some are more visible and influential than others. The programmes and evaluations themselves are also subject to political influences and this was evident in the case of the NPP. This paper will discuss some of the dilemmas and difficulties encountered in commissioned evaluation research.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

CAO06288     PDF Paper
Student attrition at a new generation university in Australia

Zhongjun Cao and Roger Gabb, Victoria University

The issue of student attrition has become a focus in Australian higher educational institutions for a number of reasons: firstly, the costs of attrition for tertiary institutions themselves, including student recruitment costs, tuition income, financial aid, and staff are considerable, secondly, the attrition rates are used as a performance indicator by the Department of Education, Science, and Training (DEST) for the allocation of the Teaching and Learning Fund in higher education.

A higher education institution needs to have a better understanding of its own issues in student attrition in order to address them effectively. This paper will report the findings from a recent project exploring student attrition at Victoria University, a New Generation University in Australia. The focus of the project is on the patterns of attrition of bachelors students at Victoria University. Attrition rates of students from different year levels, disciplines, and socio cultural backgrounds will be presented. The reasons for withdrawal indicated by students will be explored. The findings in this project will not only provide insight on student attrition in Victoria University, but will also help other universities to better understand the attrition issues.

Keywords: Post-compulsory education

CAR06476     PDF Paper
Engaging Queensland students and teachers in school review and development using The Index for Inclusion

Suzanne Carrington, Queensland University of Technology

This presentation will give examples of processes initially established by The Staff College, Inclusive Education to facilitate reinvigoration of school communities from within, to achieve enhanced outcomes for students and teachers. As the Queensland State Education 2010 reform agenda unfolds, schools are challenged to review their organisational structures, their approach to curriculum and their pedagogical practices to ensure that all students are truly included in the school community. The processes developed from The Index for Inclusion (Booth, Ainscow, Black-Hawkins, Vaughn & Shaw 2002) stimulate a culture where teachers and students can work together as citizens for a life of learning and development. The processes develop more inclusive ways of working, critical thinking, independent and group judgement and action. They encourage participants to question personal assumptions that structure views about schools, teachers, students, teaching and learning; and the interconnectedness between individuals, education and society. This research is innovative in that it brings the principles of democracy and citizenship to life through the use of innovative tools. This presentation will illustrate how and why the Index for Inclusion has become a significant and effective tool to develop school community and how it has become used in the school review process.

Keywords: Inclusive and Special Education

CAR06575    ®     PDF Paper
Cognitive tools of ClassSim: Building connections between theory and practice

Lisa Carrington, Brian Ferry and Lisa Kervin, University of Wollongong

This paper reports on the incorporation of an embedded tool within a virtual classroom environment (ClassSim) and the use of this by pre-service teachers as they engage with the software. The classroom simulation reported on in this research was developed to provide pre-service teachers with a safe virtual environment in which they are able to explore 'authentic' and practical classroom scenarios. The embedded tool, referred to as the 'Thinking Space', was developed to support pre-service teachers in capturing their reflections about the complex role of a teacher as they move through the experience. Encouraging reflection has long been acknowledged as an important strategy in the development of new understandings. Our trials of the software have shown that pre-service teachers have used the tool to reflect upon issues within the classroom, articulating their rationale at decision points and to identify underlying influences that affect their use of the classroom simulation (ClassSim) and their understandings of the role of a teacher. Our findings also reveal that the 'Thinking Space' provides a framework in which pre-service teachers are able to build connections between the theory of their pre-service training and practical experiences.

Keywords: Information communication technology; Pre-service teacher education.

CAV06798    ®     PDF Paper
The effect of classroom learning environment on information and communication technology learning: Rasch model instrumentation and structural equation modelling

Robert Cavanagh and Joseph Romanoski, Curtin University of Technology

Link linked data from statements in the classroom learning environment and information and communications technology (ICT) learning were collected using to Rasch model instruments. Structural equation modelling was applied to test for dependency between learning environment and ICT learning variables. The paper reports on the fit of data to the Rasch Rating scale Model and also on fit to a structural model developed by latent variable path analysis (LISEL). Findings showed ICT learning variables were dependent on classroom learning environment variables.

Keywords: Assessment and measurement

CAV06799    ®     PDF Paper
Development of a model of school principal behaviours: Rasch Model and structural equation model analyses of teacher observations

Robert Cavanagh and Joseph Romanoski, Curtin University of Technology

A linear scale eliciting teacher ratings of their principal's leadership behaviour was administered to 389 teachers in 48 primary and seven high schools in the Canning Education District of Western Australia. Eleven variables were measured. Data were first analysed using the Rasch Rating Scale Model to ensure the scale complied with the requirements for objective measurement. This analysis also produced item difficulty locations which were interpreted as evidence of common and uncommon principal behaviours as observed by teachers. Next, latent variable path analysis using LISREL structural equation modelling was applied to test for dependencies between the eleven variables. This process led to confirmation of a structural model comprising higher order and lower order principal leadership variables.

Keywords: Educational leadership

CAV06800    ®     PDF Paper
Structural equation modeling of associations between classroom learning environment and parental involvement variables using linked data from Rasch Model instruments

Robert Cavanagh and Joseph Romanoski, Curtin University of Technology

Data were collected from parents about their involvement in their child's education and from their children about the classroom learning environment using two Rasch Model instruments. Associations between parental involvement variables and classroom learning environment variables were tested by structural equation modelling. The paper reports on the psychometric properties of the data (fit of data to the Rasch Rating Scale Model) and on the paths in a structural model developed through latent variable path analysis (LISREL). Findings indicate dependency of child's perceptions of the learning environment on parent views of their child as a student and on their view of teacher(s) and the school.

Keywords: Assessment and measurement

CHA06057     PDF Paper
Revisiting the trichotomous achievement goal framework for Hong Kong Secondary Students: A structural modeling analysis

Kwok-wai Chan, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Recent studies in the late 1990s have led researchers argued that performance goals can be split up into performance- approach and performance-avoidance goals and that performance goals are not totally maladaptive in learning. Research of the trichotonomous goals framework by Elliot, McGregor and Gable (1999) found that mastery goals are positive predictors of deep processing, performance - approach goals are positive predictors of surface processing and exam performance, and performance-avoidance goals are positive predictors of surface processing and negative predictors of deep performance and exam performance. The present study examined a structural model outlining the relationship of the three achievement goals, learning strategies and achievement of Hong Kong secondary students. The model was confirmed by LISREL with satisfactory goodness of fit index. The results showed that mastery goals were significantly and positively related to deep learning strategy but negatively related to surface strategy. Both performance- approach and avoidance goals were significantly related to surface strategy. Both mastery goals and performance - approach goals were significantly and positively related to academic achievement but performance-avoidance goals were significantly and negatively related to achievement.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

CHA06495     PDF Paper
College faculty's perceptions of their teaching efficacy

Te-Sheng Chang, National Hualien University of Education, and Mei-Mei Song, Tamkang University

This study was to investigate faculty perceptions of teaching efficacy and their relation to faculty characteristics. The sample included 433 faculty members from 15 universities in Taiwan. The instrument, Faculty Perceptions of Teaching Efficacy Scale, consisted of five dimensions: Content Material, Teaching Method, Learning Assessment, Classroom Management, and Information Technology. The result indicated that faculty in this sample felt efficacious, from the greatest to the least, in the following areas: Content Material, Classroom Management, Information Technology, Learning Assessment, and Teaching Method. No statistical significances were found between male and female faculty members in their perceptions of teaching efficacy for each of the five constructs. The type of institutions (private vs. public) also had little impact on the faculty's perceptions. However, faculty with less than five years of teaching experience showed lower perception of teaching efficacy in Content material than did other faculty. Faculty teaching courses matching their speciatity felt more confident in all five teaching efficacy constructs than did faculty teaching unfit courses. In the area of Content Material, full professors showed a higher level of efficcy perception than did lecturers. Teacher educators felt less confident than faculty at research-oriented 4-year public institutions in both Content Material and Information Technology.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

CHO06049   ®     PDF Paper
The effects of stimulus control on the performance levels of children with intellectual disabilities

Renée Chong, Monash University

The present study examines the effects stimulus control on the eye contact of learners with intellectual disabilities. The three participants with severe intellectual disabilities were aged between six and eleven years old. A within-subjects repeated measures design or issues, and this design consisted up to five phases. The first two phases, for each participant were a baseline and an immediate prompt phase. Depending on the data, the subsequent phases of delayed prompts were introduced before the reintroduction of the baseline phase. This final return to baseline was designed to assess whether the components of the treatment phases were exerting stimulus control over attending all aware that the participant had simply become "better" at paying attention, regardless the stimulus. The results of this study, provide the evidence that stimulus control can improve the eye contact of the subject.

keywords: inclusive and special education

CHO06106     PDF Paper
Assessing Taiwanese students' English ability: Semantic competence versus pragmatic competence

Tungshan Chou, National Hualien University of Education, Hiewu Su, National Donhwa University, and Gordon Woodbine, Curtin University of Technology

The problem of current English assessment in Taiwanese classroom settings was visited. A recommendation to assess English ability in the notion of semantic and pragmatic competence was made. An instrument was constructed in line with our recommendation and administered to 341 middle school and college students. We hypothesized that in terms of item percent correct, items measuring both semantic and pragmatic competence will become easier as students progress from middle school to college; whereas in terms of item discrimination, semantic items are more discriminating than pragmatic items in the current context. Empirical analyses confirmed our hypothesis and the implication discussed.

Keywords: Assessment and measurement

CHO06178    ®     PDF Paper
Multidimensions of perfectionism and self-concept in school aged children

Grace Choy and Valentina McInerney, University of Western Sydney

Perfectionism is a personality construct that involves striving for flawlessness and setting high standards. Self-concept is an individual's self-perceptions of personal attributes and competence. This study investigated the relationship between the multidimensions of perfectionism and self-concept in Australian students. Over 300 children in grades 4 to 6 completed the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale (CAPS, Flett & Hewitt, 1990), the Adaptive/Maladaptive Perfectionism Scale (AMPS, Rice & Preusser, 2002) and Self Description Questionnaire I (SDQ-I, Marsh, 1990). CAPS focused on the sources of perfectionism (i.e., self-oriented perfectionism and socially-prescribed perfectionism). AMPS focused on perfectionistic behavioral tendencies such as sensitivity to mistakes and compulsiveness (i.e., preference for order and persistence). SDQ-I examined academic self-concept, non-academic self-concept and general self-worth. It had been suggested that self-oriented perfectionism and compulsiveness were adaptive, whereas socially-prescribed perfectionism and sensitivity to mistakes were maladaptive. Unlike adult studies, the present results indicated that all perfectionism dimensions were positively correlated with most self-concept domains in school-aged children. Self-oriented perfectionism was significantly associated with academic self-concept. Compulsiveness was significantly associated with both academic and non-academic self-concept. Socially-prescribed perfectionism and sensitivity to mistakes were not significantly associated with general self-worth. Implications of these findings are discussed within the education context.

Keywords: Motivation and Self-Concept

CLA06513     PDF Paper
Assessing the impact of cultures and structures on organisational capability

Berwyn Clayton, Canberra Institute of Technology

Schein (1992) suggests that organisational culture is even more today than it has previously been before. Globalisation, increased competition and technological change have created a greater need for innovation, coordination and integration across organisations in order to improve efficiency and meet the expectations of increasingly more sophisticated clients. It is suggested that the key is to identify and effectively manage the varying cultures that exist within organisations, to develop synergies between them and, where possible, prevent them from conflicting with each other. At the same time, traditional organisational structures are being tested by demands for greater adaptability and flexibility and mechanistic organisational structures are making way for more organic structural approaches.

This paper presents the findings of research into Australian vocational education and training providers and the impact that cultures and structures have on their organisational capability. The study is a component of the DEST funded consortium research program Supporting VET providers in building capability for the future.

Keywords: Vocational Education and Training

CLE06566    ®     PDF Paper
Engaging pedagogies and facilitating pedagogues: Communities of practice among novice online tutors and secondary vocational teachers at the forefront of systemic tensions and change

Kaye Cleary and Patrick Danaher, University of Southern Queensland, and Roberta Harreveld, Central Queensland University

Much contemporary teachers' work is located at the interface of complex systems of policy and provision. That interface is increasingly the site of broader discursive tensions as change is enacted, with profound implications for individual classes and courses.

If pedagogies are to be engaging in such a context, teachers need to be simultaneously facilitators and facilitated. Yet often those teachers are at both the forefront and the frontline of educational change, without sufficient ammunition in their armoury as they battle to enhance students' learning outcomes and find meaning in their work.

The paper illustrates this argument by reference to two cases of engaging pedagogies and facilitating pedagogues: graduate research students working as novice online tutors in a Masters management program; and experienced secondary teachers implementing new vocational education subjects for senior secondary students in schools in a Queensland regional community.

Deploying the concept of communities of practice (Wenger, 2000; Yamagata-Lynch, 2000), the paper traces some of the professional and personal challenges experienced by both groups of educators, as well as their respective strategies for making the pedagogies engaging for their students. They gain from these communities the support that is often absent from the systems that employ them.

Keywords: Teachers' work

COL06784    ®     PDF Paper
Ethical inquiry as central to the Society & Environment learning area

Carol Collins and Sue Knight, University of South Australia

The argument of this paper forms part of an ongoing project, The Cultivating Reason Giving Project, grounded in both philosophy and cognitive psychology. The project's aim is the development of a program for fostering logically cogent and ethically grounded thinking. Part of this project involves work within the Society & Environment curriculum area. It seems clear that the fundamental goal of Society & Environment is one of helping students to develop the abilities and disposition to participate fully as citizens in a just democratic society. We argue that making significant progress towards this worthy goal depends crucially on engaging students of all ages in the processes of ethical inquiry; in asking questions such as 'Is the off-shore processing of asylum seekers morally right?' and 'Should we allow tourism to expand in Antarctica?' These ethical questions cannot be resolved solely by empirical investigation. Yet, on the whole, teachers are neither prepared nor equipped to go beyond resource-based learning, to raise or tackle such questions with their students. In order to meet the fundamentally important goal of Society & Environment then, the current curriculum focus must shift from empirical investigation to ethical inquiry. This paper outlines a way forward.

Keywords: SOSE and citizenship education

COL06785    ®     PDF Paper
The role of ethical inquiry in educating for a just democracy: An intervention study

Carol Collins, University of South Australia

This paper describes the implementation of a project designed to assess the effectiveness of a Community of Inquiry approach in developing the skills, capacities and dispositions requisite for engaging in the processes of ethical justification. The intervention study used a matched-group design and involved approximately 250 South Australian upper primary level students from a diverse range of social and educational backgrounds. The intervention class groups participated in a 22 week program in which the researcher facilitated weekly dialogue-based ethical inquiry sessions as part of the students' Society and Environment curriculum. The impact of the intervention was assessed using both qualitative and quantitative measures. Findings indicate that the educational program is both functional, that is, worked well within the constraints of prevailing educational structures, and effective in developing students' abilities and readiness to engage in the processes of ethical justification.

Keywords: SOSE and citizenship education

COR06432    ®     PDF Paper
Australian VET policy and the role of business and industry

Ian Cornford, University of Technology, Sydney

Vocational education needs to be closely linked to the requirements of business and industry both in terms of policy and educational practice. However, over the past fifteen years the wants of business have come to dominate VET policy to the exclusion of any other stakeholder interests. This has led to seriously inadequate policies in the VET area that are responsible for the current skills crisis. It is more than two years since two major reports concluded the VET policies in Australia are not working yet to date there has been little indication of substantial shifts in government thinking and policy to create a more effective VET system. This paper looks at the need to reposition other stakeholders in the policy equation and reduce the influence of business and industry to some degree to produce a VET system more closely aligned to the needs of Australian society. It is argued that focus upon quality rather than quantity needs to be a central consideration in any new policy realignment.

Keywords: Education policy

COR06433    ®     PDF Paper
Making generic skills more than a mantra in Vocational Education policy

Ian Cornford, University of Technology, Sydney

The need to retrain workers when there are changes in technology is seemingly circumvented by the teaching of generic skills in VET. Generic skills have moved on and off the Australian VET policy agenda since the early 1990s and in the form of the Mayer Key Competencies they have been given much attention from time to time. However there is little evidence that policy makers have any real understanding of what generic skills involve and their link to transfer of learning. Recently there has been a move to focus upon another set of generic skills, employability skills, with this seeming to be an acknowledgement of the failure of the Mayer Key Competencies in policy terms. This paper looks at what needs to be done to ensure the effective teaching and transfer of generic skills and to move beyond mere policy rhetoric. Employers have key roles to play and in this there may lie an opportunity for establishing an appropriate, practical relationships between on- and off-site workplace education.

Keywords: Education policy

COR06437     PDF Paper
(Re)conceptualising middle years pedagogy

Phillip Cormack and Sam Sellar, University of South Australia

Much has been made recently of the importance of reinvigorating the middle years of school as a way of addressing ongoing problems in Australian education such as adolescent disaffection from schooling and differential outcomes from schooling between different socio-cultural groups. A number of reform projects-notably the productive pedagogies project (Hayes et al., 2006; Luke et al., 2002)-have sought to turn policy attention to pedagogy. The Beyond the Middle study (Luke et al., 2002, p.12) recommends that, 'there is a need to focus systemic activities on renewing mainstream pedagogy in middle years schooling', citing a need to build 'quality and diversity' in middle school teaching. However, we have found that teachers in disadvantaged middle schools we are working with experience difficulty engaging with the pedagogical foci of these reports and in this paper we explore the reasons why tackling issues of pedagogical reform in these terms can be problematic. We propose a supplementary framework for working with teachers on pedagogy, drawing on historical models and the work of Garth Boomer. This framework gives as much attention to what teachers must do with students-the pedagogical practices teachers employ-as it does to the kinds of learning outcomes being sought.

Keywords: School renewal and pedagogic improvement

CRA06025    ®      PDF Paper
Doom and gloom or a time for optimism: Potential aspirants' views about school leadership - now and for the future

Neil Cranston, University of Queensland

Principal recruitment has attracted national and international attention in recent years (eg. Barty et al, 2005 in Australia; Earley et al, 2002 in the UK; Brooking et al, 2003 in New Zealand; Williams, 2003 in Canada). Importantly, Australian research in both state and non-state schools suggests that potential principal aspirants are less enthusiastic than might be expected in their desire to become principals (D'Arbon et al, 2002; Cranston et al, 2004; Lacey, 2002).

Given the importance of ensuring we have quality leaders for our schools in the future, the research reported here (which is on-going and involving follow-up interviews) examined the views of potential aspirants (primary and secondary deputies) from one large government education system in Australia about the principalship and their intentions in seeking promotion (or otherwise) to such positions and the reasons driving these intentions. Data were collected via the Aspirant Principal Questionnaire (APQ) - especially developed for the study - comprising 38 closed items mainly of a Likert type format, 5 open-ended items linked to particular closed items allowing participants to add their own suggestions/ideas, expand/elaborate on responses; and 4 further more general open-ended items.

A number of system-level policy and practice recommendations have been developed from the findings.

Keywords: Educational leadership

CRO06043    ®     PDF Paper
Developing teaching as a profession and the professional development of teachers: discourses, demographics and life long learning

Brian Crossman, South Australian Institute of Business and Technology

Ironically, in an era of life long learning a number of countries face a teacher shortage, recruiting and retaining staff in a profession that is not seen as particularly attractive. At times teachers have been the recipients of the 'discourses of derisiF06674on' and 'teacher bashing' by governments and the media, however the argument presented here is that discourse of educators themselves has also done little to help teachers' status. Expanding upon the notion that higher education postgraduate programs can position teachers as 'novice academics' this multimedia article goes further to suggest that a significant portion of educational discourse unwittingly situates teachers simply as novices. To support this, video data from the keynote addresses of two conferences is examined followed by an examination of a teacher-educator text on professional development. It suggests caution and a re-examination of the discourses of education and professional development is needed in order to develop teaching as a profession.

Keywords: Teachers' work

CRO06597     PDF Paper
Identity and language teacher education: The potential for sociocultural perspectives in researching language teacher identity

Russell Cross, Monash University

The knowledge base upon which language teacher education relies has tended to confine studies of identity to language learners and learning (e.g., Ricento, 2005; Norton & Toohey, 2002), rather than to studies of language teachers or teaching. Thus, although I concur with Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, and Johnson's (2005) call for further research on language teacher identity, and their assertion that it take into account both "poststructural and postmodern sensitivities to discourse and agency that the theory of the image-text provides [as well as] the nuanced conception of learning in social settings that community of practice theory offers" (p. 40), this paper problematises the "identity-in-discourse" and "identity-in-practice" (p. 39) dichotomy they offer for theorising language teacher identity. Instead, I consider the potential of a framework for understanding language teacher identity that draws on Vygotskian sociocultural and activity theory (Vygotsky, 1978; 1987; Leontiev, 1981; Engeström, 1987), in the notion of "identity-in-activity".

Keywords: Languages education

CUR06195     PDF Paper
Post-compulsory VET sector participation: Who benefits?

David Curtis, Australian Council for Educational Research

Using data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) the labour market status, hours worked and income earned by young people (to age 24) who had participated in VET sector programs have been examined. VET programs considered are apprenticeships, traineeships and TAFE courses. VET sector participants are compared with school leavers who enter the workforce directly. The outcomes for young people who either completed or did not complete their VET programs are compared. Young men benefit most from apprenticeship programs and young women from traineeships. Young men benefit substantially more from apprenticeship programs than do any other combinations of gender and course type. There is a net benefit to program completion, but it is not uniformly distributed. Possible implications for career advisors and for policy makers are discussed.

Keywords: Education policy: Vocational Education and Training

D

DAN06682     PDF Paper
Learning and teaching

Jeannie Daniels, University of South Australia

This paper is developed from a study of women's experiences as mature learners in Vocational Education and Training (VET). Most recent research into student expectations of VET is measured in terms that dictate a particular kind of response: terms such as measurable outcomes, competencies and of course, employment. Whilst these terms are integral to VET's commitment to the labour market, they do not encourage a broader perspective from which to explore the complex issues surrounding VET practice and purpose.

What if we were to ask VET students to tell us, in their own words, what their VET learning experience means to them? What would they talk about? How would they describe their learning? What values and meanings would students attribute to the experience of vocational learning in their own 'VET stories'?

My PhD research seeks answers to these questions, and uses a story-telling approach to collect and present data from a group of mature women students in an Adelaide VET Course. These women's stories about their learning tell of pedagogical practices and outcomes that are more complex than current VET discourse would suggest, and offer possibilities of different starting points from which to investigate the role and purpose of VET.

Keywords: Vocational Education and Training

DAR06284    ®     PDF Paper
Journeys through a research landscape: Lessons in doing multi-partner research

Tony d'Arbon and Jack Frawley, Australian Catholic University and Lyn Fasoli Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education

Linking Worlds is a three year project funded by the Australian Research Council and awarded in 2005. The project brings together the concerns for enhancing Indigenous educational leadership and the research interests of Australian Catholic University, and Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, as research partners, and the collaborating organisations of the Australian Principals' Associations Professional Development Council, Catholic Education Darwin, and the Northern Territory Department of Employment and Education and Training.

Through the stories of project participants, this paper documents and describes the complexity of doing multi-partner research. Added to this complexity in Linking Worlds is the difficulty of working with partners over vast geographical distances. These stories deal with the new problems, new roles and new strategies that emerged from the research landscape and as such address the issues of project governance, management and administration. What emerges from these stories is the imperative for multi-partner research to be based on openness and flexibility, especially in relation to issues of power and control. The stories in this presentation will provide some suggestions in addressing the challenge of organising for creativity and flexibility in multi-partner research.

Keywords: Educational leadership

DEC06140     PDF Paper
Changing transitions from early childhood to school. Perceptions of German children, parents, and teachers

Heike Deckert-Peaceman, PSdagogische Hochschule Ludwigsburg

There is an ongoing and increasing debate worldwide over the best time to start formal education and on how to deal with the transition from a play-based learning to the foundation stage of a formal curriculum. Crucial aspects being discussed are: readiness for school, curriculum concepts, institutional differences between early childhood education and school, and the cultural understanding of what it means to be a child. Modern societies vary in their answers to these questions. Known for its late start of formal schooling with little pre-primary academic training, Germany lately faces a paradigmatic transformation. A demand for improved academic school entry preparation has been called for, often in the form of training certain skills. Currently, daily practices in early childhood education as well as within family settings are in the process of changing and show a wide, sometimes contradictory conceptual spectrum.

The paper presents a study of such practices and discusses first results as well as methodological questions, in comparison with equivalent research projects in Australia. It highlights the perspectives of children, viewed as co-constructors of their school career, and draws upon participatory observation, children's conversations, photographs, and film.

Keywords: Early childhood education

DEH06045     PDF Paper
Problems in teaching non-Roman script to English speakers

Yavar Dehghani, Australian Defence Forces School of Languages

Reading and Writing are the two macro-skills in learning a language. The student should be able to put the concepts into words and sentences and paragraphs in order to write, and he should be able to analyze the written text into concepts. And moreover, a good writer and reader should consider the appropriate genre, register, mode, theme, rheme, cohesion and so many other features of a good written text. Considering these features, writing and reading even in the native language are delicate tasks. These tasks become more delicate when the writer wants to write and read in the second language where he should translate his mind (concepts) into the second language words and sentences and vice versa. This becomes even more complicated when the student wants to write and read in a script, which is different from his own. This paper tries to discuss this problem and present Persian script as an example of a non-roman script and make suggestions for teaching the script.

Keywords: Multicultural education

DEH06184     PDF Paper
Application of comparative grammar in second language teaching

Yavar Dehghani, Australian Defence Forces School of Languages

There has been a long debate in teaching foreign languages as well as in teaching English as a second language whether grammar should be a main component of the curriculum or not, and whether it should be taught explicitly or just be introduced implicitly during the language course. Some methods have gone even farther and suggested that there is no benfit in teaching grammar in language courses. However, there is still a lot of controversy about how and to what extent grammar should be included in the curriculum.

This paper firstly elaborates on this debate, and argues in favour of the inclusion of grammar as a main component in language teaching curriculum. Secondly, it introduces a method for teaching a second language, called "comparative grammar method". In this method, grammar is a prominent and explicit part of the curriculum but the grammatical concepts and categories are not introduced in an abstract way. Instead, the grammars of both first and the target languages are compared categorically throughout the course. In conclusion, a case study is introduced where this method has been applied and its usability and efficiency in real classroom situation have been justified.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

DEN06337     PDF Paper
Biographical differences and job satisfaction of Catholic primary school staff

John De Nobile, Macquarie University and John McCormick, University of New South Wales

Job satisfaction of teachers has long been a focus of attention for educational researchers. Arguably, this is because of links between job satisfaction and organisational behaviour issues such as commitment, absenteeism, turnover, efficiency and productivity. Job satisfaction of school employees may be related to personal characteristics, such as age, gender and years of experience. This study reports relationships between biographical variables and job satisfaction of staff members in Catholic primary schools. The sample consisted of 356 staff members of Catholic primary schools in New South Wales, Australia. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey. Comparison of means and multivariate analysis were employed to examine the data and answer the research questions. Biographical differences, particularly age, sex and position, were related to several job satisfaction variables. The results are discussed in terms of implications for schools and future research concerning job satisfaction in the context of schools.

Keywords: Educational leadership

DEO06050    ®     PDF Paper
Approaches to Learning in the South Pacific region: A confirmatory factor analysis study

Deo Bisun and Huy Phan, University of the South Pacific

Research evidence emerging from recent studies (e.g., Akande, 1998; Kember & Gow, 1991; Kember & Leung, 1998) suggests that the social and cultural environments influence students' approaches to their learning. These findings have important theoretical and pedagogical implications in terms of how we view and conceptualise students' learning in both Western and non-Western contexts. Extending this line of inquiry, we situated and examined the orientation of learning styles of tertiary students in the South Pacific region. In particular, the present study was seen as important since it has been more than a decade that research was conducted in the South Pacific region on the learning styles of tertiary students. Biggs' (1987) Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ) was revised to suit the Pacific social and cultural contexts, before it was administered to Fijian and other Pacific Islands students (N = 189 95 females, 94 males) enrolled in Educational Psychology at the University of the South Pacific. Exploratory (EFA) and different confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models were tested to investigate the possible multidimensionality of approaches to learning (SAL). Analyses of results did not support the theoretical framework of a three-factor model (Biggs, 1987) and instead indicated the existence of Richardson's (1994) two-factor model, emphasizing two major types of learning orientation - Reproducing and Meaning. Our finding has important implications in the South Pacific region suggesting that educators and policy makers should ensure that assessment and other teaching learning elements in the university system are constructively aligned to promoting the appropriate style of learning.

Keywords: Motivation and self-concept

DEP06475     PDF Paper
Collaborative inquiry to support teacher and student learning: A university-school system partnership

Joanne Deppeler, Monash University

This presentation draws on work from the Learning in Networking Communities (LINC) project, a research and professional development partnership between the Catholic Education Office,(CEO) Melbourne and Monash University (2001 - 2005). The study was supported by the Australian Research Council of Research Strategic Partnership Industry Research Training (ARC-SPIRT) scheme (2001-2003). School-based teams were engaged in collaborative inquiry focused on priorities they identified, and that linked practice to the quality of schooling for all students. Teams began by examining school conditions using the revised version of the British Index for Inclusion. Powerful professional learning occurred when teachers and their leaders had opportunities to work collaboratively, to use evidence and to challenge one another about their practices and their expectations for student learning. Teachers' research-based studies were credited towards a Postgraduate Diploma or Masters degree in Inclusive Education that was funded by the CEO. In 2001-2003, the project involved 45 teachers in eight primary and secondary schools and in 2004-2005 and a further 40 teachers in four secondary schools. The presentation will outline the LINC model of collaborative inquiry and a summary of outcomes for teacher and student learning.

Keywords: Inclusive and special education

DEV06636    ®     PDF Paper
Writing to learn and learning to write: How can staff help university students to succeed at tertiary writing?

Linda Devereux, Mary Macken-Horarik, Christine Trimingham-Jack and Kate Wilson, University of Canberra

The writing that students are required to undertake in a tertiary setting is often very different to writing tasks that they have done before, and for some students learning how to write acceptably at university is a challenge. In addition, tertiary teaching staff may underestimate the difficulty such students experience understanding and responding to the varied assessment tasks that they set. This paper reports on a study of student acquisition of academic writing skills during the four years of a Bachelor of Education course. Students' views about their emerging tertiary literacy skills are examined, and recommendations are made for teaching staff based on strategies that students felt assisted them to become more proficient writers. We argue that students benefit from written assignments that offer a high degree of challenge that will assist them in developing intellectual rigour in the discipline, but that they require adequate scaffolding if they are to develop appropr iate tertiary literacy skills that enable them to meet these challenges. Such scaffolding includes constructive feedback, explicit explanation of task requirements and multiple sources of support.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

DIX06093    ®     PDF Paper
Issues of motivation and workload affecting engagement in good teaching: The 21st Century academics' perspective.

Kathryn Dixon, Shelleyann Scott, Robert Dixon and Rosemary Kerr, Curtin University of Technology

Can 21^st Century universities afford to maintain prominent attitudes to research and reward structures which marginalise the importance of good teaching, with the underlying principle that anyone can teach and only the elite few can conduct research? This study reports on university academics' perceptions of their work lives and explores the paradoxical perception that research and not teaching results in considerable funding to the university. In-depth interviews undertaken with a sample of thirty eight academics revealed issues with motivation to engage with teaching, and concerns with high workloads. These academics indicated that there are mixed messages emerging from the university administration regarding the importance of teaching. Reward structures and job security are perceived to be overtly focused on the research agenda rather than good teaching. Across the university high student numbers are impacting on academics' capacity to deliver high quality teaching. There is little time for reflection, curriculum review, in-depth communication with students, sound feedback on assessments, and professional development of teaching strategies. The research revealed however, a positive attitude to teaching with most indicating that they wanted to be more innovative in their approach but lacked the knowledge in order to achieve this.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

DIX06094     ®   PDF Paper
University students' perceptions of workload: The challenges and vagaries of assessment

Kathryn Dixon, Shelleyann Scott and Robert Dixon, Curtin University of Technology

Evaluating the academic performance of university students is a problematic area which frequently highlights differences in perspective between students and lecturers. This study explored university students' concerns with workload and assessment. The research utilises student questionnaires and in-depth focus group interviews. The questionnaire data encompassed individual student responses over a period of six years and were analysed using statistical quantitative software. Four separate focus group interviews were conducted with first, second and third year students to explore students' insights on issues that had emerged from the questionnaire data. Students indicated that workload was a significant issue along with assessment. Unit requirements were frequently vague with few marking guidelines and little or no feedback being provided to inform progress. Group assignments were over-utilised in the curriculum and were frequently poorly structured and monitored. The over emphasis on memorisation with low cognitive assessment tasks resulted in boredom and dissatisfaction. The lessons learned from this study provide insights to professional developers within the university context. This research is part of larger study focused on supporting positive educational changes within the university context and is of particular relevance due to the ongoing demands for increasing the quality of teaching and learning.

Keywords: Education policy

DOB06024    ®     PDF Paper
Educational leadership for transformational sustainability: A critical examination of current pedagogical practices

Eva Dobozy, Edith Cowan University

While the debate on quick-fix reform in education is continuing, this paper sets out to push the edge of what we understand about widespread and lasting school improvement. I argue that the impact of envisioned and successfully implemented educational reform at the school level is minimal and may even be detrimental for students' learning outcomes if its sustainability beyond the current leadership team cannot be upheld. What is the potential effect of innovative school reform on children's lives and educational success if structures are not in place to sustain it? How can worthwhile innovative pedagogical practices be maintained beyond implementation? For this discussion some innovative pedagogical practices at a primary school located in a low socio-economic area of Perth are explored which demonstrate that its positive effects on the children may be nullified or even reversed when new leadership teams arrive at the school. The data is drawn from a recent case study, which investigated the characteristics of democratic schools. The findings suggest that current primary government school leadership team appointments in Western Australia do not seem able to sustain the capacity to cater for seamless transition from one leadership team (or principal) to the next. Thus many school reform practices are unable to move beyond the implementation phase and consequently have minimal transformative effects. To maximise the capacity of 'systems thinkers in action' (Fullan, 2005) that work for more socially just and sustainable reform efforts in education and promote 'practices of pedagogy that work against systems of oppression' (Lather, 1991), the shortcomings of current leadership appointment practices in the Western Australian government school system need to be problematised and possible solutions offered.

