1999 Abstracts

Tourism training: Marketing opportunities

Suzie Blair, Box Hill TAFE

The opportunity to provide students undertaking a Diploma in Hospitality with real life experiences is challenging. The high demand for work placement often means that students are not always able to gain experiences that enable invaluable management skills. This year hospitality students at Box Hill Institute of TAFE participated in the 1999 Tourism Student Business Initiative facilitated by Tourism training Victoria.

This paper will report on:

1. The learnings gained by the students who participated

Title of proposed paper: Intellectual labour at risk or merely under reconstruction?

Jill Blackmore, Deakin University

Changing research practices, restructured academies and the new global 'knowledge work' order. Educational restructuring, in the name of national economic productivity and premised upon new managerialism and market principles, has produced entrepreneurial universities. Externally, universities have developed new contractual relations with government, students, industry and the professions. Internally, the dual imperatives of the market and management within increasingly self funding corporate universities have led to new research structures, academic career paths and changed relations within research communities. This paper investigates the changing nature of university-based research in the context of the changing nature of academic work, the 'corporate' university and global markets. The larger project sought to explore how policy shifts with regard to national priorities, funding mechanisms, and industry-university links in higher education have changed the nature of the research that is done, who does it, how it is done, how it is disseminated, and its perceived use value in 'a learning society' as universities increasingly seek to provide lifelong, flexible learning and to be self-funding. This paper explores the impact of 'academic capitalism' on the changing research relations between universities and their various clients: industry, policy makers and the professions. Through a qualitative study based upon individual academic research profiles in one university, I analysed the discursive practices of university research management and various public and private industry, professional and community agencies. I considered the nature and effect of the restructuring of relations between research academics and their different 'clients' (industry, professions and research students) and policy communities. I explored with this group of academics selected from across different faculties how these shifts impact upon research practice, priorities and foci. The project is important because it raises critical issues about the future role of universities. How has the nature of intellectual labour in knowledge formation and professional advocacy as independent researchers been effected? The paper draws upon critical comparative work on universities by Slaughter and others as well astheoretical work of the new policy sociology.

Managing diversity or managing for diversity in the corporatised educational organisation?

Jill Blackmore, Deakin University and Judyth Sachs, University of Sydney

Equity debates in education need to be situated in the context of wider national policy agendas. Inherent in these reform agendas are contradictions between post modern discourses about enhancing diversity and choice to meet the needs of niche markets more flexibly through co-operation, quality, accessibility and efficiency on the one hand and the social conservatism of modernist management practices and the market on the other. EO policies in education particularly and the public sector generally have been re-defined and re-framed through key conceptual shifts during the 1990s-- from social justice, to EO, to equity, and now diversity. This paper focuses upon how notions of gender inequality have been redefined through the dissemination of a discourse of diversity in the context of the rise of conservative education politics. We map how the discursive shifts in policy texts to more instrumental and vocationally oriented notions of educational value mirror shifts in thinking about equity away from group disadvantage to equity through individual choice. This discourse has allowed institutions to maintain their image of being 'equal opportunity organisations' and even good corporate citizens although EO policies for women teachers and academics are, due to their marginalisation in strategic planning, management discourses and organisational practice, are in many instances more symbolic artefacts than expressionsn of new discursive practices. We signal some of the paradoxes which emerge between discourses of performativity and equity in institutional politics and practice, and how these are resolved by gender equity managers. We compare how 'newer' and more 'elite' institutions use equity within the market to gain comparative advantage. The irony is that equity requires greater regulation of the economic and deregulation of the social, while markets and the new management seek deregulation of the economic and regulation of the social to achieve corporate goals. The paper draws its empirical data from qualitative research undertaken in universities, TAFE and schools in three Australian state during a period of radical restructuring. It draws upon post structuralist notions of discourse and positionality and feminist theories of the state.

Implicit actions and explicit outcomes: cultural-academic interactions in writing journal research articles.

A.S.Blicblau, A.Prince and B.Sosetyao Swinburne University of Technology

Students undertaking research degrees, particularly PhD degrees, are expected to write and publish refereed journal articles. Students from non English-speaking backgrounds and cultures (NESBC) can find this process particularly difficult. Students become familiar with the genre of the research article through reading the journals. However, as novice research writers, they need mentoring through the process of writing a journal article in their specialised area by supervisors who are familiar with the rhetorical conventions of the genre in the particular field. Experienced supervisors, who have published, have an intuitive grasp of the structure of the research article, and are able to suggest restructure of unsuccessful drafts. The process by which the supervisor's implicit knowledge is made explicit, i.e., how an academic supervisor analyses and revises the structure of a student's draft article, has not been studied. Second language research, most notably Swales, has analysed the explicit product of this implicit understanding, i.e. published articles. A think-aloud protocol was used to record the supervisor's revision of an NESBC student's draft journal article. The revised paper was analysed to see whether Swales' 'moves' were present and the recorded text was analysed to see how and why the supervisor rearranged the draft. This paper is a collaboration between an engineer and an applied linguist. It describes the process of re-organisation process of a professional journal article which an NESBC postgraduate student and his supervisor went through to arrive at format suitable for publication.

Empty promises? Pivate sector employers and public education in aotearoa/New Zealand

Employers in Aotearroa New Zealand in the nineteen-nineties, tend to have an holistic perception of potential employees. Rather than looking primarily at skills and qualifications, personal attributes are included under the rubric of 'employable skills'. Employers expect potential employees, including school-leavers, to possess not only such characteristics as punctuality and conscientiousness, but also to have such qualities as enable them to work within a team, to communicate effectively with others, to be able to solve problems that arise during the production process, and so on.

Employers hold that the state school system should inculcate these sorts of qualities in students, in order to prepare school-leavers for the workplace. Increasingly, heads of private corporations are using their influence on the education system to promote such perceptions of state schools.

In this era of high youth unemployment, the balance of power between secondary school students and employers from the private business sector can be seen to be heavily weighted in favour of the latter. Questions arise as to the type of relationship between the expectations of students and those of employers. Do employers' expectations impact upon the school curriculum? If so, in what way? How are employers' expectations to be communicated to the students effectively? This paper will look at some questions raised by the contradictions that emerge when state schools are expected to prepare young people for an ever-shrinking labour market.

Why Do I Need To Know This?

Helen Bradbury and Jill Paris, Dunedin College of Education

We are involved in teaching a 100 level education course to first year teacher trainees. The course requires students to examine and develop a reasoned, critical analysis of the contexts of education in Aotearoa/New Zealand through the knowledge of theory, philosophy, ideology, policy, and practice of education. One of the greatest challenges for teachers in the course is to raise students' awareness of politics and policy making. The student cohort is diverse in terms of age, experience and educational background. Older students with greater life experience appear to grasp the political and policy material with some eagerness whilst the school leavers often look bemused (and bored!) Is it possible to make educational policy and politics more relevant and comprehensible to the latter group or are we asking the impossible? This paper explores responses from students and a range of strategies implemented to meet the challenge. Input from people attending the paper will be welcome.

Bringing community pedagogy into the 21st century: Electronically enabling community learning

Patrice Braun, Swinburne University of Technology

Community-based interventions to influence people's environmental values, attitudes and behaviour have been restricted to face-to-face education sessions; conventional media such as television, video, print and pamphlets; verbal and written messages from relatives and friends.

Online learning systems have interactivity at their heart. Conventional media are passive and transitory in nature. Education for the environment must be contrasted with education about and through the environment. As (Fien 1993) suggests education for the environment actively engages learners to resolve environmental questions and issues. Online learning systems have the potential to enable local communities to actively participate in global environmental issues.

Electronic and hardcopy-based surveys were conducted to identify a community's environmental information needs, environmental information gathering methods, satisfaction level with the current environmental information flow, computer literacy and online interest. Feedback from the questionnaire plus extensive literature review were utilised to construct the framework and design of the prototype environmental community website. Effectiveness of the online site was subsequently field tested.

The study had two aims: First to identify community interest in accessing environmental information online. Second, to investigate the potential benefits of using computer-mediated communication for pedagogical community use.

Findings indicated that when an online environmental community site is tailored to a community's information and online needs, it is a powerful tool for accessing and disseminating both local and global environmental information. Online community sites have the potential to effectively foster awareness and involvement in local and global environmental learning.

Qualitatively different conceptions of criteria used to assess student learning

Simon Barrie, Angela Brew and Mary McCulloch, University of Sydney

This paper reports on research exploring different conceptions embedded within assessment criteria which is being carried out in the context of a large, research-based Australian university. Warren Piper et al (1995) in a study of examination practices and procedures within Australian universities found that respondents were confused about the meaning of 'criterion referencing' and that many failed to appreciate its implications. One of the most obvious manifestations of such misunderstandings is in the writing of assessment criteria.

The investigation grew from experiences of dealing with apparently diverse understandings of assessment criteria. A range of criteria drawn from across the academic spectrum was collected and analysed using a phenomenographic approach focusing on the interpretation of texts not originally written for the purposes of the research. This type of analysis has been called "hermeneutic phenomenography" (Hasselgren & Beach 1997).

In this paper, the qualitatively different conceptions of assessment criteria which were found in the data are presented and discussed. The identification of these conceptions provides a theoretical framework for understanding different types and uses of criteria in higher education.

In the context of University policy advocating a shift from norm-referenced to criterion-referenced assessment approaches, the diversity of conceptions in the data has been particularly useful. It has clarified the current state of assessment practices, indicated potential directions for development and provided a basis for monitoring changes in assessment practices as policy implementation proceeds. The paper examines these findings and discusses their wider implications

Conceptions of research and scholarship: Implications for higher education teaching and learning

Angela Brew, University of Sydney

Recent articles on the relationship between teaching and research have indicated that efforts should actively be made to bring research and teaching together by making teaching more research-like. This paper considers the implications of this challenge for the enhancement of teaching and learning in higher education.

In order to examine how teaching can become more research-like, an understanding of how research and scholarship are conceptualised is needed. The paper uses, as a basis for the argument, findings from a phenomenographic investigation of conceptions of research and scholarship among senior researchers from a spread of traditional disciplines. The four qualitatively different conceptions of research and five conceptions of scholarship identified in this research have already been reported (see for example, Brew 1998 & 1999). These findings reveal some important dimensions in researchers' conceptions of research and demonstrate considerable confusion about the nature of scholarship.

The paper argues that if teaching is to become more research-like, it is important to be clear what conceptions of research and scholarship are being talked about. An awareness of these different conceptions in curriculum design means that there is a wider repertoire of approaches to consider than the simple application of inquiry-based methods. However the findings also suggest that making teaching more research-like could be problematic and indicate that if university teachers are to take the admonition to make teaching more research-like seriously, there are some crucial decisions to be taken. Examples from the literature on inquiry-based teaching developments will be used to illustrate the argument.

Women returning to study mathematics: An epistemological journey

Christine Brew,Latrobe University

The societal perception that mathematics is absolute and infallible reinforces a transmission pedagogy and is considered to be a major stumbling block in defining numeracy for women returning to study mathematics. Children at risk in mathematics are found to rely on rules and procedures and similar findings are evident with adults. A reliance on rules and procedures is consistent with an epistemological perspective that knowledge is absolute and external to the self. This paper draws on the results of a larger study that is tracking the intellectual and personal growth of women returning to study mathematics. The theoretical frame work draws on the work of Baxter Magolda (1992) who described epistemological shifts associated with the intellectual development of tertiary students and women's ways of knowing (Belenky et al. , 1997). Two contexts are included in this study: a Community Adult Learning Centre; and a TAFE adult numeracy course, both set in two of the poorest regions of metropolitan Melbourne. These courses are specifically aimed at meeting the needs of women returning to study mathematics. Two case studies are presented to highlight how the social and intellectual climate created in the classroom and by the institution come to support the women's mathematical learning and the associated shifts in their epistemological perspectives. The implications for the current government direction towards a return to greater testing and shorter courses to prepare disadvantaged adults for tertiary study are discussed.

Information skills: how information literate are NZ children?

Gavin Brown,NZCER

The New Zealand Council for Educational Research has standardised, on a national representative sample of over 8,000 students, a new set of assessment tools for Information Skills. These instruments are based on an information literacy perspective of the New Zealand Curriculum Framework Essential Skills. A series of modular, paper and pencil, student achievement tests are being developed for use in Years 5 through 10 of the New Zealand school system. The tests are largely non-multiple-choice in response format. In addition to the tests, teacher rating scales, and student self-report scales are being validated.

The assessment tools are designed to formatively explore a student's understanding of, and ability to use information, and to provide teachers with appropriate pedagogical responses. Although assessments have been developed for a wide range of Information Skills, this paper will focus on three major topics:

• Finding Information in a Library,
• Finding Information in Parts of a Book, and
• Finding Information in Reference Sources.

Findings of the effect of year level, gender, and SES will be reported. In addition the survey's key findings about what children actually know will be summarised.

Me as language teacher: Initial acts of identification.

Jill Brown, and Judith McGannon Monash University

An important component of pre-service second language teacher education is the shift from student as learner to student as teacher. Part of this shift involves identification with and perception of self as teacher through an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of language teachers as enacted by both supervising teachers and the beginning teachers themselves. What are the interpretations placed on this role which student-teachers accept? What aspects of the enacted role do they reject? What are the personal characteristics, beliefs and experiences which these beginning teachers bring to initial teaching? How do these individual understandings influence the growing identification with other more experienced language teachers? This study charts the developing understanding of the work of the language teacher through the eyes of 50 trainee secondary teachers of LOTE and ESL during the course of their Graduate Diploma in Education program. Students participated in a series of small group discussions focussed on experiences during teaching practice. Students continued their thinking about these issues individually through pieces of reflective writing, culminating in a description of their past, present and future self and language teacher.

Super teaching on the superhighway: A study of proficient internet-using teachers

Mark Brown, Massey University

This paper addresses the lack of critical debate over the widespread use of Internet in New Zealand schools. It questions the current enthusiasm for online learning in school curricula when there is still very little understanding of what constitutes proficient teaching with the Internet. The paper describes a multi-dimensional research methodology that is being used to examine the experiences, perceptions and practices of a purposive sample of internet-using teachers. This research aims to document internet use in the context of the regular classroom before many of the claims about new information and communication become uncritically enshrined in educational practice. In the past there has been a tendency by policy makers and researchers to ignore the voice of classroom teachers, particularly with regard to meaningful curriculum integration. Accordingly, this research seeks to learn from the valuable experience and collective wisdom of super highway teachers. Although the research is still at a preliminary phase, it is clear that the study is following a direction of inquiry that will offer valuable insights into the problems and potentialities of using Internet in school.

Weaving a Workable Web: Lessons from an online post-graduate distance education course

Mark Brown, Tracy Riley and Ieda Santos, Massey University

The paper describes the systematic evaluation of an internet-based post-graduate distance education course, utilising WebCT. It outlines the design and pedagogical strategies and presents data from a micro-ethnographic case study during its first year of implementation. The teacher's and students' perceptions of learning via the web are reported. Although data suggest that online teaching enhances the texture of the course, it needs further exploration in order to determine how the technology can be effectively woven into the overall fabric of post-graduate studies. In this regard, the paper highlights both positive and negative aspects of learning with the Internet. A number of unexpected outcomes emerge from the research, especially in terms of (a) sense of community, (b) teacher satisfaction and (c) student perceptions of distance education. The research provides a valuable insight into the problems and potentialities of developing a workable web-based course in post-graduate education.

What's working,what's not: Traditional education,homeschooling and childrens voices and choiches

Donna Broadhurst,University of South Australia

Despite the proliferation of institutional schooling during this century, voluntary home-based education is a growing phenomenon in a number of western countries (eg. Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, United States) (Mayberry et al, 1995; Meighan, 1995; Hunter, 1994). Parents who choose to "homeschool" do so for a number of reasons and pursue a variety of methods. An emerging body of research has investigated the reasons parents give for homeschooling, but little of the research literature to date has looked at children's perceptions of their home-based education experiences. This paper reports on interviews, conducted in 1998, with a number of young children who were asked about their perceptions of their home-based education. Their voices indicate that they view homeschooling favourably. Institutional schooling, viewed today as the normal process of education for the masses has not always been available The educational norm for pre-industrial societies was home education, yet today it is often viewed as an aberration. Current research evidence suggests homeschooling can be a viable educational alternative, worthy of serious consideration by policy makers, educational professionals and researchers. With the increasing evidence that the youth of today are finding school less relevant to their lives, policy-makers should be considering alternatives in order to cater to individual needs. Homeschooling can incorporate teaching strategies that have long been held to be educationally effective - vertical age grouping, one-on-one tuition, peer tutoring, supportive child-adult relationships, child-centred and initiated learning. These strategies can involve a child cognitively in their own learning, yet these strategies are hard to pursue in institutional settings. This paper suggests how we may bridge the divide that currently exists between home-based education and institutional schooling in order to bring benefits to children and families alike as we head towards the year 2000.

Global ethical investment concerns have become local, local concerns are now global: informal learning and research in cyberspace.

John Brown-Parker and M. Gaca

Stakeholders are taking greater care that their capital is invested ethically and in environmentally sustainable business ventures. New information enabled "green investors" trawl the WWW. The subtleties of pull marketing shape electronic search pathways. Electronic "green gaps" are encountered: those discrepancies between the quality of information sought, and that which is supplied in corporate reporting.

All that that glitters is not gold on the Internet, the preferred electronic research platform for millions. Concerns regarding the quality of available data led to an exploration of: 1. The role of the Internet in facilitating issue based global learning and research 2. Global search methods 3. Response to "green washing" of Web messages 4. Implications for informal learning and research strategies at both the local and global level.

Popular search engines were evaluated using category and key word approaches. Expert panelists identified "green" and "non-green" Web financial reporting. A q-sort analysis (n=84) using Kendall's W coefficient of concordance established levels of agreement among investors. Using structured interviews, attitudes of investment professions were investigated.

Findings confirmed that much Web investment information is bathed in "green wash", and appears to be strong in hype, but weak in substance. With the increasing sophistication of the millions of global users informally learning from and researching in cyberspace, it seems increasingly difficult for environmentally destructive business practices to go unnoticed or unreported at either the local or global level.

A classroom-based metacognitive program for improving the word identification and reading comprehension skills of upper primary poor readers

Merle Bruce, Avondale College Gregory Robinson, University of Newcastle

This paper reports on a series of three studies designed to assess the effectiveness of a metacognitive approach to teaching word identification and reading comprehension skills to upper primary poor readers, and to investigate effective methods for implementing the metacognitive program in the regular classroom. To improve word identification skills experimental subjects were trained to: Consider the Context, Compare with known words, Carve up the word parts. To help monitor and control the use of these strategies, subjects were taught to: Be flexible, Look for the Cues, Ask: Does it make sense. Reciprocal teaching procedures, incorporating the word identification strategies, were used for comprehension training. Subjects in control conditions received either reciprocal teaching of comprehension skills and traditional methods of word identification, normal classroom reading activities, or normal classroom activities plus phonics-based remedial instruction. Measures of word identification, metacognitive awareness and monitoring of word identification cues, and comprehension were taken on several occasions in each study.

Results of repeated measures analysis of variance showed significant improvements in most measures for all conditions. However, there were significantly greater improvements for subjects in the experimental conditions. Also, a model of implementation in which teachers were entirely responsible for implementation was more effective than one in which the experimenter initially set up the program and the teachers gradually took over responsibility for its implementation.

The implications of these findings for classroom practice are discussed in the light of current research.

The primacy of pedagogy

Oliver Burmeister, Swinburne University of Technology and Anthony Owens, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

Rapidly changing educational technology is by far the most prominent of forces driving current curriculum development. Despite the willingness of many educators to adopt new technology, limited time, money and personnel hinder optimal technology implementation. Even the most willing technology users have trouble adjusting to the wealth of opportunities offered to education by technology. Improved technology appears to offer ease in achieving educational goals. However, the over-riding concern of educators really ought to be with the basic pedagogical design of subject delivery. This paper concerns a subject that enrolls over 1,000 students annually & has been ear-marked for technology-based teaching. Alpha & Beta trials with students have been completed. In semester 2, 1999 the subject will be taught totally online. The university has spent considerable funds developing the subject for delivery via advanced technology, yet very little has been spent on reviewing educational efficacy. This paper examines subject design in light of pedagogical principles & compares aspects of its delivery with other highly web-based subjects which have been judged to be pedagogically sound. The paper examines a number of key elements that educators will recognise as desirable in any course whether traditional or online. Elements discussed include learning environment (teacher or student centered), catering for different styles and motivations in learning, aids to memory, student empowerment to form their own cognitive schemata, & ways that technology can assist learning through inclusion of colour, music, loci, & the promotion of integrated student activity and cooperative learning.

