Primary school teachers' attitudes towards, beliefs about conceptions and knowledge of mathematics and mathematics teaching and how they change

Jean Carroll

This paper reviews the available research on primary school teachers' knowledge and feelings about mathematics and mathematics teaching.

Literature relating to teachers' understanding, attitudes, beliefs and conceptions of mathematics and mathematics teaching will be examined.

Problems in researching these areas will be identified and considerations for research will be included. There is research to suggest that the mathematics education of children can be limited by the teacher and the teaching. The research infers that teachers who have negative attitudes towards and poor understanding of mathematics avoid teaching it or do not teach it well. Some researchers have found that the teacher is a major influence in the process of learning mathematics and that there is a danger that students who do not receive an adequate mathematics education may develop negative attitudes, poor understanding and narrow views of mathematics themselves.

The paper reports preliminary results of a study of primary teachers in Melbourne schools which was designed to understand the teacher more clearly, and to identify how teacher change might best be achieved.

The data were collected with a survey of 200 teachers and case studies of twelve teachers using mathematical life histories, interviews and lived experience anecdotes.

CARRJ95.277

Perspectives on the analysis of text based research in mathematics education

Jean Carroll, Andrew Waywood

CAVES95.155

Teaching for Conceptual Change: Light and Vision

Sue Cavell, Brian Jones

A conventional teaching module on ' Light and Vision' for a Grade 9 class was restructured using knowledge of students' prior conceptions of how people see and of patterns of cognitive development observed in a study of school students from Grades K-10.

A written questionnaire was used to ascertain the understanding of Grade 9 students with respect to the mechanism by which they see and the role of light. The pattern of elements of a Students' Seeing Framework which were shown in each response was used to evaluate their understanding and to interpret their selection of a preferred model of seeing. Individual interviews with three students were used to confirm the interpretation of written responses.

A teaching module has been devised which takes into account significant aspects of students' prior knowledge. A questionnaire given before and after instruction was used to determine the extent of conceptual change. The same questionnaire will be given after six months to monitor any further changes. Preliminary results obtained with an earlier Grade 9 group appear to show an increased preference for a scientific explanation, following instruction.

CERPN95.385

Some Consequences of Training Strategies when Learning a Computer Application

Narciso Cerpa, John Sweller, Paul Chandler

When students are required to learn a new computer application program, frequently they are required to split their attention between material in a manual and material on the screen because neither is self-contained. Previous work has indicated that split-attention can interfere with learning because the need to mentally integrate material imposes an extraneous cognitive load.

Alternatively, even if the screen-based material is self-contained, the material of a redundant manual, if processed by learners, also can impose an extraneous cognitive load. Under these circumstances, learning may be facilitated by the use of self-contained, screen-based material alone. A windows oriented, computer-based training software package with an integrated format, was developed to test these hypotheses. The split-attention effect was investigated by comparing the test outcome of a group of students using the computer-based training software with that of a group using a conventional manual plus the computer software to be learned. The redundancy effect was investigated by comparing a group using the computer-based training software with a group using the same computer-based training software plus a hardcopy of this training software.

It was predicted that the group using the computer-based training software would outperform the other two groups due to the split-attention and redundancy effects. The results of the experiment supported the hypotheses. We concluded that teaching computer software can be facilitated by using self-contained computer-based training software which eliminates the need for a manual.

CHAPC95.043

Teachers' knowledge in vocational education and training

Clive Chappell

CHERB95.504S

TBA

Brenda Cherednichenko, Neil Hooley

CHESP95.176

Commissioned Research: Who Drives the Agenda?

Paul Chesterton, Kristin Johnston

The commissioning of research by an interest group to promote its own goals raises a number of professional and ethical issues concerning research focus, design and accountability. This paper examines such issues through an example of a recently completed commissioned research project.

The example used is the Poor and Catholic Schools project. This was commissioned in 1992 by the Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes (CLRI) NSW in order to identify current perceptions, strategies, practices, capacities and issues in relation to the poor and NSW Catholic schools as a base for future action in this area. In commissioning the project, the CLRI was seeking to promote more effective ways of addressing the needs of the poor through the Catholic education system.

In order to achieve this goal, particular strategies were built into the financing, design, and reporting of the project. A review of the project's outcomes over the last 18 months indicates that these strategies have had some success in terms of local and system action.

An invitation has also been extended to undertake a national commissioned project to study the issues within a wider context.

Details of the strategies, key findings and impact of the project are provided in the paper as well as an examination of the research issues arising in this type of project.

CHURR95.276

The quality of teachers' work lives: The perspectives of teachers and their principals

Rick Churchill, Neville Grady, John Williamson

Early in the final term of the 1994 school year, 89 teachers and 87 school principals were surveyed in relation to their perceptions of teachers' satisfaction with ten factors related to the quality of teachers' work lives.

The data from teachers consisted of self reports, in that they indicated and explained their own levels of satisfaction with each of the ten factors investigated. The data from principals consisted of their views of teachers' levels of satisfaction with each of the ten factors, based on their perspective as that of key observers of teachers at work.

Teachers and principals indicated their own (or, in the case of principals, their perceptions of teachers') level of satisfaction and cited the factors which they saw as contributing to the satisfaction level nominated. Both of these types of data were gathered in relation to factors which included:+ teachers' satisfaction with their working relationship with their principal;+ their satisfaction with the nature of education systems' policy directions; and+ their satisfaction with the amount of work required of them to meet all the expections of them in their work.

Although principals tended to mildly over-estimate teachers' levels of satisfaction in several areas, there were statistically significant differences in only two items. Thus, principals can be seen as good judges of teachers' views. Nevertheless, the levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction expressed in the views of the teachers have significant implications for future directions in Australian education systems.

CHURR95.493S

Teachers' work lives: The view from teachers implementing educational change

Rick Churchill

This presentation will report the data obtained in a study conducted in Tasmanian and South Australian state primary and secondary schools in late 1994.

A multi-site (2 states, 87 schools), multi-method (face-to-face interviews, write-on surveys) approach was adopted for the research which was conducted as part of a 16-country international study of the impact of educational change on teachers' work lives.

Teachers (n = 89) collectively identified 79 different educational changes which they perceived as having had significant impacts on their working lives in the five years leading up to the time of data collection. These changes were categorised into one or the other of two domains of a teacher's work - the "caring professional domain" or the "organisational domain" - according to which aspects of the respondents' work lives were most affected by each change.

Teachers expressed markedly negative feelings about those changes which related to the organisational domain of their work, but reported reasonably positive views about those changes which related most to the caring professional aspects of their role.

Both the increasing number of educational change initiatives reported by teachers and the increasing pace of implementation expectations were reported by teachers as adding significantly to the demands their job placed on them. This supports Hargreaves' (1994) "intensification" thesis in an Australian context. There are important implications in the study's results for contemporary understandings about the quality of teachers' working lives in the 1990's.

CLARP95.023

NESB migrant students studying mathematics

Philip Clarkson, Lloyd Dawe

This paper describes the beginning of a longitudinal project which is studying bilingual Arabic, Vietnamese and Italian migrant children studying grade 4 mathematics in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. The project has drawn on the work of Cummins which suggests that bilingual students who are competent in both their languages should have a cognitive advantage over students who are competent in only one of their two languages, or in neither of their languages. We aim to check to see whether this assertion applies to our migrant students. However we are also particularly interested in why students switch between their languages when processing mathematical problems. What may prompt a bilingual student to switch languages? How often does it occur? Does it depend on the mathematical context? What changes might occur as the student progresses through the primary school? This paper will comment on particular research difficulties which arose during the pilot phase of the project and how they were overcome, and report initial findings from the first phase of data collection.

COCKB95.082

School Planning to Achieve Student Outcomes: Processes of Change in a Secondary School

Barry Cocklin, Neil Simpson, Malcolm Stacey

At the 1994 AARE Conference (Newcastle), a Symposium was presented recounting the developments and processes undertaken by a group of schools in rural NSW to achieve student exit outcomes. One of the Secondary Schools in this group has developed a set of student exit outcomes and is currently realigning all activities in the school to achieve these outcomes. This paper presents the background and rationale for this initiative (including Outcomes Based Education) and elaborates the change processes and strategies of the past year, including the development of a School Management Plan written in terms of student exit outcomes.

COLLC95.206

Gender and School Education : A progress report on a methodologically difficult study

Cherry Collins and Margaret Batten

The National Action Plan for the Education of Girls (1992), endorsed by all state ministers with responsibility for schooling and by all systems and authorities, requires that progress on the Plan be monitored against a list of performance indicators. We are in the process of undertaking a large scale, questionnaire-based sample study for DEET of principals, teachers and students in primary and secondary schools, to provide base-line data on some of the less easily monitored aspects of the Plan for the 1995 National Report on Schooling in Australia. These aspects include girls' assessment of the incidence of sex-based harassment, their learning about the construction of gender, and their views of teaching practice. In general, the brief called for an attempt to 'update, and put on a sound statistical basis', the claims put forward about girls' experiences of schooling in the 1992 AEC study Listening to Girls. In the wake of the O'Doherty Report (1994) on boys' education in NSW, the Steering Committee for the study (appointed by the MCEETYA Schools Taskforce) asked that the study be extended to report more equally on the gender-related schooling experiences of both sexes.

This paper will discuss:+ the difficulties of addressing a complex and personal area like gender-related experience in school through survey research;+ why it is important to try;+ how we have undertaken the task;+ our evaluation of its methodological successes and shortcomings.

COLLK95.013S

Symposium: "Understanding the development of selected concepts in School level Science using the SOLO model"

Coordinator: Kevin Collis

COLLK95.055S

Symposium: "Development in the understanding of selected statistical concepts using the SOLO model"

Coordinator: Kevin Collis

COOMK95.390

Feminist lamps in educational research: the constant comparative method

Kennece Coombe

During the last few years, new lamps have been shone on the role of women and girls in education. Some of the resultant research attention has deliberately set out to employ feminist methods of inquiry and analysis. This paper seeks to direct attention to the applicability of qualitative methods, specifically the constant comparative method, which are conducive to a female-centred approach to research in education. Thus it will address the directions and approaches of feminist research and then focus on the compatibility of the constant comparative method with such approaches. The constant comparative method is most often associated with the methodology of grounded theory developed by Glaser and Strauss and is heavily reliant upon theoretical sensitivity. Through theoretical sensitivity, the researcher becomes sensitive to data being generated and to the opinions and beliefs of those who are participating in the research. Negotiation of meaning and expectations between researcher and participants becomes incorporated into the process so that the final product of the research becomes a ventriloquial form of the stories of the participants.

COOPM95.210

Voices of Experience? Teacher educators speak about gender in and through the teacher education curriculum

Maxine Cooper, Andrea Allard, Rosalind Hurworth and Jeni Wilson.

This longitudinal research project, begun in 1992 and funded by the Australian Research Council during 1993 and 1994, has provided important information regarding teacher education students' beliefs and attitudes concerning gender. Additionally, through extensive consultations and collaboration with staff, the project also identifies ways in which teacher education programs can work to enhance students' understandings and skills in this area.

Broadly the project aimed to :a) investigate understandings, attitudes and beliefs of tertiary education students with regard to issues of gender in education with a view to effective course development b) inform staff, by means of collaboration, of ways to improve the quality of their curriculum planning and program implementation in relation to gender issues c) contribute to the professional development of teacher educators, teacher education students and teachers.

This paper focuses specifically on how teacher educators, involved in the four year Bachelor of Education (Primary) course, and working with the research team, have addressed issues of gender. Staff proposals for change to the course are considered in light of fourth year students' comments concerning how the course has informed their gender understandings.

In working with education staff to identify proposals for change to the program, a multi-method approach was used involving questionnaires, interviews, workshops, team teaching and staff professional development sessions.

At the end of three years a number of intervention strategies have been trialled including specific lectures on gender in core subjects; tutorial and workshops for students to examine their own understandings of gender; and school-based projects which require students to gather and analyse data concerning the content, pedagogical practices and assessment procedures pertaining to gender.

On the basis of this research, we discuss ways in which the teacher education curriculum can continue to change to better address educational discourses of gender. As a starting point for change, we suggest that teacher educators, as well as students, need to examine their own constructions of 'femininine' and 'masculine' and to analyse how gender informs their personal and professional discourses.

COOPT95.183

A Comparison of years 2 and 3 children's mental strategies for algorithmic and word problems

T J Cooper, A M Heirdsfield, C J Irons

Previous studies have indicated that children use mental procedures when calculating, which do not reflect the school taught algorithms, and that presentation of real world contextual problems tends to elicit these mental strategies, whereas algorithmic presentation of exercises tends to elicit school taught algorithms. This paper reports on a longitudinal study in which 104 years 2 and 3 children were presented with 2 and 3 digit addition and subtraction word problems and algorithmic exercises. Clinical interviews were undertaken over 6 interviews. The strategies students used for both word problems and algorithmic exercises were identified and compared within each interview and across the 6 interviews. Analysis of the strategies indicated a greater variety being employed for word problems than for algorithmic exercises. The highest percentage attempted were word problems and these resulted in the highest success rate. The exception to this was 3 digit regrouping problems, where the most attempted were exercises presented in algorithmic form and resulted in a higher success rate. Non traditional procedures were dominant for the first 3 interviews, however, a right-to-left strategy became the most popular strategy by interview 5. This was particularly so for algorithmic presentations. The paper also discusses how an understanding of children's spontaneous strategies may be useful for developing more effective mathematics curricula.

CORNI95.292

Competency-Based training: An assessment of its strengths and weaknesses by NSW Vocational teachers

Ian Cornford

Competency-based learning has been widely introduced in vocational education in Australia. There has been much debate concerning the nature of competency-based learning and its effects upon learning but there have been few surveys which have reported vocational teachers' attitudes to and experiences with this approach. Vocational teachers are in the position of directly implementing competency-based training policy. They are dealing with the teaching and learning problems stemming from this implementation as these arise and are likely to play a very important role in determining the overall effectiveness of this approach to training. This paper reports the finding of a survey of attitudes towards competency-based training using a group of NSW vocational teachers from a wide range of trade and professions in the first and second years of their Bachelor of Teaching degree at UTS.

COSGM95.294

Computer Mediated Learning: Designing An Interactive Multimedia Tutoring System For Foundation Science Ideas

Mark Cosgrove

An interactive multimedia tutoring system has been designed to help tertiary students achieve deep understanding of fundamental ideas underpinning major aspects of science. This system assists students to align their personal theories with scientific theory and thus to be less dependent upon memorisation. Students are guided to recognise their personal theories and then are challenged to contrast their explaining power with scientific ideas. Learning barriers arising from, first, the inhibiting power of students' intuitive ideas and, secondly, the uneasiness brought about by a discourse in formal logic in the vulnerable, early stages of learning are confronted. This computer-mediated learning package, itself based on research into personal theories, analogy generation, the role of concrete reasoning and conversational methodology, now suggests a research agenda inquiring into learning media by provoking questions about existing and possible learning strategies and their evaluation.

COWLT95.483S

Methodology of the OECD Science, Maths and Technology Education (SMTE) Project

Trudy Cowley

The SMTE project was conducted in Tasmania during Term 3 of the 1994 school year and Term 1 of the 1995 school year. It involved in depth case studies of the innovation occurring in schools or colleges in Tasmania. These case studies provided a snapshot of the innovation occurring in each school.

Eighteen people were involved directly in the project; nine research assistants, eight academics, and one liaison person with the DEA. The DEA liaison person initially nominated fourteen schools as innovative in either pedagogy, curriculum or professional development, of these eleven agreed to participate in the study.

Research Assistants spent, on average, five weeks in the schools collecting data. Their data collection consisted of:- observations of classes and staff meetings in action;- interviews with teachers, students and senior staff;- collection of documents relevant to the innovation; and- journals completed by students.

After the data was collected, the Research Assistants worked with the Academics to produce a draft case study report for their school. These reports were used as the basis for writing the final report submitted to the OECD. The schools were given the opportunity to comment on the case study reports twice before the final report was submitted.

In this session, descriptions of the data gathering methods will be given, along with a discussion of associated methodological problems and attempts to overcome them. The methodology of the project was complicated by the facts that (1) there were so many people involved in the project, (2) the type of innovation in each school was not known before the research assistants entered the schools, and (3) cross-comparisons were sought between the case studies.

COWLT95.494S

Teachers in transition: A new view

Trudy Cowley

With a new teacher transfer policy currently being implemented in Tasmania, a look at how transition from one school to another affects the lives of teachers is an important issue. Depending on the context of the schools involved and the experience and adaptability of the teacher concerned, teacher transfer can range from being very stressful to very motivating.

This paper is based on data from a study being conducted which looks at the effect of teacher transfer on the quality of teaching of expert teachers. It reports on two case studies: an expert teacher who transferred from a rural high school to an urban high school; and an expert teacher who transferred from a secondary college to a district high school. The case studies examine the impact the transfer had on their professional work life, and to some extent, their personal life.

The case studies are mainly based on interviews, but also classroom observations.

In both cases, transfer from one school to another had a considerable effect on the quality of teaching exercised by the teachers, the teachers' stress levels, their attitude to their work, and their philosophy of teaching. Each teacher developed their own strategies for coping with problems which arose due to the transfer; these are discussed. A brief review of the literature related to these issues is also presented as a backdrop to the data from the case studies.

CRESJ95.029

The principal's interpersonal behaviour and the school environment

John Cresswell, Darrell Fisher

In the past 25 years much attention has been given to the development and use of instruments to assess the qualities of the classroom and school environment from the perspectives of students and teachers.

This paper describes the development and validation of an instrument, the Principal Interaction Questionnaire, to measure principals' interpersonal behaviour in a school. The instrument was based on the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction, which was first devised in The Netherlands and contains eight scales of measurement such as Leadership and Understanding. The questionnaire was sent to 60 schools throughout Australia where it was completed by the principal and a random sample of 20 teachers in each school. The results obtained were analysed to give measures of interpersonal behaviour of principals as perceived by themselves and their teachers.

CUTTP95.309S

Thoughts of a researcher developing and implementing educational policy

Peter Cuttance

In common with the other papers in the Symposium of the Special Interest Group on Policy Processes in Education, this paper will provide a brief account of the author's own paradigm development. This is linked to various policy contexts, and four elements are highlighted: (1) relations between norms and knowledges in policy advocacy; (2) the historically relative and contestable nature of economic data; (3) inter-disciplinarity; (4) the post-modern challenge.

Calculator use in number: A teacher's change in curriculum goals for year One

Joyce Dale

This paper reports on research in progress on children using calculators as part of their mathematics learning during their first two years at school. The effects of the introduction of calculators in the learning of primary mathematics has allowed these children to extend their number knowledge beyond traditional goals thus resulting in teachers examining their beliefs and expectations of children's development of number concepts. The focus of this paper on teacher expectations uses data from an extensive interview with one teacher to report on the challenge for her to change her expectations for the development of number knowledge by Year 1 children as a result of classroom availability of calculators. The teacher's expectations are mapped against a traditional common curriculum statement and the children's actual achievements. Reasons for differences in teacher expectation, the curriculum statement and the children's actual achievements are explored.

DANID95.316

The Development and Evaluation of an Interactive Approach in Tertiary Education

David Daniels, Lisa Lobry de Bruyn and Nick Reid

The paper describes the process of developing and implementing a series of interactive workshops on sustainable land management which were previously taught in the form of traditional lectures. Our learning objectives were to expose the students to the benefits of co-operative learning by using a variety of teaching strategies. We also sought to develop vocational skills such as teamwork, negotiating agreement, active listening and thinking, improved problem solving, creative insights, decision making, verbal and written communication, and lastly to affirm their own knowledge, and strengthen their self esteem.

Teaching strategies used included brainstorming in buzz groups, role-play in a Senate Inquiry into Landcare, thinking hats, concept mapping, and students as teachers. Concurrently the traditional examination paper was replaced by a series of assessable materials which we attempted to integrate with the workshop material.

Unfortunately because attendance at workshops was not compulsory there was a perceived lack of co-ordination between assessment, course material and practical components of the course by the students.

Feedback from students also suggested that workshop objectives were vague and needed to be more explicit, and measurable, and that levels of concentration could not be maintained beyond two hours. The students and ourselves identified these areas as requiring further evaluation. Time was also required for students to gain familiarity with the new techniques, and in some cases there was a degree of resistance to the new teaching methods. In addition we identified the need for more immediate feedback, and the lack of time for adequate debriefing and reflection in the workshops. The linkages between workshops needs to be strengthened and stated, not just implied. In general the interactive approach was welcomed by students for reasons such as a greater level of interaction with the lecturers, course content relevant and interesting, no end of semester exam and no mundane lectures. The course is now being further developed for both internal and external students so that there is a greater level of integration of aspects of the course, and objectives are clear.

DAVIG95.358

A reconsideration of the relation between whole number learning and rational number learning

Gary Davis, Robert Hunting, Catherine Pearn

DEERC95.022

Teacher registration and accreditation of teacher education programs: Crucial issues for the teaching profession and Australia

Christine E Deer, Bob Meyenn, Allan Taylor, Don Williams

DELAB95.120

The Effect of Personality on Orientation to Self-Directed Learning

Brian Delahaye

Recently, there has been a finding that the relationship between traditional learning orientations (sometimes referred to as pedagogy) and the more self-directed learning orientations (sometimes referred to as andragogy) is orthogonal rather than being ends of a continuum (Delahaye, Limerick and Hearn, 1994). This suggests that learners' orientation can be located in a two dimensional space and gives rise to the question "What differentiates learners with different learning orientations?".

Several authors have recommended that research into self-directed learning should emphasise the learner rather than the learning process (Biggs 1989; Candy 1990; Harris 1989). This paper examines the effect of personality of learners on their orientation to learning. The research project used a recent finding that the relationship between traditional learning orientations (sometimes referred to as pedagogy) and self-directed learning orientations (sometimes referred to as andragogy), rather than being at the two ends of a continuum, is orthogonal (Delahaye, Limerick and Hearn 1994). The differences in the personality of learners in the four major learning orientations are identified by using the results from 537 respondents in a management education program.

DENHC95.364

Knowledge of HIV/Aids and Sexual Behaviour of Adolescents

Carey Denholm and Joan Abbott-Chapman

Findings discussed are drawn from a study of Year 11 and 12 students in Tasmania, with regard to levels and accuracy of knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission, sexual attitudes and behaviours. The reasons for the "gap" between intentions and actual "safe" sex practices confirm the work of other researchers. Findings also highlight gender differences in reasons for engaging or abstaining from sex, and experience of "risky" behaviour. Of special significance are findings on relative strength of social and cultural "filters" of health education messages in terms of family background, peer group norms and religious beliefs. The implications for effective delivery of preventive health education programs are examined.

DICKS95.021

The perceptions, experiences and meanings rural girls ascribe to menarche - implications for teachers/teacher training

Scott Dickson, Ruth Wood

This case study examines the attitudes and perceptions of a group of Year 6 girls (n=16) towards menstruation. Although modern science has led to a greater understanding of how the female menstruates (which helps to overcome mythologies born of awe, ignorance, fear and superstition) we continually tell girls experiencing menarche how they should feel, rather than asking them how they do feel.

Questionnaires were used to obtain sociodemographic information, level of menstruation knowledge and menstrual stage. Subjects were then interviewed in small groups to allow elaboration upon the questionnaire responses and to discuss other areas of interest in relation to menarche/menstruation.

Only three subjects stated they had received any type of formal education or advice relating to menstruation. Thirteen subjects expressed the need for more class time to be devoted to issues relating to menstruation, with eleven subjects indicating that they would prefer that any lessons on menstruation be conducted without boys being present.

Results indicate that girls approaching the age of menarche have not been adequately prepared to enter one of the most significant periods of their life. While it is acknowledged that the family has a role to play in this preparation, it is obvious that formal education has not dealt with this issue in an effective way. Educators need to re-assess their approach to this type of sexuality education. By implication, in-service and pre-service teacher education needs to be examined, particularly sexuality curricula for teachers in primary education.

DIEZC95.337

Visual literacy: Equity and social justice in Mathematics Education

Carmel Diezmann

Visual technology has become increasingly important in communication and problem solving throughout society, highlighting the importance of visual processing and visual reasoning in everyday life. Therefore schools need to educate students in visual literacy to enable them to participate equitably within society. The current non-visual bias in schools creates a social justice dilemma, because although students need to access and use visual representations in problem solving, schools do not specifically address the development of visual skills.

This study describes the performance of Year 5 students on a novel (non-routine) problem solving task which was easily solved visually.

The findings revealed that although the majority of students found this task difficult, those students who were able to generate an appropriate diagram were successful. Among the unsuccessful students were a group whose answers were consistent with their diagrams but they were unsuccessful because their diagrams were inadequate, suggesting that these students had difficulty generating an appropriate diagram. There were also unsuccessful students who did not attempt to solve the problem using a diagram, suggesting that either their selection of a problem solving strategy was unsuitable for the task or that they were unable to generate a diagram. The conclusion drawn from this study is that all students should have access to the visual representations needed for mathematics. Hence to implement the values of social justice in mathematics education, opportunities need to be provided which facilitate the development of visual literacy.

DINHS95.052

How Teaching Can Affect Teachers' Partners

Steve Dinham

The project described in this paper arose from an earlier study of teacher resignation. Apart from finding that the "resignation decision" was the result of a complex interplay of dynamic factors or forces, the study also highlighted the impact that teaching can have on teachers' family lives. For this reason, it was decided to explore the phenomenon of this impact in a more systematic fashion.

The project consisted of interviews with 57 self-selecting partners of teachers employed in primary and secondary, public and private schools in New South Wales. Telephone interviews were used to access respondents across the state. Data were analysed using the NUDIST software package.

The study found that teachers and their partners were generally unprepared for the realities of teaching, and that teaching had a variety of negative impacts on the families of the respondents, despite the fact that were some advantages in having a teacher as a partner.

Those interviewed recounted how the demands and pressures on teaching had increased over time, both from educational systems and society generally.

A series of recommendations for improving the welfare of teachers and their families drawn from the study are provided.

DOBBR95.299

The extended practicum program: A learning journey

Rosemary Dobbins, Jane Mitchell

This paper reports on the Extended Practicum Program, a ten-week internship for fourth year Bachelor of Education students at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga. The program represents a collaborative venture between Charles Sturt University, the NSW Department of School Education and the NSW Teachers' Federation. The need for the formation of genuine partnerships between schools, universities and teacher unions has been well recognised in the practicum literature in the 90's (Schools Council Report, 1990; Zeichner, 1992; Groundwater-Smith & Taggart, 1993). Also clear in the literature is the increasing emphasis by teacher educators on the quality of the learning experience in the practicum and the need for research to provide insights into conditions which facilitate and/or hinder student teacher learning.

It is the focus on learning in the practicum which motivated the authors of this paper to ask the questions, 'Does the Extended Practicum Program represent a worthwhile learning experience?' and 'For whom?' This paper addresses these questions and identifies those elements of the program which have enabled the various participants in the program to describe it as a 'learning journey' (Dobbins, 1994).

DOBBR95.300

Student Teacher Self-Esteem In The Practicum

Rosemary Dobbins

This paper is based on a study in which I have been involved for the last four years, investigating the learning of final year primary student teachers and their school-based teacher educators during the practicum. My investigation has confirmed findings from other research indicating that student teachers' learning in the practicum is a complex process (Feiman-Nemser, 1985; Britzman, 1986; Goodman, 1986; Zeichner, 1986; Calderhead, 1991; Groundwater-Smith, 1993). It is complex because, as illuminated in this study, it involved student teachers attending to:- both personal and professional issues associated with the role of 'being a student teacher'; - various dimensions of the experience (ie the stated and the hidden practicum curriculum); - the affective and cognitive demands of the experience.

Student teacher self-esteem was found to play a central role in the complexity of the learning process. Two particular findings in relation to student teacher self-esteem are discussed in this paper.

Firstly, student teacher self-esteem was not static. It fluctuated throughout the practicum, depending on the nature of each individual, his/her energy level, how well he/she was managing the professional demands of 'being a student teacher' and the personal pressures on him/her (including his/her own expectations) and the amount of support he/she received. Secondly, student teacher self-esteem had an impact on many aspects of the practicum experience for the student teachers.

It not only affected the student teachers' teaching, but how they interpreted the practicum, their ability to cope, their ability to interact effectively with adults and children and finally, in what they learnt from the practicum.

DOCKS95.284

Are popular children more likely than unpopluar children to have developed a representational theory of mind at age 4?

Sue Docket

Recently, within the field of early childhood education, there has been an increasing emphasis on the role of social construction of knowledge and on the inter-relatedness of aspects of social and cognitive development. This paper will report on a study in progress, which investigates a proposed relationship between young children's popularity status among peers and a representational theory of mind.

Data from a series of individual interviews with four-year-old children attending a preschool in south-western Sydney, yields a sociometric measure of popularity (based on the procedures developed by Asher, Singleton, Tinsley & Hymel, 1979) and a measure of performance on a series of false belief, appearance-reality and representational change tasks.

On the basis that social interactions among peers provide opportunities for understanding self and others and for explaining and predicting the actions of others based on mental states, it is hypothesised that a comparison of these two measures will indicate a significant correlation between these two areas. Implications for early childhood education programs and possible avenues for future research are considered.

DOIGB95.188

Opening windows of opportunity in mathematics

Brian Doig and Jill Cheeseman

For more effective mathematics learning teachers need to know more about their students' understandings of mathematical concepts and conventions. Traditional achievement orientated assessments do not provide enough information on these aspects of mathematics learning. In this paper we argue that opening windows of opportunity to explore and understand children's approaches to mathematics is critical to effective learning, and that good assessment can reveal more of the child's mathematical world.

This paper presents the approach that we have used to create such windows. Examples from different aspects of mathematics, whether concept or convention focused, at the primary school level will be used to show how these opportunities can be created with creative, research-based assessment procedures. The type of data provided by these assessment procedures, and the inferences and curriculum implications that may be drawn from their analysis, will be presented.

Researchers interested in alternative methodologies that mix qualitative and quantitative elements, and assessment formats that elicit a range of data will appreciate the techniques presented.

DOIGB95.359

Interpreting student response using clinically- based mathematics assessment

Brian Doig, Robert Hunting

DOUGA95.245

Which ones and how many? Dilemmas involved in choosing subjects for a case study

Annette Douglas

Although the sample selected for a case study does not need to reflect the population as a whole, the questions how many? and which ones? need to be considered. The number of subjects considered in a case study is often limited by external constraints. Unfunded research carried out on a part time basis by an individual will be restricted in the number of subjects that can be included. Another limiting factor is the number of subjects who are willing to put up with intrusion into their working lives over a period of time with little perceived personal benefit.

This paper will describe the process involved in choosing subjects for a case study which examines the implementation of the Victorian Curriculum and Standards Framework. One focus of the study concerns the compatibility of teacher values with those of the curriculum framework in one key learning area. Choosing teachers with a range of value orientations presented a particular challenge and a number of options were considered. These will be discussed as well as the perceptions of the teachers who agreed to be part of the study regarding the costs and benefits of involvement.

DUDLJ95.098

The 'Rationality' of Australian Higher Education Policy

Janice Dudley

Claims to rationality are characteristic of policy documents.

Rationality promises order, predictability, the reduction of uncertainty and control of the complexity of the real world.

According to a correspondence model of language, facts, ideas, knowledge and forms of rationality exist independently and are simply described by language. However, language is not a neutral medium, a set of structures of uncontested meanings which simply communicate shared understandings of the world. Nor is language a mere reflection of its social context (be that cultural, historical or ideological); rather, meaning, legitimacy and rationality are constructed and mediated through language. These meanings and constructions of rationality are contestable, and yet education policy documents present policy as neutral and essentially technical. Particular policies are legitimated by claims to reason and logic, rationality and necessity.

Since the mid 1980s education policy, including Higher Education policy has been dominated by the discourse - or rationality - of economic rationalism. Education has been reconstructed as an element of the microeconomy. In addition, there has been a displacement of substantive educational expertise by the technical expertise of management.

The central focus of this paper is the discursive nature of rationality and reason, and the power of claims to rationality in legitimating particular policies and marginalising alternatives.

DUNKM95.269

Developing and implementing a unit of work in civics and citizenship education

Mick Dunkin

Following the report of the Civics Expert Group at the end of 1994, the Federal Government budgeted $25 million dollars over four years in its May 1995 budget, for work in civics and citizenship education. That area of education has been neglected for many years and so there is little guidance available to support this important initiative. This paper reports a study of an attempt to design and implement part of the draft syllabus appended to the Civics Expert Group's report. As part of the Teacher Knowledge into Practice (KIP) program a team of consultants, academics and school teachers developed a four week unit of work for years 5/6 (levels 3 and 4) on the theme "The Needs, Rights and Responsibilities of Children." Four school teachers, one of whom had been a member of the unit development team, then taught video recorded lessons for 90 minutes per week. Weekly stimulated recall interviews were conducted with the teachers. The interviews focussed on teachers' selection and presentation of the content and learning experiences provided. The paper reports on the ways in which teachers' beginning orientations to teaching and learning in this area influenced their roles in planning the unit, the thinking underlying their selection of subject matter and activities and their evaluations of their efforts.

Implications for future R and D are drawn.

DUNSG95.347

Constructing Professionals: An attempt at making impossibility probable

Gae Dunshae, Lindy Foley, Wendy Hastings, Mark McFadden, Janelle Rae

DWORM95.067

Teaching Drama and Ensemble Work

Marian Dworakowski

Principals and professional development: A phenomenolgical study

Lisa Ehrich, Terry Simpson

The function and purpose of professional development of staff has taken on new meanings within national and state agendas for education since the 1980s. In current literature and policy documents, educational leaders, such as principals, have been identified as needing to play a central role in the professional development of teachers.

This paper outlines the conceptualisation of a research study which will investigate principals' involvement in and response to teachers' professional development. The methodology underpinning the study is an alternative to the dominant scientific paradigm used primarily in research in educational administration, because its focus lies with principals' perceptions outside the confines of theoretical constructs and overarching world views. The approach taken will be phenomenological which means that principals' experience of the phenomenon of professional development will be sought utilising a rigorous process of analysis in order to abstract the essential structures presented in their consciousness.

In addition to describing the nature of the research study, this paper explores the meaning of phenomenology and its applications to educational research.

EMMEG95.002S

Symposium: "Perspectives on curriculum development and renewal from a bureaucrat, an academic and a teacher"

Coordinator: Geoff Emmett

This symposia will present an analysis of the outcomes of the national implementation of the Health and Physical Education Statement and Profile for Australian Schools from three distinct perspectives.

ESSOK95.139

Reading Adolescent Girls: Excursions into feminine subjectivity

Kathy Esson

Virtually any data can be `read' in a variety of different ways, and this is perhaps especially true of so-called qualitative data. Despite this, assumptions concerning the objectivity and/or value-neutrality of such readings are common. For example, until recently, girls' tendency to score lower than boys on measures of moral development was seen as non-problematic, and was neither considered to cast doubt on the adequacy of the readings, nor to point to unanswered questions about the socio-cultural context of girls' lives.

