1997 AARE Conference, Brisbane

Compiler and Editor: Peter L. Jeffery.

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The 1997 AARE Abstracts have been converted to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to allow better utilisation of the internet's power as a medium of communication. This means that you can search all the abstracts by tapping [CTRL][F] and searching for any words you choose.

Most of the abstracts below have a link "Paper" to the relevant paper. Not all papers were not presented, and some were not submitted for publication.

Note:

Keynote Speeches

Abstracts

ABOLM262

School vision and department heads

Mahmood Abolghasemi, John McCormick, and Bob Conners, The University of New South Wales

In spite of increasing attention to the role of principals in relation to school vision, the role of department heads in relation to school vision is not clearly understood. This paper highlights the importance of the role of department heads in this regard. A survey research instrument was developed and administered to a sample of 293 participants from 28 high schools, selected at random in Sydney. Factor analysis and multiple regression were used for data analysis. The findings of the study provided strong evidence that support of teachers for the principal's vision is strongly associated with the views of department heads. As well, the results suggested that the principal's visionary behaviour as perceived by teachers is associated with teachers' support for the principal's vision. Finally, the results suggest that stronger structural coupling is associated with increased teachers' support for the principal's vision for the school.

Students' mathematics achievement in Australian over time: A Rasch Analysis

Tilahun Afrassa and John Keeves, The Flinders University of South Australia

This paper aims to analyse and scale mathematics data over time by applying the Rasch model using the QUEST (Adams and Khoo, 1993) computer program. The mathematics achievement of the students is brought to a common scale. This common scale is independent of both the samples of students

tested and the samples of items employed. The scale is used to examine the changes in mathematics achievement of students in Australia over time.

Conclusions are drawn as to the robustness of the common scale and the changes of students' mathematics achievement over time in Australia.

Bilingual literacies interacting: A longitudinal case study through primary schooling

Marina Aidman, University of Melbourne

This paper will report a longitudinal case study that examined the development of early bilingual literacy. While there is a considerable body of case studies of early bilingualism (Leopold, 1939-1949; Taeschner 1983; Dopke 1992; Saunders 1988; Fantini 1985), longitudinal research on bi-literacy has been scarce. The significance of this study relies on its aim to find support for the additive bilingualism hypothesis (Cummins, 1984; 1996) in the context of bi-literacy development. A simultaneously bilingual female child was observed over a period of almost five years (from the pre-school through mid-primary years) while receiving mainstream schooling in English and being simultaneously immersed in a minority language (Russion) in her home life. An exhaustive collection including every written text produced by the child in either of her two languages over this five year period, was analysed. The texts were generated both in the school and in familial contexts. Her classroom peers' written texts were sampled for comparative analysis. A detailed analysis of the texts was then conducted by using the systemic functional methodology (Halliday, 1994). It was hypothesised that simultaneous bi-literacy development in the child would have no detrimental effect on her English literacy learning, and possibly would benefit her English language development. One noticeable advantage expected would be the child's competency in one other language, including ability to read and write in tht language. The child's potential ability to move between the two literacies was viewed as advantageous. It was hoped that by tracing her progress in bi-literacy learning, some support for the hypothesis of the interdependence of bilinguals' languages development (Cummins, 1984, 1996) would be found. On the basis of the additive model of bilingual development (Lambert, 1975) and the Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP) principle (Cummins, 1981, 1984, 1991), schematic structures and grammar in one of the bilingual's languages were expected to transcend across to her second language. The findings in fact provided ample evidence that language development in one of the bilingual's languages tends to actively support the development in the other. In particular, the results show that certain text types emerged in the child's English writing that were not explicitly taught in English and even some genres not typically found in elementary student writing. These genres had no prior explicit support in English, but had been all scaffolded in the minority language, thus indicating that aspects of schematic structures and grammar mastered in one language can be carried across to a second language and stimulate the emergence of new written genres in it. The results thus tend to support the argument that scaffolding in one of the bilingual's language may have consequences for development in the other. Importantly, these findings add specific support to the hypothesis of the interdependence of bilinguals' languages development (Cummins, 1984, 1996), in the area of written genre learning. It therefore seems possible, on the basis of these findings, to delineate more effective methods of promoting truly balanced multiple literacies, from the very onset of the child's writing development. For example, methods which allow children tro move freely between literate behaviours in both languages seem to hold promise for more effective literacy development . These methods would have a potential to enhance language programs for minority students, as well as early immersion programs for majority background students.

Software evaluation - a pedagogic solution

Sivakumar Alagumalai and Jonathan Anderson, The Flinders University of South Australia, and V Mala, Ministry of Education, Singapore

Numerous methods have been advanced in educational software evaluation. They range from evaluating the technical aspects of software to examining their pedagogic strengths. This study reviews some of the advances made in educational software evaluation and highlights shortcomings of technical-based and content-based evaluations. It then attempts to provide a practical solution for software evaluation using sound pedagogic principles through teacher-collaboration via a networked-database. The paper illustrates this with a working example of an 'expert-pedagogic' database for storing pertinent details of selected sections of educational software and how it is to be used in teaching/instruction and is currently being researched and tested at the School of Education. Details of setting-up and maintaining such a tool and implications for teachers/educators of IT, specifically with educational software, are given. Teacher collaboration and the Internet-based databases are also discussed.

Let's save the trees - Online testing to the rescue

Sivakumar Alagumalai and Jonathan Anderson, The Flinders University of South Australia

Traditionally, the process of much research commences with a survey/test done on paper and culminates into transforming the data from the hard-copies to a digital form on the computer before any statistical analysis can be attempted. This can be a huge undertaking, especially if numerous test instruments are used so as to understand or answer a comprehensive research question. At the end of the study, the 'used' hard-copies are destroyed or 'recycled'. This can be both an expensive and time-consuming activity. This paper examines an approach and trial of online testing, and also highlights advantages online testing has over traditional methods of data collection. Technical details of setting-up an online test are discussed.

ALLEJ374

My vision is blurred: Teachers and change

Jennifer Allen, University of Newcastle.

This paper will provide an account of one teacher's work. This account will detail the dilemma faced by teachers when personal ideology and tvisiont are pursued in the everyday lives of teachers' work. One teacher's story is told using critical ethnography and an archaeological approach to reconstruct a discourse of teachers' work and teachers' thinking. This reconstruction embraces the need for critique within this teacher's individual and collective context giving an account of the aporias that emerged. The place of critical reflection is also noted as integral to teachers' work within a context that marginalises individual ideology. Ideology and 'vision' within the everyday lives of teachers has been marginalised within discourses explaining teacher thinking, and through this account of one teacher's story the significance of moving beyond normative theory is featured. This shift is necessary to understand teacher critical reflection as a way to embrace personal vision and ideology, giving teachers a 'voice' for their aspirations and beliefs. The paper will challenge discourses surrounding conceptions of teacher thinking. The contention is that these discourses are deficient in providing explanations of individual and collective decision making within a context that requires increased flexibility but at the same time devalues teachers' work.

AMARV367

Policy implementation of non-formal education in Lao PDR

Varadune Amarathithada, University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 22, Reworking education in postcolonial conditions: Local and global contexts for change.

ANDET056

The quest for professional development in postmodern times

Therese Anderson, The University of Melbourne

This paper draws on the experiences of a novice researcher in her quest for an appropriate research design for a doctoral project that incorporates both quantitative and qualitative aspects. The focus of the study is the impact of professional development processes on the personal and professional lives of registered nurses who work on a casual/part-time basis in Melbourne metropolitan hospitals and health care agencies. Casualisation and contract work are features of the post-industrial labour market. A random sample of one thousand registered nurses have been surveyed for the quantitative arm of the study. The qualitative aspect examines the experiences of twenty casual/part-time nurses who are concurrently engaged in continuing professional education. It is evident within nursing, that, all too often, professional development is viewed, constructed and implemented from a modernist perspective. Given that the nature of nursing work and education has undergone substantive change in recent years, new approaches to professional development are required. Situating professional development within a postmodern context has the potential to enhance nurses' professional lives. Thus a feature of the research is understanding and interpreting educational processes from a postmodern perspective. Of particular importance in any contemporary research are the vexing issues of legitimation and representation. A postmodern perspective focuses on these because it problematises the search for accuracy and authenticity of data and the way(s) that the research subject's view is presented. The pitfalls and possibilities of using a postmodern framework for educational research and a summary of work in progress are discussed.

ANDRD299

Analysing praxis: Studying the self in action

Ms Dorothy Andrews, University of Queensland

This paper will report on the outcomes of methods for studying the praxis of self through the perceptions of others and through the use of a reflective journal. More than often we cannot `see' what we know, and through reflection through deliberation with other(s) we learn to know what we know and know what we need to improve practice. We also learn to know through reflective writing. The methods reported on recount two phases of research used in the study. One phase, recalls the action in role in an organisation by the action researcher designing action derived from reflective practice. An important component of reflective practice is the individual's perceptions of the people in the context(the researcher) and the people in the context perceptions of the action (the researched). However reflective practice is more than this, it is also reflection on the researcher's practice.

Therefore, the researcher, in reflecting on own practice, will research `self' in order to improve action - self development. This is the second phase of research reported on in the study.

Through different lens: The study of anti racism and racism in new times

Ruth Arber, Monash University

Racism has been a central construct throughout the formation of post colonial Australia. During the last 20 years a series of legal, political and educational approaches have been adopted to confront this. Events show that these concepts have not fully realised their lofty aspirations, have serious theoretical limitations and most seriously, share many of the same understandings which underpin the racist elements about which they are concerned.

Recent British, American and Australian theorists suggest that anti racism be researched through a different approach informed by post structural, post colonial and feminist literatures. This paper analyses key studies centred within these literatures of racism and anti racism discourse and practice, to understand how these theories could best be used to critically examine various practical, conceptual / theoretical and political approaches to Australian anti racist education. The paper concludes that Australian studies of racism and anti racism studies must broaden the way they understand and analyse the conception, effects and dispersal of racial constructs in contemporary societies. The development of a more systematic and coherent approach to anti racism studies calls for us to gaze through different lens: Culture, public discourse, everyday activities and the formation of us and other in body, time and space.

The effectiveness of enabling programs for university entrance

Robert Cantwell, Jennifer Archer, and Sid Bourke, University of Newcastle

The effectiveness of enabling or bridging programs as a necessary precursor to undergraduate university education requires sustantiation for a wider range of tertiary students. There are many variables likely to affect the academic success of mature-age students who enter university through enabling programs: age, gender, educational and occupational history, family circumstances, ability, self-confidence, achievement goals, and approaches to self-regulation of academic behaviour. Two cohorts of students who completed a one-year enabling program were traced into their undergraduate studies, and comparisons were made of their academic success with other students who were enrolled in the same subjects. Gathering data on background variables, measures of ability, and psychological constructs has produced a particularly rich array of variables with which to explore the academic progress of mature-age students in undergraduate courses. As two levels of data exist (the individual and the course), the models developed are being analysed using the multilevel analysis program MLn.

Problem-solving and mathematical processing

Lynette Arnold, Flinders University of South Australia

My research focuses on an interactive multimedia (IMM) program's effect on children's development and understanding of spatial skills - namely rotation, symmetry and visual perception; and compares the effects of IMM and traditional media on the student's problem-solving and processing skills.

Method - 54 Year 7 girls were divided into four groups - 1. IMM with teacher interaction; 2. IMM without teacher interaction; 3. traditional media with teacher interaction; and 4. traditional media without teacher interaction. All students undertook a pre-test, preliminary activities, tower building task, series of rotational tasks, post-test and a questionnaire. Selected students were interviewed to ascertain their impressions of the media and their performance.

Initial results showed no significant difference in student's problem solving performance, however significant differences in the patterns of student processing and problem solving were found between groups. A significant difference is also evident in the types of interaction students participated in. In my thesis I explore the issues of technological and conceptual interactivity and my results highlight the need for multimedia developers to attend to both aspects of interactivity when designing educational products. The results also have implications for teachers and the implementation of such products within a learning environment.

ASPLT200

Struggling within supervisory relationships: Stories from Asian women

Tania Aspland, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 19, Supervision of postgraduate research in education.

ASPLT434

Conversing about research partnerships: Multiple ways of 'seeing'

Tania Aspland, Ian Macpherson, Ross Brooker, Bob Elliott and others.

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 1, Partnerships in educational action research: Voices of participants.

ATWEB433

SYMPOSIUM 1: Partnerships in Educational Action Research: Voices of participants

Presenters: Bill Atweh, Tania Aspland and Julie Davis and others, Queensland University of Technology

This session presents learnings arising from three action research projects associated with PARAPET, a network of action researchers and projects centred around the Queensland University of Technology. The three projects reported here represent partnerships between university researchers and school teachers, parents and school students respectively. This session will discuss the possibilities of and difficulties that may be encountered from such partnerships. Multiple voices from participants will be heard during the session. Learnings about action research will be developed.

PAPER 1:

ASPLT434

Conversing about research partnerships: Multiple ways of 'seeing'

Tania Aspland, Ian Macpherson, Ross Brooker, Bob Elliott and others.

During the past five years we have been working as partners with teachers and principals exploring the nature of curriculum leadership in differing school sites. We have shaped the nature of our research in a way that is investigative as well as developmental for participants. We have tried to position our research subjects within our various projects so that we engage in critical collaborative research as we pursue the study of phenomena of mutual interest. It is our hope that all stakehoders within our projects will benefits from our joint efforts. In this sense, our projects highlight that research and staff development can be one and the same enterprise, and that it can be practical and emancipatory for all participants if it is a partnership model. Writing about such a process is easier than doing it. This presentation is designed to listen to the different ways of 'seeing' how such a process is realised in action. Through conducting a conversation with teachers and university lecturers who participated in the study we will highlight a number of stories about research partnerships. We will be asking each participant to share with the wider audience the nature of the partnership as they experienced it, teachers and university academics joining together to present multiple perspectives of differing research partnerships. A reactor who will be an integral part of the conversation will present a summary of the conversations with a view to identifying key propositions that might form the basis of further enquiry.

PAPER 2:

DAVIJ435

Parents as Partners for Educational Change

Julie Davis, Queensland University of Technology

Parents are an under-recognised resource for change in schools. This presentation examines constraints to parent participation in school decision-making and discusses some of the difficulties encountered when parents seek to become facilitators of change. An outline of benefits and opportunities that can arise when parents, teachers, administrators and the wider community engage in respectful, collegial, and shared decision-making processes will also be presented.

PAPER 3:

ATWEB436

Student as Partners: Possibilities and Problems in Action Research

Alison Cobb, Louise Dornan, Bill Atweh, Queensland University of Technology

Recent national and state agendas for school change include calls for collaboration between different stakeholders in education. Students are not often considered as partners in proposed collaborations. Further, action research models have often been presented as effective means of nurturing such collaboration in the investigation of contextual, site specific considerations. This paper reports on an ongoing collaborative research between high school students, their teachers, university staff and community organisations toward increasing the access of under-represented groups to higher education. In the five years of its life, students from at least fifteen schools have taken part in the project. Specific cultural, social and gender groups were involved in investigating particular equity issues influencing access to university. in these, Aboriginal, Torres Strait islander, Samoan, ethnic, non English Speaking background, low socio-economic, rural, urban, single sex and mix sex groups of students were represented. This session will discuss dilemmas of collaboration with students and potentials for the employment of students as action researchers both for the students benefit and for enabling negotiating school change. The paper identifies some conditions that may assist the success of such partnerships and will include voices of the students themselves.

ATWEB442

Transition into teaching: Women's experiences in making mathematics more inclusive

Bill Atweh, Pam Harris, Lisa Garrett, Gabrielle Pitman, Janette Sitton, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 14, Transition into teaching: Voices of women primary teachers of mathematics and science.

ATHAJ077

Student and teacher judgements of subject interest: an idiographic analysis

James Athanasou, University of Technology, Sydney

The purpose of this study was to investigate a variety of individual and situational factors which act as antecedents and concomitants of interest in a vocational education subject. These included factors relating to the course, ability, difficulty, relevance or importance of the subject, the quality of teaching, student effort, vocational interests and/or demographic factors. The study employed an idiographic design with a lens model analysis of each person's judgements to determine the individual policies that students and teachers used in making their decision of how much someone was interested in a subject. Subjects (20 students, 17 teachers) from technical and further education were presented with 115 judgement tasks containing 19 cues. The multiple correlation of these 19 cues with actual interest was 0.846. Correlations of judgements with actual interest varied from 0.033 to 0.606 for students and 0.217 to 0.601 for teachers. Cognitive control over judgements ranged from 0.64 to .99 for students and 0.60 to 0.96 for teachers. Knowledge of the environment varied from -0.03 to 0.85 for students whereas for teachers it ranged from 0.30 to 0.80. The relative beta weights for teachers and students showed that they differed in the extent to which they placed their emphasis on specific cues. Vocational interests were rated more importantly than subject specific factors. Results of this study also confirmed a large variation in both student and teacher perceptions of subject interest. These individual differences in judgement ability have an impact not only for teacher reactions to students but also affect the ways in which students determine their own interest for learning.

Assessing and producing the 'child-student'. The enactment of double incumbrance in the classroom

Helena Austin and Peter Freebody, Griffith University

This paper documents the conflation of the categories 'student' and 'child' in a literature classroom. It argues that the assessment of the students as successful in school rests upon increasingly problematic adult theories of 'the child'. The classroom talk and students' writing from a literature unit is an upper primary classroom is examined within the theoretical framework of Ethnomethodology using the analytic devices of category analysis and conversation analysis. The paper documents the relevance to the participants in this classroom of the students' membership of the category 'child', such that their assessable student products, both in talk and in writing, are interpreted as bychildren, and reflexively, are used by the teacher as measures of the individual's appropriate 'maturity'. The extent to which a student is assessed as appropriately enacting a particular version of the child has profound consequences for school success. The dual relevance in this context of these interactants as once students and children has consequences for the nature of the classroom interaction. It is clear that the prevailing version of the child undermines the apparent educational goals of the classroom. There are implications for teachers and researchers in confronting and questioning both the definition of the child upon which pedagogical practices are based, and the relevance and utility of the 'child-student's' dual incumbrance.

AYREP279

HSC English in New South Wales: Facts, perceptions and TER scaling myths

Paul Ayres and Wayne Sawyer, University of Western Sydney and Robyn Wigham, Loretto School, Kirribilli

Enrolment patterns of the four English courses offered in the New South Wales High School Certificate over the past 10 years and the scaling of marks for each subject are examined in this study. In particular, an analysis is made of the differences which exist between the scaled marks which are recorded on the High School Certificate and those used in the calculation of their Tertiary Entry Rank (TER). For the most demanding course (2-Unit Related), the HSC marks have been perceived by many to be artificially low compared to other subjects. In contrast, the scaled marks used for the TER have traditionally been high, reflecting the particular population of students who attempt this course. However, as the TER marks are not made available to the public, a number of myths and misconceptions have developed over the years leading to a decline in the number of students attempting the more demanding English Courses. In 1996, an attempt to address this situation was made by introducing a common component to two of the English Courses. The result of this action are analysed, as are the recommendations made by the McGaw Report.

Understanding the design and use of computer software in higher education in terms of academics' educational conceptions and beliefs

John Bain, Gillian Lueckenhausen and Colleen Mills, Griffith University, and Carmel McNaught, La Trobe University

Understanding the influence of information technology on student learning cannot be accomplished without reference to the epistemological and educational assumptions of the academic teachers who design and use computer-facilitated learning (CFL) programs.The focus of the paper will be the first stage of an ARC project (Study 1) in which thirty-six technology-based CAUT projects from a number of disciplines were examined. This study was based on archive material only (the initial application and final report for each project). Projects were sorted into self-forming categories in each of which the educational presumptions and practices were similar. Categories were then compared and refined so as to reveal their major sources of similarity and difference. The resulting framework is one in which the use educational technology in higher education can be understood in terms of several key qualitative "dimensions" which reflect academics' beliefs about the role of the expert teacher, the nature and ownership of knowledge, the control of learning and the nature of the learning process. This paper will describe these findings in detail and include reference to Study 2, currently underway, in which archive material is augmented by detailed interviews with academic staff and with comments from students.

Varying the focus of reflective journals and the nature of reflective dialogue during a teacher education practicum

John Bain and Colleen Mills, Griffith University, Roy Ballantyne and Jan Packer, Queensland Unviersity of Technology

This paper investigates the use of reflective journals to facilitate student learning during a teacher education practicum. Thirty-five student teachers undertaking a one-year Graduate Diploma of Education submitted weekly journal entries during their eleven-week practicum and were interviewed at several stages about their educational beliefs and practices. Students were randomly assigned to four intervention conditions which varied the type of journalling strategy (experiential or cognitive) and the nature of reflective dialogue based on journal entries (supervised dialogue or self-reflection). The evidence reported here includes the content and quality of students' reflections, the effects of the intervention conditions, and students' perceptions of the value of journalling. Although there was some evidence that students found it easier to write an experiential than a cognitive journal, there were no overall differences in the quality of reflection achieved under the two conditions. Students in the self-reflection condition attained a higher level of written reflection than those receiving supervised dialogue, suggesting that the benefits of oral reflection may not carry over into the written domain. The impact of written feedback, however, was significant and needs to be further explored. Students generally were positive about the value of journalling in learning to teach.

BAKEB345

Cutting off the king's head? Foucauldian power and educational research

Bernadette Baker, University of Queensland

Power is a relatively recent concept for grounding socio-histocial analyses. Michel Foucault identified several theories of power which have been used since the 18th century philosophies, including contractual and repressive power. In the mid-1970's, Foucault posited a new analytics of power which sought to "cut off the King's head" in political theory and to identify power-as-effects rather than power-as-property. Educational research in the past has utilised both contractual and repressive theories of power and has more recently turned to Foucault's analytics in an effort to move beyond the impasses that structural conceptions of power have reached. This paper questions whether Foucault's analytics and particulary his application to education has enabled the giving up of "sovereign" or structural power that it was dedicated to. By analysing what is implicitly and explicitly required to make Foucault's conception of power to work I draw out the ruptures that Foucault's analytics have provided and the continuities that his theory of power have been unable to avoid. The analysis and the questions are grounded in examples from my own educational research on the history of childhood and schooling which utilised Foucauldian power in its theoretical framing.

Private industrial and enterprise training and education in the Hunter Region 1900-1990

Ray Barker and Allyson Holbrook, The University of Newcastle

In the current climate of debate concerning the provision for skills development and training in Australian industry, one of the most serious gaps in our knowledge is our almost complete ignorance of the history of private provision of enterprise and industrial training; its nature, role and significance in industrial development. This paper provides an essential first step towards identifying the above through an historical analysis of patterns of provision in one major industrial area - the Hunter - between 1900 and 1990. Private industry and enterprise training embraces on-the-job knowledge transmission through to private coaching organisations, consultants and in-house training programs. This study maps the field of training provision, identifies significant and unbreachable gaps in the data and identifies factors that contribute to the relative mix of public and private provision. It explores and extends the categorisation of education and training.

BARNJ228

Researching teachers' constructions of policy priorities

Jenny Barnett, University of South Australia

Policy priorities in schools of the 1990s are multiple and sometimes conflict both with each other and with local community priorities. Affirmative policy for marginalised groups may conflict with mainstream values embedded in curriculum and assessment policies, while policy supporting universal educational norms may conflict with policy endorsing social justice. Teachers are consequently involved in constructing and enacting their own localised version of policy priorities.

This paper discusses practicalities and issues in researching five teachers' constructions of policy priorities in a rural secondary school serving a socio-economically disadvantaged community. In the context of overarching priorities for equitable access, improving students' attainment levels and effectively managing classroom behaviour, the study focused on three policy priorities in developing a new junior secondary science program. These priorities were: writing student outcome statements in accordance with the National Profile for Science, developing students' literacy skills in science, and incorporating Aboriginal perspectives in the science curriculum. Research methods included analysis of teachers' recorded planning meetings, classroom observation, analysis of classroom artefacts, collaborative reflection between researcher and teachers, semi-structured interviews, and teacher diaries. Each method generated different kinds of insights and different kinds of research concerns.

Using standards to improve quality: The construction and application of academic standards

Rees Barrett, Secondary Education Authority , Western Australia

The paper will describe current research on ways in which policy makers, curriculum writers, teachers and students make sense of academic standards. The use of standards as policy levers for the achievement of alignment has become an integral part of what Gee et al (1996) describe as 'new capitalism .The drive for standards-led reform coming from business and industry has spawned a standards industry in its own right. In the enthusiasm for reform there is a tendency to view the standards as absolute, unproblematic. The intent of this study is not to challenge the importance of standards in the reform process but to highlight their complexity and problematic nature. Education standards are socially constructed and as such are value-laden, internal to the user and contestable. Piloting by the WA Secondary Education Authority of a new approach to course design, using outcomes as symbols for the construction of a community of assessment practice, affords an opportunity to increase understanding of the nature of academic standards. This innovation is a response to the new context of post-compulsory education: the move to a K-12 curriculum framework based on outcomes, increased alignment of schools and the workplace, and a strong push for citizenship education.

They have to offer the top subjects: A rural school and its curriculum

Pamela Bartholomaeus, Deakin University

An important question to examine when researching the educational credentials achieved by rural students is the curriculum available to these students, and sought by them, in their rural secondary schools. These questions are vital if the issue of provision of an adequate education available for all is to be addressed. Decisions about the curriculum choices accessible to rural students, and the ways this curriculum is made available, are difficult for many rural schools, particularly for smaller schools.This paper will discuss the curriculum offered at a secondary school in rural South Australia. It will also explore some of the ways in which curriculum decisions are made, and consider some of these issues which concern members of the school community.

BATER515

SYMPOSIUM 2: Standards and guidelines in initial teacher education

Presenters: Richard Bates, Deakin University, Kym Adey, University of South Australia and Barbara Preston

The Project was commissioned by the Federal Minister for Schools, Vocational Education and Employment, Dr David Kemp. This followed the recommendations emerging from the Chalk Circle Report on Teacher Education. The Project sought written responses to draft standards and guidelines for initial teacher education. The Advisory Committee also conducted national hearings to further expand stakeholder views. The final Report has focused on a framework for quality assurance. It has not sought to over regulate but rather to provide a basis for both rigour and diversity. The Report details organisational standards and qualities for the conduct of initial teacher education courses, program standards and qualities, and graduate qualities. It also proposes a national implementation procedure for the application and moderation of the standards and guidelines. More particularly it proposes that these procedures should be conducted by the professional stakeholders as a form of national quality assurance. The Report also proposes a mechanism for the maintenance, and dissemination, of exemplars of best practice in course design and delivery.

BATUA405

Cognitive strategies and comparison of decimal numbers

Annette Baturo, Tom Cooper and Shelley Dole, Queensland University of Technology

Research in USA, France and Israel (e.g., Resnick et al., 1989; Sackur-Grisvard, 1985) identified four cognitive strategies that children use when comparing decimal numbers with the same whole-numbers: expert (proficient), whole-number (non-proficient) in which the longer number is selected as the larger, fraction (non-proficient) in which the longer fractional part is selected as the smaller number, and zero (semi-proficient) in which the number with zero/s immediately after the decimal point is selected as the smaller in value.

This paper reports on a series of studies which explored Australian children's cognitive strategies on an expanded set of decimal-number comparisons. These studies showed that Australian children exhibited low usage of the zero and fraction strategies and employed three strategies not previously identified, namely, a proficient renaming strategy, a proficient benchmarking strategy and a non-proficient zero-ignored strategy.

This paper gives special attention to the latest study where decimal-number comparison strategy use is related to children's knowledge of decimal-number concepts and principles. As would be expected, the predominant use of the whole-number strategy reflected limited decimal-number knowledge. However, relationships for other strategy use were more complex.

BAYNM351

Numeracy as social practice: Researching the numeracy practices of young unemployed

Betty Johnston, Sheilagh Kelly, Mike Baynham, Kerry Barlow, and Genee Marks, University of Technology, Sydney

Over the past years many thousands of young unemployed people have been referred to numeracy and literacy programs run by TAFE, Community Colleges, Skillshare Centres and a range of other providers. A causal link is often made between their poor literacy and numeracy skills and their unemployment status. This paper will report on a study that investigated the numeracy practices of unemployed young people in a range of contexts both urban and rural. We explore the sites and practices in which numeracy plays a role in the lives of young unemployed: the juggling of paid and unpaid work and government benefits, their interests/hobbies/sports, their family and social networks.

Through an analysis of numeracy as social practice in a range of sites and cases, we build up a rich account of the imbrication of numeracy practices with other forms of social practice, counteracting constructions of the young unemployed in terms of a "lack" of numeracy skills. In addition, we show how, in the context of trends towards the casualization of work, the boundaries between unemployment and work become less stable.

'Lovely literature': Teacher subjectivity and curriculum change

Catherine Beavis, Deakin University

In this climate of new times, new managerialism, dwindling resources and assessment driven measures of efficiency, curriculum change is too often constructed as produced in policy documents and implemented in classrooms through the surveillance mechanisms of centrally monitored assessment. Yet curriculum change entails more than a reorganisation of the subject and mandated teaching and assessment practices. This paper takes the introduction of a new final year subject, VCE Literature, as an example of the ways in which curriculum change entails not just a reformulation of the subject, but also teachers' reconstruction of the subject and themselves as teachers of it. Based on a three year study of nine teacher's experience of the new course, the paper explores ways in which teachers were already positioned and constructed within existing discourses pertaining to the teaching of Literature, and how the introduction of the 'new' discourse of critical theory threatened old discourses and positionings, and challenged them to reconstruct their vision of the subject and their teaching selves. The paper considers the mutually constitutive relationship between curriculum change and teacher subjectivity, and explores the role of 'passion, pleasure and desire' in supporting or inhibiting curriculum change.

SYMPOSIUM 3:Sexualities and the intellectual work of gender reform

Presenters: Lori Beckett, Maria Parlotta-Chiarolli, TheUniversity of Sydney, Wayne Martino, Murdoch University, Gill Clarke, University of Southampton and Debbie Epstein, University of London

This symposium considers sexuality for teachers, girls and boys, and different groups of girls and boys, particularly the ways it impacts on their schooling and social experiences. Using material from a variety of ethnographic studies in Australia and the UK, all the papers take up teachers' and students' interests and experience, nut that is only the beginning. The 'cognitive goals' of gender work were perused in the tasks of the analysis: learning about the real lived experience of heterosexism and homophobia, sharing in the experience, and critically examining the existing culture and knowledge which sustain particular gender regimes.

PAPER 1:

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'Listen to Girls': The impact of homophobia in girls and young women's lives

Maria Parlotta-Chiarolli, The University of Sydney

Based on girls' and women's writing and artwork submitted for a forthcoming publication on girls and young women in Australia, this paper will explore the negative impact of homophobia in the lives of culturally diverse girls and young women today. The paper will address this issue in two ways: by discussing the experiences of lesbian and bisexual girls and young women both in and outside schools; and by discussing the impact of homophobia on heterosexual girls and young women particularly as it affects gay, lesbian and bisexual family members and friends.

Thus, the paper will highlight two areas for further educational policy and practice: the need to address girls and homophobia as it has often been overlooked or considered less significant than the need to address boys and homophobia; and the implications of homophobia on girls in schools eith gay, lesbian and bisexual family memnbers and friends.

PAPER 2:

Addressing homophobia in schools

Wayne Martino, Murdoch University

In this paper attention will be drawn to the ways in which sexuality is deployed within heterosexist regimes of practice in which adolescent boys enact a particularly oppressive form of masculinity. By drawing on interview data with a group of adolescent boys at a particular middle class school in Perth Western Australia, the role of homophobia as a mechanism ffor policing hegemonic forms of masculinity and enforcing compulsory heeterosexuality will be emphasised. This will form the basis for arguing that attempts must be made to address such forms of violence in schools. The implications of this research for addressing homophobia in schools will be signalled within an overall framework of helping students and teachers to understand the extent to which sexuality is imbricated in the production of valorised models of hegemonic masculinity.

PAPER 3:

Differences that matter and indifference in education

Gill Clarke, University of Southampton

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 drawn towards New Right discourses on homosexuality and in particular legislation in Britain which has sought to prohibit in schools the acceptability of homosexuality. Qualitative data generated from interviews and questionnaires with wite able bodied lesbian physical education teachers and students are used to demonstrate how these women have felt compelled to conceal their lesbian edentities and have employed strategies to resist heterosexual control and regulation. Finally it argues 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 ourrealities. In doing so it is claimed we need to (re)pursue the goal of social justice, eliminate the priveliging of hegemonic heterosexual identities and thereby create a landscape that allows us to define our lives.

PAPER 4:

Teaching sexualities

Debbie Epstein, University of London

This paper reports on work for the book entitled 'Schooling Sexualities', coauthored with Richard Johnson. It turns the spotlight on to lesbian and gay teachers. In it, we argue that the apparently ever-increasing surveillance of teachers and schools is partly to do with anxieties produced by the seductiveness of the best teaching. In turn, the paper points to the ways that the best teaching is constricted by the punitive surveillance of schools teachers and sexualities. Any exploration of the stories of lesbian and gay teachers will involve narratives of constraint and punishment, but our central story in this paper is much more positive. It concerns the reactions of a class of primary school children when their teacher came out to them, the steps they took to protect him and their sophisticated analyses of the ways they (and he) had to negotiate homophobia as a fact of every day life.

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Boys concern parents: Lobbying for gender reform

Lori Beckett, University of Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 25, Addressing boys' education: Framing debates, implementing strategies and formulating policies.

SYMPOSIUM 4: Teaching Learning Consortium - a new development in the professional preparation of teachers.

Presenters: Margie Beck, Peter Gahan, Jan Glazier, Peter Howard, Wendy Moran,

Management Committee, and others for the Teaching Learning Consortium, Australian Catholic University

General: During 1997 Australian Catholic University in co-operation with Parramatta Diocese Catholic Education Office, implemented a pilotprogram which focussed on establishing a model for teacher education students to learn about teaching and learning in the workplace environment of school. Twocohorts involving 40 Year 2 Bachelor of Education [Primary] and 20 GraduateDiploma of Education [Secondary] students across nine primary and four highschools were involved in the pilot. The program took place during Autumnsemester and Autumn/Spring semesters respectively.

PART 1: Development and nature of the Teaching/Learning Consortium

The symposium traces the development of the program during 1996 highlighting some of the negotiating processes between the university staff, students and the education system involved. Changes to the conceptualisation of the venture during the planning stage of development are presented in light of new understandings about the roles of the consortium and the different stakeholders involved in it.

PART 2:From expectations to outcomes

The symposium addresses the stated expectations of those involved at the beginning of the program and compares these to the outcomes identified at the program's conclusion.

The purposes of the consortium include:

• promoting enquiry into teaching and learning in both school and University;
• facilitating link between theory and practice in education;
• enhancing relationships among teachers, teacher educators and beginning teachers;
• increasing the opportunity for structured reflective practice in school and University.

The emerging roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders and the reflective nature of the participants' learning are identified and explored through an analysis of journal entries and other data. The emphasis on collaborative work in schools and new forms of professional learning is highlighted. Stakeholders' perceptions of the implementation of the initiative are presented in this section of the symposium.

PART 3: Benefits, challenges and issues

Finally, the symposium addresses questions related to changes in the roles of university and school staff, students' professional learning in schools and enriching learning environments for teachers and their students are considered. Structural aspects of the program are considered, such as student assessment and workload, and school practices are discussed. In this analysis the benefits of the teaching learning consortium are presented. Implications for the future of such a collaborative venture are raised.

Visual imagery for environmental concept formation

Iris Bergmann, Southern Cross University

This paper discusses how the exploration of environmental issues with creative photographic work develops the conceptual understanding of these issues. The link between the aesthetic and cognitive domains which incites cognitive growth will be presented. The findings of this study indicate that the aesthetic involvement addresses the emotional factor as a dimension that impacts on psychological well-being. Furthermore, learning with visual media requires a deepened understanding of the medium itself, not only on the technical, but also on the conceptual level, in order to be able to deploy it most effectively for cognitive development.

For this study, nineteen participants worked individually on an environmental topic of their choice with photographic images over a period of ten weeks. They used their own photographs as a resource base for further image-manipulating procedures in a variety of experimental ways. The participants were interviewed at the beginning and on completion of their aesthetic work.

The aesthetic involvement led to the development of multiple perspectives, to a relationship with the topic, to a realisation of and coming to grips with the complexities and ambiguities of environmental issues, to a questioning, strengthening and/or clarifying of the initial position. A positive, constructive dimension in the aesthetic domain evolved which spread over to the cognitive domain. This was remarkable since the participants initially conceptualised environmental issues as issues of pollution, destruction, degradation and death. It was found that the construction of photographic narratives can be deployed as an agent for change towards ecological sustainability, at least in the cognitive domain.

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Early childhood teachers' work histories: Graduates 1991-5

Donna Berthelsen, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 16, Early childhood teachers working in new times: Reports on research undertaken in the 1990's.

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Impotence and the driven snow: ethical quandaries in supervising research students in an imperfect society.

Martin Bibby, University of New South Wales

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 19, Supervision of postgraduate research in education.

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Enrolling computers in schooling

Chris Bigum, Central Queensland University

Computer technology is commonly accorded a range of socially and educationally beneficial roles in classrooms. Who assigns these roles and how they are assigned are seldom scrutinised, yet those who assign the roles secure an authority to speak on behalf of both the technology and its users, establishing educational contexts for the technology from the classroom to the level of national policy. Actor-network theory, developed by Latour (1991), Callon (1986) and others draws attention to the processes by which technologies and their users are spoken for. It is a radical view which trangresses the human-non-human boundary and treats humans and non-humans as simple, equivalent elements in chains. For Latour, each actor, human or non-human is invested with a 'will' with which to make 'other elements dependent upon itself and translate their will into a language of its own' (Callon and Latour 1981: 286). To speak of the "will" of computers and their peripherals in education may appear on the surface bizarre even mischievous, yet this approach to the sociology of technology offers useful alternative accounts of the workings of social power embedded in the officially sanctioned meanings and purposes

of computer technology in schools.

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The leviathan and the network

Chris Bigum, Central Queensland University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 7, Towards a theoretical framework for researching computers in educational administration: Foucault, Bourdieu and Latour.

Performativity, self management and self managing schools

Jill Blackmore, Louise Laskey, and John Hodgens, Deakin University, and Chris Bigum, University of Central Queensland

The shift to self governance in organisational life as typified in self managing schools has also reconstituted the self and the modes of control and resistance in schools. A central feature of post modern organisations is the emphasis on performativity (Lyotard 1984). Self managing schools in the context of the market exemplify the ways in which the focus of organisational life has shifted outwardly, emphasising outcomes and performance which can be judged in comparison to other schools ( eg. school charters, standardised testing etc) and inwardly through the internalisation by individuals of organisational norms and values imparted through a range of disciplinary technologies eg. performance management. This paper will use the work of Lyotard (1984) The Postmodern Condition on performativity, Rose (1989) Governing of the Soul and Casey (1995) Work Self and Society to explore the ways in which the corporatisation and privatisation of education penetrate into teachers'work and sense of professional identity. The paper draws from two small ARC projects : Learning to Change and Mediating Change.

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SYMPOSIUM 5: Women and higher education: gendered performances in an era of uncertainty and difference

Presenters: Jill Blackmore, Deakin University, Judyth Sachs, University of Sydney, Carmen Luke, University of Queensland, and Denise Kirkpatrick, University of Technology, Sydney

This symposium addresses the changing nature of academic work in higher education in Australia and Asia. Feminist work on women in leadership has tended to concentrate upon the 'glass ceiling' as a universalising discourse impeding women's access to leadership rather than the context of educational work in the restructured university. In so doing, it has ignored critical elements of how women construct their work identity around performativity and self management in the context of radical and

rapid organisational change and how this differs across cultural contexts. The papers include:

• Women academic's work identity and the psychic economy of restructured universities
• Cultural difference and glass ceiling politics
• Women's research as performance: Performing what?
• Interview as therapy / research.

PAPER 1:

Women academic's work identity and the psychic economy of restructured universities

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

Education has been restructured to more closely fit national economic imperatives. This paper examines how organisational theory has sought to channel a range of energies, intellectual and emotional, towards organisational ends--the human relations movement of the 1940s, to human resource management of 1980s and management by 'stress' in the 1990s. The paper explores Roper's (1994) notion that organisations have psychic economies--a concept which goes beyond the individualised psychological concept of stress or management concept of corporate culture which treats negative emotions (anger fear etc ) particularly manifest in times of radical and rapid change. More negative emotions are treated as psychological pathologies and something to be ignored. In turn, these emotions tap into the gendered construction of emotion and work identity formation. The paper raises issues of alienation and belonging, and how universities, paradoxically, in seeking to exploit the very passions that academics bring to their work are producing psychic economies through a range of disciplinary technologies (eg. performance management) which inhibit not facilitate productivity. In particular, it focuses upon how the psychic economy impacts on decisions by academic women about their commitment to and possibilities for academic careers. The paper draws from a Large ARC on Women, Educational Restructuring and Leadership which has undertaken cross sectoral studies in schools, universities and TAFEs.

PAPER 2:

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Cultural diffierence and glass ceiling politics

Carmen Luke, University of Queensland

This presentation reports on part of a larger study on women in higher education management in Thailand, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Here a case of 10 women in the Singapore tertiary education sector is presented. The overall aim of the study is to insert 'cultural difference' into debates about glass ceiling politics. Data is presented that shows how the complex layering of postcolonial history, cultural structures, values and practices, state legislation of 'family values', and the demographic/geographic conditions of Singapore mediate and shape Singaporean gender politics and women's career aspirations and opportunities.

PAPER 3:

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Women's research as performance: Performing what?

Denise Kirkpatrick, University of Technology Sydney

This paper explores what it means to be a woman researcher in a post-Dawkins univesity. How do women construct themselves as researchers and the research act, in a university context which has clear

performance expectations regarding the form and function of research? How do they respond to the surveillance mechanisms imposed by the higher education system? Universities can be seen as places of performance: the performance of teaching, administration and research . For many women who do not know the 'code', the university is a place of unrehearsed, unpractised research performance. What is the reality of women as researchers (with less cultural and symbolic capital) in the changing university setting? Lyotard's (1984) noton of performativity will be used as a schematising framework to explore the research experiences of two groups of women academics.

PAPER 4:

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Interview as therapy: For whom?

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

While there is recognition that researchers can neither be the objective impartial observers nor become fully immersed in the culture of the organisations in which they undertake research, for feminist academics doing qualitative research in educational organisations undergoing radical restructuring, and in particular in universities, the sites of their own work identity and educational practice, the relationship between the participants in the interview process is complex. This paper explores the personal, professional and political relationships underpinning the 'conversational' interview process when feminist researchers interview female academics. It highlights the blurring of the boundaries between the interviewers and interviewees stories, and how in the context of radical restructuring, interviews take on a therapeutic aspect for all participants. The paper draws from a Large ARC on Women, Educational Restructuring and Leadership which has undertaken cross sectoral studies in schools, universities and TAFEs.

Women academic's work identity and the psychic economy of restructured universities

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

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 5, Women and higher education: Gendered performances in an era of uncertainty and difference.

Theoretical frameworks for the practicum

Dianne Bloomfield, University of New England

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 28, Towards collaboration in the practicum - issues of power and ownership.

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School curriculum and the construction of Fijian identity: A composite reality

Samuela Bogitini, University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 22, Reworking education in postcolonial conditions: Local and global contexts for change.

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Cognitive load, sequencing and the transition from arithmetic to algebra

Gillian Boulton-Lewis, Tom Cooper, Bill Atweh, Hitendra Pillay, Lyn Wilss and Sue Mutch, Queensland University of Technology

The research literature on learning algebra has stressed the link between arithmetic and algebra, identified a gap in this transition, and proposed a pre-algebra level. This paper discusses this transition from arithmetic to algebra from a cognitive perspective. It reports on the first two years of a longitudinal study in which 51 students were interviewed during Years 7 and 8 and their knowledge of algebra categorised. It proposes a two-path model for the transition from arithmetic to pre-algebra to algebra and discusses students' understanding of the relevant knowledge. Results show that the developmental sequence for the students appears to fit well with the model. Although concrete representations of algebra were a major component of teaching, the students were reluctant to use them, preferring mental approaches and this is probably due to difficulties with cognitive load.

Do teaching practices matter? Analyses of senior secondary mathematics, English and social science lessons

Max Smith and Sid Bourke, The University of Newcastle

This paper continues the reporting of data from a study of 70 Year 11 classrooms. Reporting thus far has been mainly concerned with teacher stress, workload and satisfaction, and student achievement and affective outcomes. Multilevel analyses have been undertaken with students at level 1, teacher/class information at level 2, and schools at level 3. This paper focuses on the observations made rather than on teacher and student data. Outcomes of interest are teacher engagement, student time-on-task and student enthusiasm. Mathematics, English and social science lessons are analysed separately. Lesson observations were as follows. First minute-by-minute records were made of the delivery system being used by the teacher, the level of teacher engagement and the proportion of students on task. Secondly, lesson segments were identified and recorded as parts of lessons having distinct purposes with their associated instructional and managerial teaching behaviours. Thirdly, whole-lesson summaries of teacher and student behaviours were recorded. Finally, individual teacher and student information was obtained. This unusual four-level classification of teaching and learning in the senior school is intended to tease out any interesting relationships which may have been obscured by previous analyses using data classified into the more common student, teacher/class and school multilevel hierarchy.

The impact of system based teacher development programs on the role of teachers and administrators in Catholic schools in the Parramatta Diocese 1990-1997-preliminary findings

Tony Bracken, Australian Catholic University

Over the last two decades lay educators have increasingly been replacing the religious orders in the leadership and staffing of catholic schools. Support for these lay educators' personal, spiritual and religious development was recognised as a priority by the Parramatta Catholic Education Office which initiated staff 'spiritual formation' programs in 1990. Since then different programs have evolved (spiritual formation, religious education and leadership development) involving hundreds of participants and a significant expenditure of financial and human resources by the CEO, Parramatta. Teacher spirituality is acknowledged as a priority area for professional development and, arguably, is the ultimate basis by which teachers are empowered to pursue the mission of catholic education. This research investigates the impact of these programs, from the perceptions of a sample of participants, on their working roles as teachers and administrators in catholic schools in the Parramatta Diocese. Preliminary findings suggest there are identifiable indicators (though subtle) of the effects of a program as perceived by participants and that other influences need acknowledgement. What is becoming evident is participants perceived link between personal development and the flow on effect in the professional role.

Outcomes without profiles. curriculum planning in New South Wales

Laurence Brady, University of Technology, Sydney

Following the recommendations of the report Focusing on Learning: Report of The Review of Outcomes and Profiles in NSW Schooling [1995] the state minister for education in NSW abandoned any further development of the state profiles in September 1995. The report however did acknowledge and support the value of outcomes in providing a clearer focus for teaching and learning. This paper reports a survey of teachers from a stratified proportional sample of 48 schools in six non-contiguous districts for schooling in New South Wales on how teachers are currently using outcomes to plan for and direct teaching in the absence of the state profiles. Data indicated that teachers are guided in their planning by outcomes yet state them differentially according to key learning area; that stated outcomes are short term and specified more in relation to skills than knowledge or values; that teachers are not strongly influenced by the previous state profiles in stating outcomes; and that teaching experience and school type are significant predictor variables.

Teaching for success: Literacy outcomes in Year 2 Tasmanian classrooms

John Braithwaite, University of Tasmania

This paper presents some of the findings of a two year study that examined literacy processes and outcomes in a sample of Year 2 classrooms. The findings reported explore the teaching practices used in successful classrooms and relate these findings to contemporary research on literacy teaching.

The passive voice of authority

Elizabeth Bredberg, Queensland University of Technology

Developments in methods of educational research that have taken place during the past few decades are often associated with changes in perceptions of education and of the role of educational professionals. The ensuing shift from a strictly quantitative paradigm to one that also includes a variety of qualitative methods has, however, been seldom matched by changes in the style with which research is reported. Despite the acknowledgment, within many qualitative methodologies, of the significance of the investigator's perspective and the personal involvement, most educational research continues to be reported in a style that suppresses the authorial voice. In an attempt to gain an understanding of the persistence of this stylistic practice, I examine its characteristic techniques and its relation to academic writing in other disciplines. My investigation then extends itself into other cultural settings, both contemporary and historical, in which suppression of personal identity has functioned as a symbol of authority, and speculate on the implications of this practice in modern society. I conclude with some suggestions about ways in which research reporting might be made more stylistically consistent with the philosophical substrata that underlie current methodologies.

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Pursuing radical school reform against tough odds

Marie Brennan and Lew Zipin

Undertaking radical school reform is difficult in these times of conservative "rationalism": pro-active approaches to establishing new norms (Fraser, 1989) for schools and social relations seem impossible when schools struggle to comply with accountability and managerial frameworks and reduced funding. Even for those who seek radical social change, severe compromises often seem inevitable, to the extent that central functions and practices of schooling remain untouched. What are the prospects, then, for

more radical reforms? How might they be envisioned as more than abstract idealism and build instead on possibilities in the present?

In this paper we suggest four necessary elements of a reform agenda for school curriculum and organisation that both recognise current inequalities and seeks to transform them. These are:

1. reflection on the normative processes of the institution of schooling by students, teachers and parents
2. working to provide cultural capitals for success in dominant social terms among those groups which have traditionally not won the contests of school and career
3. simultaneously developing critical capacities to challenge and change dominant norms and practices of education
4. building democratic communities -- in ways that value differences -- in classroom, staff and broader school practices.

Fraser, N, 1989, Unruly Practices (Uni of Minnesota Press)

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SYMPOSIUM 6: Professional doctorates in new times for the Australian University

Presenters:Marie Brennan, Central Queensland University, Bill Green, Deakin University and Alison Lee, University of Technology, Sydney

The phenomenon of the professional doctorate has increased from a starting trickle in 1991 to a situation where 28 Universities currently offer them in almost the full range of disciplines in universities (Jongeling 1996; Maxwell & Shanahan 1996). Research on the new doctorate to date has tended to be basic/descriptive in orientation, focusing either on analysing contexts and debates in the development of the award and its sponsoring policy initiatives or providing description of approaches taken, particularly the balance between coursework and research. This symposium problematises current and planned practice in professional doctorates, following research undertaken across three universities (CQU, Deakin, UTS) into pedagogy, policy and the place of professional practice in the professional doctorates. The three foci make it possible to reconceputalise the task and significance of the professional doctorate in higher education.

PAPER 1:

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The challenges of changing professionalism for the development of the professional doctorate

Marie Brennan, Central Queensland University

There is a considerable body of historical work on the development of professions (Collins, 1979; Larson, 1977 , Popkewitz & Simola, 1996 ), and the term is used to describe the confluence of expertise, legitimated through qualification and a community of practice. The introduction of the professional doctorate can be seen as an important strategy by the university sector to alter its expertise and authority structures in relation to the professions, at a time when those relations have been made problematic.

The gatekeeping role over information and knowledge has until recently been largely organised through the universities. However, new global information technologies have now challenged the nexus of professional licensing and qualifications --a nexus which has been kept relatively stable for the past century. This shift in potential control over knowledge has significant implications, this paper argues, for university work, especially in relation to postgraduate research work in the context of professional doctorates.

PAPER 2:

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Theorising the professional doctorate: Representation, practice and the curriculum problem in postgraduate education

Bill Green, Deakin University

This paper explores what counts as the object of the professional doctorate, ie 'professional practice' and how it is represented in and by the curriculum, with specific reference to research on three disciplines: nursing, engineering and education. Such a concern has been called 'the representation problem' (Lundgren 1991) and described subsequently as the 'curriculum problem'. To date, however, little explicit attention has been given to matters of theory in professional doctorate circles (see Green and Lee, 1996); rather, attention has been on policy- and market-driven program development, following changes in the constitution and focus of Australian universities and new emphasis on accountability, efficiency and productivity in postgraduate education. While in their rationales, professional doctorates seem to have in common the improvement of professional practice, as yet an adequate account of what might be understood as professional practice is lacking, as is an understanding of the changes already occurring for professions themselves. Attention to researching matters of curriculum and pedagogy, in the specific instance of the professional doctorate, provides for more adequate theoretical accounts and theorised understandings of key notions such as in this instance 'professionalism' and 'practice'. This paper begins to address these matters with respect to the professional doctorate in Australia.

PAPER 3:

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Supervision pedagogy as co-production

Alison Lee, University of Technology, Sydney

Pedagogy has for long been the absent presence in debates on postgraduate work, and the professional doctorate is no exception. Research on postgraduate supervision as pedagogy is currently underway, focusing on the PhD (Lee, Green and Johnson 1997). The professional doctorate constitutes a further problematic in this field, given that the knowledge base for pedagogic practices is of a particular hybrid nature. That is, the focus on the teaching of research that is oriented to the workplace, as occurs in the professional doctorate, makes quite different demands of postgraduate pedagogy (Lee and Green, 1995). This paper draws on recent research into academic literacy and co-production in tertiary study in academic literacy work, as well as on current research on the development of the professional doctorate in the disciplines of Engineering, Education and Nursing. It presents a case for thinking about the development of the professional doctoral pedagogy as a pedagogy of 'co-production'.

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The challenges of changing professionalism for the development of the professional doctorate

Marie Brennan, Central Queensland University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 6, Professional doctorates in new times for the Australian University.

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SYMPOSIUM 7: Towards a theoretical framework for researching computers in educational administration: Foucault, Bourdieu and Latour

Presenters: Marie Brennan, Chris Bigum and Lindy Isdale, Central Queensland University

The three papers represent an ongoing conversation on the development of appropriate ways of theorising the role of computers in educaitonal administration. Drawing on major social theoretical concerns with power, globalisation, and practice, all three papers use as a starting point the interaction between technologies and humans as shaping one another in an active network of power relations. The papers each take a different approach in exploring the potential contribution of major theoretical works to research on computers in educationl adminstration settings specifically and in general. The work of Foucault, Bourdieu and Latour form the core of these theoretical developments.

PAPER 1:

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Exploring explanations for the networked educative state

Marie Brennan, Central Queensland University

A recent upsurge of interest in theorising technology has not been accompanied by contributions from the field of eduational adminstration, where work reliant on the new information technologies has become daily more central in defining that work and relations with state education systems and other schools. This paper brings together key social theorists to extend the work of Bigum and Green (1995) in their invitation to explore "Managing Machines". A practice-oriented approach, drawing in particular on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and the school of Actor Network Theory (ANT), using Bruno Latour as its 'spokesperson, is developed, with productive interaction with Foucault's notion of power as productive rather than repressive contributing to the framework. Particular critical incidents drawn from school- and system-based research are used to develop key theoretical issues for educational administrative practice and theorising about new technologies. A more appropriate sociology of schooling technology is able to address the ways in which administrators and technologies are interacting to create new forms of practice, articulated differently with other practices, including old forms of educational administrative practice.

PAPER 2:

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The leviathan and the network

Chris Bigum, Central Queensland University

This paper reports an actor-network account of the implementation and use of a school management system in a school. It offers a detailed exploration of the assembling of human and non-human actants into a stable network. Rather than relying on pre-existing categories as a basis for explanation, actor-network theory requires the researcher to explore the origins and uses of categories in the development of sociotechnical systems. Rather than relying upon a human-centric view of the processes associated with system implementation, actor-network theory employs a radical principle of symmetry which trangresses the human-non-human boundary and treats humans and non-humans as simple, equivalent elements in chains. For Latour, each actor, human or non-human is invested with a 'will' with which to make 'other elements dependent upon itself and translate their will into a language of its own'.

This study identifies the complexities and difficulties in implementing computer-based adminisitrative systems in government schools across a state.

PAPER 3:

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Theorising new work practices in educational administration: The case of School Management System (SMS) in Queensland

Lindy Isdale, Central Queensland University

Since the 1980s, as global politics has become increasingly manifest in school policy, the work of school administrative staff has become increasingly technologised. The new computerised School Management System (SMS), introduced into Queensland schools in 1996, is not an adjunct to existing administrative practices but requires new administrative attentions and practices to be developed in school offices. These changes have received little attention from researchers to date but, nevertheless, are of far more significance to our understandings of schools as workplaces than are the more frequent generalised studies of corporatisation and globalism.

This paper draws on aspects of a larger study of school administrations and SMS, looking specifically at the initial stages of its introduction and the newly emerging work practices and relations which arise out of workers' associations with the new technology. The paper investigates the use of Latour's Actor Network Theory, Foucault's concept of power/knowledge and post-fordist work theory to explore the translations which occur between large policy networks and the local school SMS project as workers and technology seek to enrol one another in their respective interests. The study is then able to specify concrete associations and new work practices, thereby building new ways to interrogate the broader globalisation literature and that of educational administration.

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Exploring explanations for the networked educative state

Marie Brennan, Central Queensland University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 7, Towards a theoretical framework for researching computers in educational administration: Foucault, Bourdieu and Latour.

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What about the boys? Significant others in mathematics education and interactions between cultural background and gender

Christine Brew, Monash University

This paper is part of a much larger project about attitudes towards mathematics learning of year 7 and year 9 students. Previously we have reported differences in self perceptions and the influence of significant others by gender (Brew, Pearn, Leder and Bishop, 1996) and cultural background (Bishop, Leder, Brew, and Pearn, 1997). Here we present the interactions that emerged between these two variables that show greater differences in self perceptions concerning mathematics learning between Anglo and non-Anglo background boys compared to Anglo and non-Anglo background girls. In the climate of "What about the boys?" subtle but consistent interactions suggest that non-Anglo background boys are the most confident in their mathematical studies and feel the most supported by their teacher, mother and father. Teacher ratings of achievement were consistent with these self-perceptions, as non-Anglo background boys were the highest achievers and the Anglo background boys clearly the lowest. Peer influence emerged as the strongest factor for the girls, where non-Anglo girls appear to perceive the greatest conflict.

Changes in higher education: Perceptions of academics

Carolyn Broadbent, Australian Catholic University

Changing perceptions of the role of universities and ongoing change within the higher education sector have impacted significantly on the work practices of academics and the level of satisfaction experienced while working. As universities encounter increasingly competitive and turbulent environments, academics are constantly challenged to respond to change through the adoption of new strategies and reassessment of individual goals. This paper explores the impact of change on academics at the Australian Catholic University. Unlike mergers which had seen the creation of multi-campus institutions in the one state, the formation of the Australian Catholic University brought together Catholic institutes spanning across the three states of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and the A.C.T. Through an analysis of interview responses gathered from academics across the eight campuses of the University, this paper provides insights into the nature of academics' perceptions of change within the Australian Catholic University, the manner in which they conceptualise those changes and the way in which such change influences their vision for the growth and development of the institution in the future.

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SYMPOSIUM 8: Issues in qualitative research

Chairperson: Susan Groundwater-Smith, Educational Research and Development Services

Discussants: David Kirk, The University of Queensland, and Sue Johnston, University of Canberra

Participants: Ross Brooker, Ian Macpherson and Colin Lankshear, Queensland University of Technology, Jim Butler, The University of Queensland and Felicity Haynes, The University of Western Australia

Overview: Issues related to research methodology in education are currently under-represented in Australian conferences and writing. This symposium, focused on a number of central issues in qualitative research, is intended to initiate and stimulate ongoing debate and discussion for research in the Australian context. It focuses on issues related to purposes of research, relationships in research, and research outcomes. The symposium is designed such that five speakers will each make a short presentation which is to followed by reactions from two discussants. This will be followed by audience interaction with the presenters, discussants and each other. The symposium will be facilitated and summed up by the chairperson.

PAPER 1:

Discovering reality or constructing reality through qualitative research

Jim Butler, The University of Queensland

This paper will address specific issues in the general problem of meaning making in the interpretive qualitative research paradigm. It will be a discussion derived from my personal practical knowledge of participating in such research. It will centre around three questions that I have found in my journey: the metaphysical question of the oneness of Being and therefore each single instance being implicitly revelatory of Being; the role of the Ladder of Inference in research methods; and finally, is it endemic to qualitative research to reveal changed perspectives?

PAPER 2

The moral consequences of what we construct through qualitative research

Colin Lankshear, Queensland University of Technology

By its very nature, qualitative research generates a wide range of issues concerning moral consequences of the research act. While some of these issues apply in common to non-qualitative research approaches, others are more or less distinctive to qualitative research, and others again take on distinctive forms or aspects within qualitative inquiry. This paper will emphasise dimensions and types of moral consequences that are more or less distinctively associated with qualitative research. It will draw on a concept of morality framed in terms of rights and obligations relating to matters of human good and harm. Moral consequences will be explored from "front end", "back end" and "within research" perspectives. Consequences of "commission" and "omission" will be identified, with reference to research processes as well as research products. Rights and obligations impinging on human good and harm will be explored in relation to "the researched", "the researcher's craft", "the consumers of research", "the wider community/common good", "the researcher's colleagues/ community", and "the researcher her/himself".

PAPER 3:

The relationship between knowledge, purpose and qualitative research design

Felicity Haynes, The University of Western Australia

Qualitative research is distinguished from quantitative research not simply because one contains values and the other doesn't; not simply because one is subjective and the other objective, or because one is based on opinion and the other on facts. Even some ethnographic and phenomenological research may be excluded from a qualitative conceptual frame on the grounds that it pretends to offer fixed and value-neutral meanings. Because the epistemology of qualitative research presumes a search for meanings rather than truth, it is driven by human purposes which have constrained what count as salient features.

Poststructuralists and critical theorists alike have persuaded most people that descriptive empirical frames which deny purpose are rendering values invisible rather than evading them. Even hermeneuticists can present research as though the meanings were fixed. This paper will present several research examples from education, including case studies, surveys and interviews to show how different renderings of human purposes and interests shape the style of research method chosen.

PAPER 4:

Interpreting qualitative data and report writing: profiling the researcher or the research?

Ross Brooker and Ian Macpherson, Queensland University of Technology

Authors such as Linclon and Guba (1985), Merriam (1989), and Miles and Huberman (1984) point out that qualitative research is to make a difference then it must contain well-grounded, thick, and rich descriptions. Simmt (1997) in a recent paper reminds us that although these same authors suggest how this can be achieved, "it is an unusual text that manages to preserve the complexity and integrity of the event or phenomenon the researcher is attempting to understand using qualitative data." Often the outcomes of the research are reported as abstract rules and generalisations which "... do not have a face, nor a repertoire of actions" (Kessels and Korthagen, 1996, p. 21). The research outcomes too often say more about the persons who interpret the data and write up the research than the research itself. The process becomes a "hermenuetic of self-indulgence" (Smith, 1997). The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the researcher in interpreting and reporting qualitative research.

PAPER 5:

Who has the authority to speak about practice and how does it influence educational inquiry?

Jennifer Gore, University of Newcastle

While philosophical scholarship and empirical research are frequently presented as discrete activities, I argue that both are essential to a project such as developing a theory of pedagogy. Functions and limits of philosophical work are outlined as background to my argument for systematic data gathering about power's operation in pedagogy. For too long, now, pedagogical theorists have neglected systematic observations of the very phenomena they are attempting to understand. Drawing upon work which is primarily philosophical in character from both radical pedagogy and Foucauldian literature, an empirical study is outlined. Examples are presented which demonstrate the benefits to be gained from employing both types of intellectual activity.

BROOR072

BROOR97a.072

SYMPOSIUM 8: Issues in qualitative research

Chairperson: Susan Groundwater-Smith, Educational Research and Development Services

Discussants: David Kirk, The University of Queensland, and Sue Johnston, University of Canberra

Participants: Ross Brooker, Ian Macpherson and Colin Lankshear, Queensland University of Technology, Jim Butler, The University of Queensland and Felicity Haynes, The University of Western Australia

Overview: Issues related to research methodology in education are currently underrepresented in Australian conferences and writing. This symposium, focused on a number of central issues in qualitative research, is intended to initiate and stimulate ongoing debate and discussion for research in the Australian context. It focuses on issues related to purposes of research, relationships in research, and research outcomes. The symposium is designed such that five speakers will each make a short presentation which is to followed by reactions from two discussants. This will be followed by audience interaction with the presenters, discussants and each other. The symposium will be facilitated and summed up by the chairperson.

PAPER 1:

Discovering reality or constructing reality through qualitative research

Jim Butler, The University of Queensland

This paper will address specific issues in the general problem of meaning making in the interpretive qualitative research paradigm. It will be a discussion derived from my personal practical knowledge of participating in such research. It will centre around three questions that I have found in my journey: the metaphysical question of the oneness of Being and therefore each single instance being implicitly revelatory of Being; the role of the Ladder of Inference in research methods; and finally, is it endemic to qualitative research to reveal changed perspectives?

PAPER 2:

The moral consequences of what we construct through qualitative research

Colin Lankshear, Queensland University of Technology

By its very nature, qualitative research generates a wide range of issues concerning moral consequences of the research act. While some of these issues apply in common to non-qualitative research approaches, others are more or less distinctive to qualitative research, and others again take on distinctive forms or aspects within qualitative inquiry. This paper will emphasise dimensions and types of moral consequences that are more or less distinctively associated with qualitative research. It will draw on a concept of morality framed in terms of rights and obligations relating to matters of human good and harm. Moral consequences will be explored from "front end", "back end" and "within research" perspectives. Consequences of "commission" and "omission" will be identified, with reference to research processes as well as research products. Rights and obligations impinging on human good and harm will be explored in relation to "the researched", "the researcher's craft", "the consumers of research", "the wider community/common good", "the researcher's colleagues/ community", and "the researcher her/himself".

