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 environment; the essential focus was on the more important issues of pedagogy, learning and teacher professional development.

This paper focuses on the professional development of Margaret, the classroom teacher. While the focus of the study was on promoting metacognition in primary school students, it was clear that the teacher underwent a process of significant professional development which developed into a related feature of the study.

Key issues raised in the paper include: personal challenge; collaboration; shared adventure; purposeful enquiry; reflection on practice; teaching strategies and the teacher as researcher.

The impact of disability on children's self-concept: The implications for theory building.

Christine Johnston, University of Sydney

Comparing the development of self-concept in children who have a disability with those who do not enables consideration of:

1. the impact which individual differences and deficits in specific skill areas have upon self-image and

The approach therefore has implications for both theory building and for intervention to enhance self-esteem. This paper reports the findings of a study which compared the self-concepts of approximately 250 children aged 6 to 12 years. Of these 74 had physical, intellectual or learning disabilities. The differential effects of the specific disabilities are examined for the insights they provide into the ways in which children develop and maintain their concepts of self.

What makes the difference? Children and teachers talk about turning risk into resilience

Sue Howard, Bruce Johnson and Murray Oswald, University of South Australia

The key question that most research into resilience asks is: What is it that makes some children apparently immune to risk factors that negatively affect others? In other words, why are some children able to overcome risky or negative life circumstances to live conventionally successful lives when others, exposed to the same level of risk, experience a wide range of negative life outcomes.

The study to be presented here asked 125 randomly selected 9 - 12 year olds and 25 teachers from 5 primary schools in disadvantaged areas in metropolitan Adelaide, what they thought accounted for the fact that 'some kids with tough lives do O.K.' while 'other kids with tough lives don't do O.K.' In other words, 'What makes the difference?'

This paper explores how the two groups of respondents discussed the question of 'What makes the difference?' in terms of the headings, Family, School, Community and Friends. While both children and teachers tended to see the role of the family and the community in promoting resilient behaviour in fairly similar terms, the two groups emphasised very different roles for the school. Moreover, children strongly emphasised the role of 'friends' in helping individual children develop resilience whereas none of the teachers cited 'friends' as being important in this regard.

Quantifying and prioritising resilience promoting factors: Teachers' views

Murray Oswald, Bruce Johnson & Sue Howard, University of South Australia

A large survey of South Australian teachers (n=960) identified the most important resilience promoting factors within and between five nested systems ń the community, school, peer group, family, and the individual. Results suggest that teachers hold complex and sometimes contradictory attributions about student resilience; many appear to have a 'self serving bias' which locates explanations of resilience within realms that teachers can influence (i.e. the school), and explanations of non-resilience within the individual and/or their dysfunctional families. The implications of these findings will be explored in relation to the development of school and community programs designed to foster resilient behaviour in children and adolescents.

Pedagogy by the oppressed: The limits of classroom dialogue

Alison Jones, University of Auckland

This paper considers the thwarted desires expressed in the anger and disappointment of Pakeha students in a New Zealand university classroom when their course is taught to students separated (by teachers with liberatory intentions) on the basis of ethnicity. The author, one of the teachers, addresses some implications of critical pedagogy's celebration of the dialogic 'voice' as at heart of emancipatory teaching and learning. Dialogue in the classroom is seen, in critical pedagogy, as the mechanism for 'moving the oppressed from margin to centre', or shifting the boundary pegs of power. Alison Jones argues that critical pedagogy's focus on dialogue, 'voice' and 'border-crossing' overlook the possibility that the 'other' may not want or need to engage in dialogue in the classroom. She suggests that the desire for dialogue may be primarily the need of dominant group members for loving absolution through pedagogy by the oppressed. Based around data taken from the students' Journals, the paper addresses particularly the North American critical pedagogy and anti-racist academic literature in education. It is critical of the 'redemption narrative' implicit in much of this literature, and suggests that disappointment may be the expected and legitimate character of 'white' attempts to engage in direct dialogue with indigenous others.

Primary students learning collaboratively at a computer: A study of different grade levels.

Tony Jones,Latrobe University

Classroom based collaborative learning often causes students and teachers to focus on social aspects of learning as well as issues of epistemology or pedagogy. This paper reports on primary aged children working collaboratively in small groups at computers. Interactions between group members were analysed utilising a framework that enabled social and pedagogic issues to be considered in parallel. Children from lower, middle, and upper grades at two suburban primary schools participated in the study. Differences and commonalities in the collaborative learning process at computers are reported for each of these levels.

Scripture teaching in upper primary classrooms in South Australian Catholic schools

Kate Jones, University of South Australia

The teaching of both the Hebrew Scripture and Christian Scripture (Old and New Testament) is an important aspect of Religious Education in Catholic primary schools.

The research presented in this paper investigated how Scripture is taught in year 6/7 classes in Catholic primary schools. Data were collected from teachers, via questionnaires, about

• what methodologies were used to teach Scripture
• what contextual factors influenced teaching approaches
• what resources were used
• the adequacy of training teachers received to teach Scripture

  Results were compared with those of Barbara Stead who conducted similar research in Victorian Catholic Schools.

The study revealed that there is a need for more teacher training in the area of Scripture teaching. Teachers need to gain confidence with the texts themselves, both Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). There is also a need for teachers to become more aware of the different approaches to interpreting the text such as the historical critical approach which gives an insight, for example, into the community that the text was originally written for.

Translating difference: Cross cultural research dialogue

Barbara Kamler, Deakin University and Terry Threadgold, Cardiff University

This paper is based on a Large Australian Research Grant project entitled:'Stories of Ageing: A Longitudinal Study of Women's Self-Representation.' It focuses on that part of the research which involved video diary workshops, using interpreters, with Australian Vietnamese women aged 55-70, in Fitzroy, Melbourne. None of the researchers spoke Vietnamese and the Vietnamese women spoke little English. Part of the emphasis of this paper then will be to discuss ways of translating difference, of effecting cross-cultural dialogues without a common language. In this case the translation was through images, in the form of videos made by the women themselves in their own environments. The videos, which gave the researchers visual access to the women's lived habitus as they themselves represented it, become a complex semiotic medium for further intercultural translations. We used the images, with the help of two interpreters, to access more of the women's stories and to help them develop their videos. But translation is never easy. Here we explore the complex layers of translation and dialogue, and the varieties of differently configured Vietnamese habitus, which characterised the workshop situation. We also explore, the extra-coding (Eco 1979) of the video images by the researchers, the complete neglect at first of the soft Vietnamese voice-overs which were linguistically inaudible,to us, the way faciality, gesture, corporeality,and touch came to substitute for linguistic communication in our interactions,and the function of food,food-preparation and eating together, as modes of translation as in our interactions with the women.

Cyber pedagogy as critical social practice in a teacher education program.

Cushla Kapitzke, The University of Queensland.

The policies and practices of higher education are reeling under the social, economic and technological changes currently taking place in Western postindustrial societies. Competition in the globalised marketplace of mass tertiary education is transforming traditional curricula and pedagogies. New communications and information technologies are central to these changes and to the philosophical and pedagogical shifts occurring in universities. This paper presents the findings of a critical ethnographic study that examines the use of online technologies in one teacher education subject, Media and Technology in Education, taught at a Graduate School of Education. For the purpose of the study, cyber technologies and their associated pedagogical activities are conceptualised not only as tools but also as social practices. This approach enables a focus on learning and teaching as transformative practices. Instructional activities for the course included the posting of lecture notes on the Web,virtual tutorials through group email discussions, and the requirement that all five criterion-based assessment pieces be submitted at the end of the semester on a 4-member student webpage that was constructed as part of the course requirements. The assignments, two of which were a review of Queensland school web sites and an evaluation of two search engines replete with a log of the search journey, illustrate the emerging forms of cyber and multiliteracies. Course design and rationale are outlined, and some implications drawn for future learning and teaching in the higher education context.

Reconceptualising child care in rural areas

Romana Morda, Anthoula Kapsalakis and Margaret Clyde, Victoria University of Technology

Research has found that government funding has been decreased in the areas of health, welfare, and education as a way of rationalising expenditure in rural areas of Australia. These funding cuts have a number of repercussions which include changes in the quality of life and subsequently the culture of rural areas. These funding cuts have also led to severe difficulties in accessing a range of services including childcare. Barriers that families face include: the limited availability of formal services, restricted flexibility and increased cost both in terms of time and money in trying to access what limited services may be available. In addition, it is apparent that the current child care service models which have been developed in urban areas often fail to take into account the needs, values and expectations of families living in rural and remote areas. These needs and expectations must be clearly assessed as there are a number of myths associated with the provision of child care in isolated areas, such as a decreased need for formal services due to the "myth" of easy accessibility to an extended network of relatives. The present study investigated current childcare options in the Mallee Region of Western Victoria. The results clearly dispelled the prevalent myths of rural and remote childcare needs such as the need for childcare only on a seasonal basis. Suggestions as to how to best meet the childcare needs of families in rural and remote areas are discussed. Suggestions for future research are also made.

Emerging Masculinities: The importance of being male

Amanda Keddie, Deakin University

As a construct of dominant culture, schools are one context where masculine subjectivities are shaped and reinforced and where the notion of gender remains particularly restrictive. It is clear that many young boys define and understand masculinity as toughness, power and domination and as completely opposing their essentialist ideas of femininity. The importance of addressing these issues in the early primary sphere is discussed in this paper in conjunction with an exploration of the research methods used to explore young boy's collective understandings of masculinities.

The paper draws on feminist readings and interpretations of the poststructural concepts of subjectification through language and discourse and the role of power in boy's gender construction. These issues are discussed through a case study of the lives and meanings of a group of grade one boys. Using a range of qualitative research techniques, including affinity group discussions, photographic prompts, observations, drawings and stories the paper will provide an insight into how young boys define and understand their collective and individual gender(ed) identities.

Patterns of socialization and the development of English language competence among Chinese students in New Zealand educational settings.

David Keen,Dunedin College of Education & Dr H Xiao, University of Canterbury

This paper presents an interim report on the mid-way stage of a two-year study. The programme on which the report is based tracks developing patterns of socialization and language acquisition among Chinese students in secondary and tertiary institutions in Christchurch and Dunedin, New Zealand, and explores possible connections between the developing patterns.

The Chinese student community in New Zealand is diverse, containing young people from disparate backgrounds, resident in the country for different lengths of time, and studying with a range of aims in view. The student body reflects, in microcosm, the diversity of the adult Chinese community. This contains both fourth-generation descendants of the gold rush migration, predominantly Cantonese-speaking, rural in origin but now strongly represented in the professions, and also urban, predominantly Mandarin-speaking, recent migrants.

The paper will analyse the problems and processes of adjustment confronting students from a migrant community which is at once diverse yet cohesive, in a land which is facing the wider issues of multiculturalism.

Towards authentic context-based learning in teacher education:
The knowledge building community project

Julie Kiggins, Graduate school of Education, University of Wollongong

This paper describes how a new model of teacher education known as the Knowledge Building Community Project at the University of Wollongong was trialled in 1999 at the University of Wollongong. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a Knowledge Building Community (KBC) Project as an alternative model for preservice teacher education. This model was made up of three components or sources for learning which should interact together as a basis for continuous learning: (1) Community learning, (2) School-based Learning and (3) Problem-based Learning. Guiding the collection of data were three research questions that explored how the three sources for learning operated as well as a fourth question that examined the experiences reported by the students when they returned to the traditional lecture-tutorial program in session two. Preliminary research from session one indicated how the students extended their views concerning teaching from those resembling "motherhood statements" to an understanding that teaching is a far more multifaceted and challenging role. The session two experiences that the KBC students reported indicated that they felt that for learning to occur they needed to have a more active role to play.

Schooling, citizenship and democracy

Tony Knight, La Trobe University and Art Pearl, University of California, Santa Cruz

In this paper we are proposing a fundamentally different look at education. We share with many, criticisms of existing policy and practice. We however part company with most 'reformers' concluding that proposed reforms will make a bad situation worse. The major problem of schools is that from first grade through graduation with an advanced degree the intelligence of students is undervalued. The gist of the argument goes something like this. The world is faced with difficult problems. These problems cannot be solved without a democratic process and become worse the more the education of the public is 'dumbed down'. Essential to a democratic resolution of those problems is a reconstructed school that prepares all students to become effective problem solvers. The goal of each school is to prepare every person with 12 years of schooling to be informed and responsible citizens. We propose a school informed by a comprehensive general theory; the theory we recommend is a cognitive democratic theory. Our proposal, developed through nearly three decades of collaborative applied research, has at least seven critical constructs or attributes:

1. the nature of educational authority;

We contend that it is how each of these democratic constructs are developed or advanced that will determine whether schools become more democratic. It is through their intwining that students are provided the opportunity to install the necessary principles of a democracy, that prepares them to assume the awesome responsibility of democratic citizenship.

Politically charged research methodologicali ssues

Dr L. Komesaroff,Deakin University

In this paper, I discuss the methodological issues in research that is politically charged. In a recently completed doctoral study, I investigated issues of language and power, the positioning of a linguistic and cultural minority and the context within which educational policy and practice exists. The study was ethnographic, including three case studies of school or facilities for deaf students; fifty semi-structured interviews with teachers and other stakeholders in deaf education; and three surveys of deaf students, teachers of the deaf and bilingual programs for deaf students.

I draw from my particular study, the politics of language practices in deaf education, to illustrate the political context of educational research and the challenges facing a researcher who frames politically charged questions. In the tradition of critical literacy/critical pedagogy, I made explicit the social context of language practice; the way in which the dominant language, English, is legitimised and perpetuated in deaf education; and whose interests established practices serve.

Viewing deaf education from the perspective of language and power explains the struggle over language practices and resistance to a change in educational policy among educators. My analysis of the data indicated competing paradigms in deaf education that took the debate beyond a disagreement over method. I discuss the legitimacy of politically charged enquiry and methodological problems such as gaining access to research sites and participants.

Educational policy and practice that excludes or marginalises a cultural and linguistic minority

Dr L. Komesaroff,Deakin University

The way in which cultural and linguistic minorities may be excluded or marginalised through educational policy and practice is the central concern in this paper. The situation of the deaf provides an example of the political nature of language policy and the way in which it can serve the interests of educators who, almost exclusively, come from the dominant group.

Reporting the results of a doctoral research study, I present the conflicting views over the place of English and Auslan (the language of the Deaf community) among teachers and other stakeholders in deaf education.This research involved three case studies: the study of an established bilingual/bicultural program for deaf students in a regular school, and two longitudinal studies of a school for the deaf and a deaf facility in Victoria. Fifty interviews were conducted with teachers, school administrators, Department of Education managers, Deaf leaders, parents,organisation representatives and others. More than half the participants were teachers of the deaf. Participants' comments illustrated a pattern of attitudes held about deafness and deaf people.

The dominant approach in Australia is to educate deaf students through English, spoken and/or signed. I contrast this with the calls for bilingual education for the deaf from state, national and international organisations that represent deaf people. With more than half the deaf students in Victoria integrated into regular schools, the contested issue of language practices in deaf education should be of interest to regular teachers or those working with other cultural and linguistic minorities.

The "Time" Dilemma: The lived experiences of teachers and administrators during profound educational reform

Clay Lafleur, Simcoe County District School Board

Educators require many kinds of time and they often experience and construct meanings of time differently. Yet existing structures and administrative assumptions frequently limit the meanings of time to notions of time as a commodity or regulator. The rhythms of schools and teachers are often interlocked. In a season of pronounced educational reform it may be necessary to review the nature of time, including how it is organized and expressed. Increasingly the pressure to do more with less, and more quickly, affects how we feel, think and behave. Conflicting views about how to respond to these changes may result in organizational disharmony - often with worrying implications. When, for example, do expectations for teachers to act more professionally by government and educational administrators become exploitation? Time to plan and practice, time for curriculum development, time to turn policy into practice, time to teach mandated curriculum expectations, time to assess and report learning, time to support extra-curricular activities, time to share successful practices, time to communicate with parents, time to sell reform, and time for vigilance about the primary purposes of education are concerns commonly encountered by teachers.

This study is concerned with issues related to time in intensely political circumstances when the development of policy and the implementation of that policy are shaped by time constraints. In particular, the research examines the way that time as subjective experience is or is not phenomenologically different for educators positioned differently within the schooling system, and therefore is related to the process of changing time in the workplace. The stories of teachers and educational administrators are used to study the meaning of time in everyday reality - to show the pervasive way that time influences actions. The focus of the research is on time issues related to intensification, compression of time, increased curriculum expectations, school renewal, short implementation time lines, reduced planning time, continuous change, lack of professional development time, fewer resources, increased testing and accountability, and so on.

Academic and social motivation in NZ European, Chinese and Pacific Island University students

Lai Mei Kuin,University of Auckland

The relationship between academic and social motivation can be complementary or conflicting, resulting in either the enhancement or hindrance of academic achievement. As such, it is important to understand the nature of that relationship in order to foster better learning outcomes. Given the increasingly multicultural tertiary setting, there exists the need to understand the nature of that relationship in different ethnic groups. Yet little data has been available on the nature of that relationship in the different ethnic groups within New Zealand. Hence this paper will examine the relationship between academic and social motivation in NZ European, Chinese and Pacific Island university students. Two hundred and forty NZ European, Pacific Island and Chinese undergraduate students completed a revised version of the academic motivation scale (Vallerand, Pelletier, Blais, Briere, Senecal & Vallieres, 1993), and a revised version of Wentzel's (1993) social responsibility scale. (The academic motivation scale measures intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation. The social responsibility scale measures social compliance and prosocial motivation.) Results were analysed as a function of ethnicity. Theoretical and practical implications will be discussed with a focus on teaching and motivating ethnically diverse students.

The Interpersonal Relationship in Tertiary Supervision

Rolene Lamm and Ramon Lewis, LaTrobe University

Production of theses and satisfaction of higher degree students is integral to the maintenance of Australia's reputation as the 'clever country'. The present investigation enhances understanding of the nature and extent to which the human, interactive element of tertiary supervision effects the higher degree process. This is evaluated in terms of the dimensions of student learning, personal and professional growth as well as its perceived contribution to the efficient output of the doctoral thesis. It investigates the notion that for maximum student benefit from higher degree studies, competent academic guidance together with suitable organisational skills must take into account the interpersonal supervisory relationship.

Teaching and learning theories, founded within a humanistic education framework, and particularly pertaining to adult education informed this study.

Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used. A rating scale completed by over 300 PhD candidates in a range of university departments, facilitated subtle discrimination between aspects of the interpersonal supervisory interaction. Emergent data was collected through semi structured student and supervisor interviews. A supervisors' perspective highlights the rationale underlying some of the potential tensions within supervision.

The results indicate PhD students' substantial need for quality human interaction in supervision, and that this varies with the students' learning style, the gender-age configuration for the supervisory dyad, the stage of thesis, as well as the perceived aim for undertaking the degree. Levels of supervisory support were seen by students to be a major factor in the production of a thesis as well as critical to students' expressed satisfaction.

When does it get any easier?: Beginning teachers' experiences during their first year of teaching.

Catherine Lang,University of Waikato

Studies of the readiness to teach of beginning teachers indicate a range of areas in which these teachers feel nervous about teaching, prior to beginning in their first teaching position. Studies of the first year of teaching demonstrate that the reality shock of teaching is something that affects beginning teachers in a variety of ways. The literature on the stages of teacher development tells us that the 'survival' stage in teaching can last throughout the whole of the first year of teaching. This New Zealand study follows seven beginning teachers through their first year of teaching and identifies the points a which the teachers began to say "I'm getting on top of it now".

Ethnic group differences in the academic motivation of University students

Lyn Lavery, University of Auckland

Motivation is one of the most important psychological concepts in education today, and has in fact shown to be related to various learning and performance outcomes. While some research has begun to examine the motivation of various ethnic groups, and how this may impact on learning outcomes, little research has been conducted on the various ethnic groups present in New Zealand's multicultural University setting. The present study aims to examiine the academic motivation oPakeha, Maori, Pacific Islands and Chinese students attending a New Zealand University. A revised version of the Academic Motivation Scale(measuring extrinsic, intrinsic, and amotivation) was administered to 400 undergraduate students, and results analysed as a function of ethnicity. Possible differences in the academic motivation of these ethnic groups will be discussed, along with implications for better structuring learning environments for these students.

Research on self-serving biases of teachers and students: The impact of deception.

Eleanor Lawson and David McKinnon,Charles Sturt University

For three decades there has been research controversy over the self-serving bias in educational settings--the tendency for teachers and students to attribute success to internal factors and failure to external factors. This research portrays teacher-student relations as potentially conflicted because of attributional disagreements over student outcomes. A number of experiments have found that when students succeed, teachers attribute the success to themselves while students attribute the success to themselves; but when students fail, teachers attribute the failure to the student while students attribute the failure to the teacher. Some studies have found the opposite trend: teachers tend to attribute student failure to themselves and student successes to the student. Similarly, students may attribute successes to the teacher and failure to themselves. Commentators suggest that this counterdefensive bias may really be a self-presentational strategy. Controversy, then, centres on why a self-serving bias appears in some studies and a counterdefensive bias in other studies, and whether these attributional biases are genuine biases or realistic attributional processing in the artificial experimental context. Most studies reporting self serving or counterdefensive biases have been deceptive experiments in which participants have been given false success or false failure feedback as a basis for making attributions. Attributional biases have been far less apparent in nondeceptive classroom studies. The purpose of this study, then, is to see whether false feedback artifactually contributes to findings of bias. This question is explored through a role play replication of a deceptive study by McAllister (1996) who reported self-serving attributional biases for both teachers and their students.

The role of music in second language learning: A Vietnamese perspective

Mark H. LO, TESOL, University of Tasmania

Music, particularly songs, reveals various cultural aspects such as cultural expectation, stereotyping, social inspiration and linguistic features. Though music is viewed positively by language teachers and insights from neurolinguistics are significant to understanding the relationship between language, music and brain, research in the use of music in language learning is surprisingly at an embryonic stage. This paper briefly discusses the direction in which music in second language learning has been researched and it examines how music is valued by Vietnamese teachers and students in second language learning, mainly Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). This study was based on the ethnographic research approach with a three month intensive field work in four Vietnamese cities covering three main regions of Vietnam. Observation and interview were predominantly used in this field work. The study shows that music, mainly Vietnamese and English, is an important feature of student social discourse. Though it is rarely used as a pedagogic methodology by Vietnamese teachers of English in formal teaching, the impact of English music as an extra-curriculum activity is pervasive in the TESOL discourse community and its teaching implications are favourably perceived. This creates in learners some metalinguistic and intercultural awareness which is important in second language learning. However, it is important to maintain learners' culture when they are exposed to foreign music in second language learning.

Promoting research development through writing groups

David Boud and Alison Lee, Sydney University of Technology

The development of the research potential of university staff has been given less attention than many other aspects of professional development, particularly teaching development. Yet there is an important need for the development of staff in the research role in the light of growth over the past ten years of higher education and changes to the organisation of the sector in both Australia and the UK.

This paper examines one strategy for research development: the use of writing groups. It argues that writing is best seen as a starting point, rather than an endpoint, of the research process and hence that fostering academic writing is a useful place to do research development work. The paper provides details of the use of a number of writing groups over three years in a Faculty and explores the responses of leaders and participants. It identifies factors which appear to be important in the successful use of this strategy and focuses on the contextual conditions required for initiatives of this kind to be effectively implemented.

I CAN do maths: Changing a child's mathematics percentile ranking

Bonny Le Grice, Christchurch College of Education

Three groups of children aged 8-10 who scored below the 20th percentile on the PATests were taught basic maths skills for 16 hours. One group received individual instruction using Precision Teaching and Direct Instruction, the second group received group instruction using the same methods, and the third group received group instruction using a constructivist Recommended Practice approach. All children changed their percentile ranking significantly the following year by up to 60 percentile ranks, with some clear differences according to the method by which they were taught.

Student stress and absenteeism in primary schools

Carl Leonard, Sid Bourke and Neville Schofield, University of Newcastle

This paper presents a study of possible relationships between stress and absenteeism of 254 Year 5 and 6 students in 19 classes at 6 Lower Hunter Valley primary schools. The Quality of school life scales were used as indicators of student stress. Various student and teacher contextual variables were also investigated for their relationship with student absence. The teacher variables included teacher satisfaction and stress.

The analyses indicated a strong link between student perception of the quality of their school life and absenteeism. Where students felt less stress (as measured by higher satisfaction with their school life) they were absent less often than students who were more stressed (lower satisfaction with their school life). Female students were also more likely to be absent than males. Students taught by teachers who were more satisfied with their relationship with their students were themselves more satisfied (less stressed) and likely to be absent less often. The higher the overall level of stress teachers perceived in the current year of their teaching career, the lower the level of stress (higher the level of general satisfaction) of their students. Finally the potential for future research regarding the use of a appropriate stress management techniques within the classroom context is described.

Discourse and Culture of Learning -- Communication Challenges

Mingsheng Li, La Trobe University

It has been widely acknowledged in language acquisition research that cultural learning is an inseparable part of language learning. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the culture of classroom learning which involves both teachers' and learners' cultural values, beliefs, roles, expectations, and conceptions of teaching and learning.

Communication challenges become obvious when teaching methodologies developed in one educational context are exported to another educational context.

This paper reports on the findings from a case study conducted in 1997 in the People's Republic of China where pedagogical communication conflicts between English native speaking teachers and Chinese university English language majors became acute.

The paper focuses on the problematic area -- the discourse of participation that was highly valued, promulgated and practised by native speakers teaching English in China. It will point out some of the discrepancies between this discourse and the Chinese culture of learning. In transplanting Western educational models to Chinese classrooms, participants did not sufficiently acknowledge the cultural distance between these models and the Chinese local socio-cultural and educational realities. The discourse of participation was strongly resisted by Chinese students and teaching by native speakers often failed to achieve the desired results. In spite of the "good" intentions on the part of both native teachers and Chinese students, there existed a vast gulf in their perceptions of what constituted "good" teaching and learning, of what appropriate roles they were fitted in, and what they expected of each other. The paper argues that the gulf, the hidden source of the pedagogical communication problems, can be bridged through creating a cultural synergy in which common interests are to be found and shared, sources of problems identified, cultural differences understood and respected, and learning maximally enhanced.

Frames of reference for evaluating new learning technologies

Peter Ling, Swinburne University of Technology

New educational technologies provide opportunities for gains in resource efficiency and in educational effectiveness. Are the anticipated benefits realised? This paper reports on an attempt to apply a frame of reference to the selection of criteria for evaluating technological innovations in higher education.Defining the types of innovation to be evaluated is an issue but establishing evaluation criteria is the major challenge. Four positions are considered. One is oriented to the stated objectives of the particular educational innovation; one to comparison with alternative educational approaches; one to the benefits and costs anticipated from a knowledge of the state of the art of learning technologies; and one to criteria developed from a particular educational and/or social theory.

These four approaches to are interactive rather than exclusive zones of reference, each of which has a place in selecting criteria for evaluation of educational innovations employing learning technologies.To engage all four, exposes contests between theoretical foundations, public policy, local pragmatics and individual objectives. Evaluation in this context, then, identifies dialectical relationships and provides a transformative tool for the construction and reconstruction of technology in education. In the background are issues of causation in complex educational contexts. Attaining generalisable conclusions from the evaluation of educational technologies, however, is problematic and beyond the scope of an evaluative approach.

The paper reports on an evaluation of an innovation that combined the introduction of problem-based learning with Web-based tuition in a post-graduate course conducted at an Australian university.

Developments in devolution and school-based management in Queensland

Bob Lingard, Debra Hayes and Martin Mills, University of Queensland

This history of the politics of moves towards school-based management in Queensland Education is located within a broader historical and political analysis of such moves across Australia since the Karmel Report (1973). The paper then specifically focuses in on developments in Queensland. The Queensland analysis traces the moves from Labor's Focus on Schools (1990) through the Coalition's Leading Schools (1997) and the most recent Labor rearticulation in the document Future Directions for School-based Management in Queensland State Schools (1998). The analysis demonstrates that the concept of school-based management has no stipulative meaning, but rather is a contested concept. More generally, the paper provides an account and analysis of new forms of governance in educational systems and the tension between centralising and decentralising tendencies as school-based management is adopted in order to address a number of competing policy objectives.

A community of online learners: A longitudinal study of post-graduate students within a virtual community

Margaret Lloyd, Queensland University of Technology

The RITE Group (Research in Information Technology in Education) has, since 1993, been involved in the management of a cohort of students sponsored by Education Queensland and enrolled in post-graduate studies in computer education. Programs offered to these students combine academic and professional studies which have been conducted in open learning mode primarily using telecommunications and a philosophy of participation.

A longitudinal study was begun in 1995 and concluded in 1999 tracking the perceptions, attitudes and belief structures of twelve individuals. The study has shown that active membership in the program led initially to manifest changes in behaviours without comparable, parallel changes in core beliefs. Continuing membership of online professional communities consolidated changes in belief structures, affecting quite fundamental views of the role of the teacher and the role of telecommunications and information technologies in the curriculum.

The study is qualitative and is drawn from participant-observation methods. The prime instrument has been interviews conducted in various mediums -from face-to-face, to telephone, to email interaction. The workshop will present excerpts from the interviews as audio streaming from a web site to elaborate and illustrate the study's findings. The main innovation emerging from this study was the development of a dual-level categorisation of participants as the dichotomy between manifest behaviours and fundamental beliefs emerged from the data. The study perhaps goes some way to explaining the hesitancy some teachers experience in introducing telecommunications and information technologies into the curriculum even when the necessary and pre-requisite skills are in place.

