1996 Conference Abstracts

A core curriculum focussed on national integration, on cultural identity, on concern and justice for the disadvantaged.

With this in mind the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination, New Delhi, requires of their 700 odd affiliated schools on the sub-continent that they combine academic competence with sound cultural and national identity and the formation of the whole person.

As a positive contribution to the above, a section of the schools affiliated to the Council offers teachers and school administrators the Integral Pedagogy Process, a tool encompassing the sum-total of the teaching-learning process into well defined pedagogical system adaptable to all cultures.

The special features of Integral Pedagogy are stress on the learning context of the student, on developing not only the head but the heart-level (experience) of learning, on placing reflection as the key element in learning leading to action or involved and compassionate commitment, while evaluation stresses that the student's attitudes and priorities are values as important as academic achievement.

BURGH96.116

Information technology in an open and distant teacher education programme

Hilary Burgess, The Open University, United Kingdom

This paper will outline a new distance learning Teacher Education programme developed in the UK by the Open University. A central feature of the proramme is the use of a computer with a modem attachment which is provided for all students and staff involved in the course. The use of this technology has resulted in the creation of electronic communities who conference, discuss, seek and share information and chat, amongst both the students and the staff.

Evidence will be drawn from research which has been conducted on two of the electronic subject communities of students; English and Modern foreign Languages, but as a particular focus will be a case study of staff development issues as tutors, some of whom would describe themselves as "computer illiterate", have developed electronic skills and become electronic community users themselves. Emphasis will also be placed on issues that will have substantive implications for others attempting similar initiatives.

BURTT96.286

Telephone instruction of first aid in emergency situations

Trish Burton, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia

The media has cited incidences where ambulance officers in the communications centre of Ambulance Service regions have instructed callers over the telephone to apply first aid and emergency life support to the casualty. This aspect of ambulance officers instructing callers over the telephone is an unusual teaching-learning mode, and thus a pilot study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of this educational approach.

The pilot study explored the success rate of this teaching mode in relation to casualty outcome, and whether previous exposure to first aid programs influenced the caller's response to instructions. Ambulance officers in the communications centre completed a questionnaire after each incident of teaching first aid to a caller.

The pilot study results showed that callers responded well to telephone instruction, and this was reflected by casualty outcomes. Exposure to first aid programs or situations did not influence the caller's response to instruction.

Self efficacy: An integral component of teacher professional development

Jude Butcher, Australian Catholic University - Sydney, and Ray Debus, University of Sydney, Australia

The importance of self efficacy in studies of professional development was shown in a study of teacher development in the management domain where student teachers' changes in their general conceptualisations of management or schema types were found to be associated with changes in teacher efficacy . The study of the role of teacher efficacy in development was facilitated through the use of three efficacy factors, one of which, difficult student efficacy, was more directly related to the management domain than the other two factors, teacher efficacy in producing outcomes and contextual efficacy in overcoming the influences of pupil context.

These changes in efficacy sometimes entailed the adoption of a more realistic sense of difficult student and/or contextual efficacy by student teachers. Changes in schema types across a low to high schema type developmental threshold were accompanied by changes in efficacy scores. The particular efficacy score and the direction of the change varied according to the nature of the student teachers' developmental pattern and/or the direction of the schema type change.

An examination of the relationships between teacher efficacy and situational or field experience variables and schema development showed how teachers' sense of efficacy is integral to the way teachers perceive and respond to management situations. Other personal influences on schema development were identified and their roles in development, with relation to efficacy, are explored.

This paper shows the importance of including efficacy in studies of teacher development, and the need for efficacy to be studied with consideration of likely sub-factors is discussed. The discussion draws upon the analysis of both longitudinal case study and cross-sectional extensive phase data comparing experts and novices at varying levels in teacher education courses.

BUTLE96.308

Equity issues in workplace learning

Elaine Butler, University of Adelaide, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 7, Workplace learning and assessment: The agenda for research.

Journal writing :A tool for reflection-on-action

Glenda Campbell-Evans and Carmel Maloney, Edith Cowan University, Australia

The challenge in teacher education in recent years has been to provide strategies and processes which equip student teachers to examine, critique and evaluate their own understanding and beliefs about teaching. One strategy which has received considerable attention in the literature is journal writing. The art of journal writing has been highly commended as a means of personal professional development. However, despite the increased popularity of journal writing in teacher education programs, little research evidence exists to substantiate the effectiveness of journal writing as a took for inquiry.

This study investigates the process of journal writing as a means for student teachers and university teachers to analyse the complexities of learning to teach. The study explores the links between journal writing and personal professional development and in particular the degree to which journal writing contributes to students' reflection-on-action as proposed by Schon (1987, 1991).

Data are drawn from six interactive journals written by teacher education students and university teachers during a field experience semester. A content analysis which as Burns (1994) suggests can be used to determine themes, concepts and meaning, will be applied to the journals. It is anticipated that analysis of the data will lead us to more critically assess journal writing as a tool for reflection-on-action, and as a process for student teachers' self development.

CANTR96.247

Approach to learning, control beliefs, and nurses' percetpions of their learning environment

Robert H. Cantwell, University of Newcastle, Australia

234 nursing students completed a questionnaire concerning their expectations of the content and strategic demands of their course. These included perceptions of the role and importance of concepts, facts and skills; the degree to which they believed their goals for learning, and their study methods were likely to be consistent with those of the lecturers; the degree to which the perceived relevance of a course would influence their study methods; and their expectations of difficulty levels and their ability to adapt to different aspects of their nursing program. Additionally, nurses were asked to indicate their preferred approach to learning (Biggs, 1987) and the nature of their control beliefs (Cantwell & Moore, 1995). Correlational analysis indicated that nurses reporting both a deep approach and adaptive control beliefs were more likely to assume congruence with lecturer goals and study methods, and were more likely to perceive a broad knowledge base underlying learning in nursing. Surface-oriented nurses were more likely to make relevance-based judgements on study methods, were more likely to perceive nursing in terms of skill acquisition, and, along with nurses reporting inflexible control beliefs, were more likely to perceive general nursing content as both less difficult than mental health nursing, and less difficult to adapti to in the clinical context. Nurses reporting irresolute control beliefs were less likely to assume congruence between their intended study methods and those likely to be endorsed by their lecturers.

CANTR96.248

A metacognitive approach to instruction in academic writing

Robert H. Cantwell, University of Newcastle, Australia

The paper outlines an approach to assisting upper secondary and tertiary students in planning and carrying out academic writing tasks. I argue that the process of writing is complex and cognitively demanding, very much reflecting J.B.Carroll's dictum that: Reading [or, writing] is thinking constrained by print". For many students, reconciling the demands of "thinking" and "writing" is difficult, and is often resolved in the form of structurally weak "knowledge telling".

The approach focuses on the developing students' awareness of the components of the writing process, and offers a framework within which each of the components may be addressed. These components include the prior structuring of relevant content information; the prior structuring of appropriate argument about that information; and with coherently reflecting the structure of the argument in an appropriate written form. A schematic aid in the form of a triangle is used as the focus of instruction. The triangle serves three purposes: it implies a hierarchical relationship between elements of information and argument to be included; the shape of the triangle implies a higher-level convergence, a metaphor for the need to organise and interpret information, not to just acquire and reproduce it; and the use of the triangle provides a useful visual metaphor for students to use as a reminder of the need to structure and organise information and argument before beginning the task of writing and during the task of writing.

Adventure into Education: Innovation in teaching in tertiary settings

Teresa B. Carlson and Nadja Spegel, The University of Queensland, Australia

This presentation will report the findings of a study which investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of adventure-based learning (ABL) as an innovative approach to teaching across a broad spectrum of subject disciplines. Fifteen students from five departments (Law, Government, Education, Psychology, and Human Movement Studies) were involved in this experiential learning episode. The short and longer term impact that adventure based learning had on students involved this program was examined. Data included videotapes of the sessions, student reflective journals and student interviews. Video transcripts and journal entries indicate that participants reported their learning in the following areas: communication, negotiation, cooperation, trust, planning, and learning more about themselves. Further, analysis of the interviews suggests that even after four to six weeks, many of events which took place during the program had remained vivid in the minds of the interviewed participants. The presentation will expand upon the findings of this study, as well as explain how the program was implemented, how ABL will be used employed in a multi-disciplinary subject titled "Dynamics of Conflict Management", and the current application of ABL in other subjects in Law and Human Movement Studies.

The goals of at-risk and not-at-risk children: What makes the difference?

Annemaree Carroll, The University of Queensland, Australia

Research conducted by the present author over the past four years (Carroll, 1994; Carroll, Houghton, Hattie, and Durkin, 1996) has compared the goals and reputations of delinquent, at-risk and not at-risk adolescents and has established that delinquent and at-risk adolescent males deliberately set goals for the purpose of establishing and maintaining their nonconforming reputations. Furthermore, the research revealed that the at-risk population was very much in "transit". That is, they were not yet delinquents (total nonconforming reputation) but on the other hand they were not "not at-risk" (conforming reputation). Rather they could move either way, and the positive reinforcement they received from their peers and teachers was a major factor in determining the direction in which they went. While we now know that this pattern exists from Year 8, very little research has focussed on the content of goals of primary school-aged children and the link between the goals and the reputations of children at-risk. The aim of the present research was to determine the specific goals of children at-risk and to identify whether self-image and reputation were significant factors in the attainment of these goals. Approximately 600 Years 5, 6 and 7 students from five primary schools in the Brisbane metropolitan area participated in the present research. Participants completed the Children's Activity Questionnaire, an instrument examining a model of the relationship between goal setting and reputation enhancement relevant to the at-risk population. The data was analysed to examine the inter-relationships between the various categories of goals and factors of image and reputation; to evaluate the frequency of goal choice; and to determine significant gender and age differences between the variables associated with self- primary school-aged image and reputation significant for at-risk and not at-risk children.

CASST96.081

Researching the pedagogical process in teacher education: The dilemmas of subjectivity

Tania Cassidy, Deakin University, Australia

The notion of pedagogy has undergone a dramatic shift over the past century from "an a priori instrumental view of knowledge about teaching...to one that endorses the importance of problem-posing and negotiated resolution" (Smyth, 1987, p.5). Lusted (1986) is one who has pushed the boundaries of what constitutes pedagogy by defining it as a "process through which knowledge is produced" (p.2). He considers the process to be the interaction between the teacher, learner and knowledge. The study from which this paper draws examines the subjectivity of those involved in a pre-service physical education teacher education unit with the aim of gaining a greater understanding of how subjectivity effects the pedagogical process.

The paper centres on some of the dilemmas associated with the issue of subjectivity, in particular; the positioning of the researcher as a "subaltern intellectual" (Yeatman, 1994) by the students and the teacher educator; the notion of "voice" and its confessional aspect; and how the experience in and embodiment of the physical education teacher education culture and its structures influences what is asked and subsequently reported.

Validity and reliability of a measure of key competencies

Ralph Catts, University of Southern Queensland, Australia

In conjunction with the Queensland Department of Education, an assessment instrument has been designed to measure Key Competencies demonstrated by year 11 and 12 students during work experience placements. The instrument relies on students to collect evidence, on employers to verify performance, and utilises expert judgement to assign evidence to scales for each of the Key Competencies.

Items were developed by collecting examples of behaviour performed during placements from students, employers and teachers. This paper reports the indicators of validity derived from expert judgements, and the outcomes of an initial trial of the instrument; including measures of reliability and concurrent validity.

Examining the effects of two alternative early literacy programs: Reading Recovery and SWELL (Schoolwide Early Language and Literacy)

Yola Center, Macquarie University, Australia

This study attempts to provide both quantitative and qualitative data on the best combination of early literacy programs for disadvantaged schools with a large enrolment of children who are at risk of literacy failure. The two programs under review were the Schoolwide Early Language and Literacy Program (SWELL), a structured whole class program for kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2, based on an interactive-compensatory model of literacy acquisition, and Reading Recovery, an individualised intervention program provided to low progress children in Year 1. One large and one small disadvantaged school, where SWELL had been implemented in kindergarten and Year 1, were carefully matched for region, size, ethnicity and socioeconomic status with tow disadvantaged schools where Reading Recovery was provided to low achieving students in Year 1. Pre-tests were carried out at the beginning of Year 1 to establish equivalence among subjects.

Post-tests using five early literacy measures at the end of Year 1 indicated significantly higher scores for children in the SWELL schools on four of the measures. On the fifth measure, there was a significant effect, in favour of SWELL students, in the large SWELL school only. When the lowest group of children in each treatment condition was examined, it was clear that Reading Recovery was the most effective form of intervention for the children it accessed. However, as not enough children needing individualised assistance were able to benefit from it in the control schools, no significant differences emerged between control and experimental schools for the lowest group of children on any of the five literacy measures. Implications of these results for the most effective delivery of early literacy programs to students in disadvantaged schools were then discussed.

CHADR96.162

The limits and possibilities of using performance management to improve teaching

Rod Chadbourne, Edith Cowan University, Australia

Recently, the Education Department and State School Teachers Union in Western Australia agreed to establish a performance management system for implementation in 1997. All teachers will have to be 'performance managed'. What difference, if any, will it make to the quality of their teaching? To construct an answer, this paper uses qualitative data collected from interviews with a range of school staff, Education Department policy documents, and a critique of performance management from the perspective of a career development model of teacher evaluation. In doing so it explores the following types of issues. Will the new performance management system provide teachers with tangible incentives for engaging in ongoing professional development? Will teachers be given a clearer idea of what they have to get better at? If so, who will set professional standards of teacher performance that are subject-specific and age-grade-specific? Who will evaluate whether teachers have reached those standards? What sources of data will 'performance mangers' use to make their evaluations? How qualified will the 'performance managers' be to assess teachers? How appropriate for teachers is a performance management system based on public service and corporate sector models?

Political leadership qualities of bright adolescents and their willingness to lead

Agnes Chang Shook Cheong and Geraldine Loh

There appears to be great reticence among the bright and talented young people (Chang, 1994) to assume political leadership. By comparison, the females show even greater reluctance to be a part of the political landscape (Soin, 1995).

A study was undertaken to find out if there were any significant differences in political leadership potential and willingness to lead amongst students from the Gifted Education Programme and those from the Express Stream. Differences between males and females were also considered. Research data were collected through the use of a self-constructed questionnaire.

Results indicate that there was a significant difference in potential for leadership between males and females but not between streams. However, females had higher scores than males in potential to lead. They also seemed to place great importance on the influence of parents and school. Again there were no significant differences in willingness to lead between sexes and streams.

The findings of the study indicate that females are a vast source of untapped talent for political leadership in Singapore. It is also noteworthy that for both the males and females, it was the weaker Express Stream students who were most willing to assume leadership.

The motivation, self esteem, study habits and problems of Normal Technical students

Chang, Shook-Cheong Agnes, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 26, Motivation and behaviour of Normal Technical students.

An interactive approach to the teaching of set theory in the mathematics classroom

Chan Teck Hong David and Sitsofe Enyonam Anku

Current reforms in mathematics education emphasise that Mathematics teachers relate Mathematical concepts to students' real-life experiences (Curriculum Planning Division, 1992; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989,1991). To encourage such relationship in the mathematics classroom, an attempt was made to use an interactive approach to teach set theory to a class of Secondary 3 students in Singapore. Using students' knowledge of their surroundings and through several hands-on activities, the concept of a set, the intersection and union of sets, and the use of Venn diagrams, were developed through an investigative approach. Results showed that students found the activities very interesting and were focused on the tasks given to them. Also, they showed good understanding of the concepts learned.

CHARI96.288

Assessing workplace learning in industry education partnerships and school/work vocational education programs

Ian Charleson, Victoria University of Technology, Australia

Increasing numbers of senior secondary students in Australia are undertaking vocational dual sector programs (dual recognition, dual certification, TRAC, School/Work Compact, etc.). While some of these programs simply require the study of some VET modules at a nearby TAFE (polytechnic) College, the more successful ones involve some form of structural workplace learning to take place in an actual work environment.

The WESTCAP project has been active over the past four years, in assisting schools and industry groups in the initiation and execution of industry/education joint ventures in vocational education and training. In particular it has actively promoted and assisted in the implementation of vocational partnerships involving strategically negotiated enterprise learning placements. These involve students undertaking training while on work placement within commercial and industrial institutions.

While there are numerous imaginative links and associations being developed between individual schools and businesses, a serious problem still exists in the area of assessment of experiential and workplace learning, credit transfer and the accreditation or recognition of all relevant learning experiences.

This paper looks at a number of strategic partnerships between the business and education sectors and the different approaches being taken to ensuring quality, reliability and validity in on and off the job assessment.

This paper deals predominantly with partnerships in Australia while comparing this experience with similar schemes in great Britain and Indonesia.

Problem Solving/Classroom Management

David Chawszczewski, University of Michigan-Flint, USA

Technical-rational approaches to classroom management are predicated on the notion that specific techniques can be learned that will solve specific problems in the classroom. Yet, the classroom, a dynamic social milieu in which teachers are bombarded by multiple demands on their attention, dialectical dilemmas, and dense layers of constructed social reality, requires that teachers develop something more than automatic responses to situations as they arise. Given the demands of this situation, can students of teaching learn to be flexible in their approach to managing classrooms?

This paper seeks to offer insight into the development of problem-solving among would-be teachers through the use of case studies in a classroom management seminar. The application of problem-solving strategies to the cases, which were based on actual classroom problems, is discussed, first, as a teaching technique, and then as a tool for practice. Results are offered in the form of interviews with students conducted after the course according to a protocol designed for this purpose. Discussion, finally, describes the potential costs and benefits of the approach, the relation between the technique and the modeling of teaching behavior, and the manner in which such innovations alter the power relations in the teacher education classroom.

Constructing philosophy in teacher education

David Chawszczewski, University of Michigan-Flint, USA

This paper describes an organic and phenomenological approach to uncovering a common philosophy of teacher education within a University's Department of Education. Given the hiring practices of many Universities, instructors can be expected to have a wide range of beliefs about the ends and means of teacher education. In the case on which this discussion is based, the department claimed to adhere to a philosophy known as "the teacher as decision-maker" and used that philosophy in its official statements, but collegial knowledge and anecdotal evidence both indicated that the philosophy was either fragmented by disparate individual views or non-existent.

Through the application of phenomenological tools of analysis, a fundamental philosophy was re-constructed which was based on the essence of the teacher educator's beliefs. The process of uncovering those beliefs and their organization into a coherent practical theory of teacher education are delineated. The results of that process are then discussed, with emphasis placed on the meaning and uses of that philosophy. Finally, criticism and support of the role of philosophy in teacher education is offered to place this case in the wider context of teacher education.

CHEAE96.438

The learning styles among ITM Perlis students in the study of the English language

Cheang Eng Kwong, ITM Perlis

This paper gives a brief overview of ITM Perlis students' learning styles in the study of the English Language. Four types of learning styles - visual, auditory, group and individual are examined with the particular objective whether sex and the type of course taken affect the learning styles of the students. The study also throws light on whether students' performances in their SPM and ITM English examinations were affected by the individual learning styles. The writers hope that the findings of this study may provide new directions in the teaching of English in ITM.

A new approach to assessing physics students in NIE

H.M. Cheah and L.P.R. Phang, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

The main modes of assessing Physics undergraduates in the Physics division of the National Institute of Education are (a) continuous assessments and (b) end-of-semester examination. In general, the first mode contributes 20% and the second 80% to the final grade of the students. This paper shall discuss how (b) was modified in our attempt to promote deeper learning.

The basic idea of our approach is to set aside part of each examination question for the testing of analytical and thinking abilities of the students. We did this by constructing the questions such that these parts represented 'unfamiliar' situations to the students. In order to attempt these parts satisfactorily, the students would have to be able to correctly apply fundamental physics principles, rather than pure regurgitation of memorised ideas. The rest of each question were based mainly on lecture and tutorial work, so that a hard-working student, who had understood the basic ideas taught, can be expected to perform well.

Examinations using the above strategy were carried out for some physics modules. The results of these examinations were compared to those where the level of difficulty within each question remained fairly uniform. The comparison was based on the same group of students.

CHEAY96.536

Participation strategies in a graduate classroom

Cheah Yin Mee

This paper grew out of my experience as a graduate student at a major American university. Discussion is the main mode of instruction in graduate schools, and students are expected to contribute actively during these discussions. I investigated the kind of participation strategies that graduate students used in my class. Specifically, I asked: What are discussion patterns like in an graduate classroom? What strategies do students have to help them participate in class discussions? The data for this paper were obtained through audio transcriptions and interviews with a group of students and the lecturer. In addition, students were also given a hypothetical situation to response to in order to elicit their strategies for participation.

This study is exploratory in nature, and is meant to throw some light on what happens during teaching and learning in a graduate classroom without making any generalizations about the patterns of interaction in all graduate classrooms and without attempting to link participation strategies and patterns with academic or cognitive ability. However, since the literature on discussion as a mode of instruction is sparse and little is known about the nature of discussions in the graduate classroom, the findings may be of interest to instructors and students engage in this level of teaching and learning.

Strategic use of computers for constructing effective studies

Chen Ai Yen, and Der-Thanq Chen, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This paper proposes an approach to improving the academic learning of secondary Normal Technical (NT)* students in Singapore schools through the strategic use of computers. Recent local studies on the NT students have shown that their favourite subject is Computer Applications which is also the area they have performed best (Change et al, 1995; Chen, 1996). Capitalizing on this motivating factor, an inquiry is being carried out in four Singapore neighbourhood schools** to develop instructional strategies and enabling tools in English language, Maths, Science and Computer Applications to bring about more effective learning and higher academic achievement.

The proposed learning approach - Strategic Use of Computers for Constructing Effective StudieS (SUCCESS) is undergirded by constructivist, social cognition, cooperative learning and situated learning principles and theories. Successful examples of these approaches to learning are reviewed. The SUCCESS way takes the conventional constructivist approach one step further. It proposes the use of computers as a tool and a system for integrating curricular studies through an integrative, active and deep approach to learning. Its focus is not just on a specific subject area but linking curricular subjects and concerns with the real world of work. Preliminary results of the pilot study will be discussed.

Towards exemplary teaching through collaborative inquiry into curriculum redesign

Ai-Yen Chen, Chiu Min Chan, Cynthia Hosey, Ravinthran Uma, Wei Zhou, and Weiquang Zhu

Our goal in this paper is to encourage discussion among educators, educational developers and researchers in higher education who are attempting to develop competent and reflective professionals of tomorrow by engaging them in active learning, critical and creative thinking and problem solving in professional programmes in tertiary institutions.

In our discussion, we will share the Singapore experience of how we successfully bring together the lecturers from a Singapore university and a polytechnic towards collaborative inquiry in a formal education program - the postgraduate Diploma of Teaching in Higher Education (PGDipTHE) programme which is organised by the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University for new lecturers in tertiary institutions since 1993. Most of these lecturers are experienced teachers of professionals as well as scholars/researchers.

The majority of the participants however are new lecturers in their institutions with a number of them with business, education and industrial experiences.

We believe that a firm grasp of educational research and principles will help nurture a skilled and reflective teacher of what Donald Schon (1983) termed the reflective practitioner. Mere reiteration of the principles of the PGDipTHE programme or training in active learning techniques will not be able to cultivate exemplary tertiary teachers. A more fundamental approach is to be involved actively in curriculum redesign and implementation and to be engaged in teaching the students in the redesigned modules and courses. The participants in the PGDipTHE Curriculum Design Module are guided and encouraged to reflect on their own practices and the social context independently, identify specific teaching or learning problems, and then collectively inquire into better ways of facilitating active learning among their students. This paper presents a few cases of reflective teaching based on a Collaborative Reflective Inquiry Frame work proposed by the writer. It is made up of five R-stages of reflective thinking about teaching and learning: reflection, recognition, realization, response and resolution.

Each case focuses on a faculty member and his/her concerns for the improvement of a particular aspect of teaching and/or student learning in diverse disciplines such as bioscience and nursing, business studies, engineering, and teacher education. The tertiary teachers' self report on the changes made following reflections on their teaching problems, collaborative problem solving in class and at tempts to engage the students in active learning are used as the basis of analysis. Wherever possible, students' responses and reflections are also recorded and used.

CHEND96.518

Teaching the computer the exploratory way

Der-Thanq Chen, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This presentation suggests that the typical way of teaching computers which is based on the step-by-step direct instruction approach, is not effective and efficient. The exploratory way of teaching computer software programs is proposed. A list of strategies which can be used to guide students to develop knowledge about the computer is suggested. The items on the list are in priority order. These include: (a) look at the big picture, (b) try one thing at a time, (c) make conscious move, (d) try the reverse function, (e) save often and systematically, (f) use the on-screen help, (g) check the resource books, (h) start all over, (i) discuss with friends, (j) be aware of repetition, and (k) ask the teacher.

CHENH96.418

Factors affecting Taiwan students' foreign language learning

Maria Hsueh-yu Cheng, Chinese Military Academy, Taiwan, R.O.C., and Kingsley Banya, Florida International University, USA

With the open door for high school graduates to study abroad and foreign languages to be available in primary schools (1997), the need for foreign language learning in Taiwan has increased tremendously. The present study is an attempt to investigate what factors affect Taiwan students' foreign language learning and to explore variables related to foreign/second language learning cross different cultural settings.

Subjects are the top ten percent (N=50) and the bottom ten percent (N=51) of the freshmen cadets at the Chinese Military Academy.

A case study is used as the research method. And a series of questionnaire is adopted as the research instrument which deals with language learner's cognitive and affective factors. ANOVA, MANOA, Multiple Regression, Tukey Test, and other analyses will be processed by SPSS.

Findings will include the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, factors affecting students' English achievement, as well as the relationships among those predictive variables. In addition, characteristics of good language learners (top ten percent) will be described in details.

Multiplicity of school functions in the new century: The shift of paradigm in school effectiveness research

Yin Cheong Cheng, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong

School effectiveness is one of the major concerns in current education reforms in both local and international contexts. Even though the volume of literature on school effectiveness research is rapidly increasing in the past decade, most of the findings suffer from the ignorance of the multiplicity of school functions and cannot provide comprehensive and powerful implications for policy making and school improvement. This paper suggests that there are multiple school functions including technical/economic function, human/social, political, cultural, and educational functions at the individual, institutions, community, society, and international levels in the new century. Therefore the research paradigm should be shifted from the traditional simplistic conception of school effectiveness with focus only on technical and social functions at the individual or institutional levels to a multi-level and multi-categorical conception of school effectiveness.

In the new research paradigm, dilemmas from differences in constituencies' expectations on school effectiveness at different levels inevitably should be one of the key foci in studying school effectiveness. Since the relationships of school effectiveness between categories, between levels, or between effectiveness and efficiency may not be necessarily positive, there is a strong need to study these between-relationships. Inter-disciplinary cooperation is strongly encouraged to investigate multiple school effectiveness and develop a comprehensive theory to explain the between-relationships of multiple school effectiveness.

CHEOD96.507

Performance indicators in quality assessment of Polytechnic education

Doreen Cheong, Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore

The paper describes the model for academic quality assessment based on three key areas: Quality of Course Curriculum, Quality of Teaching and Learning, and Quality of Student Output. The performance of the academic programme in these key areas is determined by specific performance indicators. The performance indicators adopted are a mixture of quantitative indicators, and general indicators from opinions and survey findings. These performance indicators are used together to provide a holistic picture of the "academic health" of the courses.

There are three levels of internal (self) quality monitoring and assessment and one level of external quality assessment. The external quality assessment panel consists of employers from relevant industries, an overseas academic assessor and senior academics in relevant discipline. Its function is to assess the academic quality of the course based on the performance indicators and make recommendations for improvements.

Cross-cultural partnerships in educational research

Paul Chesterton, Australian Catholic University, Australia

In recent years increasing attention has been given to ethical issues in educational research, leading to the publication of codes of ethics by professional associations and other organisations. Over the same period, various 'minority' groups have drawn attention to exploitation and abuse of their members by researchers from cultural groups other than their own in a number of research projects. Their concerns raise a number of questions about the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the published codes.

This paper examines some of the issues arising in educational research involving individuals from different cultural settings. In so doing, it draws on specific recent cases in two categories - joint research projects in which the researchers come from different cultures, and projects in which the researchers come from one culture and the subjects from another. This examination leads to an analysis of the nature of research relationships among individuals in such projects, and an identification of partnership procedures to address the issues previously raised. The paper concludes with an outline of key implications of the procedures for researchers and for the ongoing development of research codes of ethics.

CHEUW96.130

Understanding pre-service teachers' background in using computer technology

Wing Cheung, University of Wollongong, Australia

Computer technology is very useful for students to use it as a tool, tutor, and tutee. In order for students to make full use of the technology, teachers need to integrate the technology into their curriculum and instruction. However, some teachers are still not comfortable of using it with their students. If they are not comfortable using the technology, they will not integrate it into curriculum and instruction.

This study is to find out pre-service teachers' background in using the computer technology. It included 117 pre-service teachers. A survey was used to find out what were the factors that related to their self rating in using computer technology. They were asked to rate their computer expertise. If the ratings were high, they were comfortable in using the technology; if the ratings were low, they did not feel comfortable in using it. The survey was also used to ask them to response to some factors which may be the reasons why they rate themselves in using the computer technology.

CHEUY96.404

Training teachers to use computer algebra systems

Y L Cheung, National Institute of Education, Singapore

The paper describes briefly what a computer algebra system is and its influence on mathematics education. In order to prepare teachers for future use of computer algebra systems in schools and colleges, a session on the basic introduction to a computer algebra system is organised within the preservice and inservice mathematics teacher education programmes. A questionaire is administered to all the users at the end of the session. Responses to the questionaire are reported and analysed. It is concluded that the session has a positive impact on the teachers' understanding of computer algebra systems in mathematics.

CHEWL96.611

Application of item response theory in the development of a test item bank and computerized adaptive testing

Chew, Lee Chin, National Institute of Education, Singapore

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 25, Advances in educational measurement.

CHOOB96.604

Incorporating active learning in the curriculum of a practical project module

Emily Choo Boey, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This paper discusses the review and redesign of the curriculum of Engineering Mathematics and Computing module, for Second Year Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Degree Course, at Nanyang Technological University. This module comprises of E204, Engineering Mathematics and Computing I and E208, Engineering Mathematics and Computing II. It is an important module as it provides the fundamental concepts that helps students to understand material presented in other core engineering subjects in the course.

Evidence from reviewing the current curriculum and analyzing the course aims and objectives, course content and structure, teaching-learning strategies and assessment method has helped to identify some shortcomings. It has been found that the module objective of knowledge production and applications has not been made explicit to both the teaching staff and students. Knowledge transmission and acquisition is therefore perceived as the main teaching task and learning outcome of the module. The coverage of the content is very broad and not enough time has been allocated to teach it. Passive learning hence prevails among majority of the students as they struggle to copy the many topics included in the module. It also resulted in the lack of time for the teaching staff to emphasize on the linkage of module to other subject as well as giving more engineering examples and problems solving. Students could not see the important relevance of the module in relation to other engineering subjects taught in the same course and are not able to apply to them the principals and concepts learnt.

Course content has been identified as the main component that needs to be changed to help improving the problem-solving competency of students and also to enhance learning. Improve teaching methods will also bring about more active learning among students. This report recommends the allocation of more lecture time by moving some of the topics to the Third Year of the course. It also recommends greater emphasis on both the mathematical and engineering approach during teaching to facilitate both knowledge acquisition and application, and to improve linkage with other engineering subjects.

Assessing attainment of Bloom's educational objectives using extended item response theory models

Chow, Min Kim Helen, Seletar Institute

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 25, Advances in educational measurement.

The effects of grouping on collaborative learning : A focus on poor readers

Choy, Tuck Onn

In reading, rarely is a student assessed through a test of his ability to conceptualize how he handles a reading passage because the "how he does it" is not tested but "how much and what" he understands is a major concern. Hence the product rather than the process is the focal point. Although the giving of individual scores is a time-tested and acceptable measure of achievement, it is believed that the student also learns a lot through collaboration. There appears to be no reason why reading should not be a shared experience especially when a reader faces difficulty in understanding a text. If a student is allowed to seek help during the process of reading comprehension, the student may be able to improve his performance in the individual act of reading comprehension testing. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of grouping on collaborative learning with special focus on poor readers. In addition it also sought to obtain information on the effectiveness of using collaborative learning to help poor readers with their reading comprehension. It is hoped that the findings would hold significant implications for improving reading pedagogy in the EFL reading class.

CHUAS96.491

Literature and cognition : Narrative and argumentative modes in reading and writing about literature

Chua Seok Hong, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

From the constructivist perspective, discourse modes or forms perform socio-cognitive functions of making meaning. They are also social practices which empowers one to negotiate his/her own subjectivity and space in specific contexts. Two major discourse modes are the narrative which is fusive and personal, and the argumentative, which is fissive and public (Kress, Andrews, 1989). Most texts are intertextual in that they contain both narrative and argument but their emphases are functionally and socially determined, hence critical theories of poetics, genre and cultural literacy. In the local context, a student reads a Shakespearean play as a narrative, with the elements of argument explicated by the teacher during classroom teaching. When he writes an essay on the text, he has to select, connect and organize these elements in the argumentative mode. Such processing is similar to what Scardamalia and Bereiter (1987) termed knowledge transformation versus knowledge telling. In terms of reading comprehension, he has gone beyond the literal to the inferential and the abstract. Such transformations derive from the interpretive community of literature scholars, critics, teachers, and the examining institution (Cambridge). Results from research conducted with Secondary Four literature students show that better writers are able to negotiate between narrative and argument whereas weaker writers tend to narrate or over-generalise. The findings are relevant to debates on current literature pedagogy called Reader Response, the role of forensics or argumentation and critical and reflective thinking in the literature curriculum and cultural literacy, theories on genre, and approaches in discourse analysis.