PAPER 3:

The relationship between knowledge, purpose and qualitative research design

Felicity Haynes, The University of Western Australia

Qualitative research is distinguished from quantitative research not simply because one contains values and the other doesn't; not simply because one is subjective and the other objective, or because one is based on opinion and the other on facts. Even some ethnographic and phenomenological research may be excluded from a qualitative conceptual frame on the grounds that it pretends to offer fixed and value-neutral meanings. Because the epistemology of qualitative research presumes a search for meanings rather than truth, it is driven by human purposes which have constrained what count as salient features. Poststructuralists and critical theorists alike have persuaded most people that descriptive empirical frames which deny purpose are rendering values invisible rather than evading them. Even hermeneuticists can present research as though the meanings were fixed. This paper will present several research examples from education, including case studies, surveys and interviews to show how different renderings of human purposes and interests shape the style of research method chosen.

PAPER 4:

Interpreting qualitative data and report writing: profiling the researcher or the research?

Ross Brooker and Ian Macpherson, Queensland University of Technology

Authors such as Linclon and Guba (1985), Merriam (1989), and Miles and Huberman (1984) point out that qualitative research is to make a difference then it must contain well-grounded, thick, and rich descriptions. Simmt (1997) in a recent paper reminds us that although these same authors suggest how this can be achieved, "it is an unusual text that manages to preserve the complexity and integrity of the event or phenomenon the researcher is attempting to understand using qualitative data." Often the outcomes of the research are reported as abstract rules and generalisations which "... do not have a face, nor a repertoire of actions" (Kessels and Korthagen, 1996, p. 21). The research outcomes too often say more about the persons who interpret the data and write up the research than the research itself. The process becomes a "hermenuetic of self-indulgence" (Smith, 1997). The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the researcher in interpreting and reporting qualitative research.

PAPER 5:

Who has the authority to speak about practice and how does it influence educational inquiry?

Jennifer Gore, University of Newcastle

While philosophical scholarship and empirical research are frequently presented as discrete activities, I argue that both are essential to a project such as developing a theory of pedagogy. Functions and limits of philosophical work are outlined as background to my argument for systematic data gathering about power's operation in pedagogy. For too long, now, pedagogical theorists have neglected systematic observations of the very phenomena they are attempting to understand. Drawing upon work which is primarily philosophical in character from both radical pedagogy and Foucauldian literature, an empirical study is outlined. Examples are presented which demonstrate the benefits to be gained from employing both types of intellectual activity.

BROWG513

"Worlds Apart": Documenting differences in secondary reading skills in New South Wales

Gail Brown, University of Western Sydney

This paper reports pereliminary analyses of data on oral reading fluency and written comprehension skills of students in years 7 and 8 in high schools in the Sydney metropolitan area. Data was collected to determine pre-existing skill levels in whole classes as part of a doctoral research program in Reading Comprejension. All year 8 students were required to orally read six passages and complete written answers to a range of questions. Three narrative passages were read and English classroom teachers agreed that these were grade appropriate. Factual passages were selected from typical textbooks used in three content areas, History, Geography and Science.

For a smaller group of year 7 students, four passages were orally read. Two narrative passages were selected by classroom teachers from novels or other classroom resources in each school as being of grade appropraite difficulty. Two passages were selected from the E.L.L.A. Test trialed in term 1 at selected high schools across New South Wales. Selected audio tapes support data and provide clear evidence of the ranges in student reading ability. Relationships between oral and written performance, and a normative measure in year 8, will be reported.

Implications of this data, in terms of classroom instruction and possible interventions to support student learning across this wide range of skills will be discussed. The efficacy of interventions, implemented during terms 2 and 3 in selected classes are reported. This apper documents, using current curriculum materials and assessment measures, the daunting task facing secondary classroom teachers every day as they attempt to provide effective programs and improved outcomes for all students in their classrooms.

BROWG514

Verbal protocols in reading: Standardising administration and future research

Gail Brown, University of Western Sydney

Overviewing historical and recent studies in verbal protocols suggests that this methodology has been used for a variety of purposes and predominantly with particular readiers, namely competent readers who more than likely are adults. The place of verbal protocols within existing theories of reading nad reading acquisition is discussed. Issues in the administration of verbal protocols, not address to date in literature or current research, are examined.

Valid and reliable conclusions can only emerge as a result of adopting a scientific approach and a systematic research program for researching the many unanswered questions concerning verbal protocols. To this end, one detailed and standardised procedure for eliciting verbal protocols during reading abilities, is reported. One narrative text reported in recent research (Kucan and Beck, 1996) is used to elist thinking aloud from eight students selected from two classes. From this limited sample, tentative conclusions are drawn abour the relationships between verbal protocols and other measures of reading performance, including a normative measure and two curriculum based measures, one oral and one written.

Directions for future research in a range of text, reader and instructinal variables are outlined. Empirical research studies may, in the future, validate that verbal protocols can provide insight into critical issues in the reading process and for theories of reading.

BROWJ388

PAPER ONE

Ms Rosemary A Viete, Faculty of Education, Monash University

Increasing numbers of applicants from a range of language backgrounds are seeking places in Australian universities as local and international students. Their proficiency in English varies considerably, as do the varieties of English they use. While proficiency in English is not the only factor affecting academic performance in English medium education, it is important. Universities have established policies regarding English proficiency requirements for international students. They are much less clear and consistent about proficiency requirements for local applicants to courses conducted in Australia and how these requirements are related to educational access and equity.

This paper discusses this relation, focussing on two strategies used in various postgraduate education courses to assess English equitably. Drawing on a research study, it argues that equitable outcomes for the entire educational community depend as much on suitable assessment procedures as they do on suitable support for students and staff involved in both selection and teaching or learning. It discusses the features that make an assessment procedure 'suitable', and explores ways in which we can ensure that those who wish to learn a new discourse are not permanently excluded from the only context in which they can learn it.

PAPER TWO

Talking to TESOL teachers: unstructured interviews and teacher

understandings

Ms. Jill BROWN Institutional Affiliation: Monash University, Faculty of Education

The work of ESL teachers is informed by understandings of the function of language and the nature of language learning. These beliefs, which underpin teachers' pedagogy and classroom practice, are often inexplicit and unexamined. It is largely unclear what understandings ESL teachers draw upon in their work in the classroom. Attempts to uncover this knowledge base that draw on traditional research methodology, such as questionnaires and structured interviews, may both restrict and restructure teacher understandings.

This paper considers the way in which a number of interviews, ranging from a more traditional, prompted approach to an unstructured 'participant as story-teller' approach, worked towards the uncovering of TESL teachers' unreconstructed understandings.

RELATIONSHIP TO THE CONFERENCE THEME: The expertise of classroom teachers is much undervalued. There is a need to develop research practices which support practising teachers in articulating their understandings of the work they do.

BROWJ389

Talking to TESOL teachers: Unstructured interviews and teacher understandings

Jill Brown, Monash University

The work of ESL teachers is informed by understandings of the function of language and the nature of language learning. These beliefs, which underpin teachers' pedagogy and classroom practice, are often inexplicit and unexamined. It is largely unclear what understandings ESL teachers draw upon in their work in the classroom. Attempts to uncover this knowledge base that draw on traditional research methodology, such as questionnaires and structured interviews, may both restrict and restructure teacher understandings.

This paper considers the way in which a number of interviews, ranging from a more traditional, prompted approach to an unstructured 'participant as story-teller' approach, worked towards the uncovering of TESL teachers' unreconstructed understandings.

Contested realities: Identity, PETE and models of understanding

Leanne Brown, University of Ballarat

The 'I Can Be This' project investigated how students expectations, experiences and involvement in physical education teacher education impacted upon and shaped identity development. A key feature of the project was the focus on the interplay between student socilisation within the 'Identity Playground' and PETE. This session will present an overview of this interplay, models developed as a result of the project, contested realities of PETE and the student social world, and the 'Rules of Membership' which frame and support identity development in PETE.

BROWR347

"Where do you people get your ideas from?". Negotiating zones of collaborative learning within an upper primary classroom

Raymond Brown, The University of Queensland

Collective Argumentation is a discourse genre within the social language of schooling, designed to involve children in negotiating the development of conceptual knowledge through the use of a key word structure. The key word structure utilises the strategies of representing, comparing, explaining, justifying, agreeing and validating to guide children's activity at the small-group and whole-class level and to scaffold the emergence of children's thought from the everyday and personal to the more sophisticated and communal understandings associated with disciplinary communities of practice. This paper explores the nature of small-group and whole-group interaction within a year 7 classroom which employs Collective Argumentation as a tool of learning. Particular attention is paid to the orientations towards learning that children develop, the interaction of collaborative goals of learning with individual children's needs to please or dominate, the type of discourse structures used by children at the small-group and whole-class level, and the quality of specific learning outcomes. The teacher's role within such a classroom and issues related to authority and educational values are discussed in the light of a sociocultural understanding of teaching and development

BROWR383

Journeys from participating on the periphery to peripheral participation in a collaborative primary classroom

R A J Brown and Peter Renshaw, The University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 26, Communities of learners: Researching resistance and exclusion in the collaborative classroom.

BROWT451

Establishing a new rhetoric for authentic assessment

Tom Browne, Anglican Church Grammar School Brisbane

This paper examines the findings of one of three case studies researched whilst employing the sprot education in physical education program (SEPEP). I wished to understand, appreciate and report on how teachers assessed student outcomes in sport education. I intended this investigation to result in the development of explanations of the many issues facing assessment in physical education. Qualitative research methods were employed in a multiple site case study. Illumination is provided through description and interpretation of the teacher's world and the context of assessment in sport education. Key comments by the principal, senior teachers and physical education teachers are highlighted. Analysis employing Choi's (1992) dimensions of the curriculum is intended to provide specific, concrete and identifiable patterns of teachers' assessment under sport education.

BRYCJ247

Assessment of the Mayer Key Competencies

Jennifer Bryce and Doug McCurry, Australian Council for Educational Research

This paper discusses the outcomes of a project which explored school-based assessment and reporting of the Mayer Key Competencies. In 1996, a trial was undertaken in ten secondary schools across four states of Australia, focusing on Year 11. The project was based on two important assumptions: that teachers can make global judgements of their students' performance on the Key Competencies without setting special tasks, and that teachers' assessments of these competencies are general rather than subject specific.

The project produced overall levels of performance for individual students from a range of different teachers' global impression judgements. The exercise was seen to be cost efficient in that participating teachers had minimal introduction to the Key Competencies and only brief training in the assessment procedure. Most teachers took about ten minutes to assess each student on the eight Key Competencies.

Some significant outcomes that will be discussed are:

1. teachers were able to make judgements on the basis of their knowledge of students without undertaking new or different tasks;
2. levels of agreement between teachers were higher than expected and ranged well over an 8-point scale;
3. teachers found the task easier than they had expected.

The relationship between significant others' positive and negative statements and self-talk, self-concepts, and self-esteem

Paul C Burnett, Queensland University of Technology

This paper reports on a study conducted with 269 primary school children in grades 3 to 7. These children completed self-report questionnaires measuring (1) the frequency of positive and negative statements made by mother, father, teacher, and peers, (2) positive and negative self-talk, (3) academic self-concepts, (4) social relations self-concepts, and (5) self-esteem. Class teachers also completed the Behavioural Indicators of Self-Esteem (BIOS) scale for each child. Structural equation modelling was used to describe the relationships between these variables and the results will be presented.

Who's developing who in school physical education? An analysis of developmental discourses

Lisette Burrows, University of Otago, New Zealand

In this paper I critically examine the nature and function of developmental discourses in school physical education. Current legitimations for the inclusion of physical education as a subject in the school curriculum tend to centre around its instrumental value in contributing to physical, social, emotional and psychological dimensions of children's development. Underpinning such claims are common sense and professional understandings about the "nature" of children and a legacy of ideas about how children "develop." Recent work by critical psychologists and some poststructuralist writers has critiqued the notions of child development informing physical education policy and professional activities. Drawing on insights from poststructuralist theory, I will consider both the challenges and implications a critique of "developmentalism" presents for physical educators in schools.

BURTJ189

Teaching dilemmas and workplace relations

Judith Burton, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 16, Early childhood teachers working in new times: Reports on research undertaken in the 1990's.

Social and cultural transformation through participative learning

Jude Butcher, Valda Dickinson, Phil Glendenning, Peter Hancock, Fay Hickson, and Joanne Trevaglia, Australian Catholic University

Social and cultural education is of increasing importance in today's society, particularly considering the social justice issues which need to addressed both here and overseas. This area of education is concerned with the social and cultural transformation of participants. The programs involve participants in field or immersion experiences in different cultural contexts, require them to critically analyse social issues and identify ways in which they can be agents of social and cultural change.

The programs challenge participants' personal and social assumptions, develop them personally and culturally and provide them with skills they need for social and organisation analysis and for their roles as change agents and as advocates in the social arena. This paper presents a conceptual framework for social and cultural education and discusses issues related to its implementation. Case studies of this approach are drawn from programs offered by participants both here and overseas.

Qualitative data gathering in two school settings: A reflection on processes and problems in exploring student perceptions of technological design experience

Lyndon Butcher, The University of Newcastle

The author's professional interests in the classroom activities of design and technology led him to undertake a qualitative study that was structured to maximise researcher involvement with two year ten class groups in two separate schools over a full school year. Some of the 'myths' 'rituals' and 'realities' pertaining to the NSW secondary school subject of design and technology are uncovered from the 'lived experience' of students involved in school based design activities. This subject recently emerged in response to the identification of technology and applied studies as a key learning area essential for all students.

This working paper reflects on the observational and interview data gathering techniques that were employed to explore the design experiences of students working in a classroom context. The author renders his research processes visible by documenting and discussing the methodological issues pertaining to the study. These issues include his selection of participants, his role as a researcher, and the evolving nature of the research questions throughout the research process.

The techniques employed in collecting and recording field observations and open interviews are portrayed problematically. The processes represent an uneasy transformation that begins with descriptive observations and transcribed conversations (open interviews). These comprise field text which is analysed and eventually results in a research report. The author was faced with a variety of ways of analysing the data ranging form ongoing analytical comment to the use of NUD*IST qualitative data analysis software. Case study examples of some preliminary analyses are reported in conjunction with a review of the relevant methodological literature.

Discovering reality or constructing reality through qualitative research

Jim Butler, The University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 8, Issues in qualitative research.

Assessing student performance via the Internet

Rosemary Callingham, Department of Education, Community and Cultural Development, Tasmania, Patrick Griffin, University of Melbourne

With increased access by students to the internet, together with greater monitoring of student learning outcomes, there is interest in using the internet to deliver assessment and monitoring programs. The Year 9 Numeracy Assessment and Monitoring Program ran in all Tasmanian government high (Years 7-10) and district high (Years K-10) schools in 19 The testing package included a performance assessment task, and it was decided to use this task as the basis for an internet trial. Three teachers in different schools agreed to complete this task via the internet with one class of students. One class consisted of a high ability year 9 group in a large suburban high school; one was a heterogeneous year 9 group in a rural district high school; one was a group of low ability year 11 students in a senior secondary college. Teachers and students involved had varying degrees of sophistication with computer use.

Student results on the task were compared with those of similar groups of students that completed the task using conventional tools. A number of teacher and student interviews, and observations of students at work on the task, added valuable qualitative data. This paper reports on the advantages and difficulties associated with using the internet for assessment of a performance task.

CAMPJ349

Effective teaching for students with differing approaches to learning

Jennifer Campbell and David Smith, Queensland University of Technology

Secondary students were surveyed to investigate their beliefs about teaching and learning, their approaches to learning, and perceptions of their actual and preferred classroom environment. Students from each class, with differing approaches to learning, were interviewed, as were their teachers.

Quantitative analysis of the survey data indicated that students with deep approaches to learning viewed their actual classroom environment as being more student centred, and had a greater preference for such individualised classrooms, than did students with surface approaches. Qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed that differences in perception of the same classroom by students with differing approaches to learning were somewhat modified by particular teaching strategies. When teachers reported constructivist strategies, but also relied on transmission, students with preferences for deep approaches recognised the potential of the constructivist elements of the class, while students with surface approaches did not, emphasising instead transmission and reproduction. However, when teachers focused on both actively engaging students, and creating a supportive environment, students with deep and surface approaches both focussed on student centred aspects of the class. In contrast, when traditional expository teaching methods were used, students with deep and surface approaches both focused on transmission and reproduction.

The adjustment behaviours of mature-aged women returning to formal study

Robert Cantwell and Wendy Mulhearn, University of Newcastle

Seven mature-aged women from the University of Newcastle's enabling course (Open Foundation Certificate) participated in the study. Measures of Approach to Learning (Biggs,1987) and Causal Attributions (Chan, 1994) were taken in the first and last weeks of the semester. Two focus groups were also held at the beginning and end of semester. Data revealed a general decline in deeper learning and increase in surface learning in conjunction with a shift from personal control to self-blame for failure attributions. These changes were reflected in the qualitative data, where the women revealed negative feelings about time management, about a perceived competitive assessment regime, and a sense of alienation from aspects of the learning environment (particularly feelings of inadequacy and anxiety, as well as a fear of possible humiliation, in lectures). Additionally, the women reported lowered self-efficacy sentiments and perceived lack of family support as major reasons for a general feeling of loss of coping. The data is seen as consistent with prior research into women's experiences in adult education (e.g. Ancis & Phillips, 1996). Recommendations for change are outlined.

Problem-based methodology in leadership development: Interventions to improve dilemma management

Carol Cardno, UNITEC Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

New Zealand principals are currently performing a role considerably expanded by the reform of education administration to include a new and demanding set of expectations related to school self-management. In this context of devolved accountability for managing all school operations, principals are challenged by the need to resolve recurring, complex problems which have the characteristics of classic leadership dilemmas: value and goal tensions between achieving what is best for the organisation and maintaining positive collegial relationships. If effectiveness is viewed as the ability to solve complex problems so that they remain solved, then the question of how school leaders can develop skills to achieve this must be asked. In an attempt to answer this question, this paper outlines a curriculum for dilemma management which uses a problem-based approach with senior management teams in schools to examine and alter practice. Principals and others in key leadership positions can learn about the sources of problems and discover how their own theories of practice might constrain effective resolution. Consultant intervention is designed to teach participants skills which enable them to reason and act productively rather than defensively when confronted with dilemmas Two case studies of such interventions are briefly described, and the potential and pitfalls associated with applying problem-based methodology in school-based leadership development interventions are identified.

The use of teaching metaphors in preservice education

Teresa Carlson, The University of Queensland

While the use of personal teaching metaphors has been the subject of considerable research at the teacher level (Dickmeyer, 1989; Munby, 1986; Provenzo, McCloskey, Kottkamp and Cohn, 1989), there has been limited study in the use of this method at the preservice stage (Bullough, 1991). This paper explores the benefits of introducing teaching metaphors to students enrolled in a teacher education course. Fifty teaching metaphors were analysed to reveal how the participants perceived their role in the teaching process. What these metaphors can tell us about their creators and how teacher educators may be able to benefit from this knowledge is discussed. Further, some of the potential problems arising from using this method are outlined.

CARRA316

Pre-service teachers' acceptance of and social interactions with people with a disability: The Queensland scene

Annemaree Carroll, Ann Jobling and Kath Tait, University of Southern Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 13, Pre-service teachers' acceptance of and social interactions with people with a disability: Educational implications in new times.

CARTL071

Can You Really Do That On The Net?.....On-line Professional Development

Ms Lyn Carter, School of Education, Australian Catholic University

The influence of the new technologies are being felt at all levels of the educational enterprise from the increasing use of individual laptops to the introduction of classroom-based, networked computers providing ready access for both students and teachers to the world wide web. Children well versed in the use of CD-Roms and other games software from the front of the home computer, bring to the classroom a new visual literacy with which teachers will need to contend. In the tertiary arena, the scramble is on to gain custom for the virtual university particularly with the development and delivery of post-graduate courses. Given the notion of the adult professional as a "generative lifelong learner" (Fullan,1993 and others), it is hardly surprising that in some quarters, the Internet is seen as a possible solution to providing cost-efficient teacher professional development. This paper, as part of a larger study on the electronic mediation of in-service teacher education, reviews some of the recent educational literature discussing on-line professional growth opportunities. It describes categories of offerings, gleaned from the Internet, which arguably could be viewed as being able to contribute to the professional development of teachers. An assessment of the congruence between the rise of the Internet and the imperative of continuing professional development of teachers shows the availability of some promising research directions, as we seemingly relentlessly move towards the implementation of virtual educational communities.

School based induction and mentoring of beginning teachers: Preliminary findings from case study research

Mark Carter, NSW Department of School Education

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 18, Sustaining teachers' professional development: Exploring action learning and mentoring to maintain workplace learning.

CARUG088

Conducting classroom based primary school English research

Greta Caruso, The University of Melbourne

Classroom based research is increasingly popular and is increasingly regarded as capable of yielding rich insights into behaviour and learning (Nunan, 1992; Richards and Lockhart, 1994). However classroom based research also brings with it a set of problems one of which is the ethical concerns centred around issues of trust, demands of the subjects time and equity. A central methodological/ethical question in such classroom based research is often: What constitutes a fair exchange between the researcher and the subjects? This ethical question guided the current researcher in her examination of how two teachers implemented the English Key Learning Area of Victoria Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF-English) in the primary school at grades 5 and 6. In this paper discussion will be made of two crucial points in the relationship between the researcher and the teachers who had volunteered to be subjects.

Initially an ethnographic methodology was adopted, then, on the request of the subjects, the research became interventionist and action research was used as the methodological approach. In order to move through changes in the research paradogms the researcher ws forced to modify, develop and even invent methodological approaches which, simultaneously satisfied first, the teachers; second, the expectation of rigorous research; and third, a set of personal ethical standards. The researcher negotiated and renegotiated what the teachers were offered in exchange for their participation in the research. An effective if slightly unorthodox researcher/subject research exchange was found. This paper provides one model of a classroom researcher/subject relationship which was found to satisfy each of the three demands.

CASST053

Taking account of identities: A challenge for the pedagogical process in physical education teacher education (PETE)

Tania Cassidy, Faculty of Education, Deakin University

In the pedagogical process "[h]ow one teaches is...inseparable from what is being taught and, crucially, how one learns" (Lusted, 1986, p.3). In this paper I illustrate how an increased understanding of the identities of the learner and teacher educator provide an insight into how both parties engage the content of a PETE unit. This has implications for understanding students' responses to a socially critical curriculum in PETE.

Measuring benefits of workplace training

Ralph Catts, Central Queensland University

Working with Food Processing Firms, the author is in the process of developing and evaluating measures that indicate support for the retention of competencies, the impact of training on productivity, and the readiness of staff for further workplace learning. These are outcomes from workplace competency based training that extend the information about the return to the firms and the staff from expenditure on training. These instruments are required so that firms can monitor the changes that occur when systematic training plans are introduced.

This paper will outline the progress made in a project which has been commissioned to run from May 1997 to January 1998. Results to be reported are expected to include substantial evidence of content validity.

Drawing from literature on retention of competency (Baldwin and Ford, 1988; Foxon, 1993), measures expected to be correlated with retention of competency under include "organisational climate", "training design and delivery", and "learner commitment". Productivity measures currently collected by firms will be investigated to confirm accuracy. The literature on learning organisations (Senge, 1990) and Key Competencies (Mayer, 1992) are the sources of concepts for scales to measure "learning readiness" at individual and organisational levels.

If it can be shown that the measurement instruments demonstrate sound characteristics, they will provide a basis for the evaluation of the effectiveness of a variety of workplace learning systems, and thus provide insights of relevance both to the immediate concerns of firms, and to the broader policy issues related to fostering Life Long Learning.

Use of theatre to develop learning for young people

Christina Chaib, University of Jonkoping, Sweden

This paper deals with amateur theater as a method to increase and develop the learning setting for young people. Their interest and participation in theater productions are the focus of my investigation.

The educational process, I believe, will not be limited, in the future, to formal education and training, but also may include leisure and pastime activities as well. I have interviewed 30 young students about the amateur theater process. The paper shows the means and activities which seems to be important to the students. As shown in this research, by taking on a part and a character, and by maintaining enthusiasm in the dramatical narration, young actors develop competencies in a variety of areas of major importance for the pedagogical issues of education.The focus of my paper will be oriented towards the experiences gained by young Swedish students playing amateur theater. According to their reports, playing amateur theater constitutes a collectively shared educational experience. My paper will address the role of aesthetics activities in future education. A core question of my address will focus on whether an aesthetical creation affect or not actors=B4 experiences of the world surrounding them, and does such a perspective develop pupils enhanced understanding of society?

Computer-based education is the answer ! - But what were the questions asked for the future of technology in schooling?

Mohamed Chaib and Ann-Katrin Svensson, University of Jonkoping, Sweden

This paper intends to discuss the state of the art of computer based education in Sweden. Reporting the results of an ongoing research project, at pre- and comprehensive schools, we will address the central roles played by the teachers involved in our studies. In our paper we will be reviewing the social representations articulated by the teachers in their conceptions of what Information Technology based Learning really is about. Moreover, we will focus our intervention towards the cooperative and social interactions occuring among students in computer based learning processes. From the empirical evidences gathered in our project, we will try to sketch some possible scenarios for the future of computer based education. We will particularly discuss some of the actions, we believe, should be taken in order to enhance teacher=B4s preparedness towards the roles they are expected to play in this important educational issue.

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Teachers' perceptions of their roles in Singapore

Agnes Chang, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

One of the factors affecting students' academic outcomes is their teachers' enthusiasm for and commitment to their vocation. Singapore has done well international competitions like the TIMMS Study. Do the Singapore teachers play a significant role in facilitating these academic successes?

A survey was conducted to find out Secondary teachers' perceptions of their roles. Altogether 88 teachers participated in the survey. The instrument used to collect data is a published questionnaire of 35 items called the " Educational Attitude Inventory". The responeses were very positive though some respondents did express their reservation about some classroom practices.

Development of attributional beliefs and strategic knowledge in Years 5 to 9: A longitudinal analysis

Lorna Kim Sang Chan and Phillip Moore, The University of Newcastle

This paper reports on a three-year longitudinal study of students' attributional beliefs and strategic knowledge in school learning. Two cohorts of primary (N=355) and high school students (N=710) were followed through for three years from Years 5 to 7 and 7 to 9, respectively. Data were collected each year on students' attributional beliefs regarding the reasons for their school success and failure, their knowledge and reported use of learning strategies, and academic achievement. Intervention programs were implemented in six Year 6 and seven Year 8 English classes in the second year of the longitudinal project. The intervention aimed to promote strategic learning in students through

combining the teaching of learning strategies with attempts at changing students' attributional beliefs. In the third year of the project, the intervention continued in three Year 7 and three Year 9 English classes as well as in three Year 7 and one Year 9 Mathematics classes. This paper focuses on the causal influences of prior measures of attributional beliefs, strategic knowledge and achievement on measures taken in the following year. Results of the differential patterns of causal influences of these measures for intervention and non- intervention students are reported and implications for instruction are discussed.

Same or different?: A comparison of the beliefs Australian and Chinese university students hold about learning

Phoebe Chan, Monash University

Various explanations have been proposed to account for the differences in academic performance and achievements of diferent students, especially students of different nationalities or ethnicities. The influence of personal attributes (such as students' educational aspirations and goals, and time in study-related activities) and familial factors (such as parental expectations and involvement) have been investigated and found to be associated with different practices and outcomes. However, argument can be advanced that cultural values and beliefs are the underpinnings of these ideas and practices which lead to different performance and achievements. There is not, however, much empirical research on cultural beliefs or comparisons of the beliefs that different students hold about learning.

This paper reports on a study that explores the learning beliefs and practices of university students from a Chinese and a Western culture. The questionnaire constructed for the study has eighty-one items to elicit beliefs about learning. Around 300 undergraduate students studying in Hong Kong and Australia completed the questionnaire. Some of the participants were also interviewed. Analysis and comparisons of the resulting data from the two groups of students are presented in this paper.

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The sound of music - Fostering oral and listening skills in Singapore pre-school children through an integrated music and language arts programme

Sylvia Chong and Linda Gan, National Institute of Education, Singapore

From their earliest years children appear instinctively "wired" for sound and rhythm and naturally respond to music, songs, nursery rhymes and word play. Apart from providing endless pleasure, such activities play an importnat role in children's language and literacy development, hence the special place afforded to them in early childhood programmes.

In the bilingual setting in Singapore such activities play an even more prominent role, as the task of becoming literate in English and one other language is a challenge all children face from pre-school

upwards. Local curriculum planners at this crucial stage of schooling, have recognised the importance of designing preschool language arts programmes, rich in oral and expressive activities, which will not only help young children develop their command of spoken English, but also motivate them in acquiring and using English which might not be spoken in the course of their daily interactions in the home environment. Such programmes incorporate the usual medley of rhymes, songs, stories, language games and role play. Music, however, is usually introduced as a separate subject, in terms of time allocation and resource material.

This paper will discuss some of the developmental milestones in music and language development. In doing so it focuses on a one year preschool project funded by the National Institute of Education in Singapore, which investigates the integration of language and music activities and the role played in enhancing young children's speaking and listening skills in English.

A review on studies of computer anxiety in the 90's

Siew Lian Chua, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This paper reviewed studies of computer anxiety published in the 90's. The review focused on three main areas:
(a) the nature of computer anxiety,

(b) the existence of computer anxiety, and
(c) the relationships between computer anxiety and its three correlates, namely, gender, age and computer experience.

The review was conducted using two methods, vote-count method and meta-analysis. Review on the nature of computer anxiety yielded five statements:
(a) computer anxiety is a fear towards computers when users use the computer, or when they consider the possibility of computer use;
(b) computer anxiety is a kind of `state anxiety' which can be changed;
(c) computer anxiety is measurable in multiple dimensions;
(d) computer anxiety is perceived differently by people from different countries; and
(e) computer anxiety causes computer user avoidance.

The review had also confirmed that computer anxiety still exists in the 90's despite the fact that the computer has been widely used. Finally, empirical studies on computer anxiety indicated that (a) the relationships between computer anxiety and gender remain inconclusive; (b) computer anxiety is not directly related to age; and (c) the more computer experience individuals are exposed to, the less they exhibit computer anxiety.

Self-regulated learning in tertiary students

Stefanie Chye, Mike Bailey, Ian Smith and Richard Walker, The University of Sydney

Attempts to address academic achievement deficits have resulted in decades of dedicated research, which document the significant implications that self-regulation has for learning and academic achievement. It is therefore a consequence of previous enquiries, that the present study attempts to advance this emerging area of scholarship. The purpose of this research is twofold. It seeks to examine the way academic learning may be linked to the social environment, by taking into account the role of culture in self-regulated academic learning. The Australian and Singaporean contexts are examined explicitly on this account. In addition, some of the main components of self-regulation and the interaction of these important variables in the learning context are analysed. More specifically, this study seeks to investigate the role of motivational variables, goal orientations, and beliefs about learning in influencing tertiary students' cognitive engagement, learning strategies and academic performance. For the purposes mentioned, a self-report questionnaire will be administered to all participants who will be obtained from three groups: (1) Australian students, (2) Singaporean students and (3) Singaporean students studying in Australia (overseas students). Results of this study are forthcoming and will be presented at the conference.

The emergence of meaning in classroom research

David Clarke, The University of Melbourne

At the heart of contemporary classroom research is the question of whose accounts of classroom activity are priveleged for the purpose of understanding learning processes in such settings. Classroom reserch has been greatly assisted by the emergence of a varieyt of technologies to support both data collection and analysis. This paper contrasts the techniques and the assumptions by which interpretations and meanings are constructed by contemporary classroom researchers. Specifically, comparison is made between two approaches to classroom research: "Validity by consensus" in which transcripts of classroom dialogue and activity are analysed by several researchers and consensus as to the "meaning" of an episode is sought through the synthesis of the many interpretations; and, "Complementary accounts" in which researchers interpret the documented interaction from several distinct theoretical perspectives, and the goal is diversity rather than consensus, where each interpretation is accorded parity of status, together with the student's reconstruction of the episode, prompted by the video record of classroom events. In the first approach, the matter to be interpreted is the text of transcribed classroom dialogue and activity, while in the second, analysis is undertaken of integrated data sets combining videotape, dialogue transcripts, and video-stimulated reconstructive interviews.

Differences that matter and indifference in education

Gill Clarke, University of Southampton

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 3, Sexualities and the intellectual work of gender reform.

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"I doubt that collaborative skills can be taught to 40 to 50 year old people. If they haven't acquired them by that age, they are never going to"

A/Prof John A Clarke and A/Prof Brigid Limerick, School of Learning and Development, Queensland University of Technology

The move toward self-managing schools and the constancy of change in schools pose new and challenging problems for educational leaders and those charged with preparing them. This paper grows out of work in the first year of an innovative Doctor of Education program at the Queensland University of Technology which, consistent with the philosophy of professional doctoral programs, focuses on the enhancement of professional practice. The program differs from the standard lockstep coursework + thesis model by using a problem-based learning approach underpinned by postmodern imperatives and attempts to develop, along with the content and research skills necessary for successful higher degree studies, the processual skills necessary for the students to accept and work with multiple realities and to manage diversity in their workplace. This paper therefore focuses upon the "collaborative skills" or competencies necessary for self-managing schools and the issues raised by both students and lecturers in the development of such skills. The core question under examination here is whether such skills demand a totally new mind set for New Times.

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Reasons why beginning mathematical students swap languages and their teachers' reactions

A/Prof Philip Clarkson, Australian Catholic University

Papers presented at previous AARE conferences have presented data which shows that Vietnamese and Arabic students studying in Melbourne and Sydney primary schools swap languages when they are completing mathematical problems. This paper will present new data which explore the students' reasons as to why they use this strategy. These reasons seem to coalesse around themes such as; difficulty at the reading stage and hence a swap is an attempt to clarify meaning; an attempt to deal with a conceptual mathematical difficulty; a checking process of making sure of the answer; a preference to complete calculations in one of the languages which in turn may relate to who and how these skills were taught; an emotional response to cope with anxiety, anger or uncertainty; or inadequacy in language skills during later stages of the solving process. Some comments will also be made on teachers' responses to these data which ranges from total surprise to students swapping languages in mathematics sessions, through to this being a most natural strategy for such people to employ.

The rural school as a `learning community': Sifting the rhetoric to locate the reality

Barry Cocklin, Charles Sturt University

Deriving from the works of such as Senge (1990) within the business community, the notion of schools as learning communities has `emerged' upon the educational agenda for Australian schools. As it has done so, various commentators have urged a `filtering' of the concept as it is applied to the educational context so as to ensure that the benefits reflect the particular, and perhaps idiosyncratic, nature of schooling as distinct from the profit-centred approach of business. While this represents the `rhetoric' of the debate, we need more insight into the lived reality of schools which enables us to illustrate and reflect upon those aspects which contribute towards the development of `learning communities'. For consideration here are those aspects of the notion which advocate `ownership' of learning as an emancipatory process directed towards the `interests' of the community, rather than those of the wider systemic educational organisation, and the political `interests' underpinning much of current reform agendas. This paper will present an examination of a case study of a rural NSW school, held by its `community' to be a `learning community', in an exploration of the `reality' and diversity of attitudes, beliefs, teaching and learning, context and content, and relationships.

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SYMPOSIUM 9: Education in new times: Researching health promoting and full service schools

Chairperson: Derek Colquhoun, Deakin University

Participants: Dev Mukherjee, Australian Centre for Equity through Education, and Louise Rowling, University of Sydney

Overview:
This symposium will be the first opportunity for those from the Australian Health Promoting Schools Association, the Australian Association for Research in Education and The Centre for Equity Through Education to discuss their common interest - changing schools within changing contexts. The concepts of the Health Promoting School and the Full Service School have many areas of overlap including a state, national, regional and international history and advocacy and the foregrounding of the concepts of 'community', 'participation', 'supportive environment', 'diversity' and 'service'. However until this conference there has been no opportunity to relate the implications of the development of the two initiatives to a broader corporate managerialist and behaviourist context within which they are emerging. This symposium will address the background, research activities and priorities and challenges of both initiatives and will build on reserach already undertaken across Australia.

PAPER 1:

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The Health Promoting School as a rupturing discourse?

Derek Colquhoun, Deakin University

Depending on source and interpretation, the concept of the Health Promoting School has a history of about ten years. It is actively being promoted by the World Health Organisation and because of this the concept is popular in Europe, North America, and Australia and the Western Pacific Region.

In common with other projects that have emanated from the New Public Health movement (eg healthy cities, healthy workplaces), the Health Promoting Schools project is based on a settings approach which identifies schools as a place where students spend a large amount of time in their formative years. It is a place where they supposedly can be exposed to healthy practices and develop health enhancing skills and knowledge. Health in this instance is considered in its broadest form as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing.

In this presentation I will use examples from official guidelines and policy documents to portray the concept of the health promoting school as an emerging, 'rupturing' discourse which supports the processes of governmentality, regulation and surveillance: processes which support the normalising of the behaviours of schools and school populations.

PAPER 2:

Full Service Schools

Dev Mukherjee, Australian Centre for Equity through Education

'Full service' may be the best term to convey the idea of schools as sites for access to a range of education, health and community services. Like that of Health Promoting Schools, the idea of Full Service Schools is not new and there are many interpretations. The Australian Centre for Equity through Education has been promoting the idea of Full Service Schools based on a set of guiding principles which bring together three significant reform movements: interagency collaboration, school reform and community development.

Throughout Australia and overseas there are many examples of Full Service School developments. In this presentation, through analysis of some of these examples I will illustrate how a set of principles can assist schools or community groups to develop a framework for the implementation and evaluation of site based collaborative reform and development.

PAPER 3:

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Health Promoting Schools in Australia: the present and the future

Louise Rowling, University of Sydney

The health promoting school movement as a settings approach to health in schools, had its origins in Europe in the late 1980's. It arose out of comprehensive school health programs, and was extended by concepts from the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. This latter document states that health is affected by where people live, work and play. The Charter is underpinned by the principles of equity and participation.

The health promoting schools approach to health issues in schools adopted this year by the peak health research body, the National Health and Medical Research Council, is framed around three interdependent areas: curriculum, teaching and learning; school organisation, ethos and environment; and school partnerships and services.

This approach to health in schools is built upon education and health research and reproduces many of the current themes and debates in educational arenas. These issues along with a fuller explanation of the framework will be the focus of this paper.

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The Health Promoting School as a rupturing discourse?

Derek Colquhoun, Deakin University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 9, Education in new times: researching health promoting and full service schools.

The problem of 'background' in researching the student subject

Barbara Comber, University of South Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 15, New times for literacy, pedagogy and young people: Research challenges.

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SYMPOSIUM 10: Authentic assessment in middle schooling: Research and curriculum development through university/school research circles

Participants: Phil Cormack, Bruce Johnson, Judy Peters, and David Williams, University of South Australia

Overview:

The National Middle Schooling Project is a project of national significance which was established in a climate of collaborative investigation into Middle Schooling philosophy and practice. At the end of 1996 the Project established a research circle which involved four university colleagues working with teachers in six schools from around Australia to explore the implications for teaching and learning of authentic assessment. One outcome of this circles' work was a set of curriculum materials for use in

Australian schools.

In this paper university colleagues from the Authentic Assessment Research Circle will report on various aspects of the collaborative research and curriculum development they undertook with school colleagues during 19 In particular, presenters will focus on questions and challenges associated

with making assessment "authentic" in the middle years, the significance of context intricacies in the development of educational projects and schools, and the tensions experienced by academics when they work with schools.

PAPER 1:

Making assessment 'authentic': Questions and challenges for middle years research and practice

Phil Cormack, University of South Australia

This presentation will consider the ways in which authenticity is constructed in materials written for teachers about authentic assessment in the middle years. The concept of authentic assessment provides some real possibilities for teachers working with adolescents through allowing greater variety and innovation in curriculum and teaching. However there are also important questions to be raised, particularly for teachers in diverse communities, about who the assessment is authentic for and about what counts for authenticity. The implications of these issues for research in middle schools are considered.

PAPER 2:

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Academics working with schools: Resolving the tensions

Bruce Johnson and Judy Peters, University of South Australia

The Authentic Assessment Research Circle had "partnership" between university and school colleagues as a core objective. In recent years there has been a growing emphasis on schools and universities working in partnership in areas such as the practicum, school reform, curriculum development and the professional development of teachers and teacher educators. Inherent in the concept of partnership is the notion of a relationship in which there is a reciprocal exchange of expertise and benefits to both partners, but the reality of partnerships can produce a range of tensions for both school and academic colleagues.

This paper will report on the experiences of academic colleagues while working with schools in the Authentic Assessment Research Circle. In particular it will focus on the tensions which arose from the diverse expectations of the schools, the particular project, the university and the academics themselves, and how these were resolved.

PAPER 3:

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School research projects and context intricacies

David Williams, University of South Australia

Project management is an organisational approach to a defined purpose and to the accomplishment of specific achievements. Invariably, however, schools settings are complex environments which impact upon the progress towards and achievement of the specified goals.

Research in or about schools is rarely simple or straightforward. Clear evidence exists to indicate that the contextual intricacies of interactions between school-based projects and the wider school environment significantly influence the 'reality' of the research project. Even tightly-focussed school-based projects are seldom able to be quarantined from cultural factors in the wider school context, especially when the project implies the possibility of changes in the school culture. Yet the outcomes of a project usually do include expectations that change will occur or that something will be created; that different practices will develop; that different organisational structures and operations will eventuate. Therefore, undertaking educational projects in school settings presents researchers with the inevitable challenge of pursuing the specific project goals while at the same time negotiating the delicate and sensitive interface with the wider school culture. This paper draws upon recent experiences to examine and report on the significance of context intricacies in the development of educational projects in school settings.

What can history offer literacy research in new times?

Phil Cormack, University of South Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 15, New times for literacy, pedagogy and young people: Research challenges.

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A comparative review of intervention strategies

Judy Couchman, University of Southern Queensland

The provision of generic essay and study skills to assist tretiary education students has been met by various levels of acceptance and official endorsement. A review of the practices that are subsumed under the summary heading of Tertiary Education Student Induction Skills has identified that several strategies are worthy of further consideration.

This paper provides the initial outlining of several strategies that have been implemented at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). The features of these strategies have been identified by the students who have been involved in trials at USQ. Interpretation, analysis and evaluation of the nominated features and the trials will be the substance of the conference presentation. The view that there are highly practical and effective strategies available will be represented.

Supplemental instruction: Peer monitoring and student productivity

Judy Couchman, University of Southern Queensland

During Semester One, 1997, a pilot implementation of Supplemental Instruction was completed in the Faculty of Commerce at USQ. The results, in both quantitative and qualitative terms have endorsed early Supplemental Instruction intervention success.

This paper will review the methods and the outcomes and will consider pertinent educational, financial and other benefits. Another similarly useful strategy, viz. the Student Productivity Initiative will also be reviewed as a compementary strategy that has demonstrated substantial benefits - particularly in gaining employment upon graduation.

Teaching primary school technology: coming to terms with the challenge

Judith Cousins, Edith Cowan University

The introduction and implementation of a new learning area, Technology and Enterprise, in the K-12 curriculum, has raised some concerns among teachers in Western Australia. This paper will present the results of recent research focused on challenges facing teachers in the implementation of this learning area, with particular emphasis on the 'Design, make, appraise' strand.

A simple survey, completed by 120 respondents, was used to gain some initial insights into practicing and pre-service teachers' concerns related to aspects of implementation of Technology and Enterprise, such as safety, materials, equipment and classroom organisation. These results were used to prepare a more focused questionnaire.

The questionnaire was completed by forty practicing teachers and the results indicated a lack of knowledge of the learning area, lack of familiarity with the learning area statement and student outcomes and concern that little or no professional development had been offered to teachers to assist them in gaining understanding of how to include Technology and Enterprise into an already crowded curriculum.

The study was completed through interviewing four exemplary teachers in the field. Selection of these teachers was based on their work in the Technology and Enterprise learning area, as they were advisory teachers, school leaders, and prominent in the development of a newly formed Primary Technology Association. The in-depth interviews provided opportunities for these teachers to explain how they approached this learning area, strategies they used in their teaching and how they viewed the challenges facing teachers in the implementation process.

The three-pronged data collection method allowed the reseacher to gain an understanding of the state of Technology and Enterprise in the primary school arena in Western Australia and to formulate a number of recommendations.

Teachers coping with change: Is a flexible workforce the answer?

Trudy Cowley, University of Tasmania and Di Stow, Department of Education, Community and Cultural Development

In these 'new times' of education, teachers are being asked to cope with and implement increasing change and innovation in their professional lives and so are having to become more flexible in their teaching role. Teachers are being asked to accommodate change at a seemingly increasing rate; for example, to teach across curriculum areas, to adapt to new teaching situations, to be innovators, to be up-to-date with current policies, and to broaden their teaching repertoire.

In the midst of all this change, Tasmania has introduced a transfer policy which requires teachers' contracts in a school to be reviewed every three or five years. Upon review, teachers can be either transferred, extended or reassigned. Relocation/transfer can be a significant challenge to teachers and administrators and can promote a flexible teaching workforce.

This paper will consider how teachers cope with the introduction and implementation of a transfer policy and how this policy aids in engendering a flexible workforce of teachers for the future.

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SYMPOSIUM 11: To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement

Participants: Rhonda Craven, Ray Debus and Murray Print, University of Sydney, Herbert Marsh, Alexander Yeung, Andrew Martin, Roselyn Dixon and Lawrence Roche, University of Western Sydney, Frances Laimui Lee, Renae Low and Putai Jin, University of New South Wales

Overview:

Self-concept theory, instrument development, and classroom practice are inextricably intertwined. Current advances suggest the time is now ripe for both researchers and teachers to forge new understandings beyond the dustbowl of previous research and, in the process help more students maximise their full potential. We examine new understandings of:

• the measurement, structure, and stability of young children's self-concepts;
• techniques to enhance academic self-concept and the related constructs of self-attributions and academic achievement;
• the effects of different programs on the self-concepts of Gifted and Talented primary students; and
• recent developments in self-concept theory and measurement.

PAPER 1:

The measurement of physical self-concept

Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

A positive self-concept is valued as a desirable outcome in many disciplines such as sport, health, educational, developmental, clinical, and social psychology. Self-concept and related variables are frequently posited as mediating or facilitating the attainment of other desired outcomes such as exercise adherence or health-related physical fitness. Researchers with a major focus on other constructs are often interested in how their constructs or interventions are related to self-concept. In this presentation a construct validation approach to the measurement of physical self-concept is described. Various theoretical models of the structure of self-concept are presented along with a brief historical overview of self-concept and physical self-concept research. The major focus is on research leading to the development of the Physical Self Description Questionnaire (PSDQ) including ongoing research involving elite athletes from the Australian Institute of Sport and Westfields Sport High School and from non-elite high school settings and the Australian Outward Bound.

PAPER 2:

Factorial validity of a Chinese version of the Self Description Questionnaire (SDQII)

Alexander Yeung, University of Western Sydney, Frances Laimui Lee, Renae Low and Putai Jin, University of New South Wales

This study examined the factor structure of a Chinese version of the verbal, math, academic and general self-concept scales of the Self Description Questionnaire (SDQII) administered to 494 high school students in China. Item scale correlations and reliability coefficients were good.

Confirmatory factor analysis showed that verbal and math self-concepts were positively correlated with academic self-concept, and with general self-concept, although smaller in size; but they were negatively correlated with each other. When Chinese and math achievement scores were included in the model, Chinese achievement correlated more highly with verbal than with math self-concept and math achievement correlated highly with math self-concept but not with verbal self-concept. Both achievement scores correlated more highly with academic than general self-concept. The results support the validity of the translated version of the SDQII and also the multidimensionality of self-concept.

PAPER 3:

The lability of psychological ratings: The chameleon effect in global self-esteem

Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

An implicit assumption underlying Global Self-Esteem (GSE) scales (e.g., Rosenberg, 1979), is that GSE is a content-free, global measure of self-worth. In contrast, the chameleon effect occurs when the nature of GSE responses is altered by the content of other items in the survey. In three different studies GSE items were embedded within a broadly based multidimensional self-concept instrument or within domain-specific instruments focusing on academic, artistic, or physical self-concept. In each study, responses to GSE items embedded among items focusing on a specific self-concept domain (academic, artistic, or physical) were more highly related to that domain than GSE items from a broadly based self-concept instrument. Confirmatory factor analysis models demonstrated that the same GSE items embedded in different instruments measured distinct factors. The results have theoretical implications for how individuals form GSE perceptions and practical limitations for the interpretation of GSE responses in correlational and experimental studies.

PAPER 4:

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New times, new techniques for examining the separation of the competency and affective components of self-concept: A developmental perspective

Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

Recently researchers have questioned whether there are additional subcomponents within specific domains of self-concept that change with age. In this paper we summarise the findings of two studies to identify whether competency and affective subcomponents of academic self-concept can be differentiated and to test whether their relation varies developmentally. Study 1 examined data from the SDQI normative archive. The results of Study 1 provide clear evidence for the separation of the competency and affective components of Reading, Mathematics, and School self-concept. Consistent with other research, there was clear evidence for the increasing differentiation of the academic self-concept facets over these preadolescent ages. More specifically, correlations between Reading and Mathematics self-concept (for both competency and affective components) decreased steadily with age. In apparent contrast to this general trend of increasing differentiation with age, the correlations between the competency and affective subcomponents within the same academic self-concept domain remained surprisingly stable over age. In Study 2 we extend these analyses in a multi-cohort-multi-occasion design in which children from each of three age cohorts each complete the SDQI on three occasions during one school year.

PAPER 5:

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The structure, stability and measurement of young children's self-concepts: Advances in new times

Rhonda Craven, University of Sydney and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

For older children, there have been considerable advances in self-concept theory, measurement and intervention design. However, these advances have not been fully applied to research with young children. In particular, psychometrically strong instruments have not been developed for young children and the factorial structure of self-concept is not well understood for this age group. A new, individual administration procedure for assessing multiple dimensions of self-concept for young children 5-8 years of age was the basis of this study. We expanded this application in a multi-cohort-multi-occasion study. Reliability, stability, factor structure, and the distinctiveness of the SDQ factors improved with age and from one year to the next, but small gender differences were reasonably stable over age. Consistent with the proposal that children's self-perceptions grow more realistic with age, T1 teacher ratings were more highly correlated with student ratings at T2 than T1 and contributed to the prediction of T2 self-concept beyond effects mediated by T1 self-concepts. The results support and expand the surprisingly good support for the multidimensionality of self-concept responses for very young children using this new measurement procedure.

PAPER 6:

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Gender differences in the development of English and Math constructs: Longitudinal models of academic self-concept and achievement

Alexander Yeung and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

Gender differences in the development of English and math constructs (academic self-concept, academic affect, school grades, standardised test scores, and coursework selection) were examined using three waves of data from the large (N = 24 599) nationally representative NELS88 database of the U.S.A. Academic self-concept and academic affects had significant effects on subsequent school grades, standardised test scores and coursework selection, and these effects were domain specific in that English self-concept had positive effects on subsequent verbal outcomes and math had positive effects on subsequent math outcomes. Girls had higher scores for English constructs and math school grades, but lower math self-concept and affect. In contrast to the gender stereotypic model, relations between prior English and math constructs and subsequent English and math constructs were similar for boys and girls, and no evidence of gender differences in the development of either construct was found.

PAPER 7:

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Self-handicapping and level and stability of self-concept

Andrew Martin, University of Western Sydney

The present study investigated the relationship between self-concept and protective/enhancing manoeuvring in an academic context. Specifically, the relationship between both level and stability of self-concept and self-handicapping behaviour was examined in two academic domains amongst a sample of First Year Education students. Self-handicapping refers to behaviour in which an individual engages that can operate as a perceived obstacle to success. This is done largely to negotiate scenarios that pose the possibility of failure and for which there is now an available excuse (in the form of the obstacle) that deflects cause away from the individual's ability and onto something less affectively threatening. Self-handicapping may also operate to serve self-enhancing purposes: success in the face of adversity is seen to be more impressive. The study explored main effects of self-concept level and stability related to self-handicapping behaviour as well as the interaction between the two. Results are discussed in the context of self-worth motivation theory.

PAPER 8:

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New techniques for enhancing children's academic self-concepts in educational settings: Advances in new times.

Rhonda Craven and Ray Debus, University of Sydney

Recent advances in self-concept theory and measurement provide a new basis for the design of powerful intervention programs that can systematically target self-concept and related facets to overcome the limitations of earlier research. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an intervention to enhance academic self-concept and the related constructs of self-attributions and academic achievement. The self-concept enhancement intervention was a combination of internally focused feedback and attributional feedback targeted at reading, mathematics or a combination of reading and mathematics self-concept. One class from each of the 8 participating schools was randomly assigned to be an experimental diffusion control group and did not receive either the teacher-mediated or researcher-mediated intervention. This control group was incorporated in the research design to test for possible diffusion effects of the teacher-mediated intervention to nontarget participants in the within-class control group. The findings provide support for: (a) the effectiveness of the intervention as a means to enhance self-concept particularly for treatments mediated by researchers, and mediated by teachers in single academic domains, and (b) the importance of including multiple dimensions of self-concept in intervention studies.

PAPER 9:

Testing the internal/external frame of reference model of self-concept with Chinese high school students in talented and nontalented classes

Frances Laimui Lee, Putai Jin and Renae Low, University of New South Wales, and Alexander Yeung, University of Western Sydney

This study examined the internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model (Marsh, 1986) with Chinese students in talented (N = 160) and average-ability (N = 335) classes. Confirmatory factor analyses showed support for the I/E model for students placed in talented and in average-ability classes. Path coefficients leading from Chinese achievement score to verbal self-concept and from math achievement score to math self-concept were positive and significant whereas paths relating nonmatching domains were negative, although the sizes of the effects differed across the two groups. The results support the multidimensionality and content specificity of academic self-concept.

PAPER 10:

New times, new programs for gifted and talented students: Impact on self-concept, achievement and motivation

Rhonda Craven and Murray Print, University of Sydney, and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

Recent research based on social comparison theory has predicted that participation in specialised Gifted and Talented (G&T) programs will lead to declines in academic self-concept. This is problematic for the education of G&T students in that: a positive self-concept is valued as a desirable educational goal, arguments for the formation of special G&T classes are often based on their assumed positive effects on self-concept, and self-concept is frequently postulated as a mediating variable that facilitates the attainment of other desirable outcomes. In this paper the longitudinal effects of three types of programs for G&T primary students on students' self-concepts, academic achievement and motivational orientation are compared. Students who experienced a specialised program had lower: academic self-concepts in all facets measured, nonacademic self-concepts in all but one facet measured, and motivational orientation for 4 of 7 facets measured. No significant differences were present for academic achievement scores. The findings suggest that G&T students who experience specialised programs may experience a decrease in academic self-concept and motivational orientation in comparison to G&T students in other programs and this decline is not associated with significant increases in academic achievement scores.

PAPER 11:

Meta-analysis of research comparing children with and without disabilities on multiple dimensions of self-concept

Roselyn Dixon, University of Western Sydney

This paper will present the preliminary results of a meta-analysis of research comparing children with and without disabilities on multiple dimensions of self-concept. Meta-analysis is a technique that can overcome difficulties in previous research with people with special needs. These difficulties include small group sample size of children with disabilites, lack of control groups, and poor conceptualisations of self-concept.

The theoretical background for the meta-analysis came from a review by Marsh and Johnstone (1992). The meta-analysis examined how differences in self-concept differed as a function of:

1. age,
2. the nature and severity of the disability,
3. the component of self-concept (e.g. social, physical, academic or general) and its relation to disability, and
4. the nature of the educational setting.

Implications of the findings will be discussed with reference to policy formation and factors to integration, and the processes involved in the formation of self-concept, its maintenance and change.

PAPER 12:

ROCHL163

The mirror has many faces: The development of multiple dimensions of confusion and competence among preservice teachers

Lawrence Roche, University of Western Sydney

Advances in self-concept research have been pursued vigorously with students in a variety of settings. However, research on teacher self-concept typically follows an out-moded, globalised teacher "self efficacy" paradigm, despite an apparent dependence of students' learning outcomes on their teachers' self-concepts across a diverse range of curriculum areas. This study investigates the development of teaching self-concept in different curriculum domains and different teaching skill domains for preservice teachers over a three-year teacher education degree program. Selected profiles indicating relative "confusion" and "competence" across different domains (based on representative cases) are illustrated graphically. The stability of different profiles over time is also explored statistically. In order to assess whether self-concepts in the different domains become more or less differentiated as the students progress, confirmatory factor analysis is used to compare correlations among the multiple domains over time. Results reinforce the importance of taking a multidimensional approach to the study of teaching self-concept.

CRAVR156

The structure, stability and measurement of young children's self-concepts: Advances in new times

Rhonda Craven, University of Sydney and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in selfl-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

Teaching the teachers Indigenous Australian Studies: A national priority!

Rhonda G Craven, University of Sydney

Reconciliation between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians is a critical goal of the Commonwealth Government by the year 2001. Long term reconciliation cannot be achieved and maintained without effective teacher education so that all Australian students can be taught Indigenous Australian Studies appropriately. It is a national disgrace that despite Government reports over a period of 20 years only a few Australian universities have recently introduced core Indigenous Australian Studies as a component of their curricula. To address some of these problems the University of New South Wales has had carriage of a Project of National Significance funded by DEET. This project has produced a framework statement that provides guidelines to assist universities to develop core Indigenous Studies subjects that meet the needs of their Indigenous communities, a sample model of a core studies approach that has been trialed successfully, sample lecture/tutorial notes based on the example model, guidelines for using appropriate terminology, and four teacher-oriented professional development videotapes. This paper provides an overview of the `Teaching the Teachers' project and the example resources produced to support universities to develop core Indigenous Australian Studies subjects in consultation with university indigenous communities.

CRAVR159

New techniques for enhancing children's academic self-concepts in educational settings: Advances in new times

Rhonda Craven and Ray Debus, University of Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

CRAVR161

New times, new programs for gifted and talented students: Impact on self-concept, achievement and motivation

Rhonda Craven and Murray Print, University of Sydney, and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

SYMPOSIUM

CRAVR151

To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement

Dr Rhonda Craven, Dr Murray Print, and Dr Ray Debus, University of Sydney, Prof Herb Marsh, Roselyn Dixon, Lawrence Roche, Alexander Yeung, and Andrew Martin, University of Western Sydney, Frances Laimui Lee, Renae Low and Putai Jin, University of New South Wales

Overview

Self-concept theory, instrument development, and classroom practice are inextricably intertwined. Current advances suggest the time is now ripe for both researchers and teachers to forge new understandings beyond the dustbowl of previous research and, in the process help more students maximise their full potential. We examine new understandings of:

• the measurement, structure, and stability of young children's self-concepts;
• techniques to enhance academic self-concept and the related constructs of self-attributions and academic achievement;
• the effects of different programs on the self-concepts of Gifted and Talented primary students; and
• recent developments in self-concept theory and measurement.

PAPER 1:

MARSH152

The measurement of physical self-concept

Prof Herb Marsh, University of Western Sydney

Focusing on distance learners: Investigating tutors' and students' perceptions of learning and study needs

Marianne Cronin, Edith Cowan University

This paper reports on an action research project at Edith Cowan University, which explores the difficulties some distance students experience in understanding and meeting the academic expectations of tertiary study. Students were surveyed to obtain information about their confidence in academic study, if, and where they had sought help with their skills, and the nature of their perceived difficulties.

In addition, academic staff were questioned about their perceptions of students' study problems. A checklist of problem areas was compiled and was given to another sample of academic staff who rated each item for importance in the context of developing study skills material for distance learners. Eight broad areas of concern in academic study were also identified and ranked.

The results indicated that more than half of the students sampled lacked confidence in their study skills. Few students sought assistance. The most common issues raised by students were related to assignment writing, time management and effective reading. Academic staff identified 37 key study issues. Rank ordering of the broad areas showed assignment writing, becoming independent learners, effective research and time management as the most important aspects for inclusion in study skills materials.

Further research is planned to clarify and elaborate the issues raised, both in relation to Edith Cowan University students and in the wider context of tertiary distance study. A range of possible study support strategies will be investigated, developed and implemented.

Religious education in new times

Robert Crotty, University of South Australia

Australia and other western countries have witnessed the development of a polyethnic society with its multifaith concomitant. The same development has given rise in the western world to theories of religious pluralism, the rationale for accepting all extant religious traditions as equally valid.

Invariably such theoretical frameworks have included a broad definition of "religion", often claiming that in some sense all rational adults are "religious".

This cultural change has repercussions for educational curriculum. Religion has traditionally been seen as the responsibilty of family and religious institution, but not of the state. As a result any attempt on the part of the state to involve itself in religious education has been greeted with suspicion. This stand may need to be revised.

Religious educational curricula have been divided into an objective *teaching about religion* curriculum which endeavours to educate young people in the phenomenon of religion without any suggestion of indoctrination and a religious instruction whose purpose is religious enculturation. Usually the two curricula have operated in isolation.

This paper critiques a curriculum of each type from the point of view of the new cultural developments and proposes a way forward in consonance with religious pluralism.

SYMPOSIUM 12: Social justice: Illumination of meanings in educational practice

Presenters: Frank Crowther, Tony Rossi, Di Mayer, Peter Olsen, John McMaster, and Jon Austin, University of Southern Queensland

Symposium presenters will outline the results of research at U.S.Q into the meanings of social justice in four educational settings:

• school-based policy making - student and community perceptions of the influence of a School Advisory Council on socially just practices
• teacher networking - manifestations of social justice in different forms of school-based networking
• school-community relationships in a small, rural setting - the role of the principal in creating socially just school practice
• curriculum development in an 'intentional' independent school - the impact of "social vision" on teachers' professional practices.

Research findings will be discussed in the context of theoretical conceptualisations of social justice as these pertain to both traditional and postmodern scholarship.

CRUMS011

New times in the UK? Educational policy outcomes from the 1997 election

Stephen Crump, University of Sydney

During a recent stay working at the Centre for Policy Studies at King's College London I had the opportunity to examine close at hand and in depth the education policies of all the major parties contesting the 1997 election in the UK. This paper will outline key differences and similarities between the competing political manifestos. More importantly, it will provide a commentary on their reception and on their potential now that the government has been decided. The extent to which these policies might foreshadow educational developments in Australia will be addressed. Finally, the implications for educational policy research in what may or may not be a "new time" will be drawn out for discussion.

Centralisation and devolution through corporate managerialism in american and Australian universities

Jan Currie and Lesley Vidovich, Murdoch University

Commentators in Australia and the United States have observed that the shift in power in universities from academic departments to administration has been accompanied by a number of changes, leading to 'corporate managerialism'. As a result, managers make the most important decisions and make them quickly. These managers also restructure their institutions to mould them into streamlined operations which allow only a few people in the whole organisation the information base to make decisions. At the same time, these managers devolve administrative tasks to divisions and departments where Executive Deans have increasing power. The result is that academics have a lot less control over their institutions. This paper narrates the views of 253 academics interviewed in six American and Australian universities from 1994-1997 about how these changes have affected their universities. It explores how various forms of managerialism are applied in these universities and how academics try to resist them. It also comments on how some universities have managed to maintain forms of democratic decision-making at certain levels but have lost consultative mechanisms about major changes. It concludes by discussing why participatory forms of democracy are important in universities and suggests ways of increasing them.

The observer observed, the researcher researched: The reflexive nature of phenomena

Susan Danby, Queensland University of Technology

This paper explores how one researcher, observing and video-recording young children in their natural everyday play situations, found some children also observing her. The preschool aged children tried to identify the relevant category to which she belonged, asking such questions as, "Are you a mummy?" or "Are you a teacher?" They also tried to establish the researcher's category by asking her to do certain things e.g. to arbitrate in their disputes. In addition, during some videoed sequences, they appear to orient to the researcher as observer, making her a player in their scene. This paper presents instances of young children observing the researcher while the researcher is observing (and videorecording) their play interactions. It uses video data obtained from these interactions to explicate through close scrutiny how and where their work of observing the researcher was visible. These understandings demonstrate the nature of reflexive phenomena, so that the activities of observation and being observed are realised as texts to be examined as much as the scenes that are videotaped.

Towards a collaborative learning community

This is a case study of a group of teachers introducing multi-age classes at a rural primary school. The study focuses on teachers' and the principal's perceptions and learning as they work through this educational change process. The study documents the development of collaborative learning and collegial support, with an emphasis on the role of professional dialogue in an internal school support group. The context of this case study is one facing all Australian schools: the challenges created by the rapidly changing post-modern society in which schools operate. Thus, the overriding themes are related to professional learning for educational change via collaborative processes.

The study provides insights into a) the development of collaborative learning and collegial support amongst a group of teachers introducing a shared innovation; b) the process of fostering professional dialogue as a means of resolving professional dilemmas and of enabling workplace-based professional development; c) teachers' voices during a period of non-mandated change; a change which requires a fundamental rethinking of the elements of the teaching-learning process (planning; teaching and learning strategies; and assessment) and of classroom management and relationships; and d) the role of the principal in facilitating professional learning and inquiry through a change process. This presentation will provide a discussion of emerging ideas from the research-to-date (over the period of eight months). Data was collected via an initial questionaire, semi-structured focus group discussions, individual semi-structured interviews and personal reflections.