On measuring educational success in computer assisted learning

John Lourens and Steve Weal, University of Technology

Increasingly, educators see Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) as a useful, and valuable, supplement to traditional learning and teaching methods. The use of CAL software in educational programs is promoted and justified on several grounds, including its ability to enhance enjoyment of, and efficiency in, both teaching and learning. Indeed, well-designed CAL software usually incorporates and replicates many of the environmental conditions that various educational researchers have identified as producing positive learning and teaching outcomes.

At least two important questions emerge from the development and use of CAL software in educational programs. First, do users experience the benefits frequently ascribed to CAL software? Second, how do educators measure educational success arising from the development and implementation of CAL software?

This paper will explore the two questions posed above by presenting a case study on the use of CAL in tertiary level accounting education.

Beyond the NEMP experience : Professional development of teachers through the National Education Monitoring Project

Alison Gilmore University of Canterbury,

A key element of the National Educaiton Monitoring Project in New Zealand is the employment of specially trained, practising teachers to work intensively with 60 children over a five week period of at least five difference schools (teacher administrators), and to mark the assessment tasks requiring substantial professional judgement (teacher markers). Gilmore (1999) demonstrated that the professional development benefits gained by teachers were numerous, broad and multi-faceted. The benefits ranged from personal and professional, specific and general, immediate and longer-term, related to assessment and beyond.

While the focus of the 'NEMP experience' is personal to those teachers that participate, there exists the potential for the impact to be more widespread, that is, to have spin-off benefits for others, such as, students, colleagues, or schools. This study documents the nature and level of professional development gained by a group of 'case study' teachers, and changes they have been able to implement subsequently within their classroom or school. It also identifies factors which serve to facilitate or hinder the implementation of new ideas gained from their NEMP experience.

Marking procedures and consistency

Nicole Brown, University of Otago,

The marking of the NEMP assessment tasks is carried out by one of two groups of people and trained by the NEMP staff. Tasks which have required substantial professional judgement have been marked by teams of experienced teachers. The other marking is completed by students graduating from teacher education programmes. In both cases, the marking provides considerable professional development in assessment.

Preparation for marking the assessment tasks is a carefully planned exercise. Marking schedules are designed in advance and at the training session for each task, the markers clarify the criteria. Tasks are marked collectively until markers are confident to mark independently. Checks are then made between markers at regular points and queries discussed as they occur.

Marking occurs from observations of children on the video tape, either working alone or in groups, pen and paper tasks and samples of work.

This paper provides details of the training programme for markers to ensure the best possible consistency.

Profesional development from NEMP: the learning journeys of eight New Zealand teachers

Susan Lovett, ,Christchurch College of Education,

Throughout the 1990s many models of professional development have been trialed with teachers to implement new curriculum and assessment structures. While some have been successful, many teachers have become so swamped with new information that they have become reluctant learners and tired of new developments.

While new information can be circulated in documents for teachers to read, the reality is that many teachers have neither the time nor inclination to devote sufficient time to absorb this information. Professional development has, by necessity of time and energy levels, become a 'spoon feeding' operation. Teachers have become dependent on providers to tell them what it is they need to know and do. Little, if any time, is available for consolidation, reflection and review before teachers are moved to the next new initiative.

Lovett (1999) has trialed a quality learning circle with eight teachers from different schools to explore how teachers can work with new material, interact and support each other as adult learners even in a climate of constant change. Teachers in the study have moved beyond their comfort zones and become risk takers embarking on learning journeys with no definite end point. This study explores the attitudes, skills and knowledge gains of teachers who have worked with a very different model of professional development. Key features of the model have been regular meetings in school time with paid release and visits to classrooms. Records of interviews and observational data have traced the progress of each of the teachers and the group using the quality learning circles model to implement aspects of the national education monitoring reports at the classroom level.

Policy innovations in the VET sector: The role of instructors in a competency-based environment.

Tom Lowrie,Charles Sturt University

This paper presents the findings of a twelve-month research project that evaluated the effects that competency-based approaches have had on the role on instructors in the VET sector. Specifically, the project: (a) investigated the levels of understanding of CBT by instructors in the VET sector in a variety of settings across a range of locations; and (b) described the way in which instructors have adapted their practice to accommodate competency-based training, and how new practices have evolved. A range of techniques including a nation-wide survey, six case studies and two focus groups were used to gather data. Findings from the study revealed that the level of understanding of Competency Based Training (CBT) is consistent across the VET sector although there were differences in the way in which TAFE and non-TAFE providers worked in such a training environment. Some of these differences were dependent on the instructor's field of study and the extent to which CBT was considered appropriate to that field. As a result, a model for staff development in the VET sector was developed to take into account the diverse nature of providers and individuals within the sector. The model considered the provider context, the institutional context and the needs of individuals attempting to engage in innovations introduced by government in the VET sector.

When Mr Jones Took Grade 5 to the Sciencentre

Keith B. Lucas, Queensland University of Technology

This paper reports a visit to an interactive science centre by a class of 10 year old children planned and implemented by a teacher identified as exemplary by the science centre staff. The visit was planned to be an integral part of the science program for the term, extending the range and type of science activities which were a feature of the school science program. Data sources included observations of pre- and post-visit lessons, video and audio recordings of the teacher interacting with students during the visit, brief interviews with selected students immediately after they had interacted with exhibits in the science centre, and semi-structured interviews with six selected students and the teacher before and after the visit. Findings included that: learning occurred, including scientifically incorrect ideas gaining acceptance; students did not talk much among themselves about the science concepts of the exhibits; the posted instructions/ explanations at each exhibit were ignored by most students; and, post visit, students remembered what they did but had little recollection of anything that they had learnt during the visit. The teacher's activities during the visit predominantly involved sporadic and superficial questioning of students concerning their physical engagement with the exhibits. A major question arising from this research is whether there is a fundamental tension for students between "having fun" and "learning" - or as one child expressed it "the science centre is more fun than education," and whether the answer is the same for all students.

Microprocessor based laboratory activities as catalysts for student construction of understanding in physics

David Russell, Keith B. Lucas, and Campbell J. McRobbie, Queensland University of Technology

From the theoretical reference frame of constructivism, much of the rhetoric and positive research findings in support of microprocessor based laboratory (MBL) activities can be interpreted in terms of the increased opportunities for student-student interactions and peer group discussions about familiar and discrepant events. However, the rhetoric is not widely matched by practice. This research aimed to increase understanding of how MBL activities specifically designed to be consistent with a constructivist theory of learning support or constrain student construction of understanding. It was conducted in a Year 11 physics class taught by the first author. Seven activities relating to kinematics were prepared in predict-observe-explain format. Data sources included video and audio recordings of students and teacher during each laboratory session, computer records of all data sets recorded by students, students' written notes and reports, semi-structured interviews with selected students, and the teacher's reflections on each session. Analysis of students' discourse and actions revealed many instances where students' initial understanding of concepts of displacement, velocity and acceleration were challenged by the data presented on the computer screen, and their negotiation of new understanding was mediated in multiple and subtle ways by the computer display. Students invented numerous techniques for manipulating data in the service of their emerging understanding. Recommendations are made for development of appropriate pedagogical strategies incorporating MBL activities which will likely catalyse student construction of understanding.

Teaching and learning using interactive video conferencing: Screen-based classrooms require the development of new ways of working

Jo Luck, Central Queensland University

Since 1997 Central Queensland University (CQU) has extensively used interactive videoconferencing facilities to teach students located on it's Queensland based campuses. Very little training was available to staff who used the interactive videoconferencing facilities. It was assumed that face-to-face teaching skills would be directly transferable to the medium of videoconferencing. An internal report commissioned by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor indicated considerable staff dissatisfaction with teaching via the interactive videoconferencing facilities (Bigum & Appleton 1997).

This paper describes the results of a research project that analysed the process of teaching via interactive videoconferencing. This project used a two-day staff development workshop and a curriculum redesign process to develop a model of teaching using the interactive videoconferencing facilities that encouraged interaction between students and between staff and students. The videoconferencing model has some similarities to both the internal and external models of teaching. It also has some aspects unique to the communication medium.

Data were collected in the form of student comments, student focus groups and staff observations and reflections. The data was analysed using Sproull and Kiesler's (1991) two-level perspective of communication technologies. They argue that technologies have both efficiency effects and social system effects and that management tends to concentrate on the efficiency of a new technology and ignore the social system effects.

Sproull and Kiesler (1991) state that, the most significant effects of adopting a new communication technology may be not to let people do old things more efficiently but rather to do new things that were not possible or feasible with the old technology. Therefore, this paper argues that in order to maximise the benefits of the interactive videoconferencing facilities, the university needs to exploit the characteristics of the interactive videoconferencing that were not present in other communication media available to the lecturing staff.

Introducing internet technologies: A study in four Victorian state secondary schools.

Julianne Lynch La Trobe University.

At a time when opinions about the potential gains and risks that Internet technologies offer education are ten a penny, research is needed to investigate what really happens when these technologies are introduced into classrooms and schools. This paper reports on an exploratory study of the use of Internet technologies (email and the World Wide Web) in state secondary schools, drawing on data collected in four Victorian schools. Qualitative methods, including participant observation, interview, email correspondence and journalling, were used to identify issues that arise when Internet technologies are introduced into the already established cultures and social structures of classrooms and schools. The data were sorted into four areas which were the source of tensions when teachers incorporated the use of Internet technologies into their lessons: (1) the teachers - their confidence, competence, classroom management and authority, (2) resources and support - both human and IT resources, professional development and other support available, (3) the character of technology - the power relations surrounding it and people's beliefs about it, and (4) the structure of schooling - the ways in which space, time, knowledge and people are organised. The tensions surrounding these areas and their interaction will be discussed with reference to interview and research diary excerpts.

Moot courts as human technologies: a study of subjectification

Rod Maclean ,Deakin University

This paper is based on a case study of a number of moot or simulated courts undertaken by tertiary students as part of a law degree. Using a discourse analytic methodology I argue that these simulations can be seen as human technologies in Nikolas Rose's terms or modes of subjectification in Deleuze and Guattari's terms. I examine the implications of this analysis for a view of professional education, and ask particularly how modes of subjectification which are educational differ from non-educational modes.

'Survey of Students' Prior Arts Experience' :

Maree Macmillan RMIT ,Julie Rosewarne Monash University, Mararet Stephens University of Melbourne, Carolyn Broadbent,Australian Catholic University

This paper presents the findings of a survey designed to elucidate the arts experiences of Education students on entry to under-graduate, pre-service courses. The areas of the arts which the survey considers are dance, drama, and theatre, and both practical and theoretical aspects of the visual arts and music. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used to investigate the extent of students' attitudes to formal and informal arts experiences, both within and outside the school curriculum. The survey was conducted at four tertiary institutions across two states in Australia and involved approximately 350 first year education students from metropolitan and country campus locations.

This research seeks to determine the extent and level of specific arts-related skills and experiences undertaken by the students and, in particular, to assess the students' attitudes towards the arts. Three main attitudinal areas were investigated: firstly, the students' personal satisfaction with their arts experience before entry to the course; secondly, their perceptions of the importance of the arts in education; and lastly, their assessment of the importance of the arts in society as a whole.

Two conflicting worlds: Tongan mothers and New Zealand education system.

Lesieli MacIntyre ,Massey University

This paper outlines the adjustment process Tongan mothers go through when they migrate to New Zealand in order to give their children a 'good education'. The bulk of these women came in the late 80's when the then Labour Government allowed 'a no-visa-entry' to the country. Because there was no screening of visitors' qualifications, professional skills, or English language competecy carried out, these women took the opportunity to come and have access to education in New Zealand. The paper then examines the cross cultural experience of these women, in their involvements in schools. Their involvements in early childhood, primary and secondary school levels in Auckland have proved to be guided by their aspirations and expectations for their children's education. However, having come from a non-sophicated society, their perceptions of a ' good school', 'good teacher', 'good curriculum','good career', and a 'good education' differ greatly from that held by and among educators in New Zealand. As a result, Tongan mothers, although their school involvement decreases as their children move to higher levels, live in conflicting worlds, as they move around within the New Zealand Education system.

Investigating the inclusion of teachers, parents and students in curriculum leadership: Some emerging issues

Ian Macpherson, Ross Brooker and Tania Aspland, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will report on some pilot work emerging from a recently-completed ARC collaborative research project which theorised curriculum leadership for effective teaching and learning. The pilot work is enlarging the focus of stakeholders in curriculum leadership to include parents and students as well as teachers. The pilot work is being undertaken in a small number of primary and secondary schools in both country and metropolitan area in Queensland. The work is situated within a conceptual framework which seeks to celebrate a participatory view of curriculum decision-making which includes teachers, parents and students. The pilot work has proceeded within a methodological approach characterised as Action Research which is critial, collaborative and reconstructive. The emerging issues which are to be identified come from the use of lifeworld perspectives of teachers, parents and students. These perspectives are elicited as narratives and elaborated (as well as analysed) in a series of ongoing conversations with individual participants, groups of participants within and across schools. The emerging issues which will be presented in propositional form will become a basis for ongoing theorising about the inclusion of teachers, parents and students in curriculum leadership.

Moving from the local to the global in theorising curriculum leadership within an Action Research approach

Ross Brooker, Ian Macpherson and Tania Aspland, Queensland University of Technology

This paper reflects on a way of taking insights gained from investigations and actions at local sites to wider scrutiny and use in such areas as systemic policy and global comparisons.

The methodological approach taken in our work on curriculum leadership has been largely within an Action Research framework characterised as critical, collaborative and reconstructive. Much of our data has emerged from the use of lifeworld perspectives of teachers, parents and students (elicited as narratives and elaborated in a series of ongoing conversations and actions).

Action Research, however, is largely a local process. It is also an iterative process, and in our more recent work, we have begun experimenting with the use of what we call a hermeneutic spiral. Our definition of such a spiral invites critical friends both within local sites and wider contexts to critique and reconstruct our interpretations of data and actions. We contend that such an approach has the potential to incorporate local insights into broader unified alliances which, in turn, have the potential to transform local (and largely generative) data into more generalisable and universally useable data.

The reflective nature of the paper, then, lends itself to the identification of a research approach which blends the local and the global. Such an approach is not without its issues and ongoing challenges. The paper concludes with a proposed research approach along with a consideration of some of the issues and challenges.

Management of rural schools: what agendas are being met by clustering?

Lesley MacGibbon, Susan Besley and Alison Gilmore, University of Canterbury

Increasingly principals of small rural schools have found that they are being overwhelmed by the administrative requirements of managing their schools. In 1997 the Ministry of Education initiated the School Administrative Support Cluster project which focussed on assisting small schools to work together to explore and establish collaborative school administrative procedures.

In 1998 the Ministry contracted facilitators to assist clusters of schools develop proposals that were submitted for contestable funding. A variety of cluster proposals were provided with 'start-up funding' and facilitator support. These projects included a range of technology and personnel initiatives. Projects were expected to be ongoing and self funding once the initial grant had been expended.

During this period the Ministry was carrying out the Education Development Initiative (EDI) of reviewing and rationalising the number of small rural schools. Initially many schools were suspicious that the Schools Administrative Support Cluster project was a precursor to EDI's in their area.

In this paper we explore some of the agendas of those participating in the Schools Administrative Support Cluster project. What makes clustering successful? What are the barriers to clustering? What did schools hope to achieve by participating in this project? How did schools utilise the available resource? What are the outcomes for the schools involved? What are the outcomes for the Ministry? What effect has clustering had on the future of individual schools?

This discussion is based on our research of this project over the past two years. We have surveyed all schools involved in the project, interviewed facilitators, interviewed key Ministry personnel, and completed 20 case studies involving visits to schools and regular contact over a 12 month period.

Online delivery: A case study for meeting student needs

Martin Maguire and Des Matejka, Australian Catholic University

Faced with the issue of attracting sufficient post graduate students to study information technology course work units by traditional modes, selected graduates were surveyed to determine their ability and willingness to study these same units if offered in more flexible modes. Sufficient respondents indicated that they had access to suitable technology and a willingness to study these units.

This paper outlines the methodology and processes employed to develop the mixed mode learning model for the delivery of the Units to meet the varied needs of a widely dispersed group of students. It outlines implementation issues and problems and reports on techniques used to assess how well the various modes met the needs of the students. It concludes that students will be attracted to programs of study which meet their individual needs and allow them to take more control of when and where they learn.

Better than sliced bread: An evaluation of online delivery

Martin Maguire and Des Matejka, Australian Catholic University

The Internet has been adopted by an increasing number of Tertiary Institutions as a mode for Unit and course delivery. In many instances Web-based instruction replaces synchronous modes of delivery typified by face to face lectures and workshops, with asynchronous modes such as the World Wide Web and e-mail. The effect of this paradigm shift on the role of the learner is critical but has yet to be determined.

This paper will report on the analysis of data from unit evaluations and other students discussion which will attempt to paint a more complete picture of the changing role of the students as learners over the on-line study period. We will report on students needs and expectations, their experiences with technology adoption to access the study centre on the web site, the shifts in their knowledge skills and attitudes, their changing attitudes to the technology and how well the Unit meet the students needs and expectations. It is hoped that the study will provide the basis for the successful expansion of on-line delivery to other no information technology units in the MEd program.

"Initiating management training at the frontline" - a case study of the frontline management initiative staff development project at Swinburne TAFE 1998/1999

Des Mahoney, Swinburne University of Technology (TAFE division)

The Frontline Management Initiative (FMI) was developed in response to a national study that identified a need for improved management skills. This is a new approach to management training. The FMI is based on competencies, not curriculum. The competencies identified in the FMI program can be assessed and developed in the workplace.

Swinburne TAFE is one of eight sites funded by the Office of Training and Further Education (OTFE) to implement FMI as a staff development tool. Swinburne is a member of the "FMI Action Research Project", consisting of representatives from these eight sites.

The experiences of the Swinburne FMI team in implementing FMI, and their involvement in the FMI Action Research Project have provided valuable insights. The challenges involved in implementing FMI as a staff development program will mirror those of other Institutes in the future.

The challenges were manifold: ie gaining commitment from participants, senior management, providing resources, infrastructure, and flexible means of delivering and assessing these competencies. This was all implemented in the face of an unexpected merger. Despite these challenges, 20 out of 37 participants completed their FMI qualification, 6 are continuing, and 11 have withdrawn. Valuable infrastructure, experience, qualifications, resources, commitment from participants and senior management were achieved.

This report, and the accompanying presentation at the AARE-NZARE conference will provide detailed results, information, and recommendations from which other Institutes can reflect, discuss and learn.

"An undebated conundrum in the ethics of classroom research: The conflicting rights of researcher, teacher and student within an agenda of reform"

Merridy Malin,Nortern Territory University

Ethnographic research brings the researcher into intimate, extended contact with the researched. If well done, a close rapport between participants is nurtured, defences are let down and life proceeds almost 'as normal'. This scenario lends itself to ethical dilemmas. Codes of ethics do not assist in resolving the conflicts between human rights and professional responsibilities. Unresolved, these dilemmas threaten an intellectual and social paralysis in a new environment of rigorous ethical awareness and accountability. This paper explores these issues in the context of research in classrooms where students' interests may conflict with those of their teachers and where the researcher's responsibilities to the profession may conflict with their responsibilities to certain members of the researched. The threat of litigation is a further constraint.

I will illustrate this scenario by revisiting, behind the scenes, my own widely published research in Aboriginal Education (Malin 1990, 1991, 1994, 1997). I will explore what 'harm' may mean and how ethnographers in the past have attempted to avoid it. I will consider the possible harm I may have generated by publishing and the harm I would have been covering up had I not.

In an effort to redress conflicting ethical responsibilities, I will speculate on possible alternative outcomes had I employed a different research paradigm, specifically participatory action research, or a different style of reporting, specifically creative non-fiction. In doing this I will briefly explore the respective strengths and weaknesses of these two approaches with regard to my own work and to the issue of rigour in qualitative research.

This paper explores alternative paradigms which may help avoid ethical dilemmas inherent in realist interpretive classroom ethnographies. Through revisiting my own doctoral research I highlight a conflict between the ethical issues of harm and the responsibility of publishing one's findings. In publishing my findings which document the process of social and academic marginalisation of Aboriginal students in a classroom, I risk undermining the confidence of the particular teacher despite abiding by ethical tenets such as anonymity, confidentiality and informed consent. By not publishing, I am complicit in the racism which was an unintentional consequence of the social organisation of this classroom.

School experiences and student outcomes: A case of Anglo-Australian andChinese-Australian high school students.

Cross-cultural studies have documented that children from East Asian migrant families settled in the 'Western' countries take their schoolwork seriously and aim to achieve high grades. Many of them are labelled as 'model students'. By comparison, many students from the majority group spend less time in academic activities and tend to perform at a lower level than their ability would suggest.

In this paper the author describes the attitude towards schoolwork and experiences of fourteen high school students from eight Anglo-Australian and Chinese-Australian families residing in Perth, Western Australia. Children from these families studied at a high school where the author has been teaching for several years. In this longitudinal study data is reported on teenagers' attitude towards schoolwork, their classroom interactions, teacher expectations and students' perceptions of teachers' expectations in order to illustrate the differences.

Curriculum reform in New Zealand:What is really being done and is it worth the trouble?

Heather Mansell,University of Waikato

The Curriculum Framework reforms of the 90s have differed markedly from past curriculum change in New Zealand in their scope, structure, process and impact on schools. As with most reform the driving force was the promise of improvements to children's learning. This paper will report on the findings from a new study of seven diverse schools, primary and secondary, in the greater Waikato region, which was designed to explore both the specific and cumulative effects of school reform. The study employed wide-ranging interviews with principals, teachers and Board of Trustees' members. The thread traced in this paper is the impact of the curriculum and associated assessment reforms on aspects of their and their students' work.

Teachers' positive response to the new curriculum documents might surprise those who critiqued the framework's ideology, structure, process of development and applicability. With regard to the implementation of the curriculum there is no doubt that the impact has been huge in its implications for teachers' work. It has steered their workload, programmes, planning, assessment and professional development. However the evidence of gains for student learning is less clear.

Video Analysis: A qualitative tool for investigating students'learning in a constructivist oriented multimedia in a science classroom

Dorit Maor,Curtin University of Technology and Ken Knibb Edith Cowan University

A new software package VideoSearch" which is a Macintosh multimediaresearch tool for analysing digital video was used to analyse classroomobservations. VideoSearch" can digitise video from a video cassetterecorder or video camera and store it on a computer as a QuickTime movie.Texts can be attached to each instance within an episode and this text canbe searched. Events in this movie can then be coded for analysis by meansof user defined categories. In this study coding categories based oninquiry learning were developed both prior to the video analysis.Additional categories were developed while the researcher viewed the videosegments and were based on student interactions with a constructivistoriented multimedia program. Analyses of three types of episodes fromvideo segments will be presented and discussed in order to investigatestudents' learning. Episodes from video segments include students workingin pairs conducting investigations based on the program, studentspresenting their experiences of their process of investigation to theirclass and the researcher, during an interview following the lesson, probingthe students' reflections on their learning. An advantage of working withthe video analysis is a greater access to a fuller context for qualitativedata analyses. This allows for a better understanding of the socialprocesses of students' learning. However, the time required and the levelof intensive analysis may make it a difficult process to undertake.

Longitudinal surveys of young people: what can they provide, and how do Australia's data compare with other international studies?

Phillip McKenzie (ACER)

This presentation will serve as an introduction to the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) project and the data and analyses it provides. It will trace the development of longitudinal studies in Australia and compare these with longitudinal programs in other OECD countries.

Changing patterns of tertiary education participation in Australia.

Stephen Lamb and Michael Long (ACER)

This paper will examine the relationships between participation in tertiary education (higher education and VET) and gender, social background, school system, earlier school achievement and attitudinal differences in Australia over the period from the early 1980s to the late 1990s. Because the paper will incorporate both of the major sectors of tertiary education it will enable a fuller examination of equity and access issues than analyses that focus on either higher education or VET.

A critical analysis of the view that the tutor's role in problem-based learning is to facilitate rather than teach

Don Margetson, Griffith University

A commonly-held view in problem-based learning is that the tutor's role is not to teach but to facilitate. Consequent confusion is not uncommon, with doubts over the moral value and worth of knowledge and learning in problem-based curricula. A major source of this view is traced to approaches which over emphasise subjectivity at the expense of wider considerations and which espouse the progressive side of a dubious dichotomy between traditional and progressive education. This, in turn, is traced to rationalist and empiricist epistemologies which share questionable assumptions and prevent resolution of the supposed opposition between teaching and facilitating. The paper seeks to show that the opposition stems from a misconception which may be overcome through Bhaskarian realist theory. This, in returning ontology to a central position in relation to epistemology and thereby avoiding anthropomorphism and the epistemic fallacy, enable relations between persons and their world to be understood in a way which avoids both self-centred subjectivism and naive objectivism. As a result, an opposition between teaching and facilitation can be seen to arise from a misconception which equates teaching with naive objectivism and facilitation with self-centred subjectivism. Instead, teaching is seen to be potentially educative in so far as it facilitates sound learning. On this view, problem or question-focused teaching is seen to be the best way of achieving, or facilitating, educative learning.

The enterprise university comes toAustralia

Simon Marginson, Monash University,

In the last decade there have been very major changes in the political economy and organisational cultures of Australian universities, in the context of globalisation and the positioning of institutions in the global sphere, the partial withdrawal of state funding, and marketisation. These changes have not been simply driven from outside by external forces. Universities have been complicit in and active agents of their own transformation, and responses to (and attempts to shape) the larger environment in which higher education is practised have varied significantly between institutions. These changes were investigated in a three year (1995-1997) Australian Research Council project, which included case studies conducted in 17 of the 36 large doctoral universities. The project focused on governance and management because it is largely here that relations between external forces and internal agents are mediated, and institutional identity, mission and strategic orientation are formulated. The study found:

• The shift in organisational culture towards models derived from business is greater than expected;

The impact of practice on precept in technology education -

Brent Mawson, Auckland college of Education

Research in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand has clearly established a close relationship between a teacher's personal construct of technology and their delivery of technology in the classroom setting. Little research however,has been focussed on the extent to which this initial construct is affected by the experience of planning and teaching technology and the evidence so far is much more ambiguous. This paper focusses on the results of case studies of seven New Zealand primary school teachers. Their prior experience with technology and initial construct provided the reference point against which the pedagogical and conceptual changes which occurred as the result of planning, teaching, and assessing technology during the year were measured. While primarily concentrating on the impact of their experience on their understanding of technology, a number of wider issues that emerged during the study with regard to teacher training, professional development, curriculum implementation and teacher collegiality are also discussed.

Building teaching identities: Implications for preservice teacher education

Diane Mayer, University of Queensland

This paper reflects critically on continuities and changes in research on learning to teach during the past two decades and the resultant impact on teacher education, and takes up the challenge to reconstruct and revision preservice teacher education for the new millennium. It examines the stories of four preservice teachers as they learn to teach in their primary teacher preparation program. The stories highlight the individualised and contextualised learning journeys of each of these preservice teachers as they deal with the influence of their personal biographies and negotiate the social and political contexts of the preservice teacher education environment. The paper analyses these learning journeys by drawing out issues around the construction of teaching identities, and assesses, through a postmodern lens, implications for preservice teacher education.

What Arthur Jensen (and many others) have overlooked

Geraldine McDonald, University of Wellington

Thirty years ago Arthur Jensen made strong claims about the relative abilities of Black and White high school students in the United States. He argued that there was stability in the average differences in their scores. Jensen's data, collected originally by Audrey Shuey and spanning 50 years did not take into account two pieces of worthwhile knowledge. First as De Lemos demonstrated in the 1980s IQ tests standardised on school children measure level of schooling rather than age. However, the scoring system of IQ tests designed for school children assumes maturational increments and hence the raw scores must be adjusted for chronological age in order to obtain an IQ. The second bit of worthwhile knowledge concerns age distributions at levels of education systems. Demographic data typically show shifts in age distributions over time, and differences by school, region and gender. The effect of the interaction of age norms and population distributions on the average scores of samples of school children will be demonstrated. It will be argued that stability in the IQ scores of any one population group is highly unlikely not because of shifts in intelligence but because of the factors that control cohort progress through school.

Practice tells the story and sets the challenges: The culture of leadership influencing school management

E. Jacqueline McGilp Australian Catholic University

Much has been written about effective schools, the culture of schools and building learning communities with particular emphasis on leadership under many titles - cultural, educative, authentic, servant and pastoral. Leadership is frequently articulated within responsibilities of implementing a shared vision and providing quality practice. Towards the third millenium leadership is recognised at all levels of an organisation with management structures of schools suggesting that leadership can be shared according to positions of responsibility, while acknowledging the professional competence of those concerned.

In this paper the perceptions of one hundred and fifty educationalists - principals, deputies, coordinators and classroom teachers from both the primary and secondary sectors of education - are presented. They tell of their experiences of leadership and what is important for them in exercising their leadership roles. The perceptions of the educationalists describe the culture and management of schools. They clearly articulate characters of culture and management which are congruence with, or differ from, descriptions of a learning community. The characteristics can be traced within different leadership approaches. The educationalists' perceptions show their levels of satisfaction within their designated leadership roles. The paper particularly addresses school improvement through changing leadership styles with attention to the key themes and approaches in management and organisational development -those of wanting, designing, acquiring and caring (Patching, 1999).

Professional development, classroom practice and student outcomes: Exploring the connections in early literacy development

Barbra McKenzie and Jan Turbill, University of Wollongong

One of the core aims for the implementation of teacher professional development programs is ultimately to improve student outcomes. Since 1996 the Broken Bay Catholic Diocese in NSW has been utilising the language and literacy program known as Frameworks as the staff development component for their three year literacy initiative. The program has two modules: the teacher module of the Frameworks program focuses upon developing links between current literacy theory, teacher learning and classroom practice; and the student module focuses upon three measures of student literacy acquisition implemented in the classroom by classroom teachers.