Keywords: Educational leadership

DOW06283    ®     PDF Paper
VET in schools: Analysis of Business Services Training Package

Hayden Downing, Patrick Griffin and Shelley Gillis, University of Melbourne

From mid-1999 to the end of 2000, the Federal Government financed the Full Service Schools Program, one of three programs concerned with reducing youth unemployment by encouraging young people to complete Year 12 and make successful transitions to further training, new apprenticeships or work. At the same time, the Federal Government launched a program to identify ways of obtaining greater recognition in industry and university of achievement in VET courses at schools.

This paper focuses on the Business Services Training Package (BSB01) and analyses one aspect of a survey of the assessment of VETsubjects in schools throughout Australia. The paper compares item response modelling (IRM) with a model that uses subject matter experts (SMEs) to prepare rubrics to guide persons assessing candidates. These rubrics are designed on the assumption of a continuum of competence for each unit of competence.

IRM (Rasch analyses) showed that the SMEs make valid judgments of relative levels of difficulty. IRM also showed how, in some units, some criteria with similar levels of difficulty could be combined. In other cases, IRM showed how the order of some of the criteria could be changed to consolidate the underlying continua of competence.

Keywords: Assessment and Measurement

DOW06285     PDF Paper
Engaging early adolescents in their learning via student-centred curriculum integration

Tony Dowden, University of Tasmania

Student-centred curriculum integration or 'integrative curriculum' offers much to educators who want early adolescents to actively engage in their learning (Beane, 1990 & 1997). Moreover, integrative curriculum designs have the capacity to be highly responsive to the developmental needs of young people at the middle school level. In contrast, subject-centred 'multidisciplinary' or 'interdisciplinary' designs frequently fail to respond to the needs of early adolescents.

In this paper I examine various notions of integration and explain their role in curriculum design. I compare and contrast features of multidisciplinary and integrative curriculum designs with respect to the educational and developmental needs of middle level students. In particular, I articulate a theory of integration implied in John Dewey's writing and explain why his holistic approach to curriculum design and pedagogy remains highly relevant to middle level curriculum design.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Middle level curriculum design

DRA06193    ®     PDF Paper
Engaging young children in shared conversations during the storybook reading activity

Anne Drabble, Australian Catholic University

The aim of this year long study was to examine the shared communications five year old pre-primary students engaged in during the socially constructed whole group story book reading activity in three pre-primary classrooms in Western Australia. The teachers' contributions to the whole group storybook reading activity were based on communication categories that contained directives, questions, statements and responses. Each of the three teachers used all of the communication categories. However, differences in emphasis and frequency of use were noted. The students were not major initiators of the communication in any of the three classrooms. They engaged in collaborative communication when opportunities were presented to them. Differences noted in the students' contributions could be attributed to the approach taken by the teacher, the students' background knowledge and experiences and the choice of text being read by the teacher. Insights gained on the nature and extent of the pre-primary teachers' and the students' communicative contributions have implications for developing reciprocal communication opportunities for both the classroom teacher and the students.

Keywords: Early Childhood Education

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EAR06520    ®     PDF Paper
The impact of protracted conflict on secondary school students: A case study from North and East Sri Lanka

Jaya Earnest and Robert Finger, Curtin University of Technology

The 20-year-old civil war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has seriously undermined the country's enormous development potential. Nearly 900,000 children (300,000 displaced and 2,500 child recruits) live in areas most affected by the ethnic conflict. The majority of these children have known only conflict. The commencement of peace negotiations in 2002, between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE increased humanitarian access to the conflict-affected areas. The impact of the December 2004 Tsunami added yet another dimension of complexity to the conflict areas.

This study used an interpretive case study approach to examine the education process in six districts of ongoing protracted conflict in North & East Sri Lanka. The research utilized culturally sensitive qualitative methods: focus group discussions, interviews, school visits and collection of documentary data. Questions asked were designed to explore understanding and perceptions of conflict, displacement and vulnerability. The findings identified factors that influenced the education process and made meaningful interpretations of the background, conflict and education. The major constraints in the implementation of effective education were identified as a lack of peace and security, an acute shortage of teachers, lack of resources and limited finances.

Keywords: Comparative and international education

EDW06713    ®     PDF Paper
Distributed cognition in the middle years: Using a forum format to elicit mental models of assessment

Christine Edwards-Leis, James Cook University

The project, Mental Models, Robotics, and Middle Schooling, was an empirical qualitative study centred within information processing theory and linked with the introspection mediating process tracing paradigm. The study involved students and their teacher in a socio-economic diverse urban primary school and aimed to establish how the identification of participants' mental models can assist in the authentic assessment of learning through a richer understanding of the cognitive development taking place in a technology based learning experience.

Semi-structured and stimulated recall interviews, questionnaires, teach back episodes, and teacher and student journals were used to externalise participants' mental models. However, the effect of distributed cognition in learning and the shared understanding of the nature, process, and response to assessment could not be determined by these instruments alone. A videoed forum of the student participants, held subsequent to an assessment episode designed by them, was used to elicit the mental models of assessment from teacher and learner points of view. Their teacher was shown the video and interviewed. Results of this forum and interview indicate students can inform their teacher of their understanding and need for authentic assessment practices that would clearly demonstrate their individual learning journey while adhering to systemic assessment principles.

Keywords: Assessment and Measurement; Research Methods

EDW06717     PDF Paper
Variations to stimulated recall protocols to enhance student reflection: I did, I saw, I remembered

Christine Edwards-Leis, James Cook University

The project, Mental Models and Robotics and Middle Schooling, was an empirical qualitative study centred within information processing theory and linked with the introspection mediating process tracing paradigm. The study involved students and their teacher in a diverse socio-economic urban primary school and aimed to establish how the identification of participants' mental models can assist in the authentic assessment of learning through a richer understanding of the cognitive development taking place in a technology-based learning experience. The strict protocols of Stimulated Recall methodology were used to externalise participants' 'in-action' mental models, using the opening question, "What were you thinking?". The use of this rigid questioning technique elicited insufficient and repetitive responses from the students. An additional question, "What were you doing", was included in the second round of Stimulated Recall interviews prior to the question, "What were you thinking while you were doing that?" This change elicited increased quantity and quality of responses because students were able to link their thoughts and feelings with associated actions and reactions. Richer mental models of procedural knowledge but more crucially, conceptual knowledge, were evident. Social construction mental models were also richer as students more willingly linked thought to action.

Keywords: Research methods

EGA06635    ®     PDF Paper
The impact of tertiary-level humanities education for homeless and marginalised people

Luke Egan, Jude Butcher, Peter Howard, Australian Catholic University National, Anne Hampshire, Mission Australia and Connie Henson, Learning Quest

In Sydney, tertiary-level education in the humanities is offered to homeless and other marginalised people in the form of two courses: the 'Clemente' course and the 'Catalyst' course. These courses are provided for the purpose of building the capacities of marginalised people, with the aim of assisting them to exit the cycles of poverty and homelessness. It is hypothesised that humanities education can empower these people to reflect on their circumstances, realise their capacities, and then re-engage with their communities. The present paper discusses the results of research into the impact of the courses on their students. This discussion focuses on perceived changes in self-efficacy, social connectedness, and interpersonal relating. The paper also critically examines the nature and purpose of the courses, and future directions for research into education programs for disadvantaged people.

Keywords: Education for marginalised people

EHR06036    ®     PDF Paper
Learning to be a woodturner

Lisa Ehrich and Brian Delahaye, Queensland University of Technology

National and international Government policies and reports suggest that lifelong learning is a necessity to promote the cultural, social, educational and vocational dimensions of a person's life. Many community based organisations play a significant role in providing learning opportunities for adults and thus promote a broad lifelong learning agenda. One such organisation is the Woodturners' Society of Queensland (WSQ). The aim of the WSQ is the dissemination of information to its members (the majority of whom are over 50 years old) pertaining to the craft of woodturning in addition to providing workshops, seminars and training courses that help to develop and enhance their skills of woodturning. Via semi-structured interviews, the research reported in this paper explores the experiences of ten mature aged members of the WSQ with a view to examining not only their motivation to learn woodturning but also, and most importantly, the learning processes and activities they nominated as critical to their growth. Key factors that facilitated and inhibited the learning processes are identified and discussed. The paper concludes with implications that point to the need to support communities of practice.

Keywords: Post-compulsory education

EHR06037    ®     PDF Paper
Learning from the story of a great leader

Lisa Ehrich and Neil Cranston, Queensland University of Technology

This paper reports on research findings from a larger study which seeks to understand leadership from the experiences of well-known and well-recognised Australian leaders across a spectrum of endeavours such as the arts, business, science, the law and politics. To date there appears to be limited empirical research that has investigated the insights of Australian leaders regarding their leadership experiences, beliefs and practices. In this paper, the leadership story of a well-respected medical scientist is discussed which reveals the contextual factors that influenced her thinking about leadership as well as the key values she embodies as a leader. The paper commences by considering some of the salient leadership literature in the field. In particular, two prominent theoretical frameworks provided by Leavy (2003) and Kouzes and Posner (1986, 2002) are explored. While Leavy's framework construes leadership as consisting of three 'C's' - context , conviction and credibility, Kouzes and Posner (1986, 2002) refer to five practices of exemplary leadership. The paper provides a snapshot of the life forces and context that played an important role in shaping the leader's views and practices and an analytical discussion of these practices is considered in the light of the earlier frameworks identified.

Keywords: Educational leadership

ENG06421     PDF Paper
Whole of government action on young people's engagement and re-engagement with learning and earning: the South Australian experience of interagency collaboration

Wendy Engliss, South Australia Department of Education and Children's Services, and Jan Patterson, South Australia Department of Premier and Cabinet

While full-time engagement is the goal of the SA Government's commitment to having all young people earning or learning, this public policy imperative acknowledges the hybrid combinations of part-time education, training and work which make up the lives of so many young people including those for whom the traditional patterns of senior schooling fit so badly. And a central features of the SACE Review is the notion of a 'learning space' within which post-compulsory aged young people can (and already do) move into and out of formal learning, reflecting the interweaving of their various roles and identities more realistically than the long-dominant dualism of retention-attrition. Within this context, studying part-time moves from the margins to the mainstream of public policy, enabling recognition that it is the norm rather than the exception for most of the State's post-compulsory students. This presentation will give an inter-agency perspective on the impact and potential of the high profile, government driven and relatively short-term projects being funded by the State's $28 million School Retention Action Plan, exploring the relevance of these interventions operating in and across schools with respect to enhancing outcomes for part-time students in particular, and their sustainability over the longer term.

Keywords: Education policy; Educational change and innovation

ERI06821     PDF Paper
Visualized writing

Per-Olof Erixon, Umeå University

This paper draws on a just completed project called "Genres in Transition - aesthetic writing practices in upper secondary school". The project aimed at investigating practices in writing developed by students in the school subjects Swedish in negotiation with traditional genres in school and new genres in media culture. The project draws on theory and research in the field of the teaching of literature, writing and media studies as they have been developed in Scandinavia under influence of international research in reader response criticism, cultural studies, media studies, and genre theory. Concepts such as genre, interpretative communities, critical discourse analysis, analysis of narrative, multimodality and remediation are used in the analysis and interpretation of qualitative data. School texts in different formats and settings produced by students have been collected and analyzed. Interviews with both students and teachers have also been carried out. The result shows that the students when writing essays in school bring with them experiences and strategies from all types of media, such as film, TV, computer games etc, which enlarge their possibilities to communicate meaning.

Keywords: Secondary schooling

EWI06393     PDF Paper
Mentoring in academic settings: A pilot study

Robyn Ewing, Amani Ahmed, Paula Spicer, Simon Barries, Donna O'Connor, John Shields, Fran Waugh and Mark Freeman, University of Sydney

In the last decade academics have been facing increased pressures on their time and the way they work as professionals. Occupational stress amongst academics is higher than the national average for workers more generally (Winefield et al, 2002). Both the business management and education research literature contain a strong body of evidence supporting the application of workplace mentoring and coaching as a means of further enhancing the contribution and work satisfactionof knowledge workers and managers. This paper reports initial findings from a cross faculty (Economics and Business/Education and Social Work) pilot mentoring project at the University of Sydney aimed to enhance the teaching, research and work-life balance outcomes for the twenty participants. Data gathering occured during all stages of the project and included surveys, submitted expressions of interest, recordings of group activities, focus groups and interviews.

Keywords: Academic professional development

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FAU06199    ®     PDF Paper
Maintaining the change: Studying and supporting teaching for new learning

Julie Faulkner and Gloria Latham, RMIT University, and Shelley Dole, University of Queensland

Teacher educators who advocate new learning approaches hope that their graduates will address the needs of digitally and globally sophisticated students. A critical, enquiry-based framework for teaching attempts to unravel many traditional assumptions about learning, assumptions which continue to shape preservice teachers' practices even through early career years. Evidence in relation to effective take up of new learning education approaches by graduates is sparse. This research concept emerges from a pilot study exploring the first year teaching experience, and asks further questions about the tensions between theory and practice during the beginning teacher phase. We explore six case studies of teachers who graduated from new learning programs, observing ways that educational theory encounters the daily realities of classroom practice. How can new learning frameworks transform older, embedded views? Can changed approaches be consolidated and mobilised against some of the adverse conditions that predominate in schools? We also ask what support research of this kind might offer beginner teachers who are struggling to implement a change process.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

FEL06142     PDF Paper
Emotion matters in teaching and learning: A conceptual framework

Pam Feldman, Monash University

In the last decade or so, there has been a change in the way we understand emotions. What emerges is a fascinating glimpse and interrogation into our passions, and their interplay in and with the world, to provide us with a means to explore on an increasingly deep level, the complicated nature of self, professional identity, knowledge and teaching and learning. However, research is scant. This paper, therefore, aims to provide a theoretical and critical perspective on emotions and how they inform and define knowledge. Applying this emotional lens to understand better the way we see our world, understand ourselves and interact with others in our particular educational contexts, I will argue that emotions are very much more than pesky intrusions that confound us in our busy professional lives. It has to be our task as committed practitioners and educational researchers, therefore, to be challenged and discover creative means of disturbing the most familiar habits and assumptions about the role of emotions in the world of teaching and learning. Reconceptualising emotionality as an essential meaning-making system will undoubtedly contribute to vibrant professional dialogue about pedagogy, the construction of knowledge and, importantly, pave the way for crucial professional development to occur.

Keywords: Teacher professional learning

FIE06330    ®     PDF Paper
Beyond disabilities: Broadening the view of special needs and the inclusive education challenges facing primary teachers

Barry Fields, University of Southern Queensland

Previous research on teacher attitudes and responses to inclusion has focused predominantly on the pedagogical challenges posed by students with disabilities in regular classrooms. The special education literature has been slow to recognise the significance of the impact of student diversity on the work of teachers and the reality that classrooms are populated with children who, while they may not have a recognised disability, nevertheless have a wide variety of special educational needs. This paper reports the findings of a study of the relative inclusive education challenges posed to primary teachers of a diverse group of students. Teachers were presented with 14 case descriptions of students in the form of vignettes. The students depicted where characterised has having special needs associated with such factors as disability, cultural background, dysfunctional family background, emotional/psychiatric condition, socio-economic disadvantage, mobility, homelessness etc. The teachers were asked to rate the students depicted in the vignettes on the level of difficulty they would have in providing an inclusive education for them and to identify what specific characteristics or attributes of the students they would find most challenging. This paper reports the findings of this survey and discusses the implications of the findings for both pre-service and in-service professional development.

Keywords: Inclusive and special education

FIT06585    ®     PDF Paper
Evidence-based research in practice

Noleine Fitzallen and Natalie Brown, University of Tasmania

Recent calls for education research to adopt scientific principles have created much debate in the education research community. There is, however, a general consensus on the value of evidence-based research to guide educational programs and policies. Researchers are, therefore, posed with the challenge of conducting research that is regarded as rigorous and valid, in terms of a scientific inquiry. This paper, reports on how these issues may influence research that is intentionally underpinned by evidence-based research methodology. A research project to investigate students' development of statistical thinking and reasoning in an ICT environment provides an example that illustrates how evidence-based research can shape research practice. This is followed by a description of the development of a student survey and a framework for the evaluation of data-analysis software. Both instruments were based on theoretical frameworks from the literature on statistics education, to strengthen the internal validity of the research. They potentially provide the opportunity to gather reliable and meaningful evidence, and demonstrate the practical application of empirical methods to explore and explain the complexity of real life situations.

Keywords: Research methods

FLE06272    ®     PDF Paper
Academic interest areas: Translating the vision into reality

Mary-Anne Fleming, University of Southern Queensland

This paper examines, from the perspective of a 'workplace challenge', the ways in which the culture of an organisation can be changed from a hierarchical structure to that of a learning organisation. The paper focuses on the concept of Academic Interest Areas (AIA), which evolved from an Educational Faculty restructure.

Firstly, the reasons for change are discussed and contextualised. Secondly, the Faculty restructure and the development of the AIA initiative are explored. The paper describes the institution and the place of the education faculty within the institution. It further outlines the faculty restructure, its impact and how the AIA initiative subsequently evolved from this restructure. A discussion of the development of workplace change, the culture of the organisation and subsequent leadership issues, provides a context for the analysis of the challenges and successes of the AIA to date.

Information gleaned from documentation, collegial discussion and interviews with academic staff involved in the AIA process provides the basis upon which to reflect on the AIA initiation. The initial findings of the conducted research indicate that the AIA initiative is largely accepted by Faculty academics as a worthy concept but that it falls short in the transition of the AIA concept into a fully functional initiative.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

FOR06412     PDF Paper
To work with peer bullying in the Arctic

Arne Forsman, Luleå University of Technology

Together with Finish, Russian and Norwegian universities in the Barents Region, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, attended in 2004 in the European Union Project, The ArctiChildren Project. It is a development and research project with the aim to find methods to improve the psycho-social health among youth and children in the Arctic. A Sami school and a local school in all four countries are involved in the project. One topic of interest has been to help the schools to find methods to prevent and take measures against peer bullying and to investigate the amount and kind of harassments taking place in school. This paper is a report of the development and research work I have done in the project in the discourse of peer bullying.

FOX06524     PDF Paper
Habitus in the city: Towards a strategic habitus

Bruce Fox, Monash University

Increasing numbers of Year 9 students are spending two or three weeks in city experience programs, based in central city office accommodation. Drawing on Bourdieu's (1977, 2002) notion of habitus and his associated ideas of fields, capitals, games and reflexivity, this paper looks at how teachers as presenters of these city experience programs engage students with spaces and places in central Melbourne city area in a way that extends students' habitus rather than simply providing a "Cook's Tour" of the city. In seeking to understand this engagement of students with the city and to understand teachers use of pedagogies that develop the students' ability to think critically about these spaces and places, this paper draws on de Certeau's (1984) ideas of tactics and strategies as they operate in an educational setting. With regard to teacher selection of pedagogies that develop the abilities of students to think critically about space and place, the paper argues that appropriately selected pedagogies help students to develop a strategic habitus towards the learning environments encountered during these city experience programs rather than employing a more traditional tactical habitus (Gale & Kitto 2003) that is characteristic of at least some classroom situations. The paper concludes by relating the development of strategic habitus in students, via city experience programs, to student thinking abilities, curriculum planning, teacher pedagogical choice, teacher-student relationships, and, following the return of students to their home school, for the classroom educational environment in these schools.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

FRE06134     PDF Paper
Assessing the rigor and relevance of planned instruction on an authentic assessment task in which pre-service teachers target the moving skills of the NSW PDHPEK-6 syllabus

Annette Freak, Judith Miller and John Haynes, The University of New England

The investigation of an authentic assessment task is the focus of this research. The lesson plan is used in many pre-service teacher education programs. Such plans potentially enable teacher educators to better understand pre-service teachers thinking about teaching. In an effort to investigate this potential, the International Center's Rigor/Relevance Framework is adapted to the psychomotor domain. It is then applied to pre-service teachers work samples. These pre-service teachers have completed only the mandatory unit of study on the PDHPE specialist pathway currently offered at the University of New England. In order to measure the efficacy of such a pathway, instruments are being explored and trialled as potential indicators of professional readiness to plan for successful learning in PDHPE. Challenges and contributions to tertiary education are presented in reporting the outcomes of this study.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

FUN06265     PDF Paper
Portfolio assessment in in-service teacher education programmes

Yvonne Fung, The Open University of Hong Kong

Portfolio assessment is now very commonly used in teacher education programmes, both for assessment and as a learning tool. This paper reports on a study which aimed to examine the extent to which artifacts collected in teachers' portfolios demonstrated knowledge application and self-reflection. Forty portfolios from teachers on an initial in-service teacher education programme were analysed to assess their ability to apply what they had learned from the course to their classroom practice and to evaluate and reflect on their own teaching performance. The findings indicated that around 90% of the teachers demonstrated the ability to apply general pedagogical knowledge but less than 20% showed evidence that they had synthesized pedagogical content knowledge. As regards reflection and self-evaluation, the artefacts of 82% of teachers indicated that they had reflected on their classroom practice based on theories learned from the course. However, there was very little evidence that they had reflected on educational purposes, values, and philosophical perspectives on teaching. The study provides a better understanding of the use of portfolio assessment in teacher education; and it also gives teacher educators further insights into the feasibility of using teaching portfolios to enhance teachers' reflection and professional development.

Keywords: Teacher education - general

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GIL06020     PDF Paper
Managing challenges in an authentic learning environment: The case of peer-tutoring

Gurdish Gill, University of Western Australia

Empowering student learning has been a central concern facing educators and policy-makers. Research, literature and best practices advocate many benefits of such student-centred learning environments -foregrounding various innovative tools and models one can apply. Yet, successfully managing the demands of authentic learning environments is an ongoing struggle and perhaps a factor in the inconsistent application of more innovative learning across educators' classrooms. This suggests educators face challenges in managing the difficulties that abound in such authentic environments. This paper situates this discussion by studying a peer-tutoring programme and learning model designed by the researcher applied in a Junior College for senior students across 3 academic ability bands in the teaching and learning of General Paper (English). This programme which is based on a two-tier model, The Teach-Learn Model, embodies principles of constructivism and social-constructivism aims towards less teacher-directed learning. The Teach-Learn Model draws strength from weaving aspects such as collaboration, co-generative dialogue, reflection, blended learning, and maximising learner diversity - within a tight, structured framework of learning. While the programme noted numerous benefits in enhancing student learning processes and outcomes, it also highlighted issues of concern in managing learning. This paper outlines these challenges and suggests ways to manage them.

Keywords: New pedagogies

GIL06021     PDF Paper
Reflection in action: Examining the place, impact and management issues surrounding the integration of reflection in classroom practice

Gurdish Gill, University of Western Australia, and Nurulhuda Halim, National University of Singapore

With the changing nature of teaching and learning, educators constantly grapple with new ways of engaging learning so learners see meaning in what they do, guided by initiative and the desire to seek improvement. These trends have placed reflection in new light making it essential in the teaching and learning process. Despite acknowledgement that reflection is crucial in student learning, the level of use and implementation is inconsistent amongst educators as there are several competing perspectives and dilemmas faced. This paper explores, identifies and evaluates some of these dilemmas and discusses some of the implications and considerations that need to be addressed if reflection is to become a more dominant and natural learning component. The research involved 30 English Language educators from a Junior College and was centred on gathering educators' level of use, perceptions and challenges encountered in managing reflection in student learning. While the study generally noted a positive stance on integrating reflection, this was not realised through actual classroom integration. Instead, implementation was inconsistent and sporadic - highlighting structural, conceptual and learner-based problems. These challenges need to be evaluated, with the hope that reflection becomes a natural learning avenue aligned to the demands of the changing education landscape.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

GIL06042     PDF Paper
Empowering learning through the Teach-Learn Model^©

Gurdish Gill, University of Western Australia

This paper discusses empowering and engaging learning and learners through the uniquely designed Teach-Learn Model(c) - a two-tier framework embodying principles of constructivism and social-constructivism and recognising the multiplicity of roles learners can be entrusted with. Motivated by the Teach Less, Learn More initiative by the Ministry of Education (Singapore), this model, with less teacher-directed learning, draws strength from weaving together crucial pedagogical principles - such as collaboration, co-generative dialogue, reflection, blended learning, and maximising learner diversity - within a tight, structured framework of learning. The model was applied in a Junior College for senior students across 3 academic ability bands in the teaching and learning of General Paper (English). Implemented first at the group, then individual level, the model comprises rich, comprehensive learning processes encompassing planning, group-think, documentation, peer-teaching, reflecting and reviewing - infused with relevant learning objectives, framed within an innovative, challenging and student-centred discourse learning environment. The learning experience has noted overwhelming benefits in both learning processes and outcomes - boosting learner confidence, motivation to achieve, content mastery and management, seeing improvements in grades - because learners appreciate the opportunity to be drivers of their own learning and that of their peers. Empowering learners' capacities as "co-tutors" was also central to transforming learning.

Keywords: New pedagogies

GIL06204    ®     PDF Paper
Syllabus analysis and post-school pathways

Rob Gilbert, University of Queensland

This paper reports a project undertaken for the Queensland Studies Authority as part of its review of the senior phase of schooling. The project took the form of a content analysis of Authority and Authority Registered Senior syllabuses in Queensland. The aim was to analyse syllabus documents and to assess the extent to which courses based on them would prepare students who opt for post-school pathways of university or vocational education, or who move directly to the workplace. The task required a review of the learning needs of students in meeting the demands of the various post-school pathways, and a formulation of what would be a relevant preparation for these demands. The outcomes of this process were the basis for developing a content analysis framework which was applied to the syllabuses. The paper will report the process and findings of the research, and comment on conceptual and methodological issues for curriculum research of this kind.

Keywords: Secondary schooling

GOD06240    ®     PDF Paper
Pre-service teacher education and beginning teacher burnout

Richard Goddard and Patrick O'Brien, University of Southern Queensland

A sample of Queensland teachers at the beginning of their careers was surveyed to test the hypothesis that pre-service teacher education is a significant predictor of early career burnout. A total of 100 probationary teachers in their first year of teaching were surveyed anonymously on one occasion. After controlling for a range of variables known to influence stress and burnout in teachers, the duration of a teacher's pre-service teacher education program added significantly to the explanation of variance in Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization scores. Based on Hobfoll and Freedy's (1993) conservation of resources theory, the results of the present study suggests that teachers who have completed significantly less than four years of pre-service teacher education may have commenced their careers lacking important internal resources for handling the high work demands characteristic of the profession.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

GOD06364    ®     PDF Paper
The silencing of girls' talk: Student perception or reality?

Sally Godinho, University of Melbourne

This paper discusses the findings of a research project funded by an Early Career Researcher grant from the University of Melbourne. The project's aim was to explore gender differences in ways that boys and girls in secondary classrooms engage in small-group discussion. Issues of 'showmanship' demonstrated by boys, their vocal domination, gender loyalty, and discipline issues emerged as major themes in the analysis of student interview data presented in an earlier paper (Godinho, 2004). These issues were challenged by an initial quantitative analysis of small-group discussion data. However, the critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2001; Gee, 1999; Luke, 1995) that was then applied to the data provided opportunities to examine more closely the discourses taken up by students and teachers, and to interpret how they impacted on dialogic processes. The videotaping of the small-group discussions enabled the analyses to extend beyond discourse patterns to explore how body language and student animation also impact on dialogic processes and the students' use of interactive space. These different layers of analysis provide insights into how discourses compete to construct and position teachers and students within the small-group discussion framework, and ultimately marginalize and silence some students.

Keywords: Gender and sexualities

GOO06234    ®     PDF Paper
Technology use in secondary mathematics classrooms: A survey of Queensland teachers

Merrilyn Goos and Anne Bennison, The University of Queensland

Throughout Australia there are moves to promote the integration of information and communication technologies into school education through curriculum initiatives, funding for infrastructure, and development of professional standards for teachers. In secondary school mathematics education the various state and territory syllabuses now permit, encourage, or require teachers and students to use technologies such as computers and graphics calculators in both learning activities and assessment tasks. However, research is needed to examine the nature and extent of teachers' actual use of these technologies and identify factors that support or inhibit their effective integration into mathematics classroom practice. Previous research has often looked generally at teachers' technology use across a wide range of school subjects, or, if specific to mathematics education, has limited the investigation to only one type of technology. Our own research is mathematics-specific but broad in its technology scope. This paper presents selected findings of a state wide survey of mathematics teachers' use of computers, graphics calculators and the Internet in Queensland secondary schools. We report on teachers' confidence with and frequency of use of these technologies, and analyse the role of variables known to be related to technology use, such as access, teaching experience, attitudes, and professional development.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Mathematics

GOR06358    ®     PDF Paper
Tools, artefacts, resources and pedagogy - Stories of international statistics educators

Sue Gordon, University of Sydney, Peter Petocz and Anna Reid, Macquarie University

Our recent research investigated the experiences of educators teaching statistics as service courses at universities. We conducted interviews by email with participants from many countries and whose teaching reflects diverse settings, student groups and disciplines-a microcosm of higher education today. We now focus on the tools, artefacts and resources respondents identified as critical to developing their teaching. These include computer and internet technology; data sets, texts and research and human resources, such as master teachers or teaching pools. Teacher development can be characterised as "the enhancement of the knowledge and capabilities to function as a teacher" (Gordon & Fittler, 2004) and is bound up with student learning. Hence tools and artefacts harnessed by educators to develop their teaching are resources for enhancing student learning. Our approach draws on activity theory, based on the work of Vygotsky, Leont'ev and colleagues, and emphasising mastering tools in collective and individual development. Vygotsky extended the idea of physical tools as mediators of change to psychological tools or mental tools. Case studies from our investigation are used to explore how the educators constitute their teaching identities in relation to cultural tools.

Keywords: Sociocultural and activity theory

GOR06387    ®     PDF Paper
On the place of pedagogy in the induction of early career teachers

Jennifer Gore, Cheryl Williams and James Ladwig, University of Newcastle

This paper explores the potential of Quality Teaching in supporting the professional learning and pedagogical success of early career teachers. Much of the literature and many policies focus on matters other than pedagogy in teacher induction. Given the low retention rates for early career teachers (Strong & St John, 2005; Ingersoll, 2001; Ramsey, 2000), we argue that attention to pedagogy is not only critical to supporting new teachers and ensuring their classroom success, but is also in the public interest.

This paper discusses the induction and mentoring experiences and the pedagogical performance of a small group of teachers who undertook substantial studies in pedagogy in their teacher education program and entered NSW public schools in a context of heightened focus on pedagogy through the Quality Teaching initiative (Cohort 1). The paper also draws on data from the SIPA study to explore the experiences and performance of early career teachers who may not have had a strong grounding in Quality Teaching but who are in schools where a focus on pedagogy is expected (Cohort 2). The data from both studies highlight the need for a clear and substantial focus on pedagogy to better support the professional growth of early career teachers.

Keywords: School renewal and pedagogic improvement

GOR06389    ®     PDF Paper
Professional development for pedagogical impact

Jennifer Gore and James Ladwig, University of Newcastle

Much has been invested in the capacity of professional learning to support teacher growth and improve schooling outcomes (Vandenberghe, 2002). In relation to the NSW Quality Teaching reform, the view is that teachers must engage in professional learning activities that deepen their understanding of Quality Teaching, if Quality Teaching is to improve pedagogy (and student outcomes).

Drawing on survey and interview data from SIPA, we examine the range of professional learning experiences in which approximately 900 teachers have been engaged during the past two years, and examine the effectiveness of that professional learning as judged by the teachers. We also consider differences and similarities between schools and draw conclusions to guide ongoing efforts to conduct meaningful professional learning to improve pedagogy. We include quantitative analyses of the relationship between the amount, type, and level of satisfaction with QT professional learning and the quality of pedagogy found in SIPA schools. Qualitative data are also used to shed light on what it takes for professional development to have a positive impact on pedagogy. The research reported in this paper is designed to enhance our empirical understanding of the relationship between professional development and the improvement of pedagogical practice.

Keywords: School renewal and pedagogic improvement

GRA06089     PDF Paper
From ABCs to ADHD: The role of schooling in the rise and rise of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Linda Graham, Queensland University of Technology

Discussion of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the media, and thus much popular discourse, typically revolves around the possible causes of disruptive behaviour and the "behaviourally disordered" child. The usual suspects - too much television and video games, food additives, bad parenting, lack of discipline and single mothers - feature prominently as potential contributors to the spiralling rate of ADHD diagnosis in Western industrialised nations, especially the United States and Australia. Conspicuously absent from the field of investigation, however, is the scene of schooling and the influence that the discourses and practices of schooling may bring to bear upon the constitution of "disorderly behaviour" and subsequent recognition of particular children as a particular kind of "disorderly". This paper reviews a sample of the literature surrounding ADHD, in order to question the function of this absence and, ultimately, make an argument for an interrogation of the school as a site for the production of disorderly objects.

Keywords: Inclusive and special education

GRA06090     PDF Paper
The politics of ADHD

Linda Graham, Queensland University of Technology

In the literature surrounding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD manifests as either a medical, psychological or social construct. However, deep engagement with the medical, psychological and critical literature indicates that there are concept/s of ADHD and that controversy/s result because of an intellectual territoriality characterised by struggles over whose knowledge is of most worth and the subsequent size and strength of each knowledge domain. In this way, ADHD represents a political construct, one that serves to further political ends.