Language transfer and blocking in second language vocabulary learning

Kevin Chung and Robert Solman, The University of New South Wales, Australia

The influence of different vocabulary instructional techniques upon the acquisition of different language words was examined in two experiments. In Experiment 1, comparisons were made between the learning of Chinese and French words employing both paired-associate presentations and spacing procedures. The results supported the view that language transfer affects the acquisition of second language words, with more French words being learned than Chinese words. The superiority of the spacing procedure over the paired-associate presentation found in these results suggested that the spacing method diminished the adverse effects of blocking and thus enhanced learning. However, no significant interaction between the teaching procedures and different language words was detected. That is, under the spacing procedure, greater improvement in learning of Chinese words was not found. The experiment was thus modified by substituting the spacing procedure with aural feedback in Experiment 2. In this experiment, a significant interaction between these two factors was detected. That is, the recall for French was more than Chinese in the paired-associate condition, however, under the aural feedback, performance in Chinese was statistically equivalent to that in French. Hence, these findings may contradict the prediction of language transfer. It appears that the phenomenon of language transfer may be far less important in vocabulary learning than the use of a method of instruction which neutralises the negative effects of blocking.

CLANP96.635

Economics, politics and re-structuring of educational organisations

Paul Clancy, Consultant, Australia

Since 1992 there have been major changes in the way schools have been organised in Victoria, loosely known as the Schools of the Future program. In particular, the administrative and managerial role of the principal has been emphasised, the role of the union and its representatives both at the state-wide and local school level has been reduced and the importance of the principals' organisation has been considerably increased. As a result, principal industrial representation in Victoria has been substantially removed from the teacher union/unions and become much more independent of them, but linked closely to the employer (the Director of School Education or D.S.E.) and therefore, the government.

Such a process has not occurred elsewhere in Australia. All the other states and territories have had one teacher union representing virtually all members of the teaching service industrially, including principals. Professional associations have developed to represent principals' professional (and to some extent, social) needs. But industrial representation has remained within the teachers' union, except in Victoria.

This paper seeks to explore the historical reasons for this development and make some brief comparisons with some other countries.

CLARG96.440

Differences that matter - indifference in education

Gill Clarke

This paper explores how lesbian physical education teachers and students construct and maintain their identities within the English educative system. It is argued that these identities must be understood within their specific corporeal and cultural contexts. In illustrating how these women's lives and experiences have been silenced and erased, attention is directed towards New Right discourses on homosexuality and in particular to legislation in Britain which has sought to prohibit in schools the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality. Qualitative data generated from interviews and questionnaires with white, able bodies lesbian physical education teachers and students are used to demonstrate how these women have felt compelled to conceal their lesbian identities and have employed strategies to resist heterosexual control and regulation. Finally it is argued that our task is to understand and make difference(s) not only visible but also to recognise that difference is a civil rights issue, which requires a change in laws to reflect and acknowledge all our realities. In doing so it is claimed we need to (re)pursue the goal of social justice, eliminate the privileging of hegemonic heterosexual identities and thereby create a landscape that allows us to define our lives.

Students' perceptions of different tertiary learning environments

John A Clarke, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Using the Perceptions of Learning Environments Questionnaire (PLEQ), a semi-structured but open-ended data gathering procedure, 1249 students from 10 Schools in 5 Faculties at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) indicated, for different types of tertiary learning environments, not only the behaviours and practices that helped or hindered their learning but also why. Irrespective of the type of learning environment, students felt that their learning was helped when learning experiences were practical and experiential and the presentation and explanation clear mainly because these activities clarified their understanding and consolidated their learning; and that their learning was hindered when the pace of presentation was inappropriate and the presentation was unclear because these activities did not clarify their understanding or consolidate their learning. However, learning in each particular type of environment was also helped or hindered by activities and behaviours idiosyncratic to that environment. These and their reasons are identified and discussed and, although many are predictable, they reinforce the notions first, that different learning environments are designed to and in practice do produce different learning outcomes and second, that students are capable of discriminating between what they consider to be good and bad educational experiences.

NESB migrant students studying mathematics : Vietnamese students in Melbourne and Sydney

Philip Clarkson, Australian Catholic University (Victoria), Australia

This paper describes one part of a longitudinal project working with bilingual Arabic Italian and Vietnamese migrant children who are learning mathematics in Australia. We are particularly interested in students who choose to switch between their languages when processing mathematical problems. What may prompt a bilingual student to switch languages? How often does it occur? Does it depend on the mathematical context? What changes might occur as the student progresses through primary school?

In this paper data collected in both Sydney and Melbourne from grade 4 students will be discussed. Data was obtained both from standard group test procedures, as well as individual interview with a sample of the students. Particular emphasis will be given to the Vietnamese students' responses, although some contrasts will be drawn with the other language groups. Comparisons between the two cities which have some different approaches and conditions in their schools will be highlighted, as well as overall trends in the data.

Some reflections on the implications for teachers and curriculum developers will be shared.

CLYDM96.315

Quality, accountability and accreditation. Policy and practice in early childhood education

Margaret Clyde, Educational Consultant, Melbourne Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 15 Effectiveness, quality and accountability in early childhood education.

School literacy practices: A critical orientation to text

Caroline Coffin, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

A critical orientation to text is the foundation of any 'critical literacy' we seek to promote in school education. By critical orientation we mean the recognition of the constructed nature of all texts. Students need to recognise that all texts are produced in a social and cultural context and that these contexts both determine, and are determined by, the choices in meaning we make.

This paper discusses a pedagogy designed to provide students with a critical orientation to text that has been developed in the context of two nationally and internationally significant research projects in educational linguistics - the Language and Social Power project and the Write it Right project, both based at the Disadvantaged Schools Program in the Metropolitan East Region of Sydney, Australia.

In particular the paper examines the research phases of the Write it Right project which resulted in the linguistic analysis and description of the literacy demands of the secondary school curriculum, and the application of the research findings to the development of professional development courses for teachers as well as classroom materials. The curriculum area of school history will be used to exemplify the research process.

Professional bandwagons and local discursive effects: Reporting the literacy student

Barbara Comber, University of South Australia, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 12, Educational research, primary schooling and curriculum history: A symposium.

COOMK96.261

Early childhood teacher education - Ethics for the practicum

Kennece Coombe, Charles Sturt University, and Linda Newman, University of Western Sydney - Nepean, Australia

Ethical practice is considered a fundamental tenet of membership in the professions. Nevertheless the development of ethical principles is often left as an anticipated by-product of the rites of passage of individuals into their profession of choice. In New South Wales, the Early Childhood Practicum Council has developed "Guidelines for Ethical Practice in the Practicum" on the premise that there is insufficient awareness of how to recognise and act upon ethical dilemmas, amongst early childhood education stakeholders: students, teachers, academics and providers. This paper will report on a survey of one of these groups, students, which examined their experiences and perceptions of ethical dilemmas in the specific setting of the practicum. The survey sought to establish a level of student awareness of the existence of the Code of Ethics, what constitutes ethics, some examples of the students' perceptions of ethical dilemmas they encountered in the practicum and their ability to respond. The paper suggests means by which partnerships between and amongst stakeholder groups can be strengthened through an awareness of ethical principles in the early childhood profession.

COOMK96.262

Building learning communities in rural New South Wales

Kennece Coombe, Barry Cocklin and John Retallick, Charles Sturt University, Australia

Deriving from the work of authors such as Senge (1990) and Sergiovanni (1994), the notions of learning organisations and learning communities have become intermeshed with strategies for workplace reform in business and in education. In education, they have been used as a focus for critical reflection within schools and as a guide for the empowerment of teachers, students and the wider school community in their quest to invigorate learning opportunities. This paper provides a theoretical framework and reports case studies of primary schools and pre-schools in rural reports New South Wales. The case studies consider the ways in which the schools and pre-schools have employed notions of learning communities as professional development activities for teachers and to improve learning outcomes for students.

CORKP96.301

Effective student learning in the mathematics classroom

Peter Corkill and Chris Wilson, Frankston Secondary College, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 3 Learning for teachers - examples of teacher research.

The construction of the problem learner in South Australian English curriculum documents 1962-1995

Phil Cormack, University of South Australia, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 12, Educational research, primary schooling and curriculum history: A symposium.

Three portraits of nursing: The good, excellent and expert nurse, voices from the field

Lyn Coulon, Australian Catholic University, Magdalena Mok and Kerri-Lee Krause, Macquarie University, and Malcolm Anderson, Avondale College, Australia

This study explores the meaning of excellence and expertise held by Australian nursing students. Qualitative data were generated by 125 undergraduate and 31 postgraduate nursing students by means of an open-ended questionnaire. Respondents were consulted concerning their perceptions of what makes: a good nurse, an excellent nurse, and an expert nurse based on their day-to-day clinical practice. Three coders independently coded the responses, utilising line-by-line coding, which led to the development of four major themes: (1) professionalism, (2) holistic care, (3) praxis, and (4) humanism. These pivotal themes provided the portrait of being a good, excellent or expert nurse in clinical practice, however, there existed differential emphasis for the three nurse images. Findings also suggested that postgraduate and undergraduate nursing students had differing perceptions of good, excellent and expert nurses.

COXJ96.618

Continuity and change in journal publishing: Designing new protocols for scholarly communication

John Cox, Carfax Publishing Company, Oxford, United Kingdom

The role of the publishing process in adding value to, and disseminating, scholarship and research is independent of the means of output. It comprises the preparation and packaging of information in a form easily accessible by the user. It includes the technical processes of editing, peer review and revision, publication and marketing. The publishing process must continue to provide a guarantee of quality that is recognised throughout the academic community.

The emerging importance of the Internet does not change the role in principle, but does have considerable impact on how publishers function in the future:

Publishers need to supplement existing skills with the acquisition of new skills in developing multimedia material and facilitating interaction between scholars without detracting from the authority of the definitive publication.

Publishers will become custodians of intellectual property, rather than producers of printed artefacts. They must add more value to the literature by exploiting different media for different purposes or user requirements.

Publishers will have to acquire much more hands-on knowledge of, and navigation through, the laws of copyright and contract, especially in respect of the international legal aspects of electronic publishing. Publishers will work more closely in partnership with universities and the research community in order to deliver electronic information effectively and easily to end-users.

Printed and electronic editions of the journal literature will complement each other; their respective strengths and weaknesses will be analysed. Journals will become interest groups in which papers will be placed. New definitions of "publication", "journal" and "literature" will be required.

Reform of religious education curriculum: A cross national opportunity

Robert Crotty, University of South Australia, Australia

One neglected area of research which evokes mutual interest in Australia and South-East Asia is religious curriculum development. While multiculturalism has been acknowledged throughout our areas, the issue of religious pluralism still needs to be addressed at the educational level. Religious pluralism may at times mean that factually a number of diverse religious traditions inhabit the same locale. Australia and South-East Asia are prime examples. However, there is a trend among those engaged in interfaith dialogue to recognise that all religious cultures are valid, employing variant symbolisms of ultimate order so as to orient individuals towards a purposeful existence. Choice between the religious traditions would depend on the vagaries of prior enculturation or later choice. If this is accepted then there are repercussions for religious curriculum development and, both in Australia and South-East Asia there is need for cooperation to adapt to a changing religio-cultural orientation. This paper will review the changing mentality inherent in religious pluralism and make suggestions for curriculum development and reform which call for cooperation throughout Australia and South-East Asia.

Globalisation and higher education

Jan Currie, Murdoch University, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, Globalization, the State and education policy making.

Change in knowledge of learning and teaching through reflective journal writing

B. C. Dart, G. M. Boulton-Lewis, J. M. Brownlee and A. R. McCrindle, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

This paper is the third in a series addressing the integration of naive and informed knowledge of learning and teaching by preservice teachers. Previous papers have explored and discussed pre- and post-unit written statements about learning as well as transcripts of stimulated recall interviews with students in response to a videotape of one of their teaching lessons during teaching practicum. This paper focuses on the analysis of learning journals maintained by 28 Graduate Diploma in Education students while undertaking a one year course of study in a unit in Human Development and Learning.

The learning journals yielded three types of information: (1) students' perceptions of the unit (eg its structure, style, assessment); (2) students' reflections on the informed knowledge or theoretical content presented in the unit; and (3) students' integration of this theory with practical teaching experiences. Analysis of this information indicated students' movement from naive to informed views on teaching and learning through declarative (knowing what) and procedural knowledge (knowing how) about teaching and learning in the early parts of the unit to conditional knowledge (knowing when and why) towards the end of the unit. Students tended to see theory as being unrelated to practice until the first practice teaching session wherein many students' journal entries exhibited evidence of theory and practice becoming integrated. Journal entries during the second practice teaching experience provided extensive evidence of the development of conditional knowledge. There is also evidence of students developing metacognitive thinking as well as qualitative conceptions relating to teaching and learning through the course of the unit. Results suggest that if teacher educators wish to change preservice teachers' beliefs then courses should be designed that (1) allow students to discuss and reflect in an open, collaborative learning environment and (2) require them to think about theory (declarative) and apply this knowledge (procedural) in an informed way (conditional) so that they can grow and develop in metacognitive knowlege, awareness and control , as they plan, regulate and evaluate the application of this theory in their practical experiences, and internalise qualitative perspectives in their growth and development as learners and teachers.

Vocational competence in young adults with intellectual disabilities

Rose Dixon, University of Sydney, Australia

Many people with intellectual disabilities do not make the transition from school to competitive employment in spite of many innovative initiatives.

Rusch et al. (1986) have found that the greatest difficulty in people with intellectual disability maintaining employment relates to their lack of vocational social skills. In spite of this, few studies have focussed on vocationally competent young adults with intellectual disabilities.

This presentation examines the social skills of vocationally competent young people with mild intellectual disabilities.

A qualitative research study of vocationally competent people with intellectual disabilities was undertaken. The study aimed to determine the important factors inside and outside of the individual that allowed them to achieve this competency.

The subjects ranged in age from 16 -25 years and were clients of a Competitive Employment and Training Program. The subjects were purposefully sampled using an objective test (TICE) and the criteria of having maintained employment for 6 months after support was withdrawn by the employment agency.

The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the subjects and key people with whom they interact (e.g. administrators, job trainers, employers and parents).

The results indicated that employment-related social skills are crucial to the maintenance of competitive employment for people with intellectual disabilities.

Recommendations can be made for the development of programs that enhance these skills and therefore improve employment prospects for young people with intellectual disabilities.

Collaborative learning through school-university partnerships

Rosie Dobbins, Judy Peters and Bruce Johnson, University of South Australia, Australia

The Innovative Links Between Universities and Schools for Teacher Professional Development Project is an action research based professional development project which was initiated in Australia in 1994 as a National Professional Development Program. The grantee for the project is the National Teaching and Learning Consortium and comprises 14 universities at sixteen campuses, each of which hosts a Roundtable consisting of university colleagues, schools and union, employer and National Schools Network representatives. Schools involved in the project work in partnership with university colleagues to examine and improve work organisation practices in schools , enhance teaching and improve the educational outcomes for all students.

This paper reports specifically on the experiences of the University of South Australia Roundtable with "building new partnerships" between school-based and university-based colleagues. The concept of collaboration is explored using themes identified in 5 case studies which have been jointly written by school and university based colleagues about the first year of the project.

DOCKR96.307

The assessment of workplace learning

Russell Docking, Skill Resource Manangement Systems, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 7, Workplace learning and assessment: The agenda for research.

Young children's peer popularity and theories of mind

Sue Dockett, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, Australia

The paper reports the findings of a project which has investigated the connection between young children's development of a representational theory of mind and their popularity among peers. While this connection was identified in earlier research, this paper explores the issue of popularity among peers in greater detail and over a longer period of time and compares a broader range of data with children's performance on a series of theory of mind tasks.

The data presented is drawn from a series of interviews and observations involving four-year-old children attending a preschool in the south-western region of Sydney. A range of data regarding children's popularity among peers is reported, including peer nominations of popular, neutral and unpopular children and the consistency of these over a period of several months; teacher ratings of children's popularity; and observations of the behaviours and actions of children described as popular, neutral or unpopular. Some comparison of these data is presented, however the major focus of this paper is the connection between popularity among peers and a representational theory of mind, as evidenced by children's performance on a series of false belief, appearance-reality and representational change tasks. As the project was conducted over a period of two preschool terms, a particular focus will be on the consistency of children's ratings of peers and the consistency of responses to a range of theory of mind tasks.

Frameworks for learning in the first years of school

Sue Dockert, University of Western Sydney Macarthur, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 16 Culture, diversity and learning: The contextualisation of young children's thinking and problem-solving.

I know what I taught, but what do they think they have learned

Brian Doig, Australian Council for Educational Research, Susie Groves, Deakin University, Australia, and Julian Williams, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

The Practical Mechanics in Primary Mathematics Project is an Australian research Council large grant funded project investigating the teaching and learning of force and motion concepts in the upper primary school. While the project is primarily focussed on practical activities and the mathematics necessary to model them, other aspects of learning are also being critically examined. One of these aspects is the extent to which children can explain and defend their understandings of the physics involved in the understandings. As part of the data collection the children are required to complete a reflective statement " What I learned in this lesson ....". In this paper we look at the reflective statements that the children have written, and analyse these with respect to what the children say that they have learned. These reflective statements are then compared to an objective assessment of what they have learned, the "Tapping Students' Science Beliefs" assessment instrument. The results of this study provide some answers to the question "Do children know what they know?", answers that have implications for both teaching and assessment.

Teacher research: Stories of teacher development and educational change

Barry Down and Carol Hogan, Edith Cowan University, Australia

This paper has developed out of the experience of teachers, student teachers and university staff involved in innovative site-based teacher education courses. These courses use action research as a means by which participants can understand and reform their workplaces through projects which develop out of their own authentic needs. Our contention is that reform which is driven by the events and concerns of the 'lifeworld' of teachers can ultimately have a powerful effect on 'systems'. The stories of the participants, collected through journals, interview and other evidence are used to illustrate the key issues that arose in our own attempts to challenge and change dominant models of teacher development and teachers' work.

Collaboration and cooperation : Developing collegiality through a project involving dialogue journals and the use of technology

Chris Dowson, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong

There is a need for tertiary institutions to work cooperatively and collaboratively with school personnel. The benefits to school personnel include being involved in actively raising educational attainment, and professional development. The benefits to tertiary education personnel include an assurance of research impacting at the practical level, and an opportunity to add to the body of knowledge in teaching. This paper describes a collaborative project in which the writer worked with school personnel. An Action Research project was developed and implemented with good results. The project aimed at assessing the potential of fax interchanges to improve the expressive writing of Deaf adults. The researchers also operated as grassroot tutors as an inherent part of the project. The factors that led to successful completion of the task are discussed.

Adolescent coping styles in a sample of Singaporean students

Vilma D'Rozario and Michael P.B. Goh, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University

This paper will present data on the ways Singaporean adolescents choose to cope with problems. A sample of 500 secondary school students, ranging in age from 13 to 18 years, completed the Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS: Frydenberg & Lewis, 1993) which yields data on eighteen potential coping scales, namely, (1) Seek Social Support, (2) Focus on Solving the Problem, (3) Work Hard and Achieve, (4) Worry, (5) Invest in Close Friends, (6) Seek to Belong, (7) Wishful Thinking, (8) Not Coping, (9) Tension Reduction, (10) Social Action, (11) Ignore the Problem, (12) Self-Blame, (13) Keep to Self, (14) Seek Spiritual Support, (15) Focus on the Positive, (16) Seek Professional Help, (17) Seek Relaxing Diversions, and (18) Physical Recreation. The findings yield information about three adolescent coping styles, namely, Problem-focused coping, coping by Reference to Others, and Non-productive coping. The association between coping style and gender, socio-economic status, age and ethnicity will also be presented. The paper will describe the ways in which the findings will be used to develop pastoral care (personal and social education) programmes for students. Also, an example of how the ACS can be used with a group of students as a self-help tool will be shared.

The use of contemporary animated videos in groupwork to foster self-esteem in primary school children

Vilma D'Rozario, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This poster session will describe a series of lessons which use contemporary animated videos (for example, Disney's The Lion King) to foster self-esteem, teach values, as well as personal and social skills to primary (elementary) school children. The lessons are planned for implementation as group guidance activities which may be incoprated into a school's pastoral care programme. Detailed lesson plans will be provided to all attendees.

A study of practicum-related stresses in a sample of first year student teachers in Singapore

Vilma D'Rozario, Angela F L Wong, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This study describes the stresses experienced by 231 Diploma in Education student teachers during their first Teaching Practicum. The respondents completed a 29-item survey questionnaire entitled, "Did Anything Stress You During Your Practicum?" This survey comprised a list of experiences related to their Practicum. The student teachers were asked to indicate if each of the experiences reflected in the list was stressful. For experiences that were stressful, the respondents were also asked to indicate how often those experiences were stressful. Differences with regard to gender, level of class(es) taught and the type of school attached to, will be presented. Implications of these findings on the Practicum and recommendations for effective coping strategies will be discussed in the paper.

DUIGP96.048

Educational reform in Mongolia: Structural, administrative and educational implications

Patrick Duignan, Australian Catholic University and Shinobu Yume Yamaguchi, Columbia University

To facilitate the transition from a planned and centralised system to a market-oriented and decentralised educational system, a new education law was passed in 1991 in Mongolia. It has greatly changed the management structures and functions of educational managers at various levels of the primary, secondary and higher education sectors.

Such changes in structures and functions are making new and increasing demands on educational administrators and managers, requiring new attitudes, knowledge and skills. In this decentralised system, many new and difficult responsibilities rest on the educational managers. They are expected to be administrators, economic managers and leaders, as well as advisers to teachers and the community.

The Mongolian education system is, therefore, facing a number of problems. The main problems include: coping with the advantages and disadvantages of centralisation and decentralisation; getting a balance between different levels of educational management; clarifying roles and responsibilities at each level of educational management; and providing educational managers with the attitudes, knowledge and skills to cope with changing responsibilities and management demands.

The authors were involved in a series of research and analysis projects sponsored by UNESCO which focussed on identifying the major implications of the decentralising processes, within the new market-oriented economy, for educational reorganisation, administration of the educational system, and the training of educational managers. Based on their work, the researchers draw lessons from the decentralisation for the administration of the system and propose a framework for developing training approaches for educational managers.

Beginning principals and the issue of gender

Gaye Dunshea, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia

A search of the literature concerning beginning principals indicates that this area is relatively under- researched. Moreover, some of the literature is less than helpful for directing practice given the way in which it trivialises the work of beginning principals. It is also clear from the literature that male experience is the norm from which generalisations are made for all beginning principals. This paper reports qualitative data arising from an interview study of a small group of beginning women principals which tests the adequacy of the assumption of the generalisability of male experience to females. The data demonstrates that while there are some issues, such as isolation, the need for support succession, the management of change and staff relations, common to both male and female beginning principals, there are also distinctive issues for female principals. These issues include the androcentric bias in the literature, which denies the reality of the beginning woman principal and the experiences of sexism encountered when taking office. The paper concludes with a recommendation for more research on beginning principals, particularly research on successful women principals, and a call for research in this area to be sensitive to the increasing social and cultural diversity of this group.

Teaching with Internet

T Elangovan, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore

The Internet promises to be the harbinger of the much talked about paradigm shift in teaching. Many leading Universities, particularly those in the United States are sponsoring state of the art Internet platforms such as Virtual classrooms, Internet based Video Conferencing and Mediabases. Lecturers will have to adapt their teaching methods to incorporate Internet based teaching resources. In time to come, newer generations of students will demand technology based learning as they get familiar with the Internet in their secondary schools. Fortunately the Internet, especially the WWW and the Electronic-mail components, are getting user friendly enough that virtually any lecturer can start using the Internet for teaching without too much effort.

The writer has been developing teaching applications on the Internet. This article proceeds to give a first person account of some of the simple teaching related applications that he has developed. These include static and interactive applications on the WWW, such as computerized testing systems and private discussion groups and, e-mail based teaching applications.

Student attrition in early childhood teacher education programs

Alison Elliott, University of Western Sydney Nepean, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 15, Effectiveness, quality and accountability in early childhood education.

ELLIB96.291

Insights into curriculum leadership: The state of the field

Bob Elliott and Ross Brooker, Queensland University of Technology, Greg Thurlow, State Department of Education Queensland, and Adrian McInman

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 1, Theorising curriculum leadership for effective learning and teaching: Reporting progress in an ARC collaborative research project.

ELLIE96.014

Cultural learning styles - another stereotype?

Liz Ellis, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

This paper reports on research undertaken in Java on approaches to learning by Indonesian students who are planning to enrol in postgraduate programs at Australian of American universities. The research involved gathering evidence through questionnaires and interviews about students' attitudes to and strategies for learning, and also about their expectations of how postgraduate study in an English-speaking country might differ from that in Indonesia.

The findings are not consistent with the widely held view in Australia that students from Asian countries tend to use a surface approach to tertiary study. The paper questions the tendency of some Australian educators to make generalisations about the learning styles of "Asian students" and "overseas students". The paper attempts to suggest reasons for difficulties encountered by some students from Asian countries in adapting to study in Australia. It also suggests ways of investigating the sources of such difficulties without resorting to a hypothesised cultural stereotype.

Teacher perspective on accreditation in Australian child care centres

Ros Elliott, University of Western Sydney Nepean, Australia

This paper ill be presented as part of Symposium 15 Effectiveness, quality and accountability in early childhood education.

Knowledge and control : Re-positioning teachers as agents for change

John Evans, Loughborough University of Technology and Brian Davies,University of Wales - Cardiff, United Kingdom

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 27, Curriculum development and reform in Physical Education: International issues.

Schools and SOFNet: Findings from a case-study project on the use of interactive television in three Victorian schools

Terry Evans and Karen Tregenza, Deakin University, Australia

This paper discusses some recent research into schools' use of interactive television through the new SOFNet (Schools of the Future Network) satellite broadcast television network established by the Department of School Education in Victoria SOFNet is used in three broad ways in schools: curriculum `delivery', teachers' and ancillary staff's professional development, and departmental information and policy implementation. it is available to all government schools in the state, both primary and secondary, and in most non-government schools, as well a number of interstate schools. Participants in the schools may interact live-to-air by telephone and also in a delayed form by telephone or fax with the studio, during or after the program.

The research explored the implementation and development of SOFnet as an educational technology, especially from the schools' perspectives, during the first eighteen months of its life. Case-study approaches were used to obtain these perspectives and see them in operation in the social contexts of the three schools. The findings are reported in terms of the schools', teachers' and children's experiences with SOFNet. They are analysed in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of this politically-motivated, broad-scale, implementation of educational technology.

Strangers in a strange land: Indonesian students in New Zealand universities and the challenge in pastoral care

Hans Everts, University of Auckland, New Zealand, and Tutty Sodjakusumah, Padjajarau University, Indonesia

While Indonesian students, sponsored or private, have attended universities in New Zealand for many years, the more systematic study of their varying needs and adjustment processes had not gained prominence until more recent years, especially since the increase in students in tertiary education from Asian countries. In similar fashion, the range of resources in pastoral care has been expended in a rather ad hoc manner over the years. This study draws on a comprehensive range of data obtained from an important and carefully selected group of mature students - Indonesian Government servants on scholarship, completing post-graduate qualifications. It also builds on similar data obtained in Canada. This information about the adjustment problems of Indonesian students, together with data about the pastoral care resources made available to them in the seven New Zealand Universities is integrated to permit a comprehensive overview of the challenge posed to recipient universities for the development of a creative, wide-ranging and integrated approach to pastoral care. Issues of both policy development and programme implementation are critically evaluated in this paper.

The academic achievement and aspirations of Chinese immigrant girls in Australia

Cynthia Fan, Victoria University of Technology, Australia

This study aimed to investigate the academic achievement and aspirations of Chinese immigrant girls in Australia in the light of their definitions of success, attribution pattern, influence of significant others, ethnicity and ethnic identification. Academic achievement and aspirations were measured in terms of academic performance, choice of academic subjects and courses. This study employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques. In the phase one quantitative study, a questionnaire was administered to 264 Australian and immigrant Chinese adolescent girls. In the phase two qualitative study, 30 Chinese immigrant girls from the original sample were interviewed. The results showed that the academic achievement of adolescent girls was related to their definitions of success, and their attribution patterns. Choice of academic subjects was related to academic achievement. The results also suggested that Chinese immigrant girls achieved better in Mathematics than Australian girls and the two groups of girls displayed different patterns in terms of choice of academic subjects and courses. Furthermore, among Chinese immigrant girls, length of residence in Australia, auspices of immigration and ethnic identification were related to academic achievement. The study further indicated that Chinese immigrant girls were not a homogeneous group and service providers should be sensitive to the needs of different Chinese immigrant girls.

Framing 'competencies' for a 'New Work Order': the textual practice of 'competence' in times of change

Lesley Farrell, Monash University, Australia

This paper tells a story about the framing of 'competence', 'competencies', and the performance indicators which are taken to be realisations of these competencies, in one industrial context. It explores two questions:

1. What textual practices are taken to signify 'competence' in this industry?

The focus of this paper is on the textile, clothing and footwear industry, an industry reeling under massive tariff cuts and under pressure to use training programs to facilitate a profound and wide ranging restructure. The industry faces a clear dilemma in attempting to derive relevant 'competencies' from outdated work practices when new work practices are yet to emerge. This dilemma is complicated by the historically diverse workforce drawn primarily from two groups: new migrants and women. The textual practices used by these groups to accomplish their work are not necessarily understood by those developing 'competencies' and performance indicators. In addition, in an industry where 'restructuring' inevitably leads to significant job losses, everyone has an interest in decisions about which textual practices are reified as 'competencies' and which are defined as deficits. The paper draws on 'work in progress'- an ARC funded project on the Textual Practice of 'competence' in the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Industry.

FERRB96.332

Probing personal knowledge: the use of a computer-based tool to help preservice teachers map subject matter knowledge

Brian Ferry, University of Wollongong, Australia

This paper reports an innovation that employed a HyperCard - based cognitive tool to assist preservice primary school teachers to create concept maps about subject matter related to science topics. The tool was trialed over two years with a total of one hundred and fifty one preservice primary teachers who were planning to teach science topics to primary school classes.

It was found that the concept mapping tool developed by the author was easy to use because there was little cognitive load associated with its operation. This allowed preservice teachers to focus their attention on the process of concept map construction. Analysis of data from interviews and journal entries indicated that the tool had applications in other contexts besides the one investigated. Some of these additional uses will be discussed as well as the findings from recent follow-up studies.

The data also indicated that as preservice teachers became more familiar with the tool, and with the process of concept mapping, they became more critical of their current subject matter knowledge and took steps to improve this aspect of their planning for teaching. These steps included further library research, consultation with peers and the lecturer, as well as consultation with lecturers from other faculties and teachers.

B.E.S.T. (Building Effective Strategies for Teaching) of Science: An exploration into the culture of collaboration

Lourdes M Ferrer, Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Success in improving teaching and learning can be achieved through collaborative inquiry. This is proven in the Teacher Specialist Project embarked by a partnership between the Ministry of Education and the university. This project involves the participation of teachers, teacher educators, researchers and education officers collaboratively inquiring into ways by which students can be helped perform better in science. This is one of the two subject areas in the primary school curriculum where difficulties in teaching and learning are frequently encountered. The extent to which this kind of collaboration has affected the teachers as learners and effected change in their teaching is discussed in this study. It reports how group endeavours can facilitate change by providing emotional support and cognitive guidance.

The importance of group collaboration as a factor of affect for change is not only stressed in the professional development of teachers but also in their work with their own students. Setting an environment of collaboration in the classroom and engaging the students in active interaction through group activities have generated cognitive and affective outcomes that serve as useful guide in B.E.S.T.(Building Effective Strategies for Teaching).

The introduction of collaboration into the culture of schools in Brunei is envisaged to contribute to the growing interest for better understanding of teachers and teaching as well as learners and learning.

FISHD96.090

Associations between cultural environment and preferred student-teacher interactions in secondary science classrooms

Darrell L. Fisher and Bruce G. Waldrip, Curtin University of Technology, Perth

While much research exists concerning interactions between culture and science education generally, comparatively little research examines the interaction that occurs between students' cultural environments and student-teacher interactions. The first purpose of this study was to develop and validate an instrument named the Students Cultural Environment Inventory (SCEI) and then use it to investigate associations between students'cultural environments and their preferred student-teacher interactions as assessed by the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). The questionnaires were administered to 2500 secondary science students in Australian classrooms. The results indicated that students with different cultural environments had different preferences of student-teacher interpersonal behaviours. The results also indicated that the strength of a particular student-teacher interaction preference was affected by different cultural environments. For example, students who perceived distinct role differentiation preferred significantly more favourable student-teacher interactions than those students who perceived non-distinct role differentiation. Those students who perceived they were threatened by competition preferred the teacher to display a higher degree of leadership than those who weren't threatened by competition.

Development of personal and class forms of a Classroom Environment Questionnaire

Barry Fraser and Darrell Fisher, Curtin University of Technology, and Campbell McRobbie, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

This study involved the development of separate personal and class forms of a new classroom environment instrument which synthesises salient dimensions from existing instruments as well as including relevant new dimensions. Personal forms are more appropriate for identifying differences between subgroups of students within a class and in the construction of case studies of individuals. Quantitative methods and qualitative methods were combined both in the validation phase and in several research applications. Following a pilot study, the questionnaire was administered to a sample of approximately 800 high school science students in 30 science classes. The study resulted in a new widely-applicable classroom environment questionnaire with similar statistical characteristics for the personal and class forms. It was found that: student perceptions on the `personal' form were systematically less positive than their perceptions of the same class using the conventional `class' form; gender differences in classroom environmen= perceptions were greater for the `personal' fonn than for the `class' fonn; and attitude-environment assoc=ations were of comparable magnitudes for the `personal' and `class' forins, although each fonn accounted for unique variance in attitude scores.