In this paper, the authors explore the changes reported by both teachers and students in a range of areas, including knowledge of literacy teaching and learning, changes in classroom practices and in assessment practices. They also discuss some of the methodological issues used in the initial study As a result of the initial research a three year Industry grant (SPIRT) has been awarded by the Australian Research Council to assist the University of Wollongong and the Catholic School Office, Broken Bay Diocese to complete further research in this area. This research is attempting to explore the links between teacher learning, student learning and classroom practice.

The paper will discuss some of the theoretical and practical issues that have arisen in relation to early literacy development.

"Just make friends, that's the most important thing!" School transition and making friends. The concerns and worries of children with illness and disability.

Anne McMaugh & Ray Debus,University of Sydney

The ability to make friends and keep friends is widely regarded as a critical social endeavour to be mastered throughout childhood. Children themselves report that friendships are one of the most important features of their young lives while researchers report that an absence of friendships is potentially detrimental. Disturbingly, children with disabilities or chronic illness are frequently reported to suffer peer rejection and social maladjustment. This report first examines the notion of 'social adjustment' as it pertains to a population of children who are regarded as 'vulnerable' to maladjustment. Secondly, the report considers social adjustment among children with chronic conditions during the salient developmental period of high school transition. Reports from 25 children with chronic physical conditions illustrate their concerns as they progress from Year 6 to Year 7.

Academics on-line: A study of academics adapting to web-based teaching

Kim McShane, La Trobe University

In writing about the subjective effects of Internet technology, Turkle (1995) argues that any technology 'changes us as people, changes our relationships and sense of ourselves.' What happens to academics' identities and beliefs about teaching when they embark on web-based teaching?

Taylor, Quadrelli & Lopez (1996) note that the move to implement more flexible modes of delivery using communication and information technologies can act as a catalyst for the transformation of academics' teaching identity and roles. They observe that while these changes can be quite stressful, they may also contribute to the creation of conditions for greater professional involvement and satisfaction.

This paper will present analysed transcript data collected from interviews with university teachers who are engaged in online teaching. The material reveals some early insights into academic staff perceptions of their teaching identity, teaching philosophies, and teaching roles in mixed-mode delivery subjects. Additional methods in the research include narrative and critical incident analysis, and the observation of academics as they manage their online teaching and interact with their students online.

The voices, beliefs and individual interpretations of each of the 10 staff participants in the study are represented as they engage in critical reflection on their online teaching persona/s and practices during the study. The project aims to inform the research and conduct of academic staff development in the areas of flexible learning and web-based instruction.

Marginal pleasures: Teachers, transgression and transformation

Donna Pendergast and Erica McWilliam, Queensland University of Technology

This paper interrogates the productive possibilities of teaching 'in the margins'. We begin by noting the work done by poststructural scholars to rethink the geometry of margins and centres, given the capillary and shifting nature of power. We apply this understanding to a small group of self-designated marginal individuals teaching in a marginal school subject. What emerges from this doctoral study is a picture of these marginal individuals as pleasured in many respects by their very marginality. While they engage in moments of transgression, these are not mobilised by any intent to subvert hegemonic schooling practice: indeed, it is this very practice which allows such teachers the privilege of their transgressive Otherness and greater popularity with students. The distinctions made by Michel Foucault between 'moderation/ immoderation' and 'continence/incontinence' in the construction of the ethical individual are used to examine this issue more fully.

Irony deficiency and educational research

Erica McWilliam, Queensland University of Technology

Most educational research in education is conducted to solving problems or to advocate for the needs of a particular group of individuals. Such projects usually attempt to familiarise the researcher with phenomena that are as yet unfamiliar. By contrast, ironic research seeks to raise questions about the familiar world by studying it as strange or unfamiliar. Taking a genealogical approach is one way of doing this; the strategic use of literary criticism is another. In this paper, I consider the importance of maintaining tension between 'problem-solving' and 'ironic' research in the conceptualisation and performance of educational thinking. My intent is to challenge the hegemonic view that problem-solving or advocacy are the only defensible rationales for conducting research in education. I make the case that ironic texts are necessary both to a liberal order of thought and to the field of educational practice.

Corporatising the teacher: new professional identities in education

Erica McWilliam, Caroline Hatcher, Daphne Meadmore,Queensland Institute of Technology

In this paper, we examine the impact of corporate practice on schooling and on teachers' professional development at the end of the millennium. We argue that the production of new forms of knowledge is creating new sites of struggle over who owns educational knowledge, and this has profound implications for professional identity formation in all areas of social and economic endeavour, including education. As schools are re-shaped into corporations, school administrators and teachers are under increasing pressure to improve their productivity and to develop themselves as enterprising leaders and managers in a culture of performativity. To do so they are drawing more and more heavily on the growing non-academic literature of self-improvement and self-development. We express our concerns that such literature tends to value mindless optimism over radical doubt.

Infusing critical thinking in teaching educational theory

Helen Melville Jones ,Edith Cowan University

This paper addresses the problem of perceived lack of relevance reported by students enrolled in critical thinking courses that are peripheral to their main course of study. After an overview of the generally accepted ways of teaching critical thinking, and consideration of contentious issues related to each of them, the paper examines a critical thinking course taught in a university School of Education to prospective teachers. It suggests that for these students a solution to the problem of perceived lack of relevance is the infusion of critical thinking into an educational context.

Teaching thinking skills; mapping the arguments for curriculum choices revisited

Helen Melville Jones and Bruce Haynes ,Edith Cowan University

This paper explores the teaching of thinking through description and analysis of the infusion approach, as exemplified in the work of Robert Swartz and Sandra Parks. After consideration of a substantive contentious issue raised by the analysis, the paper considers the logic of curriculum decisionmaking in relation to choice of ways of teaching thinking.

Negotiating curriculum in tertiary ESOL

Gavin Melles, The Waikato Polytechnic

The professional discourse of second language curriculum is punctuated by a number of key terms: communicative language teaching, learner-centredness, learner outcomes. These terms emerge in the texts which institutions use to orient curriculum, in the texts teachers create in corridors and office spaces, and in the feedback students give to practitioners and institution on their curriculum agendas. Teachers, administration and learners negotiate the meaning and scope of these terms in their interactions within and without the classroom and create unique curriculum products as a result.

Negotiation has been discussed and explored as articulating the teacher-student interface in communicative learner-centred syllabus design. Negotiation is used in classroom instruction contexts to refer to ways in which learners negotiate meaning from language input in interactional settings to achieve acquisition, there is little work in second language education on the significance and function of negotiation as an element of a three-way contract between administration, teachers and learners. Unless this interface in the social dynamics of curriculum creation is explored from 'within' (insider research), evaluation of the theory-practice gap and other academic-practitioner discontinuities cannot be critically grounded. The work discussed in this paper forms part of the author's ongoing doctoral work on negotiation in curriculum construction and refers to some ongoing work on teacher research and critical ethnography of teacher beliefs and reflective practice in a workplace tertiary setting.

Sitting in rows and teaching on-line: Life-histories, technology & pedagogy 1900 - 2000.'

Sue Middleton,University of Waikato

This printed paper and Power Point slide-show begins with a reflexive account of my multi-media (including on-line) teaching of an educational theory course to pre-service teachers. This frames an oral history of affinities and discontinuities between teachers' classroom practices, 'official' pedagogical discourses, and new technologies as they have interacted in the course of the twentieth century. Life-history interviews with 75 former and practising teachers provides the narrative data. Returning to my 'present', and armed with a 'tool-kit' of Foucauldian , geographic, and feminist theory, I conclude with speculations on the educational significance at the new millenium of time-space compression in relation to place. Does teaching on-line as we now know it radically alter pedagogical relations? Are we yet experiencing the 'something else' of post-modernity?

Participant teachers' views of the resource teacher learning And behaviour initiative in New Zealand

George Middleton and Laurie Loper ,Maeroa Intermediate School

Part of the current Special Education 2000 restructuring of Special Education in New Zealand focuses on students with learning and behaviour difficulties. Positions titled Resource Teachers Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) have been created as a new national, school cluster-based resource.Waikato, in the central North Island, was the first education district to have the new service operating (July 1998). The implementation of the service in the Waikato district is being independently researched. As participating teachers, we report on the everyday reality of working amidst paradigm dissonances. These are experienced at multiple levels,including: policy formation at both school and cluster levels; the operation of inclusion technologies versus current classroom practices; and operating ecologically based consultation models, particularly where the issue is teacher competence. There is little match between: the group delivering service and the clients they serve;and between the size of the problem and the intervention approach used.There are tensions between the Ministry of Education's accounting practices and the ecological based training we are receiving.

This continues a theme of a previous paper The Challenge of Providing Support Services in New Zealand for Years 0 - 10 Students Placed At Risk presented by the authors at the AERA Annual Meeting, Easter 1998 in San Diego.

Boys in schools: the strategic use of masculinities

Dr. Vicki Carrington, , University of Tasmania Dr. Martin Mills, University of Queensland

In Australia, as in many other western industrialized societies, "boys" have come to dominate the gender equity landscape in education. In the main, the direction of this debate has been steered by those articulating a "poor boys" discourse. However, a number of feminist and profeminist engagements with this debate, whilst countering many of the simplistic claims made through such discourses, have argued that schools need toproblematize dominant constructions of masculinity. The central question facing those working with boys in schools from such perspectives is: "How can boys be encouraged to relinquish the social advantages which accrue from the pursuit of hegemonic constructions of masculinity?" This paper will draw on interview data collected from boys in two Queensland State High Schools and will utilize a number of sociological concepts drawn from Bourdieu (1977, 1984, 1991) to demonstrate how these students strategically performed a variety of masculinities in ways which sought to maximize their gender privileges whilst also protecting themselves from the possibility of being constructed as 'other'. For many of these boys there was an awareness that in some contexts, what Bourdieu would call 'social spaces', there are costs attached to the pursuit of traditional conceptions of masculinity (for example, in the classroom) while in other fields these same practices pay high social dividends. Boys are often aware of such tensions, and thus despite their knowledges of the variety of potential masculinities open to them, they will only access those which are strategically 'safe', that is, those that offer pay-offs in the immediate context. The task for those working in schools to promote more just gender arrangements will thus be to provide a context which rewards non-dominant gender experimentations.

The knowledge of communication skills of secondary graduate student teachers and their understanding of the relationship between communication skills and teaching

Sue Saunders and Mary Anne Mills, Wellington College of Education

Effective communication skills are essential to good teaching practice. This paper discusses how these skills are acquired and integrated during a teacher education course. Secondary graduate student teachers, in a one year teaching diploma, were offered the option of a selected course in effective communications. The high uptake of this course caused reflection about the perceived knowledge of communication skills held by students at the pre-entry level. A research project was developed to look at the pre-entry knowledge of communication skills and the acquisition of these skills throughout the year. The base information was established by interviewing a sample of the secondary student teachers to assess their knowledge prior to entering the course. The subsequent four interviews showed the development of these skills and indicated where and how the student teachers thought this acquisition had taken place.

This paper describes the significance of effective communication skills for teaching and presents the findings from the data collected. The implications of this information for teacher educators will be discussed.

Lecturer attachment scheme: Professional development and beyond

Angela Mok,&Alice Chow,Hong Kong Institute of Education

The Lecturer Attachment Scheme (LAS) advocated in the Hong Kong Institute of Education aims at creating opportunities for the teaching staff to update their school teaching experience, participate in a real school setting and experience the work life of local teachers. Through the school attachment, the teacher educator will not only update their teaching experience and possibly build collaborative relationship with schools in staff development and research activities.

This paper describes two lecturers from the English Department of the Hong Kong Institute of Education who joined the Institute's attachment Scheme for their own professional benefit and development. During the two-week attachment period, the lecturers took over English teaching duties from two regular teachers and worked closely with the teachers. All their lessons were observed by the regular teachers and were video-taped. The lecturers tried different teaching approaches such as the incorporation of big books for the teaching of reading and materials adaptation. The lecturers brought with them what they perceive as 'good' language teaching in the classroom and attempted to verify whether theory and practice can be coherently integrated.

Field notes and journal data recording the lecturers' reflection and experience on the scheme and interview data probing into the teachers' evaluation of the LAS will be presented. It is affirmed that such attachment scheme can enhance professional development both for the teacher educators and for the teachers. It also enabled an avenue for follow-up school-based collaborative projects

Educating individuals as active agents in an era of global communication

Education played a substantial role in the nation building process from the nineteenth century onwards, involving students into a dominant culture. The institution of school at that time was more closely tied to the interests of the state than in a current era, because the nation state was less able to impose social integration. Identification with the dominant culture as means of social integration from the nineteenth century became more important than loyalty to the state in terms of obedience to the authorities by means of the law. In the current era the role of mass education has been significantly changed. The cultural homogeneity does not occupy the central place in the 'national' politics because a nation state as a political entity can offer less. The new types of social integration in a form of orientation in a world itself reconstituted by information and technological change have increased within a growing commodification of social life.

The paper argues that within this context there is a need for development of an individual as active agent. Education needs to promote the development of an individual who is potentially capable of dealing with a complex world. This development is required because it can save an individual from getting lost in an era of global communication.

School reports: Individualisation, normalisation and the construction of schooled identities

Kellie Morrison, University of Newcastle

School reports are an enduring and universal feature of modern schooling which have been overlooked by educational researchers and taken for granted by many educators. This neglect exists despite the fact that they represent a very visible and valued aspect of students' tangible records of assessment. Certainly, while much debate has occurred concerning assessment of students, little discussion has centred on school reports themselves. Further, while there have been studies linking gender and assessment, the general focus has been on levels of girls' and boys' participation and performance and not on ways in which methods of reporting contribute to the social construction of gender or the ways in which the language individualises and normalises "schooled students". This paper addresses this gap by exploring the ways in which school reports individualise and normalise the "schooled student", with a particular focus on the how comments construct notions of femininity. Completed school reports were examined to consider ways in which various students were constructed throughout their schooling years. The collected reports span more than 50 years, and hence this study allows for comparisons to be drawn between past and present constructions of students in school reports.

Jumping in at the deep end: Some problems associated with undertaking research into adult second language acquisition in a natural situation

Carol Morris, LaTrobe University

Adult second language acquisition is the subject of much recent research. As many adults learn a second language in a formal classroom situation, much of the research has taken place in that setting. It allows the researcher to control many of the variables and thus to verify or disprove hypotheses. However, research that has concentrated on how adults acquire language in the informal immersion situation is limited. Reasons for is include the unwieldy nature of the research and the difficulty in controlling variables. This paper presents research that is presently being carried out to inquire into aspects of adult second language acquisition in natural environments, and discusses problems that have been encountered in the process.

SYMPOSIUM
"Do I Beat 'Em or Join 'Em?" Individual and Collective Adaptations Leading to School Success Among Minority Group Students in Australia.

Geoff Munns and Karen Faulkner, University of Western Sydney, Mark McFadden and Lee Simpson, Charles Sturt University

The symposium will consider school success among two very different minority groups in Australia. To do this it will draw on two research projects in progress. The first is looking at factors affecting retention and success among groups of Aboriginal Australian school students who are remaining at school in the post-compulsory years. The second is considering the polarisation of Vietnamese Australian secondary school students around associated points of school achievement and behaviour. On the face of it these groups seem to share very little in their relationships with education, schooling and Australian society, except they are both the most frequent targets of racist behaviour (Viviani, 1996). The symposium then takes up questions surrounding the nature and experiences of schooling for Australia's original inhabitants and owners in comparison to those of one of its most significant recent immigrant groups. These questions will be considered within frameworks developed by Ogbu (1992, 1999) which differentiate between adaptations to school, education and society among "involuntary minority" and "voluntary minority" groups.

PLAN:
The Symposium will operate on three levels. The first will establish a framework of beliefs, interpretations and adaptations to education among minority groups by utilising Ogbu's research. The second will draw on and illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the framework through a discussion of respective research into Aboriginal Australian and Vietnamese Australian secondary school students. The third will encourage participants to discuss and test the framework in light of both the presentations and their own research and experiences with education and minority groups. It is at this point in the symposium that, through understanding the responses to schooling of some Aboriginal and Vietnamese minority students, there may be a consideration of what works, fails and needs to be changed in the education of different minority groups in Australia. It is envisaged that the Symposium will allow for contribution and interaction within all three levels. As a result of the Symposium, a summary statement will be made available to all participants.

"A Room With All Views?": The Aboriginal Community Room as a site and metaphor

Geoff Munns, University of Western Sydney Lee Simpson and Sue Clancy, Charles Sturt University

The Baiyai Research Project has been looking at the nature of classroom relationships between young Aboriginal learners and their teachers. Its theoretical, empirical and epistemological foundations are captured in its Wiradjuri title: Baiyai means "meeting place of two parties". The project brings together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal researchers, teachers and community members and considers all of their perspectives in the collection and analysis of data and the dissemination of results. This paper considers how productive personal and pedagogical relationships can be catalysed and formed within the hub of schools' Aboriginal community rooms if there is a genuine "Baiyai". If this is the case, the community room is then both a critical school site and a metaphor for effective, inclusive and empowering curriculum.

Teaching in the postmodern era: A new understanding of the problem of teacher stress

Valerie Munt, Flinders University

Over the last decade, work related stress in teaching has mushroomed into an occupational hazard of significant proportions (Dinham, 1993, p. 13). As one of the largest employers in South Australia, the Department of Education Training and Employment is naturally concerned. Nevertheless, the medical and management approaches adopted thus far, have yielded little real understanding of this burgeoning problem and even less of a solution (Kyriacou, 1989; Otto; 1986; Fielding, 1997).

This paper explores the problem of 'teacher stress' from a different perspective - the sociological point of view. As Kivinen & Rinne (1998) point out, 'education', in the late nineteen nineties, is offered as a solution for almost every social problem, by governments of all persuasions, and this perceived social and economic role cannot but create an area of tension between teachers and government administrators as the work of teachers is increasingly intensified and monitored.

In the firm belief that 'teacher stress ' is one of the 'effects' of rapid social and economic change and its impact upon schools, I intend to use ethnographic narratives and day-to-day experiences of teachers to investigate the real factors contributing to the loss of morale, physical and intellectual exhaustion that constitute the condition labelled 'teacher stress'.

A cross cultural comparison of student concerns in the teaching practicum

Rosalind Murray-Harvey and Halia Silins, Flinders University

There is general consensus in the literature that students consider the practicum to be a highly valued component of their teaching education degree. Nevertheless, there are wide ranging concerns reported by students related to their teaching practice. This paper reports on these concerns in the form of a cross cultural comparison of an Australian and a Singapore sample of students.

Singapore and Australian students completing their first practicum independently responded to a questionnaire based on the Survey of Practicum Stresses (D'Rozario & Wong, 1996). The psychometric properties of their seven-factor model were tested using the Australian data. This resulted in a four-factor model, which was confirmed using structural equation procedures. Details of effective but under-employed analysis techniques are presented. This model was employed subsequently to provide cross-cultural comparisons of student concerns in the teaching practicum. Significant differences between the stresses experienced by Singapore and Australian students point to the need to understand student stress within a cultural context.

A learning environment study -Transition from senior secondary to higher education

Chenicheri Sid. Nair and Darrell L. Fisher ,Curtin University of Technology,Perth

The purpose of this study was to modify and validate a new form of theColleges and Universities Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI), and to then use it to compare students' and instructors' actual and preferred perceptions of their classroom learning environments at the senior secondary and tertiary levels of education. The modifications to the CUCEIincluded personalising the items before it was used to assess the perceptions of students and the incorporation of two new scales, namely,the Cooperation and Equity scales. The study also examined the attitudes of 504 students to their science courses. The reliabilities of the scales of the modified CUCEI ranged from 0.73 to 0.94. When the two levels were compared, students at the higher education level had a less favourable perception of the learning environment. A sample of 24 instructors generally perceived their environment more favourably than their students, however, senior secondary instructors viewed the learning environment more favourably than the instructors at the tertiary level. Students at the tertiary level preferred a more positive attitude in terms of the satisfaction with science courses and the level of difficulty. There was no difference in their attitude to the speed of delivery of science courses.

The effect of learning strategy instruction: A classroom strategy

Robyn Najar ,Flinders University Adelaide<

The purpose of the study reported here was twofold. First, to test the generalizability of research in cognitive strategy instruction to the field of second language acquisition (SLA), and second, to integrate learner and task variables in order to examine transfer of learning strategies in the second language context. In this study both learner variables and task parameters were investigated for their effect on notetaking strategy instruction and transfer as it affected comprehension of textual materials in the language learning context. Participants included 338 first-year learners enrolled in a core English course at a Japanese institute of technology. Of the 338 learners, 203 were assigned to the control group and 135 to the treatment group. The treatment group was instructed in a notetaking strategy and then the effectiveness of the strategy instruction was measured by comprehension of text materials. This was followed by two transfer tests. All participants were pretested, post-tested and completed two transfer tests. Learner variables were addressed through questionnaires and discussion sessions which probed the learners' metacognitive awareness of the strategy and its use. Consistent with research in learning strategy instruction and transfer, this study revealed that successful training programs must include strategy evaluation, varied practice, and enough time on strategy training to allow for learning. Congruent with transfer research in problem solving, task conditions such as content were found to effect performance. These findings have important implications for educators and researchers and serve as a reminder that classroom learning is a complex process.

Concrete analog models and the teaching of fractions

Kathy Charles,Rod Nason & Tom Cooper,Queensland University of Technology

This paper reports on a study which evaluated the efficacy of six concrete analog models frequently used in the teaching/learning of the partitive quotient fraction construct: pizzas, pancakes, pikelets, icecream bars, apple pies and licorice straps. In the study, twelve purposively selected (Patton, 1990) Year 3 children were presented with partitioning (partitive quotient) problems set in a simulated restaurant setting where they assumed the roles of waiters and waitresses serving pizzas, pancakes, pikelets, icecream bars, apple pies and licorice straps to the customers. The data gathering technique used was the clinical or mixed method technique of Ginsburg, Kossan, Schwartz, and Swanson (1983) which is a combination of Piaget's clinical interview and the talk aloud procedures of Ericsson and Simon (1984). The clinical interviews and talk-aloud protocols together with non-participant observations of a second researcher were conducted within an interpretative methodology incorporating the Hermeneutic Dialectic Circle.

The efficacy of the contexts engendered by the concrete analog models was evaluated according to: (i) ecological validity (i.e., how realistic the sharing context engendered by the analog object), (ii) abstraction-ability (i.e., how well the context facilitated the abstraction from the source concrete analog to the target partitive quotient fraction construct), and (iii) ease of partitioning (i.e., how easy was the analog model to physically partition). A measure of how well the context facilitated the abstraction from the source concrete analog to the target partitive quotient fraction construct also was judged with respect to the quality and quantity of interrelated tasks generated by the analog model, and the quality of partitioning strategies promoted by the analog model.

Great variance was found in the efficacy of the contexts engendered by the six concrete analog models. This has important implications for the initial teaching/learning of the partitive quotient fraction construct.

Adolescent students' multiple goals for learning mathematics

Chi-hung Ng, University of Queensland

Researchers in goal orientation studies have successfully demonstrated the distinct effects of two separate single learning goals, mastery and performance goal. To advance the understanding of learning goals, a new research direction should be geared towards exploring the notion of multiple goals. Recent work in the field has also called for the study of multiple goals. However it is not clear how multiple goals should be conceptualised. Should multiple goals be understood as students having three to four separate learning goals? Or should these goals be conceptualised as related or connected in some manner? This paper advances the latter position and theorises goals as connected in a systematic network. Qualitative data gathered from indepth interviews were employed to corroborate this network perspective of multiple goals. In general, high achieving students tended to have a more complicated goal network than low achieving students, which provided them with a strong motivation to master the knowledge and to perform well.

Reciprocal relationships between knowledge structures and motivation to learn.

Chi-Hung Ng and Nan Bahr, University of Queensland

Historically, research has separately investigated the role of prior knowledge structure and the importance of motivation in learning engagement. Limited attention has been given to the reciprocal effects of these two influences. In this paper we present a theoretical model that may explain the reciprocal relationship between domain specific knowledge and domain specific motivation. Contemporary research demonstrates that individuals develop complex structural networks of domain knowledge. We propose that domain specific knowledge may contribute to an individual's motivation to engage in learning and may in turn act on future knowledge construction. While we adhere to the importance of domain specificity, we propose that overlap between domains at a deep structural level may strengthen the reciprocal effects between knowledge and motivation. Research in this area will benefit the development of pedagogical approaches that may better serve to develop the learning and motivation of students in school.

Global and local online data collection in educational research -methodological and ethical issues

Paul Nicholson, Deakin University

Information and communication technologies have made the task of collecting global and local research data relatively simple, cost-effective, and reliable from a technical viewpoint. Recent large-scale projects of this nature estimate the incremental cost of collecting a participant's data at $0.10, and an average cost (for 6 000 participants) of $0.75 per participant. In addition, because the data is already in electronic form, subsequent expensive transcription is not required.

Such cost-effective technical solutions are increasingly attractive in the current funding environment, and enable larger scale studies, both locally and globally, than possible with traditional techniques. The use of these methods however raises a number of ethical and methodological issues, which, while similar to those of other methods, are causing concern to many ethics committees and researchers. This paper discusses approaches to online data collection, and the nature of, and possible solutions to, the ethical and methodological issues inherent in the use of this form of data collection, especially in international projects.

Teacher reaction to "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"

Ray Murray and Patricia O'Brien, Auckland College of Education

Within this paper the impact of teaching Stephen Covey's, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People to teachers in leadership positions across a range of educational setting within New Zealand will be examined. The content and presentation method of the course will be outlined. Both survey and focus group data will be presented outlining what teachers have gained from the course in terms of both their personal and professional practices. Each of the seven habits: Be proactive; Begin with the end in mind; Put first things first; Think win-win; Seek first to understand; Synergise, and Sharpen the saw will be analysed for ease of implementation as well as effectiveness within the work place. Scenarios of how the seven habits have been practiced by individual teachers will demonstrate how the habits interface with Covey's four levels of Principle Centered Leadership. How the Seven Habits lay the foundation of a course in management training for human service workers within a tertiary education setting will also be discussed.

Deinstitutionalisation: The educative implications

Dr. Patricia O'Brien & Avril Thesing, Auckland College of Education

Within this paper the methodology and findings of a follow up study of 54 people with intellectual disability who were deinstitutionalised from a psychiatric institution within New Zealand will be presented. An argument will be mounted that being in the community alone does not ensure that people are part of the life of the community. Findings to support this argument will be taken from an analysis of interview data where a cluster of interviews was held for all 54 people inclusive of a staff person,family member and where appropriate the person. Case study material will verify the survey data in showing that although being in the community provides a better quality of life, for the majority of people their experience of community is one of venturing into places rather than participating or networking. The implications of this reality for community and vocational education will be outlined and set within the context of what comprised day activities for the majority of people.The question will be posed as to what constitutes education for people who have been denied educational opportunities within their long histories of institutionalisation. Parallel to this question will be what constitutes the best training for human service workers who are responsible for facilitating peoples' adjustment to "getting a life".

The role of memory in organisational learning - A case study

K M Paddy O'Toole, Flinders University of South Australia

What is remembered in organisation and how is it retained?  How do these memories impact on the effectiveness of the organisation?  How does organisational memory relate to organisational learning?  Huber (1996) suggested that organisational memory was a critical component of organisational learning.  This paper reports on a case study which was designed to explore the nature of organisational memory and its structures and processes.  The aims of the study were in particular to examine (1) organisational culture and organisational memory, and (2) the relationships between individual memory and organisational memory. >A medium-sized funeral business provided the context for the study.  Questionnaires, interviews, observation and record analysis were used to collect the data.  The analysis of the data clarified a framework of memory "repositories" hypothesiesed by the author.  These interact to contribute to the emerging culture of the organisation.  This culture is at least partially the product of past events.  It also creates a "lens" through which present events are interpreted and acted upon, with either positive or negative effects on the organisation

Changing perspectives in tertiary teaching: A collaborative approach between science and education faculties

Debra Panizzon, John Pegg and Col Mulquiney, University of New England

There is an expectation that universities need to improve the quality of their teaching. At the University of New England, this movement has been facilitated by the establishment of a Teaching Development Fund to support selected projects. This paper reports on one such initiative involving members from the Centre for Cognition Research in Learning and Teaching, and lecturers and demonstrators in the Faculty of the Sciences involved in one of the largest foundation units within the University. The purpose of the grant was to assist the staff in creating a richer learning environment for students that catered for the diverse range of student backgrounds and ability levels upon entry. The project was carried out within the professional development framework provided by HITS (Help in Teaching Science). During the course of the project the focus moved away from an emphasis on what scientific content was to be taught towards an awareness of the complexities of student thinking and learning of the scientific content. In addition to this, the traditional role of demonstrators was seen to be inadequate and the view of a demonstrator as a teacher emerged. This newer role carried with it greater responsibility in terms of student learning, more autonomy, and a realisation of the centrality of the demonstrators as the link between lecturers and students in the learning process. The results of this close collaboration between professional educators and science staff have wide implications for Science Faculties in universities throughout Australia given the lower numbers of students opting for science degrees and the high attrition rates.

Songs old and new. The rebirth of the Maori 'waiata' - a European perspective.

Graham Parsons,Massey University

In October 1796, Captain James Cook arrived in New Zealand to be greeted by a proud, strong and resourceful race of people, the New Zealand Maori. The magnificence of their canoes, the intricate carvings on their meeting houses or even the simple thatching on the houses in which they lived, indicated skill and artistry of considerable sophistication.

Music played an important part within the cultural fabric of Maori society and was, in itself, an educational tool. The 'waiata whakapapa' provided the genealogy, 'waiata oriori,' the tribal legends, history and traditions or 'waiata aroha' -the songs of love, etc. Music helped to keep the Maori in touch with their past, thus providing a sense of perspective to the present.