Applying theory in practice: Assessing the information requirements of an organisation.

Oliver Burmeister and Peter Eden, Swinburne University of Technology

Data is capital & has value to an organisation. As such it needs to be adaptable & useful over time to that organisation. Data that is designed to reflect users' understanding is more useful and adaptable to changing conditions. Yet how can such significant concepts be brought across to students learning the theory of database design? Once the data requirements are collected and analysed, there is a well understood theory that can be applied to database design. This is the focus of most first courses on database. The theory can be, and often is taught in abstraction, removed from the practicalities of how the data is understood by users in real industrial settings. Not so at Swinburne University of Technology where there is an ethos of employment focus in all teaching, from TAFE through to post-graduate education. The pedagogy is informed by industry & in large part based around case studies of practical problems. With particular emphasis on conceptual modelling, students analyse real world situations and design database solutions. Students don't just learn the design theory but the whole process of problem analysis, classification and solution. They employ valuable analytic skills such as abstraction, pattern recognition and validation to develop their database design. This approach empowers students to develop skills and understanding beyond the narrow confines of idealized database design, and in the process, develop an appreciation for the typical business problems that software technology can help solve. The case studies make significant use of sample data to help validate the analysis. A feature of the approach is to guide the student through a series of steps that require a rationale at each stage to justify the modelling decisions. Such a rationale forces the student to consider the needs of the business as well as the structure of information.

Men in primary teaching: An endangered species?

The profession of teaching has traditionally been regarded as a suitable career for women and as less suitable for men. Since the end of the second world war the male primary school teacher has been variously regarded as morally suspect (Tubbs, 1946), out of place (Kaplan, 1947) or someone who should be actively dissuaded from making such a career choice (Levine, 1977). In more modern times some researchers have advocated that men should play a role in primary teaching in order to counter the "feminised" environment (Brophy & Good, 1973) or to help breakdown traditional gender stereotypes by acting as role models (Greenburg, 1977). Some reasons for males not opting for primary teaching have been suggested by Farquhar (1997). These include the current media spotlight on allegations of child sexual abuse; the impact of child protection policies; the labelling of men caregivers as homosexual or not "real men"; low wages; low social status and limited career paths when compared with other professions. Furthermore, there are often conflicts and tensions for men in undertaking what is generally perceived as women's work (Smith, 1999).

This paper presents the views of male senior secondary students, male primary teacher education students, male primary teachers and secondary school career advisers on reasons why males do or do not study primary teaching. It also examines factors which the students and teachers have reported to influence their staying in or withdrawing from the teaching profession. The implications of this findings for supporting male students in primary teacher education courses are discussed.

Reflecting upon the present and planning for the future: A collegial mentoring initiative

Jude Butcher,Australian Catholic University

Teachers and administrators are often involved in complex situations which call for wise decision making and considerable professional expertise. They are required to focus upon the present while also ensuring that attention is giving to preparing for new situations and agendas. Balancing the tension between present and future agendas is a key challenge for people with management and leadership responsibilities in schools, higher education or business.

Formal mentoring is employed to assist in the induction of staff to new professional roles or responsibilities. Particular people are designated as mentor and mentee and specific goals and procedures are agreed upon. The organisation involved is responsible for the selection and professional development of the mentors and evaluating the effectiveness of the process. Peer relationships within organisations have been of significant value in providing career and personal support in organisations. Smith (1992) has described how the focus and effect of the peer relationship can vary according to peopleÝs career stage and the level of trust between the participants

While increasing attention is being given to the development of formal mentoring programs within organisations it is important that the nature and benefits of collegial mentoring across sectors be examined

The paper presents the history of a collegial mentoring relationship between a school principal and a head of school. It shows how this across sector collegial or mutual mentoring has been successful in assisting the participants in learning from their everyday experiences while also planning for the future.

Teacher Education: The times they are a changing

Peter Howard,Jude Butcher & Ted Nettle Australian Catholic University

The world of teaching is undergoing rapid and radical changes for what is seen by many to be a conservative profession. Significant changes are occurring in school curricula and assessment practices, together with an increasing emphasis on inclusive education. At the same time teachers are responsible for providing quality teaching and learning programs for an increasingly diverse and at risk student population.

During a time of diminishing resources teacher educators, along with other providers, are grappling with the need to integrate university based theoretical learning with relevant and effective field based learning. In response to this changing context new forms of partnerships and collaboration have emerged or have been pursued between universities, school systems and teachers.

This paper provides a history of the changing vision, shape and contexts of teacher education within the School of Education (NSW) at Australian Catholic University. Traditional models of relationships between schools, school systems and universities are examined in light of the evolving partnerships and alliances that are being pursued by Australian Catholic University and key educational and community agencies. These partnerships are promoting a climate of shared ownership within a framework of field based learning. Integral to these partnerships is the student teacher who not only benefits from but also enriches the work of the other partners.

The paper includes an evaluation of some of the current field based learning initiatives and presents models and principles for extending these partnerships and initiatives in the future.

Confronting global and local social justice issues: A challenge for educators

Marie Loller & Jude Butcher Australian Catholic University

Changes to societal and political structures have been recommended to prevent the development of a 20:80 society (Martin & Schumann, 1996) which marginalises an increasing number of people. Underlying many of these changes is the education of people so that they are both committed to and capable of participating at a local level in decision making which has an influence on social structures. How can educators assist in promoting an agenda that challenges social structures and values the common good? While being conscious of the potential benefits of globalisation it is important that people are educated to be more aware of and advocates for the marginalised. Australian Catholic University is committed to addressing the challenge of educating people so that they can constructively address the inherent tendency within global structures to overlook their effects on marginalised groups. This paper presents a rationale and framework for education people to operate with a social justice within a global environment. It also presents a case study of a unit which promotes this agenda at university level. The learning processes underlying the unit incorporate a cycle of information-experience, analysis, reflection and social action. The affects of this unit on studentsÝ attitudes, capacity to address social issues and commitment to social action are reported. The implication s for educators and for the type of learning culture are explored.

PAPER 1: NIC99733

PAPER 2: MAN99734

PAPER 3: SMI99735

Changing classroom practice - a mentor teachers perspective

Ian Smith, Rose Bay High School, Tasmania

PAPER 4: CAL99736

Assessment of outcomes

Rosemary Callingham, University of Tasmania

PAPER 5: GRI99737

Analysis of factors affecting Aboriginal achievement

Patrick Griffin, University of Melbourne

Illuminating the shadows: recognising children who go unnoticed in the classroom

Marie Campbell, Latrobe University

The analogy of light and dark is an apt one for a classroom. In the light/dark dichotomy, light is privileged. The children who excel, talk, or who noticed by behaviour - good or aberrant - stand out or are lit ,whereas the darkness is inhabited by the shy, silent and bored. They are hidden. Perhaps they seek the solace of the shadows; perhaps teachers place them there inadvertently. Most likely, it is a combination of choice and relegation which leaves these children, hiding behind others, resting, away from the action, or waiting hopefully for their turn to take centre stage. While passivity should not be regarded as 'abnormal' it does tend to render a child powerless, and when one is invisible, this powerlessness, or even oppression, is not recognised.

Post structuralist theory has shown the importance of looking for the gaps, absences and margins as vantage points from which to view our 'naturalised' views of society and to develop critique. Such a theoretical perspective informs my approach to teaching and research. My current project is to privilege this group of 'shadowy figures'; a type of affirmative action! Rather than flood them with light, my aim is to gently encourage them to be at least silhouetted against the light. This paper reflects on this situation using insights from Foucault, Lacan and other theorists.

The potential for using the NBPTS standards and portfolios in professional teaching degrees

Marie Cameron, Wellington College of Education and Peter Gunn, Naenae Intermediate School

The Wellington College of Education has been one of a number of New Zealand Teacher Education institutions that have initiated new degree qualifications in recent years. The opportunity for existing teachers to upgrade their qualifications from Diplomas in Teaching to degree status has seen a wide range of approaches. Since 1998 the Wellington College of Education has been teaching an outcomes based, three year, professionally coherent degree based upon the NBPST standards. Teachers wishing to upgrade to this degree are required to achieve the same "outputs" as preservice graduates. They enroll for key course work from the degree, as well as for a Professional Practice portfolio, which allows them to gain academic recognition for the demonstration of their professional knowledge and skills relevant to the NBPTS outcomes. The use of portfolios appears to be a potentially powerful tool in the assessment of teachers' performance, and the use of the NBPTS standards dovetails well with this approach. Highly accomplished teachers and school leaders can potentially demonstrate not only the standards of performance for advanced certification, but can also use their evidence to satisfy nationally regulated performance standards. In this presentation we outline experiences from the first year of trialling professional standards for enhanced qualification requirements and discuss the use of NBPTS and other standards in this process.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 16 ING99390: Empowering the teaching profession: The relevance of the national board for professional teaching standards to Australasia

What is successful pedagogy in Auckland's low decile primary schools? Preliminary findings.

Vicki Carpenter,Colleen ,-McMurchy-Pilkington & Sue Sutherland, Auckland College of Education.

The aim of this particular study was to identify what it is that makes a teacher's work successful in decile one to three (lower SES) multicultural primary schools in the greater Auckland area. 'Successful' is here defined as having the professionalism, talent and ability to take each child to her/his academic and personal potential in a way which does not alienate a child from his/her home context. 'Success' in these case studies is in the eyes of professional colleagues and the wider community.

A group of 'exceptional' teachers were identified. These teachers were each interviewed twice. Between each pair of interviews, four other people were interviewed; the teacher's principal, a BOT member from the teacher's school, a colleague from within the teacher's school and a community person with a child attending the teacher's school. Each of these people was asked to enhance the identification of the particular teachers's skills and attitudes. The findings were analysed and theorised and common skills and attitudes were identified.

While the researchers were cognisant of overseas studies which identified common attriibutes of successful teachers of the children of the working class or unemployed (for example; Haberman, Martin. 1995. 'Star Teachers of Children in Poverty') their intent was affirm successful current practice, and to establish teacher attributes for the Auckland, New Zealand context. This paper presents the preliminary findings of this ongoing project.

Neither objective nor neutral? My place in the research process in Takiwa school

Vicki Carpenter, Auckland College of Education

From 1994 until 1998 I was involved in a qualitative research project in 'Takiwa School', a rural area school in New Zealand. The school is a school in which I held a senior teaching position during the late 1980s. My research focus was on the process and politics of the development of a parent instigated alternative learning unit; a unit which became a 'school within a school'. Parents believed they had the right to initiate change in the school because of the Tomorrow's Schools (1988) legislation. My empirical work within the school included observations, formal and informal interviews, facilitation of internal evaluation processes, provision of in-service education, and the analysis of archival material.

This paper reflects on my position in the research process and the ensuing analysis - I suggest that my position was neither objective nor neutral. Very little has been written about the ethics involved in conducting research in New Zealand schools. Some of my experiences mirrored those experienced by Burgess R G (1985) in 'The Whole Truth? Some Ethical Problems of Research in a Comprehensive School'; other experiences were unique, and many created personal ethical dilemmas. As pre-service, in-service and post-graduate education courses expand in New Zealand, more and more teachers will become involved in the research process. My hope is that this paper will contribute to ongoing reflection on the part of education researchers regarding their own positions in the research process.

Taking the team by the tail: an examination of the potency and demands of team contribution to an organisational learning culture

Carol Cardno, UNITEC Institute of Technology, Auckland,

This paper explores the potency of teamwork as a vehicle for organisational learning. The findings of two recent New Zealand studies are presented to confirm that teams proliferate in schools and are increasingly being used to make important organisational decisions at both middle and senior management levels. Whilst the nature of teamwork presents possibilities for team learning to shape cultures that value and act on feedback to improve quality, a baseline survey of team incidence and practice highlights a paradox. There appears to be a tension between the demand that, on the one hand teams make significant decisions and demonstrate accountability, yet, on the other hand, there is evidence of a low emphasis on team review and development to create the conditions for team learning. An in-depth performance review of a large secondary school Senior Management Team revealed that whilst the team was generally considered to be performing very well, there were performance gaps between expectations and actions. These were evident in the areas of effective communication, collaboration, feedback and acknowledgement of mistakes - skills that are critical to team learning. Learning how to learn as a team requires disquieting critical reflection to reduce defensiveness. The tendency to bypass learning opportuntities reduces team potency to contribute to organisational learning. Moving teams from knowing to doing what is necessary is a challenging aspect of team leadership and is often avoided in pursuit of safer and less demanding tasks.

Living contra/dictions, telling tales:
Women teacher-educators' Stories from thetertiary classroom

Patricia Cartwright, Australian Catholic University,Lynne Noone, University of Ballarat

This paper reports on a study that centred on the stories of a group of women teacher educators over a period of five years. Major themes that emerged from the stories ranged from questions of implementing a critical pedagogy in classrooms peopled by reluctant tertiary students, to coping with changing institutional structures. A constant subtheme that accompanied these themes was the women's efforts to confront the personal costs of maintaining a professional life in these circumstances while at the same time endeavouring to find ways of renegotiating an ethical, fulfilling and oppositional professional life. Use storying as a means of making sense of experience for oneself and for others calls on a range of discursive practices that are collaborative, narrative, and that are informed by various critical theories. These critical theories offered insights into the complexity of power relations within particular institutional sites. For these women, the past few years of teacher education have been those of turbulence and change. How these changes have impacted on these women as teacher educators involved in the continuing challenges of teaching, researching, and continuing with their professional lives is the subject of this paper.

Step one in obtaining authentic student participation: Methods to "hear" student voices.

Teresa Carlson, University of Queensland

This presentation will focus on the methods that have been used in research to "hear" student voices, taken from a comprehensive literature review and the author's own experiences in this area. The presentation will cover a range of different methods, although particular concentration will be on the various forms of interviews (structured, semi-structured, unstructured, open-ended, phenomenological, group focus, peer interviewing, and use of stimulated recall); reflective journals, critical incident forms and a variety of questionnaire work.

Authentic student participation in action

Roger Holdsworth, University of Melbourne

The traditional way of thinking of 'student voice' is to focus on the development of some form of Student Council. However, such Councils have frequently dealt with trivial issues (either through imposed constraints or through constraining themselves), have involved only a select and already empowered few, and have had little impact on policies or programs. Some schools have started to investigate different ways - in which representative forms of 'voice' and 'democracy' are superseded by participatory forms.

"Drawing upon examples published in Connect magazine over the past 20 years, this session will discuss some alternative governance structures, and some alternative curriculum approaches that seek to 'go beyond voice' to enable all students to experience real roles of value through schools. It will be suggested that a 'three-way test of value' characterises such approaches. Participants will be asked to join in dancing lessons around the 'student participation two-step'. "

Environmental education; A case study of education for the public good.

David Chapman,Massey University

This paper examines the history of environmental education in New Zealand over the last fifteen years reviewing that history in the context of concurrent changes in the school curriculum and wider society. Preliminary conclusions concerning the potential role of environmental education as a socially transformative agent are developed as a lens with which to examine ourselves as educators. It concludes that belief in a future constructed around social and environmental justice and the common good requires that in order to counter the political intrusion into education we must expand our role beyond the educational arena into politics.

Fostering a research culture for New Zealand teachers

Anna Chalmers, New Zealand Council for Educational Research

This paper presents findings from a 1999 study concerned with teachers' use of research and theory to inform their teaching practice. The study comprised exploratory research on the contribution of professional development courses to teachers' uptake of research and case studies of schools to examine how school-based and teacher-based factors influence teachers' use of research findings and educational theory.

These factors include:
the extent to which research is valued and promoted within the school; the ways in which teachers have contact with educational research and research findings; the extent to which teachers are information literate and have systematic access to sources of information regarding educational research and theory and the relationship between a critically reflective approach to teaching and the development of a research culture within the school.

Comparing the learning behaviours of Australian and Chinese university students in various situations

Phoebe Chan, Monash University

Different and at times contradictory descriptions exist in the literature about the ways in which Asian students approach their learning. While educators with experience in teaching Asian students perceived them as passive, dependent, uncritical, and more prone to rote learning than western students, researchers who investigated empirically the learning approaches of Asian students held that these students were neither more oriented towards a surface approach nor less inclined to use a deep approach than western students. Differences in cultural characteristics and conceptions have bee proposed to account for Asian students' learning practices and to explain the discrepancies in views about Asian students. However, there is not much empirical research on comparisons of the learning behaviours of students from different cultures. This paper reports on a study that explores and compares the learning beliefs and practices of university students from a Chinese (Hong Kong) and a western (Australian) culture. Comparisons between the students were made on: the relative frequencies with which they reported using the learning behaviours; the frequencies with which they used the behaviours in different learning situations; their use of similar behaviours across various situations; and their preferences for particular types of learning behaviours. The results showed that the Australian and the Hong Kong students were similar in the relative frequencies with which they reported using the various behaviours and in what they reported to engage in most and least frequently in the various learning situations. However, they were different in the frequencies with which they reported using specific learning behaviours, particularly when spending their leisure time. These results suggest that educators should pay more attention to both similarities and subtle differences between students from different cultures or countries, rather than assuming that students from certain cultures or countries behave in certain ways.

New time, new policies and new educational leadership in Hong Kong after 1997

After the hand-over of Hong Kong to China in 1997, a series of educational innovations was introduced by the Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government. In fact, before he took his office, the Chief Executive of the SAR, Tung Chee Hwa, had publicly announced that he would tackle education issues. Thus, educational innovation has been implemented consistently since 1997. These innovations influence the whole education system, from classroom level to system level, in Hong Kong. The Government is deliberately playing the role as the pioneer in leading Hong Kong education into a relatively more professional era. Under these recent innovations, educational leaders will work in a context which is professionalised, organically organised, decentralised and proactive.

This paper will analyse three of these innovations, namely the exchange program of the Education Department, the new appraisal program for school principals and the assessment of teachers' language proficiency. These three innovations have covered both the system and the school level. The paper will further reveal the SAR government's intention to promote a new direction for its administration: the emphasis is no longer on experience but professional performance and appraisal. This paper will also deal with the likely outcomes of this series of educational innovations and their influences on educational leaders in the 'new' Hong Kong.

Benefits of investigations as non-traditional assessments

Min Chen, University of Queensland

This paper reports a research study examining the benefits of investigations as non-traditional assessment tasks in the lower secondary school. A mathematical investigation is defined as an inquiry into a mathematical situation, the topic of which may arise from real life or a mathematically designed problem. Students are required to apply familiar skills and concepts, to the unfamiliar situation of the investigation (Reid and Wright, 1994). In this study, the investigations used were assessment items that were part of the normal school program. Four teachers and 18 students participated in the study. The main methods of data collection were interviews and observations. Both teachers and students participated in the interviews. The observations, however, were more focused on the students. Student journal writing, related documents and artefacts, and student samples supplemented this data. The major findings for the study were that investigations enabled students to learn more effectively, to become more involved in mathematics at school, and to interact more frequently with each other. Specific findings from the interviews revealed that students felt more challenged in mathematics, and developed a greater understanding of the concepts involved. The observations were consistent with the interviews, and showed students actively engaging themselves in the mathematical processes of the investigation.

An experiment in internationalisation at Shantou University, Guangdong, China

Cheng Soo-May, Central Queensland University

In a quest to enter the government-designated elite list of 100 world-class local universities by the twenty-first century, Shantou University ("Shanda") in Southeast China has embarked on several bold internationalisation programs dubbed its "211 Project". These included English language and international business courses, staff exchange programs, student visit programs, and foreign institutional collaboration. Yet the implementation of these programs has achieved limited success, as the "academic culture" at Shantou is unique blend of social mission (as a result of the philanthropy of Hong Kong tycoon, Li Ka-shing), bureaucratic control (by virtue of Shanda's status as a public provincial university), and academic rivalry (because the best scholars were enticed to Shanda by the better pay levels and research facilities). This case study examines the self-defeating clash of educational cultures on various levels: local vs. international, bureaucratic vs. academic, and social value vs. economic rationality. A concluding proposition is that an entrepreneurship model might be considered as a means to draw together the disparate strengths of the University to make its mission relevant to the business culture of the Shantou region, and so internationalise the University as business in the region has been internationalised.