In contrast, this paper outlines a range of `feminist' approaches to the interpretation of interview material generated by adolescent girls.

These derive from the work of the Harvard Project on Women's Psychology and Girls' Development, and include content analyses, a method for following the 'speaking I' in a narrative, and ways of connecting the reader's experience with that of the speaker. Examples from the author's current research, which consists of a longitudinal study in which girls are interviewed individually once a year for three years, are presented.

The paper argues for the value of feminist (and other) readings, and challenges the legitimacy of purportedly `pure' readings of adolescence. It also argues that readings of female behaviour which are informed by an appreciation of the construction of feminine subjectivity, provide information of direct relevance to the education of girls. Implications for reading boys, and for boys' education, are briefly outlined.

EVANR95.061

Low-level Sensory Deficits in Adults with a history of specific reading disability

Robyn Evans, Barry Mapperson

Children and adults with specific reading disability (SRD) have difficulty processing rapid change in the visual and auditory systems. It has been suggested that this might be a general fast processing deficit and that similar difficulties should also exist in other sensory modalities. This has not been tested previously in a single study with most studies limited to using either visual or auditory stimuli. Auditory, visual and vibrotactile temporal thresholds in 18 adults with a history of childhood reading difficulty were compared to those for age, sex, nonverbal IQ and education matched controls, using established methodologies. Temporal order judgement measures were obtained in the auditory and vibrotactile tasks. Two different tones or vibrations were presented at various interstimulus intervals (ISI) without masking, with ISI varied using an adaptive staircase procedure. A gap detection measure was obtained with the visual task in which subjects decided which of two vertical lines was presented with a gap. Adults with an SRD as a group required significantly longer temporal separations for the same level of task accuracy in each modality, although some performed as well as controls. In controls, rapid processing in each modality was related, but only visual and auditory processing was related in participants with an SRD. While these results could be interpreted as providing support for the generalised fast processing deficit theory, caution is warranted. Subjects reported using response strategies in the auditory and vibrotactile tasks, casting doubt on whether these results reflect perceptual thresholds. The gap detection measure appears to be immune to response strategies, suggesting that replication of this study using gap detection in all modalities is necessary.

EVANT95.001S

Symposium: "Graduate studies in education: Innovation in postgraduate research and teaching"

Coordinator: Terry Evans

EVANT95.488S

Dancing at a distance? Postgraduate studies, Supervision and distance education

Terry Evans, Bill Green

The question of pedagogy is both fundamental to and intensely problematical in the emerging nexus between distance education and postgraduate studies, particularly in the context of new rhetorics of open learning, globalisation, and late- and post-modernity. In this paper we explore the concept of 'supervision' in relation to the distinctive nature of pedagogy, or teaching for learning, in distance education forms of postgraduate research and teaching. Understanding distance education through metaphorsdrawn from choreography and geography, we propose to explore postgraduate supervision as a specific form of pedagogy, conceived as a complex 'dance' of constraints and possibilities in mediated curriculum space. Deakin University's EdD program will provide a focus for discussion here, taking into account current moves towards 'virtual' or 'on-line' forms of curriculum, pedagogy and administration.

EVANT95.492

A preliminary report on an investigation of technological mediated reforms to post secondary education

Terry Evans, Daryl Nation, William Renner, Karen Tregenza

Force fields complexity and chaos: An uncertain approach to the elusive world of policy, policy makers and researchers

Carla Fasano

The paper outlines the making of a policy adviser and researcher as she emerged out of the interaction of formal discipline training and personal life history. Her quest to make sense of worlds of contradictory truths brings to the fore several rites of passage. They mark the move from a weltanschauung of fixed roles and general laws where objectives, rewards and punishments are ruled by logic, to one where subjectivity and privilege decide, and predictability rests on predominant power relations. Rites of passage also mark access to a different weltanschauung yet, where logic, integrity and malice loose their boundaries and dissolve in a strangely coherent landscape of chaos.

Physics brings intellectual solace to the young woman, shattered by the discovery of gender dominance and powerlessness. They provide the foundationsfor approaching policy and personal growth by searching for systematicpatterns, for general principles, for theory. Quantum mechanics remains inthe background warning about unattainable precision and consistency over time.

Social Psychology provides further analytical tools to assuage anxiety and reassure one's worth as a woman. They also refine the understanding of the force fields in terms of people, the forces within and those governing the behaviour of groups. Policy comes alive with identities, of power brokers and bureaucracies.

Western Philosophy, History and Sociology of Science, shatter beliefs on the value of paradigms and refuel the quest for sense making tools for oneself and one's profession. Chaos Theory, Pre Socratic and Eastern Philosophy bring the pieces back into a shape, where logic, integrity and malice dissolve into adifferent set of meanings.

FAULC95.222

Improving year 7 boys reading comprehension skills through metacognitive training: A test of the effectiveness of strategy instruction

Clair-Maree Faulkner and Jennifer M. Bowes

Improving Year seven boysA reading comprehension skills through metacognitive training: a test of the effectiveness of strategy instruction.

Poor reading comprehension at the beginning of high school is a problem associated more with male students than with females. The present study was designed to improve Year 7 boys' reading comprehension through the use of specific metacognitive reading skills. Such programs have been found to be effective with primary school students but have not been developed and tested for high school students. Four English classes in two boys high schools in the South West Region of Sydney took part in the study. A pre-test of comprehension and metacognitive skills was followed by a 7-week program teaching specific metacognitive skills, and a post-test. Two classes received the training seven weeks prior to the other two groups. In this way the retention of metacognitive skills could be measured over a period of time.

The study has important implications for education, particularly for boys', as it identifies the metacognitive skills which Year 7 male students, both good and poor readers, can be taught to assist in their ability to read and to comprehend what they are reading. The study includes a number of lessons designed to be implemented in any classroom situation, which makes the possibility of teaching such metacognitive reading strategies more accessible to all classroom environments.

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FAVEJ95.141

The Literacy Levels of Early School Leavers

Jill Favero

This paper presents the results of a research project which resulted from the concerns of rural training providers and employers about the increasing numbers of young people leaving school at an early age.

Anecdotal evidence had suggested that early school leavers not only lack the literacy skills required for employment but also the necessary literacy skills required in most labour market training programmes. The project involved a literacy skills audit of 100 early school leavers in rural areas who had left school at, or below, year 9, an analysis of their reasons for leaving school, an analysis of the employment outcomes of early school leavers since 1989, an investigation of literacy and other skill levels required of potential employees of small businesses and industry, and an examination of the perceived needs of literacy teachers in labour market programmes.

The assessment results indicated that the majority of the young people had levels of reading and writing that were below functional levels and below a level required by the employers interviewed. An unexpected finding of the study was that 23 of the 100 early school leavers had been expelled, asked to leave school or left by mutual agreement.

FENND95.391

School level variables and the effectiveness of Teacher Development Programs

Denis Fennessy

This paper is a report of research in progress. It tests a model of professional development for primary teacher in Victoria. The type of professional development (PD) favoured, for funding by the Directorate of School Education in Victoria are those similar in structure to Elementary Maths in Classroom EMIC and Elementary Literacy in Classrooms (ELIC). Such programs are about curriculum areas and involve teachers participating in three hour session one night a week for eight to ten weeks. The PD program investigated is the state funded Physical and Sports Education (PASE) program which has trained approximately 6000 teachers in 1994-95.

The model postulates causal relationships between four constructs or latent variables. These are (1) Program quality, (2) Administrative support, (3) Collegiality and (4) Program implementation.

The constructs are operationalised in terms of four sets of scales. It is hypothesised that the direct impact of program quality on program outcomes is affected by the influences of administrative support and collegial support in each school.

Information was collected, by questionnaire, from participants in the PASE program. Factor analysis and LISREL measurement models are being employed to confirm the usefulness of measures of the constructs.

Measures on these scales will be used to test the hypothesised relationships between the four constructs. The study will contribute to an understanding of the influence school based variables have on the outcomes of professional development programs.

FERGP95.113

Changes in Learning Environment Perceptions During the Transition from Primary to Secondary School

Peter Ferguson, Barry Fraser

The study investigated the role of student gender and change in school size as influencing factors in changes in learning environment perceptions as students transfer from primary to secondary school. The study was longitudinal with two data-gathering stages, one in grade 6 (the last year of primary school) and the other in grade 7 (the first year of high school). Data were both qualitative and quantitative. The sample comprised 1,500 students from 47 feeder primary schools and 16 linked high schools. The primary schools ranged from isolated country schools, with a transition cohort of only 6 students, to larger city schools with hundreds of students. Five different school size pathways were defined for analysis: small-medium, medium-medium, small-large, medium-large and 'within school'. The 'within school' pathway involved schools with a k-10 structure, but with separate primary and high school sites within the same campus. Results indicated both transition pathway and student gender to be influencing factors on changes in perceptions. Generally students perceived high school environments less favourably than primary ones, however, perception of class satisfaction remained similar for girls, but improved for the boys.

Findings of the study have significance for administrators as well as teachers, particularly those with a role within the 'middle school' years.

FERRF95.009S

Symposium: "Economics of Education and Training"

Coordinator: Fran Ferrier

FERRF95.461S

VET, Disadvantage and adult education in Victoria

Fran Ferrier

This paper report progress on a research project undertaken by the Centre for the Economics of Education and Training in 1995, on the provision of vocational education and training in the Adult, Community and Further Education Sector in Victoria.

The Adult, Community and Further Education sector has traditionally played an important role in providing for the educational needs of disadvantaged groups. Two important changes are now occurring in the sector which have implications for this traditional role: the sector is now under pressure to devote more of its resources to vocational education and training; and changes in the way the sector is funded are requiring new ways of operating.

Three main issues are covered: the increased provision of VET within the sector; the extent to which the sector tenders for industry training and labour market programs and seeks private funding; and the impact of these changes on the centre's traditional role of providing for disadvantaged groups.

FERRJ95.317

Dinosaurs, cyborgs and internet: TAFE directions

John Ferrier

FITZJ95.130

Institutional Reform and School Response: Plus Ca Change in England and Wales?

John Fitz, Brian Davies and John Evans

Recent attempts to restructure education in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, USA and Canada have been well-documented. The meta-narrative discloses broadly similar moves to deconstruct systems thought to be overly bureaucratic and professionally dominated and replace these by educational markets responsive to consumer preferences (Ball 1990, 1994 : Boyd 1994: Dale and Ozga 1993: Fitz et al 1993: Gordon 1994: Halpin and Troyna 1995: Hirsch 1994: Webber 1995, Whitty et al 1994).

But how much has changed in light of this shift in the mode of provision? The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which institutional reform in education in England and Wales has wrought changes in what schools do. It will argue that there has been a significant transformation in the governance of education and thus there has been important redistribution of power and control between central and local government and schools. However, the paper also proposes that what goes on in schools has not changed to the degree anticipated by the advocates of 'marketization'. Indeed, it can be argued that the organizational features, pedagogical relations in classrooms, teacher professionalism and the range of student educational identities fostered by schools have remained durably resistant to radical systemic change. It is suggested then that the response to restructuring has not been innovation and diversity but rather, convergence and a retreat into the past. It is further suggested that attempts to impose 'manufactured uncertainty' is also contributing to an educational and training 'crisis' within an economy seeking to establish new modes of work practice and organisation.

FITZL95.221

Beyond Adrenalin, Testosterone and Repressed memories: The search for an holistic perspective on violence in schools

Lindsay Fitzclarence, Jane Kenway, Loise Laskey, Colin Warren

FITZM95.327

The national five year longitudinal study of adult literacy students

Maree Fitzpatrick

FORGH95.124

Mathematics Education: Perspectives on Research Techniques

Helen Forgasz

Within the educational research methodology literature, heated debate continues on the relative merits of quantitative and qualitative research methods and whether the two approaches can be combined successfully. In the mathematics education fields of affect, gender, and studies of their interactions, calls have been made to engage in a wider range of research methods appropriate to the research question, in order to add breadth and depth to our understanding. The development of new measurement tools and the use of multipleresearch perspectives were advocated.

The relationship between classroom factors and a range of students' beliefs was investigated in a recent study. The affective variables incorporated in the research design were drawn from one of several models postulating explanations for gender differences in mathematics learning outcomes. Quantitative and qualitative research techniques were used. An innovative scheme for inferring beliefs from classroom behaviours was devised.

The knowledge gained extended understandings of the complexity of factors impinging on students' evolving beliefs.

In this paper, the rationale for combining research methodologies generally, and for the study mentioned above in particular, will be examined. The strengths and limitations of using combinations of research techniques will be discussed. In light of technological advances and alternative research perspectives, future prospects for research designs, including that of a current study involving tertiary mathematics students, will be explored.

FOSTV95.180

Gender Equity, Citizenship Education and Inclusive Curriculum: Another Case of "Add Women and Stir"?

Victoria Foster

It is taken to be a truism that education is, or should be, in part a preparation for citizenship, directed towards active and successful participation by all students in a modern democratic society. However, despite the clear evidence of widely disparate outcomes from women's and men's education across western industrialised nations, the gendered nature of citizenship as both a philosophical and social educational goal has received little attention from educational theorists. This paper explores some of the ways in which education currently perpetuates women's lack of citizenship status and examines present developments in citizenship education in Australia.

There is a renewed interest in citizenship education internationally, with $25 million earmarked for spending in Australia. It is of great concern, therefore, that curriculum documents emerging in this field continue in a cursory fashion to treat women and girls as a "special interest" group, whose activities constitute an "alternative form of citizenship". An example is the major report of the Australian Civics Expert Group, "Whereas the People. Civics and Citizenship Education".

There are several problems for girls in this approach. First, it continues to ignore the distinction embedded in the curriculum between "productive", paid work and unpaid domestic/care work. It obfuscates the gendered nature of citizenship itself, with its accompanying notion of the free, autonomous citizen/individual who is in effect a masculine individual. That men's and women's lived experiences of citizenship are quite different has its parallels in the ways in which boys and girls utilise the curriculum. For instance, there is in Australia a strong imperative for girls to act as "caretakers" of the learning environment, moderating boys' behaviour in ways that subordinate their own needs as learners. Another example is the widespread sexual harassment of girls in Australian schools, as elsewhere.

The problems with present conceptions of citizenship education are illustrated by a discussion of recent hostile responses to an apparent move towards greater educational equality for girls in New South Wales.

Furthermore, a disturbing climate of hostility around the refrain,"What about the boys! " is echoing internationally, and the paper includes research from an international conference on gender and education held in June, 1995 at the University of Umea, Sweden.

The investigation of attitude-environment associations involved using simple, multiple and canonical correlational analyses, and multilevel analysis. For the purpose of exploring differences in perceptions between the different groups, multivariate analyses on variance (MANOVA) for repeated measures were performed with the relevant variables.

The findings revealed the existence of positive associations between the nature of the chemistry laboratory classroom environment and the studentsA attitudinal outcomes. In addition, it was found that perceptions of students and teachers differed; that girls held more favourable perceptions than boys; and the students of different abilities differed only in their preferred perceptions.

FRASJ95.063

The Effects of Word Properties on Reading Ability

Jacqueline Fraser, Frances Martin, Chris Pratt

The aim of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that children with a specific reading disability (SRD) experience a general deficit in phonological processing but that this deficit will be more evident in words containing consonant clusters and digraphs.

Phonological processing refers to an individual's sensitivity to the sound structure of language and there ability to make use of this when decoding words.

Certain aspects of a word's linguistic properties have been shown to affect a phoneme's accessibility. The present experiment analysed the effects of the word properties, consonant clusters, consonant digraphs, and vowel digraphs, on the reading of non-words by 15 children with SRDs, and 30 average readers (15 matched for reading age, and 15 matched for chronological age). Children with an SRD were required to have a reading lag of 2.0 years below average. All subjects read 80 non-words, all consistent and regular according to English orthography, presented randomly on cards, 20 containing consonant clusters, 20 containing consonant-pair digraphs, 20 containing vowel-pair digraphs, and 20 without consonant clusters or digraphs. Children with an SRD performed generally at a lower level than both the reading and age matched controls, whose performance was better than reading-matched controls. Performance was also worse on words with consonant clusters and digraphs suggesting that these constructions require more explicit training.

FRASJ95.064

Use of Orthographic and Phonological Strategies in Decoding Words, by Average Readers and Children with Specific Reading Disabilities

Jillian Fraser, Frances Martin, Chris Pratt

A specific reading disability (SRD) involves an unexpected and substantial reading lag, average or above IQ scores, and no gross behavioural problems, organic disorders, or negative environmental influences. It has been claimed that children with an SRD have phonological processing deficits, or more precisely, impairments in accessing or operating the phonological processing route of the dual-route model of word recognition. This phonological processing deficit hypothesis was investigated in three groups of 15 participants (those with an SRD, reading matched controls, and age matched controls). Each participant completed a deletion task, in which a single letter or sound was to be removed from a word. In each case the deletion resulted in a new word. The participant was asked to pronounce the new word according to the sound of the new word based on the sound of the existing word, or according to the spelling of the new word. For example 'snow' becomes 'no' phonologically or 'now' orthographically when 's' is deleted. Participants were given phonological and orthographic response instructions and presentation of the word lists were visual and auditory. The visual presentation/phonological response task required transference from orthographic processing to phonological response. Results showed that children with an SRD performed poorly on this task, but performance improved on both the auditory presentation/phonological response task and the visual presentation/orthographic response task. This finding supports the importance of developing phonological processing skills and grapheme-to-phoneme conversion training within the classroom.

FREEM95.227

Computer based learning: Experiences from an experiment in tertiary business education

Mark Freeman

This paper has two objectives. The first objective is to review the role and success of computer based learning (CBL) in tertiary business education. The critical factors contributing to success are also explored. The second objective is to describe LearnBF, a computer based learning program for financial management, and report the preliminary results of an evaluation of its effectiveness.

Financial mismanagement is a leading feature contributing to corporate failure (Greatorex et al, 1994). Most if not all business degrees would contain a financial management subject. Satisfactory completion of financial management is also necessary for entry into the accounting profession, one of the most popular employment niches for business graduates. Surveyed after graduation by faculty administrators of the University of Technology Sydney, graduates saw financial management as the most relevant and useful subject in the degree.

Financial management students, like students elsewhere, are being affected by resource constraints. There has been an increased the reliance on lecturing as the most favoured form of delivery (Ramsden, 1992) and an increase in tutorial class sizes. Students are receiving less individualised attention and feedback to their individual problems and difficulties. This means that it takes longer for students to grasp basic concepts which can lead to frustration, be demotivating and seriously impair student learning as students attempt to solve problems of increasing complexity.

Various alternatives for coping with resource constraints without sacrificing student learning are being considered. CBL is one such alternative. After a review and evaluation of the role of CBL in tertiary business education, this paper reports the attempts to find existing CBL in financial management, all of which were unsuccessful.

After a discussion of the reasons for this lack of success of CBL in financial management, we turn to the second objective of the paper.

LearnBF, a computer based learning program for financial management, has been developed to overcome many of the problems identified with lectures and large classes in general. LearnBF is used by second year degree students completing Business Finance, the core financial management subject in the Bachelor of Business degree at the University of Technology Sydney. The primary aim of LearnBF is to help students learn by way of assessing their own progress and increasing the likelihood of individualised attention to their problems. LearnBF tries to achieve motivational and learning advantages by greater accessibility, interactive activities, deeper level learning questions, formative and summative performance feedback. Other advantages to teaching staff are explored in the paper as well.

The final section of the paper reports a preliminary evaluation of LearnBF in reaping the expected benefits. This was conducted by video, questionnaire and interview of students and staff. The findings of this formative evaluation are also discussed.

FRYJO95.173

Acknowledging the politics of difference: Researching among others

Joan Marion Fry

In this paper I discuss some of the dilemmas that emerge in research where cultural differences are being explored. In case studies of self-identity culture and physical activity in culturally diverse physical education classes, several power differentials, including distance/proximity, researcher/assistant, student/teacher, mainstream/minority, "Australian"/"Asian", are operating to influence the quality of the data. Instances are cited to illustrated how bias can be reduced and the integrity of the project maintained.

FRYJO95.174

Developing a video to support teacher education in Health and Physical Education - An evaluation

Joan Marian Fry, Carol Woodruff

As part of a team from Charles Sturt University that has been awarded a 1995 Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching grant, we have been preparing a video with written support material to enhance student teachers' understanding of outcomes as exemplified in the national curriculum. In this session we intend to present an evaluation of the process undertaken in preparing a resource to support teacher preparation in secondary health and physical education.

Analysis of student teacher feedback will be discussed. We also anticipate using input from participants at this seminar in refining the final products.

FURLJ95.172

Current Research on Provision of Teacher Education in England and Wales

John Furlong, Geoff Whitty, Sheila Miles, Caroline Whiting, Len Barton and Elizabeth Bartlett

This paper reports the current state of research in a wide ranging study of initial teacher education in England and Wales, the Modes of Teacher Education (MOTE) project. It is the first of two related papers presented at this AARE Conference, the other being a report on the Australian Survey of Initial Teacher Education (SITE) project. The MOTE project has been designed to provide a sharper focus to the policy debate about the nature, costs and benefits of initial teacher education. The study consists of a national survey of the various routes to qualified teacher status, a detailed examination of the a representative sample of fifty courses and an inquiry into the impact of changes in provision that are currently taking place in response to recent government policies. The present paper will concentrate on this last aspect, dealing with the nature of the student experience, course outcomes and the costs of teacher education provided by the growing diversity of routes, considering their implications for fostering of teacher competences and different styles of teacher professionalism.

Models of Training for Educational Psychologists

Alison Garton

With the forthcoming requirement of six years of university education and training as the minimum for full membership of the Australian Psychological Society, it is timely for those involved in the training of applied psychologists to reassess and evaluate their training programs. For those responsible for the training of educational psychologists (guidance officers), this involves consideration of both the content and the optimal duration of training. With increases to the length of training being mooted in England, Europe and the USA, training in Australia needs to take account of the expected roles and responsibilities of educational psychologists both in schools and as practising professionals. It is also essential to consider the value of requiring educational psychologists to have teaching qualifications in the light of changes being proposed to training courses in teaching and education.

This paper considers the traditional training models for educational psychologists in Australia and proposes new models in the context of professional changes for psychologists and educators. The nature of the postgraduate training necessary to produce competent educational psychologists is discussed as are the roles and responsibilities for which they are being trained, both in schools and in the broader community context. Examples are drawn from overseas and from Australia, including the newly introduced Master of Psychology (Education) program at the University of Tasmania.

GAVLM95.484S

Moving ahead in Science Teaching at Exeter Primary School

Marie Gavlick

Exeter Primary School enrols almost 650 students and serves a large rural area in the Tamar Valley between Launceston and the northern coast of Tasmania. Well over 90 percent of the students travel in 22 school buses. Parent and community involvement is a significant feature of the school.

Exeter Primary School needed a new Science Curriculum K-6 which would reflect the National Statements and Curriculum Profiles and the Department of Education and the Arts (DEA) Science Frameworks K-12, and at the same time relate to the interests and needs of the whole school community. A group of teachers was required to develop, during the year, policy, a curriculum broadsheet and unit resources ready for implementation in 1994 and 1995.

Coming to terms with my role in the school was demanding and a great deal was expected of me. Newly appointed to the school in a Senior Staff position I was required to:1. deliver the Science Curriculum 16 hours per week K-6;2. provide leadership in organisation of resources;3. develop a professional development programme for the staff; and4. achieve a high profile for Science in the whole school community.

In planning an appropriate programme it was necessary for me to first focus not only on Science Teaching in general but teaching and learning practices in particular which underpinned all that we do in the educational programme at Exeter. In addition, personal reflection was appropriate in first identifying factors influencing adult learning and in addition the leadership strategies I planned to use to bring about change in Science teaching and learning.

At the same time that the school embarked on this course, a scheme entitled "Key Teachers in Science Programme" was commenced by an officer from the DEA. Exeter Primary was approached and joined the programme. Key teachers were to be nominated or volunteered and underwent a series of school-based professional development workshops funded jointly by the DEA and the school. These were spread over two years, the final one being held in late 1994. The emphasis of the "Key Teachers in Science Programme" was the need for teachers to be comfortable in sharing their science teaching practices and approaches with teachers in their own school (Exeter) and with teachers from other schools in the district. A group of seven teachers became Key Teachers (Science) for Exeter Primary School.

People became involved in and committed to the Science Project at Exeter because the community of learners was turned on by Science. In my experience nothing excites teachers and parents more than student's enthusiasm, student's engagement in worthwhile learning and student's willingness to keep trying. Once we had established that there was something to "this Science Teaching" the whole community was hooked and committed their support to the programme in a variety of ways.

In this paper, I will discuss the development and implementation of the Science programme at Exeter Primary, and its impact on teachers and students.

GILLJ95.268

Schools for Girls: Past experience and future planning

Judith Gill

This paper reports on a study of a group of women who finished secondary education at a private girls' school in Melbourne in the late 1950s. The study was prompted by Janet McCalman's work in "Journeyings" and Lesley Johnson's analysis in "Modern Girls", both of which demonstrate the connections between schooling, class locations and popular consciousness as shaped by embryonic educational theory.

Australian girls' schooling in the fifties was characterised by traditional codes and values regarding women's role as moral gardians and home makers. The academic orientation of the school and of this particular group of women, all of whom entered tertiary education in the following years, was not seen to conflict with their adoption of traditional women's role. The participants were interviewed in terms of their recollections of school, their subsequent educational experiences and life choices and their attitudes to education generally. The paper attempts to contrast the schooling as experienced by the group of women with the social changes of subsequent decades in Australian society especially with respect to women's increased participation in the workforce. In particular the participants' views about the question of single sex schooling as compared to coeducation constitute a focus for the analysis. Ultimately it is argued that the social location of the group was far more instrumental in shaping subsequent life choices than was either the school's religious affiliation or its gender context. The findings are mapped on to current debates and research about school gender context. In conclusion it is argued that attitudes to particular features of schooling tend to be shaped by personal experience and are to varying degrees resistant to educational change.

GILLR95.125

The effects of Metacognitive Strategy and Attributional Interventions on the ability of students' to solve mathematical word problems

Rebecca Gillies, Richard Walker, Michael Bailey

Metacognition has been shown to be a determinant of success in a variety of academic settings, particularly in the domain of reading comprehension (Palinscar & Brown, 1984). Student achievement in metacognitive interventions has been further increased by the addition of an attributional component to training studies ( Carr & Borkowski, 1989; Chan, 1993). In the area of mathematics, strategy instruction has resulted in a reasonable degree of success (Montague & Bos, 1986), however, combined attributional training and strategy instruction has not been attempted. There are good reasons for believing that while metacognitive training in mathematics will enhance achievement, combined metacognitive and attribution training will improve achievement to a greater extent.

In this study, thirty-eight fifth grade students of mixed ability received mathematical strategy instruction over a period of four weeks.

The design involved two treatment types: strategy only instruction (N= 19) and combined attributional and strategy instruction (N=19). In addition, nine students from each treatment type acted as a control, prior to receiving the strategy only instruction or the combined instruction. The data from the study is currently being collected and will be analysed using the technique of analysis of covariance.

Palinscar, A.S., & Brown, A.L. (1984) Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities.

Cognition and Instruction, 1, 117-175.

Carr, M., & Borkowski, J.G. (1989). Attributional training and the generalisation of reading strategies with underachieving children.

Learning and Individual Differences, 1, 327-341.

Chan, L.K.S. (1993). Combined strategy and attributional training for seventh grade average and poor readers. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Fremantle. November 22- 25.

Montague, M., & Bos, C.S. (1986). The effect of cognitive strategy training on verbal math problem solving performance of learning disabled adolescents. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 19, 26-33.

GILLS95.142

Examination of the links between pre-employment qualifications and on the job competency based assessments

Shelley Gillis

The relationship between qualifications issued by training providers and on the job competency based assessments of employees is examined within the context of the automotive industry. The implications of relationships and lack of relationships are explored in terms of importance for the design of on the job training and Recognition of Prior Learning. The links and liaisons between on the job training and training provided by external providers are also explored as too are cost implications and the efficacy of a priori qualification for employment. Industrial relation issues are also explored.

GODFJ95.353

Measuring student perceptions about academic cheating in independent schools

John Godfrey, Russell Waugh

The prevalence of academic cheating in schools has been consistently appearing in the scholarly and mass media literature for several decades. The phenomenon is of concern to both teachers and school administrators. Cheating by students has become an important issue to be addressed by teachers because of the increased opportunities to cheat with the introduction of assignments done outside class time.

The questionnaire used to collect the data covered six main aspects regarding cheating: perceptions of the seriousness of cheating, perceptions of what constitutes cheating, perceptions of why cheating occurs, perceptions of how cheating can be discouraged, past behaviour about cheating and the attitudes towards cheating in examinations and assignments. Data from 694 students aged 15 to 18 years old in 13 schools in an Independent School system from all States of Australia (except WA) was collected.

The data were analysed in two ways. Firstly, uni-dimensional scales were constructed of variables proposed in a model of cheating. Zero order and multiple regression techniques were calculated to check on the relationships between the variables in the model. The second analysis used an Extended Logistic Model of Rasch which calculated item affectivities for all the items fitting the model on the same continuum.

Separate scales for males and females consisting of attitude statements marking off equal intervals were constructed from those attitude statements fitting the model and are recommended for use in measuring student perceptions of cheating. These scales are helpful in understanding student beliefs about cheating, factors operating in cheating behaviour, and methods of discouraging cheating.

The analysis suggested implications for further research in building models of moral behaviour and for teachers in their efforts to overcome cheating.

GONIM95.136

Theory to Practice: An Evaluation of Scaffolding as a Technique to Facilitate Self-Directive Learning Processes

Margaret Goninan

Some educational authorities have attempted to improve the quality of teacher education by relocating a high proportion of their programs from universities to school-based sites. This process has often involved the partial replacement of university lecturers with practicing teachers who act as mentors, while maintaining their active class teaching role. If such a devolution of influence is to gather momentum, there are a number of concerns that will need to be addressed. Perhaps the most serious of these concerns is that a reduction in the participation of university-based teaching will encourage the maintenance of an educational status quo.

Whatever the outcome of this debate, the role of field experience will remain paramount, and the links between university and school-based components will be critical. Just how such links can be strengthened is an important research question, given the large body of work that suggests that these links can be very tenuous.

The present research focuses on an approach to engage the student teacher more fully in making his/her own links between theory and practice. It addresses the student's skills in setting goals which reflects the theory/practice link, and examines the strategies used by students to achieve these goalsThe paper will present the results of the evaluation of a task which was given to student teachers. This task was designed to act as a scaffolding mechanism to enable them to articulate goals and develop strategies to facilitate achievement of those goals. The resultant data will be presented to show the effectiveness of the strategy, and suggest future directions for research.

GORDC95.070

Learning to learn - Teaching to learn

Christopher Gordon, Levan Lim, David McKinnon, Florence Nkala, Judith Parker

GRAHA95.320

'Is Working Nation Working?' An examination of the dis-ease in the relationship between education and employment from a regional perspective

Anne Graham, Leonie Jennings & Lee Dunn.

This paper provides an overview of current research by the authors into the implementation of Working Nation initiatives on the North Coast of NSW. Attention will be focused on labour market programs (LMPs), with their emphasis on training and 'job readiness'. In line with the theme of this conference, the contribution of LMPs from the persective of yesterday, today and tomorrow will be examined.

The paper specifically targets the problematic relationship between the education and labour markets. The discourse of 'outcomes' is examined in some depth. Concerns will be raised in regard to the difficulty of reconciling economic imperatives with social policy objectives using education as a vehicle. It will be argued that such instrumentalism will fall short of it's intended objective of finding work for the unemployed.

GREEB95.291

Poststructuralism and Pedagogy: Educational research, teacher education and practical theory

Bill Green, Jo-Anne Reid

GRIFP95.140

Consequences of False Positive Assessments of Competence in Hazardous Materials Knowledge. An IRT analysis of misfits

Patrick Griffin

This project examined the assessment and training of fire service offices in a unit designed to develop underpinning knowledge for first responder Hazardous materials. The training program was conducted using a range of contexts and simulation exercises. Given the nature of the exercise on job assessment proved limited and underpinning knowledge was considered as an a priori condition for further training.

The test was developed by officers in the fire brigade. The assessment research Centre developed the evaluation and from this the instruments for course evaluation. Item response analysis allowed the identification of consistent ad inconsistent patterns of response and has identified potential false positive assessments. Methods of identification using item response analysis are discussed and consequences of both false positive and false negative competency assessment in industrial settings are outlined. the approaches to instrument development using a quality management approach are outlined in the paper.

GRONP95.280

Leading the Lucky Country: Australian traditions of leadership and education

Peter Gronn

During modernization and industrialization (circa 1800 to the present) different traditions of leadership and management took root in most public and private sector institutional elites in western societies.

In those countries with an imperial, but not a feudal, past - like Australia - these traditions usually comprised a mixture of diffused, derivative, and some nascent indigenous practices. This presentation outlines the various patterns of leadership amongst men and women comprising the elites of the Australian educational sector, with particular reference to schools, colleges and universities, especially since Federation. It synthesizes a selection of published biographical and historical sources on key individuals, sectors, agencies, organizations and networks, as well as the various managerial and training programmes which were founded between the 1st World War and the 1970s. It addresses the question of why there has been such a relatively late blooming of Australian models (post-World War 2 - 1960s) and the extent to which the nation has been well served by its leader, management and elite formation programmes. Was Donald Horne's scathing dismissal of the provincialism of Australian elites in The Lucky Country (1964), for example, valid for the period under review, and does it remain valid as the nation approaches the centenary of Federation?

GROUS95.012

Symposium: "Education Reform & Restructuring: Working for Learning"

Coordinator: Susan Groundwater-Smith

Presenters: Peter Cuttance, Vivienne White, Susan Groundwater-Smith and Judyth Sachs

The purpose of the symposium is to provide a forum for public discussion of significant aspects of teacher education reform and workplace restructuring. The focus will be specifically upon ways in which national partners, such as the National Schools Network, the Australian Teaching Council and participating universities in the Innovative Links Project have come together to develop career long professional development practices based upon workplace learning.

The symposium will provide both an account of aspects of change and a well grounded critique. It will address the following questions: What are the images of restructuring in the present and the future? How does teachers' work, in the school and university sectors, relate to student learning? Who are the stakeholders in the reform process and how do they relate one to the other? What is the nature of the professional knowledge produced by reform and restructuring processes? How is that knowledge collectively constructed, critiqued, circulated and transacted? What are the testimonies of the participants?Restructuring and reform will be presented as political action in the face of the better known reform agenda in which teachers are the objects of the reform rather than proactive agents.

The participants will be representative of the various sectors: schools, universities, employing authorities and teacher professional associations. The presentation will be interactive and provocative.

GROVS95.187

Practical Mechanics in Primary Mathematics: A Preliminary Report

Susie Groves, Brian Doig

Practical Mechanics in Primary Mathematics is a two year research project, funded by the Australian Research Council, carried out in collaboration with Julian Williams' Mechanics in Action Project in the UK.