Kill Your Own Snakes

Phil Fitzsimmons, University of Wollongong, Australia

This paper delineates the findings of a four year project which focussed on illuminating the nature of the ideology, knowledge and practice of five highly experienced teachers in their pursuit to create a culture of classroom collaboration. Having developed a personal psychology of 'openness' these teachers sought to develop a classroom in which there was no distinction between instruction and management. Based on the notion of 'family', classroom interaction was at all times founded on honesty, mutual respect and the formation of genuine relationships.

The catalyst for this philosophy of 'openness' was the teacher's use of language combined with an ability and desire to reveal who they were as individuals. Stunningly successful, these teachers viewed school life in more long term and holistic terns of reference. Problems of any kind were negated as the children gradually mirrored the teachers language, actions and philosophy. Thus co-operation was assured as both pupils and teachers had a shared understanding, language and cultural perspective.

FLACJ96.302

Whose learning is it?

Jill Flack and Jo Osler, Drouin Primary School, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 3, Learning from teachers - examples of teacher research.

FLOWR96.135

The discourse and practice of youth education

Rick Flowers, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

In New South Wales, Australia the most common educational response to young people not achieving school matriculation requirements is to place them in alternative educational programs which are delivered by community organisations. Titles of these alternative programs include Time Out, Helping Early Leavers Program (HELP) and Circuit Breaker. The rationale for this strategy is that community organisations can offer a pedagogy that is more flexible and responsive to the particular needs of young people at risk than schools can.

My paper reports on research which examines the discourse and practice of a range of youth and community educators. Much has been written about youth education and training policy debates, about the needs of early school leavers, and in a general way about the nature of youth and community work, but rarely has the practice of youth educators outside schools been subjected to critical and detailed scrutiny as my research is doing. I challenge and extend claims by youth educators that their pedagogy is necessarily more appropriate and effective than their school counterparts. I argue that youth educators can draw on theories of informal education and critical pedagogy to both sharpen their practice and challenge dominant pedagogies in schools which are marginalising many young people.

FONGH96.503

Novice and expert teachers: Any differences?

Fong Ho Kheong, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University Singapore

Novice and Expert teachers' lessons were observed and video-taped. Their characteristic features of presentation of mathematics lessons were analysed and coded. Their behavioural features were classified with reference to two models: Mathematical Teaching Techniques (MTT) and Assessment of Practicuum Teaching (APT). Teachers' profiles of presentation were identified to differentiate any differences between these two groups of teachers. A research report on teaching performance sponsored by NIE.

FOONY96.612

Assessing attitudes using PARELLA and Rating Scale Models: Implications for appropriate scale construction

Foong, Yoke Yeen, National Institute of Education

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 25, Advances in educational measurement.

FORLP96.027

A trial methodology for health and safety risk management in Australian high schools

Peter Forlin and Chris Forlin, The University of Southern Queensland, Australia

The paper reports on a funded research project being conducted in high school science departments in Queensland, Australia. The research was undertaken in response to the increasing emphasis on safe systems of work in Australia. In the modern legal context there is a need for all workplaces to develop appropriate risk management policy frameworks following a proper research audit. The provision of well developed risk management policy will allow educators and their students to approach their day-to-day activities with more confidence and security than was previously the case. This paper reports on the trial of a health and safety risk management audit methodology to develop risk management policy frameworks for each of the four participating trial schools. The data analysis from the research will be presented. The knowledge and application vacuum which exists in Australian education with regard to the risk management issue was the catalyst for this research. It should also be noted that, from the side of those whose mandate is the promotion of health and safety in the workplace, there has been little concern shown for the educational environment. This project addresses these important deficiencies and in doing so makes a significant impact in the areas of students' health and safety in Australian education.

FORMT96.033

Professional development as a means of implementing instructional change: Two schools that matched the literature

P.J. (Trish) Formentin and R.L. Summers, Edith Cowan University, Australia

There is an extensive gap between research into best practice in instruction and what actually happens in schools. Professional development programs are seen as a key element in bridging this gap. Literature dealing with instructional change using inservice as the means clearly identifies factors which are essential for effective outcomes. Such factors include: clearly identified assumptions, presentation of theory, modelling or demonstration of skills, practice in simulated and classroom settings with structured feedback, coaching for application, ongoing evaluation, and follow-up support and networks. Professional development in early reading strategies in one school in this study adhered closely to the procedures recommended for effective implementation and measures in this school showed significant improved outcomes in three critical reading areas. In the other school, for a variety of reasons, implementation of the same procedures did not adhere to the recommended guidelines. In this school a qualitative analysis revealed that teachers believed the professional development program to be effective and beneficial for students. However, outcome measures at this school showed no significant improvement in key reading areas. This paper presents an analysis of the critical differences in implementation between the two schools and provides a framework for planning effective professional development programs.

Building a Community of Inquiry: Reconceptualising Micro Teaching as Critical Inquiry

Dawn Francis, James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia

The literature on professional development of pre-service teachers provides mixed messages about the need for a focus on specific teaching skills. This paper explores some of the disturbing and challenging issues emerging in a university subject where micro teaching is being reconstructed using critical friendship and Van Manen's three levels of reflectivity (technical, practical and critical) which requires students to attend mindfully to social and political contexts, as well as how it is that certain skills and ways of knowing become uncontested regimes of truth.

Dinosaurs in the imagination: Setting research loose in the classroom

Richard Frazier

A perennial topic in educational research is the gap between research and practice. Solutions may be offered in terms of "bridges," "partnerships," "applications," or "constructive activity." Even though much recent educational research supports various interpretations of constructivist learning theory, an implicit model of knowledge transmission seems to lie behind many efforts to disseminate the value of research findings to the classroom teacher. Briefly put, researchers discover some truth which is then conveyed to teachers. Teachers' practice is transformed by the truth, and students' learning is, in turn, transformed, improved, upgraded.

Perhaps there is another way. The researcher need only examine her or his own transformation to discover the real value of research. Such transformation is something many teachers want for their own students.

A serendipitous conjunction of intense educational research into children's science and full-time practice as a science teacher has led me to propose that the transformation the researcher experiences from close looking and deep thinking can be as significant a result as any "truth" that is revealed or invented.

I hope to describe examples of research in classrooms where children have conducted investigations of their own. Particularly, I want to describe a project where my seventh grade students (aged twelve to thirteen ) developed a comparison of "The Dinosaur in the Popular Imagination to the Dinosaur in the Scientist's Imagination." Interviews with younger children and analyses of artifacts and media brought the seventh graders fascinating results and led them to very interesting conclusions. The excitement and enthusiasm of their investigations made a subsequent encounter with "Scientists' Dinosaurs" at a highly touted exhibition somewhat anti-climactic.

The assessment of organisational culture at the Sydney Institute of Technology

Bob Frew, Sydney Institute of Technology, Australia

Culture is an important characteristic of an organisation as it consists of the values, beliefs and social ideals of staff, and can be either an asset or a liability. As an asset it can generate high levels of cooperation because of the shared beliefs and values, but a liability when these do not align with the needs of an organisation.

The organisational culture of the Sydney Institute of Technology is currently being evaluated as the Institute's needs have changed due to the changed environment in which it operates, and because a quality management program that is being implemented.

This paper outlines a research project in evaluating the organisational culture of the Sydney Institute of Technology. This institute, which enrols approximately 55,000 students, employs approximately 2,000 staff, and expends a recurrent budget of $155 million, has been undergoing restructuring since 1992, and must now position itself as a model of best practice in providing quality vocational education and training.

The paper discusses results obtained from the administration of two survey instruments at the Sydney Institute of Technology. The first of these focussed on models of organisational culture, such as clan, adhocracy, market and hierarchy, developed by the National Centre for Higher Education Management Systems in the United States of America. The second uses the work of Grady (1995) and asked the respondents to describe their perceptions of the Sydney Institute of Technology metaphorically.

Responses from the two survey instruments are then related to a Teaching/Learning Index developed at Sydney Institute of Technology as a measure of customer satisfaction. The paper concludes by previewing some of the implications of the research.

Transferrable skills as learning outcomes of technology project

Anne Fritz, The University of Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 20 Psychodynamic pedagogy.

FRYJ96.275

Construction of identity among girls in physical education

Joan M. Fry, Charles Sturt University, Australia

The masculine Anglo-Saxon Celtic (ASC) dominance of sport and one of its primary socialising agencies, school physical education, has received serious critique. Analysis of girls' subject and recration program choices indicates that many non ASC girls, particularly those from various Asian cultures, are often further marginalised from involvement in physical activity than their mainstream peers. Case studies of the social construction of national-identity in culturally diverse physical education classes have been explored through group and individual interviews in order to understand the nature of east Asian Australian females' participation in physical activity. This paper reports progress on work undertaken with the assistance of two consecutive Australian Research Council small grants.

Transition to secondary school: A help or hindrance to mathematics learning?

Sue Fullarton, Monash University, Australia

Transition from primary to secondary school in Victoria, Australia, occurs after seven years of compulsory schooling, and many secondary schools have set up transition networks and specific transition programs for students entering from primary school. The change from primary to secondary systems is frequently seen by teachers, students and parents as problematic, with a perceived change from a close, nurturing environment to a more impersonal and subject orientated one. The transition in mathematics in particular poses problems for some students, and it has been argued both that transition creates problems in students' mathematics education and that mathematics contributes to the difficulties of students in transition. Many students enter year seven confidently and with an enjoyment of mathematics that proceeds to disappear during their first years at secondary school.

This paper reports on the initial stages of a larger longitudinal study that investigates students' beliefs about strategies for success in mathematics and whether they are personally capable of succeeding, engagement in learning and beliefs about mathematics and ability. The long-term aim of the study is to be able to identify students at risk of failure in secondary school mathematics from the pattern of beliefs held in grade six.

Building partnerships for creating more effective and accountable schools: An Australian case study

David Gamage, The University of Newcastle, Australia

The Effective Schools Movement of the 1970s revealed the importance of building partnerships between the schools and parents. It suggested that parental participation in school activities boosted the morale of teachers, students and administrators. Later, it was suggested that the involvement of all stakeholders in education would make schools more effective and accountable. A decade earlier, when it was believed that the type of school makes no difference to a child's education, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) parents believed that their input could make a difference to the schools' effectiveness and accountability.

Articulation of this last perception resulted in a working party report in 1967. The recommendation for the creation of a partnership in school management led to a public debate on the proposals. The new concept which received the professional, bureaucratic and political approval came into being in 1974. Accordingly, the principal, parents, teachers, community and students became members of a partnership in managing ACT schools. This paper, examines the progress made on the new model of school management based on research conducted in 29 schools in 1993. Data suggests significant achievements in consolidating the partnerships resulting in more effective and accountable schools.

GANEP96.543

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM): Some insights for Engineering students

Peter Ganea, University of Munich, Germany, and Tan Ai Girl, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Human resource is one of the most essential components of technological advancement. Educators and economists are searching for suitable models that can maximise the use of this resource. To serve this purpose, a model of management in some Japanese factories is introduced. After the second world war, in the fifties, the Japanese adopted the Preventive Maintenance (PM) model from the United States. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is the new version of PM that aims to maximize the use of work force and to minimise the production cost. In this paper, the history of development of TPM from PM is presented. TPM's fundamental concepts and prerequisites for its implementation are discussed. Similarities and differences between TPM and other Japanese management concepts such as TQC (Total Quality Control) and "kaizen" are reviewed. Engineering students who are potential engineers and/or managers are encouraged to investigate the TPM model from the pedagogical viewpoint.

GARBM96.100

The "Asian presence" in Australian films: An opening for un/learning

Michael Garbutcheon Singh, Central Queensland University and Charlotte Henry, Australia

This paper will presented as part of Symposium 4, The "Asian presence" in Australian films: An opening for un/learning

GARBM96.101

Global thinking educational leaders and local curriculum action

Michael Garbutcheon Singh, Central Queensland University, Australia

Since the mid-1980s Australian education has been caught up in the processes of global restructuring, being integrated into efforts to facilitate Australia's repositioning in an internationally competitive market place. The development of National Curriculum policies were indicators of these major interrelated shifts. During the period 1994-96 the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) sponsored an ambitious and innovative project to promote the integration of global education into Australia's National Curriculum through teachers' professional development. The Global Eduction Project tried to build partnerships among curriculum policy officers across Australia's State and Territory education authorities, the developers of professional development materials, and small groups of teacher/researchers. This paper- summarises key insights gained from an evaluation of the Global. Education Project (1994-1996) conducted by the author, including the meaning the project made of global. education, the reading methods needed by global educators, connecting global education to teachers' interests, the Project's contributions to reconceptualising Australia's place in the world. educational leadership for the development of ecological sustainability, and global restructuring and curriculum modernisation.

GILLM96.198

Beginning teacher competencies in context

Margaret Gill, Monash University, Australia

This paper examines the National Competency Framework for Beginning Teaching in the light of a more socially contextualised model of teacher competence derived from a four year study of a group of beginning teachers who commenced their teaching careers during a period of major institutional change.

The aim of the original study (1991-1994) was to ascertain the range and variety of teachers' work, the variations which occurred due to different school contexts and amongst different practitioners, and the evolving nature of the teachers' practice as they progressed from inexperience to experience.

In particular, the study attempted to account for the complex dimensions of young teachers' progress or development in the early years of their teaching. It sought to answer the question "How do differences in the social and political ethos and contexts of schools affect a teacher's development of teaching identity and professional skill?" This paper seeks to review the Beginning Teacher Competencies and related Case Studies from this broader perspective and argues that such a perspective enhances, rather than diminishes, the usefulness of the Competency Framework.

Vegetarianism in Seventh-Day Adventist home economics classes: A conceptual analysis

Jennifer Rule, Swan Christian School, and John Godfrey, Edith Cowan University, Australia

The Seventh-day Adventist Church claims to administer the largest Protestant school system in the world. One of the distinctive policies of this system is the endorsement of the vegetarian diet which has been interpreted as the exclusion of meat from schools. This prohibition is at odds with the practice of many Adventists, and the Church, which while recommending vegetarianism, does not require it. Many Adventists eat some meat yet continue to describe themselves as vegetarians. This creates a dilemma for Adventist home economics teachers. The purpose of the study was to make a contribution toward rational curriculum decision making.

The procedure followed was to investigate vegetarianism, to explore the origin and aims of home economics education and Seventh-day Adventism. These components of the study were considered according to the three cognitive interests of Jurgen Habermas. Habermas, a German philosopher identified interests each of which informs a particular kind of action. These three systems of action respectively involve work (technical interest), interpersonal relations (communicative interest) and power (emancipatory interest).

It was discovered that the present practice of exclusion of meat from Adventist institutions is indefensible, in Habermasian terms, with reference to home economics education and Seventh-day Adventist principles.

The issue of vegetarianism to Seventh-day Adventists and the way it is interpreted in their educational institutions is more than a curriculum issue - it is an issue for the entire Adventist Church. Home economics teachers have a particular interest in initiating and contributing to a system-wide debate within Adventism which should be undertaken as a matter of urgency.

The validity and reliability of tests constructed by Seychellois teachers

John Godfrey and Justin Valentin, Edith Cowan University, Australia.

Seychellois teachers seldom are trained in test construction. Yet, the use of teacher-made tests for assessing students are common occurrences in schools in the Seychelles. This study examines the quality of tests constructed by Seychellois teachers without measurement and testing knowledge.

A sample of tests constructed by Primary 5A mathematics teachers in the Seychelles is analysed. The teachers who submitted the tests have not completed a course in measurement and testing. The purpose of the study is to ascertain whether the tests are sufficiently valid and reliable to make decisions about student learning.

The results obtained indicate that the test results have high internal reliability. However the tests are low in content-related validity. They also have a low percentage of effective items as judged by traditional norm-referenced item analysis techniques.

Recommendations are made to the Department of Education in the Seychelles to assist teachers in test construction and to include a measurement course in pre-service teacher training. It is also recommended that in-service teachers lessen their dependence on tests to measure student performance and that other assessment instruments be developed and implemented.

Engineering undergraduates' perceptions of engineering education and research and development in Singapore

Goh Chor Boon, National Institute of Education, Singapore

In trying to explain why some small countries, like Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea, and Taiwan are able to create indigenous technological innovations and others do not, the answer seems to lie in the historical traditions and sociocultural motivations, attitudes, and interests of the people within a society and, in general, the way they perceive technology and technological change. All these variables can either encourage or inhibit technological creativity and innovativeness. This paper provides an insight into the perceptions of a sample group of engineering undergraduates in three interrelated areas: (a) cultural values and attitudes towards science and technology, (b) engineering as a professional discipline, and (c) career options in engineering, especially in the field of research and development (R&D). The general impression is that engineers in Singapore are not keen to pursue a life-long career in the field of engineering, especially in R&D and that this trend would have a significant impact on the long-term aspiration of Singapore to develop its own technological innovations.

An exploratory study of Singaporean students' counselling needs and attitudes toward counselling in higher education

Goh, Michael, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Counselling is still a relatively new phenomenon in Singapore. Yet there appears to be a general consensus when one talks to students, faculty, education administrators or even the lay person of the need for more counselling and for the establishment of more formalized counselling services. All this notwithstanding the still relatively taboo status of counseling in Singapore (Macner-Lict, 1992) and the distant, mythical, and suspicious relationship it has with Asian societies in general. It has even been said that Asians continue to view the sharing of personal problems as stigmatizing and shameful (Sue and Sue, 1985).

To date, little has been written about specific counselling needs at our institutions of higher education. This paper therefore hopes to clarify the perception of an increased need for counselling at institutions of higher education in Singapore by addressing the following questions:

1. Do students at one university in Singapore see the need for a more formalized counselling service on campus?

This study is exploratory in nature, recognizing the need for a more comprehensive survey of the macro and micro contexts of indigenous help-seeking behaviour in Singaporean cultures. It is hoped that this study will lead to a refining of the survey instrument, suggest better ways to explore questions of students' needs and attitude toward counselling, and if proven necessary, help initiate more educated, established, and effective counselling services at institutions of higher education in Singapore. The potential for cross-national studies on this issue will also be highlighted.

Perceptions of interpersonal teacher behaviour in secondary science classrooms: A cross-national study

Goh Swee Chiew, Angela F.L.Wong, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Darrell Fisher, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

This paper examines an important aspect of classroom learning environment: teacher-student relationships. Information was obtained through the use of the 48-item version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). Twenty secondary science classes in each of Singapore and Australia provided the sample of teachers and students. Students responded to the QTI indicating their perceptions of their science teachers' interpersonal behaviours while their teachers responded to two versions of the QTI. The teachers provided their perceptions of their own interpersonal behaviour with their students and their perceptions of an ideal science teacher. Validation data is provided on the use of the QTI in both countries. Comparisons are made between the students' and teachers' perceptions in each country and the science classrooms of the two countries are compared. Implications for teachers are discussed.

Classroom climate and student outcomes in elementary mathematics

Goh Swee Chiew, National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Barry J Fraser, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

This study examined associations between classroom and climate and affective and cognitive outcomes among elementary mathematics students in Singapore. Also gender differences in students' achievement, attitudes and perceptions of classroom climate were explored. A random sample of 1512 boys and girls from government elementary schools was used. For the analysis of climate-outcome associations, a series of statistical analysies were conducted using two units of analysis, namely, the individual student and the class mean. For the analysis of gender differences, multivariate analyses of variance for repeated measures was performed for the two outcome measures and the classroom climate scales. The study led to the validation of a widely-applicable and convenient learning environment questionnaire for future use by researchers and teachers at the elementary school level. Overall the different methods of analysis yielded consistent associations between classroom climate and student outcomes. Gender differences were detected in mathematics achievement, in favour of boys, but girls generally viewed their classroom climate more favourably than the boys did.

Normal Technical students' perception of their classroom environment

Goh, Swee Chiew and Chen, Ai Yen

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 26, Motivation and behaviour of Normal Technical students.

GOPIS96.427

Educational funding trends in Singapore

S. Gopinathan and Susan B. Morriss, National Institute of Education, Singapore

The paper analyzes the funding of education in Singapore over the last 15 years in order to identify trends and changes in these trends. The analysis seeks to link these changes with the economic situation, and fiscal and education policies. To gain a macro perspective on the level of educational funding in Singapore comparison with selected countries is made based educational funding as a percentage of gross national product.

The focus of the analysis then shifts to a more micro level. by comparing changes in Singapore's gross national product, government operating expenditures, and recurrent educational expenditures and looking at gross funding trends. The relations among these different types of expenditures are studied, as are the relations to various fiscal, economic and educational policies.

The investigation next considers enrollment trends and funding trends in general and by the different sectors of education to identify possible relations to shifts in demand, focus, expansion, and quality. Lastly, the levels of government subsidy for the different sectors is contrasted with student payments (tuition). The social, political, and economic implications of changes in the subsidy level are presented.

Understanding power relations in pedagogy

Jennifer M Gore, The University of Newcastle, Australia

Power has long been recognised as central (and as problematic) in the experience of schooling for all participants but, to date, educational researchers have produced little detailed systematic evidence of how power operates in classrooms. The study reported here was designed to bridge that gap by examining micro-practices of power in pedagogy, based on a Foucauldian conception of power relations.

In this paper, I draw on an analysis of techniques of power employed in the four different pedagogical sites studied -- high school Physical Education classes, a first year Teacher Education cohort, a Women's Discussion Group, and a Feminist Reading Group. This analysis reveals different configurations of power techniques between the radical and mainstream sites and between the institutionalised and non-institutionalised sites. On the basis of these findings, I offer explanations for the following educational phenomena: (1) the difficulty of enacting radical pedagogies in educational institutions, (2) the resistance often encountered by radical educators, (3) the frustrations of teachers and students who "just want to get on with teaching and learning", and (4) constitutive elements of pedagogy. With relevance for educators within and beyond educational institutions, no matter what their philosophical or pedagogical approach, I also discuss implications of these findings for pedagogical practice.

Promoting rural Aboriginal off-campus study using information technology and other innovative strategies

Mary Grant, Australian Catholic University, Sydney Campus, Australia

Aboriginal students from rural Australia must cope with isolation and distance from the University as they undertake Diploma in Aboriginal Education/ Bachelor of Teaching studies in a part-time mixed-mode course. Once immersed in their communities following residential schools, they struggled to manage their studies along with work, family, and community responsibilities (Grant and Trimingham 1993) They wanted more frequent contact with each other and university staff for encouragement and to sustain motivation (Grant 1995). A review of the program in 1995 noted these data, and further concluded that printed course materials did not sufficiently take account of Aboriginal preferred learning modes.

In order to address these issues in 1996 and with the support of a National Teaching Development (CAUT) Grant, a number of initiatives were taken. Local study centres using existing information technology infrastructure at schools, TAFEs, Open Access Learning Centres and libraries were established. Students now use e-mail and the Internet/World Wide Web for contact and as learning resources. Interactive text-based teaching materials with graphical elements have replaced more traditional text, and development of specific-purpose video and CD-ROM is underway.

Such innovative program adjustments are not easily accomplished. I will take due note of the difficulties in this paper.

Reason and unreason in the school planning process

Mike Grenfell, Northern Territory University

This case study offers an exploratory account of the strategic planning process as it evolved over one year in one primary school situated in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. It seeks to explain how strategic action is understood in the Northern Territory context at the system level, and how it comes to be interpreted at the school level. The study calls into question what is generally understood by the strategic planning process. It reveals the effects of the subjectivities of those involved, and the way that the predominant discourse of technocratic rationality, with its emphasis on externally imposed, linear planning models, operational efficiency and accountability, is subject to interruption and discontinuity.

It will be argued that planning is an adventitious, contingent, voluntaristic, process, and that in spite of its origins in technocratic rationality, planning reveals itself to be a manifestation of 'unreason'. As a result concrete action is seen as following its own 'logic'. This logic is not the analytical, serial, logic of the planners, but a diffuse eco-logic which gives rise to the unpredictable, the ambivalent, the indeterminate, the inadvertent, and the unexpected.

GRENM96.056

Promoting school-university collaboration

Mike Grenfell, Northern Territory University

This poster session will highlight significant aspects of the move towards School-Based Teacher Education in the Northern Territory and show-case some of the achievements of the Innovative Links project in promoting school-university collaboration. It looks particularly at the difficulties encountered in the collaborative process and suggests ways in which these might be overcome.

Rethinking professional knowledge: Learning work, intellectual work, hard work

Susan Groundwater-Smith, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Judyth Sachs, The University of Sydney, Australia

This paper will focus upon the production, development and utilisation of professional knowledge through facilitated practitioner research. Drawing upon our experiences working on two national projects: Innovative Links between Schools and Universities for Teacher Professional Development and the National Schools Network, both of which are concerned with redefining the relationships between the academic and school communities, we argue that conditions are now ripe for a redefinition of teachers' professional knowledge and a reconceptualisation of practices in schools and universities.

The processes of facilitated practitioner research, as embodied in these projects, requires a cultural and ideological shift on the part of both teachers and their university colleagues. Our view is that we, as an educational community, should be encouraged to reposition ourselves professionally and intellectually to engage in critical enquiry into our practices and the contexts which shape those practices in ways which will contribute to the wider professional and political debate.

The Innovative Links Project and the NSN have both demonstrated that when teachers and teacher educators move beyond purely practical discourses there is a revitalisation in the ways they see themselves situated in the education industry.

The evolution of an informed professional discourse, based upon teacher research, has implications in several arenas. Not only does it produce knowledge about teaching and learning which can be used by other teachers to improve and inform their practice, it also provides evidence which may be used in local, regional and national policy formulation.

We argue that well grounded, well defended and peer reviewed facilitated practitioner research has the potential to become a significant force in the development of education policy. Within such a context, teachers, with their university colleagues, are given opportunities to work in concert and be strategic in the ways in which they position themselves, professionally and publicly.

In order to develop our argument, two key questions will be addressed, these being:

What are the conditions that help support and sustain the production, development and utilisation of teacher professional knowledge?

How can systems and professional organisations build on initiatives such as The Innovative Links Between Schools and Universities for Teacher Professional Development Project and the National Schools Network, to enable teachers to develop a sustained research voice which both embodies theoretical and practical discourses?

Citizen education as a goal of NGOs. The case of Japan

Ruth M Grubel, Kwansei Gakuin University

The impact of NGOs is expanding, both in domestic and international politics. It is a rare regime that can completely ignore the petitions of well-organized non-governmental organizations. Even the United Nations has had to organize fora for the myriad NGOs that gather for its major conferences. Just as the issues which motivate NGOs are very diverse, the tactics and goals of these organizations can vary among them as well. Some NGOs focus directly on influencing government officials to adopt policies favorable to the groups' causes. Others support private efforts to accomplish humanitarian or religious goals. In this paper, I will explore yet another thrust of NGOs; their work to educate the public. Although citizen education by some NGOs may be an inadvertent side-effect of their primary activities, other groups emphasize this method to raise both financial and indirect political support. Some go so far as to provide materials for use by students and adults, but the objective is to raise consciousness and to urge participation in the organization's goals. As the initial inquiry into the role of citizen education in strategies, this paper compares the proportion of effort designated for such education by a variety of NGOs in Japan

Thinking and re-thinking the work of teachers

Shirley Grundy, Murdoch University, and Elizabeth Hatton, Charles Sturt University, Australia

It is well recognised in the literature that teachers often have highly individualistic conceptions of teaching. The multiple simultaneous shapers of these conceptions identified in the literature, often exclude the interaction between teacher educators and their students.

In a study of a group of teacher educators and their students we investigated the conceptions of teaching held by both groups. Our data revealed that similar individualistic conceptions were held by teacher educators and their students. Moreover, the data showed that teacher educators were actively involved in encouraging and legitimating these individualistic ways of thinking about teaching in their students. In this paper we examine the evidence for these claims. We conclude the paper with a discussion of the implications of our study for rethinking the work of teaching as a collaborative enterprise.

The challenge of assessing management competence: A case study

Paul Hager and Tony Holland, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

The notion of management competencies is prominent in the recent major Australian policy document, the Karpin Report. It also has a long history stretching back well before the National Training Reform Agenda placed competencies on the education and training map in Australia. In this paper, various attempts to institute management competencies will be outlined and their limitations discussed. Many of these limitations centre on the assessment of these management competencies. From this discussion, some desirable principles for the assessment of management competence will be proposed. Finally, a case study of the assessment of managers' competence in the Australian Tourism and Hospitality industry will be outlined and discussed in order to show the strengths and limitations of the proposed assessment principles.

Towards a conceptualisation of workplace learning

Paul Hager, University of Technology, Sydney and Stephen Billett, Griffith University, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 7, Workplace learning and assessment: The agenda for research.

Perspectives on culture: Meeting points and divergences

Christine Halse and Neil Baumgart, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, Australia

In a post-modern world of diversity, difference and melting social, political, economic and cultural boundaries, there is a fundamental tension between the preservation of cultural identity and the cultural homogenisation that defines a globalised world.

This paper reports on a collaborative, international study between researchers in Thailand, Japan and Australia which examines perceptions of conceptual differences and meeting points in the cultural views of their three communities of teachers. In doing so, it attempts to move beyond post-modernism and the reality of globalism by proposing a new methodology for facilitating intercultural understanding.

Exploring the "Asian presence" in children's discourses - what exists, what is possible?

Julie Hamston, University of Melbourne, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 4, The "Asian presence" in Australian films: An opening for un/learning

Status of community involvement in primary education in Bangladesh

Muhammad Nazmul Haq, Dhaka University, Bangladesh, and Edward Booth, University of Wollongong, Australia

Primary schools in Bangladesh have been nationalised since 1913. Prior to that date primary education was largely patronised by community leaders and groups through gifts of land, cash donations and labour. The nationalisation of schools progressively disassociated the comrnunity and their material support from their primary schools. With the governments objective to regain comrnunity support to assist in the provision of primary schooling.

This paper examines the present status of community participation and the factors which may contribute to the more active participation of community in primary education. Data for the study were collected through personal interviews and focused group discussions with parents, teachers, local opinion leaders and government officers involved in school management in four education districts.

Results indicate that the nationalisation process of primary schools detached the community from a sense of ownership of their local school. Currently most schools rely very little on their local rnanaging bodies [SMC and PTAs] which play a symbolic rather a powerful and active voice for their school. Local people at all levels are still interested in schools and are ready to contribute in the form of management and supervision provided government is willing to acknowledge their contribution. It was recommended that wider level community participation could be enhanced by a wide range of socio-cultural activities and sports.

Investigating the functions of whole school planning: Research challenges in a case study

Tim Hardy, University of Canberra, Australia

As a part of the national Primary School Planning Project carried out for the Schools Council in Australia, a case study investigated the processes and influence of whole school planning during a three year period in a primary school in the Australian Capital Territory. The school became heavily involved in strategic planning following a threatened system initiated closure of the school. Soon after, a system imposed and intensive planning process followed. Subsequently, the school experienced a major turnover in staffing and leadership. The study investigated the important functions that whole school planning played during these events, and was particularly concerned to identify its influence on teachers at the classroom level with respect to their teaching and student learning. In the study teachers had difficulty in identifying such influence, and the paper suggests a number of explanations for this, including theoretical explanations and those related to limitations of the research methodology. It is argued that it is important that teachers are able to identify positive linkages between their participation in school-wide planning and outcomes in their classroom, otherwise whole school planning is unlikely to be highly valued and supported.

HARGL96.437

Does partnership facilitate change? Curriculum reform and classroom practice in English rural schools

Linda Hargreaves, Maurice Galton and Chris Comber

Curriculum theory predicts that top-down curriculum reform will be unsuccessful. The validity of this prediction has not, however, been examined where a culture of collegiality exists such as that found in cohesive groups of small rural schools. The present study, therefore. examines curriculum implementation in nine small rural schools with differential levels of cooperation, resource-sharing and joint planning.

In particular, it addresses the effects of the National Curriculum on classroom practice. Data was collected using: (i) structured classroom observation; (ii) children's records of their tasks; and (iii) self-ratings of teachers' confidence across the curriculum. The findings will be compared with observational research studies of rural schools carried out prior to the introduction of the new curriculum, together with the findings of contemporary research carried out in larger primary schools.

The paper will focus on teachers' organisational strategies following official advice to make greater use of whole class teaching methods. After considering the need amongst researchers for precise definition of 'class teaching', the paper will discuss whether an apparent increase in class reaching reflects changes in teaching styles, teachers' strategies or the content of the curriculum.

HARRK96.003

Democracy, education and teachers

Kevin Harris, Macquarie University, Australia

This paper considers the issues of promoting democracy through schooling; and links a general initial discussion of that topic to the practical phenomenon we find today regarding teachers in much of the western world: namely that their present history is one of decreased status and control, loss of autonomy, worsening of conditions, lowering of morale, and subjugation to increasing external control of schooling and curricula.

It is argued that the promotion of democracy through schooling is a complex and at times contradictory and paradoxical process; and that properly understanding and adequately undertaking such a process requires teachers who are personally dedicated, politically empowered and highly educated.

The paper argues that teachers should resist and oppose their role being reshaped in managerial forms; that they need to protect the professional status of teaching, and especially pre-service and possibly in-service professional education and credentialling; and that teachers should take active responsibility in the formulation of the substantive school curriculum and the political and personal goals sought through it. It concludes that when highly educated, morally committed teachers are in a position to determine and articulate the form and content of the curriculum, and the purposes and conditions of schooling itself, then schooling for citizenship, equity and democracy becomes a viable possibility.