As Maori life changed for many of its people to accommodate the dominant European culture, so the function of the 'waiata to inform on, and to enhance various "aspects of life" ceased to have relevance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how an essentially European educational system has severely effected maintenance of the New Zealand Maori culture by:

• examining issues regarding the decline of the 'waiata', at one time a central element in the New Zealand Maori culture

Evaluating an initiative to improve flexible delivery options in a large undergraduate class in a health faculty: A case study

Elizabeth Parker, Melinda Service and Sue Wilson, Queensland University of Technology

Large class undergraduate teaching is a reality in the current Australian tertiary education context. This paper presents the results of a study of a compulsory core unit with 250-300 students within the School of Public Health at the Queensland University of Technology to increase flexible delivery study options for students. To achieve these aims, an audit of the unit, a student survey and focus groups with students were conducted. The audit included an analysis of the relationship of the objectives to unit content, the extent and nature of student interaction and participation and the support for students' learning in terms of the relevance of feedback. The student focus groups and the survey of 260 first year undergraduate students canvassed the best learning options and delivery mechanisms to complement student lifestyles and learning styles. The results of this student needs assessment questioned the assumptions made by staff about computer literacy, students' work life and their desire to attend on-campus lectures. Major changes were initiated in 1999. A module to increase generic computer skills was prepared for students; an on-line unit home page, a self-paced print study guide, flexible assessment options and changes to tutorial structure were implemented. These initiatives were evaluated through a survey of students and focus groups with the unit's 10 tutors. The results of the evaluation of these initiatives and the implications and proposed changes for teaching large undergraduate classes in a health faculty will be presented.

Academic and school sport self-concept of urban Aboriginal school children: Teacher influences

Cheryl Kickett-Tucker, Edith Cowan University

Individuals may possess several self-concepts, which are dependent on context, time and place. Self-concepts arise from the perceptions individuals have about themselves. These self-perceptions are dependent on the social interactions with others and in this paper, the self-concepts of Aboriginal students in the school environment will be presented. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to describe the self-concepts of urban Western Australia primary school children in two school settings: class room and school sport.

The significance of a favourable self-concept for urban Aboriginal children in the school setting is presented. In particular, the importance of the teacher-student relationship upon the development of a self-concept will be discussed.

Focus will be given to the influence of the teacher in both settings upon students' self-concepts. More specifically, teachers' expectations of students' potential performance will be compared with their actual demonstrated performance, motivation and perceptions of competence.

Practical implications will be presented for the teachers to ensure that a positive teaching environment is constructed and maintained so that students have the opportunity to develop and foster a favourable self-concept.

Barriers to effective teaching of Indigenous students

Gary Partington and Kaye Richer, Edith Cowan University

A study of the classroom practice of a teacher of Aboriginal students in a metropolitan primary school in Western Australia demonstrated the way in which teacher intentions are hindered by the sociopolitical context of the school. Observation of classroom events and interviews with the teacher, students and other key participants were recorded. The data were transferred to Nudist software as a foundation for analysis.

The teacher had been identified by the school as a successful teacher of Indigenous students and was accepted by Aboriginal parents as such. The situation in which he worked, however, was not conducive to the establishment of effective strategies for communication or better relationships with parents and the community.

Findings indicated that the teacher was unable to translate good intentions into satisfactory outcomes for Aboriginal students because of the influence of four main factors:

1. Inadequate communication between the home and the school which exacerbated problems rather than resolved them;

It was concluded that an individual teacher, working in isolation from a cohesive school approach, is unable to resolve key issues which contribute to the better education of Aboriginal students. It was suggested in the paper that success was contingent upon a more cohesive and collaborative effort by the school to develop policy and practice. This includes the involvement of Indigenous parents and community members in the planning of policy and school procedures, as well as establishing more effective communication with the parents of the children.

"We learn a lot from Mr Bates": An ethnographic case study of an effective teachers of Aboriginal students in action

Mort Harslett, Edith Cowan University

Teachers, schools, and education systems search for means to address the inequities of Aboriginal student participation and achievement in schools. A critical variable that influences the quality of students' school experience and quality of their learning outcomes, are teachers. Considerable research in this area has been undertaken, findings of which enable a profile of an effective teacher of Aboriginal students to be constructed. Using this profile as a framework, this paper reports an ethnographic study of an effective teacher in action with Aboriginal students and in doing so personalises and underscores other relative research outcomes.

The study, conducted with an upper primary teacher in an outer Perth metropolitan school, confirms wider research findings which identify the critical importance of a student-centred relationship based pedagogy built upon an understanding of Aboriginal culture, family background and a teacher's capacity to develop such relationship, to negotiate curriculum, learning and assessment processes; to be outcome focussed, and be firm but flexible in adapting to the dynamics of student behaviour and need.

As well as providing research based information on effective teaching, insights are also provided on aspects of ethnographic research techniques.

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" : The National curriculum for physical education in 2000.

Dr.Dawn Penney, De Montfort University, UK.

The ways in which governments have sought to define worthwhile knowledge in education have been matters of global interest throughout the 1990s. This paper explores these issues within the local context of the ongoing development of the National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE) in England. Specifically, the paper reports upon research that is addressing the latest revision of statutory requirements relating to the National Curriculum in England, due for implementation in schools in September 2000. Conceptual tensions inherent in new proposals that seek to embrace new government agendas for education (including for example, 'preparation for adult life') and in parallel, maintain a long established framework for physical education curricula (centring upon identified areas of activity), are highlighted. The policy processes underlying the development of the new requirements are outlined and inequalities in relation to the respective influence and involvement of various individuals and groups in this 'redefinition' of 'worthwhile knowledge' in physical education, are discussed.

Smoothing the way: An evaluation of a transition to school program

Intended presenters:
Peter Howard, Australian Catholic University Sue Dockett and Bob Perry, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur

Children's transition to school represents major change for all concerned as children, families and schools all need to make adjustments to the changing demands and expectations. This paper reports an evaluation of one transition to school program instituted in an urban school in Sydney in response to the needs of a specific group of children and families. Staff in this school targeted a group of Arabic-speaking children and their families who had had limited experience in formal early childhood settings. With the assistance of local consultants and the authors, the school implemented the transition program in term 4, 1998. This paper describes the program and the theoretical base underpinning it, as well as an evaluation of the program and its outcomes for children, families and school personnel. The evaluation, in the context of ongoing research in the area by the authors, and a review of the transition to school literature provides the basis for the identification of a set of guidelines underpinning effective transition to school programs.

What do early childhood educators and parents think is important about children's transition to school? A comparison between data from the city and the bush.

Sue Dockett and Bob Perry, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur Peter Howard, Australian Catholic University Alice Meckley, Millersville University

During 1998 and 1999, the Starting School Project at the University of Western Sydney Macarthur has conducted a New South Wales-wide survey on what key stakeholders see as being important to ensure smooth transitions to school for young children. This paper uses data from these surveys and a series of focus group interviews to report on the responses from early childhood educators - in both school and prior-to-school settings - and parents who have children recently starting school or preparing to start school. In particular, it compares data derived from country New South Wales - including rural and remote areas - and city locations within the state. Differences found include: the perceived importance of prior-to-school experiences; the nature of these experiences; the particular effects of geographical isolation; school and class size; nature of the local communities; distance education; the effects of the rural recession; the role of technology in children's education and the nature of transition to school programs.

The paper considers each of these, giving examples from both city and rural communities and derives some initial recommendations for successful transition to school programs which involve all the stakeholders in this transition.

Reviewing university-school collaboration: What's possible and what's not.

Judith Peters,University of South Australia

This paper reports on the experiences of several teacher educators while working collaboratively with schools in a number of research and professional development projects. These include the Innovative Links Project (1994-1996), the National Middle Schooling Authentic Assessment Research Circle (1997) and the School-based Research and Reform Project (1998-1999).

Extensive data collected from six teacher educators over an eighteen month period during the Innovative Links Project is presented, together with insights from more recent projects. The researcher examines the extent to which the expectations of such projects are achievable in the light of the prevailing conditions in schools and universities. She argues that a range of personal, structural and cultural conditions inhibit the achievement of some project expectations, and that what is needed when embarking on such projects is a realistic evaluation of what is possible and what is not. She concludes with recommendations for developing a greater level of compatibility between project expectations and the conditions that impact on participants.

David Philips, Ministry of Education, New Zealand

In 1998 the New Zealand Government released a public discussion document on national assessment, the Green Paper, Assessment for Success in Primary Schools. This paper traces the thinking which led to the development of this document, the issues raised in the consultations around the Green Paper and the 1600 submissions received, and the subsequent development by policy officials of a strategy for national assessment. This strategy, while taking into account the feedback from the primary education sector, aims to address the Government's policy objective of providing schools, parents and Government with high quality 'externally referenced' information on student achievement. The rationale for the strategy is presented, focusing in particular on how 'externally referenced' data can inform schools' assessment and monitoring practices, and the New Zealand approach towards national assessment is compared with international developments in national and/or statewide testing.

David Philips, Ministry of Education, New Zealand

In the early 1990s New Zealand took a bolder and more comprehensive approach towards qualifications reform than any other country appears to have taken by attempting to develop and implement a unitary qualifications framework, one which embraces all national qualifications within a single framework. This process began well before NZQA was formally established, but with the 1989 reforms and the introduction of a market-based approach to education, NZQA had a unique window of opportunity to implement its 'big idea' of a unitary qualifications framework (the National Qualifications Framework or NQF) by drawing upon policies from other countries with dual or multi-track qualifications frameworks. I argue that the development of the NQF was strongly influenced by these overseas policies from the mid-1980s, particularly curriculum, assessment and qualifications policies in England, Scotland, Australia and the United States. The mechanism of policy importation is used to account for how New Zealand policy makers adopted the policies of other countries and created the NQF. A seven-stage model of policy importation is described, which includes the phases of accumulation, incubation, assimilation, translation, contextualisation, refraction and resolution. These stages are then used as a framework for analysing the NQF, with a particular focus on its implications for and impact on the senior secondary school. Finally, I conclude by suggesting that the policy importation model could play a useful role in understanding global policy developments.

Learning and teaching stories: New approaches to assessment and evaluation

Val Podmore NZCER and Margaret Carr University of Waikato

Research Team: Margaret Carr, Helen May, Val Podmore, Pam Cubey, Ann Hatherly, & Bernadette Macartney

During the past decade a number of countries have developed national curriculum statements and framework for schools and/or early childhood services. New Zealand is one of these. Two of the researcher team co-ordinated (on contract to the NZ Ministry of Education) the early development of Te Wharikit Early Childhood Curriculum (1996). Te Whariki translates from the Maori language as "a mat for all to stand on," and is particularly apt in a country of diverse cultures and diverse early childhood services. As a curriculum document it contains overall Principles, Strands, and Goals for all early childhood programmes which in turn, "weave" or develop their own programme within the given framework. A fundamental Principle of Te Whariki is the empowerment of children. Te Whariki has been well received by the early childhood community but it does pose challenges to centres.

In a climate of increasing concern with accountability and quality across the education sector, it has been important to reappraise the issues of assessment and evaluation in relation to early childhood care and education. The development of Te Whariki has posed particular challenges towards ensuring that the processes for assessment and evaluation are in the interests of children and their families and fit alongside the Principles of Te Whariki itself. The Ministry of Education contracted us to undertake research towards the development and trialling of some frameworks for assessment and evaluation.

The presentation will provide an overview of the Principles and framework of Te Whariki, and appraise its early implementation. There is an outline of two follow-on research projects: one on assessment and the second on evaluation. Our framework of "Learning and Teaching Stories," as a "user-friendly" approach to assessment and self evaluation, has been trialled in an action research project in centres.

Acting globally by thinking locally: A post-colonial partnership.

Kerith PowerUniversity of New England and Dianne Roberts.Minimbah Aboriginal Preschool

In this joint presentation Dianne Roberts reflects on the influence of global notions of Indigeneity on her success in transgressing hierarchical leadership in an Aboriginal preschool. By her intimate knowledge of her local community and successful reading of postcolonial conditions, Dianne has developed productive partnerships with white institutions and formed leadership strategies which not only take ideas from international Indigenous education but which offer a model of success locally. Kerith Power, an Early Childhood academic at UNE, collaborates with Dianne's practice and explores notions of 'travelling theory' (Said,1997) and issues around the shifting power relations and emergent global Indigenous identities that are a feature of postcolonial Australia (McConaghy,1998).

News from New Zealand:Boys and girls:

Angelique Praat,Ministry of Education.Wellington

The issue of "failing boys" has become a prominent concern among educationalists in a number of Western countries in the 1990s. This paper explores the extent to which recent concern in the New Zealand context is a whole-sale but misplaced import from the international community or whether there is genuine cause for alarm. In an effort to answer this question this paper presents an overview of gender differences in participation and achievement in New Zealand's compulsory school sector and a summary of a recent literature review commissioned by New Zealand Ministry of Education aimed at explaining gender differences and evaluating strategies to ameliorate them.

This paper will also touch on the question of the usefulness of current notions of achievement, participation and gender as they are conceptualised in the New Zealand policy context.

Exploring conceptualisations of students' interest in learning: The need for a sociocultural approach

Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn and Richard Walker, University of Sydney

Interest is both a lay term, generally used to describe a personal characteristic, as well as a psychological term used to describe an affective and cognitive state which can be influenced by the learning environment. Interest has been identified by Schiefele (1991) as an important resource for both motivation and learning, with research findings suggesting that interest is an intrinsic factor that has an 'energising' effect on student learning (Tobias, 1994). Whilst there have been a number of studies of interest in learning in the past decade, it has been acknowledged by researchers in the field that research on interest is at a relatively early stage (Mitchell, 1993; Alexander & Jetton, 1996). As a result, there are not conclusive findings in relation to a number of issues relating to interest nor consensus about the nature of interest and its relationship to other psychological constructs. The majority of empirical studies have been conducted in non-authentic learning environments, with no explicit concern for the impact of social construction on students' experience of interest. Furthermore, few studies have approached the measurement of interest and analysis of data from a qualitative perspective, which has contributed to a lack of insight into the processes by which students experience interest within authentic learning environments.

The aim of this paper is to present conceptualisations of interest as defined within the literature and to explore the assumptions and limitations, as well as the measurement of interest. A need to examine interest from a sociocultural perspective will be proposed, with discussion of how such an approach to conceptualising interest would enhance an understanding of motivational processes within authentic classroom activity.

Curriculum restructuring in Queensland: What are the implications for teachers work?

Christine Proudford,Queensland University of Technology

The move to outcome-based education and a centralised curriculum framework in Queensland is indicative of national and global trends. The centralised framework, developed by the Queensland School Curriculum Council, is structured according to eight key learning. Syllabus documents for each of the key learning areas cover schooling from Years 1 to 10, and the documents will be progressively implemented in state schools over the next five years.

At one level, a centralised curriculum framework appears to be in tension with Education Queensland restructuring policies promoting school based decision making and management, and in turn these contradictory tendencies can create dilemmas for teachers. On the other hand, the framework can be construed as providing scope for school based curriculum decision making and development, and so be consonant with these policies.

This paper reports on reactions of district administrators and teachers to the curriculum framework, and their perceptions of any contradictory tendencies. Against this background the paper examines the implications of this recent curriculum restructure for the circumstances of teaching and the nature of teachers' work.

Programs for boys: penetrating emotional barriers?

Christine Proudford, Queensland University of Technology

Issues relating to the achievement of boys in relation to girls are receiving widespread attention, and the proliferation of programs for boys is testimony to the claim that boys are currently regarded as the new disadvantaged. At some levels, programs for boys are regarded as a feminist backlash. They are also seen as a reaction to the damaging effects of globalisation. A number of writers in the area of gender reform have drawn attention to the social reproduction tendencies of many of these programs, and advocated a curriculum based on the idea of gender as a social construction and a pedagogy which valorizes boys' concerns, and enables students to learn through their emotions.

Working from the premise that students are not always willing subjects, this paper argues for a further dimension of gender reform - the subjective and emotional realities of teachers. The paper examines the way in which a teacher implemented a program for a group of Year 4 boys who were initially 'turned off' school, engaged in disruptive and aggressive behaviour, and displayed predominantly negative emotions. The paper identifies emotional demands and challenges which confronted the teacher, and the measures she adopted to address these challenges and to reconstruct the teacher-student relationship.

A major conclusion of the paper is that while curriculum and pedagogy, as advocated in the literature, represent possibilities for penetrating students' emotional barriers and bringing about gender reform, teachers in turn may erect emotional barriers, and so undermine reform, unless their subjective and emotional realities are recognised and accommodated.

Successful inclusion: What do teachers say they need?

Jane Prochnow, Alison Kearney, & Janis Carroll-Lind,Massey University

One of the aims of the New Zealand Special Education 2000 Policy is to create a world-class inclusive education system by the year 2000. Teachers have a crucial role to play in the successful implementation of this policy. To do this, teachers need support. What are the support needs of teachers for the inclusion of learners with special needs? And are these needs being met? This paper investigated these questions with 121 participating teachers in 13 primary, intermediate and secondary schools. The teachers identified 972 students for whom they needed some level of support to insure successful inclusion in their classrooms. Teacher responses were evaluated in terms of the levels of support they required for including each of the identified students and the levels of support they were actually receiving. Teachers' comments were analysed regarding a) reasons for any discrepancy perceived between the level of support required and support received, b) the structures currently in place at their school that successfully support the inclusion of children with special needs in their classroom, and c) what structures can be implemented to support teachers more successfully with inclusion. Results were examined in terms of four levels surrounding the learner with disability. The four levels were the classroom teacher, and support from school, family, and external agencies. This paper outlines these findings and makes recommendations for schools to successfully support teachers in their role as agents of inclusion.

The role of personal and environmental factors in predicting persistence and satisfaction in tertiary agricultural study.

Petrina Quinn and Brian Hemmings, Charles Sturt University

Little research is available that describes how tertiary agricultural students cope with their first year university studies. The paper suggests that personal and environmental factors are predictors of student persistence and satisfaction. Drawing on data collected from 500 students attending Australian rural-based and urban-based universities, structural equation modelling was employed to test the validity of a model of student persistence and satisfaction. The results of this work show constructs in the model, including 'knowledge of agriculture', 'future orientation', 'fit with the ideology' and 'fit with the course' were key predictors of student persistence and satisfaction. Some implications for current educational practice, industry and professional engagement in tertiary education are suggested by the authors.

Accelerating literacy progress for new school entrants: The Preschool Literacy Project in Victoria

Bridie Raban, The University of Melbourne

During 1996-99, work was conducted with preschool professionals in 40 Victorian preschool centres, addressing the literacy development of young children before they entered schooling. This paper reports on the three stages of this project that culminated in the follow through of some 1000 students to the end of their first year in schooling. Those children who had experienced literacy enriched settings (N=350) during their preschool year developed a more positive trajectory after one year of structured tuition in contrast to other students (N=650) who had not had these experiences in their preschool year. This paper will report the performance of both groups of students after one year in school, describe the theoretical and practical dimensions of preschool literacy provision, comment on the preschool professional development dimension, and discuss the implications for impact on the government strategy to enhance the literacy achievement of all school students.

We do it our way: A study of a two way learning exchange for external students in remote Western Australia.

The learning styles of external students in remote areas differ from the pedagogy surrounding the modes of study offered by mainstream universities throughout Australia. For many students there are no alternatives for study other than the external mode, due to isolation, ties to the family community and land and the sheer expense of relocating. For many Aboriginal students the difficulties of interpreting external course work is compounded by the lack of culturally appropriate materials and little acknowledgment that Standard Australian English is not their first language. This paper investigates the learning styles of a group of Aboriginal students completing an external mainstream course in a remote enclave situation. Class room practices have been modified to accommodate the shortcomings of the mainstream curricula. This was to encourage a dynamic interactive cross cultural exchange between the students and their non-Indigenous teachers. The acknowledgment of cultural diversity and dialogue is highly valued. As a result, the students' learning styles, their retention and success rates are positively affected. This method of teaching lends itself to a two way cultural learning exchange based on attitude and awareness. The recognition that 'incidental learning' takes place has implications for non-Indigenous teachers instructing Indigenous students from a variety of backgrounds. This paper examines the intricacies of such student teacher relationships and how it impinges upon positive student outcomes.

A Marxian critique of teachers' work in an era of capitalist globalisation

Helen Raduntz, University of South Australia

A Marxian critique of capitalist education in an era of globalisation must begin with the teacher as a producer of skilled and disciplined labour for the labour market.

This paper explores: 1) the relation of education to the economic sphere of production arguing that rather than being relatively autonomous education and economics more than other spheres of society are closely tied so that major changes in economics have immediate repercussions in education; 2) the contradictory role of the teacher as an employee and as an agent of capital is contradictory as a source of tension particularly in times of radical change taking place in education in response to the imperatives of capital; and 3) what priorities teachers might set for themselves as a group to assert their autonomy in constructing an education that has as its priority the development of students' potentialities.

School choice in New Zealand: Enrolment scheme policy and potential impacts of the 1998 education amendment (No2) Act

The paper explores the provisions of the Education Amendment (No 2) Act 1998 with regard to enrolment schemes. It comments on the potential impact on the right to attend a school of choice in New Zealand, within a regime marked for the last ten years by the promotion of 'self-managing schools' operating 'within national guidelines'. The paper surveys the legislative provisions for enrolment schemes enacted in 1978, 1989 and 1991 and the policy dilemmas they sought to accommodate.

In the discussion section the policy is studied as an exemplar of the issues posed by policy objectives seeking to address both equity and choice, and both market-driven efficiency and social cohesion. Differing outcomes are proposed from competing paradigms of an 'education market' and a 'network of schools', which redefine the responsibilities and roles in the national education enterprise of the State, students and their families, the schools and the local communities in New Zealand.

'Four go managing....'

Adrienne Roberts, Christchurch College of Education and Elody Rathgen, University of Canterbury

This paper presents findings and speculations from a qualitative study exploring the perceptions and understandings of women managers through their stories, and the stories of others in their school community. Our research focuses on four experienced women teachers who have roles in senior and middle management within one co educational high school.

As feminist researchers we have been interested to explore the dimensions and qualities of women's leadership in secondary schools. We have focused on women teachers who never expected to take the 'star' roles in schools, such as principalships, but who have, through a long career and commitment to their teaching, taken on various levels of school management and now find themselves in positions of influence. We explore how they manage their 'power'and their reflections and observations of themselves in their managing and leadership roles.

Over 2 years and through a variety of data gathering procedures - questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and observations - we have traced their experiences of school management. In particular we consider the place of personal friendship and emotional commitment to each other, and how this influences their professional lives and impacts on their leadership styles.

A futures perspective in the school curriculum

David Rawnsley, University of South Australia

The future has captivated many people from astrologers to trendsetters. However, it is rarely explicitly studied in the school setting. Whilst businesses frequently develop 5 year plans and government departments look to the immediate future, educational institutions have been slow to adopt forward looking focuses in their curricula, either at the local or at the global level.

Whilst the future cannot be known with any degree of certainty, possible futures can be creatively explored, probable futures can be identified, and attempts made to either avoid or encourage specific scenarios in seeking a preferred future. Two important rationales exist for examining futures. The first is that humanity is poised on a global brink of immense changes in a broad range of social, technological and environmental areas. The second is that educating students about the future will assist them to anticipate, prepare for, and possibly direct, humanity's and their individual futures.

Futures Studies is an established global field of study which is now emerging into greater prominence, and covers a spectrum of practitioners ranging from examiners of current trends to people critically working for the creation of specific futures. It offers techniques, methodologies and concepts which have relevance in the classroom. This paper is an exploration of the need for education to be more futures oriented and of ways in which established futures concepts and methodologies can be incorporated as part of a futures perspective across the curriculum.

Schools, communities and pedagogies: Diverse possibilities.

Peter Renshaw, University of Queensland

This paper provides a sociocultural account of learning within the context of contemporary schooling practices, and critiques recent attempts to change the classroom into a "community of learners". The paper argues for a multiple and diverse re-framing of the notion of community. Rather than a "community", we need to theorise the site of learning as involving multiple and intersecting communities. The vision for re-forming schools needs to be based on the notion of communities for difference and diversity, rather than a community with clear boundaries for exclusion and inclusion. Specific studies are examined which exemplify how teachers can build communities for difference by allowing student space to resist as well as participate, and by valuing the resources that students bring with them to learning tasks.

Beathing new life into education for life: A feminist and global perspective.

Christina Reymer ,University of Waikato

The purpose of this presentation is to challenge mainstream views of what counts as 'work', and to explore the implications of a reframed view for adult education. It is hoped that participants will be challenged to rethink their practice of adult education.

The dominant discourses in adult education and society are afflicted by a myopic view of what counts as work. This results in a tyranny of the market over human needs. It makes invisible much of the productive work by women that sustains people at the most basic level of their everyday needs for food, shelter and care. This includes subsistence production as well as unpaid domestic work ("housework"). If educationalists are seriously concerned about meeting the educational needs of the world's people, then we need to radically rethink what counts as work, and who sustains people's lives.

In this paper, I first present the data related to the productive activity which meets our basic daily needs, yet never enters the visible market economy. Second, I detail the importance of this unrecognised contribution to the global economy. Third, I present a reframed notion of work, and fourth discuss its implications for the provision of adult education.

This paper makes a significant contribution to educational thought. On the one hand, by recognising non-market production it may help us to break the stranglehold that the market-driven ideology has over education. On the other hand, it will direct our efforts to developing not just lifelong education, but an education for life.

SYMPOSIUM 23
The ROSS Project: Phase 1 "Monitoring Outcomes in Secondary Schools"

Carmel Richardson, University of Melbourne, Sandy Roberts, Upper Yarra Secondary College, David White, Pascoe Vale Girls Secondary College, Peter Forbes, Ashwood Secondary College

The "Resources and Outcomes in Secondary Schools" (ROSS) Research Project was established to investigate the relationship between school-based resource allocation decisions and student learning outcomes. A series of case studies were conducted in eight Victorian schools and three Queensland schools where evidence of improved student learning gains was available. In this symposium, staff from three of the Victorian studies will present their school's initiatives in monitoring student learning progress. Details and results of a literacy program at junior secondary level, a Maths program in Years 7-10, and a study which monitored VCE study score improvements and gender differences in Year 7-10 subject outcomes will be provided. This research is part of an international co-operative project conducted in the UK (Levacic), the US (Odden) and Australia (Caldwell & Hill).

PAPER 1:

Sandy Roberts, Upper Yarra Secondary College

PAPER 2:

David White, Pascoe Vale Girls Secondary College

PAPER 3:

Monitoring gender outcomes in Yrs 7-10, and VCE subject improvements.

Peter Forbes, Ashwood Secondary College

PAPER 4:

Theory and Practice - connections and implications. Phase 2 of the ROSS Project "Tracking Resources and Outcomes in Secondary Schools".

Carmel Richardson, University of Melbourne

Students perceptions of the Undergraduate Statistics Unit

Lyn Roberts, University of Ballarat

Many university courses require their students to study a unit in statistics to prepare them for a research task or project in the later part of their course. Numerous papers (see for example A'Brook & Weyers, 1996; Boland, 1995; Wild, 1995) have described the difficulties associated with teaching such units, where the students often lack motivation and cannot see the relevance of the material to their major studies. Previous research has concentrated on students' results and attitudes at the time or shortly after they have completed the statistics unit. This paper describes an investigation that has taken a longer-term perspective. Third year undergraduate university students doing minor research projects in science, human movement and psychology were surveyed about their perceptions of their first year statistics studies. The aim was to find out if students considered that they needed statistics in their current course, and if they felt that they had benefited from their statistics studies. Almost all of those surveyed saw the need for statistical skills in their current activities, and many had an increased perception of the relevance of statistics since the time when it was taught. On the other hand, few were confident in their ability to carry out more than the basic tasks of descriptive statistics and data presentation. There is a perceived need for either the initial teaching or a substantial revision of the statistics content to occur closer in time to when the skills are to be used in a practical context.

Lyn Roberts, Paul Kelly; University of Ballarat

Technology is changing the relationship between teacher and student. Electronic communication and collaboration is increasingly being used to facilitate learning, particularly in the tertiary environment. Many university lecturers make their lecture notes or powerpoint slides available on the World Wide Web. Others are designing entire units of material to be taught either over the Web or from a CD. In the light of these developments there is a need to rethink the nature of the teacher / student interaction. Whilst distance education has always been with us, most teachers and undergraduate students feel that one of the main benefits of a university education lies in the personal interactions of campus life. How can these interactions be maintained and even improved electronically? Until very recently, most electronic communication (in the form of personal email or group discussion lists) has been asynchronous. However as PC power and communications bandwidth increases, synchronous on-line teaching is becoming a possibility. In 1999 the University of Ballarat began supplementary instruction for a small group of off campus students using synchronous on-line lessons. Students log on to the class web site at specified times. Lessons comprise a selection of powerpoint slide presentations, pre-authored computer based instruction modules, shared applications such as spreadsheets, shared whiteboards, question and answer sessions, voice communication and text chat. This presentation will demonstrate some on-line class activities, outline student responses to the project, and discuss the implications for lecturers in terms of how they must design their teaching materials for this new approach to delivery.

Graduate learning: A leadership development model

Jan M Robertson & Charles F Webber,University of Waikato

This paper describes the use of a specific leadership development framework, called the Boundary-Breaking Leadership Development Model, as the basis for designing a graduate-level travel study exchange between a university in Canada and another in New Zealand. A key attribute of the Boundary-Breaking Leadership Development Model is the provision of international perspectives to participants. Therefore, in the first part of the study, 3 New Zealand and 16 Canadian graduate students plus a researcher from the United Kingdom participated for two weeks of classes, meetings, seminars, and school visits in Calgary, Alberta. Then, 10 Canadian participants went to Hamilton, New Zealand, for two weeks of parallel activities. Other participants included over one hundred guest participants in public seminars and field trips in Canada and New Zealand. Study data were gathered from graduate students' reflective journals, researchers' field notes, survey responses, and end-of-course evaluations. Data were sorted and resorted into related categories until four broad groups of findings emerged. The categories focused primarily on the effects of the cross-cultural exchange on the graduate student participants: emotional engagement with learning, development of a critical perspective, movement beyond self, and development of agency. The researchers determined that the Boundary-Breaking Leadership Development Model should include, in addition to a clear set of instructional attributes and practices, a set of desired outcomes relevant to the current context of leadership development programs. The researchers concluded that the Boundary-Breaking Leadership Development Model is a powerful leadership development framework that contributes to clear and desirable learning outcomes.