Research indicates that children's spontaneous concepts in mechanics clash with accepted scientific concepts, are remarkably resistant to change and are already deep-seated by grade 4. Practical Mechanics in Primary Mathematics is designed to investigate ways in which practical activities can be used to foster links between upper primary children's spontaneous concepts and Newtonian mechanics.

The first phase of the project, being carried out in 1995, is examining how children interact with equipment-based practical mechanics activities. In particular: Which aspects of such activities are attended to by children? What mathematical and other techniques are used by children to record and represent their experiences? What is the nature of the discussions between children? Forty grade 5 and 6 children are being video-taped while working in groups of five on a series of practical activities, after which they are interviewed individually.

During 1996, teaching experiments will be carried out in five grade 5 and 6 classrooms to determine the extent to which an appropriate program of practical mechanics activities, in which teachers have a knowledge of the children's spontaneous concepts; draw children's attention to the critical features of the activities; encourage effective recording and representation; and engage children in discussions which support theory building; results in a shift towards more formal scientific concepts by the children.

This paper will outline the project and briefly report on the first phase.

GRUNS95.263

In whose interests? Competing discourses in the policy and practice of school restructuring

Shirley Grundy and Stewart Bonser

This paper reports research which has formed the first phase of an ARC funded project investigating restructuring in Australian schools. The aim of this research project is to generate knowledge about the ongoing restructuring of Australian education (across State systems) with a particular focus upon the organisation and management of the work practices of students, teachers and school administrators. The scope of the project is necessarily broad since educational restructuring can be understood in terms of at least three interlocking conceptual frameworks: - education as a form of cultural activity directed towards individual and social wellbeing; - education as a public sector industry informed by corporatist managerial effectiveness principles;- education as an aspect of the economic structure of the nation, which is subject to the efficiency discourses of micro-economic reform and of industrial restructuring.

A major focus for the initial phase of the project has been an investigation of the policy context of the school restructuring discourse. As part of this investigation, interviews with the Chief Executive Officers (or their nominees) and with the Presidents of Teachers Unions were conducted.

This paper has arisen from an analysis of the transcripts of these interviews and of other pertinent policy documentation. Textual analysis has identified the ways in which the above conceptual frameworks are represented in the discourses of these various stakeholders. One of the underlying problematising themes of this analysis is the question of who (or what) will benefit from the restructuring initiatives currently being undertaken. The paper explores the arguments about supposed benefit.

GURTJB95.081

Rural Women Teachers: Their Story and Praxis

Jenny Gurtner, Barry Cocklin

At the 1994 AARE Conference, we tabled the initial data gathered in a case study of three women teachers located in a small rural primary school in New South Wales. The study has now been completed and we are able to bring together the data gathered through the biographical, oral history, methodology we adopted. In particular, we provide an elaboration of the lived experiences of these teachers, located within a gender and rural context, as issues of their biography impact upon their praxis. We also examine issues of methodology and analysis as they apply to the research approach and seek to develop parameters for further investigation of rural women teachers.

Lifelong education: An idea come of age?

Paul Hager

When the notion of 'lifelong education' was launched in the 1970s by UNESCO it received widespread criticism, particularly from within educational circles. Central to this was the claim that the notion of 'lifelong education' confused learning with education. In the 1990s 'lifelong education' has made a significant reappearance and this time the reception seems to have been somewhat more favourable. This paper will trace this changed reception to two interrelated factors. Firstly, the arguments proposed against lifelong education in the 1970s no longer seem as cogent as they did then. Secondly, a diverse range of developments within both educational research and practice have created a climate which is much more in accord with the principles of 'lifelong education' than was the case in the 1970s.

HAGEP95.199

Key competencies and workplace learning

Paul Hager, Andrew Gonczi and Cristina Schwenke

The authors have been involved recently in several research projects focused on the incidence of the Mayer key competencies in training and assessment practices in the workplace. This paper will outline some of this research and discuss the significance of its findings which are based on case studies that include the following industries: metals, hardware, electrical, hospitality, clerical/administrative, information technology and hairdressing. Issues addressed in the paper include

• the extent to which generic key competencies figure in current workplace training and assessment practices
• strategies for the more effective incorporation of generic key competencies into workplace training and assessment practices+ the extent to which there is occupational variance in workplace deployment of generic key competencies
• the relationships between on-the-job and off-the-job assessment.
  
  

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  HALLJ95.119

  Paper
  

  Perceptions of Giftedness - A case study of teachers of young children

  Janice Hall

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  HALSC95.148

  Paper
  

  Do teachers regard Australia as part of Asia? An educational and political dilemma

  Chris Halse and Neil Baumgart

  Current Federal and State government policy seeks to locate Australia economically, politically and socially within Asia. Some of the most strategic initiatives have been in education and included the teaching and learning of Asian languages, cross-curricula Studies of Asia, and related resource development. The success of such programs depends not only on teachers' knowledge about Asian peoples and countries but also their degree of intercultural understanding.

  
  

  This paper reports on a national project which investigated the views of teachers about Australia and selected Asian countries. The study drew on inter-disciplinary literature to construct a conceptual framework encompassing the world views of different cultures and providing the basis for an instrument to illuminate teachers' perspectives on peoples, countries and cultures of the region.

  
  

  The investigation of "Inter-Cultural Understanding in Education" (identified by acronym I-CUE) analysed key I-CUE variables from a sample of teachers across Australia. The findings provide some surprising insights into teachers' views and I-CUE on Asia and Australia which suggest that teachers' perspectives are a constraint in the development of students' intercultural understanding.

  
  

  Such findings pose a political and educational dilemma. Meyer argued that cultural understanding ought be an essential outcome for school leavers but the I-CUE study indicates that more fundamental issues must be addressed. Given international trends towards globalisation, the national priority on bridging the Australia-Asia gulf and the multi-cultural profile of local classrooms, the I-CUE findings highlight the urgency of implementing strategies which foster teachers' inter-cultural understanding.

  
  

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  HAMMJ95.101

  Paper
  

  Movement Deprivation in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) - Case Study

  John Hammond, Judith Sprinkle

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  HANRM95.325

  Paper
  

  Personal writing for learning in a science education PhD

  Mary Hanrahan, Tom Cooper, Sue Burroughs-Lange

  In spite of rhetoric about "the social construction of meaning", it has been our experience that it is difficult for doctoral students in science education research to break out of the shackles of traditional experimental notions of research. Even when qualitative methods are used, we find that a linear program within a single paradigm has been assumed and findings are expected to be "objective". It is our experience that both subjectivity and major changes in epistemological beliefs are discouraged in doctoral studies. However, we believe that it is more consistent with recent developments in educational theory for such factors to be accepted and reported as a legitimate part of the learning process in a doctorate. This paper reports on an innovative approach to doing a doctorate in which Mary has used personal writing to increase the relevance, autonomy and quality of her learning. The personal writing consisted of reflective and critical journal and letter writing with which Mary dealt with the affective, social and moral factors she believed to be an integral part of deep learning in a social science. The paper describes how this had consequences for her research on improving autonomy, motivation and learning in Year 8 science students. The paper discusses how personal and students writing have been found to be a highly motivating and powerful technique for research and learning, and one which has led Mary to see the need to actively involve both teachers and students in research on teaching and learning.

  
  

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  HARRK95.031

  The corporate invasion of schooling: exploring the matter and ethics of the jungle

  Kevin Harris

  This paper examines and provides examples of the recent upsurge in the corporate sector's involvement with schooling, and reports on one aspect of the effects on teachers' work of the recent Coles "Apples For Students" 'program'. It then examines attitudes to corporate involvement in schools as expressed by leading figures such as Teacher Union executives, Ministers For Education, and the Director General of the NSW Department of School Education, and from this it demonstrates that confusion and contradiction have characterised the debate. The paper then identifies, and offers preliminary discussion of, the central pragmatic, educational and ethical issues involved (e.g. ought schools be regarded differently from other institutions; precisely what aspects and practices of corporate involvement are objectionable; can the means justify the ends (money, resources); is teachers' work adversely affected; does corporate involvement favourably complement devolved responsibility for schooling; what makes a sponsor (e.g.

  
  

  Westpac, Benson and Hedges) suitable or unsuitable; etc.). Finally, the Draft Guidelines recently produced by the Schools Sponsorship Working Group (chaired by Stephen O'Doherty, NSW Shadow Minister For Education and Training) are considered and evaluated in terms of the issues identified above.

  
  

  NOTE: Any changes to the status and/or content of these Guidelines will be incorporated into the final paper.

  
  

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  HARRR95.459S

  Paper
  

  Steering the Australian VET system: The role of resource allocation

  Ross Harrold

  ANTA and its agencies are responsible for developing national and state strategiv plans for VET. Governments direct their VET budgets through ANTA to fund plan implementation.

  
  

  To what extent and in what ways do these authorities design active resource allocation mechamisms to provide patterns of incentives and sanctions to ensure that public and private providers supply planned training services efficiently, effectively and responsively? This paper focuses on two approaches to active resource allocation: the development of a 'training market' and the payment of providers on the basis of skills learnt rather than on teaching effort.

  
  

  Educational and organisational implications of the implementation of these two resource allocation approaches are considered.

  
  

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  HASHR95.102

  Value-based Education in the Context of a Multi-Cultural and Multi-Religious Society: The Experience of Malaysia

  Rosnani Hashim, Zurida Ismail

  The Malaysian educational system endorses a value-based education for its populacewhich is multi-cultural and multi-religious. This is evident from the catchword values acrossthe curriculum, a major emphasis of the Integrated Curriculum for Secondary School. Thiscurriculum which is a translation of the National Education Philosophy (NEP), was implementedin 1988 and was considered to be a major step in educational reform in Malaysia. The goal ofthe NEP is to produce a good Malaysian citizen who (a) has a firm belief in God; (b) isknowledgeable and skillful; possesses high moral standard; (d) is responsible to his self,society, religion and nation; (e) contributes to the well-being of society, race, religion and nation;and (f) has a balanced personality.

  
  

  In the Integrated Curriculum, 16 universal values common to major religions in thecountry such as honesty, justice and truth, are to be assimilated indirectly through all subjectmatters taught in the school. Teachers were given briefing and in-service courses to steer theminto this new direction. Text books were rewritten to incorporate this new concept. Moraleducation classes were introduced to non-Muslim children in addition to existing Islamiceducation classes for Muslim children to ensure that direct teaching of moral values takes place.

  
  

  How effective has this curriculum been in meeting the objectives of the NEP? What areits problems and prospects especially within the context of a multi-cultural and multi-religiousnation? This paper seeks to examine this issue.

  
  

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  HATTJ95.279

  Paper
  

  The relationship between study skills and learning outcomes: A meta-analysis

  John Hattie, Nola Purdie

  There have been many studies investigating the relationship between various study skills and learning outcomes. The results of such studies are used by writers of many study skills programs to justify teaching students a pot pourri of study methods. It is increasingly clear, however, that there is not a best set of study skills. Instead, successful students are more likely to display versatility in the use of learning behaviours. Metacognitive awareness allows them to assess task requirements and situational restraints, and to be flexible in their choice of strategy to suit those conditions.

  
  

  This paper reports the results of a meta-analysis of 52 studies that investigated the relationship between a range of study strategies and outcomes measures. Of particular interest was the association between students' versatility in the use of study strategies and performance outcomes.

  
  

  The study skills measures were coded into two levels of categories, primarily using the Bigg's (1987) classification scheme. At the more general level, the categories included achieving, deep, and surface approaches (motives and strategies), general study skills, and learning pathologies (e.g., globetrotting, negative attitudes, disorganisation, work avoidance). At the second level, many of these were further sub-divided into specific strategies such as note taking, reviewing textbooks, memorisation, and time on task. The outcome measures were coded into eight major classifications. Ability, general achievement, subject based achievement, increasing memory, changing self-efficacy or self-concept, attitude, and enhancing study skills. In all, there were 653 correlations that could be coded for the meta-analysis.

  
  

  The average correlation between a study skill strategy and an outcome was .21. Of more interest than overall correlations, were the moderating effects on this overall correlation. Having many study skills (i.e., versatility), as assessed by total study skills scores, was positively related to outcomes. Various deep and achieving approaches were also positively related to outcomes. Surface approaches were negatively related to outcomes, although many surface strategies such as inflexibility and reproducing were unrelated to outcomes. Thus, most of the well known surface strategies are not helpful in enhancing achievement. In general, the strategies that students used were more related to outcomes than were their motives for study. Deep motives, particularly internal locus of control, were the only motives related positively to achievement. Merely increasing time on task was not highly correlated to outcomes. Self-regulation methods were also unrelated to outcomes.

  
  

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  HAYED95.345

  Fact & Fiction: Exploring ways of conceptualising the gender equity debate in Australia

  Debra Hayes

  This paper will report on research into the gender and education discourse in Australia. Although this research is informed by post-structuralist methods, a structural mapping of the gender and education discourse will be presented and form the basis upon which the discourse is analysed and deconstructed. The juxtaposition of these two seemingly incompatible methods reflects some of the tensions confronting educators, researchers and bureaucrats who are attempting to find new ways of thinking about gender equity issues whilst at the same time maintaining an awareness of the fictions inherent in any theory.

  
  

  Rather than engaging in the debate to support or challenge oppositional claims over whether girls or boys are most disadvantaged in education, I will attempt to identify some of the rules that regulate this discourse by asking questions such as: How has the debate been constructed in this way?; Whose interests are served by pitting girls against boys?; Who speaks with authority in this discourse and whose voice is silenced?

  
  

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  HEIDG95.134

  Teachers' Work: How the Structure of teachers' Work affects Implementation of School Based Health Education

  George van der Heide

  This paper presents one of the main outcomes of a study of the implementation of school based health education in primary and secondary schools. The study was designed to examine the factors leading to implementation and maintenance of health education employing a case study research design using qualitative methods. The literature on school effectiveness/improvement typically ascribes priority to the place of the school principal in facilitating school development and this study too has found that the principal's role is critical.

  
  

  However, the findings of this study highlight another part of the story about change and development in schools u the role of teachers.

  
  

  Teachers work is structured by numerous requirements, especially Departmental and/or school policy. This includes established practices and expectations that are systemic, school based and community based u from working conditions to mandatory reporting. These practices and expectations form the structure within which teachers' work takes place. The effects upon the implementation and maintenance of school based health education will be discussed. In addition, the constraints upon and, perhaps, opportunities for teachers' professional practice suggest directions which school based practice could take in the future.

  
  

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  HEIDG95.135

  Students and supervision II: The further views of postgraduate research students in education on supervision

  George van der Heide & Michael Gaffney

  This paper reports upon a survey of currently enrolled postgraduate students in education undertaking a thesis as all or part of their requirements for a higher degree. In part this study is a replication of one reported upon at the 1994 AARE Conference by the first author.

  
  

  Data on differences between students in thesis only courses and those in coursework plus thesis courses will be presented. Consistent differences between these two groups on most items extend not only to their views of supervisors but to how they view their own performance as research students as well. Differences due to gender, age and length of candidacy will also be reported. Implications for improving supervision practices and student performance will be presented.

  
  

  The analytical framework of the paper draws on Bernstein's post-structuralist theorisations of education systems (Bernstein, 1990, 1995). The paper proposes that educational discourses and practices need to be analysed at national level, local level and school level to understand the lack of syncronicity between them and thus the unevenness of process of change. The empirical findings reported in the paper are based on research undertaken by the authors on the processes of policy creation and implementation relating to school governance and organisation, curriculum, pedagogy and professionalism in England and Wales.

  
  

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  HENDD95.030

  Paper
  

  Interpersonal Behaviour, Learning Environments and Student Outcomes in Senior Biology Classes

  David Henderson, Darrell Fisher, Barry Fraser

  Interpersonal behaviour, learning environments and student outcomes in senior biology classesThe purpose of this study was to determine associations between students' perceptions of the classroom and laboratory learning environments and their attitudinal and achievement outcomes. A sample of 489 students from 28 biology classes in eight schools completed the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) and the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI). Responses to two attitude questionnaires, achievement on an external written examination and performance in practical tests were used as student outcome measures. Statistical analyses confirmed the reliability and validity of the QTI and SLEI when used with senior secondary biology students. Investigation were made of associations between students' perceptions of the learning environment and student outcomes and of the unique and common contribution of the QTI and SLEI scales. Results indicated that, associations of students' perceptions of the learning environment were stronger with the attitudinal outcomes than with cognitive or practical skills outcomes. Some commonality between the QTI and SLEI scales was found in their contributions to the variance in attitudinal outcomes but almost no commonality was found in their contributions to variance in cognitive and practical skills outcomes.

  
  

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  HENRC95.489S

  Paper
  

  Rethinking 'coursework' in the context of a distance EdD

  Colin Henry & Rob Walker

  EdD programs normally include an element of coursework. This raises the question of what function coursework plays in the context of a research degree and how such 'coursework' differs from that of MEd courses. Is it more of the same? Does it demand student work at a higher standard? Should it be taught or assessed differently? In the Deakin EdD we face the complicating issue of having to rethink these questions in the medium of distance education. In doing so we have assumed that there should be adiscontinuity between between masters and doctoral levels of study and that this issue needs to be addressed throught the processes of planning, teaching and evaluating the course.

  
  

  We began doing this by referring to the initial units of the degree as providing 'structured research tasks' rather than 'coursework' units.

  
  

  Materials are provided but they are custom made/assembled for the EdD, not recycled from the MEd. As we began working this through the convergence of the media which forms the background theme to this symposium shifted theground and caused us to rethink many of our assumptions about the provision of teaching at a distance. In this paper. In parallel to the discussions of supervision and computer mediated interaction discussed in the other papers, this paper will consider issues of course design and development.

  
  

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  HERRD95.497S

  Paper
  

  When collaborative initiatives make sense : Improving the learning expectations and outcomes of the students I teach

  Debra Herrman

  Orchard Grove is a Victorian primary school and has been a participant in a National Professional Development Project which involved analysing from a school perspective the implementation of the Health and Physical Education Curriculum statement and profile for Australian schools.

  
  

  This collaborative initiatives included universities and education systems in Victoria and Queensland.

  
  

  This presentation provides an overview of the project in practice in a prep/grade 1 classroom at Orchard Grove. It recounts the history of the school involvement from initial reactions, "here we go again, yet another document to review and teach to" ; reactions to the professional development from Deakin University and the Board of Studies, "does action research have anything to offer a classroom teacher?" and later to more positive reflections, ".the project has provided a chance for me to reflect on my methodology and in fairness, change some of my practices.and to interlink more of those concepts that were only often incidental".

  
  

  The potential for collaborative initiatives to influence longer term curriculum outcomes in schools will be discussed in the context of the effect of the project on the school as a whole.

  
  

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  HICKC95.156

  Promoting Critical Pedagogies in Physical Education: The Limits to Rational Change

  Chris Hickey

  The development and promotion of critically sensitive pedagogies for physical education has been an ongoing interest for a number of prominent critical educators in Australia. Taking up this challenge this paper reports on the implementation of a pre-service unit which sought to introduce student-teachers to critical conceptualisations of good teaching in physical education. In particular the unit was established to challenge and/or critique the dominant discourses thought to restrict learning in physical education.

  
  

  As an interpretative lens the paper draws on Brian Fay's (1987) account of a critical social science and the limitations to liberation. While maintaining an ontology of activism (that values the individual's potential to act on their rational self-clarity) Fay's metatheoretical account of the critical project recognises that humans are also ontologically embedded, embodied, traditional and historical beings.

  
  

  The paper will draw on these ontological amendments to describe and interpret empirical data gleaned from undergraduate primary school physical education teachers while undertaking the critically motivated unit. I will describe how student teachers struggled with the conceptualisation and implementation of critical discourses in teaching physical education.

  
  

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  HINDI95.467S

  Paper
  

  School global budgets in Victoria

  Ian Hind

  The framework for the Schools of the Future Program in Victoria, known as School Global Budgeting has resulted in the allocation of 90 per cent of the Directorate's recurrent funding directly to schools through a range of school and student indices of need. A major research project involving 83 schools of various types and sizes has guided the development of the indices and has provided data for monitoring and evaluation of the funding policy framework.

  
  

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  HODGJ95.016

  Paper
  

  Toward Sustainable Economic Development: Curriculum Research and Design

  Judy Hodgman

  Designers and design educators are expected to play a major role in any restructuring of industry as design practice is a key mechanism for adding value by producing new products and redeveloping existing ones.

  
  

  The challenges and expectations facing design and technology educators, therefore, is to provide a curriculum that accommodates manufacturing and service industries goals, which are - to become competitive in the international market place and develop long term strategies for sustainable, economic development (SED).

  
  

  For this to be achieved, it would seem essential that students pursuing a career in one of the design professions need an understanding of the economic, cultural and social complexities of each country, or countries and information on how consumerism effects global economies and environments.

  
  

  This paper analyses the way potential design practitioners are educationally prepared to provide for these industrial and consumer needs in the context of design education policy and practice. The interactive links between industry, education and the consumer are identified in order to provide a social picture that informs the educator of how best to achieve the long term educational goal of sustainable, economic development through curriculum design and reform.

  
  

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  HOGAD95.383

  School Governance and Student Outcomes in Tasmania

  David Hogan and Stephen Lamb

  This paper will report on a current research project at the University of Tasmania that integrates a unique blend of survey data, case study and polity action research to identify patterns of school governance in Tasmania and their relationship to a variety of student, teacher, school and community outcomes.

  
  

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  HOGAD95.384

  From Citizenship to Civics Education

  David Hogan, Mary Fearnley-Sander

  This paper will review a range of research, curricula and pedagogical questions that confront current efforts to develop a civics education program for Australian schools. The paper will focus particularly on a number of normative issues.

  
  

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  HOLBA95.165

  Paper
  

  A Historical Perspective on Discipline in NSW Classrooms

  Allyson Holbrook

  The first section of the paper sets out the rules and procedures governing discipline in NSW schools during the first half of this century and examines educational and social comment on the subject.

  
  

  The second section draws on some 100 oral history interviews to examine what oral history can contribute to our knowledge of what actually happened in classrooms, and to provide some insight into how pupils made sense of teachers' methods for controlling the class and how they felt about, and reacted to, such forms of control. An analysis of the interview transcripts reveals that teachers were perceived as falling into distinct categories based on the way they controlled their classes, indeed, their methods of control were very central to the way children summed them up and reacted toward them generally. From thetranscripts it also becomes clear that a significant number of teachers were not guided by regulations about corporal punishment and sometimes ignored them in spectacular fashion. Such behaviour was certainly not visible in public statements on education, but it is clear that officials were concerned about the practice. The paper also examines how children perceived their parents' response to teacher discipline.

  
  

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  HOLBA95.167

  Was there a transition? An historical investigation of teacher training during the first half of this century and the transition experiences of young people entering teaching

  Allyson Holbrook and Peter Brandon

  The first author is engaged in a large scale project investigating youth transition from school to work in NSW during the late 1920s to the early 1950s which involves several hundred oral history interviews.

  
  

  The second author is investigating the provision of, and approaches to, teacher training in NSW over a longer period (late 1800s to 1970s) based primarily on archival sources. Drawing on the combined information from these two studies, this paper provides a contextualised account of the transition and training experiences of a small group of male and female teacher trainees in NSW colleges early this century. It also attempts to investigate, from an historical perspective, the truth or otherwise behind the commonly held perception, that young people who passed direct from school to teacher training were not only deficient in the experiences they brought to the classroom, but that they were also unquestioning servants of the state.

  
  

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  HOLLR95.051

  Paper
  

  S.P.A.C.E. - A Model of Teacher Learning

  Royce Holliday

  It is proposed that the paper will explain the model of teacher learning that has emerged from my PhD research completed in 1994. The model has arisen out of analyses of the literature on adult learning and on teachers as learners as well as other literature and from interviews with teachers in the USA, the UK and in Australia using a conversational-cum-conversational approach. Two different qualitative research computer programs (HyQual and N.U.D.I.S.T.) assisted in the processes of analysis and of conflation of concepts.

  
  

  The S.P.A.C.E. model was developed not only as a way of summarising the findings of my research, but more importantly as a heuristic device, one which provides a new and useful way of conceptualising teacher learning and the influences on that learning. The model provides a particular definition of "conditions of teacher learning" in general and of each of the specific conditions: Self, Personal Meaning, Action, Collegiality, and Empowerment. They influence each other in ways that are described as being both synergetic and symbiotic. Other influences are described as being proximal and distal. The former involves a teacher's willingness and ability to learn, and amongst the latter can be found the answer to the question of what brings about a teacher's willingness and ability to learn.

  
  

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  HONEA95.247

  An investigation of the validity of graded response formats through the use of latent trait theory

  Alan Honeyman

  This research utilises recent theoretical developments in test theory to problematise the validity of a very commonly occurring type of test question. The question type is that in which partial credit is awarded for an incomplete or partially correct response. Widespread use of this kind of question has resulted in the development of an informal appreciation of how the scoring and working of the question may reduce its validity. Three issues which may reduce validity are formalised in this paper. These issues are: (i).dependence between the scoring components of the question, (ii) the ordering of scoring components in terms of their difficulty, and (iii) the marking policy for awarding credit to response components which follow a point of error. Each of these characteristics is modelled in a series of simulation studies, and interpreted in terms of effects on validity.

  
  

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  HOONC95.356

  Moral orientations of selected students in a Malaysian secondary school

  Chang Lee Hoon

  Moral Education is being taught as a formal subject in Malaysian schools. The subject is taught to non-Muslim students while the Muslim students attend Islamic Education classes. The general aim of Moral Education is to develop individuals of good character by means of inculcation, internalisation and practice of the core values of the Malaysian society. In implementing the subject, moral issues and situations are generally given as stimulus materials for discussion and students are expected to give rational reasons for their decisions based on the selected core values. The proposed paper presents the findings of an investigation of the moral orientations of selected students in a Malaysian secondary school. The moral orientations include the reasons given by students when presenting an argument primarily based on their personal ideas in a given moral situation. The study also investigates the moral orientations of students from two different perspectives, namely gender and ethnic-origin perspectives within the context of the Malaysian society.

  
  

  Individual interviews were conducted using three Kohlberg's `culturally-universal' dilemmas and one `culturally-related' dilemma, developed by the researcher. The respondents were also asked to relate their personal experiences in relation to the issues similar to those raised in the `culturally-related' dilemma. The interviews were conducted in a urban secondary school in Kuala Lumpur and four Form Four students from different gender and ethnic-origin background participated in this study. The findings presented in this paper would relate the similarities and differences in the viewpoints of the selected students in the Malaysian cultural context.

  
  

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  HOONC95.357

  The practices of beginning teachers

  Chang Lee Hoon, Norani Mohamed Salleh, Wan Hasmah Wan Mamat

  Newly qualified teachers or beginning teachers are generally expected to assume full responsibilities of professional teachers from the first day they report to school. From the bureaucratic viewpoint the transition from being student-teachers to qualified teachers would be unproblematic. However what are the realities of their practices in the schools? What are the responsibilites of these beginning teachers? Do the conditions in their work places promote professional growth, develop confidence and motivate these newly qualified teachers to become competent in the teaching profession?This paper reports on a three-phrase study on the practices of beginning teachers in their first three years of teaching in secondary schools throughout Malaysia. For the first phase, mailed questionnaires were sent to graduates of the Diploma of Education programme from the University of Malaya teaching in Kuala Lumpur and the state of Selangor, secondly in all the states in Peninsular Malaysia and thirdly in the states of Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia. Interviews were then conducted to about 10 per cent of the actual number of responses from both Peninsular and East Malaysia. The findings revealed shocking realities that may adversely affect good practices such as teaching subjects for which they are not trained, performing duties and responsibilites that the senior teachers know enough to avoid and many voiced out frustrations and regrets being in the teaching profession.

  
  

  In the light of the findings, the study proposes mentoring system in the schools be seriously considered as a positive effort to help these beginning teachers.

  
  

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  HOUGJ95.207

  Paper
  

  The VCE - Patterns of enrolment 1992 - 1995

  John Houghton, Chris Reynolds

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  HOWAP95.282

  Manipulatives in K-6 mathematics learning and teaching

  Peter Howard, Bob Perry

  This paper reports on the initial phase of a continuing research agenda designed to investigate the relationship between the use of manipulatives (concrete materials) in mathematics learning and teaching in primary schools and the approaches taken to this learning and teaching. It reports on baseline data from 25 schools in Sydney concerning primary teachers' knowledge about and acceptance of the use of manipulatives in the development of K-6 children's mathematical concepts. Data on the following questions is analysed.

  1. What manipulatives are employed in the learning and teaching of mathematics in years K-6?
  2. How are these manipulatives used?
  3. Are there differences in the use of manipulatives across the years K-6?
  4. Are there differences in the use of manipulatives across different strands of mathematics such as Number, Measurement, Space and Chance and Data?
  5. What factors influence the choice of K-6 teachers to either use or not use manipulatives in their mathematics lessons?
  6. Over the last ten years, have teachers changed the ways in which manipulatives are used in the learning and teaching of mathematics?
  
  

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  HSIEW95.348

  Criteria to Select Cooperating Teachers for Elementary Provisional Teachers

  Wen-ying Hsieh and Yuehluen Hu

  The main purpose of this study was to investigate the criteria to select cooperating teachers for elementary provisional teachers.

  
  

  This study employed self-devised questionaries on the educational professors of teachers' college, administrators and supervisor of Ministry of Education, Department of Education and Bureau of Education, principals, grade principals, elementary teachers and elementary provisional teachers, who graduated from teachers' colleges in 1994. A total of 1,750 questionnaires were sent to the subjects. Nine hundred and ninety-five (56.86%) questionnaires were returned, and 907 were used in this analysis, accounting for 91.6% of collected copies.

  
  

  The results revealed the following: The qualifications and characteristics to be weighed in selecting cooperating teachers for elementary provisional teachers included 20 criteria in the following 4 areas: (1) professionalism; (2) teaching competency; (3) competency in guidance; and (4) competency in handling adiministrative affairs.

  
  

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  HSIEW95.349

  Criteria to Select School Sites for Elementary Provisional Teachers

  Wen-ying Hsieh and Yuehluen Hu

  The main purpose of this study was to examine the criteria to select school sites for elementary provisional teachers.

  
  

  This study employed self-devised questionnaires on the educational professors of teachers' college, administrators and supervisors of Ministry of Education, Department of Education and Bureau of Education, principals, grade principals, elementary teachers and elementary provisional teachers, who graduated from teachers' colleges in 1994. The copies of questionnaire dispatched were 1,750 in total, and 995 among them were re-collected; hence the percentage of the copies shipped back yielded 56.86. Effectual copies among the answered questionnaires amounted to 907, accounting for 91.6% of collected copies.

  
  

  The finding showed that:Criteria to select school sites for elementary provisional teachers should bear 28 standards in the seven areas depicted below, according to the order of importance respectively: (1) administration and organizational climate; (2) disciplinary and advisory activities; (3) merits of the teaching staff; (4) teaching equipment. Other supplementary conditions were: (5) teaching environment; (6) resources and environment of the school community; and (7) location and capacity of the school.

  
  

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  HSIEW95.388

  Criteria to Select Supervisory Professors for Elementary Provisional Teachers

  Wen-ying Hsieh and Yuehluen Hu

  This study aimed to explore the criteria to select supervisory professors for elementary provisional teachers.

  
  

  This study employed self-devised questionaries on the educational professors of teachers' college, administrators and supervisors of Ministry of Education, Department of Education and Bureau of Education, principals, grade principals, elementary teachers and elementary provisional teachers, who graduated from teachers' colleges in 1994. A total of 995 of 1,750 questionnaires were returned, for a rate of 56.86%, and 907 were used in this analysis, accounting for 91.6% of collected copies.

  
  

  The qualifications and characteristics to be weighed in selecting supervisory professors from colleges rearing provisional teachers include at least the following 8 criteria from 2 areas. Listed below are these standards, according to the chain of importance:

  
  

  a. Professionalism

  1. Can have control over elementary education and combine theories with teaching practice.

  
  

  2. Has an upstanding personality so as to be the model of both cooperating teachers and provisional teachers.

  
  

  3. To know very well with each teaching mode and contents of elementary education.

  
  

  4. Has substantial teaching experience and zest in education.

  
  

  b. Competency in guidance

  1. Adroit in observation and analysis; can apprehend provisional teachers' needs and pinpoint the right time to offer assistance and instruction.

  
  

  2. Is capable of communicating and tuning, of furthering the interaction between cooperating teachers, provisional teachers and the school, and of maintaining good contacts between them.

  
  

  3. Can, along with cooperating teachers, offer feasible teaching skills and modes to provisional teachers.

  
  

  4. Can extend feedbacks to cooperating and provisional teachers in accord with the performances of provisional teachers.

  
  

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  HURLA95.024

  Paper
  

  From ad hoc to quality provision: Integration in Victorian Education 1984 - 94

  Anne Hurley (Presenter: Maxine Cooper)

  The years 1984-94 saw many changes in Victorian education for children with disabilities. This paper provides an account of the decade.

  
  

  Utilising state government reports and policy documents, DSE curricula and memoranda, union publications and newspaper articles, it begins with the release of the 1984 Ministerial Review, outlines the success of the integration program under the Labor Government, documents the difficulties which were encountered and the educational reforms initiated by theLiberal-National Party Government elected in October, 1992. It concludes at the end of 1993; a turbulent year of educational budget cuts, teacher strikes, regional restructuring, self-managed schools, school closures and amalgamations, quality provision taskforces, and teacher redundancies.

  
  

  This historical account, which provides a background to the current position of children with disabilities in Victorian education addresses the AARE 95 theme of Directions - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. The initiatives and reforms characterised by this period will shape the lives and futures of these children.

  
  

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  ISMAZ95.252

  Collaborative supervision: Towards establishing partnerships with schools

  Zurida Haji Ismail

  Supervision is important in helping student teachers to improve instruction and enhance personal and professional development. The supervision of student teachers enrolled in the Teacher Education Program can be described as a dyadic arrangement made up of the student teacher and the university lecturers. Experienced teachers are rarely involved or utilized as sources of knowledge about practice. However, there is an urgent need for a collaborative approach since the number of students involved has increased over the years and the university's mission must be accomplished in a specified period. Using questionnaires and interviews, this study was designed to explore the teachers' perceptions and feelings about joint supervision, their perceived roles and responsibilities as supervisors, the types of guidance, training and orientation they would need, and the characteristics of an effective supervisor. The findings showed that teachers are in general receptive to the idea of joint or collaborative supervision. The senior subject teacher is seen as the most suitable person to be an advisor and supervisor to the student teachers and responsible for giving professional advise and guidance. Among the qualities of an effective supervisor include leadership abilities, vast experience and strong knowledge base, a deep sense of commitment and a pleasant personality.

  
  

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  Start A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

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  JAMEG95.485S

  Mathematical Reculturing at Smithton High School

  Greg JamesSmithton

  High School is a 7-12 school of about 550 students in a rural setting. It became involved in the SMTE Project as a result of innovation in its junior mathematics curriculum delivery. This paper will present and discuss the innovation at Smithton High School.