DAVIJ435

Parents as partners for educational change

Julie Davis, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 1 Parterships in educational action research: Voices of participants.

DAWSL001

"They said when I joined the group I would meet new and interesting people, but so far they have only been Jamie and David on the Helpdesk." Education and training issues from rural women getting on-line

Leonie Daws, Queensland University of Technology

A four year study of rural women's uses of interactive communication technologies revealed that access to appropriate education and training was a significant challenge and barrier for women wanting to leave the dirt track and get onto the information superhighway. It demonstrated that women are significant communication nodes for business and service related activities as well as social and family maintenance in rural communities. This paper explores the range of education and training issues arising from this study. It focuses particularly on computer mediated communications, especially the use of electronic mail and the world wide web. It discusses the perceived importance of access to computer mediated communication as a vehicle for education and training for rural women and their families. It also focuses on the gendered dimensions of current education and training programs and provision in rural communities.

This has significant implications for future education and training provision. The paper also reflects on the methodological issues arising out of the use of computer mediated technologies for such research, addressing both data collection and data analysis issues.

DEETJ149

Is modernism still relevant: Rethinking visual arts education

Jane Deeth, University of Tasmania

This paper reconsiders many of the assumptions about the nature of visual arts and visual arts education that have become the backbone of art teaching in the classroom. Through a process of deconstruction I examine whrere these assumptions converge and diverge from the objectives of much contemporary general teaching practice. Many of the ideas that are taken for granted and assumed to be objective truths are found to be historical constructs which carry with them significant ideological baggage. On uncovering some of the stories behind the development of ideas on art teaching, teachers may feel that the traditional approach is no longer relevant or appropriate to their contemporary teaching practice.

The underlying argument in the paper is that much of current art teaching practice is based on Realist and Modernist principles which tend to be prescriptive in their creative and interpretative languages and focussed primarily on traditional "art" mediums, techniques and object making. In contrast both current education practrice and contemporary arts practice operate on models which appreciate diversity, difference, change, risk and individual responsibility.

The paper considers practical examples which aim at connecting visual arts teaching practice with general teaching practice, so that teachers are working consistently and maximising the educational potential of the learning experiences they offer their students.

There is much that can be learned by examining current arts practice for strategies which involve the articulation of identity and the construction ofmeaning in a complex and constantly shifting environment. Such an approach can connect students not only to the meaning and value of art but can encourage an understanding of themselves within a social and cultural context. Art can become an intervention rather than an activity.

Reading standards up or down - What do the test norms say?

Molly de Lemos, Australian Council for Educational Research

There has been continuing debate in Australia and elsewhere as to whether or not standards in reading have improved or declined over the last two decades. Direct evidence on this is however limited. One way of monitoring trends over time is through examination of changes in test scores on standardised tests that are renormed at periodic intervals. In the case of intelligence tests, such studies have indicated a gradual increase in scores over the last 50 years or so. Comparable studies have not been undertaken on reading test scores. This paper will examine scores on standardised tests of reading that have been periodically renormed over the period 1958 to 1996 to determine whether there is a trend for an increase or a decrease in reading test scores over this period.

The role of training and development in creating employee 'readiness' for effective workplace change

Dell Dennis, Monash University

The momentum for change is forever present. We experience change in our daily lives in a range of ways and in a range of settings. One setting where there has been significant change in recent years is the workplace. However, in many instances, proposed and substantive workplace change has resulted in considerable employee resistance.

Based on evidence from two case studies undertaken in large, but diverse organisational settings, this paper examines the use of training and development as intervention strategies to minimse employee resistance to change. The paper also examines issues which could assist organisations to effectively diagnose, manage, and overcome employee resistance, whilst at the same time, engender a climate conducive employee 'readiness' for change.

Homosexuality and body image issues: teacher awareness

Carmel Desmarchelier, University of New England

This paper explores the understanding of sexuality and body image amongst students by heterosexual and homosexual teachers attending High Schools in Sydney, Australia between September 1996 and February 19 The concept of habitus (Bourdieu 1984) will be used to indicate the series of understanding of these issues and their dispositions to act that are manifested by these teachers. Broadly, the lack of perception of one issue (homosexuality) replictes as lack of awareness of body image issues amongst teachers and the converse occurs. This results in symbolic violence (Bourdieu 1984) through neglect against the students. The marginalisation of students who are perceived to be homosexual or whose body shape or mannerisms do not conform to the norm is evidenced as bullying and alienation, so the implications of this research have relevence for school teachers and their habitus. The links betwen machismo masculinity and homophobia are discussed as part of the hidden curriculum, whilst exerpts from teachers' interviews teachers are included for analysis of the processes of habitus and student exclusion. "They [teachers] don't want the kids to see they're supporting homosexuality because they might be accused of being homosexuals themselves" (James 17/12/96).

DEVRP517

Teacher burnout: The researcher speaks from personal experience

Peter de Vries, Griffith University

In the proposed paper teacher burnout is examined from a very personal perspective in that the researcher is also the subject. The primary data source is the researcher's autobiographical novel, a reflective account of his teaching career. Analysis of the novel points to teacher burnout as being a primary theme in his teaching career. Burnout is seen to be multi-dimensional in its nature, with both environmental variables and the individual teacher's background effecting the level of burnout. The primary outcome of teacher burnout is identified as teacher laziness. Burnout is identified as stemming from a number of factors, these being cynicism, the low status of the teaching profession, bureaucrats being removed from the reality of teaching, teacher workload, student behaviour problems, the effect of student social problems on teachers, and being "stuck" in the profession of teaching.

Essential encounters: A study of university students' out-of-classroom interactions with academic staff

Kristie Daniel DiGregorio, University of Sydney

Research has shown that a majority of students' university experience and learning fall outside the boundaries of the classroom. Student outcomes research suggests that when students spend time outside of class with academic staff, that the effects of those interactions can span a lifetime, eg, by significantly effecting intellectual and personal development.

Less is known about what draws students into out-of-class interactions with academic staff in the first place and what meaning the interactions have for students. In this study, eighteen students from an American research university participated in a series of intensive, qualitative interviews on 1) the factors that encourage or discourage out-of-classroom interactions between students and academic staff, 2) the qualities that make these interactions meaningful for students, and 3) the outcomes students report from the interactions.

Many of the factors that encourged or discouraged interaction outside of class related to the size of classes and to academic staff members' roles as teachers, so classrooms have important implications for the likelihood of out-of-classroom interactions. A common theme among meaningful out-of-class interactions was that they extended beyond an exchange of information which could have occurred in the classroom. Students reported that these interactions affected them in important ways, by improving their academic performance, enhancing their self-image and making staff seem more "human".

This study offers the first in-depth exploration of students' views of how students and academic staff navigate the initial distance between them to interact outside of class. It articulates for the first time

what meaning those interactions have for students. Finally, it illuminates the outcomes that students attribute to these interactions, interactions that have been highlighted by correlational research as positively influencing students' intellectual and personal development.

The Student Experiences Study: Understanding the factors that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students' academic success

Susan Page, Kristie Daniel DiGregorio and Sally Farrington, University of Sydney

These are indeed "new times" for Indigenous students in higher education: their numbers have doubled in recent years. But because the gap between their attainment and the attainment of other Australians has remained consistent, it is essential to elucidate the factors that promote their academic success, not in order to justify the exclusion of Indigenous students from tertiary education, but to refine and develop culturally relevant strategies for promoting student learning.

For the past year, Yooroang Garang: The Centre for Indigenous Health Studies at the University of Sydney has been involved in a study of diploma students' academic success. The setting of the study is unique not only because it is a program designed by, for, and about Indigenous Australians but also because it is offered in block mode where the academic year consists of four, intensive two-week blocks of instruction.

Initial data from the study has suggested potential factors predictive of students' academic success, for example, whether they had previous health-related experience, their age, and their gender. The aims of the study include 1) qualitatively assessing students' understandings of the factors that enhance or impede their success at university and comparing these factors to the hypothesized predictors of success and 2) testing the effectiveness of study groups being piloted in 1997 to enhance student success.

Credentialling of teacher professional development activities

Paul Dillon, The National Association of Agricultural Educators and Orange Agricultural College, University of Sydney

The recently completed National Professional Development Program (NPDP) actively promoted the delivery of teacher professional development (PD) activities that were designed by partnerships including professional associations and Education Faculties.

The National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) NPDP project final report recommended key issues requiring further investigation. The primary focus was the reality of a professional association developing a PD activity that would satisfy university requirements and allow participating teachers to obtain meaningful university credentialling.

From the NAAE project emerged the question of whether this experience (to date) was representative of that experienced by other professional associations involved in NPDP projects, or was it peculiar to teachers of agriculture? The answer to this question would inform the practice of all professional associations. Consequently the managers of those NPDP projects facilitated by professional associations were interviewed.

The findings reflect the perceptions of these managers on a range of issues including:

1. The reality of obtaining credentialling from Tertiary Institutions
2. The willingness of teachers to engage in the activity
3. The enthusiasm of teachers to seek the available credential.

This study is the first stage of a much wider study of the participants' perceptions of professional development.

Meta-analysis of research comparing children with and without disabilities on multiple dimensions of self-concept

Roselyn Dixon, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

Vocational competence in young adults with intellectual disabilities: The influence of the family

Rose Dixon, University of Sydney

This paper reports the results of a qualitative research study of vocationally competent people with mild intellectual disailities. The study identified many factors inside and outside the individual that allowed them to maintain employment.

One of the most significant of these factors that emerged from the study was the importance of family in the indivuals efforts to maintain employment.

The subjects ranged inage from 16-25 years and were clients of a Competitive Employment and Training Program. The subjects were purposely sampled using an objective test 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 their parents. The results indicated that certain family characterisitcs led to more successful outcomes.

Getting ready for school

Sue Dockett and Bob Perry, University of Western Sydney

In recent years there have been calls, both within Australia and abroad, to ensure that children come to school, "ready to learn". This paper is the first of a series which will explore what is meant by this term by different groups of people and the ways in which the beliefs underpinning such a term influence decisions such as when children start school, the classes they enter and whether or not they progress annually.

In this initial investigation, a group of preschool teachers, parents of Kindergarten children, teachers of Kindergarten classes and several children within Kindergarten classes from one school have been asked to identify elements of school readiness and the ways in which these could be identified. This paper will consider differences and similarities in the responses of these groups and note implications for the development of transition programs between home and school or home and preschool.

DOLES379

![900]Year 8-10 students performance on percent problems

Shelley Dole, Tom Cooper and Annette Baturo, Queensland University of Technology

This paper discusses the implications of a study of Years 8, 9 and 10 students' knowledge of percent and proficiency in solving percent problems. Research has identified three types of one-step percent problems: where the percentage is unknown (Type A), where the percent is unknown (Type B), and where the value which is 100% is unknown (Type C). Testing has shown large performance differences between the types, with Type A the highest and C the lowest. Mathematical analysis reveals connections between these problems and multiplicative comparison for whole numbers, fractions and decimals, indicating they may be components of an abstract schema (Ohlsson, 1992). In particular, there is an isomorphism between Type C problems and part-to-whole fraction activity, and a structural connection between solution procedures for the three problem types and the 'rule of three' proportion relationship.

The study used percent problem solving to identify for interview a purposeful sample of six proficient (solves all types), six semi-proficient (solves Type A) and six non-proficient (solves no types) Year 8-10 students from a Brisbane catholic boys secondary school. The interview explored the relation between the students' proficiency with percent problems, knowledge of percent, problem-solving strategies, pictorial representations and mental models. The non-proficient and semi-proficient students' responses were as expected, they were inflexible and formula oriented. The non-proficient students focused on key words, while the semi-proficient students showed some use of estimation and trial and error. The proficient students' responses were not as expected, they were not based on a schematic understanding of percent knowledge. They identified problems by solution structure, knew the problem types, used strategies and metastrategies, and were confident in their solutions. However, instead of a schema-based interpretation of problems leading to a classification approach to solution, proficient students tended to use a flexible mixture of benchmarking, approximation and estimation, and number and operation sense, and some use of the trial and error strategy (i.e., what could be called a 'first principles' approach to solution). No students utilised pictorial representations or indicated the presence of mental models which integrated the problem types.

That proficiency reflected a combination of means-ends analysis and expertise with number sense, instead of schema based interpretation of problem type, provides an instructional dilemma for percent problem solving. Should instruction focus on building connections between the percent concept, percent problem solving and multiplicative comparison that might lead to schematic interpretation, or on pictorial representations and proportion techniques (with the 'rule of three') that would support the existing flexible number sense approach?

Everyone knows: Questioning some commonsense truths about Asian students

Karen Dooley and Parlo Singh, Griffith University and Paul Herschell, Queensland University of Technology

Implementing recently developed culturally inclusive and anti-racist policies requires a theoretically and empirically based understanding of how culture and race enter into pedagogic relations. With the

so-called immigration debate of the mid-1990s, schools and universities have been constructed as sites of racial conflict. While it is necessary for educators to develop strategies for dealing with overt racial violence and harassment, it is crucial in this context that the construction of race and culture in everyday social relations of schooling is not overlooked. Commonsense assumptions about second language learning, and the characteristics of students of particular cultural groups, are key to understanding this everyday construction of race and culture.

The data analysed in this paper has been drawn from the ARC project, "Constructing Australian Identities through language and literacy education in schools, communities and workplaces" (First Chief Investigator: Parlo Singh). We examine teacher and students accounts of a year 12 English unit and transcripts of the lessons in the unit, documenting the implications for teaching and learning of the assumption that it is necessary to split groups of Asian students up on educational grounds, specifically, to force them to acquire English. Conclusions are drawn about the cultural assumptions and implications of teacher explanations of the pedagogic participation of Asian students.

Transition to university - A self-regulatory approach

Ann Bramwell-Vial, Bob Bingham, Allan Doring, Australian Catholic University

Within universities, expanding first year enrolments and lower academic entry levels have further increased the diversity of students' backgrounds. Much of the literature suggests that the transition to university is often problematic requiring significant social and academic adjustments on the individual's part (McInnis and James (1995), Burroughs-Lane (1996) and Trindle (1996). Poor coping can lead to ongoing academic and social difficulties including eventual failure or withdrawal.

It is argued that students who make a successful transition to university are competent in their self-regulatory behaviour especially in three important components: goals, self-efficacy and learning strategies (Schunk, 1993). The student who is able to self-regulate their learning behaviour is more likely to cope while those with low self-regulation likely to suffer stress from poor handling of competing priorities and/or poor learning behaviour.

As part of an ongoing project, this paper examines the notion of self-regulation as an inherent component of a student's transition to university and as a means of increasing the understanding of student difficulties, particularly in the academic area. It also examines whether self regulatory behaviour can be fostered as part of the overall academic process. Standard tasks such as reflective self monitoring are evaluated in terms of their contribution to self-regulation and academic development. The use of additional tasks which serve this function is then discussed.

How do teachers make sense of performance management? Constructing

professional knowledge through narrative

Carol Hogan, Barry Down and Rod Chadbourne, Edith Cowan University

The professional world of teaching seems to be characterised by a large and increasing gulf between the official representation of that world and its "reality" as experienced by teachers in their daily lives.

Attempts to make schools and teachers more accountable for what happens to the education dollar have resulted in a proliferation of measures such as Outcome Statements, Performance Indicators, Competency Frameworks, Monitoring Standards, School Development Plans and much more. The result of these pressures has been the generation of an enormous amount of written information about children, teachers and schools, representing countless hours of work by thousands of teachers and administrators across the country. How complete or truthful is this representation of school life? In searching for answers this paper draws on the personnal stories of classroom teachers to understand how they construct their own professional knowledge about performance management. Specifically, it examines how teachers feel, make sense of, use, avoid and adapt performance management in their daily work. We are especially interested in the implications of these stories for professional development and school reform processess.

Putting it all together: Relationships between early adolescents' multiple motivational goals, multiple cognitive and metacognitive strategies, and multiple achievement outcomes

Martin Dowson and Dennis M. McInerney, University of Western Sydney

The paper describes an investigation into relationships between middle school students' multiple motivational goal orientations and their use of multiple cognitive and metacognitive strategies. In particular, it focuses on the effect relationships between these motivational and cognitive variables have on students' academic achievement in a variety of curriculum areas. Studies to date have, typically, used either cognitive or motivational variables when attempting to explain variations in student achievement. Far fewer studies have combined cognitive and motivational variables in order to gain a more complete understanding of the processes underlying student achievement. The present paper contributes to more recent research using this 'dual' approach. Moreover, the paper further validates the salience, for Australian school students, of various motivational goals, cognitive, and metacognitive strategies identified in international research.

School renewal that works: A qualitative case study

Martin Dowson and Tony Cunneen, University of Western Sydney

A significant trend in both Australian and international contexts is the decline (relative to females') of males' academic results. This trend is noticeable particularly, although not exclusively, in results obtained from secondary school 'exit' examinations. In Australia this trend appears to be national. The paper describes an investigation into the elements of school renewal which have resulted in a significant improvement in the 'exit' academic achievement scores of students attending a secondary boys school in the Sydney metropolitan area. Elements of school renewal identified and assessed include: developing an academic culture, enhancing teacher professionalism, improving students' academic self-efficacy, and balancing student management and pastoral care responsibilities. The paper focuses on elements of the renewal process in this school which may be portable to other schools/contexts. Specifically, the paper suggests that, despite their effectiveness in a 'males only' educational context, the positive effects of these renewal elements on students' academic achievement scores are not necessarily gender specific. Finally, the paper demonstrates the usefulness of the case study approach in examining school renewal issues.

Teaching through difference - working with resistance to cultural diversity

Jane Durie and Affrica Taylor, University of Western Sydney

The paper will discuss our research, development and implementation of a model of 'teaching through difference' for working with students' resistances to cultural diversity. Working in this area over a number of years it has been our experience and that of other educators in the field that there is often considerable resistance on the part of students to what is seen as an imposition of 'political correctness' in cultural diversity curriculums. Students often express a sense of resentment towards curriculum that gives 'special attention to' and 'privileges' the experiences of minority groups over those of the majority. In response to this we have developed a model of affinity group work around resistance to differences which is designed to both highlight and work with these resistances in the classroom. The model will be applied in teaching the subject "Cross Cultural Communication" in the Bachelor of Adult education at UWS Macarthur. Our research draws on theoretical work in relation to critical pedagogy (such as Giroux and McLaren), feminisms and post-structuralist theories (such as Ellsworth and Lather) and Australian work in the field of pedagogy and cultural diversity (such as Singh and Luke). The paper will highlight the experience of working with the model in the classroom and theoretical implications of this for pedagogical practices.

EDWAP196

Web-based electronic discussion groups: An alternative to traditional tutorials

David Neil and Pamela Edwards, University of Queensland

Electronic discussion groups (EDGs), accessed by students via the World Wide Web, replaced traditional tutorials in a second year geography subject. The 'discussion groups' were active for most of the semester and comprised 40% of the subject's assessment.. They were designed to give students flexibility in the content of, and approach to their learning as well as attempting to resolve some common problems associated with tutorials such as students' lack of preparation for, and participation in discussions during tutorials.

Mechanics for the implementation of the discussion groups, the rationale for their use and some of the limitations and problems experienced are outlined, together with details of students' evaluation of the discussion groups as an effective mode of learning. 49% of students reported having no problems with the technology and 51% reported being comfortable with the EDG mode of learning. However, of those students reporting deep learning approaches, 72% reported having no problems with the technology and 75% reported being comfortable with the EDG mode of learning. Students' rating of the EDGs as a mode of learning was x = 2.7 for surface learners (7 point Likert scale) and 5.2 for deep learners. Implications of these findings are further discussed.

Addressing diversity and flexibility issues in students evaluation of teaching

Pamela Edwards and David Neil, University of Queensland

Existing models of students evaluation of teaching in higher education have been criticised in the literature for being largely teacher-centred and failing to provide sufficient information to allow for the improvement of teaching and learning. These instruments also fail to adequately address the diversity of students' learning needs, generally assuming a homogenous student body and only one model of teaching and learning. Such an approach is inconsistent with the current emphasis in higher education on flexible delivery and students taking responsibility for their own learning.

Preliminary research, based on the interpretation of student ratings of teaching in the context of their approaches to study, showed clear distinctions between students reporting a deep learning approach and those reporting a surface learning approach. For example, the mean subject ratings from students reporting a "deep approach" to learning were 55% higher than those from "surface learners". Similarly, mean teaching ratings from students reporting a "deep approach" were 62% higher than those from "surface learners". These, and similar, data provide a basis for identifying and developing teaching strategies which may promote more effective learning in higher education. Our results suggest that students' evaluations of teaching should be conducted and interpreted in their learning context.

EHRIL426

Principals and their experiences of professional development

Lisa Ehrich, Queensland University of Technology

That professional development is one of the most challenging and important activities facing principals and teachers, has been highlighted in the policy and research literature. This paper reports on a study which explored the nature of professional development from the unique experiences of principals. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews with eight primary school principals from Queensland Government schools to ascertain the meaning of professional development outside the confines of theoretical constructs and overarching frameworks. A phenomenological methodology guided the study and allowed the principals' experiences to speak for themselves. This paper reports on the key findings and identifies implications for those involved in planning and implementing professional development programs.

ELMSJ344

Simple higher education student productivity indices that motivate

John Elms, University of Southern Queensland

The perennial problems of higher education student discontinuation have been virtually ignored by senior academics. Maintenance of high academic standards has been commonly summoned as the explanation of the relatively high wastage of our most able students (as measured by various matriculation or other entrance examinations). Lack of application by those who fail has been nominated as the more specific reason for higher education students failing to satisfy the requirements of various courses of study. Reliance upon these explanations of higher education student discontinuance or failure has been challenged by the adoption of a relatively simple student productivity index that has evidently motivated a wide range of higher eduation students.

The productivity index has been readily accepted by students as it is simple to calculate and to interpret. In addition, the fact that the index allows each individual to compete with his or her previous best index and grade point average has won many adherents. In essence, the index is used in a similar fashion to an individual's golf rating. The aim is to better one's own previous best score. A simple graphical representation makes it evident whether the individual has succeeded in this attainable goal.

Associated with the time taken productivity based index were two forms of results achieved indices. One identified the student's assignment marks or grades: the other was the student's grade point average (GPA) for the semester. Both of these indices were readily calculated by the student under the watchful eye of several of his or her peers. Comparison by graphing of these indices readily identified whether the student had improved his or her previous best set of personal indices. The mere existence, availability and ease of implementation of these indices acted as a powerful motivator for all of the research subjects and fellow students. In addition, the prospect that the graphs of these indices can and have been used to persuade members of selection panels has encouraged typical higher education students to maintain verified indices.

New times old questions: Towards a clearer view on what students learn

Geoff Emmett, Board of Studies Victoria and Lois Kennedy, Education Queensland

Learning outcomes, benchmarks and the like require teachers to develop common understandings of levels of attainment which in turn requires a clear and common specification of what students should learn. The nationally developed curriculum documents, Statements and Profiles for Australian schools, have to some extent facilitated this renewed emphasis on syllabuses and what is negotiable and non negotiable in school programs and courses of study.

This paper considers the strengths and weaknesses of the nationally developed curriculum documents and their sustainability in the present climate and pursues this matter in the context of the preparation and publication of Student Work Samples in Health and Physical Education, a Curriculum Corporation Project which the authors of this paper coordinated. It also addresses how work samples can be most effectively used in schools to benchmark students progress and promote reflection on the effectiveness of teaching and learning strategies in improving the progress of all students against agreed expectations.

ENGEP317

Pre-service teachers' acceptance of and social interactions with people with a disability: The South African scene

Petra Engelbrecht, University of Southern Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 13, Pre-service teachers' acceptance of and social interactions with people with a disability: Educational implications in new times.

Having what it takes: Homophobia and masculinities in educational settings in the UK and South Africa

Debbie Epstein, University of London

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 20, Post-colonial pedagogies.

Teaching sexualities

Debbie Epstein, University of London

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 3, Sexualities and the intellectual work of gender reform.

ERBET465

Strategies in interlanguage communication using audiographic technology

Tony Erben and Leo Bartlett, Central Queensland University

This paper reports research into the development of interlanguage communication strategies involved in second language learning when this communication is networked through the medium of audiographics technology (two-way audio and two way computer visual). While audiographic technology heas the potential to enhance meaningful second language usage, its creative applications have tended to be minimalised because it remains under realised, under researched and under theorised.

The types of linguistic modifications which occur in a unique immersion second language learning environment are reported. It has been shown tht environments tht adopt an immersion approach in a tertiary teacher education program (Bartletta nd Erben 1995) provide students with the means to achieve high levels of communicative competence. One of the contriburing factors to this phenomenon is the nature of immersion pedagogy (and its attributes) which stimulates meaningful interactions in the second language. The paper also suggests that immersion students are obliged to develop a wider range of interlanguage communication strategies when learning is networked through audiographic technology, in order to facilitate high levels of interactive discourses which ultimately stimulate second language learning.

There are a number of clearly identifiable practical outcomes that contribute to our understanding of effective interlanguage communication including descriptions and explanations of the types of linguistic modifications utilised by second language immersion learners supported by the applications of audiographic technology.

ESSOK236

Knowing, being, doing: Adolescent girls' perspectives on womanhood and the future

Kathy Esson, University of Sydney

It is fashionable to point out that girls' school retention rates, examination success and participation in post-secondary training now equal, or even (on some measures) surpass that of boys - although rarely does the discussion identify which girls, and in relation to which boys. At a more psychological level, questions arise about the ways in which contemporary girls conceptualise their futures, work-and other-wise, and about how these perceptions are integrated into broader notions of themselves as adults.

The findings presented here are based on a series of questions concerning society's views on women, gender differences and similarities, feminism, career plans, desirable personality characteristics, and ideas about the future. Drawing on data from a longitudinal, in-depth study of a small number of early, middle and late adolescent girls from both socio-economically privileged and disadvantaged backgrounds, this paper describes changes in perceptions over time, and outlines contradictions in girls' self-positioning. Using forms of narrative analysis and layered interpretation, the paper presents a range of ways of illuminating girls' viewpoints, and raises specific questions for further investigation.

Finally, it argues for more complex and subtle analyses of contemporary data, to offset simplistic and ideologically motivated assessments of the success of feminism as an emancipatory project.

EVAND191

Feasibility and desirability of classroom practices for students with special education needs in new times

David Evans, University of Western Sydney

The inclusion of students with special education needs in regular classrooms has become common place in many schools across Australia. These students have been perceived to have added to the busy schedule of teachers, resulting in adverse publicity about the inclusion of students with special edcuation needs. An examination of effective classroom practices for students wth special needs, however, shows that many are very similar to those already used in classrooms.

This paper will examine the responses of undergraduate students about the desirability and feasibility of classroom practices for accommodating students with special education needs. These reposnes will be compared to those given by the supervising practicum teachers of each student. In conclusion, the combined responses will be examined in terms of where future research needs to focus attention if inclusive educational practices are to be part of classrooms of tomorrow.

EVAND269

Validity of a curriculum-based measure for assessing beginning reading skills

David Evans, University of Western Sydney

Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) involves the assessment of key indicators of success in the curriculum. In the area of reading, curriculum-based measures have utilised reading fluency to measure decoding proficiency and maze passages to assess comprehension. These data have been used to develop an information base that permits decision about the eligibility of students to receive special education resources.

The use CBM technology in the area of beginning reading measures has been limited. This paper outlines the results of a project that validates an curriculum-based measure for assessing beginning reading skills, in particular, phonemic awareness skills. The technical adequacy of the measure will be discussed as well as the use of these data to make decisions about the allocation of resources for students experiencing difficulty learning. These results will be related to current literature underpinning the use of curriculum-based measures and perceived weaknesses in the CBM principles.

EVANT283

Off-campus supervised research and advanced study

Terry Evans, Deakin University and Margot Pearson, Australian National University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 19, Supervision of postgraduate research in education.

EVANT336

Postgraduate educational research in New Times: emerging issues for research professional contexts

Terry Evans, Deakin University

This paper outlines the current position and debates concerning the growth of professional doctorates in Education in Australia. The development and spread of new educational technologies, together with the conditions of the 'New Times', lead to issues developing and sustaining appropriate research and dissemination skills with students; developing and sustaining appropriate supervision qualities with staff, and appropriate examining qualities in others.

Behind each of these concerns lay many issues which are important to those working in higher education; not just academics, but everyone involved in the support and administration of such doctoral programs. This paper draws on Australian research, and partly on work based on the EdD program at Deakin University, to analyse and discuss some of the above issues.

The focus of the paper is on the unfolding nature of higher degrees by research, and the supervisory relationships and characteristics which are required of organisations and their staff as they provide and facilitate doctoral learning and research for professional contexts. The paper concludes by outlining some issues and questions which arise from the paper and require addressing by those involved with and concerned about ensuring and enhancing the quality of professional doctorates.

FAZAA210

Academic culture, attitudes and values of leaders, and students' satisfaction with academic culture in Australia's universities

Ahmad Fazaeli, University of Western Sydney

A conceptual framework, based upon attribution of the role of leadership in shaping an academic culture was developed in a research study involving a pilot followed by a comprehensive survey. Subjects were staff and postgraduate students in four disciplines (chemistry, history, mathematics, and psychology) sampled from Australia's universities. Multivariate statistical procedures were the principal means of analysis. to explore the relationship among staff's attitudes towards organisational culture, academic culture, and student satisfaction with that academic culture.

A number of significant differences will be reported along with variations for different categories of staff and disciplines. That is, analysis of the study's data identified factors which distinguished staff reporting different combinations of person-oriented and task-oriented leadership and its relation to staff and student satisfaction with the current culture of the department/faculty. The results emphasise the importance of treating the construct of academic culture as multidimensional and staff as a heterogeneous group.

FEENA217

School-based management: Implications for Australian public education

Anne Feeney, University of Queensland

The lessons learned from data gathered from countries such as Britain, Canada and New Zealand and more recently Victoria and Queensland in this country have clearly demonstrated both the potential and pitfalls of school-based management (SBM). The potential includes the development and effective management of cooperative and collaborative schools concerned with exploration, discovery and pursuit of knowledge through a variety of mediums which provide opportunity for the enhancement of the ethical dimensions of schooling. The pitfalls include the notion of schools as competitive, 'stand-alone' enterprises concerned primarily with the economic rationalist approach to commodities and mechanisms for profit and loss. Some consequences of this approach have been shown to be deleterious to public education in Australia.

The paper briefly addresses a broad definition of, and the rationale behind, SBM. Drawing on data from the pilot program of the Schools of the Future in Victoria and the Leading Schools program in Queensland, the paper identifies some of the consequences of the economic rationalist approach and the effects on the principals' collegium and the educational leadership role of the principals. Questions raised about the direction of public education in Australia are followed by some suggestions as to how the State Governments and Principals might avoid pitfalls, maintain a sense of equilibrium and smooth what has inevitably become an exciting, albeit a frustrating and stressful period in Australian educational history.

FERNJ046

Prospective physical educator's perspectives on school politics: A phenomenological study

Juan-Miguel Fernandes-Balboa, University of Northern Colorado

The literature on teacher socialization, teacher burn-out, teacher proletariarization, and critical pedagogy points out the fact that schools are places of politics and power struggles, and, to a great extent, what enables teachers to survive and succeed professionally is their ability to deal with the political issues and aspects of schools. Yet, despite the poignancy of these premises, PETE programs have traditionally focused most of their efforts on providing future physical educators with content and methods with a main emphasis on pedagogy , not politics. As such, PETE graduates are left on their own to figure out how to confront and address the political matters and issues of schools. In this regard, very little is known about (a) how novices perceive school politics, (b) what political struggles they anticipate, and (c) what strategies they have in mind in order to cope with and control these political forces and dynamics. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate these three issues. Data were collected through phenomenological interviews with 15 (male and female) seniors in physical education teacher education. All interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed to enhance the study's

trustworthiness and facilitate data analysis. The data were sorted out and categorized through several rounds of structured and comparative analysis following the principles of the grounded-theory method. This study's trustworthiness was maximized through the following strategies:(a) taping of the interviews, (b) member checks, (c) disclosure of the researcher's philosophical orientation, (d) peer debriefing, (e) negative case analysis, (f) extensive use of original quotes, (g) triangulation of the results with the literature, and (h) the establishment of an audit trail. Preliminary results show a lack of reflection and awareness on the part of these soon-to-be-teachers about the political forces of schools and their own roles and functions regarding political funcions and practices in these settings. Moreover, data are beginning to indicate that these seniors, as a norm, do not have specific strategies to deal with the politics of their future jobs as educators.

FERRB097

Using concept mapping to help preservice teachers map subject matter knowledge

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

This paper reports on preservice teachers use of a HyperCard(tm)-based tool to create and modify concept maps about science related subject matter. The seventy-one preservice teachers who used the tool were planning science-based instruction that they would be delivered to an elementary school class. Data gathered from interviews, journals and analysis of the concept maps constructed indicated that the process of concept mapping stimulated preservice teachers to organise their cognitive frameworks into more powerful integrated patterns. It was also found that the process of concept map construction enhanced preservice teacher thinking about effective instruction.

FIELB142

Interpersonal conflict in school settings: Bi-product of educational change

Barry Fields, University of Southern Queensland

A number of major policy developments and organisational changes in education systems have taken place in countries such as Australia, England, Canada, New Zealand, and in many states of the United States. These have included a movement towards school based management, and increasing the power of parents and the broader school community in the running of schools. These and other changes have been promoted as having the potential to improve the quality of education, educational outcomes, and the professional status of teachers. They have, however, brought significant changes to the role and work of teachers and have inadvertently brought teachers into conflict with school administrators, parents, and colleagues. This paper looks at the nature of this conflict and how teachers manage conflict in the work environment.

FINZE055

Ideologies in early childhood education: Why do we need to think about them?

Eva Finzel, University of Melbourne

The term "ideology" has a number of different meanings which, together with the relation between ideology and action, continue to be debated. In this paper the term "ideology" is used in a broader sense than usually adopted. It describes not only thoughts which have developed into theories and a system of explicit values but also a system of practices.

In this sense ideologies influence early childhood education in three ways:

1. they have an impact on the concepts of how children develop,
2. they influence how educators and teachers work with children,
3. they describe and, as some believe, construct understanding about what early childhood education means and how it is positioned in society.

The impact which ideologies have on early childhood education often is hidden. Educators and teachers of young children may not be aware of the implications ideologies can have for themselves and their work. Because ideologies influence the work with children it is necessary to gain more knowledge about the ways in which this happens. Another reason why it is important to think about ideologies is that research must be sensitive to the ideological, moral and political context in which early childhood education is embedded.

FISHJ016

Spiritual well-being: An imperative for education in new times?

John Fisher, The University of Melbourne

Many young people in Australia are experiencing strong feelings of stress, confusion, lack of security and identity. They have deep spiritual hunger for belonging and a need to find direction in life.

Can schools hope to be places which take time to care for their students' total well-being, including their spiritual well-being?

Nearly 100 staff in a variety of State, Catholic and other non-government schools near Melbourne, were interviewed about their own spirituality, their understanding of the nature of spiritual health, and about their views on the place of spiritual health/well-being in the school curriculum.

A close inspection of the teachers' responses showed they thought spiritual well-being was expressed through relationships in four domains of human experience, which can be labelled: Personal Communal Environmental Global

There was considerable difference between some teachers' personal understanding of spiritual health/well-being and what they felt comfortable including in the curriculum.

This project has looked at what provides meaning, purpose and values at the heart of educating adolescents, in the hope that we might find some ways of helping them face new times with confidence and compassion.

FISHS421

Male violence in schools - who's doing the bullying?

Stephen Fisher, Murdoch University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 25, Addressing boys' education: Framing debates, implementing strategies and formulating policies.

FITZL423

Coaches, charges and contexts; studying gender dynamics and football

Lindsay Fitzclarence, Chris Hickey and Russell Matthews, Deakin University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 25, Addressing boys' education: Framing debates, implementing strategies and formulating policies.

Leaping without looking

Phil Fitzsimmons, University of Wollongong

Nested in a long term study this paper describes the dynamics of personal experience and change which 150 'first time' students experienced while taking part in a Wilderness Program. Employing Guba and Lincoln's (1989) constructivist methodology of 'Fourth Generation Evaluation', which is Riterative, interactive, hermeneutic and at times intuitive and certainly opens to construct a level consensus (Guba and Lincoln, 1989:183), this naturalistic inquiry focussed strongly on observer/observed interactions to construct a 'sophisticated level of consensus' (Guba and Lincoln, 1989:149).

Although recognised as a definitive psychological mechanism of change, the therapeutic results of Wilderness Experiences have been described by Loynes (1997) as being mythic, having a fairy tale content that has been little explored. This paper seeks to give life to these myths, discussing both the

processes which the participants believed engendered personal change and the new personal perspectives that were developed.

The findings of this study have important educational implications in regard to the development of self esteem, relationships and the enhancement of 'life metaphors' (Lakoff and Johnson 1980).

A Thai student writes - towards the understanding of the writing of overseas post-graduate students in Australian Universities

Richard Flavell, Monash University

The continued impact of the globalisation of education on Australian Universities challenges educators to develop new understandings of the writing of overseas students. Overseas students are an integral part of our university classrooms. This paper arises from a series of case studies of students undertaking an MBA at an Australian university has as its focus a case study of a Thai student following her progress from the commencement of a set of lectures, the setting of a writing assessment task, through her research and production of the essay, to the lecturer's assessment and subsequent events. It highlights the cultural mismatch of the student and lecturer as academic discourse is attempted. It examines some of the ways that academic writing has been viewed and using extracts from interviews with the Thai student and her lecturer, as well as the student's essay, suggests a more complex understanding of the writing of overseas students, and consequently how this writing is read by lecturers, is necessary to meet the needs of these new times.

Exploring the effect of the Reading Developmental Ccontinuum on teacher practices

Margaret Fletcher, Griffith University, Janelle Young, Australian Catholic University, Robyn Cox, Central Queensland University and Dawn Haynes, Catholic Education, Diocese of Rockhampton

This session will report on the findings of a collaborative project among three universities, the Australian Catholic University - McAuley Campus, Central Queensland University and Griffith University, and was funded by Language Australia: National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia. The study investigated the interactive nature of teaching, planning, assessing and reporting of reading development in the beginning years of schooling while using the Reading Developmental Continuum.

This presentation will report findings and highlight methodological issues and processes associated with co-operative cross-institutional research. Findings include the perceptions of teachers relating to efficacy, comprehensiveness and validity of the Continuum and the relationship between these and teacher knowledge.

The collaborative nature of this project resulted in innovative use of technology for communication purposes and the use of interactive software for data entry and report writing. The problems and solutions associated with an evolving framework and joint authorship will be shared.

Teachers' perceptions of the stress associated with inclusive education and their methods of coping

Chris Forlin, University of Southern Queensland

The current educational philosophy is wherever possible to educate all children, including those with a disability, in regular classes. Inevitably this poses different pressures on teachers who need to cater for an ever increasing range of student abilities within regular classrooms. This paper reports the findings of a research study undertaken to determine the ways in which regular class teachers cope during inclusive education and the specific issues which are stressful for them. The study was undertaken in primary schools in Queensland during 19 Initial focus group interviews with regular class teachers currently involved in inclusive education identified key issues in the education of students with a disability in regular classes. These discussions focused on aspects of inclusion that regular class teachers found stressful and the ways in which they coped with these, the difficulties they encountered, the availability and usefulness of support structures, and the benefits obtained. Subsequently, two Likert style questionnaires were developed to assess the usefulness of various problem-focused or emotion-focused coping behaviours and the degree to which identified issues were stressful for regular class teachers during inclusion. Differences between teachers from regional schools where alternative placement options exist for children with a disability, and teachers from rural areas where no optional placements are available, were considered.

FORLC081

SYMPOSIUM 13: Pre-service teachers* acceptance of and social interactions with people with a disability: Educational implications in new times

Presenters: Chris Forlin, Annemaree Carroll, Ann Jobling, Kath Tait, and Petra Engelbrecht, University of Southern Queensland

Overview:
With the continued movement towards inclusive education it is very clear that training for teachers will need to change. Institutions must develop training courses that will empower teachers to provide quality programs for including all children within regular classrooms. Such courses need to consider the philosophical beliefs of pre-service teachers and their acceptance of children with a disability. This research reports the findings from four universities regarding pre-service teacher*s attitudes towards people with a disability. It employs the Interactions With Disabled Persons Scale (Gething, 1991) to investigate the effect of undertaking compulsory and optional units in special education on pre-service teacher*s acceptance of and social interactions with people with a disability. The implications of these findings form the basis of the discussion regarding the development of appropriate compulsory pre-service teacher training courses in inclusive education.

PAPER 1:

Re-designing pre-service teacher education courses: An inclusive curriculum in New Times

Chris Forlin, University of Southern Queensland

The concept of inclusive education is considerably more than simply the placement of children with a disability into regular classrooms. According to Mittler (1994:2) inclusion "requires radical school reform, changing the existing system and rethinking the entire curriculum of the school in order to meet the needs of all children". It is essential that teacher training institutions provide relevant courses that reflect such a philosophy. This paper outlines a collaborative research project between four teacher training universities (the University of Southern Queensland, the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, and the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa) which investigated pre-service teachers* acceptance of and social interactions with people with a disability. An overview of the project will be given in relation to teacher training in Queensland and South Africa. The use of the Interactions With Disabled Persons Scale (Gething, 1991). and an explanation of the data analysis will be provided in this paper. The main objective of this research is the development and implementation of appropriate preservice training programs for teachers. These research findings will direct the development of future courses at each institution regarding inclusive education.

PAPER 2:

CARRA316

Pre-service teachers* acceptance of and social interactions with people with a disability: The Queensland Scene

Annemaree Carroll, Ann Jobling and Kath Tait, University of Southern Queensland

As programs for teacher education become more comprehensive, it is likely that regular teachers will be better prepared for managing students with special needs. Inservice and preservice programs are needed for regular teachers who currently feel unprepared for their vital role in integration (Elkins, 1994). Courses in special education for primary and secondary preservice teacher educators have become strongly recommended by Education Queensland. In South East Queensland, these courses are presently offered as either compulsory or elective units. The present research aims to determine the acceptance and attitudes of preservice students to people with a disability. Both positive attitudes and perceptions are seen to be essential to the success of inclusive education (Patching, 1988). All pre-service teacher education students undertaking either compulsory or elective units from three universities in South East Queensland were asked to complete the Interactions With Disabled Persons Scale (IDP, Gething, 1991). This scale comprises 20 statements and asks respondents to indicate on a 6-point scale how much they agree or disagree with the statement (e.g., I feel ignorant about persons with a disability). Twelve questions pertaining to personal details were also collected. This paper examines the impact of personal details (e.g., age, gender, direct face-to-face contact with people with disabilities) as well as current course (e.g., primary or secondary course, type of unit) on participants' responses on the IDP Scale. The research findings will be utilised in the development of future courses regarding inclusive education.

PAPER 3:

ENGEP317

Pre-service teachers* acceptance of and social interactions with people with a disability: The South African Scene

Petra Engelbrecht, University of Southern Queensland

Courses for teacher training at South African universities and training colleges has previously focused on service delivery in separate schools in dealing with children with special educational needs. It is very clear that all teachers (in-service and preservice) need a thorough grounding in inclusive education to enable them to provide quality service for children with special educational needs within the mainstream. The basic element for training should consist of the development of a philosophy that incorporates a clear vision of inclusion as a warm embracing attitude, accepting and accommodating others unconditionally and without preconditions. In order to optimalise training on a preservice and in-service level it is necessary to investigate a range of associated issues before deciding upon the type of training which would be most suitable to implement. One of these issues is the determination of the acceptance and attitudes of preservice students to people with a disability as both attitudes and perceptions are seen to be essential to the success of inclusive education. This paper will focus on a summary of attitudes and perceptions of preservice students in the Western Cape in South Africa and will compare results to the Queensland experience.

Re-designing pre-service teacher education courses: An inclusive curriculum in new times

Chris Forlin, University of Southern Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 13, Pre-service teachers' acceptance of and socila interactions with people with a disability: Educational implications in new times.

FORLP041

A new curriculum in science, technology and society for undergraduate primary educators

Peter Forlin, The University of Southern Queensland

In this paper I will present a new curriculum in science, technology and society (STS) for undergraduate primary teachers. The curriculum development process will be described and comments from science educators, of international repute, who reviewed the curriculum in its draft form, will be presented. The draft curriculum will be offered in terms of its significance; what the international science education community is doing in similar circumstances; perceived limitations and difficulties associated with the course; the impact of information technology on a curriculum such as this; the educational aims of the course; a proposed teaching methodology; specific lecture topics; laboratory teaching and learning methods; a health and safety risk management framework; provisions for students with disabilities who wish to enroll; and textbooks. It is advocated that courses such as this ought to cater for most students, not just those with a significant scientific background.

FOSTV251

Feminist theories and the construction of citizenship in the modern state

Victoria Foster, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 21, Understanding civic learning and its social context: Current research in civics and citizenship education.

Assisting pre-service teachers in becoming reflective practitioners

Sandra Frid, Chris Reading, and Ted Redden, University of New England

One emphasis in the recently released National Competency Framework for Beginning Teachers is that of reflection on and evaluation of one's own teaching practices and programs. This study investigated how these processes can be developed in pre-service teachers through involvement in peer and self-assessment activities. Specifically, four classes of third-year Bachelor of Teaching students (total of 95) participated in a series of eight seminars in which small groups of students presented a range of topics on general issues related to mathematics teaching. Two major components of the seminars were peer assessment of the presentations and ongoing development of an evaluation/feedback form. Following each seminar the presenters were required to prepare a self-evaluation report and re-designed evaluation form based on their peers' comments and their own reflections. Students' feedback comments and the various evaluation forms were analysed to determine what changes took place in what students perceived to be important issues, how the quality of their comments changed over time, what students felt they learned from peer and self-evaluation, and how students developed in their capacity to reflect critically. Similarities and differences from across the groups were examined, and the outcomes of the research are discussed here in relation to current trends in education to incorporate alternative, non-traditional assessment practices and to develop teacher competencies as reflective practitioners.

Using curriculum statements and profiles in South Australian schools

Tracey Frigo, Australian Council for Educational Research

South Australia was one of the first systems to adopt Curriculum statements and profiles for Australian schools as a resource for curriculum review and reform focussing on student outcomes. Twelve months after an initial survey of teachers from 100 randomly selected South Australian schools, a follow-up survey provided evidence that desired shifts in emphasis are indeed occurring. Teachers were again asked to indicate the nature and extent of curriculum reform at their school, perceived benefits and concerns regarding implementation, and to comment on their use of technology and student achievement information. The usefulness of statements and profiles as a common framework for teaching and assessing was acknowledged, but workloads and timeline issues are still in the minds of many principals and teachers. The use of levels to assess students was also raised as a concern. Responses indicated that use of technology is not widespread and that there is a general need for technology training in schools. Both principals and teachers seem to appreciate the usefulness of information on student achievement for their curriculum planning, but actually using it still has not become a high priority for most. Time is appropriate for tools and materials, focusing on the recording of information and use of student achievement information, to become more widely available and better disseminated within schools.

Generalist student teachers' perceptions of self, physical activity and health and physical education curriculum

Michael Gard and Joan Fry, Charles Sturt University

The debate about generalist versus specialist teachers in primary schools has long been fought, possibly nowhere more vigorously than in regard to physical education. Here, it continues to appear as an issue in national enquiries into the quality of teaching. This study is based on the premise that people embody the feelings and beliefs that they hold about phenomena and so feelings and beliefs influence the ways people act. In the case of physical activity, it is thought that feelings and beliefs about the body and physical activity greatly impact on behaviour. Therefore in order to develop effective physical education teacher education programs, it is important to consider student teachers' perceptions of their bodies, physical activity and physical education curriculum. Data were collected through survey and interview. Students in early childhood and primary as well as secondary specialist health and physical education courses at a rural university volunteered to complete inventories designed to measure perceptions of self in relation to physical activity, perceptions of physical activity and feelings about the health and physical education curriculum. Following preliminary analysis, students with a range of perceptions and feelings were purposefully sampled for individual open-ended interviews. In this paper the findings will be discussed with tentative recommendations for heath and physical education teacher education curriculum.

FUNNB504

Changes to the market for research in tertiary education: the case of teacher education and vocational education in New Zealand and Australia

Bob Funnell, Griffith University, John Rosonowski, and Tim Williams, Christchurch College of Education

The object of this paper is to outline and model conditions that now influence a political and economic demand for vocational relevance and market driven imperatives in educational research. The discussion is based on an historical case study comparing responses to these factors in New Zealand and Australia with teacher training and technical education as the starting point. One focus is on the differences in how the boundaries between universities, technical and teacher education have been drawn and redrawn since the turn of the century to establish universities as the accepted institutions to conduct research. A second focus is on the rise of vocational education, in particular, to challenge universities in terms of their relevance and their rights to students and funding. A third focus is on the changing status of teacher education in these political and economic manoeuvres. The paper begins with the Picot and Hawke recommendations which have resulted in degrees being approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and for vocational and teacher training institutions to offer degrees and to compete with private providers for places in teacher training in New Zealand. A caveat here is that any institution offering a degree has to have staff teaching actively involved in research, read as publication. The second case begins with the amalgamation of colleges of education into universities in Australia. Comparisons are made between the Australian TAFE system, the system of polytechnics in New Zealand and institutions for teacher preparation in both countries and their capability to remain active in producing research in the new of the market for research.

GALET107

Vocality in policy production: Excavations of Australian higher education entry policy

Trevor Gale, Central Queensland University

Licence to 'speak' policy is not granted uniformly to policy actors, nor to the forums in which policy is 'spoken'. Rather, some policy voices tend to be louder, more strategically directed, or expressed with greater authority relative to the 'vocalities' of others. Drawing primarily on interviews with policy actors, this paper seeks to reveal the authoritative voices and localities as they are evidenced in higher education entry policy in Australia and the strategies utilised to establish such authority. In particular, the paper identifies strategies related to determining jurisdictions, changing commitments, the selection of people and processes, and sites of engagement.

The development of an appropriate practicum model for the B.Ed primary course in new times

Kay Gibson and Chris Forlin, University of Southern Queensland

The practicum is a major component of most B Ed (Primary) courses which allows students to make vital learning connections between theory and practice. The articulation of the practicum to other course components is critical to the success of such courses and to their marketability. This research reports the development of a new practicum model responsive to student learning needs and to policy and practice change in Queensland. The collaborative development of the model between Faculty staff and local school principals and teachers is outlined. The involvement of current and previous students in the development of the model is also reviewed. The model which has been informed by best practice is evaluated from the perspective of the sequence of practicum experiences, the placement of practicum experiences within the context of the overall course, the flexibility of the model to respond to change in policy and practice, the ability of the model to allow and encourage students to make vital learning connections between theory and practice, and the ability of the model to incorporate a number of approaches to practice.

GILBR250

Education for citizenship and concepts of identity

Rob Gilbert, James Cook University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 21, Understanding civic learning and its social context: Current research in civics and citizenship education.

GILBP486

New times, old times: Masculinity, literacy and schooling

Nola Alloway and Pam Gilbert, James Cook University

This paper focuses on recent debates and developments surrounding boys' performance in literacy classrooms. In the paper we argue that the constructions of hegemonic masculinity in New Times lead to patterns of alienation of boys from significant aspects of schooling, particularly literacy learning. The questions here are: how literacy is to be constructed in New Times; and how boys can be enabled to play a different role in the construction of themselves as literate students with a critical capacity to critique their own practices and the textual practices through which they are constructed.

The paper offers suggestions for understanding masculinity, literacy and schooling in New Times. At the same time, it draws attention to the intensely complex conceptual nature of the work and to the dangers inherent in research and theorisation in these areas.

GILLJ352

Children's perceptions of public power and politics: Reclaiming citizenship education for the education agenda

Judith Gill and Sue Howard, University of South Australia

The report of the Civics Expert Group Whereas the people ... proceeded from the position that Australian education had overlooked the need for civics education in our schools. This impression was drawn from a nationwide survey of people's understanding of the structures and processes of government which had shown that the younger the population the less likely were they to be informed on questions of governance. This survey had not investigated responses from those younger than 18. Overseas research has shown that young children begin thinking about questions of citizenship, nationality, governmental responsibility during their primary school years. Questions were raised as to what do young Australians think about citizenship and what sort of meanings do they ascribe to issues of power and responsibility. This paper reports on a study of the perceptions of a group of Australian primary school children about issues to do with power and public responsibility. The children in the study revealed that they had some clear understandings about their rights and responsibilities and those of people in authority - parents, care givers, teachers, public officials and politicians. The paper concludes with recommendations that curriculum which seeks to address these areas be located within the current mind set and experience of the children rather than being informed by an orientation that could be described as 'What every child should know...'.

GILLR341

The effect of cooperative learning experiences on children's social and helping behaviours in the middle primary school years

Robyn Gillies, The University of Queensland

This paper discusses the results of a study which involved 180, Year 4 children who worked in four-person, gender balanced, class-based work groups over the duration of a full school year. The study had three foci. First, it sought to determine if there were differences between the cooperative and

helping behaviours of the children who worked in groups in which they were trained to cooperate (Trained condition) and those who worked in groups were no training occurred (Untrained condition). Second, it was designed to examine the stability of the behaviours and interactions for the children in the two conditions over the duration of the study. Finally, the study sought to determine if there were changes in the children's descriptions of their academic, friendship, and physical attributes as a result of the cooperative group experience as measured by their responses on the Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ-1). The results show clearly that the children in the trained condition were consistently more cooperative and helpful to other group members than the children in the Untrained condition and these behaviours were maintained across the duration of the group experience. However, there were no significant differences in the children's perceptions of their academic, friendship, and physical attributes as measured on the SDQ-1. The implications for effect of cooperative group experiences on children's behaviour and self-perceptions are discussed.

GILLR354

The effect of cooperative learning experiences on children's social and helping behaviours in the middle primary school years

Robyn Gillies, The University of Queensland

This paper discusses the results of a study which involved 180, Year 4 children who worked in four-person, gender balanced, class-based work groups over the duration of a full school year. The study had three foci. First, it sought to determine if there were differences between the cooperative and helping behaviours of the children who worked in groups in which they were trained to cooperate (Trained condition) and those who worked in groups where no training occurred (Untrained condition). Second, it was designed to examine the stability of the behaviours and interactions for the children in the two conditions over the duration of the study. Finally, the study sought to determine if there were changes in the children's descriptions of their academic, friendship, and physical attributes as a result of the cooperative group experience as measured by their responses on the Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ-1). The results show clearly that the children in the trained condition were consistently more cooperative and helpful to other group members than the children in the Untrained condition and these behaviours were maintained across the duration of the group experience. However, there were no significant differences in the children's perceptions of their academic, friendship, and physical attributes as measured on the SDQ-1. The implications for effect of cooperative group experiences on children's behaviour and self-perceptions are discussed.

GILLS355

Factors influencing decision making in competency based assessments across both industrial and vocational educational settings

Shelley Gillis, Patrick Griffin, R.Trembath and P.Ling

This paper investigated the theoretical underpinnings of assessment. Factors influencing decision making processes in competency based assessment were explored across both industrial and vocational eduation and training settings. The project involved a national survey of workplace assessors and VET Trainers who were actively parcitipating in competency based assessments. The research investigation explored and tested a theoretical model of decision making and revealed significant differences in the use of interpretative frameworks, influences of assessor bias in predicting workplace assesmsents, organisational influences, the assessment and reporting process, the complexity of the relationship among stakeholders and the perceived consequences associated with the assessment outcomes among workplace assessors and VET Trainers. The outcomes of the research paper include eight measures of factors influencing decision making and the findings have direct implications for assessor selection, training and monitoring.

GINNI440

SYMPOSIUM 14: Transition into teaching: Voices of women primary teachers of mathematics and science

Presenters: Bill Atweh, Ian Ginns, Ann Heirdsfield, James Watters and others, Queensland University of Technology

Overview:
Research has shown that the majority of primary school teachers are women and that many of them express lack of confidence in teaching mathematics and science. It has also shown that limited support is available for teachers to assist them in the crucial transitional period from university to teaching. This symposium reports an action research project conducted in collaboration between first year women teachers and university lecturers. Three groups working on participants concerns considered issues of assessment, catering for the gifted and talented and the development of inclusive mathematics. The symposium consists of four papers describing the whole project and each of the three sub-projects.

PAPER 1:

Scaffolding the beginning teacher: the EMSTAR project

Ian Ginns, Bill Atweh, Jim Watters and Ann Heirdsfield, Queensland University of Technology

Many components of teaching are problematic for many primary school teachers but early career experiences may act as either inhibitors or catalysts for an enduring commitment to and enthusiasm for effective mathematics and science teaching. This paper describes the conduct of an action research project designed to promote effective mathematics and science teaching among a group of beginning women teachers. The paper outlines the organisational features of the project, in particular the formation of action research cells comprised of subgroups of the participating teachers whose foci are particular aspects of teaching mathematics and science, e.g. assessment and inclusivity. Data analysis will focus on the individual experiences of the participating teachers in their action research cells and an evaluation of the use of action research methods as a means for the induction of teachers into the teaching profession. Results from the project will be used to develop inservice models designed to serve new and growing school and systemic needs with respect to curriculum implementation and best practice in teaching and learning in mathematics and science.

PAPER 2:

ATWEB442

Transition into teaching: Women's experiences in making mathematics more inclusive

Bill Atweh, Pam Harris, Lisa Garrett, Gabrielle Pitman, Janette Sitton, Queensland University of Technology

The teaching of mathematics is problematic for many primary teachers and early career experiences may act as either inhibitors or catalysts for an enduring commitment to effective mathematics teaching. One problem shared by several teachers is how to make mathematics more inclusive to the needs of students from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This study is a collaborative partnership between a group of 3 first year women teachers, a university academic, and an experienced teacher. Specifically there are two sets of aims for this study. For the participating beginning women teachers, the study aims to foster their effective teaching of mathematics in the primary school with classes that are predominately of Aboriginal or non English speaking backgrounds. For the participating university staff, the study aims to: investigate the use of action research networks for teacher professional development. The study employed the use of teleconferencing and electronic mail for communication between participants. The paper will present the experiences of the teachers and their voices in discussing the problems identified and the solutions trailed. Data will be collated from electronic e-mail communication, teachers diaries and writing for the project. The paper will conclude with some learnings about the problems and possibilities of using of action research as a means for teacher induction.

PAPER 3:

WATTJ443

The challenge of meeting the needs of the gifted child

James Watters, Bernadette Andrew, Amy Henderson and Belinda George, Queensland University of Technology

Gifted education has assumed more prominence in recent times with both national and state initiatives setting the scene for a change in practice in many systems. For a beginning teacher having a gifted child in the classroom can present a genuine challenge. Strategies for coping and programming for the needs of children who are exceptional in their cognitive capacities are not core features of pre-service training programs. Furthermore, beliefs and assumptions of many experienced teachers and the school ethos or culture can conflict with the idealism of beginning teachers compounding their levels of anxiety. This presentation explores the experiences of a group of beginning teachers who attempt to develop strategies for implementing enriching experiences for children. The work of these teachers, struggling with the challenge of change, identifies a need for all teachers to acknowledge the special requirements of gifted children.

PAPER 4:

GINNI444

Coping with assessment: The experiences of beginning teachers

Jennifer Fitzgerald, Cassandra Moman, Monica Suhrbier and Ian Ginns, Queensland University of Technology

Assessment of children on a continuous basis is a formidable obstacle for beginning teachers. The increasing demands of governments and parents for accountability in the education of children place beginning teachers under immediate pressure to evaluate the progress of children as soon as they commence employment. This project documents action research projects initiated by beginning teachers as they face the reality of assessing children in mathematics and science in order to meet the demands of a state-wide testing program and to better understand assessment as an integrated component of any curriculum. The results of the action research project will be discussed from the point of view of the participants. Generalisations from the data will be used to inform existing preservice teacher education programs and the development of new inservice programs for teachers in mathematics and science.

Scaffolding the beginning teacher: The EMSTAR project

Ian Ginns, Bill Atweh, Jim Watters and Ann Heirdsfield, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 14, Transition into teaching: Voices of women primary teachers of mathematics and science.

GINNI444

Coping with assessment: The experiences of beginning teachers

Jennifer Fitzgerald, Cassandra Moman, Monica Suhrbier and Ian Ginns, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 14, Transition into teaching: Voices of women primary teachers of mathematics and science.

Passing first year university: Perceptions of key stake holders

John Glass, and Judith Maxwell, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and Patricia McLean, University of Melbourne

This paper will report on the analysis of a survey which investigated the relative perceptions of academic staff and tertiary students at two universities and across the faculties of Engineering and Education as well as secondary students ( from both private and government schools), as to the factors considered important for success at university. The main predictors of university success have traditionally been pre-enrolment performance measures such as academic performance at school and university admissions tests. The failure of single measures such as TE scores to adequately predict success relates to the complexity of other (post enrolment) factors affecting success (motivation, teaching strategies and students' approaches to study). Perceptions of the factors contributing to success/failure in the first year of university by key stakeholders (prospective students, enrolled students and academic staff) may provide insight not only as a potential predictor of success, but also in terms of providing strategies which will facilitate the avoidance of a mismatch between staff and student expectations at a university level. This paper discusses the factors which are perceived as contributing to university success from the perspective of the key stake holders.

The effect of using assessment procedures in values education

Philip Cox and John Godfrey, Edith Cowan University

This study investigates the effect of utilising formal assessment procedures on values education.

A survey of the literature on formal assessment procedures and values indicates that utilisation of assessment procedures in the affective domain may have a detrimental effect on the achievement of objectives in that domain. Teachers therefore tend to avoid the use of assessment procedures when values are involved. However, if one takes a broad view of assessment, it is not impractical to involve them in the process of value formation.

The subjects were 160 students in Year 8 in a Catholic school in Perth. The source of data was a values survey where students responded to questions on values aspects of objectives of a module. Magnitude scaling was the scoring procedure selected.

A nested design enabled two levels of analysis to occur; variation between the experimental and control group and an analysis of variation between individual classes.

Mean scores for the values test illustrated change between the pre-test and post-test. The change was in a direction opposite to that expected. The teaching process altered students' values scores from the moral high ground towards a central position. The teaching process enabled students to re-evaluate their values stance.

Self-directed and peer-assisted thinking in a secondary mathematics classroom

Merrilyn Goos, The University of Queensland

The last decade has seen the emergence of an international movement calling for reform in the teaching and learning of mathematics. In both the United States and Australia, for example, new curriculum and policy documents place increased emphasis on problem solving, communication and mathematical reasoning, and endorse greater use of small group work and peer interaction as a means of encouraging students to become self-directed learners. Such significant curriculum reforms require a sound research base if they are to be effectively implemented. However, our theoretical understanding of problem solving processes, and how students' self-monitoring and self-regulatory abilities are cultivated by these new forms of classroom interaction, is far from complete. This paper reports on a study of a Year 11 mathematics classroom which exemplified the learning goals and instructional practices articulated by the mathematics education reform movement. A major aim of the study was to examine students' metacognitive knowledge and strategies in both individual and collaborative settings. In this paper, data from questionnaires, interviews, and videotaped lessons are used to analyse connections between self-directed and peer-assisted metacognitive activity, and suggest implications for the social organisation of mathematics classrooms.

Resisting interaction and collaboration in secondary mathematics classrooms

M Goos, Peter Renshaw and P Galbraith, The University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 26, Communities of learners: Researching resistance and exclusion in the collaborative classroom.

Changes in approaches to learning of international students in their first year at an Australian tertiary institution

Mira Gordon, Robert H. Cantwell and Phillip J. Moore, The University of Newcastle

Australian Higher Education is undergoing significant change as it seeks to accommodate the large increase in international students now studying in Australian universities. Between 1989 and 1996 the number of international students studying in Australian universities increased from 21,000 to 53,000.

This paper will report on the approaches to learning identified by a group of international students as they commenced their study in an Australian university. Over the course of their first year of study, the extent to which the students identified changes in their approaches to learning is evaluated. Cultural background and language competency on arrival are amongst a number of factors considered. The extent to which instruments developed to identify the approaches to learning of tertiary students can be applied cross culturally is briefly examined.

The findings may be of some interest to educators in Australian Higher Education institutions as they seek to address the challenges of internationalising their curricula and identifying the extent to which international students are able to accommodate different approaches to learning.

GOREJ289

Towards a theory of power relations in pedagogy

Jennifer Gore, The University of Newcastle

Based on my study of four pedagogical sites (the design and preliminary findings of which have been reported at previous AARE conferences), this paper reports on work done toward constructing a new theory of power relations in pedagogy. The following broad analytical concerns are being addressed in this process of theory building:

1. Practices of power: Which practices are constitutive of pedagogy and what are their effects?
2. Disciplining bodies: In what specific ways are teachers' and students' bodies the site of enactments of power, and what specific forms of self-disciplining does schooling produce?
3. Progressive pedagogies: In the micro-level enactment of instructional practices, to what extent do radical pedagogies escape the power relations of other classrooms?
4. Institutionalised pedagogy: In what ways does the institutionalisation of pedagogy account for its specific character and for continuities across sites and across time?
5. Power-knowledge: In what ways do the power relations of specific classrooms interact with the knowledge produced there?