Educating for creativity and difference.

Dianne Roberts OAM, Minimbah Aboriginal Pre-and Primary School, Armidale,

Creativity stems from difference, not sameness. For some, globalisation means turning the world into one homogenous identity like a giant Disneyland, or a sea of golden arches. Standards have their place, but if educators attempt to move students through the system, as if one T-shirt fits all, without nurturing difference, the world will be a poorer place.

Educators have an obligation to each and every child in their care to nurture that child towards his/ her potential. Each child has different beliefs and values, interests, skills, abilities and needs. To give full attention to each child is not an easy task in a crowded classroom.

Aboriginal children historically have been considered as problems, and when Minimbah was founded, some educators were glad to pass their problems to Minimbah. For Aboriginal children, education is more than learning about, and preserving their culture. Culture is not static. Education is about creating the skills and building the self esteem to walk confidently in 'the world out there'- the mainstream. To walk with pride, with dignity and knowledge of their true history.

This paper aims to provide an insight into the growth and development of the Minimbah school community as it creatively strives to tap into, and encourage the rich diversity of the children who are its focus through a program of individualisation.

Learning in a "community of practice" - a discussion of the applicability of the situated learning theory in an analysis of learning strategies in PE in schools.

Helle Rřnholt, University of Copenhagen,

The view on learning today is that the individual actively processes new information and constructs his or her own knowledge. However, cognitive psychology is criticised because significant factors are ignored when the focus is exclusively on the cognitive processes. In this connection, Shuell &Moran (1994) point out a number of shortcomings in the theoretical considerations. For example, adequate account is not taken of a) the social/cultural nature of learning, b) the importance of authenticity (the real world rather than artificial tasks) c) the importance of motivation, interest and emotions, and d) the specific nature of the learning domain. The school is an important place for learning, with the explicit responsibility of contributing to the development of the child. When and what a child learns is an interesting question with regard to school policy and educational theory. -This paper examines the situated learning theory (Lave & Wenger, 1991), which basically understands learning as a dimension in a social practice and not just something that goes on inside the head of the learning person. The study tests the power of the situated learning theory in a re-analysis of empirical points from a qualitative study of PE teaching in schools (Rřnholt, 1996). Analysis examples show that there is reason to take an interest in theories that are concerned with the shortcomings pointed out by Shuell & Moran. The situated learning theory can give new understandings of childrens' learning strategies in PE. But the analysis also shows that the situated learning theory has limitations, which will have to be taken into account in future studies.

Factors influencing assigned student achievement levels ii: Mathematics, the arts, health and physical education, and languages other than English

Sheldon Rothman, South Australian Department of Education, Training and Employment

In 1997, the South Australian Department of Education, Training and Employment collected student achievement data on a sample of students in Years 1-8 in English, Science, Studies of Society and Environment, and Technology, four of the eight national curriculum profiles learning areas. Summaries were reported to teachers in Xpress, the Department's fortnightly newspaper, and at the 1998 AARE conference ("Factors Influencing Assigned Student Achievement Levels"). In 1998, the Department completed the collection of profiles data, with information on student achievement in Mathematics, The Arts, Health and Physical Education, and Languages Other Than English.

Using these data, the Department is investigating relationships across the eight learning areas, achievement differences by student background factors, and the consistency in teacher judgments across the learning areas. This paper reports the findings.

A multilevel model of student non-attendance

Sheldon Rothman, , South Australian Department of Education, Training and Employment

Regular attendance at school is important for students to achieve social and academic outcomes of schooling. Individual school attendance practices vary, which may result in differential student outcomes. The development of multilevel models has allowed researchers to examine relationships between student-level and school-level variables, and to determine whether the variation in attendance patterns is associated with school-level practices. In 1997 and 1998, the South Australian Department of Education, Training and Employment collected student-level non-attendance records for Term 2 of each year from 60 percent of schools, accounting for more than 62 percent of students in Reception to Year 12. The data were used to develop multilevel models to examine variation at both the student and school level, and to identify relationships among student background characteristics, school characteristics and student non-attendance. This paper reports on the findings and recommends actions for further research.

Non-attendance and student background factors

Dr Sheldon Rothman, Chief Statistician, South Australian Department of Education, Training and Employment

Regular attendance at school is important for students to achieve social and academic outcomes of schooling. The monitoring of student attendance is seen as a school function, with state education departments collecting only summary school attendance data. Recent developments in information management systems have allowed education departments to collect student-level attendance data from schools, offering opportunities for administrators to improve their understanding of the nature of student non-attendance, and providing schools with benchmarks for attendance.

In 1997, the South Australian Department of Education, Training and Employment commenced an annual collection of student-level non-attendance records for Term 2 of each year. Sixty percent of schools, accounting for more than 62 percent of students in Reception to Year 12, provided data in the first year; a similar number of schools provided data in 1998. This paper reports on the analysis of these data, providing details on the first comprehensive collection and examination of student non-attendance data in a state education system in Australia. Using the available data, analyses were conducted to identify: patterns of student non-attendance; differences in absence rates between groups of students, by gender, indigenous background, socioeconomic status, year level and location; and reasons reported for student non-attendance, and the relationship with student background. This paper reports on the findings of the first comprehensive analysis of student absence data in Australian schools, and recommends actions for further research.

Analysing the interviewer's work in generating research data

Kathy Roulston,University of Queensland

Interview subjects of research projects produce talk in order to answer researchers' questions and provide descriptions of their experiences and viewpoints. The research data generated from such interviews may be viewed from different theoretical positions and diverse readings produced. Methods of analysis chosen by qualitative researchers orient to different features of talk. For example, three such methods include organisation of 'thematic' content, examination of subject positions adopted by speakers, or the turn-by-turn interaction of speakers.

In this paper I argue that the latter perspective on data produced in research interviews -- that of conversation analysis -- produces a complementary order of data reflective of the propositional content of talk about this approach to analysis is that questions become part of data, and the researcher's work in generating data becomes much more evident.

Analysis of data drawn from a three-year study examining the work of itinerant primary music teachers found that interview talk was replete with complaint sequences produced by speakers. The analysis highlights the researcher's role in the co-production (or not) of complaint sequences and shows how the interviewer's management of complaint sequences in a research setting is consequential for subsequent talk and thus directly affects the data generated. For researchers using the interview as a way of generating data, these issues should not be overlooked -- whatever method of data analysis is later employed.

The 'myth' of school effectiveness: Locating and estimating the magnitudes of major sources of variation in students' Year 12 achievements within and between schools over five years

Ken Rowe University of Melbourne; Ross Turner, Kerry Lane (Board of Studies, Victoria)

In the high stakes milieu of Year 12 assessments that determine, in large part, students' subsequent access to tertiary education and/or the workplace, the rhetoric of 'school effectiveness' has been reconstructed in terms of the market-place language of 'winners' and 'losers'. Unfortunately, the growing use of Year 12 'school effectiveness' indicators in the form of students' mean examination scores - aggregated at the school-level - tends to be narrowly focused on annual productions of 'league table'-type RANKINGS of schools' results rather than on locating and estimating the magnitudes of major sources of variation designed to EXPLAIN variation within and between schools. This paper addresses some of the prevailing myths about 'school effectiveness' by reporting key findings from multivariate, multilevel analyses of data obtained over 5 years (1994-1998) for 53 studies (subjects) of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), from 2.2 million students located in 600 government, Catholic, independent and adult VCE providers. After adjusting for the effects of student gender, 'general ability' and sector, the results indicate significantly greater variation across studies within schools than between schools. It is concluded that providers of secondary schooling are 'effective' only to the extent that they establish 'effective' teaching and learning programs that maximise students' achievements across ALL areas of the curriculum.The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for both policy and practice.

A method for estimating the reliability of assessments that involve combinations of school-assessed tasks and external examinations

Dr Ken Rowe (University of Melbourne);: Ross Turner,John Houghton & Kerry Lane (Board of Studies, Victoria)

Among the characteristic features of educational policy activity during the past two decades has been an emphasis on measurable 'outcomes' related to performance indicators, accountability, quality assurance, standards monitoring and benchmarking. These 'outcomes' issues - especially those related to students' assessments at the 'high stakes' end of secondary schooling - have occupied front and centre of the political and media stage with persistent regularity, and will undoubtedly continue to do so into the new millennium. Despite considerable fulmination surrounding emergent notions of 'authentic assessment' and the relative merits of 'solely examination' versus 'moderated school-based assessments' (or combinations thereof), the purveyors of this fulmination have rarely drawn support from empirical evidence to argue for or against the' validity'and/or 'reliability' of such procedures. In the context of a discussion of these issues, this paper presents a method for estimating the reliability of assessment modes that involve combinations of school-assessed tasks and external examinations. The method draws upon data obtained from 2.2 million Year 12 students across 53 studies of the Victorian Certificate of Education over the past five years (1994-1998), and demonstrates the utility of fitting congeneric measurement models to data derived from multiple modes and sources of assessment.

Assessment, performance indicators, 'league tables', 'value-added' measures and school effectiveness? Consider the issues and 'let's get real'!

Ken Rowe, University of Melbourne

Current policy activity related to 'outcomes-based' educational performance indicators and its link with growing demands for accountability, standards monitoring, benchmarking and school effectiveness is widespread - both internationally and in Australia. Within this context, the present paper highlights the limitations of using performance indicators based on test or examination scores as accountability measures at the school- and system-level, or indeed, as measures of student learning outcomes. The issues raised are presented for consideration, stressing the need for caution in generating and publishing potentially invalid and misleading information, especially in the typically published form of 'league tables' consisting of schools' raw, 'ability-adjusted', or 'value-added' average achievement scores, with the risk of generating both individual and institutional harm. As a means of at least minimising such problems, the paper outlines a code of ethics for the publication of educational performance indicators along the lines proposed by Goldstein and Myers (1996), and Myers and Goldstein (1996).

KIA KAHA: IMPROVING CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE THROUGH DEVELOPING CULTURAL AWARENESS.

Christine Ruie,University of Auckland

This study considers the effect of a Maori Culture Group experience on the self-esteem, locus of control and academic performance of the participants. A range of intervention procedures designed to enhance self-esteem and increase internality formed the basis of the training programme which culminated in representing New Zealand at a children's festival in Turkey. Literature related to adventure prgorammes and developing ethnic identity was drawn upon extensively in structuring the training programme.

Maori Culture Group members and matched controls were pre-tested on a self-esteem scale, a locus of control scale and a range of academic measures. Post-testing was completed one year later. A subgroup of Maori Cultu re Group children, their caregivers and teachers were also interviewed regarding their experience of the programme.

Statistically significant positive changes in the self-esteem and locus of control of the children in the Maori Culture Group were not paralleled by the control subjects. The interviews confirmed these developments.Furthermore, although the cultural group intervention was not linked directly to the academic activities assessed by the testing, a facilitative effect of the intervention on academic achievement is suggested in the data. This finding was also reinforced by the interviews.

The results are discussed in terms of their significance for educators in designing educational programmes for children from low socioeconomic backgrounds and minority groups in particular. The usefulness of an intense learning experience outside of the traditional classroom context is considered. Potential directions for future research are suggested.

Converging technologies: the implications for vocational and workplace educators

David Rumsey,Deakin University

The convergence of information and communications technologies has become a key global issue for countries across the world. Manifestations of this convergence are evident in the growth in the use of the Internet, e-commerce, on-line services, interactive broadcasting, and interactive multimedia entertainment and education. For vocational and workplace educators in Australia and New Zealand, these trends have major implications for what needs to be learned in vocational education and training, as well as how it is learned. The trends are impacting significantly on the roles of vocational educators and workplace trainers. The paper discusses the nature of the trends, their impact on VET curriculum and instruction methods and the likely impact on the functions and required skills and knowledge of VET educators and trainers. It identifies relevant existing research on the topic and also the scope for future research. The author draws upon his experience in reviewing the impact on VET curriculum of the growth in e-commerce, on-line services, interactive multimedia and the general convergence of technologies; as well as the results of his postgraduate research work on the way workplace communities deal with new situations and change.

Bridges and launchingpads

Barbara Russell, Massey University

This research is a case study of teachers who have taken time away from theclassroom to work on short term contracts (normally one to two years) in aUniversity College of Education preservice teacher training programme. Thestudy considers their perceptions of the ways in which this experience hasenhanced their professional development in terms of greater understanding,expertise and/or career prospects. It considers their positive and negativeexperiences at the college and makes recommendations of ways in which thepositive aspects can be maximised. The research examines the ways in whichthis experience has changed their teaching practices and enhanced theirability to work with preservice teachers as lecturers/tutors and associateteachers. It also explores whether this experience has enhanced theirprofessional roles within the school setting, particularly in having inputinto new initiatives and policies. The final section considers principals'perceptions of releasing staff members for short term contracts at theUniversity College of Education.Findings suggest that for these interviewees teaching in a tertiaryinstitution is a very valuable professional experience. However there aresome limitations associated with a one year contract resulting from the needto become familiar with college structures, course content, new terminologyand adjust to teaching adult learners. Results also indicated that, as aconsequence of working at the college, a number of those interviewed havesubsequently sought more challenging positions within the school systemrather than return to the position they previously held.

Visions of inclusion: Special needs children in New Zealand Primary Schools

Heather Ryan, Massey University

The experience and support provided for special needs students included within the regular classrooms of four Central North Island Primary Schools, investigated through intensive ethnographic observations and interviews, will be reported. The four schools span the socio-economic, rural/urban and ethnic spectrum of the NZ primary system. Perceptions of the stakeholders and research observations as to the influence of these factors upon resourcing, student learning and development within these settings will be explored. Those interviewed include the personnel who provide support for the students, their teachers, the children and their families. The strategies employed to support the special needs students and the nature of the resources provided will be documented.

An experienced classroom researcher will base her conclusions upon videotape of the classes and journal details of the experiences of the special needs children throughout term 3 and at year end, thus exploring the events throughout the school week in each of the classrooms. The videotape will expose strategies used by those supporting the school experiences of the special needs students and identify "best practice" to maximise the learning experience for all children in these inclusive classrooms. Potential for these resources as a teaching tool in schools, tertiary teacher education programs, clinical psychology and counselling will be considered. There is also potential for website sharing of this material. An additional benefit is the training provided for graduate students, preparing them to conduct many of the interviews. These skills and the resultant data will be useful for completion of their own thesis requirements.

Putting the E into Technology Education: Is there a case for teaching ethics?

Sue Ryan, Massey University

The area of Biotechnology in the new curriculum for Technology Education, raises many issues of an ethical nature. Bioethics, broadly defined, is the study of decision making that is associated with the use of living organisms. Biotechnology has expanded rapidly in the last two decades with the advent of Recombinat-DNA-Technology and this has led to much debate about the acceptability of certain kinds of research and the commercial applications of that research. The major ethical issues in biotechnology are centred around the fields of ecology; animal reproduction; the genetic engineering of plants and animals; human health; social biology and human responsibilities to other species. While there is a large and growing body of literature on bioethics, this has rarely been applied to the field of technology education. This paper surveys the literature on bioethics and how it relates to the new Technology Curriculum. The paper also examines the proposition that technology teachers may be avoiding the issues of bioethics in their technology programmes, because of a lack of knowledge, skill and confidence in how to conduct such lessons. Since the one of the stated aims of the curriculum is to develop technologically literate citizens, who are able to make informed judgements and decisions about new technological developments, any research which examines current practice in this field can only help improve the future delivery of the Technology Curriculum.

Teacher Professional Identity: competing discourses, competing outcomes

Judyth Sachs, University of Sydney

In this paper I focus issues of professional identity of teachers in Australia under conditions of significant change in government policy and educational restructuring. My argument is in two parts. First I argue that two competing discourses are shaping the professional identity of teachers. These discourses are democratic and managerial professionalism. The first is emerging from the profession itself and the second is being reinforced by employing authorities through their policies on teacher professional development. The second part of the paper examines the types of professional identity emerging from these discourses and the influence these discourses will have on the teaching profession itself in terms of its ability to provide moral and intellectual leadership for the profession of teaching.

Policy dilemmas: A problem based learning approach to teaching education policy to pre-service teachers

David Saltmarsh,Maquarie University

Problem Based Learning (PBL) is an approach to teaching that has recently gained acceptance in many areas of education for the professions. However, it has not been widely adopted as a style of pre-service teacher education. This paper examines the merits of PBL as teaching strategy and the ways that it has been used in teacher education. Consequently, the various styles of teacher education programs are briefly explored, in the context of professional education. The teaching of education policy is an area of particular interest when considering the application of PBL strategies. This paper outlines a number of activities designed to place pre-service teachers in the position of having to consider the policy connotations of teaching practices. These exercises, therefore, aim to give practical expression a range of philosophical, sociological and political dimensions, generally presented in a theoretical context.

The development of scales to measure teacher and school executive occupational satisfaction

Dr Catherine Scott,UWS Hawkesbury , Dr Steve Dinham,UWS Nepean & Dr Robert Brooks St John of God Hospital Richmond.

Interest in teacher 'stress' and 'burnout' and their relationship to teacher well being has a long history. However, there has been criticism of this research endeavour for, among other problems, its conceptual narrowness and its lack of psychometric rigour.

An interest in the consequences for teachers and school executive of the changing and turbulent international context of education led the researchers to develop a model of teachers' occupational well-being that was wider in focus than 'stress', and included occupational motivation and satisfaction.

This paper reports on a sub-aspect of that research, the development of scales to measure teacher and school executive satisfaction with the work of teaching and its context. As a first step, an instrument was developed to measure teachers' occupational satisfaction, motivation, and mental well-being. Satisfaction items utilised a seven point scale (7 = highly satisfied 1= highly dissatisfied) and included ratings of 75 items covering aspects teaching and its school and social context, as well as self-ratings for overall satisfaction, and change in satisfaction since commencing teaching.

Data were first collected from a sample of 892 Australian public school teachers. Exploratory factor analysis conducted in SPSS for Windows indicated that the final model would contain between 7 and 14 scales. Confirmatory factor analysis conducted in LISREL 8 resulted in the acceptance of a preliminary model which contained 8 scales (Root Mean Sq Error of Approximation = 0.047, GFI = .88, AGFI = 0.86).

Data from 607 British teachers were obtained and the 8 scale model tested. Fit statistics were found to be very similar to the Australian figures (Root Mean Sq Error of Approximation = .045, GFI = .87, AGFI = .84). Confirmatory factor analyses of each individual scale revealed that the fit for these were mostly excellent with two exceptions which, whilst these 'worked' quite well as scales, might best be further broken down into two scales, leading to the developement of a ten scale model.

The ten scale model was further tested and validated using data collected from a sample of 565 New Zealand teachers.

Development and testing of the scales is continuing with data recently obtained from a sample of 600 teachers from the USA.

Professional leadership in early childhood: The New Zealand kindergarten experience

Cushla Scrivens,Massey University College of Education

The kindergarten service in New Zealand was, until 1997, a state sector service. It has since 1989 been at the forefront of restructuring changes in education. 'Senior Teachers' in the service, who are mostly women, carry responsibility for professional leadership. This paper, which reports on an exploratory study, examines the ideas about leadership that a group of Senior Teachers have for themselves and investigates dilemmas, tensions and constraints for them in enacting their leadership in an increasingly neoliberal governmental environment.

Social capital, capacity building and trends in education and training reform

Terri Seddon, Monash University

This paper attempts to conceptualise emergent practices, future directions and political priorities in the social organisation of learning and work in Australia. It begins by reviewing the recent trajectories of education and training reform and the way these trends have been contextualised in the broader restructuring of work and globalisation. Within this changing landscape of education and training, the paper identifies notions of 'social capital' and 'capacity building' as significant developments in the contemporary politics of education and training. Drawing on recent research, the paper will illustrate the practical significance of these notions in the work of teachers and managers, documenting the way educators are using capacity-building strategies as a way of pursuing and redefining their educational projects within the context of marketised and decentralised education and training provision. Conceptualisations of social capital and capacity building will be discussed with a view to clarifying the way 'social capital' and 'capacity-building' are being integrated into the politics of education. The implications of these practical developments and contradictory conceptualisations for ongoing debates about education will be considered.

A survey of the language learning strategies of tertiary EFL students in Indonesia

Ag.Bambang Setiyadi, Lampung University-Indonesia, L.Holliday and R.Lewis, La Trobe University

Many studies have been conducted to explore language learning strategies (Rubin,1975; Naiman et al., 1978; Fillmore, 1979; O'Mally et al.,1985 and 1990; Politzer and Groarty, 1985; Prokop, 1989; Oxford, 1990; Wenden, 1991). In the current study a total of 79 university students participating in a three-month English course participated. This study attempted to explore what language learning strategies successful learners used and to what extent the strategies contributed to success in learning English in Indonesia. Factor analyses accounted for 62.1%, 56%, 41.1% and 43.5% of the variance of speaking, listening, reading and writing measures in the language learning strategy questionnaire.

Regression analyses, performed using scales based on these factors revealed significant main effects for the use of the language learning strategies in learning English, constituting 43% of the variance in the post test English achievement scores. An analysis of variance of the gain scores of the highest, middle and the lowest groups of performers suggested a greater use of metacognitive strategies among successful learners and a greater use of surface level cognitive strategies among unsuccessful learners. This study also revealed that students improved their learning strategies while they were learning English during the experiment. Implications for the classroom and future research are also discussed.

"I'll have a go at that!": Developing efficacy beliefs in the classroom

Alison Sewell and Alison St. George, Massey University

A major goal of education is to equip children with the knowledge, skills and self-beliefs to be confident and informed citizens - citizens who continue to see themselves as learners beyond 'graduation'. This presentation will look at the key role of nurturing efficacy beliefs to learn and participate in society. Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in his or her ability to perform a behaviour in a given situation (Bandura, 1988). Research findings conducted within a social studies context are presented showing how strategy instruction can enhance self-efficacy for learning. As part of this research, Creative Problem Solving (CPS) (Parnes, 1981) was taught to children as a means to motivate and support learning. It will be shown that the use of CPS can have positive effects on self-efficacy for learning, and that it can be a valuable framework to involve children in social decision making and social action. Implications of this and other research findings for learning and teaching in general are discussed, including key principles for designing a curriculum that enhances self-efficacy and motivation to learn.

Organisational learning in Australian high schools - Nature and practices

Halia Silins,Bill Mulford &Silja Zarins

The concept of schools as learning organisations has evolved in response to the difficulties experienced in bringing about school reform. Successful restructuring of schools may be dependent on the extent that whole school staff can learn and put learnings to use. This capacity for collaborative learning defines the process of organisational learning in schools. This study examined the nature of organisational learning and the conditions that foster it in Australian high schools. The responses of 2,500 teachers, including principals, from 96 secondary schools drawn from Tasmania and South Australia provided the data for this investigation. A four dimensional model of organisational learning was identified and employed (using path analysis) to identify the conditions fostering organisational learning in schools. The predominant influences of resources, principals' practices, distribution of leadership, and significant teacher effects are discussed.

The globalisation of environmental education and the politics of engagement with the racialised other

Michael Singh, RMIT University

The argument advanced in this paper is that, in these times of uncertainty and risk, the internationalisation of ideas - specifically the globalisation of environmental education, must also engage critically with local deployments of environmental politics against those designated as racially different. This argument is structured around four major points.My starting point is a description of the transnational network and collaborative action research developed by the Learning for a Sustainable Environment (LSE) Innovation in Teacher Education Project. I briefly escribe the three stages of the project-in-action, giving a general indication of what happened, when and with whom. The section which follows explores the achievements made possible by the action research network.While this section is concerned with the reasons underlying the Project's achievements, it also marks the beginning of efforts to transform routinised perceptions of the LSE Project. The third section of this paper foregrounds dilemmas confronting efforts such as this to spread ideas about environmental education globally, while local environmental politics is directed against the very presence of these people in this country. In this way the papers provides an account of selected dilemmas raised through the important work of the LSE Project by locating it within broader socio-political questions. Based on the foregoing account the final section, which is future-oriented, considers possibilities for reconceptualising the local/global interconnections of environmental education and politics.

Pedagogic work, social class and cultural difference

Parlo Singh, Griffith University

This paper reports on the accounts of pedagogic work provided by 35 paraprofessionals who were responsible for forging lines of communication between government funded secondary schools and the Indigenous, migrant, working class and unemployed communities n the local area of an Australian city. A qualitative (interview) methodology was selected for this study to document paraprofessionals' understandings of pedagogic work, particularly the ways in which paraprofessionals talked about forging links between different institutional contexts (i.e., family, community, and schooling). All of the interview participants spoke about differences in the form and content of school and home/community pedagogy. Moreover, all of the participants suggested that the demeanour of respect and obedience/servitude acquired by Samoan children in the local community, differed significantly from the individualist demeanour of student produced in and through the different forms of pedagogy (conservative, liberal progressive, radical) of the classroom. The paper concluded that in order to be successful, radical pedagogues must take account of specific differences in communicative practices between the home/community and school. Moreover, pedagogic work should aim to assist students with border crossing, that is, making the transition between communicative contexts regulated by different principles of power and control. Acquisition of the discursive resources transmitted through schooling necessitates taking up the role of student in a pedagogic relation with the teacher. (Acknowledgements: Funding for this study was provided by the Australian Research Council)

When the war is over: Anti-sectarian adult education in Northern Ireland

Simone Smala, University of Queensland

The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 paved the way for the Belfast branch of the Workers' Educational Association to implement an extensive anti-sectarian project. The "Interface Project" developed three educational packs which cover political education, Irish history and the sense of Northern Irish identity.

After many years of cross-cultural educational programmes, many organisations, including the WEA, have now started to focus on single-identity education. These programmes take place in either the Catholic or Protestant community and aim at deconstructing myths and creating empathy for the others. This paper will report on preliminary findings in a research project in progress about the "Interface Project".

In the face of the global upsurge of ethnic conflict - Kosovo and Indonesia among many other "hotspots" - it is vital to look at local educational programmes addressing reconcilation among adults. Northern Ireland is experiencing a post-conflict situation after 30 years of interethnic/interreligious fighting. Parameters of successful anti-sectarian education could be applied in other post-violent ethnic conflict areas globally. Single-identity educational programmes may be a more successful attempt to create empathy by using factual knowledge and by safely addressing the others' reality.

Factor structure of academic goal orientation scales and relationships with negative affective responses

Lorraine Smith, Kenneth E. Sinclair, University of Sydney

This paper reports the analysis of data collected as part of a longitudinal study into the relationships between negative affective reponses and learning in senior school students. Factor analysis was carried out on two scales measuring student academic self-efficacy, goal orientations and learning strategies in a sample of 400 Year 12 students from four Sydney metropolitan high schools. The scales are Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. These scales have been used separately in a number of research studies but have considerable overlap in subscale structure and item content. Factor analysis was used to (i) determine the factor structure of the two scales independently and (ii) determine factors that emerge when both scales are combined. In addition, the relationships between factor scores on academic self-efficacy and goal orientations, and students' negative affective responses (depression, anxiety, stress) are discussed. Comparisons are made with the results from the first dataset of the study, reported at the 1998 AARE conference, which revealed high levels of depression, anxiety and/or stress in 31% of Year 12 and 25% of Year 11 students. This study also revealed significant relationships between the affective measures and performance-avoidance goal orientations.

Are there any answers out there? Children, their questions, student teachers and the Internet

Robyn Smits,Wellington College of Education

Integrating the use of the Internet into a resource based approach to learning may seem straightforward on the surface. At Wellington College of Education we have been designing courses for pre-service primary teachers which emphasise the Internet as a resource for children to use in exploring their own questions. In early 1999 our course involved 30 children from a local school aged between 11 and 12, their questions which were focussed on the broad topic of Space, 20 student teachers and a range of resources including the Internet. The children's questions were rich, varied and challenging. For example, they included the following: how do they know that space goes on forever?, how does the earth keep hold of the moon?, why did they think everything went around the earth? and when travelling to and from the moon, what direction do you go in: up, down, left, right?

In this paper an action research approach is described using reflective notes from the lecturer and the student teachers. Observations of the processes of generating questions, researching the questions and synthesising information into knowledge also form data for the study. The paper reflects on these processes for both student teachers and for children and speculates on whether the answers out there on the Internet really satisfy what these children wanted to know.

We need more males in primary teacher education! Or do we?

Janet Smith, University of Canberra

The cry of "we need more males in primary teaching" is frequently uttered by the media and is currently echoed in schools, the community and the academy. This paper explores both sides of the debate and takes contrasting perspectives to determine whether more males are needed in primary teaching and in primary teacher education.

The paper examines the issues faced by males who decide to become primary teachers, and emanates from longitudinal research carried out on a group of males training to become primary school teachers at the University of Canberra. The research utilised life history interviews to explore both the decision of males to train as primary teachers and their experiences whilst training.

The paper analyses and deconstructs the evidence which is commonly cited for needing more male primary teachers, such as the number of children living in single-parent families. It also looks at ways in which school systems and universities can encourage more males and explores what is at stake if such methods are employed.