  
  

  A variety of circumstances combined to provide the necessary impetus for the innovation. They were:1. dissatisfaction of the eventual key teacher with the inability of students to apply their mathematical learning and to form lasting understandings of important mathematical concepts;2. the arrival of a like-minded head of department at the school;3. publication of national statements which supported the views of the eventual key teacher and the head of department;4. literature from the Tasmanian Department of Education and the Arts (DEA) supporting a constructivist model of learning;5. coping with heterogeneous groups;6. coping with "out of area" teachers; and7. identification of mathematics as a priority area by the DEA.

  
  

  The curriculum and pedagogical change stemming from these concerns started by identifying a key teacher and timetabling them onto a class in the target grade. This teacher prepared learning materials for others on the same grade to use. The materials were trialed, evaluated, improved and eventually published, although the binding was semi-permanent in order to facilitate continual improvements without having to republish the whole document. Paired discussions involving the key teacher were vital throughout this process.

  
  

  Visionary professional development of the key teacher was ongoing throughout the innovation and various models were trialed with the staff, although each model relied on the published learning materials and accompanying teacher notes. Parent workshops addressed the theoretical and practical implications of the innovation and the key teacher also formed links with teachers in the feeder primary schools.

  
  

  It was intended that teacher student relationships would change so that the teacher role was as a facilitator of learning rather than an expert imparting knowledge and the students were actively constructing meaning from experiences. This has happened to varying degrees at this stage.

  
  

  JEANB95.114

  Paper
  

  Stage Fright: Forms of Social-Moral Reasoning

  Bruce Jeans

  Most undergraduate teacher education programs include something about Kohlberg's stage theory of moral development. Kohlberg was influenced by Piaget's stage theory of cognitive development and hence the two theories share some common characteristics. One of these characteristics is the notion that reasoning about social-moral matters can be described by a series of progressively more powerful stages.

  
  

  Piagetian epistemology has paradigmatic status but the notion of stages is still problematic. This paper discusses the idea of psychological stages and the robustness of Kohlberg's theory. It is argued that the notion of stage is complex and that Kohlberg's theory may be more elegant than one can support with typical data. The concept of pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional reasoning is extremely useful but, on the basis of a large number of interviews, the author concludes that "types" may be more appropriate than "stages".

  
  

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  JEANB95.115

  Paper
  

  The Development of Professional Identity

  Bruce Jeans and Penny Forth

  Part of the socialisation of undergraduate teacher education students is the transition from self as student to self as teacher. It is clear that some students make the transition quite naturally and easily distinguish between their role as a university student and their role as a practising teacher in a school. Other students find it quite difficult. This paper considers the factors that contribute to the transition from neophyte to professional. Data from a series of interview with teachers show that three main processes, mentoring, modelling and feedback have profound effects on the development of a professional self-image. Each of these processes is discussed as are some suggestions for pre-service teacher education programs.

  
  

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  JEANB95.490S

  Paper
  

  The professional doctorate exporting best practice

  Bruce Jeans

  In the drive for recognition, status, influence, and funding supplementation, Australian universities have entered into a variety of program-delivery arrangements with universities in other countries.

  
  

  The overseas universities expect that the arrangements will be of organisational benefit, and the students attending them expect to receive high quality service and eventually receive a degree of recognised worth. Australian universities generally want to meet these expectations and want to do so in a way that has positive outcomes for themselves. A number of common issues quickly emerge in most of these arrangements. These include program costs, location of study, entry requirements, language competency, levels of support, and program content. Deakin university offers a research doctorate in conjunction with Khon Kaen university in Thailand. Principal supervisors are drawn from Deakin university. Co-supervisors are drawn from Khon Kaen university. The program is now in its third semester. This section of the symposium presents a mini case-study of the details of this arrangement and how it has affected the two universities and the students. Matters of language, cognition, learning style, and the distribution of authority are highlighted. Mutual collaboration as a means a professional development for university staff is considered.

  
  

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  JEFFP95.042

  
  

  Dissemination by the Association, of AARE members' educational research reported in AARE conference papers 1980 -1996

  Peter Jeffery

  This poster will display a review of the Association's efforts to disseminate members' educational research papers, in print, computer disk and via the Internet in the 1980s through 1995. The extent of the database of conference papers, indexing, and media used will be covered.

  
  

  AARE published abstracts and full conference papers from members presenting at conferences until the late 1980s and then changed to dissemination of conference papers on computer disk. Subsequently the material from each annual conference was also made available via AARNET and latterly via the Internet or World Wide Web. During this period, the papers have also been indexed in the Australian Educational Index, by ACER where the hard-copies of the papers have been lodged in the ACER Library. This consequently resulted in the works being indexed by ERIC. Since 1993, the collection has been electronically indexed on the server computer for all users within Australia or elsewhere.

  
  

  The poster will outline possible developments for the further dissemination of members' research work through the efforts of the Association.

  
  

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  JEFFP95.047

  Paper
  

  A review of a project to introduce educational technological approaches to the provision of higher education both on and off-campus

  Peter Jeffery

  The Multi-Modal Learning Project reviewed and reported in this paper, commenced in 1992 at Mooroolbark Campus of Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria, Australia as a pilot project for introduction of educational technological approaches to provision of degrees courses to be offered at the Lilydale Campus from 1996.

  
  

  The pilot project has introduced strategies and facilities to permit use of teaching and learning techniques similar to those more frequently used by distance education, in addition to enhanced traditional procedures. Techniques and facilities used now include:- student use of personal portable [laptop] computers in any location on or off campus;- electronic communications to and from home, learning centres, any campus and world wide;- development and publication of learning guides [study guides] in print and by electronic means;- curriculum revision and enhancement using Computer Managed Learning, Interactive Multi- Media, Computer Based Learning, Learning Contracts, video/audio recordings and out-sourced teaching programs as well as lectures, tutorials, text books and group or individual field work assignments.

  
  

  The Multi-Modal Learning Project also includes the provision of academic and support staff training and development and creation or adaptation of software and learning resource materials in any media.

  
  

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  JEFFP95.507

  Paper
  

  A review of educational research disseminated via oSet: Research Information for Teacherso throughout Australia and New Zealand in the past decade and a half

  Peter Jeffery

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  JENKP95.476S

  Paper
  

  Construction Of Citizenship: Education In Australia

  Patricia Jenkings and Geoffrey Sherington

  Citizenship education in Australia for much of the twentieth century has involved both formal education systems and more informal agencies of community organisations as well as the media. During the early twentieth century the construction of citizenship education related closely to the nature of the different school systems in Australia.

  
  

  The state schools and parts of the independent corporate schools emphasised a citizenship founded on a common British Imperial ethic.

  
  

  The growth of voluntary youth movements, such as the Boy Scouts, reinforced this view of citizenship. In contrast, the Catholic schools emphasised loyalty to the Catholic Church and the Australian nation.

  
  

  The events of the Second World War and its aftermath helped create a new view of common 'democratic' citizenship and a new role for formal and informal education agencies. Policies for assimilation of new citizens were developed not only for the upbringing of the young but also with the arrival of the large numbers of non-British settlers after 1945. To the existing agencies of schools and community organisations was added the new role of the media.

  
  

  In the two decades after 1945 radio thus became an important tool in education for citizenship. Specifically, the A.B.C. initiated various radio programmes as a basis of citizenship education. The final part of this paper illuminates the views of Sir Richard Boyer, Chairman of the A.B.C., in respect to his particular interpretation of citizenship education. As such it reveals how the postwar media constructed and promoted a specific view of being an Australian, that was part of the general campaign of citizenship education in the immediate post-war years. Such a study therefore suggests that citizenship education has to be understood both in a general historical and social context and with reference both to formal educational systems and other agencies of communication.

  
  

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  JENNL95.319

  Paper
  

  From Nimbin to Freddo and Beyond: Action Research Initiatives on the North Coast

  Leonie Jennings, Kevin Lowe, John Shirm

  This paper overviews a three year project in NSW North Coast disadvantaged schools. The project commenced with a group of committed action researchers and five schools. Problems and possibilities for change were carefully monitored. A booklet on action research and five case studies was produced. The next phase involved the in-servicing of 75 teachers in the region, culminating now in 65 disadvantaged schools currently working in Action Research projects. The whole project is supported at Regional level by the DSC Committee and funding made available for a full time "critical friend" to visit each school in a linking partnership with Southern Cross University.

  
  

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  JESSS95.083

  Paper
  

  To control or not control: Preservice Teachers Pre-conceptions of Classroom Management and Discipline

  Steven Jessup

  This paper will report on the impact of a preservice undergraduate unit and school experience on the preconceptions of classroom management and discipline of 2nd year preservice teachers.

  
  

  During the first year of their course, the preservice teachers' preconceptions of the teaching role in general were tracked. One construct identified during this 12 months was the need for teachers to be 'in control'. Using data collected through self reporting procedures a number of preconceptions of control held by the preservice teachers were identified.

  
  

  Results identified that preservice teachers entered the second year of the course with "traditional" constructions of teacher control, associated commonly with relatively high levels of teacher power.

  
  

  Following the semester long unit and integrated school experience different control conceptions developed that were less traditional.

  
  

  They reported that teachers developed control through relationships with students, mutual respect and organising learning experiences and classrooms rather than through coercion and domination.

  
  

  This paper will report on the preconceptions and categories of control that preservice teachers entered the 2nd year of their course with, and the conceptions and categories that changed following the unit and school experience.

  
  

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  JOHNL95.118

  Paper
  

  Teaching/ Cultural Studies

  Lorraine Johnson-Riordan

  Taking as its point of departure Raymond Williams' 1986 lecture "The Future of Cultural Studies" in which he traces the trajectory of his own work in Cultural Studies to his teaching in adult and other tertiary education institutions, this paper begins to explore the as-yet-little-explored possibilities opened up for education theory, research and teaching practice by the bringing together of teaching and Cultural Studies specifically in the context of contemporary "post-colonial" tertiary institutions. Set in two scenes of adult teaching practice (New York City and Sydney's south-west), the paper will suggest the importance of reworking the categories of memory, time and space in both education discourse/practice and Cultural Studies work around knowledge production.

  
  

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  JOHNR95.387

  They're opting out of Literature - What are we doing wrong? A new look and a new direction for the english curriculum

  Rosemary Ross Johnston

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  JONEA95.144

  Paper
  

  Problem solving with computers in a collaborative learning environment: a preliminary study

  Anthony Jones

  Collaborative learning in one form or another has been common practice in schools over many years. However its use has been spasmodic and at times restricted to particular levels (e.g. middle and upper primary) or subjects (e.g. social studies, science prac). In previous investigations researchers have concentrated on the product of collaborative learning and the actions of the group as an entity.

  
  

  Current research into collaborative learning is concerned with interactions between members of the group and how these interactions influence learning and any material that is produced. Both teachers and researchers are now aware of the importance of the social context in which learning occurs, and there is considerable research into understanding more fully the relationship between learners' social interactions and the learning process.

  
  

  This paper reports on a preliminary study into one aspect of collaborative problem solving by pre-service teacher education students using computers as a computational medium. Working in small groups the students were given a task to solve using a designated piece of computer software. As reported in previous studies with school children, there were both agreements and disagreements among the teacher education students as they attempted to solve the given problem. The role of disagreements during the process of collaborative learning will be the focus of this paper, both in relation to this study and to collaborative learning in general.

  
  

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  JONEB95.154S

  Paper
  

  Mapping development of students' understanding of vision

  Brian Jones, Kevin Collis, Jane Watson and Tim Sprod

  A written questionnaire and interviews were used to investigate the development of an understanding of how we see. From responses of 145 students, from Grades 1 to 10, key aspects in their explanations of vision were identified and then summarised as propositions. Later, these formed elements in a Students' Seeing Framework (SSF) which categorizes the elements using pairwise combinations of three primitive notions (light, eye, object).

  
  

  Based on the frequency with which elements appeared to be used in explanations we have concluded that there is a prevalent order in which they are built. Certain profiles of understanding, characterised in terms of these key elements, appear to be associated with particular alternative conceptions of seeing. Such profiles involve non-standard orders of development of elements and the clear negation of some elements.

  
  

  Aspects of the Students' Seeing Framework are interpreted in terms of modes of cognitive functioning and levels of response.

  
  

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  JONGS95.189

  Paper
  

  Artificial Intelligence Document Analysis

  Sybe Jongeling, Doug White

  The increasing availability of computer technology for information retrieval presents a challenge to teachers and students at all levels of education. Unlike "yesterday's" library resources which required students to read, analyse and summarise limited amounts of information, "tomorrow's" students have access to large amounts of information from electronic sources.

  
  

  This poses a dilemma on what information to select, its relevance and appropriateness for the learning tasks. Increasingly students find it more difficult to digest the large amounts of information available and look for some way to summarise a document to determine its relevance and the need for in-depth study.

  
  

  The recent convergence of increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems, optical character recognition and natural language techniques has produced inexpensive software for personal computers that can read, analyse, edit and summarise generated text.

  
  

  This paper presents the results of initial collaborative studies with University staff and the West Australian Newspapers to determine the validity, reliability and effectiveness of AI generated summaries compared with summaries created by professional editors.

  
  

  The main findings of the research indicate that AI created summaries are more than able to hold their own against professional editors in editing news stories and documentaries and in speed.

  
  

  Demonstration of the programme will be given and the implications for future directions in classroom learning and adult education are discussed.

  
  

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  JONGS95.190

  Paper
  

  Group Investigations - A viable alternative in adult education

  Sybe Jongeling, Graeme Lock

  In a radical departure from the traditional lecture - tutorial mode, a group of 69 registered nurses enrolled in a two-week intensive summer semester course on research methodology used group investigations as their major learning mode.

  
  

  The objectives of employing this approach were to (1) make use of the wealth of practical experience these nurses brought with them to the learning situation, (2) give students control and ownership of their own learning, (3) provide opportunities for genuine cooperative peer group interaction, (4) develop students' organisational and presentation skills, and (5) provide experiences in learning how to learn.

  
  

  Each group (5 to 7 members ) selected a major research area (eg.

  
  

  historical research, survey research, experimental research, etc.), planned the method of enquiry, identified a pilot research study, developed a research proposal, reviewed related literature, collected and analysed data, exchanged ideas, formulated conclusions, decided on the best way to summarise and present the data, and worked together to produce a group report which was presented and displayed to the whole group on the final day of the course.

  
  

  Organisational procedures will be presented, difficulties analysed and the results of this approach discussed and illustrated with data from work with pre-service teacher education students and mature age TAFE lecturers. Implications for implementing this approach in adult learning will be outlined.

  
  

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  JONGS95.191

  Cooperative Learning for Lifelong Learning

  Sybe Jongeling, Graeme Lock

  During the past twenty years there has been an upsurge in research studies investigating the effectiveness of small group teaching methods by which students learn through peer cooperation and communication.

  
  

  The advantages of the various small group learning techniques are well documented. However, there is only limited research on the preferences of students for cooperative learning across all levels of primary, secondary and tertiary education.

  
  

  Investigations using the Learning Preference Scales seem to indicate that cooperative learning is preferred throughout primary and secondary schooling and continues as the predominantly preferred mode in adult education.

  
  

  This poster will graphically present the outcomes of several research studies which investigated student preferences for cooperative, competitive and individualised modes of learning. Data will be provided for all levels of education - primary, secondary and tertiary. In addition the poster will illustrate the impact on student preferences when cooperative small group learning is used as the major mode of learning in an Education Studies unit over a semester's course of study. Illustrative examples from research with registered nurses is also provided.

  
  

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  KANEJ95.295

  Silver Linings: The upside of economic rationalsim

  Jan Kane, Lea Smedley, Lynette Trent

  The staffing constraints caused by economic rationalism have impacted upon Education faculties Australia wide. Ine the present climate, decisions relating to research agendas and teaching innovations appear to be based upon economic rather than educational rationales. This paper examines ways in which future directions have been determined by the modification of past traditions in the School of Education in one Australian university. In addition, the range of strategies introduced to accommodate the changing climate will be outlined. Adjustments to the supervision of pre-service teacher education students, closer links with school-based teacher educators, streamlined evaluation procedures, varied classroom research projects and computer-based instruction will be examined. The results of these strategies and the impact on the faculty will be outlined.

  
  

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  KARMT95.466S

  Educational choice and gender wage gap in the Australian labour market

  Tom Karmel

  Women's education levels have increased more than men's and this has had a beneficial effect on the relative earnings of women working full-time. However, women and men tend to be concentrated in different fields of study, with women tending to be in the least remunerative fields, and this educational segregation has not declined (at least in the 1980s). The paper looks at whether the gender earnings gap would decrease if women moved into non-traditional fields. We do not find this to be the case because the relative value of fields differs between men and women. This finding poses a challenge topolicies directed toward lessening the gender earnings differential.

  
  

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  KAYSM95.100

  Paper
  

  Away yesterday and today - back tomorrow? A one-week snapshot of attendance patterns in Tasmanian schools

  Malcolm Kays, Janine Romaszko

  In September of 1994 the Tasmanian Department of Education and the Arts commenced a large-scale project to build a comprehensive picture of attendance patterns in State Government schools. The initial stage was the first of three one-week snapshots of attendance in the compulsory years of schooling (Preparatory to Year 10). The purpose of the study was to build a reliable base-line data collection which could be used both to inform educational planning and policy development and to assist in tracking future trends in attendance. It was approached, therefore, in an essentially open-minded manner. While the researchers may have had some preconceived notions about likely findings, the testing of explicit assumptions or hypotheses was not part of the design.

  
  

  The study aimed to collect data on every student in a government school absent for one or more days in the specified week. Ultimately, a database on almost 11000 students was compiled. Apart from basic information such as number of days absent and day(s) of the week absent, each student was also classified according to a wide range of variables. These included: grade, rural-urban location, gender, aboriginality, indicators of socio-economic disadvantage, number and position in family, place of birth, language spoken at home, parental employment and marital status, and various others.

  
  

  Summary statistics were compiled for each variable, and interaction effects between many of the variables were explored. Some of the findings were of particular interest, in that they contradicted commonly held beliefs. Overall, the findings should provide a strong basis for further research and broaden our understanding of some factors which could well influence educational outcomes.

  
  

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  KEARS95.235

  Paper
  

  The relationship between preservice teachers' beliefs, sense of efficacy and optimism bias

  Sophie Kearns, G Morgan

  A teacher's sense of efficacy (i.e. the extent to which teachers believe they can motivate or affect student learning) is instrumental in determining how effective an individual may be as a classroom practitioner. Additionally, teachers' beliefs about the characteristics of a "really good teacher" are crucial in affecting teacher behaviour and consequently student performance. The present study examined the developmental nature of preservice teachers' beliefs about what it means to be a "really good teacher", specifically, the effect of preservice teacher training on factors perceived to contribute to an effective teacher; and the relationship between these beliefs and preservice teachers' sense of efficacy. The questionnaire was a reformulation of Weinstein's (1989) and Guskey & Passaro's (1994) instruments with the addition of an optimism bias scale. The sample consisted of 222 university students from a 4 year Bachelor of Education Secondary program. Approximately 55 students were represented from each year (B.Ed1, B.Ed11, B.Ed 111, B.EdIV) and across a range of curriculum areas. Data analysis included both quantitative and qualitative methods, ensuring the identification of any statistical differences between groups and 12 interviews to gain broader information. Results will be discussed in relation to theories of preservice teachers' beliefs (Weinstein, 1990; Hoy & Woolfolk, 1990), efficacy (Ashton & Webb, 1982; Gibson & Dembo, 1984) and optimism bias (Weinstein, 1980).

  
  

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  KENNK95.035

  Paper
  

  Implementing National Curriculum Statements and Profiles: Policy Contexts, Political Constraints and Educational Practices

  Kerry Kennedy, Andrew Sturman, Perc Marland

  Implementing National Curriculum Statements and Profiles: Policy Contexts, Political Constraints and Educational Practices.

  
  

  The five year national curriculum exercise was brought to an end in December, 1993. Since then, the products of that exercise have undergone change and transformation as State governments and their bureaucracies have grappled with implementation issues. This process has led not so much to a centralised and directive national curriculum as a diffused and fragmented approach at local levels of implemention.

  
  

  Yet little is known about either policy or practice related to implementation processes pursued at local levels.

  
  

  The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to report on the research methodology and the preliminary results of a three year project that has been funded by the Australian Research Council to examine political constraints, organisational contexts and teachersA implicit theories as they affect the local implementation of national curriculum statements and profiles. During the first year of the project, data relating to current system policies and school practices have been collected from all States and Territories.

  
  

  A preliminary analysis of these data shows that, from a policy perspective, implementation has been determined by the changing priorities of State governments and in some cases by a change in government itself. The political orientation of these governments does not seem to determine commitment or otherwise to implementation. It seem clear that issues such as outcomes based reporting have been commonly adopted across systems yet there remain differences in approach and attitude to particular content to be included in the school curriculum. It seems that Australia has opted not so much for a national curriculum as a curriculum driven by common national concerns (eg international competitiveness) and particular local issues (eg commitment to particular forms of knowledge).

  
  

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  KENNL95.496S

  Paper
  

  Linking national intentions, state curriculum policy and school practice

  Lois Kennedy

  The concept of a national framework which outlines goals and guidelines for curriculum has been reasonably well accepted, as the framework allows sufficient flexibility to meet the needs of the different systems and schools. There is however a problem with separating the conception of a common and agreed approach to curriculum at a system and bureaucratic level from the practice of teaching, which seems at odds with the move towards devolution and the self managing school.

  
  

  A major issue that arose through the work being done on the NPDP project in Queensland and Victoria is this tension between theory and practice. That is, the translation of the national statement and profiles, and specifically health and physical education, into learning experiences that will be relevant to students, and that will illustrate achievement of the outcomes.

  
  

  The process of translation has, through the interpretation at the state level into more prescriptive documents, distanced teachers even further from the original intent of the documents. The decision of state systems not to see the area of health and physical education as a priority has also influenced the way teachers have responded to the nationally developed documents, and the acceptance generally of outcomes based education. This "gulf" between national intentions, state policy parameters and the expectations of schools will be discussed in the context of the Victorian and Queensland project schools.

  
  

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  KENTH95.045

  Paper
  

  Teacher-Student Interpersonal Behaviour and Teacher Personality

  Harry Kent, Darrell Fisher and Barry Fisher

  Past learning environment studies have shown the importance of teacher-student interpersonal behaviour in determining student learning outcomes. This study provides a distinctive contribution to learning environment research in that it investigated the relationship between student and teacher perceptions of teacher-student interpersonal behaviour using the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) and teacher personality using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The QTI can be used as either a teacher self-report measure or as a measure of student perceptions of teacher interpersonal behaviour. The sample comprised 108 teachers and their 108 classes containing 1,883 students drawn from the eight government secondary colleges (Grades 11 and 12) in Tasmania. The same teachers completed the MBTI and QTI and the students in one of the classes of each teacher completed the QTI. The relative proportions of the 16 personality types of the MBTI in the sample were determined and the college teachers were heavily represented by TJ (Thinking - Judging) types of personality (47.5%). A greater positive association was found between teacher personality and self-perception of student-teacher interpersonal behaviour than between teacher personality and their students' perceptions. Teacher personality appeared to be consistently associated with teacher self perception of being friendly, helpful, giving freedom, responsibility and opportunity for independent work in class, uncertainty, maintaining a low profile and being passive. Students' perceptions of their teacher's interpersonal behaviour were related to the personality of the teacher in regard to how much freedom and responsibility students thought they were allowed

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  KHALA95.338

  A suggestion of workplace training

  Ali Khallaghi

  Since the 1970s, greater attention has been given to the integration of work and education and different models of activities, such as work experience, work shadowing, work simulation, work observation, workplace visiting, have been organised in the workplace to prepare students for work (Rumbold, 1988, Paterson, 1990, Wiltshire, 1994). All of these models offer limited experience or show-experience over limited periods . Also the schemes attempt to make students familiar with how work is performed in a workplace, not to put them in a position where they could be responsible for their own work and interested in contributing to the process of production. The latter arrangement would allow them to absorb the environment of the workplace and adapt their expectations of work to match reality.

  
  

  This paper will analyse and propose a model for developing workshops in an instructional workplace. The model is based on providing a real work situation within which students can participate in performing different skills at different levels along with relevant theoretical instruction.

  
  

  Indeed, there would be a workplace with two caps: one for training and the other for producing commodities and/or services. The workplace would contain students as employees, teachers and trainers as supervisors, and directors and associated directors as managers, all wearing both caps. Implementing this model would require the cooperation of industry and the vocational education and training system. This complex model of mixing work and education seems an appropriate one for the twenty first century.

  
  

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  KHAMM95.058

  Paper
  

  A profile of teacher competence: Does practice make a difference

  Mon Khamis

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  KIRKD95.228

  Paper
  

  Female and male adolescents' interpretations of body imagery: Implications for school programs

  David Kirk

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  KIRKD95.344

  StudentsA use of software support for lesson planning

  Denise Kirkpatick, Martyn Wilde

  This paper will report the preliminary results of an evaluation of first year university students' use of the Lesson Planning System, interactive software which supports the cognitive task of planning lessons for teachers.

  
  

  The LPS is designed to support and train novice lesson planners in the performance of lesson planning according to the requirements of Edith Cowan University. The LPS will be demonstrated, the principles underlying the development of the LPS will be explained and the y key features of the software will be identified. Students' responses to the software and the effects of the LPS on their performance of the task (process) and the final product (the lesson plan) will be reported.

  
  

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  KIRKD95.352

  Paper
  

  Changes in students' attributions from Primary to Secondary School

  Denise Kirkpatrick

  This paper reports the changes in attributions reported by students pre- and post- transition to secondary school. A group of 24 students from four primary schools were interviewed three times in their final year of primary school (Year 7) and three times during their first year of secondary school. Data relating to students' causal attributions for academic success and failure were collected along with explorations of students' reasons for making such attributions and affective responses to achievement situations.

  
  

  Differences emerged between the pattern of students' attributions for both success and failure and achievement related beliefs at Year 7 and 8. These findings suggest that as students progress through school they bring with them not only academic skills but a range of beliefs about their competence which affect their academic performance.

  
  

  Aspects of the learning environment that play an important role in the formation of these beliefs and subsequent changes in the nature of achievemnt related beliefs were identified. It is suggetsed that there is much that teachers can do to influence the nature of achievement attributions and beliefs.

  
  

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  KNIGJ95.396

  Paper
  

  Hogging and coagulating the education agenda

  John Knight, Robert Lingard, Leo Bartlett, Paige Porter

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  KNIGT95.084

  Paper
  

  Pamphleteering: The Academic in the Public Debate

  Tony Knight

  State education in Victoria has been subjected to radical policy change since the election of the Liberal state government in 1992.

  
  

  Self-Managing (`Schools of the Future') legislation, school closures and teacher reduction, plus large scale budget cuts have impacted powerfully on all aspects of state government schooling.

  
  

  How academics with divergent views can engage the public debate, and influence school policy and public knowledge is taken up in this presentation.

  
  

  Drawing upon an old tradition of pamphleteering (Dryden, Swift, Pope) and more contemporary examples, (The Hillgate Group, London, and ACT Research Network, Bristol Polytechnic and Centre for Educational Studies, Kings College London)) the Centre for Democratic Education was formed in Melbourne, 1994. Its purpose is to publish in clear language, enlivened comment analysis and data, on issues directly related to contemporary schooling.

  
  

  A total of 3000 pamphlets in each printing run are forwarded to every State School Parent Association, to major teacher education institutions, members of parliament and members of the general public.

  
  

  Membership of the group is informal and presently includes 19 academics (primarily) from four Victorian Universities.

  
  

  Topics published include:- `Cutting Into the Bone'- `Kennett's Damage to Government Schools'- `School Closures and Student Drift'- `Just Testing?'- `Who is Qualified?'- `Educating Children With Disabilities'- `Marketing In Schools'KRAUK95.147. The Relationship Between Writing Apprehnsion and the Writing competence of Secondary School Students Kerri-Lee Krause. This paper reports preliminary results of an intervention study aimed at improving the essay writing skills of secondary school students.

  
  

  Writing apprehension, or writing anxiety, is a trait widely experienced by novice and expert writers alike. The premise of this study is that excessive writing apprehension inhibits the composing process and thus the writing competence of students. If teachers are aware of the varying degrees of writing apprehension in their students, they may take steps to alleviate excessive anxiety. The intervention undertaken incorporates possible strategies which may be employed.

  
  

  Year 10 students from two Sydney schools were allocated to Control and Experimental Groups respectively. At pre-test, writing apprehension levels of students from both groups were determined using the Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension Inventory and some additional items.

  
  

  Student writing competence was assessed using an in-class argumentative essay which was marked using pre-determined criteria. The Experimental Group underwent the intervention programme over eight weeks. The Control Group continued with regular English classes during this time.

  
  

  At post-test the two groups completed a second in-class argumentative essay and the Writing Apprehension Inventory. Think-aloud protocols were also conducted.

  
  

  Results suggest that, at post-test, those who had been taught specific strategies including planning and step-by-step approaches to the composition of text, demonstrated a lower mean level of writing apprehension than those in the Control Group. With increasing importance being attached to secondary school and tertiary qualifications, a concomitant stress is placed on written essay-type examinations. This study, with its focus on the apprehension so often experienced by young writers, has implications for the enhancement of student writing competence and the classroom practices of today and tomorrow.

  
  

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  KRUGT95.079S

  Paper 1
  Paper 2
  

  Symposium: "Benchmarking, Competencies and Teacher Education"

  Coordinator: Tony Kruger

  Presenters: Brenda Cherednichenko, Neil Hooley, Tony Kruger and Rose Mulraney

  Innovations such as Total Quality Management, Competencies and Benchmarking, which have their genesis in industry, have received a circumspect reception in education. One of the main objections to the application of `benchmarking' to education is its treatment of teaching and learning as unproblematic and technical activities. Another interpretation of benchmarking is possible, however, one which commences from a recognition of the richness and complexity of teaching and learning. Benchmarking, in that view, makes explicit the connection between`successful' teaching and learning, and enables comparison of the ways in which teaching and learning occur in different locations. This symposium will report on the introductory work within the undergraduate program in Education at Victoria University of Technology to construct an approach to benchmarking the competence of graduating teachers within the context of the Draft National Teaching Competencies. The graduating teacher at Victoria University provides two (related) kinds of evidence of teaching competence: in the development of competent teaching practices; and in the acquiring of a professional discourse appropriate for the competent beginning teacher. The symposium will report on graduating teachers' demonstrations of the acquisition of `benchmark practices' and `benchmark discourses', in part through case writing within the structure of the Draft National Teaching Competencies. Case writing allows the graduating teacher to construct a personal representation of competence which includes both the formality of a demonstration of readiness to teach as well as an opportunity for the teacher to express personal interests and commitments. One outcome of the symposium might be that Australian university education faculties might agree to participate in a collaborative benchmarking of pre-service teacher education.

  
  

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  KRUGT95.505S

  TBA

  Tony Kruger

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  KWENB95.111

  Can Advanced Level Chemistry Students (11th and 12th Graders) Reason Scientifically?

  Boo Hong Kwen

  The paper reports on studies (using in-depth interviews as well as paper-and- pencil questionnaires) conducted with Advanced level students (11th and 12th graders) in the UK and in Singapore to test their ability to reason scientifically when confronted with a range of chemical phenomena.

  
  

  The results show that the vast majority of the students studied were unable to reason scientifically. The paper presents a number of such cases. It also discusses some of the possible reasons behind these students' difficulties as well as teaching strategies to alleviate them.

  
  

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  LABOE95.201

  Paper
  

  Teacher Efficacy & Teacher Burnout: Trends over time

  Elizabeth Labone

  The problem of teacher burnout has become salient in Australian educational research during the last decade. While much of the research in this area has focused on organisational factors and static individual traits associated with feelings of burnout, few studies have considered dynamic individual variables that may mediate between organisational stressors and feelings of burnout. This paper, based on a model of teacher burnout that focuses onthe role of teacher efficacy in the development of burnout, reports on the second year of a longitudinal study of changes in the relationship between teachers' beliefs and feelings of burnout. Three hundred and thirty teachers working in New South Wales government schools are currently participating in a longitudinal study monitoring this relationship between changes in their beliefs and their feelings of burnout. This paper reports on the relationship between these changes during the first two years of the study. In addition the study reports results of a pilot study of an intervention strategy designed to help maintain levels of teacher efficacy.

  
  

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  LAIKE95.143

  A measurement model for tomorrow - a modification of yesterday's models for an improvement of today's assessment

  Kelvin Lai

  Both the observation design aspect and the measurement design aspect of test theory ( Lohman & Ippel, 1993; Snow & Lohman, 1993) experienced revolutionary changes in the sixties leading respectively to the dominance of cognitive psychology and the item response theory in these two aspects. Many regarded the integration of changes in these two areas as a new challenge for the assessment in the 1990's (Embretson, 1985, 1993; Messick, 1984; Snow & Lohman, 1989, 1993).However, integration making use of responses to intermediate components is scarce (Mislevy, 1993).

  
  

  On the other hand, educators practising their profession realised that assessment today should be improved to provide profiles of the strengths and weaknessesof individual students (Lesh, 1990), should take into account the processes and thethinking used to obtain the answers (Lester & Knoll, 1990; Romberg et al., 1990), Mislevy, 1993), should be diagnostic (Snow, 1989) and should promote students' learning (Griffin & Nix 1991).

  
  

  This paper takes a step towards the integration of the changes mentioned above. It generalises Embretson's multicomponent models in the early eighties by incorporating into her models dependent relations among the various components within the same item. The result is a provision of a hybrid model which includes Embretson's independent component model and sequentially dependent component models as special cases. The new model offers a much larger degree of flexibility in describing data arising from practical test situations. It looks deeper into the process aspect by enabling analyses of the Rasch type to be performed on the intermediate steps of an assessment task. In this way, it answers some of the needs of modern assessment by providing a multiple indicator for the strengths and weaknesses of a student in terms of his or her performance in the task.

  
  

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  LEDEG95.285

  Paper
  

  The mathematics of success: Beyond questionnaires

  Gilah Leder, Alan Bishop, Catherine Pearn and Christine Brew

  In this paper we report on the first part of a three year study conducted in eight Victorian, state co-educational secondary schools.

  
  

  Year 7 and 9 students were surveyed and interviewed, along with their parents, about their attitudes towards mathematicslearning. All mathematics classes were videotaped for a minimum of three sessions. These videos targeted children who had been identfied by their teachers as being either successful or unsuccessful with their mathematics learning.

  
  

  Our results reinforced earlier findings about gender in relation to anxiety, perception of mathematics as a male domain and attribution for success and failure. We also explored different factors such as perceived rating at mathematics, the influence ofpeers, teacher, school type, parent aspirations and parent experience of mathematics. During interviews, girls raised issues of apparently less concern to boys.

  
  

  While most students believed that their parents would like them to be better at mathematics, parents appeared accepting of the level of achievement in mathematics reached by their children. Some parents indicated geographic convenience influenced thechoice of school for their child, others looked more intently at the different programs offered.