This theory of power relations in pedagogy is intended to identify patterns and specific practices in such a way that new points of intervention might be explored.

Who has the authority to speak about practice and how does it influence educational inquiry?

Jennifer Gore, University of Newcastle

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 8, Issues in qualitative research.

Cultural globalisation and educational inquiry: Conceptual and methodological issues

Noel Gough, Deakin University

Globalisation implies new and increasingly complex patterns of interconnectedness--cultural processes that destabilise interrelationships among spaces and places, technologies and materials, media and meanings, and that might previously have seemed to be (relatively) 'settled'. This paper reports on issues for educational inquiry that are emerging from a project that is examining interrelationships between cultural globalisation, new curriculum priorities, and curriculum change in schools. This research focuses on the ways in which processes of cultural globalisation are represented in curriculum policies and school programs, and expressed by teachers and students, with particular reference to the ways in which meanings that circulate in increasingly globalised media (television, the internet) are deployed in the construction of school knowledge. Conceptual and methodological implications of cultural globalisation for curriculum inquiry will be a particular focus of this paper.

GREEB427

SYMPOSIUM 15: New times for literacy, pedagogy and young people: Research challenges

Presenters: Barbara Comber, Phil Cormack, and Helen Nixon, University of South Australia, Bill Green, Deakin University, and Jo-Anne Reid, University of Ballarat

Overview:
Increasingly media culture and its associated literacies form not just a context for research in education but also its object. Among other things, this involves taking account of the complex and changing relations between education and the media, as well as new forms and relations of curriculum and literacy, and properly gauging the educational and cultural significance of the new information technologies. What needs to be better understood however is both the nature of media culture in this regard, specifically in its implication for education generally, and more broadly, the historical nexus between educational practice and technocultural change. The symposium will engage these issues with regard to researching cultural formations of literacy, pedagogy and young people. What would a research programme in this area look like? What would it entail? What would be its methodological issues and problematics?

PAPER 1:

The problem of 'background' in researching the student subject

Barbara Comber, University of South Australia

Ways of describing student populations in educational research frequently refer to cultural background, socio-economic background, and linguistic background. This term is increasingly problematic in terms of what it implies about students' lifeworlds and subjectivities. Through an analysis of teachers' descriptions of their students I discuss the limits and the dangers of employing 'background' as a construct in these times. I argue that as educational researchers we need to examine the effects of our vocabularies in public discourses and local educational institutions and to begin to generate new vocabularies for understanding how different young people take up what schooling makes available. 'Background' may be seen as symptomatic of counter-productive educational discourses which fail to explain dynamic and changing educational conditions and student populations.

PAPER 2:

What can history offer literacy research in new times?

Phil Cormack, University of South Australia

This paper is based on a genealogical study which examines how literacy and the adolescent have been brought together in educational and public policy discourses this century in Australia. This study suggests the value of historical research in 'new' times - times when what counts as literacy and the role of literacy in the lives of young people, are the subjects of intense debate. Issues relating to the roles of school and literacy in shaping/being shaped by adolescent subjectivity will be highlighted for discussion.

PAPER 3:

GREEB430

On the (Im)possibility of educational research: Emergent literacies, media culture and postmodern education

Bill Green, Deakin University

What does it mean to be living and learning (in) media culture? What are the possibilities and problems associated with researching new technocultural dynamics and new social forms and identities, and indeed the very idea of the New? In literacy education and media studies, attention is directed increasingly to the notion of new and emergent literacies and textualities, within what is argued to be a cultural shift from print to digital-electronics. This paper accordingly explores various issues in researching new textual practices and formations and new subjectivities and forms of life, more particularly in their educational terms and frames of reference. In doing so, it seeks to raise and explore questions about the (im)possibility of educational research in 'New Times'.

PAPER 4:

Researching multimedia multiliteracies

Helen Nixon, University of South Australia

This paper is based on a pilot study of critical approaches to the teaching of literacy in a disadvantaged school in which the integration of "new technologies" into the curriculum is a school priority. Transcripts of student talk during the production of multimedia Hypertext documents will be used to explore questions raised by the study. These include: What are the possibilities and limitations of ethnographic studies of computer-based literacy teaching and learning? What are the possibilities and limitations of computer-based critical literacy which attempts to connect with "real world" learning and textual practice in "new times"?

PAPER 5:

REIDJ432

New times, new methodological problems? Researching the Nintendo generation

Jo-Anne Reid, University of Ballarat

This paper draws on data collected during a research study undertaken in 1995-96, which attempted to explore the extent to which the children popularly known as the 'Nintendo generation' might be understood as different from previous generations. It also attempted to explore the implications, accordingly, for teachers and educational researchers. One implication seems to be the question of how we can best access information about the nature and quality of this distinctiveness. I will discuss the problems associated with 'finding', controlling and constructing data about young children's interactions with and around electronic game playing in relation to literacy practice.

GREEB430

On the (Im)possibility of educational research: Emergent literacies, media culture and postmodern education

Bill Green, Deakin University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 15, New times for literacy, pedagogy and young people: Research challenges.

GREEB455

Theorising the professional doctorate: Representation, practice and the

curriculum problem in postgraduate education

Bill Green, Deakin University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 6, Professional doctorates in new times for the Australian University.

Psychological and contextual factors influencing mathematics achievement

Lisa Greenwood, Australian Council for Educational Research

This study investigates various student characteristics (including attitudes, perceptions of the importance of mathematics and out of school activities) on achievement in mathematics. Home background variables will be taken into account. Multivariate methods will be used to analyse the data obtained from 11,248 students in 441 classes in 179 schools obtained from the Australian population one (majority of nine year olds), collected in late 1994 during the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. It is expected that complex interactions will emerge, and that these might differ with age and possibly gender. Major findings of this research will be presented and discussed.

GRIES447

Why here? Why now? The Queensland Preschool Curriculum Guidelines

Susan Grieshaber, Queensland University of Technology

This paper provides a critique of the Queensland Preschool Curriculum Guidelines (Trial Version). The emergence of these Curriculum Guidelines after twenty-five years of free, non-compulsory preschool education by the State comes as a recommendation of the Report by Wiltshire, McMeniman & Tolhurst (1994), (Shaping the Future): Review of the Queensland School Curriculum. The paper argues that the recommendation can be located in an economic rationalist perspective and follows an international and national trend of producing educational documents for the years prior to formal schooling. Political imperatives of the recommendation are considered and analysis of the document shows that it is likely to perpetuate the status quo because it fails to come to terms with recent moves to reconceptualise early childhood curriculum.

GRIFP417

Dimensions of numeracy in a large-scale testing program

Patrick Griffin, The University of Melbourne and Rosemary Callingham, Office of Educational Review, Hobart

A series of Numeracy assessment tasks was administered to approximately 5000 year-9 students in Tasmanian government schools. The items were developed to assess specific outcome statements selected from the National Mathematics Profile that together make up the Tasmanian Key Intended Numeracy Outcomes (KINOs) for year 8 students. The tasks included a test of mental computation, two multiple-choice tests, - one with and one without calculator use - a constructed response test and an extended investigative task. The tests were initially intended to be equated using common person equating approaches to form a singe measure of numeracy. It was also intended to report sub-scores for each of the strands of the mathematics profiles.

A constant problem with equating tests of this kind, is the assumption that the tests are equivalent and that they are measuring the same construct. There is considerable evidence that this may be the case, despite the fact that the content analysis of the tests may be measuring a constant factor (Lietz, 1996). The evidence for the existence of the common factor is sought using a series of analytical approaches including confirmatory factor analysis (Gustaffson, 1991) using both a single factor model and a nested factor model linking the first general factor to underlying structural factors, contained within. Where the nested factors did not add to the variance explained by the first general factor, it was appropriate to calibrate the items using the single parameter Rasch model (Hunji, 1997).

The approach consisted of the following steps.

1. Confirm the dimensionality of the items within tests and across tests, using a confirmatory factor analysis.
2. Where a unidimensional construct could be identified, calibrate the items, using item level data and common person equating with concurrent anchoring.
3. Score student performances, based on calibration results, allowing for 'not reached' and 'omitted' responses to be treated at missing.

These scores become the student performance measures on the dimensions identified in step 1.

Inside the precincts but outside the processes: Perceptions of the role of students in schooling

Shirley Grundy, S Bonser and F Hickey, Murdoch University

Student participation is noticeably absent from policies and programs which advocate devolved responsibility for planning and management to schools.

This paper brings together a number of research studies which independently investigated the relationships of students to schools. One study used quantitative questionnaire research to investigate nationally the perceptions of school staff regarding the extent to which various 'restructuring' initiatives (including participative decision-making) has been adopted in Australian schools. Responses to items pertaining to the role of students in the processes of schooling indicted that students were regarded as central to the purpose of schooling, but not participants in the processes. Another study used qualitative interview research to investigate the perceptions of students about their place in school. A similar pattern of perception (of students as 'Other' in the discourse of schooling) emerged. Another study of a school in which students were integral to the decision-making processes is described to develop a scenario of possibility.

The paper argues that, whether the devolutionary/participatory discourse of school restructuring is 'read' through a democratic or a managerial lens, the exclusion of students from participation in the processes of schooling will not adequately prepare them either as citizens or as workers for 'new times'.

Children's literacy research in Australia: Some findings and current investigations from a national program

Stephanie Gunn, Griffith University

The Commonwealth Government has played a vital role in literacy research in Australia with the highest percentage of large grants for literacy research coming from the Commonwealth Government (DEETYA) through programs such as the Children's Literacy National Projects (CLP) program.

From 1997, funding for Children's Literacy National Projects has been incorporated into the Commonwealth's broadbanded Literacy Program - Grants for National Literacy Strategies and Projects. The objective of the Grants for National Literacy Strategies and Projects is to identify, research and implement strategic national initiatives and developments in literacy and numeracy. The programme focuses upon:

• the early years of schooling;
• students experiencing literacy and numeracy difficulties in the middle years of schooling; and
• links between literacy and general or vocational pathways in senior years.

Since 1992, sixteen projects have been funded by DEETYA. This paper will provide information about, and summary findings from, the completed projects. Information and updates on current projects which are still due for completion will also be included. Methodological issues and a number of recurring and dominant themes evident within the findings across the projects will be discussed.

HAGEP267

Lifelong education and workplace learning

Paul Hager, University of Technology, Sydney, and David Beckett, University of Melbourne

This paper focuses on the workplace as a site for lifelong learning, rather than the more formal and structured provision found in classrooms and training settings. Workplace learning is typically informal and incidental, since it engages the moment-by-moment, day-by-day experiences people undergo at, and through, the performance of their work. Research into the phenomenal spectrum of daily workplace experience - how decision-making and judgments go to make up a certain practical wisdom - is showing the basis for a new epistemology of practice. This suggests, we argue, that lifelong learning in the workplace is more accurately regarded as lifelong education in the workplace. The implication is that lifelong education in the workplace is set to confront many of the cherished and traditional values of education.

In particular, our research shows that, in terms of the traditional binary categories, workplace education emerges from:

• the contingent (rather than formal, sustained, and systematic studies)
• the practical (rather than the theoretical)
• the process (rather than assimilation of content)
• the particular (rather than the universal and a priori as the context)
• the affective and the social domains (rather than merely the cognitivedomain)

However, we argue that the traditional binary categories are deficient and that lifelong learning in the workplace is better seen as coalescing the binary categories into a new synthesis that suggests a conception of education more suited to the 21st century than received conceptions of education.

HALLG184

SYMPOSIUM 16: Early childhood teachers working in new times: Reports on research undertaken in the 1990's

Presenters: Kerryann Walsh, Noelene McBride, Alison Kelly, Gail Halliwell, Judith Burton and Donna Berthelsen, Queensland University of Technology

Overview:
This symposium focuses on issues in reconceptualising teachers' work in times of new, sometimes ambiguous expectations of school systems and other systems responsible for educating young people. Posters [perhaps video] will highlight key features in six research projects completed or currently underway in CASEC. Short handouts will be available and researchers will be prepared to engage in critical analysis of the thrust of this work.

Each project:

• nurtures collaborative inquiry
• taps into the real world dilemmas faced by teachers as they take responsibility for education in their workplaces
• surfaces what practitioners know, bringing their voice to the fore through collaborative analysis of reflective conversations, reflective writing and development of narrative accounts
• aims to build better (more useful) theory grounded in teachers' practical knowledge.

PAPER 1:

WALSK185

Early childhood teachers' work with maltreated children: The quest for a knowledge base

Kerryann Walsh, Queensland University of Technology

Extensive research indicates that children with a history of child abuse or neglect will frequently have greater difficulty than others in coping with the requirements of school. The literature increasingly cites teachers as people with the potential to intervene to address the problems endured by these children. But little is known about what constitutes an adequate and appropriate knowledge base for early childhood teachers to prepare them to work effectively and confidently with maltreated children.

The findings of research reveal that the training provided to teachers has, in the past, not adequately prepared them for the complexities of the role in supporting and managing abused and neglected children in classrooms and centres on a day to day basis.

University teachers and teachers in the field are currently involved in a project which aims to surface the personal practical knowledge of experienced early childhood teachers when they work with maltreated children on a daily basis. Qualitative methods such as focus groups, interviews, journaling and image making are being used to capture and collaboratively examine the knowledge that is relied upon by skilled practitioners. It is anticipated that this study will advance teaching practice with maltreated children and begin to map out the knowledge needs for future teachers of maltreated children.

PAPER 2:

MCBRN186

Adults responsible for groups of very young children in child care centres

Noelene McBride, Queensland University of Technology

This presentation reports on a study of how meanings assigned to the lived experiences and identities of adults impact on the direct lived experiences and forming identities of children

The most dramatic growth in the child care population in the 1990s is among our youngest children- those under three years. The growth in numbers of adults employed to work with these children is almost as dramatic. Link this with growing realisation that the personal life and career histories of adults working in child care impact on the lives and identities of children, and the need for more information about the cultural baggage adults bring into their work with very young children is evident. The future generation is currently partaking of much of their direct lived experiences and identity formation through their contacts with these adults.

This study takes an ethnographic approach, seeking to surface some of the social, cultural and political influences that have entered into the direct lived experiences of adults working in child care. These may or may not have been reconceptualised through the training that enabled them to obtain work in child care centres. The voices of these adults have not been of particular interest to the field and thus little is known about how they perceive children and their responsibilities with groups of very young children. This study is in the final stages and the findings pose challenges for those currently fabricating and delivering courses that enable adults to be employed to work with very young children in child care centres.

PAPER 3:

Teachers' work in the child care centres of the 1990's

Alison Kelly, Queensland University of Technology

In the 1990s, the child care industry has undergone astonishing growth accompanied by changing expectations of workers and trends towards increasing employment of teachers. The unique characteristics of teachers' work in these settings are not well understood yet this is an imperative at a time when it is likely that many graduates of early childhood teaching courses will be employed in this sector. This presentation reports on the knowledge needs of six teachers who began their teaching careers in 1997 as workers in the child care industry. The study has surfaced interesting aspects of the knowledge teachers acted upon when they faced moments of indecision and competing demands in their daily work.

The study had interpretive purposes, designed to illuminate the ways in which past experiences, present circumstances and visions for the future influence what teachers do. Teachers in the field and the university teacher worked collaboratively, probing and examining situations and experiences, to construct new meanings through reflection. Observational notes, teacher journal entries, the researcher's letters to participants, and transcripts of conversations with teachers have allowed for progressive focusing on practical knowledge. Collaboratively, new meaning is given to everyday situations and actions. This was a pilot study for a larger project involving more teachers in 1998.

PAPER 4:

HALLG188

Teacher contributions to the development of preschool curriculum guidelines

Gail Halliwell, Queensland University of Technology

An independent evaluation conducted for the intersystemic body, the Queensland Schools Curriculum Council (QSCC), provides the data examined for this presentation. The evaluation was conducted by staff from QUT and USQ in semester one 1997 and involved three focus group meetings over a five month period, in five geographic regions in Queensland. Three stakeholder groups (parents, administrators and teachers) met separately at each site to discuss their expectations of and reactions to the draft Preschool Curriculum Guidelines document. The final meetings identified issues and made recommendations to QSCC. The development of preschool curriculum guidelines for teachers in Queensland schools and centres is a major new initiative indicating that early childhood teachers are working in new times. This presentation analyses the teacher expectations, reactions, issues and recommendations and compares these with those of parent groups and administrators. Possible reasons for differences among the data are examined. The influence of the teachers' views on the revision of the document is traced.

PAPER 5:

BURTJ189

Teaching dilemmas and workplace relations

Judith Burton, Queensland University of Technology

Changes to the organisation and resourcing of teachers' work highlight the timeliness of investigating the knowledge teachers' hold and use about work relationships. Recent changes to industrial relations legislation emphasising 'individual' contracts, in tandem with school based management, could result in many industrial relations concerns, previously dealt with at Departmental and Industrial Relations Commission level, being addressed at school level. Exploring teachers' perceptions of industrial issues and the ways they negotiate employment relationships to implement valued practices provides essential information regarding processes of decision making within educational settings.

This presentation focuses on findings of a four year study into dilemmas arising for teachers employed as workers within the industrial relations applying in the child care industry. Teachers' experiences of connections among industrial relations and their curriculum responsibilities are reported in four case studies of experiences and actions over a one year period. Teaching dilemmas, involving tensions among educational responsibilities and workplace agreements, are portrayed with particular attention to strategies used to pursue their educational responsibilities. This approach to researching teachers and their work contributes to the critical examination of what teachers need to know and do to be effective in the places where they are employed to teach.

PAPER 6:

BERTD190

Early childhood teachers' work histories: Graduates 1991-5

Donna Berthelsen, Queensland University of Technology

This presentation reports on a survey of 922 early childhood teachers who graduated between 1991 and 1995 from QUT courses. This survey marks the beginning of a five year project that will map the career paths of these graduates and delves more deeply into what it is like to teach in the early childhood programs of the 1990s. The project has a future orientation, using findings to identify the knowledge needs of early childhood teachers for the programs that can be expected by the start of the twenty-first century. The presentation is based on work by CASEC staff and students, Gail Halliwell, Alison Kelly, Debbie Gahan, Donna Berthelsen and Rehke Sharma.

Responses of a cohort of 137 graduates out of a possible 431 graduating in 1991/1992 are analysed. The employment picture emerging indicates increasing proportions of graduates finding their first jobs in child care centres, as part time workers. The collated responses were analysed and meaning explored in relation to time spent in particular teaching positions and reasons advanced for leaving a position. The survey also identified a pool of over 200 graduates who are willing to participate in further research on their teaching experiences. Subsequent studies will trace both individual careers and employment cycles, providing information about current and emerging employment patterns to teacher educators and their students.

HALLG188

Teacher contributions to the development of preschool curriculum guidelines

Gail Halliwell, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 16, Early childhood teachers working in new times: Reports on research undertaken in the 1990's.

HANSB480

SYMPOSIUM 17: The practical problems of doctoral research

Participants: Brian Hansford, Sandra Dunn, Doug Stewart, Patricia Weeks, John Whitta, Di Orr and Tania Aspland, Queensland University of Technology

Each of the participants has recently completed, or is nearing completion of their doctoral programs. The methodological approach used in each study differs, from phenomology to statistical analysis. Each study confronted a set of specific methodological problems and adopted techniques to overcome and minimise negative effects. The symposia would consider the methodology problems encountered and their resolution. In simple terms, researchers telling their story.

The primary LOTE curriculum: the teachers and the impact of their stories

Lesley Harbon, University of Tasmania

Most Australian states and territories responded to the 1987 'National Policy on Languages' (Lo Bianco) and the Curriculum Corporation's 'Languages other than English-A curriculum profile for Australian schools' (1994), by implementing LOTE policies in the school systems. The educational and economic imperatives of LOTE progams being able to add to the skilling of Australia's future generations are of great consequence, according to these documents.

In Tasmania the implementation of the Tasmanian LOTE policy began in 1996 (Department of Education and the Arts LOTE policy, 1995, Hobart) and allows students from Grades 3 to 10 access to a guaranteed LOTE study pathway.

In considering the significance and magnitude of this new LOTE policy for Tasmania, the researcher isolated a key process: 'What is involved in the planning of the LOTE curriculum by these teachers?' This research is part of a research higher degree and necessitates collaborative, case study research with primary LOTE teachers through a narrative inquiry based approach, tracing the relationship between 'teacher narrative' and 'classroom practice'.

Looking for girls in all the wrong places: Researching the responses of women principals to current gender equity policies

Kylie Harris, Central Queensland University

It has recently been claimed that education is now more equitable than ever before and that the need for equity programs specifically designed to support girls in their learning has significantly declined. This additional shift is reflected in the changing nature of key policy documents such as: The 1997 Gender Equity: a framework for Australian schools.

Despite claims to the contrary however these 'new times' in education are still characterised by sex-based harassment, the under-representation of girls in many traditionally male subjects and of course the under-representation of women in leadership positions (of the 69.99 per cent of women who work in education only 5.4 per cent hold promotional positions: Education Qld EEO data). Therefore in the context of declining institutionalised government support for gender reform the role that school principals play in initiating and sustaining reform processes is crucial.

Drawing on post-structural feminist perspectives this paper explores the ways in which women principals focus on issues of resistance and reform when they individualise current gender policy documents. Throughout this paper the methodological implications for a young feminist researcher to be exploring these issues and to be accessing new ways of conducting feminist educational research will also be considered.

What's new, pussycat?

Kevin Harris, Macquarie University

This paper addresses the Conference theme by actually calling it into question. 'New Times' and 'preparedness for the new millenium' are catchy and trendy cries at the moment. But as we go about researching education what new things should we have our eye on, what are really old things that we should have had our eye on for ages, and what is simply fashionable but either dubious and/or ephemeral, not to mention just plain stupid or dangerous? The paper will raise a number of issues, be critical of both empiricist and postmodernist extremes, and try to stir discussion about how educational research might valuably adapt to and take account of that which is valuable in the new.

The cultural politics of research in New Zealand Polytechnics

Sharon Harvey, Auckland Institute of Technology

Legislative and socieetal changes have transformed New Zealand polytechnics almost beyond recognition ove the last ten years. They are now able to offer degrees and post-graduate qualifications. The large New Zealand polytechnics, eager to upgrade their status and compete on a "level playing field" in the mass education market, have seized the opportunity, offering an ever-increasing smorgasboard of graduate and post-graduate qualifications. New Zealand Qualifications Authority validation of these programmes requires staff teaching at and above the graduate level to be "actively engaged in research". Concomitantly, the polytechnic drive for university status demands that these institutions have a "worthy" resezrch record. This requirement for academic staff to be researchers has been and still is a shock to many. It is one of the most significant and yet under-documented changes in the tertiary sector.

This presentation seeks to problematise the notion of research as it is currently constituted in New Zealand tertiary institutions, with special reference to New Zealand polytechnics. It analyses the publicly held and documented notions of research and knowledge, questioning how relevent these are in light of contemporary philosophical debates over the status of knowledge and by association, research. Specifically, it seeks to explore the following problems:

1. What is research and how might the current meta-narratives of research in education be interrogated? i.e. that research and therefore more knowledge is beneficial; that research informs teaching; that teachers need to research to be effective; that researching people with a different owrld view than one's own is unproblematical; that research can and ought to be measured in terms of "outputs"; that quantitative research is mor valuable and believable than qualitative forms of investigation; that greater research funding indicates better and more research; that research exists in particular categories and hierarchies of usefulness to the institution and society in general.
2. What societal, legislative and associated discoursal changes have led to the large New Zealand polytechnics reconstituting themselves in the way that they have, particularly in regards to research? Whose interests do the changes serve?

This paper will be of interest to anyone teaching and/or researching in tertiary education. They are encouraged to share their own views with others in discussion following the presentation.

HATTE528

The status of teachers in rural and regional areas: A comparison between the perceptions of teachers and community members

Elizabeth Hatton, R Meyenn, J Parker, J Sutton, M Gard and K Maher, Charles Sturt University

There has been much recent concern about the status of teaching (consider, for example, the current Federal Senate Review). The status of teaching is shaped, amongst other things, by teachers' and community members' perceptions. Because of concerns that recent empirical research which might be drawn on to address the issue of the status of teaching focuses exclusively on teachers and urban teachers at that (see, for example, Dinham and Scott, 1996), it was decided that it was timely to revisit the issue in rural and regional areas and to include community members in the study. This paper reports the perceptions held by teachers and community members of the status of teachers in rural and regional areas. It identifies areas in which there are similarities in perceptions and areas in which there are differences. Implications for policy are drawn from these findings.

In whose interests - school reform and teachers' learning?: Whole school reform as a site of negotiation of interests

Robert Hattam, John Smyth, Peter McInerney, and Michael Lawson, Flinders University of South Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 27, Reclaiming the space for teachers' dialogic learning in schools.

HAYDJ061

Teaching for diversity - Research versus practice in the early school years: Structural and systemic issues. A case study from New South Wales

Jacqueline Hayden, University of Western Sydney, Nepean

This paper presents the findings from a study of three teachers who reported a commitment to utilising individualised teaching strategies in the public school system in NSW. Personal journals, interviews and observations were used to analyse the situations in which these teachers found themselves.

The need to deal with a culture which emphasised curriculum over developmental goals presented a major challenge. The teachers describe their attempts to make sense of their situation, their concerns, their perceptions of themselves and others. The findings from this case study suggest a review of systemic and structural variables which support and/or constrain teachers in their pursuit of appropriate teaching strategies for divergent classrooms.

The relationship between knowledge, purpose and qualitative research design

Felicity Haynes, The University of Western Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 8, Issues in qualitative research.

Exploring gender and phenomenography

Elizabeth Hazel, University of Technology, Sydney, Linda Conrad, Griffith University and Elaine Martin, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

Phenomenographic research has been used in two main ways in science education: to look at what is learned (for example students' conceptions of acceleration) and to look at the experience of being a student or teacher of science. A critical feature of phenomenographic research is the generation of the "outcome space" in which the results of the study are summarised. The central idea underlying this exploration of gender and phenomenography is that women may be "lost in space" - the phenomenographic outcome space. First, women seem to be literally missing in the majority of phenomenographic studies, especially those based in the physical sciences where women are under-represented and in research samples in which women have not been present. Second, the traditional disciplines of study, the values of which largely determine the structure of the typically hierarchical outcome space, are distinctly patriaarchal. Without attention to the hidden as well as the explicit aspects of what learners are coming to know, the understanding that we gain from the outcome space may be distorted. Third, the outcome space tends to be defined in cognitive terms, with such dimensions as the affective and aesthetic, often associated with women, being excluded or neglected.

The architecture of mental addition and subtraction

Ann Heirdsfield and Tom Cooper, Queensland University of Technology

Research has shown that mental computation is a valid computational method which contributes to mathematical thinking as a whole (e.g., Sowder, 1990). It is also a process for which young children have exhibited a variety of proficient spontaneous strategies contrary to instruction (Cooper, Heirdsfield, & Irons, 1996a). This paper reports on a series of three studies on young children's understanding of mental addition and subtraction and describes the mental architecture of a proficient mental computer. The first of these studies charted children's proficiency with and use of mental strategies with respect to instruction (Cooper, Heirdsfield, & Irons, 1996b; Heirdsfield & Cooper, 1996). The second and third related knowledge of mental computation to knowledge of number and numeration, concepts of addition and subtraction, basic facts, computational estimation, and mental representations of number and operation (Heirdsfield, 1996; Heirdsfield, in preparation). Analysis of the first study showed that children's strategy use is idiosyncratic, but influenced by instructional emphases, experience and presentation forms; particularly in relation to the strategies underlying pen-and-paper algorithm procedures. Analysis of the second study identified a relationship between proficiency in mental computation, number fact knowledge and computational estimation. Initial analysis of the third study, which involves detailed construction of mental models, is indicating a more complex interaction.

HEMMB125

Students succeeding at university during `new times'

Brian Hemmings, Charles Sturt University

The study reported here is a continuation of a longitudinal study of senior secondary school students and the factors which influenced their decision to stay on at or leave school during Years 11 and 12.

Riverina-based students (N=125) in the original study were contacted to determine whether or not they pursued tertiary studies. Those who enrolled in university courses were then surveyed in order to: (i)ascertain if they were satisfied with their university experience; (ii) determine the extent to which these students were successful in completing their first year of university study; and, (iii) isolate the main intrapersonal and environmental factors which explain and predict success in first year university studies. Additionally, a sub-sample of these respondents (N=15) was interviewed to elucidate the contextual details and amplify aspects of the survey data. The results of the surveys and interviews are presented and implications for those who work with students from rural areas are discussed.

Does bus start with /CH/?: Dealing with randomly focused learning in the classroom

Christine Ludwig, Education Queensland and Paul Herschell, Queensland University of Technology

There is little doubt that learning is enhanced when it is contextualised in ways that make it accessible to students. However, analysis of the classroom transcripts from recent research (Ludwig and Herschell 1996) revealed that much of that contextualisation was only loosely related to a set of learning objectives. In the classroom data there was a large degree of blurring of focuses which made it difficult for many students to identify and make portable appropriate learning content. Rather than making the learning accessible, the integration seems to perpetuate the culturally bound nature of the learning.

In this paper the presenters will argue that this way of organising learning is unique to the school. Comparisons will be made with home literacy events which indicate a more direct and task orientated focus. The result is that there is much less opportunity for the student to fail to identify the learning content, that is, the homework sessions are less about sharing cultural experience and more about getting the job done. It is surprising that in the homework sessions when there is ample opportunity to use shared cultural experience to enhance the learning it is rarely exploited at the expense of the focus of the task or used to refocus the task. Conversely, in the classroom, where cultural experience is diverse and varied, the teacher's version of that experience is used to refocus the lesson.

The paper will problemitise an integrated multifocused approach to learning and teaching which relies on everyday cultural experience for its major direction.

HICKA380

When Marxist and postmodern theories won't do: The potential of postcolonial theory for educational analysis

Anne Hickling-Hudson, Queensland University of Technology

This paper explores the potential of postcolonial theory as a way of researching education in 'new times'. Arguing that postmodern perspectives tend to ignore or deal inadequately with the crippling effects of colonialism, the paper discusses how postcolonial perspectives can both fill this gap, and at the same time utilise many of the ideas which have come to be associated with postmodernism. It applies postcolonial theory to analysing education in the 'South', using the case study of the Caribbean region to suggest how the theory can be developed in a eclectic yet systematic way to meet the particular needs of postcolonial regions. A postcolonial perspective illuminates the deep historical / cultural roots of current educational problems, and can therefore be a foundation for working towards their solutions. Whereas postmodern theory tends to be Western centered, postcolonial theory is more sensitive to global history, making a central feature of its analysis the fluid interactions between the colonial and postcolonial periods, and exploring the cultural implications of repossessing the philosophies of civilisations world-wide in order to tackle the problems of present and future.

HICKC032

Football: An untold story

Lindsay Fitzclarence, Christopher Hickey and Russell Matthews, Deakin University

Much is known about the scientific dimensions of preparing for and participating in a game of football. The mathematical, physiological, biomechanical and psychological factors that comprise performance are fodder for coaches, would-be coaches, players, pundits and other followers of the game. At the same time the increasing commodification of the game means it is also common-place to know each players favourite, drink, food, music, book and nite-spot. Further, there is considerable investment in the packaging and propagating of football myths and folklores. Through all of these analyses, reflections, embellishments and anecdotes it is reasonable to assume that football as a social and cultural practice is widely understood.

What is less clear, however, is the full extent to which football acts as a socialising agent. Much is written about the socialising impact of the families, schools and work-sites, but rarely are sporting institutions given the prominence they clearly warrant. In relation to football, little is known about who is socialised, how socialisation takes place and what the socialisation experience means to different people. In this paper we take-up these issues in the context of a U/15 football team using a method we title 'narrative pedagogy'.

HICKC239

Exploring critical pedagogies in physical education within the limits to change

Christopher Hickey, Deakin University

'Critical' scholars within the physical education arena frequently base their versions of pedagogy on a 'world view' of the potential for agents to engage in a rational reordering of their qualitative existence. The essence of their claim is that critical discourses have the potential to facilitate a heightened level of consciousness through which physical education teachers might better recognise, understand, critique and transform their values and practices. However, there is increasing recognition (even from within this tradition) that the translation of social-critical discourses into a pedagogical practices is highly problematic.

In seeking to temper the 'over-rationalistic' tendencies of the critical project this paper identifies the historical, embedded, embodied and traditional nature of human existence. A prominent dimension of this theorising is the promotion of a dialectical relationship between agency and structure as a means of practically advancing critical pedagogies in physical education. Drawing on the experiences of physical education students involved in a teacher education program this paper concludes with some broad recommendations pertaining to the practical application of social critical discourses in constructing (theorising and implementing) physical education pedagogies.

Evaluating students' science work - the importance of what you already know

Ruth Hickey, Murdoch University

This research examines the premise that teachers can make accurate and effective judgements about students' conceptual development in science. Primary and secondary teachers, of high and low levels of science education, responded to three science tasks involving aspects of heat and light energy, combustion and insulation. They were then asked to evaluate transcripts of students of unknown backgrounds, from primary and secondary, for the same three tasks.

Initial responses to the tasks were then compared to their assessment of students' work. Response patterns emerged that were linked to the level of the teachers' science education. These included classic and novel misconceptions, which affected what was noticed - or not noticed - in student work. Non-recognition of critical evidence of higher level concepts of the students was a key issue. Teachers with high levels of science education became insecure with transcripts that included intuitive responses, particularly when these were out of their specialised field. For others, there was confusion with students who presented beliefs and explanations counter to the ones the teachers' held.

This research supports the view that teachers are compromised in their skills when evaluating students' science work, in relation to their own level of science knowledge.

HOBAG229

SYMPOSIUM 18: Sustaining teachers' professional development: Exploring action learning and mentoring to maintain workplace learning

Participants: Garry Hoban, Charles Sturt University, Chris Tome, Oberon High School, and Mark Carter, NSW Department of School Education

Overview:
Teachers' professional development should be a continuous process to sustain their workplace learning. In this symposium, two approaches will be examined that have been used to maintain teachers' workplace learning.

The first approach is action learning that involves small groups of teachers reflecting on their practice and meeting regularly to share their ideas and actions. One paper focuses on action learning with a small high school science faculty and another paper used action learning with beginning teachers. The second approach explored the use of school-based mentoring on the induction of beginning teachers.

The strengths and weaknesses of these two approaches will be discussed.

Sustaining teachers' professional development through enhanced action learning

Garry Hoban, Charles Sturt University

This paper describes a process of teacher learning called enhanced action learning (Hoban, 1996) that sustained the professional development of three teachers in a small high school science faculty over a period of three years. Action learning is underpinned by three interrelated principles of learning-Reflection, Community and Action-that enrich each other to produce continuous and holistic professional development (McGill & Beaty, 1995; Pedlar, 1991; Revans, 1982). In this study the action learning process was further enhanced by feedback in the form of interview data from the teachers' own students describing their positive and negative learning experiences across the school. The program resulted in substantial changes in the teaching of science at the school such as a new grade 7-10 curriculum, instructional strategies, assessment and writing policies.

PAPER 2:

Action learning and the professional development of beginning teachers: Some preliminary observations

Chris Tome, Oberon High School

Although the first year of teaching is crucial in shaping professional practice, learning is often ad hoc and unsupported (Bullough, 1989, 1992). In this study the author has applied principles and techniques of action learning (McGill & Beaty, 1995; Pedlar, 1992; Revans, 1983) to provide a program of professional development for beginning teachers in a state high school in NSW.

Action learning has a long history of usage in industry, particularly in the ranks of middle management, as an effective technique for providing useful professional development (Zuber-Skerrit, 1993). In recent years there has been an upsurge in its use, particularly with MBA programs in a variety of British and North American universities. Its application in other educational settings, however is limited.

Using action learning as a framework, four beginning teachers met on a fortnightly basis to reflect on their practice and share their ideas. These meetings resulted in the teachers experimenting with ideas that were discussed again at subsequent meetings. The teachers believed that the group provided valuable support in their first year of teaching practice.

PAPER 3:

School based induction and mentoring of beginning teachers: Preliminary findings from case study research

Mark Carter, NSW Department of School Education

Induction programs for beginning teachers have emerged as an area of critical importance given the ageing of Australian teachers and the debate over teacher professionalism and approaches to teacher registration. Recent developments in research and practices in teacher induction have required a reconceptualisation of approaches to professional learning for beginning teachers. Traditional conceptions of teacher induction have incorporated the notion of the transmission of craft knowledge and have resulted in the initiation and socialisation of beginning teachers into existing school cultures and forms of knowledge.

The 1997 induction program developed by the NSW Department of School Education acknowledges the need to accommodate both the technical aspects of teaching and the development of critical reflection on the part of beginning teachers and their mentors and supervisors. A research project is being conducted in urban and isolated rural settings in NSW. The research project includes focuses on mentoring and workplace learning as strategies for teacher professional development. The paper explores the implications of the project for induction practices in schools and examines the workplace learning experiences of beginning teachers and mentors. Preliminary findings outlined in the paper will inform future school based induction practices and provide a guide to further research into teacher induction.

Sustaining teachers' professional development through enhanced action learning

Garry Hoban, Charles Sturt University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 18, Sustaining teachers' professional development: Exploring action learning and mentoring to maintain workplace learning.

Secondary school teachers' perceptions of the characteristics of good schools

Ho Boon Tiong, Ministry of Education, Singapore and Low Guat Tin, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Many research studies on effective schools have yielded lists of characteristics of good or effective schools. However, these characteristics were identified mainly by the researchers, the principals or the local educational authorities. Very few studies were done where the characteristics of effective schools were identified by the teachers. This present study addresses this lack of information concerning teachers' perceptions of the characteristics of good schools and aims to identify what teachers in Singapore secondary schools perceive to be characteristics of good schools and the level of relative importance they perceive each characteristic to have. Four research questions were posed.

This exploratory study was carried out in two phases. The construct,teachers' perceptions of the relative importance of the characteristics of good schools, was measured by the ordinal rating scores on a 5-point Likert scale. These formed the dependent variables. The independent variables used were gender, the type of school and the length of service. Two hundred and twenty teachers were surveyed in Phase One and another 403 teachers sampled in Phase Two.

One major finding is that teachers consistently perceived the STAFF dimension to be an important characteristic of good schools; particularly referring to principals who were fair and firm in making decisions and who distributed duties fairly among teachers. Another significant finding is that teachers with length of service of 15 or more years consistently rated all dimensions (except CURRICULUM dimension) of lesser importance than did teachers with "low" (0-4 years) or "medium" (5-14) length of service. Gender was found to have no effect on the dependent variable.

HOGAD254

The social demography of citizenship and education in Australia

David Hogan, University of Tasmania

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 21, Understanding civic learning and its social context: Current research in civics and citizenship education.

HOLBA108

SYMPOSIUM 19: Supervision of postgraduate research in education

Chairpersons: Susan Johnston, University of Canberra and Allyson Holbrook, University of Newcastle

Contributors: Susan Johnston, University of Canberra, Martin Bibby, University of New South Wales, Tania Aspland, Queensland University of Technology, Terry Evans, Deakin University and Margot Pearson, Australian National University , (Possibly Sharon Perry and Martin Hayden, and Bill Green, Alison Lee and Barbara Kamler, Deakin University)

Overview:
Researching education in the future will be in the hands of those who are now undertaking research degrees. In recent times we have become more and more aware of the need to make visible the methods by which candidates are supervised. Indeed, this is in itself becoming the subject of research. In order to contribute to the debate on quality of supervision, this symposium brings together a group of papers that address a wide range of issues concerned with supervision in the field of Education.

PAPER 1:

JOHNS166

Postgraduate supervision in education - Are we different?

Sue Johnston, University of Canberra

This paper will provide an overview of the literature and reports on postgraduate supervision, highlighting issues of particular relevance to those supervising postgraduate students in education. Over the years, the literature has provided a range of perspectives on postgraduate supervision although, in many respects, the same issues keep arising without much progress necessarily being made. Given the increase in postgraduate student numbers within Faculties of Education throughout Australia, it is essential to identify what issues are common across all disciplines and what issues may be particularly relevant to postgraduate supervision within education. In the context of quality assurance, it is also important to consider how the quality of postgraduate supervision is monitored and how the standard performance indicators in this area impact on Faculties of Education.

PAPER 2:

BIBBM179

Impotence and the driven snow: Ethical quandaries in supervising research students in an imperfect society

Martin Bibby, University of New South Wales

Standard issues about research supervision concern the extent and quality of input by the supervisor and the ownership of intellectual property. There are new concerns about the acceptance of students, their career prospects, the conditions under which they work, pressures for high success and publication rates and early completion, and the demands upon academics' time. Competent education research requires a substantial knowledge of at least one sub-discipline and a good knowledge of others. It requires time, and motivation to complete a long and arduous process. A research thesis requires these things of both the student and the supervisor. But students who seek to do education research are typically ill-prepared. They have perhaps a Dip. Ed. and some Master's courses. They work, and have family responsibilities. Requiring coursework costs them money. Research degrees give them little advantage in Australian school or administration careers. Academic careers have lost their attractiveness. There are new concerns. Supervision competes with other tasks in the academic's crowded work life. Governments press for early completion and high success rates, and for greater "productivity". Yet rejecting students is expensive. These things threaten standards, education policy and the quality of future academics. The resultant moral dilemmas are explored. No easy solutions are found.

PAPER 3:

ASPLT200

Struggling within supervisory relationships: Stories from Asian women

Tania Aspland, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will explore how a number of Asian women students construct their supervisory relations in response to the images they perceived their supervisors to have of them. It will also explore how these perceptions become socially and culturally organised through the pedagogical practices of supervision, and how such practices produce and reproduce supervisory practices that are characterised by ambivalence; an ambivalence that arises from uncertainty, conflict, and the contradictory experiences that are central to the different positioning of each woman within supervisory relations. It will be argued that being an Asian student located within Australian supervisory relations means being positioned in the 'grey area of inclusion and exclusion'. The stories illustrate how each subject makes sense of the contradictory images that she experiences as self and 'other' within her everyday supervisory experiences. Each woman experiences 'bifurcated' images of herself as she struggles with the specificity of various subject positions within the hybrid world of supervisory relations. This paper will theorise the ways in which their identities become 'bifurcated' and 'othered' as they attempted to find a comfortable supervisory space.

PAPER 4:

EVANT283

Off-campus supervised research and advanced study

Terry Evans, Deakin University and Margot Pearson, Australian National University

Among the changes to postgraduate research in education is a trend to off-campus study. The context within which this change is occurring is outlined in the paper, including changing demands by the community and student body, and the increasing internationalising of research and education. The authors address the nature and extent of off-campus supervised research and study in general and the situation in Education in particular. The issues discussed include national ones of funding and resources, the diversification of higher education, quality assurance and professional expectations. Institutional issues comprise what constitutes a doctorate in education, supervisor selection, quality control, and the meaning of accreditation. Other issues pertaining to students and to supervisors and the processes involved in supervision in general are also explored. The authors conclude by examining the question: 'Are quality and flexibility compatible?'.

Portfolio benchmarking of teacher education courses

Deborah Corrigan, Monash University and Brenda Cherednichenko, Neil Hooley, Tony Kruger and Christine Leece, Victoria University of Technology

Benchmarking is usually associated with a systematic and cyclical process utilised by industrial and commercial institutions to improve their economic performance, increasingly with a global perspective. The process assumes an emerging strategic plan for change and can include a focus mix of management vision, consultation with the workforce and clients, integration of latest technologies, improved training programs and more adaptable and responsive administrative structures. Benchmarking can be undertaken within the enterprise itself, with other similar organisations nationally or internationally, or against generic best practice processes wherever they exist in quite disparate situations. While economic benchmarking can be found in some higher education institutions in Australia, a coherent approach to educational benchmarking in regard to the quality of teaching and learning outcomes is not yet established. Throughout 1997, Monash University and Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, embarked upon a five-step change process of educational benchmarking as a means of reviewing the quality of pre-service teacher education courses. The central feature of this process is the construction of a philosophical and reflective teaching portfolio by all student teachers. A description of the portfolio benchmarking implementation procedure is given, together with a discussion of findings and proposals for a continuing research program.

HOOLN339

Collaborative teacher research and school change

Merv Fogarty, Jan Millwater, Allan Yarrow and Merv Wilkinson, Queensland University of Technology and Brenda Cherednichenko, Neil Hooley, Tony Kruger and Rod Moore, Victoria University of Technology

Research teams from Victoria University of Technology and Queensland University of Technology, in collaboration with the National Schools Network as industry partner, are involved in a three-year study funded by an Australian Research Council Collaborative Grant, to investigate the relationship between school structures and improved student learning outcomes. The two research teams are working with eight schools in Queensland, Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria and have adopted case study, teacher case and commentary writing and the collection of student work samples as data gathering techniques. The methodology is collaborative and participatory interpretive research whereby collaborative research teams of university and school personnel describe school and classroom practice in writing, analyse the representations of teaching and learning so obtained and negotiate tentative theoretical understandings of school life on which proposals for change are based. Frameworks of analysis that integrate both sociological and epistemological factors are being developed which are subject to ongoing refinement. A feature of the research and analytical frameworks at this stage is the slightly different approach being pursued by each team which, the teams intend, will be amalgamated into an integrated methodology as the research continues.

HOPKS143

The adolescent learning disabled student and simple addition performance: Performance under pressure?

Sarah Hopkins, Flinders University of South Australia

The delay-deficit issue associated with a math disability is consequential in educational practice. Whilst exploring patterns of delay and difference amongst a group of learning disabled (LD) adolescents, a distinct pattern of reaction time (RT) variability emerged. To illustrate: one student aged

15 years repeatedly performed the sum 6+9 using a Min counting procedure and corresponding RTs ranged from 4.2 seconds to 21.9 seconds; another student aged 17 years, repeatedly performed the sum 2+9 using a retrieval strategy and RTs ranged from 2.8 to 4.6 seconds. What factors would account for such variability given that strategy use was comparable? Six students received individual, daily practice on simple addition sums over a period of a month. Detailed information was collected, including RT data and self reports recorded on a trial by trial basis. In this paper, the concept of 'Pressure' is introduced to account for patterns of variable RTs and results of analyses supporting the influence of proposed pressure factors are presented. These findings have significant implications for the delay/deficit debate and are discussed in terms of contributing to a resolution of this debate and the implications for teaching LD students addition facts.

HORTL524

Culture shock: The maladaptive academic response to new industrial times

Linda Hort, Griffith University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 29, Re-inventing academic work: The makeover of tertiary teachers.

HOTCS022

Creating new times for humanity: Praxis research for self-determination, relationships, leadership and social change

Shirley Hotchkiss, Queensland University of Technology

It's clear that what we know can provide a useful basis for what we do. Yet despite our vast capacity for clear thinking and for loving, co-operative relationships, we humans can act in ways that we know are harmful to ourselves and others, or we act on 'knowledge' that is not useful. This paper reports a PhD research project as praxis, the deliberate use of resereach to implement change in a community education context, where the researcher was also the teacher and participant. The change method I introduced to participants reflected the methodology, the idea that the research process enables participants to pursue their change aims. Information from participants' experiences of this change process showed that: feelings are significant in what we know and do, and so provide the key to changing behaviour that is not useful; widespread social change to enable all of us to have enjoyable lives is an inevitable result of this self-change process, and; the change process itself can be fun and fulfilling. This information enabled the development of a model for change. The change method used and the change model developed provides us with a reliable process for change, beginning with ourselves.

Mathematics and manipulatives: Comparing primary and secondary mathematics teachers' views

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

This paper continues the author's research agenda introduced in 1994 to investigate teachers' beliefs about mathematics, mathematics learning and mathematics teaching. Focus is given to data collected in 1996 and 1997 which investigated the views of more than seven hundred primary and secondary mathematics teachers in the south western suburbs of Sydney and the North Coast of New South Wales towards the use of manipulatives in the learning and teaching of mathematics.

Current mathematics curriculum documents support the availability to and use of manipulatives by students and teachers in their learning and teaching of mathematics through all school years. This paper provides data on the current use of manipulatives in the surveyed primary and secondary schools and compares primary and secondary mathematics teachers' responses about their use of manipulatives in the learning and teaching of mathematics. Questions about the effect of differences in this use on the transition of students from primary to secondary schools will be addressed.

Aboriginal educators: Voices in our schools

Peter Howard, Australian Catholic University

This paper reports on an ethnographic study undertaken in a rural community in New South Wales. The study investigated the expressed beliefs of Aboriginal parents, Aboriginal Educators, Aboriginal children and their teachers towards the learning and teaching of mathematics in Years 5 and 6 of primary school. The researcher lived in the community for a year of the study negotiating appropriate protocols and consulting with various groups before interviewing participants. Where permission was given interviews were audio taped, transcribed and through analysis seventeen categories for classifying participant comments emerged.

This paper reports specifically on the views expressed by Aboriginal Educators related to the categories of Learning, Teaching, Context and Family Concerns in the context of Aboriginal children's school achievement. Among several stated issues those of teacher - student relationship, teacher consistency, expectations and learning styles emerge as factors influencing Aboriginal children's learning. Though the comments were in the context of the learning and teaching of mathematics they have significant implications for educators, parents and the community in the overall learning of many Aboriginal children.

"Aboriginal ways of learning" - Learning styles and needs of Aboriginal

students

Paul Hughes, AM., Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research, The Flinders University of South Australia, and Arthur J. More, University of British Columbia, Canada

The purpose of this presentation is to describe an approach which uses learning styles as one component of working with culturally diverse, special needs students, ie Aboriginal. The presentation describes the links between learning styles and culture, as well as between culture and special needs.

The primary advantage of using a learning styles approach is that it helps the teacher to identify and build on strengths of the learner - strengths related to cultural background, and strengths that occur despite, or because of, the student's special need. This approach is particularly useful when formal assessments of the students' special needs are not possible, such as geographically isolated areas, because it does not rely on external assessment by specialists.

Definition of learning styles - There are many definitions of learning styles (More, 1990). Furthermore many authors fail to define the term at all. We have operationally defined two related terms for this paper - Ways of learning are the mental processes and instructional settings which a student uses while learning. Mental processes include organizing, perceiving, coding, remembering and reasoning.

Instructional settings include formal or informal, warm or impersonal, cooperative or competitive.

Learning styles are ways of learning in which the student has a strength, and is more competent.

The model - Learning styles are made up of many dimensions and are usually presented on a series of continuums. We focus on the following four dimensions because they seem to have the closest link to cultural differences:

1. Global Analytic
2. Verbal Imaginal
3. Concrete Abstract
4. Trial & Feedback Reflective

Application to the classroom - A four step process has been developed for using the model as a positive way of assisting minority culture students. Step 1 involves identifying the learning styles of the individual learners. This is done, first, by using the learning style and teaching style inventories. Second, it involves looking at the cultures of the students (traditional and contemporary; homeland and new home) for ways of learning which are more likely to be learning styles; but the teacher must not assume that every individual will have these learning styles. Step 2 entails the teacher matching teaching styles to student learning styles for difficult learning tasks. Step 3 is comprised of strengthening weaker ways of learning, because sometimes the nature of the learning task requires a particular way of learning even if it is not a strength. Step 4 involves helping the students become aware of their strengths and helping them to develop learning style selection strategies.

HUYP197

Self-efficacy as a contribution to the selection of maths/non-maths related career choice

Huy Phan, University of Sydney

The role of cognitive mechanisms, especially self- efficacy, has been gaining a lot of support and attention from career psychologists in understanding career-related beliefs, career interests, decision making skills, and career development. Self-efficacy refers to "people's judgments of their capabilities to organise and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances" (Bandura, 1986). Bandura's self-efficacy theory (1986 ) has been seen as a significant influence not only towards career decision making and career choice but also the development of core predictors such as interests, values and goals (Lent, Brown & Hackett, 1994). As people's self-efficacy increases in relations to their educational requirements and career roles, they will have wider career options and interests in pursuing those options (Betz &Hackett, 1981; Lent, Brown & Hackett, 1994; Matsui, Ikeda & Ohnishi, 1989). What this entitles is the rationale that academic development is viewed as unifying and developing with career development. Interests and skills developed at an early age set in motion and translated into later development especially career development (Lent, Brown & Hackett, 1994).

IBRAM290

The use of HTML in language learning

Mohd Jais Ibrahim, University of Technology of Malaysia, and Hanita Hassan, FPPSM

Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project recently announced by the Malaysian Government has an immediate impact on the trend of education in Malaysia. In conjunction with that, smart schools will be built and these schools are claimed to be furnished with an internet system and fully computer-based.

Teachers are expected to be facilitators rather than supplying information. This is to provide the nation with better information technology communication skills. Consequently the needs arise to develop learning materials on internet. This paper will illustrate the materials developed using hypertext mark-up language (HTML) for UTM students to learn English language. This is a project done in a way to incorporate language learning into information technology. The purpose for having learning materials on internet is threefold such as to expose students to web world, to be used at the self-access centre or for self-directed learning and lastly it will be worth for distance learning programme. As now UTM specially the department of modern languages is developing its self-access centre and moving towards self-learning methods since the number of students is increasing. Besides that, UTM is also offering distance learning courses for those who are not permitted to take study leave.

School self-management and the development of professional community: Some effects of the Professional Recognition Program in Victoria

Lawrence Ingvarson, Monash University, and Rod Chadbourne, Edith Cowan University

In 1992 the newly elected state government of Victoria in Australia introduced a system of self-managing schools, called Schools of the Future. This paper provides some preliminary findings about a new program for managing staff in Schools of the Future. The Professional Recognition Program (PRP) , as it is called, provides guidelines for self-managing schools on how they are to carry out their new responsibilities for managing teacher performance.

The central features of the PRP include a new three level career structure from probation to leading teacher, annual performance reviews and bonuses, and an enhanced authority for principals in teacher selection, evaluation and promotion.

The main focus for this research was the relationship between moves toward school self-management and the development of professional community in schools. We use Louis, Kruse and Marks (1996) and Darling-Hammond's definitions of professional communities. Smylie's (1994) review of work redesign provides the conceptual framework for the study. Findings are based on interviews with 25 staff in four high schools and a survey of 350 teachers and principals in twenty high schools.

ISDAL054

Theorising new work practices in educational administration: The case of SMS in Queensland

Lindy Isdale, Central Queensland University

Since the 1900s, as global politics has become increasingly manifest in school policy, the work of school administrative staff has become increasingly technologised. The new computerised School Management System (SMS), introduced into Queensland schools in 1996, is not an adjunct to existing administrative practices but requires new administrative attentions and practices to be developed in school offices. These changes have received little attention from researchers to date but, nevertheless, are of far more significance to our understandings of schools as workplaces than are the more frequent studies of corporatisation and globalism in general.

This paper draws on aspects of a larger study of school administrations and SMS, looking specifically at the initial stages of its introduction and the newly emerging work practices and relations which arise out of workers' associations with the new technology.

The paper investigates the use of Latour's Actor Network Theory, Foucault's concept of power/knowledge and post-fordist work theory to explore the translations which occur between large policy networks and the local school SMS project as workers and technology seek to enrol one another in their respective interests. The study is then able to specify the concrete associations and new work practices, building new ways to iterrogate the broader globalisation literature and that of educational administration.

ISDAL479

Theorising new work practices in educational administration: The case of School Management System (SMS) in Queensland

Lindy Isdale, Central Queensland University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 7, Towards a theoretical framework for researching computers in educational administration.

'They're all the same ... but different!' - A study of intertextuality and its links with literacy in the kindergarten classroom

Sharyn Jameson, University of Western Sydney

This paper will provide an overview of the formation and progression of a qualitative research project being undertaken to study literacy development in a kindergarten classroom.

The study focuses upon the social construction of literacy in a NSW kindergarten classroom where I ws both teacher and researcher in 1995.

The study began with the broad aim of examining factors that influenced literacy development in this classroom. Data collection began at the beginning of the school year in 1995 and was completed at the end of the same year. The data is currently being analysed using a qualitative research computer program. As the analysis proceeded, the study narrowed to focus upon 'intertextuality' - a term used to describe the connections made between texts. The study is exploring the intertextuality that occurred frequently in this classroom, and its links with literacy learning.

This presentation will describe the progress of this study from its broad beginning to its current status of focussing on intertextuality in the kindergarten classroom. The seminar will comprise:

Introduction and description of the study

Research methodology

Intertextuality - Definition, Theory amd other studies

Intertextuality in this current study

Study Progress and Future Directions

Researching the affect of new technologies on teaching practice: an approach to understanding the video conferencing classroom

Peter Jamieson and Elaine Martin, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

Previous research into teaching by video conferencing has focused on the role and affect of the technology on how teachers teach in this environment. Learning to teach by this medium has been represented as the acquisition of appropriate media and technology skills. This paper describes current research using the phenomenographic approach into the way that teachers experience teaching in the cross-campus video conferencing classroom. Initial findings will be presented which show that teachers are concerned with a number of key aspects of the broader context, including the physical setting, apart from the technology itself. These findings have considerable implications for academic development programs concerned with video conferencing and other telecommunications media where teachers and students are physically separated from one another in the teaching and learning transaction.

JEANB333

On teaching action research in higher degree programs

Bruce Jeans, Deakin University

In the last twenty five years there has been a concerted challenge to the dominance of the logical positivist paradigm for research in schooling and education. University departments of education that offer qualitative methodologies often include action research as a significant "alternative" methodology. Although action research is popular with education students, they often find it difficult to actually do it in a way that is consistent with the underlying principles. This paper reports data derived from systematic observations over three years of student beliefs about, and perceptions of action research. The data show clearly that both groups of students share some common misunderstandings about action research. The role of language in these misunderstandings is considered. The data also illustrate the importance of cultural context (organisational and socio-political) in the design and conduct of action research. The author argues that the teaching of action research can be improved by studies that contextualise action research as a research methodology and that provide practical opportunities to conduct small scale action research projects. The paper also discusses the implications of these data for Australian universities involved in the "export" of higher education to South East Asia.

JEANB335

On university teaching

Bruce Jeans, Deakin University

Universities sometimes use images of high status researchers to attract students - the assumption being that students would be enriched by being in the same institution as these researchers. Images of high quality teachers are not used in the same way. This paper presents a theoretical model of relationships between research and teaching. It then presents data derived from systematic observations of undergraduate and postgraduate education students over five years. The data show that Australian undergraduate students are much more likely to be influenced by the presence of an effective teacher rather than by the aura of a seldom sighted researcher. For these students an effective teacher combines personal qualities of "student-centredness" with technical competence in selecting, organising and presenting appropriate material. Students believe that a positive relationship with their teacher is an important determinant of their progress. Postgraduate students have similar feelings about this personal-professional relationship. However, postgraduate students are much more conscious of the mentoring role of their advisor/tutor in introducing them to the research community. They prefer advisors/tutors who combine teaching and research competence. If this is not possible postrgraduate students would prefer an advisory team that combined teachers and researchers.

JEANB334

Brother can you spare a dime?: Exporting higher education

Bruce Jeans, Deakin University

Australia has been a relatively recent exporter of fee-for service university programs. Universities engaged in this activity expect it to be income-generating. For this reason there is intense interest in finding new markets, optimising income and providing quality. Deakin University provides university programs to overseas students in a number of ways. This paper deals with one particular way - the provision of a doctoral program on-site in an overseas university. In 1994 Deakin University and Khon Kaen University in the north-east of Thailand commenced a structured, research-only Doctor of Education on the Khon Kaen campus. The six semester program consists of five semesters on campus at Khon Kaen and not less than one-semester on-campus at Deakin University in Australia. The program is conducted in English with some Thai as appropriate. Each of the on-campus semesters at Khon Kaen centres on a three-week seminar conducted by Deakin University staff. Each student has a supervisor from KKU and a supervisor from DU. The paper discusses the origins of the program, the nature of the program, its implementation and progress, and the costs and benefits. The difficulty of producing income equal to or in excess of costs is highlighted.

JEANB335

On university teaching

Bruce Jeans, Deakin University

Universities sometimes use images of high status researchers to attract students - the assumption being that students would be enriched by being in the same institution as these researchers. Images of high quality teachers are not used in the same way. This paper presents a theoretical model of relationships between research and teaching. It then presents data derived from systematic observations of undergraduate and postgraduate education students over five years. The data show that Australian undergraduate students are much more likely to be influenced by the presence of an effective teacher rather than by the aura of a seldom sighted researcher. For these students an effective teacher combines personal qualities of "student-centredness" with technical competence in selecting, organising and presenting appropriate material. Students believe that a positive relationship with their teacher is an important determinant of their progress. Postgraduate students have similar feelings about this personal-professional relationship. However, postgraduate students are much more conscious of the mentoring role of their advisor/tutor in introducing them to the research community. They prefer advisors/tutors who combine teaching and research competence. If this is not possible postrgraduate students would prefer an advisory team that combined teachers and researchers.

Electronic publication of academic work with particular reference to AARE Conference Papers publishing 1989 - 1997 and the infamous "research quantum"

Peter Jeffery, Swinburne University of Technology

This paper will review the Australian Association for Research in Education's efforts to disseminate members' educational research papers, in print, and particularly on computer disks and via the Internet in the 1980s through 19 The extent of the database of conference papers, indexing, and media used will be covered. Issues regarding electronic publishing of scholarly work will be explored, including attribution and offects of the "research quantum" on electronic publishing of academic work.

AARE published abstracts and full conference papers from members presenting at conferences in print until the late 1980s and then changed to dissemination of conference papers on computer disk. Subsequently the material from each annual conference was also made available via the Internet. During this period, the papers have also been indexed in the Australian Educational Index, by ACER where all available printed [hard-copies] of the papers have been lodged in the ACER Library. This consequently resulted in the works being indexed by ERIC. Since 1993, the collection has been electronically indexed on a server computer for all users within Australia or elsewhere. Since the advent of WWW publishing, plus changes in requirements to establish academic merit via lists of publications and influences from commercially published professional journals, there have been both positive and negative reactions to the AARE dissemination project and its magnanimous academic underpinnings. The paper will outline possible developments for the further dissemination of members' research work through the efforts of the Association.

JEFFP482

"Establishing Change": Third review of the project to introduce educational technological approaches to the provision of higher education at Swinburne at Lilydale

Peter Jeffery, Swinburne University of Technology

The Multi-Modal Learning Project reviewed and reported in this paper, commenced in 1992 at Mooroolbark Campus of Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria, Australia as a pilot project for introduction of educational technological approaches to provision of degree courses offered at the Lilydale Campus from 1996. The 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 for use with students who attend campuses frequently for classes of one sort or another. This paper reviews the implementation stage of the project to change the educational practices of academic staff teaching at Swinburne.

Teacher attitudes to correction of spoken errors in the second language classroom

Marie-Therese Jensen, Monash University

Recent research suggests that when learners of a second language receive feedback on errors they make in the classroom, their interlanguage is "pushed" to a stage of greater proficiency. A group of teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages taking part in a larger research study were interviewed about their attitudes to error correction or took part in a workshop where their attitudes were the focus of discussion. The teachers differ in their pathways into adult TESOL and reflect teacher training and teaching experience in their attitudes to error correction. Differences are explored and implications for second language teacher training are discussed.

From police to pal. Changing concepts of Grammar School teacher authority in Sweden

Ulla Johansson, Ume University, Sweden

The aim of this paper is to analyse the changing concepts of grammar school teachers' authority during the period 1927 - 1965, in relation to changes in education and society. The data consists of the debate on discipline problems in a teachers' journal.

The analytic tool used is Weber's three ideal types of authority, eg bureaucratic, traditional, and charismatic authority. I found all these types evident in the debate. Bureaucratic authority was based on formal, impersonal and explicit rules, and connected to the position of the teacher rather than the teacher as a person. Traditional authority rested upon the personal relationship between the teacher and the pupil. The father-son relationship was typical for this type. The notion of charismatic authority lingered on among those claiming that a good teacher would be able to maintain order because of his or her fascinating personality. One could also distinguish a fourth type, professional authority, based on the teachers' expert knowledge in various fields. In the 1960s a fifth type of authority emerged which I have labelled maternal authority, since it was related to qualities usually regarded as belonging to women rather than men.

Researching children: Priorities, principles and practicalities

Bruce Johnson and Susan Howard, University of South Australia

A cursory examination of the abstracts of papers presented at recent conferences of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE, 1997) reveals an interesting phenomenon - children are rarely the prime focus of educational research in Australia despite being central participants in, and consumers of education. There are numerous papers on teachers' experiences, perspectives and practices, policy analyses and critiques, and innovations and reform initiatives, but surprisingly few on children's knowledge and thinking, performance, skill development, their values, beliefs, attitudes, likes, dislikes or even their fads and fancies. In the absence of research on the researchers themselves, we are left to speculate about the possible reasons why this is so. Our hunch is that the induced chaos of rapid and ideologically driven educational change has had the effect of raising other issues and problems above those to do with children's schooling experiences. We also suspect that researching children is perceived by many researchers to be too messy, unpredictable, and constrained by bureaucratic and ethical restrictions.