A cultural ecology of teachers' work in the devolved school

John Smyth Flinders University

This paper represents a "policy archaeology" (Scheurich, 1994) that examines the social and political economy of schooling against the emerging worldwide background of changes to teachers' work. The focus is specifically on the devolved school as the central organising problematic. The paper draws upon and extends Scheurich's heuristic to explore: (i) the homogenising, naturalising, and rationalising (Smyth, Hattam, et al, 1999) of the self-managing school, by asking how it is that this came to be the problem; (ii) the grids or regularities by which the need for the devolved school became visible, and credible as a policy solution; (iii) the way in which this grid of regularities "constitutes some policy choices as relevant and other virtually invisible" (Scheurich, 1994, p. 303) in the pursuit of the devolved school; and finally, (iv) how the field of policy studies itself has predisposed the self-managing school as a policy solution. The intersection of these policy axes are explored through a cultural ecology of the work of teaching as it is increasingly marked out by the following kinds of oppressive contours: technisation; managerialisation; intensification; marketisation; segmentation; feminisation; re-centralisation; and the increasing moves towards accountability, standardisation, and re-professionalisation.

Voiced research: bringing in the epistemologically marginalised ?

John Smyth Flinders University

Qualitative educational research has travelled some considerable distance in the past 20 years, from being on the fringes, to assuming a proud and prominent position in the field. But, there are many issues remaining unresolved, and this paper canvasses some of them by drawing on recent experiences in two ARC funded projects and a recently completed PhD. Some of these issues include: the embeddedness of the author in the research; addressing the ethical reflexivity of the research; the creation rather than the collection of data; the intersection of micro and macro aspects of power; breaking down formulaic forms of representation; pursuing accessibility while holding onto academic rigour; and, writing for multiple audiences. One of the issues is the quite different set of canons or criteria against which this kind of research is coming to be judged. The paper will pay particular attention to Polkinghorne's (1997) invitation to shift from "logician or debater" to that of "storyteller". As he says: "By changing their voice to storyteller, researchers will also change the way the voices of their 'subjec or participants can be heard. As logicians 'subjects' appear as actors in a research narrative" (p. 3).

Teacher education:Can it contribute to a learned profession

Ivan Snook, Massey Univerity

Current policies in teacher education in New Zealand (eg. in the Green paper and the Partington Report) contain contradictions which strike at the very heart of attempts to make teaching a learned profession. Both argue the importance of the teac the contextual studies,such as sociology, history and philosophy of education. Yet both documents advocate increased competition for the training of teachers. A major way to compete is to produce courses which are cheaper, shorter and easier than those of the rivals. This works against substantial demands on the intellectual competence of students. I shall argue that this "dumbing down" of teacher education is already happening. There is now at least anecdotal evidence of a deterioration in standards and a steady decline in the amount of sustained discipline-based study as 7 a result of the short courses, including the short degree courses.

This paper will discuss the history of teacher education in NZ and the tensions which have marked it. It will argue that for a variety of reasons , teacher education has involved conflict between two models: teaching as a skilled trade and teaching as a learned profession. It will be argued that the trade training concept has been to the fore. It will then outline the many recent changes to education in NZ and their effect on teacher education. I shall shall show, that despite the claims about the importance of competition and the superiority of university based teacher education, the facts are that the situation is now worse than before the competitive programme and before the rise of university based programmes.

This paper will the argue for the centrality of 1. Subject studies (rather than curriculum studies) and 2. Contextual studies (rather than 'methods courses'). It will that these are necessary for the development of a learned profession. It will also be argued that both of these sort of studies are more 'practical' in the long run than narrow technocratic programmes. The role of competition will be discussed with a view to arguing that competition is mose unlikely to produce sound programmes of teacher education.

An investigation of the extent of congruence between the principles and practices of middle schooling in one South Australian high school

Melissa Spicer, University of South Australia

A significant number of schools around Australia are currently attempting to better address the needs of young adolescents by implementing the principles of middle schooling as part of everyday schooling. In the study reported in this paper, the middle schooling practices of one school were compared with a set of theoretical principles derived from the literature. Data were collected through observation, document analysis, questionnaires and informal interviews.

It was found that many of the many principles of middle schooling had been implemented at the school but that some residual practices from traditional secondary school structures still persisted. These are discussed in relation to two perspectives on innovation implementation - the 'fidelity' perspective and the 'adaptation' perspective. It is concluded that 'blended' outcomes are probably inevitable, despite strong levels of support for changes in middle school practice.

Fundamental motor skill intervention Programs:Improving performance?

Judith Sprinkle and Scott Dickson,University of New England

Fundamental motor skill proficiency has been linked to continued participation in sporting activity. However, a number of investigations across Australia have reported inferior levels of the process performance of skills such as kicking, throwing, striking, and catching. Recommendations eminating from the most recent NSW Fitness and Physical Activity Survey included greater attention to preparing generalist teachers at the tertiary level. The logical assumption being this will translate into better instruction, and therefore greater proficiency, in fundamental motor skills of primary aged children. This paper reports on the efficacy of an intervention designed to improve the process forms of the two fundamental motor skills, i.e., the two handed sidearm strike and the overhand throw. A five week intensive instruction program for ten year old boys and girls (n=150) was implemented. Two schools were involved. One rural school implemented a program to improve striking and one urban school implemented a program to improve the overhand throw. Both schools utilised the Victorian Fundamental Motor Skills manual and instrument for assessing the 'process' forms of each skill. Data were analysed using Multivariate techniques. Group means evidenced improvement, and trends of improvement within gender groups were unique, however, no significant differences (p3/4.05) were found. The results are viewed in terms of improving skill levels in the primary school setting through the accepted four to five week physical education unit.

Restructuring and reculturing: practicum supervision as professional development for teachers

Wendy Hastings, Don Squires:, Charles Sturt University

This paper describes a set of arrangements whereby secondary teachers associated with the Graduate Diploma of Education program at Charles Sturt Universaity have been supported in taking up an expanded 'mentor' role with student teachers. The paper examines the effects of changing structures on the culture of the practicum -- in the schools, and in the university.

The international literature makes a strong case for reform of the practicum curriculum in a way that moves the focus away from skills acquisition towards a more explicit understanding of the processes of learning to teach. Following Zeichner (1986) the trend has been to look at the practicum experience in terms of what is learned and how it is learned, taking the context, the student teacher and the program's philosophical base into account. The approach is said to have advantages for all of the participants in the practicum -- student teachers, associates in the field, students being taught and university teacher educators.

In human organisations structures are vital in shaping outcomes. Structures provide the framework around which rules, roles, responsibilities and relationships are built and maintained. To a large extent, structures shape the culture of the organisation. Restructuring the practicum involves making changes to the roles and responsibilities of the various participants. A key example would be the withdrawal of the role of 'supervisor' and its replacement with a 'mentor' role. At present, the relationship between the university and the rest of the profession is shaped by traditional attitudes and expectations, based on the largely unquestioned assumption that power over the design and execution of the practicum rightly resides with the university. The strong message from the international and Australian literature on the practicum is that this arrangement can and does seriously inhibit student learning. The paper will examine insights about the processes of learning to teach from student teachers and their professional associates.

Essential learning about New Zealand society

Dean Stanley, Learning Enhancement Associates (NZ) Ltd

During the 1990s New Zealand has been working through the process of developing a new curriculum framework for schools. The framework consists of seven learning areas, of which the Social Sciences is one. The Ministry of Education has been progressively releasing curriculum statements for each of these learning areas, and in 1997 published Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum.

The Social Studies document describes the content and structure within which Social Studies should be taught from years 1 - 13 in New Zealand schools. It includes strands through which learning should take place, such as Social Organisation or Culture and Heritage. It describes processes which students should use within Social Studies such as Inquiry, Values Exploration and Social Decision Making. On top of this, the document describes essential learning about New Zealand which students should encounter during their time at school.

Since the launch of the new Social Studies curriculum, schools and teachers throughout New Zealand have been developing implementation plans and gaining an understanding of how to deliver units of work for Social Studies education. One area of the curriculum with which they have had some difficulty is the Essential Learning About New Zealand component. The problem which schools have with this area is working out what essential learning should be taught when, and to what degree it should be taught at a range of achievement levels.

During 1999 a research project has been established to investigate ways in which schools and teachers might deal with the Essential Learning About New Zealand component of the Social Studies curriculum. The project is attempting to answer two questions as follows:

How can schools ensure coverage of the Essential Learning about New Zealand element of the Social Studies curriculum?

Is there a hierarchy of understandings that students pass through when developing Essential Learning about New Zealand, and if so, what might such a taxonomy look like?

The paper will present an update of progress with the project and will discuss some of the key research findings.

Exploring conditions for effective use of computerised cognitive tools within a tertiary learning environment

Carole Steketee, Jan Herrington and Ron Oliver, Edith Cowan University

Over the last two decades, a steady stream of literature has heralded the computer as a form of externalised cognitive tool which, used effectively, has the potential to enable students to expand their intellectual capabilities (Adams, 1985), to work harder, faster and smarter (Norman, 1997), and even transcend the boundaries of human information processing (Pea, 1985).

Despite these powerful claims, exposure to technology within teacher-education courses has been largely superficial, and is often focussed on the objective of learning about computers, rather than how students can learn with them (Crook, 1996). Computers are predominantly viewed as teaching tools, rather than learning tools and use is often kept to a minimum. While the reasons behind this resistance are not fully known, a lack of information on reliable implementation procedures may be partly responsible.

This paper explores an implementation framework that was developed as part of a PhD study, which is still in progress. This framework is based on co-constructivism, where the process of learning is not an individual pursuit, but rather is distributed between learners and other resources found within the learning environment. Using action-research methodology, six students were observed and interviewed at length in an effort to determine the extent to which this distributed learning environment promoted effective learning. This framework will subsequently provide the catalyst for exploring how computers can be used as cognitive tools, and the extent to which they promote and foster learning in higher education. It is intended that the outcomes of these findings will guide and inform the successful integration of cognitive tools into various learning contexts to empower learners and to support their learning processes.

"A model for the professional development of teachers in design and technology"

Sarah J. Stein, Campbell J. Mc Robbie and Ian Ginns,Queensland Institute of Technology

The implementation of the technology key learning area in the primary school sector during the last few years has resulted in issues being raised relating to teachers' knowledge of technology, and their propensities for incorporating it into an already packed curriculum. During the study reported in this paper, three teachers designed and implemented units of work around ideas which they drew from the national statement on technology, A Statement on Technology for Australian Schools (Curriculum Corporation, 1994). These teachers were faced with challenges to their various teaching professional knowledges and to their prior and developing understandings of the conceptual and procedural aspects of technology. A theoretical model for professional development is thus presented in the light of these teachers' experiences. The model highlights the need for professional developers to be aware of the impact that teachers' prior knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning and about technology can have upon the meaning they make of the key learning area. The model also stresses that there is need for a combination of theoretical, practical and reflective experiences to be built into a professional development program to provide teachers with the oppotunities they may need to develop their understandings, while at the same time repesent and promote technology as a process, rather than only as a product.

SYMPOSIUM 32: The kindness of strangers - Indigenous rights and the provision of education for Indigenous Australian students

Clare Stehbens and Lynette Anderson, Central Queensland University, Jeannie Herbert and John Scott, James Cook University

Indigenous education rights and school absenteeism

John Scott, James Cook University

In recent times Indigenous peoples have used sophisticated networks and modern technologies to assist us in articulating Indigenous Education Rights as we see them.

There exists a number of global documents that articulate these rights, including:

• The Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples
• the Coolongatta Statement
• the UN WGIP draft discussion paper - Our Children, Our Future.

In the Australian context these rights are echoed in the 11 educational recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and recommendation 8 (a&b) of the Bringing Them Home report.

At a domestic level lack of political will in fully implementing these recommendations and statements has ensured that our education system/s continue to fail Indigenous Australian children. Education systems continually review policies that have never been fully implemented as if the policies themselves are at fault. The fault lies in the implementation and the political will to do so !

Education on Indigenous terms must come from a rights based approach. Our children must have their cultural perspectives valued and respected (in both the curriculum and the management of schools) if we are to feel any sense of ownership of the education system. Welfare and deficit models have failed our children and continue to marginalise us as Indigenous people/s.

Education rights cannot be accessed without the pre-eminent Indigenous (collective) right of Self-determination.

Without massive change/s in the current half-hearted government approach to our children's education, our children will continue to vote with their feet and school absenteeism will continue unabaited.

Where do we belong...in the system?

Jeannie Herbert, James Cook University, Lynette Anderson and Clare Stehbens, Central Queensland University

This paper will provide an opportunity to examine Aboriginal student perceptions of themselves in terms of their participation in the education process. The secondary students, participating in this research project, were responding to questions regarding the learning environments that existed for them within their schools. The questionnaire focused on aspects of the teacher-student relationship in order to gain insights into:

• the way in which students responded to their teachers; and
• the implications of this for the individual student in terms of educational outcomes.

The research would seem to reveal that a critical factor in enabling an Aboriginal student to experience a sense of belonging within the school environment is the degree to which an individual is able to take pride in their identity as an Aboriginal person and to feel that others value who they are. Responses clearly demonstrated how important it is for students to be positioned within a world which has meaning for them. Sensitive teachers have recognised this and in catering for the needs of their Aboriginal students who must operate within two worlds, tend to focus on the building of sound student-teacher relationships. It would appear this could be a critical step in changing Aboriginal students' perceptions of schools and the value of the education they offer Indigenous Australians.

Implications of Indigenous community participation in formal schooling for the retention and success of Indigenous students

Lynette Anderson and Clare Stehbens, Central Queensland University and Jeannie Herbert, James Cook University

In examining the factors which could have implications for the participation of Indigenous Australian students in education, it can be seen that there is a growing recognition of the need to broaden the focus of formal schooling to consider the implication of community within that.

In accord with policy, schools must foster relations with the communities within which their students belong. For the most part schools, like the wider society, tend to homogenise the notion of 'community'. However, Aboriginal students belong to communities that are diverse and complex and which are not necessarily modelled on the mainstream notion of community. Consequently the inclusion of Indigenous communities in decision making process within schools is often relegated to a position of tokenistic representation. Unfortunately, in many schools there is an apparent absence of any Indigenous representation.

This paper will identify those issues that create the paradox between schools and Indigenous communities as well as those factors that bring about a pragmatic and effective working relationship between schools and Indigenous communities.

Furthermore, the paper will explore the notion of Indigenous rights based education whereby Indigenous communities assert their rights to ensure that Indigenous children are participating in schooling which respects and fosters their cultural identity and integrity.

"From little things, big things explode....."

Clare Stehbens and Lynette Anderson, Central Queensland University and Jeanie Herbert, James Cook University

The media hype which accompanied the 1999 Australian Federal budget stated that this would be the budget which in particular would benefit the education of "Indigenous Australians". Key Budget strategies announced, included the National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy and the National Indigenous Students' School Attendance Strategy.

While not underestimating the potential importance of a National Indigenous Attendance Strategy, the research which forms the base of this paper, highlights that the uncritical willingness on the part of many schools and the community to locate the blame for Indigenous non-attendance in deficit notions of the students and their families, ignores the systemic factors which impact on Indigenous students' participation in the school. Related to this are issues of institutionalised and personal oppression, control and violence which occur both directly and indirectly as part of the daily life experiences of many Indigenous Australian students within the school setting. Such matters are in tension with demands for "safe" school environments and departmental behaviour management policies which may not be culturally neutral. Indigenous Australian students are over-represented in many States' data on student suspensions and exclusions, particularly of secondary students.

Where schools have attempted strategies to address this situation, often they are failed by a system which is under-resourced and inadequately trained to respond to these students. However, international statements and agreements on the rights of the child and Indigenous peoples emphasise the importance of children and Indigenous parents being able to choose the kind of education that is to be given to their children. At a local level these sentiments are often embodied in State and local educational policy documents. However, statistics in relation to school attendance and achievement for Indigenous students indicate that these students are not fully exercising and in some instances may even be being denied their rights to an education.

"Teacher standards and professionalism: contested perspectives in a decade of reform"

Keith Sullivan, Victoria,University of Wellington

In this chapter, the debate around professional standards for secondary teachers and performance-related pay is examined via the presentation and an analysis of the recent public debate on this matter between, Howard Fancy, Secretary of Education and Roger Tobin, Acting President of the Post Primary Teachers Association. The author argues: i. that the government is attempting to use conditions of service improvement to bribe teachers to accept government proposals on professional issues, and ii. that the main reason for the inability of the two parties to come to an agreed settlement is because the government perspective is ideologically opposed to and completely undermines the professional foundations of teachers. He also warns that if the Government goes ahead with its proposal to create a government-controlled professional body for teachers that this is tantamount to fascism and that the teachers need to be aware of the implications of the establishment of such a body and vehemently to resist it.

A methodologically inclusive model for research synthesis

Harsh Suri, University of Melbourne

This paper builds on a paper presented by the author at AARE 1998 that critiqued the contemporary methods of research synthesis. This paper proposes a method of research synthesis that overcomes many of the criticisms of the contemporary methods of research synthesis. This multi-stage model, referred to as the Methodologically Inclusive Research Synthesis Model (MIRSM), does not exclude any good research study based on the positioning of its methodological paradigm. This model argues against a research synthesis based on a rigid set of rules and procedures. Instead, at every stage of MIRSM, an inductive approach is used where the choice of technique for research synthesis is guided by the nature of individual findings and the relationship between the individual findings. The synthesis process is dialectical and hermeneutic rather than sequential. The synthesis of qualitative findings is interpretive and not aggregative. Qualitative reports are summarised in a useable format while maintaining the integrity and holism of individual reports by using different techniques such as content analysis of themes, phenomenography, reciprocal translational synthesis, refutational synthesis or lines-of-argument synthesis. Quantitative studies are synthesised using meta-analytic procedures. Visual displays of data and exploratory analysis techniques are used to understand the nature of the data, and subsequently make informed choices about different procedures for meta-analysis. At every stage of the synthesis, a dynamic interplay is maintained between the synthesis of qualitative findings and quantitative findings where the synthesis results of qualitative findings inform the synthesis process of quantitative findings and vice-versa. The feasibility and applicability of the MIRSM model are tested by applying it to synthesise research on the efficacy of asynchronous computer-mediated communication as a medium for classroom interactions, among the students and between the students and the instructor, in post-secondary courses.

Technology, progressivism, inclusivity: learning to be a 'good teacher' in the contemporary university

Gordon Tait and Belinda Carpenter, Queensland University of Technology

This paper questions some of the dominant assumptions about the relationship between technological proficiency and what counts as good practice in the university setting. That is, it is now widely regarded as impossible for academics to educate their student without using inclusive and dialogical methods of instruction. In the modern university, this is often measured by an effective use of technology. However this paper argues, first, that progressive education emerged not as an inevitable pedagogic advancement, but rather as an historical contingency; second, that progressive education is itself premised upon a number of domain assumptions about the nature of identity which have been challenged within the wider domain of social and cultural theory; and third, that that the new valorised practices of progressive education often depend upon the old derogated practices, but this reliance is down-played or disregarded.

Web-supported teaching of a core undergraduate unit in early childhood

Ayshe Talay-Ongan and Maree Gosper, Macquarie University

Information technology has become central in flexible learning. In view of the paradigm shifts occurring in delivery of teaching and learning materials, a second year core unit, Development, Difference and Disability at the Institute of Early Childhood was trialed to be taught as a flexible learning package, supported by The Vice-Chancellor's development grant in 1998. The unit catered to 120 students, 55 of whom were externally enrolled. The flexible learning package for the unit employed multiple technologies, such as weekly face-to-face (audiotaped) lectures, a text book, and a web site which contained not only the unit outline materials, but also curriculum content. As such, the web site included weekly tutorial application and reflection exercises, weekly self-assessment tasks in alternating forms of a quiz and a case study, weekly lecture notes, additional resources such as related web sites and abstracts of relevant articles for that topic, and extensive individual (e-mail) and group (bulletin board) communication facilities. Face-to-face tutorial sessions were replaced by tutors moderating six student forums on the web bulletin board. A number of technical resources were employed in the preparation of the web-supported package in its construction and delivery, in student training for its use, as well as in weekly updating of materials, technical assistance and servicing as necessary. Resulting educational benefits of this innovative mode of delivery were substantial, and were evaluated using summative and formative techniques. The findings of the formal evaluation detailed below, indicate a strong degree of support for the efficacy of web-supported learning, as well as highlighting some issues for future applications. The modifications to improve the teaching and learning outcomes derived from this experience, an implications of the findings for the sequelae of the resources developed are presented.

The effect of modes of presentation on the evaluation of marching band by musicians and nonmusicians

Jessie Tan, GreenRidge Secondary School

Can the use of video technology assist teachers in teaching music listening? While results of the audio-visual condition versus audio-only condition indicate no significant difference, written evaluation analysis provided other interesting information and raised other questions. Does the visual element possibly increase subjects' understanding, interest, curiosity, liking or valuing? This paper examines the effect of modes of presentation on the evaluation of marching band by musicians and nonmusicians. For this study, 135 musicians and 78 nonmusicians were randomly assigned to three experimental groups: audio-only, visual-only, and combined audio-visual. The stimuli used for the experimental conditions were two contrasting marching bands commercially recorded at a "live" marching band competition, one performing The Inferno, by Robert Smith (One minute, 58 seconds), and the other performing Gavornka Fanfare, by Jack Stamp (One minute, 32 seconds). Subject demographic data were collected by means of a questionnaire. Subjects completed a written evaluation assigning an overall numerical-preference rating indicated no significant between groups or among treatments. There was a significant difference between ratings for Example One and those for Example Two. For the free response questions, on the whole, subjects made more nonmusical comments and musical comments. The findings of this study indicate that musicians made more musical comments than nonmusicians. Results indicated a difference among viewing conditions with audio-only receiving the highest percentage of musical comments and visual-only receiving the lowest. Example Two received higher percentage of musical comments than did Example One.

From social justice to 'Literacy for all'. Australian variations on a global theme

Sandra Taylor and Miriam Henry, Queensland University of Technology

This paper reports on a study of changing conceptualisations of equity within education policy in Australia in recent times.

Questions are raised about the significance of the shift to a literacy focus. At the Commonwealth level, literacy appears to have become a surrogate for other forms of educational and social disadvantage,connecting to a number of global discources including the potentially narrow discourse of 'literacy for the knowledge economy'. At the same time,there are continuities with the older framings of equity drawing on an Australian tradition of reform, and significant State-based variations in how literacy/equity is defined and taken up in policy,reflecting local histories and conflicts. At a more theoretical level, the study raises questions about the globalisation of education policy-making and the significance of this for concepualising and researching notions of national interest and the connections between the so-called local and global.

IT skills and schooling:Rethinking assumptions about access

Peter Taylor,Griffith University

Where once curricula confidently mapped what had to be learned, schools are now required to develop specific capacities for engagement in lifelong learning and to provide access to and skills in the use of IT, particularly the Internet. This paper investigates aspects of this challenge, drawing on DETYA-funded research into the development of ICT skills in Australian schools (Meredyth, Russell, Blackwood, Thomas & Wise 1999). (In all, 222 principals, 1258 teachers and 6213 students from a representative sample of schools from all States and Territories completed questionnaires. Students were in the final year of their primary education, or the final year of compulsory education.)

In particular, the paper examines the issue of access in terms of expectations which are confirmed and challenged by the survey findings, and by other investigations. One focus for this examination is the finding that students tend to learn most of their IT skills in settings other than schools. Learning in those settings is contextualised by a range of agendas very unlike those of the classroom. They are commercial, action-oriented infotainment settings, where learning is likely to be problem-focused and peer-based rather than adult-led or instructional. Pointing as they do to the breakdown of the boundaries around schools, the findings challenge assumptions about the role of schooling, and the focus on skill development within curricula. The analysis provided in this paper illustrates ways that 'straight thinking' about equity and access to lifelong learning is problematised by these new learners and new technologies.

Thinking about new learning environments

Peter Taylor,Griffith University

The move to embrace new information and communication technologies (ICTs) in all educational sectors invites scrutiny of the consequences of their use. However, the bulk of the literature in the area of ICTs tends to be limited to advocacy for, or description of, their application. As a response to Mark Windschitl's (1998) call for research which is more detailed and critical, this paper maps several sets of literature which might inform such research. These literatures address: post-modern views culture, organisations and power; views of educational management, including the specification of curricula; social constructivist views of learning; and, ecological views of communities and resources. The purpose is to provide a conceptual basis for an examination of the intersection of the affordances of ICT-rich learning environments, pedagogy and learning,in ways which allow both critical scrutiny and informed speculation on emergent possibilities for effective practices.

The paper acknowledges that ICTs are being introduced into quite complex environments. These are outcomes of a multitude of prior investments, many of which militate against fundamental change in educational practices, as is well documented in the educational reform literature. Given such contexts, thinking about new learning environments needs to draw on multiple perspectives in order to engage effectively with these inherent complexities. Moreover, it needs to be informed by scholarship that is as contemporary as the new technologies if we are to move beyond applications of these technologies that merely extend the shelf life or the reach of old pedagogies.

The extra tutorial for "At-risk" psychology students

Steve Theiler, Swinburne University of Technology

Not passing in first year psychology at university is often perceived by the student as the end of the road to psychologically related vocations, or the end of their tertiary education. The psychology student is assessed on their ability to be proficient in a variety of areas such as research report writing and research essays. There is also an exam at the end of the semester that tests the student's knowledge of all the topics that were covered in the weekly lectures. All of these requirements need to be mastered in a short amount of time, as a semester is only 12 weeks in duration. This paper reports on a case study that was done during the second semester (1998) with 12 first-year under-graduate students (seven females and three males; average age 19 years). These students had not achieved a pass grade for the first semester in psychology. Their marks ranged from 45 to 49 out of 100. These students were given the opportunity to continue into second semester under certain conditions. These included attending all lectures and tutorials, as well as participating in an extra tutorial each week with students who had attained similar results. Eleven of these twelve students achieved a pass grade for psychology for the second semester. The strategies that were implemented during the "extra" tutorial to help the students improve their academic performance included giving class presentations and critiques of their fellow students' written work. The long-term results from implementing similar methods of support in previous years are also reviewed.

Reading the work of school administrators with the help of bourdieu: Developing a 'feel for the game'

Pat Thomson,University of South Australia

In this paper I explore how the discipline of educational administration, separated out from curriculum studies and policy sociology, positions researchers to make particular kinds of readings of the work of school administrators. Such readings can be decontextualised and utopian, and the 'will to the technical' often fails to connect with the messy and contradictory everyday world of school lives.

In addition, such literatures (inadvertently?) support modernist managerial policy directions. Furthermore, if/when a select few writers find lucrative entrepreneurial pastures, such educational administrative narratives can become a significant influence in shaping a raft of policy technologies, such as school administrator selection procedures, performance reviews, quality assurance instruments and models of professional learning.

I look specifically at Bourdieu's notions of 'habitus', 'fields' and 'interests' (or 'illusio') and begin to think about an alternative reading that makes the work of educational administration researchers problematic and brings the daily conflicting demands of practising school administrators to centre stage.

The paper builds on my own experiences as a school principal and deputy, on work undertaken as part of my doctoral studies, on ongoing projects with principals' associations and in coordinating a professional doctorate in education.

A new theory of the fundamentals of beginning reading acquisition in a range of instructional environments

Brian Thompson, Victoria University of Wellington

Compared with other contemporary accounts, the Knowledge Sources theory (Thompson, Cottrell, & Fletcher-Flinn,1996; Thompson, 1999) provides a broader conception of the alphabetic principle and its role in beginning reading, and can account for learning in a wider range of instructional environments. Evidence for this account has accumulated particularly from studies of children who do not receive explicit teaching of letter sounds. By instructional manipulation of such beginning readers' vocabulary, evidence was obtained of the operation of that one of the five sources of knowledge posited in the theory that has been traditionally ignored: children's implicit induction of letter-sound patterns from their reading vocabulary (Thompson et al., 1996). Converging evidence has now been obtained in a further series of studies (Thompson, Fletcher-Flinn & Cottrell,1999) with 5- and 6-year-old children who were starting to read and had been taught some letter names but not letter sounds. As predicted by the Knowledge Sources theory, their attempts at giving sounds for letters depended on their print word experience of the letter-sound relations (predominantly in initial position of words), when the sound could not be deduced from the letter name. One implication of the Knowledge Sources theory is that instruction for beginning reading should regard children's knowledge of the alphabetic principle not as being about a set of letter-sound correspondences but as a principle to be acquired and used by children to self-teach new instances of the principle available in the patterns inherent within their developing reading vocabulary.

Environmental liberalism: A framework for sustainable higher environmental education

Matthew Thomas, University of Adelaide

There exists in current higher education rhetoric a convergence of liberal and utilitarian ideologies, evident in the recent calls for generic skills in graduates, and the notion of lifelong learning. This paper presents a theoretical examination of this ideological convergence and establishes how it can be used to form the foundations of a new potent form of environmental education. Building on John Dewey's pragmatic vision for socially and democratically empowered citizenry, it is shown here that this framework, called "environmental liberalism", provides a more authentic form of environmental education. Moreover, it does so within the existing disciplinary structures, and therefore represents a useful professional-based environmental education. It is argued that this represents an essential step towards our common goal of sustainability.

Impacting on communication and learning: When communication technologies constrain communication

Matthew Thomas, University of Adelaide

Communication technologies, and especially web-based on-line tutorials, are receiving much attention in relation to their potential for providing effective flexible delivery of higher education. However, the current published research presents a significant bias towards projects with positive findings. This paper presents the findings of two research projects where communication technology use in a typical university setting failed to provide a forum conducive to communication. The use of web-based discussion forums engendered pre-written and overly academic contributions, and failed to facilitate the inter-student communication, debate and argument development that would be found in a traditional tutorial. This paper explores the possible causes of these findings, and offers suggestions as to the better promotion of communication on-line. The findings here question the general perception that on-line tutorials facilitate efficient and effective communication, and the simplistic comparison between learning in a traditional tutorial and an on-line tutorial must be approached with caution.