  
  

  Teacher assessment of their students' mathematics achievement, using class test results, revealed differences between the students' perceived rating and actual rating of their mathematical achievement in relation to their peers. Differences in student attitudesto mathematics were noted when questionnaire results were compared on the basis of students' perceived and their actual rating of their mathematical ability.

  
  

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  LEDEG95.479S

  Large databases: Tracing the impact of gender on post school pathways

  Gilah Leder

  Large scale data bases are frequently used to trace educational and occupational pathways of selected groups, inform policy decisions, and reinforce or challenge prevailing stereotypes. The research described in this paper critically examines the construction, consistency or variability of widely used descriptors and their relevnace for assessing the impact of gender on post school pathways. For example, ethnicity has been variously defined when gathering national or state-wide data by country of birth alone, country of birth and period of residence (in Australia), preferred language spoken at home, parents' country of birth and self-report data. Apparent educational performance and participation outcomes are affected by these different ethnicity/gender determinations. Other substantive issues explored in the research are: the problem of determining causality via data bases, assessing the value of longiutdinal data, and making explicit the critieria or theroetical frameworks which determined the definition and collection of categories.

  
  

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  LEEAL95.350

  Curriculum as critique in the technology disciplines

  Alison Lee, Elizabeth Taylor

  Within technology disciplines such as Engineering during the eighties there has been a small but growing concern with the social dimensions of technology. This has in part been an outcome of the diversification of undergraduate participation to bolster falling enrolments. Bodies such as 'Women in Engineering' units in various Australian universities moved quickly beyond a concern with mere demographics of participation to a critical appraisal of the dominant masculinism and ethnocentrism of traditional Engineering curriculum. The lines of critique were drawn in terms of a binary divide between the 'hard' curriculum of Engineering science and technological hardware and the 'soft' curriculum of ethics, gender, cultural and environmental awareness and professional formation.

  
  

  In the mid nineties, many things have changed in Engineering education as the profession experiences crisis internationally. This paper investigates the implications of these recent changes for a socially critical curriculum project for technological education. It proposes that the lines of critique have been re-drawn in the context of the increasing dominance of discourses of management. Management is an exremely diffues signifier, being incorporated in A range of disciplines from philosophy to accounting. In examining several case studies of recent curriculum change in Engineering education, the paper explores the implications of these discursive shifts for a continuing agenda of curriculum critique.

  
  

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  LEEAL95.360

  Co-production of knowledge in the interview: when colleagues are research subjects

  Alison Lee, Caroline San Miguel, Dominique Beck, Mike Baynham and Katherine Gordon

  This paper will report on some research methodological issues in a study of academic writing practices in nursing, information studies and women's studies. the study drew on a number of data sources: student texts, interviews with students and lecturer/markers. In this paper we will focus on data gathered from the lecturer markers, and the methodological issues that arise when research subjects are colleagues.

  
  

  To understand what was going on in this data we drew on the post-structuralist concept of "co-production" Interview with colleagues involved a co-production of knowledge. We will consider ways in which we plan to incorporate this into the writing up of the research report.

  
  

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  LEMOM95.233

  Educational Provision for students with disabilities: How do we compare with other countries

  Marion de Lemos

  In recent years there has been an increasing trend in Australia for the integration of students with disabilities in regular schools and classes. This trend follows developments that have occurred overseas, particularly in the United States, Britain, and Northern Europe.

  
  

  However, there is continuing debate about the most appropriate form of provision for students with differing types and degrees of disability, and data from a recent DEET-funded study undertaken by the Australian Council for Educational Research indicates that there are differences between states, both in terms of the number of students with disabilities identified, and in terms of the proportion of students with disabilities enrolled in different forms of provision.

  
  

  This paper provides an overview of the findings from this study, and compares trends in Australia with data from other countries in order to place the Australian scene in a somewhat broader perspective, and to consider current issues relating to policies and practices in educational provision for students with disabilities.

  
  

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  LEVIL95.152S

  Paper
  

  A comparison of the developmental patterns in students' responses to questions in two science topics

  Lesley Levins

  This paper reports on a comparison of the results of two studies. This work involved the testing by survey and interview techniques. The sample was a random number of students from K (Kindergarten) to Year 12, in a New South Wales school. The two targeted science topics were evaporation and plant growth. The SOLO Taxonomy was the tool used to categorise the students' responses in both the questionnaire and interview situation. The results in both studies showed the responses could be classified into a cyclic pattern within the SOLO Taxonomy system. These cyclics were continuous and ranged from the ikonic to the formal mode of cognition. The purpose of this article is to explore the characteristics of the cycles, particularly at the interface of the ikonic and concrete symbolic mode, with reference to these two scientific topics. This should provide further evidence for how students conceptual understandings develop.

  
  

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  LIDSS95.306

  Paper
  

  What's Fair for Grade 6?

  Sharyn Lidster, Lionel Pereira-Mendoza, Jane Watson and Kevin Collis

  Children experience the concept of fairness in a variety of contexts most of which are outside the school curriculum. The case study described in this paper developed during the initial stages of a larger project assessing higher order cognitive functioning during co-operative learning in probability and statistics. The study aims to identify the consequences these experiences have in terms of the development of a mathematical notion of fairness as it relates to probability. Students from grades 6 and 9 were interviewed using a protocol designed to assess their understanding of fairness through playing games, data collection, representation, interpretation and prediction.

  
  

  The theoretical framework used to analyse student responses was the SOLO Taxonomy with Multimodal Functioning developed by Biggs and Collis. The results of the case study have implications for the larger project in terms of the design of the protocol exploring fairness and in determining the age range of students to be sampled. In turn the findings of the whole project will be applied to monitor the implementation of higher order objectives in the Australian chance and data curriculum.

  
  

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  LOGAL95.249

  Paper
  

  Development planning as professional development

  Lloyd Logan, Judith Sachs

  School Development Planning (SDP) is an externally imposed procedure nested within a set of management strategies used by successive governments to restructure Australian school systems. Drawing on survey and case study data from primary schools, both state and catholic, in all Australian states we argue that SDP offers the potential to combine four powerful forms of professional development, namely, narrative, writing, reflection and action research. Together, we maintain, these four forms of professional development provide the means for individual and collective creation and validation of professional knowledge, and in so doing contribute to the dialogical development of teachers and school administrators. These four forms of professional development share the common features of forming and testing hypothesis through discussion and implementation.

  
  

  Elsewhere (Logan and Sachs 1994) we have argued that the processes of declaration, discussion, application and reflection are the primary means by which teachers individually and collectively, come to understand and control their practice and knowledge base. These processes constitute effective planning. They extend teachers by making them recontextualise and reconceptualise their everyday language, situation, processes and relationships. Planning in such a context enables teachers to test out the possible and to deliberate on the probable within their own work context. In this way they generate the professional practical knowledge that is the basis of their daily activity.

  
  

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  LONGP95.213

  Paper
  

  The education of intellectually gifted students in Australia: past, present and future

  Patricia Long

  In Australia there has been relatively little educational provision for intellectually gifted students and a dearth of published research in this field. Although the efforts of educators have certainly resulted in progress, there have been major obstacles. At present there are notable developments in the education of these students, especially in Victoria. The past and present will be described and discussed. The future is envisaged in part from the findings of a doctoral study in its concluding stages. The study asked a sample of Year 9 Melbourne students for their views on providing for differences in intellectual ability in schools, with a particular emphasis on students of high intellectual ability.

  
  

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  LOOS95.044

  
  

  The Changing Face of Science Education in Malaysia: Global and Local Influences

  Loo Seng Piew

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  LOUDW95.298

  Paper
  

  Case Methods: New Approaches To The Pedagogy Of Teacher Educaton

  William Louden, John Wallace

  During the past few years, increased attention has been given to the value of case-based teaching in teacher preparation. Case-based teaching or case method is said to provide teachers with opportunities to analyse teaching situations and make judgments which may guide future actions. Yet many teacher educators wonder how to access and incorporate local case material into their practice and how to develop new cases. This paper addresses these issues and considers the variety of purposes for which cases and case methods are employed. In particular it examines some recently collected Australian case material and its use in pre and inservice settings. The paper looks at how narratives are used in case discussions and how the particulars of the case can developed into principles of practice used to guide the actions of the reader.

  
  

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  LUDES95.342

  Critical Pedagogy after the linguistic turn

  Sabine Ludewig

  We live in a time when information, knowledge and theories are rapidly being overtaken by events. Notions such as time, community and history have been drastically altered and nationalisms can no longer be maintained.

  
  

  Against this background the relation between critical pedagogy and hermeneutics after the Linguistic Turn will be examined by drawing paradigmatically on Henry Giroux's Border Pedagogy (United States 1990's) and Klaus Schaller's Pedagogy of Communication (Germany 1979)), with reference to Shaun Gallagher's (1992) three hermeneutical aporias, e.g.: reproduction, authority/emancipation and conversation.

  
  

  The point of departure for this investigation is the assumption that with the Linguistic Turn the main reference points in older educational theory such as normativity, tradition, values and rationality as the centre of each individual have been replaced by thinking about language. Therefore hermeneutical considerations cannot be separated from pedagogy any longer. And if consequently pedagogy is regarded as a communicative process, it becomes obvious that hermeneutics necessarily provides a deeper understanding for educational processes in the sense that the three aporias which help to distinguish hermeneutical theories find a close correlation to three aporias which define contemporary pedagogical theories.

  
  

  The fact that Gallagher's hermeneutical considerations do not focus on critical pedagogy, or include Kant's pedagogical claim to autonomy, makes a revision of his aporias necessary. This will be done in this paper which will finally open to a number of pedagogical questions.

  
  

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  MACCJ95.307

  Collaborative learning in distance education

  Judith MacCallum

  Although collaborative learning is strongly supported in psychological learning theories and research findings it is not used extensively in tertiary settings and rarely in distance education. The aim of the study reported here was to examine adult students' perceptions of the effectiveness of different mediums for facilitating collaborative learning: telephone conferencing, video conferencing, computer conferencing and face to face group meeting. The students were enrolled externally in a semester course focussing on collaborative learning in both content and process.

  
  

  Students completed questionnaires early in the course and after its completion. Questions accessed a number of dimensions including students' learning preferences, motivational orientations, satisfaction with collaborative learning and perceptions of the changes students need to make to engage in collaborative learning. A sample of the students (n= 12) were interviewed (mainly by telephone) to probe the issues raised in the questionnaires and their perceptions of the effectiveness of the different mediums of collaboration.

  
  

  This paper highlights the issues that need to be addressed for the successful implementation of collaborative learning in distance education and more generally in tertiary settings.

  
  

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  MACCJ95.308

  Motivational Change: Insights from a study of students in transition

  Judith MacCallum

  This paper explores a number of facets of motivational change. The conceptual framework is goal theory (eg Nicholls, 1989; Ames, 1992; Maehr, 1984) which holds that students with different personal goals employ different concepts and interpret situations so as to serve their different goals.

  
  

  The longitudinal study involved the same students in a number of different contexts (i.e. in different subject areas, in PEAC and regular class activities, and over the transition from primary to high school). Students, initially in Years 6 or 7, completed questionnaires accessing their motivational goal orientations and beliefs about the causes of success, how they perceived their teacher's goals, how they perceived the importance of errors in conventional and substantive aspects of academic knowledge and their own competence in specific aspects of both Maths and writing in English classes. Interviews over three years with ten of the students provided more in depth insights into the reciprocal relationship between students goals and their learning contexts.

  
  

  The paper highlights the different views of motivational change gained through analysis of group and individual data, and from analysis at different levels of context. The implications for enhancing motivation and learning in schools is discussed.

  
  

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  MACDD95.230

  Paper
  

  Yesterday when I was young.: A comparative study into beginning and experienced health and physical education teachers' attitudes to work

  Doune Macdonald

  Beginning (n=20) and experienced (n=11) Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers were found to have different priorities, concerns and orientations to their work in a qualitative study on the satisfactions and dissatisfactions of HPE teachers from government and non-government schools. More specifically, factors such as the relative importance of home life, working with the more academically able students, role models, students' well-being, autonomy and authority, and staff relationships will be compared from the different perspectives.

  
  

  The analysis will borrow from a number of theoretical foundations including teacher socialization and Foucault's work on surveillance.

  
  

  Data suggests that experienced teachers are more satisfied with their work than beginning teachers. This raises questions with respect to: who enters the teaching profession? with what expectations? into what particular working conditions? to fulfil what goals?

  
  

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  MACDI95.287

  Paper
  

  Learning to learn: A direct classroom intervention

  Ian Macdonald

  Study skill packages are common in schools, reflecting an increasing awareness that students require more than instruction in subject content to be successful. For most students these packages are unsuccessful, partly because the students do not have sufficient understanding of the learning process to make proper use of the new skills. This paper reports on a study in which students in year 10 in a Victorian Secondary College participated in a semester length program designed to improve their awareness of issues related to good learning in schools. During one 50 minute period a week they were introduced to a range of issues to do with quality learning commonly taught to Diploma of Education students at Monash University, and exposed to a number of learning and organisation strategies found to be valuable in previous research of this type. By the end of the 14 week program there was a substantial change in the level of awareness of the students.

  
  

  Learning strategies introduced had been accepted and used with considerable skill and flexibility. Many students showed an increase in motivation and purposefulness as a direct result. While the value of such training is clear, style of delivery remains problematic, and there are still issues relating to class social structures that inhibit the development of good learning skills.

  
  

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  MACPI95.088

  Paper
  

  Developing a model of curriculum leadership for effective learning and teaching from teachers' narratives

  Ian Macpherson, Tania Aspland, Bob Elliott, Christine Proudford, Leonie Shaw and Greg Thurlow

  This paper presents a view of curriculum leadership which recognises that all teachers can exercise curriculum leadership by proposing ideas, assisting in the interpretation of broad policy documents and developing materials or local policy initiatives. Indeed, any initiative which leads to more effective learning and teaching may be regarded as curriculum leadership.

  
  

  This view of curriculum leadership developed from a 1994 study which led to a number of propositions about curriculum leadership in such areas as the ways in which teachers think about effective learning and teaching; the social climate within a school or learning setting; and the organisational structure of that school/setting.

  
  

  As a means of developing these propositions into a model of curriculum leadership for effective learning and teaching, a number of teachers at a small number of school sites were invited during 1995 to produce narratives about their experiences in relation to curriculum leadership.

  
  

  The model of curriculum leadership for effective learning and teaching is presented as a means of celebrating the centrality of teachers as curriculum leaders both now and in the future. In addition, the research approach and methodology used to develop the model are outlined.

  
  

  The research reported in this paper used a critical collaborative action research approach and, in particular, a narrative methodology for the collection of data.

  
  

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  MACPR95.511

  Educative Accountability Policy Preferences: Differences between Principals and other Stakeholders and Issues for Professional Development

  R J S 'Mac' Macpherson

  This paper will report research commissioned in Tasmania by the Department of Education and the Arts and also supported by the University of Tasmania and the Australian Research Council.

  
  

  Using qualitative methods, 134 policy proposals concerning accountability criteria and processes related to the quality of learning, teaching and leadership were collected from immediate stakeholders (parents, teachers, principals and DEAofficials). Two research questions were used. What processes (procedures, actions or methods) should be used to collect data, report on and improve students' learning, teachers' teaching, leaders' leadership? What criteria (standards, benchmarks or indicators) should be used to evaluate students' learning, teachers' teaching, leaders' leadership? Support for each proposal in each stakeholder group was then measured and analysed using quantitative methods.

  
  

  53 proposals were found to be supported by all stakeholder groups.

  
  

  Another 27 were supported by all with one or two stakeholder groups showing minor levels of ambivalence. These 80 proposals were then made available as touchstone for building school community and systemic accountability policy and practices. The 80 proposals were converted into leadership competencies and performance indicators.

  
  

  Differences between the policy preferences of Tasmania's principals and other stakeholder groups indicated areas probably requiring professional development.

  
  

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  MADIR95.398

  Interrupting the institutional narrative of teacher training

  R. Madigan, B. Dorum and C. Hogan

  "Reform that is easy and flows smoothly is unlikely to be reform at all" (Fullan, 1993 cited in Gore, 1995)In 1994 the staff of the Faculty of Education at Edith Cowan University's regional campus (Bunbury) worked with teachers from several local primary schools to develop a collaborative, school-based alternative program for student teachers in their final year of preparation. The project placed a group of student teachers in schools for a longer period of time than existing practica, and sought to deliver their coursework largely in the school setting, addressing real educational problems in partnership with cooperating teachers and university staff.

  
  

  The broad aims of the initiative were stated as follows:- to provide students with a more "authentic" practicum experience;- to better integrate theory and practice through assignment tasks that grow out of classroom needs and issues;- to improve and strengthen relationships between participants, especially partnerships between students and cooperating teachers- to develop students' understanding of the school culture;- to provide time for students to develop skills and understandings, including reflective and critical perspectives on their teaching.

  
  

  This paper argues that the problem of "finding a voice" is just one aspect of a set of emerging discourses in teacher education and in education generally; discourses which value diversity and difference, which emphasise processes that are democratic, collaborative and negotiated and which affirm a new respect for the work of teachers as "knowing subjects" in real educational contexts.

  
  

  These new discourses are emerging out of a profound dissatisfaction at many levels with the "old culture" of teacher training which is hierarchical in its power structure and constructs a particular view of teaching as a decontextualised repertoire of technical skills.

  
  

  Given the fundamental philosophical and political differences between the old culture of teacher training and these emerging discourses, any attempt at genuine change will inevitably create a site of struggle over contested territory. This paper seeks to explore one such attempted change both in theoretical terms and in terms of the lived experience of the teachers, students and others who participated.

  
  

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  MAGEB95.178

  Paper
  

  Cognitive Science and Religious Education

  Bernard Mageean

  Cognitive Science has drawn together various threads from systems theory, experimental and applied psychology, linguistics, philosophy and so on. It can therefore include in its analytic horizon a wide range of aspects of the planning, executing and monitoring of human action. A key to the unification of issues that is accordingly possible is the notion of 'models in use'. With the gradually increasing application of cognitive theory this notion has gained greatly in importance. It will be argued in this presentation that an understanding of the development and use of world-models, knowledge-models and self-models allows one to explore implications for interventions in learning and teaching activity that are more promising than the rather common-sense injunctions of previous more limited learning theories.

  
  

  It will further be suggested that with this more sophisticated understanding learning theorists can begin to open up to, and draw upon, knowledge of learning and teaching that is carried somewhat deeply within spiritual and religious traditions. Examples of some connections between cognitive models and religious models will be given. The development of such links could, it will be suggested, remove instructional programming still further from mechanistic ways of thinking, and give religious education a coherence and direction which, in its recent role as consumer of pedagogical fashions, it has tended to lack.

  
  

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  MAGLL95.468S

  Globalisation: The implications for education and training

  Leo Maglenn

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  MAHOM95.372

  Policy change in Australian Agricultural Education - Preliminary report of a Tasmanian case study

  Mary Jane Mahony

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  MALOK95.261

  Paper
  

  School and Community: Case studies in environmental education

  Karen Malone, Rob Walker

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  MALOP95.194

  Paper
  

  Measuring some effects of studying senior religion courses

  Patricia Malone

  This paper will explore a study of a sample of Higher School Certificate students who completed the Studies of Religion Course in 1994. It will compare the attitudes of these students towards religion and religions with a similar sample of students who completed Board Endorsed or school developed programs in religion. All the students in the sample were attending religiously affiliated schools in 1993 and 1994 for their senior years of study. This study was developed from an initial pilot study and the students completed an initial survey in the first term of their Year 11 and a second survey at the end of their third term in year 12. The data was analysed using both the SPSS and NUD*IST packages. The paper will discuss the effect of formal study of religion on the attitude of students and will raise questions about the extent to which the course achieves some of its stated outcomes, particularly in the area of values and attitudes with this sample of students. It will raise some initial questions about the implementation of the syllabus and its contribution to the key learning area of Human Society and its Environment where this subject is located in NSW.

  
  

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  MARGD95.078

  Paper
  

  Improving learning: Scholarship, research, and teaching in academic work

  Don Margetson

  Improved learning by students or pupils is often thought to result from the effective "application" of research findings to teaching. More participatory models for the improvement of learning, (such as action-research models) try to increase the integration of research with teaching. Nonetheless, on the spectrum from "application" to "integration" there is a greater or lesser tendency to see the relation between research, teaching, and learning as a sequence, in that order.

  
  

  Scholarship often seems to play a background role - sometimes explicitly associated with research, but generally taken somewhat for granted. In the head-long rush to the managerialisation and corporatisation of higher education, scholarship seems increasingly marginalised in comparison with research - especially "applied" research. The main competitors for time, energy, and money are effectively reduced to research and teaching. At the same time, attempts are currently being made to salvage teaching from widespread perceptions that it doesn't count so far as rewards and promotion are concerned. This paper analyses some relations between research, teaching, learning, and scholarship, particularly in regard to implications for the notion of academic work and, specifically, the question of whether research and teaching can be reliably evaluated for the purposes of confirmation of appointment, promotion, and rewards.

  
  

  The analysis has implications for education at all levels, primary, secondary, and tertiary.

  
  

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  MARGS95.132

  Paper
  

  The Economics of Education as Power-Knowledge

  Simon Marginson

  The paper remarks on the economics of education from outside economics, using a largely Foucauldian framework. The economics of education is a sub-discipline of economics that is closely linked to government and is particularly appropriate to an analysis of this type. The paper works through the development of human capital theory and input-output production functions as tools of government, using examples from the Australian history of the sub-discipline. It identifies the 'positivity' of the economics of education, its objects of knowledge, some of its effects, and some political implications.

  
  

  The result is a different kind of critique of 'economic rationalism' in education. Arguably, this framework explains much in the history of education systems, although it also creates some analytical blind-spots of its own.

  
  

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  MARGS95.133

  The expansion of education in Australia, 1983-94

  Simon Marginson

  The paper reviews data showing the expansion in educational participation and provision since the early 1980s, during which time participation in post-compulsory education has almost doubled and post-compulsory education has become near universal. This constitutes a remarkable social and economic change in Australia. Features of the expansion include the relative growth in female participation and the emergence of near-mass postgraduate education.

  
  

  Unlike the expansion of the 1960s-early 1970s, the growth of the 1980s-1990s was not driven by expanding government infrastructure or recurrent expenditure; and it was marked by stronger demand for places relative to supply, the growth of private financing, and a relative deterioration in staffing. Despite fears, user pays arrangements have not prevented growth in participation, although they may have shaped its character. Economic and policy implications are discussed.

  
  

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  MARGS95.311

  Paper
  

  Norms, knowledge, data and disciplines: A personal confession

  Simon Marginson

  The author's paradigm development is linked to various policy contexts, and four elements are highlighted:

  1. relations between norms and knowledges in policy advocacy;
  2. the historically relative and contestable nature of economic data;
  3. inter-disciplinarity;
  4. the postmodern challenge.
  
  

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  MARTE95.179

  Paper
  

  Perceptions of Leadership and Management In The Teaching of Large First Year University Courses

  Elaine Martin, Michael Prosser, Keith Trigwell, Joan Benjamin and Paul Ramsden

  The quality of teaching and learning in university courses has received considerable attention over the past few years and there has been significant research into the experience of teachers and learners in those courses. The leadership and management of the teaching in those courses, however, remains a neglected area.

  
  

  In this paper we report on the ways in which teachers of large first year courses perceive the leadership and management of these courses.

  
  

  We report on the analysis of interviews with academic staff from 6 departments, across four disciplines. We describe the qualitative variation in terms of categories of description and show how individual members of academic staff work within the framework of these categories. We finally indicate how these categories relate to existing literature on collegiality and leadership and management.

  
  

  This is part of a larger ARC funded study which looks at issues of leadership and management at the departmental and course level and at the relationship of leadership and management to teaching and learning.

  
  

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  MARTF95.060

  The Development of a Non-word Reading Test

  Frances Martin, Chris Pratt

  Although non-word reading is a key indicator of general reading performance, as well as an effective means of identifying children with a specific reading disability, currently there is no published test suitable for use in Australia. This paper reports on phase one of the development of an Australian test developed in collaboration with the Tasmanian State Department of Education and the Arts. Phase one involved three main steps. The first was selecting from over 600 non-words that were identified from various sources, approximately 200 that were most suitable for primary school children.

  
  

  This was done by undertaking a preliminary screening involving presenting subsets of the total pool to individual children. The second step involved presenting the 200 items plus some additional ones we constructed to ensure that some critical grapheme-phoneme correspondences were well represented, to primary school children with a wide range of reading abilities. This allowed us to undertake further screening of items. The third step involved establishing norms for the test, as well as examining the validity and reliability of it. The proposed test along with information about its use in future as an effective reading assessment will be presented.

  
  

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  MARTL95.513

  To Be Advised

  
  

  Lyn Martinez, Mary McDonald

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  MATTC95.099

  Foundation knowledges and learning by metaphor

  Chris Matthews

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  MAWSM95.302

  Post structuralism & post modernism: Part of the solution or part of the problem in defining the workplace

  Michele Mawson

  Post-structuralism and post-modernism have become very popular theories for educational research, but too often they have not been critiqued enough. Giddens, Habermas and others point out that while theories of post-structuralism and post-modernity are considered radical by many, they stress the 'self' and individualism, and in doing so, are neo-rightist or neo-conservative. We must keep this in mind when examining the changing nature and structure of work to determine the benefits of 'community' versus 'individual'.

  
  

  With the focus of management in organisations increasingly on the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of Total Quality movements, Quality Assurance programs, and the Japanization of the workplace, the team concept, ie, people working together in teams, is emerging as a solution to the problem of restructuring the workplace. However, work teams, especially those following the Japanese example, are becoming highly individualised and self-regulating and are being forced to operate within control systems designed to extract as much labour from the workers as possible. While post-structuralists and post-modernists offer one view of the dynamics of power and regulation in the workplace, Giddens, Habermas and others argue that their focus on the 'self' and individualism, individual contracts, market forces and consumerism lead to the intensification of labour for the purpose of capital accumulation.

  
  

  Accusations that post-structuralism and post-modernism are insidious elements of the new-right cannot be ignored therefore. Research into issues relating to the transformation of work must address and investigate the question of whether post-structuralism and post-modernism illuminate the mechanisms of power or promote them.

  
  

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  MAYNT95.378S

  Paper
  

  Child centred or subject centred?: A Resolution

  Trisha Maynard

  The second paper is based on research funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust. In this project, five primary teachers together with the research officer (Maynard), formed an action research team to explore the possibilities and limitations of mentoring subject knowledge to Primary PGCE student teachers on their school experience.

  
  

  Early on, the teachers voiced their concerns about focusing on 'subject knowledge'. These concerns appeared to be related to their perceptions of themselves as 'child-centred' rather than 'subject-centred': they maintained, for example, that they did not think about their teaching in terms of discrete subject areas and that pupils' intellectual development was not their only, or indeed, at times, their main concern. Rather, they sought to educate the whole child and this included the child's social, moral and emotional development.

  
  

  Through devising, implementing and critically evaluating activities designed to develop student teachers' understandings within a particular subject area, the teachers began to see subject knowledge in more complex ways and review their attitudes towards the importance of subject knowledge in primary school teaching. By the end of the project the teachers appeared to have found ways in which to integrate their more complex understandings about subject knowledge into their 'child-centred' thinking and practice. In addition, they maintained that if student teachers were to be effective primary practitioners, then they needed to understand not only 'child-centred' pedagogy, but what individual subjects were essentially 'about': i.e. their nature.

  
  

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  MAYNT95.379S

  Paper
  

  Primary school teachers as mentors of subject knowledge

  Trisha Maynard, Sue Sanders

  This paper draws on research funded by the Welsh Office. In this project, which will be concluded in December 1995, eight primary school teachers perceived to have specialist knowledge and skills in a core area of the Welsh National Curriculum have worked collaboratively with the research officer and four university lecturers who teach subject methods courses on the Primary PGCE.

  
  

  The aim of this project is to develop and disseminate materials to support teachers in mentoring aspects of subject knowledge in the National Curriculum core areas of Welsh, English, mathematics and science, to student teachers on placement in their schools. During the initial weeks of this project tensions arose concerning which aspects of teachers' subject knowledge should form the basis of these activities. The conflict was not between proponents of 'subject-centred' and 'child-centred' approaches to primary teaching, but between teachers' and lecturers' viewpoints when considering their particular subject specialism and their viewpoints when working within another subject area. As subject specialists the nature of the subject was seen as crucial to effective teaching, while as non-specialists there was a belief that content knowledge and pedagogy should be addressed. Primary school teachers needs as subject mentors may therefore fundamentally differ depending on the subject area in which they are working. If activities are to be valued by all involved in initial teacher education then, it is argued, ways must be found of addressing and accommodating issues of nature, content and ('child-centred') pedagogy.

  
  

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  MAZIE95.150

  Paper
  

  Striking A Balance Between Content Coverage And Teaching For Understanding

  Edmund Mazibuko and Max Angus

  Good teaching and teaching for understanding are synonymous yet there are powerful constraints on such teaching, either self imposed by practitioners, or professionally imposed in the form of syllabuses and examinations. This is particularly the case in the final year of schooling when students are required to cover content prescribed in syllabuses and are rigorously assessed by examinations. How do experienced teachers manage to balance the dual responsibilities of teaching for understanding while at the same time enabling their students to achieve the highest possible performances on tertiary entrance examinations? The authors describe case studies of four Year 12 history teachers with particular reference to PrawattAs [1989] claim that teaching for understanding is characterised by focus and coherence, negotiation, and analysis and diagnosis. The evidence from this study suggests that experienced Year 12 teachers have learned to make artful compromises in the way they teach and manage content coverage. Not all the compromises, however, produce their intended consequences.

  
  

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  MCCOA95.243

  Post compulsory physical education: selection reasons and patterns

  Ann McCormack & Robert Lees

  In 1990 the NSW Government introduced major curriculum reforms to secondary education which aimed to broaden the options available to students and increase the retention rate in post compulsory education.

  
  

  2Unit Personal Development, Health & Physical Education was introduced in 1991 with an initial candidature of 1,500 students from 50 schools for the 1992 HSC examination. By 1995 this number has increased to 7,800 candidates from 465 schools giving this subject the largest increase in candidature of any course since the introduction of the Higher School Certificate.

  
  

  This paper details a project conducted during 1995 which aimed to ascertain the reasons why post compulsory students select or do not select this subject for study. A questionnaire using 16 bipolar statements and a four point Likert scale was employed to gather data from 1800 Year 11 students in 12 schools in NSW. The variables of gender, region (city/country), system (govt/ind/catholic) and previous level of academic achievement were analysed to determine if they had a significant influence on the student's choice of this subject.

  
  

  Results of the project gained through quantitative analysis of the data will be given and interpreted. Recommendations will be made for future developments within the post compulsory curriculum area of physical education and for schools implementing this course.

  
  

  This project was supported by a research grant from The Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation Inc. ACHPER (NSW).

  
  

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  MCDOR95.458S

  The costs of assessments in industry: results of some recent case studies

  Rod McDonald

  This paper reports on a number of case studies in industry training and formal vocational education. The focus of the work was on the costs of assessment, aiming to identify indicators of pressure points in the costs of assessment and to develop a framework enabling incorporation of the costs in decision-making.

  
  

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  MCFAM95.346

  Paper
  

  Teaching Risk in HSC English: The view from the ground

  Mark McFadden, Joan Phillip, Joy Wallace, Paul Washington

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  MCGIM95.215

  Paper
  

  Reflecting and learning: Using electronic mail as a Teaching/Learning tool

  M McGill, Steven Jessup

  This paper will report on the impact on 1st year preservice teachers of the introduction of part delivery of an compulsory education unit via electronic mail. At the start of an academic year all of the 220 people enrolled in the course were connected to the University's electronic mail system. Two questionnaires were developed to collect information and these were administered randomly at the beginning and end of the teaching semester. Other data were collected from follow up interviews.

  
  

  The greatest benefit identified by the respondents for being connected to electronic mail was direct access to their tutor. The greatest problem identified by the students was getting on the system through the formal university procedures. Instead of using the designated courses provided by the University, students in the end preferred to use technical staff or other students to teach them. The data also show that younger students develop greater confidence in using the system than mature students and that male and female students use electronic mail to serve different purposes. Students who had relatively little or no experience on computers before the unit tended to avoid using electronic mail and computers as resourcefully as their more experienced peers. Interviews elicited information on how the process impacted on student learningStudents, in general, are able to use electronic mail as a tool to communicate and collect information. The challenge for teacher educators is to develop strategies whereby students and their tutors can gain from the benefits identified in the study.

  
  

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  MCKIC95.158

  Paper
  

  Decentralisation, Change Reactions & Community Commitment

  Charmaine McKibbin and Tom Cooper

  Current educational policy debates on decentralisation or devolution of responsibility from the centre of educational administration to the local school community, include encouragement for all stakeholders in that community to support school based management.

  
  

  These moves within Queensland's Education Department, from a centralised system of management to that of more decentralised mechanisms, have requirements for extending parent support in schools. Parents have moved from more traditional roles of peripheral involvement, to those which require more informed, skilled, confident decision-making.

  
  

  This paper will focus on the effects upon members of a school community of rising community expectations for more parent involvement in schools. By employing a case-study of parent participation at an inner city secondary school, the paper will describe some of the processes by which parents effected positive change in participation at their school.

  
  

  The paper also discusses other factors involved in achieving this paradigm shift, e.g.

  1. parallelism with government initiatives;
  2. parent/researcher collaboration, and li> social and power relations.
  
  Finally, some suggested explanations for successes and failures within this policy planning programme of more parent participation will be discussed.
  
  

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  MCKIC95.159

  Paper
  

  Can Everyone Have Their Say?

  Charmaine McKibbin

  Current moves from a centralised system of management to that of more decentralised mechanisms within Queensland's Education Department are supposed to include parents as co-decision-makers in schools. These moves within the Department's administrative processes highlight the matrix between the home, the school, the economy and the social well being of the individual within the population; that is, how the school and its community are part of the governmental processes.

  
  

  There are some practical complexities associated with extended parental involvement and participation in schooling. An applied case-study of parent participation at one Secondary School provides a number of problems associated with these new policy objectives.

  
  

  However, rather than defining these problems as based in liberal humanist `rhetoric of rights', I shall discuss how they might be understood in terms of a variety of competing rights based claims, capacities and kinds of expertise associated with school based management.

  
  

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  MCLEJ95.212

  Paper
  

  The early secondary years: memories, transitions and expectations

  Julie McLeod, Lyn Yates

  This paper is the second report from a qualitative longitudinal study of girls and boys as they progress through secondary schooling (The 12-18 Educational Research Project). In our first paper, we discussed some of the framing methodological and theoretical issues of the project. The project is now in its third year, and we are completing interviews with students in year 8. In this paper, we focus on the first years of secondary school, and the changing attitudes and expectations of students - to school work, to friends, to their futures and to the meaning and experience of being at school. This discussion makes comparisons between students at different schools, and also explores changing enthusiasms and interests in individual students, and the different ways, for instance, in which they negotiate school work and friendships. One of the purposes of the paper is to consider how students remember, reconstruct and recount certain key moments in their schooling lives, such as the transition from being at home to being at primary school, or comparing the experience of grade 6 with that of year 7, or of year 7 with year 8. The paper concludes by reflecting on how the findings and observations from the early years of secondary school contribute to or extend our initial theoretical and methodological interests.