In this paper, we address the issue of research priorities in education. We also draw on our own research with children to highlight the difficulties and problems associated with directly involving children in educational research. While these may serve to frustrate and challenge those who embark on child centred research, and to discourage other researchers from starting at all, we argue that these difficulties must be endured and addressed to further our knowledge of children and the education process.

Factors that promote childhood resiliency: Insights from a qualitative study

Bruce Johnson and Susan Howard, University of South Australia, and Kaye Johnson, Riverdale R-7 School

Resiliency can be defined as the capacity to successfully adapt in the face of adversity, and to develop social competence despite exposure to severe stressors. The research reported in this paper used focus group interviews with educators, parents and children to explore issues of resiliency and disruptiveness at school. Participants were asked to reflect on their own experiences with children whom they categorised as either 'vulnerable and disruptive', or 'vulnerable but resilient'. By constantly questioning why particular children were disruptive or resilient, a range of salient influences were identified for both 'resilient' or 'disruptive' children. The research confirms the influence of 'protective factors or assets' in children's lives that serve to protect them by either reducing the impact of risks or by changing the way in which children respond to the risks. The research reinforces Winfield's (1994) reflection that 'We need to change our approach from one that emphasises risks, deficits, and psychopathology to one that capitalises on protection, strengths and assets ... To design effective interventions, we must understand how some students persist and succeed in school and in later life despite the overwhelming odds against them'. Suggestions about the school's role in helping children move beyond risk to resiliency are presented.

Academics working with schools: Resolving the tensions

Bruce Johnson and Judy Peters, University of South Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 10, Authentic assessment in middle schooling: Research and curriculum development through university/school research circles.

JOHNL193

SYMPOSIUM 20: Post-colonial pedagogies

Presenters: Lorraine Johnson-Riordan, University of Western Sydney, Debbie Epstein, University of London, and Fazal Rizvi, Monash University

Overview:
The three papers in this symposium will address key issues surrounding post-coloniality and education in "new times" (the Howard/Hanson era) including:

1. anti-racist work in schools in the current political climate;
2. ethnicities, homophobia and the construction of masculinities in educational settings in the UK and South Africa;
3. memory work, autobiography and indigenous students in higher education

Theoretical issues related to "post-coloniality", "race", ethnicity, gender and sexuality will be discussed.

PAPER 1:

"See you on the road...?" Post-colonial pedagogies in the age of Howard and Hanson

Lorraine Johnson-Riordan, University of Western Sydney

Pat Dodson closed the Reconciliation Convention in Melbourne in May this year with the words "See you on the road." But the Convention, and events surrounding it, have brought to the surface crucial questions - ethical, moral, political, epistemological - which impact teacher-cultural workers engaging in de/colonizing pedagogies in classrooms and other pedagogical sites. Drawing on critical tools in feminist postcolonial cultural theories ( about history and truth, memory and forgetting, fact and fiction, denial and justification) this paper offers a meditation on the contemporary scene and suggests possible ways forward.

PAPER 2:

Having what it takes: Homophobia and masculinities in educational settings in the UK and South Africa

Debbie Epstein, University of London

This paper will use ethnographic data from the UK and published (especially auto/biographical) material from South Africa to develop an account of the role of homophobia and ethnicities in the construction of masculinities within educational settings. In particular, it will suggest that recent moral panics around the 'underachievement' of boys are related to the bullying of 'sissies' and 'swots' through the use of homophobic abuse in schools. It will be concerned, too, to trace the ways in which racialized/ethnicized masculine identities shape and are shaped by gender and on the contrasted ways in which notions of 'traditional culture' and 'traditional masculinities' play a part in resistances to racism in the UK and in post-apartheid South Africa.

"See you on the road...?" Post-colonial pedagogies in the age of Howard and Hanson

Lorraine Johnson-Riordan, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 20, Post-colonial pedagogies.

JOHNR121

The heart of the university: Education as a `metadiscipline'

Rosemary Johnston, University of Technology Sydney

The West Review and current and impending cuts to the tertiary sector make it imperative that the position of education at the university nexus is claimed and consolidated. This paper argues that education is a metadiscipline - a 'grand' discipline as we have a 'grand' narrative. Education is overtly concerned with the processes of teaching and researching. It is one of the tasks of the educational researcher to enhance perceptions of this nexus. The current strategic initiatives in the tertiary sector such as flexible learning and work-based learning, are initatives that many education faculties have practised for years and the related systems, procedures and practices are strongly in place both theoretically and practically. Therefore, why are we so backward in coming forward? The paper proposes that those whose focus is education have much to offer the wider university community and that we must seek creative ways to make our presence felt, to develop innovative links and to share our expertise across all faculties. Further, it proposes that education as 'vocation' must be deliberately articulated, and the pejorative associations that the adjective ('vocational') seems to have acquired must equally be deliberately addressed.

JOHNS093

Evaluating curriculum quality: Stakeholder perspectives of an industry sponsored university program

Scott John, Central Queensland University

Curriculum quality in the 'new' university can no longer be considered in terms of academic values and interests alone, but must now also accommodate the perceptions of institutional managers, private sector sponsors and the needs of the institutions' full fee paying 'clients'. To facilitate informed perceptions of program structures and practices, it is imperative that strategies be developed to identify and articulate the changing and different dimensions of higher education quality in the 1990s.

The paper will report on work in progress of a doctoral study that develops, implements and critically reviews the feasibility of using a responsive, issues-centered approach to evaluating an industry sponsored higher education program. The focus of the paper will be a report on the application and effectiveness of an evaluation strategy specifically designed to elucidate the issues and concerns of multiple curriculum stakeholders who include adult external students, part-time industry-based lecturers, international program consultants, university managers and administrators and industry sponsors.

The study draws on the ideas of a number of context-focused evaluation models to create an evaluation specifically designed to address the curriculum monitoring needs of innovative, externally sponsored and supported higher education programs. Case study methods have been adapted and refined to establish an evaluation process that progressively focuses the complexities of curriculum quality as perceived by a diverse range of program stakeholders.

JOHNS166

Postgraduate supervision in education - Are we different?

Sue Johnston, University of Canberra

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 19, Supervision of postgraduate research in education.

JONEA112

Architectural Metaphor in Educational Research: How Useful in these Times?

Dr Alison Jones, University of Auckland

This paper explores some of the architectural/building and spatial metaphor which abound in contemporary feminist (and other) discussion in education. Terms ranging from `subject position' to `gaps/spaces', and `construction' to `production' are discussed, as well as the confusion often surrounding their use, and questions are asked about how - and whether - such phrases are significant for the kind of liberatory narrative in education possible in these politically complex times.

Teaching post structuralist feminist theory in education: Textual confusions and student resistances

Alison Jones, University of Auckland , New Zealand

Increasing numbers of undergraduate students in education are using, or referring to, `post structuralist' theory and concepts in their discussions of gender. However, because of their lack of knowledge of structuralism, their use of POST structuralist theory is often barely considered rejection - or a confused embracing. While they purport to work within a theoretical framework which eschews humanism, many of my students invoke a humanist subject who `positions' herself in a range of discourses. Contributing to such confusion are ways in which this apparently unremarked tension is evident more widely in sociological discussions about/within post structuralism. In this paper, Judith Butler's work on `the subject' is used to critique this tension, which is evident particularly in the students' use of the popular work of Bronwyn Davies.

Pathways and curricula: Its distribution of power

John Joshua, The University of Melbourne

The paper concentrates on haw a critical and reflexive pedagogy can promote a circultion of power within and between social fields. This thesis is grounded in social theory which is tested against an empirical analysis of different types of secondary schools in Victoria.

Historically, the pendulum of school reforms swung between two contradictory educational philosophies: on the one hand, a liberal progressive philosophy which sees students as potential adults, and on the other hand, an instrumental philosophy of eductaion to serve the industries with sufficient human resource capital. These two contradictory philosophies impinge on the structure and function of schooling, teachers' work, curriculum design and the socio-political framework which surrounds schooling. The pendulum has shifted in favour of the pragmatic and instrumental and not least because the student population has changed.

The reproduction of social structures through organic curricula fosters those values which are regarded as appropriate for a specific social destination. Vicational education may be regarded here as a constructed organic curriculum as such curriculum makes cultural reproduction invisible as it engages in considerable less symbolic violence than an imposed academic curriculum.

Some pathways exhibit a teaching method which is more behavioural, that is, disciplinary, for example, in some vocational pathways. In other pathways, with a more liberal academic emphasis, teaching methods may be more pastoral in nature. However, any pedagogy that claims to be critical and reflexive, ought to have a pastoral element in its method. The aim of disciplinary and pastoral power differs; whereas disciplinary power may be exercised to train individuals in given skills to excel in the completion of task set by others, pastoral power may facilitate individuals to find their potential. Disciplinary power is more centralised while pastoral power is more dispersed, so that the latter is a better facilitator of social mobility.

As the population taking part in post-compulsory education becomes more heterogeneous, different and conflicting demand will be made on resources and curricula design. The unfloding contested discourse is subject to various influences of power. The exercise of pastoral power may assist students to choose between different pathways; but the adverse labour market exerts a disciplinary power over the students to remain at school.

Who's asking the questions?: Researching institutional race relations

Barbara Kamler and Ninetta Santoro, Deakin University, and Jo-Anne Reid, University of Ballarat

The issue of racism in Australian society is highly significant at the present time. We can no longer consider ourselves as untainted by the mark of racism in social and institutional practice. However, most research dealing with racism in an Australian context has investigated racism between students and/or institutionalised racism directed towards ethnic minority students. If we accept the view that popular racism (Rizvi 1993) pervades all facets of society, covertly and overtly, that we are all implicated in it (Troyna, 1993), and that most teachers and teacher educators occupy contradictory positions in relation to racism, then we are led inexorably to ask why there has been little recognition or understanding of racism as it is experienced by practising teachers in schools.

In this paper we explore the methodological ethics of an attempt to investigate this problem, as we research the nature of the professional experience of overseas born and educated non-native English speaking teachers in Victorian secondary schools. We will discuss the ethical and theoretical dilemmas which arose for us as we worked on the development of a questionnaire to be distributed to all principals in state secondary schools. The shaping of this questionnaire has become a concrete realisation of the dilemmas of insider/outsider research, particularly in relation to race, and we use this experience to situate and theorise this dilemma in terms of our current research practice.

New times in secondary schooling: The effects of vocational education on the development of self-concept and vocational preparation

Jan Kane, Macquarie University

Vocational education has emerged in the past ten years as an important facet of the post-compulsory years of schooling. The growth in retention rates of students during that time to Years 11 and 12 has been the impetus for the development of varied curriculum and pathways of study to ensure that the needs of all students, not just those aiming for tertiary entrance, are met. In NSW this has resulted in the Pathways program for the Higher School Certificate, which has enabled students to diversify their programs of study and to undertake vocationally-oriented course work in employment preparation programs.

This paper will address this development in the post-compulsory secondary education of students in new times. It will focus on the development of vocational education in New South Wales schools and particularly on the results of a research project which investigated the effects of vocational education on the development of self-concept and vocational preparation in senior secondary students. It will highlight common elements and diverse initiatives in relation to program design and implementation and will discuss implications for the ongoing development of vocational education and areas of future research.

Factors that affect student transition from Year 12 to the first year of university: A case study of arts undergraduates at Monash University

Tanya Kantanis, Monash University

Literature in the field of transition, the process of change that occurs when students progress from Year 12 to the first year of university, largely consists of specialised studies that tend to isolate and dissect pertinent factors; few writers have embraced the issue's global nature. This paper, based on research that was carried out at Monash University, recognises, appreciates and explores the complex interactive nature of the elements that pertain to transition and advocates a more holistic approach to the issue. the academic arena remains the main focus, with three other interrelated factors: environment, finances and socialisation noted as fields that are problematic for first year students, particularly Arts undergraduates, in making the transition.

From the research, and confirmed through the literature, serious concerns were registered in relation to the limitations in the academic arena. More significantly, the results highlighted an area of concern that has received scant attention in the literature, socialisation as an influential dimension in effecting a successful transition. in that, poor socialisation into the university environment and culture actively operates as a disincentive, with serious repercussions, for students facing the challenges of transition.

KAYAH304

Universities, students and employment prospects in the new South Africa

Hassan Omari Kaya, University of North-West, South Africa

Against the background of the complex relationships between the world of work, students and universities, this paper examines how the universities in the new South Africa try to define new policies and programmes to help in the training of South Africans, especially those who were neglected by the apartheid system, to enable them to get gainful employment and contribute to the socio-economic and political development of the country.

Universities are involved in employment in a number of ways. First, as training institutions, they are concerned with equipping their students with knowledge and skills which will enable them to embark on successful careers. Universities in developing countries including South Africa have come to recognise that they have a potential role in updating and improving the skills of the people already in employment, i.e. continuing education. Second, as research institutions, universities have a social responsibility, especially during times of widespread unemployment to study the broader issue of employment, how work is organised and the relationships between training, skills and employment. Third, as teaching and research institutions, universities are also sizeable employers.

Teachers' work in the child care centres of the 1990's: A report on a study in progress

Alison Kelly, Queensland University of Technology

A high proportion of early childhood trained teachers are employed in child care centres. This project investigates the knowledge needs of these teachers. Six teachers who are beginning their teaching careers are involved.

The child care industry is undergoing astonishing growth and change and the unique characteristics of the setting and teaching context are not well understood. Greater understanding of teachers' work in this setting and teachers' knowledge needs is essential if teacher education courses are to be relevant and adequately prepare student teachers for work in this setting.

This study is about surfacing the knowledge teachers are acting upon when they face dilemma situations in their work. Understanding the dilemmas teachers working in child care are facing is valuable in terms of uncovering some unique characteristics which apply to their work.

The study involves theorising teachers' experiences, where teachers share their experiences and reflect on the practical knowledge which informs their teaching actions. Teachers in the field and the university teacher work collaboratively, probing and examining situations and experiences, to construct new meanings through reflection.

The research has interpretive purposes, designed to illuminate the ways in which past experiences, present circumstances and visions for the future influence what teachers do. Observational notes, teacher journal entries, the researcher's letters to participants, and transcripts of conversations with teachers have allowed for progressive focusing on practical knowledge Collaboratively, new meaning is given to everyday situations and actions.

Teachers' work in the child care centres of the 1990's

Alison Kelly, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 16, Early childhood teachers working in new times: Reports on research undertaken in the 1990's.

Researching the use of innovative technological tools

David Kennedy, Peter McTigue, and Paul Fritze, University of Melbourne

In this paper we report the results of an investigation of student use of an innovative design element in a computer-facilitated learning (CFL) module. The rapid growth of new technologies for the delivery of academic courses in higher education has provided obvious logistical advantages including improved student access to courses both locally and at a distance and providing on-line remediation or assessment.

The need to embed sound educational pedagogy in the application of new technologies is crucial to any lasting improvement in student learning outcomes. The CFL element has been designed and used within a framework that links the literature on student learning and understanding symbolic representations of simple chemical phenomena.

The CFL element is an interactive graphing engine that can be used with on-line web-based courses that has been designed to actively engage students in constructing relationships between their knowledge of macroscopic chemical processes and the symbolic representations used by chemists to represent those processes.

While the example provided is based on undergraduate chemistry, it must be stressed that the graphing engine is applicable to many other academic subjects with a similar need to develop graphical representations of knowledge.

KENNK248

SYMPOSIUM 21: Understanding civic learning and its social context : Current research in civics and citizenship education

Participants: Kerry Kennedy, University of Canberra, Rob Gilbert, James Cook University, Victoria Foster, University of Western Sydney, Murray Print, University of Sydney, Suzanne Mellor, Australian Council for Educational Research and David Hogan, University of Tasmania

Overview:
Citizenship has been a priority theme for the Australian Research Council for some time and civics education has become a priority for successive governments at Commonwealth and state levels. The purpose of this symposium is to being together research efforts in these areas that ordinarily might not bee seen as part of the same research agenda. An expected outcome is an appreciation of the diversity of research being conducted and the creation of a dialogue between researchers from different traditions.

PAPER 1:

KENNK249

Policy contexts and theoretical perspectives : Civics and citizenship education in Australia

Kerry Kennedy, University of Canberra

Successive Australian governments have provided bipartisan support for programs of civics education in Australian schools. Yet the policy contexts in which this support has been given vary markedly. The Keating government, keen to build momentum behind the republican issue, saw civics education as the key to creating a politically literate population that would appreciate the subtleties behind the current debate. The Howard government, with its pursuit of market oriented policies in key social and economic areas, saw the need to provide for some cohesion in a rapidly fragmenting society. Civics education was thus able to serve two political masters for quite different reasons.

This paper will analyze in some detail the changing policy contexts of the Keating and Howard governments and will link these to the theoretical perspectives that have driven civics education. Current initiatives will be analyzed as a product of these perspectives.

PAPER 2:

GILBR250

Education for citizenship and concepts of identity

Rob Gilbert, James Cook University

Notions of identity and citizenship have traditionally been closely linked through the concept of national identity. While this idea may have been more rhetoric by centralizing forces than the felt experience of national communities, at least as a rallying cry for politicians it remains important. Yet globalisation, minority social movements, ethnic division, multiculturalism etc place traditional ideas of national identity and its more committed version of patriotism in question. Those engaged in education for citizenship need to consider this question, for, despite claims for a concept of global citizenship, the nation is still the basic unit for the recognition and promotion of citizenship, and a sense of identity, either explicitly or implicitly, is an important part of most citizenship education programs. This paper will offer an analysis and discussion of the relationship between education for citizenship and identity.

PAPER 3:

FOSTV251

Feminist theories and the construction of citizenship in the modern state

Victoria Foster, University of Western Sydney

Education should be a preparation for citizenship directed towards active and successful participation by all students in a modern democratic society. Since the mid-1980s there has been a revival of interest in participatory democratic theory and in particular, a renewed focus on the concept of citizenship as a new organizing principle for democratic politics (Pateman, 1992).

Despite clear evidence of widely disparate outcomes from women's and men's education across western industrialized nations (OECD, 1986), the gendered nature of citizenship as both a philosophical and social goal has received little attention from educational theorists.

This paper will address the issue of whether citizenship for women is possible in the modern state which is predicated on a division between public and private life.

PAPER 4:

PRINM252

Benchmarking student achievement in civics and citizenship education

Murray Print, University of Sydney

This paper will report on an ARC funded project that seeks to identify significant student learnings and attitudes in civics and citizenship education at the end of three stages of schooling - Years 6, 8 and 10. From this information the project will develop civics education benchmarks for students at these points in their schooling.

The project involves close consultation with the community involved with civics education in NSW. Thus far we have conducted consultation meetings, prepared a project outline, an issues paper on the project, a set of civics content statements, and commenced preparation of assessment instruments.

Data are planned for collection in 1988. Subsequently civics and citizenship education benchmarks will be constructed from this data.

PAPER 5:

Impact of schools and pedagogy on students' civics and citizenship attitudes

Suzanne Mellor, Australian Council for Educational Research

The paper will report the findings of an Australian study, undertaken by ACER in 19 It is based on the study Comparative Perspectives on Citizenship Education: A Study in Five Western Democracies. (in press), undertaken by Dr. Carole Hahn, Professor in the Division of Education at Emory University, Atlanta. The countries involved in the earlier study were the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and the United States. The research surveyed and investigated the political attitudes, (trust, efficacy, confidence, tolerance, equality) and interests of senior secondary Australian students, their opinions on their past and likely future political experience, and their observations on the classroom climates they have experienced. The comparative approach will be maintained in the presentation as it points to linkages between cultural factors and citizenship education in Australian schools and classrooms. Thus the context will have been set, for a more detailed evaluation, in the paper, of the effectiveness of certain pedagogies, in the area of citizenship education.

PAPER 6:

HOGAD254

The social demography of citizenship and education in Australia

David Hogan, University of Tasmania

The paper will outline the principal conceptual and theoretical questions that members of the Centre for Citizenship and Education at the University of Tasmania are investigating in a current research project on citizenship and civic education. Theoretically, the project is especially interested in the political culture and social demography of Australian citizenship, the explanation of variations in civic and educational attainment at both the individual and institutional level, and the identification of schools and school practices that are unusually effective in producing high levels of "civic attainment" after controlling for student intake and peer group characteristics.

KENNK249

Policy contexts and theoretical perspectives : Civics and citizenship education in Australia

Kerry Kennedy, University of Canberra

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 21, Understanding civic learning and its social context: Current research in civics and citizenship education.

The feminisation of the labour market and males' 'new disadvantage'

Jane Kenway, Deakin University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 30, Restructuring gender, reworking schooling and reschooling work.

KINGA413

Integrated problem based learning: More than simulation and mentoring

Arthur Kingsland, The University of Newcastle

Design education learning environments should incorporate the study of theoretical viewpoints and conceptual thinking in combination with the development of practical skills and an understanding of technical issues related to the specific discipline. This paper discusses the use of Integrated Problem Based Learning (IPBL) to provide such a learning environment where theoretical issues are seen as a central component of the learning environment. The full potential in adopting the IPBL philosophy for design education far surpasses mere simulation, and can provide deeper theoretical coverage than a curriculum based around mentoring in a specific discipline.

There is much dis-information about PBL and particularly its application to design education. There is a perception that PBL increases workloads and stress levels for staff and students, and that PBL is too practical reducing emphasis on theoretical aspects of studies in design disciplines (rightly regarded as of prime importance in tertiary-level education). Research has shown that many of the problems experienced in implementing PBL stem from inadequate staff development and support provisions (Cowdroy & Kingsland, 1992; Kingsland, 1992; Cowdroy, 1994, 1992) rather than specifically from the use of PBL. This paper expands on specific points from that research relating to staff (and student) workloads and stress levels, and demonstrates that it is possible to incorporate theoretical components as a central platform of a PBL curriculum.

Constructions of educational discourse

David Kirk, Doune Macdonald and Dawn Penney, The University of Queensland

Developing the work of Basil Bernstein on the social construction of educational discourse, this paper investigates the relationships between senior high school health and physical education and university human movement studies, focusing particularly on the ways in which knowledge in each field is constructed at their interface. The paper reports on the findings of a study tht examined the relationships between these fields over time, university students' constructions of this relationship, and the realisation of this relationship in the workplace practices of health and physical education teachers. The paper concludes with some recommendations for policy and curriculum development in both schools and tertiary institutions.

Flexible learning : Implications for academic practice

Denise Kirkpatrick, Viktor Jakupec and Kitty te Riele, University of Technology Sydney

The notion of flexible learning has become increasingly common in higher education in recent years. This may be seen as a response to a number of factors, particularly the proliferation of communication and information technologies. 'Flexible learning' has multiple meanings, some of which appear to be more privileged than others. As universities identify the development of flexible learning as a priority and invest a range of resources there is a need to consider the range of meanings that may be associated with 'flexible learning' and the ways in which flexible learning affects the culture of the university and academic practice. The perception of flexible learning that becomes dominant will have significant impact on the way in which it is enacted, reflecting and influencing views of teaching and learning, knowledge, research, academic practice, the role of academics, and allocation of resources. The way in which flexible learning comes to be interpreted will play a major role in determining the nature of academic culture. This paper explores the meanings which are ascribed to flexible learning and the way in which these are contested, as well as the effect of "flexible learning" on academic practices and culture.

KIRKD498

Women's research as performance: Performing what?

Denise Kirkpatrick, University of Technology Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 5, Women and higher education: Gendered performances in an era of uncertainty and difference.

KLEIM530

How does student subjectivity work against change in preservice teacher education?

Mary Klein, James Cook University

The research presented in this paper was carried out with three preservice teachers in the second year of a matheamtics methods course. It examines how their prior experiences of matheamtics in school, and in practicum sessions, firmly entrench absolutist views of knowledge which are not easily interrupted in teacher education programs. I use poststructuralist concepts of positioning, subjectivity and storylines to theorise the data and to argue a case for certain changes in preservice programs.

KONZD104

Ethical issues in qualitative research: What would you do?

Deslea Konza, University of Wollongong

This paper aims to generate a discussion of ethical dilemmas which have faced the presenter when engaging in research relating to students with a range of special needs. Several of the dilemmas have arisen when conducting interviews with the parents of these children:

• when the issue of confidentiality conflicted with disclosures of illegal activity, including child abuse;
• when the role of interviewer appeared to merge with that of counsellor;
• when the interviewees asked 'what would you do?'
• when 'reflective listening' and 'acceptance of individual realities' would have involved reflecting back damaging personal beliefs;
• when the interviewee appeared to become dependent on the interviewer throughout a series of interviews.

Other ethical issues arose when it became difficult to determine whether or not the consent given prior to research was, in fact, 'informed', due to literacy, cognitive or psychiatric problems which became evident throughout the research.

It is hoped that a discussion of these issues will result in a clearer understanding of some of the difficulties associated with qualitative research and of our responsibilities towards people willing to assist us in our research, especially those who may be particularly vulnerable.

LADYR130

The use of standardised human simulations for professional skills evaluation and research

Mr Richard Ladyshewsky and Robert Baker, Curtin University of Technology

Research and assessment of students in professional programs such as health and education regularly use field based observation, written records of performance and interviews as the method of student evaluation. One of the major difficulties with these approaches is that there is variability between fieldwork settings, limited case sampling and variations in inter-rater reliability. This creates a problem for the educator or researcher who is trying to measure differences in students' performance. One method that can overcome some of these measurement difficulties are standardised human simulations (SHS). Medical educators have used this method since the mid-seventies with good results. However, reported use of this educational technology in other professional disciplines appears limited. This paper will describe the psychometric properties of SHS as tools for educational research and student assessment in the fields of health and education; specifically, SHS reliability, content, construct, and criterion validity and fidelity. Methods for the application of this technology in the two fields is also presented. While the focus of the paper will draw upon examples from medicine, where the bulk of this research has been carried out, the relevance of SHS for research and assessment in other disciplines will be discussed.

LAFFG525

Responding to management by crisis: Possibilities for the democratisation of academic work

George Lafferty, Griffith University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 29, Re-inventing academic work: The makeover of tertiary teachers.

LAMBI209

Education, Religious Diversity and Ideological Fragmentation in a Postmodern Landscape

Dr Ian P M Lambert, National Institute for Christian Education

The postmodern world view operates with a community-based understanding of truth. It affirms that whatever we accept as truth and even the way we envision truth are dependent on the community in which we participate. While ethnic and religios diversity is not a new experience in educational and cultural life in Australia, what is it that is making our present-day encounter with pluralism so special?

How can teacher education programs of the future provide teaching and learning experiences that recognise the reality that schools in the public and private sector are increasingly conscious that we are immersed in a culture of options? This paper argues that because the ethical heart of postmodernity can be identified with a desire to honour the 'other', the essential characteristic of the new pedagogy should be grounded in the notion of hospitality - receiving each other with openness and care.

If education in the future can develop a listening pedagogy, then hospitality will need to be recognised as both an ethical and epistemological virtue. Consequently, such an affirmation will be manifest in the languages learned, the history studied, the literature taught and the cultural voices that are heard and celebrated.

From: LIZ LAMB

submitted by Ms Liz Lamb

PhD candidate

University of Technology, Sydney

LAMBL133

An information literacy framework for the learning of gifted students at Secondary level

Ms Liz Lamb, University of Technology Sydney

This research project investigates the significance of the learning / teaching environment in the education of gifted students in secondary schools. Specifically, it investigates the impact of an Information Literacy framework on the learning of gifted secondary students .

It is a qualitative study incorporating seven case studies whch were conducted while students were studying a Board of Studies (NSW) course in their Preliminary Year. The project was begun mid-1995 and it is expected that the thesis will besubmitted mid-1998.

It is anticipated that the project will make three important contributions to the body of knowledge in the areas of education and of teacher education. First although the results will come from a New South Wales experience, they undoubtedly will be of global interest - as has happened with results from studies into the impact of such a framework on the learning and teaching in mainstream classes. Secondly, the project should result in a model which could be considered for use in schools. Thirdly, it should provide local evidence to assist in professional development of teachers in the area of the education of the gifted in these times in which access to information is growing at a rate not known before.

The moral consequences of what we construct through qualitative research

Colin Lankshear, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 8, Issues in qualitative research.

The constructive nature of teachers' learning

Michael Lawson, Peter McInerney, John Smyth and Robert Hattam, Flinders University of South Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 27, Reclaiming the space for teachers' dialogic learning in schools.

LEWIJ144

Value-added schooling

Jenny Lewis, University of Western Sydney

An interest in raising standards and improving the quality of education and opportunities available to students in all schools has become a key focus of system thinking throughout the world. This focus on proving and improving performance has given systems, schools and communities new tools to identify, measure and report performance, to revise practice, and to enhance the quality of schooling, policy, practice and standards.

Within the New South Wales Department of School Education there is a growing interest to show system and school improvement, and although requiring schools to state what and how they intend to improve is not in itself new, what is new is the obligation for schools to state explicitly and publicly:

how they propose to marry centrally set priorities and those which emanate from the school community the criteria against which school policy and performance will be evaluated, an the value added by a school to improve school and student achievement

'Value-added' measures which "assess the extent to which a school's performance improves over time, and how far it contributes to the academic progress of its pupils" (OECD, 30, 1995) has become a meaningful way of assessing and reporting school and student improvement in terms of school and system priorities.

This paper provides evidence of national and international measures. It presents the research and practice of one school as it has come to terms with 'value-addedness'. This paper illustrates the measures this school has used to enhance school improvement over a two year period.

Girls, bullying behaviours and peer relationships: The double edged sword of exclusion and rejection

Barbara Leckie, University of South Australia

Bullying is recognised to be a reliably identifiable sub-set of children's aggressive behaviour (Dodge, Coie, Pettit and Price, 1990). Whilst little appears to be known directly about girls' bullying behaviours, recent research has shed considerable light upon related fields. Lagerspetz, Bjorqvist and Peltonen, (1988) have revealed that girls use indirect methods of aggression, such as spreading rumours and excluding and ostracising others; and Crick, Bigbee and Howes (1996) report that with relational aggression, girls' peer conflicts increase in frequency and become more common as they move from middle childhood to adolescence. Such socially manipulative strategies are also powerful tools often used by girls to protect and maintain their peer relationships and friendship dyads, which in turn reflect exclusivity, intensity and disclosure. These behaviours, appear to serve a dual function: to protect existing friendships from the intrusion of others; and to deliberately harm target girls through rejection and isolation. Surveys which included both self report and peer nomination instruments were administered to girls in individual classes from Year 6 to Year 10 (N = 987) in seven South Australian Catholic and Independent schools, 5 of which were single-sex and 2 were co-educational systems. This paper will explore the apparent dual function of these behaviours and examine the links between girls' peer relationships and bullying behaviours in light of what is known about indirect and relational aggression. Implications for co-operation and conflict management between girls in schools will also be discussed.

LEEA456

Supervision pedagogy as co-production

Alison Lee, University of Technology, Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 6, Professional doctorates in new times for the Australian University.

Testing the internal/external frame of reference model of self-concept with Chinese high school students in talented and nontalented classes

Frances Laimui Lee, Putai Jin and Renae Low, University of New South Wales, and Alexander Yeung, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

LEEI369

Japanese colonisation of Korean textbooks

Isaac Lee, University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 22, Reworking education in postcolonial conditions: Local and global contexts for change.

LEIMM501

An analysis of parent-teacher conversations in a preschool setting

Michele Leiminer, The University of Queensland

In this paper I will report on findings from my Honours dissertation titled, 'An analysis of the construction of talk in parent-teacher conversations in a preschool setting'. I have used an ethnomethodological, conversation analytic perspective to analyse parent-teacher conversations in a preschool. Although such conversations are the principal means by which parents and preschool teachers communicate, no previous research on such conversations in early childhood settings was found in the literature. I examine the extent to which my data were 'institutional interactions' or 'mundane conversations', and determine how blurred these distinctions may be. I then analyse these conversations as to how the talk is constructed, especially with regard to the management of proposals and advice-giving and reception. According to this analysis, these conversations were extremely complex.

These 'institutional conversations' were not entirely symmetrical in nature or entirely asymmetrical. At times parents proposed strategies and gave advice, and at other times the preschool teacher evaluated proposals and gave advice of her own. In these ways, these parent-teacher conversations were negotiated on a turn by turn basis by the participants themselves to produce a zigzagging effect between these two poles. However, these shiftings of balance were distributed relatively evenly between participants. In this way, they could be best described as 'symmetrical'. This finding of 'symmetry' in parent-professional talk is in contrast to the work of Heritage and Sefi (1992) and Baker and Keogh (1995). This is explained in part by the overlapping knowledges of the parents and teacher. This overlap is then played out in and produced in the talk. In conclusion, a 'parent-teacher partnership' is evident between the parent and the preschool teacher.

Five male secondary science teachers: Dis/playing gender

William Letts, University of Delaware, USA

Male secondary science teachers are uniquely positioned in schools in that they are engaged in as profession that has traditionally been viewed as feminized in a subject area that is largely masculinized.

Relatively little attention has focused on the development and role of masculinity in school settings. Following the guiding principles described by Weedon (1987), this study originated from a feminist post-structuralist framework to the extent that it forced me to make explicit certain issues that might otherwise have been easier and more convenient to ignore. This framework compelled me to problematize the relationship between men, masculinity and schooling, and to re-examine it from the standpoint of the male teacher. This study was emergent and interpretive, and the primary means of data collection was interviews with five male secondary science teachers. Four themes were culled from the data: 1) views about the epistemology of science, 2) issues of control, 3) issues of autonomy and 4) seemingly contradictory self-descriptions. Potential implications of this work include a better understanding of the gender codes that teachers both act according to and enforce in classrooms, the gendered nature of teaching, and the recruitment and retention of teachers, male teachers in particular.

LEVIL171

Integration of the practicum with academic units

Lesley Levins, University of New England

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 28, Towards collaboration in the practicum - issues of power and ownership.

Value-added schooling

Jenny Lewis, University of Western Sydney

An interest in raising standards and improving the quality of education and opportunities available to students in all schools has become a key focus of system thinking throughout the world. This focus on proving and improving performance has given systems, schools and communities new tools to identify, measure and report performance, to revise practice, and to enhance the quality of schooling, policy, practice and standards.

Within the New South Wales Department of School Education there is a growing interest to show system and school improvement, and although requiring schools to state what and how they intend to improve is not in itself new, what is new is the obligation for schools to state explicitly and publicly: how they propose to marry centrally set priorities and those which emanate from the school community the criteria against which school policy and performance will be evaluated, an the value added by a school to improve school and student achievement 'Value-added' measures which "assess the extent to which a school's performance improves over time, and how far it contributes to the academic progress of its pupils" (OECD, 30, 1995) has become a meaningful way of assessing and reporting school and student improvement in terms of school and system priorities.

This paper provides evidence of national and international measures. It presents the research and practice of one school as it has come to terms with 'value-addedness'. This paper illustrates the measures this school has used to enhance school improvement over a two year period.

LIETP004

Findings of a pilot-study of economic literacy in Central Queensland.

Petra Lietz and Dieter Kotte, Central Queensland University

In addition to literacy comprising the traditional "three Rs" of reading, arithmetic and writing, knowledge of economic issues is important to be a "literate" adult (Walstad, 1994).

Economic literacy includes the understanding of economic matters involved in everyday life of adults, from paying a bill, issuing a check or understanding a balance sheet (Ristau, 1985; Soper & Walstad, 1987; Walstad & Robson, 1981) as well as more complex concepts such as GDP or trade arrangements with other countries which is required to understand reports in the printed and electronic media (De Rooy, 1995).

This paper reports findings from a study of approximately 400 students attending Year 11 in government and private schools in the Central Queensland region. In particular, results from Rasch analyses using QUEST (Adams & Khoo, 1993) will be discussed to examine the appropriateness of the achievement test, which has previously only been used in the United States and the United Kingdom. In addition, results of analyses using path analysis (LISREL, J=F6reskog & S=F6rbom, 1993) and hierarchical linear modelling (HLM-4, Raudenbush et al., 1993) will elucidate ways in which factors at different levels, for example student motivation, instructional practices and facilities provided by the school impact on student achievement.

The conclusion of the paper will discuss results in terms of their relevance for the teaching and learning of economic issues at secondary school level. Finally, implications of the study for a possible future study of economic literacy across Australia will be discussed.

LIMEB214

New times for Education Queensland: An opportunity for female teachers and administrators?

Brigid Limerick and Cheryl Anderson, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will examine the careers of some female teachers and administrators who work for Education Queensland. It will seek to establish whether the 'New Times' in education in Queensland are offering females greater career opportunities, and how they felt about the many changes which are occurring in education at present. Using the data-base of women who completed the Women in Management, (W.I.M), courses at QUT in the early 1990s, interviews will be conducted with a number of women who have management positions in Education Queensland. (This is part of a longitudinal study of the careers of W.I.M. graduates). By listening to, and analysing, what the interviewees say, these interviews will establish how their careers have progressed since completion of the W.I.M. course. Of particular interest will be whether the moves to school-based management have offered these women a chance to establish new ways of managing schools and enhanced their promotion prospects. Do the interviewees believe a new culture is evolving in Queensland education to suit the "New Times", or is there a continuation of the old male dominated hierarchial culture?

LINGB343

The Disadvantaged Schools Program: Caught between literacy and local management of schools

Bob Lingard, The University of Queensland

The Disadvantaged Schools Program (DSP), which provides extra funds for schools serving the poorest student, is the longest running Commonwealth equity program. The paper traces developments in the program since its inception in 1974. However, the main focus of the paper is on the likely impact of changes to Commonwealth schools programs introduced by the Howard Coalition government, whereby the DSP has been reconstituted as a literacy program and accountability requirements on the States have been considerably weakened and States given the option to 'broadband' the program with English as a Second Language (General Support) and Early Literacy. Simultaneous with these changes have been the moves by all State systems towards school-based management. The paper evaluates the likely impact of both sets of changes on the DSP. More specifically, the paper documents the potential dangers to the integrity of the program, particularly the loss of program memory, the abdication of system responsibility for the schooling of all students, the reification of literacy as the only educational problem, and the return of the individual deficit explanation for the links between socio-economic background and school performance.

Professional education in the australian regular army: The JOPES scheme

Juri K Linins, University of New England

University employer/industry links are demonstrated through the Junior Officer Professional Education Scheme (JOPES). It commenced in 1990 after a recommendation from the Regular Officer Development Committee to sponsor a program of tertiary external studies to compliment military training and development program for serving officers. On-going professional education is essential for serving officers by broadening their understanding of the society in which they serve. The Armed Forces are Australia's largest single employer so over 650 officers have already used this scheme since 1990.

The development of JOPES involved extensive negotiations with a wide range of tertiary institutions including ADFA, Deakin University, Queensland University and the University of New England. Due to the flexibility, relevance and competitive cost of the UNE proposal, JOPES was based on purpose - designed degree programs developed in conjunction with UNE, which will be analysed.

JOPES is intended to encourage the development of critical thinking ,synthesis, scholarship, research skills, analytical ability and communication skills using illustrations from Australian society and culture with those of other nations. This requires officers to confront the pluralistic social context within which they work. JOPES studies are developing officers who are aware of the economic/political context.of diverse social issues.

LOHG241

Clock building, not time telling in Singapore

Grace Loh, National Institute of Education Singapore

In Singapore, there has been a shift in thinking about history education from time telling to clock building. Previously, the emphasis was on the students' ability to tell time and to remember significant events. Recently, the focus is on helping students learn how to build a clock that can tell the time. To construct this type of clock, students need to use the historical mode of inquiry, by gathering, examining and interpreting evidence and reaching a conclusion. This paper examines initiatives taken to prepare teacher trainees to teach history differently. With a greater emphasis on the process of learning, trainees are encouraged to use the historical mode of inquiry. Instead of delivering descriptive history, the trainees are asked to convey information in terms of questions requiring students to reorganize and rethink the information available and to use data in fresh ways.The trainees are shown how to help students deal with new questions about the substance of history that they had not thought of before by providing students with fundamental skills of locating, analysing and assessing evidence. The significant outcomes of the process are that trainees reported the benefit of being more focused in their teaching and challenged to find interpretative questions to engage students while students expressed concern that they may not have sufficient time to use the historical mode of inquiry for all topics.

LONGR178

The key competencies in teacher education

Robert Long and Jim Mitchell, University of Canberra

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 23, University teacher education and the key competencies.

Understanding beginning teaching: Researching the impact of first year teaching

Jennifer Brown, Brenton Doecke and John Loughran, Monash University

This paper will explore how a group (N =3D 20) of beginning teachers conceptualised their transition from Teacher Education (Dip. Ed.) to their first year of full-time teaching. The participants in this study completed their Dip. Ed. in 1995 and during 1996 volunteered to be involved in a series of interviews to help unpack their understanding of their role as teachers, the influence of their Teacher Education program in preparing them for teaching and their personal and professional dilemmas in adjusting to the stresses and demands of full-time teaching. The participants in this study show a remarkable maturity and depth of understanding about their teaching practice and the events and episodes which influence it in their day to day work. The relationship between teaching and learning, teacher preparation and teaching practice, and the development of reflection and teacher thinking are all highlighted through the transcript data.

One important outcome of this study is the manner in which the participants begin to express their understanding of their work and the development and articulation of their narratives of practice.

This paper begins to explore the world of practice from the practitioners perspective and as the participants are beginning teachers, helps to unpack how they embark on constructing their understanding of professional practice.

Striving for the learning teacher: An innovative approach to preservice teacher education

Megan Lugg and Jennifer Allen, University of Newcastle

The paper presents an innovative model for initial teacher education that engages lecturers and students in a collaborative, reflexive learning context. This model reflects a paradigm shift in theories of teaching and learning; subject development and presentation; assessment; and academic culture. It contends that successful learning involves interaction between lecturers and students; between students and the learning environment; among students themselves; among lecturers themselves; and between the formal learning environment and the workplace. These encounters are incorporated into a framework which responds to the need for increased flexibility and the demands of the problematic and dynamic workplace. By extending a problem-based model it provides real choices for learners, emphasising multiple 'solutions' and valuing questions as well as answers. The model responds to the competencies and values identified in the National Competency Framework for Beginning Teaching, and the increasing demands on academic staff in an environment of shrinking resources and growing student numbers.

The paper will present the teaching and learning components of this model and justify decisions pertaining to aims, content choice, learning experiences, teaching strategies (andragogical and pedagogical), assessment and evaluation. To incorporate this model within ttraditionalt approaches to undergraduate teacher education a tcultural shift is required. and this will also be discussed in the paper.

LUKEA366

SYMPOSIUM 22: Reworking education in postcolonial conditions: Local and global contexts for change

Chairperson: Allan Luke, University of Queensland

Presenters: Varadune Amarathithada, Samuela Bogitini, Issac Lee, Priscilla Puamau, Richard Wah, Daisy Webster and Ella Yulaelawati, University of Queensland

Overview:
Over the past two years, educators, scholars and planners from throughout Asia, Africa and the South Pacific have worked in the Post-colonial Studies Group at the University of Queensland to discuss issues of curriculum and educational policy in relation to identity and cultural articulation, economic and social formations in 'new times' and in 'post-colonial' conditions. Part of our discussion has been to debate and discuss these next contexts of education and the possibilities for post-colonial educational models that serve the interests and futures of local communities and groups. This seminar brings together a sample of research on such contexts: Fiji, Indonesia, Kenya, Korea and Laos. The key questions addressed by each paper is: what might count as curriculum and education in post-colonial conditions? In whose interests?

PAPER 1:

AMARV367

Policy implementation of non-formal education in Lao PDR

Varadune Amarathithada, University of Queensland

The shift from Marxist economics to a free market based approach and the World Conference on Education for All (WCFEA) in Jomtien in 1990, presented two challenges that reinforced the Lao government's intention to commit itself to education. Given the inaccessibility of formal education coupled with the economic constraints and the government's desire to invest in the development of human resources, non-formal education was found to be the most appropriate type of education. It is a strategy to provide access for basic education, for development and for empowerment. The principles of the WCFEA were accepted as guidelines for designing the educational policy on NFE in Laos. This study suggests that the successful of non-formal education policy depends on broader participation in policy development within the framework of internal and external components.

PAPER 2:

BOGIS368

School curriculum and the construction of Fijian identity: A composite reality

Samuela Bogitini, University of Queensland

Although significant intermingling of Fiji's indigenous people with other ethnic groups has occurred since British colonisation from the late 1800s, relatively little literature addresses the effect of cultural blending on the construction of ethnic identity of Taukei from an insider perspective. From the colonial period through its postcolonial present Fiji's education system and curriculum model had been heavily influenced by the West. This paper attempts to examine the development of Fijian identity by the school curriculum. Because of the impact of modernity and Westernisation, a "selective" version of Taukei traditions or customs is expressed in curriculum.. However, there are prominent social and political indications of the reemergence of many historically suppressed aspects of vaka-i-Taukei (Fijian way of life).

PAPER 3:

LEEI369

Japanese colonisation of Korean textbooks

Isaac Lee, University of Queensland

Korea was colonised by Japan for 36 years (1910-1945). Working from a postcolonial lens, this paper documents the Japanese colonisation and legitimation of Korean curriculum. In many official textbooks, Koreans were constructed as inferior others, and attempts were made to replace aspects of Korean language and indigenous cultures with Japanese ones. The image of Koreans constructed was one of lazy and unreliable workers. The Japanese also educated Korean elites in order to make them cultural and economic intermediaries. After the Japanese had withdrawn in 1945, Korean elites who had been educated by the colonisers took the most of academic areas and continued to influence Korean curriculum. Nationalists have attempted to decolonise the Korean curriculum. This paper provides a critical look at that curriculum and these more recent efforts.

PAPER 4:

PUAMP370

Is affirmative action in education really necessary in Fiji?

Priscilla Puamau, University of Queensland

This paper begins by outlining the problems that have faced Fijian indigenous education which have resulted in affirmative action policies.This paper also examines the way affirmative action has been conceptualised and theorised in western countries such as America and Britain with Fiji. It

specifically examines two positive discrimination policies with a view to assessing their outcomes. The main contention of this paper is that affirmative action policies in education were Fiji's way of asserting its post-coloniality after almost a century of colonial rule. It argues that the maintenance and perpetuation of colonial structures in education such as curriculum, pedagogues, language and assessment system may be one explanation for the continuing underachievement of indigenous Fijian students in formal schooling. The final aim of this paper is to pose a series of questions about the kinds of research questions that may need to be asked regarding the future direction of affirmative action policies in new times.

PAPER 5:

WAHR371

Distance education in the new times: Postcolonial content, space and time

Richard Wah, University of Queensland

By definition, education is provided to students within a context. For modernist, colonialist and industrial eras, the school was a useful concept for creating an 'artificial' institutional context which has stood the test of time. However, in New Times it is both necessary and difficult for formal education to define the appropriate and effective contexts for education. This is particularly the case for what has traditionally been called 'distance education', which struggles with how to define its contexts and its human subjects, whether real or simulated. The construction of the students' contexts within distance education is by way of the presupposition and building of the 'average' distance student. Post-colonial and postmoderm theories dispute this type of homogenisation. Consider the rapid changes of New Times facing South Pacific peoples: traditional beliefs and ethics under threat; moves towards flexible work routines and conditions; new technologies and explosions of available information from very conceivable source, even those that sites that had been 'silenced' for so long. This paper is a discussion of the possibilities and the problems facing distance education in Fiji and selected Pacific Islands.

PAPER 6:

WEBSD372

The differential implications of globalisation for Kenya's stratified education system

Daisy Webster, University of Queensland

The focus of this paper is to explore and discuss the implications of globalisation on education and schooling in Kenya from a historical perspective. The paper will consider the differential impact of globalising trends on a stratified schooling system by comparing the nature of Kenya's 'pre-globalised' colonial and 'globalising' post-colonial schooling system. While the postcolonial period greatly expanded the education system which the British colonizers had left, stratification remained acute. The globalising process, including the reduction of government investment in social welfare, means that the Kenyan elite is likely to be increasingly able to appropriate the benefits of a globally sophisticated Western education and capitalist consumer culture, while the gap that separates them from other social groups becomes wider. Information technology has the potential, however, to revolutionise education by countering the disadvantages of remoteness and insufficient resources, and the paper ends by considering the circumstances in which such a situation could be brought about.

PAPER 7:

YULAE373

Decontextualization and recontextualization of educational reform in Indonesia

Ella Yulaelawati, University of Queensland

In the postcolonial period, Indonesia education has attempted reform by mixing and blending the importation of so-called Western models with attempts to maintain and develop indigenous Indonesian models and approaches. Pressure to fit in the global arena and the past severe experiences of colonisation provide two contextual realities of privatization and patron-client relation that simultaneously occur within the community. In these pressures, reformers tend to DEconTEXTualize reform elements under the assumption that practitioners will RECONtextualize these ideas and practices. These phenomena resulted in two prevalent conflicts between cultural domination and progressive reforms and between decontextualization and recontextualization in the implementation of

educational change. In this paper, analysis of institutional hegemony is used to explain the conflicts. This analysis provides a postcolonial explanation of resistance to change and suggests modes of recontextualisation which are useful for retheorising practice in new times.

Professor Allan Luke, Graduate School of Education, the University of Queensland

Old Racisms in New Times: the responsibilities of educators and researchers

The practices and discourses of the New Racism in Australia in 1996 and 1997 have already influenced the lives of many teachers and students in schools, universities and other educational institutions. But a critical understanding of the current debate requires that it be set against the broader themes of New Times: the emergence of new ethnic identities and cultural practices, the impact of the globalisation of the economy on educationally 'at risk' communities, the significance of discourse and representation across these moves. This paper aims to introduce to a broad audience of educational researchers, teacher educators and teachers a critical vocabulary for talking and thinking about racism and racist practices in schools - a vocabulary drawn broadly from work in postcolonial studies and materialist sociology. My point here is that a closer focus on 'racialising practices', forms of cultural 'hydridity', and on a materialist analysis of economic marginality in Australian communities, has a great deal to taech us about the stratgeies and practices of the New Racism, of its socioeconomic and historical bases,and of constructive and practical counter-strategies.

LUKEC497

Cultural diffierence and glass ceiling politics

Carmen Luke, University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 5, Women and higher education: Gendered performances in an era of uncertainty and difference.

LUNDR174

SYMPOSIUM 23: University teacher education and the key competencies

Chairperson: Roy Lundin, Queensland University of Technology

Participants: John Lidstone and Mark Brommeyer, Queensland University of Technology, Brian Sharpley and team, Monash University, Laurie Brady, Gilda Segal, Christine Deer and Kim Walker, University of Technology, Sydney, and Jim Mitchell and Robert Long, University of Canberra

Overview:
During 1997, DEETYA commissioned four universities to develop learning packages to develop curricula within a teacher education course which enhances the ability of trainee teachers to develop key competencies in students. The four universities were also provided funds to collaborate in the research and development of these learning packages and this has resulted in an innovative set of complementary materials, including videos and case studies, as well as an online Web resource. This symposium will provide the opportunity for the four universities to collaborate further in displaying the materials and explaining their use. These packages may also be taken up by other university Faculties of Education as well as by Education systems for inservice programs on the key competencies.

PAPER 1:

LUNDR175

Identifying, teaching, assessment and reporting of key competencies in environments other than the classroom

Roy Lundin, John Lidstone and Mark Brommeyer, Queensland University of Technology

This presentation is based on the learning materials for the Key Competencies which were developed, tested and then refined with a group of fourth year Bachelor of Education students at QUT. Learning materials for three modules comprised a printed workbook for students, 12 videotaped scenarios of school children and teachers in non-classroom learning environments, and a teachers' handbook. The modules deal with the identification, teaching, assessment and reporting of the seven Key Competencies which are part of the national agenda for school curricula. The research focussed on trialing these modules with a view to determining how the concepts were grasped by the teacher trainees and whether they could pick up skills relating to these four processes. Of particular interest were the notions of competency levels and how the teaching of the competencies could be made explicit.

PAPER 2:

Key competencies in preservice teacher education

Brian Sharpley and team, Monash University

This research is derived from a DEETYA-funded project to develop a model for Presenting Key Competencies at the Preservice level. The major aims of this project were to familiarise preservice teachers with the Key Competencies; to encourage them to reflect upon and evaluate their own performance levels; and encourage them to explore the use of Key Competencies in teaching and learning. A number of case studies will be presented of how preservice teachers perceive their own levels of competencies - particularly Collecting, Analysing and Organising information; Solving Problems; and Using Technology - and how their competency levels have altered during the first six months of a preservice program. Some insights will also be offered about how experienced teachers perceive the Key Competencies, how their perceptions have changed over time and how the competency of students are developed in some schools.

PAPER 3:

BRADL177

Case-based pedagogy and the key competencies

Laurie Brady, Gilda Segal, Christine Deer and Kim Walker, University of Technology, Sydney

The purposes of our research were to develop and trial teaching cases (written and video material) to assist trainee student teachers to deepen their understanding of issues surrounding possible introduction of the Key Competencies into secondary education. In this paper, we explore issues arising from the development of a selection of our cases and their trialling with Graduate Diploma in Education (Science) students. Issues emerging from this research are: some teachers' and student teachers' claims that the Key Competencies are implicit in science syllabi and therefore do not need to be taught explicitly; the nature of strategies required to teach the Key Competencies; ways of assessing the Key Competencies; ways of implementation of the Key Competencies into school programs; practising teachers' cynicism when confronted with politically imposed change. Hence our research raises the question: What is the meaning of the Key Competencies for schooling?

PAPER 4:

LONGR178

The key competencies in teacher education

Robert Long and Jim Mitchell, University of Canberra

For the past nine months the Faculty of Education's Centre for Research in Learning and Teaching (CRILTS) has been conducting a project on the Key Competencies (KC's) in teaching. Funded by DEETYA, the Project is a collaborative work across four universities which seeks to develop Teacher Education curricula through which to implement ideas put forward by the Mayer Committee. Essentially the Project aims to assist university staff across Australia develop a theoretical knowledge of the KC's and to provide them with means for communicating the KC's to Secondary Teacher Education students in such a way as to assist them to develop a framework for incorporating the KC's into an overall schema of teaching. This paper reports the curriculum planning, implementation, and the results of an evaluation process adopted at The University of Canberra, and the role of information technology innovation as the basis for cooperative ventures in program development and diffusion at tertiary level.

LUNDR175

Identifying, teaching, assessment and reporting of key competencies in environments other than the classroom

Roy Lundin, John Lidstone and Mark Brommeyer, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 23, University teacher education and the key competencies.

Contemporary perspectives: An innovative approach to post-graduate study

Margaret Botticchio, Pauline Lysaght, Florence Rankin, Maria-Raquel Silva and Lesley Smith, University of Wollongong

This paper will report on the experiences of a group of five post-graduate students involved in the evolution of their own course on Contemporary Perspectives in Education. The impetus for this program stemmed from the desire to develop independent research projects within a collaborative learning environment. What emerged was an innovative structure that created a forum for intimate discussions which, at times, included specialised input from academics invited to participate with the group. In addition, assessment was negotiated to satisfy individual needs and academic standards. In a time of diminishing educational resources this innovative approach to course design and delivery may provide a flexible model for academics and post-graduate students involved in education.

MABEP082

The problems of promoting cooperate governance in historically black institutions in South Africa: With reference to the University of North-West

Phineas Mabetoa and H.O. Kaya, University of the North-West

The advent of democracy in South Africa and the challenges posed by national and global social economic political opportunities have prompted the restructuring of the racially segregated system of education into a single coordinated effective and efficient system which among others provides for stakeholder participation, i.e. students, staff, parents, university management, etc.

The proposed new system for higher education in South Africa requires the creation of a new organisational and regulatory framework which can facilitate responsible interaction and productive partnerships among the stakeholders.

This paper examines the problems encountered in the process of transformation of the roles and responsibilities of council and executive management at the University of North-West, (South Africa) in order to promote cooperate governance in the following areas:

1. academic transformation
2. broad transformation forum
3. role of linkages in transformation

MACCJ258

Learning from feature film: A sociocultural analysis

Judith MacCallum, Murdoch University

This paper uses Wertsch's notion of narrative as a cultural tool in historical representation, as a framework, to examine students' learning from feature film. Students' reflective journals and responses in focus group interviews during a semester-long university course, 'Hollywood and History', are used to construct the data. Analysis focuses on students' "consumption" of the accounts of history (ie what they take away from the films), and in particular their "mastery" of the content and "appropriation" (commitment or resistance) to the historical representation. Findings are discussed in the context of multiple and competing narratives of history, and the wider implications of learning from visual media.

Using a self-reflective journal to enhance science communication

Judith MacCallum and Ruth Hickey, Murdoch University

In new times the ability to self-evaluate and reflect on one's own action in communicating with others, will be a crucial workplace skill. This paper examines the use of reflective journals in an innovative peer tutoring course, designed to support university science students in peer tutoring and mentoring in schools. The course aims to enhance the effectiveness of student tutoring through students' self-evaluation and reflection on their personal tutoring experiences in relation to the course content, and to develop a link between school tutoring and workplace communication.

Findings from the first two years of the course, based on data sources of students' journal entries and responses to a questionnaire (n=45), will be presented. Analysis focuses on the development of reflective skills and students' awareness of their personal power in detecting and solving problems and developing strategies to promote two way communication. The use of self-evaluation through reflective journals was found to enhance the effectiveness of tutoring. Discussion will focus on the appropriateness of the course for developing the 'human side' of science, and the implications for developing this often under-represented aspect of science.

SYMPOSIUM 24: Researching curriculum leadership in new times: Insights into theorising and researching teachers' curriculum leadership in changing contexts.

Participants: Ian Macpherson, Tania Aspland, Ross Brooker, Robyn Wretham and Greg Thurlow, Queensland University of Technology

Overview:
This symposium will initially report on a dynamic model of curriculum leadership that has emerged with our collaborative research over the past four years. Within this model, teachers are positioned as central to curriculum leadership, and our cross sector research team has invited them to voice how they are positioned differently within differing school contexts. The findings will form the substance of Paper 1.

The research methodologies and practices have evolved within a narratives research framework juxtaposed with a particular form of critical and collaborative action research that has valued teachers stories and critical conversations as the most effective way of collecting and analysing research data about curriculum leadership in new times. The processes that we have used and the insights we have gained will form the basis of an interactive dialogue between teachers and the members of the research team. This will be the focus of Paper 2 which will be supplemented by video material.

In conclusion, we will put to the symposium that this type of research is the most appropriate methodology for teachers engaging in curriculum leadership in changing times, for it positions teachers at the centre of a process that values dialogical communication amongst partners who enjoy a parity of esteem.

MACPI146

Creating space for the voices of all stakeholders in curriculum leadership

Ian Macpherson, Queensland University of Technology

This paper reflects upon collaborative school-based research over recent years in an ARC-funded project which focussed on curriculum leadership for effective learning and teaching. While the research has addressed certain questions about the nature of curriculum leadership and its rich diversity of representation in a range of teaching/learning contexts, it has raised others of significance in relation to the "readiness" of significant stakeholders to engage in curriculum leadership practice. This paper begins to explore to what extent and in what ways all stakeholders have voice and are included in curriculum leadership practice.

The paper interrogates some exploratory conversations with teachers, students and parents in terms of their sense of empowerment to engage in and transform/reconstruct their curriculum leadership practice.

The interrogation is informed by emerging understandings about curriculum leadership from the Research Project mentioned above, and by insights derived from relevant literature about the empowerment of stakeholders to engage in and transform curriculum leadership practice.

The paper concludes with a call to define empowerment to engage in and transform curriculum leadership practice by all stakeholders in ways which are authentic and relevant in teaching/learning contexts. Such a call will foreshadow possible ways of responding to, and further researching, the challenge of creating space for the voices of all stakeholders in curriculum leadership.

Making the most of research supervision at a distance

Mary Jane Mahony, Orange Agricultural College, University of Sydney

Government and higher education imperatives together with a rising demand for postgraduate qualifications are driving an increase in postgraduate enrolments. Postgraduate research supervision, a specialised form of teaching, is thus becoming a teaching and learning issue of increasing importance, especially when coupled with the increasing number of postgraduate students undertaking programs at a distance. While supervision of postgraduate research students at a distance has always been with us and in the 1990s it is an increasing practice, it has as yet been little examined in Australia compared with the more traditional campus-based supervision. Results of a preliminary inquiry addressed to supervisors of postgraduate research students, with a focus on expectations, practices and perceived value of postgraduate research at a distance using a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) framework will be reported. Issues arising from the results together with preliminary recommendations at institutional and practitioner level will be discussed.

MAHOP425

Teaching in the managerial state

Pat Mahony and Ian Hextall, Roehampton Institute London

As for many other workers in the public sector the working lives of teachers are being redefined in accordance with precepts derived from what is commonly known as New Public Management. This phenomenon transcends national and continental boundaries and is one expression of that vigorously contested concept "globalisation". In the UK conceptions of what constitutes the 'effective teacher' and what counts as career progression are being reshaped by the new structure of National Professional Qualifications. The teaching profession is being increasingly differentiated in ways which carry significant social justice implications for particular groups of children and teachers. Major transformations are also occurring throughout the nation states of the European Community in the structure, organisation, characteristics and control of teacher education and professional development. This paper will consider why so much change should be occurring now and the influences which may be generating such activity in so many diverse contexts. It will also explore the ways in which this process of de/reprofessionalisation impacts upon issues of governance and accountability in teacher education and connect with wider debates in the public sector both in the UK and elsewhere.

MALIR095

Parental control and academic performance: A case of the Chinese-Australian and Anglo-Australian high school students

Ranbir Singh Malik, Edith Cowan University

Cross-cultural studies undertaken in the Cofucian Heritage Cultures (China, Japan and Korea) and in the Western World, have provided compelling evidence to suggest that CHC children are more diligent, have higher achievement motivation and m,ore of them aspire to professionall degrees, compared to their counterparts from the Western countires. Why do the children from the South East Asian countries, home and abroad, take school work so seriously and many Westerners do not?

This author undertook a doctoral study at Edith Cowan University and found a strong relationship between parental control strategies and children's academic achievement. In this qualitative study, thirteen high school children (six girls and seven boys) from four Chinese-Australian and four Anglo-Australian families were studied in their homes and the school they attended. These families resided in the same, predominantly middle class, suburb of Perth and their children attended the same school where this author taught for several years, including the period of doing this research.

When these children started high school, apart from the disadvantage of language for the Chinese-Australian children, similarities rather than the differences in maths and English (measured on IQ tests conducted by the school psychologist) characterised them. By the time they completed grade 12, there was a marked difference in their performance and aspirations for further studies. Only one Anglo-Australian student enrolled at the university, two enrolled at TAFE colleges and three dropped out either before completing grade 12 or after failing it. By contrast, four Chinese-Australians had enrolled at different universities to do professional degrees, one had enrolled at TAFE college and two of them (still at high school) had selected subjects leading to study programs at the university. The author found parental control in the case of th Chinese-Australians and a lack of it Anglo-Australians, as a key factor for these differential outcomes.

One journal : Two voices

Carmel Maloney and Glenda Campbell-Evans, Edith Cowan University

The art of journal writing has been increasingly included in teacher education programmes as a means of reflective practice. Although minimal research evidence exists to substantiate the effectiveness of journal writing as a tool for enquiry, Knowles and Holt-Reynolds (1991) suggest that journal writing is valuable when it "becomes interactive, shared with others as a dialogue such as what we, as teacher educators and preservice teachers interact in the pages of journals".

This paper reports phase two of a project and explores the interactive nature of journal writing between student teachers and university teachers. Whilst building upon a framework for journal analysis, an outcome of Phase one, part two of the project provides opportunities for further investigation into the respondents 'place' in the process of journal writing. Phase two data were drawn from two sources; survey and interviews. The survey focussed on issues such as how the journal was used, what it contributed to student learning, and the interactive process of journal writing. The primary purpose of the interviews was to identify the strategies university teachers used as journal respondents which contributed to students' learning about teaching.

Through content analysis themes, concepts and meanings regarding the role and the impact of respondents during interactive journalling have been explored.

MALOK272

Where will the children play? Young people talking on the urban environment

Karen Malone, Deakin University

1997 marks the twentieth anniversary of the landmark UNESCO funded research study in the field of young people's urban environmental experience: 'Growing Up In Cities'. Currently a replication and extension of this original project has been initiated in eight countries, including Australia. The Australian project contributes to this international study by comparing baseline data from the original 1972 study within the context of local and international trends, policies and patterns of urban development, children's rights and environmental education. This project is particularly significant due to the escalating impact of urbanisation on young people's lives in Australian cities and their position as marginalised and silenced in urban decision making forums.

Preliminary findings from the research project have revealed that young people living in these 'high risk' urban situations construct non-sterotypical views of the physical and social environment based on their lived experience. These experiences find them dislocated from their local environment and apathetic to much of the environmental education currently taught in schools. The aim of this project has been to establish collaborative relationships with local government officials, young people and educators from the local secondary college to develop a relevant and action oriented education emanating from young people's desire for a safe and stimulating urban environment. This paper focuses on the research methodology used to support the interaction between local government officials, researchers, community workers, police, educators and young people. The presenter poses the question: How can our research endeavours support young people to have an authentic voice in negotiating the planning of urban environments?