The relative utility of qualitative, social science, and natural science research into learning and teaching.

John Church ,University of Canterbury

Analysis of the research published in the 1995 volumes of 17 leading educational research journals revealed that, of the research into learning and teaching, some 17% employed a qualitative (mostly ethnographic) methodology, some 60% employed a social science methodology, and some 18% employed a natural science (mostly behaviour analysis) methodology. This paper is in three parts. The first provides an overview of qualitative, social science and behaviour analysis research procedures and the theories of knowledge which underpin each of these methodologies. The second part examines each of these methodologies in terms of the "fit" between subject matter and research procedure, their productivity, and the believability of their research findings, in an attempt to arrive at a conclusion regarding the relative utility of each. The third part examines the question of which research methods should be taught in research methods courses designed for pre-service teachers, undergraduate, and graduate students of education. The paper concludes that each methodology is able to address certain kinds of questions but not others and that the content of research methods courses needs to reflect the kinds of questions which the students in those courses will be expected to address during the course of their careers.

Public attitudes to Schools and Education - A report card for Australian Schools

Rick Churchill, School of Education, University of Tasmania

The use of public opinion polls in the field of education overseas is an established practice which has been undertaken for 30 years. The polling of the Australian public on issues related to schools and education is still in its formative years and to date, no studies have been undertaken on a regular basis.

The study reported in this paper identified the Australian public's perception of a range of issues related to education and schooling in four main categories: the level of support for a range of objectives of schooling; the performance of schools and teachers; funding of government schools; and the influence of sources of information about schooling.

The Public Attitudes Toward Schools and Education (PATSE) survey was administered via telephone interviews to a representative, national sample of 1213 Australians.

The results of the study suggest that there is strong support from the Australian public for each of the objectives of schooling investigated. Schools were perceived as moderately successful in the achievement of each of these objectives. Teachers in government schools and catholic and independent schools were perceived as performing well also.

There is overwhelming public support for the current level of funding to government schools being increased. In previous studies, both overseas and in Australia, respondents have been prepared to finance an increase in the level of funding to government schools through paying higher income taxes. This was not the case in this study with the public assigning the lowest levels of agreement to this option.

Information provided by the media in the form of television and newspaper reports was not perceived as being a being influential source of information for many Australians. Direct personal contact, in terms of their, or their children's, experiences of a school was said to be the most influential source of information about schools and education in Australia.

Post-Fordism in the Ford Motor Company? Women learning in a "workplace community"

Dr Julia Clarke - Open University, UK

In the texts of labour market sociology, the name of Ford is frequently invoked to represent a particular form of mass-production. The demise of the 'fordist' assembly line and the development of small-scale craft production by a highly skilled and flexible workforce, is claimed to offer 'Possibilities for Prosperity' in a new 'post-fordist' era (Piore & Sabel, 1984). What are these possibilities? Who will prosper in this new era? This paper will combine a critique of the fordist/post-fordist representations of the labour market in relation to the work and educational experiences of a particular group of women. These women are employed in low-paid service jobs, but have embarked on a return to education through EDAP's Internet CafT on the site of the car body plant at Ford Motor Company's Dagenham (UK) factory.

The Employee Development and Assistance Programme (EDAP) is a joint programme run by the Trade Unions and Ford offering non job-related educational opportunities to Ford employees. A government grant has enabled an EDAP learning centre to open its doors to family members of Ford employees, contract workers on the Ford site and employees working in the local retail park. The aim was to reach out to adults who had not continued with education since leaving school. Interviews with some of the women who took up this opportunity provide the data which is used to explore their subject positions as learners in a "workplace community".

A journey of transition: From Gumly Gumly public to secondary school

Barry Cocklin, Charles Sturt University

At last year's Conference, discussions with participants raised the question of the experience of children as they moved from Gumly Gumly to Secondary school. In particular, the issue posed was the transition from a small, rural learning community school, to the larger secondary context. Gumly Gumly is seen by many, within and outside the community, to be `successful' and an environment in which `learning', by staff, students, and community, occurs. This is accompanied by a strong sense of `ownership', by all stakeholders, of both context and `content', demonstrated in a particular allegiance to the school and the learning partnership. Accordingly, to examine the influence of such an experience, we need to consider the longitudinal journey as the students move into the next phase of their education. In seeking to address aspects of this issue, a follow-up was conducted with a selected group of the students, and their parents, from the original study, to examine their perceptions of the transition. The paper presents their voices as they recount their `journey'.

Public education as social investment

John Codd, Massey University

Neoliberal policy makers define education as a merit good and argue that investment by the state in public education is justified to the extent that such investment provides a return to the economy in the form of human capital as measured by the skills and abilities acquired by individuals for effective functioning within the labour market. Various social externalities are acknowledged as contingent but not necessary outcomes of state provided education.

This paper challenges the neoliberal position and argues that the educational reforms derived from it, with their emphasis on competitive individualism, marketisation, and new forms of meritocracy, produce conditions in which education itself becomes a major instrument of social exclusion. The paper argues that public education can contribute to the creation of social capital by fostering active citizenship, community involvement, socio-political literacy and moral responsibility. By eliminating barriers to social inclusion, public education, it is argued, contributes to the social well-being of society, providing necessary conditions for the effective functioning of markets and for enhancing economic prosperity. The state's investment in education, therefore, is viewed as a justifiable and necessary form of social investment and a precondition for the renewal of social democracy.

An investigation of children's understandings and perceptions of Christian worship and weekly school chapel services in a South Australian country Lutheran primary school

Michelle Codrington, University of South Australia

In many Christian primary schools, educators create opportunities for children to experience Christian worship on a regular basis, as a class and as a school community. From these experiences children construct their own understanding and meanings of Christian worship. This paper provides Christian educators with an insight into the understandings and perceptions that primary school aged children have about Christian worship and weekly whole school worship services.

The discussion outlines the meanings that children from a Lutheran School in years one, four and six attach to the various elements of chapel (school worship services). The paper focuses on what children understand and perceive in relation to the participant's role in the worship service and the time, place, objects and language (verbal and non-verbal) used in the worship service.

The findings in this paper can assist Christian educators to plan school worship services that meet the interests and needs of their students. The results inform Christian educators about the effectiveness of their methods used to teach children about Christian worship. This research maybe of interest to Christian educators, Christian Studies curriculum planners, parents and those who are interested in children in worship.

"Stepping out of the Comfort Zone"- Challenges in researching the value and meaning of aesthetic experience.

Dorothy Coe, University of Waikato

This paper will discuss how qualitiative research in the phenomenological genre was considered to be most suitable for researching aesthetic experience. The focus of the research centred on a search for an understanding of what happened, what was learned, and what value and meaning took shape for the participants in the context of dance in education.

'Stepping out of the comfort zone' provides the focus for discussion in this paper, as this action occurred many times throughout the research study.

For the majority of the participants in the research, moving out of their 'comfort zone' was a major challenge as this was their first journey into dance as an educational experience.

Throughout the whole research process my role was envisaged to be that of an active participant observer. This evolved into multiple roles. I devised the course, delivered the lectures, was actively involved in some decision -making, recorded the work in progress and set up and analysed the collection of information. Challenges emerged in entering my 'comfort zone' and criticising my own teaching styles, my own beliefs and teaching philosophy. However, I then found it very difficult to 'step out' and write the research findings, of such meaningful personal experience, at an academic distance.

My supervisor was further challenged to find a mode of writing of aesthetic experience that fitted the academic system, without losing my confidence and the results of my research.

This paper will reflect on these challenges. I will conclude by discussing future directions I will consider for further research in this field of aesthetic experience.

Principal performance appraisal - the recent New Zealand experience

Graham Collins, Massey University

From January 1999 all New Zealand schools have been required to implement new processes for performance appraisal of their principal, based on nationally prescribed 'Professional standards', and fixed term tenure for principal employment. These measures were introduced to "allow Boards of Trustees to periodically review whether the school's existing senior management matches their changing needs" and "to help ensure that schools are led and managed by high quality professionals". (Ministry of Education, April 1998).

This paper will report on case study research into principal appraisal in two New Zealand primary schools (core with teaching principal; the other with a non-teaching principal). The study took place over 1998 and 1999 and focussed on the extent and impact of changes to each school's governance and management processes as a result of the implementation of new principal appraisal requirements.

Particular issues examined in the study include the extent to which:-

• Given the higher stakes now involved in principal appraisal, Boards will need to apply a more rigorous and formal process than formerly?

Schools in Australia: A hard act to follow

Lyndsay Connors, NSW Department of Education and Training

The paper will examine the role of governments in shaping the future of public schooling in Australia. It will describe the policy and legislative framework for schooling in Australia, including a brief history of the Commonwealth's involvement in education.

It will also examine evidence for and against claims that there is a growing convergence between the public and private school sectors. This analysis aims to contribute to a better understanding of the forces influencing public schooling, and publicly-funded private education, in the context of economic, technological social and cultural change.

What influences teachers' decisions about talk in middle years classrooms?

Phillip Cormack,University of South Australia

This paper arises from a two year study involving 11 teachers from six schools which investigated teachers' perspectives on talk in middle years classrooms. The literature on classroom talk suggests a remarkable consistency across school level and subjects of the nature and uses of talk in classrooms. It seems that a quite narrow range of talk is used that is typically dominated by teachers. It also suggests that even with training in promoting alternative forms of talk practices in classrooms, teachers tend to revert to traditional talk patterns beyond the training period. This paper reports on action-research conducted with teachers into how talk isused in classrooms and the ways in which alternative forms of talk, particularly collaborative peer talk, could be sustained. The paper focusses on one aspect of that study which explored what factors teachers take into account when they plan for talk. This is a key issue for middle years reform, where collaborative work is often given a central place in the forms of pedagogy promoted. The research found that there were key differences between teachers and their contexts which impacted on the kind of talk they allowed into their classrooms. These differences related to factors such as the ways teachers 'read' their students, themselves and their institutional context. However, alongside these differences, there were some discourses running across the teachers' reports of their planning and work no matter what the context. These were discourses of 'ability'; 'family or homelife'; and of gender. This paper makes a contribution to research into classroom talk by providingteachers' perspectives on why they do what they do, allowing new questionstobe asked about teaching and learning in the middle years.

Situated Cognition: Just Another Educational Fad?

Ian R. Cornford University of Technology, Sydney

Education often appears to be plagued by educational fads which make minor contributions to overall advancements in knowledge and the overcoming of persistent learning-teaching problems. Situated cognition has emerged as of major interest over the past few years. Its attraction in part seems to lie in its reconciliation of social and cognitive aspects of learning and greater recognition of the importance of social factors in learning. Recently less enthusiastic and more critical assessments of the paradigm have started to be published. This paper considers a number of the more recent of these. It also examines the question of whether the enthusiasm for its adoption and the related theories by Vygotsky has more to do with pressing economic and social needs relating to successful capitalistic production than with overcoming many of the perennial problems of effective learning and teaching.

Assessment of the professional needs of teachers in North American tertiary environmental program

This paper reports on an ongoing process of identifying and meeting the professional needs of faculty in higher education environmental programs. It includes the self-reported strengths and weaknesses of environmental studies programs and the analysis of them by Kormondy, Corcoran, and Tchen (1997). It contains a descriptive analysis of the Symposium: Academic Planning in College and University Environmental Programs, held on Sanibel Island (1998), incorporating the substance of the three keynote papers and six responding papers. The results of a research survey of the participants at Sanibel are included (1999). An update on recent developments in the "Sanibel planning" process, and prospects for a future network and summit meeting on higher education programs for sustainability and the environment (2000), conclude the paper

Given the environmental climate of the late 1960s and early 1970s, a sage might have predicted that higher education would respond by developing environmentally-oriented courses and programs to capitalize on the burgeoning public, and student, concern and interest. However, of the relatively few programs that had emerged by the early 1970s, only fifteen were identified as being potential bellwethers in environmental education (Aldrich and Kormondy 1972a and b, 1973). In a follow-up study of twelve of these programs twenty-five years later, two of these programs had become extinct, two continue more or less in the same vein, and the others had undergone varying degrees of change (Kormondy and Corcoran 1997). Further, this study indicated that of the some 3,500 U. S. higher education institutions, only 360, or a modest ten percent, had programs in environmental education, environmental science, or environmental studies.

Concerned about these limitations on environmental programs and wanting to support academic planning to mitigate them, North American Association for Environmental Education and Florida Gulf Coast University convened a symposium on Sanibel Island in March, 1998. This meeting and a follow-up study of the participants made clear the stakeholders in higher education environmental programs have much to gain from continued professional discourse and have specific priority professional needs, including concrete programs/strategies to advance college and university environmental programs; an international network, online resources, face-to-face communication, or similar linkages and discussions with other academic organizations; and empowerment of environmental educators at colleges and universities.

Seeking to build on the momentum of the Sanibel Symposium, NAAEE continued to explore the ways to meet these needs through the convening of a Sanibel Symposium Planning Group on Sanibel Island in November, 1998. This group, now the Sanibel Planning Group, committed in "The Call from Sanibel" to the development of a Higher Education Network for Sustainability and the Environment to be developed at a high level planning meeting on the campus of Clark Atlanta University in September, 1999, and announced at a national summit around Earth Day, 2000.

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the process of events and of the research results influencing the process. Details of the studies and further developments subsequent the date of submission of this abstract will be included.

Current primary science practice: Observing what actually happens in the classroom

John Cripps Clark, Deakin University

Very little has been published about the amount and nature science teaching in Australian primary schools and that which has is based on written surveys completed by teachers and principals at a sample of schools. This study was designed to follow these reports into the classrooms, by talking with teachers and observing lessons, to try obtain an understanding students' experience of science in primary schools. It is difficult to gauge the amount and nature of primary science teaching because in primary schools because the one teacher commonly teaches many subjects often as integrated lessons. Thus self reporting surveys may not give the whole story.

The 'Current primary science practice' study was designed to observe the actual teaching of science in primary schools by collecting information on existing science programs within ten schools, observing two science lessons in each school, and asking the teachers' about their use of activities in science lessons.

This paper reports on the findings of this study.

The structure and organisation of science lessons was remarkably uniform as were the difficulties experienced by teachers trying to teach science. Teachers found many innovative ways overcame these difficulties and these experiences indicate ways of improving science teaching in primary schools.

Introduction and overview of the National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP)

Terry Crooks,University of Otago

Since 1995, a system for national monitoring of educational outcomes in New Zealand has been in operation. In the National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP), children are assessed at two grade levels (year 4: 8-9 years old and year 8: 12-13 years old), using multiple matrix sampling techniques to ensure that nationally representative samples of approximately 480 sdtudents attempt each assessment task. Students work individually and in collaborative groups. All areas of the curriculum are covered over a four year assessment cycle.

Assessment procedures and tasks are selected to provide a rich picture of what children can do and to optimise value to educators. Extensive use is made of hands-on performance tasks, and of video and lap-top computers to present task stimuli and record student responses. The tasks are administered to the students by experienced teachers, specially trained for this work and assessing in several different schools over a five week period. The scoring of the students' performances takes place after all task administration has been completed, with extensive involvement of teachers.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 1 CRO99008 National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP): Findings from the first cycle.

Overall task results from the National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP)

Lester Flockton, University of Otago

The first complete cycle of NEMP assessments has been completed,with the final three reports released in July 1999. The twelve reports for this first cycle cover students achievement at year 4 and year 8 in science, art, reading, speaking, technology, music, mathematics, social studies, writing, listening, viewing, health, physical education, and two aspects of information skills.

This presentation synthesises the results for these 15 areas, identifying patterns of performance for the two year levels and analysing the performance of population subgroups. Factors examined include student gender and ethnicity, school and community size, school type, geographic region, school socio-economic rating, and school ethnic composition. Some of these factors are shown to be highly influential, while others do not seem to relate substantially to the performance of students.

Achievement of Maori children in the National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP)

Terry Crooks and Robyn Caygill, University of Otago

A particular area of interest when examining the results students have achieved in NEMP is the performance of Maori students. In this presentation, we compare the achievements of Maori students and other students, at both year levels and across all curriculum areas. The overall results show Maori achieving at statistically significantly lower levels on a high proportion of tasks. However, student ethnicity is strongly confounded with other variables such as the ethnic mix and socio-economic rating of the schools attended. In order to reduce this confounding, Maori/non-Maori comparisons were repeated for the more homogeneous subgroup of students who attended schools with ten to thirty percent Maori students enrolled. These new comparisons reveal a substantially narrower gap between Maori and non-Maori achievement.

PAPER 4:

Observed patterns in the surveys undertaken during the National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP)

Liz Eley,University of Otago

A distinctive feature of NEMP is the attempt to report information about student attitudes and motivation, as well as skills and knowledge. In most of the curriculum areas covered, students completed surveys relating to their experiences, attitudes, perceptions, and voluntary engagement in the curriculum area.

This presentation reports on patterns observed across the two year levels and across the twelve curriculum areas surveyed. Quite consistent differences were found between the two year levels. Student gender and ethnicity were factors that related quite strongly to student attitudes in some of the curriculum areas.

Achievement of Maori children in the National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP)

Terry Crooks and Robyn Caygill, University of Otago

A particular area of interest when examining the results students have achieved in NEMP is the performance of Maori students. In this presentation, we compare the achievements of Maori students and other students, at both year levels and across all curriculum areas. The overall results show Maori achieving at statistically significantly lower levels on a high proportion of tasks. However, student ethnicity is strongly confounded with other variables such as the ethnic mix and socio-economic rating of the schools attended. In order to reduce this confounding, Maori/non-Maori comparisons were repeated for the more homogeneous subgroup of students who attended schools with ten to thirty percent Maori students enrolled. These new comparisons reveal a substantially narrower gap between Maori and non-Maori achievement.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 1 CRO99008 National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP): Findings from the first cycle.

The purple sage project From the wisdom of the people, action for our times.

Mary Crooks, Beryl Evans and Liz McAloon. , Lower Plenty

The Purple Sage Project was initiated in 1998 to counteract the concerns many Victorians have about our state and the future, for example, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, continued high unemployment, reduced standards of community service, the loss of public assets, racism and social tension , and a serious erosion of our democratic rights. In order to provide an initial research foundation to explore these issues precisely, 600 men and women who nominated themselves to be leaders of groups of 10 people from regional and metropolitan Victoria were recruited to facilitate group discussions to identify the most important issues, articulate a vision for the future and develop actions and strategies to address these issues. Responses indicated 7 key issues, namely, Unemployment, Strengthening our Democratic Culture, Public Education, Community Infrastructure, Environment, Gambling, and Redefining the Social Contract. These responses were analysed and solutions proposed in a series of Think Tank sessions utilizing the wisdom and experience of 150 people working in fields of research, academia and the community sector. A summary of issues and proposed strategies was then sent to all groups for their scrutiny before inclusion in the Project Report.

This paper will focus on the concerns expressed in the area of Public Education, equity, loss of resources/funds, the social value of education, cooperation between schools, curriculum, and teachers' conditions. The strategies developed and the plans for action initiated reflect the commitment to social justice and democratic action by all project participants.

The pain of yet another paradigm shift: tertiary students confronting the professions

Marie Crotty, University of South Australia

My previous research has followed a group of mature aged women students who transited to tertiary education. I accounted for their perceived academic discomfort by describing a paradigm shift from what I termed a 'tertiary preparation' paradigm to a 'technological' paradigm. In fact a group of these women have achieved this shift successfully. They have then found themselves confronted by another hurdle, what I now describe as a 'professional paradigm'.

A 'profession' is an occupation based on advanced or complex or esoteric or arcane knowledge. People within one or other occupation have endeavoured to turn that occupation into a profession and themselves into professional people. The paradigm shift requires the neophyte to be inducted into a new and formally rational, abstract knowledge. This new paradigm includes the arcane knowledge and the practices proper to the specific occupation. Each profession has its own principles of bureaucracy, its own epistemology, in short its own cultural features. In the case of this group of students, the paradigm is specifically a Library and Information Management professional paradigm.