As the literature suggests, ADHD is a combination of medical and psychological knowledges. A coming-together of respective domains of power/knowledge and a getting-into-bed between parties with common interests. In this way, ADHD represents an awkward alliance between medical and psychological knowledges. However, there is a silent partner in the industry of child behaviour disorder, one which remains conspicuously absent from investigations into the rise of ADHD diagnoses and the psychopharmaceutical control of children. That partner is the school.

In this paper, I argue that the concept of ADHD is a political construct brought about by the convergence of collusive yet competing knowledge-domains that jostle around particular kids who display particular kinds of behaviours. This convergence allows for some interesting and paradoxical relationships which operate as the condition of possibility for the expansion of the concept of child behaviour disorderedness.

Keywords: Educational philosophy

GRA06631     PDF Paper
Reading "Disability": Interrogating paradigms in a prism of power

Linda Graham and Susan Grieshaber, Queensland University of Technology

Debate over the merits of phonics against whole-language approaches to reading instruction reflects struggle over what and whose knowledge is of most worth. However, when a dominant paradigm is in place (let us say for example, that which privileges systematic phonics-based instruction), any child whose strengths lie in the higher-order skills of syntactic and semantic-pragmatic analysis may be short-changed - if only exposed to graphophonemic or alphabetic "decoding" methodologies - and this has the potential to impede their literacy learning, self-concept and enthusiasm for learning to read. Our interest is not in fuelling the literacy wars by advocating one approach to learning to read over another. The focus is to elucidate how the comparison of a child's approach to learning to read against dominant paradigms operates as a third locus or point in a prism of power; where, in addition to those children not achieving at the rate of their peers and children not achieving to the standards of the day, children who fail to approach learning in the "proper" ways can also come to be described as "learning disabled". Our aim is to question the implication of particular schooling practices in the construction of learning disabilities, specifically focusing on "reading disability". This is timely work given the current political pressure towards instituting systematic phonics-based instruction "first and fast" in both Australia and the United Kingdom.

Keywords: Educational philosophy

GRA06787    ®     PDF Paper
Lift-offs: Teachers and learners together in the sense of discovery

Audrey Grant, La Trobe University

This paper explores 'lift-off' moments in learning involving two Australian teachers in interactions with their students in China. The data come from teaching situations centring on the teaching of English. One, English conversation classes with middle school students, highlights playful approaches, including role play, scenario-setting and drawings, designed to challenge and subvert examination-centred expectations of English as a school subject. The other, interchanges between a thesis student and his research coursework teacher and supervisor, was handled largely through distance learning means and emails. These two selections come from a wider data bank of exemplars collected over several years and from linguistically diverse contexts.

An analysis of the language features of the 'texts' and the effects produced is used to explore movement from initial impasses to break-through moments, as participants shift ground and discover new learning. Definition of these "lift-offs" centres in a sense of discovery that pushes learning forward and simultaneously pulls together life experiences for specific pedagogical insights, new directions in self-assessment and identity conclusions, and recognition of the power of inquiry. In particular, the paper explores the potential contribution of narrative forms of inquiry, co-constructed in face-to-face classroom settings and in the distance learning one-to-one format of emailing.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

GRE06526     PDF Paper
Rural transitions

Patricia Grey, University of Tasmania

The Cradle Coast campus (CCC) at Burnie is a satellite of the University of Tasmania. The CCC is in a rural region, which historically has had a low retention rate to higher education. It is playing an increasingly important role in transforming the community into one with higher education aspirations. The role of the Education Faculty is integral to this transformation, as it offers the first two years of its Bachelor of Education degree in this regional location. This encourages and supports the return to tertiary study of mature age students who form the bulk of its enrolment.

This paper will examine educational transitions in this setting; the students' experience of transforming their futures through tertiary study; the challenges inherent in the transfer of teaching and learning between campuses and staff; the transition that students make from a small to a larger campus at the beginning of their third year; the writer's own transition from that of teaching principal of a small school to lecturer, coordinator and conduit between unit supervisors, lecturers and students; and the potential for an increasing number of permanent residents with tertiary education qualifications to impact on the educational profile of the region.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

GRI06386    ®     PDF Paper
Teachers' fundamental beliefs, commitment to reform, and the quality of pedagogy

Tom Griffiths, Jennifer Gore and James Ladwig, University of Newcastle

This paper draws on data from approximately 350 interviews and 1800 surveys from teachers across NSW to explore their understandings of and commitment to quality teaching (in both the generic sense and in terms of the NSW Quality Teaching model). Our analysis of the data focuses on links between measures of the quality of teachers' pedagogy and their commitment to and understanding of QT, some school characteristics, and teachers' fundamental beliefs about themselves, their work and their students.

Looking first at teachers' commitment to the QT initiative we find while this is important, as is the case with any reform initiative, there is no clear correlation between their expressed support for QT and measures of their performance. Second, no consistent patterns are found between the highest and lowest performances and a school's SES, its proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, or teachers' years of experience. Rather we find that the better practice in line with QT, leading to improved student outcomes, is linked to teachers' deep understanding of QT, teachers' fundamental commitment to their students' learning and belief that their teaching makes a difference, as a basis for their efforts to teach well.

Keywords: School renewal and pedagogic improvement

GRO06091     PDF Paper
What counts as evidence: Mixed methods in a single case

Susan Groundwater-Smith and Andrew Martin, University of Sydney, and Michael Hayes, Kate Layhe, and Maree Herrett, Methodist Ladies College

This paper will report upon a complex formative evaluation of a comprehensive Year 9 innovation in a large independent girls' school. The paper will contextualise the innovation in terms of continuous school reform in what may be identified as an 'activist' school. Its main purpose will be to report upon the forms of evidence that are being assembled to inform the evaluation. A wide range of both quantitative and qualitative procedures have been adopted and their complementarity is considered within a discussion regarding the use of mixed methods in a single case. The paper will consider some of the practical issues relevant to the process along the lines of barriers and facilitators to good, effective mixed methods research. It will embody practitioner researcher and academic researcher perspectives.

Keywords: Research methods

H

HAL06194    ®     PDF Paper
History in the making: Constructions of 'nation' and 'citizen'

Kelsey Halbert, James Cook University

Citizenship education has undergone a revival in Australia over the past decade in response to national historical milestones and issues such as globalisation and multiculturalism. History teaching is recognised by citizenship educators as promoting nationalism. A deconstruction of the ways in which the 2004 Queensland Senior Modern History syllabus presents 'nation' and 'citizen' raises questions about history teaching and citizenship more generally.

This presentation uses Foucault's conception of technologies of the self and subjectification as a framework for discussing the ways in which students are positioned within the document ambivalently as subjects of a global society as well as citizens of a nation. Analytical examples illuminate the position of the 'citizen' and diminished presence of the 'nation'. The 'nation' is not the dominant point of orientation in the document, which also explores issues at an individual, community and global level. This indicates a shift from knowledgeable national citizens to the fostering of social subjects with capacities such as reflection, critical analysis, tolerance and evaluation. The education of 'social' subjects within the history syllabus encompasses many spheres of belonging and a dynamic view of citizenship education.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - History

HAL06247     PDF Paper
Making spaces: Arts policy and pedagogy in the UK

Christine Hall, University of Nottingham

Recent UK educational policy promotes creativity, inclusion and enjoyment, particularly related to the arts. This 'cultural turn' in New Labour policy can be understood, in part, as a response to widespread criticism of the basic skills agenda, centrally prescribed curricula and the policing of teaching which characterised its earlier period in government.

This paper reports on The Self Portrait Project which involved experienced and beginning teachers, working collaboratively with 10 year olds and an artist, in 10 English primary schools linked in a teacher education network. Drawing on earlier research into projects that enabled children to work with cultural and social resources from home and reinterpret them in school to create artworks which had currency in both places, the project aimed to instantiate the official national discourses of creativity, inclusion and enjoyment in the experience of classroom practice.

Two theoretical perspectives provide the foundations for the analysis: Bernstein's notions of competence and performance pedagogies (1996) and Lefebvre's trialectics of perceived/conceived/lived spaces (1991). This analysis is pursued in order to:

1. reveal contradictions between policy discourse and its enactment in schools;
2. understand more about arts pedagogies in cultures of high accountability and performativity;
3. tease out implications for teacher education.

Keywords: Education policy

HAR06206    ®     PDF Paper
Passion in Jamie's Kitchen: The vital ingredient in Education and Training for young workers?

Lyn Harrison, Deakin University and Peter Kelly, Monash University

In this paper we will identify and analyse a recurring, and central, theme throughout the reality TV series Jamie's Kitchen - that of passion:

• Passion for food;
• Being passionate as you construct and present yourself;
• Being passionate about your work;
• Having a go, getting passionate in a training environment which compresses years of training into months of training.

In this series the high profile celebrity chef Jamie Oliver set out to transform a group of unemployed young Londoners into the enterprising, entrepreneurial, ideal worker of 21st century flexible capitalism.

This series, and its figure of the entrepreneurial, risk taking, small businessman (who in this instance is also a global celebrity brand) seeking to develop similar dispositions and behaviours in a workforce that initially does not display such character features, illuminates, and provides a means to explore, key features of new work regimes. The emphasis on passion in the analysis - which draws on Foucault's later work on the care of the self - allows us to connect to discussions about education and training that highlight the erotic/passionate/pleasure dimensions of pedagogy. These elements of education and training very rarely get discussed in a vocational education and training environment which is largely driven by modules/competencies/outcomes.

Keywords: Vocational Education and Training

HAR06339     PDF Paper
Using children's learning stories to assess their mathematics learning in preschools and schools

Elspeth Harley, Nicole Hentschke, South Australian Department of Education and Children's Services, and Bob Perry, University of Western Sydney

The South Australian Curriculum, Standards and Accountability Framework organises its preschool offerings according to the Developmental Learning Outcomes (DLOs). In the Southern Numeracy Initiative (SNI) preschool project, these DLOs have been linked to powerful mathematical ideas through a numeracy matrix consisting of groups of pedagogical questions to provide a basis for teaching, learning and assessment of mathematics in preschools.

The process of assessment being pioneered by the SNI preschool project links a learning story or narrative assessment methodology with the numeracy matrix to help develop a coherent and holistic picture of young children's mathematical development.

In this paper, examples of learning stories related to the numeracy matrix will be presented to show how children's actions can demonstrate their mathematical thinking and the mathematical power the children have. The learning stories approach will be analysed in terms of its use of children's voices and the benefits to the children and their early childhood educators.

The SNI has resulted in early childhood educators actively considering how they can improve their children's mathematics learning-and having the confidence and capability to do so-while maintaining the very important principles on which early childhood education is based.

Keywords: Early childhood education

HAR06547     PDF Paper
Developing Leaders: A Middle Eastern perspective

Dr Barbara Harold, Dr Lauren Stephenson, Dr Ken Carr and Dr Peggy Blackwell, College of Education, Zayed Universiy

With its large expatriate workforce and rapidly developing economy,the United Arab Emirates provides a microcosm of the processes of globalization and internationalization.As the society expands the demand for leadership across all sectors is similarly growing.Zayed University is at the forefront of response to this demand and has developed a range of programs to accommodate the need for leadership development.It educates female Emirati students and has a mandate to assist them to develop leadership qualities and skills.This symposium reports on three specific programs currently in use.The first paper discusses the ways in which the university encourages leadership development in the undergraduate program.The second paper reports on how the Center for Professional Development of UAE Educators is developing curriculum leadership for Ministry of Education personnel,principals and teachers.The third paper focuses on the graduate program for the Masters in Educational Leadershi and discusses graduate 06550 perspectives on their own leadership practice.The final paper analyses issues surrounding the implementation of leadership programs in a cross-cultural context including bilingual context,knowledge of leadership theories versus developing leadership skills,different leadership philosophies and practices,the role of women and emiratization.

HAR06550     PDF Paper
UAE graduate student perspectives on leadership

Barbara Harold, Zayed University

In response to Zayed University's mandate for leadership development, the College of Education has recently introduced a graduate program for a Master of Educational Leadership. The first cohort comprises graduate students, current school leaders, Ministry of Education personnel and leaders from other educational contexts.

During a course on educational leadership, graduate students were asked to reflect on their current leadership perspectives and philosophies in the context of their own culture and religion. The process they went through reflects Lave and Wenger's (1991) concept of 'situated cognition' and 'identity development' as they attempted to 'marry' their personal beliefs, value systems and tacit knowledge with explicit international 'best practice' leadership theories. This paper uses data from their statements to analyze what aspects of leadership theory aligned, what was contested, and what changed as they developed their identities of self as leaders.

Keywords: Educational leadership

HAR06551     PDF Paper
The implementation of leadership programs in a cross-cultural context

Barbara Harold and Lauren Stephenson, Zayed University

The previous papers in the symposium have highlighted specific aspects of educational leadership development in the UAE. This final paper summarizes the topic by reflecting on the experiences of the university faculty involved in the various programs. It draws on reflective processes and narrative inquiry arising from a cultural context which lends itself to oral tradition. In order to explore the way in which people understand who they are and how they come to know and learn, a 'storied' approach is used to discuss key issues in the implementation of leadership programs including the bilingual context, knowledge of leadership theories versus developing leadership skills, variation in leadership skills and practices, the role of women, and 'emiratization'.

Keywords: Educational leadership

HAR06561     PDF Paper
Revamping the Economics curriculum

Peter Harkness, Swinburne University of Technology

Economics is commonly studied at schools and is one of the most popular courses at university (usually within a Bachelor of Business or Commerce degree). Thus, it is of great importance that the economics curriculum is enlightening and revealing and addresses profound questions. In my view, it is not doing this well. The typical syllabus hides more than it reveals, especially at the tertiary level.

This paper will describe the major deficiencies in the way economics is normally taught in western countries, including how narrow and unrealistic orthodox economic theory is, and how it legitimises our unequal, competitive, individualistic capitalistic economic system. Orthodox economics courses rarely question the status quo, and rarely present students with alternative ways of imagining society.

The paper outlines an alternative syllabus which endeavours to analyse the economy the way it really is, and addresses all its main dimensions: historical, social, political and environmental. This contrasts starkly with the simplistic stylised "perfectly competitive" economy assumed in standard economic theory.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

HAR06844    ®     PDF Paper
"What is applied learning?": Exploring understandings of applied learning amongst beginning teachers

Lyn Harrison, Deakin University

Deakin University, Geelong initiated a Graduate Diploma of Applied Learning in 2005. At the end of this year we interviewed selected students in order to gather data on their experience of the new course. The concept of Applied Learning is often not well theorised and one result of this is that gaining consensus about what this might mean is often difficult. The students we interviewed came from quite diverse backgrounds and workplace experiences but nevertheless had similar views about what this concept means in practice and were able to clearly articulate examples of Applied Learning in a range of settings. This paper examines their insights in the light of some theoretical perspectives on Applied Learning and also discusses some of the difficulties experienced by these students when they try to apply new ways of teaching and learning in school settings.

Keywords: Education policy

HAS06305     PDF Paper
How can we make professional experience better: a bandaid or a genuine possibility?

Wendy Hastings and Jan Page, Charles Sturt University

The site-based component of preservice teacher education courses is often perceived as the most valuable aspect a program. While professional experience models for teacher education vary across universities, states and countries, it is common for each preservice teacher to work directly with one school-based teacher educator. However, an investigation of the life of a school would suggest that teachers typically interact with a range of different people in the course of their work. Specialist teachers, relief teachers and teacher's aides play active roles in classrooms throughout the course of the day. High quality communication and interpersonal skills are fundamental for effective teaching. How then do we structure a school-based preservice program that is pedagogically capable of engaging with such issues on a range of levels?

Building on the work of Bullough, Young, Birrell et al (2003), Smith (2002) and Manouchehri (2002), teacher educators developed a program that attempts to address some of these issues.. University staff suggested preservice teachers working in pairs might lead to greater collaboration, support and dialogue between peers, with the aim of enhancing their capacity to work in a team as well as their 'skills' in classroom praxis.

This paper reports on the findings which indicate the program has been widely accepted by participants and successful in many respects, but which also identify where further negotiation around issues of support, preparation and intended outcomes need to occur.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

HAS06354     PDF Paper
Interrogating the reflexive subject in/of teacher education

Wendy Hastings and Will Letts, Charles Sturt University

In this paper we address the question "What is the subject of teacher education research?" To that end, we explore just who the researcher thinks she is as she engages in a research project about the experiences of school-based teacher educators supporting preservice teachers in teacher education programs. Using research journal entries and interviews with a teacher educator/researcher, we draw out the ways that reflexivity in the research process makes a difference to both to the research and to the researcher. Moving beyond simply locating the researcher with/in the research, our analysis examines the mutual constitution of the research and the researcher, and foregrounds the ways re-constitution occurs during the course of inquiry. We focus on the complex and contradictory ways that a teacher-educator researcher took up and refused identities made available to her throughout the course of the research. By weaving between and juxtaposing those two lines of inquiry - about the research and about the researcher- we frame issues of reflexivity, intersubjectivity, and ways of representing non-unitary subjectivities. We conclude by using our work together in this project to suggest some possible ways for conceptualising methodologies for researching subjectivity in teacher education.

Keywords: Teacher professional learning; Pre-service teacher education

HAT06438     PDF Paper
Easier said than done: 'Strong connectedness' in the middle years

Robert Hattam, University of South Australia

One of the central tenets of 'middle schooling' has been a commitment to provide a curriculum that is 'relevant' or 'connected' to student lifeworlds. Examples of this sentiment can be found in the Queensland Productive Pedagogies (connectedness), the multi-literacies (situated practice) and the assertion of constructivism in the South Australian SACSA Framework. But, as the Redesigning Pedagogies in the North project is finding-'easier said that done'. What this paper will to address is the possibility of actually pursuing 'connectedness' as both a curriculum and pedagogical challenge. As such the paper will take up these two interrelated questions: how can teachers design curriculum that connects with student lifeworlds? And what are the challenges for pedagogy? This paper will argue for 'strong' versions of connectedness and provide examples of what this might look like in practice.

Keywords: School renewal and pedagogic improvement

HAT06607     PDF Paper
Who are we? And what's refugee education got to do with it?

Robert Hattam, University of South Australia

During the last decade or so, schooling policy has had to increasingly grapple with processes that have a global reach. One significant aspect of globalisation has been the global flows of asylum seekers and refugees. Although Australia has a long history of accepting asylum seekers and refugees, in recent times, concerns about national security have fuelled community disquiet about refugees and asylum seekers. As such the 'refugee problem' is a crucial site for research by those interested in the relationships between a vibrant and socially just society and educational policy and practice. This paper is an analysis of a case study of refugee experiences in Australian schools, drawing on policy texts, and interviews with policy actors and teachers. The framing for analysis will be an engagement with the problematic: who are we? (Or what's happened to 'community'?) The paper will be working from various takes on community including: Rose's genealogy of 'community' (that is community is now a site for governmentality); Agamben's imagining of the 'becoming community' (what does it mean to think about community past the Cartesian subject?); and Bauman's meditation on 'elusive community' (how can be have both freedom and security?)

Keywords: Education policy; New pedagogies

HAW06141     PDF Paper
The story so far..... "A Cry for Justice: The use of children's literature in facilitating preschoolers' awareness of, and sensitivities to social justice issues".

Karen Hawkins, University of Southern Queensland

This paper will outline and discuss qualitative research into the above topic at the time of the conference. The PhD research project will be at the point of beginning to synthesise findings; hence the title "The story so far...".

The aims of the research, guided by interpretative perspectives, hermeneutics and a constructive paradigm, are:

• To investigate ways in which children's literature (picture books) can help preschoolers' to reflect upon, clarify and articulate their awareness of, and sensitivities to social justice issues;
• To explore whether preschoolers can critically examine children's literature to identify social injustices;
• To identify transformative and productive ways of sharing the teaching/learning experience that work to enhance preschool children's awareness and understanding of social justice issues through storytime sessions.

The research design is one of Participatory Action Research.

The paper will discuss the research process so far: the proposal, proposal defence, ethical considerations, recruiting participants, participatory action research and initial findings. It will address the "highs and lows" of the research process, initial findings and how they may contribute to early childhood education as a whole and specifically to teaching for social justice.

Keywords: Early childhood education

HAY06317    ®     PDF Paper
Afternoon tea in the valley: Identity, writing and the teacher researcher

Trevor Hay and Julie White, University of Melbourne

In this paper the authors demonstrate elements of story at work in a narrative process applicable to teacher reflection and qualitative research. The authors explore the potential of narrative by means of their own writing process, and analyse this act of remembering, telling and writing using a three-question method (Hay and White 2005). The authors draw upon previous work (White and Hay, 2006) to argue the place of narrative theory not only in 'storying' teachers' lives but to make links between noticing elements of narrative and the kind of 'noticing' that leads to reflection upon pedagogy itself. In particular, we fashion and critique a tale of identity and origin, in order to illustrate aspects of ethnography, auto-ethnography, and narrative analysis that are frequently employed both as methodological paradigms and as tools by the teacher/researcher/writer. In this illustrative tale there is not only an act of writing but a dialogic interchange between narrator and observer which highlights issues of voice, perspective and stance as well as some vexed problems of authenticity and artistry. The authors conclude by discussing some of their recent research in which writing is linked to pedagogy and the genres and methodologies of contemporary qualitative research.

Keywords: Research methods

HAY06512    ®     PDF Paper
Differences and similarities between the performance of a fundamental skill in gymnastics for three cohorts: Children, young adults and older adults.

John Haynes and Judith Miller, University of New England

An examination of data for a basic skill taught in gymnastics, namely the forward roll, identified three sequences. These sequences were termed the beginning, bridging and end. Within each sequence a number of indicators were delineated, which were further subdivided into descriptors (Haynes et al., 2005). This paper presents an analysis, using the descriptors as a means of comparison, for three cohorts: children, young adults and older adults (n = 117), who performed the forward roll. Results show both similarities and differences between each cohort. Findings are presented in graphical format, as well as an ensuing discussion. There are pedagogical implications, especially for the way teachers engage their students from across different age groups.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

HAY06861     PDF Paper
The disruptive possibilities of looking in classrooms

Debra Hayes, Griffith University

Looking in classrooms is one of the most basic requirements of school improvement, and yet it is one of the least practiced skills of teachers and one of the most contentious methods of educational researchers. When it does occur, it is difficult to agree on what to look for and even more difficult to agree on what is seen. This paper describes the approach to describing classroom practices adopted in a three year research project in four schools working under challenging circumstances. The research aimed to describe how these schools were attempting to change, and how they might conceptualise the process of change under these conditions. The 'findings' of the research were developed in the form of stories, that framed and documented the conversations between the participants and the researchers. The introduction of classroom observations, day diaries of the experiences of one class, was designed to disrupt the classroom practices that were taken-for-granted in these schools and leverage support for improvement focussed on teacher professional learning. The methods we adopted to write non-judgemental accounts of classroom practices are described, as well as the use we made of these accounts in reflective dialogue with school leaders and teachers.

Keywords: School renewal and pedagogic improvement

HAZ06653     PDF Paper
Evaluating the impact of MindMatters at the school level

Trevor Hazell, Hunter Institute of Mental Health

The successful adoption of new health promotion programs in secondary schools takes time and perseverance, even more so when they address an issue such as mental health. A fifteen-school case study design has been used to determine the impact secondary schools' adoption of MindMatters. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods have been used. Schools were studied over a three-year period to allow schools adequate time to implement the program and for any impacts of the program to emerge.

This paper will describe the research methods and present evidence of the impact of MindMatters on students, staff and on the school itself. Factors that characterise more successful adoption will be identified.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation; Secondary schooling

HEC06756     PDF Paper
With an art to engagement

Robyn Heckenberg, Monash University

The concept of teaching non-Indigenous students about issues in Aboriginal education can not only be left to a 'how to and what works' regimes. This is a bit like a short cut on the computer screen. It works if it works, but if it doesn't work, no one knows where to go next. This paper argues, therefore, for the necessary steps to be taken by students and instructors to examine the reasons for the disadvantage faced by Indigenous students within the education system and to 'tool up' student teachers to be able to reflect and think through reasons behind negative responses and depleted expectations. Cultural and historical knowledge can inform and arm the student teacher with appropriate strategies based on enlightened decision making and empowered judgements.

Keywords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education

HEI06407    ®     PDF Paper
Instruction to support mental computation development in young children of diverse ability

Ann Heirdsfield, Queensland University of Technology, Shelley Dole, University of Queensland, and Kim Beswick, University of Tasmania

Fostering young children's mental computation capacity is essential to support their numeracy development. Debate continues as to whether young children should be explicitly taught strategies for mental computation, or be afforded the freedom to develop their own. This paper reports on teaching experiments with two groups of students in their first year of schooling: those considered 'at-risk', and those deemed mathematically advanced. Both groups made considerable learning gains as a result of instruction. Importantly, the gains of the at-risk group are likely to renew both their own, and their teacher's confidence in their ability to learn. In this paper, the instructional programs are documented, highlighting the influence of instruction upon the children's development.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Mathematics

HEI06408    ®     PDF Paper
Year 2 inaccurate but flexible mental computers: Teacher actions supporting growth

Ann Heirdsfield and Janeen Lamb, Queensland University of Technology

The Year 1-10 Mathematics Syllabus, recently implemented in Queensland's schools introduces mental computation as the main form of computation with written computation emphasising students' self developed strategies (QSA, 2004). To facilitate the incorporation of mental computation into the curriculum a teaching experiment that adopted a case study design was conducted. A Year 2 teacher was provided with a series of PD that incorporated the mathematics of mental computation and the use of support materials. She then used this knowledge to develop a series of 8 half hour lessons delivered over an eight week period.

This paper reports on the pre and post test results of two of her students. Their selection was based on responses to questions that probed for accuracy and flexibility of strategy. On pre-testing both students demonstrated inflexible and inaccurate mental computation. On post-testing the students remained inaccurate however their repertoire of strategies had developed such that they were categorised as flexible mental calculators.

HEM06032     ®   PDF Paper
Single-age and multi-age groupings in kindergarten and their effect on literacy achievement

Kathleen Flynn Corrigan (Simcoe County District School Board, Ontario) Brian Hemmings (Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga campus) Russell Kay (Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga campus)

The authors of this paper report on a study that considered the effect of classroom grouping on the literacy achievement of kindergarten students. Data collected from students were used in bivariate and multivariate analyses. Information of a mostly qualitative nature was also gathered from teachers and subjected to analysis. Taken together, the results of these analyses indicated that class type (i.e., single-age versus multi-age) did not affect the overall literacy test results of the kindergarten students. The implications of this study for current educational practice and future research are discussed.

HEM06746    ®     PDF Paper
Literacy research: The Australian and international context

Kerry Hempenstall, RMIT University

There is a burgeoning agreement concerning the qualities that enable skilled reading, the conditions that hinder its development, the instructional features that support it, and how best to supply effective intervention to those students who falter. These features have been described in authoritative reports in the USA (National Reading Panel, 2000), Great Britain (Rose Report, 2006), and Australia (Nelson Enquiry, 2005). This session will discuss the commonalities between these reports and consider how these elements have been incorporated in effective literacy programs.

Keywords: Literacy and English

HEM06212      PDF Paper
Preventing and overcoming reading failure: International trends in enhancing literacy attainment

Kerry Hempenstall, RMIT University

There has been an explosion of literacy research in recent years all around the world. There is also a burgeoning agreement concerning the qualities that enable skilled reading, the conditions that hinder their development, the instructional features that support them, and how best to supply effective intervention to those students who falter. These features have been described in authoritative reports in the USA (National Reading Panel, 200), Great Britain (Rose Report, 2006), and Australia (Nelson Enquiry, 2005). This workshop will provide detail about these reports before examining how these elements have been incorporated in effective beginning literacy programs.

A major focus of research has been in ensuring reading success for children in the early grades because it is easier to prevent reading problems than it is to reverse them later. Despite this emphasis, an unacceptably large number of Australian students at the upper primary and secondary school level are reading insufficiently well to connect with the curriculum. For example, phonemic awareness is seen as a core need for beginning readers, but what, if any, is its role beyond the early years. This workshop will also highlight effective interventions for these older students.

Keywords:Literacy and English

HEN06642    ®     PDF Paper
How sufficient is academic literacy? Re-examining a short-course for 'disadvantaged' tertiary students

Robyn Henderson, University of Southern Queensland, and Elizabeth Hirst, Griffith University

Recent discussions about learning have problematised academic literacy and its place within an increasingly plural, multicultural, multilingual and textually multimodal society. The take up of academic language, once considered central to a 'schooled' and 'intelligent' person, is now, Gee (2004, p.94) argues, "at best a necessary, but not sufficient condition for success in society". In light of these comments, we re-examine a successful short-course in academic literacy that was conducted for a cohort of 'disadvantaged' students enrolled in the first year of an education degree (see Hirst, Henderson, Allan, Bode & Kocatepe, 2004). Based on a sociocultural approach to learning and a conceptualisation of tertiary literacy as a social practice, the short-course disrupted deficit views of individual students and helped students expand their literate repertoires. In our re-examination, we draw on Gee's (2003, 2004, 2005) discussions of learning principles in multimediated contexts, including video and computer games, and his preference for the notion of affinity spaces over communities of practice. We begin by reframing academic literacy, then consider whether such a course has the potential to work with the increasing diversity of tertiary students' learning and life experiences while preparing them for successful participation in tertiary education contexts.

Keywords: New pedagogies; Literacy and English

HEN06811    ®     PDF Paper
Sustaining the professional development of teachers through a model of community of practice

Michael Henderson, James Cook University

This research provides a less mechanistic lens in which to consider teachers' PD. It is argued that, essentially uncontrollable forces of community, identity and practice can be designed for, and ultimately sustain teacher engagement. This longitudinal study of Australian and United Kingdom teachers uses Wenger's theory of Community of Practice as a framework for Professional Development (PD) aimed at facilitating community engagement. The PD recognises the need for teachers to explore their identity which is intrinsically connected to their practice. They need community brokers to help them to shift their trajectories into increasingly centripetal practices, and fundamentally they have to engage with other members in mutual, accountable and negotiable ways. During the course of this research, two groups of teachers participated in a face-to-face training day followed by a minimum four weeks online PD. Initial analysis indicates a sustained engagement over time with an average participation of 9 weeks. Issues of accountability and intra-community rhythm appear to factor highly in the Australian case study while issues of mutual engagement and joint enterprise impact on the virtual community in the United Kingdom case study. Analysis and discussion will be further explored in the paper.

Keywords: Teacher professional learning

HER06447     PDF Paper
Balancing on a thin line - thoughts from a study of Swedish voluntary leaders in children's football

Krister Hertting, Luleå University of Technology

The purpose of this paper is to share some thoughts, problemize and discuss learning in informal settings among voluntary leaders in Swedish football. The paper is based on a study on leaders for a team of ten year old girls in a football club in Sweden, who were followed for a season. The study was carried through containing observations and interviews.

The voluntary leadership is widespread in the Swedish sport movement. About 600000 people (of 9 million inhabitants) are involved as voluntary leaders. Mostly the leaders are involved with children and youth. The leader is many times the grown up person spending the most time with the children outside school and home. Despite of this fact the football leadership does not require a formal training. Most of the learning is thus informal in the context of the local sport club. The competition is an influential part of the sport. Beside this the leader has a mission from society to foster the children in democratic and social issues. The results are showing that dealing with the tension between competition and social issues is a struggle for ones identity as a leader. It is an act of balancing on a thin line.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

HER06680    ®     PDF Paper
The BEST approaches to online mentoring

Anthony Herrington, Gregg Rowland, Jan Herrington and Doug Hearne, University of Wollongong

The beginning year of teaching is arguably a critical year for determining the longevity and success of a teacher's career, and the one that would most benefit from induction and mentoring. This paper describes the design and development of a theoretically based, generic website template for online communities of practice for beginning teachers that provides independent and experienced mentoring support. It includes a rich range of resources that are automatically updated and links to professional websites and other relevant sources of support. The paper illustrates and compares the ways in which the online resource can be used as a model to meet the professional needs of different cohorts of beginning and experienced practitioners, using different models of mentoring suited to various levels of funding and professional support.

Keywords: Teacher education - general

HIC06205     PDF Paper
Can we help? Mentoring graduate teaching assistants

Clive Hickson and Graham Fishburne, University of Alberta

Due to the pressures of publish or perish placed on faculty members (Booth, 2004, DeRond & Miller, 2005) at large research intensive universities, conducting research can be regarded as more important than the teaching of courses (Booth, 2004). It is not uncommon for such universities to have large numbers of courses taught by non-faculty staff (Jensen, Farrand, Redman, Varcoe, & Coleman, 2005). The University of Alberta in Canada is regarded as a research institution. Approximately 85% of the education courses offered at the undergraduate level are taught by either Sessional staff or Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs). In light of this, it would seem essential that non-faculty staff be provided with programs that support course teaching. This study investigated the effects of a mentorship program provided to two GTAs in preparation for the teaching of a Physical Education methods course. Field notes and reflective journal data were collected in an attempt to understand the lived experience of the GTAs and whether the mentorship experience was beneficial. The analysis of data indicated that the mentorship experience provided the GTAs with a line of open communication, a support network, and a connection with pedagogical-content knowledge expertise that was highly valued

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

HO06345    ®     PDF Paper
An activity theoretic framework to study mathematics classroom practices

Kai Fai Ho, Nanyang Technological University

Mathematics classroom teaching practices are seen as an organized activity, a constituent part of an activity system of curriculum enactment. They involve the teacher taking certain actions in the classroom, mediated by artifacts or tools such as the various texts and symbols, material things or resources, specific types of talk or routines, etc. The outcome of such actions, in the main, is students learning mathematics and at the same time, an enacted mathematics curriculum as well. The analytical approach to study this process is to use a coding scheme which segments the observed classroom practices in units of lessons into four categories of actions, namely, problem solving, teaching concepts and skills, going over assigned work and student activities, and a fifth category of other classroom events. All categories except the fifth are considered actions in Leont'ev's (1979) sense. The actions of the teacher in the observed lessons are coded. The resulting segmentation, the amount of time spent in each category, and how the time is distributed over a series of lessons serve as the staple data for analysis to address the question of the extent mathematical problem solving is emphasized in classrooms.