Curriculum integration in the primary classroom: Replicating the primary classroom

Christina Thornley, University of Otago

In 1998 the University of Otago introduced a new primary teacher education degree which aimed to replicate the interdisciplinary curriculum programmes of New Zealand primary schools. This approach had significant implications for the course content and the structure of teaching programmes. It acknowledged the connected nature of the curriculum essential learning areas and influenced the cross-curricula manner in which lecturers worked. The curriculum papers also examined the theory and history of curriculum integration as a context within which the students would achieve the following programme goals;

• To develop their understandings of how children learn
• To develop the ability to plan teach and assess across the curriculum recognising the diversity of learners and
• To develop negotiated classroom curriculum programmes for children.

This paper reports on the challenges and success of this approach. Specifically it discusses the findings that are emerging from on-going student teacher interviews and their course work. It raises questions concerning the lecturers' role in the programme and the implicit and explicit elements of their teaching. It examines the student teachers' developing understandings of the various barriers and benefits that any curriculum model can present to individual children.

Multiple Literacies - A new direction for the arts

Trevor Thwaites, Auckland College of Education

The New Zealand Curriculum Framework identifies seven Essential Learning Areas, namely, Languages, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, Technology, Health and Physical Well Being, and The Arts. These have been in the process of development since 1993 with The Arts written in 1998 and released for consultation in 1999 in draft form. Being positioned last in curriculum development implies that the arts are at the bottom of a preferred hierarchy of knowledge promoted by the state and this has been coupled with an increased drive to promote more literacy, mathematics and information technology in schooling.

In an effort to increase the perceived value of the arts, the writers of the draft arts curriculum embraced the notion of multiple literacies which seeks to broaden the understanding of literacy in teaching and learning, and to acknowledge a multiplicity of discourses in the school curriculum. Literacy should imply a mode of meaning other than the purely linguistic and needs to incorporate visual, aural, gestural, spatial and multimodal (The New London Group, 1996) meanings. Literacies in the arts are developed as students learn in, through and about different arts forms within the arts disciplines and use its languages to communicate and interpret meaning.

This paper details the development of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum: the resistance to the notion of literacy and to the postmodern paradigm in which the document was developed. It questions the ability of the state to move beyond a modernist view of education given that its agencies must promote normalisation and the status quo.

Innovation and the persistence of old solutions: Intervention dilemmas for schools at risk.

Helen Timperley, Viviane Robinson and Tony Bullard, University of Auckland

Since early 1998, the New Zealand Ministry of Education has been funding a major initiative to strengthen education in two districts with low socio-economic status in South Auckland. The main focus of the intervention has been to improve students' literacy achievement, as this is typically eighteen months to two years below the national average. Throughout the life of the initiatives, the authors have been involved in a process evaluation using an organisational learning framework. The main criterion employed to judge the adequacy of the initiatives was the extent to which the schools' organisational capacity to manage and teach literacy are increased in ways that are sustainable beyond the two-year timeframe of the additional funding. In this paper, we examine how an intervention that was initially framed in terms of promoting school review and development, resulted in most of the funding being allocated to promoting more of the kinds of solutions that previously had been judged inadequate. The complexity and difficulty of the problem led to greater emphasis being given to empowerment of schools and ownership of the solution than to analysing the adequacy of current practice and building a solution based on that analysis. We discuss the dilemmas faced by the Ministry and the schools in trying to develop an adequate solution to this complex problem and the role of the interventionists in shaping a different solution.

Partnership and shared information: The non-disclosure of student achievement

Viviane Robinson, Helen Timperley, University of Auckland

The involvement of communities in low socio-economic areas to bring about school improvement has gained international acceptance since the 1980's. The New Zealand Ministry of Education has tried to foster a partnership between communities and schools in its initiatives to strengthen education in two districts in South Auckland. As evaluators of this intervention, we have judged the quality of the partnership by examining the extent to which schools and parents learn from one another about how to strengthen their mutual capacity to improve student literacy in the context of reporting to parents on student achievement. The baseline conditions we propose for a mutually educative partnership through school reports are that both partners have access to accurate information about the child's current achievement level and a shared understanding of the standard used to judge that achievement. A sample of school reports on high achieving, average achieving and low achieving students from 12 schools were examined. The analysis showed that schools either described student's achievement in ways that were difficult for parents to interpret or used rating scales to indicate achievement. The standards used to judge a particular rating were rarely explicit and differed between schools. Some ratings referred to national averages, others to children in a particular class, with others referring to teachers' perceptions of an individual student's estimated potential. Most parents, on the other hand, believed the standards to be nationally based. Reasons for reporting in this way and the implications for a partnership based on unequal information are discussed further in the paper.

SCHOOLING, CITIZENSHIP AND DEMOCRACY

Tony Knight, LaTrobe University, and Art Pearl, University of California, Santa Cruz.

In this paper we are proposing a fundamentally different look at education. We share with many, criticisms of existing policy and practice. We however part company with most 'formers›' concluding that proposed reforms will make a bad situation worse. The major problem of schools is that from first grade through graduation with an advanced degree the intelligence of students is undervalued. The gist of the argument goes something like this. The world is faced with difficult problems. These problems cannot be solved without a democratic process and become worse the more the education of the public is Œmbed downY Essential to to a democratic resolution of those problems is a reconstructed school that prepares all students to become effective problem solvers. The goal of each school is to prepare every person with 12 years to schooling to be informed and responsible citizens. We propose a school informed by a comprehensive general theory; the theory we recommend is a cognitive democratic theory. Our proposal, developed through nearly three decades of collaborative applied research, has at least seven critical constructs or attributes:

1. the nature of educational authority;
2. the ordering and inclusiveness of membership;
3. the determination of important knowledge;
4. the definition and availability of rights;
5. the nature and participation in decisions that effect one life;
6. the creation of optimum environments for learning;
7. equality.

We contend that it is how each of these democratic constructs are developed or advanced that will determine whether schools become more democratic. It is through their in twinning that students are provided the opportunity to install the necessary principles of a democracy, that prepares them to assume the awesome responsibility of democratic citizenship.

International students in Australia: what do we know of the quality of their education?

Kylie Tootell, University of Newcastle

International students are an integral component of our higher education system. Historically international students have been viewed by Australian universities in an increasingly materialistic manner, following a shift in philosophy from educational "aid" in the 1950s to educational "trade" in the 1970s. A recent development of policy by the Government, and consequently universities, is the policy of internationalisation. As universities competitively market courses to this growing group of fee-paying students, questions are emerging regarding the effectiveness and appropriateness of the education offered to them and the scope of their needs. What is the nature and direction of research in the area of international students in Australia, and elsewhere? Has such research had an impact on the methods and processes of provision, teaching, and support services (including accommodation in halls of residence)? This paper explores the discourses that characterise the debate on the provision of education and support for international students and critically examines the research response, particularly the state of research into the quality of the educational experience for such students.

Educational Leadership: Theory and Practice

Frances Townsend ,Auckland

This paper explores the ill-defined area between the theory of educational leadership and elements of practice. The paper is based on he findings of research undertaken from 1995 to 1999 for a DPhil.That research explored the perceptions of a number of New Zealand school principals of their learning to be educational leaders. The conclusion was reached that this type of learning exhibited characteristics of life-long learning and consequently a marked degree of uniqueness related to the individual, the educational environment and situational factors. The paper considers these findings as local effects and theories of leadership as a global issue.

It will be argued that theories of leadership which appear to be global in their widespread following, may fail to account adequately for certain elements of leadership which can be identified at the local level. Theories of leadership tend to focus on characteristics, roles, preparation and training, and on successful leadership behaviour. In this paper these theories of leadership will be considered in the context of the research findings of principals' perceptions of their learning of educational leadership. From this perspective the reasons why individuals seek leadership and the consequences of individuality for the local leadership environment,appear to have relevance for explaining local effects.

Mathematics anxiety and self concept: evaluating change using the 'then-now' procedure

Michael Townsend, Mei Lai, Lyn Lavery, Carolyn Sutherland & Keri Wilton University of Auckland

The teaching of mathematics and mathematics-related skills is often made difficult because of pre-existing negative attitudes in students. Unfortunately, these attitudes are resistant to change, especially in older students, in spite of the best efforts of teachers. For example, in a previously published study by the authors, university students engaged in a second-year class in statistical methods for social sciences showed no change on instruments measuring mathematics self concept and anxiety despite strenuous efforts by the teachers and tutors to make the learning interesting and interactive. Interestingly, however, the great majority of the students also gave written reports of greatly improved content knowledge and skill. How can learners be successful in improving their skills yet remain unchanged in self concept and anxiety? The answer may lie in the threat to internal validity posed by the self-report measures used in a pre- and post-test design study. Put simply, the students' internal standards for judging their self concept and anxiety may have changed between pre-test and post-test. This change, known as response-shift bias, may be detected using a "then-now" procedure which asks students at the end of their learning to provide simultaneous judgements about their current state and (retrospectively) their beginning state. This paper reports the results of retaining a pre-test, but using a "then-now" post-test procedure, in an investigation which replicated all of the remaining features of the previously published study.

Square pegs and round holes - achieving a fit for students with disabilities in movement programs in educational settings.

Bob Tremayne,University of Technology Sydney

This paper outines the development of an on-going study to identify factors considered to be important in the delivery of effective movement programs in educational settings in NSW state schools. The study is based in a variety of settings reflecting the range of options available to students with disabilities. It also considers a variety of students. The variables of adaptable but meaningful activities, access opportunities available to students, and the role of personnel are identified as crucial to effective participation of students, irrespective of the nature of their disability.

Qualitative methodology was used, involving the researcher directly in the settings. A range of data-gathering strategies was employed, including observation, interviews and video-taping.

It is anticipated that the conclusion of the study will involve recommendations for inclusion of a range of students who don't quite fit in movement programs and other areas of education.

Practical multimedia courseware design for learner's difficulties in chemical education

Tsoi Mun Fie Raymond, Goh Ngoh Khang and Chia Lian Sai, Nanyang Technological University

The designing of multimedia chemistry courseware is a complex and challenging task for many instructional developers and writers especially in the initial stage of the prototype to be developed. As such, this paper provides insights gained into some practical design considerations in developing a multimedia courseware in chemical education at secondary school level. It concentrates on the early stage of the development process and specific design tips or guidelines based on practical pedagogical experiences in courseware design and storyboard. Among the seven major chemistry topics covered by the courseware as modules, two important modules, namely organic chemistry and experimental techniques are selected to illustrate some salient design issues that are related to certain important learning principles. The three understanding levels (macro, micro, and symbolic) related to learners' difficulties in learning chemistry will also be addressed in the development of the courseware. Implications for designing chemistry courseware, which emerge as a result of the design issues considered will also be discussed in the context of both the multimedia producer and writer.

Assessing student teachers' performance in practicum

Mavis,Haigh&Bryan Tuck,Auckland College of Education

After completing a degree in relevant content areas prospective high school teachers in New Zealand typically enrol in a one-year Diploma at a College of Education. The year is intensive and a critical component is supervised teaching within selected high schools. The student teacher is attached to an experience teacher, an Associate Teacher, who accepts responsibility for the day to day supervision of the student's teaching experience. During each attachment a visiting lecturer from the College of Education also observes the student teaching. This study examines the levels of agreement between the Associate Teacher and Visiting Lecturer's evaluations of 150 students' teaching experience on their third and penultimate school placement. The analyses examine correlations between the judges' holistic ratings of teaching competence and ratings of specific teaching competencies. The values of the correlations vary dramatically and significant differences exist between the mean ratings of the Associate Teachers and the Visiting Lecturers. These differences are discussed. Structural analyses of the rating instrument are reported, and the implications of the results for the assessment of practicum in teacher pre-service teacher education programmes identified.

Sources of occupational stress in New Zealand primary teachers

Bryan Tuck,Vivienne Adair,Eleanor Hawe,Robert Manthei & Denis Moore Auckland College of Education

Over three hundred primary teachers employed in 30 primary schools located in urban and semi-rural centres completed a survey on occupational stress. The instrument had been used previously in two published studies of stress among New Zealand primary teachers. The relationship between stress levels, job satisfaction and selected teacher characteristics, such as years of experience, were examined. Factor analyses identified eight independent sources of stress, and two groups of teachers were identified following cluster analysis; one cluster of teachers reporting moderate levels of stress and high job satisfaction and the other high levels of stress and low job satisfaction. The cluster membership of the individual teachers was then used to construct two similar clusters of schools. A series of analyses were then undertaken to identify the characteristics of schools which discriminated one cluster from the other. School characteristics tested were socio-economic rating of the school, proportion of fully registered teachers, and the stability of the school roll. In general there were differences between the characteristics of schools in the two clusters-high stress and low job satisfaction versus moderate stress and high job satisfaction, but there were significant exceptions to the trends. The educational significance of these exceptions is discussed.

Teachers' discourses on mental health and illness - implications for mental health education.

Anne Tuffin,Massey University

This paper presents an analysis of teachers' discourses when talking about mental illness and mental health. The study is informed by a social constructionist epistemology which highlights the constitutive and evaluative aspects of language use, and argues for the importance of collecting "natural" data. Interviews with eight health coordinators from a range of NZ secondary schools were transcribed and analysed. The analysis presents divergent and variable constructions of mental illness and mental health. The development of mental health and illness programs in schools is discussed in the light of this analysis.

Science can inform educational practice: The case of literacy

William Tunmer and James Chapman, Massey University

Antinaturalists, interpretivists, critical theorists, postmodernists, and deconstructivists have been highly critical of educational research methods that are theory driven, hypothesis testing, or generalization producing. According to extreme versions of these views research can only provide findings that are "contextually bound", in which case educational researchers should concentrate more on "telling stories" than "crunching numbers". With respect to literacy, these critics have questioned the feasibility of attempting to develop a general theory of how children learn to read (and write), and what can be done to maximize the effectiveness of literacy instruction for ALL children in the light of such findings. Instead, children's literacy experiences are seen as firmly embedded in social contexts that uniquely give meaning to their uses of literacy. In this paper we present an alternative view that begins with a definition of reading literacy that simultaneously incorporates psychological, linguistic, and sociological perspectives. We then present a brief critique of the position that literacy is primarily social, political, and relative, before turning to the primary focus of the paper, which is to provide specific examples of how theory-driven, quantitative research can inform educational practice in literacy.

Cognitive learning research in online multimedia education®

Juhani Touvinen, Monash University

A framework incorporating multiple modalities is proposed for cognitive research into online learning interaction. Its fundamental interaction dimensions are taken to be various combinations of text, graphics, video, sound and immersive virtual reality. These dimensions are then considered at two further levels of analysis, distinguishing between 1-way and 2-way and synchronous or asynchronous interactions.

Useful ways for siting current cognitive learning research and new research directions among these framework components are proposed. Methods for improving learning of cognitively demanding content by reducing the learning cognitive load in these online contexts are derived from recent cognition research. These are goal-free problem solving, worked and completion examples practice, reducing split-attention and redundancy effects, relating the heavy use of worked and completion examples to learners' expertise, the imagination effect, using multiple modalities and identifying and employing optimal conditions for discovery learning.

The implications and scope of effective new learning approaches for online learning and opportunities for research are discussed. The current research is argued to have immediate implications for improving learning in non-online contexts, and be highly suggestive of fruitful areas of research and development in online learning environments, especially if multimedia or virtual reality are employed as interaction modalities. It is also argued that the existing cognition research provides powerful methods of planning, prioritising, developing, implementing and evaluating online learning using judicious combinations of multiple interaction modes and instructional methods.

Dispersing the text: Globalisation, research and writing

Robin Usher,RMIT University

Those working in the university in contemporary globalised conditions are now involved in increasingly different and often new ways of producing and disseminating knowledge at a time when generally agreed definitions of what constitutes 'knowledge' and knowledge production is changing radically. This raises questions such as-what then is research and who then is a researcher? Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are significant in relation to different ways of producing knowledge new forms of dissemination. They have enabled a proliferation and diversification of research texts and contributed to an explosion of awareness about research to the extent where to talk of research as a migratory practice is no longer purely figurative. The consequence is that research becomes increasingly a series of little narratives as the crisis of narratives brought about by globalisation results in a questioning of a grand global narrative of research.

In this paper, we will examine the contemporary state of educational research using the notion of the 'dispersal of the text' as a means of foregrounding and theorising the greater possibilities for the communication of research in diverse formats to diverse audiences which has been enabled by globalising processes and the space-time compression upon which ICTs are based. We will consider issues such as:

• authenticity, originality and intellectual property rights
• what it now means for research to be located in the literature
• the very different genres of writing now opened up by space-time compression.

SYMPOSIUM: 11 Issues confronting a new health and pe curriculum in the NZ primary school setting.

Names of symposium contributors Andy Fraser (Wellington College of Education) Vicki Cowley (Christchurch College of Education) Bill Ussher (University of Waikato) Lynley Stewart (University of Waikato. Discussant: Dr Doune Macdonald (University of Queensland)

Overview of the symposium
This symposium will focus on competing discourses currently encountered by practising teachers in NZ primary schools. It is intended to promote discussion focussed on the cultural, traditional, political, historical and practical views and demands confronting classroom teachers today. Identifying trends and making comparisons across New Zealand and Australian experiences in the field of physical education will be used to promote dialogue among trans-Tasman colleagues.

Meaningful mathematics in the middle years.

Colleen Vale, Victoria University of Technology

This paper describes an action research project that investigated issues concerning the teaching and learning of numeracy in the middle years. Building on research concerning the middle years of schooling, and their own experience of teaching mathematics in years 5 - 8, a group of teachers, drawn from four schools, trialed strategies intended to improve the engagement, attitudes and outcomes of their students in mathematics. The group recommended at the end of the study that mathematics needs to be meaningful for young adolescents. The concept of meaningful mathematics is explored through a description of the actions and findings of the teachers participating in this project.

An educational measurement model: to evaluate a program in a higher education setting

Sitalakshmi Venkatraman, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore

In recent years, quality has become one of the buzz words in higher education, world wide. There has been a great deal of academic as well as non-academic activities taking place with regard to quality assurance in educational institutions, especially in higher educational settings. As part of the Total Quality Management (TQM), academic activities like course evaluation or a program assessment are being given substantial importance. Such evaluations are carried out with judgements based on a variety of criteria, both tangibles and intangibles. In this context, educational quality and measurement has become a major challenge for these institutions.

Many higher education institutions adopt the method of obtaining quantifiable student feedback to measure educational quality. The results obtained in such mechanisms are questionable as they are based on subjective judgements. The current practices adopted for educational measurement in higher education do not address all the tangible and intangible judgement criteria. Further, there is not much emphasis provided on the justification of the assessment scheme adopted. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by providing with a model to evaluate a higher education program that encompasses the justification of the results too.

This paper attempts to develop an educational measurement model using Criterion-Referenced Measurement for evaluating a program taking into consideration both the tangible factors as well as intangible factors. It provides a justification methodology for the validation and verification of the model results. A higher education program was considered for evaluation using this model. The study was based on a survey conducted on the students and the teaching team involved in the program under study. The results of the model based on the survey serve as meaningful feedback to students, the teaching team and the educational decision-makers. Based on the model results, the teaching team and the educational decision-makers will be able to strategically plan for continuous improvement of the higher education program.

Globalising and localising quality policy in australian higher education.

Lesley Vidovich,University of Western Australia

On the global scene, 'quality' has achieved metadiscourse status during the 1990s across both private and public sectors, and education is no exception. 'Quality' has provided a powerful legitimating tool for restructuring education, but it is a complex and contested phenomenon which requires careful dissection in situ in its localised context.

This paper presents the findings of an analysis of quality policy processes in Australian higher education of the 1990s using a modified theoretical framework of a policy trajectory (Bowe, Ball and Gold, 1992; Ball 1994) which distinguishes contexts of influence, policy text production and practice (effects). Documents and interviews provide data on quality policy processes which extend from the global context (macro level) to individual institutions (micro level).

While global influences were significant, the particular configuration of economic, political and ideological factors on the national scene created a uniquely Australian version of quality policy for higher education, and then the particular contexts of individual universities created differentiation of quality policy processes and effects at different sites. However, despite considerable localised variation in quality policy processes, evidence is presented that the 'big picture' effect of the policy under investigation was to enhance control by Government, albeit within the policy mechanism of 'steering at a distance'. A policy trajectory, derived from the data, is constructed to depict the complex interrelationships between contexts of influence, policy text production and practice in this example, and finally the use of the modified theoretical framework is evaluated.

Differences in country and metropolitan students' perceptions of teacher-student interactions and classroom learning environments

Bruce Waldrip, La Trobe University, and Darrell Fisher, Curtin University of Technology

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in metropolitan, provincial, rural and mining town students' perception of student-teacher interactions and their classroom learning environment. The study utilised a questionnaire, Cultural Learning Environment Questionnaire, that had previously been validated to assess culturally-sensitive factors of science students' learning environments. The student-teacher interactions were measured with the instrument, Questionnaire of Teacher Interaction. With a sample of over 2,000 secondary science students, the reliability of the CLEQ scales ranged from 0.70 to 0.84 and showed acceptable discrimination between the scales. The construct validity of the questionnaire was confirmed through interviews with students which are reported in the paper. While some aspects of the learning environment were similar, differences were found between students from metropolitan, provincial, rural and mining town schools. Overall, the greatest differences in perceptions occurred between metropolitan and rural students. For example, metropolitan students reported higher leadership and competition. In some aspects, provincial students were more likely to have perceptions similar to that of metropolitan students than compared to the rural students' perceptions. Mining town school students had a quite unique perceptions which might be due to the transient population of many mining towns. For example, Mining town school students were more likely to report less positive and more negative teacher-student interactions and were more likely to utilise modelling. Student gender affected these students' perceptions of their learning environment and teacher-student interactions. Metropolitan male students were reported as being the most Competitive.

Innovative inclusion initiative: The resource teachers in learning and behaviour programme

Joanne Walker, Dennis Moore and Angelika Anderson, University of Auckland, Don Brown and Charlotte Thomson, University of Victoria at Wellington, Ted Glynn and Angus Macfarlane, University of Waikato

This paper offers a progress report on the implementation of the Resource Teachers in Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) programme, a significant component of Special Education 2000 in New Zealand. Three Universities (Auckland, Waikato and Victoria) are working as a collaborative team responsible for the professional development of RTLB throughout the country. This programme acknowledges the need to address important bicultural elements of New Zealand society. The RTLB initiative has the potential to influence inclusive practice in every school throughout New Zealand. This paper will report on the effectiveness of the professional development programme in relation to RTLB perceptions of their role at entry to the course, issues relating to the application of the ecological model, and school perceptions of the RTLB role and effectiveness of service delivery. Data will be presented and discussed with respect to the shift from a traditional paradigm toward a more inclusive one. Issues relating to developing and delivering a collaborative national initiative across three Universities will also be shared.

Modeling local dependence across latent traits

Wen-Chung Wang, National Chung Cheng University, Mark Wilson, University of California at Berkeley, Ying-Yao Cheng, National Sun Yat-Sen University

It is not unusual that in questionnaires two or more rating scales with common wording are designed to be parallel in order to save space and to be easily responded. For example, in one of our study the subjects were asked to judge how important are some personal experiences, attitudes, or abilities to the development of creativity and how much do they posses these features, both on three-point rating scales. In the questionnaire, the common wording locates in the left, the "importance" scale in the middle and the "possession" scale in the right. We suspected that subjects' responses to the scales might be mutually interfered, for example, the subjects might overestimate the degrees they possess if they considered the feature important to creativity. In this paper, we propose Rasch modeling to investigate this kind of local dependence across latent traits. More specifically, the responses to the same wording on the two scales were combined into a virtual item with 9 (= 3 x 3) response categories. The eight possible parameters for the virtual item were partitioned into four item step difficulties (two for each scale) and four parameters representing the local dependence between the two latent traits. With some constraints, several reduced models of interest to us were formed. The estimation method of this modeling is addressed. The results of the simulation studies show that the parameters were very accurately recovered. A real data set was analyzed to depict the implications and applications of the proposed modeling.

Development and analysis of the College Teacher Evaluation

Ying-Yao Cheng, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Wen-Chung Wang, National Chung Cheng University

In this study, a college teacher evaluation inventory was developed. Ten items with five-point rating scale were formed. Each of these five points on every item was provided with specific wording, rather than simply the Likert-type rating scale. With these wordings, those college student subjects were easier to evaluate teachers' performances. Since conventional data analyses based on classical test theory were known to be problematic in many respects, such as sample-dependent and test-dependent, the Rasch measurement models were employed. If data fit the Rasch model (Rasch, 1960) or its extension, such as the partial credit model (Masters, 1982), the derived scale is specifically objective and interval. It was found that the data fit the partial credit model fairly well. Tasks with respect to instruction preparation and practice were relatively easier to achieve for most teachers. Those regarding mentoring or role model were very difficult for average teachers. The measure of teacher's performances on the subject he or she taught was denoted by the average trait levels of those students responded to the inventory. These ten iteems distinguished the teacher very well. A few teachers were found to perform outstandingly, which is the primary goal of the inventory: to identify outstanding teachers for the best teacher awards.

Putting praxis into practice

Gillian Ward and Mavis Haigh, Auckland College of Education

Prior to 1999 the Auckland College of Education curriculum methods courses for pre-service secondary science teachers were taught as whole year courses. These courses combined preparation for teaching junior secondary Science and a senior Science. In 1999 a restructuring of the Diploma of Teaching programme has resulted in student teachers being able to choose a combination of modules to make up what was originally the one-year course. Consequently, student teachers have had the opportunity for more personal choice with respect to the make-up of their programme. Likewise, the modularisation has provided an opportunity for the Science Education Centre to offer a module that focuses more on the findings of science education research and its implications for practice than previously. The module developed is called Theory and Practice in Science Education.

At the time of submission the two writers are working with twenty-five percent of the 1999 secondary science student teacher cohort who have enrolled in this module. An evaluation exercise is to be carried out towards the end of the module which will address questions such as: the students' reasons for choice of the module; their expectations of the module; the appropriateness of the teaching approaches of the module; the students' perceptions of their learning outcomes from the module and the value of having a module such as this in a pre-service teacher education programme. The presented paper will outline our findings of these and other questions which develop during the course of the evaluation exercise.

An international comparison of students' maths- and english-related perceptions through high school using hierarchical linear modelling

Helen M. G. Watt,University of Sydney and Jacquelynne S. Eccles University of Michigan

This large-scale international comparative study addresses changes in students' maths- and English-related self-concept of ability, subjective task-value and interest. Australian (N=1323) and American (N=651) students are from two separate studies with similar designs and samples, in three cohorts spanning grades 7 to 11 in Australia and 7 to 12 in America.

Hierarchical linear models are derived modelling gender effects over time and also cohort effects where required. Gender effects appear in the expected direction for all Australian variables excepting subjective task-value of maths. In America gender effects only appear for self-concept of ability in maths, but are evident for all English perceptions. Overall, declines in student perceptions are more apparent in Australia than America, and in maths more than English. Growth trajectories are interpreted in light of contextual school and wider sociocultural factors.

Teaching Bodies/Learning Desire: A reassessment of the role of desire in the pedagogic process

Megan Watkins ,University of Western Sydney

Desire is a crucial aspect of the pedagogic process. For too long, however, there has been a dichotomous relationship between the workings of teacher and student desire. The former is often configured as a pedagogic anachronism, problematised and needing to be contained. Conversely, the latter is essentialised; a limitless innate force which should not be constrained by the dictates of institutionalised education. Overall, desire in learning, especially as it pertains to schooling, has been very poorly theorised. Within mainstream education it is rarely raised as an issue. Poststructuralist theorising on the other hand, particularly in its use of psychoanalysis, tends to simply sexualise desire which obscures more productive interpretations of its role in learning. There needs to be a reconceptualisation of the role of desire in the pedagogic process that moves beyond the formulations outlined above.

This paper attempts a reassessment of the nature and function of pedagogic desire, proposing a conceptual matrix based largely upon a critical mobilisation of Bourdieu's notion of habitus and the philosophical insights of Spinoza's monist logic. In particular it examines the multivalent nature of desire, and, in relation to its pedagogic role, its embodied and intersubjective aspects. This theoretical framework is grounded by recent classroom-based research in the primary years of schooling which explores the potential productive dynamic of teacher and student desire.

Quality of student experiences at university: A Rasch measurement model analysis.

Russell Waugh,Edith Cowan University

The Community College Student Experiences Questionnaire (61 items) from the USA (Friedlander, Pace & Lehman, 1990) was revised and rewritten for Australian university students. The Australian Quality of Student Experiences Scale comprises 60 items relating to student expectations and, in direct correspondence, 60 items relating to their experiences. The items are based on a model involving academic,personal and group experiences for eight areas: My Course (18 items), The Library (14), My Lecturers (16), Student Acquaintances (12), The Arts (12), Writing (16), Science (18) and Vocations (14). The convenience sample was 305 1st year students from an Australian university and the data were analyzed with a Rasch measurement model. Fifty-eight items did not fit the model and were discarded. Most of these items came from the sub-scales: The Arts, The Sciences and Writing. The final scale of 62 items had excellent psychometric properties. Expectations are easier than experiences, as conceptualized, and the conceptual design of the scale, as involving My Course, The Library, My Lecturers, Student Acquaintances and Vocations, is confirmed.

The structure and meaning of self-concept for university students: A Rasch measurement model analysis.