Through their eyes, by means of a series of interviews, I will attempt to describe the professional paradigm of Library and Information Management, the challenges it offers to an intended member and the paradigm shift that it entails for these would-be participants, who, in the final year of their tertiary degree are becoming very aware of the lure of the 'professional paradigm'

Towards a sociology of academic publishing

Robert Crotty, University of South Australia

Appropriate academic knowledge has always carried significance within the university community. Indeed, it has always been advantageous to possess suchappropriate academic knowledge and to be credentialled as so possessing it. Subsequently, it has always been incumbent on university academics to disseminate their own and others' academic knowledge. But there is the obvious problem of defining appropriate academic knowledge at any one time and identifying the current, officially sanctioned mode of dissemination.

Within this cultural context, the paper will attempt a sociological analysis of academic publishing in the modern university. It will endeavour to define the academic knowledge that is the commodity of publishing, to identify the social roles of journal editors and peer reviewers, even to explain such innocent activities such as academics distributing their offprints. In the end, this understanding of the sociopolitical activity of academic publishing may throw light on why it has become a prime means of measurement of university activity and a prime indicator of excellence in performance.

Are you gay/sir? I'm not going to tell you: Towards a pedagogy of provocation.

Michael Crowhurst, University of Melbourne

Provoking students to ask questions of the text that is the body of the teacher is part of the work of constructing school cultures that are open to diverse sexualities. This paper/presentation will explore, via a lesson plan, what opening the text that is the body of the teacher might look like in a secondary school classroom.

Teachers who interrupt and challenge heteronormativity in the school environment.

Greg Curran, University of Melbourne

This paper draws on PhD case study material which investigates the types of approaches, practices and techniques, as well as the particular knowledge, skills and resources used by secondary school teachers in the state and Catholic systems to interrupt and combat heteronormativity across curricula, and at both classroom and whole school levels

Enabling conditions for teaching against homophobia

Abigail Thonemann, University of Sydney

This paper reports on research for a Masters of Public Policy (Honours), undertaken in two New South Wales (NSW) high schools in 1998. Forty one semi-structured interviews were conducted with students, parents, teachers, counsellors and principals to investigate their responses to the requirement that they teach against homophobia. This requirement is contained in the NSW Department of School Education's (1995) Procedure for Resolving Complaints About Discrimination Against Students. The most important findings of the research were the enabling conditions for teaching against homophobia, which are discussed in the context of student welfare and gender equity to illustrate how schools can create more inclusive environments.

Teaching RE - constructing the ideal and describing the reality.

Doctrines, dogmas, decrees and documents form the foundation of the Religion Education curriculum in Catholic schools. This paper explores how secondary teachers of Religion in Catholic schools construct what they believe to be the ideal in teaching the classroom religion program. For them the ideal may be constructed on the basis of their understanding of the expectations of the various influential stakeholders in the program including the Church. A series of constraits operate however that render the reality of religion education in schools as falling short of the ideal. This paper identifies some of these constraints and examines their effects.

PAPER 1: CUT99799

Innovation through technology

Peter Cuttance, University of Sydney

PAPER 2: HIL99802

Innovations in literacy

Peter Cuttance, University of Sydney

PAPER 3: HIL99807

Enhancing student engagement in the middle years

Peter Hill, University of Melbourne

PAPER 4: ANG99800

Improving student outcomes through the flexible use of resources

Max Angus, Edith Cowan University

PAPER 5: CRO99801

Leading innovations in schools

Frank Crowther, University of Southern Queensland

Teachers' Work: Voices from the Innovative Links Project

Anne Davies, Victorian University of Technology

What do teachers' say about their work? In this paper I present a review of teachers' voices about their work as revealed in the publications of the Innovative Links Project. In 1994, 16 Australian school-university partnerships were formed and over the ensuing years these 'roundtables' worked together in action research cycles focused on the work of the participants. These partnerships produced a range of publications and this paper focuses both on the teaching practices and procedural (organisational) practices described in these documents. Giddens, in the 1999 BBC Reith Lectures, said: "Globalisation not only pulls upwards, it pushes downwards, creating new pressures for local autonomy . . . ". Here I will use this idea about upwardness and downwardness to argue that the roundtables emerged in the context of these new pressures and that teachers' voices in the Innovative Links Project's publications give some insight into what this means in terms of local developments and global effects.

Paper 2. DEL99536

Intelligence, development and learning: Implications for the assessment of young children

Molly de Lemos, Australian Council for Educational Research

Multiculturalism in music education: Background, issues and models

Andre de Quadros, Monash University

Australia is a country where post-war immigration has brought about cultural diversity of unprecedented proportions. In recent times, this diversity has been publicly acknowledged, and since the 1970s an official government policy of multiculturalism has replaced the previous policy of assimilationism. With different meanings, this term is used in various parts of the world, particularly in Canada, and to a lesser extent in the United States and Britain. Thus, to clarify the basis of this paper, a working definition of multiculturalism and of multicultural policy as it applies here, is presented.

The interest in multiculturalism has affected all sections of society, music and music education being not isolated from this. Firstly, this paper seeks to describe the nature of the cultural content and processes of music education prior to the period in which multiculturalism has had an influence. This period, the assimilationist period, ended in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Connections are drawn from international movements in the arts, particularly music, and education that have influenced the emergence of multicultural music education.

The paper then proceeds to review, compare and contrast several writings which have led to the formation of philosophy, curricula and policy in multicultural music education.

In the light of this, finally, the paper provides an examination of certain developments in multicultural music education in Australia, with emphasis on Victoria, within the context of broad international developments in this field.

Education and catallactics

Nesta Devine, University of Waikato

The idea of 'contestability' has become significant in the administration of education, just as 'competition' has become increasingly the organising paradigm for the process of education. Why? Where does this emphasis on competition and contestability come from? And what is the theoretical basis for its desirability as organising structure? In this paper I shall look at the origins and characteristics of the belief in the superiority of competition and the market as a fair and productive way of organising human interaction and achievement, particularly looking at the views of F. A. Hayek, J. Schumpeter and M. Friedman, for an explanation of the models of competition being applied to educational administration and practice in N. Z.

A research partnership to facilitate change: Empowering teachers to establish a gifted education program in a primary school

James J Watters & Carmel M Diezmann Queensland University of Technology Corni Holz, Hatton Vale State School

In 1997 Education Queensland implemented a policy to support gifted education through the development of Focus Schools. These schools were selected from applications received from individual schools that were prepared to take a leadership role in adopting, trialing, and disseminating strategies and programs which cater for gifted children. This presentation reports on a collaborative action research project in which a partnership was forged between university academics and the school. As part of the Focus School project, the staff of the school was expected to develop an advanced understanding of the issues in gifted education and develop supportive learning environments for gifted children. Developing and implementing differentiated curriculum practices required considerable change in teachers' existing beliefs and knowledge. Few of the teachers had any professional experience in gifted education and expressed a number of concerns. The academics became critical friends in guiding and supporting teachers' professional growth and empowering them to take a reflective and leadership role in developing the program. Analysis of the data collected through classroom observations, teacher interviews, surveys and from field notes indicates that after twelve months, the teachers had adopted a reflective and proactive approach to program development. In addition they had become empowered as a community to focus on regional leadership in disseminating their program to other schools.

Data maps: Using diagrams to represent and analyse interview data"

Carmel M Diezmann Queensland University of Education

Qualitative data collection and analysis have become increasingly important in educational research. This paper discusses the use of data maps to represent and analyse qualitative data, which were collected in interviews with children engaged in mathematical problem solving. Data maps are diagrams that provide wholistic displays of data and are produced using drawing software. There are three key advantages in using data maps. First, data maps provide an overview of video, audio or text-based data and can facilitate the identification of critical points or events in an interview. This advantage also enables the selection of representative rather than ad hoc excerpts of data in reporting. Second, the wholistic presentation of data maps supports visual reasoning, which is distinct from the sequential reasoning used with transcripts. Thus, a diagrammatic representation of the data provides an additional opportunity to identify patterns and themes in the data. Third, emerging questions can be explored by "cutting and pasting" existing data maps and creating new maps. These latter maps address the interactive assumption of qualitative analysis. This paper argues that a visual approach to data representation can enhance analysis and reporting. Through visual representation and reasoning, data maps provide insights that cannot readily be identified through non-visual analysis. Additionally, data maps provide the "global" context for the rich, thick descriptions that commonly appear in qualitative reports but that represent inherently "local" or subjective views of the data set.

The teacher as builder of music learning contexts.

Steve Dillon, Latrobe University

This paper examines the role of the teacher in constructing meaningful learning experiences for students of music in the classroom. Utilising data drawn from a larger doctoral participant observation case study, the research discusses the role of the teacher as 'builder' and interpreter of context, experience and reflection. It argues that; the teacher can facilitate both analytic and intuitive concepts in music through attention to the process as a system of context, experience, perception in and upon action, and structured reflection. It is proposed that the role of the classroom music teacher is; to act as 'gateway' to deeper musical experience in ensembles and studio learning, to provide access to a variety of musical experiences and to unify the understanding of music learning through reflection.

The paper is critical of the lack of attention to the affect of context upon the learning process and highlights current moves in educational philosophy and curricular to redress this. This conceptual information is examined further through narrative data, drawn from interviews with students and teachers as well as field observations of students and teachers involved in making music. The paper seeks to define the role of the classsroom music teacher more clearly and suggests that an emphasis upon the role of reflective practice as an experieintial system in the arts serves to unify the variety of music encounters that make up a students music education. The teacher builds and interprets the context of music learning so that music meaning may be both taught and caught.

Glenda Dixon, Dunedin College of Education

Poststructuralist theory argues that people are not socialized into the social world but that they go through a process of subjectivication. Rather than focus on the process of shaping the individual that is undertaken by others, poststructuralist theory focuses on the way each person actively takes up the discourses through which they and the others speak /write the world into existence as if they were their own. In other words people are made subject through the discourses they have available to them.

This paper considers the positioning of children within society and within education, It explores the use of a narrative approach to problem behaviour within school settings. The problem is the problem the person is not the problem, is the axis around which narrative approaches work. When the problem is externalized the attitude of young people usually shifts and they become enthusiastic about joining in a conversation about the way the problem impacts on their live. Unexamined sociocultural discourses inform many problems that young people face, these will be explored within a narrative framework. .

The [Millenium]bug in the New Zealand senior secondary school curriculum.

Secondary education in New Zealand has experienced much change in recent years resulting from the introduction of the National Curriculum and the National Qualifications Framework. In this changing policy climate there has been one significant omission - the provision of a coherent, planned senior curriculum, in particular at Years 12 and 13. The senior curriculum is instead dependent on a mixed array of historical subject documents, examination prescriptions and new vocational areas. Even the current policy document Achievement 2001 continues to acknowledge the historic demarcation between conventional school subjects and vocational subjects in senior subject assessment, while seeking to mesh the varied opinions regarding the importance of unit standards and external examinations into a National Certificate structure. This appears to allow for a continued split in the status of subjects, rather than a resolution of differences that appears to be the intent of the document.

This paper argues that a lack of national discussion and debate in planning a policy for a coherent senior curriculum will lead to a continuation of the status quo; the 'bug' that we will continue with into the new millenium. By focusing only on senior subject assessment in policy development, there now exists a real sense of ad hoc curriculum provision in the senior secondary school; and at a time when retention rates for senior students are increasing. As Kliebard concluded regarding the struggle for control in the American curriculum, it 'was not the result of any decisive victory by any of the contending parties, but a loose, largely unarticulated, and not very tidy compromise. '

Individual Differences in strategies, activities, and outcomes in Computer Aided Learning: A Case Study

Evans, G. , Dodds, A. , Weaver, D. and Kemm, R University of Melbourne,

The context of this study is a problem oriented multimedia tutorial that assists undergraduate physiology students to construct a schematic animated diagram showing the functioning of a type of cell in the stomach lining that secretes gastric acid. Students have rated the program very positively. The aim of our research was to study what is needed to obtain an adequate understanding of how and what students actually learn from such tutorials. To meet this goal we investigated the relationships between five factors: what has to be learnt; the tasks to be undertaken and the feedback provided; learner characteristics such as prior knowledge and general approaches to learning and problem solving; the learners' activities and thoughts during the tasks; and their success in utilising the knowledge gained in new situations. The study required the development of a new method of analysing computer generated audit trails of students' activities during the tutorial, new measures of their self-perceived strategies, and additional scales of general approaches to learning.

The results suggested strong and complex relationships between the above factors. Strategies inferred from the audit trails and reported by the students were closely related to prior knowledge and transfer to a related task, and moderately related to self reports of approaches to learning. In spite of the constructive problem solving nature of the task, however, transfer to the related task was much less than expected. We examine possible reasons for this and draw conclusions on the nature of the research necessary to inform multimedia development.

Implications of the government's accreditation requirements for programs in long-day child-care centres for the music education of child care workers

Mary R. Downie, University of Melbourne, Faculty of education - Doctoral program

Government funding of Childcare Centres is being tied to the achievement of Accreditation. This produces major challenges for Centres on many criteria, including delivering Arts programs. A DEd research project was conducted into methods of providing valid music experiences in Long-Day ChildCare Centres, and it sought to use an "apprenticeship" approach to up-skill centre staff. From this experience, factors that influence outcomes are suggested. Some broad extrapolation is made from this narrow experiential base.

The delivery of many Arts programs, especially music, dance, drama and some visual arts has a "performance aspect". The ability of a performer to perform often relates as much to personal confidence as to skills. Thus (formally or informally acquired) entry-level attributes of staff members, their skills and confidence in performance areas, are believed to be significant success factors.

ChildCare workers come from mothercraft nurses, kindergarten teachers, TAFE-trained carers or unskilled people. Most of a child’s contact may be with only one or two carers, with little chance of appropriate levels of Arts skills. It is concluded that educators of ChildCare workers need to develop a broad-based program of professional development for most of these. Some lines of research to help guide this are suggested.

Sue Shore

On-line subject -"Enter at own risk (teacher bound and gagged)"

Sandra Edmonds, Swinburne University of Technology

Multi-media education requires input from the teacher at the earliest possible stage. That the teacher must carefully consider subject design, content and assessment (in the context of student experience and background) is an explicit pre-requisite essential to beneficial outcomes in educational programmes. Yet this first stage teacher-approach may come too late in the design of on-line subjects.

All too frequently, what has been developed follows a standard form template for on-line subject delivery. Often the "product" may simply reflect an adaption of distance-delivery prototypes. In instructional materials for teachers considerable emphasis is placed on learning design techniques, how to present material in an on-line format. This has the effect of requiring the teacher to adapt teaching method to currently available technology. While there are some creative examples of skillful work by teachers who have done so, that model places process (designed system) before planning (the approach to learning). Consequently the learning outcomes may be debased.

Assessment is a critical element in the prefiguration of teaching methodology. The development of the systems currently available for "self-managed learning" by the student on-line suffer a number of shortcomings. Most conspicuously absent are diagnostic tools for the teacher dealing with large enrolment numbers.

This paper will critically evaluate the assessment limitations of standard on-line delivery models. There are common problems across disciplines and specific examples from law subjects in business degrees will be considered. Methods to improve the teacher's ability to review the teaching/learning process will be outlined. The adoption of models which do not subordinate the teacher's voice to technology is a critical challenge for the future.

Inside the Whale : Deep Insider research

Brian Edwards, La Trobe University

This paper will seek to outline the advantages and pitfalls/concerns/doubts of deep insider qualitative research. I define 'deep insider' research as that undertaken by a person who has been a member of the organisation/ group under research for at least five years.

The study which is the subject of this paper is of a single secondary school's English staff and Key Learning Area Managers implementing the centrally mandated curriculum changes in Victoria known as the Curriculum and Standards Framework. (CSF). I have been a member of the school teaching staff for over twenty years holding various positions on committees, school Council and the like. Until quite recently the staffing was extraordinarily stable with some years seeing at most one or two staff out of fifty moving.

The peculiar benefit of deep insider research is the knowledge the researcher brings concerning history and cultures and an awareness of body language, semiotics and slogan systems operating within the cultural norms of the organisation/group. (Kincheloe, 1991). The organisation and group memberships have been for some time under constant surveillance, review and adjustment. But now that the member is also a researcher a process of self-interpretation is initiated with the change in role in relation to others. (Walker, 1981). Rather than researcher authority I would suggest rapport and trust are of greater significance and the deep insider researcher should not take these for granted given the role change.

The deep insider/researcher is aware of the organisational history and personal relationships which are inter-woven with that history. Much of this may be undiscoverable to outsiders apart from the organisational elements. (Ball, 1997). The deep insider has been and is still a part of that unfolding history and the research being undertaken may indeed have a significant impact on that ongoing story and relationships .

Researching the lives of others carries with it onerous ethical implications. Quite apart from matters of disclosure and anonymity there is also the need to justify such intrusions, willingly though they may be granted by participants. The work of Emmanuel Levinas (1985) will be explored for his help in setting a duty of care for such research.

The whole point of insider research is the 'privileged' nature of the insider's knowledge. It rests upon long-term relationships often extending well beyond the boundaries of work-place affiliations. Given such a context accusations of betrayal of confidences or managerial attempts to edit reporting of unattractive organisational features are experiences central to insider research. (Humphrey, 1995). It might also be noted that reporting unpalatable information about individuals or organisations may carry with it its own dangers for the insider researcher's career within the organisation. Whistle -blowers generally have an unhappy history.

Cut and paste, duck and weave, smoke and mirrors : Teacher responses to mandated change.

Brian Edwards, La Trobe University

This paper reports the preliminary findings of a case study of the teachers in one school grappling with curriculum changes mandated by the Education Department of Victoria. The Department claimed the changes were necessary as they provided teachers from the Preparatory year through to Year 10 for the first time in Victoria's history with a clear statement of student learning outcomes in each subject area. The change is known as the Curriculum and Standards Framework (hereafter CSF).

The case study school is a large, multi-campus Government Secondary College of mixed socio-economic and ethnicity intake. The focus will be on the efforts of the teachers and Key Learning Area Managers as they seek to make sense of the changes wrought by the CSF. It will explore their initial reactions to the changes, plot the development and changes of their reactions and attempt to place their work within the context of the broader research into policy implementation in schools and changes to teachers' work. This is reflected in the growing use of contract and short-term replacement teachers in the Victorian education system.

Associated with such views of the nature of work are views as to the nature of change and the responses of individuals to change. A plethora of texts have explored the elements, processes, dangers and promises of change. Chaos theory now informs management theory and the new entrepreneurial, corporatised organisation/school is advised to operate in an environment of constant change encouraging both flexibility and adaptability in its members.

But the corporate ideology is not without its own hidden dangers whereby as Willmott (1993:536) tellingly argues , 'Instead of producing committed, enthusiastic, self-disciplining subjects, a possible effect of corporate culturist programmes is a reinforcement of instrumentality amongst employees who comply with the demands without internalizing their values'.

The paper will explore the teachers' responses and using Ball's suggested broad categories for typifying school responses (Ball, 1992:137) it will outline a number of other responses teachers make to mandated change and place them within the context of implementation theory (Carter & O'Neill, 1995). What will be shown is that the teachers' roles in implementation is vastly more complex than a one-way highway wherein teachers are obedient technicists who '. . . jump through the hoops'. (Interview, 1997). As Giddens memorably observed 'The docile bodies which Foucault says discipline produces turn out to be not so docile after all. . . but knowledgeable agents who resist, blunt or actively alter the conditions of life which others seek to thrust upon them'. (Giddens, 1985 :172)

Students-as-researchers

Jan Edwards & Robert Hattam, Flinders Institute for the Study of Teaching

Students-as-researchers was one strand within the Students Completing Schooling Project which is a three year collaborative project between the Flinders Institute for the Study of Teaching, the Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia and the Department of Education, Training and Employment. The research team developed curriculum materials for teachers to teach a students-as-researchers approach to students. Students-as-researchers in schools investigated the issue of early school leaving in their own school communities which contributed to understandings developed by the research team generated through 209 interviews of early school leavers in the qualitative strand of the research.

The students-as-researchers strand of the research has resulted in the development of a curriculum product for teachers to teach the skills of research to students and a web site where the insights generated by students-as-researchers are published.