  
  

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  MCLEJ95.257

  Paper
  

  The internship: Cultivating a collaborative curriculum

  Julie Hinde McLeod

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  MCNAP95.090

  Doing what?: Implementing equity policy in Australian higher education

  Peter McNamee

  During the past ten years, since the establishment of the Higher Education Equity Programme in 1985, Australian institutions of higher education have become increasingly responsible for the implementation of federal higher education equity policy. Within broad parameters, Australian universities are required to devise strategies and programs that will deliver outcomes consistent with the intentions of federal policy. The research reported in this paper, however, suggests that the meaning of federal higher education equity policy is problematic and the nature of its intended outcomes is open to interpretation and subject to implemented actions. As such, the paper rejects traditional rationalistic models of policy implementation as sufficient in explaining implementation activity. Rather, it presents implementation of higher education equity policy as an active process of policy production in institutional arenas. Finally, the paper calls for increased case study research activity into the policy production processes of institutions of higher education to reveal and illuminate their interpretations, interactions and attempts to institutionalise federal policy.

  
  

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  MCNAP95.091

  Paper
  

  Five years on, a Fair Chance Yet?: A critical examination of the effects of institutional practice on the implementation of higher education equity policy

  Peter McNamee, Patrina Bauer

  Especially since the introduction of the Commonwealth Higher Education Equity Programme in 1985, and reinforced in the 1988 White Paper on Higher Education and A Fair Chance For All in 1990, the Australian Federal Government has made a significant and concerted effort to enhance the accessibility of higher education to all Australians.

  
  

  Through mechanisms such as granting monies for special equity programs, having universities develop explicit equity plans, and the linking of funding to achievement of equity objectives, the Government has sought a reconstruction of current access arrangements and practices.

  
  

  Specifically, it has been the intent of federal equity policy over the past five years at least to reconstruct higher education student populations so that they are more representative of the Australian population at large.

  
  

  This paper revisits the Government's higher education equity agenda, and through a five year institutional case study of a particular university, examines and explores the relationship between this agenda and the participation in higher education of persons from disadvantaged backgrounds. Whilst this paper reports some equity improvements in access during the past five years, it also acknowledges that the extent of these successes have been tempered by various ideological, political and organisational factors within the institution.

  
  

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  MEIKT95.270

  Paper
  

  Alice or Alex in Scienceland? An analysis of participation by gender in a vacation science education program

  Tunde Meikle

  This paper presents the findings of an analysis of the attendance at a vacation-time science program held during school holidays for the past four years. In that time over 600 children, aged 7 to 10 years, have attended the sessions. Of interest are the emergent trends in attendance when analysed for gender and theme, especially since the children are quite young. The question of, given a 'free' choice, do Alice and Alex attend in equal numbers is revealed. In addition this paper questions the assumptions made related to decision making about such choices - who makes them?The implications for those interested in boy's and girl's participation in science, those designing inclusive science curricula and those creating extra curricular science programs are explored.

  
  

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  MEIKT95.271

  Normal development? From whose perspective?

  Tunde Meikle

  This paper explores the proposal that there may be an alternative paradigm of human development waiting to be revealed. Through the process of graphical representation the current paradigm and its associated assumptions are revealed. This current view is given the title the 'Over the hill' model. The author brings together trends in contemporary research in lifespan development to propose that there is an alternative view possible that also fits what are seen as the 'facts' but which has very different political and practical implications for educators and developmental psychologists and educational sociologists. The alternative view, which is a conceptual inversion of the 'Over the hill' model, is called the 'Changing U' model. Using a graphical interpretation tool helps to bring forth the inherent assumptions of current thinking and allows us to make a profound conceptual leap.

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  MELLS95.234

  Paper
  

  Competency-based approaches and literacy education in schools. A grass roots view

  Suzanne Mellor and Jan Lokan

  There is much uncertainty in schools about the +competencies agenda+.

  
  

  What impact might the work of the Finn and Mayer committees in the early 1990s, with the resulting formulation of generic +key competencies+, have on school curricula, assessment and reporting practices?With particular reference to the potential impact of competency-based approaches on aspects of literacy education, an ACER research team carried out a comprehensive study in 1993-94., which resulted in the publication of two reports. A survey of a random sample of approximately 200 schools Australia-wide was conducted, followed by detailed case studies in 21 schools from all states and territories.

  
  

  Objectives were to N document current curriculum, assessment and reporting practices locate exemplars of pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and reporting which could be adapted to accommodate competency-based teaching analyse the role of literacy in the Mayer key competencies ascertain what teachers were currently doing in their teaching that would help students acquire the generic skills reflected in the key competenciesN obtain teachers+ views about how competency-based initiatives might best be introduced and implemented in schools.

  
  

  The presentation will include an overview of the study and the survey results, but the main emphasis will be on reporting highlights of the case study discussions with a wide range of teachers in a wide range of types of schools and locations.

  
  

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  MERED95.223

  Paper
  

  Keeping a civil tongue: Questions about civics

  Denise Meredyth

  The Civics Expert Group has recommended the introduction of a revised national civics curriculum. The new curriculum, it suggests, should be pluralist and non-partisan, should build an interest in political processes and should instil a range of civic knowledges and competences. But it should also be based on 'core values'. These proposals raise thorny questions for a secular, multicultural and pluralist school system. Who is to identify these 'core values'? What are the key civic competences which all students require? What balance should be struck between building civic skills and knowledges, and forming ethical abilities? What are the ethical capacities which citizens require in their diverse capacities as citizens? This paper argues that, in order to address these questions, we need a more concrete understanding of the variety of civic competences and of the means available to form them.

  
  

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  MEYEB95.181

  Necessary but not sufficient: Towards reconceptualising primary teacher education

  Bob Meyenn, Judith Parker

  Recent research by Grundy and Hatton (1994, 1995) examines the attitudes, values and ideological positions of Australian teacher educators and locates them in discourses which are both explanatory and interpretative. Significantly, their analyses explore the implications of teacher educators' technocratic and conservative ideology and practice for the preparation of the next generation of teachers. Such dominant ideology and practice mean that issues of equity and social justice as fundamental principles of the education system are less likely to be foregrounded as problematic and occupy significant space in teacher education programs.

  
  

  This paper argues that in order for issues of equity and social justice, issues of gender, race and class, to be fully integrated into, and informing of, primary teacher education, primary teacher education must be reconceptualised. The reconceptualising we explore is embedded in the theorising and practice of cultural studies (During 1993) because it offers frameworks for critique and explanation of the role of teacher educators in cultural reproduction. The interdisciplinary approach drawn upon in cultural studies means that the prevalent compartmentalisation of knowledge, particularly in curriculum studies areas, is challenged and rendered problematic.

  
  

  If we move toward this reconceptualising of primary teacher education then there are serious implications for the structure and content of teacher education programs and the professional development of teacher educators.

  
  

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  MILNJ95.354

  Paper
  

  2020 Vision: Aspirations and identity among adolescent cohorts in Trinidad & Tobago yesterday, today and tomorrow

  Jo Milne-Home

  2020 VISION: aspirations and identity among adolescents cohorts in Trinidad & Tobago yesterday, today and tomorrow will explore 3 major themes from research conducted in Trinidad and Tobago in 1994-95:

  • The findings of We Wish to Be Looked Upon, a study conducted by Vera Rubins and Marissa Zavalloni, Columbia University, looking at the aspirations and identity of adolescents in Trinidad and Tobago on the eve of Independence from Great Britain (1962). The presentation will outline the gender, class and ethnic differences in the career choices of adolescents at the height of nationalism to compare these with contemporary youth and their perceptions of the future - for themselves and their nation.
  • Post Colonial Education in an era that has incorporated Trinidad and Tobago's Self Rule, Negritude /Black Power / Cultural Pluralism / Multiculturalism, Women's Liberation/ Women's Equality and diversification of industry towards an independent economy as opposed to a Plantation society or oil based economy with limited options for trade and development. Thirty years after Independence adolescents are again asked to look at the future.
  • The findings of the 1994-95 research among 250 secondary students and 25 secondary school principals reveal continuities between adolescents of yesterday and today. Students completed the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI), the Work Aspects Preference Scale (WAPS), the Career Decision Making Inventory (CDI) and the Self Description Questionnaire (SDQ III) as well as the 2020 Vision Workshop which focused questions on themes that had emerged from the Rubins and Zavalloni study, We Wish to Be Looked Upon. The presentation will highlight themes of gender, class, ethnicity and career aspirations. The language of the students and principals will be discussed to reveal the ways youth and educational leaders define themselves and speak to broader issues of race, gender, class and tolerance in their society.
  
  

  If Black Power advocates looked at the ideas of Tomorrow when racial equality was entertained, and Black women looked at Tomorrow's Tomorrow when Black Women could find their equal place, this presentation will look at Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow in the changing directions of Caribbean Education and Youth Aspirations where every creed and race will find an equal place in the nation.

  
  

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  MOHAN95.251

  Attitudes of first year college students towards CAI

  Norita Mohamed, Zurida Haji Ismail

  Although computers entered the Malaysian scene in 1964, it was not until the arrival of microcomputers that their impact began to be felt in schools. However, there is no significant activity in the use of computers to enhance the teaching and learning of science either in the classrooms or in college science instruction. A group of first year college students enrolled in an introductory chemistry course were asked to try out the CAI software on certain topics as a supplement to their lectures. The students were then asked to evaluate the software and their attitudes toward CAI were assessed at the end of the semester. This paper will discuss the findings from the study and suggestions for the use of computers to improve the science teaching and learning in Malaysia.

  
  

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  MONFM95.162

  Paper
  

  Teacher Stress: Cognitive Implications for Teacher "Burnout"

  Melissa Monfries

  The aim of the present research was to examine the relationship of teacher stress and satisfaction to self evaluation measures (i.e. self discrepancies, public and private self consciousness, fear of negative evaluation, and state and trait anxiety). In addition a comparison of stress levels and self evaluation scores were compared for two demographically different state high schools (an ACT school and a NSW school).

  
  

  Forty nine teachers from the two schools completed Teacher stress and satisfaction Questionnaires; and Self-evaluation questionnaires.

  
  

  Preliminary analyses reveal that the teachers from the NSW school were experiencing higher levels of stress than has been reported for non-clinical samples and experience greater levels of stress than their ACT counterparts. In addition, some interesting relationships among teacher satisfaction and stress and self evaluation measures were found.

  
  

  These results are discussed with reference to the anxiety literature and the potentially useful interventions which may be useful in ameliorating the present high "burn-out " and resignation rates for teachers. The specific foci of these interpretations are on the cognitive aspects of teacher anxiety.

  
  

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  MOORP95.214

  Thinking aloud during reading and studying textbook material: An analysis of strategies of Year 5,7 and 9 studentsPhillip J. Moore and Jill J. ScevakThe aims of this research were to examine the strategies used by primary and high school students as they read typical History and Science textbook material that contained visual aids (diagrams, tables). Think-aloud protocols were gathered from 119 Year 5, 7 and 9 students as they read and studied the grade appropriate materials.

  Analyses of the think-aloud protocols yielded over 50 different processes, subsumed under 10 major categories of strategies. The History results showed no reliable differences in the 10 think-aloud categories whereas the Science results showed significant differences between grades on five of the categories. The reported use of the visual aid in Science highlighted developmental differences.

  Instructional implications are noted.

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  MOORP95.304

  Paper
  

  Attributional beliefs and strategic knowledge of students in years 5,7 and 9: Comparisons across subject domains

  Phillip J. Moore and Lorna K. S. Chan

  This paper reports part of the first year of a three year longitudinal study of primary and high school students' motivational beliefs and strategic knowledge in English, Mathematics, Social Sciences and in general school learning. 355 Year 5, 710 Year 7, and 520 Year 9 students completed the global Causal Attribution Scale (Chan, 1994) as well as three domain specif versions of the Chan scales. In addition, all completed the global Self-regulated Learning Strategies Scale (Youldon & Chan, 1994), the Mathematics Learning Strategies Scale (Fairbairn, Moore & Chan, 1994), the Social Sciences Learning Strategies Scale (Rodwell & Moore, 1994), and the English Learning Strategies Scale (Youldon & Chan, 1995). Within and across Year comparisons are made for general and domain specific attributions as well as for strategic knowledge and reported strategy use, generally as well as in subject domains. The results are discussed in terms of instructional practice and directions for combined attribution/strategy training

  
  

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  MOORP95.389

  Symposium: "Attributional Beliefs, Strategic Knowledge and the Performance in different Subject Domains"

  Coordinator: Phillip J. Moore & Lorna K. S. Chan

  The focus of this symposium is on the relationships among motivation, strategic knowledge and performance in academic tasks across primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education. The particular motivational construct under investigation, students' attributional beliefs about the reasons for their successes and failures in schooling, is posited to have both direct, and indirect effects through strategic knowledge, on performance. Whereas previous research has tended to investigate such motivation in a general way, here the focus is on subject specific attributions and subject specific strategic knowledge. Following a similar symposium at the 1994 Conference, two of the presentations address the next stage of a longitudinal ARC Project Grant. One presentation compares attributional beliefs and strategic knowledge in Year 5, 7 and 9 students in English, Mathematics, Social Sciences as well as in general learning terms.

  
  

  Another presentation further examines the English data for the three grades through an analysis of the relationships among attributional beliefs, strategic knowledge and English performance. The third paper reports a qualitative study of university students' attributional beliefs in the context of subjects they like and dislike. Implications for instruction are noted.

  
  

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  MORIB95.204

  Paper
  

  Self-Efficacy and Mathematics: Yesterday's Students and Tomorrow's Teachers

  Beverley Moriarty

  The long-term purpose of the Mathematics for Initial Teacher Education Students (MITES) project, is to develop strategies to improve the levels of self-efficacy and mathematics achievement among teacher education students so that they have a positive influence on the mathematics education of school students when they enter the teaching profession. The purpose of the first stage of this research is to identify the incoming levels of self-efficacy and achievement in mathematics of first year education students at a Queensland university and to evaluate a programme being developed using co-operative learning methods intended to improve performances on the dependent variables.

  
  

  This paper reports the background and design of the study in progress, the development of the instrument used to test levels of self-efficacy and the initial results.

  
  

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  MOROW95.315

  Paper
  

  Grade Level Differences in Student Attitudes Toward Social Studies and Other School Subjects

  Wally Moroz, Robert G Baker, & Gil McDonald

  This paper presents some findings from a large survey which investigated the attitude of the students and their teachers toward the subject of social studies. The sample for the study involved over 3000 grade 4,5,6, and 7 students and their teachers across 21 schools. The paper reports on the findings which emerged from a comparison of the grade-level differences and gender differences in students' attitudes toward social studies across grades 4 to 7 and compares the status accorded social studies by the students against their ratings of 12 other school subjects. While students were positive toward all school subjects in the mid-years of grades 4 and 5, there was a significant decline in the positive attitude of students over the four years such that by grade 7 students' attitudes were negative toward two of the 12 school subjects, namely, religion and social studies. Health education was the only school subject to go against the trend and record a higher positive rating across the grades from middle to upper primary.

  
  

  Studies of Society and the Environment is one of the eight key areas of the primary and secondary school curriculum in Australia and the findings will be of great concern for all teachers and educators across the nation that recognise the significance of this key learning area.

  
  

  The findings are particularly disturbing in the light of a recent resurgence of interest in the civics and citizenship issue and Australian cultural heritage studies.

  
  

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  MULRR95.506S

  Rose Mulraney

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  NEWML95.157

  Paper
  

  The Transition to School for Children with Special Needs: A Phenomenographic Study

  Linda Newman

  Major life transitions can be a positive experience of change or more commonly can be times of stress. For families of children with special needs the transition into school can be a stressful time. Teachers are also major stakeholders in this transition process. Quantitative analysis can reveal some aspects of the transition experience but with qualitative analysis the emotions, thoughts and feelings of the stakeholders are much more richly described.

  
  

  Two studies of transition to school for children with special needs have been completed. In one, the beliefs and practices of teachers have been examined and in the other the experiences and perceptions of families have been sought. A phenomenographic approach has been employed for data analysis and similar themes have emerged in each group. Some important areas of concern have been identified and will be presented in this paper.

  
  

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  NIMMG95.097

  Paper
  

  The Path to Self Efficacy in Teaching: A Longitudinal Study of Beginning Teaching

  Graham Nimmo, David Smith

  This paper is based on a longitudinal, in-depth study of a the development of a secondary school teacher during her first two years of teaching. The study is underpinned by a theoretical framework adapted from those advanced by Bullough, Knowles and Crow (1992) and Scardamalia and Bereiter (1989). These theoretical frameworks emphasise four qualitative indices of professional growth in teachers, viz.

  
  

  teaching schema, problem framing, problem setting, and preparedness to tackle more complex problems. The study also examined the relative contribution of theory-based knowledge and personal practical knowledge to the teacher's thinking and decision making.

  
  

  While the study gives some support to stage theories of teacher development (eg. Fuller and Bown, 1975; Marshall, Fittinghoff and Cheney, 1990; Ryan, 1986) the findings demonstrate the need to take account of the subtle interplay of idiosyncratic personal factors and contextual factors in charting the course of teachers' professional growth. Implications of the investigation for both teacher educators and school personnel are also considered.

  
  

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  ONGSS95.071

  Paper
  

  The Concept of 'Positioning': Bridging a 'false dichotomy' between structuralisms and their 'posts'?

  Sigmund Ongstad

  This paper discusses how 'positioning' can diminish structural and poststructural oppositions. Used in different academic fields positioning' describes actions in a given situation. It is argued that positioning is more flexible than concepts such as role, strategy, and agency. However, many concepts, including most conceptions of positioning, are missing a connection to broader theories of the sign.

  
  

  Accordingly many approaches isolate language both as an 'object' and as a frame of interpretation, underestimating the significance of conflicting semiotics in culture, complexities in communication, and postmodern, 'blurred genres'.

  
  

  'Positioning' in this paper is understood as the process of relating to three inevitable aspects of any utterance: structure, reference, and act. This 'triad' forces utterers and receivers to dynamic, shifting positionings inbetween the expressivity of forms, the referentiality of meanings, and the addressivity of acts.

  
  

  Relating to a classroom study, the paper discusses both the relevance of positioning as meta-concept for analyzing student positioning and implications of the concept for understanding researchers observations and writings as positionings. It illustrates how a research project can replace traditional methodologies using the notion of 'positioning' at any stage in the research process in order to overarch constraints of structuralisms and poststructuralisms.

  
  

  Thus structuralisms 'kill' context by foregrounding one aspect for classification in search of valid categorization. By contrast poststructuralisms keep context 'alive' by not foregrounding, focusing several, often conflicting aspects, and by searching uncertainties of 'valid' categorization. In discussing implications of 'positioning', the paper aims at neutralizing such and some other dichotomies.

  
  

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  ORREJ95.229

  Paper
  

  Is past wisdom enough to ensure future quality in higher education?

  Janice Orrell

  Most teachers in higher education are employed for their expertise in domains other than teaching. The ways in which universities currently operate, furthermore, means that personal disposition alone often determines whether academics engage in any form of learning about how to teach. As a result, teaching in higher education is largely guided by wisdom derived from past experiences. Teacher thinking research has found that such `wisdomA becomes synthesised as academics' tacit and unchallenged personal theories of teaching and learning. This paper reports the results of research that examined the `wisdom of practice' or personal practical theories that guided the assessment behaviours of 16 experienced academics. These academics described their personal practical theory as their `professional judgement' which they used to justify their choices for confronting the everyday dilemmas of classroom practice.

  
  

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  OSBOB95.236

  Paper
  

  Indigenous education: Is there a place for non-indigenous researchers?

  Barry Osborne

  This paper asks but does not answer the question posed in its title.

  
  

  It examines notions of social justice, politics of educational research, pragmatic considerations, standpoint epistemology and representations (for, by and with).

  
  

  It stems from my long-term involvement in research in the realm of Torres Strait Islander education and educating researchers. It problematises aspects of non-indigenous researchers working in such field.

  
  

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  OSBOB95.237

  Paper
  

  Teaching across cultures: culturally relevant pedagogy as a starting point

  Barry Osborne

  This paper reviews eighty-four ethnographies conducted in both remote cross-cultural settings and urban multi-ethnic settings to identify a set of understandings and classroom strategies likely to improve teaching across cultures. It establishes nine signposts to better teaching across cultures. Culturally relevant pedagogy is defined in terms of academic, social and cultural success.

  
  

  The signposts represent multiple possible starting points so that in-service and pre-service teachers can select where to begin based on their current understandings and their readings of the contexts in which they work. To assist this praxis between theory and action and to avoid stereotyping, the signposts are presented as general statements with lists of confirming and disconfirming studies.

  
  

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  PARAR95.240

  The role of self-efficacy in leadership ability: A path analysis

  Roberto H Parada, Richard A Walker and Michael Bailey

  Self percepts of efficacy are known to influence the behaviour and motivation of individuals and have been found to be important mediators of psychological functioning (Bandura, 1982; Bandura, 1984).

  
  

  Self-efficacy has been identified as having a mediating role on management performance tasks such as organisational attainment, analytic strategy development and complex decision making (Wood & Bandura, 1989; Bandura & Wood, 1989). Such studies have led Hunt (1991) to postulate that self-efficacy may be an important factor in leadership. However, the nature, scope or to what aspects of leadership, self-efficacy may be related to have not been explicated.

  
  

  Recent studies using path analysis - a quantitative method for determining patterns of causation among a set of variables - have been used to determine the strength of the mediation of self efficacy on writing course attainment and mathematical problem solving in comparison to other variables in a stated model (Pajares & Johnson, 1995; Pajares & Kranzler 1995). In this study path analysis was used to examine the causal relationship among problem solving, verbal skills, interpersonal skills, self efficacy and leadership ability.

  
  

  The subjects were 120 year 11 high school students of mixed gender.

  
  

  Leadership ability was assessed with The Leadership Ability Evaluation Revised (Cassel & Stancik, 1981). Interpersonal skills with the FIRO B (Schutz, 1978) while problem solving and verbal skills were assessed with a modified administration of the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (Kaufman & Kaufman,1990).The data is still under analysis.

  
  

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  PARKL95.318

  To mix or not to mix? An update on the single-sex/coeducation debate

  Lesley Parker, Leonie Rennie

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  PARKL95.480S

  The Gendering of Science and Mathematics: How Much Can a Longitudinal State-wide Analysis Tell Us?

  Lesley Parker

  The objectives of this research were to monitor, from a socio-historical perspective, the gendered nature of participation and achievement in high school science and mathematics subjects in Western Australia. The research was part of a larger study, which aimed to advance understanding of the relationship between gender, science and mathematics through the development and testing of a theory of "gender coding". The focus of the methodology was on the structural, system-wide level of education. A data base, spanning the years 1976-1933 was accumulated from the archives and records of the Secondary Education Authority in Western Australia (WA). For each of the five science subjects and four mathematics subjects in the WA system, the participation/achievement data were differentiated according to sex of students, SAT score of students and type of school attended by students (which allowed an approximate measure of socio-economic status). From an analysis of effect sizes, some conclusions could be drawn about gender- and class-based patterns of participation and achievement in science/mathematics education. This paper focuses in particular on changes in gendered patterns of achievement associated with different modes of assessment operating in WA during the 18 year period of the study and the extent to which a critical understanding of these changes can be informed through a large-scale data base analysis.

  
  

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  PARTG95.242

  Perspectives on discipline of aboriginal students

  Gary Partington, Russell Waugh, Simon Forrest

  The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of Year 8-10 Aboriginal students and their teachers in relation to school discipline breaches. The students and their teachers (from metropolitan secondary schools) were interviewed after the students were removed from the classroom for misdemeanours following repeated warnings, and were referred to the next level of discipline by the year coordinator or deputy principal. Aboriginal students and teachers were asked to tell in their own words what events led to the action, and how they interpreted those events. Students were interviewed by an Aboriginal person, and teachers by the members of the research team.

  
  

  The interviews were transcribed and analysed for patterns and regularities using NUDIST software. There was a considerable consistency between teachers and students in many cases, but even so, there was a tendency to view the other party as responsible for the events leading to the removal. Aboriginal students generally considered that the events were minor; that often they were actively engaged in creating the situation leading to their removal, that other (non-Aboriginal) students were less likely to be evicted for similar events, and that the teacher's inflexibility was a major causative factor. Teachers reported events from a position of power and authority, and justified their actions on the basis of school rules.

  
  

  In some cases the student's removal was a consequence of both parties working to construct a situation which led to that outcome.

  
  

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  PATEJ95.196

  Paper
  

  Models of integration for hearing impaired and deaf students: current practices and future trends

  John Paterson, Irene Truscott, Gary Vetteretto

  Current educational philosophy supports the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular schools. Deaf and Hearing Impaired students are no exception to the inclusion movement, even though in the recent past they were educated in segregated settings. While the majority of Deaf and Hearing Impaired students are educated in mainstream settings there are many different approaches and varying degrees of mainstreaming that take place. This paper explores the various models of integration that operate in a number of schools in the Independent system in NSW and refers to specific programs.

  
  

  The paper explores the need for multi skilling of educators who can work across a variety of settings and perform a variety of tasks such as notetaking, sign interpreting and giving team teaching or other kinds of support. It will be suggested that a person in this role would need to be able to move comfortably between modes and educational philosophies, while having expertise across a wide range of Key Learning Areas.

  
  

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  PAYNP95.037

  Virtual Being: Being Virtual: An educational foray into the ontological question of being

  Phillip Payne

  Much has been said in educational discourses about the technological wave of 'surfing the net', riding the information 'superhighway', entering 'cyberspace' and so on. Relatively little has been said about the implications for the 'question of Being', a question resuscitated in recent times by Martin Heidegger (1926/62, 1954/77, 1956).

  
  

  Although the philosophy of technology is academically nascent the work of Don Ihde (1979, 1983, 1986, 1990, 1991) on the phenomenology and cultural hermeneutics of technics is valuable for what it might illuminate for educators. This paper outlines some of Ihde's major insights into the techno-texturing of 'being' and the postmodern shaping of the 'lifeworld.' One aim of relocating Ihde's thesis in educational discourses is to raise issues of moral, social, political, and ecological significance in what, mostly, is a complicity of academics and teachers with technological imperatives in education.

  
  

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  PAYNP95.038

  Paper
  

  Tempering Critical Theory in Curriculum Praxis

  Phillip Payne and Christopher Hickey

  This paper reports on the second phase of an ongoing research project into postgraduate students' attempts to develop a critical curriculum praxis.

  
  

  There are two theoretical sources of this curriculum praxis. The first is students' 'personal' theorising about the inadequacies of a curriculum innovation in which they are currently engaged. The second is Brian Fay's (1987) metatheory of the critical social sciences. It provides an intellectual resource capable of explaining the limits to any reform effort.

  
  

  Notably, Fay's metatheory tempers the utopian aspirations of critical social science. Fay's 'limits to change' thesis has significance to curriculum work where, for example, the repressive myths of critical pedagogy have been alleged (Ellsworth 1988), rebutted (Aronowitz & Giroux, 1991, editorialised (Farrell, 1994) and commented about (Anyon, 1994). Meanwhile, White (1994) calls for more empirical work of a critical nature.

  
  

  The first stage of this research reported on three teachers' critical diagnosis of a troubling curriculum initiative (Payne & Hickey, 1995).

  
  

  This diagnosis provided the grounds for the second stage of empirical research which is reported here.

  
  

  This paper will highlight how curriculum workers understand their ideals in relation to changing curriculum contexts and subsequently amend them regulatively and normatively for practicality and non-idealism (Fay, 1987). As such, the findings anticipate Carr's (1995) call for research 'for education'.

  
  

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  PEAKG95.264

  Paper
  

  Competency based assessment in vocational education and training: Recent investigations on some current issues using different research settings and approaches

  Grahame Peak

  Competency-based training/assessment is central to the reform agenda for our national vocational education and training system. The present paper examines two recent studies on current issues and approaches associated with the implementation of competency-based assessment within two vocational education and training systems. The two studies chosen represent different research settings, one a military establishment and the other a public training provider; different researchers, one a military instructor and the other a civilian teacher; different participants, one a sample of training and development experts and the other two groups of apprentice trade students; and different research approaches, one a qualitative technique and the other a quantitative methodology.

  
  

  The first study, undertaken within the Royal Australian Air Force, had as its aim the development of a competency-based workplace assessment model suitable for use in the aircraft maintenance environment. The Delphi Technique consisting of three rounds of questionnaires distributed by mail to aircraft and avionics training personnel was used to provide answers to research questions concerning the assessment methods, timing of assessment, amount of evidence for valid assessment, assessors, and reporting and recording competency.

  
  

  The second study, conducted in TAFE NSW, had as its purpose the determination of the effect of grading competency-based tests on performance in electrical trades subjects. When both experimental and control groups were each given no grading for the first semester module assessment there was no significant difference between groups in performance. However, when grading was introduced for the experimental group in the second semester module assessment there were significantly less retests required for the experimental group than for the control group.

  
  

  Both studies make recommendations, based on their findings and conclusions, which have implications for educational practice.

  
  

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  PEGGJ95.153

  Paper
  

  An exploration of students' statistical thinking using the SOLO Taxonomy

  John Pegg and Chris Reading

  There has been a growing recognition throughout Australia of the place of statistics in the school curriculum. Part of the impetus for this has been the strand status offered statistics (within Chance and Data) in A National Statement in Mathematics for Australian Schools. As expected, this change of emphasis in the curriculum has been mirrored by similar changes in the research agenda. An important aspect of research has been the consideration of what is meant by 'statistical thinking'. This paper takes up this theme by considering students' responses to two open-ended tasks which require both the interpretation of data and the drawing of inferences. To assist in this process the SOLO Taxonomy is employed as the theoretical framework.

  
  

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  PERRC95.278

  Paper
  

  TeachersA knowledge of the world of work: Teacher placement in industry and links to the development of key competencies by students

  Chris Perry and Ian Ball

  Societal expectation of schools is clearly that a more adequate vocational preparation needs to be provided for students to enable them on leaving school to become effective members of the workforce.

  
  

  One implication is that teachers' current knowledge about industry needs enhancement. Industry asserts that there are identifiable competencies that are needed for entrants to the workforce to allow effective participation in the current and emerging patterns of work and work organisation.

  
  

  Professional development programs that give teachers experience in industry, allow teachers on their return to the school system, to bring new knowledge to questions of development of increased awareness in school students about the world of work. Whilst in industry the expertise of teachers is valued in facilitating industry reform.

  
  

  This paper explores origins of teacher professional development programs such as the Teacher Release to Industry Program [TRIP] and the National Teacher into Industry Program [NTIP]. The paper also reviews samples of the talk of six TRIP teachers reflecting on their industry experience. In addition the paper reports on projects produced by teachers in their industry placements. Documentary evidence from these projects demonstrates the relationship between teacher knowledge derived from the placement and its application to the development of key competencies expected from school students. The manner in which these projects can inform curriculum initiatives at the school level is also discussed.

  
  

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  PETTP95.032

  Time matters: How the allocation and use of time in cchools affect teaching, learning and accountability

  Pamela Pettus

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  PHILR95.487S

  On Support for Innovation: Who or what is the driver?

  Robert Phillips

  Systemic level support is necessary for innovations within a schooling system. This paper will briefly describe the processes through which support was provided by the Tasmanian Department of Education and the Arts (DEA) to Tasmanian government schools involved in innovations, and studied in the OECD Science, Maths and Technology in Education (SMTE) Project.

  
  

  The support provided by DEA personnel to schools and teachers involved in innovations included:- professional development;- resources;- curriculum frameworks; and - supporting mechanisms for the innovations.

  
  

  This support was often provided by Curriculum Officers in each of the three key learning areas of Science, Mathematics and Technology.

  
  

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  PITTJ95.241

  Paper
  

  Social Justice in a contemporary school: some methodological considerations

  Jane Pitt

  This presentation considers a PhD thesis related to the issue of social justice in a contemporary school. The issue is considered through a critical case analysis of a country primary school and asks the questions:

  • How is social justice interpreted in educational policy?
  • What are teachers, students and parents understanding. of social justice as it relates to schooling?
  • What does the school do in the name of social justice?
  • How successful is the school in relation to social justice?
  
  

  More specifically the presentation addresses the question; How does structuration theory inform the interpretation of social justice in schooling? The presentation focusses on a number of methodological issues which have been generated via the consideration of the work of the social theorist Anthony Giddens. In particular issues pertaining to the dualism macro/micro, individual/society are considered through the use of metaphor as an interprative tool. In addition, the position of the researcher in relation to the data collection and interpretation is addressed.

  
  

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  PRAIV95.039

  The New Formalist Turn in Literacy Education: Some Challenges

  Vaughan Prain

  There is an increasing demand for more and new kinds of explicitness in literacy pedagogy. This is variously conceptualised as a necessary 'critical' supplement to progressivist 'immersion' pedagogy (Cazden, 1992), as an essential overt response to the realities of cultural and subcultural differences (Kalanzis & Cope, 1993), and as an obligatory focus on discursive and generic structures to give students more conscious control over their uses of language (Fairclough, 1992; Kress, 1995).

  
  

  This paper explores some of the challenges facing these agendas for a new (as distinct from the old) formalist focus for the content of literacy learning.

  
  

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  PRATC95.065

  The Effects of Context on Word-Recognition in Average Readers and Children with a Specific Reading Disability

  Chris Pratt, Nenagh Kemp, Frances Martin

  Though it is generally accepted that children with a specific reading disability have difficulties reading words, little is known about the relative effects of context on word recognition for these children in comparison with average readers.

  
  

  This study investigated the extent to which sentence context can affect the recognition of target words in children with a specific reading disability (SRD), compared with two groups of average readers, one with the same chronological age and one with the same reading age. Target words were first presented in isolation to 15 eight- to ten-year-old children with an SRD, to 15 children matched for chronological age, and to 15 children matched for reading level, in order to identify which words were recognised and which unrecognised for each subject. Both recognised and unrecognised target words were then presented to each participant at the end of sentences variously constucted to be congruous (predictable and meaningful), neutral (unpredictable but meaningful), and incongruous (unpredictable and meaningless) with respect to the target word. Although all participantsA target word recognition was significantly facilitated by the congruous contexts and significantly inhibited by the incongruous contexts, these effects were greatest in the children with an SRD and least in the chronological age mathed group. Thus, especially for children with an SRD, context has the power to render previously unrecognised words, recognisable, and vice versa, and therefore plays a fundamental role in their ability to recognise words. The experimental results, and their implications for both recognition and comprehension processes, are discussed in terms of StanovichAs interactive-compensatory model of word recognition.