MALOP208

Teaching with, not from, a textbook

Patricia Malone, Australian Catholic University

This paper will explore the use of textbooks in HSC Studies of Religion classes. In the past five years, several series of Australian text books have been developed in response to new approaches to religious education and new courses such as the NSW HSC but there has been no research into the use of these materials or their contribution to an educational approach to religious education. This paper will examine text books as an aid to the teaching learning process and creative ways to use them in the religion classroom. It will discuss some research data obtained from a preliminary case study and link this to research into the effectiveness of the course on students's attitudes to religion and religions. It will also examine some of the growing educational research into the contribution of the use of text books to the teaching learning process and possible implications for the area of religious education and other subject areas.

Educational innovation in difficult contexts: Changing whole programmes to problem-based learning

Don Margetson, Griffith University

Innovations in education during a period of severe cuts in government funding face a bleak prospect. The pressure is to produce more with less.Financial pressure is, of course, not the only influence. Ideological shifts, technological developments, and other changes play their parts. However, the new times in which education finds itself are dominated by a severe reduction in resources. A common criticism (whether valid or not) of problem-based learning is that it is resource-intensive in terms of staff-student ratios. Yet, in this context, three medical schools in Australia have recently moved systematically towards problem-based learning to some extent. In a similar context in the UK, all medical schools have been encouraged to move in that direction, and at least three have recently changed whole programmes towards problem-based learning. What has been their experience of such thorough change in the currently difficult context? What might we learn from this for research and innovation at all levels of education? This paper will consider the issues in the light of a study based on recent visits to some of these institutions.

MARKG182

When human capital theory serves social justice: Competency based wages for workers with disabilities

Genee Marks, Bricolage Academic and Research Consultancies, NSW

The Supported Wage System, established by Australia's Federal Labor government, was designed to ensure that people who were not considered competitive in the open labour market, could still be employed, and earning what was considered to be 'appropriate wages', whilst also receiving vocational education and training relevant to their specific employment. Despite the clear potential for abuse by employers, this arrangement was fully endorsed by the ACTU, employer bodies and the Industrial Relations Commission. The government report, Working Solution, took this human capital perspective further yet, arguing that for workers with disabilities, even within supported and sheltered employment services, "payment is at full award rates or pro-rata rates, on the basis of an agreed productivity based/skills competency assessment, consistent with the principles of the supported wages system." (1995, p.9).

What is in question in this paper is the effect that the notion of a supported or competency based wage may have on the employment, and subsequent work-based vocational education and training, of people with disabilities. It seems, in fact, that the Supported Wage System has worked effectively towards affirmative action and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. Companies such as McDonald's and Pizza Hut have taken the system on board, and have proved themselves to be consistent and supportive employers of people with disabilities. Pizza Hut, for example, has a Supported Wage Clause inserted into the P.H.A. Enterprise Agreement, and boasts that through its JobPlus Disability Programme, 2.2% of Pizza Hut's workforce across Australia has a disability. It will be argued in this paper that a perspective driven by human capital theory is working to support social justice and equity in the workforce.

Influences on reading comprehension and numeracy among junior secondary school students in Australia: 1975-1995

Gary N Marks, Australian Council for Educational Research

This paper focuses on changes in achievement over time and the association of achievement with several social and educational factors. Data for the analyses reported were drawn from two national monitoring studies and other studies of representative samples of junior secondary school students

designed to monitor the progress of young people through school into further education, training and work. The tests focussed on reading skills (which correlate highly with other aspects of literacy) and numeracy.

The analyses reported include: comparisons of the percentage of students correctly answering common items; the mean levels of achievement and (where possible) over time comparisons over time of the influence of gender, ethnicity, a variety of aspects of social background and schools on achievement.

Impact of national curriculum initiatives on teachers' practical theories

Perc Marland, Andrew Sturman and Chris Forlin, University of Southern Queensland and Kerry Kennedy, University of Canberra

A number of changes linked to National Curriculum Frameworks and Profiling have occurred throughout Australian schools in the last few years. Attempts have been made to monitor, in broad terms, the progress of these developments across State and Territory jurisdictions and to identify factors which have facilitated or impeded such progress. Teacher reactions to these developments have also been mapped but no study has yet examined the impact of such developments on the practical theories of teachers, that is, the notions about teaching and learning which shape the actual classroom practices of teachers. Yet the success of any classroom reform depends on teachers developing a commitment to the reform and changing the ways they conceptualise their work and the values, beliefs and principles which underlie their practices.

This study examines changes to the practical theories of twelve teachers of English and Mathematics in three state schools in Queensland and relates those changes (or lack of change) to aspects of the institutional contexts in which they served.

The measurement of physical self-concept

Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

The lability of psychological ratings: The chameleon effect in global self-esteem

Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

MARSH155

New times, new techniques for examining the separation of the competency and affective components of self-concept: A developmental perspective

Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

MARSH154

The lability of psychological ratings: The chameleon effect in global self-esteem

Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

MARSH155

New times, new techniques for examining the separation of the competency and affective components of self-concept: A developmental perspective

Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

Self-handicapping and level and stability of self-concept

Andrew Martin, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

MARTW358

Addressing homophobia in schools

Wayne Martino, Murdoch University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 3, Sexualities and the intellectual work of gender reform.

MARTW419

SYMPOSIUM 24: Addressing boys' education: Framing debates, implementing strategies and formulating policies

Chairperson: Wayne Martino

Participants: Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, University of Technology, Sydney, Stephen Fisher, Murdoch University, Lindsay Fitzclarence, Chris Hickey and Russell Matthews, Deakin University, and Lori Beckett, University of Sydney

Overview:
In this symposium issues pertaining to the education of boys are outlined within a gender equity framework for drawing attention to the impact and effect of hegemonic masculinites in schools. Current debates and assumptions in boys' education that obstruct and limit the work that can be done will be addressed. Research with adolescent boys in schools will also be drawn on as a basis for signalling the effectivity of particular strategies for helping boys to address issues of masculinity and power in their lives within the context of gender reform initiatives. The ways in which the new national framework, "Gender Equity : A Framework for Australian Schools", can contribute to teachers' and parents' work with boys to understand their schooling and social experiences and improve their educational outcomes will also be outlined.

PAPER 1:

"The boys and the binaries": Current debates in boys education

Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, University of Technology, Sydney

In this paper, I will address current debates and assumptions in boys education that obstruct and limit the work that can be done. Misrepresentations and simplifications of history, feminism, and social, cultural and sexual diversity are sometimes mobilised as forms of resistance to attending to the complexities and subtleties in boys education in the context of gender reform.In addressing current debates, it will become evident that they are often constructed as oppositional discourses within a binary either/or framework.Some of the examples I will present are: essentialism OR socialconstruction; absent father OR present father; pro-feminist or anti-feminist. Each of these dualities homogenises and simplifies issues that require far more contextualised understandings.

PAPER 2:

FISHS421

Male violence in schools - who's doing the bullying?

Stephen Fisher, Murdoch University

Two streams of current social concern - the problem of masculinity and the issue of violence - converge in the institutional arena of schooling often obscurely named 'bullying'. This interest has led to recent publication of works that address either 'school-based violence' or 'issues for boys' (and only occasionally both) which not only contain many problematic assumptions, but are providing a framework for action/intervention in schools.

This presentation aims to uncover the essentially 'violence-reproducing' chararcteristic of these frameworks and programs. In particular, the 'issues for boys debate' is being driven by a thinly veiled 'backlash' against feminism being spearheaded by the charismatic Steve Biddulph. On the other hand, work to address violence in schools is largely cosmetic by lacking a recognition of the importance of structural/cultural change. Finally a new framework for addressing 'masculinity' and violence is described.

PAPER 3:

Boys in schools: Addressing the politics of hegemonic masculinities

Wayne Martino, Murdoch University

In this paper I will draw on interviews conducted with a group of adolescent boys in a catholic co-educational school to explicate the regimes of practices in which they enact particular stylised forms of masculinity. The data will be used to draw attention to ways in which these boys learn to relate to themselves and to others within the context of peer group relations and dynamics at this particular school. Possible implications of this research for assisting boys to develop specific kinds of capacities are indicated with regards to establishing a gender equity framework for addressing the politics of masculinities in schools.

PAPER 4:

FITZL423

Coaches, charges and contexts; studying gender dynamics and football

Lindsay Fitzclarence, Chris Hickey and Russell Matthews, Deakin University

In this presentation we outline the use of 'narrative pedagogy' in working with an underage football team. The presentation is designed to explore the use of the narrative approach as strategy for teaching aimed at developing alternative ways of experiencing and understanding gender relations. By focusing on the sporting arena we confront both theoretical and practical challenges because until recent times sport has evaded critical examination as it was generally regarded as a cultural practice that was thought to be in a socially neutral space, beyond the relations where legitimate social politics was conducted. The presentation outlines attempts to work within the sporting context with an aim to generate alternative gender knowledges.

PAPER 5:

BECKL424

Boys concern parents: Lobbying for gender reform

Lori Beckett, University of Sydney

In this paper, I will share some of my interview work with parents and their sons, which investigates, at a school community level, parents' and students' beliefs about feminine and masculine behaviours; parents' and students' expectations of educational outcomes; the ways these beliefs about gender are linked to patterns of boys' participation in education, and in the case of HSC candidates, their post-school outcomes; and parents' and students' views about gender equity. The intention is to shed some light not only on the way gender actually impacts on boys' schooling and their educational outcomes, but also on the ways parents and boys understand the schooling experience, in order to provide some direction for gender reform work.

Boys in schools: Addressing the politics of hegemonic masculinities

Wayne Martino, Murdoch University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 25, Addressing boys' education: Framing debates, implementing strategies and formulating policies.

MATSA377

The images of Japan in Australian secondary school textbooks

Akinori Matsumoto, Christchurch Polytechnic, New Zealand

This study identifies the images of Japan in the context of the Meiji Restoration and the Pacific War as described in Victorian secondary school textbooks, and clarifies the chronological changes of the images. The images include positive and negative views of Japan and the Japanese, and stereotyped and non-stereotyped views of Japan and the Japanese in the context of both of the previously mentioned events in modern Japanese history. Positive and negative views are identified by investigating judgemental information in the textbooks. By comparing Western scholars' views with Japanese scholars', stereotyped and non-stereotyped views on the events are defined.

The chronological changes in international relations between Australia and Japan are also investigated by using both Australian and Japanese materials. The links between these changes of such extreme images and stereotyped views, and the chronological changes in international relations are clarified. The results of the analysis show the degree to which the interdependence between the two groups (Australia and Japan) influenced the formation of the images of the outgroup (Japan) among the ingroup (Australia) members. This study also clarifies how the power balance between two groups can affect the creation of stereotyped views of the outgroup among ingroup members.

Fleeing the self in pursuit of the other

Julie Matthews, Sunshine Coast University College

Philosophers, feminists and postcolonial theorists cast radical doubt on our ability to see it and tell it like it is. Exploring the uncertainties of our sceptical New Times, this paper focuses on the Self / Other distinction in academic discourse. Like the desire for authenticity, the pursuit of the Other is a common truth-production manoeuvre. In combination with the flight from our-Selves, it legitimises certain questions about the Other and avoids others about the Self. Perhaps more importantly, it fails to take seriously the implications of the politics of self-representation that may be tactically deployed by Others.Assumptions of epistemic privilege and practices of epistemic violence are key features of academic discourse. Their dynamics are examined in a discussion of two incidents. One concerns a group of Anglo-Australian drama students who wanted to play Aboriginal characters, and the other relates to the time an Anglo-Australian writer masqueraded as a Ukrainian.Despite the confusions and dilemmas of our representational practices I suggest that there important things to be done. First we can support the struggle to get real non-white others into the spaces marked by their absence and second we can scrutinise the limits of what we can know.

MCBRN186

Adults responsible for groups of very young children in child care centres

Noelene McBride, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 16, Early childhood teachers working in new times: Reports on research undertaken in the 1990's.

Gender, class and race in university culture

Helen McCann, University of Southern Queensland

My presentation will report on a research project that I am currently engaged in. I am examining the day-to-day practices of universities, particularly pedagogic practices, as they impact on so-called 'new students'. From the groups identified by government policies on student equity as experiencing disadvantage in university education, I am focussing on women, rural and indigenous students. A significant feature of my project is to undertake a reflective, collaborative discourse analysis with a group of first-year students of their experience of and constitution by university culture. This involves discourse analysis of pedagogic situations, texts and promotional materials, as well as collective biography work. I will have videotapes of these activities, along with the group's preliminary discourse analysis, to form the basis of my presentation.

MCCOC414

Knowing indigenous adult education: A feminist working of the postcolonial

Cathryn McConaghy, University of New England

This paper presents research from a doctoral thesis completed in 1997 at the University of Queensland. The research uses theoretical resources from within feminist and postcolonial pedagogies to describe and critique the major theoretical traditions which have emerged in Australian Indigenous adult education. The central research question addresses the various technologies and discursive regimes by which each of the major traditions have sought to secure epistemic authority within the discipline. The research findings conclude that apparently diverse theoretical traditions are linked through a fundamental culturalism which is complicit with the specific projects of Australian colonialism, capitalism and patriarchy. A proposal for a postculturalist approach to the discipline in these new postcolonial, globalising times is developed.

Impacting on the socialisation of beginning teachers of health and physical education through collaboration

Ann McCormack, The University of Newcastle

Learning to teach is a complex process and beginning teachers face many influences in their preparation for this role. Recognition of the powerful formal and informal educational processes impacting on the preparation and socialisation of a teacher can assist both teacher educators and teachers to make informed and constructive changes to the way they carry out their work.

Field experience is accepted as a critical element in the professional preparation of beginning teachers. This paper examines how the socialisation constructs related to field experience were addressd for a group of beginning teachers of health and physical education during a final year internship program.

Qualitative data gained from collaborative workshops and triadic conferences together with quantitative data from questionnaires will be presented and discussed. Recommendations and implications for future field experience programs will be explored.

An evaluation of a classroom program to teach students to be better thinkers

Chris McGrath, University of South Australia

This paper deals with teaching school students to be better thinkers. The learning principles presented are generic. They apply to all individuals and their learning organisations.

The session will report results about PhD research conducted in upper primary classes in Sydney schools during 1996. A teaching/learning model MinDQuestionS was developed nad implemented by the presenter/researcher. The model emphasises Metacognition, Disposition, Questioning and Skills. A mixed methodologies design was used. A Quasi-Experimental design was used with pre-tests and post-tests on treatment and control groups. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered from teachers and students in three treatment and three control group classes. Preliminary analysis of data will be presented.

The MinDQuestionS research model provides a rationale and practical strategies: to encourage students to be Metacognitive about their thinking and learning; to promote a positive Disposition to thinking and learning in the classroom; to develop a questioning to learning and thinking through the use and understanding of good Questioning both for teachers and students; and, to use some form of thinking Skills program to teach cognitive skills and to develop a language for discussing thinking across all classroom work.

Professional development implications for teachers and practical classroom strategies will be mentioned.

Teachers' learning towards the dialogic school: Getting real; enacting the rhetoric beyond resistance

Peter McInerney, Michael Lawson, John Smyth and Robert Hattam, Flinders University of South Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 27, Reclaiming the space for teachers' dialogic learning in schools.

MCLAM204

The 'literacy connection' - A researcher-teacher study of two ABE literacy classes

Margaret McLauchlan, The University of Newcastle

This paper presents the findings of a dissertation on the subject of student 'dropout' in the Adult Basic Education sphere. The study was undertaken utilising a 'researcher- teacher' methodology, and followed the progress of seventeen students in two of the researcher's 'normal' classes - day and evening. In order to understand why some students exit the RAWFA program before achieving their literacy goals, the researcher engaged in an intensive study of the ABE classroom. When students enter the class they commence a literacy journey. The journey metaphor provides the infrastructure for discussion of the findings. Seven student 'groups' are identified in the analysis. Characteristics such as motivation, commitment, energy, goal focus and the personal value placed on literacy differentiate the groups. Students are also differentiated by the decisions they make along the way, particularly in the face of challenges from 'outside'. The decisions strongly reflect the support structures they experience, including peer and teacher relationships. From the data the researcher was able to provide an explanation for the students' tendency to stay with, or leave, their literacy class in the face of a range of obstacles. The explanation takes the form of 'literacy connection' theory. The latter and its significance will be discussed in detail.

MCLEJ099

Telling the (feminist) truth about gender identity and schooling: How do we understand 1970s feminism in the 1990s?

Julie McLeod, Deakin University

This paper reflects on a case study of feminist policies and projects in Australian schools in the 1970s and analyses the 'truths' and norms about gender identity and difference which they articulated. Two sets of issues arising from this historical and theoretical study are then examined in detail. The first is the question of how to interpret historically feminist reforms in the domain of education. I argue that we need to develop ways of writing about the history of feminist interventions which avoid simplistic narratives of progress that position earlier forms of feminist practice and policy as naive and flawed, and, at least implicitly, attribute a higher order of insight and authority to contemporary theories and strategies. The second and related dilemma is that of evaluating differences and commonalities between past and present ideas about gender identity. I note some resonances - as well as the obvious differences - between popular poststructuralist conceptions of gender identity as 'constructed' and 'non-unitary' and earlier feminist understandings of the sex role and socialisation and propose a more sceptical and reflexive view of fashionable feminist truths.

What can a longitudinal study tell us about the production of gendered subjectivity in individual students?

Julie McLeod, Deakin University

The paper discusses some findings from the 12-18 Project, a qualitative, interview-based longitudinal study of Australian secondary school students. The project is designed to enable comparisons between different individuals and groups of girls and boys as well as to study changes and developments over time within individual biographies - the focus of this paper is making sense of individual biographies. A number of issues are raised in relation to interpreting individual subjectivities from students' narratives about themselves and from the interview data more generally. While these individual narratives point to broader patterns of subjectivity and of gender, they are read here in some detail in order to illuminate pre-occupations and themes in the lives of individual students as they move through schooling from grade 6 to year 10. In particular, students' accounts of unhappiness and of responsibility are examined as a way into understanding the ongoing process of the production of their gendered subjectivity.

MCLOC092

Literacy as reasoning: Developing communicative rationality in technology supported learning environments

Catherine McLoughlin, Edith Cowan University

Why is learning problematic in New Times? One response is that increasingly, technology and electronic media have redefined human possibilities and that increaased cultural and linguistic diversity signal change, complexity and uncertainty (Kalantzis and Cope, 1997). These dimensions of New Times invite a rethinking of teaching and learning as engagement in a pedagogy of multiliteracies (New London Group[, 1996). Learning and teaching must be conceived and sustained as socially based, cultural and discursive practices and appropriate conceptions of pedagogy and technoloogy embraced. The path forward is to enable learners to gain full participation in social practices of cognition and to develop their identities as responsible self-directed learners.

Drawing on observations of learner interaction and collaboration in telematics classrooms linked by communications technologies, this paper offers an interpretation and elaboration of what it means to develop students' ability to engage critically with school-based discourses, while they learn in geographically separated classrooms.

For technology supported learning environemnts, several dimensions of an effective pedagogy have been developed which amplify the notion of Critical Framing (New London Group, 1996). These are:

• an emphasis on the literacy of reasoning, redefined as communicative rationality;
• replacement of a transmission model of teaching with the "extended classroom model", where co-construction of knowledge is supported;
• a view of lerning as shared participation, refllection and participation; and
• an appreciation of the potential of technology to become part of the social fabric of learning, a resource tht can be used to represent, share and communicte ideas.

MCMUA361

WrittenMail, AusdioMail and VideoMail: A preliminary study of distance learners' chosen mode of feedback

Adela McMurray, University of South Australia

This paper attempts to examine the learners perceptions of WrittenMail (traditional written), AudioMail (audiotape) or VideoMail (videotape) communication channels of assignment feedback. The qualitative study was designed to develop some initial indicators about the efficacy of WrittenMail, AudioMail and VideoMail and to establish a set of principles for their use with distance education learners. A 'preferred mode of assessment' form was obtained from 50 University students who were enrolled in an undergraduate Social Science degree. Students selected WrittenMail , AudioMail or VideoMail feedback, as their lecturer feedback option for the Semester.

Whilst it is generally accepted that quality of feedback received directly affects learner motivation, it is less clear how various forms of feedback influence the level of motivation and attitudes of distance education students towards their learning.

Two thirds into the semester, after the learners received feedback on their second assignment and before their thirtd assisgnment wasdue, an open-ended questionnaire was sent to the distance learners. The comments made by the learners wee coded and grouped into categories using a constant comparative tchnique (Glaser and Strauss 1967).

Although not all the data has been analysed, preliminary results point to the following outcomes:

1. the learners preferred option was directly influences by the distance learners access to technology;
2. distance learners who chose AudioMail used the tape to comment on a variety of issues associated with their studies;
3. students in the second or third year of their degree program were more likely to choose the AudioMail or VideoMail feedback compared to first year students who predominantly chose traditional feedback; and
4. distance learners who chose AudioMail or VideoMail expressed a desire to continue receiving this form of feedback in subsequent units.

Becoming a school principal with a little help from my friends

Gai McMurtrie, Copacabana Public School

Factors such as early retirement and an aging workforce are impacting on the number of inexperienced personnel assuming the responsibilities of school principalship for the first time. Support for these relatively inexperienced school principals with their first assignments and responsibilities is vital.

This paper reports some of the results of in-depth interviews and a 1996 survey sent to all beginning principals in New South Wales Government schools and concentrates on how they initially made sense of their new school and its community during the post-appointment phase. The paper focuses on the types of professional development beginning principals prefer and comprehensively maps the work experiences, training and career paths of the first-time principals who will lead schools and their communities into the next century. Results indicate that one of the most preferred and highly rated types of professional development and support reported by beginning principals is networking with colleagues and other peer principals. The paper includes a set of case studies of the following profiles and career paths to the principalship: 1) the traditional career path, 2) the zig-zag career path, 3) political influences on career path, 4) barriers to becoming a principal in a small country town and 5)support along the path to principalship.

MCNEK246

Where is the Meaning in University Education in Australia?

Kerry McNeill, University of Sydney

This paper draws on sources such as the Higher Education Council's policies on quality and the research from cognitive psychology into deep and surface approaches to learning, to describe the main aims of university education in Australia. A critical analysis of these aims will be offered from the perspective of their impact on the identity of the student. It will be argued that while acquisition of knowledge, as a fixed body of information, continues to be the primary "business" of the university, hoped-for outcomes such as transformation of the student or "meaningful education" cannot be achieved. By drawing on the work of the sociologist, Anthony Giddens, to paint a picture of the impact of modernity on the identity , it will be further argued that the traditional aims of university education are irrelevant to the student as he or she moves into the new millenium. The paper will take a philosophical investigation into an alternative platform for the introduction of an identity of the student which is not only more enriched but also more ethical.

MCWIE320

Stop teaching straight: Research methodology courses in postmodern times

Erica McWilliam and Wendy Morgan, Queensland University of Technology

'Quantitative-versus-qualitative' is still the dominaant rationality for designing research methodology courses. Our purpose in the paper is to explore the ways in which the 'stop thinking straight' imperatives of postmodern scholarship are demanding new approaches to the teaching of research methodology which depart from this orthodoxy. As an exemplar of new pedagogical strategies in this area, we draw on 'HEAD WORK, FIELD WORK, TEXT WORK: A TEXTSHOP IN NEW FEMINIST RESEARCH', which is a set of learning materials that we have designed in collaboration with American colleagues, including Patti Lather. This 'textshop' provides postgraduate students in the fields of arts and humanities, social sciences and education with an introduction to research informed by posthumanism, postcolonialism and poststructuralism. We consider both the anxiety of a less comfortable social science, and ways of assisting researchers to push past paralysis.

Technologised pedagogies and marginalisation

Erica McWilliam, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 29, Re-inventing academic work: The makeover of tertiary teachers.

MELLL314

Where are changing concepts of leadership and partnering in our institutions leading us?

Liz Mellish, Queensland University of Technology

Accepting the complex context within which schools operate, the session explores innovative and meaningful ways for dealing with complexity based on research into the utility of the appreciative inquiry approach to leading change in public bureaucracies.

In this paper, preliminary research findings from a study into appreciative consultation and organisational change in the public sector are reported. The findings will be related to the issue of school based management in an increasingly contestable and discontinuous environment. The question as to how principals, professionals and administrators in schools are professionally preparing themselves for the changing needs of their clients and the community will be asked. Specific references will be made to new and innovative ways of reframing the strategic planning and school development process. An inclusive planning model of Appreciative Consultation will be offered as one way to capture the imagination and commitment of all stakeholders in the future search process. The paper then develops an arguement as to why such a change in strategic management approach may be necessary, discusses the principles underpinning appreciative consulting, provides an example of the model-in-use and concludes by starting the process of encouraging school leaders and administrators to apply appreciative inquiry in their schools.

Impact of schools and pedagogy on students' civics and citizenship attitudes

Suzanne Mellor, Australian Council for Educational Research

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 21, Understanding civic learning and its social context: Current research in civics and citizenship education.

MEYER296

Necessary but not sufficient: Reconceptualising primary teacher education

Bob Meyenn and Judith Parker, Charles Sturt University

Recent research by Acker (1997), Grundy and Hatton (1994, 1995) examines the attitudes, values and ideological positions of Australian teacher educators and locates them in discourses which are both explanatory and interpretative. Significantly, their analyses explore the implications of teacher educators' technocratic and conservative ideology and practice for the preparation of the next generation of teachers. Such dominant ideology and practice mean that issues of equity and social justice as fundamental principles of the education system are less likely to occupy significant space or to be foregrounded in teacher education programs.

This paper argues that in order for issues of equity and social justice, 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 (for example during 1993) because it offers frameworks for critique and explanation of the role of teacher educators in cultural reproduction. The interdisciplinary approach drawn upon in cultural studies means that the prevalent compartmentalisation of knowledge, particularly in curriculum studies areas, is challenged and rendered problematic.

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

Language, membership and social identity

Jennifer Miller, University of Queensland

The acquisition of English as a second language is routinely identified by teachers and others as the major hurdle to mainstream integration of students of non-English speaking backgrounds. Although it has long been recognised that language and issues of cultural identity are closely bound together, educational researchers have produced little systematic evidence of how migrant students actually construct social/cultural identity as they are learning English. In what sense is learning a new language related to the construction of a 'new' identity?

In this paper, I draw on theory from second language acquisition, sociolinguistics and membership studies to show that the development of second language competence can not be viewed in isolation from social practices, both within and beyond the school. I then support this view with findings from four case studies of migrant students in a mainstream Brisbane high school. The case studies trace each students' passage from arrival at the intensive reception centre, through to a high school ESL unit, partial integration and then full mainstream integration. In interviews, the students talk about their perceptions of the reception centre, their culture shock on entering high school, along with issues of friendship and language learning. The interviews will also be shown to be in themselves, evidence of the phenomenon being studied, namely the connections between discourse competence in English, cultural identity and membership.

Implementing boys' programs in schools: Debates and dilemmas

Martin Mills, The University of Queensland

In recent times the neologism "boyswork" has surfaced in educational discourse. This term usually refers to programs which have been implemented in schools as part of a (pro)feminist gender equity process. This paper looks at the ways in which these programs often enter the school system and identifies curricular and pedagogical problematics associated with this entry. Amongst those considered here are the effectiveness of implementing programs through such avenues of the curriculum as Human Relationships Education subjects, the use of outside agencies as program implementers and the sex of the presenters of these programs. In exploring some of these issues interview data obtained from teachers and boys in two Queensland State High Schools where such programs were implemented will be used. It will be argued in this paper that whilst such programs are limited in effecting long term change, they are nevertheless important as a means of bringing (pro) feminist discourses to bear upon current interpretations of "what about the boys" issues.

The planning behaviours of musicians engaging traditional and non-traditional scores

Yvette Millard and Robert Cantwell, University of Newcastle

The study investigated the planning strategies of university music students learning a traditionally and non-traditionally notated (graphic notation) score. After completing a modified form of the SPQ, participants read two musical scores on a PC, one line at a time. Reading times for each line were taken, as were reaction times to a secondary probe. At the completion of each score, participants verbalised how they would go about learning the score to a level of performance competence. Protocols were scored for the presence of higher-level, mid-level and lower-level strategies, and for the level of focus in planning. Path analyses, with planning focus as the outcome measure, were separately conducted for each score. In both sets of analyses, reference to higher-level processing strategies predicted a higher planning focus, while a deep approach predicted higher-level strategy use. For the traditional score, surface learning was a negative predictor of high-level strategies, while a longer reading time was a positive predictor of focus. For the non-traditional score, both high- and mid-level strategies predicted a higher focus while low-level strategies predicted a lower focus. Familiarity with graphic notation, through mid-level strategies, also predicted focus. The implications of the results for the teaching of music are discussed.

MILNJ512

Pregnant Futures: Barriers to employment, education and training amongst pregnant and parenting adolescents

Jo Milne-Home, University of Western Sydney

In the recent ACER publication - Gender and School Education - researchers Collins, Batten, Ainley and Getty revealed that only 3 schools across the Australian sample of 195 made provisions for students with babies and toddlers, and only 1 government school, 2 Catholic schools and no independent authorities monitored retention of pregnant school aged girls. My WEETAG publication - Pregnant Futures: Barriers to employment, education and training amongst pregnant and parenting adolescents - profiles pregnant and parenting youth in Western Sydney and service providers in government and non-government agencies around Australia. Researching Education in New Times may mean revisiting 'students at risk' and questioning policy makers about forging the citizenship agenda in contemporary school culture. Stories of systematic discrimination: sex based harassment; bullying around being female, 'fat' and 'ethnic'; and personal obsessions with body image; binges with sex, drugs and high calorie food; coping with addictions to cigarettes, gambling and drugs; recovering from sexual abuse; and struggling to win recognition in dysfunctional families were part of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood experiences. Being 'at risk' need not be the end of school involvement and the start of welfare dependence. The Education system has not managed school aged pregnancy and parenthood because the culture of the classroom is irrelevant, irreverent and out of sync with 'New Times'. While we write research proposals with words like citizenship, globalisation and cultural diversity threading ideas of 'New Times', the problems of 'students at risk' are losing their currency as prized subjects in Educational Research and becoming as old fashioned as 'social justice' and 'equity'.

MOKM109

Bad and good schools, voices from the field

Magdalena Mok, Macquarie University

This study addressed the concept of school effectiveness from the students' perspective. Year 12 students were consulted, using open-ended questions, what they regarded as good and bad schools. Data were analysed and major themes were extracted from the data. A comparison between merging themes and the literature on school effectiveness highlighted importance discrepancies between experts' views and students' views concerning what made good and bad schools.

WITHDRAWN

MONIK257

English teachers' beliefs, values and practices of literacy assessment in the first year of high school

Karen Moni,The University of Queensland

The study was conducted as a pilot study for a classroom-based research project investigating how teachers and students construct understandings of literacy assessment during the first year of high school. The findings reported here are drawn from a survey focussing on Year 8 English teachers' beliefs, values and practices regarding literacy assessment in the first year of high school. The survey, which was developed using open and closed questions, was sent to 100 state high schools in Queensland. Data from the 120 returned surveys were analysed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Findings are presented in the following areas: teachers' perceptions of Year 8 students' expectations of literacy assessment in English, Year 8 students' problems with literacy assessment, teachers' values about literacy assessment in Year 8, and the impact of a proposed assessment and reporting framework on literacy teaching and assessment practices in Year 8. The implications of these findings for teaching and assessing literacy in the first year of high school, and for the introduction of new frameworks for literacy assessment and reporting will be discussed. (178 words)

Multicultural education: Some problems of cultural identity in postcommunist Russia

Dimitri Morakhovski, La Trobe University

This paper will address the issue of multicultural education and the administrative structures which support this initiative.

• The paper is based on experience from the Russian context. The main issues raised in this paper are:
• the concept of cultural identity in Russia as one of the most important issues during the period of shift from communism to democratic society.
• the interrelations between the multi-ethnic school and the society in transition.
• how can the experience gained in countries with long democratic traditions help Russia to improve its pluralistic school system?

What kind of inquiry do we need to explore these issues?

The paper analyses the main guidelines and principles for organising research into the above questions. It gives also some brief overview of the changing values in the Russian society from communist times via "perestroika" (restructuring) to "smutnoje vremia" (vague time). It argues that the effect of current economic policies on education is devastating.

The following questions will also be addressed in this paper.

Does the end of the "cold war" give real freedom to many people in Russia? Was the "iron curtain" more heavy than a "velvet curtain of culture"? What are the implications for education for people of different ethnic groups in Russia?

The paper tends to show that education during the change periods needs to be the subject of an extensive research.

MORGW527

Hyper-ventilating: The textual authorising of teachers and students in hyperspace

Wendy Morgan, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 29, Re-inventing academic work: The makeover of tertiary teachers.

Teacher receptivity to system-level change

Rose Moroz and Russell Waugh, Education Department of Western Australia

Constant change is demanded of teachers and their receptivity to the change impacts on the ability of educators to move forward. This paper reports a study which investigates teacher receptivity to a system-level change in a centralised education system.It sets out to investigate the relationship between teachers' receptivity to the change, the use of Student Outcome Statements, as the dependent variable, and seven independent variables in the context of differences in a number of situation variables. The dependent variable, receptivity, is measured in four aspects: feelings, attitudes, intentions and behaviour. The independent variables are set out in two groups - work organisations and teacher beliefs (feelings). Work organisations are measured in three aspects: shared goals, collaboration and teacher learning. Teacher beliefs are measured in four aspects: cost benefit, alleviation of fears and concerns, perceived support and feelings compared to previous system. The situation variables are the school's Socio Economic Status (SES) size and location, the department's subject area and size, the teachers's age, experience, gender, involvement in the decision to participate and the teacher's use and their purposes for the use of Student Outcome Statements.

Country student and teacher attitudes toward school subjects

Wally Moroz, Edith Cowan University

This paper reports the findings of a study of student and teacher attitude toward primary school subjects. The survey involved 800 middle and upper primary school students and their teachers from coutry schools in Western Australia. Significant year-level differences in attitudes toward school and school subjects are reported and there exists a dramatic decline in liking for social studies. Interestingly students value the learning area and think it is important but they do not like it and do not look forward to their next social studies lesson where didactic teacher-centred methods prevail. Teachers, however, have significantly different perceptions about social studies and it seem are unaware of what their students think about instructional practices and content. The author suggests that greater parity between teacher and student attitude may improve learning.

Full service schools

Dev Mukherjee, Australian Centre for Equity through Education

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 9, Education in new times: researching health promoting and full service schools.

MULLJ531

Young children's representations and conceptual understanding of number: A longitudinal study

Joanne Mulligan, Michael Mitchelmore, Lynne Outhred and Susan Russell, Macquarie University

This paper reports the first phase of a 2-year longitudinal study of 120 Grade 2 children, which aims to describe the growth of numerical concepts and processes and children's representations of these. There was a wide range of strategies used for each task category from which a classification scheme for early numerical structures has been developed. Analysis of children's visualisation patterns of numerical sequence and order produced highly developed systems for dealing with notation including use of decimals and negative numbers. Low achievers were more likely to produce poorly organised pictorial and iconic representations that were lacking in structure. High achievers who used dynamic imagery presented their solutions in well structured but often unconventional ways.

Benchmarking studies of society and environment : Is our current program best practice?

Rosemary Mulraney, Victoria University of Technology

Curriculum subjects in the Bachelor of Education P-12, Victoria University of Technology (Footscray), are becoming increasingly project-based in primary and secondary schools in the Northwestern Region of Melbourne. Student contact hours are shared between the traditional University setting and schools. What is the impact of this teaching and learning strategy on student teachers' competency in SOSE?

Internal and external benchmarking of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) with student teachers, teachers and mentor teachers; and SOSE practitioners at another university, will facilitate inquiry, professional conversations, and reflection. Benchmarking will enable all stakeholders to understand the content, process and outcomes of current SOSE programs; program implementation; and how current practice can be improved.

MUNNG172

"Let them eat caviar." Rejected students who want a university education

Geoff Munns, Phil Nanlohy and Margaret Thomas, University of Western Sydney

This paper investigates the educational experiences of a group of university students undertaking a special access program. The students have not been able to gain access to a university degree through conventional avenues, but have been granted a trial period in selected subjects. Future placement depends on success in these subjects. The paper explores previous school experiences and the transition to university life and studies. Positions of the students, their lecturers and university administrators are considered.

MUNNG207

Koori students taking risks: The Baiyai Research Project

Geoff Munns, Jan Connelly and Trish Townsend, University of Western Sydney

The paper reports on a research project. The research project aimed to look closely at the pedagogical relationship between teachers and their Aboriginal students. It examined how more productive relationships might encourage Aboriginal students to become greater risk takers in literacy lessons. The study was an action research project in two parts. The first part related to the research team being involved in an examination of teaching practices and the pedagogical relationships between teachers and young Aboriginal learners as they engaged in the teaching and learning of literacy. The second part looked at how changes to teaching practices in the light of information gained in the first part of the research might promote more productive pedagogical relationships which would encourage the Aboriginal learners to engage in greater risk-taking in literacy and language work.

First chance, second chance or last chance? Resistance and response to education

Geoff Munns and Mark McFadden, University of Western Sydney

This paper reports findings from two studies both of which used resistance theory to explain students' response to education. One study focussed on an inner city primary school characterised by high student opposition to both teachers and schooling. The other study examined how students, previously considered failures in mainstream education, responded to a 'second chance' program aimed at providing access to tertiary education. Each study considered the relationship between students, teachers and the curriculum and how this relationship was produced, negotiated and transformed within the everyday culture and language of the students. The first study identified conditions which might lead students to reach a decisive moment in their lives where a free, and arguably final, choice would be made to reject school and education. The second study identified factors in students' lives, both educational and personal, which led either to the educational access they desired or further frustration and failure. In reporting these findings, this paper will explore the theoretical and empirical common ground, and also the tension, between each study, thus offering a deeper understanding of student response to education along a broad educational continuum.

Child and family influences on adjustment to school: Differences between kindergarten, primary, and secondary student groups

Rosalind Murray-Harvey and Phillip Slee, Flinders University of South Australia

The focus of this study was children's adjustment to school. Three hundred and eighteen famailies provided information on a range of family variables that were hypothesized to impact on their kindergarten, primary school, or secondary school aged child's adjustment to school as rated by the child's teacher. With additional data obtained from the primary and secondary students, three path models were developed (based on kindergarten, primary and secondary data) to examine the interrelationship between child and family factors and the strength of their effect on adjustment to school. The results of model testing using path analysis revealed for the kindergarten group that parents' marital status exerted the strongest influence on children's adjustment to school. Family factors related to financial and occupational status, parents' age, and family cohesion impacted directly on secondary students' adjustment to school. For the primary school group, a different picture emerged depicting the influence of child rather than family variables on adjustment to school. It seems that through the school years, a different range of factors operate within the context of the family to affect children's adjustment to school.

NAICS325

Researching in new times: The South African experience

Sigamoney Manicka Naicker, Western Cape Education Department, South Africa

A brief historical sketch is provided reflecting on higher education research during the apartheid years in South Africa. The paper attempts to identify the trajectory of these institutions in relation to their political traditions. They are divided into two distinct camps which are sites of resistance and sites of compliance. For practical reasons, the research paradigms in educational faculties of two universities are discussed, ie. The University of Western Cape (traditionally coloured university) and The University of Stellenbosch (traditionally afrikaner university) are discussed.

The paper moves on to discuss transformation and the imperatives of transformation in relation to the White Paper on Higher Education produced by the new ministry of education and the Constitution of the Democractic South Africa. Issues relating to the new political project concerning Identity, Race, Culture, Disability and Gender are injected into the debates around researching in New Times in South Africa. The paper grapples challenges facing the above-mentioned Universities with regard to research in both their education faculties.

The EMU experience: Developing communities of mathematics practice in pre-service teachers

Gillian Kidman and Rod Nason, Queensland University of Technology

This paper examines the conditions which supported the use by pre-service teachers' of a shared database to enhance the development of a mathematical knowledge-building 'community'. We focus on a cohort of 100 students enrolled in the 4th year of the BEd(Primary) program at QUT. The aspects of the learning environment designed to promote a sense of community comprised the following elements: small group discussions in which participants worked on measurement workshops as well as access to shared electronic databases which included conferences of commentary on mathematics to which pre-service teachers, their lecturers and researchers could post ideas and comments. Examined in this paper are the conditions, practical, social and cognitive, under which progressive discourse (Bereiter,1994) emerged from these discussions. Progressive discourse here is being taken to mean advances in understanding through engagement and knowledge building.

The relationship between children's friendship networks and feelings of loneliness

Catherine Neilsen and Jennifer Bowes, Macquarie University

This study examines the context specificity of children's friendships and the impact this has on feelings of loneliness. Children in Grades Three, Four and Five (N=724) completed a friendship network measure as well as a specifically designed loneliness measure which assessed contextual variations in emotional wellbeing, across five domains: in the classroom, the playground, after-school, on weekends, and 'in most places'. Children's friendships were assessed using the Friendship Network Circle Activity (Neilsen and Bowes, 1996), which represents a more ecological approach to the assessment of children's friendships. The FNCA provides more accurate rates of actual friendship prevalence, by allowing children to nominate all those individuals, both at school and out-of-school, whom they consider to be friends. Peer reports of acceptance and network satisfaction ratings were also obtained. Results are discussed in relation to the contextual variations of children's friendships and related emotional wellbeing, and the distinctive information yielded by the FNCA. Findings suggest that while some children experience relatively high levels of isolation and loneliness in certain contexts, this does not necessarily generalise to all sectors of their social environment. Results stress the importance of assessing context-specific feelings of loneliness and the use of the FNCA in assessing children's friendship networks.

Leadership in the post information age: Directions in education and industry

Justus Lewis, Nanyang Technological University and Erin Neill, Queensland University of Technology

The Internet has created a very different environment for organisations and individuals. The potential availability of the world's information to anyone with a computer and a modem, the speed and low cost of access have wide-ranging implications for education and industry. Universities are no longer the principal gatekeepers of knowledge. Simultaneously industry's constant struggle to maintain a competitive edge in the post-information age has caused it to shift the focus of learning towards the less formal environment of the workplace--concepts like lifelong learning, learning to learn and Just-in-Time learning have entered common discourse. Traditional hierarchical power structures are being challenged with renewed vigor in this age by flatter (heterarchical)models.

This paper examines the implications of these changes for the attitudes of organizations and their members to each other.

Material for this study has been collected from interviews with senior officers in education and industry in Australia, Singapore, the United States and Brazil.

This study has important implications for future perceptions of "leadership" and support of "leadership" development. Leadership is not exercised in a vacuum and those who nuture its development need to understand their organization's orientation and its determination of what "leadership" means in the post-information age.

Internalization of teachers' shared goal orientations : The effects of studetnts' self-schemas and their perceived relationship with their teachers

Chi Hung Ng, The University of Queensland

Goal orientation is currently enjoying a lofty position in motivational research in education. Little, however, has been done to trace the origins of these goal orientations. Why do students come up with a particular goal orientation? In this study, the researcher assumes a sociocultural position to account fot the sources of students' goal orientations. Some research has confirmed that there is a close relationship between students' goal orientations and those held by important social others (e.g. Ames & Archer, 1987; Hokoda & Fincham, 1995). Nevertheless, this does not offer any clue on why students come to embrace certain goal orientations. The aim of this study is to shed light on this question through the study of internalization process. It is theorized that students' perceived realtionship with social agents, their teachers in this study, as well as their own achievement related self-schemas are crucial determinants in the internalization process. It is hypothesised that a close and warm relationship will facilitate the internalization process. At the same time achievement related self-schemas will determine students' responses to their teachers' shard goal orientation.

NGUBH278

Text editing in science instruction

Bing Hiong Ngu, Renae Low and John Sweller, University of New South Wales

In 3 experiments, the differential performance of chemistry problems was obtained for 3 training strategies, namely, text editing plus feedback , conventional problem-solving plus feedback and text editing without feedback. Text editing requires students to classify each problem in terms of whether the text of the problem provides sufficient, missing or irrelevant information for solution. The nature of feedback for text editing and convention problem-solving differs. The former stresses on the knowledge of problem structure while the latter focuses on computation. It was hypothesized that text editing plus feedback which emphasize on gaining familiarity with problem structure will lead to higher achievement than conventional problem-solving plus feedback. Expt1 showed that students who were trained in text editing plus feedback did not perform better than the conventional problem-solving plus feedback for the stoichiometry chemistry problems. In contrast, Expt2 revealed that text editing plus feedback proved to be superior to conventional problem-solving plus feedback in facilitating learning of molarity problems, in particular, students who were trained in text editing plus feedback were able to chunk the M-demand while solving the molarity problems. Expt3 demonstrated that text editing without providing feedback did not advantage the students to acquire skill in solving the molarity problems. We conclude that the suitability of text editing training strategy depends on learning materials. Furthermore, feedback also plays an important role in enhancing achievement. Implications for instructional design of chemistry problems are discussed.

Whole language goes up, reading standards go down: Fact or fiction?

Tom Nicholson, University of Auckland, New Zealand

This paper will trace the phenomenal rise in popularity of the Whole Language approach to the teaching of reading. This approach, especially during the last ten years, has taken over from traditional methods such as look-and-say, and phonics. But is Whole Language the magic bullet that some would have us believe? This paper will present data to suggest that Whole Language may not be the best way to teach reading for many children, and that it may even be a threat for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. It will be suggested that Whole Language may need to make some compromises in its philosophy, especially in regard to the teaching of decoding of letters to sound, in order to remain a dominant teaching approach into the next century.

Researching multimedia multiliteracies

Helen Nixon, University of South Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 15, New times for literacy, pedagogy and young people: Research challenges.

Sex role stereotypic attitudes of secondary mathematics students in single-sex and coeducational schools

Stephen Norton, Queensland Institute of Technology, and Leonie Rennie, Curtin University of Technology

There has been continuing interest in the potential of single-sex schools to cater for the needs of students. Attitude toward mathematics has been considered an important factor in influencing participation and success in mathematics. This study uses a cross sectional survey design to examine the attitudes of students in single-sex and coeducational schools all grades in secondary school. The Fennema-Sherman Mathematics as a Male Domain Scale was used to examine the attitudes of secondary school boys and girls from grades 8 to12 in single-sex and coeducational schools. The strong ceiling effect necessitated a qualitative analysis of the data. There were clear attitude differences between girls and boys, with girls being less stereotyped in their perceptions than boys. There were also differences relating to the school environment with girls in single-sex schools being less stereotyped than girls in the coeducational schools.

The 'critical' and the 'popular' in current English curriculum documents

Jennifer O'Brien, University of South Australia

A Statement on English, a current national subject English curriculum document, specifies that students learn to approach popular literature - a sub-category of literature - "critically", thus carrying into a contemporary setting problems inherent in the relationship between the 'popular' and education. As a classroom teacher experienced in the ambiguities and uncertainties of working critically with classroom texts of all kinds, I took as my starting place for this study the unproblematic coupling of 'the critical' with the 'popular'. I adopted a Foucauldian historical approach, asking: How is it that at this time that 'popular literature' could be constituted as an object of critical study in a set of subject English curriculum documents for use in South Australian government schools in the 1990s?

In this thematic poster session I explore the argument that the constitution of 'popular literature' forms part of a strategy for containing the diversity and the multiplicity of aims, students, scope, users, goals, and reach of A Statement on English and of subject English.

Sexual harassment in Australian universities: sex without desire, power without knowledge, sexuality without bodies

Susie O'Brien, University of Queensland

Tracing the origin of the category of sexual harassment in the Australian university context, I argue that it presents a narrow, stereotypical and discriminatory vision of the operation of sex and power in academia. In particular, the academic production of knowledge about sexual harassment relies on questionable statistical data and outdated models of power and sex role stereotyping acting upon an inactive and essentially gendered body. I suggest that a new conception of sexual harassment that accepts the contested and contradictory nature of sex, sexuality, gender, desire and power is necessary. Such a model must situate sexual harassment within wider discourses of sex and power in Australian universities, representing a pragmatic, flexible and postmodern approach to these issues.

Teacher responsibilities and identity in physical education

Angela O'Connor, University of Queensland

This study addresses how the dual responsibilities of teaching and coaching in and outside the school context shape physical education teachers personal and professional identities. Interview, field observation and document analyses data shows how the shift in emphasis from the concept of role to identity theory highlights active efforts of teachers in making sense of their position as "teacher/coach" and in preserving their sense of self in a "postmodern" age. This research contributes to the theoretical framework used to understand teacher's work. At a time when the status of teachers as professionals, their public recognition, competence, and commitment is under scrutiny as evidenced in the Senate Inquiry into the Status of Teachers, this project will also assist in the identification of support structures needed to address the demands of teaching AND coaching in the physical education profession.

The gender bias in fundamental motor skills tests - A new agenda needed!

Anthony Okely and Jan Wright, University of Wollongong

A child's level of fundamental motor skill (FMS) proficiency has been suggested as a precursor to their level of participation in sports, games, and physical activity throughout life. With this in mind there is a need to ensure adequate skill development is taking place in our schools. Resources have been

developed to aid educators in the assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of FMS programs, but there appears to be a gender bias towards boys in the selection of the tests currently receiving prominence in Australia. Most batteries are strongly correlated with the skills integral to traditional male sports but fail to address those which are essential to female activities. From these tests it is incorrectly deduced that girls are poorly skilled, when in reality they may be no less skilled than boys, but rather skilled in different areas. Tests are needed that assess components integral to popular female activities to ensure an accurate indication of their skill level can be accomplished. An example of some such tests will be considered in an attempt to improve educational practices and stress the need for new methodologies for new times to be implemented.

'Young peoples' conceptions of citizenship in multicultural Australia': A report on recent research

Marjorie O'Loughlin, The University of Sydney

Citizenship and civics education have appeared as major themes in Australian educational discourse in recent times. Some of the themes foregrounded in such discourse are :identity; nationalism; the notion of dominant and minority cultures; ideas about the nature of difference; the 'politics of recognition'; multiculturalism ; and, conceptions of' belonging',and 'origins'. In this paper I will briefly discuss these themes as they emerged within a major project completed in 1997 entitled 'Young Peoples; Conceptions of Citizenship in Multicultural Australia'. This project involved the making of a video in which young people froma variety of ethnic backgrounds used techniques of discussion,interview and dramatic enactment to explore these and other themes. A book which theorises,problematises and expands the discussion of key issues accompanies the video. The main purpose of the presentation is to identify some of the key understandings young Australians have of citizenship and to raise relevant questions for civics educators.

ORINK322

Use of standardized patients to assess medical students' clinical skills and evaluate the curriculum

Kay Oring, University of Nevada, USA

Worldwide, a paradigm shift is occurring in the certification of skills for medical licensing. Canada requires a clinical skills assessment with Standardized Patients (SP). Pakistan requires an SP clinical exam for board certification for family practice. In the U.S., SP clinical exams for medical licensing is to begin in 2001.

In preparation for this, we began using Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCE) for third year medical students in 1993. Since then, OSCEs have been given 36 times to 151 students. The primary objective was to evaluate the curriculum. Two SP cases indicate the need for curricular changes to address ageism and sexism. One is of alcoholic gastritis, sometimes portrayed by a man and other times by a woman. When the SP is a woman, students are more likely to include alcohol abuse in their diagnoses (26% vs. 0% when male) and to counsel the SP to decrease alcohol intake (59% vs. 45%). The other case involves a female SP whose age is changed. When the SP is 18 years old, 100% of students asked sexual history questions, but when the SP is 28 years old, only 20% did so. SPs provide information that would be missed in traditional curriculum evaluations.

ORTIA066

Knowledge and education: A critical evaluation of four major thrusts in educational research in new times

Aniceta Ortinero, University of the Philippines

Obsolete or not, human knowledge serves as the foundation stone and prime mover of civilkisation and cultures in all ages. Since education is a part of culture and human knowledge is a part of education, it follows that human knowledge is the foundation stone of cultures and civilisation in general. The very rationale of education consists in preserving, transmitting, improving or inovating, enhancing or making perfectible the various discipines of knowledge which make up the curriculum. In this view, the topic of Researching Education in New Times becomes a signal conference call for improving education for the 21st century. Under the central conference theme the present work will provide a critical evaluation of the ancient but classic subject of human knowledge towards the formulation of suitable projects for educational research.

To be addressed are four subthemes which will include the question "How do we know what we know?" They are (s) the concept of knowledge; (b) knowledge as educational content; (c) foundations of education; and (d) knowledge and pedagogy. For each discourse area, eight criteria of philosophy of education shall be constructed and used to decide on fields of knowledge desirable as educational thrusts for the new century. Finally, implications for education will be drawn and recommendations responsive to the conference goals shall be given.

Murray Oswald, University of South Australia

This study surveyed samples of teachers from both the metropolitan state and independent schools in South Australia. Discipline issues within both systems were compared, taking into account the socio-economic characteristics of the locations in which schools were located, and the denomination of the independent schools concerned. The types of problems reported by teachers, the frequencies of such problems in classrooms, strategies used by teachers to manage discipline issues and the changes perceived by teachers as being necessary to improve discipline were surveyed.

The findings suggested when government schools were compared with the particular denominational schools in the same location, strong similarities were found on a number of the above observed criteria.

OVENA211

Curriculum development as a rational and lived experience: Reflections on writing a Bachelor of Physical Education

Alan Ovens, Auckland College of Education, New Zealand

The restructuring of the New Zealand education system in the late 1980's created opportunities for a range of tertiary institutions to develop and teach new degree programmes. This paper reports on the experience of developing a Bachelor of Physical Education for the Auckland College of Education. It discusses work in progress and examines the tensions experienced between presenting curriculum development as a rational process and the lived experience of the participants.

'You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube': The impact of higher education on mature age women students

Gail Paasse, Monash University

There has been a shift away from the emphasis on participation and equity for disadvantaged groups previously excluded from higher education. These are uncertain times in the higher education sector, cuts to funding are likely to have deleterious effects on participation and equity policies. Mature age women, many entering higher education for the first time, took advantage of the policies of the 1980s, and returned to study in large numbers. It is timely, when this opportunity is diminishing, to examine what is known about these women. While much has been written about this group, little work has been done on the impact of higher education on their identity, nor has work explored the differences between these women. This paper adopts feminist theorisations of identity as multiple, shifting and often self contradictory to explore the ways in which the experience of university education at a mature age has impacted on identity formation processes. The ways higher education impacts on women in relation to class identifications is of particular interest. This paper will offer a discussion of preliminary findings through case-studies which exemplify emerging themes within the research which highlight the differences between these women in terms of class identification.

"The boys and the binaries": Current debates in boys education

Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, University of Technology, Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 25, Addressing boys' education: Framing debates, implementing strategies and formulating policies.

Investigating students' understandings of diffusion and osmosis: A post Piagetian analysis

Debra Panizzon and John Pegg, University of New England

Diffusion and osmosis are two concepts that are fundamental to a study of biology at both a secondary and tertiary level. Both these concepts cause difficulties for students as demonstrated by the alternative conceptions held by students identified in numerous documents in the research literature (Okeke & Wood-Robinson, 1980; Westbrook, 1987; Odom, 1992; Zuckerman, 1993). A critical aspect of the understanding of these processes is their abstract nature and it appears that it is this feature which lies at the root of the problems faced by students. However, the nature of the development of these abstract ideas has not been chartered, nor has a comparison of the development for each concept. This paper offers an initial attempt to both discern, and compare and contrast the developmental growth of these concepts with 60 year 11 and 12 students. The SOLO Taxonomy was used as the evaluative tool which provided the theoretical basis to explore the answers to a series of open-ended questions. The results offer insights into the nature of formal thinking associated with the two concepts and how students' earlier understandings provide the basis for this development.

PARAR458

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

Roberto Parada, Richard Walker and Michael Bailey, University of Sydney

Self-efficacy literature seems to indicate that an individual's performance on a given task is positively correlated with their level of self-efficacy. The direction of this causality, that is whether self-efficacy influences performance or vice versa.

At least three skills have been identified to be of significance in leadership ability: communication, interpersonal and problem solving skills. A hypothetical path model containing these skills, measures of self-efficacy in regards to these skills and ...

Some possible weaknesses of Australian naturalism

Sun Hyung Park, University of Tasmania

Since Evers and Lakomski's seminal book, Knowing Educational Administration, was published in 1991, their philosophical machinery, labelled "Australian Naturalism" (Haldane, 1989) has been the subject of theory debates in educational administration.

Although leading scholars in the field of educational administration raised many valuable questions relating to the concept and criteria of coherentism, the naturalistic fallacy, the questions of foundations and reductionism, there seems to be more criticisms able to be raised against Australian naturalism. The rejection of traditional foundationalism does not necessarily entail the acceptance of coherentism. Reliabilism, for example, could be an alternative. Coherentism can be seen as another version of foundationalism. Most interestingly, the Australian naturalists' stance in naturalism seems to be vague. In Evers and Lakomski's Knowing Educational Administration, there is no clear distinction made between weak naturalism and strong naturalism.

In this paper these three possible criticisms will be detailed. Then, in closing, it will be suggested that a recent theory in epistemology termed 'foundherentism' might provide some avenues for the further development of Australian naturalism, such as by emphasising empirical input in coherentism and adopting a weak version of naturalism.

PARLM357

'Listen to Girls': The impact of homophobia in girls and young women's lives

Maria Parlotta-Chiarolli, The University of Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 3, Sexualities and the intellectual work of gender reform.

Perspectives on retention of Aboriginal students

Gary Partington, John Godfrey and Bernard Harrison, Edith Cowan University

Aboriginal students school experiences are the worst of any group in Australia. Many explanations have been put forward for this from a variety of perspectives, from deficit to critical. It is argued in this paper that an amalgamation of interactionist and critical perspectives is desirable to best explain failure, low retention rates, poor attendance and misbehaviour and at the same time enable strategies to overcome these problems. The positioning of Aboriginal students as oppressed, discriminated against and alienated in classrooms and schools, combined with a perception of them as active resisters of schooling is only one part of the story. In order to establish a context in which these negative expressions of power can be overcome for Aboriginal students, schools and teachers must acknowledge the cultural expectations, values and culturally constructed behaviours which define their identity. Until serious efforts are made to change the structures of schooling in line with Aboriginal students identity needs, resistance to perceived oppression will continue.

Student suspensions: The influence on students and their parents

Gary Partington, Edith Cowan University

In this study, secondary school students in Years 8-10 who were suspended from school were interviewed during their suspension to obtain their views on the validity, efficacy and consequences of suspension as a strategy in behaviour management. Also, their parents were interviewed for their views on the effect of the suspension on the family and on the student. Students were penalised with periods of suspension from two to 10 days, and these suspensions were supposed to be spent in the care of the parents. The actual operation of these out-of-school suspensions depended upon the parents: in some cases students were allowed to roam free; in others they were grounded. The findings indicate mixed consequences of suspension depending upon the context in which it occurs and the characteristics of the student. The study suggests that student responses reflect the extent to which they accept the authority of the school, with more resistant students being less submissive. Their responses also relate to the perceptions of their caregivers, with more resistant students coming from families where the school is viewed negatively. Alternative strategies to suspension might be more effective for the target students as suspension did little to improve behaviour or performance.

Effective model of educational research in the unstable society (on the example of Russia)

Margarita Pavlova, La Trobe University

The paper is based on the research which were conducted in the framework of the project "Technology Education in Russia". Two main aspects are under consideration:

• the relationship between social change and educational research,
• the process of Technology influence on school curriculum.

Economical and political unstability in Russia and its influence of Education is alaysed. Educational Law of 1994 and the problems of formulating educational policy raised the questions of providing a large number of research. How to make the research? What kind of research can provide the base for effective change? What we should change? What we should preserve? Russia has no tradition of successful educational reforms.

The positivist method of research was the main one in the area of education during the Soviet times. Paper compares the probable structure of such "traditional" researchwith the "new" one in the framewqork of "Technology Education in Russia".

One if the aims of "Technology Eduction in Russia" ws to develop the effective model of educational research in new social conditions. The involvement of the teachers in the active research under the supervision of academics is considered as the most adequate way of changing educational practice. Six main steps were identified.

Technology as the subject in the general education is a modern competitor for the curriculum philosophy all over the world. The philosophy of the subject and Technology as phenomena will be considered.

Benchmarking student performance: Exploring the potential with an example based on a Year 12 cohort

John Pegg, University of New England

Industry uses 'benchmarking' as a method of organisational comparison. Performance levels, benchmarks, for an industry group or successful firm are identified and these are used to identify best practice. At a simplistic level the comparison can be in terms of outputs. Clearly a more comprehensive approach requires significant evaluation of the production procedures which means that the focus is on the process by which inputs are converted to outputs. Despite the many problems associated with mapping industry-based jargon and procedures on to education, there is a trend, promoted by the federal government, to consider benchmarking in schools in Australia. Despite the potential for abuse of such there does seem some value in a considered benchmarking exercise, i.e., having general data on how large numbers of students perform in certain tasks, the types of strategies they employ, the types of errors they make and, where possible, linking such findings to a theoretical position concerning cognitive development. This paper reflects on the issue of benchmarking, and in addition, provides information on a large benchmarking exercise, undertaken with support from the NSW Board of Studies, on Year 12 student performance in mathematics as indicated by an analysis of students' examination scripts.

Family functioning, student quality of school life and their opinions about the future

Graeme Perry and Sid Bourke, University of Newcastle

This paper reports on the data from a study of about 2000 high school students from 19 government and non-government schools. Students sampled from years seven, nine and eleven completed questionnaires to measure their quality of school life, family function and feelings and perceptions of the future. Multilevel analyses have been undertaken placing students at level 1, school year at level 2 and schools at level 3. This paper focuses on the relationship between family function, quality of school life and opinions about the future.

Family functioning was described through three factors, Intimacy, Parenting Style and Conflict. Intimacy was a measure of closeness and communication within a family. Democratic, negotiating parenting skills were compared to authoritarian, fixed parenting demands by the parenting style dimension. Through the Quality of School Life questionnaire students reported on their school experience with respect to general satisfaction and negative affect, as well as specific measures of status, teacher interaction, identity, opportunity and achievement. Family Intimacy contributed to all aspects of quality of school life, while parenting style and family conflict were important to specific measures. Negative affect towards school, perceived status and opportunity are important direct contributors to opinions about the future environment, technology and personal success. Family function variables contribute indirectly to these opinions about the future.

Teachers and teacher educators learning in partnership: Pinnacles, plateaus and pitfalls

Judy Peters, University of South Australia

This paper reports on research into the professional development experiences of six teacher educators and teachers from six schools in South Australia through the research and development partnerships initiated by the Innovative Links Project (Innovative Links Between Universities and Schools for Teacher Professional Development).

The Innovative Links Project was an action research based professional development project which was initiated in Australia in 1994 as a National Professional Development Program. Schools involved in the project worked in partnership with university colleagues to examine and improve work organisation practices in schools, enhance teaching and improve the educational outcomes for all students. Funding for the project came to end early in 19

Through 1996 and 1997 data was collected from particpants via interviews and a questionnaire. This paper reports on the findings in regard to the following questions:

• How did school/university research and development partnerships facilitate the professional development of teachers and teacher educators?
• What did teachers and teacher educators learn from such partnerships?
• How did learning impact on work practices and organisational culture?
• What were the conditions which supported/impeded professional development in the school and the university context?

Cultural identity and Spanish speaking background secondary school students

David Plaza-Coral, University of Wollongong

Spanish-speaking background students are present in a great number in Australian secondary schools, however, they have been a group which has been generally ignored in educational research. This paper will describe the results of a study which explored the ways in which secondary school Spanish-speaking background students negotiated their cultural identity in the classroom, at school and at home. The study involved interviewing students, their parents and teachers and observing students' participation in Science, Maths and English lessons in public and private schools.

Learning as a sense-making activity

Peter Stanley Price, Queensland University of Technology

There are signs emerging of a dissatisfaction with constructivism as a means for wholly accounting for learning processes. Constructivism is the third of three major theories proposed this century to account for human learning, after behaviourism and information processing (Mayer, 1996). Constructivism has been very influential in learning and teaching theories in the 1980s and 1990s; however, there are signs that a point has been reached where the limits of constructivism need to be reconfigured. Though constructivism has reminded educators of the need to consider individual differences between learners, it does not easily explain the learning of culturally-situated subject matter such as mathematical or scientific concepts. The author suggests a theory of learning that incorporates aspects of both information processing and constructivism, and posits human learning to be principally a sense-making activity. A model is proposed which incorporates aspects of both information processing and constructivism, yet which goes beyond either.

PRINB223(Number is incorrect).

Longitudinal study investigating students perceptions of decision making processes regarding post school options.

Sonja Whiteley and Dr Janet Porter.

Decisions about post-school must be made by all students. This longitudinal, qualitative study seeks to identify factors and influences regarding decision-making processes in a time of rapid change. This statewide study is tracking a class of students in each school from Year 10 in 1996 through 1999. Interactions with students include class observations, focus group discussions, individual interviews and attendance at relevant, special school-related events, such as subject selection evenings and career education programs. It is hoped that the study will also identify those information resources which are most useful to students and thus inform future materials production.

Longitudinal study investigating students perceptions of decision making processes regarding post school options

Brigitte Prince, Tertiary Entrance Procedures Authority (TEPA)

Decisions about post-school must be made by all students. This longitudinal, qualitative study seeks to identify factors and influences regarding decision-making processes in a time of rapid change. This statewide study is tracking a class of students in each school from Year 10 in 1996 through 1999. Interactions with students include class observations, focus group discussions, individual interviews and attendance at relevant, special school-related events, such as subject selection evenings and career education programs. It is hoped that the study will also identify those information resources which are most useful to students and thus inform future materials production.