Fastfoodtown - voices of student workers

Jan Edwards, Flinders University

The Students Completing Schooling Project interviewed 209 young people about their lives in and out of school. Most young people engaged in part-time work while still at school were highly critical of the employment practices of some employers in the Fastfoodtown industry. Many spoke of encouragement by employers for them to leave school on the promise of more hours. Young people also provided valuable insights into the complexity of part-time work and full time school.

Observed patterns in the surveys undertaken during the National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP)

Liz Eley, University of Otago

A distinctive feature of NEMP is the attempt to report information about student attitudes and motivation, as well as skills and knowledge. In most of the curriculum areas covered, students completed surveys relating to their experiences, attitudes, perceptions, and voluntary engagement in the curriculum area.

This presentation reports on patterns observed across the two year levels and across the twelve curriculum areas surveyed. Quite consistent differences were found between the two year levels. Student gender and ethnicity were factors that related quite strongly to student attitudes in some of the curriculum areas.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 1 CRO99008 National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP): Findings from the first cycle.

Boys and girls come out to play: Constructions of gender in school playgrounds

Debbie Epstein, Mary Kehily, Mairtin Mac an Ghaill, & Peter Redman, University of London

This paper is based on the ethnographic study of children's play at breaktime in two contrasting primary schools in north London. In the first school boys' football dominated the use of the playground, particularly during the long playtime which took place during the lunch break. In this playground, football was a key signifier of masculinity and non-players were, literally, confined to the margins of the playground. However, in the other school football was confined to a particular area ('the cage') and children (boys and girls) in the four different year groups were allowed to play each day, with a girls-only day once a week. This seemed to completely alter the dynamics of gender in the playground. A significant number of boys in the second playground invested their energies in producing themselves as masculine through wrestling games. There were, nevertheless, significant numbers of boys and girls playing together in this playground, sometimes involving themselves in the kind of imaginative games more usually association with the play of primary age girls. The paper will argue that children will use the means available to them to construct gender in their playgrounds and that this will frequently involve the reproduction of hegemonic cultural identities and relations of power. However, the paper will go on to argue that local interventions at the level of the individual school can and do bring into question such identities and power relations, in the process making available to children ways of being that are more open to possibility and difference.

"Which comes first, technological skill or innovative teaching styles?"

Barbara Evans & Judy Rex Swinburne University of Technology

In recent years there has been an increased trend at universities towards a more interactive and innovative style of teaching, using multi modal and different teaching approaches. Kolb and others have established that students have a preference for learning activities that reflect the learning style in which they are most comfortable. However, it cannot be assumed that they have the technological capabilities needed to fully benefit from these changes in style.

The findings from a survey of second and third year students showed that there was a relationship between students' self assessment of their communications and technological skills and their preferred learning styles. Students with a higher self-assessment of their knowledge and skill level with respect to computers, e-mail and the Internet felt more comfortable in a more innovative teaching environment. Many of the students reported that their skill level was very low, and therefore some may not be gaining the full benefit of the content of course. However, unless teachers revert to past methods, there will need to be a steep learning curve in terms of computer and technological skills.

The results also indicated that there is a difference between second and third year students. More students in second year preferred the traditional lecturing style, while their third year counterparts preferred a more innovative style.

Interactive television in primary schools: children's experiences of learning with SOFNet

Terry Evans, Elizabeth Stacey and Karen Tregenza, Deakin University

This paper stems from the first year of a two-year research project funded by the Australian Research Council. Our research is investigating the ways in which primary and secondary school teachers use the Victorian satellite broadcast interactive television system called SOFNet (Schools of the Future Network) to enhance the educational experiences of their students. In particular, we are interested in the ways in which the teachers build interaction or dialogue into their classes around the broadcast programs. This paper describes the children's experiences of learning with SOFNet during the first year of the research which focused on primary schools. The findings are based on observations of the children using ITV in their classes, typically for learning Languages Other Than English (LOTE), or for science and technology. The research also involved interviews with the children after they had used ITV for a year. The paper takes the form of a discussion of issues which emerge for children in their use of ITV based on the first stage of data analysis.

The things that matter : Understanding the factors that affect the participation and retention of indigenous students in health sciences programs at the University of Sydney.

Sally Farrington,Susan Page & Kristie DiGregorio,Yooroang Garang Faculty of Health Sciences

This research is directed at answering the question about what factors really influence the progression, retention and success of Indigenous students in Higher Education. This is a new question in this field as most previous research is qualitative and directed at generating statistics about retention and progression rather than exploring the students' real experiences ( both past and present) and the ways in which these experiences influence retention and success.

'Working' knowledge and 'Working' identities: learning and teaching the new word order of the new work order

Lesley Farrell, Monash University

This paper is concerned with the role that enterprise based teachers play in attempting to induct workers on the periphery of the global economy into the discourses of the global marketplace. It focusses on the micro-politics of language, arguing that economic globalisation is a social achievement that generates, and requires, new language and literacy practices. Workplace language and literacy practice changes to accommodate the demands of global networks of accountability (for instance, various Quality documentation mechanisms) and associated management structures like cross functional teams and these changes have a significant impact on work practice, work identities and constructions of working knowledge. Enterprise based language and literacy teachers can be implicated in the social and political processes by which new working identities and new working knowledges are constructed. The paper draws on an intensive eight month study of a restructuring textile manufacturing company as the company attempts simultaneously to achieve a QS 9000 rating, to establish a cascading set of cross functional teams and to implement an Action Learning Team training program.

Continuity and change in education workplaces

Terri Seddon, Monash University

This presentation will report on findings from an interview-based case study of the impact of neo-liberal reform in an Institute of TAFE in Victoria. Data were collected in 1995-6 with a view to finding out how teachers and managers at the case study site experienced national training reform. The development of the training market based upon contestable funding appeared to have a major impact on the TAFE because it drove a commercialisation of Institute work. A number of analyses of these data have now been undertaken, highlighting the changes in management work, teachers views of competency-based training, innovative organisational responses to commercialisation including international education and the development of teaching more attuned to clients, and processes of identity formation in TAFE and its staff. The paper will flag some of the main findings in these different analyses and offer a more general assessment which highlights the contradictory patterns of continuity and change that neo-liberal reform has engendered in TAFE.

Research and the production of "worthwhile" knowledge about quality in early years education

Sarah Farquhar, Massey University

There has been substantial study of the quality of early childhood education, yet only recently have researchers started to ask questions and take approaches that have relevance and meaning within the early childhood field. This paper reviews how research has shaped our perception of what quality means in early childhood education. The predominant and the new approaches to looking at quality will be identified and critically examined in relation to practical, philosophical, and policy issues. The way in which quality early childhood education is viewed by different groups will also be discussed and related to the directions in which research is currently proceedings.

Research ethics in the electronic age

Heather Fehring, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Kevin Kee, Department of Education Victoria

From the age old perspective of research ethics investigations involving humans is a problematic area of inquiry. Issues such as: confidentiality, participants' privacy, informed consent, minimisation of harm, the involvement of minors, covert methodology, and data security are still of paramount concern. As the push for electronic communication breaks new ground so to does the ethical responsibility of researchers to maintain integrity in the research process. This panel discussion will combine a number of voices who have an interest in maintaining the balance between the 'need to know' and the protection of the participants in educational research. Participants are invited to contribute to the new debate regarding ethical issues arising from the digital transference of information by way of the internet.

Supporting cross-cultural adaptation during practice teaching in China: Reflections on sevens of year experience.

Brian Ferry and Deslea Konza (University of Wollongong)

This paper reports on a seven-year study that investigated strategies employed to facilitate the development of cross-cultural adaptation by 154 preservice teachers before, during and after their 3 week practicum experiences in China. These strategies are related to a 4 stage model of individual adaptation to a new culture (Brick, 1991).The findings showed that over the years we became more successful in facilitating the adaptation process especially during the critical 2nd stage of this process. Our data also showed that almost all preservice teachers progressed through to the 3rd stage of a 4-stage process of adaptation. Their progress through these stages was facilitated by the creation and maintenance of a viable 'practicum community'. The success of this community depended on all members helping to maintain it.

Assisting learners to interpret graphs and tables with computer-based cognitive tools.

Brian Ferry, Barry Harper, John Hedberg, University of Wollongong

When learners interpret graphs and tables they must be able to read the labels, relate the labels and data to a specific context, described in the accompanying text, and then translate the meaning associated with the display of the data into words. Often learners experience difficulties in interpreting graphs because of the many modes of representation presented as, apart from a graph, verbal descriptions, tables and formulae are often used to represent the same relationship, and this, can confuse the issue by creating cognitive load. In particular, poorly organised data causes learners to divide their attention among the various pieces of data creating cognitive load that in turn leads to inefficient processing of information.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how cognitive tools (developed with HyperCard� software) could be used to support learners to process information displayed by graphs and tables. The study had five goals.

1. To identify the cognitive strategies that learners employed when they interpreted graphs and tables.
2. To use the information gathered about the cognitive strategies that the learners employed to inform the design of a prototype of a set of cognitive tools that would assist them to interpret graphs and tables.
3. To trial the protoype of the cognitive tools with a group of learners and describe how they used them.
4. To use the information gathered about learner use of the prototype to inform improvements in the design of the cognitive tools.
5. To describe how learners used the improved version of the cognitive tools.

   The findings describe how the simple, context-specific cognitive tools developed helped to reduce learner cognitive load associated with the interpretation of graphs and tables.

Draw a Computer User

Tony Fetherston, Edith Cowan University

Traditionally students' attitudes towards learning and towards various subjects have been assessed using questionnaires and/or interviews. Students' attitudes towards computers have relied on these approaches and they have supplied much valuable information. However such approaches are not ideal and may have validity problems, related to honesty and self knowledge of the respondent, response sets and an inability to interpret questions meaningfully. In response to these concerns the author developed a new approach - Draw a Computer User. Such information was necessary to guide the implementation of computers into the class's curriculum. As such the results will prove interesting to educators and researchers undergoing this increasingly common process. The approach builds on the widely used Draw-a-Scientist (DAST) devised by Chambers (1983). It attempts to identify the stereotypical features of typical computer users. This paper describes the methodology developed and presents results obtained from a Western Australian Year Six class. These results indicate that the test does indeed identify stereotypical features, which are presented, but interestingly is also able to identify gender differences in images produced by these students. Reasons for these differences were probed in interviews and are presented. Analysis of the images produced by these students showed that generally students in this sample did not identify themselves as typical computer users but still held positive attitudes towards typical computer users.

School discipline:Is there a crisis in our schools?

Barry Fields,University of Southern Queensland

Along with literacy and numeracy achievement levels, school discipline ranks as one of the major concerns voiced by the public about schools and the school system. These concerns are echoed in frequent and often dramatic media reports of disruptive students, bullying, and violence in classrooms and playgrounds across the country. There is a continuing, and some would say growing perception that behaviour problems are endemic in schools, that teachers are struggling to maintain order, and that school authorities are unable to guarantee the safety of students or teachers.

This paper examines research on discipline problems and violence in schools in Britain, the United States, and Australia. This analysis reveals that schools are not in crisis, and violence is quite rare. The role of the media in fostering a distorted view of discipline in schools and contributing to hastily conceived and often inappropriate responses and misdirected resource allocation is the focus of critical review.

Information technology and Australian teachers - Implications and issues: Real time: Computers, change and schooling - National sample study of the information technology skills of Australian school students

Glenn Finger and Neil Russell, Griffith University Glenn Russell, Monash University

There have been unprecedented demands for changes in the preparation of teachers in the use of information technology (IT) in the classroom. This paper reports relevant findings from Real Time: Computers, change and schooling - National Sample study of the Information Technology Skills of Australian School Students (DEETYA, 1999) in which a representative sample of 400 schools from all Australian states and territories were surveyed to establish baseline information about both students' and teachers' experience and skills in information technology. The survey provided information from 6213 students, 1258 teachers and 222 principals. Although teachers surveyed reported that technology was very important for their students, for their own professional development, and that it was important to integrate technology in the curriculum, there were significant issues identified associated with the pre-service preparation and ongoing professional development of teachers. Teachers identified barriers to using technology in the classroom, reported low levels of confidence about their ability to keep themselves informed of information technology developments, low levels of support for IT professional development, and the majority of teachers indicated that they require more and higher quality IT professional development. While some of these barriers, such as access to computers and the Internet, poor levels of technical support and availability of multi media software might have been predicted, the teacher comments on the inadequacy of pre-service and professional development provision of computer education courses was not expected and raise serious issues which need addressing. By reviewing and interpreting the findings of the survey, suggestions are made for future directions for the preservice teacher education programs and professional development in IT for teachers.

Using three cohorts of journalism students across the full range of one academic program at one university, this paper details the responses gained after asking the most basic of all questions; Why did you choose a career in journalism?

Phil Fitzsimmons & Wendy Bilbo, University of Wollongong

After surveying the students in all three years of the program, 90 students then volunteered to take part in a series of interviews which aimed to delineate the forces which determined their career choice, their understanding of the writing process gained from their school experience and their perceptions of what constitutes effective writing. The data gathered clearly indicated that students had embarked on a career based almost solely on their engagement with a particular teacher rather than an a demonstrated writing ability. Their understanding of their chosen field was also dependent on a subset of highly subjective ideals which bore little correlation to the everyday working life of a journalist.

The findings of this project have implications for the teaching of secondary English, curriculum development, the role of career supervisors and the links between secondary and tertiary institutions.

Understanding student writing in a globalised university - an activity system approach.

Rick Flavell, Monash University.

This paper reports on research undertaken into student writing in a post-graduate coursework program. The diversity of students in the study were broadly representative of the population of our globalised universities. Twelve students from a variety of English and non-English speaking backgrounds, both local and overseas were the case studies for this research which followed the students through the lecture series, the writing and assessment of the essays. This paper focuses on the essay written by one overseas student and traces some the tensions that the essay creates for the student and also for the lecturer and university.

The complex set of influences which accompany the essay writing event provides a challenge to find an appropriate framework for analysis. This paper attempts to expand and elaborate theories of social context by applying a development of Russian activity theory to the essay writing context. This allows the various social, psychological, cultural and historical influences to be considered as part of the one interconnected system. The paper explores the various contradictions, tensions and conflicts which occur within and between the activity systems related to the

The results have implications both for the way writing is viewed and for the development of activity theory.

Learning mathematics through conversation and utilizing technology

Patricia Forster and Peter Taylor, Curtin University of Technology

This paper discusses how students' participation in conversation and classroom activities potentially evidences and constitutes their cognition. Participation is viewed in terms of reflective discourse, a construct from the literature, and is described in the context of two Year 11 students together designing a simple aplet for their graphics calculators, then discussing its operation. Reflective discourse is characterised by shifts in conversation so that concepts which are discussed initially as resulting from mathematical operations (calculations) become referred to, in turn, as objects that are operated on to solve problems or for developing other concepts. The aplet was for calculating the magnitude of vectors given in component form. Interaction with each other, which centred on the technology, was seen to be instrumental to the students moving from understanding magnitude in its component definition, to later using magnitude to solve vector problems in an insightful way. Using reflective discourse as a framework for analysis suggested it is a valuable theoretical viewpoint for describing how learning might occur.

Who can('t) do maths - boys/girls? An international comparison

Helen Forgasz (Monash University) ,Gilah Leder (La Trobe University, Berinderjeet Kaur (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

There has been a long held perception that the field of mathematics is more appropriate for males than for females. The construct, mathematics as a male domain, has been considered a critical variable in explanations for females' under-representation in the most demanding mathematics subjects offered at school and higher education, and in related careers. The widely used Fennema-Sherman Mathematics attitude scales [MAS]are comprised of nine subscales including Mathematics as a male domain [MD]. It has recently been argued that the content of some of the MD items are anachronistic and that responses to others can no longer be reliably interpreted. A new scale, loosely based on the MD, has been developed and trialed in Australia and Singapore with students in grades 7 to 10. The data from the two countries were compared. In this paper, we present general findings which indicate changes in perceptions about some aspects of the gendering of mathematics and also discuss the similarities and differences in the perceptions of students in the two countries. The overall findings contribute an important dimension to the debate in contemporary society on concerns about the educational disadvantage of boys. The implications of the findings in the context of the pursuit of equity in mathematics education are discussed

Homework - A bridge too far?

Kathie Forster,University of Technology Sydney

There is ample evidence that parental involvement in their children's education enhances the educational experience and achievement of the children. Teachers are therefore being urged to strengthen the links between the school and the home. Homework is one such link. Parents want it and there is evidence that it serves as an important ongoing source of information for them about the curriculum and the philosophy of the school as well as about their child's progress in specific areas of learning. Yet teachers quite often only provide homework because they feel under pressure, particularly from parents, to do so. The homework that is set may not provide an accurate picture of what or how the students are learning. Moreover, homework can be a source of stress in many families.It can also serve to reinforce educational and social inequalities and underline cultural differences. Is homework a bridge too far? This paper will report on some current research on homework, especially on the differing attitudes of parents and teachers towards it and will discuss ways in which the differing demands and expectations of homework may bereconciled.6. No additional presentation technology will be required

In search of the public: Girls' status as learner-citizens, global issues and local effects

This paper examines the newly emerging relationship between two contemporary international trends in education. The first trend is that in most western countries, girls are now achieving statistically slightly better average school-leaving results than boys, in an apparent move towards sexual equality. This in turn is occasioning a hostile populist 'backlash' against this success. "Male underachievement" has been dubbed the predominant gender discourse of the mid 1990s. On the other hand, a recent international collection (Mackinnon, Elgqvist-Saltzman and Prentice 1998) argues that education in the twenty-first century will be "dangerous terrain" for women. The second trend is the revival of interest in participatory democratic theory which is reflected in the strong current focus on civics and citizenship education in education systems. The paper analyses the origins of the present international climate,discussing factors such as the role of the media, the role of academic response to the issues and the rhetorical forces at play, such as the notion of "presumptive equality". It is argued that in the present climate it is very difficult for girls to be equal with boys as learner-citizens. Girls remain adjuncts to the learner-citizen as male, a problem which is not addressed in current models of citizenship education. The two trends under discussion are thus contradictory, positioning girls in a dialectic of desire and threat in their quests for citizenship. Australia will be discussed as a case study with some comparative material from Holland and Scandinavia. The paper reports research to be published by Routledge in an international collection "Gender and Citizenship Education:International feminist perspectives" edited by Madeleine Arnot and Jo-Anne Dillabough.

What do young Aboriginal students make of American software for phonological awareness skills? A reflective analysis of the interaction between the student, the software designer, and the observer.

Linda Foskey, University of New England

Three Aboriginal students in Kindergarten in Australia were observed using an American software package 'DaisyQuest' in individual sessions in their classroom over one school term. 'DaisyQuest' was designed to train phonological awareness skills in young readers. Each student had a different approach to the software depending upon his phonological awareness skills and experience with computers. Before working on 'DaisyQuest' one student could read flluently and had well-developed phonological awareness skills. The second student had some concepts of print, letter-sound correspondences, and knowledge of rhyming words. The third student had similar pre-reading skills to the second student, but also had a history of chronic otitis media. Each student's individual attributes affected the tutor's level of involvement in teaching phonological awareness and computer skills to the student whilst they interacted with 'DaisyQuest'. A challenge to the researcher was how to utilise the hours of videotaped data. Transcription of all words and actions for all sessions would have taken many months of painstaking work. The researcher decided instead to audiotape her own reflective-analytic comments about the interaction whilst viewing the videotapes. Trends in the interactions were then able identified for each student. Therefore, only snippets that illustrated particular concepts had to be transcribed and described in detail. Results indicate that the tutor had more influence on the student's interaction with the software than she anticipated. Implications for the classroom will be discussed.

"They keep asking questions and want to know more": Enhancing students' learning through curriculum integration.

Deborah Fraser,University of Waikato

As a pedagogy Curriculum Integration (CI) has global and local significance as the central focus in teaching this way is to assist young people with both personal concerns and social issues. These issues and concerns form the basis of a negotiated curriculum of direct relevance to the socio-cultural world of young people in diverse settings. The challenge for research in CI is to investigate the learning process as it unfolds in all its complexity and the role of the teacher in both scaffolding and promoting students' intellectual, social and emotional growth.