Russell Waugh, Edith Cowan University

This study tested a multi-faceted hierarchical self-concept model devised and adapted from three similar models in the literature (Marsh, 1992c; Shavelson, Hubner & Stanton,1976; Song & Hattie, 1992, p84). Self-concept is conceptualized as comprised of three first-order orientations: academic self-concept, social self-concept and self-concept presentation of self. Academic self-concept is comprised of three 2nd order orientations: capability, achievement and confidence in academic life self-concepts. Social self-concept is comprised of same-sex peer, opposite-sex peer and family self-concepts. Self-concept presentation of self is comprised of personal confidence, physical and honest/trustworthy self-concepts. Items were modified and adapted to each of the nine 2nd order orientations (10 for each) in an ideal (45) and corresponding actual (45) form, with an ordered response category format. The convenience sample consisted of 400 first year students at an Australian university: 152 (38%) studying Media, 150 (37.5%) studying Marketing, 32 (8%) studying Computing, 62 (15.5%) studying Education and 4 (1%) studying Chemistry. The data were analyzed with the whole sample and all 90 items, then with the 66 items that fitted the model, and then with the 45 items relating to actual self-concept, using a Rasch measurement model. The 45 actual items, separately, fitted the model and formed a valid and reliable scale, Self-Concept (Actual). Twenty-four of the 45 ideal items did not fit the model. The remaining 21 ideal items together with the 45 actual items (66 items) fitted the model and formed a valid and reliable scale of Self-Concept (Actual and Ideal). The ideal items were all easier than their corresponding actual items, as conceptualized. The percentage of observed variance considered true is 94% for both scales. The results supported the multi-faceted, hierarchical model of self-concept as a unidimensional

latent trait. Self-Concept (Actual) is confirmed as involving academic self-concept (capability, achievement and confidence in academic life self-concepts), social self-concept (same-sex peer, opposite-sex peer and family self-concepts) and presentation of self (physical, personal confidence and honest/trustworthy self-concept). Self-Concept (Actual and Ideal) is confirmed as involving all the above structures, except same-sex and opposite-sex peer self-concept.

Inputs to outcomes? Perceptions of the evolution of Commonwealth government policy approaches to outcomes-based education (1985-1996)

Mary Welsh,University of Canberra

It is important to look at the past in order to understand how current education policies have evolved. The present Commonwealth Government's policy emphasis on outcomes' measurement, benchmarking and target-setting is a case in point. This paper reports on research investigating how Commonwealth policies to promote the quality of school education evolved between 1985 and 1996. Its findings are based on extensive documentary research and on data drawn from 50 interviews with former State and Commonwealth Education Ministers, senior government officials, teacher unions, teacher professional associations, school principals, teacher educators, education consultants/commentators and a business/industry representative. The shift in Commonwealth education policies from an inputs-based approach (post Karmel Report, 1973) to a greater focus on educational accountability, outputs and the outcomes of schooling is a key issue in this research. This paper discusses perceptions of factors influencing such 'evolutionary shifts' in policy from 1985 onwards, including economic, international, political and professional agendas, key policy initiatives and the involvement of education stakeholders in national policies for schools.

Reconceptualising curriculum studies in preservice teacher education

Jenny Whatman, Liz Thevenard, Marg Cosgriff, Wellington College of Education

Curriculum studies are key components of preservice secondary teacher education. These courses are designed to guide student teachers in pedagogical content knowledge. Performing Arts and Education Outside the Classroom are two unique forms of curriculum studies as they focus on cross-curricular and co-curricular applications as well as pedagogical content knowledge. The two curriculum studies share common aims and approaches: they utilise a multi-disciplinary approach; they build in personal skill building; they deliberately educate the person as well as the prospective teacher; they accept student teachers with minimal prior curriculum knowledge; and they focus on utilising an experiential approach where learning is derived from 'doing'. An intense residency project allows opportunity for sustained team teaching and learning.

This common ground was identified when course lecturers used a collaborative interview approach to discuss their courses. This paper outlines the nature of curriculum as it emerged in the exploration of the philosophy and practice of the two courses. Interviews with year one teachers who were course participants in 1998 provide a student teacher perspective. These teachers describe how their teaching practice has been influenced and informed by the courses. We see this reconceptualising of curriculum studies as a model applicable across a range of curriculum areas.

Reconceptualising the frames for environmental education research

When poststructuralist feminist theorising is applied to an analysis of the conceptual frames of environmental education, what emerges are different terrains of knowledge. The ground shifts away from the universalising discourses of nature production toward an emphasis on lived bodily experiences of place with all their inherent contradictions and exhilarations. There are implications for re-conceptualising environmental education research and these include: the need to think and speak differently on our makings of "environmental" understandings; the need to more intensively trouble the binaries through which we frame the Others and our gendered selves; and the necessity for paying closer attention to spaces and places where we imaginatively make ourselves through discursive land-shaping, and cyber-shaping, practices.

Implications for environmental education research practice will be spoken about with particular reference to tropical Australia where the research was conducted.

Learning Mathematics: A new look at generalisation and Abstraction

Paul White, Australian Catholic University, Michael Mitchelmore, Macquarie University

This paper presents a cognitive theoretical framework for the learning of mathematics which also has generic implications for other disciplines. It does not involve highly technical mathematics. The framework has been developed using a combination of established theories about the learning of mathematics and the authors' own research into the understanding of some specific types of mathematics. In particular, the framework integrates the structure of mathematics as a discipline with the work of Piaget, Skemp, Davidov, the authors, and others. The key aspect discussed is the role of abstraction and generalisation in both forming mathematical concepts and learning mathematical procedures. Analysis indicates that there are at least two different types of generalisation, the combination of which provides a powerful tool for learning mathematics. The paper concludes by using the developed framework to analyse some recent research findings, thus providing practical guidelines which can be adapted to varying contexts.

Lessons learned: designing and delivering a distance graduate program in workplace learning

This paper describes the evaluation process and outcomes of the Faculty of Continuing Education's critical appraisal of its new Master of Continuing Education: Workplace Learning program (MCE), delivered primarily by computer-mediated conferencing to approximately 100 students Canada-wide. The appraisal was conducted to assess how well the MCE is meeting the needs of its key stakeholder groups (students, faculty, employers, original program designers and advisory committee members, service providers and support staff), as well as defiine the future direction of this 'leading edge' program.

The critical appraisal process involved face-to-face consultations/interviews with stakeholder groups, the creation, administration and analysis of online questionnaires to students and faculty, as well as the analysis of several existing documents (e.g., student profiles and courses evaluations) in the MCE files.

A number of themes emerged from the data including: . Rationale & Philosophy - the original 'vision' was affirmed. . General Program Effectiveness - would be improved with the clarification of individual course and overall program learning outcomes, and more & better partnerships with other educational institutions and businesses were built. . Program Instruction and Delivery - would be improved with more creative utilization of the technology. . Resources - need to be increased in several aspects of the program. . Marketing - the program needs to be targeted more effectively to both new and existing audiences.

The paper will conclude with the recommendations of the critical appraisal committee regarding the MCE program's: philosophical framework, curriculum, structure, delivery, resources and marketing approach.

Exploring congruency: Searching for our role in a changing environment

Barbara Raeburn, Sue Hodge, Ruth Williams and Robyn Fox, Auckland College of Education

The Centre for Professional Inquiry at the Auckland College of Education was established as part of the structure of the new Bachelor of Education (Tchg) degree. Reflective practice is at the heart of the philosophy of the degree. Our role in the Centre for Professional Inquiry is to introduce both the content and process of reflection to year one student teachers and to support the continued development of reflective practice throughout their teacher education.

This paper explores the evolution of the Centre for Professional Inquiry from its roots in Professional Practice: we examine the differences in philosophy, pedagogy, and content, and explore tensions inherent in these differences. We present action we have taken to develop congruency between our vision of the role, and perceptions and expectations which have lingered from the previous work of Professional Practice.

Defining Metacognition: A step towards recognising metacognition as a worthwhile part of the curriculum.

Jeni Wilson, University of Melbourne

Many curriculum documents in Australia promote the importance of metacognition. Research and many educators acknowledge that metacognition will improve the educational outcomes of students but much confusion in the field continues to exist. The term 'metacognition' is not clearly defined. At both research and classroom levels, it is difficult to assess what cannot be defined. Assessed curriculum is taught curriculum, therefore a likely implication is that the metacognition will not be widely embraced as a worthwhile part of the curriculum.

This paper reports on PhD research results which have explored the notion of metacognition and its assessability. A new, multi-method approach was used in the curriculum domain of mathematics. The study involved year six students from three different schools. This paper seeks to clearly define metacognition and present a tested model of metacognition. It will report on the findings of the research which relate to the nature of metacognition. The results show that students' metacognitive behavior is predictable regardless of school, class, sex and task.

Simplifying algebraic expressions

Tom Cooper, Anne Williams, and Annette Baturo, Queensland University of Technology

Developing ideas about the simplification of algebraic expressions (e.g., 5x+2x; 4x2p; 8x+5y+2x- 3y) requires the development of abstract schema (Ohlsson, 1993) for multiplication and addition, as well as the algebraic notion of variable. For example, simplifying by adding of like things applies in arithmetic for whole numbers (e.g., 5 tens + 2 tens = 7 tens, 50+20=70), fractions (e.g., 5 ninths +2 ninths = 7 ninths, 5/9+2/9=7/9), and decimals (e.g., 0.5+0.2=0.7), as well as in algebra (e.g., 5x+2x=7x, where x is any number, a variable). Thus, simplifying by adding of like things is an abstract schema because its meaning lies in the relationships formed between the numbers and variables, rather than in the numbers and variables themselves. A teaching experiment, whose aim was to teach simplification procedures through developing arithmetic principles as abstract schema, was conducted on grade 8 pupils. A variety of activities, including patterns and concrete materials, were employed to highlight the similarities between arithmetic and algebra in the simplification of expressions. This paper describes the activities and their rationale, and discusses the results in terms of the students' responses to the teaching episodes, and the learning exhibited in follow-up interviews.

High and low achievers classroom interaction patterns in an upper primary classroom

Julie Willson, University of South Australia

This paper examines the nature and frequency of classroom interactions initiated by a small group of high and low achieving students in one upper primary classroom. Using a series of individual observations and unstructured interviews, student behaviour and interaction patterns were recorded and analysed. In conjunction with this, the classroom teacher's expectations and attitudes toward teaching high and low achieving students were also recorded and analysed.

Results from this study revealed that students with a high academic standing in the classroom not only had greater self-confidence in initiating interactions with their classroom teacher, but also initiated more teacher contact and received more praise than students with a low academic standing.

As past research into this area has shown, low achieving students are more passive in the learning process than higher achieving students. This proved to be the case with low achieving students in this study. Despite being the students in greatest need of teacher attention and support, low achievers were the most reluctant to seek it. Comparisons between interaction patterns of high and low achievers in classrooms, as well as factors accounting for these differences existing are discussed in the paper.

School principals and the dilemmas of restructuring: The problem of participation

Helen Wildy,Edith Cowan,University

Restructuring seeks to improve education by recasting the roles, relationships, and responsibilities of people in schools and central authorities. This study aimed to find out what it is about school restructuring that principals find so difficult. The study, conducted in Western Australia in the first decade of state education restructuring, involved cases rated by 1 000 school administrators, in-depth interviews with 10 principals and a six-year case study of one school principal. Interpretive-constructivist analysis of narrative accounts told in principals' voices revealed that principals find restructuring difficult because their work is saturated with dilemmas. Three dilemmas are conceptualised: the accountability dilemma that principals are accountable for decisions made by or with others; the autonomy dilemma that principals maintain authority while working collaboratively; and the efficiency dilemma that principals share decision making while using resources efficiently. Faced with the untidiness of shared decision making, principals prefer accountability, autonomy, and efficiency over collaboration. This response to the dilemmas is driven by an ethic of responsibility but it is an ethic of care that underpins participative decision making.

The interface between theory and practice: The role of teacher educators and teachers in a school-based teacher development initiative

Winnie Wong and May Pang, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Among the various approaches that can be used to try to bring about changes in educational initiatives, the main strategies have been broadly classified into three types; those that center on problem solving processes, conceptual changes, and the power and authority of some agents over others (Morris 1996). In a highly centralized educational system such as Hong Kong, the change strategies employed in curriculum initiatives have always been associated with the third. Curriculum renewal tends to be imposed on teachers from the top such as the Education Department. Teachers as one of the major participants in the curriculum development process are rarely involved in the planning and decision-making.

This paper describes phase one of a one-year school-based teacher development initiative in which English teachers of a primary school take the initiative in making changes to their existing curriculum with on-site support from a team of teacher educators. This teacher development project aims at adopting a problem-solving and interactive approach to teacher change in curriculum initiative. It also attempts to explore the roles of teachers and teacher educators in the process of collaboration. It intends to seek the interface between theory and practice in the local educational context, in particular in empowering teachers through mutual communication, negotiation, consultation, rather than top-down persuasion.

This paper also reports the preliminary findings from the qualitative data collected and discusses implications in relation to interactive curriculum change strategies, the interface between theory and practice, and the roles of teachers and teacher educators in a collaborative project.

Choice, responsiveness, and constraint after a decade of self-managing schools in New Zealand

Cathy Wylie,NZCER

New Zealand decentralised school management to all its schools in 1989.Rationales for the reform included an emphasis on the value of local decisionmaking and financial responsibility as a means of improving school responsiveness to student and community needs, particularly for Maori students, and as a means of providing parents and students with more schooling options.

This paper uses material from a 1999 national survey of primary and intermediate schools, gathering information from principals, school board members, teachers and parents, and makes comparisons with previous national surveys in the NZCER project monitoring the impact of deventralisation. It examines the extent to which these expectations of the reform have been met, and explores the impact of factors such as competition, school accountability, school funding mechanisms and levels, central policy levers, and the socioeconomic composition of school intakes on school innovation and responsiveness, and parental perceptions of choice and school quality. .

Students' Explanatory Style, Goal Orientation and Achievement in Mathematics: A Longitudinal Study

Shirley M. Yates, Flinders University

During childhood students develop habitual, characteristic, optimistic or pessimistic causal explanations for the everyday events in their lives. Furthermore, they acquire attributional patterns for their educational successes and failures which influence their attitudes, motivation and goals. In this study, relationships between primary and lower secondary school students' optimistic or pessimistic explanatory style, task involvement and ego orientation goals and achievement in mathematics were examined over a period of almost three years. While achievement in mathematics was most strongly related to prior achievement, significant relationships were found between students' explanatory style and achievement in mathematics and between students' explanatory style and task involvement goals. Students' gender and grade level were also important factors. The implications of these findings for education are discussed and suggestions made for future studies.

Peer review in the assessment and funding of research by the Australian research council

The purpose of the proposed research study is to evaluate properties of various ratings that are part of the assessment process of the large Australian Research Council (ARC) grant program. Effects of professional and demographic information of assessors and researchers on ratings and success of the proposals are also examined. The ARC through its Large Grants Program provides funds for research in Australian universities. The successful proposals are determined by the ARC, based on individually provided assessor reports and panel assessments. Initially, applications that are ineligible or noncompetitive are excluded. The remaining proposals are sent to external assessors for assessments. Data for all the applications submitted for the 1996 round of the large grants program provided by the ARC contain 2331 proposals rated by 9700 external assessors. The findings are: (a) ratings of researcher nominated assessor are higher than those of panel selected assessors; (b) number of assessors who reviewed the proposal has little negative effect on final assessor rating of the proposal; (c) number of proposals assessed by each assessor has negative effect on ratings; (d) researcher rating is higher than project rating; (e) researcher and assessor gender have no effect on ratings; and (f) ages of researcher and assessor have only negligible effect on rating; (g) title of the researcher has some effect on ratings; and (h) ratings of Australian assessors are lower than assessors from other regions.

Separation of competency and affect components of multiple dimensions of academic self-concept: A developmental perspective

Herbert W. Marsh, Rhonda G. Craven, University of Western Sydney,& Raymond Debus, University of Sydney,

In two large confirmatory factor analyses (Ns of 11,029 and 1,397) of Self Description Questionnaire (SDQ-I) responses, we examined how the separation of competency and affect components of Reading, Math, and School self-concept varies across ages 7-13. The SDQ-I factor structure was well-defined with factor loadings invariant over both longitudinal and cross-sectional age comparisons. Correlations among Reading, Math, and School self-concepts systematically decreased with age, but correlations between the competency and affect within each domain remained consistently large. With age and development students more clearly distinguish between different academic self-concept domains, but the relation between intrinsic liking and competency remains strong. We tentatively recommend that researchers distinguish between competency and affect components of academic self-concept, qualified by the need to evaluate further the construct validity of this separation in relation to additional external validity criteria.

The structure and development of young children's self-concepts and influence on academic achievement: A preliminary longitudinal analysis. Rhonda G. Craven, Valentina McInerney & Herbert W. Marsh, University of Western Sydney.

Developing children's self-concepts is a critical educational goal in Australia and throughout the world. Despite considerable advances in self-concept theory, measurement, research, and practice with older students, there has been only limited progress with very young children 5-8 years of age. This is unfortunate as this developmental period may be crucial in the formation of a positive self-concept that is related to the attainment of many academic, social, physical, emotional, and developmental outcomes. This failure to pursue research with this very young age group is due, in large part, to problems associated with measuring self-concepts of very young children. In this study we report findings based on 2 waves of self-concept and academic achievement data collected from children 5-8 years of age. The structure, stability and development of young children's self-concepts is critically evaluated longitudinally in order to: (a) build on the findings of previous cross-sectional studies; (b) further establish psychometric support for the use of the individually administered Self-Description Questionnaire-I with young children; (c) test Harter's (1983) claim that general self-concept does not exist before the age of 8 years in the context of a longitudinal study; (d) test the Shavelson, Hubner and Stanton. (1976) hypothesis that self-concept becomes more differentiated with age and to provide more specific data on how the factor structure of self-concept varies in the age range of 5 to 8 years over time; and (e) evaluate the structure and stability of young children's self-concepts over time.

Creative arts self-concept and anxiety: Do family backgrounds matter?

Deirdre Russell-Bowie, Alexander S. Yeung, & Dennis M. McInerney, University of Western Sydney.

Recent research on self-concept has emphasized multidimensionality such that self-concept and its relation to other constructs are distinct in each specific domain. The present study tests the hypothesis that self-concepts in creative arts are not only multidimensional, but are also highly related to family backgrounds in specific domains. Confirmatory factor analysis of survey responses from 312 Australian university students in teacher education showed that, in support for domain specificity, self-concepts in music, visual art, dance and drama were distinct constructs. Each of these distinct self-concepts was more positively correlated with family background in its corresponding domain than with other domains. Family background was also found to correlated more negatively with anxiety in corresponding domains than with other domains. The results show that, in creative arts education, family background may be an important factor for the formation of self-concept and anxiety. There is also further support for the multidimensionality and domain specific relations of self-concept with other constructs .

Session 2: Self-concept research: Global and local advances into the new millennium-structure and theory

Rhonda G. Craven: Herbert W. Marsh ,Charles K. C. Leung ,Dennis M. McInerney Alexander S. Yeung: name: Marsh

An Extension of the internal/external frame of reference Model: A response to Bong (1998).: Herbert W. Marsh, University of Western Sydney, Mimi Bong, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea; & Alexander Seeshing Yeung, University of Western Sydney.

: Bong (1998) extended the internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model by attempting to operationalize the internal and external comparison processes that are central to the model and expanding the range of academic self-concept domains. Bong concluded that the "I/E failed to receive clear support" (p. 102) in relation to predictions that she derived from her extension of the original model. Our critical evaluation and reanalysis, however, reveals potential complications in the operationalization of the internal and external comparisons, the rationale for post hoc confirmatory factor analysis models and the use of correlated uniquenesses, and, thus, the original conclusions. The failure to appropriately operationalize the internal-external distinction based on the items used in the study meant that new tests of this distinction could not be pursued appropriately. The reanalysis, however, provided strong support for the original I/E model and a new extension to incorporate a wider range of academic domains consistent with Bong's original intent, University of Western Sydney.

Validity of nonacademic facets of self description Questionnaire II.

Charles K. C. Leung, Herbert W. Marsh, & Alexander S. Yeung, University of Western Sydney

Recent studies on the validity of the Self Description Questionnaire II (SDQII) have shown a distinction between academic and nonacademic facets of self-concept. Most of these studies have focused on the academic facets than the nonacademic facets. For the academic self-concept constructs, the application of advanced confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) has provided particularly strong tests of construct validity. By correlating external criterion variables such as achievement scores and subject selection in specific academic facets to self-concept in corresponding academic facets, the distinctiveness of the self-concept constructs can be more clearly shown. However, few studies have applied a similar approach to testing the validity of nonacademic facets of the SDQII instrument. The present study examined the responses of high school students (N=244) in four nonacademic facets of the SDQ II: same-sex relation, opposite-sex relation, parent relation and honesty-trustworthiness. CFA found the four distinct factors. When nonacademic criteria including perceived support from family, perceived support from friends and adoption of avoidance strategies were added to the CFA model, the distinctiveness of these four self-concept constructs is clearly demonstrated. Perceived support from family was correlated more highly with parent relation than with other SDQ II factors, perceived support from friends was correlated more highly with same-sex relation and opposite-sex relation than with other SDQ II factors, whereas adoption of avoidance strategies was correlated more negatively with honesty-trustworthiness than with SDQ II factors. The inclusion of these nonacademic criteria has provided a strong evidence of the validity of these four nonacademic scales

Towards a hierarchical artistic self-concept

Dennis M. McInerney, Alexander S. Yeung, & Deirdre Russell-Bowie,University of Western Sydney,

Australian students in a teacher education course (N = 284) responded to questions about their perceptions of 21 specific skills in 4 artistic domains which constituted the 4 major areas of an Arts education program. Confirmatory factor analysis found that the skill-specific perceptions formed 4 a priori domain-specific higher order factors corresponding to the 4 major areas: music, drama, dance and visual arts. These 4 domain-specific factors could also form a higher order factor which reflected a global representation of the 4 major artistic domains. The distinctiveness of the skill-specific and domain-specific factors supported the multidimensionality of self-concept. The higher order factor structure supported the hierarchical relationship of a global artistic self-concept with domain-specific and skill-specific self-concepts at subordinate levels of the hierarchy. In a specific domain such as Arts, the structure of self-concept tends to be both multidimensional and hierarchical.

A quadripolar need achievement representation of self-handicapping, defensive pessimism, and self-concept

Andrew Martin, Herbert W. Marsh, University of Western Sydney,& Raymond Debus, University of Sydney,

From need achievement (Atkinson, 1957) and self-worth motivation (Covington & Beery, 1976) perspectives, self-handicapping, defensive pessimism (comprising defensive expectations and reflectivity), and self-concept are integrated into a quadripolar model reflecting the motives to avoid failure and approach success (Covington & Omelich, 1991). Consistent with hypotheses, defensive expectations and self-handicapping reflected failure avoidance (with self-handicapping bordering failure acceptance); reflectivity was marked by the dual motives to avoid failure and approach success; and, self-concept essentially reflected success orientation. This quadripolar model was consistent across students' (n=328) first and second years at university. Interpretation of these constructs along failure avoidance and success orientation lines was validated through structural equation modelling in which self-handicapping, defensive pessimism, and self-concept differentially predicted a variety of academic outcomes.

Enhancing students' self-concepts and related constructs: A critical longitudinal analysis capitalising on and combining promising enhancement techniques for educational settings

Paul Burnett, Charles Sturt University; Rhonda G. Craven and Herbert W. Marsh, University of Western Sydney,

Enhancing children's self-concepts is widely accepted as a critical educational outcome of schooling and is postulated as a mediating variable that facilitates the attainment of other desired outcomes such as improved academic achievement. Despite considerable advances in self-concept research, there has been limited progress in devising teacher-administered enhancement interventions. This is unfortunate as teachers are crucial change agents during important developmental periods when self-concept is formed. The primary aim of the present investigation is to build on the promising features of previous self-concept enhancement studies by: (a) combining two exciting research directions developed by Burnett and Craven to develop a potentially powerful cognitive-based intervention; (b) incorporating recent developments in theory and measurement to ensure that the multidimensionality of self-concept is accounted for in the research design; (c) fully investigating the effects of a potentially strong cognitive intervention on reading, mathematics, school and learning self-concepts by using a large sample size and a sophisticated research design; (d) evaluating the effects of the intervention on affective and cognitive subcomponents of reading, mathematics, school and learning self-concepts over time to test for differential effects of the intervention; (e) modifying and extending current procedures to maximise the successful implementation of a teacher-mediated intervention in a naturalistic setting by incorporating sophisticated teacher training as suggested by Hattie (1992) and including an assessment of the efficacy of implementation; and (f) examining the durability of effects associated with the intervention.

Bullying in schools: Can self-concept theory shed any light?

Roberto H. Parada, Herbert W. Marsh, & Alexander S. Yeung, University of Western Sydney,

There is an ever-increasing concern about the apparently increasing amount of violence and aggression in our schools. This increase in violent behaviour has also been accompanied by a decrease in the average age for violent offenders. In the school setting, aggression and victimisation is increasingly being recognised as psychologically, physically, and academically damaging. This aggression and victimisation can readily be observed in acts of peer bullying. Bullying may take the form of a range of anti-social behaviours such as name calling, extortion, physical violence, nasty rumours, exclusion from the group, damage to property, and threats; and may occur in 10% of students in Australian schools at least once a week. For bullies, aggression may persist into adulthood in the form of criminality, marital violence, child abuse and sexual harassment. For victims, repeated bullying can cause psychological distress and many related difficulties, and even suicide. However, despite the pervasiveness of the issue and the handful of intervention programs that have been designed to prevent bullying, there have been few attempts to explain the possible reasons of why bullying occurs or is maintained within the school setting. This theoretical paper examines the contribution which self-concept theory may bring to this vexing issue, how self-concept may have differential influences on bullies and victims, and what implications these influences have on educational and health practices. The paper also describes a collaborative project which is currently looking into this question.

Paper 13:

Reunification of East and West German school systems: Longitudinal multilevel modeling study of the big fish little pond effect on academic self-concept.

Herbert W. Marsh, University of Western Sydney, Olaf Köller, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany;Jnrgen Baumert, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.

Longitudinal data from large cohorts of 7th grade (n=2,778) of East and West German students were collected at the start of the reunification of the school systems to evaluate how this remarkable social experiment effects self-concept formation. Multilevel modeling demonstrated the big fish little pond effect (BFLPE); attending classes where class-average math achievement was higher led to lower math self-concepts. West German students attended schools that were highly stratified in relation to ability before and after the reunification, whereas East German students first attended selective schools after the reunification. Consistent with theoretical predictions based on this difference, the BFLPE - the negative effect of class-average achievement - was more negative in West German schools at the start of the reunification, but this difference was smaller by the middle of the year and had disappeared by the end of the first post-reunification school year.

Whereas East and West German results both support the BFLPE, their differences supported theoretical predictions and demonstrated how changes in school policy influences the formation of academic self-concept.

Session 4:

Self-concept research: Global and local advances into the new millennium-Methodological issues

Paul Burnett ,John Hattie, Kit-Tai Hau, Rhonda G. Craven & Andrew Martin

Longitudinal multilevel models of the big fish little pond effect on academic self-concept: Counterbalancing contrast and reflected glory effects in Hong Kong schools

Herbert W. Marsh, University of Western Sydney, Chit-Kwong Kong & Kit-Tai Hau, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,

Longitudinal multilevel path models (7,997 students, 44 high schools, 4 years) were used to evaluate effects of school-average achievement and perceived school status on academic self-concept in Hong Kong, a collectivist culture with one of the most achievement-segregated high school systems in the world. Consistent with a priori predictions based on the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), higher school-average achievements led to lower academic self-concepts (contrast effects) and to higher perceived school status that had a counter-balancing positive effect on self-concept (reflected glory, assimilation effects). The negative BFLPE is the net effect of counterbalancing influences, stronger negative contrast effects and weaker positive assimilation effects, so that controlling perceived school status led to purer - and even more negative - estimates of the contrast effects. Attending a school where school-average achievement is high simultaneously results in a more demanding basis of comparison for one's own accomplishments (the stronger negative contrast effect) and a source of pride (the weaker positive assimilation effect). Hong Kong is an ideal setting for testing the generalizability of the BFLPE and extending this research to more fully evaluate the juxtaposition between negative contrast and positive assimilation effects. Apparently reflecting these counter-balancing predictions (bigger contrast effects due to the more ability-segregated schools, smaller contrast effects because of the more collectivist culture), the size of the negative contrast effects in this study appear roughly comparable to those found in nationally representative US samples (e.g., Marsh, 1987; 1991).

The Usefulness of Value-added Research in Identifying Effective Schools.

Deidra J Young, Curtin University of Technology

During the Western Australian School Effectiveness Study (WASES) 1995-1998, 28 rural and urban high schools and 3500 students were surveyed in order to investigate features of effective schools. Effective schools were identified in terms of higher than expected levels of achievement, when socioeconomic status and student intake factors were controlled for such as prior learning. Following this quantitative phase, five rural and urban schools were selected for closer scrutiny using a constant comparative methodology. These schools were studied intensively this year (1999) and features which make them effective or ineffective were documented. This study focuses on the Science classroom and how effective science teachers work in rural schools.

Developing an understanding of the number system

Jenny Young-Loveridge, University of Waikato

This paper presents the findings of two research projects which explore children's understanding of the number system. The first study looked at nine-year-old children's understanding of place value and other related concepts. Some of the notable findings include the following: only about half of the nine-year-olds were able to demonstrate a satisfactory understanding place-value; approximately one third of the nine-year-olds counted on by ones to increment a number by ten; relatively few (less than one third) children could do 2-and 3-digit written subtraction problems with vertical presentation but more were successful when the problem was presented orally using a money context; some children were successful with 2- and 3-digit written addition problems with vertical presentation, despite having little, if any understanding of place value. The second study looked at seven-year-olds' understanding of the number system with a view to developing diagnostic assessment tools. The findings of both studies are considered in relation to a developmental framework for the acquisition of numeracy which shows how children's understanding about the number system becomes increasingly sophisticated as their thinking develops.