  
  

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  PRATC95.515

  Symposium: "The Development of a Non-word Reading Test"Coordinator:

  Chris Pratt

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  PRESB95.377S

  Teacher Supply and Demand Forecasting:Implications of current findings and possibilities for improvement

  Barbara Preston

  The author has prepared teacher (graduate) demand projections for the Australian Council of Deans of Education for the past three years. This year a set of supply projects has also been prepared. The projections have indicated that demand will substantially increase over the rest of this decade, and in general that supply will fall well short of demand within a few years. The issues related to supply and demand have gained a high profile over 1995, and are prominent on the agenda of the 'Chalk Circle', a forum on teacher education initiated by the Commonwealth Minister, Ross Free, which involves all the major stakeholders, and which will report late in 1995. There are five sets of issues which the paper will address:-the methodology of the projections in the context of a consideration of the nature of the teaching labour market -the findings of the projections (primary and secondary, for each state and territory)-strategies for improving the projections in the future-implications of the findings for the various stakeholders (Education Faculties, universities and DEET, school authorities, the teaching profession, parents, community organisations, etc)-building an appropriate consensus regarding method, findings and implications, and ensuring appropriate action on those matters.

  
  

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  PRICP95.069

  Paper
  

  Choices of computation method made by Year 5-7 students: Paper-and-pencil, calculator, or mental

  Peter Price , Calvin Irons

  There are many recommendations in the literature for children to be given a more active role in their own education. Mathematics educators in particular have been urged to teach children to make sensible, appropriate choices among written, mental, and calculator methods of computation. However, there exists little advice on how to teach children to make sensible choices, and little data on how children do make such choices, given the opportunity.

  
  

  This study was designed to investigate possible correlations between each of four independent variables (year level, number type, question format, and teacher presence), and the dependent variable (the choice of computational method). Individual students from years 5-7 were interviewed, and asked to answer a series of 12 multiplication questions, using either paper-and-pencil, calculator, or mental methods of computation.

  
  

  Results indicated that the children favoured paper-and-pencil computation, even though a calculator was available. Overall, children chose paper and pencil for 51% of items, a calculator for 31%, and mental methods for 18%. Significant relationships were found between computational choices and year level (p<.05), number type (p<.001), and teacher presence (p<.02). Of particular interest was the finding regarding teacher presence, as this variable has not been previously investigated in this context.

  
  

  This paper presents challenging evidence that there is an urgent need for teachers to teach appropriate use of all available computational methods, and to encourage their students to make sensible choices in this area.

  
  

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  PRINM95.477S

  What role for civics education?

  Murray Print

  The paper explores the current wave of interest with civics and citizenship education in Australia. The international context of this interest is also examined. The key role in this process is an analysis of significant policy documents such as the report Whereas the people consequences of the report are also examined.

  
  

  A major source of impetus for examining and stimulating civics and citizenship education in schools comes from a growing base of recent research on political literacy. The findings show a staggering ignorance of, and pessimism with, political processes by young Australians. This research base will be examined as an appropriate base from which to argue the need for a civics and citizenship education initiative.

  
  

  The final component of the paper will briefly examine the forms that civics and citizenship education is about to take in the school curriculum. Evidence suggests an opposition to re-establishing traditional civics in favour of a more integrated, purposeful approach to preparing citizens.

  
  

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  PULLD95.066

  Non-Word Reading Error Patterns in children with a Specific Reading Disability

  Di Pullen, Chris Pratt, Frances Martin

  It is well recognised that children with a specific reading disability (SRD) experience difficulties decoding newly encountered words and non-words. This study investigated the non-word reading deficit exhibited by children with an SRD by examining their error patterns when presented with different non-word stimuli. Three groups of 15 subjects, (SRD, Age Matched, and Reading Matched Controls) were administered a list comprising words and non-words. The words and non-words were either monosyllabic or bisyllabic, and the non-words were visually similar or dissimilar to the words from which they were derived. Analyses were conducted on the number of correct responses and the error patterns for each group. Results suggested that children with an SRD were less able than both control groups on all conditions in which non-words were manipulated. Numbers of real word substitutions given by children with an SRD were also greater. The results are discussed with reference to the implications for classroom instruction, especially for children with reading difficulties.

  
  

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  RADNH95.392

  The national evaluation of key Stage 3 assessment arrangments in England and Wales: Conducting a government commissioned evaluation

  Hilary Radnor

  Informing government policy on educational issues is a principle desire for many educational researchers. Over the last few years government agencies in the UK, in response to government officials and ministers, have made very little use of educational research in the development of the national curriculum or in the forming of a national assessment structure. Those educational researchers who have been commissioned to undertake evaluations about policy to practice in these areas have, in many cases, met with procrastination from policy makers or suppression.

  
  

  The climate between the government agencies and the research community in the field of education has been icy, not conducive for dialogue and discussion between policy makers and the educational academic community about the development of the education system in the UK.

  
  

  The British Educational Research Association is keenly aware of the problems of researching within this climate and over the last few years have sought to improve the situation by establishing a code of ethics to guide research and seeking for this code to be recognised by research sponsors. The situation is clearly a difficult one as Simons (1993) points out. In discussing the BERA guidelines at AERA, Atlanta in 1993, she stated:oIn many respects they start from a deficit. It is not a question of establishing the most promising conditions for research but rather one of trying to establish that researchers have rights at all: rights to work independently, rights to be treated fairly, rights to protect participants in research, rights to get research publishedo (cited in Pettigrew 47: 1994).

  
  

  Within commissioned evaluation research for a government agency, the Schools Curriculum Assessment Authority (SCAA) are proving to be a hard nut to crack with respect to the nature of their contracts. The dilemma for the researcher interested in policy related research is that the alureA of having the resources to conduct a piece of national research that has the potential for influencing policy is in tension with the perceived needs of the sponsor who owns the research and who can refuse the researcher the right to use the research data in any other context.

  
  

  Nowhere is the situation for the educational researcher more problematic than if she is a qualitative researcher. Qualitative research is generally viewed with suspicion by government agencies for possibly a number of reasons. However, it is to be suspected that positivist/quantitative methodology is preferred by policy makers because it is technical in nature, designed to help atweakA the system so that their policies can be implemented more effectively rather than interpretive/qualitative research that involves a methodology that will tease out key issues and concerns that call into question the policy itself.

  
  

  For the first time and as a committed interpretive/qualitative researcher, I have made a foray into this adanger zoneA through directing a national evaluation study. The project is the National Evaluation for Key Stage 3 Assessment Arrangements in England and Wales for 1995 and 1996 commissioned by SCAA funded at u350,000. This paper will describe the research in design of this essentially qualitative project. It will indicate the ways in which the project has developed, structured to yield outcomes through the qualitative analysis of the data to effect policy decision making. Certainly by the time of AARE the reports for the 1995 phase will have all been submitted and the paper would conclude with reporting the impact the evaluation had had (or not) on the policy of Key Stage 3 testing and the design of the research project for 1996.

  
  

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  REGAL95.057

  Paper
  

  Changes in university student's study processes during the first year of their undergraduate courses in relation to age, gender & enrolement faculty

  Les Regan & Jan Regan

  This paper discusses some of the findings from a short-term longitudinal study of the relationships between first-year university students' study processes (as measured by the six Subscales and the three derived Scales on Biggs' Study Process Questionnaire administered during first semester and again during second semester) and student characteristics in terms of (i) Age-of-Student (mature-age vs usual-age), (ii) Gender-of-Student, and (iii) Faculty-of-Enrolment (Resource Science, Education, Health Sciences and Social Science).

  
  

  A number of repeated-measures MANOVA analyses were undertaken, yielding only one statistically significant higher-order interaction (specifically, Age x Gender x Occasion on the set of Approaches scores in which declines occurred in the Achieving Approaches scores of Usual-age Females and Mature-age Males and increases occurred in these scores for Usual-age Males and Mature-age Females).

  
  

  Statistically significant main effects were observed for:(i) Gender (Females were lower than Males on Surface Strategies and higher than Males on Achieving Strategies);(ii) Age (Mature-age students were lower than Usual-age students on Surface Strategies and Surface Approaches and higher than Usual-age students on Deep Motives, Deep Strategies and Deep Approaches);(iii) Faculty (Nursing students tended to be higher than other students on Surface Motives and Surface Approaches; Social Science students tended to be higher than other students on Deep Motives and Deep Approaches); and (iv) Occasion (declines across time occurred on Achieving Strategies and Achieving Approaches).

  
  

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  REIDJ95.491S

  Paper
  

  The getting of informatiom: Intergrating CMC and post graduate distance education

  Jo-Anne Reid, Elizabeth Stacey and Colin Henry

  Deakin Interchange is an electronic system which provides email, access to information resources and computer conferencing. The first two services provide expedient tools for graduate students' research, but it is the computer conferencing function which may significantly change the pedagogy of postgraduate distance education. This paper raises issues for consideration in establishing such an electronic conferencing environment. It examines the changes to the work and communication patterns of staff and students, and suggests appropriate criteria for establishing such an electronic community.

  
  

  In tracing the transition from print-based communications and pedagogy to computer mediated communication, the efforts of the project team in one course (advanced research design and methods) are chronicled. This involves the second-year cohort of students currently completing the EdD program through Deakin University, who were selected as the focus group for the first CMC pedagogical intervention in the EdD On-Line Project. Their first assignments were to be electronically posted for peer review and collaboration, prior to an Interchange Conference around the papers. The interaction of this conference was to inform the preparation of a second, linked assignment.

  
  

  In this paper we firstly discuss the practical problems encountered for staff and students during this intial process, along with the solutions and amendments that have been negotioated between and among print, computer-mediated and telephone communications over the remainder of the course. We then detail our subsequent reflection on and plans for the development of the pedagogy of computer mediated distance education on this basis.

  
  

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  REYNR95.087

  Paper
  

  The teaching of human society and its environment in primary schools in the Hunter region of NSW

  Ruth Reynolds, Ron Lewis

  53 teachers from 27 different schools in the Hunter Region responded to a survey which examined primary school teachers' philosophy of teaching Human Society and Its Environment, as well as gaining information about how this Key Learning Area is taught in our Primary schools. The survey consisted of multiple choice and open ended questions. Follow up interviews were held with volunteers. Although the `social studies' area is seen in the USA as the `citizenship' area, Hunter teachers were not cognisant of this as an aim but rather saw it as area of research skill building. US research also points to the overwhelming influence of the textbook in US Primary schools whereas in the Hunter most teachers used no single textbook and 50% used personally devised units of work for their lessons. These, and other cultural differences, are discussed in the light of almost no research available in the Australian context, most of our information arriving from US sources, to guide implementation of the Studies of Society and Its Environment profiles in primary schools.

  
  

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  RHEDJ95.073

  Paper
  

  Feminist philosophies and academic women's teaching: interviews and events in a foreign country

  Jeanette Rhedding-Jones

  The foreign country focused on in this paper is Norway. What was not foreign about it was, amongst other things, the familiarity of an academic culture. Based at the Women's Research Centre at Oslo University, the research project concerns academic women's pedagogical practices and desires. Disciplines represented in the project include medicine, anthropology, science, linguistics, education, sociology, theology etc. From an OSP experience of five months, the researcher now attempts to locate herself subjectively within the deconstructions she makes of the research data. As data, she has produced ethnographic notes, recorded her (mostly English language) conversations with Norwegian women and collected their writings about their pedagogies or paths of learning.

  
  

  Theoretical questions regarding cultural framings of knowledge, desires and differences have led her to regard philosophy itself as a site for dislocation. Feminist pedagogies are about blood transfusions from women's cultures to academia. Such pedagogies are also quite often about radical ideas regarding disciplines, validity and acknowledgment.

  
  

  Because of this, many women academics say they relate differently to their students and to what is to be learned. Examining questions of otherness, and working in a range of faculties, feminist theorists rarely call themselves philosophers. This can be read as a sign of their resistance to particular discourses. This paper argues that feminist pedagogues are intensely engaged in putting particular feminist philosophies into practice. The paper will be illustrated with fragments from the data.

  
  

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  RIZVF95.312S

  Current approaches to educatonal policy studies: A problematic view of the nation state?

  Fazal Rizvi

  I am currently engaged in two research projects : one exploring the manner in which the work of OECD has served to steer educational policy making in Australia over the past decade; and the other examining the policies concerning the internationalisation of Australian higher education. My approach to paradigms in educational policy studies is presented in this context. In particular I argue that the current approaches to policy studies in education rest on a view of the nation-state that is increasingly problematic. I suggest that a range of global factors now impinge on the scope of policy making and that in the analysis of education policies, we can not afford to overlook the complex issues concerning the relationship between the global and the national. I will illustrate this argument with the use of initial insights gained from my curent research.

  
  

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  ROBEM95.474S

  Paper
  

  Patterns and relationships: Conceptual Development in Mathematical (small scale) and Real (large scale) Space

  Margaret Robertson and Margaret Taplin

  The everyday ways of knowing that children bring to the classroom are becoming increasingly interesting to researchers wanting to understand meanings associated with problems in mathematics and geographic education. Patterns and relationships identified in visually presented problems have been shown to be embedded in children's prior knowledge and experience.

  
  

  In the research reported this proposition is explored in terms of the correspondence between ways of presenting problems and the strategies used for solutions to problems in small scale (Euclidean) space and photographs of large scale 'real' space. Samples of year seven students were selected from two urban high schools. Contrasting neighbourhood characteristics was an important consideration when identifying the schools.

  
  

  Some gender differences and school and neighbourhood specific differences were recorded in the data. Discourse analysis suggests that both may be explained, in part, by contextual factors related to home, family and location.

  
  

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  ROBES95.105

  Paper
  

  Banning voluntary labour: A study of teachers' work and collective action

  Susan Robertson, Rod Chadbourne

  During January 1995, the State School Teachers Union of Western Australia decided to take industrial action to secure adequate consultation processes with the Education Department, a pay rise for teachers in recognition of productivity increases already achieved, and more educational resources for schools. The central strategy of the campaign involved placing a ban on all voluntary work performed by Union members. So far the dispute has lasted seven months with no resolution in sight.

  
  

  This qualitative research paper presents a formative review of the UnionAs campaign. Material for the review was collected from (a) interviews with Union officers, Education Department representatives, teachers and principals, and (b) information published in The West Australian, Western Teacher (Union journal), School Matters (Education Department magazine) and documents released by the Union and Department.

  
  

  The type of questions addressed in the paper include the following: On what basis has the Union distinguished essential from voluntary work, and how have teachers, students, parents, the Department and media responded to that distinction? Why did the Union choose the strategy of banning voluntary work in preference to other forms of industrial action? What strategies has the Department adopted to combat the bans and how has the Union attempted to counter these strategies? What types of teachers and principals have experienced difficulty abiding by the bans and how have their difficulties been resolved? How effective have the bans been so far, has the Union had to modify its central strategy and if so how and why?The paper concludes by examining the answers to these questions in terms of strategic and theoretical issues surrounding the changing nature of teachersA work, teachersA collective action, and the teacherAs role as political actor.

  
  

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  ROBIK95.195

  Paper
  

  Sexual Harassment: Pedagogical practice, classroom discipline and gendered authority. A look at the secondary schooling experiences of girls and female teachers

  Kerry Robinson

  Sexual harassment has re-emerged in the mid 1990's as a major controversial and social justice issue in Australian education, to the extent that it is one of the recognised priority areas in the National Policy for the Education of Girls. Discussions of sexual harassment in this context have predominantly focussed on the experiences of girls.

  
  

  However, the sexual harassment of female teachers is also a serious issue which has not received the recognition and urgent intervention which it warrants. Sexual harassment is now the most significant barrier to gender equity in schools, both as a centre of learning and work.

  
  

  Schools have an obligation to address this problem. Some individual schools have begun to develop and incorporate sexual harassment policies, grievance procedures and curriculum to deal with this phenomenon. However, it is believed that the effectiveness of these strategies may be limited and undermined by the presence of more subtle ingrained systemic gendered structures, philosophies and pedagogical practices, which often rely on the use of sexual harassment for their success and continued existence. Some teachers for instance, rely on the use of sexual harassment as an effective discipline strategy.

  
  

  Sexual harassment also plays a major role in schools in maintaining both gendered regimes of power and the modern dominant Western discourse of gendered authority.

  
  

  Based on empirical research, this paper aims to explore these systemic structures and pedagogical practices in the light of the sexual harassment experienced by girls and female teachers, in the hope of shedding greater light on possible future directions for intervention.

  
  

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  ROCHL95.208

  The effects of learning to teach: Changes in specific domains of teaching self-concept resulting from preservice courses in Physical Education and Social Studies

  Lawrence A. Roche, Bob Tremayne, Herbert W. Marsh and Bronwyn Cole

  Dunkin (1995) has expressed concern that policy makers may be misled by a recent flawed review paper (Kagan, 1992), which concluded that the preexisting personal beliefs and images held by student teachers are generally unaffected by preservice programs, and that university courses lack relevance for the student teacher. Sadly, policy makers tend to notice ofinding so (particularly from synthesised reviews) rather than refutations, however damaging the critique. More conclusive research into the effects of preservice programs is required. This study employs a strong experimental design to explore the effects of preservice teacher education courses in specific curriculum domains on multifaceted teaching self-concepts of preservice teachers.

  
  

  Specifically, it examines the effects of a 7-week course in Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) as well as a 7-week course in Human Society and its Environment (HSIE, formerly Social Studies). Both courses produced positive gains in teaching self-concept. The results indicated that participation in the PDHPE program enhanced general physical self-concept as well as self-concept as a teacher of PDHPE. Since first-year students are often reluctant to participate in PDHPE classes, and show an aversion to the prospect of teaching this Key Learning Area in schools, this represents a particularly important outcome. Implications for the teaching of PDHPE in teacher education programs are discussed.

  
  

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  ROCHL95.209

  The Significance of Multifaceted Teaching Self-conceptions for Preservice Teachers: A Longitudinal Voyage from Reflection to Action, via Expectation

  Lawrence Roche, Rhonda Craven, Annemaree Carroll and Herbert W. Marsh

  Research on teacher self-reflection may be described as having moved from a rather unsatisfactory quantitative focus on global self-perceptions, such as teaching efficacy or anxiety, towards qualitative analyses of highly specific, individualised and asituatedA reflective narratives. There is great potential for enhancing our understanding of teachersA self-reflections by exploring quantitative techniques that provide more specific constructs to be considered simultaneously. This paper explores the stability and development of multifaceted teaching self-concepts during a three-year preservice teacher education program. In particular, it examines hypothesised causal influences of self-conceptions in specific subject domains (such as mathematics and English) and teaching skill domains (such as preparation, clarity and enthusiasm) on global teaching efficacy and achievement in preservice teaching courses. A powerful 6-wave longitudinal design is employed with an entire cohort of students enrolled in an undergraduate teaching degree program over three years.

  
  

  Structural Equation Modeling techniques are used to evaluate alternative models of the roles played by self-concept, global teaching efficacy, personal theories of intelligence and perceived importance of teaching in determining the achievement levels of preservice teachers.

  
  

  Overall, teaching self-concepts and teaching efficacy became more positive throughout the program. Findings suggest that preservice teachersA self-reflections (domain-specific self-concepts) contribute differentially to changes in their expectations (teaching efficacy, theory of studentsA intelligence) and actions (achievements), depending on initial disparities between expectations and achievements.

  
  

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  ROCHL95.512

  Where words meet numbers: Testing the generalisability of reading literacy models across different countries in a demonstration of multigroup confirmatory factor analysis

  Lawrence A. Roche and Petra Lietz

  Where Words Meet Numbers: Testing the Generalisability of Reading Literacy Models Across Different Countries in a Demonstration of Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

  Educational researchers and practitioners interested in cross-cultural comparisons of empirical findings have historically relied on relatively crude analytical tools to assess the applicability of instruments and models to different cultural settings. Today, there is a growing awareness of the need to employ more appropriate techniques for testing the generalisability of constructs and their valid measurement across countries or cultures. This study investigates whether the factor structure of reading comprehension is invariant across large, nationally representative samples of 14-year-old students from four different countries. The data comes from the Reading Literacy Study of 1990/1991, conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The relevance and application of Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis techniques (J/reskog & S/rbom, 1988) to the assessment of model generalisability across countries or cultures -- particularly in relation to international databases -- is demonstrated and discussed.

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  RODWG95.275

  The beginnings of Educational research in Tasmania: 1900 - 1940

  Grant Rodwell

  The history of educational research began in Tasmania with anthropometrical research done in 1901. Soon members of the medical profession added to this anthropometrical research in their data collection for the Commonwealth Statistician. Through the Child Study Movement Tasmanian educators developed another facet of educational research. With the establishment of the Hobart Teachers College in 1906 and the appointment of J.A. Johnson as Principal educational research made considerable advances. Soon the Tasmania Royal Society created a Psychology and Education Section which Tasmanian educational researchers used as a forum to report on and discuss their research.

  
  

  With the appointment of Edmund Morris Miller to the University of Tasmania in 1913 Tasmanian educational researchers gained a mentor of considerable energy and academic rigour. Henry Thomas Parker was one Tasmanian educator attracted to Miller's research. Parker undertook pioneering work in educational psychology in the State. In his new position as the Department of Education's Psychologist Parker worked closely with Johnson and Miller during the 1920s. With the establishment of the Australian Council for Educational Research in 1930, and its affiliated State body, the Tasmanian Institute of Educational Research the following year, educational research assumed a more integrated role in educational planning in Tasmania.

  
  

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  RYANMA95.137

  Why are they "Getting out of Teaching"?

  Maureen Ryan and Jan Gay

  In this paper, we will examine reasons which young teachers give for staying in teaching or for leaving. The information has been gathered through interviews with the full cohort of 1989 Diploma of Teaching (Primary) graduates from Footscray Institute of Technology.

  
  

  The paper explores institutional and personal factors that influence teachers in these decisions. The research has been conducted within a context of considerable restructuring of the government school system in Victoria. It follows directly from our 1993 paper, "Young Teachers' Ideas Under Siege" and is part of ongoing studies of 1988 and 1989 Footscray Institute of Technology primary education graduates.

  
  

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  SADLR95.193

  Paper
  

  Comparability of assessments, grades and qualifications

  D. Royce Sadler

  Traditionally, the desirable qualities of tests and assessments that are most frequently referred to in the literature are reliability and validity. Reliability broadly speaking has to do with how trustworthy a result is, validity with how well a measurement achieves its purpose.

  
  

  In this paper, I draw attention to a complementary concept, comparability, that will assume considerable importance as education activities move from the traditional patterns of the past into contexts of the future. Comparability becomes an issue where different assessments are made by different teachers, often on different content and skills. Such contexts include school-based assessment and moderation, examining in different disciplines or fields of study, credit transfer, or even comparisons of different qualifications. It is the focus of attention in the recognition of prior learning, that is, in the broad equivalence of performances or competencies developed through various formal or informal activities.

  
  

  My interest is in exploring what is meant by comparability, and whether it is possible (and useful) to develop an interpretation of the concept that will do service in different contexts. I am more interested in how the concept can be interpreted than in cataloguing the various approaches that can be, or have been, used to determine levels of comparability in particular educational settings. The latter are, however, instructive in that they provide some raw material for an analysis of the concept.

  
  

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  SANDS95.010S

  Teaching children, teaching subjects: A dilemma resolved

  Coordinator: Sue Sanders

  Generalist teachers of primary school children (in the UK age 3-11) traditionally describe themselves as 'child-centred'. But recent UK government initiatives, including the introduction of a national curriculum and assessment system and reforms of initial teacher education, give strong indicators of a rather different agenda - that of 'subject'.

  
  

  Working collaboratively with a group of experienced primary school teachers, Sanders and Maynard brought together interests and expertise in knowledge and nature of subject, teachers' professional knowledge and the mentoring of beginning teachers, to find ways of resolving the perceived conflicts between the 'child centred' and 'subject' agendas.

  
  

  The successful resolution of this dilemma led to the development of a school-based initiative to support classteachers in mentoring subject knowledge to beginning teachers.

  
  

  Participants in the symposium will gain insights into the research processes and findings as well as the opportunity to evaluate materials designed for the mentoring of subject knowledge.

  
  

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  SANDS95.380

  Knowledge and nature of subject

  Sue Sanders

  This paper sets the scene for the symposium by reviewing current thinking about teachers' subject knowledge. Generalist teachers of primary school children (in the UK age 3-11) commonly describe themselves as 'child-centred'

  But recent UK government initiatives, including the introduction of a national curriculum and assessment system and reforms of initial teacher education, give strong indicators of a rather different agenda - that of 'subject'. Traditionally research into teachers' subject knowledge has emphasised content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge and not the fundamental and key area of knowledge and beliefs about the nature of the subject being taught. This area is explored from the research base of the last twelve years in the USA (Gonzalez Thompson), the UK (Walsh, Lerman, Keane, Sanders, Dart and Drake) and Australia (Dengate)

  In this paper the author argues that it is not sufficient for teacher educators to address content and pedagogical issues but that as these are fundamentally influenced by beliefs about the nature of the subject, it is the nature of the subject that should be first explored by student teachers. This has been developed as a fundamental underpinning of the Primary (elementary) Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) programme in Swansea. This theoretical viewpoint is challenged by, as well as gaining credibility and support from, the research projects which form the basis of the two complementary papers in this symposium.

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  SANTN95.048

  Paper
  

  Personality factors and stress in nursing: Correlates and educational implications

  Nick Santamaria

  The transfer of nursing education to the tertiary sector over the past 15 years has resulted in many positive changes to how nurses are prepared for practice. However one area that has not improved to any discernible degree is how nurses learn to deal with interpersonal conflict in the clinical setting. A consequence of this situation is that nurses continue to report high levels of stress associated with the care of patients who display difficult behavioral characteristics.

  
  

  It is proposed that nurses do not deal well with these situations because there is no generally agreed theoretical position through which to understand the problem or to structure educational approaches to attempt to improve it.

  
  

  This study investigates nursing stress from the perspective of the links between personality characteristics proposed by Individual Psychology (IP) and the responses of 110 registered nurses to typical, difficult nurses/patient scenarios. Significant correlations were noted between specific personality profiles and stress levels and suggest that stress is mediated by personality factors. The implications of the findings include the possibility of structuring educational activities based on IP that may assist nurses to better deal with interpersonal conflict in patient care and to reduce their stress.

  
  

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  SCHAH95.041

  Paper
  

  Implementing a Report's Findings: A Conceptual Model for Action learning in the Workplace

  Hank Schaafsma

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  SCHON95.288

  Paper
  

  Positive effects of relaxation and music in limiting off-task behaviour of young children

  Neville Schofield

  Teachers frequently face the difficult task of controlling off-task behaviour in the classroom. This paper reports two related studies which sought to control the most commonly reported off-task behaviours in the K-2 setting. In the first study, base-line data on frequency of specific behaviours were collected over a three week period for 29 children in a 1/2 composite class. Independent observations were made over ten minute periods first thing in the morning after "news", after recess and after lunch. Over the next five weeks, five minute sessions of muscle relaxation and visual imagery were implemented immediately prior to observation periods. Post-intervention observations continued for two weeks. A significant reduction (almost half) in off-task behaviour was observed during the intervention period. Following the intervention, off-task behaviour again increased but not to the initial levels. The second study employed similar methodology with 28 Kindergarten children but in this study the intervention consisted of "easy listening" background music. Non-participant observations were made for ten second intervals at nine specific times during each day over three two-week periods. Results were even more dramatic with off-task behaviour dropping by almost 80% in the intervention period and reverting to base-line levels after the intervention was withdrawn.

  
  

  These results suggest that simple, non-intrusive methods of behaviour management in the classroom can be effective with very young children.

  
  

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  SCOTW95.324

  Paper
  

  Adaptive instruction: Teacher response to upper primary students experiencing difficulty with reading

  Wendy Scott

  It has been argued that successful educational outcomes, particularly for those students experiencing difficulties with learning, depends on the teacher adapting teaching to accommodate individual differences.

  
  

  Providing for the needs of individuals implies that there will be some modification or adaptation of instruction in response to perceived educational needs.

  
  

  The aim of the research is to describe how teachers cater for the needs of individual students experiencing difficulties with the task of reading in the context of classrooms where there are children with a range of abilities and needs. Any adaptations to instruction will be observed and noted. The reasons for the use of specific adaptations will be discussed with teachers in order to determine the personal and professional knowledge bases drawn on by teachers as they make decisions related to reading instruction.

  
  

  Research Questions: How do teacher in Victorian Primary school tackle the challenge of responding to individual difference?Under what conditions to teachers intentionally adapt instruction for children experiencing difficulty?What types of adaptations do they regularly make?How are they proactive in planning reading sessions for those experiencing difficulty?What situational or reactive adaptations are employed when students do not respond to reading instruction as anticipated?Upon what information or knowledge do teachers base instructional adaptational?How successful to classroom teachers perceive they are at matching instruction to the needs of students?Observations and interviews will be carried out in six classrooms over a three week period. At least one planned interview will take place each week. The children identified as experiencing difficulties with reading will be assessed by the researcher during the second week of observation. Results will be given to the teacher and made available to parents on request.

  
  

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  SEDDT95.260

  Paper
  

  Continuity and change in TAFE/VET and schools: A report on the Social Organisation of Educational Practice (SOEP) Project

  Terri Seddon and Lawrence Angus

  The Social Organisation of Educational Practice (SOEP) Project is funded by a large ARC grant and is now into its second year. The project is investigating the impact of the National Training Reform Agenda and Schools of the Future (Victoria) on teaching and managing in TAFE colleges and secondary schools. After finalising a policy review phase, the project has recently embarked on a data collection phase in a secondary school and a TAFE college (the third phase involves writing up the project).

  
  

  The paper will discuss the way the SOEP Project has been framed by clarifying how the notion of the asocial organisation of educational practiceA has been operationalised into a case study of educational sites. Specifically, we argue that our research focuses on the way a distinctive economic rationalist policy intervention is playing out in schools and TAFE. We are investigating how the economic rationalist privileging of markets, management, and the convergence of general and vocational education and training, creates patterns of institutional continuity and change, and how teachers and managers in schools and TAFE make sense of these institutional destabilisations. The methodologies employed in the research will be outlined and preliminary findings from the analysis presented.

  
  

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  SEDDT95.004S

  Paper
  

  Symposium: "Understanding Education as a Social Institution"Coordinator:

  Terri Seddon

  This symposium addresses the study of education as a social institution. The project on which the symposium is based is the aeducation strandA in the major interdisciplinary study aReshaping Australian InstitutionsA which is being orchestrated by the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. This strand of the RAI project is being coordinated by a Monash University team: Professor Dick Selleck, A/Professor Lawrie Angus and myself. The project has involved drawing together a number of distinguished scholars who will outline their approach to an institutionalist study of education and will illustrate it with reference to their own empirical research. The invited scholars are: Professor Paul Bourke (ANU), A/Prof Gerald Burke (Monash), A/Prof Jane Kenway (Deakin), A/Prof Marjorie Theobald (Melbourne), A/Prof Peter Gronn (Monash) Mr Simon Marginson (CSHE, Melbourne), Dr Ian Hunter (Griffith), Dr Bob Lingard (Queensland).

  
  

  The symposium presentations will be structured as responses to a lead paper prepared and predistributed by Dr Terri Seddon and A/Prof Lawrie Angus (Monash University). This lead paper will overview recent theoretical debates in the study of institutions, drawing attention to the growing significance of economic theories of institutions, alongside existing social theories of institutions, and indicating the application of institutionalist analysis in education. The value of an institutionalist approach in education will be affirmed and our approach to the study of education as an institution will be presented with reference to our own research.

  
  

  The AARE symposium is a key step in the overall organisation of the education strand in the RAI project, being the first public exposure of the project to members of the education community. It will be followed by the preparation of full chapters by the contributing authors which will together form, with the lead paper, a big book on understanding education as a social institution. The full project will be disseminated to educational and social science researchers at a conference planned for September - October 1996 at ANU.

  
  

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  SEDDT95.472

  Changing relations of educational leadership in Australia

  Terri Seddon

  This paper draws together recent research on changing patterns of educational decision making and policy formulation, and on recent developments in education industrial relations, to explore the challenges to, and possibilities for, the work of educational leadership and institutional design in Australia today. My argument is that, in the 1990s, we stand at a significant crossroads in education.

  
  

  The traditional State-level work of educational leadership and institutional design is being challenged, more than ever before, by a new national leadership and institutional design trajectory. How these two dynamics for institutional restructuring will play out is the critical question for contemporary educational politics. But who participates in these politics, and in what capacity, is also important. The paper maps the traditional work of educational leadership and institutional design in education and the relationship between that work of institutional design and the work of teachers. It then outlines the sources and implications of the new dynamic for educational change, and notes how it is destabilising the nature of educational provision and relationships of educational governance. In the final, and more tentative, section I begin to discuss the challenges for education thrown up in confluence of these two design trajectories. I consider the implications of these challenges for groups involved in institutional design in education and, in particular the implications for teachers and their work.

  
  

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  SELBC95.463S]

  The Economics of Vocational Education and Training in Australia: A Review of Recent Literature

  Chris Selby Smith and Fran Ferrier

  This paper reviews literature and data relating to the economics of VET in Australia. It considers: the macro changes in employment in Australia and how they might relate to VET; changes in the economy at a more micro level and in particular the effect of modifications to work organisdation and structural change on skill requirements; the effect of economic change on equity and the implications for VET; efficiency of VET its costs and outcomes; the financing of VET and its relationship to the development of a training market.

  
  

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  SENDI95.068

  Student Motivation to Study: A Case Study

  Isabel Sendlak

  This paper describes an investigation of the relationship between students' characteristics, their perceptions of the learning context and their success at the university. The academic level and knowledge which students have when commencing their university courses, the level of drive to succeed which students exhibit, their analytical and other intellectual skills and habits were the elements of the first group of factors analysed in the study. The second group included teaching styles, teachers' expectations and characteristics. The third group included course characteristics such as workload, structure, sequence of subjects and practical components.

  
  

  How do all these factors affect student perceptions of their courses, their professional prospects and, more generally, their future? The paper will provide some answers to these questions, based on the data collected during the study, conducted at the University of Newcastle in 1995.

  
  

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  SILIH95.239

  Paper
  

  Quality Schooling: The contribution of alternative indicators to redefining school performance

  Halia Silins and Rosalind Murray-Harvey

  If school effectiveness is measured in terms of the broader aims and goals of education and not merely the narrow achievement outcomes associated with performance scores, there is a need to identify indicators that reflect more closely the values underlying quality schooling. Few studies address both quality schooling and school performance outcomes to better understand the relationship between these two concerns. The indicators used in this study are students' self concept, students' attitudes to school life, students' approaches to learning, teachers' perceptions of school leadership and school organisation. Path analysis was employed to examine the nature of the relationship between each of the indicators tested and each of two outcome measures of senior secondary school performance: (1) teachers' perceptions of school outcomes such as student outcomes, curriculum outcomes, teacher outcomes and school culture, and (2) an external measure of school performance related to student achievement. It is argued that the indicators used to assess school performance form the criteria that influences the definition of quality schooling.