Distance, isolation and place: A study of youth living in a remote mining community

Jim Harvey, University of South Australia, Whyalla Campus, Australia

The meanings people make of their lives is more than a product of their material circumstances (e.g. class and gender). They are also significantly influenced by the meanings they made of their place.

This paper has its origins in the growing, though disputed terrain of post-modern social theory. Its specific focus is on the relationships between distance, isolation and place and their impact on the lives of young people growing up on the geographical and social margins.

Using data collected using semi-structured interviews and photographs this paper explores how young people living in a remote mining town organise place to form both the material and mental structures of their lives.

Major findings include:The young people's knowledge and understanding of other places, especially cities, is partial. Common threads of uncertainty about using public transport (i.e. a fear of moving around) and a fear of violence are appearing.

Decisions to leave the town are difficult. Mining is a gender-specific activity. Women are excluded from every aspect of the industry. Women and especially young women are doubly disadvantaged by the powerful oppressions of gender and geographical isolation.

School based decision making and management and the work of the secondary school Head of Department: A study of innovative practitioners

Michael Harvey, Edith Cowan University, Australia

The position of head of department (HoD) originates from the bureaucratic structure, culture and subject organization of early twentieth century secondary schools. In contemporary Australia the onset of an era of school based decision making and management has challenged the traditional patterns of work organization which sustain the subject department and the position of HoD. In the restructured government education systems, corporatist models of school management have been adopted to improve efficiency, effectiveness, flexibility, accountability and responsiveness. In these circumstances the work of the HoD has become increasingly problematic.

The paper reports on a field study of six innovative HoDs from secondary schools in the state education system of Western Australia. Semi-structured interviews are used to obtain data about the nature of the work of each HoD in the context of a school. The data are obtained from the HoD as well as the principal, a deputy principal and two teachers from the subject department. The data analysis attempts to establish the way in which innovative heads have been able to shift their practice away from a bureaucratic model toward corporatist and also learning community models of their work. The data suggest directions for the redefinition of the work of the HoD in the context of school based decision making and management.

HASHF96.362

An intervention model for Malaysian secondary school underachievers from disadvantaged environments

Fatimah Hashim, University of Malaya, Malaysia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 24, "It's not that children aren't interested in learning": Early school leaving, school failure and strategies for addressing inequalities in schooling.

HASLI96.553

Managing exercise motivation in physical education: a curriculum paradigm shift?

Ian R Haslam and Mohd Sani Somian, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

The purpose of this study was to investigate the intrinsic motivation of secondary school mainstream physical education students in a neighbourhood school in Singapore. Two hundred and ninety two (N = 292) subjects completed the 28-item Physical Education Class Climate Scale (PECCS) (Goudas & Biddle, 1994). Comparisons of class climate preferences were made between subjects on the baiss of gender, age, academic ability, extra-curricular activities (ECA) in sport and the influence of parents. Findings support the work of Goudas, Biddle, Fox & Underwood (in press) and suggest that on the whole the study sample preferred a mastery learning orientation but that a performance-oriented physical education class climate would not be inappropriate if it included mastery learning work. This suggests that perhaps a paradigm shift could well be in order for the teaching and preparation of teachers in local schools.

From black box to triangular pyramid: An attempt to make teacher education more transparent

Wendy Hastings, Charles Sturt University, Australia

There is considerable research evidence to support the view that co-operating teachers have a significant impact on the value the practicum has for preservice teachers. The needs of university personnel and the needs of preservice teachers in relation to the practicum have been subjected to considerable research attention. However, the needs of the co-operating teacher, particularly as they perceive them, have been relatively ignored. This paper reports a qualitative study of the perceptions of support needs held by 30 co-operating teachers involved in a field work and practicum component of a Graduate Diploma of Education course. Initial findings of the study are outlined along with possible future directions for research and support.

The state of field experience in Australia

Elizabeth Hatton, Charles Sturt University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 13, Contemporary trends in school experience in Australia: Charles Sturt University models, issues and outcomes.

Towards a practice of critical teaching about teachers' work

Rob Hattam, John Smyth, and Geoff Shacklock, Flinders University of South Australia, Australia

Being criticalist academics teaching about teachers' work in post-graduate degrees in education, in an era in which teachers' voices are increasing silenced in the development of educational policy and curriculum design, means grappling both theoretically and practically with the political and ideological nature of education. In this paper we argue for the increasing need for critical teaching about teachers' work at a time when the possibilities of engaging in a curriculum making practice capable of delivering on commitments to social justice seem less likely. We describe the struggle to develop a practice which opens up opportunities for our students (experienced teachers) to connect the life-worlds of their classrooms with the relentlessly changing surrounding socio-cultural milieu. On this nexus teachers have an opportunity to investigate the possibilities for developing agency as the makers of culture as opposed to the deliverers of somebody else's curriculum. Critical teaching in this context is a struggle to develop a practice which has these characteristics: dialogic, in that it involves challenging dominant myths, assumptions and practices; situated, and hence focuses on the significant existential themes from the classrooms of the students; participatory and involves students being active in the process from the outset; interdisciplinary, in the use of material from many perspectives; problem-posing, as opposed to problem-solving, and; activist-oriented in that it is open about a commitment to effect change so that education contributes to making a more socially just society.

Early childhood education and the public school system: Distributional allotments and constitutional outcomes

Jacqueline Hayden, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, Australia

This paper reports the findings from three studies which investigated career paths of early childhood graduates, expectations of school principals, and perceptions of practising teachers in the early school years in Australian public schools. The results are analysed within a framework of distributional allotments versus constitutional outcomes.

Distributional allotments (or concrete dispersions) to the field of early childhood education have appeared, over the past six years, to be progressive. In Australia, since the late 1980s, the amalgamation of early childhood programs into university Faculties of Education heralded a new era which saw expanded post graduate offerings, a proliferation of Professorships in the area, and increased research monies. Increasing numbers of ece graduates have become available for positions within the school system and the preschool sector.

Constitutional outcomes, however (those related to empowerment of professionals and infrastructures which provide support) do not reflect these endowments. Despite supportive rhetoric and real distributions, findings reveal that early childhood teachers continue to battle for a legitimate place in the educational hierarchy, and that the field of early childhood education continues to be defined by hegemonic attitudes, training gaps, poor linkages, and a lack of awareness by senior educationalists.

HAYDJ96.318

Early childhood teachers in school settings: Supporting best practice

Jackie Hayden, University of Western Sydney Nepean, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 15 Effectiveness, quality and accountability in early childhood education.

Building partnerships: Implications for research and practice

Alan Hayes, Macquarie University, and Ray Reynolds, Brisbane Catholic Education, Australia

This paper focuses on the value of joint venture partnerships for educational research and practice. Such partnerships hold great promise for advancing the capacity of organisations to innovate, collaboratively, and achieve far more than either partner could alone. The jointly managed Caroline Chisholm School, Student and Family Support Centre, and its associated services, has been the product of one such partnership. Its development provides a useful case example of the characteristics and value of partnerships. The Centre is the base for a range of services to schools and a key element in the practicum program for educational psychologists, at the University of Queensland. The history of the joint venture illustrates some of the key elements in the development of new "communities of practice" involving partnerships between school systems and universities. At the heart of such partnerships are the notions of change, adaptation and cooperation. In the dynamic world of contemporary education such capacities are likely to be as essential to the viability and health of organisations and institutions, as they are for communities and societies. The implications are discussed for extension of the concepts described in the paper to partnerships in research and practice between Australian and Asian educational organisations.

Teaching for understanding of negative number concepts and operations

Bob Hayes, University of Melbourne, Australia

In the period 1994-96 research has been undertaken investigating the effectiveness of the most common strategies for teaching negative number concepts and operations at junior secondary level. Research has been conducted in three secondary schools. From the data collected it is evident that many students are not developing understanding in the topic. A consequence of the resulting defective and confused knowledge of the real number field is inability to progress satisfactorily and often lack of desire to continue in areas of mathematics and mathematics related disciplines.

This paper will provide details of the most common misunderstandings and errors shown by students. It will also discuss the outcomes of research to develop improved and more meaningful negative number teaching strategies. Experimental work has been done with classes using two centimetre square reversible tiles labelled [+1], [-1] and [ 0 ] as the initial manipulative teaching material. The strategy being investigated is a version of the 'Annihilation/Creation' model. The outcomes, in terms of student short and long term performance, have been compared with those in classes taught by more commonly used strategies.

Sex in schools: How gender functions in the school curriculum

Debra Hayes, University of Newcastle, Australia

Gender functions in multiple, complex and fluid ways in educational discourse. Since the 1970s, gender equity issues related to girls, and more recently to boys, have been a focus of concern. However, linking the categories of equity and gender may be considered a relatively new connection in educational discourse. This paper will outline a genealogical approach to the construction of gender as a category of concern in education.

Among so many changes, the disappearance of differential provision for girls' and boys' education will be utilised as a 'phenomenological moment' that poses problems related to power, bodies and the imposition of power on bodies. Today we are rather inclined to ignore this disappearance; perhaps in its time it gave rise to too much inflated rhetoric; perhaps it has been attributed too readily and too emphatically to a process of 'modernisation' and increasingly 'sophisticated' community attitudes, thus dispensing with the need for further analysis. And yet the fact remains that a few decades has seen the disappearance of girls' domestic schools, boys' technical schools and the virtual elimination from the curriculum of certain forms of knowledge, such as home science and industrial arts.

This paper will explore descriptive possibilities opened up by a genealogical approach in an attempt to examine how what we know reflects how we came to know. The focus is not on the past but on the present as constructed through the descent of practices: practices as practised, and as seen in the surface of events, small details, minor shifts and subtle contours.

Mapping the curriculum

Felicity Haynes, University of Western Australia., Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 14, Curriculum development and reform.

Employing cognitive tools within interactive multimedia applications

John Hedberg, Barry Harper and Robert Wright, University of Wollongong, Australia

This paper describes research into the use of cognitive tools in the classroom using Exploring theNardoo and information landscape to support student investigation. Simulations and support tools allow multimedia reporting and are supported by several metacognitive tools for the writing process, which provide scaffolding templates to support the learners.

Studying differences in youth groups by combining statistical and case-study techniques

Brian Hemmings and Doug Hill, Charles Sturt University (Riverina), and Putai Jin, University of New South Wales, Australia

Where there are large differences in a population it is often useful to compare sub-groups in terms of factors which are known to influence the key variable under investigation. The key variable in this study was the decision to stay on or leave school at the senior secondary school level. In a longitudinal study of 494 students, Hemmings (1994) identified and demonstrated that 13 factors influence the decision to stay or leave. The standard scores on each of the measures of the 13 factors were compared for those who stayed and those who left. Complementary information was obtained through a series of case studies with a sub-sample (N=25). This procedure of comparing statistically the differences between sub-groups, and then exploring these differences in terms of a case-study analysis, proved to be fruitful and meaningful. In using this procedure the combination of statistical and case-study analyses avoided the pitfalls of relying solely on one method. This approach is commended to other researchers.

HENGO96.606

Utilizing mathematical software to foster critical thinking

Heng Ooi Khiang, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), and Lim Tock Keng, National Institute of Education, Singapore

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 22, Promoting critical thinking in the classroom.

Early Literacy Component Resource: Critical frameworks, classroom and whole school structures and strategies

Barbara Hickling, Department of Education and Children's Services, South Australia

The Department of Education and Children's Services (DECS) South Australia has undertaken the Early Literacy Component (ELC) of the National Equity Program for Schools through collaboration and consultation with three university groups, DECS curriculum officers, teachers and principals, and other personnel.

The project has been informed by a range of perspectives and current national and state initiatives relating to early intervention and literacy. It has taken account of recent work which has argued that literacy is defined by the contexts in which literacy texts are involved (e.g. Baker and Freebody, 1989; Baker and Luke, 1991 )

The ELC project has been designed to provide a resource for classroom teachers, principals and key teachers in literacy to assist them to develop appropriate classroom strategies and school management structures to meet the needs of students in the early years R-3. It has achieved this by developing an Early literacy resource package consisting of practical,, comprehensive classroom strategies and whole school structures and strategies that primary/junior primary schools have set up for this purpose. developing flexible professional development resource to support key teachers and other professional development providers to construct programs which best meet the needs of their school staff. developing a short introductory program for principals and resource teachers in using the professional development materials and the package.

This resource of classroom strategies, whole school structures and critical frameworks will assist school personnel to implement whole school change in the area of literacy. The processes are applicable at any level of schooling.

Outcomes of mandatory disability studies on nurse and teacher education students' attitudes toward people with disabilities

Fay Hickson, Australian Catholic University and Ian Smith, University of Sydney, Australia

This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal study investigating attitude formation and change toward people with disabilities in a sample of Australian undergraduate nurse and teacher education students. Major variables predicted to account for changes in student attitudes, as well as outcomes of the mandatory disability unit on students, effects of different forms of contact with people with disabilities on resultant attitudes, and outcomes of the mandatory disability unit on students' future career and postgraduate study choices are reported in the paper. Although the main focus of the study was not comparative, different outcomes for nurse and teacher education students were evident. While positive attitude change in teaching students across the three years of university training demonstrates the success of mandatory special education units, nursing students' more negative attitudes after completion of the mandatory unit challenge the common assumption that positive attitude change is always an outcome of mandatory disability study. The ramifications of these findings for policy and curriculum development are discussed, particularly the preparation and support of students across the practicum experience.

Unexpected outcomes: Collaborative research with schools, universities and government agencies

Susan Hill and Gillian Potter, University of South Australia, and Barbara Hickling, Department of Education and Children's Services, South Australia

Collaborative research is made complex with competing agendas, different reward structures and work practices and these can lead to unexpected outcomes. In a project to examine 'Whole school approaches to early assistance in early literacy', University researchers, project officers and teachers worked in teams in a multi layered research collaboration. There were different forms of collaboration between teachers-researchers and teachers -project officers. The different forms of collaborations: comfortable, structured, critical and creative were raised for discussion.

This presentation will outline the collaborative research design and describe competing research agendas. Questions will be raised about different models of calibration exemplified in the research teams; school based teams, project officers teams and university teams. The presentation will explore the role of collaboration in teachers rethinking social and cultural influences on their own learning and children's experiences in early literacy.

The presentation will conclude with a description of unexpected outcomes to do with rethinking school structures arid work organisation. Issues in collaborative inter-organistional research such as maintaining a critical path through the research, balancing different work cultures and styles, reconciling different agendas and expected outcomes will discussed.

Plan Do Review Conclude: Making field experience meaningful for habilitation students

Vivienne Hill and Jacquie Mather, Australian Catholic University, Australia

Habilitation courses are professionally oriented and aim to prepare students to work in an educative capacity with people with disabilities anywhere and everywhere in the community. For example, students may be employed as social educators, workplace trainers, in advocacy and policy positions, as residential workers, job coaches, special early educators; recreation and leisure programmers, training officers or as government and non-government disability service agency managers.

Evaluation by the stakeholders (the organisations: including people with disabilities, service managers and staff; the students; and the university teachers) of the field experience component of bachelor and diploma in Habilitation courses resulted in series of cultural shifts involving changes to mindsets and processes, from a 'structured prescribed outcomes' approach to a 'structured self-owned' one incorporating adult learning principles such as negotiation of learning outcomes, self-directedness, ownership, self assessment and peer review.

An experiential model inspired by Mumford (1991) has been implemented to structure an approach which has been informed by an action research process. This research commenced in 1994 and is currently in it's third stage of implementation and review.

This paper discusses the rationale, the research methodology, the results, and implications for the Habilitation program, and focuses on the establishing of professionalism in the field of disability service provision.

HINEA96.324

Environments that empower children's thinking

Alison Hine and Linda Newman, University of Western Sydney Nepean, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 16 Culture, diversity and learning: The contextualisation of young children's thinking and problem-solving.

Uses of NUDIST software in educational research: The literature, the hard questions and some specific research applications

Allyson Holbrook and Lyndon Butcher, The University of Newcastle, Australia

This paper explores the ways NUDIST software is being used in different educational research contexts. It includes a review of the literature pertaining to NUDIST use in particular, and qualitative software use generally. It then focuses in on the hard questions that emerge with respect to the employment of such software, especially its role in shaping qualitative research designs. In addition the implications of such software use for validity are discussed within the context of the 'validity debates' in qualitative research. Finally, some specific research applications are examined. Both researchers are engaged in very different research projects, one involving hundreds of oral history transcripts and historical documents, and the other involving extensive observational data based on one year's observations of one class in each of two schools. In both cases NUDIST is being used to analyse the data. Illustrative examples from their experience are employed as a means to explore and address the issues identified in the literature.

HOLLL96.065

The construction and exploration of identity within a bilingual immersion program

Lloyd Holliday and Howard Nicholas, La Trobe University, Australia

Given interest in SE-Asian countries in establishing some form of bilingual immersion programs this paper briefly presents an overview of various options for setting up immersion programs and then describes research undertaken at a school in Australia which conducts a two year bilingual immersion program in Hebrew at secondary level.

The aim of this research was not to review the academic success or failure of the immersion program but to examine the social and psychological consequences of participation in the program and its impact on the wider school community. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with teachers and students. The sample included both subjects who were involved in the program and subjects who did not participate in the program, but were part of the same school community.

The research revealed that there were a great variety of opinions about the purpose and the social impact of the program on both the students participating in the program and the wider school community. The various ways in which the subjects felt the program contributed towards the construction of the social-cultural identity of the participants was a particularly interesting feature of the findings which has relevance to the potential affect of immersion programs in cross-cultural situations.

What makes reading comprehension test items difficult? An exploratory analysis

Ho Wah Kam, Lim Tock Keng and Patricia Wong

This paper reports on a sub-study based on a bank of test items developed and calibrated for the computerized adaptive reading test for primary and secondary students in Singapore schools. In the main study (as reported in various papers by Lim Tock Keng et al, 1994, 1995), a bank of multiple-choice test items constructed for primary 3 and 5 and secondary 1 and 3 students was found to contain a relatively large number of test items that were quite difficult for these students. While generally it was feasible to guess the (rather obvious) reasons for the very easy items, it was thought necessary to check empirically on the factors that contribute to item difficulty. This sub-study attempts to answer directly the research question (What makes test items in reading comprehension difficult?) in relation to the items developed for the primary students. This is done empirically from the perspectives of the linguistic features of the item texts, propositional analysis, decision processing, and the cognitive demands of the test items. The paper will be in five parts, namely, (a) a brief discussion of the cognitive model of text processing that underpins this exploratory analysis and the idea of text difficulty, (b) the operationalisation of the variables, (c) the statistical findings, (d) the sources of difficulty in English reading comprehension tests of the type studies, for students whose first language is not necessarily English, and (e) implications for test and materials development.

HSUIV96.468

Tertiary students as readers: Patterns in academic and recreational reading

Victoria Y. Hsui and Koay Phong Lee, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Educators in tertiary institutions in Singapore have expressed concern that tertiary students do not regularly read professional journals and also do not habitually read for recreational purposes. Various reasons have been suggested for this perception, including lack of time and unavailability of reading materials. This study will examine these concerns by reference to the following questions: To what extent are these perceptions accurate representations of actual reading tendencies of tertiary students? What are the primary reasons influencing the reading habits of tertiary students?

The findings are based on a survey of reading attitudes and reading habits covering both academic and recreational reading. The subjects consisted of 114 B.A. and B Sc. first year students and 106 Dip.Ed.and Dip. PE first year students at the National Institute of Education. A questionnaire with both Likert-like items and open-ended questions was administered to gather information on reading preferences, attitudes, and reasons for reading tendencies.

Preliminary results suggest that significant variations exist between academic and recreational reading, with a much stronger bias in favor of the latter. For academic reading, the pattern is that the subjects read primarily to complete written assignments and hardly ever read beyond set texts. Reasons influencing both academic and recreational reading includes time constraints, degree of interest in content, availability of materials, and comprehension (including vocabulary) problems.

This study has strong implications for the design of coursework and materials in tertiary institutions. These will be discussed at the conference.

Enactment of the Expert: Psychodynamic pedagogy and the role of drama as a learning medium

John Hughes, The University of Sydney, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 20 Psychodynamic pedagogy.

Discourse, ideology and education policy: Methodological issues and problems

Daphne Irvine, Deakin University, Australia

This paper examines the theme of 'building new partnerships' from the perspective of policy research methodology in relation to the 1994 New South Wales 'English K-6' Syllabus. It explores the methodological issues and problems that have arisen during the writer's current research into education policy formation in New South Wales. Discussion centers on an attempt to bring together recent poststructural work in the policy/discourse area and a critical perspective on the research. While 'discourse analysis' and 'ideology critique' are often perceived as contrasting and conflicting paradigms, this study, to date, strongly suggests that such a combination may be a useful explanatory device in the area of policy research. Implicit in this discussion is the need to consider questions of power and politics in education policy formation, within an integrated view of the 'policy cycle'/'state control' debate.

Introducing new technologies into school administrations

Lindy Isdale, Central Queensland University, Australia

Most Australian States and Territories have introduced computer aided systems of school administration; Queensland is one of the last remaining to institute this sort of technology for school administrations. This paper reports on an intensive qualitative study of two large provincial primary schools during their initial implementation of the Queensland Department of Education's School Management System (SMS). It analyses the new work demands which arise and how these are assimilated into an amalgam of old and new work practices. As old and newer technologies meet, specific new work dynamics arise between and among school administrative staff, school management and school teaching staff . Changing allegiances between school management and administration staff have surfaced, for example, with regard to accessing and reporting information about schools and students. User priorities, user status and resourcing the management of information are other issues identified in the study which impact on power relations.

Despite a discourse claiming the new technology as merely a hi-tech version of existing practice, the study found that, far from being an adjunct to school administration systems, SMS introduces both qualitatively and substantively different forms of administrative work which have major implications for the shape of school administrative work in the future.

Early school leaving from primary schools in Bangladesh

S Aminul Islam, Dhaka University, Bangladesh, and Edward Booth, University of Wollongong, Australia.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 24, "It's not that children aren't interested in learning": Early school leaving, school failure and strategies for addressing inequalities in schooling.

IZARJ96.263

Assessing investigative tasks interpreting rating scale data

Lua Seu Kea, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore and John Izard, Australian Council for Educational Research, Australia

Projects and investigations are often promoted as more comprehensive, valid (authentic} and meaningful tasks and therefore better approaches to assessment of learning because candidate skills have to be integrated in a meaningful whole. Projects and investigations require valid assessment strategies just as much as traditional indicators of learning, but the complexity of the tasks, the fact that different candidates often do different projects, and the diversity of examiners, lead to potentially unreliable (and therefore invalid) assessments. Capricious assessment practices fail to give candidates due credit for their efforts, make it difficult for students to be consistent in evaluating their own work, and discredit the institution issuing such assessments.

No single assessment method is capable of providing evidence about the full range of achievement. This paper reviews the problems faced in devising better assessments to monitor learning, and provides practical suggestions for meeting these problems. The design of some assessments, the development of assessment skills, and methods of describing progress are essential requirements for both teacher/lecturer and the students. The assessments need -to have curriculum relevance, be practical and fair, and provide useful information for further learning. The assessment strategy and the approach to analysis of assessment data presented in this paper are applicable to traditional examinations, project and investigative reports, presentations and posters, judgements of performance and constructed products, and observations (ratings) of participation, collaborative group work and ingenuity. The paper describes analyses of several sets of lecturer ratings of student work involving problem- solving mathematics assignments. It concludes with constructive advice on the improvement of the rating process.

Growing Change: A second review of a project to introduce educational technological approaches to the provision of higher education both on and off campus at Swinburne University of Technology

Peter Jeffery, Swinburne University of Technology

The Multi-Modal Learning Project commenced in 1992 at Mooroolbark Campus of Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria, Australia as a pilot project with one degree for introduction of educational technological approaches to provision of degree courses. This paper reports on the implementation of Multi-Modal Learning for a complete campus [Swinburne at Lilydale] for six degree courses in 1996. The paper is the second in a series documenting Swinburne's approach to and progress in selectively changing provision of higher education for its students.

The pilot project introduced strategies and facilities to permit use of teaching and learning techniques similar to those more frequently used by distance education, in addition to enhanced traditional procedures.

Techniques and facilities used include:

• student use of personal portable [laptop] computers in any location on or off campus;

JENKJ96.293

Projecting to 1997 - what still needs to be done? actions and ongoing research

Joan Jenkins and Chris Woods, State Department of Education Queensland, Bob Elliott, Christine Proudford and Ian Macpherson, Queensland University of Technology, and Stephen Kemmis, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 1, Theorising curriculum leadership for effective learning and teaching: Reporting progress in an ARC collaborative research project.

The Queensland Consortium for Professional Development in Education: Building partnerships towards a learning community

Rhondel Johannessen, Board of Teacher Registration, Queensland, Australia

Established in 1993, the Queensland Consortium for Professional Development in Education is an initiative of the Board of Teacher Registration (Queensland). The Consortium brings together a range of educational groups - including professional associations, unions, employers and higher education institutions - into what may be a unique partnership aimed at providing better information to teachers and other members of the education community across Queensland about quality professional development. The establishment of the Consortium originates from a detailed research project which was initiated following teacher concern about locating information on professional development or seeking to have appropriate professional development activities accredited towards degree courses. Since its inception, the Consortium has achieved much. However, its implementation has not been as full as intended by the research on which it was founded.

This paper documents the history of the Consortium and considers the research process, outcomes and recommendations which led to its establishment. This is followed by an examination of the research as manifested in the operation of the Consortium over its first two and a half year period and its resulting successes, failures and dilemmas. Finally, questions are raised concerning the future of the Consortium and other similar partnerships in education.

A comparative analysis of discipline in South Australian schools in 1990 and 1995

Murray Oswald, Bruce Johnson and Kym Adey, University of South Australia, Australia

In 1989, the Education Department of South Australia implemented a new policy on school discipline. Ten months later, in mid 1990, a major study of teachers' views on discipline was undertaken by the authors. This study was replicated five years later in South Australian Government schools. In this paper, comparisons are made between the responses of teachers in both studies. Results reveal that teachers in both the 1990 and 1995 studies reported that many minor discipline problems occurred daily in their classes. However, teachers in the 1995 study reported a 50% lower rate of 'repeat misbehaviours' during the day, suggesting that new behaviour management strategies that focus on greater student accountability may reduce repeated misbehaviour. These findings need to be interpreted within a wider context as other changes to schools, teachers and students during the intervening five years (eg, increased forced teacher mobility, increase in class sizes, worsening industrial climate, school restructuring, etc.) compound simple explanations. Both studies revealed the complexity of school discipline issues in South Australian schools.

The development of self-concept in young children: Preschoolers' views of their competence and acceptance

Christine Johnston, University of Sydney, Australia

This presentation will examine the development of self-concept in young children with a disability. Researchers, such as Guralnick, argue that we have, for too long, concentrated on the cognitive and motor domain and not paid enough attention to other areas such as social competence in working with young children with disabilities. Development of self-concept is another area which is deserving of greater emphasis since it has such a close link with behaviour and performance.

The paper will report on a research study of approximately 100 preschoolers with and without disabilities which has explored preschoolers' perceptions of their level of competence and social acceptance and how this affects their self-esteem. Children's understanding of their own and others' disabilities were also studied and related to their views of self. Interviews with parents and the assessments of preschool teachers were used to shed further light on the children's perceptions of themselves.

Emphasis will be given to the implications of the findings for models of self-concept. In particular, the relationships among the constructs of self-concept, self-image, self-esteem and self-worth will be examined in the light of the data gathered. Finally, attention will focus on the application of the findings to our understanding of the development of positive self-esteem and self-worth.

JOHND96.192

The effect of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder on sibling relationships

Deborah Johnson,University of Sydney, Australia

A child with a mental of physical disability can create various difficulties within a family, including heightened stress (Dyson, 1993; Gamble and Woulbroun, 1989), parental acceptance of the disability (Seligman, 1989), marital distress (Lobarto, 1988), economic concerns (Gallagher, Beckman, Cross, 1983), and sibling frustration (Farber, 1859; 1960; Grosman, 1972). Considerations such as number, age and gender of other children within the family (Breslau, 1972; Gath, 1974), severity of disability (Farber, 1960, 1963, 1969) and the self concept of unaffected siblings also contribute to the harmony within the family.

The definition of the term "disability" by the World Health Organisation (Ashman & Elkins, 1994) and the inclusion of ADHD in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders II, III, and IV, gives credence to the assertion that ADHD can be categorised as a disability and that families living with ADHD children may display similar psychological symptoms to those displayed in families of other disability groups. The research question arising from this review suggests such familial symptoms, couples with constant disruptive conduct from an ADHD sibling, may have an effect on sibling relationships.

In order to establish whether such relationships engendered similar responses in siblings of ADHD children to that of other disability groups, an exploratory study was undertaken on thirteen siblings related to ADHD children. Participants represented a cross-section of gender, age and birth order, yet came from similar geographic locations. Relationships between siblings were investigated, using a combination of structured and semi-structured questions in an interview situation. The results of the exploratory study are currently being analysed in order to establish whether, in fact, siblings of ADHD children are confronted with similar difficulties to that of other disability groups, and furthermore, to establish whether these difficulties create educational ramifications.

Building new community partnerships in research

Kristin Johnson, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, Australia

There is a considerable body of educational literature which establishes the importance of school and community partnership. This literature provides clear evidence of the benefits of community partnerships in teaching and learning. The benefits of developing community partnerships in research are equally important.

This paper will raise some of the issues, costs and benefits involved in initiating and developing partnerships with the community in the area of research. These will be explored using two recent research projects both involving members of the community. In the first of these research projects, The Poor and Catholic Schools (Johnston and Chesterton 1994), the aim was to identify current perceptions, strategies, practices, capacities and issues in relation to the poor and NSW Catholic schools as a base for future action in this area.

In the second research project Chesterton and Johnston (1995) reviewed the provision for students with special needs in a large rural region in NSW. The aim of the review was to examine the current provisions in the region for the education of students with special needs, and to recommend revised structures and strategies to provide an adequate and effective service in this regard.

In discussing these projects the paper highlights the importance of collaborative ventures in educational research.

Evaluation and the democratic alternative: Problems of the past and partnerships for the future

Scott John and Patrick Danaher, Central Queensland University, Australia

As accountability concerns direct the intent of curriculum evaluation in the 1990s, it is imperative for advocates of democratically-oriented evaluations to reflect critically on the acceptance of their theories and practice by the broader educational community.

This paper analyses the findings of the first stage of a more substantial study, which is directed towards the development and analysis of an evaluative approach that encompasses the democratic ideals of Robert Stake (1976) and Barry MacDonald ( 1976). The airn of the initial stage of the project was to review a broad range of evaluation literature and identify the past and current status of 'alternative' curriculum evaluations in Britain, the United States and Australia. The review highlights the impact of historical and cultural precedents, the inadequacy of existing methodological applications and the assumptions of recent critical and constructivist developments. These influences will be analysed in terms of their contribution to the prevailing perceptions of democratically-oriented evaluations. The paper will conclude with a brief description of stage two of the project; the ratification and qualification of these influences through a series of in-depth interviews with a number of leading Australian curriculum researchers.

Critical success factors in international distance education

Alan Jolliffee

Distance education is often seen as an answer to many of the problems of education because it has the potential to reach a wide audience at a relative low cost. There are many distance education courses conducted in Singapore, but how effective are they for their target audience. Most of the distance education courses offered in Singapore originate from other countries; questions arise as to how they are adapted to meet the different cultural, physical, political and academic environment of Singapore and how effective they are for their students. This paper outlines the research conducted at Singapore Polytechnic on the Sheffield University Master of Education, which has been conducted for a number of years at Singapore Polytechnic. A unique feature of the course is the presence of an on-site.tutor who gives tutorials and provides academic support for the staff throughout the course. A survey of the staff who are studying the Sheffield Masters was conducted to determine factors which were critical for the success of the course. The paper also discusses the problems students encountered during the course and some recommendations for overcoming them.

Developing an understanding of seeing : A comparison of Singaporean and Tasmanian students

B.L. Jones, T. Sprod, K.F. Collis and J.M. Watson, University of Tasmania, Australia

A model for the development of an understanding of how we see has been proposed on the basis of a questionnaire and interview study of a cross-section of Tasmanian school students. The model, based on the SOLO model of cognitive development (Collis & Biggs, 1991), involves the building of connections between the eye, light and the object seen in the Ikonic and Concrete Symbolic modes of cognitive functioning.

In order to test the model, the questionnaire was administered to 116 primary and secondary school students in Singapore. This paper reports some details of how the model was supported in its most important respects. The few discrepancies might be explained in terms of environmental, linguistic and/or teaching factors.

Ph.D. examiner reports: Discrepant readings, conflicting discourses

Barbara Kamler, Deakin University, and Terry Threadgold, Monash University, Australia

We have observed over the past twelve months an increasing tendency for examiner's reports on higher degree theses to award radically different and often incompatible results to the same thesis. The problem is not entirely new but it does seem to be occurring more frequently. In this paper we attempt to make sense of some of the reasons for these incompatible readings, including the changing nature of the postgraduate population, the breakdown in divisions between disciplines and the conflicting discourses of economic rationalism and quality assurance on the one hand and British transmission models and liberal humanism on the other. We make reference to the examination of theses in different disciplines at different universities to demonstrate the impossibility of objective assessment practices and unmotivated readings. We suggest the need for a different set of criteria located within a better theorised postgraduate pedagogy.