Keywords: Sociocultural and activity theory

HON06003    ®     PDF Paper
So how does it work? - rhizomatic methodologies

Eileen Honan, University of Queensland, and Margaret Sellers, Whitireia Community Polytechnic and University of Queensland

My intent, in short, is to extract from Deleuze's project an apparatus of social critique built on a utopian impulse. Its insistent question is 'how does it work?' (Buchanan 2000: 8).

This paper explores two different approaches to the development of a rhizomatic methodology. In a rhizomatic fashion, we map the connections and disconnections between and across these different pathways. Three connections are described by:

• Writing a rhizomatic text that is non-linear and self-consciously part of the research method;
• Using rhizomatic thought to analyse the discourses operating within data;
• Following Deleuzian lines of flight that connect and link disparate forms of data so that (im)plausible readings can connect analysis of writing, artworks, video, and interview transcripts.

The various (dis)connections are provided to illustrate the impossibility of establishing some kind of formulaic methodology that would neatly answer Buchanan's question of "how does it work?". Rather, we are aware of the dangers of "methodolatory" (Harding, 1987) and offer this paper as one particular and specific reading of the contributions that Deleuzian theories can make to educational research methods.

Keywords: Educational philosophy

HOR06327    ®     PDF Paper
Negotiating positive student identities: What can we learn by listening to the voice of parents?

Roslyn Hore and Glenda Ballantyne, Swinburne University of Technology

The question as to why some children fail to thrive in our education systems in the Western world has motivated a large and diverse body of research that spans many decades and the ongoing debate shows, that the question of success or failure is a complex one. One element of that complex picture, not yet fully understood, is the intergenerational character of educational failure and the social processes through which this transmission occurs. This paper reports on an ongoing qualitative study concerned with the intergenerational factor which has revealed that the beliefs parents bring to their interactions with their child regarding educational matters can have an immense impact, in complex ways, on their child's reality as a learner and in terms of their child's motivation to succeed in the education system. These beliefs arise in part from a parents own experiences in the education system and it seems that they can be passed down through the generations. It is emerging in this research that 'class' is a factor influencing the beliefs parents bring to important interactions regarding their child's reality in the education system.

Keywords: Motivation and self-concept

HOW06148    ®     PDF Paper
Shared ownership and community capacity building

Peter Howard, Australian Catholic University, and Bob Perry, University of Western Sydney

The Mathematics in Indigenous Contexts project was undertaken in a rural Western NSW site from 2003-2006. The project demonstrated the potential of shared ownership of mathematics curriculum development among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community members as a way of enhancing the understanding and respect of each group for the other as well as developing the mathematical knowledge of primary and secondary students in the community.

In 2005 - 2006, the Building Community Capacity project sought to identify key aspects of meaningful engagement between schools and Aboriginal communities in the development and implementation of contextualised, relevant and connected mathematics curriculum and teaching and learning strategies to enhance Aboriginal students' mathematics outcomes. This project utilised the success of the Mathematics in Indigenous Contexts project in the rural western NSW site as the entry point for its investigation in this same site.

This paper describes the Building Community Capacity project, reports on the critical elements of community engagement which led to the success of the Mathematics in Indigenous Contexts project in the western NSW site and provides underlying principles which other communities might consider in their own community capacity building.

Keywords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education

HUN06812     PDF Paper
Equation: digital resources + interactive whiteboards + collaborative tools = transformative pedagogy for the classroom

Jane Hunter and Sue Beveridge, Centre for Learning Innovation

This paper contributes to new understanding of teaching and learning by examining teacher engagement with innovative information and communication technologies. When teachers construct learning by searching for quality digital content through education portals like the Teaching and Learning exchange (TaLe), and expose it on an interactive whiteboard supported by collaborative tools, it has the potential to engage and motivate the 'digital natives'. Explicit examples from the Centre for Learning Innovation's work and research in NSW Department of Education and Training schools and TAFE colleges using these technologies will be discussed.

Keywords: ICT (Information and Communication Technologies)

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IMT06294    ®     PDF Paper
"They don't want us to practice our faith": Young South Australian Muslim women and their experiences of religious racism in high school

Alia Imtoual, Flinders University

This paper draws on research conducted with a group of young Muslim women who attended a South Australian High School. It focuses on their experiences of religious racism and their sense of frustration with the school hierarchy whom they see as culpable in the existence of this racism. Placed within a post September 11 context in which religious racism against Muslims is increasing exponentially, this paper seeks to identify the intersections between broader public discourses about Muslims and Islam, and the lived realities of schooling as experienced by the study's participants. This paper recognizes and honours the agency of the young Muslim in resisting the religious racism but simultaneously also recognizes the limitation of this agency in rectifying or challenging religious racism in their school.

IRE06581     PDF Paper
When babies have teachers: A study of how three community-based children's services employ early childhood teachers in infant-toddler programs

Lynda Ireland, Charles Sturt University

The Children's Services Regulation 2004 (NSW) makes it possible for children aged between birth and two years to be without a university qualified teacher in a centre-based long day care service. However, research demonstrates important links between caregivers' formal training and quality of interactions for infants and toddlers. This research project, undertaken as part of my Master of Education, is a phenomenological study which focuses on the pedagogical beliefs and management strategies of three community-based children's services that have employed a university qualified teacher in their infant-toddler room. The directors from each of the three children's services were interviewed. Each case study is reported independently of the other to draw upon the individual narrative of each service. A discussion draws together commonalities and nuances of the beliefs and strategies that these services assumed. The analysis illuminates strong pedagogical beliefs and a commitment to high quality early childhood education. Management strategies used to enact these beliefs include a detailed understanding of the financial status, effective leadership skills, partnership links with industry and a stable management committee. The research project has implications for employment conditions for staff, leadership in early childhood education, and the provision of high quality infant-toddler education.

Keywords: Early childhood education

IRV06614     PDF Paper
Teacher conceptions of how to facilitate student engagement

Lois Irvin, Central Queensland University

Across Australia, recent policy initiatives have focused on increasing student engagement in school and learning. Many of these reforms, especially in the areas of literacy, middle and senior schooling suggest changes to curriculum, school organization and teacher practice in order to improve student engagement. Although teachers will play a significant role in implementing these policy reforms, little research has investigated how they understand their role in student engagement. This study utilised a phenomenographic approach to investigate teacher conceptions of how to facilitate student engagement.

This study found three qualitatively different ways of understanding how teachers facilitate student engagement. In Category #1, teachers conceptualised that they facilitated engagement through efficiently delivering set curriculum and discipline. In Category #2, teachers suggested they must modify curriculum and class structures to increase student engagement. In Category #3, teachers proposed that genuine collaboration with students was necessary to truly engage them in learning. These results suggest that a wide range of understandings exist among teachers about how to facilitate student engagement. Understanding how teachers view this key concept is important for informing future policy documents, teacher professional development and pre-service teacher training.

Keywords: Learning and teaching; Post graduate and early career researcher

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JAN06323    ®     PDF Paper
Spirituality and science education as shared praxis

Beverley Jane, Monash University

Science and spirituality each bring a different perspective to the concerns of the world. Parker Palmer recognized the importance of developing the inner life of students, but secular education overlooks this aspect. In this paper I argue, from a sociocultural perspective, for spirituality and science education as shared praxis. On an individual level, this partnership requires students to be attentive and take notice of their experiences. On an interpersonal level, such a partnership requires students to work cooperatively to understand the interconnectedness of all components of the Earth's ecosystem. On a community/institutional level, connecting science with spirituality through a holistic approach to education, nurtures in students a post modern, deep ecology worldview that encourages them to treat all living things as subjects and engage in learning with their whole being. Scientists that incorporate a spiritual dimension in their work can be inspirational role models. This paper examines the approach of Barbara McClintock as a scientist who valued intersubjectivity. Periods of meditation facilitated her scientific discoveries and were integral to the way she worked. By including intersubjectivity in science education, the spiritual dimension of students' lives can be nurtured and developed.

Keywords: Sociocultural and activity theory

JAN06699    ®     PDF Paper
Mentoring: Boosting self-worth, optimising potential

Beverley Jane and Eleanor Peeler, Monash University

Most models of mentoring aim to attune newcomers to the philosophies of appropriate social practices. Knowledge gained can lead to community membership, give voice to newcomers and sanction them to take an active role. To confine the application of mentoring to workplace situations, whereby new members are integrated into 'appropriate practices' takes a narrow view. In this paper we consider both educational and broader community applications of mentoring in which more adept members support others less proficient in day-to-day institutional and social skills. Successful relationships involve mentors who encourage their mentees through dialogue and modelling. Rather than impose particular ways of performing, they assess mentees' needs and initiate strategies of self-help. In the studies we draw upon time, patience and personal commitment are fundamental to mentees developing emotional stability, social empowerment and personal motivation to take on proactive roles. The attainment of appropriate knowledge corresponds with a boosted sense of self-worth and an "optimistic sense of efficacy [that] fosters psychological well-being and personal accomplishments" (Bandura, 1997:75).

Keywords: Mentoring; Self-efficacy

JON06333    ®     PDF Paper
Introducing interactive whiteboards into school practice: One school's model of teachers mentoring colleagues

Anthony Jones and John Vincent, University of Melbourne

As computer-related technologies continue to evolve teachers face constant pressure to accommodate and implement new technologies into their repertoire of teaching pedagogies and techniques. This paper investigates the impact on teachers and their teaching following the acquisition and installation of six interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in one Victorian secondary school. The report concentrates on the perspectives of the teaching and senior administrative staff, and is an analysis and discussion of data relevant to these perspectives gathered as part of a larger ongoing project. Data was collected through whole-staff questionnaires, focus group interviews, observation and video-recording of lessons in which teachers used IWBs, and subsequent video-stimulated interviews with these teachers. Findings are related to a range of issues including teachers being stimulated to modify pedagogical strategies by the potential of an innovative technology and then grappling with the practicalities of infusing the use of a new technology into daily teaching practice, problems of technological access and malfunctions, and teacher perceptions of the benefits to students from the innovative IWB technology.

Keywords: Information communication technology (ICT)

JON06506    ®     PDF Paper
Constructing researcher identity: An 'impostor's' stories of becoming

Tammy Jones, University of Tasmania

This autobiographical narrative relates the ongoing process of my "becoming" a researcher. Framed within the context of my life and the dailiness of full-time scholarship study, and set during a period when existing understandings of what it is to be (considered) a researcher are being challenged, my narrative introduces the influential characters, human relationships, critical incidents and events essential to my becoming a researcher. Stories of my serendipitous mid-life entry into the world of school education as an aide to a child with special needs, my subsequent urge to qualify as a teacher, and my decisions to undertake honours study and commit to a doctorate in an emotionally demanding area of study provide fertile ground for my contemplations of and reflections on educational research; process and product. In this paper, I out myself as an academic impostor by exposing my feelings of uncertainty and doubt. I describe those times when I feel most creative, most rewarded and happiest as a researcher; flow experiences. I use the notion of generativity scripts to position myself within the process of research mentoring and induction currently shaping and influencing my realisation as a researcher.

Keywords: Post Graduate and Early Career Researcher

JOS06692    ®     PDF Paper
Multiculturalism in arts education: Engaging schools in effective and authentic pedagogies

Dawn Joseph, Deakin University and Jane Southcott, Monash University

Serious questions have been raised by arts educators and community members about the effectiveness of multiculturalism that is usually enacted in Australian school settings by multi-arts festivals and related classroom activities. By exploring resources available to teachers, snapshots can be created of school practices that purport to be multicultural. Often these are only thematically integrated interdisciplinary exercises that do not reflect the complexity and diversity of true multiculturalism. Australia has for some time positioned itself as part of the global community. How this has been enacted in schools' multi-arts practices demonstrates our changing understanding of multiculturalism. The recent Australian National Review of School Music Education (2005) exhorts us to recognise cultural diversity, encourage participation and engagement and form partnerships, connections and networks. To achieve this we need to demonstrate authentic practice. Tucker (1992) has created an authenticity checklist that argues that materials should be prepared with the involvement of someone within the culture and include cultural context. Without this, we risk stripping the arts of much of its meaning. The authors contend that it should be possible in 21st century Australia to create authentic, meaningful arts education practices in schools given the rich cultural mosaic that forms our contemporary society.

Keywords: Multicultural Education

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KAM06214     PDF Paper
English learning motivation for ethnic Chinese students in Hong Kong and Sydney

Chi-keung Michael Kam, Education and Youth Affairs Bureau

Second language acquisition has social and psychological perspectives. The success of second-language learning depends very much on how a learner is motivated to learn the second language. Motivation is the central element in Gardner's Socio-Educational Model (Gardner, 1985). Factor analysis illustrated four major constructs: Integrativeness, Attitudes toward the Learning Situation, Motivation, and French-Language Anxiety (Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993). Intergrativeness was considered as the most important factor in explaining the language learning motivation (CsizTr, Dörnyei, 2005). Language learning is culturally based, and people speaking the same language would quickly identify themselves from people speaking other languages. It is assumed in Gardner's model that if a learner identifies him/herself as a member of the second language group, he/she would have higher motivation to learn the language. In the language-learning context, the attitudes toward language situation, and the anxiety perceived in language class and language use environments affect the learner's persistence in language learning. The present paper tries to identify factors pertinent to the learning of English as a second language in Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia. Path modelling will be used to determine the relative contribution of English language motivation, language anxiety and Attitudes toward English learning.

Keywords: Multicultural education

KAM06480     PDF Paper
Professional renewal through cross-generational mentoring and research

Barbara Kamler, Deakin University

This paper reports on a research project which created a cross-generational teacher-researcher collective to tackle some of the toughest challenges teachers face in their work places. Together we interrogated the issue of unequal literacy outcomes; teachers examined their own practices and re-designed aspects of their literacy pedagogy to re-connect their most alienated students. In the process of collaborative practitioner inquiry, teachers made a demonstrable difference to their students, and also rekindled their faith in and energy for the political, intellectual and emotional work of teaching in hard times. (Comber and Kamler 2005). A key finding of this research is that cross-generational models of practitioner inquiry hold great promise for improving the learning engagement of students, the productivity of schools and the professional renewal of the teacher workforce.

In this paper I focus on questions of professional renewal. I analyse the design for building and sustaining a research community across generations of teachers and discuss interview data where early and late career teachers reflect on their cross-generational partnerships. I argue that such models of inquiry hold enormous potential for building capacity and sustaining a profession that both values and uses the knowledge of older and younger generations of teachers.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation; Teacher professional learning

KAM06502       ®    PDF Paper
Leading against the odds: understanding Indigenous women leadership from around the 'campfire'

Martha Sombo Kamara, Australian Catholic University

This paper employs the metaphor of storytelling "around the campfire", used traditionally by Indigenous cultures to pass on knowledge, values, and norms to the younger generation. Drawing on my own perspective as an Indigenous African woman and my experience working with female Indigenous principals in remote schools in the Northern Territory in Australia, I will provide a series of vignettes as personal professional reflections on leadership drawing on journal entries made at the time of students' views.

The women were contacted to check the journal entries were accurate and suitable for inclusion. These stories and experiences have formed the basis of my doctoral research and have led to the development of key questions for investigation.

KAM06842    ®     PDF Paper
Teaching teachers: Building a post-cumpolsuryeducation trainingn and employment sector through teacher education

Annelies Kamp, Deakin University

This paper captures development of the GDAL as understood by its instigators as a platform for reform. The GDAL would respond to the challenge being put before education and training providers to prepare young people to create and engage with a learning society through their capacity for lifelong learning. These teacher education students would, ideally, bring skills and knowledge already gained in a professional career. While they would gain teacher registration they were better conceptualized as professional educators for an emerging post compulsory education, training and employment sector: it was expected that graduates would not only teach in schools but would also move readily within the network of learning spaces that young people increasingly experience in their formal education. In the process, they would be a force for change, seeding reform within secondary schools. As a 'teacher' these graduates would have the credibility to challenge the entrenched practices of other teachers. It is the story of 'what happened' as a consequence of this specific aim that I am telling today.

Keywords: Education policy

KAR06523     PDF Paper
Bourdieu and Education for Sustainable Development: analysis of an interview.

Justin Karol, Monash University

This paper introduces the terms 'environmental capital' and 'sustainable habitus' as extensions of Bourdieu's theoretical concepts that are considered valuable in contributing to a sociological understanding of our environmental crisis. Without more individuals possessing a sustainable habitus, the personal actions deemed necessary to achieve environmental sustainability might not occur. The role education can play in informing a sustainable habitus in students through the acquisition of environmental capital is investigated, with reference to semi-structured interview data drawn from a case study of an effective educator for sustainable development. The relationships between environmental capital and Bourdieu's forms of capital are investigated within the context of the interview analysis. The interview is part of a larger data set produced in the context of a doctoral thesis. This paper demonstrates that the relevance of Bourdieu's social theory has not been exhausted. Indeed, the application of his theory to environmental sustainability indicates that the full potential of Bourdieu may yet to be determined.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

KAR06860     PDF Paper
The Success of Doctoral Education in a Changing Society - Estonian Case

Anita Kärner, Hasso Kukemelk and Ulla Preeden, University of Tartu

In the 19 ^th century, drawing upon the German tradition of grounding the study process to scientific research, training based on research degree education became very important in the university system. During the Soviet period (1945 - 1990), degree education, for the most part, was moved from the universities to research institutions and was organised on two levels - Candidate level (equal to PhD now) and Doctoral level. After Estonian independence in the 1990s, a new system was introduced - Master studies and Doctoral studies (four year program). That organisational change took degree education back into the universities. The paper reviews statistical data of doctoral studies in Estonia during different periods and provides an analysis of the reasons why doctoral studies had varying success outcomes during these different times. It is possible to state that big changes in society are overloading people and therefore students' success in degree education (number of graduates) is low. This changeable society often necessitates the need for multiple defence dissertations by authors already in the scientific sphere, as well as those who need a degree by the new system, (often second defence of updated dissertation). Therefore, the real base of successful degree education (large number of graduates) is in a stable society.

KEA06360    ®     PDF Paper
Under the microscope: Research into a middle years innovation in a rural secondary college

Ron Keamy, Mark Selkrig and Christine Bottrell, La Trobe University

For almost half their learning week in 2005, Year 7 students at a rural Victorian secondary college participated in an innovative program known as SCOPE.

The main purpose of the research described in this paper was to identify successful teaching practices used by the SCOPE teachers in the program's first year. The research involved interviews with the SCOPE teachers; questionnaires with parents and other teachers in the school, and focus groups with Year 7 students.

Considered from a perspective of change, the major findings of the research were that there was neither overwhelming support nor dissatisfaction with the SCOPE program, although there was strong resistance from some quarters of the school community, and communication about the program needed to be improved. The demands on the teachers in SCOPE were heavy and the teachers' health and well-being were major issues.

The main recommendations were that the SCOPE teachers better acquaint themselves with pedagogical approaches suited to larger groups of students and to the nuances of interdisciplinary teaching; that the school's administration develop ways of monitoring the health and well-being of its staff members, and that existing approaches to communicating with all members of the school community be reviewed.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

KEL06039    ®     PDF Paper
Visitors and learners: Investigating adult museum visitors' learning identities

Lynda Kelly, Australian Museum

Current theories of learning focus on the meanings an individual makes based on their experiences-alone, within a social context and as part of a community. A critical aspect in better understanding the process of learning for an individual is to find out how people view themselves as learners across the rich array of both formal and informal learning experiences available to them. As informal learning environments museums are increasingly positioning themselves in the market as places for rich learning experiences. Research has shown that when asked why they visit museums people often say "to learn" but there has been little exploration into what this means to them.

This paper will report on my doctoral study focussing on adult museum visitors' learning identities addressing the following research questions:

• How did adult museum visitors describe learning?
• What role does learning play in their lives?
• How do these relate to their museum experiences?

Other areas examined included the relationship between learning, education and entertainment, as well as how visitors' learning identities developed and changed before, during and after a museum visit. In my paper I will present the findings from my research and discuss the implications for museological practice.

Keywords: Post graduate and early career researcher

KEL06341     PDF Paper
Listening to young children's voices in museum spaces

Lynda Kelly and Sarah Main, Australian Museum, and Sue Dockett, Bob Perry and Sarah Heinrich, University of Western Sydney

There has been increasing interest in understanding children's perspectives on their experiences and how they learn. The project reported in this paper recognises children as experts in these areas and seeks their views on the development of a museum space specifically designed for them. The project provides opportunities for children to consider their understandings and impressions of a learning space as well as important information about how they perceive the space, interact in the space and how they would change the space.

In this paper, methodological issues arising in the project are discussed as the researchers work in an educational setting different from those normally associated with early childhood education, with children aged from 0 - 5 years, and their families. The project implements the processes of active listening, through hearing, interpreting and co-constructing meanings with children in approaches that are not limited to the spoken word. Methodological challenges and rewards arising from these paradigms will be reported and illustrated by interactions with children as they play a major role in the design of a new museum space for under fives.

Keywords: Early childhood education

KEN06138     PDF Paper
Reflections on the interactive whiteboard phenomenon: A synthesis of research from the UK

Stephen Kennewell, Swansea School of Education, and Doug Averis, Keele University

It is unusual to focus educational research on a particular piece of equipment, but the interactive whiteboard (IWB) seems to have a pedagogical and cultural status which makes it different from other new pieces of ICT equipment. It particular, it has been enthusiastically adopted by nearly all the teachers who have one installed in their classrooms, and is sought after by most of the teachers who do not currently have access to one. A group of researchers has formed within BERA New Technologies SIG, covering several projects in the UK which have been funded to investigate, directly or indirectly, the impact of the IWB on teaching and learning.

On behalf of the BERA group, we will discuss:

• how we have investigated the characteristics and effects of the IWB
• what we have found concerning the potential of the technology
• what the impact on teaching has been
• what the impact on learning has been.

We will also consider the effects of national policy contexts on our work in the UK and invite colleagues from Australia and other nations represented to share in our ongoing discussion of these issues and help generate questions concerning what we do not yet know.

Keywords: Information communication technology

KEO06101    ®     PDF Paper
Supervisor or mentor? Questioning the quality of pre-service teacher practicum experiences

Jayne Keogh, Shelley Dole and Elizabeth Hudson, University of Queensland

Practicum is a major component of teacher education programs. This experience is regarded as playing a vital role in preparing pre-service teachers for the real world of the classroom. Traditional views of the practicum are of an apprentice-model, where the nanve apprentice is immersed into the work situation, observing, absorbing, and ultimately imitating the master. There is an assumption of an attained level of expertise on the part of the master, and that the apprentice has little to contribute to the situation. The term 'practicum supervisor' can be seen as appropriate here. However, the view of supervisor as 'expert' and pre-service teacher as 'novice' may not be conducive to a fully productive and mutually beneficial relationship. With adoption of the word mentor rather than supervisor, a more collaborative, supportive and equitable relationship is assumed and anticipated. Yet, old ways of 'supervising' persist. Through the presentation of case studies of pre-service teachers' experiences, the case for professional development, training, or at least for some form of certification for practicum mentors, is presented.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

KER06820     PDF Paper
Women Junior Heads': Leadership between the flags

Noella Kershaw, Deakin University

The Victorian non-government sector is a significant stakeholder covering 28 per cent of the schooling population, higher than the national average of 21 per cent (ABS 1998) and the largest Catholic sector in the country. It is politically and economically influenced more than in previous decades through funding, accountabilities and government driven policies which have been instrumental in shaping the current private sector workplace and the role of leadership.

This research employs a deconstructive narrative analysis positioned within a post-feminist discourse and focuses on a case study of twelve women Junior Heads' in the Victorian Independent Sector. There are three lines of inquiry, a state-wide questionnaire, interviews and my reflexive diary. The research analysis combines narrative inquiry and a reflexive 'inter-text' to explore spaces, for women's voices. This inquiry questions ways of bridging the gap between how the current models of leadership are defined and how leadership is enacted. I propose a rethinking of perspectives that will enable a reinvigoration of leadership through examining the role of discourse in building agency and leadership capacity in relation to subjectivity, power and divergent epistemologies.

Keywords: Educational leadership

KIG06616    ®     PDF Paper
From implicit to explicit: Literacy and the oral narrative within ESL classrooms

Mutuota Kigotho, Fairfield High School

Implicit knowledge is one of the most important forms of knowledge available to teachers of language (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1982, 1986; Richmond, 1990). In the teaching of narrative writing, while many opportunities are given to students to write narrative, the resulting 'stories' might contain no evidence of the crucial move to describing a dramatic disruption of the on-going events that lead to a final resolution in a narrative (Riley & Reedy, 2000). A significant amount of available literature suggests that narratives have an inherent structure (Propp, 1928; Labov & Walezky, 1967; Labov, 1972; Fitzgerald & Teasley, 1986; Berman & Slobin, 1994). This paper reports on findings of an experiment that considered the relationship between literacy within ESL and an instructor's activating of the oral narrative structure by using students' implicit knowledge of oral narratives. The teacher's challenge was to activate students' passive knowledge making it active through instruction and practice.

Keywords: English as a second language; Secondary schooling

KIN06834    ®     PDF Paper
Emotional dimension of major educational change

Sharron King, University of South Australia

Instigating major educational change challenges educators at multiple levels of their personal and professional lives as it significantly alters not only curricular materials and teaching practices but also management and organisational structures, pedagogical beliefs and collegial ways of working. Much of the literature associated with implementing educational change focuses on rational-structural elements and ignores the cultural or human side of the change process. There is very little research into the collegial or the emotional dimensions of educator's experience of the change process.

This paper presents the findings of a participatory action research study that explores the emotional dimension of implementing major educational change in higher education. Specifically, it portrays participant's lived-emotional experience of developing and implementing a fully integrated problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum into an allied health undergraduate degree program. The research was undertaken over a three-year period and incorporates elements of initiation, implementation and early institutionalisation of curriculum reform.

The findings demonstrate the need to broaden our understanding of how emotions shape, and are shaped by, the change process. By delving more deeply into this dimension of educational change we can humanize and emotionalize major reform for educators.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

KIV06144    ®     PDF Paper
A new dynamics paradigm for analysing structural and cultural dynamics in an educational organisation

Charles Kivunja and Anne Power, University of Western Sydney

A plethora of organisational behaviour literature leads to the deduction that structure as the under girding framework of the definition and arrangement of roles and responsibilities in any organisation is important in designing a school, but it is not the only consideration. For school reform to be effective it is essential, not simply to re-structure, but to consciously re-culture the values, beliefs, norms and practices of participants in the school community.

Unfortunately, whereas restructuring of schools became a buzz-word in the 1980s, the development of collateral theoretical constructs to help analyse the nature of the multiple realities in the organisational life of an educational institution undergoing change appears to have lagged behind.

This paper presents a new Dynamics Paradigm designed in a doctoral thesis (Kivunja, 2006) to specifically provide a cognitive lens for examining deeply into the structural and cultural dynamics in an educational institution undergoing major reforms. Starting from a well documented corporate organisational dynamics model (Pace, 2002) the paper details how 16 dynamics core variables derived from 14 newly restructured secondary schools in New South Wales were incorporated in the new Paradigm to provide a versatile mental map which was then used to extend an understanding of the structural-cultural dynamics in the schools.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

KLE06329    ®     PDF Paper
Engaging pedagogies in mathematics education: fostering autonomy or the cruellest regulation?

Mary Klein, James Cook University

The argument I present in this paper revolves around different interpretations of just what an 'engaging pedagogy' in mathematics education is, and the potential effects on learners and their learning of mathematics. As a teacher educator, I have become increasingly aware that preservice teachers, especially those intending to teach in the early years of schooling, are often drawn to overly nanve notions of 'having fun' as the sole criterion of engagement, with all sorts of serious implications for their future teaching of mathematics. I use the poststructuralist notion of the intersecting forces of power/knowledge/desire to analyse some of the preservice teachers' conversations and submitted pieces of work to argue that these prospective teachers actively strive to protect their pupils (and themselves?) from the mathematics. While teacher 'desire' is rarely spoken of or indeed researched in mathematics education, I argue that we ignore it at our peril; it can move mountains or it can silently and imperceptibly ensure that everything in mathematics education remains just as regulated and unchanging as it has always been.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Mathematics

KNI06315     PDF Paper
Engaging adult learners: Higher education and self-concept development

Wendy Knightley, University of Cambridge, and Denise Whitelock, Open University

An integral part of learning is the development of academic self-concept. In the field of adult education, there is debate over the extent to which a function of education should be to raise personal as well as academic self-concept. This has resulted in andragogy with different emphases. The Open University in the UK (OU UK) has been successful in enabling adults to succeed in higher education, through engaging supportive teaching and learning techniques in its distance-learning courses.

• This paper reports on findings from a study which tracked the changes in self-concept of mature women undergraduates who were returning to education after a gap of several years from formal learning. Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained through self-report questionnaires, Q methodology and interviews with women studying various distance learning higher education courses with the OU UK. Results indicated that it is the participation in as much as the completion of courses that boost women's personal and academic self-concept.
• This is relevant to debates regarding the extent to which education and self-concept are entwined and the purpose of adult higher education. It also has implications for the way in which adult education is marketed and delivered.

Keywords: Post-compulsory education

KNI06794    ®      PDF Paper
Philosophical Inquiry: Its rightful place in the curriculum

Sue Knight, School of Education, University of South Australia

In this paper I will argue for wide-ranging change in the school curriculum; more particularly for the inclusion of philosophical inquiry within every learning area. I will begin with this claim: If students are to develop an understanding of the world and what there is in it, then as teachers we must engage them in philosophical inquiry. This is my first premise. The second is that both social and individual good depend upon the development of such understandings. On the highly plausible assumption that education should be directed at social and individual well-being, it follows that teachers ought to engage children in philosophical inquiry. In the first section of the paper I will clarify these claims and defend them. In the second section I consider how deep thinking might best be taught, arguing that philosophical inquiry must be embedded in every curriculum area. I conclude by indicating how this might be done.

KOE06662    ®     PDF Paper
Imagining: International students talking about the possibilities and limits of international education

Norma Koehne, Monash University

Individuals come to desire 'imagined lives' from the multiple scripts that are available to them through global discourses. In this paper international students talk about desire and agency as they imagine themselves as international students involved in international education. First of all there are imaginings about self as an international student, about a new life and even re-inventing self. International education is imagined as being about reciprocal exchange of knowledge and dialogue between cultures, as well as learning from intercultural contact. Finally, the paper talks about how international education is different from what has been imagined. First of all that it is Australian education and not so called 'international' education. Then that it has been an unexpected life-changing experience, and finally that the financial hardship that was experienced has not been expected.

Keywords: Comparative and international education

KON06852     PDF Paper
Enhancing critical thinking skills and dispositions of pre-service teachers through Cognitive-Infusion Intervention

Siew Lang Kong, Nanyang Technological University

This study examined the effects of the Cognitive-Infusion Intervention on critical thinking skills and dispositions of the pre-service teachers in Singapore. Quasi-experimental 2 x 2 factorial pretest-posttest design was employed. The two factors are treatment condition [experimental vs. control], and education programme grouping [Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) vs. Diploma in Education (DipEd)]. The study aims to find out whether there will be any improvement in their critical thinking skills (measured by Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal: Watson & Glaser, 1980), and critical thinking dispositions (measured by California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory: Facione et al., 2000). Results show that participants who have gone through the Cognitive-Infusion Module (CIM) scored significantly higher (p<.05) in the overall critical thinking skills and the sub-skills of 'inference', 'deduction' and 'recognition of assumptions'. The PGDE experimental group also scored significantly higher in the overall critical thinking dispositions (p<.05) as well as the dispositions of 'analyticity' (p<.01) and 'inquisitiveness' (p<.01). Implications of the study are discussed.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

KOS06253     PDF Paper
On 'strangers', mobile intellectuals and the production of new pedagogical space

Alex Kostogriz, Monash University

The twin processes of globalization and internationalization in education have produced a significant effect on the way academics understand their professional identity and pedagogical practice. Central to this is a sense of uncertainty that relates, among other things, to spatial contradictions between the nationally territorialised and institutionally-bound conceptions of professionalism and performance measures and the transnational flow of knowledge and pedagogies through particular workplaces. Recognizing the complexity of professional becoming in globalized universities today, this paper raises the issue of 'strangers' and mobile intellectuals and their role in the production, consumption and exchange of professional knowledge. In conditions when these intellectuals add both instrumental and symbolic value to globalized universities, their professional becoming can be conceptualized as an open journey in which the very act of movement across spatial boundaries unlocks the fixity of identities and practices. Explicating the tension between fixity and mobility, boundedness and flows, distance and proximity, this paper deploys the concept of dialogical ethics as a basis for the production of professional space in and for academic communities of difference.