  
  

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  SINCK95.253

  Paper
  

  Graduate Competencies for the Business Workplace

  Kenneth Sinclair

  The study was commissioned by the Business/Higher Education Round Table. Its focus is on the career progression of university graduates in the first ten years of their work experience. In the study, views of those graduates about characteristics and competencies important for their careers so far and their future careers are surveyed. Also surveyed are their attitudes and views about the influences on their careers of their university education, and education and training received in the workplace. The survey respondents were 261 graduates with up to ten yearsA experience working in 11 large Australian companies.

  
  

  The survey identified and ranked in order of importance sets of competencies and other characteristics perceived by graduate employees to be predictive of career success and attaining the highest level positions in their companies. An analysis was also made of the changes occurring in the relative importance of skills and personal qualities needed as staff progress in their careers and assume positions of greater responsibility.

  
  

  Further questions surveyed the graduatesA views as to what was particularly valued in their university education and what were considered to be serious deficiencies. In addition, the graduates were asked to assess the relative influence of the home, school, university and workplace on their current abilities and personal attributes. The findings confirm that the workplace is a powerful learning environment strongly influencing the graduatesA further development of communication and thinking skills, skills in cooperation and teamwork, and professional knowledge and its workplace application. A final set of questions addressed the graduatesA level of job satisfaction, rate of career progression and level of workplace stress experienced.

  
  

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  SINGM95.122

  Paper
  

  Inverting the Hegemony: Beyond Incorporation

  Michael Singh & Elizabeth Hatton

  To achieve social justice in educational practice it is crucial move beyond approaches which merely incorporate marginalised groups into curriculum and practices been devised to suit the interests of dominant groups. However, given the potential for further disadvantage arising from the creation of relativistic alternative curricula it is simultaneously helpful to retain the notion of a core curriculum. In this paper we consider an approach to revising the core curriculum of common learnings referred to as 'inverting the curriculum' (Connell, 1989; McCarthy, 1990). This approach involves working strategically to construct a curriculum that represents the standpoint of the least advantaged in society and has considerable potential to advantage those groups which are currently structurally disadvantaged by market-driven educational arrangements. We consider the principles and conceptual underpinnings underpinning this proposal before addressing significant critiques (Spivak, 1988; Young, 1990a, 1990b) which need to be taken into account in any formulation of an inverted curriculum.

  
  

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  SLEEJ95.289

  Treating anti-social behaviours in children and youths. An historical solution to a recurring problem

  June Slee

  This paper demonstrates the important contribution that history can make to educational research, particularly through the identification of recurring themes and trends and through the assessment of their implications for contemporary educators. In this context, the lessons of history are illustrated by comparing and contrasting a nineteenth century approach to anti-social behaviours with contemporary perspectives. Strikingly common elements are identified.

  
  

  In 1837, Dr. Alexander Nisbett supervised the transportation of 140 boy convicts to Van Dieman's Land oaboard CS Frances Charlotte. During the voyage, Nisbett designed, implemented and monitored a program to teach acceptable social behaviours to his charges.

  
  

  The paper describes Nisbett's program and identifies key elements which are then compared with those of contemporary approaches. A number of commonalities are demonstrated between the historical and contemporary models.

  
  

  It is suggested that there are aspects of managing anti-social behaviour contained within Nisbett's program which could well be adapted by today's educators in their efforts to improve the skills and behaviour of anti-social children and youths.

  
  

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  SMEDL95.296

  25 Years in a crystal ball: An apprenticeship in historical research

  Lea Smedley

  That the past holds the power to influence our attitudes and actions in the present and in the future is widely accepted. Gazing into the past to analyse 25 years of partnership development in teacher education has produced two principal outcomes for the researcher: an increased understanding of the craft of historical research and a glimpse of the possibilities for future partnership approaches. This paper explores both outcomes. The author will trace her apprenticeship in historical research from initial curiosity about the Macquarie Teacher Education Program to the compilation of its history. She will detail the ways in which research into the past has informed current and future workings of the Program. The presentation of innovations and directives from the past will promote reflection upon the oft-posed questions, oDoes History repeat itself?o, oIs everything old new again?o, oCan we learn from the past?A and oHave we just reinvented the wheel?o Participants will be encouraged to seek, in the acrystal ballA, warnings about future development in respect to teacher education partnerships.

  
  

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  SMIGH95.186

  Researching today: Improved Practice Tomorrow

  Heather Smigiel

  In this paper, a project will be described, where psychodynamic educational practices that are currently used in schools, have been trialed in workplace settings as possible practices to enhance vocational learning in the future. A feature of the project has been the collaboration between the university based researcher and trainers working in the field and the dialogue that has been possible across sectors.

  
  

  The focus of the paper will be the methodology that has been used to enable this discourse and to develop understanding of workplace contexts that have been largely unexplored by educational practitioners.

  
  

  Data has been collected in the form of group and individual interviews, observations, trainer's journals and trainee's written comments. This data has been analysed using a grounded theory approach. The paper will critique the paradigm model that has been used as one form of analysis and describe the early findings of the study.

  
  

  'Learning' has emerged as a significant theme of the study and elements of this phenomenon will be discussed as they relate to workplace learning and learning in school settings. The importance of the nexus between education and work will be highlighted particularly in regard to implications for pedagogical practice.

  
  

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  SMITA95.255

  Paper
  

  The Preparatory Literacy Support Program: Some Research Findings

  Andrew Smith and Malcolm Kays

  In 1994, the Department of Education and the Arts implemented several initiatives aimed at improving the standard of literacy of students in their preparatory ('prep') year of schooling. The most important of these initiatives was the 'Prep Literacy Support Program', which enabled classroom-based resource teachers to assist students to develop skills in literacy.

  A two-year study suggested that significant improvements in several indicators of literacy performance occurred with students in their preparatory year of schooling in 1994. The study was based on performance on a two-sentence dictation task and also on observations made by guidance officers who administered the task.

  Measures on over 20 indicators of literacy performance were obtained in the study. Specially written computer programs were used to derive these measures.

  The study also provided useful literacy-performance data for students in their early-childhood years.

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  SMITD95.096

  Paper
  

  The Literature-Based Essay as an Instrument for Assessing Undergraduates - Potent or Problematic

  David Smith, Ross Brooker

  Drawing upon data derived from a previous study of assessment practices undertaken by the authors within an education faculty at a Queensland University, this study focuses on uses and misuses of literature-based essays in assessing undergraduate students. It is argued that academics too frequently display an inadequate grasp of both the potential value and the problems associated with essay-type assessment. Essays are seldom used in a way that makes them an integral part of the students' learning experiences and the difficulties faced by students in their interpretation of the assessment task are frequently underestimated.

  
  

  Based on the findings of their earlier study and a review of relevant literature, the authors propose a number of suggestions for using literature-based essays more effectively in assessing undergraduates.

  
  

  Emphasis is placed on academics viewing such assessment tasks as an opportunity to initiate productive dialogue with students, to enhance students' metacognitive processes and to promote higher level cognitive skills. Literature-based essays are also seen as a powerful vehicle for encouraging self-evaluation. Specific exemplars of literature-based assessment tasks are evaluated in terms of the suggested assessment procedures.

  
  

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  SMITI95.011S

  Paper
  

  Symposium: "Self-concept and Social Comparison Processes in Adolescents"

  Coordinator: Ian Smith

  Research on self-concept in the 1980s began to investigate the multidimensional character of the construct, with factorially improved instruments, such as MarshAs Self Description Questionnaire and HarterAs Self-Perception Profile. Self theory was also advanced by MarshAs elaboration of social comparison processes whereby adolescents use a frame of reference to compare their qualities and abilities with those of their peers. Adolescents typically make social comparisons according to what Marsh called the obig-fish-little-pond effecto, which may result in increased to decreased self-concept depending upon the social context of the school they attend. The first paper in this symposium will examine this effect on gifted and talented student self-concept in three types of school: a selective high school, a comprehensive high school where English and mathematics classes are streamed and an unstreamed comprehensive high school. The second paper will investigate self-concept and social comparison processes of adolescents with physical disabilities. It will test the hypothesis that integrated school settings may cause self-concept problems for adolescents with a physical disability when the integrated setting contains no other students with a disability for comparison purposes.

  
  

  The third paper reports a ten-year follow-up study on two Sydney high schools which changed from being single-sex to become coeducational schools. It discusses gender differences in the student self-concepts and provides details of the confounding effects of other changes which occurred at the two adjacent schools.

  
  

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  SMITI95.499S

  A ten year follow up study of self concept and other changes in two Sydney high schools

  Ian Smith

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  SMITI95.500S

  Paper
  

  An investigation of the academic, emotional and social self concept of adolescent students with high academic achievement in three educational settings

  Ian Smith, Linda Palmer

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  SMITJ95.160

  Paper
  

  Boundary Crossing? Males in Primary Teacher Education

  Janet Smith

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  SMITM95.164

  Developing Composite Scale Scores using LISRREL Confirmatory Factor Analytic Techniques: A Comparison of Measurement Models

  Max Smith and Sid Bourke

  The theoretical base and commensurability of the seven-factor model of the QSL scales was examined through the development of LISREL measurement models. Data collected in 1992 covering 749 students in 23 Hunter Region secondary schools provided the basis of comparison.

  
  

  LISREL confirmatory factor analytic techniques were used to examine a series of one-factor congeneric models concerning the seven QSL scales: two general scales, General Satisfaction and Negative Affect, and five specific scales concerning attitudes towards Teachers, Opportunity, Achievement, Identity and Status. Multi-factor measurement models were then developed and the relative measurement qualities on one factor and multi-factor models compared.

  
  

  The final section of the paper presents results of second-stage factor analyses of te QSL scales and considers the merits of using superordinate QSL scales as a general indicators of student QSL. The case is presented for the use of the two general and five specific QSL factors for the detailed examination of QSL and for broad comparisons to be based n more global representations of QSL.

  
  

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  SMITR95.339

  "Kids in the kitchen" - The social implications of schooling in the age of advanced computer technology

  Richard Smith, Pamela Curtin, Linda Newman

  Green and Bigum (1992) brought to mind the notions of oalienso, that children of today are different insofar as they are native to the ahi-techA chaos of postmodern society. They are perhaps the living realisation of Donna HarawayAs (1991) cyborg, or the cyberpunk found in Science Fiction literature. Heavily immersed in an age of ever-increasing technological development, it is possible that children are thinking and processing information differently to those of past generations.

  
  

  This paper reports an ethnographic study carried out at two primary schools on the Gold Coast with students aged between 7 and 12 years.

  
  

  Research findings show that new social and linguistic discourses among children appear to be emerging, refiguring the construction of student identity and challenging previous methods of learning. In this paper we argue that as students are now those in the akitchenA, the cultural meaning of computers and computing between primary-aged children and their teachers has created a widening gap, undermining established pedagogies.

  
  

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  SNYDI95.086

  Paper
  

  Research site revisited. A further look at integrating computers into classroom writing practices

  Ilana Snyder

  A two year study, completed in 1993, examined how five teachers introduced the use of portable computers into the writing practices of their grade 6 and year 7 classrooms. Analysis focused on the teachers' attitudes toward computers, their capacity to see the potential uses of computers in a writing curriculum and the ways in which they structured and carried out classroom writing practices. The study concluded that the teachers' disposition toward the writing technologies and their structuring of writing sessions had the greatest impact on students' writing practices and the ways computers entered into that writing. Each of the five teachers emphasised the importance of correctness in writing and the publishing capabilities of the technology so that it was used primarily for transcription and printing a 'good copy'. None of the teachers ever really examined the potential of the technology to make a greater impact on students' writing. None explored how the technology could be used effectively as an integral part of a computer-mediated writing pedagogy. The focus in all six classrooms was primarily on operationalising the technology, not on exploring its capacities to develop students' writing. As a result, the computers were used in minimal ways. Rarely in educational research do we have the opportunity to do a follow-up study. This paper represents just that. I returned to the research site this year to interview the teachers, both individually and as a group, as well as a sample of the students whoAd participated. In articles published about the study, I made some predictions about what seemed likely to eventuate. This paper focuses on what has happened in these teachersA classrooms since the study ended and considers the earlier predictions in the light of the new data.

  
  

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  SOUTB95.272

  To Be Advised

  
  

  Beth Southwell

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  SPROT95.226

  Paper
  

  Effective Discussion in the Classroom: A scientific community of inquiry

  Tim Sprod

  The Community of Inquiry involves a reconceptualisation of classroom discussion. There are three features distinctive of community of inquiry discussions. Firstly, a trigger is used to raise the problematic in the children's minds, often a purpose-written story.

  
  

  Secondly, the starting points for discussion are the students' own conceptions and puzzles. Thirdly, the basic pattern of discourse is not teacher question - student reply - teacher evaluation, but rather inter-student discourse moderated by the teacher to scaffold the construction of meaning through the use of higher-order thinking.

  
  

  The poster session will explore recent research done at Oxford University, involving detailed analysis of the establishment of a community of inquiry in a Year 7 science class. A selection of classroom discussions were analysed using the concept of the epistemic episodes - those distinct segments of a discussion that approach the pursuit of knowledge in a particular way.

  
  

  Over time, the children showed an enhanced ability to build on each other's ideas, appropriately reintroducing them to the discussion, to identify the problematical and to link the discussion to real world knowledge. They responded more to each other's comments, asked more questions, made less assertions without reasons and made more agenda setting comments. At the epistemic episodes level, they showed an increased grasp of the 'syntax of thinking', being able to initiate and sustain episodes and increasing the range of epistemic games employed.

  
  

  Not only did students construct better scientific models of the world, but their grasp of the way science works also strengthened.

  
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  STONM95.509S

  A case study of time as a resource in curriculum provision: Hong Kong

  Marion Stone

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  SUMSJ95.286

  Paper
  

  Stress management for student teachers in the practicum

  Jennifer Sumsion, Dawn Thomas

  For many student teachers practicum is a source of considerable stress.

  
  

  If not managed effectively, high levels of stress can detract from the quality of the practicum experience. Suggestions from the literature concerning ways of reducing student teacher stress focus mostly on changes to the practicum context, structure and requirements.

  
  

  In contrast, this paper reports on an exploratory study which investigated the feasibility of teacher educators assisting student teachers manage stress associated with practicum through the development of stress management skills. The study involved an intervention program which was conducted over a 6 week period prior to the commencement of the student teachers' second practicum. Thirteen student teachers completed the program, which focused on the use of relaxation and visualisation techniques.

  
  

  To ascertain the impact of the program a range of qualitative and quantitative data, including group interview transcripts and pre and post practicum surveys, was collected from participants. Although the results need to be interpreted with caution, they suggest that the intervention had a positive outcome.

  
  

  The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the methodological, ethical, and practical issues which arose for the teacher educators who conducted this pilot stress management program.

  
  

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  SUTHL95.184

  Paper
  

  Assisting the Development of Problem Solving Expertise in Novice Chemistry Students: The impact of a question analysis strategy

  Louise Sutherland

  One of the recent goals of educational research has been the development of appropriate pedagogical techniques to assist students' acquisition of complex cognitive processes. This paper will highlight the major findings and implications of a research project which investigated the impact of various Instructional and Practice conditions on Year 11 High School chemistry students' problem solving performance.

  The problem solving instruction was based on the Question Analysis Strategy, developed from an investigation of the differences between experts' and novices' approach to solving chemistry problems. Factors considered in the research design were the level of problem solving instruction, the provision of strategy facilitation and organisation of problem solving practice. The impact of these variables on facilitating the development of problem-solving expertise in novice chemistry students was assessed using quantitative and qualitative procedures on a training task and a subsequent transfer task.

  The results of the quantitative assessments indicated that while there was no definitive pattern among the variations in Instructional Conditions for the subjects' performance on the training task compared with the transfer task, Strategy Instruction combined with Strategy Facilitation using Guided Questions and / or Reflective Evaluation was associated with the most significant improvements in their problem solving proficiency. For both the strategy and non-strategy instructional conditions practising solving problems individually or in a mixed ability cooperative group had a beneficial impact on subjects' problem-solving performance. The qualitative assessment procedures suggest that the instructional conditions influence both the subjects' approach to the analysis of information in the problem and the development of their metacognitive knowledge of problem solving techniques.

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  TANTO95.117

  From Zero to Hero? Indiscipline among pupils during their transition from school to work (TSW)

  Toh-Wah Tan

  Indiscipline among non-academic pupils during the last stage of their secondary school careers is an increasing problem faced by many teachers today. Working in an era seemingly preoccupied with prescribed public standards in education, and relying on traditional views of school deviance which no longer fully explain current situations in schools (eg. Hargreaves, 1967, Lacey, 1970, Willis, 1977), most teachers are encountering difficulties in confronting and perhaps helping this category of young people. Drawing upon ethnographic data from a larger study of male youth cultures and their effects on the youths' TSW, this paper illustrates how two groups of hard core 'deviant' pupils made use of some of their cultural resources in coming to terms and in coping with their academic abilities and other social realities confronting them during their TSW. It is often in performing these coping strategies that they find themselves in direct confrontation with school authorities. This paper offers an alternative perspective for understanding school deviance among this category of pupils. Through such an understanding, teachers will be more sympathetic toward some of their deviant pupils and perhaps help them bring about social reconstruction rather than social reproduction (Willis, 1977). Based on these findings, the paper advocates certain policy and curriculum changes to cater for the needs of non-academic pupils trapped in an education system which is highly academic and examination oriented. In particular, it calls for a reassessment of the notion of success through education and academic ability as the main criterion for employment.

  
  

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  TELFP95.336

  Paper
  

  Literacy, rural education and gender: Discussion of the early stages of a qualitative research project

  Pamela Telfer

  Rural students, as a group within our society, are experiencing an unequal distribution of educational rewards. Yet in many publications discussing social justice issues rural students are not identified as disadvantaged. These students perhaps are omitted as they appear to be less disadvantaged than other groups of students, and there are no readily identified structures contributing to this disadvantage.

  
  

  Instead it appears to be assumptions, the 'taken-for-granted' aspects of life, organisational arrangements, and social practices that are contributing to this social injustice (Carpenter 1993).

  
  

  This paper will use feminist poststructuralist analysis to explore the literacies of a group of rural students. It will also to seek an understanding of the socialisation and production of the individual that contributes to this disadvantage for both female and male rural students. Observation at a rural secondary school reveals students who engage in many activities outside those desired and planned by their teachers. The resistance of these students to engaging in new literacies not considered a necessary part of school learning will also be examined. Patterns of resistance will be discussed which variously reflect entrenched patterns of gendered behaviour, and uncertainty about the viability of alternative life choices.

  
  

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  THEOM95.313

  Sitting on the fault lines of educational policy: The problematical situation of an educational historian

  Marjorie Theobald

  In this paper I will explore the proposition that the study of policy, in any pristine sense of that word, is highly problematical for historians. Equipped with the advantage of hindsight, historians are situated on the fault lines between intention and outcome, between implementation and contestation. Historians [should] engage with policy as social practice embedded in narrative. This is not to say that policies were not made and implemented in the past, with material consequences for people's lives; it is a claim that the historian is uniquely able to track the unpredicatable trajectory of decision-making and its consequences over time.

  
  

  I will also explore the possibility that my response to the theme of 'People and their paradigms' is in part autobiographical. I am a feminist historian of women's education. Thinking about myself in relation to the study of policy has quickly led me to understand that self-conscious 'policy making' on theterrain of women's education is a recent phenomenon. The history which I writedeals less often with official policy and more often with silences and exclusions defended retrospectively at the point of challenge.

  
  

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  THOMK95.267

  A Pilot Study: Fitness, attitudes and motor skill assessment of Hunter region primary schools

  Kerry Thompson , Ann McCormack, Kaye M Thomas

  This paper examines the fitness levels and motor skill proficiencies of a pilot sample of 271 grade 2, 4 and 6 students from twelve state primary schools from the Hunter Education region. The students' attitudes towards their involvement in physical education and participation in physical activity were also assessed and reported.

  
  

  The results generally indicated favourable attitudes towards physical education with the boys scoring more favourable mean attitude scores than the girls across the grades. The fitness results when compared to the national percentiles (Pyke, 1986) were poor for both genders across the grades with only four of the thirty-six mean performances rated higher than the national average. The motor skill assessment replicated the Victorian study conducted by Walkely et al (1991) and resulted in low skill proficiency levels across all grades with the exception of the grade 6 boys performances on the instep kick (68%) and catch (70%) tests.

  
  

  Preliminary statistical analysis examined the significance of the relationships involving the three assessed components - attitudes, fitness and motor skills with some recommendations for more extensive investigations at the primary school level.

  THORS95.362

  Paper
  

  Why SEPEP works: Exploring the theory behind pedagogy

  Stephen Thorpe, Denise Kirkpatrick

  This paper examines research in teaching and learning to identify a theoretical basis for the pedagogy of the Sport Education in Physical Education Program [SEPEP]. Contemporary research findings in small group cooperative learning, self-regulated learning and motivation are applied to the SEPEP pedagogy.

  
  

  The SEPEP model is based on two key understandings: Siedentop's thesis that sport in the community is inherently valuable and hence the adoption of the aspects of community sport in the school curriculum shouldn't need further academic justification; and the application of what has been considered to be best practice in PE teaching. These understandings suggest that SEPEP in Australia has developed in a naively pragmatic way. As a result SEPEP pedagogy has not been supported by a clearly articulated theoretical foundation.

  
  

  The aim of this paper is not to criticise the SEPEP model, but rather to attempt to show how some of the approaches teachers take in SEPEP can be supported by current research into teaching and learning. In doing this, it also becomes possible to identify areas in which SEPEP pedagogy may benefit from further scrutiny.

  
  

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  THYES95.040

  Paper
  

  Down From the ivory towers: Teachers' reported need for support in health promoting schools of the future

  Shirley Thyer

  Australian school communities have been officially recognised as ideal settings in which to promote health as part of the Health For All By The Year 2000 goal and more recently, as part of the new Health Promoting Schools (HPS) strategy. Teachers will be expected to further expand their role and responsibilities into this area. If the HPS strategy is to be successful, teachers will need further assistance and support from school nurses, health and allied health professionals and others Therefore, cooperative research between the nursing and teaching professions was considered to be essential if teachers' perceptions of their needs were to be properly considered and addressed.

  
  

  The presentation outlines research in 32 New South Wales infant and primary schools involving 230 teachers (n-350). The aim was to identify teachers' perceptions of their need for assistance and information about the new HPS strategy and child health issues. This research demonstrated that teachers had only a poor understanding of the HPS strategy. However, teachers' perceptions of their need for information and assistance were identified and results indicated an overwhelming call from teachers for more information, assistance, and support from health professionals. This research was unique because it provided teachers with the opportunity to describe exactly the type of assistance that they required in order to effectively participate in the new strategy. One of the outcomes of the research has been collaboration between the Department of Education, Area Health Services and relevant others to develop a policy to facilitate implementation of the HPS strategy in NSW schools during 1996. It is clear that excellence in holistic education will involve a variety of professionals who work together with a unified goal.

  
  

  Pathways to Better Health, National Health Strategy Issues Paper No 7, March 1993, AGPS: Canberra, pp. 6-11; 112-119

  
  

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  TINNR95.182

  Secondary School Physical Education, Privileged Knowledge, Practical Activity and Identity: An Investigation into the nature of Physical Education in VCE and years 7-10

  Richard Tinning & Tania Cassidy

  Secondary school physical education, privileged knowledge, practical activity and identity: An investigation into the nature of physical education in VCE and years 7-10.

  
  

  Physical education has been an examinable subject in the post compulsory years of secondary schooling (years 11 & 12) in Victoria for some 15 years. Although the subject has undergone some major modifications since its inception, it is still very much a theoretical oriented study of what might generally be called the human movement sciences.

  
  

  Over the last decade many commentators have witnessed what they claim to be a decrease in the quantity and quality of school programs in physical education in Australian secondary schools. Some have described the situation as a crisis in physical education. In 1992 Federal Government sponsored the Senate Inquiry into physical education in Australian schools and it reported similar findings. The Victorian government commissioned a similar inquiry and responded with special initiatives aimed at improving provision for physical education in years 7-10.

  
  

  This paper will report on a study which is currently investigating the relationship between the forms of knowledge privileged in physical education as an examinable subject at years 11 & 12, and physical education as a practical subject in years 7-10. In particular the paper will report on the extent to which development and popularity of theoretically oriented examinable physical education is implicated in the alleged crisis in secondary school physical education at years 7-10.

  
  

  Issues related to teacher training, teacher identity, subject status and curriculum history will be discussed in the context of the findings.

  
  

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  TINNR95.498S

  Changing the Culture of Teaching: Is 'Action Research' A Realistic Model for Professional Development?

  Richard Tinning

  Action research is used in many contexts to broadly describe forms of collaborative and systematic reflection on one's practice. The systematic form is represented as a spiral of planning, acting (teaching) and observing, and reflection. This session will explore the problems and possibilities of action research as a platform for professional development.

  
  

  Theoretical constructs of action research are mediated in the process of implementation by State policy and school program imperatives. The focus of action research is often pre-determined by mandated policies and resource constraints restrict systematic or collaborative reflection at the school level. Teacher pre service and inservice is often focused on the pragmatics of day to day survival at the expense of a longer term process which theoretically offers a better possibility for improving the quality of teaching and learning.

  
  

  A version of action research that offers some possibilities will be discussed in the context of the Victoria and Queensland project schools.

  
  

  Each of the sessions will conclude with a discussion of the particular and interelated concerns raised by each perspective and the contribution that these perspectives make to models of professional development, curriculum change and renewal.

  
  

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  TRAVM95.161

  Paper
  

  Older Women in community Writing Groups

  D. Molly Travers

  This project aims to investigate the aspirations and activities of educated women aged 60-90 years who live decades after retirement, and seek--in the community writing groups and ultimately through publication-- intellectual stimulation and a voice which can be heard.

  
  

  Writing workshops for older women in the suburbs and country towns are supported by the Victorian Federation of Community Writing Groups and the Victorian Writers Centre. In UK, the Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers has the same function, and similar bodies have existed in the USA for much longer, between adult literacy groups and university creative writing courses. Answers were sought to the following: What is the nature of these groups? Who runs them? Who attends, and why? What quality of writing is produced and what happens to the writing? Country and city community workshops have been observed, their members completed questionnaires and interviews, and writing examples were collected. Conclusions are available on the educational and social value of the groups, their structure, the nature of their leaders, and on the women and their attitudes to the workshops. The women wrote because they felt strongly about certain events, and found poetry and fiction the most satisfying vehicle, but they attended groups to be heard, even if only by other writers.

  
  

  Questions are raised about reporting the research, where the life stories of the women become the subject of their own writing, and where the interview narratives take on a literary quality.

  
  

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  TRENL95.355

  Early adolescents perceptions of their appearance, popularity and self esteem: contributions of parents, teachers and peers

  Lynette Trent, George Cooney, Graeme Russell & Greg J Robertson

  Previous research studies have consistently shown that the most critical domains influencing adolescents' self-esteem involve perceptions of their physical appearance and popularity. These findings have serious implications for early adolescents' self-esteem, particularly in relation to females. The present study examines gender differences in early adolescents' perceptions of their physical appearance, popularity, close friendships and self-esteem and explores the relative contributions of significant others (namely, parents, teachers, classmates and close friends) in these domains. Two hundred and sixty four children (average age, 11.7 years; 40% female) in Grade 6, their parents and their classroom teachers were surveyed using six modified Harter scales. The results indicate that girls' mean scores were significantly lower than boys in the physical appearance domain.

  
  

  Multiple regression analyses revealed gender differences for the four domains. All the domains for males and females were related to internal (child's) perceptions, no significant results were related to external (mother, father, teacher, class mate or close friend) perceptions. For example, physical appearance for males is related to the child's perception of their mothers' physical appearance whereas for females, physical appearance is related to the child's perceived support from classmates. The findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications in educational practice.

  
  

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  TRIMK95.020

  Paper
  

  Performance of girls in TEE Physics: An analysis of the effect of change in the WA Physics syllabus on performance of girls in the TEE

  Karen Trimmer

  An important innovation in the West Australian physical science curriculum has been the introduction of a new Year 11 and 12 Physics syllabus designed to more relevant to the needs of female students.

  
  

  The new Physics syllabus was taught in Year 12 and examined, in the Tertiary Entrance Examinations, for the first time in 1994. The new Physics syllabus differs from the old syllabus in several ways that could be conducive to increased participation and achievement of girls.

  
  

  The teaching and assessment emphases have changed; moving away from the standard application of mathematical type formulae and towards a greater role for laboratory work, the embedding of topics in contexts to emphasise the applied nature of physics and the links to technology and engineering, and to include discussion of the social relevance of physics. The format of 1994 WA TEE in Physics reflected this syllabus change by contextualising the problems and introducing a new section in which students were required to respond to questions requiring comprehension and interpretation of written material. The aim of this analysis was to identify any bias in the functioning of the Tertiary Entrance Examination in Physics, and to compare the results from the previous year, before the syllabus change. The Rasch model has been utilised to determine item characteristics curves for the subject Physics for males and females, at the level of raw examination, school assessment and final scaled combined score. Each section of the 1994 paper has also been analysed to determine any differences in functioning of items.

  
  

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  TRURJ95.331

  Paper
  

  Probability and statistics in Australian secondary school curricula since the 1960s - A tale of uncertainty

  John Truran

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  TSOLG95.481S

  Paper
  

  Data bases can they be useful in a feminist politics of difference?

  Georgina Tsolidis

  This paper will focus on a study funded by the Bureau of Immigration, Multiculturalism and Population Research (BIMPR) concerned with educational attainment. The study has both quantiative and qualitative components. The quantiative element uses DEET and ABS data to provide a national mapping of tertiary (mainly university) attainment, paying particular attention to gender, ethnicity and migrancy. The intention is to explore commonsense understandings of which groups do well and not so well educationally. A range of issues such as fields of study, course type, place of birth, ethnic background and gender are explored to look behind some of the recent suggestions that girls and ethnic minorities are doing disproportionately well.

  
  

  On the basis of this mapping, several groups have been isolated for the qualitative phase of the study. Groups considered either well represented or not well represented in tertiary education are the focus for work in a range of secondary schools in Melbourne and Brisbane.

  
  

  What can these students' schooling experience tell us about their tertiary educational attainment?In an overall sense, the intention in this paper is to explore the BIMPR study in the context of debates about the politics of data bases.

  
  

  How is academic work constituted in a climate when funding is so important and quantitative studies are favoured by funding bodies? How do we constitute a politics of difference through and around data bases which assume and reinforce essentialist categories such as 'girls' or 'immigrants'?VIALW95.094Identity and Voice: An Interpretation of the Educational Experiences of Gifted Deaf PeopleWilma Vialle, John PatersonEducational intervention for deaf people has a long history but it is a history that is dominated by the notion of deficit. The growing trend in the literature on deaf people is to recognise that they are not deficient but form a cultural and linguistic minority group that deserves appropriate educational programs. Deaf people report great frustration with their experiences of schooling as they have invariably been treated as intellectually inferior. Yet, a significant number of deaf people are gifted and have had the double hurdle of overcoming their deafness in a hearing world and an educational service that does not meet their needs. This paper explores the educational experiences of gifted deaf people in a preliminary attempt to develop appropriate identification measures and educational provisions for such individuals. The conclusions presented are based on extensive interviews with a number of gifted deaf adults. Deaf interviewers were utilised to collect the required data in a more culturally sensitive and relevant manner.

  
  

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  VLAHL95.216

  Student feedback as an indicator of teaching quality in universities

  Len Vlahov

  During the last two years there has been an increase in the level of anxiety among university administrators as quality audits come visiting and they anxiously await the results which can then be translated into dollar rewards.

  
  

  One of the measures of the quality of performance of a university is the quality of teaching. Student evaluations of teaching is an important indicator because it represents acustomer satisfaction.

  
  

  Edith Cowan University has been systematically obtaining and using student feedback since 1987 as part of a 5-stage evaluation model approved for implementation in 1986. University administrators have approved funds for the ongoing review of its programs by establishing a Department of Program Evaluation which implements the universityAs review process by facilitating the administration of all data collection and analysis procedures across all faculties.

  
  

  This paper reports on a longitudinal study undertaken in the Faculty of Education where an end-of-course survey is administered two weeks before completion of the teacher education course.

  
  

  Approximately 500 graduating students have responded annually to the survey instrument which obtains information on the importance and achievement of students personal goals, their attitudes towards courses and their copmponents and their assessment of the general effectiveness of programs. Data were analysed on a Campus, Award and Major Area basis.

  
  

  Both the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data showed significant changes in attitudes and student assessment of the the overall effectiveness of the teacher education programs.

  
  

  The data obtained have been used to improve the organisation and delivery of units, the design and development of new streams or specialisations and the re-design of award structures and faculty configurations.

  
  

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  VLAHL95.217

  Getting value for money from training?

  Len Vlahov

  The Australian Public Service agencies spend in excess of $300 million on training annually. How effective is the training ?There is a need for a longer term strategy to measure training effectiveness using criteria that are grounded in practice in the public sector reflecting both abest practiceA in service delivery and appropriate abenchmarksA derived from Australia and overseas.

  
  

  A Training Effectiveness Survey was conducted by the Training and Career Development Section of the Western Australian Public Service Commission in August, 1994. A sample of 180 potential respondents from a wide variety of public sector agencies were identified at the Manager level and a 22 item questionnaire was prepared. The design of the questionnaire was based on a Training Evaluation Model developed by Vlahov and Straton ( 1992 ) and KirkpatrickAs ( 1959 ) Levels of Evaluation.

  
  

  The results identified criteria used to measure the successful operation of public sector agencies, criteria used to compare with abest practiceA and criteria used to measure the effectiveness of the planning, delivery and results of public sector training.

  
  

  Data were used to develop training programs for agency staff who could then effectively evaluate training impact in terms of the areturn on the investmentA.

  
  

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  WALDB95.046

  Paper
  

  Influence of Cutlure on Multicultural Learning Environment

  B. G. Waldrip, G. J. Giddings

  This study reported in this paper, is concerned with the cultural backgrounds of students and how such cultural and contextual factors interact with student perceptions of their learning environment and their preferred instructional modes. The underlying premise of this research is that if we can identify the cultural expectations of multicultural students in a given classroom then it follows that we have an opportunity to optimise the teaching strategies to be utilised with them. The study examined the relationships existing between students' cultural background and the students' expectations of the learning processes, and perceptions of their preferred learning environment (CES). An instrument, Students' Learning and Cultural Environments (SLACE), was developed specifically for use in this study.

  
  

  The SLACE assessed nine dimensions, including Gender Role, Competition, Modelling, Congruence, and Communication. Trial data collection was carried out across a sample of 500 secondary school students in Western Australia, Papua New Guinea and Tonga, resulting in a refinement of the instrument.

  
  

  Relationships were found between students' cultural expectations and their preferred learning environments. For example, students who were not threatened by competition tended to react positively to closer ties with fellow students, viewed teacher support as being positive and non-threatening, and were much more likely to become involved in various forms of classroom interaction. Students who saw teachers and students with distinct gender roles in the classroom tended to seek a classroom environment th