KEONL96.627

An analytical study on the use of Cooperative Learning (CL) strategies in technical and non-technical subjects in higher education

Lua Eng Keong, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore

Cooperative learning has been viewed upon favourably as an active learning strategy and has been endorsed by an increasing number of educators in schools and tertiary institutions. This is used with the hope that it would increase students' achievements, enhance students' learning and motivation and create positive peer relationships between students. Cooperative learning is a planned instructional use of small groups to enable students to work together to maximise each other's learning. This is a very helpful strategy and some have witnessed its success in the application process.

This paper is written to analyse and study the use of cooperative learning strategies in technical and non-technical subjects in higher education. Custom-designed cooperative learning strategies are formulated for implementation in technical and non-technical subjects to achieve active learning's objectives. Research was done through the reading of related literature on application of cooperative learning strategies in higher education. Analytical study was done through the implementation of these cooperative learning strategies in both subjects of different natures, cooperative learning assessment and evaluation system, discussions on its validity and reliability of the assessment system, personal observations, informal interviews, survey feedbacks and analysis. Guidelines to resolve problems which arose from the use of cooperative learning and teaching strategies in technical and non-technical subjects are also suggested in this analytical study.

Collaborative action research

Khairi Izwan Abdullah, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Arfah Hashim, Sultan Ibrahim Secondary (Girls) School, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

The words "Action Research" could be rather threatening to teachers who have neither the training nor time to undertake research on their own. This paper questions the wisdom of throwing teachers into the deep-end by asking them to carry out action research on their own. The paper proposes collaborative action research as a means of support for teachers interested in understanding their classroom.

"Collaborative Action Research" however, is used not in the sense of two colleagues providing mutual support while carrying out the research collaboratively. Such an approach is no less threatening than an individual teacher undertaking research on his/her own. The term "collaborative" is used here to describe research carried out by a teacher but with the assistance of someone who is involved in the research not as a researcher, but as a "resource person" who could provide, but does not impose, suggestions and directions for the researcher. Such collaboration immediately suggests problems associated with unequal partnership, with the teacher seen as a novice seeking help from the collaborator, the "expert".

This paper describes an attempt at collaborative action research between two language instructors, detailing the steps they went through while avoiding the problems of unequal partnership. It argues that the term "collaborative" suggests different but not unequal roles for the researcher and the collaborator and explains the different roles expected of both parties in the endeavour.

KHOOA96.547

Delinquents' social concerns, values and attributions of guilt: A social psychological perspective

Angeline Khoo, National Institute of Education, Singapore

This paper examines delinquency from a social psychological perspective. Based on a study of a sample of students in Singapore, it provides verification of Cohen's (1955) subcultural theory of delinquency and the "drift" theory of Sykes and Matza (1957), as well as Emler and Reicher's (1995) theory of delinquency as reputation management. Drawing also from the research of Ellemers (1993), it addresses the issue of how delinquents differ from non delinquents in terms of their perception of social status in the school, their reputation concerns, their values and attribution of guilt.

KIDML96.327

Research: Who reaps the benefits?

Lynn Kidman, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, and Teresa Carlson, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

This presentation, based on health and physical education research, will present a study of the language and the apparent attitudes that have emerged with the advent of qualitative forms of research. Many academics have adopted a qualitative approach in their search for new knowledge, with the intent of making an impact on current practice in the "real" world. Our document analysis, however, suggests that a developing language has emerged that may prevent this process from occurring effectively. While it is important to see all parts of our field procuring high credibility by supplying rigorous research, we need to be careful about creating and maintaining a tiered profession where research grants and academic publications determine individual credibility. Researchers should consider if the needs of the practitioners are being met. The purpose of this presentation is to raise concerns about the problematic nature of current language trends in publications and possible implications for practitioners.

Indonesian Postgraduate Students' Experiences andReflections of Learning.

Margaret Kiley, The University of Adelaide,Australia and J.H.F. Meyer, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Within the wider framework of a research project related to Indonesianpostgraduate students, the authors conducted a pilot study focused onIndonesian students' learning. The study, in December 1995, involved 105students at the University of Indonesia who completed Meyer's 88 item'experiences of learning' inventory.

Initial analyses of data from this pilot study indicated that at leastone main group of Indonesian students surveyed demonstrated a variationin learning behaviour at a construct level. These findings, are beingfurther investigated in a second pilot study in November 1996. It isanticipated that the application of a new inventory, the Reflections onLearning Inventory (RoLI) currently being developed by Meyer andBoulton-Lewis(1997) will provide further insights and explanations willbe provided regarding the results from the first pilot study. At the timeof writing the work on the second study is in progress and results willbe made available at the conference.

The findings of the first study were reported in a paper presented at theHERDSA annual conference, Different Approaches: Theory and Practice inHigher Education held in July 1996. The HERDSA paper forms the basis forthe reporting of the first study in this paper.

Students' perceptions and preferences for learning

Chen Swee Eng and Arthur Kingsland, The University of Newcastle, Australia

The architecture and construction management (building) courses at the University of Newcastle, Australia, use a non-conventional integrated course structure and a problem-based learning approach. Since 1989, an on-going study has been conducted of students' perceptions of their learning environment at the second and final year stages of the course. Evaluation and monitoring of students' learning environments generates important feedback to the faculty and is essential in monitoring and managing quality in education. This is particularly important for non-conventional educational contexts where significant but unnoticed changes may occur over a period of time undermining the original intentions of the approach.

Evaluation of the students' learning environment based on students' perceptions provides valid inferences of "theories-in-use" and therefore useful feedback for formative purposes. Students' perceptions also reflect their attitudes and levels of satisfaction, and can be used for summative evaluation of their learning environments.

In this study, students' perceptions of their learning environment and their preferences were measured along the two dimensions of Teacher/Learner-centredness and Discipline/Problem-centredness. The "gaps" between the perceptions and preferences measures give an indication of the students' level of satisfaction. The paper reports six years of results in this on-going study examining the transitional effects of the course on students. It also discusses how this approach may be used to monitor changes in the learning environment.

Adding value to schooling: The use of assessment criteria

Clive B. Kings and Rosalind Y. Mau, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Self-motivation has greater impact on student learning compared to the home and school. The various means of enhancing self-motivation of individual students merit investigation. One means of increasing self-motivation is by giving students clear benchmarks or criteria by which they can judge their own performance in assessment tasks. Sometimes these criteria refer to qualities and other times to specific standards that should be achieved when a task is assessed. This presentation is of a case study which illustrates the usefulness of assessment criteria on individual performance. The underlying assumption of this case study is that if assessment criteria are embodied in the planning of learning, students can be guided on how to improve their performance.

Workshop on the use of multimedia in the professional development of academic staff

Clive Kings, Educational Development Consultant, and Lim Chinn Hwa, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore

At Ngee Ann Polytechnic the Professional Development In Educational - Basic Course has been developed for all new academic staff. It comprises five 12-hour modules: Introduction to Student Learning, Teaching and Learning Strategies, Planning Learning, Assessing Student Performance and Module Design. The Basic Course provides new staff with the skills to help them facilitate student learning in their respective disciplines.

This workshop focuses on Introduction to Student Learning. It provides the opportunity for participants to:

• share the educational principles underpinning the unit;

Promoting higher cognitive level talk during collaborative learning

Leonard King and Kevin Barry, Edith Cowan University, and Scott Zehnder, Girrawheen Primary School, Australia

The paper reports a study that focussed on how teachers can promote higher cognitive level student talk during small group learning. From earlier studies we have ascertained teacher behaviours before, during, and following small group work that were associated with higher cognitive level student talk. In the case study of this research the teacher used these teacher behaviours, taught problem-solving strategies to the students, and also urged the use of a heuristic to guide the process of student discussion across seven observation lessons. Results indicated that the quantity and quality of task-related talk by students varied across groups, and varied in terms of the kind of problem solving tasks set. Yet, overall, there was a high frequency of higher cognitive level talk even though the explicit use of the heuristic by student groups was incidental and limited. The study found a useful link between the teacher's cognitive intent for each lesson, the conditions set for each of the lessons (nature of problem-solving group tasks, teacher behaviours, use of an heuristic, and group composition), and the quality of student discussion during small group work.

KIRKD96.034

An introduction to a Professional Development Kit for Health and Physical Education

David Kirk, The University of Queensland, Australia

Funded by the National Professional Development Program in 1994, 1995 and 1996, a team of curriculum developers have developed, implemented and assessed a workplace focused professional development model based on the Health and Physical Education Statement and Profile. The outcome of this process has been the production of a Professional Development Kit for Health and Physical Education. These poster sessions provide an introduction to the kit for teacher educators and professional development specialists. Attendees at all three sessions will be mailed, on request, a free copy of the kit following the conference.

Session 1: An overview of the model of professional development. Introduction to the Health and Physical Education Professional Development Kit: Modules 1 and 2.

Session 2: The familiarisation phase: Modules 3 and 4.

Session 3: The development phase: Modules 5, 6 and 7.

Developing students' conceptions of learning and teaching

Denise Kirkpatrick, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

This paper provides an overview of a new Education Studies unit within the undergraduate primary teacher education program at Edith Cowan University. In response to concerns that teacher education programs commonly result in students replicating the teaching behaviours they have experienced themselves, this unit aimed to change students' conceptions of teaching and learning. The Bachelor of Arts (Education) degree course has no school based component in the first year so the unit focused on using students' personal experiences as a learner as the basis for exploring and challenging their views of learning and teaching. Based on constructivist principles the unit sought to encourage students to reflect on their own experiences and develop alterative views of learning and teaching. The changes in students' conceptions of learning and teaching over the course of the semester will be discussed.

KIRKD96.295

Educational reform, physical culture and the crisis of legitimation in physical education

David Kirk, University of Queensland, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 27, Curriculum development and reform in Physical Education: International issues.

Psychodynamic pedagogy - A celebration of learning

Janine Kitson, The University of Sydney, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 20 Psychodynamic pedagogy.

KLEIM96.156

Critical reflection in pre-service teacher education: Towards transformation?

Mary Klein, James Cook University of North Queensland, Cairns ,Australia

What would it mean for teacher education were we to recognise the importance of knowledge as discursively constructed? That is, to recognise that as pre-service teachers engage in activities focussing on theoretical and professional issues they are simultaneously positioned as powerful or not within teacher education's constituent discourses. And what does this positioning mean for future pedagogical practice(s) of these students, and educational and social transformation?

After corporate federalism: Breaking national educational partnerships?

John Knight, The University of Queensland, Australia

The paper will address some of the major implications of the defeat of the Keating federal Labor government by the Liberal/National Party coalition for national educational policies and planning. It will argue that the coalition government lacks an expansive national vision and has little commitment to providing a federal leadership role in education. Rather the coalition's election commitment to reduce the deficit by $4 billion in 1996 and again in 1997 without raising taxes is seen to be its driving force. The likely consequence is the reduction or elimination of tied grants (eg, for health and education, for social justice or equity concerns and so on) to the States without a corresponding increase in their general grant, and the reduction or elimination of 'overlap' in the provision of services (eg, health and education) between the two levels of government. In consequence, States may be forced to increase their taxes or even to introduce their own Goods and Services Tax. While these developments may significantly reduce the vertical fiscal imbalance between the two tiers, the results in poorer provision of public educational services, increasing parochialism between states, elimination of special programs for minority groups, and the loss of national educational partnerships are to be deplored. The paper will be updated in the light of the 1996 budget and subsequent developments before presentation.

Do Singapore pupils apply common sense knowledge in solving realistic mathematics problems?

Koay Phong Lee and Foong Pui Yee, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This study examined the extent pupils in Singapore activated their common sense knowledge in solving mathematics word problems. The problem situations were familiar real world events such as inviting number of friends to a birthday party; estimating people's age, time for running a distance and distance between two locations; filling flask of diminishing cross-section; tying pieces of rope together and listing animal names over a period of time. The subjects were 304 Secondary One and Secondary Two pupils of eight neighbourhood schools studying in either the Normal Stream or the Express Stream. The analyses of the pupils' responses to the realistic word problems indicate that the majority of the pupils do not apply their common sense knowledge in solving these problems and their ability to apply their common sense knowledge in solving a problem depends on the problem situation. In addition, attainment in mathematics does not seem to be related to the ability to activate common sense knowledge while solving realistic word problems. Some practical implications of the finding will be discussed.

Internet for information and resources on chemistry and physics

Thiam-Seng Koh and Horn-Mun Cheah, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

The huge amount of information and resources available on the Internet via the World Wide Web (WWW) makes the searching of a desired item of information a daunting task. Finding a suitable point to start the search can prove to be a bewildering experience for the Internet novice.

This presentation will describe the origin and the development of the ChemistryWeb (http://www.nie.ac.sg:8000/~wwwchem/index.htmlx) and the PhysicsWeb (http://www.nie.ac.sg:8000/~wwwphys/index.htmlx); the WWW home pages of the Division of Chemistry and Division of Physics respectively at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. These home pages are intended as user friendly gateways to accessing the Internet for information and resources on chemistry and physics from Singapore. The structure of the home pages and the guiding principles behind its development will be highlighted. These will include the intended audience and the levels of information available. The home pages serve not only to provide information about the division's teaching and research programmes but, more importantly, to provide an organised structure of information and resources related to Chemistry and Physics on the Internet for research and teaching. The presentation will conclude with some discussion on the problems of developing and maintaining the WW Web pages such as the currency of WWW pages and the updating frequency.

A teacher's perspective of the gifted education program in Singapore

Koh, Wee Lih and Sitsofe E. Anku

Through the provision of an enriched curriculum, the Gifted Education Program (GEP) in Singapore seeks to meet the needs of pupils who are intellectually gifted. Pupils are selected at the end of Primary 3 based on their language, numeric, and general abilities. Having been involved with these pupils for over six months, we have identified good time management skills, as one of the several characteristics that these pupils possess. We would like to highlight some of the students work and speculate on some of the characteristics. Also, we would like to share our impressions of the orientation and preparation of new Gifted Education teachers in Singapore.

Responding to students with Attention Deficit Disorder in the regular classroom

Deslea Konza, University of Wollongong, Australia

Although there is continuing debate worldwide concerning the validity of the categories of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), students in Australian classrooms with a diagnosis of ADD or ADHD are experiencing increasing academic, social and emotional difficulties and in many cases, greatly affecting the learning of their peers.

This paper reports on case study research into fourteen primary (elementary) students who have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. The research involved assessment of their progress in a range of areas; parent, teacher, peer and student interviews; and many hours of classroom observations. Individual student progress was monitored and the conditions under which these students were most successful were examined. In the context of individual case histories, this paper will report on those teaching and management strategies which best assisted these students in developing self management skills, and maximising their personal and academic achievement. The need for close collaboration between teachers, parents and the relevant medical personnel who are involved in the management of these children, will be highlighted.

Restructuring universities: Translucent elements

Anthony J Koop, Macquarie University, Australia

Motivations driving the restructuring of universities tend to be grounded in either politics or economics. In recent examples of university restructuring, motivating forces appear to be more often externally than internally initiated. Whether the motivation for restructuring is economic, political or both, whether initiated internally or externally, the impact of any restructure goes far beyond the economic and political. Bolman and Deal (1991) in their book Reframing Organizations present four frames or windows through which we can gain different perspectives of the ways universities function. These frames are labelled structural, human resource, political and symbolic. The purpose of this paper is to apply this theory to exemplify elements of restructuring, such as conflict, ambiguity and uncertainty, that frequently lie partially hidden, unrecognised and unchallenged in the change process. The paper further explores ways such elements may influence the ultimate impact of restructuring on the quality and nature of educational services provided by universities.

Assessment and learning: What undergraduate students think

Gabrielle Koop, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, Australia

This paper examines undergraduate students' perceptions of learning and of assessment and the impact of assessment on their learning. At present, the theory and the practice of assessment are undergoing a paradigm shift from a psychometric tradition of assessment to a broader, educational model. What is being advocated is an analytical approach to assessment which includes considerations of the impact and effects of assessment on teaching and on learning. This shift acknowledges that the different aspects of the curriculum cannot be seen as isolated dimensions of a whole but need to be developed in an integrated fashion with the effects of each dimension being anticipated and being used in the learning process.

Final year undergraduate students across the disciplines of Education, Engineering and Nursing and Health Studies were interviewed to develop an understanding of the interplay between their perceptions of learning and of the outcomes of the teaching-learning process. This paper reports on some of the outcomes and suggests ways that university teachers can manipulate the assessment process so as to maximise learning.

Computerised Achievement Profiling Test

Kwan Wai Keng and Yap Ah Keng, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore

The Computerised Achievement Profiling Test is developed to study the level of mathematics skills of "O" Level students who are enrolled into the Engineering Diploma courses. The students are requested to take a pre-test in multiple-choice form, at the beginning of their first year mathematics course, and a similar post-test just before they sit for their final written examination. The two tests are conducted in networking PC laboratory. Students are given 30 questions randomly selected by computer from a pool of 173 items. This paper reports on how the classical method is applied to analyse the two multiple-choice tests and one written examination. The result can be used to identify the retention skills, concepts, procedures expected for mastery. The performance of students progress from pre-test, post-test, to examination, indicated that they have acquired new skills in mathematics, for their engineering studies.

World institutions, world dispositions

James Ladwig, The University of Newcastle, Australia

This paper presents a synthetic analysis of the relationship between the "world-culture system", nation-states, and subjectivity, while focusing on education as a prime site of analysis. Drawing on a wide array of currently disparate bodies of scholarly literature, the paper argues for an understanding of subjectivity based on constellations of cultural dispositions and a focus on institutions within global and national analyses.

Points of analytical departure for this paper include: (a) arguments about the possibility of developing anti-racist, feminist, or so-called multicultural curriculum committed to various celebratory notions of "cultural difference," (b) Weberian analyses of schooling as culturally entrenched within the Modernist iron-cage, (c) Bourdieu's analysis of education as producing cultural differentiations/distinctions, (d) post-colonial analyses of hybridity and the ever-contested amalgamations constructed in the interactions with colonial cultures, (e) cross-national analyses of the processes of cultural difference, (f) analyses of world-systems theory, (g) analyses of education and curriculum as one institution of the world-culture system, (h) analyses of "fast capitalism" and its relation to current educational restructuring, and (I) post-structural analyses of multiple subjectivities.

This overall theoretical framework, which might be termed a "post-modern" recognition of the developing (modern) world-culture system, poses profound shifts in current theoretical and political debates about cultural difference, by bringing together seemingly contradictory theoretical perspectives. The paper closes with an attempt to outline some of the political and theoretical implications of the framework presented in the paper.

Application of modern test theory in item banking and test construction: Issues, applications and trends for the future

Lam, Peter, National Institute of Education

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 25, Advances in educational measurement.

How to use demonstrations to motivate pupils to learn Chemistry?

Foo Choon Lang and Tan Swee Kim, Raffles Institution, Singapore

Teacher demonstration is an important strategy to motivate students in learning Chemistry. In addition, science process skills such as observing, hypothesizing, predicting and inferring are also imparted. Some popular and simple chemistry demonstrations based on household materials will be shared with the participants in the conference.

Learning Centres: How do we implement them in lower secondary science classrooms?

Foo Choon Lang, Raffles Institution, Singapore

The concept of learning centres is based on the philosophy that every individual child is capable of assuming responsibility for his or her own learning. As a teaching strategy, its aim is to meet the varied needs and interests of pupils who learn at varying rates. It is therefore important for teachers to design appropriate learning materials and to facilitate the learning that takes place in the classroom. In the next section, the construction and the implementation of science learning centres in the classroom will also be shared in the conference.

In the last section, a small scale study of the lower secondary science learning centre was conducted. The findings of the teachers' and pupils' responses to science learning centres is also included.

LATCC96.216

The limits and possibilities of international cooperation in university staff development: The Curtin/Brawijawa experience

Timotious Hartono, University of Brawijawa, Malang, Indonesia, and Colin Latchem and Lesley H. Parker, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

This paper presents a case study of a partnership between an Australian and an Indonesian university, focused initially on a seminar/workshop aimed at developing strategies for enhancing teaching and learning at the university level. The paper provides the background to the partnership and describes the three-day seminar/workshop, which was conducted, in January 1996, at the University of Brawijawa (Unibraw). From their evaluation and reflection on this event and consideration of current international trends in higher education, the authors conclude that there are many points of shared concern between universities in developed and developing countries and that managers, staff, researchers and staff developers in these various countries have much to learn from each other. The paper discusses limitations and possibilities in relation to the development of international partnerships and collaborative activities in the area of higher education staff development.

What do we mean as by "deception" in educational research?

Eleanor Lawson, Charles Sturt University - Mitchell, Australia

Initially I survey the use of deception in research in two major education journals from the 1960s to the 1990s. In one journal the percentage of studies using deception is as high in the 1990s as it was in the 1970s, though in the other, deception has virtually ceased. The survey raised the question: "What do we mean by 'deception'", for I found it hard to decide whether some procedures were deceptive or not. Furthermore, in the debate about deception in research, researchers' conceptions of deception differ. Many researchers say, for example, that withholding any information from participants prior to consent is deceptive. Other researchers think that withholding prior to consent need not be deceptive. Some researchers, too, report uncertainty about whether a certain procedure they used was deceptive. From what bases, then, do researchers answer an ethics committee question: "Does your proposed study involve deception?" Do ethics committees, in turn, differ on what they understand by deception? Some initial data from researchers and ethics committee members are reported. Two different views of deception in research are described that align with two major conceptions of deception discussed by philosophers. These two views hold widely different implications for restriction of research on the grounds that it involves deception.

Effects of cooperative learning structures on self-esteem and classroom climate in social studies

Christine Kim-Eng Lee and Maureen Ng, National Institute of Education, and Tock-Keng Lim, NIECER, Singapore

This paper reports on a study which involves the implementation of cooperative learning in a social studies classroom. The effects of cooperative learning on the self-esteem of pupils and classroom climate were investigated. Interviews with pupils and the experimental teacher were also conducted. Results showed that there was no significant effect of cooperative learning on the self-esteem of the pupils in the experimental group. However, there was a significant effect on the Difficulty subscale of the classroom climate of the experimental group. Pupils' and teacher's interviews showed favourable attitudes among pupils towards the use of cooperative learning in social studies lessons.

Diagrammatic representation of particles of two chemical phenomena: Tertiary teachers' and preservice teachers' views

Lucille Lee Kam Wah, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Students always find difficulty in understanding how a chemical reaction takes place in a certain way. The re-allocation of atoms among reactants in a chemical reaction remains a mystery to many students. Recent research suggests that students' understanding of chemistry can be conceptually facilitated if they can see the microscopic representation of particles in a chemical reaction. Are teachers confident to teach chemistry in this way for enhancing students' understanding? What are the teachers' particulate perceptions of some chemical phenomena which are commonly taught in schools?

This paper will report on a study of two groups of teachers in their perceptions of two chemical reactions, namely, the combustion of magnesium in air and the heating of copper (II) carbonate, in terms of its diagrammatic representations of particles. One group of teachers consists of 8 University Chemistry lecturers. Another group of teachers consists of 107 preservice chemistry teachers from the National Institute of Education. The analysis of the results will be presented and the implications of the study for teaching chemistry will be addressed.

LEEM96.240

Helplessness in preschoolers: The achievement motivational behaviour patterns and efficacy of contingent self-worth

Michelle Lee, Richard Walker and Michael Bailey, University of Sydney, Australia

Learned helplessness refers to the maladaptive emotional, and cognitive effects of failure experiences. Past research (eg. Dweck & Elliot, 1983) has suggested that children under 10 years of age are invulnerable to helplessness. Recent studies by Dweck and associates (Burhans and Dweck, 1995), however, have demonstrated that preschoolers do exhibit helplessness when faced with challenging tasks. Burhans and Dweck proposed that a sense of contingent worth, not conceptions of specific traits, is fundamental to helplessness young .children. The present study had two aims: firstly to replicate the helplessness phenomenon in pre-schoolers, and secondly, to examine whether and how contingent self-worth plays a role in young children's vulnerability to helplessness.

This study involved 90 3 to 5-year old preschool children from several child-care centres. The investigation initially assessed contingent self-worth by presenting simple questions and scenarios. A puzzle adapted from Smiley and Dweck's (1994) work was then administered, followed by further measures of task choice, persistence, future success expectancies, and emotion. The results will be discussed with regard to the role of contingent self-worth in young children's vulnerability to helplessness and their helpless response. Educational implications for early achievement motivational patterns will be suggested together with directions for future research.

The Memory Ability Test: An alternative way of testing, scoring and analysis

Gad H. P. Leow, Riverside Secondary School, and Lily Y. S. Wong, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Since the first Apple computer found its way into our schools, the availability and use of the computer in education have undergone rapid changes that have a major impact on pupils, teachers, and the educational process. While the potential for direct instruction by computer is increasingly making itself felt, progress is also being made in another area where computer serves as a tool for testing.

Starting from 1993, most Singapore secondary schools are equipped with 40 or more IBM compatible computers. This opens up the possibility of testing a class of 40 pupils at the same instance.

The objective of computer-based testing (CBT) is to collect and process information to enable the teachers to obtain immediate knowledge and provide prompt feedback to their pupils. The focus of this demonstration is on the effectiveness of a computer-based Memory Ability Test. It includes the appropriate use of a number of variables such as personalized feedback, intuitive screen design, the effective utilization of color, immediate scoring, database storage, and the like.

While each of these variables is important, the interaction between computer and the testee may be one of the most important aspects of effective computer-based testing. As computer has infinite patience while the testee tries to recall what has been flashed on the screen just awhile ago, forgetting plays a smaller part than retrieval which is the variable to be measured and analysed.

Teaching and learning research methodology from interactive multimedia programs: Post graduate students' engagement with an innovative program

John Lidstone and Keith Lucas, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

In spite of increasing levels of faith in, and support for innovative teaching strategies based on highly sophisticated computer based technology such as hypermedia, which is based on the contention that Interactive Multimedia (IMM) programs have the potential to permit learners to navigate their own paths through the material and to engage the program at various levels of sophistication, little is known about the range and nature of human responses when seeking to construct meaning through interacting with such materials. This study was designed to contribute to the meagre professional literature concerning learners' engagement with IMM programs by analysing the nature and level of engagement of pairs of graduate students as they interacted with a hypermedia program that provides an introduction to qualitative research methodology. The interpretative research design of this study utilised a range of natural protocols (video and audio recordings, students' written records, transcripts of interviews and focus group discussions) to capture the 'lived' experiences of participants. Students employed various strategies to navigate the program, from haphazard to quite sophisticated searching, and both oral and written responses ranged from verbatim repetitions to prOcis and notes. Among the commonly encountered patterns of engagement with the substantive content of the program were: discussing, questioning, elaborating, qualifying, linking with prior knowledge/experience, relating to planned research and criticising aspects of the program. The majority of students in this study rated the experience to have been both enjoyable and conducive to meaningful learning.

LIETT96.616

Curriculum design of Power Engineering design module to enhance active student learning

Lie Tek Tjing

This paper presents on the development of a curriculum design of a power engineering design module to enhance active student learning. It also presents the proposed assessment and instructional strategies that support the proposed curriculum.

First, the curriculum content of the design module with regards to student learning is analysed. Second, the reflections on the current instructional strategies and assessment procedures are studied. Finally, the design of the curriculum is made using a project-based approach for the teaching of the particular design module. Using the Pyramid Model for active learning as the base, some modifications are made to reflect on the hierarchical learning that accumulates to the achieving of the design module objectives. The main focus is on the goals and objectives of the module and on the use of the instructional strategies based on Gagne's theory on conditions of learning to enhance active student learning. The current assessment practice is somehow made the situation of students' learning and understanding during lessons very difficult. It is very important how the students are being assessed and evaluated. The ways of students study and learn are very much affected by the way they are being assessed and evaluated. Thus, the new assessment method is proposed and presented in the paper.

LIMKC96.484

An integrated learning system: bridging Internet technologies and education

Lim Kin Chew and Soo Wai Man

The rapid growth of Internet for education has been staggering. Behind Internet is a collage of technologies that makes the development and sharing of educational resources a lesser hurdle. As most higher educational institutions are bestowed with good computer network infrastructures, Internet technologies are ideal for building an intergrated system to support teaching and learning. Although the technologies are readily available, there is a general lack of understanding on how these can be used effectively to complement existing teaching practices.

This paper describes the Temasek Polytechnics academic staff knowledge, skills and attitudes towards IT in education; their expectations of an integrated learning environment; and the Polytechnics development of an integrated learning system using Internet technologies. In developing such a system, there are 6 aspects of educational activities to consider, viz: curriculum development; instructional materials development and delivery; teaching practice professional development; networked multimedia teaching facilities; and extensions for open learning development.

Linking play and language in Singapore pre-school settings

Lim, Swee Eng Audrey

This paper investigates the need to link play and literacy in Singapore pre-school settings. Videotaped recordings of 56 four-to-five-year-old children (in a standardised setting in their classrooms and in the homes) were analysed using Smilansky's inventory of sociodramatic play and a combined Parten/Piaget play observation scale. Results of the study indicated significantly higher scores in particular categories of social play as a function of setting. In the cognitive play categories, however, there was no difference between centre and home scores. Correlational data of their play and language scores (both receptive and expressive) indicated that more sophisticated play levels correlated with higher language skills. Data from questionnaires designed to obtain sociodemographic and background information revealed a high frequency of play with particular categories of toy materials, especially manufactured toys., and frequent child involvement in play activities. Teachers'/caregivers' valued play and expressed the belief that sociodramatic play was important for child development, especially for enhancing social skills. Findings of the study highlight the need for conducive play setting conditions and adult intervention to facilitate higher levels of complex play and language competencies as well as a need to link play and literacy activities in the pre-school environment

Mathematics teachers' perceptions of their preparedness for teaching

Lim Suat Khoh and Yap Sook Fwe

Secondary Mathematics teachers in Singapore normally undergo pre-service training via the degree-PGDE(sec) route. The teacher's training for teaching mathematics thus consists of his mathematics content education before his PGDE(Sec) programme as well as his mathematics methodology and other education courses during the PGDE(Sec) programme. The study was a survey conducted among teachers who had graduated from the PGDE(Sec) programme within the last five years to find out their perceptions on their preparedness for teaching mathematics. The survey seeks to study which aspects of their training they found useful or lacking and what further professional development courses would be necessary or desirable. This paper reports the results of the survey.

Critical thinking and Socratic inquiry in the classroom

Lim Tock Keng, National Institute of Education, Singapore

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 22, Promoting critical thinking in the classroom.

Contexts for learning in early intervention settings in isolated or rural areas

Ken Linfoot, University of Western Sydney Nepean, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 16 Culture, diversity and learning: The contextualisation of young children's thinking and problem-solving.

LINGB96.195

Globalization, the State and education policy making

Miriam Henry and Sandra Taylor, Queensland University of Technology, Bob Lingard, The University of Queensland, and Fazal Rizvi, Monash University, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, Globalization, the State and education policy making.

LOOIC96.516

Mathematics problem solving using authentic tasks: A case study

Looi Chee Kit, Information Technology Institute, Singapore, Chen Ai Yen, National Institute of Education, Singapore, and Lin Xiaodong, Learning Technology Center, Vanderbilt University

The "basics" required for success in our increasingly changing society are no longer simply reading, writing, or retention of concepts or calculation, but the ability to think critically and reason about important content, plus the ability and self-motivation to learn independently throughout one's whole life. The anchored instruction approach is an attempt to help students become actively engaged in learning by situating or anchoring instruction in interesting and realistic environments. These environments are designed to provoke the kinds of thinking that help students develop effective thinking skills and attitudes that would contribute to effective problem solving and critical thinking, which in turn facilitate students to acquire and apply domain knowledge, concepts, and principles to solve real-life problems.

This paper will describe a case study in using the anchored mathematics instruction materials developed and well-researched by the Cognition and Technology group (CTGV) in Vanderbilt University to Singapore local school context. These materials include "The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury" video series designed to promote problem posing, problem solving, reasoning and effective communication in a real life situation. One of the episodes, Journey to Cedar Creek, was introduced into the classroom in 2 Singapore schools. We will discuss how the teachers and their students perceived the Jasper type of learning experiences, and how the students went about solving the 15-step word problem posed to them. Finally, we will discuss the lessons learned in our initial attempt in conducting a qualitative inquiry in this case study.

Collaboration in a multiage school

Kaye Lowe, University of Western Sydney, Australia

The key to successful teaching and learning in a multiage school is the collaboration that exists between staff and staff, student and student and staff and student. This study explores how students' potential is extended in a context that values independence and social competence. Students and teachers negotiate curriculum and share an enthusiasm for learning. The value of communication, as a tool for thinking and learning, is pivotal to all that happens in this unique setting. The environment supports risk taking and challenges students to become decision makers and instigators of their own learning. Students negotiate the curriculum to suit their developmental levels and interests. Teachers work closely with students, demonstrating, guiding and encouraging individual efforts.

This study is based on twelve case studies of students in a multiage school. Through these case studies, the student's perspective on what it means to be a learner in a multiage classrooms is explored. In addition, teachers are interviewed and group discussions transcribed to reveal the philosophical base on which this community of learners operate and grow together.

Integrating science and mathematics using a spreadsheet

Tom Lowrie and Doug Hill, Charles Sturt University, Riverina, Australia

The paper begins with an examination of the case made for integrating science and mathematics using an approach in which science experiences provide the starting point for developing mathematical concepts and applying schematic knowledge. The project described in this paper began with a design task in which students had to create an economical and healthy food bar which meet certain nutritional specifications. Students were supplied with a table of appropriate nutritional data and an explanation of the way in which it could be used. Students began the task by recalling their knowledge of familiar products, such as muesli bars. This knowledge was used as the basis for an initial formulation which they checked against the specifications using the nutritional data. At this point students were encouraged to set-up a spreadsheet which would make it easy for them to systematically vary the composition of the food bar and thus its price. This proved to be an effective tool for solving this problem in which there were many variables.