Keywords: New pedagogies

KOU06298     PDF Paper
Using student perceptions in development, validation and application of an assessment questionnaire

Rekha Koul, Darrel Fisher and Jaya Earnest, Curtin University of Technology

This paper reports on a two-stage study aimed at developing, validating and applying an instrument that can be used to assess secondary students' perceptions of assessment. In the first stage, following a review of literature, a six-scale instrument of 48 items was trialed with a sample of 470 students from grades eight, nine and ten in 20 science classrooms in three Western Australian schools. Based on internal consistency reliability data and exploratory factor analysis, refinement decisions resulted in a five-scale instrument that was named the Student Perceptions of Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ). The scales of the SPAQ are Congruence with Planned Learning, Authenticity, Student Consultation, Transparency and Diversity. In the second stage, the SPAQ was used with five scales of the What is Happening in this Class (WIHIC) questionnaire, an attitude scale, and a self-efficacy scale. This survey was administered to a larger sample of nearly 1,000 students from 41 science classes from the same grades as in the first stage. Statistical analyses confirmed the validity and reliability of the SPAQ. The mean score ranged from 2.16 for the scale of Student Consultation to 3.17 for the scale of Congruence with Planned Learning on a four point Likert type scale. Cronbach Alphas ranged from 0.62 t0 0.83. Significant correlations (p < 0.01) were found among all the scales used in the instrument, for example, Congruence with Planned Learning was positively related to and was positively associated with all the other scales of SPAQ.

Keywords: Secondary schooling

KUS06083    ®     PDF Paper
Vocabulary strategies in reading: Verbal reports of good comprehenders

Kusumarasdyati, Monash University

For learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Indonesia, encountering unfamiliar words can be a major roadblock in reading comprehension, especially if they happen to be keywords in a particular text. To overcome the vocabulary problem, learners generally resort to a dictionary, hardly realizing that other strategies exist. The strategy of inferring word meaning from context, for instance, seems to be ineffectively used by the learners, as revealed in a preliminary study conducted by the author. The present study reports the actual strategy use of good readers when they face hindrance in the form of unfamiliar words. Eight undergraduates majoring in English at Surabaya State University performed think-aloud while reading two texts to find out how they coped with such difficulties. The verbal protocol indicates that half of the participants mainly relied on a bilingual (English-Indonesian) dictionary to attack unfamiliar words, and only one of them preferred to use a monolingual (English-English) one. Two of them employ context cues to infer the meaning of the words, while one participant combine the use of context cues and a monolingual dictionary as the major strategy. All of the participants skipped some of lexical items whose meaning was unknown to them, especially when these words did not have a key contribution to the meaning of the whole text.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - English as a second language

KUS06105    ®     PDF Paper
Subtitled movie DVDs in foreign language classes

Kusumarasdyati, Monash University

The use of movie videos as a teaching tool is not new in the field of foreign language (FL) teaching and learning. Generally teachers play such videos without subtitles and have learners view them while attempting to comprehend the conversations spoken in the target language there. However, it is also possible to present movie videos with subtitles in the native language. This paper describes how the English movies in a DVD format are used in FL listening classes in Indonesian context. These movie DVDs contain a feature in the form of subtitles in Indonesian language, which is the learners' mother tongue, and this feature is activated while the movies are being played. Some motivating learning activities are suggested for the pre-viewing, while-viewing, and post-viewing stages of the lesson. This technique of using subtitled movie DVDs has received favourable feedback from the learners, and therefore could be considered effective in assisting them to learn English as an FL.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - English as a second language

KUS06119    ®     PDF Paper
Virtue and vice of verbal reports as a research method

Kusumarasdyati, Monash University

Verbal reports have been extensively used as a research method in the inquiries on reading strategies. Despite criticisms directed toward this method, verbal reports remain a popular tool among researchers who are attempting to study in depth how human mind works while reading a text. It has been viewed as one of the most appropriate devices to access the online reading and therefore to unlock the unknown domain of this mental activity. The present paper addresses the advantages and the limitations of using verbal reports as experienced by the author when researching lexical processing strategies of learners who were reading in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Indonesia. While verbal reports offer invaluable data in exploring mental processing, caution should be applied in the use of this method. This paper suggests a number of actions that need to be taken to minimize the limitations so that more valid data can be obtained.

Keywords: Research methods

KUS06211     PDF Paper
Environmental beliefs and attitudes: An analysis on ecological affinity among the secondary science students in Indonesia

Udan Kusmawan, University of Newcastle

A person constructs an interface with the environment and this environment accounts for many of their life experiences as they engage in community discourses. Their life experiences contribute to the growth of the interface between the person and the environment and in turn justify their beliefs constructed between community and the person. This paper assumes that a set of beliefs regarding the relationship between people and the environment promotes certain attitudes through which the degree of the interface can be measured. In a context in which a development of sciences and technology facilitates environmental policies, a person interface with the environment is challenged by their ecological affinity, which includes student valuing science and technology, accepting the limits of growth, and recognizing people dominating Nature. This paper aims at revealing to what extent a set of student beliefs justifies their attitudes towards the environment. Data for this study was collected from secondary school science students in Indonesia and related directly to environmental topics in the Indonesian secondary science curriculum. This survey research of 577 students in Indonesia found that there was an inconsistent relationship between student beliefs and attitudes even when students were involved in extended fieldwork activities.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Environmental education

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LAI06171     PDF Paper
Administrators' perceptions of early childhood teacher training in Hong Kong: An exploratory study

Yuk Ching Lai and Kwok Sai Wong, Hong Kong Institute of Education

In Hong Kong, early childhood education and related teacher training have been neglected for a long time. Due to teachers' work for the recognition of early childhood education and teacher training, the British-Hong Kong government gradually put more emphasis on early childhood education and its teacher training. After the handover, for the citizens to cope with the changing economic system from a manufacturing based to a knowledge based society, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has further conducted a series of education reforms, as well as recognizing early childhood education as the foundation of young children's life long learning. Therefore, training professional and quality early childhood teachers has become very important.

The aims of this study were to understand the perceptions of early childhood administrators on teacher training, their training work, and the difficulties they encountered in teacher training. One principal from a kindergarten and one supervisor from a childcare centre were interviewed. The findings indicated that the training did not pose additional pressure on early childhood administrators and their teaching staff. The findings also showed that the government's policy had strengthened the profession's confidence on teacher training and had attached greater importance to early childhood education.

Keywords: Teacher education - general

LAI06321     PDF Paper
A study of intrinsic motivation, achievement goals and study strategies of Hong Kong Chinese secondary students

Po-yin Lai, Kwok-wai Chan, and Kit-Yi Wong, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Research has pointed out that motivational orientations influence the study strategies students adopt and subsequently influence academic achievement. While achievement goals emphasize the ways in which students think about themselves in learning, intrinsic motivation reflects students' engagement in learning for its own sake. Both have impact on learning strategy and achievement. This paper reports the study of the relationship among intrinsic motivation, achievement goals, study strategies and achievement. The participants were786 male and 595 female students from Hong Kong. Intrinsic motivation, viz. challenge, curiosity and independent mastery, and achievement goals, viz. mastery goal, performance approach and avoidance goals, were examined for their correlation with learning strategies and achievement. The results showed that the three subscales of intrinsic motivation were all positively and significantly related with deep strategy but not with surface strategy. Performance approach goal and performance avoidance goal were significantly and positively related to both deep and surface strategies while mastery goal was significantly related with deep strategy only. Academic achievement was positively and significantly related with deep but not surface strategy. Results of multivariate analysis showed significant differences in gender and level of study for the three variables under study. The results were discussed in relation to the Chinese cultural context and implications were drawn for enhancing motivation to learn.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

LAI06759     PDF Paper
The cluster model for conducting Learning Study for minor subjects in schools

Yiu-chi Lai and Tak-wah Wong, Hong Kong Institute of Education

We can observe that "Learning Study" becomes more and more popular in Hong Kong. Many educators agree that it can help to make teaching and learning more effective and is a feasible way for staff development. However, due to limited resources, most schools can only start their studies from core subjects like languages and mathematics. As a result, we can hardly find adequate references for subjects involving fewer teachers in a school. In fact, we know little about the procedure and the benefits for conducting "Learning Study" for minor subjects in schools. In this paper, we used a case study on junior form Computer Literacy to explore and highlight the problems encountered in the research. We hope we can share our experience in using the cluster model for conducting "Learning Study" for minor subjects with teachers.

Keywords: Learning and teaching; Academic professional development

LAM06366    ®     PDF Paper
Guiding students up the thesis mountain: The development of a website on writing a thesis

Rolene Lamm, Rosemary Clerehan, Janice Pinder and Viola Rosario, Monash University

An investigation of staff and student perceptions of thesis writing needs highlighted a significant student requirement for additional support and guidance in relation to aspects of the higher degree research process, as well as in the development of academic English writing skills.

At greatest risk are students from language backgrounds other than English, and those studying in disciplines where early academic achievement is less dependent on writing proficiency.

This paper discusses the development of an online resource to address these issues. The educational design highlights the stages of the process and is informed by adult learning theory, as well as social interactionist and constructivist learning models.

The generic versus disciplinary divide is bridged by structuring the content at two levels: an information spine focusing on the commonalities of the experience of candidature and the writing process, and teaching materials that address disciplinary specificity. While the intended audience is all higher degree research students, there is a particular focus on the research students who need to rapidly acquire high level writing skills in English and in the discourse of their discipline.

Keywords: Doctoral education research

LAV06874     PDF Paper
Finding a place where you fit: Meanings and understandings of young mothers

Judy Laverty, University of Wollongong

A number of studies indicate that current policy debates and the construction of young mothers as both an 'at risk' and 'risk' group has occurred with little or no input from young mothers themselves. This presentation will discuss how three young women with children who have experienced homelessness talk about making a life and shape their subjectivities within their individual contexts and the discourses available to them. The presentation will discuss data from a new qualitative study exploring the daily lives and notions of health amongst young people in Sydney who have experienced homelessness. The narratives of the young women with children in the study indicate they are not defining their lives around homelessness or notions of disadvantage, but instead are seeking purposeful, productive lives. They are drawing on their 'mothering' role and neo-liberal notions of individual responsibility to create a sense of worth and belonging. At the same time they struggle with past and present discourses around exclusion, 'not being good enough' and ongoing socio-economic vulnerabilities. The presentation calls for less prescriptive notions of 'youth' and 'youth health' as deficit, to develop more inclusive understandings of how young people make meaning in their lives.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

LE06069    ®     PDF Paper
Early education research enhancement: An acculturation pathway

Thao Le and Zhiqin Zhang, University of Tasmania

The pathway for students to become a researcher is traditionally structured in such a way that students are expected to do well academically before being admitted into a research program. This is normally reflected in the dichotomy of coursework degree and research degree. This pathway has its strengths and weaknesses. However, it can be rigid and excludes students who are potential early researchers. A pilot study was conducted to examine an alternative way in which non-research-orientated students, particularly coursework postgraduate students, were acculturated into the research discourse. An early education research enhancement program was introduced to these students. The paper discusses the development and implementation of this program and the insights gained from the views and experiences of participating students and staff.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

LE06155     PDF Paper
The role of journal writing in on-line learning

Thao Le, University of Tasmania

Journal writing provides a learning experience for students to record and reflect deeply on their thoughts and feelings on issues and events which are an essential part of their meaning making process. In a discourse of face-to-face teaching and learning, students and lecturers have opportunities to interact in class and in individual conferencing. However, on-line learning can deprive students of personal interaction to share ideas and experiences with their lecturers. This paper presents a case study in which postgraduate on-line students were introduced to journal writing as a learning experience. The results reveal that journal writing was an enriching learning experience for on-line students. Both cognitive and affective meanings were expressively and profoundly encoded in journal writing.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

LE06370    ®     PDF Paper
Chinese-background students' learning approaches

Thao Le and Shi Li, University of Tasmania

Chinese students first started to venture into overseas education in the late nineteenth century . Since then, thousands have launched their journeys abroad in the pursuit of western knowledge. In 2005, as IDP Education Australia Limited (IDP) statistics says, 64% of international students in Australia are of Chinese nationalities or ethnicities, or from countries that share a common Confucian culture. Although numerous studies have examined Chinese background student approaches to learning or learning experience in western educational settings, very few comparative studies have shed light on the identification of differences in learning approaches between Chinese background students with different nationalities or ethnicities, i.e. from mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The vast majority of research carried out on the learning approaches of students with Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC). However, there is a tendency to treat them as a homogeneous group and to disregard the different ethnicities that are present among them. This paper discusses a research framework dealing with Chinese-background students' learning approaches in an Australian tertiary education discourse.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - SOSE and citizenship education

LEF06578    ®     PDF Paper
ICTs implementation levels in primary school teachers: Which practices and which conceptions in teaching and learning?

Sonia Lefebvre and Jean Loiselle, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, and Colette Deaudelin, Université de Sherbrooke

A OCDE Study suggests that students of many countries, including Canada, using the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in school, seem to obtain better academic results. However, a recent investigation carried out in Quebec shows that teachers of the primary and secondary levels don't have much ability in the use of ICTs, and that the use of ICTs in schools is rather uncommon. By means of individual interview and observation, this article examines the teaching and learning conceptions and practices of eight primary school teachers at various levels of ICT implementation process. The results show that the teachers at the beginning of the implementation process (experimenters) have rather behaviourist teaching practices and conceptions whereas the teachers in the last levels (collaborators and adapters) have rather varied teaching practices. In addition, we have noticed a higher propensity for constructivist conceptions in the latter that in the previous. Finally, this discussion stresses the necessity to pursue the study of teaching practices and conceptions according to the ICTs implementation process, by asking ourselves whether it is the ICTs that influence the choice of a theoretical affiliation, or if it is the choice of a theory that leads to different use of ICTs.

Keywords: Information communication technology [ICT]

LEM06537    ®     PDF Paper
Using visual narrative for reflection in the classroom

Narelle Lemon, University of Melbourne

People are storytellers by nature and these stories, narratives, provide us with access to people's identity and personality while playing a central role in our communication with others (Richardson, 1990; Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach & Zilber, 1998). Much research has been done on the use of narratives and how they inturn provide a unique insight into a range of multiple interconnecting forces that enlighten relations between self and society (Bager-Charleson, 2004; Lightfoot, 2004).

A relatively under researched area of narrative inquiry is the use of photographs, visual narrative (Bach, 1998; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Moss, 2003), to provide prospect to reflect and grow from our experiences, to evoke memory in our lives, and to share stories with the community.

In education, the role of visual narrative as a form of reflection in the classroom has not been extensively investigated. This paper looks at how photographs can be used as a way to make visible learners stories as well enabling opportunity to explore different positions within dynamic environments (Bach, 1998; Bach, 2001). Exploration is undertaken in the early childhood classroom where children photographed their world.

Keywords: Doctoral education research

LEO06027     PDF Paper
Quality teaching - Our learning journey action research project

Carl Leonard, NSW Department of Education and Training - Wirreanda Public School

Quality teaching in NSW public schools is a pedagogical model designed for use across all subjects to improve the learning outcomes of students from Kindergarten to Year 12. It is based on the best current national and international research into quality teaching but also builds, most importantly, on what teachers know and value, and many do already in terms of quality teaching practice.

Staff, parents and students were surveyed prior to the commencement of the project to assess their understanding of the quality model and quality teaching at our school. This pre-project data was then used to identify areas of strength with regard to the quality teaching model and areas of potential enhancement to teacher pedagogy.

Staff then participated in an intensive professional development program focused on consolidating knowledge of the quality teaching materials and also developing a shared understanding and definitions of the quality teaching elements. Ongoing training and development has focused on deepening teacher understanding of these elements, embedding them in classroom practice, and developing a shared language for discourse regarding quality teaching with students and parents. Opportunities have also been provided for staff to share and celebrate their successes achieved in refining and enhancing their classroom practice.

Whilst the project focus is ongoing, qualitative teacher data, students work samples and classrooms observations have all demonstrated positive, and in many cases dramatic, enhancements in quality teaching practices. Teachers, students, and parents are increasingly comfortable with the metalanguage of the quality teaching model and are using the quality teaching framework to set individual learning goals that enhance student achievement of outcomes.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

LEO06344    ®     PDF Paper
The mentoring and doctoral experience of Asian arts educators in western universities

Samuel Leong, Hong Kong Institute of Education

The attrition rates of doctoral students in Australia, British, and North American universities average between 30% and 50% depending on the disciplines (McAlpin & Norton, 2006). In Australia, satisfaction ratings of supervision were about 54% for part-time and 64% for full-time doctoral students (Harman, 2002). While the difficulties encountered by minority students have been identified in some studies, research into completion rates have largely failed to recognise or differentiate the diverse experiences of minority groups.

This paper attempts to sheds some light into the doctoral experience of twelve Asian arts educators who have undertaken research training in British, American and Australian universities and are currently working in Asian tertiary institutions. Their perspectives on the key roles which their supervisors play in the doctoral journey, the special qualities of supervisors that impressed or appealed to them, and their experience of mentoring, identified as an important component of the supervision process (Shannon, 1995), are presented. Data obtained through a survey with follow-up individual interviews revealed that few doctoral supervisors acted as mentors and were not always proactive in meeting the multi-faceted needs of international students. Despite this, respondents regarded their overall doctoral experience to be a positive one.

Keywords: Post-graduate research and supervision

LI06365    ®     PDF Paper
Discourses of Chinese cultures: A tale of many cities

Shi Li, University of Tasmania

Since the '50s, the once highly unified culture is now fragmented, leading to a variety of cultural derivatives, such as mainland Chinese culture, Hong Kong Chinese culture, Singaporean Chinese culture and Malaysian Chinese culture. Although still called Chinese culture, they have their distinctive forms. Communities like the mainland Chinese, the Hong Kong people, the Chinese Singaporeans and the Chinese Malaysians differ considerably from one another in such cultural aspects as behavioural approach, thinking mode, mental attitude and vocabulary. This paper examines some features of major Chinese-background discourses in Asia with a particular focus on educational aspects and issues

Keywords: Comparative and international education

LIE06070    ®     PDF Paper
Are values more important than learning styles? - Factors influencing student performance at an international university

Petra Lietz, International University Bremen, and Bobbie Matthews, Flinders Institute of International Education

Educators frequently face the question of the extent to which they can actually influence student learning, particularly as learners are also influenced by many other factors. In particular, it is of interest to identify so called malleable variables - that is factors which can be influenced by educators as compared with variables that educators are unable to change.

In this study, longitudinal data from a cohort of about 200 BA students at an international university in which the language of instruction is English are examined to investigate the way in which various student background factors influence changes in student performance over the three-year program. In particular, it is examined how students' values - as measured by the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) (Schwartz et al., 2001) - and approaches to learning - as measured by the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) (Biggs, 1987) - operate to influence student achievement both directly and indirectly. Finally, results indicate whether values or learning approaches have a greater impact on achievement once other factors, such as prior achievement, English proficiency, extracurricular activities and the educational background of the parents have been taken into account.

Key words: Comparative and international education

LIE06372    ®     PDF Paper
The National Review of School Music Education: What is the present state of music education in schools?

Sharon Lierse, Music Specialist

In November, 2005 a landmark government report entitled the National Review of School Music Education was released. The report found that there was a great variability in the quality of music education in schools. It was acknowledged that although there are some excellent music programs in schools, there is "cycles of neglect and inequity" and greater support is required for teachers and the subject itself. The report acknowledged the influence of recent curriculum developments in Australia including integrating the arts into one subject. The paper will discuss issues arising from the report and how it has impacted music in Australian schools twelve months later.

Keywords: Education policy

LOG06129    ®     PDF Paper
"Arrgh" to Eureka! Challenges facing rural lecturers of science to undergraduate nurses

Patricia Logan-Sinclair and Sophie Heathcote, Charles Sturt University

This paper addresses some of the challenges faced by rural lecturers teaching human bioscience to pre-registration undergraduate nursing students. Rural nursing programmes attract large numbers of adult entry students who often have not completed Year 12 school study recently, if at all. Consequently they have often missed out on not only high school science curriculum but the higher cognitive skills developed in senior high school years. As a result of recognising the needs of these students an innovative tutoring programme for the first year bioscience subjects was developed to assist the knowledge acquisition of the students by enhancing implicit aspects of learning whilst still providing traditional tutoring methods. Activities were particularly designed to address the language and memory aspects of the factual components of the curriculum in active rather than passive tasks. Some of these tasks were based upon techniques for second language learning. Overall, the students appreciated the programme finding that active tasks assisted them in overcoming the science literacy component of their study better enabling them to progress their problem solving skills.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Nursing and medical

LOG06165    ®     PDF Paper
Science in nursing or nursing science? A preliminary report

Patricia Logan-Sinclair and Kennece Coombe, Charles Sturt University

Introductory level sciences occupy approximately a quarter to a third of undergraduate nursing programmes. It has long been held that the science subjects in undergraduate nursing programmes cause students, on average, the most anxiety. Science lecturers have expressed concern over an apparent need to reduce content in order that students cope. The professional literature indicates the existence of a science-nursing tension, however, there is little to clarify what it is about the sciences that nurses wish to reject and there is expressed a binary polarity from 'science is extremely important to nursing' to 'science should be removed from nursing curricula'. There have been calls to 're-envision' science curricula for nursing. This has resulted in programmes being redesigned such that the science content is fully integrated rather than discrete. The few evaluations performed on such programmes have not demonstrated a lessening of student anxiety or indicated evolving changes to the science-nursing tension. The aim of this project is to clarify the level of science that nursing professionals feel is actually required for undergraduate programmes. The method has been designed as a modified Delphi approach using focus groups, surveys and document analysis.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Nursing and medical

LON06147    ®     PDF Paper
Where have all the religious educators gone?

Janette Long, Australian Catholic University, and Maureen Hemmings, Parramatta Catholic Education Office

This paper is a report of cross institutional research between educators from the Australian Catholic University and a Sydney Catholic Education Office who investigated the movement of primary school Religious Education Coordinators (RECs) from the period of 2001 - 2005. The research explores the reasons for people leaving this middle management position after only approximately two years of service in the role.

Key findings are presented which identifies what RECs found rewarding and stimulating in their role, plus the issues they struggled with. Strategies to support current and future RECs in their implementation of the role are noted which may assist in attracting and retaining RECs in this middle management position.

It is envisaged that other school sectors, particularly in the primary domain, may also be experiencing difficulties in attracting and maintaining people in the REC role or roles that may be similar in middle management leadership. Therefore recommendations found within this paper may provide stimulus for school communities to critique their own practices in order to stem the flow of attrition.

Keywords: Educational leadership

LON06473    ®     PDF Paper
The Teaching and Learning Consortium: A field based model for preservice teacher education

Janette Long, Wendy Moran and Paul White, Australian Catholic University

The Teaching and Learning Consortium (TLC) was initiated in 1996 on the Strathfield campus (NSW) at Australian Catholic University in partnership with nine primary schools in the diocese of Parramatta, Sydney. The program continues to the present with an expansion to over 40 primary schools in the Sydney metropolitan and outer metropolitan areas across four dioceses, private and state schools. Students involved are in Year 2 pre-graduate primary teacher education. The main focus of the learning is to align theory with practice. This is achieved by providing:

• a research based theoretical component involving lectures and tutorials at university;
• a practical component involving action learning on site in a school setting; and
• the integration of curriculum units with professional studies.

This paper explains the TLC model of preservice teacher education through the collaboration of schools, teachers and the University.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

LON06697     PDF Paper
School transition: Inspirations and aspirations

Lynette Longaretti, University of Melbourne

This paper reports students' perceptions about their primary to secondary school transition. It specifically focuses on young adolescent's concerns and the ways in which cope with social emotional and academic demands during school transition.

Mixed methods data collection techniques were used to track the experiences of sixteen students during their final weeks of primary school and first year at secondary school. A snapshot of the findings emerging from the qualitative data, derived from multi-method interviews, questionnaires and student journals are considered.

Student concerns were analyzed into three broad and interrelated categories: a) relationships (with peers and teachers), b) curriculum challenge and organisation, and c) personal (about self).

Of special interest in this paper are the various ways in which students cope with the academic and social emotional demands they encounter. Of great significance is the profound impact positive aspirations and inspiration have on the extent to which students cope with interpersonal relationship and academic pressures during the school transition period.

Findings from this research challenge the practices in the Middle Years of Schooling and have significant implications for the programs, curriculum, teaching and learning. Recommendations based upon these findings focus upon initiatives that promote a smooth transition for students.

Keywords: Primary to secondary school transition

LUI06145    ®     PDF Paper
Estonian teachers understandings of creativity and learning strategies

Piret Luik and Hasso Kukemelk, University of Tartu

Creativity and learning strategies are considered as an important part of the learning process by several researchers (Hartley, 2006; Torrance, 2003; Simpson, 2004) Tellez (2003) states that teachers' pedagogical understandings of these concepts are critically relevant to children's school achievement.

In Estonian National Curriculum (2003) teachers are responsible for assessing creativity and learning strategies, along with other items, in the study process.

In order to know are teachers assessing right thing or not a study of teachers' own understandings of these concepts of creativity and strategies for learning was conducted. The data were gathered by questionnaire. Participants were 78 Estonian comprehensive school teachers (teaching grades 1 - 12). Teachers were asked to explain creativity and learning strategies without any limits in expressions.

Their explanations of both concepts were separated into phrases and divided among seven categories according to previous studies (Torrance, 1967; Weinstein & Mayer, 1986).

It was found that Estonian teachers' understandings of "creativity" were closer to the definition than understandings about "learning strategies". When describing learning strategies, more general expressions were used.

Keywords: Teacher education - general

LUI06159     PDF Paper
Web-based learning or face-to-face teaching - Preferences of Estonian Students

Piret Luik, University of Tartu

Whereas one of the goals of the ICT development plan in Estonia (Learning Tiger, 2005) is to provide web-based learning for schools of general education, it is also important to know, what the opinions of the students are. In addition, are the students ready for that kind of learning?

Investigating in which phases of instruction it is preferred to carry out the web-based learning and in which phase students need direct contact with the teacher, the study was carried out in Estonia. The data were gathered using the electronic questionnaire in 2005. Participants of this study were 335 students from the 3rd and 4th school stage (forms 7-12, ages 13-18) in Estonia.

The data were analysed by using SPSS for Windows. Chi-square test, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, Friedman test, ANOVA, t-test and Spearman rank correlation. The results of this study indicated that students prefer more partially web-based courses where the practicing and assessing learning is conducted with the help of computer. In the two first phases (presenting information and guiding the learner) students prefer direct contact with the teacher. These results could be considered when the web-based courses for the general education in Estonia are being developed.

Keywords: Information communication technology [ICT]

M

MAD06469     PDF Paper
Curriculum development in Agricultural Science for FET in South Africa: Experience gained and steps followed

Jerry Madiba and Fourten Khumalo, Department of Science and Technology

The adoption of the new Constitution for the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 0f 1996) provided a basis for curriculum transformation and development in South Africa. This was followed by passing of the Further Education Act (Act 98 0f 1998) which gave strength to develop the new curriculum for Grade 10 -12 for schools. Among subject written was Agricultural Science of which one was responsible to coordinate. The curriculum was guided by among others the following principles:

• Social Transformation;
• Integration and applied competence
• Articulation and Portability
• Outcome- based education and
• Human rights, exclusivity, environmental and social justice

Four outcomes adopted:

• Investigate and Analyse
• Sustainable Agricultural Practises
• Indigenous Agricultural Knowledge and Historical Development and
• Interrelated Issues in Agriculture

This paper gives all the steps that were taken in 2001, Constituting Writing Teams for the National Department of Education until the curriculum was finalized. It also exposes the considerable experience gained during this process (2002) which other countries can learn from until final adoption of the curriculum. It also explains principles for assessment both applicable for ordinary schools in the nines provinces to special Agricultural High schools. New implementation is in 2006

Keywords: Agricultural science

MAD06470     PDF Paper
Professional development programme at Agricultural Research Council in South Africa

Jerry Madiba and Rita Ndlhovu, Department of Science and Technology

The National Research and Development (R&D) Strategy of Department of Science and Technology (DST) developed in 2002, rests on three pillars:

• Innovation
• Science, engineering and technology (SET) human resources and transformation
• Creating an effective government S&T system

Based on the second pillar a big challenge lay ahead of building human capital of previously disadvantaged communities in South Africa. What constitute the present human resources are the ageing Afrikaner males and transformation was needed. In line with these the DST launched in 2005 the DST Professional Research Development Programme focused at five Science Councils aimed at addressing the accelerated development of a group of scientists and research professionals at Masters and PhD Level with the following aims:

• To attract and retain young scientist and professional of high calibre
• To support young scientists and professionals in applied research and promotion of innovation

This paper looks at the success of this programme at one Science Council, Agricultural Research Council in 2005/6. Whereby by supporting 30 candidates with a stipend, mentoring and exposure a lot was achieved to an extend that the programme was funded again. It exposes literature review, Questionnaire analysis and the results.

Keywords: Academic professional development

MAG06312    ®     PDF Paper
Discover your amazing world with spatial technologies in schools : An overview of the implementation approaches and challenges of the Queensland STiS project.

Meegan Maguire, Education Queensland

Spatial technologies include any software or hardware that interacts with real world locations, such as GPS and GIS (Geographic Information System). There are many resources available such as online mapping tools, spatial data and software for GIS investigations or virtual field trips such as NASA World Wind and Google Earth Pro. Getting started is easy and can be developed through to advanced investigations using a range of software options.

The integration of GIS in schools across the learning phases and curriculum is most successful with the support of the spatial industry. Education Queensland has established a statewide project that involves a partnership across all levels of government, industry and universities to research and develop relevant learning opportunities for students and teachers. Students become active citizens investigating community-based projects including water quality issues, environmental hazards, planning projects and capturing local data. Through this process, students apply higher order thinking skills to synthesise, analyse and hypothesise through spatial information to become life long learners. This presentation will explore the research undertaken in the Spatial Technologies in Schools Project into resources and examples of worthwhile learning experiences experienced by students using spatial technologies.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

MAI06810    ®     PDF Paper
Investigations into the impact of leadership styles and management strategies on cohesive, transformative ICT integration in primary schools

Carmel Maio-Taddeo, University of South Australia

This paper attempts to draw connections between the extensive literature on management and leadership in schools and the research on Information Communication Technology (ICT) integration. Recent studies show the problematic relationship of management and leadership practice with meaningful ICT integration (MacDonald 2006). The paper will distinguish transformative ICT integration from other levels of ICT integration as they apply not only to classroom settings, but also to school structure. Some of the current literature reveals that many schools are not enjoying long-term meaningful reforms in the area of ICT integration. This paper will reflect on the literature to identify some of the possible explanations for this lack of success. It will be argued that leadership for cohesive ICT integration requires an appreciation and consideration of the influencing factors on ICT integration and their subsequent alignment. The need for further research into the role and responsibilities of educational leadership in the transformative integration of ICTs will be highlighted.

Keywords: Educational Leadership

MAR06620    ®     PDF Paper
Action and agency: People with intellectual disability shaping their future

Genee Marks, University of Ballarat

The recognition of the authentic voice(s) of people with intellectual disability has been an emerging trend over the last decade and a half. Less often, however, have these voices been heard in relation to research, and directions for the future.

dal Gourmet CafT and Catering, which provides training in the hospitality industry for young people with disabilities in Geelong received funding to establish an action research project to develop, implement, monitor and reflect on a variety of strategies and innovations to support transition from this training and development setting into open employment.

A committee of critical friends consisting largely of people with disability was established, and consultation carried out with schools, staff in training, and community employers. The committee, once educated in the action research process, designed a training program that was trialled and evaluated in three action research cycles. The program was deemed successful, but with modifications and changes as decided by the committee, and with the addition of a fourth cycle.

This paper strongly argues that such inclusive research addresses significant and fundamental debates about inclusion and citizenship, and the rights of people with disability to exert agency and take direct grassroots action for their future.

Keywords: Inclusive and Special Education

MAS06651     PDF Paper
Key influences on the design and implementation of dissemination of MindMatters

Jo Mason, Australian Principals Associations' Professional Development Council

MindMatters is a national mental health promotion initiative of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. In essence, MindMatters has two components: a 'Kit' of resources (booklets and a video) and a nation-wide professional development program.

Since 2000 a consortium comprising the Australian Principals Associations Professional Development Council (APAPDC) and the Curriculum Corporation has been responsible for supporting the dissemination of MindMatters through the provision of an accessible program of professional development in each state and territory.

This paper will examine the challenge of disseminating a health promotion resource for secondary schools across different state and territory jurisdictions, and to both government and non-government school systems. Critical success factors will be identified and lessons drawn for disseminating health programs in school settings. Further the paper will identify the lessons learned for rolling out an effective professional development program across the country.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation; Secondary schooling

MAX06679    ®     PDF Paper
The UNE Educational Alumni Support Project: Main findings and an evaluation

Tom Maxwell and Howard Smith, University of New England

A HEIP grant to UNE provided funding for web-based mentoring for UNE 2004 alumni during 2005 supporting the transition from teacher graduate to teacher. This program was unique in that it provided 'large scale' support to all UNE 2004 teacher graduates focusing of encouraging peer support mechanisms in addition to lecturer mentoring. This paper reports on major project processes and products and presents relevant evaluation data in support of the view that some beginning teachers gained considerably from access to online support. Issues arising from the project concerning online support and teacher education will be considered.

Keywords: Teacher education - general

MCC06123     PDF Paper
Relationships between teacher career stages/states and locus of control: A multilevel analysis

John McCormick and Kerry Barnett, University of New South Wales

New questionnaire items to assess teachers' career stages were developed, and with a locus of control instrument, administered to a random sample of Australian high school teachers. The career data reinforced the inappropriateness of conceptualising teachers' career stages as linear. Hence, career states was adopted as a more appropriate term. This paper reports multilevel models relating career states with demographic variables and locus of control.

Keywords: Educational leadership

MCC06231     PDF Paper
Connecting pedagogies and learning

Faye McCallum and Cathy Hammond, University of South Australia

Modelling inter-disciplinary teaching and learning practices in pre-service education courses has produced powerful learning outcomes for graduate entry students completing their Primary/Middle Bachelor of Education degree at the University of South Australia. The notion of connecting pedagogies, realised through an inter-disciplinary approach to teaching Society and the Environment has provided rich contextual meaning for student-centred learning.