" I eat, breathe and sleep curriculum integration" : Enhancing teachers'learning through curriculum integration.

Barbara Whyte,University of Waikato

(This paper is presented in association with the paper on Curriculum Integration offered by Dr. Deborah Fraser: "They keep asking questions and want to know more: Enhancing students' learning through curriculum integration".)

It has been suggested that CurricuIum Integration (CI) offers "the challenging curriculum, the higher standards, and the world class education that is so often talked about, but rarely experienced" (Beane & Brodhagen, 1996). A group of experienced NZ teachers motivated to rise to such 'global heights' in their classrooms, have found that implementing CI as a pedagogical approach can demand a significant shift in both philosophy and practice (Whyte & Strang, 1998). Critically reflecting on and examining developing practice, through a combination of discussion and debate with peers and facilitators, making links with theory by reading current literature, and collegial observation/feedback interaction, has been effective in helping teachers understand and implement CI in two local clusters of schools. It is suggested that the process of democracy that is enhanced in a CI environment for students, can also be an integral part of the change process for teachers. .

L1-Assisted Reciprocal Teaching for ESOL students to improve their comprehension of English expository text

Irene Fung, Ian Wilkinson, and Dennis Moore, University of Auckland

This study investigated the effects of an L1-assisted reciprocal teaching procedure on ESOL students' comprehension of English expository text. The viability of the procedure was tested in a pilot study using a within-subject ABCD design, and confirmed in a follow-up study using a multiple-baseline design across three schools. In the follow-up study, after a 5-day baseline assessment, 12 Year-7 and Year-8 Taiwanese ESOL students were given 15 to 20 days of L1-assisted reciprocal teaching. This intervention comprised both L1 reciprocal teaching while reading Chinese (Mandarin) text and L2 reciprocal teaching while reading English text. The Mandarin and English dialogues took place on alternate days. On each day, before the reciprocal teaching dialogue, there was a 15-minute session of teacher-directed explicit strategy instruction where students were informed of why a strategy was useful, and how and where to apply it. Results showed that students made gains on both standardised and experimenter-developed tests of reading comprehension. These gains maintained 3 to 4 weeks after the intervention as indicated by results from three follow-up probes. Moreover, students were able to transfer their comprehension fostering and monitoring strategies to novel tasks as indicated by their abilities to recall, and detect logical inconsistencies in, expository text. Treatment effects were also revealed in results from a strategy interview and think-aloud task. The success of this study suggests that students with limited English proficiency can improve their English comprehension through reading strategy instruction that capitalises on students' L1 language proficiency and literacy skills.

Critical policy methodology: Making connections between the stories we tell about policy and the data we use to tell them

Trevor Gale, Central Queensland University

In recent times critical approaches to educational policy studies have been subject to increasing interrogation over methodological issues, often by critical policy researchers themselves. In the main, their reflexive posturings have been informed by critique which proceeds that beyond brief descriptions of research logistics and a general commitment to the methodologies of a critical orientation, critical policy analyses offer few explicit accounts of the connections between the stories they tell about policy and the data used to tell them. As a way of addressing these silences, this paper proposes three methodological approaches within which to explore and explain matters of policy, each generating its own particular view of the (policy) issues worth looking for, where they can be found and how to look for them. Drawing on research into the production of Australian higher education policy during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the paper illustrates the characteristics of these approaches, referring to them as policy historiography, policy genealogy and policy archaeology.Without claiming absolute distinctions between their interests, the paper couples policy historiography with the substantive issues of policy at particular hegemonic moments, policy genealogy with social actors' engagement with policy, and policy archaeology with conditions that regulate policy formations. In this order they represent questions with interests in the 'what', 'how' and 'why' of policy. The critical orientation of the paper ensures that attention is also drawn to the ways in which 'legitimate' answers to these questions tend to reflect the interests of dominant social groups.

There's many a slip 'tween cup and lip.: A case study of educational policy implementation in a changing context.

Christine Gardner and John Williamson, University of Tasmania

Education and schooling increasingly are subject to direct political involvement by Ministers and system level authorities. The perceived political benefits suggest a continuation, or even an increase, in this trend. The data presented in this paper come from a Tasmanian study of policy making, implementation and evaluation. Data were collected from teachers, principals , school and departmental documents, and from the researcher's participation in the professional development workshops. The development of the policy, its announcement, and its implementation were found to vary particularly where political and educational agenda conflicted . Teachers' needs and professionalism should be respected by the policy process. Individuals' readiness, confidence, skills and credibility effect implementation outcomes. In providing supportive leadership, policy makers need to be increasingly aware of sharing their visions with all stakeholders. Ultimately, teachers and students in classrooms will determine the success or otherwise of policy implementation. Dependence on teachers for successful and lasting change must be recognised and valued. This paper first, will demonstrate the limited nature of much recent theorising about and practical implementation of the policy process and second, outline ways of enhancing the likelihood of successful implementation.

"Feminist dilemmas in how young women move"

Robyne Garrett ,University of South Australia

Feminist dilemmas in fieldwork challenge our work and integrity. They often revolve around power and tend to display contradictory and irreconcilable positions for the researcher. This paper discusses the experiences of a feminist researcher working with senior secondary girls in local metropolitan schools. The main aim of the fieldwork was to investigate the social construction of gender within the context of sport and physical activity. Specifically, the research intended to explore how the experiences and attitudes developed toward the body and physical activity through the Schooling years impact on any commitment to lifelong physical activity. Feminist researchers attempt to articulate their commitments and political priorities. They are moved by a commitment to women. For this reason fieldwork dilemmas can directly challenge the underlying tenets of their beliefs. Analysed here are the power relationships between the researcher and the participants as well as issues of empowerment for the participants in the light of feminist research goals. Whilst it is recognised that fieldwork is still useful and important, reconciling the contradictions between theory and practice can be a major challenge.

What guides the teacher educators? The influence of standards movements on teaching

Maureen Ryan and Jan Gay, Victoria University of Technology

For a decade federal and state government have been working in an effort to reform teaching and especially to reform teacher education. Initially the standard for entry into the profession was increased by the requirement that teacher education courses provide all students with a university standard general education. The National Project on the Quality of Teaching and Leaning (1996) developed a set of competency standards that defined the knowledge, attributes and skills underpinning teachers' learning and professional practice. Paralleling this movement bodies such as the Board of Teacher Registration (Queensland) and the Standards Council for the Teaching Profession (Victoria) released specific guidelines for teaching standards. Recently the Standards Council (1998) provided guidelines for the content, scope and outcomes for the accreditation of pre-service teaching courses.

The aim of these reforms is to strengthen the teaching profession and to raise its standards, that is to enhance the quality of student learning by redesigning teacher qualifications and accountability requirements for university courses.

In this study we address three questions: (1) What representations of teaching are portrayed in the professional teaching standards? (2) How are standards based reforms influencing teacher education courses? and (3) What are the beliefs about teaching that teacher educators hold in the context of these reforms?

These questions cut across two areas of research that are used as a framework for our investigation. First, representations of teaching are informed by research into teaching, learning and teacher education. Zeichner (1993) identified a paradigm of teacher education practices so we use the defining principles to guide our analysis of the current standards based reform and the teacher educators' practices. Second the literature on standards based reform, its policies and practices and the assumptions about teaching that underpin these practices are analyzed.

This investigation draws on two sources of data. First, the national and Victorian teaching standards documents are analyzed to answer the first question. To answer the second and third questions we conduct semi-structured interviews with teacher educators from three universities within Victoria. The interviews focus on three areas: (1) An example of teaching practice; (2) Principles of teaching that guide these practices; and (3) The influence of standards based reform on their course. The interviews are audiotaped, transcribed and analyzed for themes that describe the principles of teaching. These findings are considered within the broader context of the worldwide standards movement and the paradigm of teacher education identified by Zeichner (1993).

Believing, thinking and feeling: Putting theTeacher back into effectiveness

Catherine Lang ,University of Waikato

Reform in education has impacted on teachers' beliefs, thinking, and emotions. Policies directed at extracting performance gains have fuelled a view that teachers ought to change, and are expected to change. Teacher effectiveness has become confused with accountability; teacher excellence with measures of student outcomes; and performance with curriculum and assessment compliance. Inevitably, the imposition of more stringent external controls on teachers' work has suffocated much of the desire and heart of teachers to teach. Yet, effective teachers demonstrate insightful understandings about themselves as teachers, a self-efficaciousness that motivates them to persist even against the odds, a capacity and willingness to think reflectively and critically in the search to know and understand, and a passion for making a difference in the lives of those with whom they work. This paper discusses the impact of change on teachers' work, and the significance of teachers' passion, beliefs, and thinking in explaining teacher effectiveness.

Engaging and disengaging.

David Saltmarsh, Macquarie University

While accepting the opportunity to run an existing postgraduate unit online without much consideration, the task provided challenges at almost every turn. This paper outlines some of the issues involved in reconstructing an existing unit and the need to reconceptualise the entire project. Early on a choice needed made as to whether there would be any face-to-face component to the teaching, this included the teaching how to use the various bits of the technology. The decision was made, possibly more out of belligerence than good sense, to run the unit entirely online. The consequences of this decision will be presented and discussed with Donna (the project leader) and Patricia (a non-participant observer of the unit).

Does exceptional achievement require exceptional schools: a challenge for the future

Shirley Gillett, Otago University

What significance does education have in exceptional achievement? This question is examined by analysing the text constructed through interviewing a number of New Zealand born women and girls who have achieved exceptionally highly in some area. Though few of them identified their schooling specifically as significant in later achievements, themes emerging from the overall narratives suggest the relevance of education. These themes include early reading, precocious ability, positive gender self-beliefs, the provision of competition and levels, experiences of success, and life changing relationships with teachers, mentors and coaches as well as contrasting themes such as experiences of boredom, disappointment, and difference.

What does this data mean for present and future education? In relation to this I explore issues such as early identification, hot housing, private schooling and elite programmes, linking it to theories of education such as those of Plato and Dewey in order to challenge schools in their approach to pursuing excellence in the next century.

From the insights provided from the interviews I suggest tentatively a move towards an education provided by the state which makes time for teachers to focus on the individual. In the presentation of material the methodology will be exposed to critical examination by the audience. Video clips and excerpts of taped interviews will be part of the presentation.

Still the half open door! Women and research degrees in education

Judith Gill, University of South Australia

The Faculty of Education UNISA was identified as failing to maintain equity in student enrolments because the high proportion of women in undergraduate awards was reversed when the research degree enrolment was considered. As a response the Faculty commissioned a study to investigate the experience, motivation and incentives for women students to enroll in research degrees. The study involved existing students and potential students from the three education sectors - schools, adult education and university. The research included an investigation of the views and practices of senior personnel from the employment institutions, viz. DETE, ISB and the CEO, in terms of the career paths offered for employees who have research degrees.

This paper reports on the results of the research and offers some suggestions for the further development of research degrees within Faculties of Education.

Global citizens/local agents: re-positioning the school at the centre of sociocultural transformation

Judith Gill and Sue Howard, University of South Australia

Starting from an analysis of the internal contradictions inherent in the civics education curriculum, this paper attempts to deconstruct the citizen as schooled product and proposes an alternate concept of citizen. In many respects the 'new' citizen must have the capacity to transcend the constructed limits of politics and geography as understood in terms of national boundaries in order to take up a position of world player, actor and respondent. At the same time the question of local affiliation and connectedness is important. The paper uses discussions with primary school children to inform the proposals for the need to reconceptualise the citizen. By taking up subject positions in which the children are always and already knowing and belonging, the young informants demonstrate their readiness and willingness to engage in debate about local and global issues. Ultimately the paper argues that by forging global connections and opening up broader spaces schooling can begin to transcend the limitations of contexts of disadvantage and remoteness at the same time as preparing children for new forms of political engagement.

The competency standards for workplace assessment and training: A needs assessment study

Shelley Gillis, Patrick Griffin, Ralph Catts and Ian Falk, University of Melbourne

The changes that have altered the government training policies in Australia in the past decade have been numerous and substantial. While many reports have been influential in the framing of current thinking, implementation can arguably be said to have begun with the formation of the former National Training Board and the introduction of National Competency Standards in 1991. The assumption that underpins this approach is that 'industry' is the best agency to determine training needs. Since 1991 there has been a steep learning curve for all concerned; many employers and some training providers, need additional opportunities to become familiar with the purpose and content of the standards. This study undertook a needs assessment of workplace trainer and assessment programs and standards. The paper reports on findings from a national study that investigated how industry, government bodies and training providers were using and interpreting the two sets of standards for Assessment and Workplace Trainer. The end result of the study was a revision, expansion and combination of the workplace trainer and assessment standards. It informed the development of specialist units that lead to a diploma in training and assessment systems. This research underpins the nationally endorsed Training Package for Assessment and Workplace Training.

An authentic learning environment in a design and technology subject for preservice primary teacher education students

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

A major emphasis in design and technology curriculum programs for primary school is the engagement of children in hands-on construction of technological artefacts. The children are expected to use design processes in an environment that may resemble, in various ways, the environment that designers and engineers work in. The concept of authentic learning environments may be used to describe such practices and contexts. This paper describes an investigation, using an interpretive research methodology, into preservice primary teachers' views of the learning environment established during their participation in a design and technology subject that included, as key components, an introductory, structured sequence of learning experiences followed by work on an open-ended technology project. Students enrolled in a one-year postgraduate teacher education program were the informants in the study. Insights in students' views about the learning environment were obtained using survey instruments, interviews, field notes and a Repertory Grid. Additional insights were obtained by videotaping and audiotaping the activities and discourse respectively of focus groups during practical sessions. For selected cases, the paper examines the reasons underpinning major changes in their views of the learning environment. An analysis of the influence of the design and technology subject and learning environment on students' thinking about teaching technology in the classroom is also presented in the paper. Implications of the findings for the preparation of preservice teachers in the key learning area of technology are discussed.

Influences of group gender composition on group work - A New Zealand perspective

Grace Grima, University of Otago

This multi-method study explored the extent to which children's task groups with four members and different gender compositions provided their members with a productive and enjoyable experience. The study included three tasks from different curriculum areas (science, language, technology) completed at two age levels (Year Four and Year Eight). For each task, approximately ninety groups were studied.

The analysis of their work focused on a number of variables: the group members' individual participation levels; several group processes (interaction, co-operation and conflict); and the group products. This study also investigated how New Zealand children at Year Four and Year Eight felt about group work in general and about working in groups with different gender compositions. A post-task evaluation was also carried out in order to compare the children's views on their experiences in the different group types. A small number to children were also given the opportunity to give their interpretations of the events that occurred during one group task.

The experience in groups with four boys (4b), three boys and one girl (3b1g), two boys and two girls (2b2g), one boy and three girls (1b3g) and four girls (4g) did not vary consistently across tasks and age levels. No group types were consistently observed to stand out in the analyses at either Year Four or Year Eight. However there was a tendency for the minority student in the 3b1g and the 1b3g groups to participate less than the other group members and/or to participate less than members of their gender group working in other group settings.

The children responded favourably to group work. At Year Four they preferred same gender groups but at Year Eight they responded equally favourably to participating in same gender and gender balanced groups. The post-task evaluations showed that the experience was less enjoyable and less productive for the minority student in the 3b1g and the 1b3g groups. The children's interpretations of their group experience indicated that they could evaluate their own experience but that on several occasions they lacked the necessary skills to cope with potentially adverse situations arising during the group tasks.

Previous research on group dynamics during tasks has often observed stages or activities of tasks and used these observations as the basis for generalised conclusions about the task as a whole or even about group tasks in general. In this study, video analysis showed that group dynamics were in fact inconsistent across the activities that made up each task. An accurate account of group processes occurring in different tasks only emerged when the different activities comprising these tasks were analysed separately.

Assessing higher order vocational competencies: A multi source approach

Patrick Griffin and Shelley Gillis, University of Melbourne

This paper investigates an approach to the assessment of higher order competencies in an industrial setting. It addresses a hitherto unresolved issue -how judgements can use multiple sources of evidence to provide information about multiple components of competency (Skills in performing and managing tasks, incorporating the skills into an overall job role, dealing with contingencies and transferring the skills to new contexts). Two areas of investigation underpin this study. The first is identifying a method of obtaining and synthesising data from multiple observers and the second is the method of separating the components of competency as defined for the Australian Training Reform Agenda. Neither of these has been adequately addressed in the Australian Recognition Framework but each is pertinent to almost every industry sector and, in many instances to other forms of distance education. This study shows how evidence can be synthesised and how components can be separated. It also shows how it is possible to identify the influence of peer, self and supervisor judgements on overall decisions of competence.

Students: From Informants to Co-Researchers

Toni Downes and Susan Groundwater-Smith ,Educational Resource & Professional Development Services

Studies centred around the experiences of young people in schools typically position the students as the objects of the research. They are bserved,surveyed, measured, interviewed and commented upon in order to inform a research agenda to which they have made little contribution. They are rarely recognised as active agents, who can not only be reliable informants, but also interpreters of their own lives. The positioning of young people in educational research is analogous to that of women within traditional patriarchal research paradigms. They are at worst, silenced; at best patronised. This, in spite of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which stipulates in Article 12 that the views of the child should be given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.

The literature suggests that in those cases where there is an enhanced sense of student agency there are three levels of research activity - knowing about young peopleÝs perspectives; acting on the behalf of young people; and working with young peopleÝs perspectives. There is little evidence of a fourth level, that is acting with young people to improve and change their lifeworld conditions.

This paper will examine a number of case studies undertaken by the authors which provide examples of these three levels of research activity. The studies range from engaging students as informants who can provide constructions of the environment which gives social meaning to their lives;to ones in which the students are co-researchers, contributing to the research questions which are to be put and the manner of their asking. The paper will foreshadow ways in which the fourth level may be achieved by entering into negotiation with students, not only in terms of the research process, but also the ways in which the research outcomes may be used in order to improve some aspects of schooling.

The paper will recognise the problematics associated with the power differentials between adults in education and students. But it will argue that if studentsÝ voices are to become authentic in the research and development cycle then such a differential must be transcended.

Putting meaning behind bars: Children's interpretations of bar graphs Brian Doig, Australian Council for Educational Research

Susie Groves, Deakin University

A glance at any newspaper shows that graphs of various types play an important part in presenting data to the public. It would appear self-evident that children need to develop 'graphical literacy' as part of their mathematical education.

In the Australian Research Council funded Practical Mechanics in Primary Mathematics project, children made graphs from their own data gathered during practical science experiments, where the graphs were used to assist in interpreting and explaining the observed motion of balls rolling on inclines or falling through the air. As part of this series of mathematically orientated science activities, some 100 upper primary children were involved in measuring the distance travelled by a falling ball and presenting their data in a bar-graph. Children also wrote what they thought was happening to the speed of the ball, basing their comments on the graphs that they had drawn.

The graphs and written comments were analysed from two aspects: the degree to which the graphs conformed to graphical conventions (including accuracy of representation of the data), and what children inferred from their graphs about the motion of the ball. Results of the first analysis showed that while the majority of children understood bar-graph conventions, problems with axes and scales formed the largest area of difficulty. The analysis from the second aspect, that of making inferences from the graph, reveals the children's 'graphical literacy' is at various stages of development.

Examples of children's graphs and comments will be presented, together with detailed results of the analyses.

Self-directed teacher professional development

Peter Grootenboer, Bethlehem Institute of Education

Professional development often implies study for an advanced qualification, inservice courses or workshops, and personal professional reading. One important purpose here is improvement in pedagogical knowledge and classroom practice. As good as these professional experiences may be, they represent the influence of external agencies on teachers' professional development, and one wonders about the place of continuous self-review as a viable source for the generation of knowledge and skill in educative teaching.

The burgeoning use of action research in inservice teacher education reflects this view that teacher inquiries into their own teaching - being their own researchers - is as empowering, if not more empowering, of professional development than the more usual inservice modes.

This paper discusses application of the action research model with a small group of mathematics teachers in a semi-rural high school. Self-directed professional development stemmed from collaborative review of the teachers' classroom work, reflective analysis of the findings or issues thereto, and subsequent planning and interactive teaching to test the viability of suggested ways of surmounting uncovered problems. Thus over a series of action research cycles, the participants set the agenda for their own review and sourced solutions to the issues they discovered themselves. In so doing they controlled their own professional development, helping to reform their own professional practices.