Singapore teachers working overseas: Are they happy?

Elena Lui

Some 25 Singapore teachers working overseas, in Hong Kong, Perth and London, were interviewed by the researcher during her academic leave from Mid March to June 1996. Majority of them teach at the Singapore International School in Hong Kong. The five open-ended questions in the interview covered: the differences in teaching in their present schools and Singapore schools, issues on adjustment in the foreign country, the essential characteristics of their professional practices, their sense of national identity, and advice for Singapore teachers who are thinking of 'venturing' overseas.

LUKEC96.017

Interethnic families: Difference with a difference

Carmen Luke and Allan Luke, The University of Queensland, Australia

This presentation reports on findings from an interview-based research project on interethnicity - specifically on identity politics among adults and children in mixed ethnic family formations. The larger aim of this research is to provide an account of the work of cultural identity formation undertaken by members of interethnic families. Trends emerging from the data include: a sense among families that they are not marginal or 'disadvantaged' in relation to dominant cultures; the relevance of gender configuration among the adult couple (ethnic male, Anglo-Australian female or vice versa) to the success of a relationship; the influence of either partner's family through support or withdrawal of consent of interethnic unions; the importance parents place on children's acquisition of the 'ethnic' parent's language; and the significance of class as a powerful mediating mechanism in experiences of racism. Our initial findings suggest that current definitions of 'race' or 'ethnicity', and concepts of 'hybridity' and 'diaspora' inadequately account for the multi-levelled intersections of cultural, social and historic factors that constitute the social unit of the interethnic family, and the identity of family members.

Collaborative learning: Teaching to build new partnerships

Judy MacCallum, Murdoch University, Australia

The advantages of collaborative learning are well documented in terms of the development of social skills, the depth of academic learning achieved and preparation for the workplace. Many students, however, are not familiar with working in groups and thus the delivery of courses in whole or in part through collaborative learning poses serious problems of group dynamics and student uncertainty, and for some students group learning processes are incompatible with their learning style preferences and goals. Addressing these problems and teaching students specific skills is crucial for learning collaboratively.

This poster will demonstrate the value of Collaborative Learning: Working Together in Small Groups, a CAUT-funded video produced for the purpose of facilitating collaborative learning in tertiary settings.

It is fundamental to the accomplishment of learning tasks that groups understand the process and the dynamics operating as they set about reaching the group's objectives. This video and booklet provide a useful four part model for developing that understanding.

The video can be used by teachers as a discussion starter to encourage students to develop this awareness of group processes but can also be viewed by individuals or groups as part of their own development. Extract from the video cover

MACDI96.047

How education research became part of teaching first year programming

Ian Macdonald and Dianne Hagan, Monash University, Australia

This paper describes the initiation and development of a collaboration between the faculties of Computing and Information Technology (FCIT) and Education at Monash University. A perceived need for improvement in teaching across the faculty led the Dean of FCIT to bring in two teacher-researchers from the Education faculty to suggest potential improvements in teaching practice. An initial report led to a collaboration between members of two FCIT departments and the Education faculty, and this exposed a wide variety of factors severely limiting the quality of learning. An extensive, integrated response has been developed and is already showing signs of success. Crucial to the collaboration has been the model of Education input. FCIT staff have conducted the research of their teaching and learning environment, with assistance from Education members, and have developed new strategies and structures in response to their own understanding of real need, again with assistance. At no time have outside experts arrived with "the answer". This has led to a high level of commitment to the new ideas, and a great deal of content specific creativity. The initial success of the model suggests that experience gained from professional development of secondary school teachers can be translated into the tertiary environment.

Children's informal written computation methods: A preliminary investigation

Malcolm Mackinlay, Australian Catholic University, Australia

Influential curriculum documents such as the National Statement on Mathematics for Australian Schools recommend that greater emphasis be given to students' informal written computation methods. This raises the question of the nature of these informal methods and the extent to which students can and do use them. The present study explored the informal methods students in a Year 3/4 class used to solve problems for which they had not previously been taught a formal method. The results of the study indicate that, once students can understand the problem, they invariably are able to generate a valid method to solve it. Furthermore, while the sophistication of their methods varied considerably, the students displayed an ownership and understanding of the methods which they do not always have when using formal algorithms. Invalid methods were nearly always associated with attempts to obtain an answer just by symbolic manipulation of the numbers involved. This has important implications for the teaching of written computation in mathematics. In many cases, it may not be necessary to teach the standard algorithms at all and, if they are needed, the students' informal methods could form a valuable basis for this teaching.

Politicising evaluative feedback: A case study from teaching in a higher degree via open learning

Ian Macpherson, Gail Halliwell, Sue Grieshaber, Rosemary Perry and Darien Rossiter, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

This paper reports on teaching master's level units in Early Childhood via open learning with the use of audiographics technology. Evaluation has been an integral component of this teaching project over the last three years. The first year of the project produced evaluative data which raised a number of issues, both technological and pedagogical, which were addressed in the second year of the project. Using Smith's (1993) characterisation of empowerment as self growth, as collaborative action and as political action/struggle and working broadly within an Action Research approach (as an example of critical education research), the teaching project members have focussed on consolidating the self growth focus of the first year and the collaborative action of the second year, as well as on engaging in political action in 1996. Such action raises issues within the university in terms of how the institution will continue to sustain innovations such as this teaching project and to encourage a wider use of the project's principles and practices in master's level teaching generally. It is in this sense that the paper reports on politicising evaluative data as a means of building new partnerships based on understanding by university administrators of the sorts of supports necessary to stimulate and maintain innovative practices which are geared towards such policy areas as equity and quality.

MACPI96.290

Developing the partnership and the concept of curriculum leadership for effective learning and teaching via an action research approach

Ian Macpherson, Tania Aspland, Ross Brooker, Bob Elliott and Leonie Shaw, Queensland University of Technology, and Greg Thurlow, State Department of Education Queensland, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 1, Theorising curriculum leadership for effective learning and teaching: Reporting progress in an ARC collaborative research project.

The use of computational models to assess the cognitive load associated with the worked example and split-attention effects

Martin Maguire, Australian Catholic University, Australia

Empirical studies in the field of cognitive psychology frequently have found that if learners are presented with a series of worked examples to study, subsequent problem solving performance is superior than if they had been presented with just the equivalent problems to solve. Such a worked example effect tends to be eliminated if the examples are presented in split-attention format requiring learners to mentally integrate multiple sources of information. Both the worked exarnple and the split-attention effects have been explained in cognitive load terms on the assumption that an appropriately structured worked example imposes a smaller extraneous cognitive load than the equivalent problem. A split-attention format imposes a greater cognitive load than an integrated format. This paper reports on a series of 5 production system models which were used to provide evidence for these explanations. An analysis of the results of the simulations suggested several measures of cognitive load. It was found that a significant factor in the differences between types of worked exarnples was in the degree of student search required to re-derive the problem solutions.

MAIEN96.549

Borderless thinking: Creating a global learning society

Norah Maier

The globe is in a state of transition. In the business world, the future is being met head on by creating learning organisations. In the expanse of information technology, the regional and global networking systems are beginning to resemble the neural compositions of humans. Microeconomics impact on macroeconomic transactions. The need for sustainable food systems, sustainable learning systems, sustainable environments is driving the search for new concepts and techniques of thinking - thinking especially beyond systems.

We must go beyond the borders of personal, institutional, national, cultural and regional thinking styles. We must think without borders; reach beyond political barriers to peaceful coexistence; beyond the past and the present, to a united and caring future.

Who will take the responsibility to lead in human capacity building? Who will explore the need not only to design a variety of delivery systems in education, but to synthesize the multivariate approaches currently confusing the globe? Who will undertake to train the brains that drive the future, the minds that must multitrack through space, time and media.

There are no borders in the air, in the waves of communication, in human energy and enterprise. Borders in trade and politics are broadening; borders of global goodwill and caring are expanding. Often the only borders which are left are those in the human mind.

To break down these last obstacles to global collaboration and individual survival, it is important to econceptualize the source, the process and the continuity of individual, societal and global learning. A VISION OF QUALITY for the future necessitates the education of people of quality - committed to fulfill their individual potential in all the varieties of human intelligences. We can no longer wait for the haphazard appearance of visionaries to lead us to a promising future. Each unique living organism must be tapped as an invaluable resource to secure the continued breathing of this last world.

Influence of home and school environments on the academic performance of the Chinese-Australian and Anglo-Australian students studying at a high school in Perth

Ranbir Singh Malik, Edith Cowan University, Australia

A doctoral study (1993-1996), undertaken at Edith Cowan University, set out to investigate the influence of home and school environments on the academic performance and educational aspirations of high school students from eight Chinese-Australian and Anglo-Australian families. These students (7 males, 5 females) studied at a metropolitan high school in Perth where the author taught for several years. In this longitudinal study data were collected by employing the techniques of participant observation, semi-formal interviewing and document analysis. The author spent 500 hours in the homes of the research students, observed and interviewed them at school for two years. At school about 100 teachers, and other school personnel who taught the research students, interviewed for 250 hours.

The early findings of this study reveal, collectively, Chinese-Australian parents, regardless of their socio-economic status, invest more time and resources and have stronger commitment for the education of their children than their Anglo-Australian counterparts. In general, Chinese-Australian children tend to select high calibre subjects, leading to professional degrees, whereas the Anglo-Australian children tend to select low-key subjects leading to semi-professional courses at the University or Technical and Further Education colleges. The mechanism by which the Chinese-Australian children perform so well is that their parents adopt an authoritatively authoritarian approach in their child rearing practices, and in their daily routine they prioritise their children's education. High parental expectations and involvement are internalised by children, who in turn, spend more time in school-related activities. Teachers at school, interact more positively with well-motivated conforming students. Anglo-Australian parents, on the other hand, tend to give more autonomy to their children and they spend more time on sports and recreational activities of their children. Children from such families tend to show lower interest in school work. Teachers hold lower expectations and interact with them less frequently.

Three market articulations: Implications for teachers' work

Alison Mander and Elizabeth Hatton, Charles Sturt University, Australia

In this paper, our focus is on market articulations. Connell et al. (1982) identify one form of market articulation; namely, that through which Australia's ruling class and elite private schools are articulated. This traditional articulation enables ruling class parents to influence and determine school policies and practices in ways which secure benefits for their children. This traditional market relationship means that the elite private schools are sensitive to trends in consumer demand. Principals' and teachers' work are clearly directly shaped by this market articulation. With an increasing emphasis in Australia on selling education to, amongst others, Asian consumers, market articulations have proliferated. In this paper we identify three educational market articulations now evident in Australia. Each has implications for the shape of principals' and teachers' work. The first is a straightforward, traditional market articulation in which the principal acts as the parents' agent, philosopher and friend (Connell et al., 1982), the second is quasi market articulation in which the principal has a dominant role as educator, and the third is an entrepreneurial market articulation in which the principal plays out his role as a charismatic business leader. Each of these articulations shapes teachers' work in ways which impact on the quality of student learning.

The nature of students' self-reports of mathematics self-concept and subsequent educational outcomes: The roles of motivation orientation and self-consciousness

Andrew Martin, University of Sydney, Australia

This study seeks to contribute to the relatively small body of work which has shown that (in)congruent self-appraisals of self-concept can be related to educational outcomes. In the classroom context, self-reports of self-concept made by students are deemed to be incongruent (manifesting as under- or over-rating) when they do not match with 'objective' measures such as previous performance or ratings made by teachers or peers who know the student well. The major focus of the present study is to examine the relationship between under-/over-rating of maths self-concept and important mathematics-related educational outcomes.

The study also examines motivation orientation and self-consciousness as two factors that might directly predict the tendency to under-/over-rate one's self-concept as well as indirectly influencing educational outcomes via these self-appraisals. In the present study, motivation orientation takes the forms of ego-orientation, task-orientation, and competence-valuation, whilst self-consciousness is comprised of private and public dimensions. It is hypothesised that ego-orientation, competence-valuation, and public self-consciousness are positively associated with over-rating of maths self-concept. Private self-consciousness is hypothesised to be associated with a tendency to report congruently about the self (student-teacher agreement). To examine these issues, Year 9 and Year 11 high school students responded to a questionnaire that assessed motivation orientation, self-consciousness, maths motivation, and maths self-concept. Teachers also completed maths self-concept measures for each student and on the basis of student and teacher reports students were categorised as under-, congruent-, or over-raters.

Results confirm that incongruent self-appraisals of maths self-concept do predict educational outcomes: Over-rating of maths self-concept is associated with higher levels of maths motivation and maths achievement. Findings also indicate that ego-orientation and competence-valuation are positively associated with over-rating, whilst public self-consciousness is associated with a tendency to under-rate oneself in this domain of maths competence. Interestingly, public self-consciousness is also associated with a slight tendency to perform more highly in maths exams at the end of the year, suggesting that self-appraisals of maths self-concept made by publicly self-conscious students may constitute a form of adaptive defensive pessimism. Private self-consciousness is associated with more congruent reports of maths self-concept, and task-orientation, whilst not predicting self-appraisals, is negatively associated with maths achievement at a later time.

In general, findings suggest that ego concerns in the forms of ego-orientation, competence-valuation, and, by inference, public self-consciousness, can be adaptive traits in an achievement-related context such that, directly or indirectly, they are positively associated with maths achievement and motivation. Task and mastery concerns, on the other hand, may not be conducive to such propitious outcomes. In the light of this, it is suggested that multiple goals can co-exist in the classroom provided that these goals are coordinated successfully by the student.

MASSG96.008

Social dominance in preschool children's play: Implications for early childhood educators

Grace Masselos, University of Wollongong, Australia

The study of the role of social dominance hierarchies is relevant to early childhood educators as it helps in the understanding of aggression and conflict in the play of preschool children's peer culture. Children tend to play in some form of social structure and this can be most evident when observing preschool children during dramatic play. Studies of animal behaviour in relation to social dominance hierarchies have contributed to the knowledge of social interaction within young children's play (Omark & Edelman, 1973; Wright, 1980). The characteristics of hierarchical social dominance and examples as evident in the present writer's research on acceptance and rejection in block play, will be discussed emphasising the significance of the socio/cognitive role of play in young children's peer culture. This has important implications for early childhood educators and parents in terms of planning effective programmes that are sensitive to the social needs of young children.

A comparison of student teacher concerns after end-on and concurrent programs

Rosalind Y. Mau and Clive B. Kings, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Teacher preparation courses have been organised in various ways. Most commonly students take courses after successfully completing their undergraduate specialist degrees; these are termed as end-on courses. Or students study academic subjects concurrently with education in specialist undergraduate courses; these are termed concurrent courses. Whatever type of teacher preparation courses students have completed, they usually express some concerns with respect to their future teaching. These concerns revolve around three areas: themselves, their roles as teachers and their students as learners. This presentation compared the concerns of a group of student teachers after taking end-on and another group after concurrent programmes. The major concerns were focused on classroom management skills an whether they had the teaching repertoire to meet the needs of various learners, especially those who needed more help. The results of this study will be discussed with a view to making recommendations about future emphases in teacher education courses.

The great job disappearing trick: The rise of the new educational elite

Lesley McAuley-Jones, University of Southern Queensland, Australia

A vital issue facing today's young people is: has the increased demand for advanced educational qualifications and technical skills left the average young person "of mediocre attainments or less with nothing to sell that is worth anyone's money to buy" (McLean, 1970, p.6).

Does this means that those not deemed worthy of being processed through the education system will be rejected by prospective employers? This has the potential to create a growth in the number of young people who now do not have the necessary high-level credentials required for meaningful employment. The decrease in the numbers of jobs for unskilled or semi-skilled workers is further exacerbated by the increase in the need for further qualifications in the face of increased competition for employment.

The resulting demand on young people to stay at school longer, and to continue their education through tertiary courses, has effectively tied the number of years of education to future economic and social prospects.

This raises the question of whether the nature and function of education has become engulfed by the need to obtain credentials, necessary for economic and social advancement. Young people who can achieve these desired credentials, can be classed as the new elite. This effectively leaves the others with nothing to sell...

Managing to teach physical education: From preservice to inservice

Ann McCormack, University of Newcastle, Australia

Classroom management is the most common concern cited by preservice, beginning and experienced teachers as well as being the focus of media reports, professional literature and school staffroom conversations. Recent research has challenged this metaphor of the teacher as manager and in particular the unrealistic expectations of preservice teachers' ability to deal with multiplicity of student behaviours whilst implementing multiple tasks often in different contexts and leaning envioronments. The beginning teacher literature suggests that preservice and experienced teachers have different approaches and beliefs regarding classroom management.

The aim of this paper is to investigate classroom management problems, strategies and influences as identified by a group of 75 preservice physical education teachers after the completion of a four week practicum experience and a group of 65 inservice physical education teachers with varying years of teaching experience. Variables such as gender, age and mastery of the teaching situation gained through years of teaching experience will be analysed to detect patterns of change. Results of the study gained through quantitative and qualitative analysis will be given and interpreted. Recommendations will be made for the provision of' more effective pedagogical programs and strategies to assist future preservice physical education teachers develop classroom management competence.

A cross-cultural study of the occupational stress of teachers in Hebei Province, The Peoples' Republic of China

John McCormick, The University of New South Wales, Australia, and Shi Guoxing, Hebei Educational College, Shijiazhuang Hebei Province, P. R. China

An attributional model of the occupational stress of teachers was developed in New South Wales Australia. The model posits that teachers tend to attribute greater responsibility for their stress to entities more "distant" from self than to self or entities close to self. Australia essentially has an individualist culture. This paper reports a comparative study carried out with a sample of teachers in a collectivist culture, specifically in Hebei Province, The Peoples' Republic of China. Some differences and similarities are discussed.

MCDOR96.136

Recognition of Prior Learning-only three research issues left?

Rod McDonald, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is one of the prime examples of educational partnership between individuals educational institutions and industry. For many decades it has been practised, in various forms in all educational systems in which adults participate. Formal arrangements for RPL are more recent, and it is only over the last few years that mechanisms have been developed in higher education and vocational education.

But despite this considerable history of activity, the research on RPL is sketchy. Furthermore, the research that has been carried out has not always acknowledged the need to distinguish between what is known and is working well, what is known but is not working well, and what is not known and needs to be researched.

The theme of this paper is that although there are three questions that need further research, most of the research that is being carried out is on aspects for which the only challenge remaining is that of implementation.

The three issues that need further research but are receiving insufficient attention at the moment are :

• exactly what is credit given for?

The paper will address these issues and suggest what research does-and does not-remain to be done.

MCDOR96.309

Cost-benefit issues

Rod McDonald, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 7, Workplace learning and assessment: The agenda for research.

'The mentoring model in the Graduate Diploma of Education at Charles Sturt University'

Mark McFadden and Wendy Hastings, Charles Sturt University, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 13, Contemporary trends in school experience in Australia: Charles Sturt University models, issues and outcomes.

MCINJ96.305

The organisational environment of workplace learning

John McIntyre, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 7, Workplace learning and assessment: The agenda for research.

Resistance, re-articulation and realisation: An analysis of school-level implementation of Australian National Curricula

Peter J. McNamee, University of Southern Queensland, and Karen S. McNamee, The Glennie School, Australia

In April 1989 the Australian Education Council (AEC) proposed that an Australian national, collaborative approach to school-level curriculum should be implemented to 'rationalise' the curriculum of Australian schools to meet contemporary economic and social demands and objectives. From this meeting, the AEC endorsed ten common and agreed national goals for Australian schooling and commissioned the production of National Statements and Profiles for eight Key Learning Areas, one of which was Mathematics.

This paper reports research into the school-level implementation of Queensland's version of the National Mathematics Profile, Student Performance Standards in Mathematics (SPS). Whilst the paper recognises that many schools are 'implementing' SPS, the nature of this implementation is problematic. The paper concludes with a rejection of traditional rational models of policy and change implementation as sufficient to explain this school-level implementation in favour of a model of policy and change implementation that is sensitive to interpretation, meaning-making, contestation and other such processes that dominate school-level implementation of national curricula. Finally, in recognition of the deficiency of dominant contemporary rational models to explain school-level change and implementation processes, this paper concludes with a call for more case study research into local implementation processes.

Teaching critical thinking

Helen Melville Jones, Edith Cowan University

Critical thinking has become an important inclusion in many different kinds of University courses. Typically, it is taught as an introduction to informal logic by philosophy departments and as a service course to equip undergraduates with skills in reasoning and argument. Some Faculties, however, in particular Nursing have embraced it as a way of inculcating in their students an attitude often described as that of "the reflective practitioner".

This paper discusses an introductory course in critical thinking recently included as part of a unit for first year Education students. It describes the two main schools of thought within the critical thinking movement and outlines the approach taken in the unit under discussion. It considers comparisons with a first year unit in critical thinking for nurses and a foundation unit in critical thinking offered externally for students who have not previously engaged in university study and are unsure of their aptitude for it. It explores some of the problems encountered in teaching critical thinking and concludes with an account of the types of assessment which suit a course in critical thinking.

Languages other than English in primary school contexts

Jennifer Miller, University of Queensland, Australia

After a period of attrition and marginalisation in the 70s and 80s, Languages Other Than English (LOTEs) have moved into a position of considerable political and educational prominence in Australia. The rationale for both the national and state LOTE policy initiatives reflects a perceived link between linguistic competence and economic profitability. Powerful pragmatic justifications, based on vocational prospects and foreign trade, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, have been added to the traditional cultural and intellectual rationales for language study. It is proposed, for example, that 60% of Year 10 students will be studying an Asian language (for 8 years) by 2006. The Queensland LOTE initiative, mandating the study of languages in primary schools, is a function of federal policy, and is part of a major curriculum reform. However the notion that any curriculum reform will lock automatically into diverse local settings is problematic, and assumptions that beginning language study earlier will fuel Australia's linguistic needs in the longer term raises a number of questions. Our language programs now begin in the primary school, and this is the obvious site to examine some key issues related to language pedagogy. This paper places LOTE policy within a meaningful context, namely classrooms, and gives a voice to those who implement policy at classroom level, namely teachers. It describes how teachers experience LOTE teaching in Years 6-7, and proposes a framework/model for understanding the complex interrelationships in LOTE teaching and learning. Finally, a number of contextual factors, which have a significant bearing on the implementation of primary LOTE programs are identified and discussed.

MITCI96.168

Initiating teacher research and supporting teacher researchers

Ian Mitchell and Jeff Northfield, Monash University, and Judie Mitchell, Australia

In recent years there have been increasing calls for teacher research and the voice of the teacher in the research literature. The Perspectives and Voice of the Teacher (PAVOT) project was established in 1994; one of its goals was to establish a network of teacher- researchers working and reporting on projects of their own choice and design. A second goal was to research the process of teacher research: What sorts of issues do teachers choose to explore? What are the advantages and disadvantages of projects led by teacher- researchers over projects led from outside the classroom? What are the barriers and disincentives to full-time teachers doing research? How may they be overcome? How do the teachers change and develop during such a project? Each of these issues has implications for the nature of the support, stimulation and collaboration that teachers need as well as the way these change over time. This paper draws on the first three years of PAVOT to address these issues.

MITCI96.629

PEEL: Twelve years of improving the quality of learning and teaching

Ian Mitchell, Monash University, Australia

In 1985 nine secondary teachers decided to collaborate with two academics in an action research project to change student learning from what the teachers felt was passive, receptive and dependent in directions that were more informed, purposeful, intellectually active, and independent. Although unfunded, the Project for Enhancing Effective Learning (PEEL) has continued to grow for 10 years beyond its intended lifespan and has spread to many other schools - the teachers refused to let it die. There have been a range of findings and outcomes, however the focus of this session will be the more than 100 innovative teaching procedures that have been adapted, developed and reported by the PEEL teachers. This session will use a computerized index of over 500 teacher accounts of these procedures to select and then workshop classroom-tested ideas for tackling particular problems of learning.

MITCJ96.300

Understanding the teaching of grammatical skills

Judie Mitchell, Eumemmering Secondary College, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 3, Learning for teachers - examples of teacher research.

'The extended practicum experience'

Jane Mitchell, Charles Sturt University, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 13, Contemporary trends in school experience in Australia: Charles Sturt University models, issues and outcomes.

How many schools and students do I need in my sample?

Magdalena Mok and Alison Warton, Macquarie University, Australia

This study involves the effect of sample size on the efficiency of parameter estimates for 2-level survey designs in education. Survey is a common method used in educational research. In designing surveys, researchers are often faced with the question: how large a sample does one need? For example, researchers need to decide how many schools, and how many students per school, have to be sampled. Naturally, costs are important considerations. With the same total number of students in the sample, say 2000, differential costs are involved if the researcher has sampled 10 schools with 200 student each, than if these 2000 students come from 200 schools. Costs aside, Mok (1995) found, using simulated data for 121 designs, each with 100 replications, that with a balanced design (equal number of students per school), accuracy of estimates differed substantially, favouring designs with more-schools-less-students-per-school, after controlling for total sample size. This study is an extension of the earlier one in that effects of sample size for unbalanced designs (different number of students per school) are investigated. Simulations were undertaken on 100 unbalanced designs, each with 300 replications. Parameter estimates were investigated for their efficiency. Results showed that more-schools-less-students-per-school designs were still superior.

The case of the 3 monks in search of sweet water

Lyn Coulon, Australian Catholic University, Magdalena Mok, Macquarie University, and M Anderson, Avondale College, Australia

Once upon a time, there lived 3 adventurous monks, who each searched for sweet water -- quality research outcomes in education. At first, the monks searched alone for sweet water, but without success. The first monk became skilful in calculating where the well was located but did not know how to discern water quality. The second monk could do this, but was unable to measure the depth of the well. The third monk was knowledgeable, but did not have the required resources. Then one day, a dialogue at the well led to their new partnership. Our poster portrays the journey of the 3 monks in their quest for continuous improvement in nursing education research. The story highlights the importance of strategic planning, the partnership process and opportunities for key outcomes from joint ventures, leading to the discovery of sweet water.

MOOSN96.603

Teachers' perception of Normal Technical students' motivation and classroom behaviour

Moo, Swee Ngoh

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 26, Motivation and behaviour of Normal Technical students.

Language on the show circuit: A broadening appreciation of critical literacies

Beverley J Moriarty and Patrick A Danaher, Central Queensland University, Australia

A significant result of a longitudinal study into the educational experiences of travelling Australian show children has been the broadening of critical literacies as a concept. Critical literacies imply the versatility of language, an attribute that is clearly demonstrated in the show people's maintenance of their distinctive cultural traditions.

This paper examines the language used by the members of the show circuit, highlighting the ways in which their language is modified to suit particular purposes. These purposes include communication within their exclusive circle and negotiation and lobbying with outside bodies to obtain certain privileges for their group. The three-way communication has created a partnership between the Showmen's Guild, the providers of distance education for children on the show circuit in Queensland and the team of researchers conducting this study. This partnership has resulted in a greater appreciation of the value and legitimacy of language used on the show circuit. It also has implications for the language employed in the writing of both distance education materials for the show children and reports about the research project.

Building new partnerships through a common concern with the teaching of mathematics: The Australian-Welsh connection

Beverley J Moriarty, Central Queensland University, Australia, and Susan E Sanders, University of Wales Swansea, United Kingdom

This paper describes research being undertaken to address the urgent need to break the cycle in which student teachers with poor understandings of basic mathematical concepts and procedures and low self-efficacies in relation to mathematics pass on the same misunderstandings and low self-efficacies to their students when they enter the teaching profession. The Mathematics for Initial Teacher Education Students (MITES) project began in an Australian context in its preliminary stages before a partnership was formed with a Welsh university at the 1995 AARE conference in Tasmania. The implications of the nature of this partnership and the two contexts in which the research is taking place are examined. In particular the implications for the research design and methods as well as the refinement of the tests of achievement and self efficacy are discussed. The paper will also address the effects of context on the co-operative learning strategies employed.

Statistical understanding: An investigation in two countries

Jonathan B. Moritz and Jane M. Watson, University of Tasmania, Australia, and Lionel Pereira-Mendoza, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Statistical understanding of students from Grades 3 to 9 in Australia and Singapore was assessed using two survey instruments. A 20-item survey involved items based on past research into probability and statistics, and a media survey involved questions based on 10 newspaper extracts. Responses were analysed using the language analysis software NUDNIST, and were classified according to the SOLO Model with Multimodal Functioning developed by Biggs and Collis. Results from the two countries are discussed in the light the curriculum, teaching practices, and cultural differences.

MORRP96.482

Cross-curricular themes and curriculum reform: Policy as text and discourse

Paul Morris and K.K.Chan, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Government has responded to shifting socio-political conditions and criticisms of the narrow academic orientation of the school curiculum by the promotion of a range of cross-curricular themes, namely: moral, civic, sex and environmental education. This paper analyses the key policy documents which defined their nature, purposes and operationalization and the research agenda which subsequently emerged. It is argued that the policy was, despite its worthwhile intentions, interpreted by schools as defining the themes as having a low priority and a marginal status. In parallel the policy served to contribute to the creation of a discourse which portrayed schools and teachers as empowered to broaden the curriculum and consequently as the source and focus of the problems of implementation which emerged.

MORTA96.333

The role and responsibilities of the computing coordinator

Allan Morton, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, and Sigrid Edwards, Educational Computing Consultant, Australia

The role and responsibilities of the Computing Coordinator in secondary schools is dynamic. Historically, Computing Coordinators have been selected from within the school's teaching ranks. To date there has been no large local, systematic study of the role, responsibilities and characteristics of the Computing Coordinator. Consequently, schools have had to make decisions based heavily on hearsay or anecdote or rely upon information that reflects circumstances based on U.S.A. experience.

This study was a first attempt to provide meaningful information on the functions and attributes of Computing Coordinators in NSW secondary schools. Data examining these aspects of the Computing Coordinator position were collected using survey techniques from 66 of 141 targeted non-government secondary schools located in metropolitan Sydney. Computing Coordinators from government secondary schools were not included. The survey was divided into five sections. This generated large amounts of data, of which parts relating specifically to the role, responsibilities and characteristics of the Computing Coordinator will be reported.

Data collected from closed questions were coded and analysed descriptively and inferentially using Microsoft Excel and SPSS for Windows. Data from open questions, where appropriate, were coded and analysed using Microsoft Excel.

The study identified 12 trends as representative of the sample. Based on these, 5 recommendations are made to promote a more professional perspective to the role of Computing Coordinator.

MORTA96.345

Incentives and barriers: Computers across the secondary school curriculum in Western Sydney

Allan Morton, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, Australia

Computers have rapidly pervaded our lives and fundamentally changed many aspects. However, their integration across the school curriculum has not occurred to the degree that some had predicted (Bork, 1991). Furthermore, the integration that has occurred has not been uniform, giving rise to the notion that there are incentives and barriers at work enhancing the adoption of technology in some schools while effectively blocking wider acceptance in others.

Integration is based on the assumption that computers should be an integral part of the learning process at all levels (Lockard, Abrams & Many, 1994), that is, the tool should service curriculum needs first and then be an object for study.

A study was formulated to explore the Western Sydney experience of the integration of computers across the Secondary School Curriculum. Six schools, two comprehensive, two selective and two technology high schools agreed to participate.

The study used a questionnaire based on teachers' intentions to use information technologies as teaching strategies. Seven broad issues were identified as influencing teacher intentions;

1. Anxiety

The paper will report on a number of significant differences identified between the seven broad issues and gender, teaching experience, computer use and school type. A discussion of how those differences have impacted upon the integration of computers in those schools will follow.

The benchmarking of teacher education programs

Brenda Cherednichenko, Neil Hooley, Tony Kruger and Rose Mulraney, Victoria University of Technology, Australia

While benchmarking is a recognised practice in industry and commerce, both in Australia and overseas, it has yet to find an equivalent place in the field of education. Recently, some Australian interest has been shown in educational benchmarking, but primarily from an economic, efficiency and effectiveness perspective, rather than for explicit and ongoing improvements in teaching and learning outcomes. This paper supports educational benchmarking as a means of developing best practice in pre-service teacher education. The theoretical background of educational benchmarking is discussed within the context of a market driven economy in Australia and where teachers are increasingly employed in a self managing school environment. A description is provided of one attempt at introducing the concept of benchmarking into a pre-service teacher education program which has as its major features, the establishment of collaborative partnership arrangements between local schools and the niversity and the incorporation of case writing by beginning teachers as a significant means of reflecting on personal practice. The research has demonstrated the authenticity of case writing as a data gathering technique and has illuminated the successful adoption of case writing across the year levels of a Bachelor of Education course. Three areas of professional discourse amongst final year Bachelor of Education beginning teachers have been identified and characterised. Work in progress between two tertiary institutions in regard to benchmarking the quality of courses across similar programs, is also reported.

The school as a cubbyhouse: Aboriginal students, their teachers and the curriculum in an inner city primary school

Geoff Munns, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, Australia

This paper reports on research which examines curriculum and classroom practices in an inner city primary school. It reveals how the curriculum is influenced by students' oppositional behaviour at a whole school and classroom level, and how teachers' responses to oppositional behaviour result in a curriculum which is implicated in the continuing educational disadvantage of a large group of the school's Koori (Aboriginal) students. Theoretical underpinnings are drawn from resistance theory. However, the study offers a different perspective on previous research in this tradition by focussing on the perspectives of teachers and closely examining the nature of the school curriculum. Students' positions are explored through community and teacher interviews and through school and classroom observation. The data and the discussion focus on curriculum and classroom practices produced in the exchange between the school's Koori students and the teachers. It is argued that this curriculum contributes to social reproduction by not eliminating the conditions of resistance contained within the school and its context. A model is proposed which serves the dual purpose of providing an analytical framework within the specific research context, and a heuristic device through which other schools might contextualise their curriculum.