The paper explores key themes drawn from the reflections of this student cohort and will describe learning outcomes realised through connecting pedagogies in studies of society and environment.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

MCC06271    ®     PDF Paper
Supporting action research/learning in schools through academic partnerships

Ann McCormack, Ruth Reynolds, and Kate Ferguson Patrick, University of Newcastle

This paper details a study tracking three academics as they worked as partners to 11 schools undertaking the NSW Quality Teaching Action Learning (QTAL) program through a school based action research/learning approach aimed at improving the quality of teaching and learning. Action research/learning is a popular strategy used by teachers and schools to develop insights and understandings to make their work more professional and improve their teaching. It has the potential to empower teachers and lead to changes in teaching practice and school reform (Ewing, 2004). Throughout the project the academic partners conducted their own action research study as a means of recording this process from both their and the teachers' perspective with the aim of analysing the impact of their role on the evolution, progress and outcomes of the projects. This paper uses data collected from a questionnaire which was administered to teachers pre and post projects and personal reflective journals completed by the three academic partners throughout the duration of the projects. Results indicated the outcomes for the academics were collaborative skills, self efficacy and a sense of achievement through the relationships and research skills developed in the school-based settings and with colleagues. The schools cited specialist knowledge, strategies and resources together with the leadership provided by the academic partners as vital to the success of the school projects and professional development achieved. Limitations encountered will also be discussed.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

MCI06168     PDF Paper
'Blame the student, blame the school or blame the system': Educational policy and the dilemmas of student engagement and school retention

Peter McInerney, University of Ballarat

Nation-wide initiatives to raise the school leaving age have placed additional pressures on schools and teachers to address issues of student engagement and school retention. But how have state and federal policy makers defined their responsibilities in these matters? How do they accord with teachers' perceptions of what is needed? Drawing on recent ethnographic studies from a cluster of Western Australian schools, this paper looks at the tensions involved in implementing school-based responses in a policy environment which is underpinned by liberal views of political and economic individualism (Ball, 2003). To a large extent, teachers have been 'taken out of the equation' (Thomas, 2005) in education policy decision making and their knowledge and judgment devalued and denigrated in the push for standardized testing programs and greater measures of accountability. Increasingly, responsibility for student failure is being sheeted back to individual deficits, cultural deprivation and to schools rather than structural inequalities. However, from our observations it was apparent that policy was being micromanaged by principals and education administrators to create opportunities for teachers to develop creative and engaging curriculum for disaffected students. The paper concludes by exploring the ways in which policy might be re-configured to promote more inclusive forms of schooling.

Keywords: New pedagogies

MCL06687    ®     PDF Paper
Citizenship for the future - educating the adolescent in 1960s Australia

Julie McLeod, Deakin University

Adolescence has a history as a category of government, scholarly enquiry, popular imaginary and of schooling reform. This paper explores the planning of adolescent subjectivity in Australian education during the 1960s and 70s. First, it maps some of the dominant concerns about managing adolescents and their (desirable or lacking) capacities, set against a claimed collapse in social and personal values and the responsibility of schools to prepare adolescents for future citizenship. Schooling practices have a strong orientation to the future, embedding an imagination of the future citizen in curriculum. Citizenship encompasses questions about social values and subjectivity - the kind of people adolescents will become. Debates in Australian education during this time convey ambivalence towards modernity and change, with adolescents both exhorted to abide by existing social values, and to embrace the future of changed values. Second, developing a genealogical approach, I analyse some of the key concepts that animated these debates - notably the future, role and socialization, and forms of reasoning derived from social psychology. Finally, the paper, as an attempt to think about the history of the present, introduces some new lines of enquiry for examining contemporary initiatives and concerns about citizenship and social values education.

Keywords: Youth studies; History of education.

MEY06792    ®     PDF Paper
Justificatory reasoning research

Tania Meyer, University of South Australia

In this paper I argue that education for a just democracy depends upon the development of evaluativist thinking. The term comes from epistemological levels theory; a branch of cognitive psychology. Epistemological levels theorists suggest that people in general, not just philosophers, hold a variety of views about how beliefs are to be justified. Researchers plot a common developmental sequence of beliefs about justification, ranging from absolutism (i.e. appeal to authority) through relativism to evaluativism (the understanding that conflicting view points can be compared and evaluated on the basis of reason and evidence). I argue further that in order to develop evaluativist students it is necessary for teachers themselves to think as evaluativists. While a number of preliminary small-scale studies have pointed to the crucial role community of inquiry style dialogue plays in fostering evaluativism, larger scale empirical studies are awaiting the development of an efficient instrument exhibiting both validity and reliability. As part of doctoral research this challenge has been taken up with the development of a questionnaire designed to test the epistemological levels of teacher-education students. Preliminary findings suggest the need for significant changes within teacher education in order to move pre-service teachers' absolutist and relativist thinking to evaluativism.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

MIC06082     PDF Paper
Exemplary teachers: Conditions of success

Joanna Michalak, University of Lodz

The paper presents the key findings of a recent study which looks in depths at the work and life of 'exemplary teachers' from Poland and explores the factors that were decisive in attaining professional successes by these teachers. The study was guided by the following research question: What factors have an impact on achieving professional success by teachers?

In order to find out what conditions have influence on attaining professional successes by teachers, both 'internal' and 'external' factors were taken into consideration. The former ones are connected with personal factors influencing achieving successes (professional beliefs and theories on teaching, job perception, motivation, personal qualities, personal and professional values). Whereas the latter ones are linked with a broadly understood environment in which a teacher works, with all extra-personal, cultural, organizational and material factors having a bearing on the quality, course and effects of teacher's work (context: classroom, school, educational system, society).

In conducting this research I referred to the collective case study. Studying a few cases simultaneously, I aimed at examining the conditions of teachers' professional successes. In the research conducted, the following sources of information were used: teachers' documents, participating observation in the classroom and semi-structure interviews.

Keywords: Teachers' work

MID06131     PDF Paper
New Zealand's Research Assessment Exercise (PBRF) as a pedagogical device: A Bernsteinian analysis of its impact on Education

Sue Middleton, University of Waikato

As a reflexive field, Education's objects of study include the systems and ideas within which Educationists work. Research Assessment Exercises - Britain's RAE, New Zealand's PBRF, etc. - have become objects of critique and research. Bernstein's final work has been applied in studies of the impact of Britain's RAE in subjects such as Education. While the RAE's Units of Assessment are the collective outputs of departments or institutions, the PBRF's evaluations of subjects and institutions are based on the quality evaluation scores accorded to the Evidence Portfolios of individual staff. The PBRF projects new classifications within and across disciplinary boundaries, inscribing new collective and personal identities: "research active/ inactive", and "A, B or C" rated research activity. In Bernstein's sense, PBRF acts as a pedagogical device: it transmits criteria for the production of "legitimate texts". I interviewed 36 Educationists who submitted Evidence Portfolios in the PBRF's first (2003) quality evaluation round. Their accounts exemplify changing senses of professional identity before, during and since the evaluation. They illustrate gaps between personal (internal) professional identities and official (external) researcher identities and suggest that intellectual autonomy may be being compromised. Education was reproduced as of low status and its clinical/ professional mandate undermined.

Keywords: Education policy

MIL06185     PDF Paper
Professional standards and teachers' practice - the role of a professional learning framework in Victoria

John Mildren and Fran Cosgrove, Victorian Institute of Teaching

Since the establishment of the Victorian Institute of teaching in 2002, the practice of Victorian teachers has been supported through standards referenced reflection and investigation.

This paper reports on the ways in which the development of a professional learning framework has related professional standards to teachers' practice. The use of standards linked to professional practice is discussed with regard to pre-service teachers, beginning teachers seeking full registration and experienced teachers renewing their registration.

This paper will specifically focus on the ways in which the professional learning framework connects the work of beginning teachers with the standards of professional practice through a systematic evidence based process. Reference will be made to the development of this process since its inception in 2004, the supportive framework established including the use of trained mentors, and the ways in which the evidence of professional practice is identified in the normal work of teachers as they plan, teach, assess and work and reflect collegially.

Issues arising from the use of generic standards will be considered, as will the application of the professional learning framework in the process of renewing teachers' registration and future directions for the Institute in supporting teachers' professional learning.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

MIL06221     PDF Paper
Pre-service teacher education and the development of socially just dispositions: A review of the literature

Carmen Mills, University of Queensland

As national populations grow more diverse, 'in part due to migration and the geopolitical realities of shifting national boundaries, the need for educationalists to better understand and work with difference productively becomes increasingly critical' (Allard & Santoro, 2006, p. 115). For the individuals and groups of students historically at risk in our education system, 'apart from family background, it is good teachers who make the greatest difference to student outcomes from schooling' (Hayes, Mills, Christie & Lingard, 2005, p. 1). If teachers are integral to making a difference for such students, we need to ensure that our pre-service teacher education programs equip teachers with the knowledges, skills and dispositions to do so. However, the literature on teacher education shows that historically, teacher education programs have aimed to address diversity with add-on or piecemeal approaches, with little success (McDonald, 2005). Moreover, some authors (e.g., Lortie, 1975) have argued that 'the predispositions teacher education students bring to teaching are a much more powerful socializing influence than either preservice education or later socialization in the workplace' (Johnson, 2002, p. 154). This paper explores research and scholarship in the academic literature in this area as a beginning point for future empirical work.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

MIL06230    ®     PDF Paper
Primary school-aged children and fundamental motor skills - what is all the fuss about?

Judith Miller, University of New England

Fundamental motor skills are assumed to hold a key position in the movement education continuum for primary school-aged children. For example, mastery of fundamental motor skills is considered to be a precursor to the application to many sport specific contexts, and conversely a lack of proficiency is lauded as a key reason for attrition from organised sport. The exploration of childrens' coordination levels and their performance on a fundamental motor skill has revealed a significant relationship between these two movement constructs. Primary school-aged children (n=161) were measured using the McCarron Assessment of Neuromuscular Development (coordination) and their process performance of the two handed sidearm strike (fundamental motor skill). Using the partial credit form of the Rasch analysis (Quest), the ordinal measures of the process performances were transformed into interval data. Consequently, these data were comparable to the Neuromuscular Development Index from the McCarron, employing multivariate analysis techniques. A significant interaction resulted which provided a sound methodological basis from which to explore the relationships between coordination and process performances on a fundamental motor skill. Implications of the findings focus on various engagements with pedagogies for movement enhancement.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

MIL06287     PDF Paper
Promises but not guarantees - movement from TAFE to Higher Education in a dual sector university

Lisa Milne, Sue Holden and Shay Keating, Victoria University

Many TAFE programs at Victoria University have developed articulation pathways that allow students to qualify for entry into a degree course on the basis of studies undertaken at TAFE level and they may also gain credit for their TAFE studies in the destination course. The evidence for the success or otherwise of these pathways and the degree of transparency of the articulation arrangements is largely anecdotal. This paper will discuss the outcomes of a longitudinal project conducted at Victoria University in 2005 to 2006 on the aspirations and experiences of TAFE students travelling along these pathways to higher education.

The project involved individual interviews with over 100 TAFE students and their teachers across seven disciplines in the second semester of 2005 to determine both students and teachers understanding and experience of the articulation process. In first semester 2006 the same students who have articulated were interviewed to determine their experience of the articulation process from TAFE to higher education. Higher education lecturers were also be interviewed to provide their insights into the articulation process. It is anticipated that the research team will then conduct a similar project with international students.

The paper will provide an analysis of the processes that facilitate or hinder articulation and the success or otherwise of the articulation pathways developed within the University. It will discuss the aspirations of students and the "promise" of a pathway in a cross sector university.

Keywords: Post-compulsory education

MOC06579     PDF Paper
Reclaiming 'Professional Identity': Beyond the search for Mr Chips

Nicole Mockler and Judyth Sachs, University of Sydney

The growing popular appeal of the concept of identity across a range of fields over the past decade has seen an increased focus in the scholarly and professional literature on the notion of 'teacher identity'. While both topical and ubiquitous, however, 'teacher identity' still remains relatively undertheorised in the literature, and the term is applied inconsistently in a variety of ways across a number of contexts. In this paper we explore the difference between the concepts of 'occupational identity' and 'professional identity' as these relate to the teaching profession and focus our attention on their formation, mediation and 'political project'. We examine the problematics of the conflation of the two terms within the broad conceptualisation and application of teacher identity.

Keywords: Teachers' work

MON06660     PDF Paper
Gender, power and PhD examination in Australia

Melissa Monfries and Terence Lovat, University of Newcastle

Previous analyses revealed that even when PhD theses were given the highest evaluations, they were frequently accompanied by negative remarks. It has been argued that examiners' beliefs about their role may obstruct them in free acceptance of the original contributions to knowledge deemed the essence of the PhD. It seems we may have constructed unwittingly a conservative doctoral regime that is more intent on protecting and maintaining extant structures than supporting innovation. Furthermore, research in social psychology has demonstrated that people in positions of power are motivated to maintain their high power base. The combination of these philosophical and psychological tenets guided the analysis of the discourse used in the examination of theses in the current study. A particular focus was on gender differences in examiners' comments with respect to the working of institutional and personal power. The results reinforced previous findings that both male and female examiners function predominantly in a conservative mode and so tend towards protecting and maintaining a custodial doctoral examination regime rather than encouraging innovation. There were differences, however, in the balance of expression between male and female examiners with textual analysis implying that male examiners were more interested in personal power than females.

Keywords: Doctoral education research

MOO06095    ®     PDF Paper
College English Teaching: How useful is this course for Chinese postgraduate students accessing tertiary education in Central Queensland?

Teresa Moore and Li Yujie, Central Queensland University

In this paper we report on findings from our small qualitative study that explored the usefulness of College English Teaching for Chinese postgraduate students coming to study at CQU. College English Teaching is a compulsory two-year English language course taught at universities in China. After completion of this course all Chinese tertiary students then sit an exam - CET Band IV. Graduation from a university is dependant on successful passing of this exam. Obtaining the CET Band IV is highly valued by Chinese employers however recently there has been growing criticism concerning the level of English language understanding of students who were successful in passing the exam. Anecdotal evidence suggests that students simply learn for the test and that overall the CET course does not enable students to develop listening, speaking or comprehension skills desired by Chinese employers. Eight Chinese postgraduate students who were enrolled at CQU were interviewed about their experiences of arriving and settling in Central Queensland and their perceptions on how useful the CET course had been in enabling these students to understand English as communicated in Australia. Our study found that these students used a variety of local activities that assisted them to develop a deeper understanding of English language use. These results are discussed in relation to the potential for newly arrived Chinese students to remain dependant on Chinese speakers and isolated from native English speakers.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - English as a second Language

MOO06096    ®     PDF Paper
Life as a beginning male teacher in Queensland: Who are they and what are they doing?

Teresa Moore and Bruce Knight, Central Queensland University

During 2005 a mentor program was run as a pilot strategy to link male pre-service teachers with experienced male primary teachers in the Rockhampton and Mackay school districts. As part of the on-going project investigating the usefulness of a male mentoring program, an online survey was sent out to beginning male teachers in Queensland. Findings indicated that many of the male teachers felt unprepared for the realities of the school workplace with the social and emotional aspects of teaching, issues of work intensification, paperwork and administration as areas of common concern. Three main areas that beginning male teachers would like to see covered more fully in pre-service training included more practicum exposure, more behaviour management skills and pedagogy. In this paper we report on the results in relation to what these teachers would like to see in pre-service training for male teachers and implication for programs such as ours. We conclude by suggesting that further research investigating the BLM internship would beneficial to assess the effectiveness of support for the beginning male teacher and retention of quality male teachers.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

MOO06219    ®     PDF Paper
Teacher professional development as a transformative experience

Maxine Moore, University of Sydney

Between March and April 2006, the Division of Professional Learning (DPL), Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, conducted a Certificate of Primary Literacy Education. This consisted of a two-day 'Future Directions in Literacy Conference', followed by five, two-and-a-half-hour evening workshops, ranging in topic from 'Balanced Literacy' to 'Space to Play'. The DPL intended the certificate to provide literacy educators with the space and opportunity to share the latest research and best practice in literacy education and to have a shared public voice in the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy. Conference participants numbered approximately 150 and included postgraduate students, classroom teachers, assistant principals, literacy consultants, librarians and university academics. Twelve of this group also enrolled in all five evening workshops and successfully completed the certificate. This article shares the reflections of certificate participants on the content of the conference and evening workshops and how the professional development experience had a transformative influence on their knowledge, skills, attitudes, confidence, beliefs and/or teaching practice.

Keywords: Teacher professional learning

MOS06477     PDF Paper
The Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT)

Julianne Moss, University of Melbourne

In Victoria, Australia, under the Blueprint agenda, The Principles of Learning and Teaching (Department of Education and Training, 2005) are being used to operationalise pedagogical change and curriculum renewal. It is intended as a way for teachers to review their practice from data generated between themselves and a colleague, students and curriculum audit tools. The professional learning program has been offered to groups of teachers in schools who have prioritised PoLT as a school initiative Schools, preferably joined by a cluster network, provide the funding ($A800 per teacher) to participate in the five-day professional learning program, supported by critical friend onsite consultancy visits. The University of Melbourne is one of the three contracted providers and in 2005 and 2006 and has supported 450 teachers from state, independent and special schools in Victoria and 70 teachers in Singapore. The presentation will outline the workings of the model and illustrate how through a deeper and renewed focus on pedagogy schools are being asked to examine and change their practice for all students. One benefit of the initiative is that special schools are an integral part of the cluster network and are reconsidering their role in school renewal and systems transformation more broadly.

Keywords: Inclusive and special education

MOS06507    ®     PDF Paper
"Nurturing" the research spirit: Speaking from the margins of educational research

Timothy Moss, University of Tasmania

This paper employs the arts-based representational technique of polyphonic narrative construction to explore my journey as an academic margin-walker, and my process of becoming an educational researcher within (and in spite of) the current academic environment. The first steps in my educational journey involved training as a drama teacher - a role which involves working in the margins (artist/educator; personal/professional) on a daily basis. At the completion of this degree I disrupted the expected career path, moving further into the margins of education, by deciding not to pursue a classroom career, instead engaging in full-time doctoral studies. Rather than positioning me firmly within the borders of 'researcher', this decision undermined the credibility and security I held in the full range of educational roles - as teacher, learner, and researcher. My final act of educational transgression is taking place in the present, as I attempt to engage with my role as (post-doctorate) educational researcher within a non-traditional academic role. In this paper, I position this professional margin-dwelling, and these transgressions, as signal moments in my career development, by presenting interweaving narratives of key experiences from each moment. Ultimately, this paper is about being and becoming an educational [Margin-walkerObserverParadoxNon-participantFraud] researcher.

Keywords: Post graduate and early career researcher

MOS06557    ®     PDF Paper
The first year experience: Transition and integration into teacher education

Timothy Moss, Sharon Pittaway and Robyn McCarthy, University of Tasmania

Research into higher education has established that the first year of study is highly significant, as it is the time when students are most vulnerable in terms of academic failure, as well as most likely to experience social, emotional, and financial problems (McInnis, 2001). Entering university has been shown to move through three distinct stages - separation, transition to the new group, and incorporation/ integration (Tinto, 1988). This paper discusses the experience of a cohort of first year pre-service teachers as they move through these stages, reporting on a project undertaken by the Faculty of Education at UTAS. This project involved three elements designed to support students' transition to university study - a week-long orientation program; diagnostic testing in literacy, numeracy, and ICT proficiency; and a program of integrated and embedded support for students identified as at risk in their university study, and their preparedness for teaching. The student cohort is discussed in terms of students' backgrounds, and their reasons for studying teacher education. Following this, the paper addresses students' experiences of transition, and the role played by the orientation program in this transition. Finally, students' ongoing questions and concerns related to their dual roles as students and pre-service teachers are explored.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

MOY06634     PDF Paper     ®
Focus groups in educational research:
using ICT to assist in meaningful data collection

Kathryn Moyle, Associate Professor, School of Education and Community Services, University of Canberra

Education research methods include the use of focus groups for gathering qualitative data. Focus groups consist of small groups of informed people addressing research questions and are a form of 'group interview'. Focus groups in education research can be considered to be conversations that are initiated by the researcher for the specific purpose of obtaining data relevant to the specified research outcomes.

Traditionally, approaches to data collection in focus groups use tape and/or video recorders and note takers. These approaches however, can be intrusive to the small group processes employed in gaining responses to the focus group questions. This paper discusses some of the issues and benefits of using focus groups in education research. It draws upon Australian research that explored educational leaders' views about the relationships between school leadership and teaching and learning with information and communication technologies (ICT) in which the data was collected through face-to-face focus groups, and where ICT was incorporated into the research method. This paper examines the processes required to incorporate ICT into the focus groups and outlines ways in which ICT can assist in data collection for education research.

MUI06156    ®     PDF Paper
Numeracy across the curriculum: Encouraging pre-service teachers to reflect on their experiences

Tracey Muir and Ian Edmondson, University of Tasmania

The purpose of this paper is two-fold: firstly it presents a description of the design and teaching aspects of an innovative curriculum unit undertaken with pre-service teachers at the University of Tasmania. Through the unit, Numeracy Opportunities Across the Curriculum, pre-service teachers were required to design, trial and evaluate maths trails with a group of school-aged students. Secondly, the processes engaged in by the pre-service teachers, along with documentation of their ability to be reflective practitioners, are also discussed. Through describing the learning experiences that were undertaken and through qualitative feedback received from the pre-service teachers, this paper seeks to provide useful information to other course designers and teacher educators.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

MUL06028    ®     PDF Paper
Mobile pedagogies: Spatially producing the learner-teacher

Dianne Mulcahy, University of Melbourne

There is a growing emphasis worldwide on learning throughout life and beyond formal educational settings. Attention has been given by various education researchers to the distributed character of knowledge production and learning practices within and across a range of learning and work sites . This paper is located within an emerging interest in using spatiality as a lens for examining identity processes and pedagogic practices . It is based on empirical data from two research projects concerning the use made of a problem based approach to learning by teacher education students as part of their professional preparation and, as newly graduated teachers, in everyday professional practice in secondary schools.

Utilising resources provided by actor-network theory and postcolonial theory, it addresses the question of how specific spatial arrangements enable or constrain particular processes of identity and the role of pedagogy in these processes. The argument is made that intricate inter-connections exist between subjectivity and spatiality and that neither exists as a single type. Teacher education students form several kinds of professional identity (novice, expert, novice-expert) and appropriate various kinds of pedagogic space (theory, practice, peer networks) as they 'cross' education courses with professional practice in schools. Problem-based pedagogy emerges as a threshold practice that involves a constant weaving to and fro between disparate spaces and selves. This practice is not necessarily benign, however. Pedagogy can function as politics by other means. Accordingly, the paper also addresses the interplay between power and pedagogy.

Keywords: New pedagogies

MUR06334    ®     PDF Paper
Education for professionals through work-integrated learning

Gerald Murphy and Bruce Calway, Swinburne University of Technology

Professionals progress through three stages of development; acquisition of knowledge, specialisation and integration of knowledge. Much of the current emphasis for professional development is on development of competencies. Entry into a profession is dependent on the professional acquiring a level of competency sufficient to practice. This paper argues that professionals need to acquire new specialist disciplines and/or to develop their knowledge beyond a competence/sufficiency level. Learning for this requires a greater depth than mere competency. The paper explores how Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) can enhance professionals' careers.

Existing training practices of separating work and learning inhibit learning transfer. The complex and ill-structured nature of professionals' work demands that professionals draw on real world situations to develop the conceptual knowledge needed to be applied to novel situations. Professional Societies provide the context for learning, domain knowledge and learning environment so that professionals are able to apply the knowledge and skills gained through education.

WIL is widely reported in literature as a philosophy of learning which is appropriate for development of professionals. It incorporates hands-on work experience that assumes a level of explicit knowledge/skill on the part of the learner and the exchange of tacit knowledge/skill from the real-world to the learner.

Keywords: Educational philosophy

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NGU06308    ®     PDF Paper
Evaluating psychometric properties of the primary school teacher standards: Implications for instrument development and assessment practice

Kim Cuc Nguyen, Patrick Griffin and Shelley Gillis, University of Melbourne

This paper addresses the World Bank funded study in which the University of Melbourne was commissioned to develop and validate a set of competency profiles and assessment strategies for primary school teachers in Vietnam. Through extensive expert consultation, 64 criteria which belong to 14 Requirements were developed within three broad strands: 'Personality and Ideology', 'Knowledge' and 'Pedagogical Skills'. In 2003, the draft profiles and accompanying assessment procedures were trailed (Griffin, Nguyen, Gillis and Mai (2006). In 2004, the validated profiles and assessment procedures were used to assess a further 25,000 teachers in 10 provinces in Vietnam. This paper reports on the findings from the final stage of validating the teacher profiles with 25,000 teachers. The paper will detail the process of checking if the 14 Requirements and their quality levels which were developed after the trial with 2180 teachers were valid and reliable instruments to measure the three strands of the teacher profiles. Analysis was also conducted to explore if there is any Requirement that exhibits differential item functioning due to assessment practice of different provinces. The findings are to identify further refinement in the profiles and ways to improve assessment practice for future roll-out.

Keywords: Assessment and measurement

NGU06311    ®     PDF Paper
Generating criteria for assessing lecturers in Vietnam's universities: A conceptual paper

Kim Thu Nguyen, Patrick Griffin and Cuc Nguyen, University of Melbourne

Despite the abundance of teacher assessment and evaluation models found in the literature, few have been designed for tertiary teachers - lecturers - at higher education institutions. Similarly, there are virtually no competency-based assessment models for lecturers in Vietnam to date. Generating criteria for formative and summative assessment of university teachers in Vietnam, therefore, is both a breakthrough in the country's education reform and quality assurance system and a big challenge to assessors. Such criteria, besides being measurable, valid and reliable, should capture the teachers' various duties and responsibilities stipulated in the Education Law, the multiple roles they play in the changing society and educational environment as well as the essential, context-bound attributes of the profession. They must also be research based, empirically tested and deemed appropriate by lecturers and other educational stakeholders. They must reflect current knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning as well as professionalism in higher education. These criteria will have to be compromises between Confucianism and Constructivism; between teacher creativity, innovation, autonomy and teacher mundane duties, standardization as well as centralization; between genuineness and social desirability, etc. Such criteria will render more accountability to the assessment model.

Keywords: Assessment and measurement

NIC06422     PDF Paper
Designing engaging curricula for at-risk students: Rural and remote case studies

Bronte Nicholls, SA Department of Education and Children's Services

In the context of the policy priority to enhance engagement and retention in South Australia, attention is being given to the wide range of innovative programs emerging from schools in rural and remote areas. Contrasting with the state-wide, departmentally designed and funded interventions which are the subject of another paper in this symposium, these are school-based and school-designed. Targeting at risk students, they aim to design a relevant and engaging curricular response to the many complexities of these students' lives and the reality that the role of and identity as a 'student' is only one of many, and often the least meaningful to them. Some are highly case-specific, others are cohort-specific, such as pre-industry, young mums programs and those designed for indigenous young people. This paper will report the findings from an analysis of a selection of such school-based curricula interventions in order to explore the intersections with the analyses and findings of part-time study from the wider research project, focussing in particular on schools in rural and remote locations, including Coober Pedy Area School, Port Augusta Secondary School, Carlton School, Leigh Creek Area School and Edward John Eyre High School in Whyalla.

Keywords: Education policy; Educational change and innovation

NON06347     PDF Paper
Melanesian values in a contemporary organization: An analysis of conflict resolution processes

Catherine Nongkas, Australian Catholic University, and Alfred Tivinarlik, Divine Word University

The organizations in which we go about our daily lives are indeed complex. Not only do subgroups interact within our educational organizations but also these same organizations interact with the myriad organizations that form the whole of society. Such continuous interaction at all levels in our educational organizations is part of a giant network which is changing rapidly. All complex organizations as in the case of educational systems manufacture the ingredients of conflict and stress. As leaders we need a theoretical tool to describe this continuous evolution if we are to understand our organizations and so lead people. This paper presents an analysis of the processes employed to blend in Papua New Guinea Melanesian cultural values and practices in a reconciliation process that took place in St Benedict's Campus of Divine Word University.

Keywords: Educational leadership

NYL06118    ®     PDF Paper
Education and care of children under three: Is there a crisis at the theoretical, policy and practical level?

Berenice Nyland, RMIT University

Today an increasing number of children spend significant numbers of hours each week in non-parental care. Childcare has become a major educational niche. At the same time research on infants, as competent and intentional agents, has grown exponentially and teachers who work with young children are faced with complex choices as they design education and care contexts that ensure well-being for all children. There is criticism of the design and practices that exist in infant-toddler group programs in Australia and this criticism comes from all stakeholders. Some of the most stringent comes from staff working within these institutions. There is an identified need to improve practices. However, apart from practical challenges, like an inadequate regulatory environment, early childhood is experiencing an intellectual crisis as the theoretical foundations of practice are questioned. Ideas of individualism, play and development that dominated the 20th century have come under attack from a number of directions.

This paper presents a discussion of the challenges that are facing infant-toddler group care programs in Australia. Topics include theoretical tensions, problems of regulation and policy, research findings and the perceived threat of corporate provision. This discussion is supported by data on infant daily experience within the childcare context.

Keywords: Early childhood education

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ONS06052    ®     PDF Paper
Participants' perceptions of the effectiveness of a training course on their practice as tertiary educators

Andrys Onsman, Monash University

This paper is an analysis of a study into the relationship between two potential factors (staff-as-students' perceptions of time commitment required to complete a training course and the perceived amount of course coordinator guidance throughout the corse) on a dependent variable (perceived improvement in practice as a result of having completed it). It was anticipated that the strongest link would be between the factors that had the greatest direct impact on the participants as they were engaged with the course. It was anticipated that those who enjoyed the course the most (i.e. those who felt they had enough time to complete it and were engaged in it) would be the ones who considered it had made a significant contribution to their teaching practice. Conversely those who felt that they had not had enough time to be engaged in the course were anticipated to be those who considered that the course had done little or nothing to improve their practice. The responses of 139 exit comments from four cohorts of university teaching staff who completed the course between 2002 and 2005 were tabulated. The analysis indicates that none of the variables were significant as predictors for reasons that were wholly unexpected.

Keywords: Academic professional development

ONS06061    ®     PDF Paper
Perturbative analogies: Fostering creativity in postgraduate research students

Andrys Onsman and David Paganin, Monash University

This paper argues that an essential point, of postgraduate research supervision, is to enable students to be creative in their pursuit of coming to know things that are as yet not known. The supervisor's role is not only to teach extant knowledge, skills and values but encouraging students to discover their own.

This paper introduces the concept of the perturbative analogy as a strategy whereby deliberately unrelated items are to be reconciled analogically in order to stimulate as yet unconsidered means of overcoming problematic threshold concepts in postgraduate research students. We consider the use of perturbative analogies in both Wave Mechanics and Cognitive Psychology as examples of disciplines where knowledge is often represented analogically in terms of abstractions and potentialities rather than literally as directly verifiable propositions. In particular we focus upon the question of how the use of perturbative analogies can foster, nurture and support creativity amongst postgraduate research students. Finally we consider the use of perturbative analogies more generically in higher education.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Sciences

OVS06836    ®     PDF Paper
Making social justice curricular: Exploring ambivalences within teacher professional identity

Helen Ovsienko and Lew Zipin, University of South Australia

This paper is based on interviews with eight teachers, all co-researchers (with a University of South Australia team) in an Australian Research Council-funded project [#], Redesigning pedagogies in the North (RPiN). We investigate the tense identity dynamics, involving ambivalences and emotional labours, among these teachers who express career commitments to serve students of a 'severely disadvantaged' region by providing 'socially just' school experiences and outcomes.

Our analysis of interview testimony shows how these teachers strive to see their students as embodying cultural 'assets' (rather than 'deficits') for learning. At the same time, in facing the formidable difficulties of 'teaching against the grain' - of working with learners who do not embody institutionally privileged cultural capital - they express ambivalences about pursuing academic achievement through rigorous curricular work, even along the alternative lines - designing curriculum units that make cultural connection with students' lifeworld 'funds of knowledge' - that the RPiN project promotes. The data suggests that these teachers feel need to protect themselves, as well as their students, from pains of 'over-reaching' for 'unattainable' goals. This leads to professional identity struggles over how to see their students as 'educable', what constitutes learning 'success', and what 'socially justice' can mean in 'disadvantaged schools'.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

OWE06449    ®     PDF Paper
Workforce planning for career stage professional development

Susanne Owen, University of South Australia

The educational, political and economic agendas are inextricably interconnected, a current political focus being the provision of policies, resources and programs to support teacher quality and professional development for the ultimate benefit of students and the knowledge society. Current research indicates that effective professional development involves situated learning in collegial teams, with new ideas being introduced and follow-up support occurring within these groups. Teachers engage in joint enterprise and relevant practical activities over an extended timeframe, with coaching and mentoring to meet individual needs and to support the learning of others in the team also occurring. Career stages and recognition of differentiated learning needs including intensive support for beginning teachers through mentoring and effective induction programs need consideration. Focused professional development linked to career stages requires a comprehensive and strategic approach to workforce data collection and planning.

This paper examines current Australian workforce data and planning within the context of an ageing teacher population and high beginning teacher attrition, with supply shortages already evident in particular locations and secondary subject areas including science and mathematics. The current workforce demographic profile provides evidence of historical recruitment phases and highlights the importance of systems planning involving accommodation of career stages when addressing the professional learning needs of teachers.