A study of the impact of graphics calculators on student achievement in Tertiary entrance examinations in mathematics.

David H. Haimes ,Curtin University of Technology

In November 1998, students in Western Australia had access to graphics calculators when they sat for the Tertiary Entrance Examinations (TEE).This was the first time the use of graphics caculators was allowed in the TEE, and applied to all mathematics examinations and those in the physical sciences. A unique opportunity has been presented for a comparative study of student achievement using the results from the 1997 (pre graphics calculators) and 1998 (post graphics calculators) TEE that will provide data with relevance for teachers of mathematics at both the secondary and tertiary level. The central aim of the study is to establish the extent to which access to graphics calculators has impacted on student achievement in mathematics examinations in the TEE. Whether this will be more significant in certain components of the curriculum, and with concepts such as functions and their applications where the use of a graphics calculator is more appropriate, will also emerge from the analysis of the data. The study will also determine if student performance is enhanced on questions that are more conceptual than procedural when access to graphics calculators is allowed. Whether achievement according to gender or location (urban versus rural) is affected by access to graphics calculators will also be an outcome. Data pertaining to student achievement on the 1997 and 1998 TEE mathematics examinations have been obtained from the Curriculum Council of Western Australia. These are to be supplemented by those from a survey and interviews conducted with students enrolled in first year mathematics courses at Curtin University and who sat the TEE in 1998. The latter data will give further insights into the impact of access to graphics calculators.

Ethical question for teachers arising from inter-school competition.

Alan Hall, Universtiy of Waikato

The development of a system of self-managing schools in New Zealand has encouraged competition between schools for students and resources. It is now possible for schools to attract enrolments from the catchments of other schools which tends to yield increased resources and improve the educational opportunities for their students at the expense of students in other schools. This raises ethical questions for teachers who work in schools that pursue such initiatives, especially if they help formulate or implement these policies. Are the ethical obligations of teachers only to the pupils of their own schools or do they also have wider ethical responsibilities towards the wider school community and the profession as a whole? The issue is explored by reviewing the professional obligations of teachers and considering whether the relationship between teacher and student is properly a contract or a covenant. It is argued that although a non-tuist stance may be appropriate in economic negotiations it is inappropriate for members of a helping profession. Teachers have ethical responsibilities beyond those to the pupils of their schools.

Towards research-based early science and technology curriculum:Drawing insights from one child's investigations in his community

Robin Hall, Lynette Schaverien and Mark Cosgrove, Sydney University of Technology

Primary science teachers are not easily able to adopt research-based teaching approaches in early science and technology education. Researchers' attempts to address this problem have typically focused on eliciting children's existing ideas and helping teachers to take account of them. Researchers have largely ignored how such ideas developed. Improved understanding of the evolution of children's ideas appears to us to offer a way to enhance early science and technology education.

In this study, we sought insights into that development in two ways. First, we followed precedents in the history of science and early human development by studying a single case - one young child - over a sustained time. Secondly, we considered whether this child was capable of initiating and pursuing his own curriculum, out of school, in his community but without explicit teaching. In so doing, we explored whether a child could know what and how to teach himself and whether he had learned, issues Plato made explicit in the Meno's paradox.

Using established anthropological methods, Robin participated in this child's community over a two-year period, describing what occurred as this child exploited all the means available to him to satisfy his own technological curiosity. Our findings suggest this child is well able to resolve the Meno's paradox for himself, without a teacher, within his community over time. We speculate on the implications of such a finding, noting the harmony between this reconception of education and current attempts to develop computer-mediated environments in which learners can teach themselves.

A decade of change for tertiary Education and Science Research in New Zealand: Who benefits?"

Sharon Harvey, Auckland Institute of Techhnology

The paper considers the key changes in tertiary education research and the national science regime under neo-liberal governments in New Zealand. It tracks the moves in both systems owards mounting contestability and integration for increased economic performance.This investigation questions whether government policies around knowledge production will be successful in giving New Zealand entree into the much-touted "knowledge society" and whether this is a desirable goal for the country, anyway. Finally, it looks at other possibilities for the production of knowledge and the conditions within which it occurs.......

Foresight or foreclosure? An examination of the foresight project and its implications for research in the tertiary education sector.

Sharon Harvey,Auckland Instititute Of Technology

At the beginning of 1998, the New Zealand Ministry of Research, Science and Technology set in train an ambitious consultative process known as the Foresight project to begin to "rethink" and prioritise research directions for New Zealand into the next century. This paper utilises a poststructural analysis to examine the reasons for the project and track its progress over 1998 and 1999.

Particular emphasis will be given to: issues of representation; theconcept of knowledge as "science"; links to and consequences for tertiary education; as well as what these mean for available constructions of "research" in New Zealand.

A decade of self-management in New Zealand schools: What have we learned?

Barbara Harold, University of Waikato

A key feature of school self-management was the expectation that it would lead to better learning. There is increasing realisation that this may not necessarily be the case; in New Zealand (Wyllie, 1997), in Canada (Summers and Johnson, 1996) and in the United States (Smith, Scoll and Link, 1996). This paper will report the findings from a new study of seven diverse schools, which was specifically designed to explore both multiple and cumulative aspects of a decade of school reform in New Zealand. The study was a qualitative one which employed wide-ranging interviews with teachers, senior staff and members of the schools' governing body. This paper focuses on those findings relating to the impact of self-management on aspects of school policy and practice such as, the roles of the principal, teachers and students, programmes of pastoral care and guidance, teaching and learning, school-community relationships, and on education of Maori children. The paper outlines how educational debate and policy in and across these areas is actually being interpreted and translated into practice by those in various roles within schools. The extent to which the patterns in these schools simply confirm the findings of previous research or indicate significant points of departure which might warrant further investigation is also discussed.

SYMPOSIUM 12
Participatory action research: Collaborating to produce worthwhile knowledge.

Sub Theme: Defining Worthwhile knowledge.

Brian Coles, Alan Cox, Daniel Haddock, Penny Haworth and Luanna Meyer, Massey University

SYMPOSIUM OUTLINE
This symposium explores the outcomes from a group of participatory action research (PAR) projects initiated by Massey University College of Education, and carried out collaboratively by University researchers and local teachers. Key benefits from the PAR approach are said to include greater insights into classroom practices and increased motivation to make use of and disseminate findings (Bailey, 1998; Freeman, 1998; Poskitt, 1995). This symposium shows how these outcomes are often just the 'tip of the iceberg'.

In particular, three common themes which arose in the course the PAR projects will be highlighted during the presentation: PAR as a model for professional development; issues related to balancing power in the establishment and maintenance of effective relationships with teachers as co-researchers; and the role of children in PAR.

Plan for the Organisation of the Symposium This symposium will involve a varied approach, with an overview of the projects, background to key issues using concrete examples from the projects, and interactive activities which will involve participants in problem-solving related to the participatory action research model.

Participatory action research as a way of balancing the scales

Penny Haworth and Daniel Haddock

Traditionally, research has maintained a power differential between the researchers who carry out research on teachers and teaching, and the teachers who are supposedly the intended beneficiaries of the research. Oakley (1994) characterises this as the difference between research by researchers and research for those being researched. This paper examines the potential of participatory action research (PAR) as a way of balancing the knowledge of teachers and researchers, and allowing the knowledge of each to be valued. Participants in the symposium will have the opportunity to evaluate the potential effects of a range of practical strategies for establishing and maintaining effective relationships among participants in PAR projects. Examples from several PAR projects will be included to illustrate key ideas in this topic. In particular, practical examples will be used from a specific PAR project which focused on a Ministry of Education assessment package for identifying those students from a non-English speaking background who required resource funding. This project aimed to link the assessment package with the establishment of effective aims and strategies for teaching.

Children's role in participatory action research

Alan Cox

A fundamental premise of participatory action research is that researchers work with teachers in a cooperative team to explore how particular aspects of learning and teaching can be improved for the benefit of children.

Children are central to this endeavour. This brings an interesting dimension to school-based research. When a project requires frequent observational visits to the classroom by visiting lecturers, the children being observed become not only the subjects for the study, but also participating researchers, to some degree aware of the focus of the project and their role in it. This paper draws on the experiences of small school-college research teams. Findings include: the positive results when children develop their own meta-cognitive understanding through being active participants (eg in devising 'rules' for group discussion, or in deciding the criteria for self assessment of portfolios); the difficulty of balancing the focus on content with the focus on process; the tendency for some children to resort to formulaic behaviour; the probability of pre-existing peer relationships influencing the process when children are empowered as monitor-observers; the readiness of children to become participants in the process under study; and the insights of children when these are not shared by their teachers.

Sex matters in schools

Felicity Haynes, University of Western Australia

Schools normalise the binary gender/sex distinction between male and female, thus rendering invisible all those who might sit on the androgynous borderline between the two. This paper briefly examines institutional assumptions underlying gender identification and some of the consequences of assuming that gays, lesbians, transsexuals, transvestites, hermaphrodites, and other intersex people should present socially as either male or female. Using the example of Klinefelter Syndrome to detail some consequences of accepting medical definitions as a basis for classroom treatment, it argues that revising the possibility of androgyny, and incidentally traditional distinctions between sex and gender, may result in a more gender inclusive education.

Traditional pen-and-paper vs mental approaches to computation: The lesson of Adrien

Ann Heirdsfield, Tom Cooper and Calvin Irons, Queensland University of Technology

New mathematics syllabi are facing the issue of whether to discontinue the emphasis on traditional pen-and-paper algorithms and replace it with a focus on self initiated written algorithms, mental computation and number sense. Efficient and effective strategies for mental computation differ markedly from those that underlie traditional algorithms. They tend to be more wholistic and less reliant on separation into place values. These strategies often reflect the strategies required for estimation, and are more closely related to the spontaneous computational activity of children. This paper discusses traditional and mental approaches to computation in relation to the mental strategies for multiplication and division word problems employed by a child, Adrien, over a three-year period from 1993 to 1996 (Years 4 to 6). Although he was considered to be a higher ability student, Adrien was not a "lightning calculator", nor was he capable of such calculative feats as products of two eight-digit numbers. However, he was successful at multiplying and dividing two and three-digit numbers before such calculations were taught because he employed his own efficient and (it could be argued) advanced strategies that exhibited more number sense than the classroom taught traditional algorithms. His strategies exhibited both change and consistency and showed associated understandings. His performance highlighted the possibilities for computation syllabi where children are allowed to develop their own spontaneous strategies and indicated the disadvantages for syllabi, such as that still existing in Queensland, where traditional algorithms are still a major component.

What do students remember from lectures?: The role of episodic memory in early learning.

Debra Herbert,University of Queensland

Recent research (Conway, Gardiner, Perfect, Anderson & Cohen,1997; Herbert & Burt, 1998) has suggested that early in learning, students memory representations are dominated by those in episodic memory. As learning continues and schematisation occurs, students' knowledge is more likely to be dominated by semantic memory. This shift in memory and schematisation is shown through investigation of the memory awareness involved when students are required to recall information; 'remember' awareness is linked to the episodic memory system and 'just know' awareness is linked to the semantic memory system. The purpose of the present research is to further investigate the role that episodic memory plays in early learning. A group of university students were presented with either episodically 'rich' material or episodically 'poor' material (such as examples with few distinctive or salient details). Students completed a multi-choice test and short answer question after both a two day and a one month time interval. Students who studied the episodically 'rich' material showed a greater quantity of 'remember' memory awareness on both testing occasions as well as a greater degree of schematisation, than those who studied the episodically 'poor' material. These results are discussed in conjunction with those from a qualitative interview study of students' learning experiences with university lectures. It is concluded that for effective teaching and learning, concepts should be illustrated with meaningful, and hence, memorable, examples. This not only leads to better learning for students, but also to greater enjoyment and involvement in the classroom.

Designing responsive online learning environments: approaches to supporting students

Margaret Hicks, Ian Reid, and Rigmor George, University of South Australia

Higher education is undergoing major changes in the learning needs of students and professional development of teachers. These changes arise from a range of social, economic and technical factors operating across the higher education sector. The use of technology in both teaching and learning is both a response to, and a reason for, these changed practices. Technology provides new ways of catering for the traditional learning needs of students and also enables new forms of support appropriate to technology based delivery.

One of the outcomes of the increased use of technology is the development of online approaches to teaching and learning. This requires a reconceptualisation of the role of support mechanisms for students and professional development opportunities for staff. This paper proposes a convergence of the roles of student support and professional development in the online context to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of student learning.

The paper identifies a framework for the consideration of approaches to student learning support in the online environment. These include: generic support ,parallel and adjunct learning opportunities and embedded approaches. It examines these approaches in relation to the characteristics of pedagogically defensible teaching activity and proposes ways of conceptualising the work practices of professional staff involved in student support, professional development, discipline-based teaching and resource development. Each approach will be discussed in terms of its pedagogical potential and will be illustrated with examples.

Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and classroom practice in number concepts in mathematics in the third year of schooling

Joanna Higgins, Wellington College of Education

The study involved ten teachers taking part in a teacher development programme for year 3 mathematics teaching. The teachers were asked to articulate their content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of number, with a particular emphasis on place value. This knowledge was compared and contrasted with the teachers' pedagogical reasoning used in their interactions with students in observed classroom practice, and with their choice of representations for teaching number concepts. The comparisons included the range of such representations employed and the ways in which these were used. Unsurprisingly those who were best able to articulate their knowledge appeared to exhibit the best practice in teaching place value. An analysis that is informed by emergent qualitative enquiry traces the ways in which teacher practice and the articulation of knowledge appeared to be connected, and also considers the wider factors which teachers perceived to shape their classroom practice. Such factors included teachers' overall goals for year 3 students, the transition from what teachers perceived to be a less to more formal teaching approach, and teachers' beliefs about the importance of providing "hands-on" experiences for learning mathematics. The study suggests the nature of the content and pedagogical content knowledge that is critical to best practice at year 3, and describes the implications of this for teacher education.

What does it take to change minds?: Preservice teachers and conceptual change

Lola Hill ,Deakin University

The research addresses two issues. First, learners benefit from utonomy-supportive teaching and teacher educators must help teachers adopt autonomy-supportive styles in order to meet the needs of learners more effectively. Second, improving the quality of thinking of teachers is of fundamental importance because such improvement will better equip teachers to meet learners' needs and deal with the increasingly diverse and complex issues teachers face. According to the Perry scheme of intellectual and ethical development, relatively advanced intellectual functioning is characterised by, for example, awareness that agency is within oneself, critical and reflective thinking and judgement, tolerance of doubt and ambiguity, the capacity to build and evaluate competing legitimate theories, and a view of authorities as sources, not of Answers, but of expertise. I describe a preservice teacher education program in educational psychology designed to promote primary and secondary preservice teachers' intellectual development and autonomy-supportive pedagogical approaches. The school-based program is a collaborative endeavour between schools and university staff, and provides opportunities for preservice teachers to engage in a continuing cycle of theory, practice, and reflection in a supportive and challenging context. The research findings suggest that the program promotes preservice teachers' intellectual development as manifested in, among other things, movement away from dualistic and absolutist thinking, increasing realisation of self-agency and the value of supporting learners' autonomy, and enhanced critical and reflective thinking.

Schools at Risk: Dilemmas and Solutions

Jan Hill and Kay Hawk, Massey University: Albany Campus

Schools at risk place students at risk. In the last five years, the presenters have worked in over twenty primary and secondary schools that, for a range of reasons, have been identified as schools seriously at risk. Most of their work in these schools has been in a research capacity. Many of the projects have spanned a number of years, providing special insights which only longitudinal studies can provide. The paper outlines the key risk factors for these schools and, in particular, explores socio-economic, leadership, staff turnover and teacher quality issues. It also looks at the impact of factors such as unresolved conflicts and a falling roll. Very often, these schools are faced with a number of particular dilemmas associated with being at risk. The paper explores the response of these schools to dilemmas associated with achievement expectations, student and family dependency, cultural issues, honesty with stakeholder groups and organisational restructuring. How the dilemmas are resolved is critical to the ability of the schools to turn themselves around. Successful interventions at both a macro and micro level are discussed. The paper concludes with a number of implications for policy decision-makers and school leaders whose actions are pivotal to ensuring that students at these schools are given equitable opportunities.

Con/testing learning models

Gaell Hildebrand, University of Melbourne

Projects that seek to disrupt hegemonic pedagogical practices in schools have usually faced high levels of resistance, from both teachers and students. I contend that this is because they have implicitly contested the underlying metaphor about learning through their attempts to challenge the power/knowledge systems that perpetuate inequities and sustain the current regimes of truth in society. As Anna Sfard (1998) highlighted, for centuries we have based our learning models on a metaphor of "acquisition", and it is only in recent years that learning models such as Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger's (1991) "situated cognition" have shifted to "participation" as the underlying metaphor. This paper shows how both metaphors can be seen as continua with extreme positions having a passive or active orientation. For example the passive end of the acquisition metaphor is where the transmission model of learning sits, while radical constructivism is at the active end. In this paper I show that while situated cognition is a participatory learning model, it still has a passive orientation. I show that the commonly resisted innovative pedagogical practices frequently use a new model of learning as their referent: one located at the active end of the participation metaphor. I propose that this learning model is "critical activism", illustrate how it draws on critical and feminist pedagogies, and argue that it re/presents a way forward for classroom practice.

The effect of process interaction on learning outcomes of the technological curriculum

Judy Hodgman, University of Tasmania.

Currently, learning objectives or outcomes of the technology curriculum are facilitated by an 'interaction model' (see Brady 1988). That is, the interaction of a design process with an objective-based assessment process. This paper sets out the theoretical and practical context of an investigation that seeks to explain how and why an 'interaction model' does not necessarily support the development of learners' formative and summative design evaluations, personal goal setting and values.

An embedded single case study design (see Yin 1994) was chosen for the investigation as it allowed for the exploration of propositions. These provided a conceptual basis for the closed-ended questionnaire that was used to survey teachers in their role as facilitators of a design and project-based curriculum. Statistical analysis provided data concerned with the implementation of the two processes (embedded units). The first test applied to these raw data calculated the correlation coefficients between each individual item with all other items. A discriminant validity test was then used to estimate the mean magnitude of the correlation of a factor with all other factors. Correlation coefficients that were statistically significant were identified. As a result, little or no relationship was shown to exist between a design process and an objective-based assessment process. This paper offers an explanation as to how this lack of interaction affects students'approach to design project work and its subseqent affect on the development of personal goals, values, and formative and summative design evaluations.

Motivational variables affecting coping resources among gifted adolescents

Katherine Hoekman and Dr. John McCormick, University of New South Wales

Surveying the literature on burnout in adults from various occupations, Pines (1993) has suggested that while definitions of burnout vary considerably, they all tend to describe the end result of a process in which highly motivated and committed individuals lose their spirit. This vein of research has informed this study of adolescent perceptions of their first year of high school. The participants in this preliminary study were 540 Year 7 students comprised of: 402 gifted students grouped in selective high schools, 76 gifted students grouped in accelerated cohorts, and a mixed ability group of 62 students. Students were surveyed on a number of motivational and affective variables which have been linked to satisfaction with school. The results suggest that idealism, without commensurate sense of accomplishment or appropriate feedback, may make optimistic individuals more susceptible to reporting lack of satisfaction or strain on coping resources. The fact that optimism accounted for a considerable proportion of the variation in the satisfaction with school reported highlights the need for educators to acknowledge not only the importance of intrapersonal variables, but the relevance of preventative strategies in the adult burnout literature.

Critically reflective practice and workplace learning: Are they compatible?

Ms Carol Hogan and Dr Barry Down ,Edith Cowan University,

Professional practica are an essential part of teacher education and other professional education programs, but university staff often express concern that prac experiences are fundamentally conservative, emphasising preparation for the status quo rather than for what might be. In recent years other forms of workplace-based university learning have been devised, where staff have sought to build units around a core of reflective practice, action research and professional development. This paper describes one such initiative, a final semester internship for fourth year education students which enabled them to design and negotiate their own professional development plans in any one of a wide variety of educational settings. These included educational publishers,seniors programs, mining companies, environmental education projects, grief counselling, performing arts and community literacy programs, among others. The internship was conceived as a collaborative action research project, so the experiences of all participants have been used as part of the ongoing process of shaping and improving the internship as an opportunity for self-directed personal-professional development.