"When are you fellas gunna teach these ere little black kids how to read and write?" Literacy for Aboriginal students: Learning from past failures

Geoff Munns and Jan Hancock, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, and Maxine Green, New South Wales Department of School Education, Australia

The overall absence of general educational success and specific literacy achievement evidenced in Australia's indigenous student populations greatly concerns Aboriginal communities, teachers, teacher-educators and the government. Bureaucratic rhetoric accompanies the launching of scheme after scheme to remedy the problem, but sadly, the reality shows little change. This paper will report on research in a learning context where questions about why Aboriginal students were not learning how to read were asked and answered. Classroom incidents from an Australian primary school, with a high Aboriginal student population, in inner-city Sydney will be shared. It will be revealed that there were key factors influencing these particular Aboriginal students' responses to their classrooms. What emerged was a curriculum which was more social than academic. A feeling of inevitability of low educational expectations was generated and mirrored that of the community outside the school. Whilst deficit logic was eschewed publicly by the school, there was a contradiction in classroom practices, especially in literacy events, which were imbued with implicit, yet subtle deficit logic. The research findings point towards the need for a new direction for curriculum and pedagogical practices when teaching Aboriginal students to read. Cultural inclusive curriculum and a non-threatening, yet challenging pedagogy are at the heart of the remedy to increase indigenous learners' literacy acquisition. Suggestions for future practice will be shared.

"I want to start again." Thoughts from some Aboriginal students who are staying at secondary school

Geoff Munns, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, and Denis Mootz, Balmain High School, Australia

Despite policies and programs introduced into all levels of Australian education over the last twenty years, Aboriginal students are still not achieving equitable outcomes from education. Statistics show that fewer Aboriginal students get through to the end of secondary school than other groups in Australia. Research has often focussed on resistance by Aboriginal students, attempting to explain why many drop out of school. By contrast, this paper reports on a study which focuses on some Aboriginal students who remain at an inner city secondary school. The students tell in their own words why they are encouraged to continue at a school which is attracting increasing numbers of Aborigines. It is felt that by listening to what they have to say, insights are gained which could offer directions for school practices and curriculum aiming to increase retention rates for Aboriginal students in other school contexts.

Access and equity initiatives in higher education: How far have we come?

Rosalind Murray-Harvey and Marigold Francis, Flinders University of South Australia, Australia

Universities across Australia are introducing a range of Special Entry schemes to increase participation in higher education of targeted disadvantaged groups. In this study, ten randomly selected students from each of four University access and equity initiatives (N=40) were interviewed to gauge their perceptions of: (1) preparedness for tertiary study; (2) knowledge and utilization of existing services and resources to support their learning and studying; (3) factors influencing successful academic integration; and (4) problems associated with achieving academic goals. Results indicate potential problems for students who hold traditional, stereotyped views of academics, have simplistic views about learning and studying at the tertiary level, and are ill-informed about the range of resources and support systems that are available to support their progress. Quantitative and qualitative data are presented to evaluate the University's aim to meet the needs of its increasingly diverse student population.

Community based curriculum and staff development in the recent education reform in Papua New Guinea

Yasuko Nagai, Flinders University of South Australia, Summer Institute of Linguistics Papua New Guinea Branch

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been experiencing a nation-wide education reform in recent years. It began with emphasis on vernacular education in elementary levels. Since there are more than 860 languages in PNG, numerous vernacular preparatory schools were opened for small children prior to their entry to grade one. However, many vernacular schools were opened prematurely, despite the lack of teaching materials and training of the teachers. The reality is that the PNG government is going ahead with its education reform, while curriculum and staff development are lagging behind.

This paper presents a case study of collaborative research in the Maiwala Community, Milne Bay Province, PNG. In this study, an expatriate literacy consultant played the role of researcher and facilitator, while the vernacular school teachers and the members of the community played the role of co-researchers. They worked in partnership and contributed to the education reform by developing a culturally appropriate curriculum and staff development programme for vernacular elementary schools.

NANCD96.070

Problem selection and personal reality in educational research: Are individual life experiences a key to forming new research partnerships?

David Nance, The University of Melbourne, Australia

A conventional view of educational research has been that the choice of topics is largely determined by the researchers' theoretical commitments. More recent studies have shown that various social factors, such as professional socialisation and funding agencies, also have an influence on problem selection. However, all such influences are external to individuals, and this paper argues that personal experiences are an important influence in determining what researchers define as problematic. There are many aspects of researchers' "personal realities", often developed long before they were professionally trained, which have consequences for their research work. The personally real and problematic may often become the starting point for scientific inquiry. Personal experience has an influence on educational researchers because they take "role distance". That is, people do not always live up to all the prescriptions allocated to their position - there is a gap between role obligation and role performance. Individual role-conceptions are formed only partially within the present organisational setting. Individual ideas about occupational roles are influenced by many other personal factors, such as childhood experiences, values and personality characteristics. The educational researchers interviewed in the biographical case studies that constitute the major part of this research have confirmed that personal reality has been a very significant factor in the choice of their research topics. For example, many of these researchers have felt quite lonely and isolated, particularly early in their life. This has led to a form of "marginality", which in turn has led to a research interest in educational inequality. A key to creating new research partnerships beyond current disciplinary, national and institutional boundaries may well be found in the life experiences of individual researchers.

Relationship between lecturers' language background and their teaching performance

Ahmad. R. Nasr, University of Esfahan, Iran, Edward Booth and M.Gillett, University of Wollongong, Australia

This paper investigates the relationship betveen lecturers' language background, classified in English and NESB and their teaching performance (TP), using student evaluations.

The "ex post facto" design was used with three fourths (n = 294) of the full time academic staff of the University of Wollongong in 1994. Data on TP of subjects were derived from more than 20,000 student evaluation surveys with 23 items covering 548 subjects during 1991-1993.

MANOVA indicated that there was a significant difference between the TP of the two groups . When a ANOVA was carried out to analyse further, it indicated that the differences between TP of the two groups were significant for 19 items, with consistent trends in the four remaining. The TP mean score for English-first-language academics was higher than the other group in all 23 items. When the lecturers' language background was considered with six other variables (perceived influence on TP) using Regression Analysis, a strong correlation was established between language background and TP .

The results suggest that where the first language of lecturer and student is not similar, NESB lecturers have to try to improve their language ability to improve TP. This holds implications for the selection and personal development of academic staff for universities in their quest to improve the quality of teaching.

Relationship between lecturers' attitude toward effective teaching and their teaching performance

Ahmad R. Nasr, University of Esfahan, Iran, Edward Booth & M.Gillett, University of Wollongong, Australia

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between lecturers' attitude toward effective teaching (ET) and their teaching performance (TP), using student evaluations.

The population for the study was three fourths (n = 294) of the full time academic staff from the University of Wollongong in 1994 of whom 176 (60 %) participated in the study. ET was examined using a survey instrument developed by the researchers. Data on TP of subjects were derived from more than 20 000 student evaluation surveys with 23 items covering 548 subjects.

A significant relationship was established between the two variables. In addition, surveys were categorised into 'below' and 'above' average lecturer attitudes and ANOVA implemented for all of the 23 items of TP. The differences were significant in 12 items, with consistent trends in all of the 11 remaining items. When the role of lecturers' attitudes toward ET was considered with the six other variables (perceived influence on TP) using Regression Analysis, a significant correlation was established between attitude and TP.

These results suggest that positive changes in lecturers' attitudes towards effective teaching correlate positively and significantly with increases in teaching performance. If individual lecturer's attitudes toward effective teaching can be stimulated, then it is likely there will be an enhancement in their teaching performance.

NETTT96.083

Influences of supervising teachers beliefs on the beliefs of student teachers during practice teaching

Ted Nettle, University of New South Wales, Australia

While the influence of teacher education has been questioned (Kagan, 1990) others have noticed definite changes in the beliefs of student teachers (Kyriacou, 1993; Carter, 1994; Dunkin at al., 1994) particularly as a result of the experience of practice teaching. Most teacher educators are aware of the reported move towards "custodialism" among student teachers(Freiberg, 1993). This paper reports a study of student teachers' beliefs about teaching before and after practice teaching. The sample consisted of 49 first year student teachers involved in the primary teacher education course of a university in Sydney. The student teachers completed a questionnaire in which they were asked to assume that they were teaching a particular class, and to indicate their beliefs about the teaching practices they saw as most important for the enhancing of the learning a group of students in the class. The beliefs of the supervising teachers were also obtained using the same questionnaire. A move towards task orientation to teaching, and away from an affective orientation was noted. This trend was stronger where the teacher also had a task orientation to teaching. This finding raises important questions about the nature of the experience of practice teaching, and about the nature of the methods used to study student teachers' learning to teach.

Home schooling: A view of future education?

Sandra H. Nicholls, University of Sydney, Australia

Home schooling is carried out by the parents, in their own homes, with curriculae supplied by the parents with very little or no input from the educational authorities. Some research in the USA has suggested that home schooling produces students with greater academic achievement than school educated children. Research in Britain suggest that the children who are educated at home are able to find suitable employment despite the lack of formal qualifications. The majority of children in the Children in Britain who are educated outside the school seem to do so because of concern over the parents with unfair treatment of their children at school. In the USA children are home schooled not for academic reasons but for religious reasons. The author has recently visited various countries and discussed home schooling with experts in these countries. Home schooling in Australia and the use of new information technologies such as internet and home education for the child previously educated in a school environment is discussed. Australia, Britain and United States and other countries have now legislated for alternatives to school education It could be suggested that this is the most democratic and equitable way to deliver education to all.

NICHS96.067

Role of ethnicity and gender in bullying in schools

S Nicholls and G Sitharthan, University of Sydney, Australia

Bullying is the tendency for some children to frequently oppress, harass or intimidate others verbally, physically or both (Ziegler, 1991). Bullying was once seen as the natural physical behaviour of boys toward other boys in a school environment. It is now outlawed in some schools and viewed negatively by most teachers and school authorities. This paper will explore the nature and extent of interethnic and cross gender bullying in a cross section of primary and secondary schools, both state and private, in the Sydney region. The issues discussed in this paper are very important to education in a multicultural society. One aim of compulsory school education is for all children to reach a healthy identity and to be comfortable with their ethnicity and gender. Previous research in other countries, mostly European, has clearly shown that bullying is one type of negative behaviour which reduces the opportunity for some children to have happy school lives and reach a later adult adjustment (Olweus, 1994). It is now seen as the responsibility of schools to ensure that different ethnic groups and the two genders are able to achieve their different educational goals without fear of oppression, harassment and intimidation either physically or verbally.

Psychodynamic pedagogy

Susan Nicholson, The University of Sydney, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 20 Psychodynamic pedagogy.

Enhancing pre-service teachers' attitudes about co-operative learning through participation in a co-operative learning activity

Diana M. Nomanbhoy, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Despite the many benefits of co-operative learning, informal observations of pre-service student teachers during their teaching practicum attachments reveal that the majority of them do not implement co-operative learning in their classrooms. The persistence of teacher-directed instruction with the occasional question thrown to the class to generate discussion indicate the lack of priority teachers give to co-operative learning. This study was undertaken to examine whether pre-service teachers who participate in a co-operative learning exercise are likely to (1) understand the principles of co-operative learning better and (2) implement co-operative learning in their own classrooms upon graduation. For this study, pre-service teachers (N=21) were required to participate in the Jigsaw I co-operative learning activity during a two hour lecture time-slot to learn more about the principles and methodology of implementing co-operative learning. Results indicated that the majority of these pre-service teachers were not only convinced of the effectiveness of the procedures but also claimed to have understood the principles of co-operative learning better. Additionally, the majority of pre-service teachers stated that experiencing the co-operative learning activity made them more inclined to implement co-operative learning in their own classrooms upon graduation.

MichSeis - A hands-on approach to learning science

Nazli Nomanbhoy and Larry J Ruff, University of Michigan, USA

MichSeis consists of a network of affordable but high precision seismometers installed in schools and universities to enhance science education, seismologic research and earthquake monitoring. Seismology is an application of many aspects of physics and mathematics to the earth. The seismometer employs basic Newtonian mechanics and electronics to record the waveforms (seismograms) or signals generated by an earthquake. Using wave physics, information about the earthquake source, the propagation path of the waves and other parameters can be extracted from the seismograms. These aspects of physics and mathematics can be learned by students at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of school by devising appropriate projects around the seismographic stations. This "hands-on" or "project-based" approach is an effective and exciting method of learning science. Students will not only be able to watch an earthquake being recorded on their seismographic stations in real-time, but the projects that they undertake will further the scientific community's understanding of the earth. MichSeis provides a means for curious students to unfold the mysterious workings of the earth by "listening" to it. MichSeis is currently underway in the state of Michigan, USA. Further information can be obtained at http://www.geo.lsa.umich.edu/MichSeis.

NOORK96.501

Creating climates for learning through reflective practice

Kathryn Noori, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education, Universiti Brunei Darussalam

This presentation is a discussion of projects conducted in Brunei Darussalam and the United States which have been developed to encourage teachers to reflect on their practice and to design curricula that is sensitive to the developmental patterns and interests of children.

The projects were developed to address the concern of misconceptions about early learning. In many programs pre-school teachers have a tendency to emphasize formal instructions in academic skills which is antithetical to the growing body of research affirming that learning is most effective when programs are designed in accordance with children's growth patterns, strengths, interests, and experiences. In developing curriculum that is sensitive to the developmental patterns and interests of children teachers must have an understanding of child development and pedagogy and also critically examine and reflect on their own practice.

This presentation focuses on the features of the projects that encouraged teachers to prioritize teaching that is sensitive to students' interests, thinking and patterns of developmental growth; to make sound judgements based on their observations of children; and to think critically and reflectively about their teaching from the point of view of the child's psychological experience. The vehicles of reflection that were incorporated in the projects to foster reflective thinking are discussed at length and include dialogue, personal history statements, interactive journals, and videotaping.

NORAM96.432

Developing a sustainable partnership between higher educational institution and school in initial teacher training

Nornai Mohd.Salleh, University of Malaya, Malaysia

This paper examines some of the concerns raised in the implementation of partnership between Higher Educational Institution (HEI) and School in Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in England and Wales with a view to plan a collaborative programme that would be suited to Malaysian contexts. While the implementation of partnership in the training of ITT between HEI(s) and schools was largely initiated by the government, it has shown much interest from the participating schools. However, there were issues raised that warrant attention. Some of these concerns relate to (i) time (ii) roles (iii) participation (iv) supervision (v) cost and (vi) student's welfare.

For HEIs in Malaysia that currently involved in ITT and looking for strategies to improve the quality of teacher education, the PGCE programmes in England and Wales can be considered as an alternative. In fact, many HEI(s) are considering the idea and working out the possibilities of introducing some form of collaboration with schools. However, the pros and cons of collaboration with schools have to be vetted carefully. The idea of collaboration with school in the form of partnership is not only new but suggests much involvement of the partner schools in all aspects of teacher education. What form of collaboration would be suitable for the Malaysian contexts? To what extend can the "partnership" be developed and sustained? These are difficult questions. Perhaps some insights into the realities of such a partnership can be better understood by raising some of the concerns based on the writer's research into the experiences of those who were directly involved in it both at HEI and school levels in England and Wales.

The nature and quality of teacher research

Jeff Northfield, Monash University, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 3, Learning from teachers - examples of teacher research.

The new education: Maria Montessori and Australasia

Dan O'Donnell

Throughout Australasia in the mid 1990s, there is a notable resurgence of interest in the educational reforms initiated in 1907 by Dr Maria Montessori (1870 - 1952) at her tiny experimental school in Rome: the Casa dei Bambini. While the paper looks exclusively at Australasia, it is not exaggeration to assert that the upsurge in attention is worldwide. Physician, educator, philosopher, humanitarian, reformer, Montessori devised a system which rapidly developed into a phenomenon of intense curiosity inside and outside Italy. Today in its second phase in both Australia and New Zealand, the Montessori Method enjoys new heights in popularity. There are hundreds of practising Montessori teachers, and thousands of children experiencing the Montessori Way. Why is it so? It is instructive to re-examine the origins and foundations of the philosophy of this remarkable woman who approached education from a fresh and original perspective. A re-examination sheds some light on the enduring interest in her method.

The impact of cultural education on adolescents and their comprehension of culture-specific reading material

Keis Ohtsuka and Maria Miltiadous, Victoria University of Technology, Australia

The impact of cultural education on adolescents and their reading comprehension of culture specific material was assessed using fifty-five 14-15 year olds. Two experimental groups (n = 22; n = 18) received cultural education, either on Aboriginal or Indonesian culture, and then read passages about cultural conflicts. The control group (n = 15) was not given cultural education. Two passages, either on Aboriginal or Indonesian culture, presented two episodes of cultural conflicts, a universal and culture-specific example. Later participants' comprehension was assessed. A repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated that cultural education significantly improved the understanding of Indonesian culture, F(2, 52) = 18.2, MSE= .19, p < .0005. Furthermore, the opaqueness of cultural conflict within a passage had a independent significant effect on comprehension, F(1, 52) = 10.31, MSE = .22, p < .005. Motivation to interact with the culture and negation of former cultural beliefs significantly predict interest in Indonesian culture, F(1, 53) = 57.54, p<.001. There were no significant predictors of learning on Aboriginal culture. Prior knowledge predicted learning on Indonesian culture, F(2, 52) = 16.19, p< .001. The results suggest that cultural education improves adolescents

Normative data from Australian university students on Schommer (1990) Epistemological Questionnaire

Keis Ohtsuka, Joe Mallamace, Marini Milonas and Anthony Scicluna, Victoria University of Technology, Australia

The aim of this study was to produce normative data for an Australian sample on Schommer (1990) Epistemological Questionnaire [Schommer, M. (1990). Effects of beliefs about the nature of knowledge on comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 498-504]. The original questionnaire was administered to a small number of participants and feedback was sought. A revised version of the Epistemological Questionnaire was then developed and a draft was sent to Schommer for comments. A sample of 150 Australian university students was collected using a revised version of the Epistemological Questionnaire. The results suggest that four similar underlying factors comprising beliefs in (1) innate, one-shot and quick learning, (2) inability to 'learn' to learn, (3) simple and unambiguous knowledge, and quick learning, and (4) certainty of knowledge and reluctance to question authority were obtained. The implication of these findings from an Australian sample may suggest that epistemological beliefs among Australian university students are similar to those of the American students. With a slight modification, Schommer (1990) Epistemological Questionnaire serves as an effective tool to assess students' beliefs regarding learning and the nature of knowledge.

OLADJ96.093

Asian student's learning strategies and Australian teaching styles : A square peg in a round hole?

James Oladejo, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

This paper discusses the findings of a research into the difficulties which Asian students in Australian Universities often encounter with regard to lecture comprehension, tutorial participation and seminar presentation at the initial stage of their studies. In particular we examine aspects of these difficulties which indicate a mismatch between the students' learning styles, previous learning experience and assumptions about the roles and responsibilities of learners on the one hand, and the general teaching practices and perceptions of the role of students in Australian universities on the other . Suggestions aimed at ensuring adequate preparation and facilitating easy transition for Asian students in Australia, as well as modification of teaching styles and role assumptions by Australian lecturers are made.

Restructuring a preservice teacher education program

Marnie O'Neill, The University of Western Australia, Australia

This paper is a critical account of the redevelopment of a one-year end-on Postgraduate Diploma of Education (Pg Dip Ed). The Diploma had existed for 20 years as an uneasy graft of Curriculum Studies and Study of Teaching (teaching practice) on to a pre-existing foundations model of teacher education which was argued to be increasingly inadequate as a preparation for teachers. Academic staff disputed the extent to which the Pg Dip Ed should serve as a professional qualification, or as an induction into higher studies in education.

In 1995, a substantially reconstructed diploma in which school experience was promoted as the dominant feature was introduced; reflective teaching practices and integration across strands were valorised as the key principles through which competent practitioners operating from a firm theoretical base were to be produced. This paper focuses on the ways in which those principles were applied in development and implementation of the program, and in identifying the perceived limitations which still need to be addressed. The topic of preservice literacy education is taken as an example of the ways in which integration across the program strands was attempted, and to demonstrate ways in which reflective practices were to be promoted.

ORREJ96.287

Assessment in higher education: A comparison of academics' 'thinking-in-assessment' and 'theories-about-assessment'

Janice Orrell and Michael Lawson, Flinders University of South Australia, Australia

This is an interpretive study that has sought to elucidate what occurs in the largely private activity of assessment of student learning and the tacit theories academics hold about their own practice. This examination of assessment has been based on two sets of data obtained from sixteen experienced academics who teach in applied degree programmes. First, these academics exposed for public scrutiny their own thoughts and decision making processes as they interpreted and assessed their own students' written text. Later, these same academics described their own assessment practices, factors that constrained their practice and their personal theories about assessment including its relationship to teaching and learning. Based on these two sets of data, three studies were conducted. The first study described how academics think during assessment and what they think about, the second study examined the participants' beliefs about assessment and the third which is the focus of this paper compares academics' assessment behaviour with their beliefs.

It was found that while the assessment process had a summative role assessor's thinking was focussed largely on diagnostic and formative teaching role. Also while academics' theories prioritised the feedback function of assessment little was actually given and their was a tension between assessing according to pre-determined criteria and use of academics intuitive professional judgement in holistic, impressionistic judgements.

ORTIA96.407

Teaching and learning: Psycho-philosophical factors in curriculum reform towards cognitive enhancement

Aniceta Manuel - Ortinero, University of the Philippines

In a time when concepts have been generated voluminously in education, psychology and philosophy, a new level of imperative inquiry arises. Hopefully, this paper is relevant in seeking to do a critical analysis and evaluation of concepts and principles of teaching and learning in human cognition. The following reasons partly justify this inquiry:

a) no systematic and integrative study of concepts in teaching and learning as far as the cognitive dimension is concerned;

b) overlapping of categories concerning the use of psychological and philosophical terms in learning and pedagogy ;

c) the presence of some ambiguities and inconsistencies of terminology and concepts in education arising from isolated pursuits of its psychological and philosophical assumptions.

These conditions clearly negate a sure and sound advancement of the educational process.

This study becomes significant in providing clear and valid definitions , logical discourse in pedagogy, and cogent deliberations of ideas in various forms of cognitive learning. In this regard, this paper asserts that as pscyhology identifies and defines processes and principles of human learning, philosophy brings order and meaning,limits and possibilities as well as direction and unity to the entire educational endeavor. Hence, also, curricular reform acquires an authentic character. An evaluation of this work will need philosophical methods, area, and quality criteria which will both coordinate with and comprehend psychological approaches and strategies.

Critical reflections on social justice and ethnicity

Barry Osborne, James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia

This paper analyses the way first year students in our pre-service teacher education program confront and are challenged by notions of social justice and ethnic diversity in second semester. It outlines the strategies we use to highlight issues of ethnic diversity and racisms in society and in schooling. Student responses will be gathered by way of open ended questionnaires, student journals and follow up interviews of the kind established during first semester when the focus was on gender, class and rurality.

This data will be analysed qualitatively and compared with data obtained from students taking an earlier version of the same subject in 1993. Details of ongoing reflection by staff and students will be presented together with implications for further refinement of both the first and second semester subjects taken by first years.

The first years of 1993 will also provide insights into their current reflections on racisms and cultural diversity by way of an open ended questionnaire.

Teacher stress: A comparison between casual and permanent primary school teachers with a special focus on coping

Amanda Palmer, University of Sydney, Australia

Three main areas of interest in this study of teacher stress are workplace stressors, coping and symptoms. Boyle et al (1995) suggests that workload and student misbehaviour are the major stressors for primary school teachers (p49). Carver et al. (1989, p268-270) suggest 12 major categories of coping, some of which are maladaptive, some of which are adaptive. Symptoms of stress include behavioural, mental, emotional and physical symptoms (Dunham in Borg, 1990. p 115). This study is exploratory, investigating the differences between the stress experiences of the permanent and casual primary school teachers, in terms of stressors, coping sand symptoms of stress. Perceived role differences are also investigated.

The sample consisted of 25 casual and 25 permanent primary school teachers. Participants completed a symptomatology checklist, and adapted forms of the COPE (Carver et al., 1994) and the Teacher stress Inventory (Boyle et al. 1995). Demographic information was collected. In-depth interviews focussed on coping and perceived role differences between casual teachers and permanent teachers. Data is currently being collected.

A networking model for industry based flexible delivery of learning

Helen Parker, Skillnet and Eric Williams, Griffith University, Australia

Australian industry increasingly is expressing its workplace learning needs in terms of flexible delivery. The traditional institution based learning strategies are no longer seen as sufficient in meeting the demands of restructured and streamlined workplaces. Industry stakeholders are currently investigating a range of technology based and other innovative learning strategies to address these demands. This paper will report the findings of a major study on flexible delivery for the retail and recreation industries in Queensland. The study had, as one of its major outcomes, a "best practice" framework for industry led flexible delivery of learning.

The key initiative within this framework is the development and implementation of a networking model to maximise scarce resources whilst pro-actively positioning both industry sectors in the training market. The Researchers argue that the retail and recreation industry peak bodies should reconceptualise themselves as organisations managing strategic networking relationships with a range of stakeholders both in the public and private sectors.

The network should be designed to provide data on research, education and training needs, courses, new ideas and techniques, policies and sources of funding. As well as providing information, the network would allow regular interaction between members about common problems, issues, strategies and solutions. Communication throughout the loosely coupled network structure would be achieved through the use of sophisticated computer technology.

PARKJ96.251

Necessary but not sufficient: Towards conceptualising primary teacher education

Bob Meyenn and Judith Parker, Charles Sturt University, Australia

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

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

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

Children of Islam: Education, culture and the politics of difference within the British context

Marie Parker-Jenkins, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom

There are no definitive statistics of Muslims living in Britain but an estimate of approximately one and a half million, out of a total population of 56 million is usually accepted making this group Britain's largest minority. Of these, around half a million are children of compulsory school age. This paper draws on the author's empirical research into the educational needs of these pupils. Discussion focuses predominantly on the perceptions of Muslim and non-Muslim headteachers operating in British schools. Both similarities and differences were found, for example, in the conceptualisation of religion in the lives of Muslim children, and the concern over English language acquisition. Policy ramifications which emerge from the results are also explored notably: the need to move away from piece-meal, ad-hoc strategies to a more coherent and socially inclusive approach to cultural diversity in the classroom; to encourage a high level of commitment from senior management in schools particularly in the light of competing political demands; and a need to challenge the efficacy of a National Curriculum which is centrally driven and assimilationist in nature. Finally, the policy issues raised go beyond the concerns of children of Islam, and have implications for those of other ethnic minorities and their right to equitable treatment in our schools.

Conducting the research interview: Framing questions and establishing rapport

Gary Partington, Edith Cowan University, Australia

This paper had its origins in the degree of success of different interviewers in obtaining quality data from Aboriginal students. Successful semi-structures interviews depend upon the establishment of rapport with the interviewee and framing the right questions.

In this paper the factors which contribute to rapport, including setting the respondent at ease, developing an egalitarian relationship and listening carefully to responses so that dialogue can occur, are examined in the context of interviewing Aboriginal students.

Interviewing requires a consideration for the issues to be addressed, a concern to acquire valid data, and a regard for the situation of the interviewee. Examples from research studies are used to illustrate these issues in this paper.

Teaching practice in remote Aboriginal schools: Changing the perspective of student teachers

Gary Partington, Edith Cowan University, Australia

Despite considerable efforts at the academic level to prepare student teachers for teaching Aboriginal students, most students persist with hegemonic approaches in their teaching upon graduation. One process which appears to have a major influence on attitudes towards teaching Aboriginal students is participation in a teaching practice in an Aboriginal community. In this paper student teacher perceptions of their experiences on such a practice are presented to illustrate the influence of the practice on their view of teaching Aboriginal students.

A stalling influence? Structures and 'reform' in Physical Education

Dawn Penney, University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 27, Curriculum development and reform in Physical Education: International issues.

Mathematics, mathematics learning, mathematics teaching: Views of student teachers from Singapore and Australia

Bob Perry and John Conroy, University of Western Sydney, Australia, and Foong Pui Yee, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Student teachers in Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand , who were in the first year of courses preparing them to teach in primary schools, were asked to solve a one-step ratio problem and to complete the following open sentences about the nature of mathematics and mathematics pedagogy:

In my opinion, mathematics . . .

In my opinion, the process of obtaining mathematics knowledge .

In my opinion, mathematics in schools . . .

In my opinion, pupils involved in the process of obtaining mathematics knowledge .

In my opinion, teaching mathematics in schools .

This paper discusses the results arising from student teachers in Singapore and Australia. In relation to the ratio problem, similarities and differences in terms of success rate, approaches and strategies used by the two country groups are considered. Relationships between these variables and the responses to the `beliefs ' questions also are detailed. Possible causes for these similarities and differences are discussed, with particular emphasis on the curriculum and pedagogical contexts in the two countries.

Mathematics and manipulatives: Views from the secondary schools

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

This paper continues the authors' research plan, introduced in 1994 and reported on in the 1995 AARE Conference, to investigate the use of manipulatives in mathematics learning and teaching in primary and secondary schools. While manipulative use is reasonably well accepted in primary schools, there is a lower level of acceptance in secondary schools. The relationship between the use of manipulatives and teacher beliefs about mathematics, mathematics learning and mathematics teaching in secondary schools is reported here.

All mathematics teachers in government and non-government secondary schools in the south western suburbs of Sydney were surveyed to ascertain demographic information, the use of manipulatives in mathematics learning and teaching and the teachers ' beliefs about mathematics, mathematics learning and mathematics teaching. Through statistical analysis of this data, relationships between espoused and enacted beliefs of these teachers are investigated. In addition, comparison with data derived from primary school teachers in the same region of Sydney is addressed.

Collaborative research into the effects of school restructuring

Judy Peters, Rosie Dobbins and Bruce Johnson, University of South Australia, Australia

This paper reports research which was one of four projects commissioned by the National Schools Network in 1995. The aim of the research was to examine the relationship between restructuring and organisational culture in schools which changed their work organisation as part of the National Schools Network's program of reform. The project was a cross-site case study of two primary and two secondary schools located in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.

The research involved a partnership between schools, the National Schools Network and researchers from the University of South Australia. All parties collaboratively negotiated the research design, the implementation process and the interpretations of the data.

In this session the findings of the research will be presented and the implications for the restructuring of educational organisations will be discussed.

Ownership and governance: The privatisation of New Zealand universities

Michael Peters, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Following the Learning for Life (1988) reforms, enacted in the Education Amendment Act 1990, and the development of an equivalent full time student (EFTS) funding system and student loan scheme, a Taskforce was established to investigate the feasibility of a capital charge scheme for tertiary institutions, with responsibility for also examining the issue of governance. In late 1995 the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee in 1995 "became concerned that there were proposals for change in the relationship of universities to Government being developed at the officials level" and decided to be pro-active in reviewing proposals on governance and commissioned Graham Scott, former Secretary to the Treasury, to write a paper on the ownership and governance of New Zealand universities. In essence, Scott and Smelt (1995) argue that the Crown is actively seeking ways to contain or reduce its financial risk. On this basis they argue for a private not-for-profit trust model which, they maintain, would reduce the risk and performance concerns of the Crown while at the same time increase the commercial freedom of universities. This paper reviews current debates on governance and ownership of New Zealand universities, commenting upon the trust model and recent attempts to develop a model of ownership monitoring for TEIs (tertiary education institutions).

Use of mind-maps in the Secondary Three Biology class : A teacher's reflections on the pedagogy of learning outcomes

Peterson, Colin R., Oon Chye, Yeoh and Yik Yuen, Gan

This report details the process by which the student-teacher initiated a programme of concept-mapping for Sec. 3 students, over a six-week period, spanning two chapters of biology. Analysis of student written and verbal output indicated that concept mapping improved students' ability to explain biological concepts; enabled them to better understand the relational and seminal meaning of biological concepts; synthesised alternative conceptions and thereby, more ready to cope with the subsequent learning of other biology topics that followed. The method involving deep and active learning called for the learner-centred use of the holistic, critical thinking skills in "mind-mapping". To succeed, the lessons were matched initially to the students' lack of the skills or experience in analysing the structure of knowledge. With greater success in the process of concept mapping, students were more prepared to shift away from their general preference for the conventional teacher-centered mode of teaching

PETIA96.110

Democracy? Equity?: Ask students what they think of PETE

Anthony G.J.Pettit, Northern Territory University, Australia

This paper will consider the question of neophyte teacher conceptions of physical education both at the tertiary level and as a curriculum area within schools. It will report on a 'reflection-in-action' project which is endeavouring to create theory from practice.

Now more than ever is a time for educational reform. A framework for a national curriculum is in place in Australia, a similar framework is in place in Britain, while in the US 'National Standards for Physical Education' and a 'Position Statement: Developmentally appropriate Physical Education Practices for Children' have been developed.

In spite of efforts such as these, this paper will argue that in Australia little change has come about and a great deal of reform is needed. Part of this reform relates to the notion of reflection-in-action, whereby PETE students can seek answers to questions such as 'what's worth knowing?' and 'what's worth doing?'. An 'outcomes' model that enables students to look at Health/Physical Education from a range of vantage points and which is being trialled with pre-service students at this university will be discussed.