Keywords: Teacher professional learning

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PAL06491    ®     PDF Paper
Teacher Professional Standards: The views of highly accomplished special education teachers

Carolyn Palmer, Flinders University

The Special Education profession played a central role in the development of the professional teaching standards for highly accomplished special education teachers. The findings of this study report on the views of the profession, identify common and agreed understandings about professional teaching standards and their relationship to teacher quality and teacher professionalism. The investigation carried out by members of the South Australian Chapter of the Australian Association of Special Education had three aims: to describe what accomplished teachers of children with special education needs value, know and practice; to advocate for the development of nationally agreed teacher standards, values and quality professionalisms that will inform the current and future work of professionals in the field of Special Education; and to promote quality teaching and the advancement of the Special Education profession. Data was collected from a range of practising educators of learners with special needs in both country and metropolitan schools. These were analysed by the research group and the document "Standards for highly accomplished special education teachers" was compiled, printed and distributed to practitioners in the field.

Keywords: Teachers' work

PAL06492    ®     PDF Paper
Children's interpersonal awareness of friendship: A comparative study of children with vision impairment and their sighted peers

Carolyn Palmer, Flinders University

The use of Selman's stages of interpersonal awareness of friendship facilitated a study of the friendship patterns of three groups of young learners: Children with severe vision loss, children with albinism and children with no vision problems. The findings add to those of previous studies that suggest a relationship between vision loss and the formation and maintenance of friendships. Where this study differs is in its focus on three groups of students and its examination of specific factors that have the potential to influence peer interaction and peer relationships. The findings add to the understanding of important dynamics that impact on the social development of young people. The findings show that children with vision impairment vary in their stages of friendship understanding, in relation to sighted peers. Differences are also found between children with vision impairment and children with albinism.

Keywords: Inclusive and special education: Doctoral education research

PAL06493    ®     PDF Paper
Children at play: Teachers' perceptions of the play behaviour of young people with albinism

Carolyn Palmer, Flinders University

The use of interview facilitated a study of the play behaviour of young people with albinism. This qualitative study provided insights into these children's play behaviour and peer interactions from their teachers' perspectives. Data was collected from a range of regular schools and one special school. The research questions that emerged from the aim of the study focused on how the participants played with their classmates, and what kind of play behaviour they exhibit. Teachers were asked to comment on whether students played with others, alongside others or on their own and whether this behaviour occurred all of the time, most of the time, some of the time, occasionally or never. Teachers were also asked whether students liked to play on their own, in a small group, or in a large group of six plus students. The findings indicated that the majority of students with albinism played with others, and this behaviour occurred most of the time. In order to interpret this data, the play behaviour of learners with vision impairment (not albinism) and those with no vision problems was also investigated and comparisons were made between the three groups. It was concluded that the play behaviour of the group with albinism closely paralleled the data collected on students with vision impairment (not albinism) and students with no vision problems.

Keywords: Inclusive and special education; Doctoral education research

PAR06029     PDF Paper
Intervention for children with language impairments: A model of evidence based outcome research

Gillian Parkinson and Neil Humphrey, University of Manchester

Over the past 30 years successive governments in the UK have endeavoured to make the statutory framework suitable for children with special educational needs (SEN). More recently efforts have been made to personalise children's learning, making educational experience more innovative and responsive to the diversity of need in schools. A drive to develop and evaluate intervention strategies for children with language impairments is now emerging, that is both methodologically challenging and rewarding. The current review demonstrates difficulties encountered with using outcome based research with language impaired children. Many studies have inherent methodological problems involving small sample sizes, ill matched groups, with designs that are difficult to replicate or compare. Such approaches are unlikely to yield significant results, or if they do, then it is difficult to devise clear guidance regarding choice of intervention strategies. In the light of these difficulties, theoretical, methodological and practical issues are discussed and a model is proposed to assist in enabling interventions to be identified, and the results shared with educators. We suggest use of this model ensures a more rigorous approach when undertaking large scale systematic, evidence-based research into the effective approaches to teaching children not only with language impairments, but across the field of special needs education.

Key words: Language impairment; Teaching

PAR06030     PDF Paper
Interventions for children and young people on the autistic spectrum: A critical perspective

Gillian Parkinson and Neil Humphrey, University of Manchester

Developing, implementing and evaluating programmes of intervention for children and young people on the autistic spectrum are challenging endeavours. In this article, we adopt a critical approach to research in this area, and attempt to offer an alternative perspective for understanding and interpreting empirical evaluations. We outline and discuss theoretical, methodological and practical issues and limitations associated with the current research body, and provide illustrative examples of gaps in the current literature.

Keywords: Autistic spectrum disorders; Intervention research

PAR06055     PDF Paper
Analyzing teachers' discretion The Influence of Role Identity

Karolina Parding, Luleå University of Technology

The school is one of the most important institutions in our western society, and the teachers' role hence also highly important. By investigating teachers' discretion; constraining and enabling factors, and their strategies to handle the situation, a broader knowledge regarding teachers' working conditions and their strategies to cope can be reached. Understanding these issues is important in order to continuously improve teachers' working conditions.

During the last 10-15 years the upper secondary school in Sweden has gone through major structural changes, governance wise and also organizational wise. It is reasonable to assume that these changes have affected the teachers' working conditions, including the issue of discretion. The aim of this paper is to explore upper secondary school teachers' discretion. The research questions posed are: How can upper secondary school teachers' discretion be described? What constraints and enabling factors can be identified? What strategies do the teachers develop?

This study is based on a number of interviews with experienced upper secondary school teachers. The interviews focus on the concept of discretion in various aspects of the teachers' work. The theoretical framework is based on Karasek and Theorell's (1990) now classical demand and control model, where the concept of social support is included.

Keywords: Teachers' work

PAR06157    ®     PDF Paper
Swimming education provision in England: A comparative historical study

Claire Parker, University of New England

This paper builds on a doctoral study conducted as a socio-historical analysis of swimming in Britain from 1840 to 1914. The progress of swimming education was a particular focus in the original thesis and underpins the approach taken in this comparative study. The central purpose of this paper is to re-visit these historical findings, to explore current swimming education and to present findings as to the rationale for the relatively slow progress and minimal advances made in the availability and provision of swimming education within English schools in the 21st century. This is a qualitative, historical study and data has been gathered from a variety of sources including, government papers, curriculum and Board of Education documents and swimming governing body reports. The data is examined using a critical textual analytical approach and illuminates similarities in the rationale for swimming education between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries and also uncovers antecedents to the current debates, regarding the values attributed to swimming.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

PEE06696    ®     PDF Paper
Narrating other's stories: Negotiating other's spaces

Eleanor Peeler, Monash University

Researching teachers' stories requires one to negotiate access to another's personal and professional domains. To narrate the life of another, a balance must be maintained between the researcher's wants and the needs of the other, or the teacher whose story is sought. Such stories trace teachers' sociological, pedagogical and historical journeys of development and transformations in knowledge and professional practice (Goodson & Sikes, 2001). Spatial orientations of their professional journeys are enacted in various locations of their work environs, personal domains of home, family and other interests. They are significant too in the ensuing relationships between researcher and researched where ideally, a harmonious co-existence ensues. This paper explores how relationships, borne through affinities of shared experience, establish a basis of trust and respect that facilitate sharing of stories. It considers the fragile interplays of time of life and life experience, ethnicity, educational knowledge and position, personal commitments, gender and family that affect negotiations that may lead to positive outcomes, breakdown or confusion.

Keywords: Sociocultural and activity theory; Research methods

PEN06196     PDF Paper
Inclusivity and Senior Physical Education studies courses in Australia. Chantell and Matt move to Western Australia.

Dawn Penney, Edith Cowan University, and Peter Hay, University of Queensland

At AARE 2005 Penney (with Evans and Taggart) outlined a new senior Physical Education Studies (PES) course in Western Australia (WA), drawing attention to ways in which course developers endeavoured to embed commitments to inclusivity in the course structure and requirements. The course purportedly enables students to personalise studies and maximise opportunities for achievement by (1) avoiding prescription of specific physical activities and (2) emphasising the scope for achievement of outcomes to be demonstrated via 'player/performer', coaching and/or officiating roles. Also at AARE Hay presented two case studies of student experiences of Senior Physical Education Studies in Queensland. In both instances school activity contexts were seen to impact on experiences and achievement. An obvious question arose: Would the two students have more rewarding experiences and enhanced opportunities for achievement if they were to follow the new PES course in WA and specifically, focus on their respective personal activity contexts? This paper represents the collaborative pursuit of this question from a hypothetical perspective. Hay's knowledge of the two students is combined with Penney's knowledge of the new course in WA to produce an analytical commentary that raises issues for debate amongst physical education curriculum developers and teachers across Australia and internationally.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

PEN06367     PDF Paper
Improving the house of cards: Productive pressures for curriculum reform in secondary physical education

Dawn Penney, Edith Cowan University, and Mike Jess and Malcolm Thorburn, University of Edinburgh

More than a decade on from Locke's (1992, p.362) claim that "replacing the dominant curriculum program model is the only course of action that can save a place for physical education in secondary schools", the physical education curriculum in the secondary years would still be regarded by many as largely, unchanged. This paper identifies this situation as increasingly problematic and arguably, unsustainable amidst firstly, a growth in the prominence of discourses of lifelong learning and lifelong participation in political and policy arenas, and secondly, notable curriculum innovation in both the primary and senior school years that has sought to embrace these discourses. While we would agree with Kirk (2005) that the early years of secondary schooling may be too late as a focus for interventions underpinned by concerns for lifelong participation, this paper contends that these years remain a defining period that are, at this current time, far from guaranteed to either build upon or build towards 'surrounding' curriculum experiences. The paper focuses attention on physical education in Scotland to explore prospects and possibilities for curriculum reform in the lower secondary years that will better reflect and align with proximal developments and discourses.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

PER06455     PDF Paper
Successful transitions from prior-to-school to school for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children

Bob Perry, Sue Dockett, Terry Mason and Tracey Simpson, University of Western Sydney

A team of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal researchers from three NSW universities has spent the last two years investigating what might be done to make transitions to primary school as successful as possible for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families. Some of the initial work of this project was reported at AARE in 2005.

The project has worked in 15 different sites across NSW assisting local educators and communities to develop their own transition to school programs. These programs have been based in the local communities and have relied on a set of guidelines for effective transition to school programs that have been previously developed by the authors of this paper. In spite of this common base, there is a wide variety of transition practices in the programs. Not all of the practices are transferable to other contexts but many have been duplicated quite successfully.

In this paper, the team reports on its findings over the entire project, provides examples of good practice from a wide range of contexts, sets some challenges and sounds some warnings for future practice in ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experience a successful transition to school.

Keywords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education

PET06136    ®     PDF Paper
Engaging student teachers through the development and presentation of problem-based scenarios

Judy Peters, University of South Australia

In 2004 a team of lecturers from the University of South Australia introduced the development and presentation of problem-based scenarios in a practicum related course undertaken by students in the final semester of the graduate entry Bachelor of Education. The intention was to provide more engaging pedagogy. Problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely used in health care education and many other professions. Recent years have seen its use in teacher education overseas and in Australia (Mcphee, 2002). In most cases, lecturers, sometimes in partnership with industry experts, develop the problem-based scenarios that form the basis of these programs. In the course depicted in this paper, small groups of students developed the scenarios and the workshop processes for presenting them to their peers, implemented them and wrote reflectively about the experience. This paper analyses the scenarios and related materials, processes and reflective writing developed by five groups of students from one class. The findings suggest that student designed scenarios provide a wide range of challenging issues and learning opportunities for those who design and present them, and as well as for those who engage with them once they are designed.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

PET06137    ®     PDF Paper
Successful early career teaching: More than engaging pedagogy

Judy Peters and Rosie Le Cornu, University of South Australia

With attrition rates in the first five years of teaching running as high as 30% in Australia and overseas, there is a need for research that illuminates ways to support and retain early career teachers. This paper reports on a qualitative study of stakeholders' perceptions of the characteristics of teachers who are successful in the first three to five years and the factors that support or hinder their development. Participants are five principals and six early career teachers whom the principals consider to be highly successful. All are from primary schools involved in the Learning to Learn Initiative in South Australia. The findings suggest that success in the early years of teaching is related to a range of factors of which the ability to develop engaging pedagogy is only one. These factors appear to be grouped in four broad domains: the person who is the teacher; the preparation for beginning teaching; the contexts in which teaching occurs; and the opportunities for ongoing learning. The findings have important implications for employers, school leaders and teacher educators in terms of preparing, supporting and retaining quality teachers.

Keywords: Teachers' work

PHA06065    ®     PDF Paper
Approaches to learning in educational psychology and mathematics: A comparative analysis in the South Pacific region

Huy Phan and Bisun Deo, University of the South Pacific

Emerging evidence has indicated that students from varying cultures and disciplines differ from each other in their approaches to learning. Two studies were conducted to examine how tertiary students at the University of the South Pacific differ in their learning approaches in subject disciplines of Educational Psychology and Mathematics. In Study I we examined learning approaches of second-year students in Educational Psychology (N = 200; 125 females, 75 males) and in Mathematics (N = 221; 94 females, 127 males) with the use of a modified version of Biggs' (1987) Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ). Analysis of results by EFA and CFA indicated a two-factor model as descriptive of student learning approaches for the Educational Psychology cohort. The two factors in this case were depicted as Meaning and Reproducing, and hence substantiating Richardson's (1994) theorisation and argument that there are two, and not three, main approaches to learning. In comparison, the Mathematics cohort results differed and showed a higher-order factor structure of student learning approaches. In Study II we used the revised version of the SPQ (SPQ-R-2F: Biggs, Kember, & Leung, 2001) to investigate the learning approaches of the same cohort of students enrolled in Educational Psychology (N = 314; 166 females, 148 males). This study revealed that students' approaches to their learning in Educational Psychology, using an alternative inventory, were also defined by two main approaches - Deep and Surface. The results from the two studies then, indicate the need to rethink and to reconceptualize the theoretical paradigm of learning approaches with reference to academic subject disciplines. They also suggest the importance of readdressing the learning inventories that are used to measure learning approaches in different subject disciplines, and to question the acceptance and universality of these learning inventories (e.g., SPQ). The results of both studies, when compared cross-culturally with other Western and non-Western findings, also indicate theoretical and pedagogical implications pertaining to culture and learning.

Keywords: Motivation and self-concept

PIE06610     PDF Paper
How the lore laid down by teachers maintains who belongs as folk: That's just the way it's done around here!

Dean Pierides, University of Melbourne

The verbal lore of teaching has not yet received any significant attention within the education research literature, particularly in Australia. Everyday expressions about teaching practices such as "Don't smile before Easter!" are often referred to as the folklore of teaching but are generally treated by teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers as nothing more than clichés. In this paper I write as a folklorist to take seriously such expressive forms and their performance. These oral traditions establish community boundaries and tacit knowledge when they are enacted in particular contexts. Folkloristic analysis of these artistic forms and performances reveals the values which are shared by group members as well as how group membership is secured or denied. I present ways by which the teaching community responds, through its folklore, to outside pressure that challenges its collective worldview and the ways by which pre-service and beginning teachers are instructed about the shared values of teacher life and practice.

Keywords: Research methods

PIE06611     PDF Paper
Narratives that nudge: Raising theoretical questions about reflective practice

Dean Pierides and Narelle Lemon, University of Melbourne

The narratives of pre-service teachers in this paper tell a story which interrupts the notion that reflective practice can produce a transformative self. Although this argument is not new, the extent to which the utility of reflective practice is taken for granted in the current context of teacher education (beginning and continuing) remains greater than ever. Drawing on a variety of approaches to discourse analysis (Gee 2005, Luke 1995/1996, Fairclough 2003) we show how this normative construction of reflective practice and the understandings of self that it produces in the narratives of pre-service teachers are undermined in the context of schooling. We suggest that further research is needed in this area. Through this effort we raise questions about the spaces in which reflective practice is assumed to operate and the ways in which the reflective self it assumes has been disconnected from society and relations of power. We situate ourselves as teachers, teacher educators and researchers who desire theoretically informed positions from which we can begin to critically address, extend or displace our current understandings of these issues. This paper raises questions about reflective practice and its relationship to pedagogy within the current context of schooling.

Keywords: Teacher education - general

PIT06290     PDF Paper
Student expectations and the effect of experience.

Robert Pithers and Tony Holland, University of Technology, Sydney

Some workers in the field of higher education now argue that students at any tertiary institution ought to be regarded as "clients" or "customers", rather than merely as recipients of education. In this context it is imperative that student demands and expectations of teaching staff are given consideration when planning, designing and delivering courses. This of course, makes the assumption that university students are a homogenous groups with respect to their expectations. This study surveyed students to find out whether this assumption was tenable or if student expectations changed over a course of study. With this objective in mind this research surveyed two students groups: one group fresh from high school and a second group in their last year of study.

The results from the survey showed that students across both groups, had quite congruent expectations of their lecturers. Both groups saw subject matter expertise as the key factor among their expectations of university teachers, while grading assessment fairly, keeping learners interested and showing enthusiasm for subject matter content rated highly with both groups. There were however some differences between the groups. These mostly concerned issues such as structuring the learning process, supporting learners and directing learners.

Keywords: Post-compulsory education

PIT06508    ®     PDF Paper
Discomforting the research spirit: Uncomfortable narratives of being and becoming a researcher

Sharon Pittaway, University of Tasmania

This paper is about labels. I have been defined by labels since, at the age of 16, I became pregnant: the label of teen mother and associated labels (stupid, lazy, irresponsible), then non-custodial and single mother, which drew similar associations and even more uncomfortable labels. In 2000 I embarked on a PhD in which I studied teen mothers. I came to this research because of those earlier labels, and just as the labels attached to being a teen mother sat uncomfortably with me, researching other teen mothers also sat uncomfortably. After completing my PhD, and with my entry into academia, came a new label: researcher. I am not yet comfortable with this new label, especially since gaining that label through uncomfortable research. While I am aware that one PhD does not necessarily make a researcher, how I move from completing a PhD to becoming a researcher is a question that discomforts me. How I become a researcher in the context of an academic structure which places emphasis on teaching rather than on research further discomforts me. In this paper I explore through narrative these questions and the uncomfortable label attached to being and becoming a researcher.

Keywords: Post graduate and early career researcher

POR06509    ®     PDF Paper
Being and becoming a researcher: Interrupted journeys

Julie Porteus, University of Tasmania

I left a road well travelled in primary schools to become a teacher educator. This journey began after a minor detour where I stopped by the roadside to investigate teachers' perceptions of drama and discovered I enjoyed the change of scenery and the experience of becoming a researcher. It was as Rorty (1992, p.107) describes, a transformative event, an encounter that re-arranged 'priorities and purposes' and changed my understanding of who I am and what I want to do with my life.

I continued the journey at University, enjoying teaching pre-service teachers while preparing for an epic adventure, the PhD. Inspired by Kvale's (1996, p.4) view of the researcher as 'traveller on a journey that leads to a tale to be told upon returning home' I have become as Kvale (1996, p.4) describes, a traveller who 'wanders along with the local inhabitants, asks questions that lead the subjects to tell their own stories of their lived world'.

This paper will describe and discuss this journey in the context of the busy life of an educator and administrator. While the journey is interrupted and the traveller distracted, there are also events that sustain and inspire the traveller to continue.

Keywords: Post graduate and early career researcher

PRO06163     PDF Paper
Beyond deficit views: Engaging students with ADHD

Brenton Prosser, University of South Australia

The challenges associated with disengaged middle school students are often understood through deficit views, either of teacher or student. A focus on 'behaviour management' can frame students with troubles as trouble students, while a focus on 'quality curriculum' can miss other influences that leave teachers asking why students remain disengaged. Considering Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a prominent deficit view of student behaviour, this paper draws on doctoral research into how students respond to common educational interventions for ADHD as well as deficit views in schools and the community. Noting research findings that ADHD diagnosis and medication use is higher in lower socio-economic areas, the paper contrasts this doctoral work with the early findings of an Australian Research Council linkage research project working with ten schools in Adelaide's northern urban fringe. The purpose of this paper is to explore how negotiated and connected pedagogies might represent a way out of a dichotomy of deficit in schools and move beyond primarily behaviour management responses to students. In particular, it proposes a range of resources to assist educators to design more engaging pedagogies for all students and particularly those with the needs associated with ADHD.

Keywords: Inclusive and special education

PRO06691     PDF Paper
Emotion, identity and hope as resources for teachers' work

Brenton Prosser, University of South Australia

This presentation reports on a series of interviews from within a critical action research study with teachers in Adelaide's northern fringe. These interviews focused on what motivated and sustained who had worked for many years within an area of significant socio-economic challenge. In the context of a synthesis between critical and mythopoetic approaches to educational practice, the presentation explores features of the personal and professional lives of teachers. Among the features that emerge include: the interpersonal nature of the relationship between teachers and students; the inevitability of complexity and paradox in public schools that seek to achieve accountability through power-oriented regimes of testing and superficial curricula; the presence of emotional labour, love, and hope in teachers' work; the role of powerful metaphors in sustaining teachers in the pursuit of spaces of social justice in students' school experience. The voices that emerge from these interviews demonstrate that an approach to critical pedagogy that ignores the interpersonal, the imaginal, and the emotional are an insufficient basis for achieving critical aims. The presentation contends that attention to head, heart and hands is required for socially just middle school reform.

Keywords: Teachers' work

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RAD06109    ®     PDF Paper
Trends towards the Privatisation of Intellectual Property: A Marxian progress report for educators and education researchers

Helen Raduntz, University of South Australia

For many educators engaged in teaching and/or research issues of copyright have yet to impact substantially on their work, and on the assumption that as long as they and their education institutions conform to copyright regulations the privatisation of intellectual property has little relevance.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and it is as a consciousness raising pedagogical exercise that this paper aims to present a progress report on my research into the privatisation of intellectual property and its implications not only for knowledge workers and educators but also for the wider society.

The paper provides a Marxian account of the historical dynamics operating within capitalism in which the public interest is being sacrificed by huge corporate interests intent on privatising intellectual property for money-making purposes by locking it up behind a wall of property rights, costly licensing arrangements and threats of litigation and trade sanctions for infringements.

However, there is growing opposition to this trend as scientific research suffers and the costs to the public escalate in an economy increasingly dependent on knowledge and information.

Keywords: Education and intellectual property

RAD06110    ®     PDF Paper
Towards a critical democratic pedagogy: A Marxian critique

Helen Raduntz, University of South Australia

As the trend towards the implementation of an instrumental pedagogical approach to education gains momentum under the impact of global economic imperatives, the attention among concerned educators is turning towards the formulation of a critical democratic pedagogy as a counterweight to the narrowing of educational aims set by government education policies.

However, if this liberal approach to pedagogy is to become an effective reality rather than remain a set of ideal principles the process of its formulation must include a critical evaluation not only of its assumptions and concepts but also of the nature of the education context in which the approach is expected to operate.

It is the aim of this paper to initiate such an evaluation from a Marxian standpoint which requires not only a critique of the ideals expressed in the notion of critical democratic pedagogy, , which is based on pragmatist philosophy, liberal democratic principles and DeweyÝs education methodology, but also a demonstration of a Marxian critique at work.

What this initial critique reveals is that there is a tendency among proponents of critical democratic pedagogy to assume that its concepts express universal principles whereas those principles are shaped to conform to the imperatives of the capitalist market economy which is also responsible for the implementation of the instrumental approach to education.

Keywords: New pedagogies

RAI06041     PDF Paper
Curriculum renewal pathways for English for Specific Purposes teachers

Ada Raimaturapong, Rajamangala Isan University of Technology

This study proposes practical strategies for EFL/ESP teachers in Thailand. These involve a pathway for action and reflection on current practices concerning curriculum renewal and professional development. The pathway involves exploring relevant discourse communities; evaluation of current instructional materials and advice; adopting genre as a framework for analysis of texts from target settings; and teacher professional development. The study also identified potential workplace English characteristics that can be exploited to support the preparation of today's engineering graduates. The quality of higher education should be relative to its purpose, and its role to impart in students the knowledge and understandings that are necessary for them to become well-educated professionals in the world. To be knowledgeable, teachers need to seek knowledge relevant to their students' professions. Knowledge of professional discourses and procedures will help ESP teachers fill the discoursal requirement of their students and solve their teaching problems. Teachers who see themselves with multiple roles, as seekers, learners, or explorers, are bound to discover things about themselves, their environment and the students they work with that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Keywords: English as a second language

RAM06417     PDF Paper
Mapping the territory and talking back to the categories

Eleanor Ramsay, University of South Australia

Despite the escalating policy priority and significant research attention given to secondary retention/attrition polarities, very little is known about what relationship, if any, exists between them and part-time study; and this trend is given scant attention in either the policy or research literature. This is particularly puzzling in SA where national census data indicates amongst the highest rates of part-time study and lowest retention rates nationally, and where recent research has established a strong correlation between rates of part-time study in schools and their levels of educational disadvantage. Yet research exploring these trends and their intersections is encountering intriguing difficulties pinning down its subject. Complexities arise not only from the different definitions and collection methodologies used by educational authorities, but because there are very real resource implications for schools and students from this data. Even more interesting is that the increasingly varied patterns of senior secondary engagement render the term 'part-time study' virtually meaningless in terms of the lived realities of many schools and their students. The paper will explore this mismatch between normative assumptions underpinning curriculum authority, data collection and school system requirements and what is actually happening in schools and in the lives of their students.

Keywords: Education policy; Educational change and innovation

REE06158     PDF Paper
Mediating knowledges and constituting subjectivities in South African teacher education materials

Yvonne Reed, University of the Witwatersrand

This paper presents work in progress which aims to bring together a critical discourse analysis of language (following the work of Cormack and Comber (1996) on writing the teacher), a semiotic analysis of visual design (based on the work of Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996, 2001), an analysis of the selection and presentation of subject and pedagogic content knowledges, and an analysis of the tools and strategies used to mediate these knowledges. Tentatively, I give the name 'critical pedagogic analysis' to this attempt to understand how materials designers imagine South African language teachers as students and as teachers. Norton (2000) and Pavlenko (2003) suggest that 'identity investment' in an imagined community is likely to influence students' engagement with the learning opportunities available to them. In distance education programmes, through which the majority of South Africa's teachers study (Glennie, 2003), these opportunities are predominantly text-based. Using examples of my analysis of in-text activities in several course books, I argue that critical pedagogic analysis could be of interest to materials designers whose concerns include the identity work related to professional education.

Keywords: Teacher professional learning

REY06666    ®     PDF Paper
From retention to participation: Reconceptualising student involvement in education, training and employment

Peter Reynolds, David Ansell and Linda Moore, Department of Education and Training in Western Australia, and Robert Cavanagh and Graham Dellar, Curtin University of Technology

The implementation of the first phase of legislation to raise the school leaving age in Western Australia from January 2006 has brought numerous challenges and opportunities to key stakeholders. Students, parents/carers, employers, teachers/lecturers and educational managers have each been compelled to reappraise the manner of their interactions with systems designed to facilitate appropriate transitions for young people. Written from a systemic perspective, this paper argues that current measures for evaluating student retention (i.e. the apparent retention rate and return to school rate) have become anachronistic with the new legislation. A more fruitful - although hitherto recondite and in particular, difficult to measure concept - is the level of student participation in one or more of the options of education, training and employment now available to them. The paper proposes a range of criteria by which this may be identified and accomplished, leading to more accurate evaluations of student choices, destinations and outcomes.

Keywords: Education policy

RIC06259     PDF Paper
Staying or going? Factors that influence effective teachers' decisions on where to teach

Suzanne Rice, University of Melbourne

Schools that have traditionally been hard to staff are facing increasing issues in attracting and retaining teachers, and the pattern of new graduates accepting positions in such schools, only to leave for more desirable locations once they have gained experience, is likely to be exacerbated by teacher shortages. Such staffing patterns only compound the educational difficulties already faced by many students in rural, remote and urban disadvantaged schools, and are likely to further increase inequalities in educational outcomes.

If schools in disadvantaged settings are to improve student outcomes, they need to be aware of how best to attract and retain teachers likely to have a strong positive impact on students. This project surveyed over 900 Victorian primary and secondary teachers, identifying the factors that most influenced more effective teachers in their decisions to move towards, stay within or move away from a school, a system and the teaching career itself.

Keywords: Teachers' work

ROR06031    ®     PDF Paper
Theory of the practicum; A discursive and narrative view of secondary preservice teacher education

Doreen Rorrison, Charles Darwin University

This paper reports on a study that questions whether the preservice secondary practicum delivers the quality learning experiences it promises. Many voices are silenced in preservice teacher education. This research highlights the complexities of qualitative research in schools. Contradictions are explored and lead to the examination of the gap between 'projects of possibility' and an education process hijacked by those looking backwards. A clearly articulated and defended 'theory of the practicum' is needed if the reflective and moral work of teachers is to underpin the practicum and promote knowledge construction in ways that are equitable and just for our young people.

Six stories of the practicum are written into existence from observations in secondary preservice classrooms. These have been interrogated by the education community to uncover perspectives that support the role of 'theory' based teacher education as opposed to the currently proffered 'school based' training. Indeed there is evidence that reflection, understanding and meaning making (theory building) better support teachers as connected 'knowers' and 'thinkers'. Such teachers are capable of engaging students in quality learning that will prepare them for a future of change, challenge and authentic learning.

These findings are counter to the politically expedient 'apprenticeship' and 'bag of tricks' discourse.

Keywords: Pre-service teacher education

ROS06233    ®     PDF Paper
I'm not a good reader because...

Deborah Rossow, Griffith University

This paper is an investigation of the multiple ways in which a year seven student, Fraser, is constructed as a reader. It draws on a variety of data sources, which include interviews, observations, videos, photographs and emails, collected as part of a larger study on the construction of readers and reading practices within and across in-school and out-of-school communities of practice. Analysis of the data indicates a range of discourses working together construct Fraser as a reader in multiple ways. The notion of intertextuality (Bloome & Egan-Robertson, 1993; Egan-Robertson, 1998; Fairclough, 1992, 2000, 2003, Kristeva, 1986), that each text is an historically and socially constructed blend of other texts, is employed as an inquiry tool to explain how this student is constructed as a reader. These constructions have implications for Fraser in terms of being considered and participating as a 'successful' reader. This analysis provides insights into constructions of readers as intertextual interpretations that both afford and constrain what it means to be a reader.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Literacy and English

ROS06331    ®     PDF Paper
The role of creative imagining: A study of how imagined communities might influence the emergence of pre service teachers' identities as teachers

Marietta Rossetto, Flinders University

Third year pre service teachers in a Bachelor of Education course were asked to keep a narrative journal in which they recorded and reflected on the changing nature of their participation in the school communities they visited. As prospective teachers they were thus provided with an opportunity to explore their identity as emergent pedagogues through reflection on prior learning and current educational theory, debate and classroom practice.

However, there is mounting evidence that, in addition to reflection on diverse teaching and learning situations, prospective teachers also visualise themselves in imagined communities (Anderson, 1991). This paper explored this aspect of imaginative engagement through a study of the narrative journals and sought to gauge the extent to which creative imagining influenced visualisation and the emergence of one's future identity as a teacher.

Keywords: Teacher education - general

ROW06652     PDF Paper
Evaluation designs and methods for complex school interventions

Louise Rowling, University of Sydney

Educational interventions that have a multidisciplinary conceptual base and that aim to capture the elements of whole school change, require evaluation designs and methods that can capture and provide evidence of change, not only in the components parts but also in their interaction. In the dynamic environment of schools, evaluation designs that engage participants and are respectful of school conditions can support and enhance desired outcomes. In this context, evaluation of school mental health promotion needs to provide evidence of both mental health and educational outcomes. The challenge is how to focus on what evidence is valued - evidence based practice and/or practice based evidence.

This presentation will describe how the multiple perspectives and approaches employed in the evaluation of MindMatters addressed these challenges, and provide some recommendations for future practice.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation; Secondary schooling

ROW06723    ®     PDF Paper
What about the parents and the teachers of the boys?
Contemporary challenges for academic work on literacy, masculinity and educational innovation.

Leonie Rowan, Deakin University

The past ten years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of educational 'innovations' designed to respond to the contemporary literacy needs of boys in schools. Intense public anxiety about the apparent under-achievements of boys in literacy can make it difficult for those at the heart of these innovations-teachers, parents, boys themselves-to identify the extent to which the solutions they are offered actually are able to make a sustainable, long-term difference to the literacy achievements of the specific boys they are concerned about. Acknowledging the contested nature of the masculinity and literacy terrains this paper explores contemporary responsibilities for academics engaged in gender based, literacy interventions in the 21 st century.

RUS06229    ®     PDF Paper
Academic service learning enhancing creative arts education

Deirdre Russell-Bowie, University of Western Sydney

Service learning has been used for many years to enhance and strengthen teacher education courses, preparing student teachers with real life learning experiences as they work with community groups in mutually beneficial projects. This paper outlines an innovative and challenging academic service learning project which involved undergraduate students who were planning to enrol in a post-graduate teacher education degree course when they had completed their initial degree. The students had no teacher training but were keen to be involved in a school situation. They were placed in a primary school to work on a variety of creative arts-based projects with a range of teachers and classes. Academic Service learning in this context was used to help student teachers learn more about teaching strategies, behaviour management and subject content within the creative arts and to give them the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of working in a primary school. The students were asked to reflect on the benefits of the program, both to themselves and to the school. All were enthusiastic and positive in their responses to the project, and outcomes included an increase in the university students' self-confidence, skills, knowledge, communication and behaviour management strategies.

Keywords: Curriculum and specific curriculum areas - Arts

RYA06016    ®     PDF Paper
Constructivism- rhetoric and reality

Ann Ryan, Monash University

Constructivism embodies a thesis about the way in which human societies have built up bodies of knowledge. This construction of knowledge is variously influenced by a range of factors including politics, ideologies, values and individual self interest. Constructivism can also be described as a set of views about how individuals learn. This has made it highly influential in various and current understandings of pedagogies.

Through the works of Dewey it is observed that, although simple in principle, constructivist learning theory is by no means simple to apply in instructional practice. Passive and uncritical acceptance by teachers of content driven curriculum documents leads to students being expected to acquire the 'right' knowledge. Monologue rather than dialogue dominate practices which fail to engender further thinking and active inquiry by both teacher and student and students resort to playing games to survive the experience.