The development of a schema for learning and teaching based on a reconsideration of learning outcomes and learning conditions

Royce Holliday, Charles Sturt University

The paper reports on the development of an innovative schema for planning learning and teaching. It is one which can guide the planning, conduct and evaluation of learning undertaken by students at school and university levels. It can guide the planning, conduct and evaluation of teacher professional learning programs.

The paper describes how notions of learning outcomes and learning conditions have been reconsidered and redefined in the light of research into how teachers and university students say they best learn.

The schema requires three types of learning outcomes to be considered: 1) Learning To Be outcomes, 2) Learning About outcomes, and 3) Learning To Do outcomes, the most important being the first. It is also recognises the importance of five synergetically related conditions of learning: 1) Self-affirmation, 2) Personal Meaning, 3) Authentic Action, 4) Collaboration, and 5) Empowerment and relates these conditions to the outcomes. The schema uses an "entry point" procedure, which shows how the constellation of learning conditions can be entered one at a time, although all needing to work together in order to achieve Learning To Be outcomes.

Using education indexes to map research trends

Allyson Holbrook, University of Newcastle and Margaret Findlay and Sebastian Misson, Australian Council for Educatioal Research

Every educational researcher is familiar with the use of education indexes to locate topics or areas of research. However, indexes such as the Australian Education Index (AEI) and the Bibliography of Education Theses in Australia (BETA) constitute an extremely valuable resource in other ways. First, the electronic version of the AEI contains education publications information with a research emphasis that spans almost two decades. It can be used to obtain a profile of research activity by means of interrogation of the data bases using multiple descriptors. Secondly it can be used to assist in the development of coding categories for research activity. Educational research is notoriously difficult to classify because the field of education draws on multiple disciplines, separately and in combination. Any one research article is most meaningfully coded at a number of levels, as is evident in the AEI. But what is ideal is not necessarily helpful in more pragmatic contexts, such as attempting to gain a reliable estimate of the thrust of research endeavour in any one institution or time period. The AEI can be used to devise verifiable coding frameworks that work in contexts where information may be restricted to project titles alone. This paper reports on a methodology that utilises the AEI and BETA to map and elaborate on trends in educational research in Australia.

Mentoring - transforming school cultures

Sue Howard, Queensland School Curriculum Council

Research has indicated that local school factors affect teacher professional development, yet discussion of the link between mentoring programs for beginning teachers and aspects of the organisation in which they occur is sparse in the literature. This paper explores these links through a case study of a Queensland school involved in a district mentoring program. It draws on semi-structured interviews with eight participants, designed as part of the evaluation of the program. It is argued that leadership in the school and the existence of a formal mentoring program legitimised behaviours enacting key values which supported a cultural change in the school.

Knowing and Teaching: Using Portfolios to Develop Context-Specific Knowledge.

Janet Hunter, Edith Cowan University

Remote and rural schools in Western Australia tend to be staffed by newly graduated teachers, or teachers in their first years of teaching experience. While these teachers bring with them an abundance of energy and enthusiasm, together with training in the most recent developments in pedagogy, they have not yet developed the depth of practical knowledge held by many experienced teachers. In these schools, a further issue is non-Aboriginal teachers' inexperience in dealing with Aboriginal children. These children are over-represented in remote and rural contexts, and over represented at lower levels of achievement in literacy (Ministry of Education, Western Australia, 1993; Masters & Forster, 1997).

This paper reports on work in progress which aims to extend teachers' context-specific knowledge of teaching by working in collegial groups to construct individual professional portfolios. In constructing their portfolios,teachers work through a series of classroom-based tasks which are directed towards developing the professional knowledge which is specific to their particular context as they teach school English literacy to speakers of Aboriginal English.

This is the same as HUN99637

Preparing future Australian citizens: Primary teachers perceptions of their role

Jane Hunter, University of Sydney

Four teachers at different primary school sites are united in their belief that education in the area of civics and citizenship should lead to societal improvement. However, how that is realised in HSIE lessons at the level of content selection and pedagogical decision making varies considerably. This paper relates research findings from a study that utilises Bernstein's "pedagogic device" as a mechansim to understand the roles teachers believe they play in preparing future citizens for society.

Setting standards for English/Literacy teachers: A project for the profession

Margaret Gill and Brenton Doecke, Monash University

There is historically a strong tradition of commitment by the national English/Literacy subject associations to improving the status and quality of English teaching. The first professional policy statement on the teaching of English was produced by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English in 1984. Since that time the profession has responded to successive federal and state government policies designed to raise the standards of literacy and literacy teaching in conjunction with broader national agendas to improve entry levels, career paths and professional development opportunities for all teachers.

This paper outlines the key government policies that influence and shape the work of English/Literacy teachers and describes a research project which aims to develop and validate standards and performance assessments for the profession. We shall review the first year of the project, reporting how the research team is working with teachers to describe the knowledge, skills and values that identify the accomplished English/Literacy teacher.

Science teachers are developing their own standards Lawrence Ingvarson, Monash University Jane Wright, ASTA

The ASTA Teaching Standards Project is the latest stage in a process that began back in the early 1990s when ASTA Council first discussed whether the Association should get involved in developing teaching standards. Since those Advanced Skills Teacher days, there has been increasing activity around the development of standards across all states and territories. Until now, most of this work has been done by state government agencies, not teachers' own professional associations, for the purposes of personnel decisions. Most important, these standards and assessments have little capacity to promote professional development.

Things are changing. Dr Kemp the Commonwealth Minister for Education has strongly advocated that teachers should play a stronger role in articulating their own standards and promoting excellence in teaching (1996). And A Class Act, the 1998 report of the Senate Inquiry into the Status of Teachers, recommended that the Commonwealth Government facilitate the development of a national professional teaching standards and registration body to certify teachers who had "attained advanced standing in the profession".

The long aim of the ASTA/Monash Project is to support the development of a national voluntary system to provide professional certification to teachers whose practice has attained high standards set by the profession. This paper outlines the main stages in the project and the approach to developing and researching the standards and the performance assessments.

Managing performance: a review of the performance management program for principals in Victorian state schools

Jan Mongan, Monash University

This research aims to link the theory of performance management and performance-related pay with practice, by relating the findings from literature with the practice in the Victorian Department of Education. It attempts to determine the practical considerations required to successfully implement performance management for middle managers in a large human service organisation.

Literature indicates a number of factors deemed necessary to ensure that performance management is successful in achieving its aims and is acceptable to participants. These include the effect of the performance management process on motivation, individual and organisational improvement, integrated planning and changes to the culture of the workplace. Also significant are the ways in which performance management is linked to the strategies and objectives of the larger organisation, its culture and values and the extent to which it leads to a climate focused on quality, accountability and improved performance. The study documents the development of the Performance Management Program used by the Department of Education to assess the performance of school principals. The major aim has been to develop an enhanced understanding of the conditions that lead to effective performance management of middle managers and to clarify the conditions under which performance management is most likely to succeed. To achieve this, the study has focused on principals' perceptions of the current Department of Education Performance Management Program and analysed these perceptions in light of the recommendations from literature and the experiences of other organisations.

The appraisal of teacher performance - a Victorian perspective

Anne Credlin, Monash University

This study focuses on the annual review process which is an integral part of the Professional Recognition Program in Victorian State Schools. It concentrates on the effectiveness of the process being implemented in each of four schools, as it is perceived by the participants - Principals and teachers. The review process is examined in four dimensions: its effectiveness as a means of determining suitability for promotion or a salary increment its effectiveness as a means of determining or meeting professional development requirements + its effect on classroom practice, and on the morale of the teaching staff its context - the micropolitical climate of the school - to what extent, if any, it influences the process.

Principals and teachers from four schools were interviewed, three of the schools being government secondary colleges, in which the process is a mandatory requirement, and a relatively small, non-government school which had introduced and piloted an appraisal process in response to a directive from its governing Council. An analysis of the data was undertaken using QSR NUD-IST 4. The evidence points to factors such as the allocation of time and resources to the implementation of a review program; the climate in which it is introduced; and the application of information gained by both teachers and school administrators, as being relevant to the participants' perceptions of the effectiveness of the PRP Review program in their respective schools.

Standards and diversity in a curriculum framework

Glen Garden, Monash University

Teachers stand at the "bottom" of the educational policy process. Policy texts, such as the Victorian Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF), are addressed to teachers with the intention of moving their practice in directions suggested. Research on change/innovation and implementation in education has shown a high level of failure of change, innovation, and reform projects. Conjecture about the reasons for failure ranges from deficiencies in the teachers, through problems with the innovations per se, to factors in the design of the implementation process. Teachers of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) in a rural district of Victoria were interviewed in an attempt to capture a fine-grained representation of the way a state policy like the CSF is actually enacted. There are numerous perspectives for viewing such a phenomenon such as this, but the seven chose for framing the conclusions were the political, technological, cultural, rational, organisational, symbolic, and normative. As a result, seven diverse approaches to implementing policy were identified (some by a concept and others by association with a group): Entitlement, Very good apples, Professional standards, Height over width, Integration/multi-stranding, Discrete disciplines, On-balance judges, and strategists. The main implication drawn from the research is that while the success of change/innovation and implementation policies are heavily dependent upon teacher learning, the policies have to have clarity, coherence, and comprehensiveness before professional development activities can be effective.

Changes in the primary school curriculum: what happens to "...attitudes, values and personal qualities..."?

Irene Elliott, Monash University

This study followed a group of Victorian primary teachers working in the same school and in the same Grade 3/4 area, as they planned and taught a unit of work based on the Victorian Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF). The unit was based on the CSF Learning Outcome: "Illustrate the linkages between rights and responsibilities for members of a community." Data was gathered on teachers' collegial planning of the unit, their individual planning, and the manner in which they actually presented this unit of work in their classrooms. The Victorian CSF covers all the Key Learning Areas in the curriculum. The progress of all state school students' in the these Key Learning Areas must be assessed and evaluated, some by the use of statewide standardised testing procedures. However, goals related to "...attitudes, values and personal attributes..." have not been specified in the CSF, even though they are important aims for teachers. Under the CSF, these are seen as context dependent and thus the responsibility of individual schools and teachers. Teachers interpret Learning Outcomes in different ways. Using Weick and McDaniel's (1993) model of professional organisations, this study examines the nature of collegial discussion on teachers' interpretation of "non-routine" CSF information and its relation to classroom practice. Policy implications and recommendations are raised. The study highlights once more the need to allocate time for collegial planning. Collegial planning with fellow professionals is essential if teachers are to construct professional rather than personal interpretations of the "attitudes, values and personal attributes" associated with such learning outcomes

Developing professionally: The role of teacher associations in the professional development of teachers.

Les Mullins and Lawrence Ingvarson, Monash University

This paper reports on a study of five subject associations in Victoria.The central question was, "To what extent are subject professional communities?" We wanted to know more about the significance of 'subject associations' in teachers' work life, in their professional development, and in their aspirations to improve their status as members of a profession To address this question, a conceptual framework was derived from an extensive review of relevant literature. This literature led us to focus on the nature of "professional community", membership of which was a defining characteristic of professionals according to this literature.This led to the development of an eight-element 'framework' with which to examine these five case studies.It was also used to focus the research questions and data gathering methods. Case studies were conducted on each of the five subject associations and two surveys of teachers (450 in total) - those who were members and those who were not. The data was analysed using the eight elements of the framework for professional community

Training partnerships and the fall and slide of the Asian economies

Jim Irwin and Kate Lawson, Box Hill TAFE

During the 1990's there has been a strong drive for TAFE's to provide increasing amounts of training within the workplace context. In many cases the training has been provided offshore.

Box Hill Institute of TAFE (and specifically the Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Studies - CHATS) has built a training partnership with Sheraton Hotels. The purpose of the partnership was to support Sheraton Hotels in developing standards and procedures that would work for them and be sustainable.

The purpose of this paper will be to present on:

1. how the partnership developed
2. the challenges in developing a 'training culture' within the organisation to ensure that ongoing training is possible; and
3. the impact of the Asian economic crash on offshore training.

"'Switch bitches' and system glitches: How do computers change the work of school office girls?.

Lindy Isdale, Central Queensland University

The introduction of a new computerised School Management System (SMS) into Central Queensland school administrations in 1996 is Queensland's bid to bring school administrative work-systems into closer accord with those of other modern organisations intent on securing market share in a new deregulated, global economy. Powerful global networks of discourses linking information technologies, efficient and accountable administrations and the economy positions school administrative work as central to the attainment of more efficient and accountable schools. As a new, hi-tech innovation involving networked computers SMS certainly requires office workers to perform work in different ways. But the new forms of work produced through SMS cannot be explained as policy or 'system' mandates. Nor can they be understood as simply global phenomena grafted onto local sites. Drawing on a larger study of SMS, conducted in 1996, in two Central Queensland schools, this paper reports on the processes of workplace innovation as it occurred in the initial stages of the introduction of SMS. Using Latour's Actor Network Theory (ANT) to map the activities of the early SMS school networks, the study shows changing work as the production of new 'agreements' between workers and technologies to perform work in certain ways. The study offers educational workers a new way to understand computerised work as a constant and on-going struggle between human and non-human actors, not a linear process troubled by a 'couple of glitches'. It also shows that it is the work of the school office workers that ensures SMS's survival as a viable and durable system of school administration. The significance of the study is obvious at a time when the emerging information economy is a driving force behind workplace innovation.

Commitment and compliance: Curious bedfellows in teacher collaboration.

Lucy Jarzabkowski,University of Canberra

Teacher collegiality has been used rhetorically to support a wide range of sometimes contradictory initiatives, from teacher development to school effectiveness, from a panacea for an aging teaching force to a well spring of innovation. There is also considerable scepticism about the ways in which collegiality can be used on co-opt teachers or control their work. Hargreaves (1994) has written extensively about a culture he describes as "contrived collegiality". His notion that contrived collegiality exists as a state in opposition to a culture of collaboration is interesting. However, this paper argues that it is not as simple as that in reality. Intensive case study research suggests that it is possible to have elements of both these states working side by side in one school. The case study which underlies the paper finds that the definitions of collegiality in the literature are much too simple.

The data reveal that in a normal, middle sized primary school characteristics of both contrived collegiality and collaborative culture coexist. Much of the collaborative work is spontaneous and voluntary, development oriented, and pervades both time and space. However, there are other parts of collaborative work which are more regulated or contrived by principals. For themselves, most teachers in the school are quite comfortable with this. The school's leaders are also comfortable with the knowledge that all teachers do not collaborate to the same extent, and feel that staff morale and student learning do not suffer because of this.Collegial consonance is not destroyed by a degree of either isolation or forced collaboration. Healthy staff relationships may be the glue of the collegial bond.

A global issue and local response: the role of experienced classroom teachers in creating collaborative school cultures

Anne Jasman and Gary Martin, Murdoch University

The major thrust for school improvement has in recent years focussed on the development of teachers and the creation of collaborative cultures as a means of improving the quality of student outcomes. The recognition of highly accomplished teachers within Western Australia was based not only on their classroom expertise but also teachers demonstrating a role beyond the classroom. The type of leadership model envisioned was one in which teachers work collaboratively with their colleagues on professional activities such as curriculum development, professional development and school-based research in an endeavour to enhance the school's capacity to respond to student learning needs. A questionnaire survey of teachers selected to undertake this role was conducted one year after their appointment. The research reported here has focussed on the processes of role negotiation, the agreed role and any perceived outcomes of this negotiated role for the improvement of student outcomes.

Preliminary indications are that some teachers undertake a range of activities broadly in line with the leadership model envisaged. In other cases, constraints operated to limit teachers in their capacity to develop a suitable role and reduced their sense of efficacy. Factors such as the prevailing culture, leadership and organisation of the school contributed to the 'success' or otherwise of the role negotiation and implementation. These results are discussed with reference to the current thrust to create learning communities that are premised on successful collaboration.

Time for A New Vision

Anne L. Jefferson, University of Ottawa

The one educational reform that appears to generate agreement, in terms of its need, is the incorporation of technology into the learning environment. This agreement, however, has not meant the removal of conflict. This paper adopts the position that technology is a means for the encouragement and facilitation of reform in the structure of the education system, the curriculum, teachers' development, and student learning. As such, the matter is of primary importance and requires priority in policy formulation and funding. Consequently, the knowledge areas that must be given consideration with regards to the policy issue of technology and improved student achievement are student learning, teacher development, teacher education at the tertiary level, and funding. Each of these four knowledge areas is discussed in a manner to suggest to the audience that although much evidence has been presented about the potential of technology to enhance learning in schools, teachers must remain central to the strategies associated with government policy. This may mean a real departure from much of the current modes of professional training and development of teachers.Furthermore, educational organizations have to overcome the problem of meeting a substantial front-end capital cost. The traditional instrument of choice does not match the limited life expectancy of technology very well.

New Zealand teacher unions, still here after all the reforms

Joce Jesson,,Auckland College of Education

The structural reforms in New Zealand can be seen as a direct attempt to remove the unions from any policy role in the state. This paper argues that the attempt to actively remove the teacher unions from any involvement in education policy was behind much of the educational reforms.

In spite of a highly charged media campiagn and the active anti-unionsim of the industrial legislation - the Employment Contracts Act, teachers are still positioned as having an important voice through their union. The unions have faced a delicate balancing act as they move strategically between various definitions of being union and a profession, between accomodation and resistance, and between militant and compliant. The New Zealand Teacher Registration Board's strategic plan and various other policy initiatives pointed up the importance for the state of actively involving teachers in establishing a teaching code of ethics, so revealing the political possibility that teacher unions structurally hold.

Reflection for professional growth: an organisational strategy for a teacher education degree programme

D. Hill, J.Jesson, S.Windross, L.Grudnoff,Auckland College of Education

Reflection is a central notion in the Auckland College of Education's Bachelor of Education (Teaching) degree. It has the highest profile in the degree's unifying professional inquiry and practice strand. In this strand student teachers are supported in achieving a personal synthesis of their learning and experiences across the qualification. The aim is to use metacognitive processes to maximise the professional growth and performance of each individual student teacher.

In support of this goal a decision was made in 1998 to make reflection conscious for lecturing staff. A co- ordinator of reflective practice was appointed and lecturing staff in Teacher Education Centres of Learning (faculties) became engaged in a dialogic staff development process.

This paper documents both this process and the questions that emerged for the organisation.

MLC at MLC-Mapping learning communities at Methodist Ladies College

Evelyn Johnson, Methodist Ladies College

Methodist Ladies College in Melbourne enjoys a reputation for teaching excellence through innovation. We suggest that an important reason for our capacity for innovation lies in our collaborative research endeavours. This symposium identifies the ways in which we seek to straddle the link between theory and practice. For instance Methodist Ladies College provides significant support for teachers who conduct research into practice in their own classrooms addition to any upgrading of academic qualifications. We have developed a research program by devising a system of Learning Projects supervised by a Learning Network under the auspices of a Centre for Learning, Research and Professional Development. This we would argue goes beyond school-based research or partnerships between schools and researchers (Loughran and Northfield 1997). Instead in our view it characterises a school which researches its own learning communities.

In this symposium teachers detail what it means to do research at Methodist Ladies College. We will discuss our praxis by demonstrating how we engage with research and how we link it to teaching innovation. Classroom teachers will share the processes and products involved in their research projects. Opportunities for substantial interaction will be encouraged.

Methodist Ladies' College is one of Australia's most respected and innovative schools. Our underlying philosophy is to empower students to take charge of their learning, resulting in confident young women who create their own future. Established in 1882 and located in Melbourne, the College is a day and boarding school for 2200 students from Pre-School to Year 12. MLC is a school of the Uniting Church in Australia.

Professional development through shared adventure

Richard Johnson, Deakin University

This paper comes from a collaborative, school based case study that undertook to answer the question: How can computers be used to promote metacognition in primary school students? From 1992 to 1994 I worked with a teacher and her primary school students in a room with computer equipment and facilities. The students used the computers to develop curriculum based projects. The teacher and I worked collaboratively to promote metacognition through our teaching strategies. We discussed our observations, reflected on our practice and acted on our findings in order to promote metacognition through the use of computers. The case study did not focus on technology.The beginning point was the use of the computer as a tool in the learning env