PHILJ96.487

The relationship between reasoning ability, IQ and academic performance of Malaysian primary school children

John Arul Phillips

A nation-wide study profiling the Malaysian primary school child has recently been completed involving 6000 children from 15 schools. This paper will discuss in depth findings based on a smaller sample of 600 children from 7 schools. Reasoning ability is defined as the ability to perform the following types of mental tasks, namely; classification, series completion, analogical reasoning, spatial reasoning, inferential reasoning and deductive reasoning. Three multilevel tests were developed, each measuring two age levels. Academic performance is defined as performance in Bahasa Malaysia, English and mathematics; and measured using tests specifically developed for the project. IQ is measured using the Ravens Progressive Matrices.

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between reasoning ability, language and quantitative competence; and whether reasoning ability is a good predictor IQ. It also the aim of the study to validate the reasoning test and whether it could be later developed as a standardised test for Malaysian schools.

PITHB96.016

Learning outcomes of adult students exposed to off-campus course delivery

Bob Pithers, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

This study examines the learning outcomes of vocational teachers-as-students exposed to an off-campus residential delivery mode. The outcomes reported are compared to outcomes for a similar group of teachers who experienced the same course but via a non-residential on-campus mode of delivery. The perceptions of both groups of teachers were obtained by questionnaire. Lecturers who had experience of both groups were also surveyed on similar issues. Information was sought primarily about attitudes to social, communication and learning outcomes relevant to the delivery mode undertaken. In addition, the final academic results of a major project, set for both groups, were compared.

Some major between-group differences were perceived. the off-campus residential mode was generally seen to be most effective, by both the learners and their lecturers, in terms of the perceived greater opportunities it gave for the development of interaction, effective communication and support, including perceived positive effects on learning with the improved chance of academic success. There was, however, in terms of final academic success measured, no significance between-group differences. Overall it was found that an off-campus residential program may significantly improve group cohesion and communication compared to a similar non-residential program but that those outcomes may not necessarily lead to significant improvements in learned performance.

A preliminary study of the motivating factors influencing the academic success of TAFE marketing students

Heather Pitt, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

This preliminary descriptive study provides evidence that part-time evening students achieve a higher academic score than full-time day students, and explores some of the underlying factors, with particular emphasis on motivational influences, which may impact on this.

Anecdotal evidence as a teacher within the TAFE system suggests that the part-time evening student cohort are more personally motivated than their full-time counterparts, and that this may be attributed to the fact that learning in the workplace gives the curriculum relevancy and facilitates post-secondary learning. Part-time students achieve higher overall grades than full-time day students, despite the fact that the latter, often bring with them study skills which are generally more structured and recently acquired .

Student results, from over 350 students across a four year period, undertaking a second year unit in the Associate Diploma of Business (Marketing) at Swinburne Institute of TAFE were grouped and analysed according to study mode and gender. A sample group of 76 students were surveyed in order to explore issues including age, gender; relevancy, perceived personal motivation, workplace experience and previous educational experiences.

English Language Proficiency Tests as predictors of student performance

Gloria R. Poedjosoedarmo and Victoria Y. Hsui, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Applicants to the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Singapore who have not obtained a pass in GP at "O" level must take an English Proficiency Test (EPT) as one of the requirements for admission. The test contains a written section which tests knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension (as indicated by completion of cloze passages), and oral comprehension, and an oral production section which consists of reading a passage and giving a short extemporaneous talk. The test is intended to ensure that students admitted to the NIE have an adequate command of the English language to (1) carry out their academic studies and (2) present an appropriate model of the English language to their students when they themselves become teachers.

In the present paper the researchers will look at the performance of students who took the test and were admitted to the NIE in academic subjects and in teaching practice. An attempt will be made to determine the ability of the test to predict success in academic studies in general and the ability of certain parts of the test to predict ability in certain areas. For example, it might be expected that high scores on the oral section of the test would correlate highly with success in teaching practice, that high scores on the grammar, vocabulary and cloze sections would correlate highly with success in courses requiring writing, and that high scores on the listening section of the test would correlate with success in courses which depended heavily on extracting information from lectures and other oral forms of presentation.

The actual results of the study will be discussed and compared with previous studies on the predictive ability of English proficiency tests. Finally, implications of the study for the future development of the test in an effort to make it a better instrument for predicting student performance will be discussed.

Perceived and demonstrated aptitudes: Same or different?

Poh Sui Hoi

A self-estimate aptitude scale (SEAS) was partly adapted and developed to measure six distinct aptitudes: verbal, numerical, form perception, spatial, clerical and mechanical. The scale was validated for its factor structure using confirmatory factor analytic procedures when administered to 1,568 the same aptitudes from the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) and Differential Aptitude Tests (DAT)

The results from the viewpoint of the Multitrait Multmethod (MTMM) tradition, following Campbell and Fiske (1959) arguments for convergent and discriminant validity did not show that the aptitudes measured by the SEAS, called perceived aptitudes are similar to the aptitudes measured by the standardised tests, called demonstrated aptitudes. Further analysis, using structural equation modelling showed that the perceived aptitudes and demonstrated aptitudes are more likely to be different.

Fostering literacy learning: The child's role as mediator between home and school

Jennifer Power, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, Australia

The role of the child as an influential mediator of communication between six families and a teacher is the focus of this collaborative, case study research. This paper examines the many roles undertaken by six children as they mediate the communication between their families and their Kindergarten /Year One teacher over a two year period: Research supporting the benefits of reciprocal communication between parents and teachers has focused on the development of 'co-operative partnerships', however few studies have examined the role the child plays in this tripartite relationship. This omission appears significant as the child has extensive and direct contact with both the teacher and parents (Catterrmole & Robinson, 1985). This paper offers a unique contribution to the extensive body of research investigating parent/ teacher relationships. It recognises and documents the child's role as participant in the alliance between families and schools.

It is argued in the paper that the child plays a significant role in shaping parent / teacher communication and as a result of the child's behaviour, the literacy practices of the home and classroom are altered. Analysis of home interview transcripts and classroom video recordings are used to demonstrate the various roles the children adopted as instigators, moderators or inhibitors of communication between their parents and the teacher. The impact of the child's communicative role is examined in relation to the literacy learning practices enacted in both learning contexts. The study concludes the child's role as a conduit of communication between home and school appears to be an under utilised resource which educators need to recognise if more effective partnerships between the home and the school are to be achieved.

PURDN96.252

Goals and coping behaviours: Indonesian students in Australia

Nola Purdie, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

The study reported in this poster session sought to move beyond the documentation of the problems that international students face, to examine more closely the ways by which a group of students with a common ethnic background dealt with these problems. It is an exploratory study that aims to develop a tentative model of international students' academic coping behaviour by combining what we know about some aspects of learning in Western settings with insights gained from an intensive, qualitative examination of the experiences of seven Indonesian students participating in an English for Academic Purposes programme at an Australian university.

The literature from several distinct fields of research provided a focus for the study. The literature on goal-related behaviour was used to guide movement beyond an acknowledgement of the problems that these students face, to explore how these problems are associated with students' goal processes. Related to, but with distinct literatures of their own, are the areas of coping strategies and volition. Research from these traditions provided a way of thinking about what students do when attainment of their goals is impeded by difficulties over and above those normally encountered by the locals.

PURDN96.253

Asian students in Australia: A review of research on learning

Nola Purdie, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

There has been considerable investment in research which investigates the characteristics of effective learners in Western settings. The study of such concepts and aspects of student behaviour as motivation, goal setting, self-concept, learning strategies, self-regulated learning, and time on task has led to the development of models of academic learning that have informed the practice of teachers at all levels of institutionalised learning.

The generalisability of findings from such research to students from non-Western backgrounds who are learning in Australian classrooms cannot be taken for granted. Recent research has begun to highlight the need to rethink some of our theories about student learning in light of a growing awareness of additional and sometimes alternative theories of how students of non-Western backgrounds learn.

This paper reviews research on the learning of Asian students in Australian educational settings. It explores research that has investigated, for instance, Japanese perceptions of self, collectivist versus individualistic orientations, and Confucian philosophies and their influence on students' learning beliefs and practices. Implications for the development of models of learning that take into account cultural factors in learning are discussed.

A comparison of student teachers' and mentors' perceptions of problem behaviours in secondary schools

Quah May Ling, Kevin Jones and Linda Gan, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Behaviours are social constructs, which become ' troublesome' when they are problematic to someone. This paper compares student teachers' and mentors' perceptions of problem behaviours in secondary schools in Singapore. The study is particularly relevant, given the increased use of mentoring in initial teacher education in Singapore and other countries throughout the world.

The research focused upon behaviours which teachers (students and mentors) regard as troublesome within the classroom. An analysis of the perceptions of a total of 80 teachers is presented in order to reveal the types of problem behaviours which are cited as the 'most frequently occurring' and the 'most disruptive'. The results of the two groups of teachers are compared.

The research examines perceptions of the frequency of problem behaviours which occurs 'around the school' (e.g., along the corridors, the playground ). The inclusion of this section was influenced by Lawrence and Steed's (1986) research which named the playground as the site of most problems.

Singapore students' performance in two "real-life" mathematics word problems

Ramakrishnan Menon, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

About 900 upper Primary students from 20 Singapore schools were given two written word problems. One word problem asked for the number of taxis needed for 9 adult passengers and the other was a nonsensical one, in that the information given (the number of passengers in a bus) had nothing to do with the question asked (the age of the bus driver). Data collection (which includes answer scripts of the students and interview data on about 60 students) will be completed by mid-1996 and the resulting analysis should be able to indicate whether students actually take into consideration all the information given and relate them to sensible solutions or whether they are prone to indiscriminate and mechanical application of procedures. The results will be reported at this conference and should prove interesting and instructive, given that problem solving is the focus of the Singapore Primary school mathematics curriculum.

On 'Child Study' and primary English teaching: Curriculum history, teacher education, and educational research

Jo-Anne Reid, University of Ballarat and Bill Green, Deakin University, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symosium 12, Educational research, primary schooling and curriculum history: A symposium.

RENSP96.258

Informal group study at university: The experience of local Australian and international students

Peter Renshaw, Margaret Holm, Jo Miller, & Airong Zhang, The University of Queensland, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 19, The interface of learning and culture in academic study.

Preservice teachers' pedagogical beliefs and knowledge: Sources and influences on planning and teaching

Carol Richards, University of Newcastle, Australia

This paper reports on an integrated Methods subject/Field experience in which a group of second year Bachelor of Education (Music) students and a group of Diploma in Education (Music) students practised targeted teaching and management skills in a school under the supervision of their Methods lecturer. After planning each lesson, students were interviewed and ask to identify the sources of their planning decisions and the rationale for their planning decisions. Results indicated that the sources of decisions changed throughout the study, although prior pedagogical beliefs remained the same. New pedagogical beliefs and knowledge were generated if the information and strategies advocated in lectures were compatible with previous beliefs or if the information and strategies were successfully used in teaching. Implications for teacher education will be discussed.

RICHC96.112

Teaching London kids - The remaking of 'adolescence' in educational and media discourses

Chris Richards,University of North London, United Kingdom

This paper will represent my continuing research in the field of youth, social identity and popular culture . Its specific focus will be the range of constructions of 'adolescence' current in popular media representations of young people ('Kids', Heartbreak High', 'My So-called Life', etc.) in the everyday professional discourse of secondary school teachers and in the self-accounts of young people themselves. The argument will be that constructions of 'adolescence' are multivalent- combining elements of long-enduring 'common sense' with more recent 'crisis' inflicted variants. I want to argue that teachers need to be drawn into a more theoretically informed and reflective debate around the concept of 'adolescence' and that there needs to be a significant effort to involve teachers in remaking 'adolescence' - both as a conceptual category and a 'lived experience'.

My title - Teaching London Kids - indicates the specific context of my research - though the implications are by no means limited to urban of UK education. Indeed, the argument of the paper will engage with accounts of 'adolescence' and 'youth' on a variety of other cultural contexts arid will explore issues of cultural and historical specificity.

Gender and cultural differences in teacher-student interpersonal behaviour

Tony Rickards, Darrell Fisher and Barry Fraser, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

The purpose of this study was to determine associations between students' perceptions of the classroom learning environment, the cultural background of students and their attitudinal and achievement outcomes. A sample of 3994 students from 182 secondary school science and mathematics classes in 35 schools completed a survey including the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), an attitude to class scale and questions relating to cultural background. The sample was chosen carefully so as to be representative, though only coeducational classes were to be used in order to permit an unconfounded test of gender differences. Achievement on internal school benchmark assessment tests were used as student outcome measures. Statistical analyses has confirmed the reliability and validity of the QTI for secondary school science and mathematics students.

Concept mapping and learning in tertiary statistics classes

Lyn Roberts, University of Ballarat, and Beverley Moriarty, Central Queensland University, Australia

Concept maps have been used extensively in science education both to promote and to measure meaningful learning. This study examines their use in measuring tertiary science students' understanding of fundamental concepts in statistical inference. A class of nineteen students enrolled in a second unit of statistics were asked to draw concept maps from lists of terms associated with the definition of a statistical problem or investigation, and with techniques of statistical inference. Each of the two maps was drawn early in the semester and then again at the end of semester. The maps were assessed using a scoring scheme which was adapted from a number of other schemes presented in the literature.

Pre and post scores on the two statistical concept maps were examined to determine changes over the semester. They were also correlated with scores on the assignment, which was the formal assessment for that unit. While there was no significant improvement in map scores over time, significant correlations were found between scores on the initial problem definition map and the assignment, and also between the assignment and the second statistical inference map. The classroom exercises involving concept mapping encouraged a different approach to cognitive processes. They are a worthwhile contribution to teaching and learning in tertiary statistics courses.

ROMAL96.621

The whiteness within: The many likenesses of Sojourner Truth

Leslie Roman, University of British Columbia, Canada

Investments in heroines and heroes are often the stuff of lived ideology that blur the modernist lines between history and fiction, sociology and literature, education and mis-education. They destabilize familiar binaries premised on the opposition between the contradictory 'realities' of the subject being represented and the jouissance of fantasy, cathexis and projection by those who speak for the subaltern. Yet, such binary oppositional frameworks often also constitute the unspoken theoretical bases of anti-oppression pedagogies (whether critiquing orientalism, racism, sexism, classism or heterosexism). My essay extends the work of Rey Chow (1995a, b and c), who draws on feminist re-workings of Freud and Lacan to develop an urgently needed postcolonial critique of the polemics of anti-orientalist critiques. My essay extends her analysis to other forms of what I call "anti-ism pedagogies", invested in dream of feminist coalitions across differences between and within women's racialized experiences and positions. I take up her call to analyze how fantasy, as an inherent part of consciousness and wakeful state of mind, both creates possibilities for and is implicated in the postcolonial limits of so-called "cross-cultural exchange", "identification" with and the representation of the subaltern and racially oppressed. The texts for my reading shall be contemporary white feminists' utopic idealizations of abolitionist and women's rights activist, Sojourner Truth. In particular, I focus on the writings of Donna Haraway (1992), Denise Riley (1988), Constance Penley (1989), and myself (1993). I shall show how the various figures of Sojourner Truth deserve to be treated as what I call, "redemptive narratives" in which the speaking/writing subject is variable, shifting between the "reality" of dominance and submission/subordination. I discuss the implications of these shifts for antiracist pedagogy and the practice of "institutional defensiveness" as racialized and imperial memory/amnesia. I will conclude with some comments on minefields of white redemptive discourses for building multiracial and international feminist coalitions.

Generative education: Preliminary research with Singapore students

Dennis Rose

This paper has three sections. Generative education is described in the first section. The second section comprises the results of school- and curriculum-wide implementations of generative education in Seattle and in Chicago. Finally, a pilot study of aspects of the model with Singaporean students is outlined.

Generative education is a dynamic, self-improving approach to teaching and learning. It incorporates built-in self-correcting procedures that shape both the actions of teachers and students and improves the model as a whole. The carefully structured curriculum ranges from fluent knowledge and skills in basic facts and procedures to intellectual skills such as generating focusing questions before reading a text, and hypothesis testing.

Results from a ten year evaluation of the generative education model show that remedial students made two to three years progress for each year of instruction. Jobless adults advanced an average of 1.8 grades for every 20 hours of instruction and practice.

ROWAL96.229

Feminist rhizomatics: Research alliances among 'nomadic subjects'

Leonie Rowan, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Australia

Much has been made in recent years of the 'need' for women to develop strategic alliances or 'networks' with other women in order to facilitate their increased participation in the research activities of universities. Much has also been made (usually in different forums;) of the ways in which various manifestations of globalisation have caused the 'collapse' of space/time boundaries thereby increasing opportunities for connections between academics in diverse locations. These shifting/collapsing borders have also been read as evidence that women will now be able to use 'their' 'networking abilities' to gain improved access to research opportunities, in a 'borderless' world. Such a project is based on the principle that women will thereby gain entry to an unchallenged masculinist research environment. It is a model of inclusion with out disturbance.

An alternative, transformative approach to the issue of women's participation within educational research--and the kinds of alliances and partnerships necessary to this participation--will be explored in this paper. Drawing on theorists Rosie Braidotti and Elizabeth Grosz, and connecting with the emerging field of feminist rhizomatics, I shall explore the ways in which individual women (conceptualised as nomadic subjects can engage in temporary alliances that are across, within and indifferent to traditional boundaries of disciplines and countries. In this way they create what Braidotti calls "a political contract among women", committed to the contestation of the masculine/modulkar/sedentary culture. of universities and the transformation of educational research environments.

Innovation in senior secondary mathematics curriculum: The voice of the teacher

Glenn Rowley, Christine Brew and Julie Ryan, Monash University, and Gilah Leder and Anne South, La Trobe University, Australia

Curriculum reform in Victoria has led to dramatic changes in what is taught in mathematics classes and in how it is assessed. At years 11 and 12, students must choose what subjects they undertake and within these subjects there are varying degrees of choice about what topics will be studied. Some optional topics are "safe" and familiar to teachers, while others are less familiar, and therefore, in the eyes of some, riskier choices. From previous studies we have statistical data about the choices made, both within and between subjects. This study attempts to give voice to the teachers of mathematics, who reflect on their experience after five years of the new system, including a major subject restructuring after three years. In-depth interviews with 40 experienced teachers of mathematics allow them to reflect on the impact of these changes on their own professional practice and that of their colleagues. How has their teaching changed? What professorial development needs have been revealed? How have they handled the choices that they as teachers have to make, and how have they advised students about their choices? Are students over-assessed? How valuable is the learning that takes place with the different modes of assessment? Teachers' views about these important issues give us a glimpse of curriculum change as it happens, and how it affects the lives of individuals.

Creating inter-institutional partnerships across frontiers in distance education. The ITM experience

Jayati Roy, Mara Institute of Technology (ITM), Perlis, Malaysia

Distance education and open learning in Malaysia are presently seeing revolutionary changes.

The unprecedented development of distance education in recent years, coupled with a positive governmental stance towards it, has propelled monumental changes in this country. Distance education is therefore poised to achieve a 'mega business' status, in direct competition with traditional face-to-face education for adult and continuing education.

Ellen D. Wagner in a recent paper on 'Success Factors in Distance Education' ( Adult Learning, September/October 1995) emphasised that "one of the greatest challenges - and one of the greatest strengths - of distance education comes from inter-institutional partnerships."

This paper would essentially look at this aspect of distance education with regard to the MARA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ( ITM) 's role in instrumenting collaboration with other countries and institutions in the past few years. It would also explore possibilities of identifying areas that still require cooperation; especially in the areas of postgraduate education; materials production and the use of technology to meet local and cultural needs.

The problems faced in this endeavour and the challenges that are to be met would be identified in its ongoing efforts to meet the standards and quality which it has is so ardently set out to achieve.

Creating partnerships within the creative arts in teacher education

Deirdre Russell-Bowie, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, Australia

This paper explores the history of the Creative Arts in Australian primary schools over the last fifty years, showing how, despite the many government investigations into the arts in education, and the many highly applaudable recommendations developed as a result of these investigations, little has changed. In general, the Creative Arts subjects are still taught individually, by generalist classroom teachers, who perceive themselves as having neither confidence not competence in these areas. The Creative Arts are still at the bottom of the list of Primary School priorities and they are often the first to be dropped from a teacher's program if there are interruptions in the school week.

The situation in Tertiary Education, where tomorrow's teachers are being trained, is no better. Lecture hours for compulsory Creative Arts subjects are being significantly decreased and the four strands of the Creative Arts (Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts) are being grouped together as one subject but rarely presented using a developmental or integrated approach.

However in reflecting on these challenges, some positive outcomes in Creative Arts education are being observed within the recently developed Bachelor of Teaching course and in the Bachelor of Education specialisation in the Creative Arts at the University of Western Sydney, Macarthur.

In the compulsory undergraduate Creative Arts subjects, partnerships are being created with drama, music and visual arts which are then being integrated with other subject areas in an effort to have them included more frequently in a teacher's program. In the BEd (Creative Arts) course, as well as completing electives in the individual specialist areas, the students also undertake two integrated Creative Arts subjects in which they receive practical experience and support in implementing the Creative Arts in their own classroom.

The results of these approaches indicate that, at least in the short term, the students' and their pupils' skills, knowledge and attitudes have developed considerably and the students have seen the positive results for themselves of integrating the Creative Arts within the school situation.

Curriculum development and reform in New Zealand physical education

George Salter

The 1993 New Zealand Curriculum Framework both reflects and heralds continuing changes in education. This process, driven by similar social and political motivations, echoes that experienced in both Britain and Australia in recent years. The influence of these curriculum reforms on physical education in New Zealand, accompanied by evolving conceptualisations of sport, leisure and health in society, have resulted in the need for ongoing critical redefinition of the content, nature and purposes of the subject.

Sport and physically vigorous recreation have traditionally been valued in New Zealand society as essential constructs of national identity, and this has defined and validated practices within school physical education. Politically driven curriculum reforms in New Zealand have resulted in the combining of physical education and health as one of the seven essential learning areas, and physical education is now posited as an important vehicle to primarily achieve important aims of health and wellbeing. Resulting changes in the content and focus of the curriculum, corresponding new assessment procedures and the construction of the new National Qualifications Framework, mean that physical education teachers are experiencing increasing levels of stress and dissatisfaction as a result of increased workload, and increasing confusion over the "true" nature and purposes of the subject. They feel threatened rather than empowered by the new reforms, and see themselves as having been marginalised rather than centralised in the reform process.

This paper: a) identifies pressures, conflicts and discourses which have shaped physical education practices in New Zealand, b) attempts a meaningful definition of physical education for New Zealand schools for the 21st. Century, identifying realistic purposes and practices, and c) suggests meaningful strategies for teachers development in New Zealand, foregrounding teachers as change agents to effectively implement physical education curriculum reforms in schools.

SAMUM96.551

'Theory' and 'practice' as partners: Implications for teaching research methodology courses

Moses Samuel

The discourse(s) of research in education have become, over the years, increasingly differentiated by variations in the epistemological, ideological and methodological assumptions underlying educational research. In addition, the 'producers' of educational research are now also increasingly varied. Not only academic researchers, but also a range of practitioners - comprising teachers, administrators and policy formulators - now engage in research.

The diversity of the educational research enterprise has tended to set up tensions between 'theory' and 'practice'; between 'scientific theory' and 'practical theory'; and between research that aims at conceptual clarification and theory-generation, and research that is action-oriented. Invariably, even the establishment of separate research methodology courses on qualitative and quantitative research, or on 'action-research' as opposed to 'mainstream' research, tends to fragment our research discourses.

Still, the question remains: how do graduate students who are being apprenticed into educational research make sense of these disparate assumptions and their resultant cacophony of perspectives and voices?

This paper addresses this question, focusing on the design of a course on Research Methodology at the graduate level. It examines ways in which students who are apprenticed into educational research can be helped to navigate different research traditions, recognise issues of convergence and divergence, and work to bridge some of the seeming contradictions.

SANGJ96.119

Working with teachers to chart the dynamics of discursive engagement

Jill Sanguinetti, Deakin University, Australia

My research centres on the responses of teachers of adult literacy and basic education (ALBE) to the changing policy environment and the introduction of competency-based frameworks. It sets out to document and to describe complex processes of discursive resistance, contention, accommodation and hybridisation which teachers participate in as they engage with new policy and its impact on their work lives. Working in an action research style with a group of teachers, I am mapping the discourses that they (we) are invoking as we address issues of vocationalism, casualisation, managerialism and commodification of the curriculum. In this session I will report on an emerging methodology for the deconstructive reading of transcripts, combining poststructuarlist and participatory action research approaches.

SANGP96.322

Mothers' mediation of children's learning in three cultural contexts

Prathyusha Sangavarapu and Alison Elliott, University of Western Sydney Nepean, Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 16 Culture, diversity and learning: The contextualisation of young children's thinking and problem-solving.

Relationships of power: An analysis of discourse within the school practicum

Ninetta Santoro, Deakin University, Australia

As schools implement Languages Other Than English (LOTE) programs in response to government policy, increasing numbers of overseas born and educated people satisfying the proficiency requirements in Asian languages have recognised the potential for employment as teachers in schools. They have been and are likely to continue to be attracted to teacher education courses.

This paper is part of a case study which examines the experiences of two overseas born and educated student teachers on a three week practicum in Melbourne schools. Within the framework of critical discourse analysis, the study compares the relationships between the students teachers and their supervising teachers and focuses on the ways in which the students are positioned and the identities which are created for them

This study raises concerns about the construction of the non native speaker as teacher , the possible existence of racist discourse within Australian schools and the implications for teacher education.

Drug dosage calculation abilities of graduate nurses

Nick Santamaria, Heather Norris, Lexie Clayton, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, and Deborah Scott, University of New South Wales, Australia

This study describes the analysis of the mathematical ability of 220 registered nurses (RNs) from six Victorian universities applying for a graduate year program at St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne. Each applicant completed a drug calculation competency test (DCCT) which required them to calculate ten drug dosages commonly performed by RNs in clinical practice. The results revealed that 58% (n=127) of the 220 applicants were not able to accurately calculate all eleven drug dosages. The results also demonstrated significant differences between applicants from respective universities. The findings suggest that there are fundamental problems with the mathematical skills of newly graduated nurses. The results also support the assertion that the educational preparation of these nurses at the undergraduate level is deficient in some universities and does not adequately prepare nurses to perform basic drug calculations which are frequently required in the acute care setting. The findings of this study also suggest that many newly graduated nurses may pose an unacceptably high risk to patients under their care due to their inability to safely calculate a drug dosage.

Changing to an information technology culture: Preliminary results of a comparison of staff of an Australian Faculty of Education with selected school leaders

John Schiller, University of Newcastle, Australia.

In the rapidly changing world of information technology, there is pressure for educators to acquire competencies and understandings in using new information technologies for their own as well as their students' learning. Australian university academics have had access to new information technologies such as electronic mail, discussion groups, file transfer protocols and other on-line services for some years through AARNET whereas school leaders have had limited access to related services. Has access to these services influenced a change towards an information technology culture? Have educational leaders become more information literate'?

Data from the first phase of a longitudinal study of the concerns about, and actual use of, computer-mediated-communication (CMC) by a large university Faculty of Education will be examined and comparisons will be made with preliminary interview data from school leaders in the initial stages of implementing on-line approaches to their own teaching and learning. Issues involved in changing to an information technology culture such as perceptions of its impact, the approaches used to acquire skills and understanding, the role of change facilitators, impediments to, and incentives for, change, and the actual levels of use of computer-mediated-communication will be explored in this paper.

Can creativity be taught? An empirical study

Neville J Schofield, University of Newcastle, Australia

Human society has always been dependent on the creative spark within a few individuals to maintain artistic and technological development. By its very nature, it would seem that creativity is a spontaneous occurrence that is outside the normal bounds of teaching. However, much of what we know as education also depends on fostering student creativity, suggesting that it is, in some sense, educable. One area of society in which creativity is constantly sought and found is that of technology. And yet, the paradox of technology education is that technology educators, who should be at the forefront of innovation, are themselves extremely resistant to change. This paper considers the issue of teaching creativity from two perspectives; firstly it presents a study that sought to change technology educators to be more receptive to innovation; then it considers three separate studies which sought to enhance the creative product of technology students. Only one of these four studies produced positive results, from which it was concluded that the direct teaching of skills likely to enhance design creativity is only possible in very specific circumstance but that, when those circumstances are met, it is possible across a broad spectrum of ability groups.

SCHWC96.144

Business incubators and approaches to learning

Cristina Schwenke, University of Technology, Sydney, and Phillip Schwenke, Canberra Business Centres, Australia

To be self employed and own a business is a dream many adults seek to make a reality, yet often quoted statistics indicate that 70% to 80% of small businesses fail within two years of commencement. This failure rate preoccupies governments and business councils who formulate policies which promote formal training courses as a solution to this situation, despite the fact that much of the literature indicates that small business operators do not respond well to this kind of training. For many professions the gateway to successful performance entails some form of on-the-job component,. With the exception of learning the ropes in the environment of a family business, the opportunities for 'on-the-job' training in small business are few and far between. Business Incubators (BIs)1 provide such an opportunity and are proving to be a successful learning environment, in the UK, USA and Australia, by providing the physical, logistical, emotional and skills development support required for new start small business operators.

As long term adult educators with current experience in the BI industry, it is the authors' contention that the industry has been participating, perhaps unwittingly or 'unofficially' in a range of approaches to learning- eg. action learning, experiential learning, problem based learning, workbased learning and so on. They believe emphasis needs to be placed on learning rather than training and that a more rigorous examination of BI practice viewed from a learning perspective may provide a new framework for the industry to view and enhance its role. In keeping with the theme of this conference - building new partnerships - this paper seeks to explore some of the above issues.

Educational research in early childhood development: Reflective reviews and lessons learned from three countries - Australia, Singapore and Malaysia

Seng, Seok-Hoon, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

The field of early childhood education has been the focus of increased research and public concern in recent years. The Bernard van Leer Foundation, a private institution based in the Netherlands has for the past 28 years concentrated its resources on support for early childhood development throughout the world. Their main emphasis is the promotion of activities that enhance the well being of young children, their families and the communities that surround them.

From its earliest days, the creation of links between researchers and practitioners throughout the world has been promoted by the Foundation. Opportunities for an interchange of ideas and information have always been recognised as integral to the process of influencing worldwide thinking and practice on the problems of the disadvantaged and developing young child. The Foundation encourages the international projects which it supports, to assess and monitor their research regionally.

This paper singles out three early childhood research projects (funded by the Foundation in the eighties) from Australia, Singapore and Malaysia for comparison and evaluation. It aims to take stock of the accumulated experience from research studies involving large samples that span over diverse communities and cultures and to consider the challenges that still lie ahead.

Whatever the local features of these three research studies, the center of their attention, though expressed in different forms, has been a set of fundamental partnerships between the parent and child, between researchers and practitioners and between communities and professionals. In this paper the development of these meaningful partnerships will be highlighted and other important alternative approaches recommended. Implications of such partnerships and approaches for cross cultural research collaboration will also be examined.

Language proficiency and attitude towards teaching as a career and their impact on student performance in language tests at NIE

Anthony Seow, Victoria Y. Hsui and Gloria R. Poedjosoedarmo, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Various groups of applicants to NIE and students who had been accepted by the Institute were given one or more tests to determine their level of competence in English in general and/or in one or more specific language skill areas. Among the language tests administered and the groups of students who were tested were the following:

1. The English Proficiency Test (EPT) was administered to all applicants to the Institute who had failed to obtain a B4 in English Language at "O" level or an A2 in GP at "AO" level. Passing the EPT was a requirement for admission to NIE for all members of this group of students

2. The English Qualifying Test (EQT) was administered to all students entering the BA/BSc programmes to determine if they needed to enrol in Language Communication Skills and/or Oral Communication Skills before proceeding to Critical Reading and Writing.

Among other things, underlying constructs such as the language that the students were most proficient in for everyday oral communication and for reading and writing as well as the students' attitude towards teaching as a career were examined against student performance scores in the EPT and EQT. The study reveals certain student characteristics which may be useful to selection boards in future teacher-recruitment exercises.

The impact of the 'advanced skill' discourse on teachers' work

Geoff Shacklock, Rob Hattam and John Smyth, Flinders University of South Australia, Australia

This paper examines the introduction of the advanced skills teacher classification and its possible affect on how the work of experienced classroom teachers is articulated and defended in official and collegiate spaces. The specification of criteria for recognition of advanced teaching can be considered a pedagogical exercise that constructs a vision of how the work of experienced classroom practitioners connects with educational policy. It is argued that this involves the purposeful selection of certain skills, abilities and dispositions above others and that the translation of the work of advanced teachers into written performance indicators privileges a written discourse of skill over the oral discourse traditionally preferred by teachers. The resultant technical-rational articulation of advanced teaching skills in generic criteria permits the discussion of teaching skills to be separated from classroom experience and repositioned within policy frameworks. It is argued that official discourses on advanced teaching encoded in written forms simultaneously enable and disable competing conceptions of how experienced teachers should work. Furthermore, it is considered that the interconnection of policy and skill discourses about teaching may be lead to new forms of control over teachers' work. In arguing the case, the paper draws upon evidence from a research project into the introduction of the AST scheme into schools in Australia.

The hermeneutics of planned educational change

Paul Sharkey, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia

The management of "real" change is not easy, and yet it has become a basic fact of life for teachers and administrators in most schools at this time. "Real" change, as opposed to surface change, involves fundamental shifts at such levels as role, practice or outlook. Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical Hermeneutics illuminates what is happening as educators and administrators come to new understandings concerning their role in the teaching and learning process. Gadamer uses such metaph