In this paper I argue that whilst the rhetoric of science education practice in particular suggests that constructivist principles are at the forefront of educationalists thinking, it is not reflected in the reality of classroom practice. For this reason the educative value of pedagogies based on constructivism for science education and beyond must be questioned.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

RYA06197    ®     PDF Paper
Forging diplomacy: The reforming power of culture

Louise Ryan, University of New South Wales

This paper presents an historical investigation. The research explores the mutual formation of public values and perceptions in a museum exhibition case study from 1941-43. Attitudes were altered when cultural and aesthetic material was utilized to transmit American ideology and influence the direction of Australian cultural norms.

This study examines the impact of the Carnegie Corporation's philanthropic cultural and educational activities during the 1940s. I focus on the 1941 "Art of Australia" exhibition, whose pivotal role in promoting cultural propaganda for political/military purposes, has been investigated using a definitional matrix derived from the work of Tony Bennett.

The focus of this paper shifts from material introduced in previous AARE papers to a comprehensive examination (using cladistic analysis) of the interrelated concepts of self-improvement, power, culture, contact zones, objects of colonization and systems of visualization as applied to the exhibition.

The analysis reveals many instances confirming the existence of alternate agendas and power/knowledge relationships that existed between governments, corporations and cultural events such as exhibitions. This is significant in uncovering the instrumental application of cultural and educational events and highlights the museum as a significant arena for establishing and legitimating social norms and practices whilst steering cultural values.

Keywords: Museum studies

RYA06839     PDF Paper
"Dry your eyes, princess": An analysis of gender and "other"-based discourses in police organisations

Cheryl Ryan, Deakin University

This paper examines the literature relevant to an analysis of gender, "Othering", and discourses in police organisations with a view to testing it through research. Much of the literature on policing can be divided into four key topic areas: the features and construction of police culture; women's integration into policing; organisational structures and styles of police leadership; and debates about the nature of police work. An examination of the literature has revealed a deficiency of research in discourses within policing and in particular, the impact of discourses on gender, "Othering", and police training. Assumptions underpinning the research project and supported by literature include: formal and informal structures and practices within organisations produce and reproduce gender relations; power, gender relations and masculinity are characteristics of police culture; discourses are products and resources of interactions which establish particular truths; and police organisations have been slow to respond to anti-discrimination legislation and to integrate women into police services. Critical to any analysis of culture, power, gender, discourses, difference, and subjectification is the dynamic and complex nature of culture. Applying Shearing's and Ericson's definition of culture as 'figurative logic' has resonance in police organisations where symbols, rhetoric and metaphors function as vehicles for discourses.

Keywords: Gender and sexualities

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SAL06426    ®     PDF Paper
Cultural narratives and a self to teach by: Co-constructing stories of diversity and co-existence

George Salter, University of Waikato

Postmodern understandings of identity increasingly point to the narrative quality of people's lives, with the self 'storied' in a process that is actively rendered and culturally inscribed. As Connelly and Clandinnin (1990) tell us, "learners, teachers and researchers are storytellers and characters in their own and others' stories" (p.2). In cross-cultural identity work, personal stories can be a powerful force in recognizing the taken-for-granted arrangements of one's own culture while gaining insights into the culture of others. They can also provide members of marginalized groups a voice previously silenced by mainstream culture. This paper explores personal and collaborative stories generated within a culturally responsive narrative inquiry research project. This explored ways mature-aged Mäori women teachers in mainstream primary schools negotiated their professional identities amidst the tensions and contradictions inherent in the simultaneous enactment of class, ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, and other categories of membership and identity. The participants' stories illustrated a complex interplay of contextual, cultural and biographical factors as they took up or resisted the varied demands of school life. Culturally located prior experiences and beliefs were found to be particularly prominent factors in shaping their storylines. These were often at odds with articulations from within the dominant culture.

Keywords: Health and Physical Education

SAN06332     PDF Paper
Democratic school leadership: Its impact on the commitment of educational stakeholders

Diosdado San Antonio and David Gamage, University of Newcastle

This paper examines the impact of implementing democratic school leadership (DSL) on the commitment levels of Advisory School Council (ASC) members in Philippine public secondary schools. Through an experiment with empirical surveys and interviews, this study reveals that the experimental group (EG) had higher levels of commitment compared with the control group (CG) after one year of implementing DSL. The EG perceived the ASC operation in their schools as effective. Respondents who reported higher levels of commitment after implementing DSL indicated satisfaction with the composition of the ASC, found the committee structure in the ASC to be useful, and acknowledged that their school heads shared information adequate for the ASC to make sound decisions. Factors that affected the development of the stakeholders' commitment to school improvement have been identified. The study suggests that the Philippines should expedite the process of establishing school councils in the public schools.

Keywords: Educational leadership

SAN06760     PDF Paper
A critique of John Biggs's view on teaching international students

Gavin Sanderson, University of South Australia

In 2003, John Biggs put forward advice on teaching international students. He proposed that there were three levels of engagement with this subject. Level 1 is 'teaching as assimilation' and the focus is on what students are. Level 2 is 'teaching as accommodating' and the focus is on what teachers do. Both Level 1 and Level 2 teaching are described by Biggs as belonging to a deficit model of education.

Level 3 is 'teaching as educating' and the focus is on what students do. This level moves beyond a deficit model of education. This paper is a critique of Biggs's thinking with regard to Level 2 teaching. It argues that the particular conceptualisation of 'teaching as accommodating' is incorrect. Whilst Biggs suggests that the sense of deficit in this level is attached to the teacher, this paper argues that it is attached to the 'recently-arrived' international student in the sense of not being attuned of the expectations of Australian academe. As such, teaching strategies and support initiatives used by teachers to help international students make the transition to the requirements of tertiary study in Australian universities should be interpreted as a strength of their teaching practice rather than a deficiency.

Keywords: Comparative and international education

SCH06678    ®     PDF Paper
Sharing and supporting through an online network: Four studies of newly appointed teachers

Sandy Schuck, John Buchanan and Anne Prescott, University of Technology, Sydney

The paper discusses the experiences, needs and concerns of early career teachers in three separate studies conducted with UTS teacher education graduates over the years 1999-2005. Teachers were invited to participate in an online support network in each of the studies, after they had graduated from UTS. The studies were all small in scale, and allowed beginning teachers to express their concerns, aspirations and experiences to others in the online network. Although participation in the online network was limited, those who did participate found the network to be supportive and helpful in providing much-needed advice and suggestions. Support was offered by mentor teachers, lecturers from the university and the other newly appointed teachers in the network. The paper will highlight common issues that arose in the three studies and responses that were found helpful. It will also discuss issues of participation as highlighted by the different designs of the three studies, and indicate the strengths and weaknesses of each of the research designs with regard to meeting the needs of the participants as well as issues of intercommunication between the three researchers.

Keywords: Teacher education - general

SEB06658     PDF Paper
Administering PhD studies

Darlene Sebalj and Allyson Holbrook, University of Newcastle

In the current policy documents and the debate surrounding the RQF, there has been much interest in how to include, if it is to be included at all, the contribution of research students to quality assessments to be made of each university's research groups. This paper draws on a mapping exercise that constitutes the first phase of a study on the role of research administrative staff in Australian universities and their part in shaping and implementing change. The mapping identifies the deployment of research services personnel and the focus for this paper will be an analysis of the roles of staff and the processes devoted to supporting research students in universities. The findings will be discussed in the light of the intended implementation of the RQF.

Keywords: Doctoral education research

SED06869     PDF Paper
Mobile learners: Networked governance and the embodiment of partnership

Terri Seddon, Monash University

Networked governance creates partnership to form nodes for learning that are marked out in policy and practice. These new learning spaces problematise the usual renderings of education and their binaries of centralised and decentralised, authority figure and subaltern subject, teacher and learner. Instead they are premised on difference and its negotiation within horizontal relations and networks that reach across and beyond traditional and emerging learning spaces. They serve as knowledge exchanges where trade and gift manifest as bazzar. This paper considers these new learning spaces as sites where mobile learners, as travellers and strangers, coalesce in vestigial communities. It asks what is being exchanged and what is being learned.

Keywords: New pedagogies

SEL06436     PDF Paper
Reinvigorating the middle years: A review of middle schooling

Sam Sellar and Brenton Prosser, University of South Australia

It has been claimed that the first generation of middle schooling philosophy is unfinished and exhausted with a new generation of research based innovation required. This paper responds by reviewing this claim in the light of middle schooling literature and research. It then examines one contributor to a second generation of middle schooling philosophy which emphasises socially just school reform. This contributor, the 'Redesigning Pedagogies in the North' Australian Research Council Linkage project, is then examined in the light of key middle schooling principles. As such, this review locates the project within the context of other emerging contributions to middle schooling philosophy. Further, this paper provides a foundation for the following papers which consider the theoretical orientation, pedagogical conceptualisation and challenges facing the redesign of middle schooling pedagogy in Adelaide's northern urban fringe.

Keywords: School renewal and pedagogic improvement

SHA06656     PDF Paper
The response of education interns to a compulsory research project

Kylie Shaw, Allyson Holbrook and Jill Scevak, University of Newcastle

Few education students move straight into research degrees, and there is evidence that in professional degrees that directly link into the job market students seek more practical experiences and resist a more theoretical orientation. But with growing emphasis on preparing and developing research students, it is timely to explore how experiences in undergraduate professional degrees with an integrated fourth year, prepare or predispose students towards returning to do a research degree.

This paper draws on 159 survey responses of students in one institution as they embark on a research project based in their internship school. It explores how they anticipate the research journey and their overall predisposition to research during the first phase of their project. The study explores factors that inhibit and facilitate getting started on their project. Most of the students report they do not anticipate they will go on to do further research, and are particularly frustrated in the development of research questions and undertaking a literature review within a restricted time frame. This raises the question of how best to support and scaffold students in their early research endeavours - a question not confined to education, but relevant to fourth year Honours programs across all disciplines.

Keywords: Doctoral education research

SHA06824    ®     PDF Paper
Examining the consequences of inadequate induction for beginning teachers

Heather Sharp, University of Southern Queensland

Research indicates that many beginning teachers are not experiencing induction that reflects their needs (Sharp, 2005, unpublished manuscript). In addition, poor induction has a large impact on the perceptions beginning teachers have of their own teaching skills and standards, how they feel about their profession and their relationships with school administrators and students. As part of a larger study, beginning teachers from all Queensland government schools were invited to participate in this study. Twenty four beginning teachers participated in an online survey, which was designed to gauge their views of inductions received in their first year of teaching and to actively examine the perceptions beginning teachers have on their competence as a classroom teacher, based on feedback received during induction programs. Further, this paper focuses on the professional consequences for beginning teachers who receive inadequate induction during their first year of teaching, including consideration in leaving the teaching profession due to perceived inadequacies.

This paper looks thematically at the consequences of inadequate induction, from the perspectives of individual teachers. Their stories illuminate the need to ensure that government policies on employee induction are carried out in schools, which would then enable teachers to have positive perceptions and increased confidence in their abilities to carry out their professional duties. The paper concludes with recommendations for schools and Education Departments to better provide support for first year teachers.

Keywords: Teacher education - general

SHA06845     PDF Paper
Assessment practices in an applied learning context

Geoff Shacklock, RMIT University

Recent curricula developments in various Australian settings have emphasised the importance of learner-focused, performance-oriented and educative forms of assessment as part of new learning priorities. The links between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are stressed in developments of this kind that seek to improve learner engagement through responsiveness to learner diversity and connectedness to the life-worlds of students. When there is a focus on applied learning in curricular and pedagogical systems how can assessment be constructed and practiced in ways that reflect and respect an applied learning approach? This paper considers assessment practices employed in one component of the Graduate Diploma of Applied Learning where a problem-solving approach sought to position learning, teaching and assessment as simultaneously 'applied' in a teacher education program.

Keywords: Education Policy

SHE06074    ®     PDF Paper
Silos, students and centralising forces: The institutional and social environments affecting academic innovations for sustainability in the tertiary sector

Kate Sherren, Australian National University

Australian universities have embraced the instrumental view of higher education, and 'public good' ideas, such as sustainable development, struggle in the resulting tertiary culture and structure. Since the Dawkins reforms of the late 1980s, the tertiary market has become saturated, dependent on international student fees and strangely undifferentiated. Concepts essential to a liberal sustainability education include context, interdisciplinarity, cosmopolitanism and civics, all of which meet barriers in the modern university curriculum. Canada has a similar history and is heading down a similar path as Australia, with increased managerialism and commercialism in its tertiary sector and increasing student tuition fees, but has a more differentiated market with a stronger tradition of liberal studies. Innovative programs at seven Canadian universities were analysed in terms of how teaching or research programs were established, the student response, and the impact of workplace, society or politics on the outcomes. The lessons and approaches of Canada speaks to the difficult task embodied by the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014). This paper will draw on this work and earlier analyses of Australian environmental and sustainability education by the author and draw out major themes around university management, collegiality, pedagogy and the student market.

Keywords: Post-compulsory education

SID06790    ®     PDF Paper
Visualising the visual:
In what ways can computer-mediated texts help students to use visual data and explore the relations between images and words?

Nick Sidoryn, Marden Senior College

John Berger's 1965 speculations about "the possibility of new relations between words and images" has been never more relevant than today. Computers allow students to express themselves in more modes than just the written. And in this multimedia mix of sound, image and written text, the relationship between the visual and the written is not as straightforward as it might have been in the past. Major research questions for educators arise. How do students go about creating multimodal texts where communication is primarily through images? How do students engage with the visual and the visual possibilities of text? Can computer-mediated communication create a more critical appreciation of the power of the visual in today's society? The research relates a study of visual design choices of three groups of students in different school levels where the computer is the tool that allows a user to access and work with various forms of media, especially images. It is argued that an emphasis on the visual presents opportunities to re-evaluate firstly, how presentation technologies(eg. PowerPoint) can be used in the classroom, and secondly, how the visual essay can be renewed and made a more prominent part of our teaching practice.

Keywords: Languages and new literacies

SIE06375     PDF Paper
Assessing multiplicative thinking through rich tasks

Dianne Siemon and Margarita Breed, RMIT University

Recent research has identified multiplicative thinking as a major barrier to students' mathematical progress in the middle years of schooling. New approaches to assessment are needed to inform more targeted teaching and improve student numeracy outcomes at this level. The purpose of this paper is to describe the processes involved in developing a range of rich assessment tasks to evaluate students' multiplicative thinking in Years 4 to 8. Key concepts used as a basis for designing the tasks, as well as the tasks, scoring rubrics, and assessment protocols used to collect data from just under 3500 students will be illustrated, together with sample student responses.

Keywords: Mathematics; Assessment and measurement

SIR06100    ®     PDF Paper
Quality eLearning: An instructional design model for developing pedagogically effective online learning in higher education

Lou Siragusa, Curtin University of Technology

As online learning (or eLearning) is integrated into ever-growing numbers of university courses, there is a need for practical guidelines and recommendations to facilitate the development and delivery of pedagogically effective eLearning environments. A recent study by Siragusa (2005) examined factors which make for effective instructional design principles and learning strategies for higher education students studying with these environments. Surveys were administered to students and lecturers in Western Australian universities revealing numerous areas of students' eLearning experiences which they had perceived as being successful and those needing improvements.

This paper presents a model that was developed from the study's survey findings, which lecturers and instructional designers may use to design, develop, evaluate and refine their eLearning environments in higher education. The model is accompanied with recommendations that accommodate the varying pedagogical needs of learners as well as varying modes of course delivery. For each recommendation, a pedagogical dimension is presented to illustrate the varying pedagogical needs and instructional requirements. The dimensions are utilised in a similar manner to Reeves and Reeves' (1997) pedagogical dimensions and highlight the decisions which need to be made during the instructional analysis, design, delivery and evaluation phases for the implementation of pedagogically effective eLearning environments.

Keywords: Information Communication Technology [ICT]

SIR06269    ®     PDF Paper
Learner attributes in online environments:
The impact of the individual on the outcome

Lou Siragusa, Kathryn Dixon and Robert Dixon, Curtin University of Technology

Developments in online learning methodologies have been rapid in recent years and have promised improved education and training to an increasingly diverse cohort of students. The tertiary education sector is under increasing pressure to compete in an environment where globalisation of learning has resulted in the adoption of online delivery in order to compete in the education marketplace. This study investigates students' reactions to their learning environment while completing a program of study which is delivered fully online in a Western Australian university. The research utilises student questionnaire data which focussed upon factors relating to communication apprehension and competence, the experience of perceived loneliness, locus of control, collaboration by students regarding the learning experience, institutional support and the students' sense of self efficacy while completing a unit of study over one semester. The results indicated that students' personal perceptions of communication apprehension and competence were highly influential on their overall expectations of educational success in the unit studied. The students' sense of isolation as well as control over the learning materials and environment lead to an increase in their belief regarding a timely and successful completion of the unit of study and their perceived ability to interact effectively with others.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

SIR06863    ®     PDF Paper
What matters most in online learning environments: A New Zealand case study

Lou Siragusa, Kathryn Dixon and Robert Dixon, Curtin University of Technology

Universities are under increasing pressure to compete in an environment where globalisation of learning has produced increased numbers of student admissions into courses. Programs can potentially be delivered to offshore partner institutions with little consideration for the contextual or cultural differences between the organisation delivering the program and those grappling with the program content and technology at a distance. The focus of this paper is to describe a small case of students studying within an online adult education program throughout 2005. The case represents a small group of adult learners who embarked upon a Graduate Certificate delivered by an Australian university in New Zealand. Rich qualitative data were collected through a focus group approach facilitated onsite in New Zealand. The results revealed a certain level of discomfort for students when learning through technology, a sense of apprehension when communicating online and varying levels of communication competence which impacted upon the success of the learning experience. The results also indicated that while the sample was determined to succeed in navigating the online environment they considered it to be problematic in terms of the competing demands of family, work and their specific learning styles.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

SKO06525     PDF Paper
Positivist research as illuso: A critical examination of teacher effectiveness debates

Andrew Skourdoumbis, Monash University

This paper is a discussion about the dominance of particular forms of research inquiry into education and provides a critique of educational research inquiry which utilises a totally positivist research methodology. The paper considers the basis for the positivist research tradition in educational inquiry and, in particular how this constructs the problem of teacher effectiveness. In considering this "problem" the paper advocates an inquiry approach informed by critical theory. The claim is that only a critical approach to the problem of teacher effectiveness can adequately identify dominant features of contemporary social interaction of an economic and political kind, whose intrusion into the education policy debate has manifestly affected the work of teachers. In pursuing this agenda, the paper examines the theoretical frameworks of Foucault and Bourdieu. It discusses a Foucauldian approach to critique, of 'governmentalization' (Foucault, 1997, p.32), and uses Bourdieuian analysis with its emphasis on 'reflexive objectivity' (Grenfell et al, 1998, p.11) in order to establish an argument for an alternative approach to the study of classroom teacher effectiveness.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

SMI06359     PDF Paper
The future of a concept: Sustaining innovation in education

Craig Smith, Deakin University

Innovation is a prominent feature of the current discourse of across government, and in whose name large amounts of public money is spent. Innovation in this context is valued because of its perceived potential to do things in new or better ways that create desirable outcomes. Furthermore the question of how to sustain the innovative project beyond the duration of the initial grant has become an essential criteria to gain government or private sector funding. Yet based on research conducted over the last three years by the author and others, innovation's potential to transform schooling is not being realised due to a poor understanding of innovation as a process, the lack of an effective coordinating/brokerage agency to assist such processes, and issues internal to sites attempting to innovate.

Informed by recent research findings, this paper will argue that as a concept, innovation does have the potential to reform education but to do so, needs to overcome the dominant understandings of innovation, rethink the reach and purpose of innovation as a change process, and argue for the need of structural reforms to improve the capacity of schools and others in sustaining it.

Keywords: Educational change and innovation

SMI06404    ®     PDF Paper
Literacy instruction in Australian primary schools: Differentiated or not?

Susen Smith, University of Newcastle, and Raymond Smith, University of New England

The last four decades have seen profound challenges and changes to education and learning within Australia. One such challenge is the diversity that is found in our student population in the regular classroom. This diversity has resulted in an increase of variance in student ability and support needs, and the subsequent requirement for variance in teacher instructional design and context. Within these educational contexts, research suggests that literacy difficulties are still a major concern within Australian primary schools. With the literature suggesting a strong link between instructional differentiation and achievement, this paper represents part of the results of a PhD study investigating reading instruction in Stage 2 classrooms. In investigating the relationship between student diversity and instructional differentiation, the methodology involved observing students with low-, average- and high-reading ability during literacy lessons, the assessment of classroom ecologies, teacher instruction and student responses to instruction. The research process, some results and key features of the method including participant selection, amending the published observational coding instrument, its field-testing and subsequent analysis and assessment for reliability as an observational instrument will be presented. Whilst the results suggested some limited differentiation between instructional practice, classroom ecologies and student responses, there was very little inappropriate student behaviours.

Keywords: Doctoral education research

SMI06487     PDF Paper
An observational study of literacy practice in Australian primary schools: Engaged or not engaged?

Susen Smith and Raymond Smith, University of New England

With the increase in student diversity in Australian regular primary classrooms, there has also been a parallel increase in the variety of instructional methods available to address student diversity. Hence, today's teachers have at their disposal a myriad of instructional methods formulated from a sound research basis on which to differentiate instruction to meet individual student needs. With the research suggesting a strong link between instruction, student engagement and achievement, this paper presents part of the results of a PhD study investigating reading instruction in Stage 2 classes. Observations were used to investigate the relationship between student diversity, instructional differentiation and academic-engagement. The research methodology, that involved the observation of students with low-, average- and high-reading ability during literacy lessons, will be discussed, as will the investigation of the relationship between the classroom ecology, teacher instruction and student academic-engagement. The results did indicate some teacher differentiated instruction and student academic-engagement. This correlates with the research that suggests that differentiation of instructional practice, classroom ecologies and student responses form a nexus that contributes to academic-engagement and subsequent academic achievement.

Keywords: Doctoral education research

SMI06489    ®     PDF Paper
The land of Narnia or just the back of the wardrobe? What research tells us about the real world of work for young people

Erica Smith, Charles Sturt University

This paper challenges many assumptions made about the nature of entry into working life. Using the findings of the author's national research projects carried out over a period of eight years, as well as labour market data, the paper shows that the majority of young people have a realistic view of the labour market, hold sufficient skills to succeed, and are able to select from a range of jobs; transition to full-time working life is effected seamlessly over a period of several years with no major difficulties. 'The world of work', rather than being a strange land, difficult to enter, where battles are fought and special guides are needed, is a familiar and navigable place to young people; they need no magic shields, swords and arrows to cope with it. The real danger in the fear of the White Witch is the effects that the false fear may have upon school policies and practices. School curriculum is constantly being challenged and sometimes amended at the behest of lobby groups and politicians to mould young people better for the supposed 'needs of the workplace'; the papers argues that this is not just dangerous but also unnecessary.

Keywords: Vocational Education and Training

SMI06490    ®     PDF Paper
Leading the charge in cross-sectoral integration: Vocational teacher education and the embedding of units of competency

Erica Smith, Charles Sturt University

In Australia as elsewhere, the national government is keen to improve pathways between vocational education and training (VET) and higher education. The limited availability of such pathways is often attributed to a lack of will on the part of universities. VET teacher-education in Australia has been grappling since 1998 with the challenges imposed by a VET-sector qualification at Certificate IV level that has become, through government regulation, a 'licence to practice' in VET teaching. This paper uses the discussions within the national community of VET teacher-educators and a case study in one university to illustrate the difficulties that exist in laying pathways and guiding students along them. It draws on the debates that have taken place in AVTEC, the Australian VET Teacher Educators' Colloquium, the author's research into assessment issues in embedding the Certificate IV within university courses, and preliminary data from an evaluation of students' reactions to authentic and deep embedding. These data are used to argue that difficulties in cross-sectoral integration are real and are derived from different approaches to pedagogy and evidence requirements, rather than being manufactured by education providers anxious to maintain their boundaries. The VET teacher education community holds unique expertise in this area.

Keywords: Teacher education - general

SMY06167     PDF Paper
When students have "relational power": The school as a site for identity formation around engagement and school retention

John Smyth, University of Ballarat

The central concept of this paper is "relational power" (Warren, 2005)-a notion that draws theoretical sustenance from the closely related notion of social capital. This is part of a paradigmatic shift underway in school reform acknowledging the importance of relationships in school reform.

Relational power refers to the way collaboration and trust are created among constituent groups in schools and their communities. It also has currency when used to refer to resources or capacities for re-dressing inequalities in schooling in terms of who is provided with the resources necessary to succeed at school. Relational power constitutes the "set of resources that inhere in relationships of trust and cooperation between and among people" (Warren, 2005, p. 136), and it can be a potent resource for "transforming the internal capacity of schools" (Medirratta, 2004, p. 16).

When relationships between students, teachers, parents and the community are damaged, corrupted, corroded or not established, then students suffer. The most significant power inequality in schools is the opportunity for students to have a say in their learning. Students may nevertheless have more relational power than we give them credit for in accepting or rejecting the conditions under which they learn.

Keywords: New pedagogies

SOM06819    ®     PDF Paper
An enabling place pedagogy for new teachers?

Margaret Somerville, Monash University

The place pedagogy approach evolved from my previous research proposes three principles for a conceptual framework for an enabling place pedagogy: place learning is necessarily embodied and local; our relationship to place is constituted in stories; and deep place learning occurs in a contact zone of contested stories. The enabling place pedagogy approach was shared in ongoing informal discussions with a teacher education student throughout the year of his postgraduate teacher education studies. The student was subsequently placed at a high school in Moree, a notoriously difficult school in western NSW. We recorded his workplace learning during the first 18 months of his teaching in a series of conversational interviews. We found that learning place and forming community was a critical process for this beginning teacher, especially in the context of culturally and environmentally challenging places. This learning involved a profound process of becoming through which the new teacher became engaged with the place and its communities. I will propose that this approach can be applied more generally in teacher education and in school curricula and invite the audience to share their experiences and thoughts about this application.

Keywords: New pedagogies

SOU06693    ®     PDF Paper
Putting on a show: Engaging and authentic learning in experiential music education

Jane Southcott, Monash University

Advocacy for school music is imperative in the current educational climate. Recently arguments have had degrees of popularity - music to engender creativity, 'to make you smarter', for social enrichment, and so forth. The frequent calls for 'real life', 'authentic' experiences in education in which students gain 'deep understanding' of 'essential learning', offer educators another avenue for advocacy. In secondary schools, many music educators are responsible for major school music theatre productions. These seem to function similarly to both amateur and professional theatre and can be understood as both 'essential learning' and authentic-context experience. The inclusion of such activity in teacher education can also emulate real life experiences for future educators. For the past decade, the creation and presentation of a major music theatre work has been a significant component of the 4th-year pre-service secondary teacher education programme at Monash University. This paper considers such music theatre productions as experiential education and articulates the potential benefits and pitfalls. Past students were interviewed about their perceptions of the experience and its influence on their later teaching. Such critical reflection demonstrates change that is, in experiential education termed 'transfer', completing the experiential learning cycle and offering an advocacy position for music in schools.

Keywords: Arts

SPR06124    ®     PDF Paper
School community leadership: The perspectives of the Catholic primary school principals

Gayle Spry and John Graham, Australian Catholic University

This paper focuses on the principal's role in school community leadership and provides an account of a research study that explores this issue in Catholic primary schools. The impetus for this research study was a realization that while there is a policy expectation that the principal to build the school as a community, notions of community and leadership are contested and still evolving. Situating this research study within a theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism, this research study sought to document principals' perspectives on their role as school community leaders with the intention of developing a more informed and sophisticated understanding of this leadership responsibility.

Keywords: Educational leadership

STE06019    ®     PDF Paper
"Tertiary de-generation": What Boomer educators need to know

Christine Steinmetz, University of New South Wales

This paper will begin with an informed perspective of the four living generations: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y and Generation Z; who they are, how they are placed in society, and most importantly, what they value and more specifically, how they value higher education. A generational perspective comparing Baby Boomers, X and Y will be undertaken to investigate the differences in perspectives and what factors influence their values and expectations of higher education. As educators, we need to consider our relationship with young people and appreciate the differences across the generations. This theoretical paper will be complemented with a series of six in-depth interviews of a male and female from the Baby Boomer, X and Y generations thus adding a rich qualitative layer to the theoretical perspectives of social generational understandings of education.

Keywords: Educational philosophy

STE06549     PDF Paper
Developing curriculum leadership for UAE principals, teachers and Ministry personnel

Lauren Stephenson, Zayed University

Zayed University's Center for Professional Development (CPD) assists UAE K-12 teachers, and educational administrators to develop their practice so that they may, by example, participate in the reform of the UAE educational system, the Center operates outreach programs and research agendas focused on educational improvement to accomplish this goal.

The Center is currently working with a number of partnerships and this paper will discuss the development of four very different communities of practice and their approaches to curriculum leadership, partnership relationships, and the maximization of social and human capital. The presenter will compare outcomes, successes and challenges that impacted each partnership. Some of the issues that arose include the role of the project manager, the value of distributed leadership, levels of decision making, work relations and processes, and training versus education. The initial findings indicate that the individual and collective learning as a result of these developing learning communities contributes to a new, evolving and organic model of professional learning which encourages a focus on long-term solutions for educational leadership in the UAE.

Keywords: Educational leadership

SUB06080    ®     PDF Paper
A research basis supporting differentiated instruction

Pearl Subban, Monash University

Contemporary school reform is looking to new and innovative ways to cater for the increasing diversity of modern classrooms. It has become crucial for teachers, educational administrators and parents to reconsider the traditional classroom, as all concerned individuals move toward ensuring that every student's needs are met. With schools becoming increasingly inclusive, teachers of exceptional students, ranging from giftedness to disability, have long deliberated on strategies to include the wide scope of abilities and readiness levels. Catering to the needs of an academically diverse population heralds the need for a re-thinking of established mindsets about classroom teaching. While teachers appear keen to embrace this emerging diversity, they remain ill-equipped to deal with the vast differences that face them every day.

Differentiated instruction, as a model, allows for the teacher to begin where the student is at, not at the start of the curriculum guide. The model considers the student as a learner, their readiness level and the interests they hold dear to them. In exploring these three areas of the student's development, the teacher is able to so structure teaching in the classroom, to maximise the potential for rich and powerful learning. However, with the model being introduced formally only very recently, few studies have considered it within a research or experimental context.

This paper therefore presents a research basis to support differentiated instruction. In highlighting investigations of this nature, it provides an impetus to educational researchers to examine this philosophy. It further provides a intense grounding of this exemplar, as a precursor to experimental research in the future. The full paper presents a complete examination of the research procedure used in drawing together the research underlying differentiated instruction, pointing out why it is considered an innovative new philosophy while scrutinising areas that may present a challenge in practice.

Keywords: Learning and teaching

SUL06615    ®     PDF Paper
Helping teachers to assess students' readiness to learn mathematics

Peter Sullivan, Monash University, and Andrea McDonough, Australian Catholic University

To explore barriers to student participation in learning, we developed a survey tool to give teachers insights into aspects of their students' orientation to, and readiness for, learning mathematics. The focus was on how the students saw themselves as learners, how they perceived their own and others' effort, some influences on their effort, and their future aspirations. The tool was informed by previous research that included individual interviews, was validated via interviews with some respondents, and there were feedback sessions with classes. In this paper we discuss responses from Year 8 students at three schools and, in light of these responses, make comment on the potential value of the tool. We found that the students seemed to be more confident in their ability to learn mathematics than observations of their classes would indicate is warranted, they identified a negative influence of peers for some classmates but less for themselves, and they had modest career aspirations. We believe that teachers can assist by becoming aware of the students' orientations to learning and finding ways to overcome inhibiting factors. Teachers should also be aware of students' perceptions of the value of schooling, and their further vocational aspirations.

Keywords: Mathematics; Learning and teaching

SUT06739    ®     PDF Paper
Writing as tribal practice: Revisiting online collaborative writing

Wendy Sutherland-Smith, Monash University

Many teachers encourage sharing ideas and knowledge through collaborative group writing to build self-confidence in developing writers. However, some students do not appear to gain a sense of belonging in the collaborative experience. This evolving study explores online collaborative writing with the purpose of creating a 'third author' - the group (tribal) voice. One aim is to reclaim writing as a conscious collaborative act where meaning is attained only at the end of the thought-sharing process. Therefore, the process of writing is seen as more important than the product. A further aim is to observe how intensive writing collaboration will affect both the writers and the writing during the process. A group of language teachers from Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the USA meet every two weeks in cyberspace for a two-hour intensive writing session. The group has met for the past three months. Different discourses appear to be fusing into a metamorphosed new hybrid author - the tribal group voice. These early findings suggest that such practices may assist learners who experience difficulty entering or contributing to collaborative writing or group-work tasks. Additionally, online group work may benefit, as no physical human contact exists to gain a sense of 'group'.

Keywords: New pedagogies

SWE06546    ®     PDF Paper
Negotiating primary teaching as a separate subject specialist: Malcolm's 'hidden pedagogy'

Trudy-Ann Sweeney, Flinders University

This paper is based on a series of interviews conducted with Malcolm as part of a larger study investigating teachers' work (in the context of devolved school reform and the implementation of local school management). In contrast to most of his colleagues who are generalist classroom teachers, Malcolm is a specialist teacher of Japanese who provides two, forty-five minute lessons a week to each of fifteen classes in a metropolitan primary school. The paper focuses on the tensions between Malcolm's sense of identity, his tacitly understood ideological beliefs about what teaching is (defined by Denscombe (1982) as 'hidden pedagogy') and the institutional requirement that Languages Other Than English (LOTE) be taught as part of the 'official' curriculum in Sou