PRINM252

Benchmarking student achievement in civics and citizenship education

Murray Print, University of Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 21, Understanding civic learning and its social context: Current research in civics and citizenship education.

PUAMP370

Is affirmative action in education really necessary in Fiji?

Priscilla Puamau, University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 22, Reworking education in postcolonial conditions: Local and global contexts for change.

Bilingualism in primary school-aged children: Attitudes to first and second languages

Nola Purdie, Queensland University of Technology and Rhonda Oliver, Edith Cowan University

The study reported in this paper is part of a larger study which examined cross-cultural differences in a range of factors related to bilingualism in a group of Australian primary school students from different

language/cultural backgrounds. The general issues that were explored included:

1. Affective factors (in particular feelings about/ attitudes to first and second languages)
2. Language learning strategies
3. Self efficacy as it relates to English
4. Language use (sociolinguistic profile) as it relates to learning
5. Approach to learning in general, including learning strategies.

In this paper, we focus on how students from three different cultural backgrounds (Greek, Vietnamese, Muslim) feel about using their first and second languages in the classroom, in the playground, and at home. In addition, we examine their perceptions of the attitudes of their teachers, peers, and parents towards language use in those same contexts. Attitudes to first and second language use were also examined in light of student background factors such as gender, language/cultural background, birth place, length of residence, migrant status, and educational and language learning background.

Developing a Marxian approach to educational research in 'new times'

Helen Raduntz, University of South Australia

'New times' in my estimation represents a re-emergence of laissez-faire capitalism in an advanced and totalising form, and the apparent fragmentation of social life is a manifestation of the unifying dynamic that is still capital accumulation.

On these premises I propose that trends in education can appropriately be examined with the aid of a developed Marxian method from a starting point that education is a productive activity whose outcome in abstract terms is marketable labour power by virtue of its acquired skills, knowledge bundled with 'correct' attitudes and ethics.

This stance follows my perceptions that: 1) there has been a serious undervaluation by later Western Marxist and critical theory traditions regarding the influence of Hegel's dialectical logic on Marx's method of analysing capitalism, and a tendency to focus on substantive issues to the exclusion of the formative in Marxian method; and 2) the potential of a Marxian method has been hampered on the one hand by criticisms of Marx filtered mainly through mainstream Western social science and sociological frameworks, and on the other, by a virtually uncritical acceptance of Marx as interpreted by Engels sometimes erroneously and dialectical materialism that emanated from Engel's Dialectics of Nature.

RAJAA287

Research for teachers

Azizah Rajab, University of Technology, Malaysia

This session is an attempt at showing and focussing on some of the problems associated with the teaching of research at the teachers' college level. It seeks to restore a proper emphasis on the importance of research in schools and colleges. The session also will discuss problems faced by some of the teachers in conducting the research. Suggestions on teachers' expectation, problems and suggested strategies will also be provided in this session.

RAMSP286

Perceptions of academic leadership and the effectiveness of university teaching

Paul Ramsden, Mike Prosser, Keith Trigwell and Elaine Martin, Griffith University

A consistent result from studies of school effectiveness is that the principal's leadership exerts a decisive influence on a school's achievements. Does academic leadership influence university teaching and learning, and if so, how?

In an ARC-funded study of over 50 departments in four broad fields of study in Australian universities, we explored the relations between academic leadership and management, staff perceptions of the teaching environment, staff approaches to teaching, students' perceptions of the learning environment, and students' approaches to learning.

The quantitative analysis reported in this paper has revealed most of the expected relations between variables, including several new and important relations in the area of leadership and management. Statistically significant correlations have been found (a) between the leadership approach of subject coordinators and staff approaches to teaching; (b) between staff perceptions of the teaching environment and their perceptions of the management and leadership environment; (c) between staff perceptions of the environment and their approaches to teaching; (d) between staff approaches to teaching and students' perceptions of the effectiveness of teaching; and (e) between students' perceptions and the quality of their learning.

Can labour process theory help us to understand what is happening to teachers' work?

Alan Reid, University of South Australia

The publication of Braverman's famous work, Labour and Monopoly Capital, in 1974 initiated what has become known in the field of industrial sociology as the labour process debates. The focus of these debates was the extent to which Taylorist production strategies served to deskill workers by separating conception from execution, and narrowly defining work tasks. By the early 1980s a number of education scholars began applying a labour process perspective to teachers' work. Here the emphasis focussed upon the extent to which teachers were being deskilled and their work intensified by contemporary education policy and practice. These efforts were subjected to a number of critiques, most of which contested the determinism implied by labour process theorists. The critiques appeared to score some telling hits, and by the early 1990s the labour process literature looked to have stalled. In addition, it began to look outdated as scholars sought to grapple with phenomena such as globalisation and post-fordist work practices, which labour process theory appeared not to be able to encompass.

This paper argues that labour process theory, far from being irrelevant, is an essential tool of analysis of the contemporary experience of teachers' work. However, it maintains that the recent neglect of labour process theory, and its susceptibility to critique, stems from some unresolved theoretical issues. These need to be addressed if labour process theory is to fulfill its potential as a powerful explanatory framework for understanding what is happening to teachers' work today. The paper seeks to develop an auxiliary theory of the labour process of state teachers which takes into account the special circumstances of teachers as state employees. Contemporary examples of education policy and practice are used to demonstrate the theory in action.

REIDJ432

New times, new methodological problems? Researching the Nintendo generation

Jo-Anne Reid, University of Ballarat

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 15, New times for literacy, pedagogy and young people: Research challenges.

REIDJ484

Literacy Debates and Curriculum Policy: A Case-Study of Educational Politics in New South Wales

Dr Bill Green and Daphne Irvine, Deakin University

The impact and influence of media debates on educational policy and curriculum change has been particularly noticeable in recent times, in Australia as elsewhere in the Western world. Of special significance is the so-called 'literacy debate'. This paper reports from a series of investigations underway into English teaching, curriculum change, educational politics and policy formulation, expressly with reference to the notion of 'literacy crisis'. Its specific focus is the 1994 Primary English Syllabus in New South Wales, and more particularly the significance in this regard of the category of 'grammar'. This category circulated extensively in professional, public and policy debate over the period in question, and its associated discursive field constitutes a distinctive 'context of influence' in and for the policy work addressed, in this instance, to syllabus development in Primary English. The paper accordingly brings together research in policy studies, curriculum history and educational politics.

Helping each other: Teacher collaboration in the implementation of technology curriculum in the primary school

Leonie Rennie, Curtin University of Technology

The problem which stimulated this research is that in Australia, primary school teachers have been expected to teach a new subject, Technology, but have had little training consistent with the newly adopted technology curriculum. This paper documents the ways in which some more confident teachers have begun to implement technology into their classrooms, with a particular focus on how these teachers are assisting others in their school to incorporate technology into their own curriculum. Using case studies from two schools, the paper examines the way in which two teachers have

established successful classroom strategies for incorporating technology, and how they have had a significant effect on the practice of other teachers in their schools. The relationship between one pair of teachers in each school is used to explore the nature of their collaboration. One pair used "joint work", with shared responsibility for the work of teaching, an example of deep collaboration. The other pairing was more one-sided, a collaborative relationship better described as one of aid and assistance.

Both relationships were based on mutual respect, and demonstrate how teachers choose to work together towards a common purpose, in this case the implementation of a new curriculum area.

RENSP381

SYMPOSIUM 25: Communities of learners: Researching resistance and exclusion in the collaborative classroom

Participants: Peter Renshaw, R A J Brown, M Goos, P Galbraith and D T Neil, The University of Queensland, Richard Walker and P Lambert, University of Sydney

Overview:
Vygotsky's notion of the ZPD - a pedagogical space created by teachers and students in collaborative interaction - has been applied in recent research to communities of learners in classrooms, as well as virtual communities formed through the internet. In a community of learners, issues regarding exclusion and inclusion are intimately tied to learning processes. Students may be excluded or offered only peripheral roles in the community, or they may resist participation in the community for a variety of reasons. Little attention has been given in research to the processes of resistance and exclusion in such collaborative learning contexts. The papers in this symposium report recent research that examines these issues in educational settings at the primary and secondary university levels.

PAPER 1:

RENSP382

Introduction: Overview of issues and theoretical framing in relation to resistance and exclusion

Peter Renshaw, The University of Queensland and Richard Walker, University of Sydney

We see children in classrooms choosing to sit by themselves when collaborative groups are formed, or being marginalised and ignored by their peers. We are told by students at all levels of the education system that they have been socialised to work alone, to regard discussion as time wasting, and to be dependent on the teacher to do the real thinking and provide the notes for copying. Many students initially resist the efforts of teachers to change these practices of dependency.

In introducing the symposium, we examine resistance as a neglected aspect of research on collaborative learning in school and university contexts. Recent accounts of teaching and learning from this socio-cultural perspective have depicted learning as cooperative and co-constructive, without sufficient attention to resistance and conflict. If the notion of resistance is ignored in socio-cultural theory, then the educational process is reduced to a process of transmission where the young are unreflectively incorporated into existing cultural practices - rather than changing and partially transforming the practices in the process of appropriation. Resistance to and appropriation of cultural practices necessarily involves consideration of the social relationships between the students and teachers, and the ways in which inclusion and exclusion are managed in forming the classroom community. Vygotsky's writing on scientific and everyday concepts provides another way of considering the tension between what students bring with them to the classroom, and the curriculum of the educational institution. If there were no differences or tensions, there would be no potential for growth. So everyday practices and concepts can be seen as resisting institutional and formal abstract concepts - good teaching is required to build the connections between the two. Similarly, teaching and learning framed as co-construction of knowledge, involves negotiating a joint definition of the situation. Potential for growth arises from the efforts of each participant to understand the moves of the other and negotiating a joint agenda for proceeding with the task.

PAPER 2:

BROWR383

Journeys from participating on the periphery to peripheral participation in a collaborative primary classroom

R A J Brown and Peter Renshaw, The University of Queensland

For a number of years we have been researching the process of building collaborative learning environments in the primary classroom. Brown devised a collaborative format - Collective Argumentation - that has been effective in engaging children in collaborative dialogues and joint problem-solving in mathematics and other curriculum areas. The collaborative format, however, is not adopted by the children without various degrees and types of resistance. In this paper we present data from a year-long, continuing, and intensive case-study of one upper-primary classroom. We have been able to track the movement of specific children from being reluctant participants on the margins of the classroom, to being more willing participants who alternate between peripheral and central collaborative roles in the classroom. Fellow students were vital in assisting such movement - they initiated new seating arrangements, volunteered to work with peripheral students, and offered help and acceptance to marginal students. Not all marginal children, however, were included successfully, or chose to seek more central roles in the collaborative formats. The social processes of inclusion, exclusion, and resistance are ongoing, dynamic, and unpredictable to a large extent. These data have implications for our understanding of community of practice classrooms.

PAPER 3:

WALKR384

Collaboration in an electronic learning community

Richard Walker and P Lambert, University of Sydney

The HENRE (Hypermedia Educational Networked Research Environment) learning environment was designed according to socially oriented theories of learning (Cole, 1996; Gergen, 1995) and represents an extension of electronic environments investigated by Brown and associates (Brown & Campione, 1994; Brown, Ash, Rutherford, Nakagawa, Gordon & Campione, 1993) and Scardamalia and Bereiter (1991). In this electronic environment pairs of tertiary students work collaboratively using the resources of the internet to answer research questions they have set for themselves in a third year Educational Psychology class. All student dyads, furthermore, work collaboratively to create a publication which is subsequently made available on the World Wide Web. This publication represents the work of all students in the course and is facilitated by the collaborative design features of the HENRE environment.

The HENRE learning environment is now in its third year of implementation. This paper will consider student reactions to learning in a collaborative electronic environment through examination of interviews conducted with students over the three year period. Student resistance to collaborative learning and the forms of resistance adopted will be examined in the paper.

PAPER 4:

Resisting interaction and collaboration in secondary mathematics classrooms

M Goos, Peter Renshaw and P Galbraith, The University of Queensland

Recent research in mathematics education has conceptualised mathematics teaching and learning as an inherently social and communicative activity that requires the formation of a local community of practice, where ways of thinking, modes of inquiry, communicative conventions, values, and beliefs

characteristic of the wider community of mathematicians can be progressively enacted and appropriated. Over the past three years we have developed a research program investigating patterns of social interactions that help establish and maintain such a culture in senior secondary school mathematics classrooms. We have observed a variety of participation structures: teachers and students guiding and scaffolding the performance of less expert partners, students with incomplete but approximately equal expertise engaging in exploratory discussion or prodding each other's thinking forward when working on problems, teacher-led episodes which involve students in authentic mathematical inquiry, as well as instances of students working alone. The teacher's actions are crucial in creating the culture; however, the teacher's invitations to participate can be resisted, rejected or subverted. In this paper we consider cases of students who appeared to dwell on the fringes of the classroom's social networks, and examine ways in which their participation was solicited and supported by peers.

PAPER 5:

NEILD386

Student interactions with, and within, electronic discussion groups: Examples from tertiary teaching in geography

D T Neil, The University of Queensland

The paper discusses the processes and outcomes of two "intranet"- based electronic discussion groups conducted in 2nd and 3rd level tertiary geography teaching. In the 2nd level subject, 45 students participated in discussion groups investigating ten topics relevant to the subject content. Each student chose three of the ten topics. In the 3rd level subject, 60 students participated in debates on a range of issues relevant to the subject. Participation in these discussion groups and debates was assessable and students collaborated in the formulation of the discussion group and debate programs.

The paper explores the relationships between: i. students' participation in these modes of collaborative learning and their assessment outcomes; ii. students' approaches to study and their perceptions of the collaborative learning mode and its context; iii. the nature of the interactions which take place within the discussions and debates, and iv.factors which influence students' resistance to participation. Results suggest that students who take a deep approach to learning are much more receptive to this learning mode than are surface learners, who did not participate very often in the discussion-groups or respond positively to that learning format.

RENSP382

Introduction: Overview of issues and theoretical framing in relation to resistance and exclusion

Peter Renshaw, The University of Queensland and Richard Walker, University of Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 26, Communities of learners: Researching resistance and exclusion in the collaborative classroom.

RENWK464

Have we got there yet?: A saga of Health Promoting Schools

Kerry Renwick, Deakin University

The idea of a Health Promoting School is one where there is a recognition of the interaction of curriculum and classroom activities, need to improve the school environment and the school's relationship with families, care givers and the wider community. The Health Promoting School movement is still in its early stages of development. The movement is struggling with explorations of the territory, coming to terms with interpretations in diverse settings , and meeting the expectations of prevailing political agendas.

The Health Promoting Schools in many ways acts as a lightening rod for a variety of people and groups who have an investment in education and health. The range discourses being brought to bear of the Health Promoting School are consequently many. This paper will focus on the emerging views avout evaluating the Health Promoting School.

The effect of gender role models on children's musical instrument preferences

Samantha Pickering and Betty Repacholi, University of Sydney

Various studies indicate that children associate gender with musical instruments and that these stereotypes influence their instrument preferences. This study will explore whether children's instrument preferences can be altered via positive role models (e.g. a female playing a "male" instrument). Equal numbers of male and female Kindergarten (N=156) and 4th grade (N=156) children will be randomly assigned to one of three groups. Each child will watch a videotape in which eight musical instruments are played in the same random order. In the "gender stereotyped" group, females will play four feminine instruments (flute, violin, clarinet, cello) and males will play four masculine instruments (drums, trombone, trumpet, saxophone). In the "positive role model" group, feminine instruments will be played by males and masculine instruments will be played by females. In the "no model" condition, each instrument will be presented on the videotape without a player. Immediately following the video, the actual instruments will be displayed and children will be invited to select the instrument that they would most like to play. Overall, it is expected that exposure to positive role models will decrease children's stereotyped selection of instruments. The effects of age and child gender will also be examined.

RETAJ033

School Effectiveness and the Learning Community: A Habermasian Reconstruction

Philip Reece, NSW Department of School Education and Dr John Retallick, Charles Sturt University

The paper focuses on the intersection of school effectiveness and learning community discources through the lens of Habermas' theory of communicative action and the lifeworld/system dilemma. The dilemma of the modern western state comes from increasing system pressure to expand and intensify administrative control of the public sphere through techno-rational and bureaucratic means as a mechanism of power and economic control. This is in opposition to a lifeworld belief and commitment that state managed public activity needs to be accountable and open to citizens through democratic and fully rational processes.

The paper in particular draws on developments in NSW public education through the mid-1990s to address the question of school effectiveness. The analysis exposes the contradictions and tensions which are generated as the state attempts to resolve the lifeworld/system dilemma. Finally, the paper argues for a reconstruction of the school effectiveness discourse. The theory, concept and discourse of the learning community is put forward as an alternative to the techno-rational solutions which tend to dominate the school effectiveness discourse.

RICHC057

The value of 'value-added' analyses in current educational research and practice

Carmel Richardson, The University of Melbourne

Students' educational progress and academic achievements are important considerations of teachers, administrators, parents, researchers and policy makers. The concept of 'value-added' is increasingly playing an important role in educational debate, especially as school and teacher effectiveness studies conducted in Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, Scotland, Luxembourg, the USA and Australia claimed that from 29 - 46% of the variance in students' results was explained by class/teacher and school level effects (Hill, Holmes-Smith and Rowe, 1993). Therefore, improved ways of defining and measuring 'school effectiveness' is vital in a situation where State and Federal government reports indicate that accountability will be assessed largely in terms of literacy and numeracy outcomes. This paper analyses 'value-added' estimates of VCE student results, for the three year period (1994-1996), from a number of Melbourne metropolitan secondary schools who voluntarily participated in this study. The project aimed to explore the 'value' that a school could be considered to have added to students' achievements in Year 12, over-and-above what would have been predicted from measures of students' prior achievements, along with searching for evidence of the reported enduring effects of primary schools, as quoted in studies by Goldstein and Sammons (1995).

Researching the organising 'metaphors' which inform teachers' use of computer technologies

Cameron Richards, Queensland University of Technology

This paper discusses some of the key methodological issues which had to be negotiated in a research project addressing the following focus question: To what extent does the language used to describe and frame new electronic literacies (especially in policy and curricular documents) reflect or influence actual pedagogical practices? Teachers tend to have strong attitudes about either the opportunities or limitations of using computers in the classroom. Getting teachers to represent and talk about their often ambivalent perceptions and attitudes as images or metaphors provides a useful means for exploring their personal, social and cultural preconceptions - not only about using computers, but also about teaching and learning in general. Relatedly, the project considered the influence of recent policy documents upon teachers' attitudes in terms of a question of whether the implicit perspectives and models informing such documents support or contradict explicit exhortations for teachers to embrace new technologies. To develop this strategy of inquiry, conventional methods of both contextual and discursive analysis needed to be extended and reconciled with Lakoff and Johnson's (1980) influential pragmatic model of how both human thought and language-use are typically informed by organising metaphors.

RICHM013

New times for operating room nurses - The impact of technology on the pedagogy of caring

Marilyn Richardson, Monash University

This paper draws on doctoral research which explores the role of the operating room nurse and the implications for holistic practice technology is having in this area of professional nursing. As a nurse educator I am faced with the dilemma caused by the increasing use of new technologies on patient care, specifically within the context of the operating room. Whilst the ethics of caring frames nursing pedagogies, the embodiment role of the patient differs for the operating room nurse. In this highly specialized and complex area, the patient becomes an object, a body to be examined, parts repaired and replaced with the need for technological expertise taking precedence over the traditional role of nurse as carer. A Foucauldian understanding of embodiment provides a perspective for analyzing nursing practice in the operating room. The primacy of the nurse/doctor relationship in this area isolated geographically from the remainder of the hospital is analyzed from a feminist perspective. The impact of economic policies on nursing education and the health care sector is examined briefly to place in context decision-making which influences pedagogies in these new times.

Integrating quantitative and qualitative information in science and mathematics classroom environment research

Tony Rickards and Darrell Fisher, Curtin University of Technology

In recent years in classroom environment research, qualitative methods have been used in refining questionnaires and in seeking explanations to patterns identified through statistical analysis of quantitative information (e.g. why boys' or girls' perceptions differ, why students' and teachers' perceptions differ; how teacher-student interpersonal behaviour affects student outcomes). This paper will describe how this approach was used in a study involving a large-scale use of the Questionnaire of Teacher Interaction in Australia. Following statistical analyses of the responses of about 4,000 science and mathematics students, in-depth interviews were conducted with students in order to explain why male and female students differed in their perceptions, why students from different cultural backgrounds perceived the same classrooms differently, and how interpersonal teacher behaviour affected student attitudes.

ROBEC459

Perceptions of leadership - the barriers to defining leadership in the early childhood profession

Cheryl Robert, Central Queensland University

The ways in which a profession perceives its leaders influences the ways in which decisions are made and pathways are chosen for that profession.

Early Childhood - as a relatively new profession has begun to identify and cultivate effective leaders in an attempt to take control of the political,economic and social decisions which are influencing the way in which the profession develops. However this identification and cultivation is being hindered by perceptions of leadership which are filtered through a traditional masculinist paradigm of what leadership is . Such definitions are inappropriate and ineffective in a profession which is dominated by women and still in the process of constructing itself as a legitimate professional context.

This paper draws on research which identifies and analyses the perceptions of leadership held by people working within the early childhood area. It identifies the ways in which these definitions act as barriers to the construction of an effective definition of early childhood leadership. The failure to determine a relevant and applicable definition of leadership will result in the subsequent difficulty of determining who the effective leaders in early childhood are, and how they can manage and direct the economic, social and political changes affecting the profession now and in the future.

ROCHL163

The mirror has many faces: The development of multiple dimensions of confusion and competence among preservice teachers

Lawrence Roche, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

ROCHL363

Preparing educators for tomorrow (and the next day): The voice of research no longer heard or understood

Lawrence Roche, University of Western Sydney

This paper presents a "critical deconstruction" (approximately) of several currently fashionable attitudes about research and evaluation in educational contexts. It combines historical and philosophical considerations with a qualitative reflection on the process of undertaking a quantitatively sophisticated PhD research project in the field of teacher education. The research focused on self-perceptions (such as self-confidence, sense of mastery) and attitudes of pre-service teachers in relation to different curriculum domains and aspects of teaching and learning. Findings (from both the "text" and the "subtext" of the thesis) are discussed in relation to a number of broader issues which highlight an increasing tendency to marginalise and discount quantitative methodologies. Pervasive misconceptions, stereotypes and biases about measurement and research are described and challenged. The emerging lack of quantitative research literacy in education is discussed, along with the need for creative and unconventional (but demonstrably effective) solutions to the challenges of the future - solutions which must transcend methodological partisanship.

ROMAJ181

Time away - What do we know about attendance? One-week snapshots of attendance patterns in Tasmanian schools 1994 - 1997

Janine Romaszko, Department of Education, Community and Cultural Development, Tasmania

In 1994 the Tasmanian Department of Education commenced a large-scale project to build a comprehensive picture of attendance patterns in state schools. This was the first of four one-week snapshots of attendance in the compulsory years of schooling (Preparatory to Year 10) from 1994 to 1997. The purpose of the study was to build a reliable base-line data collection that could be used both to inform educational planning and policy development and to assist in tracking future trends in attendance.

The study aimed to collect data on every student in a school absent for one or more days in the specified week of each year. Ultimately, databases on over 10000 students were compiled.

Apart from basic information such as number of days absent and day(s) of the week absent, each student was also classified according to a number of variables. These included: grade, rural-urban location, gender, aboriginality and indicators of socio-economic disadvantage.

Summary statistics were compiled for each variable, and interaction effects between many of the variables were explored. Some of the findings were of showed significant differences across grades and according to factors such as socio-economic background and aboriginality. These statistics are displayed in graphical form in the presentation, to show changes between terms and years.

Trying times...teachers talk about itinerancy

Kathryn Roulston, University of Queensland

Over half of primary music specialists in Queensland teach in more than one school each week. Although studies from various fields of education have investigated the ways in which the itinerant teaching delivery model has been used, no studies have foccussed on the issue of itinerancy in arts education. This paper discusses data derived from a pilot study investigating the work of itinerant primary music teachers in Queensland. Information was gained in two ways: (a) interviews with 12 practising music teachers in South-East Queensland and (b) a state-wide survey of itinerant teachers. In teachers' accounts of their work, itinerancy emerges as a complicating feature in the management of time and workload. While itinerancy is often seen to add "variety" to teachers' work, the state of itinerancy is described by teachers as compounding the difficulties which arise from work intensification and a perceived lack of time in which to achieve teaching and performance expectations.

ROWAL404

The need to know: Responding to differences in the education of women studying at a distance

Leonie Rowan, Leo Bartlett and Anne Musso, Central Queensland University

In the current context of Australian higher education there is a need for educators to respond to an increasingly diverse student population. This involves attending to the different needs of those groups (such as women) who historically have had limited access to either on and off campus education. Conceptualising student difference in productive and non-reductive ways, however, has proved to be a difficult task: this difficulty is illustrated by the various ways in which the educational needs of women are discussed both in terms of 'mainstream' on campus education and newer forms of open learning. Specifically, there has been a tendency to homogenise and to essentialise 'Women' students in ways which deny differences within the group.

In response to these issues, and drawing on the theoretical framework of Rosi Braidotti, this paper outlines ways of speaking about the experiences and needs of women who study at a distance by attending to difference at three levels: differences between women and men; differences between women and differences within women. Each level of difference is illustrated through s to interviews conducted with a range of women who access higher education through Open Learning Australia. The aim throughout is to identify the ways in which such a conceptualisation of student difference can inform the construction and delivery of inclusive educational programs.

ROWEK398

The overlap between students inattentive-attentive behaviours in the classroom and their progress in literacy: The use of multilevel structural equation modelling

Kenneth Rowe, The University of Melbourne

Long-standing and enduring problems in studies of the overlap between students inattentive-attentive behaviours in the classroom and their literacy progress relate to difficulties associated with accounting for complex inter-dependencies that operate among multivariate, multilevel factors affecting this overlap. This paper illustrates a particular strategy to solving such difficulties by combining the analytic approaches of multilevel analysis and structural equation modeling in a two-stage process. The data used are drawn from two longitudinal studies of factors affecting students progress in literacy for multiple cohorts of students (n = 8200) clustered within 540 class/teacher groups in 104 primary schools.

The paper provides estimates of the inter-dependent effects among intake characteristics and social background factors (including critical events) on students progress in literacy, together with their affective experiences of schooling and inattentive-attentive behaviours in the classroom. Findings are presented indicating the extent to which progress can be accounted for by the effects of students within classes and schools, highlighting the importance of accounting for the contextual and interdependent effects among variables. Both the substantive and methodological implications of the findings are discussed.

ROWEK399

Researching education in new times?: Reclaim the baby and the bath water, extract the ostrich's head from the sand, and let's get real!

Kenneth Rowe, The University of Melbourne

This paper is deliberately provocative but not without justification. Its central proposition is that in the context of recent, significant and far-reaching moves to restructure public education in Australia and elsewhere, the widespread lack of faith in the contributions of educational research to this restructuring process is problematic (see Gill, 1996) . It is claimed that the key contributing factor to this state of affairs is the predominant and almost exclusive emphasis given to qualitative and critical methods in the training of educational researchers, at the expense of quantitative methods. In fact, the pseudo-philosophical anti-positivist critique of so-called mechanistic approaches to educational research (so virulent during the past 30 years) has had faddish impacts on the training of educational researchers, resulting in a throwing out the baby with the bath water situation, and sticking the ostrichs head in the sand.

It is argued that if the educational research community in Australia wishes to participate as proactive and informative agents in these new times of massive change and restructuring in education, it must reclaim the baby and the bath water and extract the ostrich's head from the sand! Whereas this proposition is not a denial of either the epistemological legitimacy or utility of qualitative methods in informing the body of knowledge, it is an expression of genuine concern that entire generations of graduate and postgraduate students form tertiary schools and faculties of education in Australia have not only been rendered innumerate by the lack of training in advanced sampling and quantitative research methods, but have also been rendered ineffective in meeting current educational policy demands for research (Rowe, 1992, p. 13). Within a sincere call to let's get real, the paper offers several strategic recommendations to redress the problem and to avert what is already a major crisis.

The impact of self-selection on patterns of gender differences in mathematics achievement

Glenn Rowley and Christine Brew, Monash University, and Gilah Leder, La Trobe University

Gender differences in school achievement have been a fertile field for research, and in mathematics and science, particularly, a matter of public concern. At senior levels of secondary school, where these subjects are no longer compulsory, differences in achievement are confounded with differences in the groups of males and females who choose to study the subjects. In Victoria, three mathematics subjects are offered at year 12, forming a hierarchy of perceived difficulty. This study uses data from the 1994, 1995 and 1996 Victorian Certificate of Education results to examine the extent to which group differences in mathematics achievement can be accounted for by differences in patterns of self-selection between males and females. By modelling different selection patterns, we show that gender differences are particularly sensitive to changes in the pattern of self-selection. In particular, we demonstrate that, as the patterns of self-selection become more similar between males and females, gender differences become smaller and in many cases approach zero. In mathematics at least, it appears that the greatest differences to be found are between their choices of subject, and not in the achievement of comparable groups of males and females once they make their choices.

ROWLL475

Health Promoting Schools in Australia: The present and the future

Louise Rowling, University of Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 9, Education in new times: Researching health promoting and full service schools.

The changing workplace of the 21st century - Implications for educators and trainers

David Rumsey, Deakin University

Workplaces of the 21st Century will require people to be more adaptive to new situations and changes in their work environment. People will need to be both reactive to these environments and to contribute to the changes involved. They will actively participate as members of workplace communities in both responding to and shaping workplace change. This paper examines the likely nature of these future workplaces and the implications for educators and trainers in preparing people for their future roles at work. It includes consideration of current research findings on the way peole transfer their skills and knowledge to new situations, including

• the sociology of skills transfer in the workplace;
• the implications for adaptability of individual differences (including background, motivation, achievement orientation, values, confidence, etc.);
• the importance of both propositional and procedural knowledge in the transfer process;
• the value of meta-cognitive skills and key competencies;
• situated learning and cognition;
• cognitive apprenticeship; and
• problem solving ability.

The author draws upon his postgraduate research work on the way people transfer their learning in the workplace, and relates it to the work of teachers and trainers in preparing people for work, further education and community life.

Science Literacy: Demystifying texts in science classrooms

Mary Hanrahan and Anne Russell, Queensland University of Technology

A high school science classroom contains a variety of texts which include a textbook, the teacher, equipment and laboratory manuals. The language and culture in this classroom is frequently quite different from other classrooms and often the students are required to think and write in registers which are not familiar to them.

Action research was carried out in a year eight science classroom where it was discovered that the students were misinterpreting and misreading information from the textbook and their teacher. The students in not understanding the cultural and language cues presented in this classroom were becoming excluded from active learning. The teacher assumed these students were simply not good at science. After literacy teaching strategies were applied to the science language and textual artifacts used in this classroom, these students became empowered and actively participated in their own learning. The students' lack of understanding, or scientific illiteracy, had been recognised and they were given specific strategies to assist them to code and decode the science classroom texts.

The science teacher's metacognitive awareness of his science cultural background and need to be a guide for the students' involvement in meaningful deconstruction of science texts dramatically improved the learning outcomes.

Is anything new under the sun? Researching research into primary school music education

Deirdre Russell-Bowie, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur

This research project was undertaken to initially identify what research had been undertaken in primary music education and what changes came about fromn the results of this research, and secondly, what teacher and school characteristics currently affect the priority and practice of music education in NSW state primary schools. Over 900 teachers and principals from 93 schools in four regions of the state were surveyed in relation to their teaching of music lessons, the extra-curricular musical activities in which both they and their pupils were involved, the adequacy and currency of the resources available in their school, staff, executive, pupils and parent views on music education and the development of their pupils' musical skills. Six key school and teacher characteristics were identified as having a significant influence on the musical education of NSW state school children.

SACHJ499

Interview as therapy: For whom?

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

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 5, Women and higher education: Gendered performances in an era of uncertainty and difference.

Reporting on TAFE: Changing representations in the print media

David Saltmarsh, Macquarie University

Throughout 1995 TAFE NSW was constantly in the headlines. The stories of internal memoranda that had been leaked, contemplations of the potential disasters of restructuring and threats of industrial action gave the public intimate accounts of this institution and served to make the senior administrators almost household names. However, in the space of two years things have changed. TAFE has virtually disappeared from the headlines. The most senior bureaucrat in NSW TAFE, Jane Diplock, claims that this is a consequence of good management, but a variety of far more likely explanations can be given for TAFE being away out of the media gaze.

This paper presents research findings from a study into print media representations of education and unemployment. 1997 has certainly provided an abundance of issues about education and unemployment for the media to pursue, but, more importantly, the change of media focus indicates a shift in the way that vocational education is understood within the community.

SALTG538

Contradictions of cultural identity and professional work in teaching physical education

D.George Salter, University of Waikato, New Zealand

In physical education we have traditionally adopted positivistic views of knowledge and the world, assuming that some "grand narrative" exists to make sense out of agency and structure. Taking this approach tends to overlook multiple and contradictory relations of power, and ignores the subjectivities of many who are unproblematically regarded as a homogeneous group of "learners". As critical educators, we must be aware that students have multiple experiences and are multivocal. This paper makes use of personal life history accounts by mature-aged Maori women engaged in a Physical Education Teacher Education programme, to consciously connect structurally generated inequalities and contradictions between popular culture, cultural identity and professional work.

SANGK308

Linking international education policy phases

Dr Kabini Sanga, Solomon Islands College of Higher Education

This paper argues that one of the effects of an economically-driven policy on international education is that research on the implementation of such a policy lags considerably. The paper uses a Canadian post-secondary institution as a case study to present a conceptualisation of international education; explore the underlying assumptions that drive the policy on an international education; examine the implementation of such policy; and assess the research needs of policy implementation. Stategies for linking policy implementation and research are suggested.

SANTN101

Video enhanced patient education in laser prostatectomy

Nick Santamaria, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne

The introduction of DRG/Casemix funding and advances in surgical procedures have presented nurses with significant challenges in maintaining the quality of patient care and improving clinical outcomes.

This prospective study compared the outcomes of two groups of patients undergoing laser transuretheral resection of prostate at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne. The study compared the effects of two different patient education methods used by nurses prior to discharging the patients. The results indicated that patients who received video enhanced post-operative education had significantly improved knowledge, decreased frustration and increased acceptance levels than a matched group of controls. There were no significant differences between the groups in psychomotor performance index nor in the rates of microbial contamination five days post-operatively. The findings suggest that the use of video enhanced education may be effective in influencing cognitive and affective behaviours, however, where there is a need for a patient to learn a new self care procedure, it may be more effective for nurses to concentrate their efforts on demonstrations, direct supervision, guidance and support.

SATOK100

Multiple data sources: Converging and diverging conceptualizations of LOTE teaching

Kazuyoshi Sato and Robert Kleinsasser, The University of Queensland

This study sought to uncover Japanese LOTE teachers' understandings of communicative language teaching and the extent, if any, LOTE teacher education informed or enhanced these teachers' beliefs and practices. Using the idea of multiple data sources, the project relied on open-ended interviews, classroom observations, and LOTE teacher surveys. The analysis also considered the literature available on LOTE communicative language teaching, including scholarly, practical, and government views.

The multiple data sources provided information that both converged and diverged, particularly revealing discrepancies between what teachers did and said and what they reported on their surveys. Moreover, the data sources provided insight not only into communicative language teaching, but also teachers' views of language teaching in general. The various sources allowed a richer and deeper contextualization of LOTE teacher education to be presented while also presenting a dilemma in reporting data that was inconsistent, if not at times incompatible. Yet, the data base captured the nuance, subtlety, and complexity that these ten Japanese teachers dealt with in their daily professional lives.

Such data bases have much to offer researchers in dealing with understanding and uncovering the many aspects of teacher education.

Key competencies in preservice teacher education

Brian Sharpley and team, Monash University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 23, University teacher education and the key competencies.

SYMPOSIUM

University Teacher Education and the Key Competencies

PAPER

SHARB216

Key Competencies in Preservice Teaching Education

Dr Brian J Sharpley, Monash University

This research is derived from a DEETYA-funded project A model for Presenting Key Competencies at the Preservice level. The major aims of this project were to familiarise preservice teachers with the Key Competencies; to encourage them to reflect upon and evaluate their own performance levels; and encourage them to explore the use of Key Competencies in teaching and learning. A number of case studies will be presented of how preservice teachers perceive their own levels of competencies - particularly Collecting, Analysing and Organising information; Solving Problems; and Using Technology - and how their competency levels have altered during the first six months of a preservice program. Some insights will also be offered about how experienced teachers perceive the Key Competencies, how their perceptions have changed over time and how the competency of students are developed in some schools.

Writing activities to foster understanding in mathematics

Mal Shield, Queensland University of Technology

Recent developments in mathematics curricula place considerable emphasis on the need to communicate about mathematics. The use of writing activities in mathematics learning has been the subject of a large body of literature over the past fifteen years. However, while the literature has generally claimed that improvements in the learning of mathematics result from the use of writing, there have been few studies that have actually focused on the level of learning demonstrated in students' writing. The present paper reports on a series of studies by the author into the use of expository writing tasks with junior secondary mathematics students. A range of tasks was used and methods for analysing the resultant student writing were developed in order to assess the level of understanding being demonstrated. In particular, the ability of students to generalise procedures and to link new ideas with prior school knowledge and everyday knowledge were investigated. Suggestions are made for further developing students' understanding and communication skills by the use of writing tasks.

What makes a good school

Halia Silins and Rosalind Murray-Harvey, The Flinders University of South Australia

This is the second of two studies responding to the need to identify indicators that reflect more closely the values underlying quality schooling. The accepted definition of quality schooling encompasses broader aims and goals of education than the narrow achievement outcomes usually associated with performance scores. If schools are to be supported to achieve these broader aims, school performance must include indicators of effectiveness that reflect more closely the shared meaning of quality schooling. The initial study successfully tested some of the broader aims of schooling (fostering in students positive self-concepts, adaptive approaches to learning, and positive attitudes to learning and school life) as alternative indicators against a global school performance score. This second study further validates these measures and incorporates a broader range of school performance measures such as school completion rates and subject specific achievement. Also, teachers' perceptions of school leadership and school organisation are surveyed to obtain information on the context of the schools studied. This larger scale project involving 3,700 Year 11 and 12 students and 460 of their teachers from 40 South Australian secondary schools investigates the nature and strength of the relationships between all the variables studied using path analysis.

SIMC067

Researching teacher education practice:"Transforming" or "transferring"

Cheryl Sim, Griffith University

This paper examines the role of action research in developing teacher education programs that aim to apply a transformative learning approach to campus-based subjects. It draws on the presenter's experience of an action research study of her practice when attempting to influence the development of subject matter knowledge for preservice secondary teachers. The writer argues that if transforming perspectives of student teachers is an important aim for teacher education programs, and that if an integral part of the professional competence of secondary teachers is related to comprehensive knowledge of the "subjects" they will teach in the future, then applying a transformative learning perspective is very important. However designing campus subjects with such a purpose will require tertiary educators to confront issues related to their own personal professional practice. In this way action research becomes intertwined with the design of tertiary subjects based on transformative learning theory.

Making it and making it happen - TAFE teachers ways of working with competency based training

Michele Simons, University of South Australia

The implementation of the National Training Reform Agenda has proceeded from well defined political and economic objectives. One of the key components of the reform process has been the implementation of competency-based training (CBT). This has often occurred at the expense of a critical focus on its pedagogical basis or examination of the contexts in which it was placed. Little attention has been paid to addressing issues such as the suitability of CBT for educational institutions such as TAFE, the willingness of people within the system to work with the innovation or the possible impact of the innovation on teachers' work. Some five to six years into the reform process, concerns are now being raised about the penetration of CBT within the vocational education and training sector and the manner in which CBT is being shaped and reshaped as teachers work with the innovation.

This paper reports on a study exploring the nature of CBT as an educational innovation and how it has been implemented by TAFE teachers within South Australia. Using data collected from interviews with 60 teachers, the study highlights the socio-political nature of the change process. Insights into how CBT has shaped the work of teachers and the manner in which teachers' decisions and adaptations have produced a variety of different 'versions' of CBT will be examined.

Learning and literacy development in higher education: an issue of Institutional change

J. Skillen, University of Wollongong, and M.J. Mahony, Orange Agricultural College, University of Sydney

Commitment to teaching and learning in higher education has long been premised on assumptions that:

• on enrolment, students are already equipped with generic skills of learning and literacy suitable for tertiary study;
• when they do not have the necessary skills, or do not begin to develop them appropriately, it is a remedial problem; and,
• that those responsible for development of generic and discipline-specific learning and literacy skills must be situated outside of the body of academics teaching in an academic program.

These assumptions are no longer tenable. It is now recognised that academic success in tertiary education entails the acquisition of academic learning and language skills which are new to our average student at university entry. Facilitating the acquisition of such skills is thus not seen as a remedial strategy but a developmental goal which allows all students to be initiated into the academic and professional discourses of academia, and which gives all students greater chances to achieve at their potential.

Integration of instruction in learning and literacy skills into mainstream teaching programs through curricula change, revised graduate outcomes and staff development are essential to this goal. Achieving these objectives, however, requires institutional change which is often problematic in traditional university contexts. The presence of leadership, change agents and discontinuity can provide the impetus for such change to occur. This paper will discuss institutional change in this context using examples from past and current work being carried out at both the above institutions.

SLEER469

Inclusive education? This must signify new times in educational research

Roger Slee, University of London

Although 'inclusive education' is a relative newcomer to the educational lexicon, in its common usage it tends not to speak to 'new times'. Rather it is a rearticular of 'old times' approaches to establishing and commissioning the bureaucratic procedurs for the surveillance and regulation of school populations. This paper argues for a critical theorizing of educational inclusion as prerequisite to and consistent with the politics of recognition. Such a critical theory of inclusion will contend the necessity of challenging the deference to an unreconstructed special educational epistemology. How new the times are in education will be explored through reference to post conservative British education policy.

SMITJ340

Life history interviews: Ethical dilemmas or enriched data?

Janet Smith, University of Canberra

This paper addresses the ethical issues which have emerged from conducting life history interviews with male primary teacher education students. It explores both the extraordinary potential of life history interviews as a tool for research, and the dangers and problematic nature of this powerful, but complex method.

Life history interviews potentially provide special opportunities and insights for the narrator, the interviewer and the research community. They provide a powerful snapshot of decisions, feelings, ideas and values, which are not possible through less dangerous quantitative methods.

However, whilst life history interviews provide invaluable understandings, caution must also be expressed as ethical dilemmas pointing to inequality and exploitation abound. Life history interviews inevitably result in a blurring of boundaries around the issues of ownership and power.

SMITP408

The Impact of outcomes based education on teachers'work

Patricia Smith, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and Patrick Griffin, The University of Melbourne

This project investigated the best practices of schools implementing profiles, and methods used to pass on their experience and expertise to others.Outcomes based education emerged as a highly significant aspect of National Profiles or their state equivalents and the impact on teachers' work became the focus of the project.

Schools in five Australian states were surveyed and responses from more than 360 teachers were received. Examples of best practice were identified and case studies documented in order to illustrate these best practices. The results were expected to lead to the identification of experienced

practitioners, administrators, consultants and academics who could delive appropriate support materials. All this was taking place while states and territories had already developed support materials and products to asist in the implementation of national profiles or their state equivalents. Professional development support was diminishing with,in some states, responsibility being delegated to schools.

The implications which arose from the study were far reaching. .The implementation of profiles requires a substantial rethink of approaches to teaching and learning,to assessment and to curriculum delivery.The approach required nationally to curriculum is an outcomes based approach.

Professional development was not usually being aimed at the processes of OBE. Teachers and others know the rhetoric of OBE but they need professional development which is based on an understanding of criterion referenced interpretation of assessment, knowledge of how teachers may become facilitators rather than transmitters of learning and curriculum which maximises students' opportunities to establish an inquiry approach to learning using a range of resources.

Students with learning disabilities in Australian universities

Sali Smith, University of Queensland

In 1990 the Federal Government initiative A Fair Chance for All targeted six groups underrepresented in Australian higher education institutions: Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, women (particularly in research and nontraditional courses), people from non-English speaking backgrounds, people from rural and isolated areas, socioeconomically-disadvantaged individuals, and people with disabilities. Financial inducements were offered to the universities to increase the numbers and proportions of their students from these groups.

While some of these groups have been easily identified and enumerated, less is known about other groups. Amongst students with disabilities, the subgroup of students with learning disabilities (LD) has received little attention in Australia, and even basic descriptive information about the group is largely unavailable.

This paper will report on a national survey of students with LD. The survey builds on and extends the work of Knight and Graham (1996), and aims to provide an overview of programs and services for students with LD, as well as a statistical picture of those receiving these services. Descriptive data to be presented include the numbers and proportions of students with LD, their gender and age distributions, level of study, internal/external study method and the number of students gaining special entry to university on the basis of their learning disability. Attention will also be paid to the difficulties inherent in obtaining accurate, reliable data in this field.

SMYTJ115

SYMPOSIUM 26: Reclaiming the space for teachers' dialogic learning in schools

Presenters: John Smyth, Robert Hattam, Peter McInerney and Michael Lawson, Flinders University of South Australia

Overview:
These papers report upon the first phase of an ARC funded Collaborative Research Grant which explores the nature, style, extent and impact of teachers' in situ learning and the factors that inhibit or promote it.

PAPER 1:

Teachers' learning towards the dialogic school: Getting real; enacting the rhetoric beyond resistance

Peter McInerney, Michael Lawson, John Smyth and Robert Hattam, Flinders University of South Australia

Much attention is currently focussed on the professional development of teachers as a catalyst for improving the educational outcomes of students in Australian schools. This paper draws on research emerging from an ARC funded project on 'Teachers' Learning' involving the Flinders Institute for

the Study of Teaching and the Department for Education and Children's Services in South Australia. The project is investigating the supportive conditions and structures in schools to facilitate the professional development of teachers.

The research has begun to focus on the contested nature of teacher development that operates in schools and this paper illustrates school responses against the grain of the hierarchical and managerial models of training and development which inhabit official discourses on teacher development. It highlights the ways in which teachers have resisted attempts to limit the nature of their work to narrow, technical interests which subvert the moral and political purpose of teaching. A theoretical framework is developed as a means of analysing teachers' learning in terms of the rhetoric of change and the reality of confronting the oppositional elements embedded in the official discourse and the complexities associated with school communities. Drawing on findings from the field work the paper describes some of the strategies and processes which teachers have developed as they work through the terrain of resistance in their efforts to achieve a dialogic school - a potentially more democratic and socially just community.

PAPER 2:

In whose interests - school reform and teachers' learning?: Whole school reform as a site of negotiation of interests

Robert Hattam, John Smyth, Peter McInerney, and Michael Lawson, Flinders University of South Australia

This paper will attempt to outline what it means to struggle against the grain through advancing "whole school reform". Reform that could be regarded as "grassroots reform" and hence emerges out of a complex dialogue between teachers, students and their parents about what constitutes good learning and teaching. Reform that makes use of the relative autonomy of schools to establish collaborative relationships, robust enough to engage in vigorous interrogations of the adequacy of what is considered orthodox practice for teachers.

In these 'new times', schools are being reformed under the auspices of neo-liberal ideology through implementing the political technologies of privatisation, marketisation and legitimation. As such, 'new times' in schools are characterised by the profound continuities of naturalising difference as deviance and reforming to ensure nothing much changes. In such a context teachers' voices have been muted in the process of policy development - i.e. the educative imperative has been ignored outside of schools. But, some teachers, in some schools, continue to struggle to enact a vision of a school as a site of negotiation of interests. We have began calling these schools 'dialogic schools' or 'critical collaborative communities'. Teachers in such schools reject the view that the interests of the most disenfranchised have been incorporated into the policy formulations of outside experts. Instead, such schools maintain a view that "social justice is largely worked out locally", and hence teachers indigenous knowledge about learning is crucial to the enterprise of making a difference in schools.

PAPER 3:

Finding the 'enunciative space' for teacher leadership and teacher learning in schools

John Smyth, Robert Hattam, Peter McInerney and Michael Lawson, Flinders University of South Australia

This paper draws upon Spivak's (1988) notion of 'enunciation' and takes a position that the "new ruthless economy" (Head, 1996) with its "anorexic approach to expenditure" (Ranald, 1996) is producing what Soucek (1996) labels a general "loss of critical sensibility" (p. 241). There is a progressive leaching of "discursive space" (Fraser, 1993) within which to any longer conceptualise or debate that nature of contemporary social institutions like schools. Rather than a discussion about form, substance, intent, and valued social purposes of schooling, what we have instead are impoverished "enclosures" (Rose & Miller, 1992, p. 188) -- vocationalism, accountability, testing, performance appraisal, devolved responsibility, school charters, league tables, re-centralised curriculum frameworks, and other extraneous limitations on teachers' work and students' learning.

This loss of an "entitlement to speak" (Fine, 1992, p. 25) leads to educational reforms that amount to "shape shifting". As Merchant (1995) notes, shape shifting is a concept used by Native Indian tribes to show a temporary change in appearance or character for the purposes of deception.

The paper is a "plea for discontent" (Beyer & Zeichner, 1982) and a call to reveal what schools might look like if the notion of "dialogic space" were taken seriously. It argues the need to confront the "contours of the oppressive relations of teaching" (Ng, 1995) and how governments worldwide have deliberately created schools that are" crippling learning communities" (Macedo, 1994, p. 142) for teachers. Developing indigenous critiques within schools (O'Neil, 1995; Heckman & Peterman, 1995) by re-inserting "radical spaces" (Ladwig, 1996) through the power of teachers' stories about the complexity of their world, is a crucial first stage in this re-appropriation. Arresting the "collapse of dialogic space " (Schneekloth & Shibley, 1995) is possible through forms of teacher distributive leadership that re-assert the practice of "getting serious about democracy" (Hostetler, 1995) through insider interrogation of what transpires in schools.

The paper confronts the "killing fields of professional values" (Stronach & Morris, 1994) through an analysis of a case study of "purposeful conversation" (Burgess, 1988) in a school where the idea of "dialogical encounter" (Bernstein, 1992) was taken seriously.

PAPER 4:

The constructive nature of teachers' learning

Michael Lawson, Peter McInerney, John Smyth and Robert Hattam, Flinders University of South Australia

Teachers are increasingly faced with the challenge of making coherent responses to the often inconsistent, but specific, demands made by community and governments. Alongside the rhetoric of increasing freedom and responsibility to decide their own affairs teachers are confronted by policies and movements that have direct and specific impacts on their teaching practice. In attempting to develop effective responses in such a context teachers are required to generate more from their own resources: they are required to call more upon their own knowledge and experience and less upon externally provided training and development. In this paper we trace some of the features of this process of teacher learning as it is generated by teachers within the school. The account of teacher learning is illuminated by use of comparisons with models of student learning which are dominated by use of one or another form of constructivism. The influence of observational learning of 'ordinary' and necessary skills and knowledge in a constructivist format is contrasted with training and development practices carried out on teachers that are more characteristic of the transmission model of teaching, now regarded as an ineffective vehicle for development of powerful knowledge and skill in students.

Finding the 'enunciative space' for teacher leadership and teacher learning in schools

John Smyth, Robert Hattam, Peter McInerney and Michael Lawson, Flinders University of South Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 27, Reclaiming the space for teachers' dialogic learning in schools.

SNYDI282

New literacies for new times: Taking technology into account

Ilana Snyder, Monash University

Since electronic technologies first appeared in educational settings, there have been important changes to literacy practices associated with their use. Whether the technology is word processing, electronic mail or hypertext, these technologies alter how language, both written and visual, is produced, processed and used. Indeed, we cannot continue to conceive of text as something located exclusively on a page, in a printed book. The new writing spaces include the screen where text is displayed and the electronic memory in which it is stored.

In this paper, I consider how writing, writers and written forms change when these technologies are used. I also consider the emergence of new theories of electronic literacies that are dynamic, critical and reflexive, theories that take into account the linguistic, the psychological and the sociocultural. The paper represents a synthesis of international research related to the complex connections between literacy practices and the uses of the new technologies. In particular, these theories account for the increased emphasis on visual representation, new forms of rhetoric, new approaches to narrative and argument, and new teaching and learning styles in the age of global communication networks. The articulation of such theories offers perspectives on ways in which the new electronic technologies can be used effectively by teachers and their students. It suggests how teachers can participate critically yet productively in computer-mediated literacy practices.

SOLII168

SYMPOSIUM 27: Towards collaboration in the practicum - Issues of power and ownership

Participants: Izabel Soliman, Di Bloomfield and Lesley Levins, University of New England

Overview:
This symposium is based on a recently completed project concerned with investigating a collaborative process of planning a program for the practicum component of a pre-service teacher education course leading to a Graduate Diploma in Education. The project involved the formation of a collaborative group which included school and university-based teacher educators as well as students. Time release was provided by the university for the teachers involved in order to attend planning meetings. Thus the project built upon upon previous research concerned with bridging or crossing the institutional and epistemological boundaries between schools and universities. The three papers presented in the symposium explore issues of power and ownership in relation to

1. integrating academic units with the practicum
2. theoretical frameworks adopted for the practicum and
3. collaboration achieved in planning the practicum.

PAPER 1:

Collaboration in planning the practicum

Izabel Soliman, University of New England

This paper is one of three in the Symposium 'Towards Collaboration in the Practicum: Issues of Power and Ownership.' It deals with the issue of sharing power and ownership or the degree of collaboration achieved in a project involving a group of university and school-based teacher educators and students. The group was formed to consider how to improve the school-based practicum component of a course leading to a Graduate Diploma in Education.

In this context and against the backdrop of a review of literature on collaborative work in teacher education, the factors which facilitated and constrained collaboration in the project are discussed, along with the perceptions of the participants on what needs to be done to ensure that collaborative work becomes a mainstream component of the work of teacher educators in schools and the university.

Improvements in the areas of communication, education and meeting procedures, clarity about the nature of the knowledge and the differing expertise of the participants, parity of esteem for their contributions, support from the state Department of Education and the university, and the development of appropriate structures for collaborative work are suggested.

PAPER 2:

BLOOD170

Theoretical frameworks for the practicum

Dianne Bloomfield, University of New England

The process of formulating, implementing and evaluating a competency/developmental framework for the practicum component of a course for the Graduate Diploma in Education is outlined in this paper. Issues of power and ownership, implicit in this process and in the relationship of the participants, are also examined.

The joint development of an appropriate competency framework, by university and school-based teacher educators, is one response to the challenge of clearly communicating expectations in learning to participants in the practicum. For such a framework to function as an effective guide to teaching and learning, the inclusion of a developmental perspective is also required.

This framework is discussed in relation to other theoretical models concerning the development of student teachers' learning as indicated within the relevant academic literature. Implications for both.

The structuring of practicum programs and the shifting roles of the two groups of educators involved are discussed.

PAPER 3:

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Integration of the practicum with academic units

Lesley Levins, University of New England

This paper addresses the issue of the extent to which students' experiences on their school-based practicum are integrated with the academic units studied at university in a course leading to a Graduate Diploma in Education. Also, it presents an evaluation of any changes as a result of this cross-fertilisation over the period of the collaborative project. This research was carried out over a 12 month period. The participants were tertiary educators from the university, secondary and primary educators from the district schools and students undertaking the Diploma in Education.

Data were collected by questionnaire, interviews, focus group sessions, observation and reflective journal submissions. The aim of this part of the study was to gauge if there was a perceived change in the integration about the content of academic units and the practicum. There were two groups of students used for comparative purposes. First, students who did a block, one week observation practicum before commencement of the university year. Second, a group of students who did a five-day period of observation dispersed over a ten week period, timetabled into the university semester.

The perceptions of all interested parties were accessed and compared to evaluate the integrative value of the introduced five-day dispersed observation experience versus the preliminary block week at the outset of the course.

A shift in component relationships in the skill of two hand striking of nine year old children: An exploration of product and process

Judith Sprinkle and Ken Vine, University of New England, and Dawne Larkin, University of Western Australia

The research is concerned with examining the adjustments nine year old children make when the size of the ball or the length of the bat is varied for the two hand strike, and the effects of those adjustments on outcomes. Additionally, the effects on both process and outcome of varying task goals are examined. The performances of forty five children striking a ball of varying sizes within a changing but tightly controlled task environment and the relationship of the components of the skill were investigated. The product of the skill was measured in distance and accuracy. Also, performances were video analysed to detect dynamic changes in component production and integration, and these changes were related to variations in task demands. From the video recordings, component production and integration was assessed using an ordinal scale and the resultant data analysed using ACER's implementation of the RASCH Latent Trait Scaling model. The interval level scores derived from application of the RASCH model, together with the distance and accuracy measurements, were analysed using MANOVA techniques to detect group differences. This paper extends current theories and empirical evidence by presenting performance models which illustrate various facets of adjustments to a changing task environment, and by describing the diversity of the adjustments and their implications for professional practice in physical education and sport science.

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That roar which lies on the other side of silence: The responses of women principals to the structural reform agenda in South Australian education

Karen Starr, Central Queensland University

The past decade has been a time of unprecedented change in South Australian education. Changes in education policy in the form of restructurings and 'reforms' have been instigated alongside the restructuring of the economy and industry. South Australian state education has been restructured six times over the past five years, which, according to policy rhetoric, has evoked a more responsive, decentralised, publicly accountable, efficient and cost-effective service delivery system. Driven by free market liberalism, progressive restructurings have occurred through both Labor and Liberal state governments, which have increasingly relied on hierarchical corporate managerialism and quality/audit/performance accountability mechanisms as means of ensuring desired results within the education system. These policy shifts have had powerful cultural effects, particularly on the organisation and management of schools and on the daily lives of school administrators. Most significantly, however, the structural reform agenda highlights the 'gender order' (Connell, 1996) of the education system, and has brought with it an increasingly masculinised work culture (Blackmore, 1993; Apelt, 1995; Limerick and Lingard, 1995; Rowan and Bartlett, 1995). In addition, central control over the work and autonomy of principals has increased, despite claims of increased authority delivered by 'devolution', or local school management.

This paper examines the responses of women high school principals to the structural reform agenda in South Australian education. Building on Connell's (1996) theory of gender, it explores the complex connections between power, production, cathexis and anima in the working lives of women principals.

The research project involved observations and extensive interviews in sixteen South Australian state secondary schools led by women principals. It was designed to include participants in a collaborative analysis of the data, and in the determination of political strategies as a response to its findings.

Exploring the responses of infants and toddlers in outside environments

Angela Steinberner, University of South Australia

Particular configurations of outdoor environments present learning opportunities for infants and toddlers which vary in quality. This research identifies a range of learning opportunities within twelve observed long-day child care centres, and results are interpreted within contextual and cognitive theory.

Long-day care for infants and toddlers presents challenging and exciting research dilemmas. This research has called for video data collection and the development of an environmental rating scale. Linking these analytical tools - the video data and rating scale - enables one to make interpretations about the data, yet protect the context. The research design method has facilitated internal validity for the 'seeing' and 'measuring' of the subtleties which make up complex infant interactions in their location.

This presentation will focus on issues to do with video data analysis and the environmental rating scale. Examples of child activity from over 11 000 individual observations will be provided to illustrate how they were re;ated to the rating scale by computer analysis to create a fusion of data which is 'process orientated', acknowledging the process of learning within the child, and the ongoing process of daily life in the centre for that child.

Otitis media: Implications of fluctuating, conductive, hearing loss on learning and behavior in high school age students

Jan Stenton, Griffith University

Middle ear infections (otitis media) can limit the capacity of many children to take part in normal, everyday activities at home and at school. Frequently, one in three children in a lower primary classroom will be suffering from this condition on any given day. The reason this condition may effect the children's performance is because of the fluctuating, conductive hearing loss which frequently accompanies otitis media episodes. This hearing loss can last for up to six months after the infection has healed. The hearing loss often goes undetected because it is generally within the mild range. However, it has been found that even a mild loss can have an adverse effect on children's learning and behavior.

This often "invisible" problem can impact on the acquisition of speech and language skills, cognition, behavior and the socialization process. It is important that a condition with the potential to have a detrimental effect on so many students is identified and understood.

My research is looking into the long term effects of otitis media with effusion on learning and behaviour. Thirteen - fifteen year olds will be grouped according to their otitis media history (A - no history, B - grommets inserted, C - history of otitis media with effusion but no grommetts inserted). Each group will be compared in terms of their learning and behaviour to try and identify if an early history of otitis media with effusion has an effect on learning and behaviour.

STEWD460

The use of focus groups to validate research findings

Dr Doug Stewart and Prof Brian Hansford, Queensland University of Technology

This paper provides an analysis of focus group methodology and an examination of a study in which focus groups were used to validate and add to the findings of a quantitative-qualitative research project carried out with deputy principals in government schools in Queensland.

Re-designing supervision in clinical dietetics education

Delma Stormont, Queensland University of Technology

Clinical dietetics is a field where the focus of student education has, historically, been content-oriented, particularly in the physical sciences. After university study is completed, students undertake eighteen weeks of practicum. It is rare to find a practicum supervisor who has a formal education qualification. To compensate for this, supervision has been supported by the university. University staff provide supplementary tutorial assistance in the practicum setting.

In response to changing university demands on its staff, and the coincidental restructuring of the academic course, a study of the current supervisory practices of clinical dietitians is being undertaken. This study will describe current supervision by considering the professional socialisation of students in the context of the practicum, interpersonal preferences of students and supervisors, and theoretical models of supervision. This will lead to the development of a series of workshops which will be used with practicum supervisors to enhance their supervisory skills, and relieve the burden on academic staff.

STORD407

A personal approach to supervision in clinical dietetics

Delma Stormont, Queensland University of Technology

Although the practicum is recognised as a significant time of learning for students, it is also a major challenge. Students in courses in Nutrition and Dietetics typically have strong backgrounds in physical sciences, but many are less well prepared for the new interpersonal demands.

To understand the variety of human behaviours, workshops on the Myers-Briggs personality Type Indicator (MBTI) have been conducted for students and supervisors at the beginning of students' practicum. These workshops explore applications of personal behaviours to learning in the practicum context, and include effective interactions between students and supervisors.

Whereas students show no obvious preference for the individual MBTI choices of Extraversion (E) versus Introversion (I), Sensing (S) versus iNtuition(N), Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F), or Judgement (J) versus Perception (P), the combination of ISFJ preferences within the student dietitian group is higher than in the general population. This aggrees with published type prevalence data on other helping professions such as teaching and nursing. Many of these ISFJ students experience difficulties adjusting to their practicum. Knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the personality type has been used to structure tasks which help them overcome these difficulties.

SUMSJ270

Promoting student teachers' reflection: A realistic goal?

Jennifer Sumsion, Macquarie University

During the past decade, there has been wide-spread interest in reflection as a basis for professional preparation and as a means of assisting future practitioners to develop the willingness and capacity to deal with the complexities, uncertainties and ambiguities increasingly characterising professional roles and responsibilities. Yet despite the current emphasis on reflection, especially in preservice teacher education programs, it remains a problematic notion. There is little consensus, for example, as to whether it can, in fact, be promoted. While many studies of students teachers' reflection have been undertaken, few have been longitudinal. Hence, little is known about the development of reflection as student teachers progress through their preservice programs.

This paper reports findings of a study which investigated changes in student teachers' reflection during their enrolment in the Guided Practice component of their preservice program. Although one of the main aims of this sequence of six semester-long units was to encourage and assist student teachers to reflect on their professional development, almost half of the 18 participants in the study demonstrated little consistent change in their willingness or capacity to do so. Factors which appeared to inhibit the development of their reflection are identified and possible implications for teacher educators are discussed.

Efficacy of integration in the physical education setting

Karen Swabey, University of Tasmania

This study examined the implementation of inclusive physical education programs for students with disabilities in regular Tasmanian schools. A questionnaire was used as a means of identifying those schools who perceived their physical education program as successful. Subjects for this research study were physical education teachers teaching Category A students in primary, high, district high and college government schools in Tasmania.

114 surveys were sent to schools, the response rate was 39%. From the questionnaires returned, participants for interviewing were selected. The selection involved an analysis of each questionnaire, to select those teachers, and consequently schools, who perceived their physical education program to be successfully catering for Category A students. From this process, five schools were selected - three primary schools and two high schools.

The findings suggested that inclusion in physical education does not appear to differ considerably to other curriculum areas. Most physical education teachers who are attempting to cater for students with disabilities do not seem to be provided with the support they require. Other factors which were found to be important were knowledge, principal and community support and positive principal and teacher attitudes inclusion. Finally, probably the most influential factor affecting the inclusion process was funding.

Sports after high school? An investigation into the sports drop out of students in the transition from high school to college

Karen Swabey, University of Tasmania

This study examined whether the transition from high school to college affected participation rates of students in sport and whether or not it affected participation rates as a function of gender. Identification of curriculum changes and teacher practices which would reduce sports drop out were also examined.

A questionnaire was given to a random sample of contact groups of year 11, 12 and 13 students who attended a large college on the NW coast of Tasmania. 145 questionnaires were analysed, 75 males and 70 females. The physical education staff (n=2) and the Principal of the college were interviewed.

The results showed that 26% of students had dropped out of sport during the transition from high school to college; 72% of the students had experienced sports withdrawal; 46% had ended their involvement in a sport but were participating in a different sport. More females (31%) dropped out of sport than males (20%), resulting in more males than females participating in sport.

The main suggestion from students in relation to curriculum changes and teacher practices was increasing school sport at the college level, whereas the teachers wanted to see a higher value given to health and physical education subjects in relation to other academic subjects.

SWANP005

Are new technologies really influencing educational practice - the case of calculators in primary mathematics classrooms.

Paul Swan and Len Sparrow, Edith Cowan University

Calculators have been available since the 1970's, and available in schools since the 1980's. They have had a strong impact at the secondary school level, with many states having approved the use of graphics calculators in tertiary entrance examinations, but calculators have had little or no impact in the primary school.

The researchers wished to find out why this was the case. A survey of teachers of years 1, 3, 5 and 7 across Western Australia was carried out to:

• establish a baseline of calculator usage,
• determine when and how calculators were used and
• gather data about impediments to the use of calculators in the primary school.

Over one thousand responses were received. The paper will describe the findings of the research and some of the follow up work since gathering the data.

SZARD138

The development of conceptual perspective taking in preschool aged children

Diane Szarkowicz, University of Western Sydney

The ability to attribute mental states to others (conceptual perspective taking) is an important achievement in early childhood, influencing the quality of the social interactions we engage in. This study investigated the development of conceptual perspective taking in forty 3- to 5-year-olds. Three different tasks were used to investigate the developmental sequence of Level 1 and Level 2 abilities. Age was found to be an important predictor of conceptual perspective-taking ability. In addition, a linear, hierarchical model of development was identified for conceptual perspective taking where a basic Level 1 ability developed before an advanced Level 1 ability, which in turn developed before a Level 2 ability.

Sport based physical education for adolescents in new times

Andrew Taggart and Sue Sharp, Edith Cowan University

Adolescents are still being presented with sport based physical education curriculum models that fail to respond to their needs in the post-modern world. This paper draws on extensive survey (n = 2,200) and interview data in an attempt to determine the needs and perceptions of adolescents with reference to sport and how sport providers in schools and the community can better meet these perceived needs to promote participation in physical activity.

The students surveyed and interviewed indicated that while sport was a desired activity it would be better positioned if it was offered at different times and in different formats. Students indicated that the major reasons for involvement in sport were liking the sport, keeping healthy and being competent. Thirty-five percent of students surveyed had dropped-out of a sport in the past 12 months and indicated that time schedules, boredom and study commitments were the major factors causing drop-out.

The implications of the findings will be addressed with particular reference to the establishment of effective links between school and community, provision of alternative forms of sport (especially social sport) and different time structures for participation. These adolescent perceptions will be compared with the current and preferred strategies of sport providers to engage adolescents in the movement culture.

Enhancing thinking for students in new times: A cognitive modifiability approach

Oon Seng Tan, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore

Unprecedented breakthroughs in technology and constant changes in many aspects of life call for our students to be highly adaptable. Such adaptability calls for a high degree of cognitive and affective skills. What can we incorporate in our curriculum to help students enhance their capacity to think and learn both now and in "new times"?

The paper will share on the rationale, philosophy, content and methodology of an intervention to enhance thinking skills. The intervention was piloted by the presenter for first year engineering students at a polytechnic.

The theoretical foundations of the intervention are based primarily on Feuerstein's Theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiablity. Samples of intervention strategies will be demonstrated and explained. These strategies involve the use of exercises to bring about self-reflection, critical awareness and meta-cognition as well as thinking tools and models to enable participants to be more effective problem-solvers and creative initiators and applicators of ideas. The thinking processes addressed in the intervention include areas such as perception, planning behaviours, precision of thought, use of classification and categorising, broadness of mental field, orientation towards logical evidences, inferential-hypothetical thinking, positive mental habit formation, analytical and divergent thinking.

TAYLP522

SYMPOSIUM 28: Re-inventing academic work: the makeover of tertiary teachers

Presenters: Peter Taylor, Linda Hort and George Lafferty, Griffith University, and Erica McWilliam and Wendy Morgan, Queensland University of Technology

Overview:
New corporate missions, managerial strategies and forms of communication technology are impinging on academic workers in unprecedented ways. From collegiality to digitality, our practices are being re-invented, with real short-term effects and uncertain long-term consequences. This symposium explores how pedagogical, organisation, industrial, and systemic change is impacting on the daily work of academics. Experts in the fields of flexible learning, hypertextuality, industrial relations, pedagogy and policy analysis will elaborate on this theme in relation to their area of specialisation.

PAPER 1:

Knowing in uncertain times: optimism, ignorance and flexible learning

Peter Taylor, Griffith University

This paper explores Universities are scrambling to position themselves in relation to challenges like globalisation, commercialisation, and the increasing availability and capacities of information technologies. They are experiencing significant identity crisis's they are buffeted by significant changes in both demands and the resources they have available to meet those demands. Many of the strategies being utilised to respond to those demands are themselves unproven. Thus we have institutions responding to novel demands with strategies which are also novel. Levels of anxiety about these novel times vary, but the actual level of exposure to the challenges seems to be related to that level. For example, academic managers expressing most concern about commercialisation, while IT managers express greatest need to engage with the new capacities of the information technologies.

Flexible learning is seen as an area of convergence of both challenges and potential solutions. This paper is based on research conducted into the adoption of flexible learning approaches in three faculty environments, and the more general experiences of the author as a staff developer with particular responsibility for promoting the adoption of flexible learning. It looks to some of the dysfunctional as well as the potential aspects of these expectations, focusing on the levels of uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the value of those practices to both staff and students.

PAPER 2:

HORTL524

Culture shock: the maladaptive academic response to new industrial times

Linda Hort, Griffith University

In exploring the current organisational context of academics work, this paper characterises the current cultural context of academic work as 'maladaptive'. The critical step toward this outcome involved the 1988 industrial agreement between the academics' unions, and the universities employers association, signed under pressure from the Federal Labor Government, which changed academic work in two ways. It changed the relationship of academic staff with their university from one of a community of scholars (`we are not staff of the university, we are the university') to that of employer and employee. Second, it placed senior academic staff, successful as researchers and teachers, into positions of management and staff supervision. These two changes have modified totally the context of academic work. However, this is not because the idea of a `community of scholars', and the underpinning values of collegiality, intellectualism and autonomy did not or do not exist. Rather, it is because the senior academics, untrained (and often unwilling) to be managers, have imposed their `academic' values onto their management task, creating authoritarianism, elitism, control and destructiveness. The resulting move of the `staff', to request more and more union-management negotiation of the nature and conditions of academic work has contributed to the increasing `maladaptation' of the higher education sector and academic work in the current social and political environment.

PAPER 3:

LAFFG525

Responding to management by crisis: possibilities for the democratisation of academic work.

George Lafferty, Griffith University

Over the past decade in Australia, the work done by academic staff has undergone a dramatic shift from its almost pre-industrial, collegial character to a corporate managerial world of mission statements and performance management. The paper locates this transformation of academic work within a context of economic crisis and public expenditure cutbacks, engendered by the collapse of the 'Keynesian welfare consensus'. The top-down implementation of 'management by crisis' in university has signalled the simultaneous centralisation of power and devolution of blame, as individual departments are left with the responsibility to cut staffing costs and consumption of resources. The work of academic staff has been increasingly codified, routinised and standardised, under the rubric of 'accountability' and 'more with less'. Overall, this process has meant a substantial shift of power within universities, away from those engaged in teaching (particularly) and research towards academic managers. However, the spread of corporate managerialism and the formalisation of the employer-employee relationship within universities have set the framework for an industrial relations agenda no longer mediated by any sense of collegiality. This means that university employees need to develop new organisational strategies. Drawing on labour process analysis and radical-democratic political theory, the paper assesses the possibilities for a more democratic reorganisation of academic work and decision-making.

PAPER 4:

Technologised pedagogies and marginalisation

Erica McWilliam, Queensland University of Technology

The authors discuss the increasingly technologised teaching and learning environment of higher education. While the imperative to use communication technologies to increase learner access is laudable, the question of 'access to what' needs to be addressed in all its complexity. The authors bring fresh pedagogical understandings to inform thinking about the design of teaching and learning environments. Their work illustrates the value of theoretically informed perspectives in researching the use of new technologies. They draw on several research projects in raising important questions about the changing nature of teaching and learning, and the potential of new communication technologies both to counter and to produce marginalisation. The argument is that all decisions about the appropriateness of particular pedagogical practices must engage with such possibilities.

PAPER 5:

MORGW527

Hyper-ventilating: The textual authorising of teachers and students in hyperspace

Wendy Morgan, Queensland University of Technology

This presentation explores the implications for teaching and learning, and particularly the textually constructed authority of teachers and students, of a recent technological innovation in an undergraduate teacher education subject, "Literature in Teaching". Here students contribute to a communal hyperspace (via the Storyspace program), reflecting on their own their reading and writing of hyperfictions and that of their fellows. And they add lexias and links through my paper (also in the hypertext space), analysing the hypertext work of previous students, called "Re-placing Authority by Desire: Novices Reading and Writing Literary Hypertext".

This accretive, collective, multilinear text -- different in form and effect from a web forum -- raises questions about the ambivalence of writing students' and teachers' desires to re-move or re-instate authority (of author, text or teacher) manifested by this medium. It also demonstrates how the very medium itself, which is promiscuous in "seeking connections" (Moulthrop 1995), nonetheless contains (includes and constrains) the structures of authority. Thus the invention of new "rhizomatic" spaces for learning engagement may paradoxically lead to the re-invention of pedagogical authority.

Knowing in uncertain times: optimism, ignorance and flexible learning

Peter Taylor, Griffith University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 29, Re-inventing academic work: The makeover of tertiary teachers.

THODA509

Suburban Guerillas: The new model school councillors for self managing schools

Angela Thody (Keynote Address)

Which way are school councillors developing ? Are they control freaks, disputing for leadership position with beleagured school principals ? Have they become democratic representatives for the many stakeholders now permitted to influence the development of educational instiutions and policies ? Do they passively accept the direction of school leaders ? Can they have any real effect on teaching and learning ?

This keynote considers how the international equivalents of Australian school councils are developing. Angela draws on research on the training of school councillors, of new groups co-opted into serving on English governing bodies and suggests a new formulation for the role of school councils. School councillors have grown in leadership sophistication, often with the guidance of school principals, during the structural reforms of the late twentieth century. The development of their powers has been encouraged by training courses and readily available distance teaching materials. Exemplars from New Zealand, England, Victoria and South Africa demonstrate how powerful school councils can be yet also indicates that passivity can still be the main mode of operation.

Somewhere between the extremes of beligerence and bovine contemplation, lies the new model to which Angela will introduce you in this keynote. This new model of school governance is an admirable contribution to democracy but is it so good for education ?

Professor Angela Thody, The University of Lincolnshire and Humberside

Suburban Guerillas: the new model school councillors for self-managing schools

Throughout the world structural reforms in education systems have witnessed the development of school councils. This paper addresses the questions of: Which way are schools councils and school councillors developing? Are school councillors control freaks, disputing for leadership position with beleagured school principals? Have they become democratic representatives for the many stakeholders now permitted to influence the development of educational institutions and policies? Do they passively accept the directions taken by school leaders? Can they really have any effect on teaching and learning? This paper considers how the international equivalents of Australian school councils are developing. The paper draws on research about the traininhg of school councillors, of new groups co-opted into serving on English governing bodies, and suggests a new formulation for the role of school councils. School councillors have grown in leadership sophistication, often with the guidance of school principals.

The development of their powers has been encouraged by training courses and readily available distance teaching materials. Exemplars from New Zealand, England, Victoria and South Africa demonstrate how powerful school councils can be, yet at the same time indicate that passivity can still be the main mode of operation. Somewhere between the extremes of belligerence and bovine contemplation, lies an appropriate new model for school councils and councillors which will be outlined in the paper. This new model of school governence is an admirable contribution to democracy, but is it so good for education?

THOMP348

Relaxation for young children: New research for new times

Patrice Thomas, Macquarie University

Stress is an increasing problem for children, as indicated by Allen (1992), Honig (1985) and Sowa (1992). Teachers are well aware that children are experiencing both acute and chronic stress, but feel poorly equipped to help them manage it. Miller and McCormick (1991) suggest that although researchers have studied the effects of stress on adults for several decades, only within recent years has childhood stress been recognised as a problem. Relaxation techniques are an essential part of transforming stress and can be used by teachers in classrooms (Rockwell, 1992; Rickard, 1994; Edwards, 1997). However, Thomas' (1994) literature review and subsequent searches have not revealed any major systematic studies or programs of relaxation for young children in educational settings.

This paper describes a collaborative research project which investigated teacher attitudes to relaxation programs for young children. A combination of survey and interview techniques were used to explore the needs, attitudes and concerns of teachers in using relaxation techniques in their settings. A pilot program was then implemented with a group of young children in a child care centre. During the program, the participating teachers were interviewed to provide evaluative data. The findings of this research study will be presented in this paper and implications for practice will be identified. In addition, significant emergent research issues will be addressed.

THOMR466

New times; new technology; new ways in teaching: Pedagogy and interaction in videoconferenceing at a regional university

Robert Thompson and Ian Kindt, Central Queensland University

Since 1987, the higher education system in Australia has undergone considerable expansion. The proliferation of regional campuses and the development of technology to facilitate learning at a distance in particular have encouraged universities to adopt teaching methods that are different from the face-to-face lecture-tutorial format.

The practice of teaching through videoconferencing has been utilised to allow students to access experts at a distance and to encourage a degree of interactivity between presenter and students. However, focus on the technology has diverted attention from the pedagogy of its use. This research study begins with the beliefs that videoconferencing in itself does not guarantee effective teaching and learning and that lecturers using the technology have to develop different skills from those used in face-to-face teaching. The research investigates: (i) the pedagogy that appears to be most effective in videoconferencing? and (ii) the nature of interaction in videoconferencing?

THOMS411

Public discourses: The interrelationships between media texts and educational policy making

Sue Thomas, Griffith University

This paper draws on research which explores the interrelationships between discourses on education in the media and policy arenas. It maps the competing discourses articulated in these two discursive fields in order to illustrate the part played by discursive practices in the construction of the ideological understandings of a recent policy initiative. The paper demonstrates how the textually mediated nature of these discourses and, in particular their intertextuality, work to construct distinctive social organisations and relations. This process is linked to the changing character of the public sphere. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of these transformations for education research and, in particular, for how research findings are presented as valuable to both policy makers and the community.

THORS506

In search of optional/alternative descriptions of PE practice: The case of the CAPE

Stephen Thorpe, Deakin University

In this paper, my concern is for the construction of alternative/optional descriptions of physical education practice which can enrich our understanding of the socio-historical space within which we live and work. More specifically, I am interested in what an analysis of the Crisis in Australian Physical Education [CAPE] during the first half of this decade can reveal about physical educators' lives, and change in physical education. In searching for an analytic space for such a study, I discuss the potential utility of a framework developed from a particular reading of the work of Michel Foucault. By providing a brief outline of this scholar's work, examining some of the ways it has been used, and discussing some of the criticisms directed at such analyses, I seek to outline a warrant and explore some possibilities for further work in the area.

TINNR488

Are your pedagogies showing?: A story of a reflexive narrative on pedagogies

Richard Tinning, Deakin University

This is the story of an attempt to address the issue of the pedagogy of an off-campus unit on pedagogy in physical education. At the heart of the pedagogy of the unit itself is a monograph titled 'Pedogogies for physical education: Pauline's Story.' Pauline is a fictitious teacher of physical education who is the central character in the monograph. She is also an MEd student enrolled in the pedagogy unit. The construction of Pauline is in some sense the result of my knowledge of past and present teachers who have enrolled in our off-campus program. In another she is my imagination, my blind spots, my biases and my interpretation.

From the outset I wanted to address the issue of the pedagogy of the monograph within the text itself. Perhaps it is a poststructuralist inspired story. But I did want it to facilitate reflective moments in its readers. I also wanted it to challenge the representation of knowledge(s) which had characterised earlier versions of the unit.

In this presentation I will discuss some of the issues (such as problems of representation) I encounted in writing the text and report on the extent to which the pedagogy of the text itself actually engaged the teachers (as students) in reflective moments.

Action learning and the professional development of beginning teachers: Some preliminary observations

Chris Tome, Oberon High School

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 18, Sustaining teachers' professional development: Exploring action learning and mentoring to maintain workplace learning.

Influence of world Englishes perspective and new technologies in interpreters' and translators' training courses in Vietnam

Thi Lan Tran, Queensland University of Technology and Hanoi University of Foreign Studies

Why a World Englishes perspective should be infused into English language education programmes?

At present, the world is witnessing a rapid increase in the use of English as a language of wider communication. More and more countries are making English their lingua franca to communicate with the rest of the world. not only the native English-speaking, but also the non-native English-speaking world in international settings. It is therefore important for any course dealing with English language education programmes including teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) to inculcate awareness of what is happening to the language worldwide. Unfortunately, at the present time, little information about the roles and functions of English as a World language is presented in English language education programmes. It is the intention of this research project to provide an overview of the relationship between a World Englishes perspective and English language curriculum design in general and TESOL materials selection and development in particular. And one of the major intentions of the author of the research project is to identify the primary reasons why a World Englishes perspective should be infused into English language education programmes in general and interpreters and translators training courses in Vietnam in particular.

How might the use of technology influence TESOL curriculum/syllabus design in general and TESOL materials selection and development in particular? We are now living in an Age of booming information and technology, the effects and influences (both positive and negative) of which are obviously unavoidable. Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and teaching is now available in most secondary, vocational and tertiary educational institutions in many countries in the world. To date, learning English through computer and become computer literary through learning English is the trend in many ESL/EFL learning and teaching programs. As Landow (1992:160) states: " ...hypertext and hypermedia have enormous potential to improve teaching and learning . So teachers and learners should be trained and prepared well enough to cope with these changes in educational trend. Unfortunately many EFL teachers and learners in Vietnam as well as in other non- English speaking countries often comment on feelings of the lack of and difficulties in finding authentic resources and materials for their teaching and learning. The project attempts to explore some possibilities and opportunities provided by the Internet ( with the focus on the World Wide Web) as reliable ways to access authentic and up-to-date language resources and materials for EFL teachers and learners in a foreign language (not host language) i.e. non-English speaking environment.

Finally, some challenges caused by a World Englishes perspective and the use of new technologies in language teaching and learning for Vietnamese curriculum developers as well as some changes in the foreign language education policy in Vietnam are proposed to investigate, and implications for Interpreters and Translators Training courses in Vietnam are tentatively suggested.

TREGK474

Student school to work transitions: Who hears their voice?

Karen Tregenza, Deakin University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 30, Restructuring gender, reworking schooling and reschooling work.

TSOLG261

Are we educating Voula?

Georgina Tsolidis, Monash University

New times in education provide a range of contradictions and dilemmas in relation to how these are approached. While globalization presents us with unprecedented mass movement of people across national boundaries and resultant cultural difference, there exists also a common global culture transferred through popular culture and mass communications. The aim here is to consider this 'sameness' and difference in relation to the cultural identifications and educational aspirations and experiences of secondary school students, specifically, adolescent girls from ethnic minority communities which have long histories in Australia.

Over the past twenty years the limitations of considering women and girls as homogenous categories have been highlighted. This has been particularly so in relation to race and ethnicity. Australia's history of colonization and immigration make these considerations particularly pertinent. While our population is becoming increasingly diverse and there are imperatives to reevaluate how we understand 'Australianness' and seemingly homogenous categories like 'girls', this is occurring in a context of restricting budgets, marketization and increasingly narrow policy frameworks. Schools are at the forefront of these changes. How do ethnic minority girls negotiate their cultural identifications and educational aspirations and experiences in the context of schooling as an increasingly segregated institutional practice?

Changing political scenario in Hong Kong and its impact on education after July 1997

Elaine Tung, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Change is endemic to Hong Kong, particularly in the new era when the Chinese government overtakes the sovereignty from Britain after a century of colonial rule (1948-1997). According to the Sino British joint agreement signed in 1984, Hong Kong people can live under "one-country, two-systems' for a period of fifty years. Both of the capitalist and socialist systems will exert influence in the formation of the new government for a period of fifty years. As education policy will change significantly under the purview of the Basic Law, the traditional curricula are no longer adequate for the rapid changing political scenario. Politicians and educators are seeking new directions in shaping our education agenda. Civic education has never been important in the curriculum in the past and its gaining importance when people are finding ways of harmonizing nationalism, capitalism, socialism and patriotism in the new era. The use of Chinese instead of English as the first language of instruction also causes significant change in the education system. With the influx of Chinese migrants from China, there are calls for adjustment programs for new migrants and the deprived. Affective education, such as guidance programs, moral education and sex education is gaining its importance particularly when Hong Kong is undergoing these dramatic changes. It is timely for us to take a new look in researching education in the new era.

Cognitive load and discovery learning

Juhani Tuovinen, Charles Sturt University and John Sweller, University of New South Wales

Innovative forms of instructional provision such as discovery learning are discussed in the context of cognitive load theory. Recent educational experiments with school and university students are described where methods based on cognitive load theory were used to measure the educational effectiveness of instruction in computer education, contrasting discovery learning and other forms of instruction. The implications of the results of these experiments suggest considerable deficiencies in discovery learning with data favouring new, more effective forms of instruction based on cognitive load theory. These new learning approaches reduce cognitive load by eliminating the extraneous working memory load caused by the use of some problem solving strategies during learning, or the elimination of split-attention and redundancy effects for material that imposes a high working memory load.

Children's knowledge of problem solving and the key competencies

Penny Van Deur, Flinders University of South Australia

Key Competencies are a new educational initiative to be introduced into Australian schools. One of the Key Competencies is Solving Problems.

It is important to consider the question: "If you know about problem solving, what do you know?"

Knowledge of problem solving could involve knowledge of process, control, beliefs, context and transfer. It may be that the knowledge of teachers and students differs in ways that have implications for teaching and learning.

To find out more of what children and teachers know about problem solving, a study using two groups of year five students was conducted. One group was an average class group and the other was a group of students judged to be academically gifted. Six teachers gave their views of problem solving and the differences between successful and unsuccessful problem solvers.

The paper explores the students' views of: knowledge of problem solving; views of the problem solving process; views of performance on a problem solving task and rating of self as a problem solver in six curriculum areas. The students were observed as they worked on an invention problem solving task. Verbal protocols were taken and analysed. Each student was scored on their problem solving behaviour. Teachers and students rated each student's ability to be a good problem solver in the six curriculum areas. These ratings were compared.

A problem solving framework for charting problem solving behaviour was formulated. The Key Competencies outline of Solving Problems is evaluated in relation to the results of the studies, and the implications of introducing the Key Competencies into Australian schools are discussed.

'The body of the teacher'

Malcolm Vick, James Cook University

Historically, teachers have been understood within modernist discourses which constitute them - like learners - in terms of a mind/body binary which privileges the mind. The body of the teacher was, and is, seen as a malevolent, intrusive stranger in the domains of pedagogy.

However, the bodies of teachers have pressed themselves on our consciousness, through paedophilia and other forms of bodily abuse of children. At the same time, apparently disembodied forms of pedagogy, including both 'distance education' and the formal and informal educational possibilities of the internet, have attracted much attention - both favourable and hostile.

This paper establishes perspectives on these contemporary developments through a brief account of the construction of the teacher's body in educational discourse from the 1850s to the 1990s. It places them in the context of post-structuralist theorising of the body both as subject and object of a corporeally based disciplinary regime, and as a discursively constituted negated/regulated presence.

It shows that despite the current furore, which presents the transgressive presence of teachers' bodies as essentially new, concerns over teachers' bodies are in fact of considerable longevity. It argues that part of the 'new times' is the representation of long-present issues as novel.

A 'quality' policy trajectory: from global homogenisation to localised differentiation

Lesley Vidovich, Murdoch University

'Quality' has emerged as a global theme of education policy in the drive for microeconomic reform over the last decade. This study examines the way in which policy makers in Australian higher education reconstructed notions of quality employed in other countries to develop a particular Australian program, which operated between 1993 and 1995. The study then analyzes the continuing recontextualisation of the quality policy from the ministerial level, through the Higher Education Council, and the Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (CQAHE) to the site of intended policy effect - individual universities.

Stephen Ball's (1994) notion of a policy trajectory study is employed as a theoretical framework. Drawing on postmodern perspectives, he emphasises the messy realities of the policy process, including resistance, negotiation and transformation from the 'macro' context of policy production to the 'micro' context of policy practice. Policy effects are thus variable, and even contradictory, across different local sites.

This paper presents the findings of interviews with CQAHE members and with senior academics/administrators in 6 universities over two states (NSW and WA) during 1995/96, in a manner which reveals much of the 'messiness' of the quality policy process.

VIETR388

English proficiency as an influence on student performance in universities

Rosemary Viete, Monash University

Increasing numbers of applicants from a range of language backgrounds are seeking places in Australian universities as local and international students. Their proficiency in English varies considerably, as do the varieties of English they use. While proficiency in English is not the only factor affecting academic performance in English medium education, it is important. Universities have established policies regarding English proficiency requirements for international students. They are much less clear and consistent about proficiency requirements for local applicants to courses conducted in Australia and how these requirements are related to educational access and equity.

This paper discusses this relation, focussing on two strategies used in various postgraduate education courses to assess English equitably. Drawing on a research study, it argues that equitable outcomes for the entire educational community depend as much on suitable assessment procedures as they do on suitable support for students and staff involved in both selection and teaching or learning. It discusses the features that make an assessment procedure 'suitable', and explores ways in which we can ensure that those who wish to learn a new discourse are not permanently excluded from the only context in which they can learn it.

WAHR371

Distance education in the new times: Postcolonial content, space and time

Richard Wah, University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 22, Reworking education in postcolonial conditions: Local and global contexts for change.

WALKR384

Collaboration in an electronic learning community

Richard Walker and P Lambert, University of Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 26, Communities of learners: Researching resistance and exclusion in the collaborative classroom.

WALKR492

New ways of presenting case study research

Rob Walker and Karen Malone, Deakin University

This paper will discuss the 'Hathaway Project' a case record of a primary school on CDROM, showing how. in a multimedia context, research findings can be presented interactively and suggesting some of the consequences this has for the way research findings from case studies are handled and presented. The paper will describe how these ideas are being further developed in the 'Growing Up in Cities' project, a multinational, multidisciplinary study of the urban environments within which children are growing up.

In particular the paper will consider visual data of various forms - photographs, video, drawings and plans and other scanned documents. Once research shifts to multimedia the convetional distinctions between printed text and other forms cease to be barriers to publication of such material in relatively 'raw' forms. Once we can incorporate full-motion video (for example) into research documents, we will argue that this changes the ways in which we need to think about the conduct and reporting of case study research.

During the presentation we will give most time to showing the material we have been working with and demonstrating the formats with which we are experimenting. Those who wish to find out more or follow up the discussion will br provided with access to web sites where this is possible.

WALSK185

Early childhood teachers' work with maltreated children: The quest for a knowledge base

Kerryann Walsh, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 16, Early childhood teachers wirking in new times: Reports on research undertaken in the 1990's.

WATKP470

SYMPOSIUM 29: Restructuring gender, reworking schooling and reschooling work

Chairperson: Peter Watkins, Deakin University

Participants: Jane Kenway and Karen Tregenza, Deakin University and Sue Willis, Murdoch University

Overview:
In this symposium we draw on research funded by the Australian Research Council which examines the ways in which gender is implicated in recent programs for vocational education in schools. Through a series of case and cameo studies of different schools and programs in WA and Victoria, our research is considering vocational education in changing economic, technological and institutional contexts with particular reference to masculinities, femininities and localities. The project is examining matters associated with gender construction, relations and reform in the context of the restructuring of gender in contemporary times.

PAPER 1:

The feminisation of the labour market and males' 'new disadvantage'

Jane Kenway, Deakin University

This paper will provide the conceptual basis for the other papers of the Symposium. It will critically consider the popular arguments about the feminisation of the labour market and males' 'new disadvantage' Firstly, it will bring to bear upon the argument recent feminist theories which point to the gender paradox of restructuring which involves both gender intensification as well as to gender convergence. For instance, it will offer a feminist analysis of the post-Fordist notions of flexibility and enterprise exploring the current imperative for workers to be flexibly and enterprisingly gendered. Secondly it will point to the importance of local labour markets in interpreting the notion of the feminisation of the labour market. Amongst a variety of matters here it will consider the gendered dimensions of local cultures and geographies and their implications for gendered participation in local labour markets. In this context the paper will seek to theorise the ways in which the micro markets of education intersect with local labour markets in gendered ways.

PAPER 2:

Reading the region

Sue Willis, Murdoch University

This paper will draw largely upon case studies of two schools - one metropolitan and one rural - each with a substantial commitment to vocational programmes. The locations of these schools differ considerably in their industry and occupational bases but, as a result of technological changes and structural adjustments in the economy, each has experienced major changes in local labour markets and is undertaking various approaches to micro-economic reform. The paper will focus on the ways in which the particular vocational education programs of these particular schools connect with local labour markets, work cultures and micro economic reforms and how gender is inscribed in these. In particular, it will consider how vocational education and other teachers talk about the local labour market and transformations within it, how they understand the implications for their students and how they respond in their interactions with industry groups and in the development of vocational programmes.

PAPER 3:

TREGK474

Student school to work transitions : Who hears their voice?

Karen Tregenza, Deakin University

The current shifts in vocational education and training have been both rapid and intense. In the face of continued cutbacks, schools around the state, and indeed the country, are being pressured by the government to develop and implement VET programs linking with industry and TAFE. The effects of the changes in VET are only just beginning to be felt in schools. As our research in city, provincial and rural areas shows, the push towards increased VET is fraught with problems in all sectors whether school, TAFE or industry. We hear of the difficulties schools face in their quest to develop relevant programs with dwindling resources and limited funding. We hear TAFE's concerns with secondary schools encroaching on what has traditionally been their area of expertise. And we hear of industry's demands in terms of competencies, curriculum and payment. But what of the students? Who hears their voice? How do they understand the reworking of their schooling, the reschooling of their transitions to work and indeed the restructuring of the labour market and the world of work in their localities? How do they read the gender issues involved in the context of local gender cultures/geographies? In this paper we will explore some of the experiences, tensions and issues raised by students in the new VET arena showing how gender is being reinscribed and reinvented.

Has arts education adapted to the new times?

Amanda Watson, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

This paper presents a comparative analysis and discussion of data gathered from a questionnaire circulated to 10 countires towards the end of 1996 and the new year of 19 All the countries chosen are implementing "National Curricula". The data is viewed in the context of a study of available current art/music curriculum documents received from the countires participating in the questionnaire. In addition, current literature from each country focussing on the implementation of arts/music "National Curricula" is reviewed. The data from the questionnaires is categorised in the following areas: the use/format of the "National Curricula" on a general level, the structure and content of "arts" and/or music in the "National Curricula", and the evidence required to be collected by a teacher to determine an arts/music standard in the "National Curricula". The paper highlights common and exceptionall issues that are evident from the questionnaire data and related supporting material. In conclusion, the paper identifies issues relevant to Australian conditiona in these new times with a specific focus on the two most recently written arts curriculum documents - Victoria and Western Australia.

Closing down a campus: A case study of "vertical cuts" and the demise of the School of Teacher Education at the University of New South Wales

Alan Watson, Ted Nettle and Debbie Scott, The University of New South Wales

The St George Campus was opened in 1980 to accommodate Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education and is a purpose-built teacher education facility housing some 1000 full-time students. The Campus, which is the only university site in southern Sydney, became part of the University of New South Wales in the 1990 Dawkins amalgamations. On December 2 1996, the Council of UNSW, in response to the Vanstone cuts and on the recommendation of the Vice Chancellor, decided to close down the operation of the campus beginning in 19 This paper will report the process of that closure - believed to be the first time an Australian campus has been closed without provision for the transfer of major programs and staff - and the attempts of staff and the local community to bring about an alternative conclusion. The final result, which at the time of this proposal is not quite complete, should be clear by the time of presentation. Implications for higher education policy, for research and for the provision of teacher education in Australia will be considered.

WATSB205

Critical pragmatism: A modern/postmodern professional discourse

Barbara Watson, James Cook University of North Queensland

This paper describes the theoretical framing of a study which explored twenty parents' constructions of living with a child with an intellectual disability using a modern/postmodern interpretation of critical pragmatism. Critical pragmatism was used at the outset of the study as a method of social inquiry to analyse the problem area and than to make a choice of research paradigm. The antifoundational view of knowledge held by the critical pragmatist had political implications for the choice of a research paradigm. This choice was dependent upon the submission of the moral and political issues of living with a child with an intellectual disability to a dialogical discourse which included the consideration of both modern and postmodern perspectives to research. The application of the pragmatic method to critically analyse the constraints placed on parents by the implicit and explicit assumptions of the special education researcher not only informed the choice of a research paradigm but a critical pragmatic discourse was used to formulate recommendations for policy and research direction. Adherence to a critical pragmatic discourse afforded a richer and more diverse interpretation of the findings of the study than that offered by rigid adherence to a single paradigm.

Collaboration in mathematical problem solving

Jane Watson and Helen Chick, University of Tasmania

The research literature on collaborative group work in problem solving contains generally positive results in terms of both the processes involved and the cognitive outcomes achieved. This study will consider higher order functioning in the chance and data part of the mathematics curriculum. Earlier work of students in grades 6 and 9 suggested a hypothesis that students working in groups may produce higher level outcomes in the process of finding and justifying associations in data sets. The project reported in this paper sought to look at several aspects of collaborative problem solving using students in grades 3, 6 and 9 who worked individually and in groups on two chance and data tasks, one related to fair dice and the other related to associations among variables presented on data cards. Whereas other reports from this project have focused on the mathematical achievement of students completing tasks, this one will look specifically at students' levels of performance and types of collaboration.

Measuring teachers' reactions to new areas of the curriculum: A case study from chance and data

Jane Watson and Jonathan Moritz, University of Tasmania

The evaluation of teachers' reactions to a new area of the curriculum is important to identify factors limiting effective curriculum implementation in the classroom. Teachers may lack confidence because the subject matter was not part of their preservice training. They may be uncomfortable with the different teaching methodologies seen as appropriate for the new content. They may perceive deficiencies in the professional development provided to help then bridge the gap between old and new content. This report will focus on a profiling instrument devised to characterise the factors which are related to teachers' effectiveness in teaching topics in the chance and data part of the mathematics curriculum. The profile measures teachers' knowledge of topics, teaching methodology and planning, anticipation of common student responses, confidence teaching particular topics, beliefs about the usefulness of statistics in society, familiarity with resources in the area, and perceived needs for professional development. The report is based on data from 42 teachers of primary and secondary grades around Australia.

Changes in student beliefs and perceived social context in relation to maths across the first year of high school

Helen Watt, The University of Sydney

Changes in student perceptions over the first year of high school form the basis of this study. Self- and task-perceptions as well as utility judgements are measured in relation to mathematics, since the transition to high school has been found to impact negatively on students' self-concept in this domain. Students' judgements of their parents' and teachers' perceptions are also measured, to examine whether changes in student perceptions are related to perceived changes in the attitudes of significant others. Participants (N=321) are from three coeducational Government schools in metropolitan

Sydney, matched according to socioeconomic status. Results are discussed within a developmental mismatch framework for contextual school factors and mediating parent and teacher influences as they relate to changes in student perceptions and beliefs over the course of the first year at high school. Analyses to determine change in perception and relatedness of perceptions are hierarchical ANOVAs paired within-subjects, and Pearson correlations. Major implications derived relate to the stability or instability of varying perceptions over time.

WATTJ443

The challenge of meeting the needs of the gifted child

James Watters, Bernadette Andrew, Amy Henderson and Belinda George, Queensland University of Technology

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 14, Transition into teaching: Voices of women primary teachers of mathematics and science.

A Rasch measurement model analysis of the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory

Russell F Waugh, Edith Cowan University

The Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (Entwistle and Tait, 1994) has been developed from previous research dating back to, at least, Marton and Saljo (1976). It consists of 30 items relating to three orientations to learning (a deep approach, a surface approach and a strategic approach) and eight items relating to two other learning aspects (lack of direction and academic self-confidence). The present study investigates the Inventory by analysing its psychometric properties using a modern measurement model - the Extended Logistic Model of Rasch (Andrich, 1988a, 1988b; Rasch, 1980).

The sample is 346 students at a university in Perth, Western Australia. The method involves analysing the sample as a whole, analysing the four sub-groups (females, males, younger and older students) and analysing five sub-scales (relating to the five aspects of the scale design). The results show that while

some measurement criteria are satisfactory (fit to the model and ordered thresholds), separability reliability is sometimes low, the difficulties of many items are not invariant across the sub-groups and two items do not fit the model. It is suggested that the Inventory be revised by adding more items relating to attitudes, intentions and behaviour, the neutral response category be deleted, an ordered response system be used and only positively worded items be used.

A rasch measurement model analysis of the Course Experience Questionnaire

Russell Waugh, Edith Cowan University

The Course Experience Questionaire (Johnson, Ainley & Long, 1996) consists of 25 items in a Likert format with five response categories. The questionaire is used by most of the 37 universities in Australia to gather data about teaching and course quality, as perceived by graduates in the year after graduation. The quality is measured in five aspects: good teaching (6 items), clear goals and standards (4 items), appropriate assessment (4 items), appropriate workload (4 items), generic skills (6 items) and a single item on overall satisfaction. The questionaire is given out annually.

Data from three groups - 4067 combined 1995 and 1994 graduates, 2432 1995 graduates (67% response rate) and 1635 1994 graduates (48% response rate) - from University X in Australia were collected for the Course Experience Questionnaire. The data for the whole scale and the five separate sub-scales of the questionnaire were analysed in the three groups, using the Extended Logistic Model of Rasch (Andrich, 1988a,b: Rasch, 1980) to investigate its validity and reliability. The results show that, taken together, 23 of the 25 items form a valid scale measuring graduate perceptions of their courses (items 21 and 25 were discarded because they did not fit the model). Of the five aspects of the Course Experience Questionnaire, only Good Teaching and Generic Skills form moderately valid and reliable sub-scales which could be used and interpreted separately from the main scale. Suggestions are made for improving the questionaire involving additional items, deletion of the neutral category, the use of an ordered response format and the use of positively wordered items only.

A professional development framework for syllabus construction

Jenni Way and Beth Southwell, University of Western Sydney

In the construction of a school syllabus, many factors need to be taken into consideration. These include research on the topics being considered for inclusion, the needs of the students and the community in terms of the particular subject and the strategies that will be employed in implementing the syllabus when completed. Professional development of teachers must be a significant part of the implementation stage. A syllabus carries the potential to have a huge impact on classroom practice in regards to both content and methodology. Therefore, a syllabus also has the potential of being an important vehicle for transporting research findings into the classroom. If the relationship between research and a syllabus is made more transparent it may better equip teachers to effectively implement a syllabus. The recently formulated Chance and Data Strand of the NSW K-6 Mathematics Syllabus is used as an example of the possible outcomes of linking research with professional development, with a view to establishing a framework for syllabus construction, publication and dissemination.

The construction of masculinities in children's picture books. A political act?

Grant Webb, Central Queensland University

It is now widely recognised that children's picture books are not inferior substitutes for texts that contain only written text, and are definitely not only for young children who still need "help" with reading words. They are, in fact, extremely complex inter-semiotic texts that have the ability to create and replicate hegemonisitc ideologies, values and beliefs.

In recent years, much attention has been given to how a range of femininities is being textually constructed and the values and beliefs attached to these cultural constructions. As a result of this focus, picture books, such as Bossyboots (David Cox), The Paper Bag Princess (Robert Munsch) and Princess Smartypants (Babette Cole) have been composed which offer anti-stereotypical constructions of females, while little has been done to focus on the differing forms of masculinities that are being constructed in picture books.

This paper will explore the construction of various views of masculinities in picture books to develop a set of categories. This will be achieved through the analysis of both the written and visual text of a number of texts, observations of classroom interactions and interviews with children. Of particular interest will be the demonstration of (in)congruency between: the initial reactions to the construction of a particular aspect of masculinity, students' reactions and the textual or grammatical constructions.

WEBBK391

Not just stories! Narrative inquiry - a methodology for collaborative teacher research

Kathie Webb, University of Wollongong

Narrative inquiry (Connelly and Clandinin, 1990; Carter, 1993) is a relatively new methodology which uses teachers' stories of their experiences and practices to document and explain how teachers learn about teaching and how they know that their students are learning. Connelly and Clandinin's (1990) groundbreaking paper surveys the forms of narrative inquiry in educational studies and outlines criteria and methods for the study of teachers' stories and meanings of experience. These researchers emphasise the participation of the researcher in narrative research through mutual storytelling and the importance of a research relationship based on trust. Narrative inquiry draws on Polkinghorne's (1988) research that shows practitioners' narrative ways of knowing are the primary form by which they make meaning of their experiences. This is further supported by narrative accounts of teachers' work (Coles, 1989; Paley, 1979; Connelly and Clandinin, 1988; Witherell and Noddings, 1991; Webb and Blond, 1995).

Narrative inquiry's advantages over existing educational methodologies include: it provides a means of reporting on teaching that comes naturally to many teachers and sits well with their everyday work; it values and respects teachers' meanings (as distinct from meanings ascribed teachers' work); it provides direct accounts of practices that are often misunderstood or misrepresented by the wider community.

WEBBK392

Understanding teacher knowledge and teachers' collaborative research requires alternate theories of knowledge: Implications for reform of teacher development

Kathie Webb, University of Wollongong

This paper describes Canadian research on teacher knowledge (Elbaz, 1983; Clandinin, 1986; Connelly and Clandinin, 1988; Clandinin & Connelly , 1995; Webb, 1995a) that shows teachers use hold and construct knowledge that is experiential, narrative, relational, embodied and shaped by the contexts of their professional lives. This line of research argues for recognition of alternative theories of knowledge (including relational, narrative, and embodied knowing) and stresses that teacher development policies and practices should recognise and support teachers' inquiries into practice.

Teacher knowledge research acknowledges practice as the inquiry that leads to theory and provides data to show that teachers' reflections on their practices involve theorising and generating knowledge about teaching. The presenter's three and a half year collaborative research provides an uncommon example of a longitudinal study where a teacher is both a co-researcher and co-author of the research reports. The research employs a narrative methodology where the teacher and researcher draw on their narratives of their teaching experience (Connelly and Clandinin, 1990) as a means to accessing their teaching knowledge.

The implications of this research and the emergent papers (Webb, 1995b; Webb and Blond, 1995; Webb, 1996; Blond and Webb, 1997; Schroeder and Webb, 1997) concern recognition of collaborative teacher research as an educative process for teachers.

Leadership in Physical Education - Final results of a state-wide survey of health and physical education staff in secondary schools

Louisa Webb, The University of Queensland

Teachers teach in the way they do, not just because of the skills they have or have not learned. The ways they teach are also grounded in their backgrounds, their biographies, in the kinds of teachers they have become. Their careers - their hopes and dreams, their opportunities and aspirations, or the frustration of these things - are also important for teachers' commitment, enthusiasm and morale.

This statement highlights the relationship between the large research area of "teachers work" and issues of careers, aspirations to leadership, opportunities for leadership and the lived experiences of teachers.

Results from a state-wide survey of Health and Physical Education (HPE) staff in Queensland shed light on the demographic make-up of staff, aspirations to pursue a career, opinions about the Head of Department position as one potential career path, perceptions of leadership styles, barriers to promotion and barriers to effectiveness for those who are promoted.

One particular characteristic of leadership within HPE currently, is that it is predominantly male. Data from the Queensland Department of Education illustrates that the number of female HPE Heads of Department (13.5%) is well below the figure for female HODs across all subjects (42%) and is second only to Science (11%) in terms of the lowest female HOD representation compared to teacher representation.

WEBSB038

Equality of opportunity in rural schools: An Australian study

Beverley Webster and Deidra Young, Curtin University of Technology

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) was conducted in Australia in 1994 among 13-year-old students in 161 schools. This study involved the use of a multilevel model to examine the effect of school resources on student achievement in mathematics and science.

Resources examined included the use of computers, technology and other physical resources provided by the school for academic learning.

WEBSD372

The differential implications of globalisation for Kenya's stratified education system

Daisy Webster, University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 22, Reworking education in postcolonial conditions: Local and global contexts for change.

WESTJ403

Towards a re-conceptualized model of student retention and attrition

Janette Weston, University of Southern Queensland

This conference presentation will represent a re-conceptualized model of higher education student retention and attrition. Whereas previous models have been context-specific, this model applies to both 'on campus' and 'off campus' settings. It is intended that three specific issues can be examined via this model, viz., Higher Education Student Performance, Student Attrition and Student Retention. It is argued that appreciation of these three key areas bears great potential to reduce the perennial loss of students. Factors which can mitigate against student decisions to withdraw from higher education are important foundational considerations for devising practical retention strategies.

WHARA194

School culture: Relationships, practices, learning and change

Ann Wharton, NSW Department of School Education

The culture of any school will have an important impact on the ability of school leaders to implement changes to improve student outcomes. School culture is developed over time by the stakeholders including the students, staff, parents and the wider community. It is influenced by the beliefs and values of these groups within the political context of a society changing rapidly in response to technological advances and new ways of viewing work relationships.

Leaders must be aware of the values and beliefs held within a school community to ensure that change is approached in a collaborative manner cognisant of the communities aspirations for their children.

Leaders taking up their first appointment as school principals are in a unique position to assess the existing school culture as they experience it as a newcomer without prior knowledge or any ownership.

This paper deals with the construction and nature of school culture and the initial perceptions of newly appointed principals in regard to their new school's culture. A small number of case studies are reported and discussion follows about the impact of school principals on school culture, the impact of school culture on newly appointed principals and the implications for school leaders and leadership training.

WHITH285

Re-naming nature. Imagining post-rationalist frameworks for environmental education: A view from the tropics

Hilary Whitehouse, James Cook University of North Queensland

The research presented is part of a PhD project exploring the places and spaces within environmentalism and environmental education where it is possible to imagine ourselves beyond the dualistic constructions of liberal humanism. Offered is a view from the tropics on the research process towards reconceptualising environmental education frameworks in response to the needs of the postmodern generation of students.

Post-structuralist feminist insights make more apparent the discourses in which we are caught up and through which we produce environmental knowledges and understandings. The paper is developed from data collected with high school students in North Queensland and with educators from countries around the Pacific. Students found that locating 'nature' within the binary traditions of rationalism was a difficult task. Pacific Island educators coming out of village settings found they learned to talk an externalised 'nature' into existence through their schooling experiences.

Creating a post-rationalist environmental education will require some imaginative shifts in how we discursively produce environmental knowledge. It also involves making creative linkages through the research process.

WHITM094

Creating responsible images of Judaeo-Christian/Islamic relations

Margaret White, University of Western Sydney

Developing values and attitudes formed from a world knowledge base should be the education focus to improve intercultural understanding. A dimension of educational research should be addressing reform of our selective constructs of knowledge about Asia Such research involves reinvestigation of some of the predominantly Christian assumptions in the West that have dismissed the profound world views and visions of destiny written in the spiritual and moral philosophies of these great world religions, all of which emanated from Asia.

Part of that research must address the longterm beliefs in the West that the Koran and its teachings are hostile to the Judaeo/Christian ethic. Students should be required to undertake a scholarly analysis of the Bible and the Koran as primary texts, to clarify their confusion and misunderstanding of the commonality and interconnectedness of these important written teachings. Such research would provide the knowledge base to share ideas about social values and responsibility, human relations and moral autonomy considered in the cultural context of the times of their writing and today. In the process students will come to realise there is more than one legitimate history of religion and that Judaism, Christianity and Islam have been involved in each other's exchange of ideas and commonality of development.

WHITN508

The Aboriginal woman researcher: Issues and complexities

Nereda White, Weemala Higher Education Centre, Australian Catholic University

Although women's experiences are becoming more valued, traditional and even feminist methodologies have continued to exclude indigenous women's experiences. Using the work of Marshall and Ladner, this paper describes the journey of one Aboriginal woman as she comes to terms with herself as a researcher whilst reflecting on the complex issues of gender and ethnicity for the Aboriginal researcher as well as the Aboriginal women involved in the research. Issues highlighted will include the position of the Aboriginal researcher, what she brings to her research - her identity and connectedness with research participants. It will also examine the historical context of Aboriginal women's lives which have contributed to the distorted knowledge about their experiences, their concerns and aspirations.

The appropriateness of research into indigenous women will be considered, how and where we should be leading in illuminating the lives of Aboriginal women through research.

Interactive telephone technology and applications for tertiary study

Sonja Whiteley and Claire Field, Tertiary Entrance Procedures Authority (TEPA)

In line with other interstate tertiary admissions centres in Australia, the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) has sought to streamline its application process through the use of a touchtone interactive telephone system. The Tertiary Entrance Procedures Authoritys (TEPA) evaluation of QTACs pilot application system aimed at determining the satisfaction of client groups with the new process and obtaining information that could be used to address specific concerns. As part of the evaluation, school principals, guidance officers, Year 12 students and interstate applicants were surveyed in relation to their experiences with the interactive telephone application system.

Overall, it was evident that all groups were satisfied with the telephone application service provided by QTAC and that many of the previously identified concerns were either addressed by the information provided or found to be of lesser importance when the system was accessed. While some applicants experienced difficulties accessing and using the system, the quick and efficient manner in which problems were resolved ensured that applicants and school personnel remained supportive of this application method. The high levels of satisfaction reported by all groups in the evaluation highlight the merit of using emergent technologies to apply for tertiary study.

Provision and dissemination of tertiary entrance information

Sonja Whiteley and Claire Field, Tertiary Entrance Procedures Authority (TEPA)

One of the objectives of the Tertiary Entrance Procedures Authority (TEPA) is to monitor stakeholders access to tertiary entrance information. The current research project involved a greater range of client groups including school principals, guidance officers, teachers, past students and parents, and aimed to highlight any shortfalls in information provision. It also attempted to identify whether changes in the timing of information distribution or the provision of information via the Internet or CD ROM could improve access to, and the effectiveness of, these information materials. Preliminary findings have identified a number of timing and access issues that need to be addressed, suggesting an increased role for alternate technologies and methods of information dissemination.

WIERR026

Changes in university learning environment and learning strategy of international exchange students

Ronny Wierstra, Gellof Kanselaar and Jos L van der Linden, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

The paper reports the experiences of Dutch and other European students who studied abroad within the framework of an international exchange programme. The investigation consists of two phases: a prestudy in which we interviewed 78 students and a main study in which a questionnaire was completed by 872 students (from 21 countries, differing in two teaching culture variables: Hofstede's power distance and uncertainty avoidance). A large part of the questionnaire is devoted to learning strategies at the home university and at the host university (using 20 scales of Vermunt's Inventory of Learning Scales) and to the perceived learning environment at the home and the host university, and the ideal and preferred learning environment (Inventory of Perceived Study Environment, 8 subscales). The various countries showed interesting differences with regard to students' perception of their actual home learning environment and to the learning strategies they applied. At the same time the students show a remarkable consensus with regard to the learning environment they prefer.

WIERR027

Kolb's Learning Style Inventories: An empirical investigation on the scale theoretical assumptions behind the tests

Ronny Wierstra, Jan de Jong and Jo Thijssen, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Kolb's tests of experiental learning are intensively used in adult and vcational education all over the world, despite insufficient psychometrical evidence. In each test item the respondent is asked to rank four alternatives according to his preference. The alternatives correspond with fopur types of learning behaviour, i.e. concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. Some new psychometrical results for the tests are reported, especially results regarding the scale theoretical assumptions behind the tests. Data from 220 persons (students social science amd bank employees) are subjected to factor analysis, multidimensional scale analysis and multiple correspndence analysis. The analyses partly support Kolb's scale model, but indicate that some other aspects (not referring to the scale model, e.g. ambiguity of several items) suppress the test validity. On the basis of the results a new test (design) for measuring experiental learning styles is proposed.

Teaching 3x

Tom Cooper and Anne Williams, Queensland University of Technology

A common misunderstanding in early algebra is related to binary algebraic expressions such as 3x. This simple algebraic expression represents the generalisation that any number has been multiplied by 3. However, it is syntactically similar to the arithmetic notation for two digit numerals (e.g., 32) and different from the arithmetic notation for a particular number multiplied by 3 (e.g., 3 x 2). Thus, many students believe that 3x represents a 3 beside a variable and write 32 when asked to substitute 2 for x. This paper reports on the findings with respect to 3x from two teaching experiments to introduce algebra to grade 8 classes in a middle class state secondary school. The experiments related algebraic representations, concepts and principles to arithmetic representations, concepts and principles (see Boulton-Lewis, Cooper, Atweh, Pillay, Wilss, & Mutch, 1997) via the development of informal generalisations. Establishing the meaning for 3x was a major component of both experiments. The expression was considered in five ways: (i) modelled by cups and counters; (ii) developed from patterns (e.g., 3, 6, 9, 12), transformations or function machines (e.g., 2 ---x3--> 6) and relationships (e.g., 2-->6, 8-->23, 5-->15); (iii) considered as repeated addition x + x + x (see Linchevski & Herscovics, 1996); (iv) used in more complex expressions (e.g., 3x+2 and 3(x+2); and (v) extended to relations such as 3 x 2x = 6x. The classes were videotaped, written materials collected, and selected students interviewed. The paper outlines the teaching episodes relating to 3x, describes the students reactions to this instruction, and discusses the students understandings of 3x as an algebraic expression in relation to the five ways above. It explores the successful and unsuccessful teaching episodes and attempts to explain, for binary algebraic expressions of the type 3x, the relationship between instruction, prior knowledge and learning.

School research projects and context intricacies

David Williams, University of South Australia

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 10, Authentic assessment in middle schooling: Research and curriculum development through university/school research circles.

Reading the region

Sue Willis, Murdoch University

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 30, Restructuring gender, reworking schooling and reschooling work.

Geography students' experiences at practice teaching

Peter Wilson, Queensland University of Technology

The purpose of this study was to investigate the virtually un-researched area of the experiences of preservice geography teachers at practice school. Most scholars and practitioners in the field regard student teaching as the most powerful and influential experience in the preservice preparation of teachers. The preservice geography teachers identified as the "Class of '96" completed a 200 item likert scale questionnaire at the completion of their final session of practice teaching. The results indicated that the preservice geography teachers taught a unit of five or more lessons planned by themselves 24 hours ahead, which the supervising teacher read on the morning of the lesson or one to two hours before the lesson. The type of assistance in the structural aspects of the lesson was limited as was much of the post-lesson comments. Unfortunately, the teaching methods observed were predominantly the "old" chalk and talk which also was reflected in the teaching methods of the preservice geography teachers but, they also revealed a dominant inquiry approach using whole class discussions, group discussions and small group assignments (practicals) in class. The overall experience reflected the views of most scholars and practitioners in the field and was close to outstanding. Such were the geography practice teaching experiences of the "Class of '96".

WILSS131

Empowerment in organisations: A qualitative study of managers' perceptions within an institution of higher education

Susan Wilson, Queensland University of Technology

This qualitative study looks at current managers' perceptions of empowerment for staff within a workplace area of higher education. The primary aim is illuminative understanding of these perceptions, in times of changing concepts of leadership in educational contexts, with a view to personal practice improvement and professional development opportunities for staff in an environment of rapid organisational change and discontinuity. The research seeks subjective understandings through a process of interpretive / hermeneutic inquiry, which focus on the interpretation of meanings, and how these meanings are constructed and negotiated.

A case study approach using a semi-structured questionnaire, open-ended / in-depth interviews, observation techiques and journal entries is occasioned by the wish to study the experience of eight to ten managers drawn from a single workplace population of twenty five, over a contained period of nine months. The sample of people drawn for the study represent factors of acceptance to participate, availability and gender balance. Emerging themes, ideas and limitations are discussed, and implications for educational leadership for the use of empowering strategies in the workplace are highlighted.

An investigation of fundamental motor skills underpinning the sports specific skills of hockey for ten year old boys and girls

Scott Wilson, Judith Sprinkle and Ken Vine, University of New England

The research investigates the relationship between fundamental motor skills and sport specific skills for ten year old boys and girls within the context of hockey. Gender differences in baseline fundamental motor skills are explored and compared to the effects of instruction. The effect of instruction on either fundamental motor skills and hockey sport specific skill are determined by repeating the initial motor performance test which combines fundamental and sports specific skill items. The performances of seventy five children aged ten years are investigated through both process and product measures. The data is analysed using a repeated MANOVA which detects the levels of significance in the changes in skill level after intervention. Furthermore comparisons are made between boys and girls in their initial skill levels and their relative changes in performance. The analysis of video recordings, of concluding games of hockey indicate discrete changes in individual and group skills within a game situation. This paper extends current theories and empirical evidence by presenting performance models which illustrate various facets of skill changes and their implications for professional practice in physical education.

Women and educational leadership

Derris Wood, Education Department, Tasmania

This paper will focus on the relationships between the early life experiences of women now in Leadership positions in Education and the development of their career motivation and career potential. The provisional findings are based on the analysis of thirty interview with women school principals, or at an equivalent level, conducted as part of a research master's study. A control group of thirty women not in promoted teaching positions is also being studied. The structure and influence of the women's families has been taken into account as has their early experiences at school to gauge whether early career goals were formulated then. The impact of these experiences has also been considered together with the opportunities which were available in the local community to develop leadership aspirations and to gain experience. From the results of the surveys aspects such as birth order, sibling interaction and parenting factors will be discussed. Other factors to be analysed will include timing of their decisions to aim for academic education. A special focus at this point will consider the effect of "significant others" in these career choices. The effect of the communities in which the women lived and their experiences and their reactions to discrimination will provide further insight into women's lives and leadership requirements.

WRIGJ126

The construction of institutional and cultural meanings in teacher education

Jan Wright and Shoshana Dreyfus, University of Wollongong

This paper will report on a study which was designed to investigate the way students engage with, and make sense of, the pedagogy and curriculum of a teacher education program as they prepare to become teachers, taking physical and health education teacher education as a specific case. In this first stage of the study one specific PHETE site was taken as a case study. Information was gathered through interviews with first and fourth year students and lecturers, collection of documentation and field notes collected as a participant observer. Drawing on an understanding of text as derived from social semiotics, at this stage of the research we have been particularly interested in how teachers' and students' own backgrounds, their experiences of other institutions, other texts influenced their production and reception of the curriculum.

Teachers' and parents' orientations to children's physical activity: A report from the ACHPER Advocacy Project

Jan Wright, R Brown, T Rossi, University of Wollongongand R Tinning and P Muir, Deakin University

This paper will report on a study funded by the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. The study was designed to identify the orientations which adults - teachers and parents - have to the participation of young people in physical activity; to identify their understandings of the relationship between physical activity and health; to explore the ways in which they see themselves as influencing the participation patterns of children and to identify how all of these might be different for different groups of parents and different groups of children. Four groups of researchers, each from a different State, collaborated on the project which provided the means to target a diverse population including Aboriginal communities, parents and teachers in rural and isolated schools, ethnically diverse schools, inner city schools, community schools and urban comprehensive schools. The results of the study will be used to inform a prototype physical activity and health education advocacy policy. This paper will report on the findings of interviews and surveys carried out in case study schools.

Sport, the media and the construction of compulsory heterosexuality

Jan Wright and Gill Clarke, University of Wollongong

Media representations of sport are particularly powerful in naturalising and normalising hegemonic meanings about the body and social relations. While there is currently considerable research which analyses the ways in which gender differences are constructed in the print and visual media coverage of sport, much of this research until recently failed to question the hegemony of heterosexual relations. This paper will extend this research by drawing on feminist and poststructuralist perspectives to explore how print media representations of sport contribute to the denial of lesbian sexuality and social relations. Specifically the paper will demonstrate, through a detailed analysis of a media article on an international women's rugby union match in the UK, how choices in language and visual representations work to engage in a process of normalisation whereby these female rugby union players playing a 'man's game' are constituted in terms of hegemonic versions of heterosexual femininity. It will also be argued that such media analyses are important sources for physical education when teaching about the social and cultural context of physical activity.

"Let me have my own pigeon hole and copying number": Developing partnerships in rural and remote schools

Alan Yarrow, Paul Herschell and Jan Millwater, Queensland University of Technology

In this paper, four questions of concern to Education Department s and teacher education institutions in Australia are addressed.

How do we develop strategies to attract beginning teachers to rural, remote and isolated schools and how do we retain teachers in those schools?

What professional development is available that values rural life?

What are some of the current pre-service initiatives that prepare teachers entering rural areas?

How do we meet professionall development need of teachers and pre-service teachers in rural, remore and isolated areas?

This paper will draw on research from a collaborative, ARC funded study Teacher/intern Partnerships in Isolated areas. Partners in the study include, Queensland University of Technology, Education Queensland, the Priority Country Area Program, the Queensland Teachers Union and the Board of Teacher Registration. The project is designed to better prepare inexperienced teachers for the particular demands involved in teaching in rural and isolated areas. The ultimate goal of the project is to improve the quality of teaching and learning in remote and isolated areas.

The paper will focus on issues related to developing partnerships between stakeholders which facilitate reflective and interactive teaching practices. A mentor/internship model that promotes in student-interns an understanding of the needs of students and parents in their school and community will be outlined.

In the brave new world of competitive schools and postmodern research, how do we tell stories about class?

Lyn Yates, La Trobe University

This paper discusses some issues arising from the 12 to 18 Project, a longitudinal qualitative study of following students through each year of their secondary schooling. The study was designed to allow for comparisons of students from different backgrounds and in different schools. However, it is being undertaken in a research context which has undercut some traditional ways of representing inequalities in relation to school; and in a political context focussed on promoting success rather than dealing with disadvantage. Although what might loosely be called class differences remain a central feature of Australian education, there has been long-standing debate about just what this means; and the tendency of much recent qualitative work has been to focus on 'difference' rather than 'inequality', and to take gender or ethnicity as central concerns and show class differences within these, rather than the reverse. This paper discusses some ways this project is attempting to take account of these issues; in particular, the problem of understanding patterns of inequalities in the context of a heightened attention to individual and multiple differences; and the problem of writing research reports about class inequalities in schools without exacerbating this process.

Teacher perceptions, learned helplessness and mathematics achievement. A longitudinal study

Shirley Yates, The Flinders University of South Australia

As part of a longitudinal study of mathematics achievement 58 classroom teachers in 31 schools rated the classroom behaviour and mathematics achievement of 258 primary and lower secondary South Australian students. The Student Behaviour Checklist used by the teachers had been designed to measure learned helplessness and mastery behaviours, but confirmatory factor analysis indicated a single scale of academic behaviour. The teacher ratings were analysed with the Rasch model and the results compared with both the prior achievement of the students and their scores on the Progressive Achievement Test in Mathematics one year later. In addition to gender and grade level differences, the results of these analyses are presented in terms of the extent to which teacher perceptions were related to prior student performance and were predictive of subsequent achievement. The educational implications of the relationships between teacher perceptions,learned helplessness and achievement in mathematics will be explored.

Cognitive load and learner expertise: Split-attention and redundancy effects in reading English as a second language with vocabulary definitions

Alexander Yeung, University of Western Sydney

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of cognitive load management using vocabulary definitions in reading passages for readers of English as a second language (ESL) with different levels of expertise. Experiment 1 found that vocabulary definitions integrated within a passage (integrated format) improved fifth-grade ESL learners' comprehension (high-level processing) whereas a separate vocabulary list (separate format) improved vocabulary learning (low-level processing). Experiment 2 found a reverse format x level interaction effect with secondary school ESL learners. The efficiency of instruction depends partly on its ability to manage cognitive load associated with the learning task. An identical presentation format may facilitate learning by reducing cognitive load but may interfere with learning either through split-attention or redundancy effects depending on learner expertise.

Factorial validity of a Chinese version of the Self Description Questionnaire (SDQII)

Alexander Yeung, University of Western Sydney, Frances Laimui Lee, Renae Low and Putai Jin, University of New South Wales

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

Gender differences in the development of English and Math constructs: Longitudinal models of academic self-concept and achievement

Alexander Yeung and Herbert Marsh, University of Western Sydney

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 11, To boldly go beyond: New advances in self-concept measurement, theory and enhancement.

A sociocultural view of identity construction

Mei Ling Yew, The University of Sydney

This paper considers the notion of religious beliefs and identity construction from a sociocultural perspective. Deriving from a Vygotskian psychology that emphasises the role of cultural tools in the process of human development, a sociocultural approach involves the study of the way in which cultural traditions and social practices regulate, express, and transform the human psyche (Shweder, 1991). The objective of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it considers how a sociocultural approach to investigating human development can inform research into construction of identity. An integrative approach, that utilises different, but compatible elements of works by sociocultural psychologists such as Cole (1996), Lave (1996), Rogoff (1995), and Wertsch (1995) is adopted here. Secondly, this paper presents findings from a pilot study that focused on identity transformation among Christian believers.

The context analysed was a pre-baptism course organised by a church group. The duration of the course lasted over a period of ten weeks. Follow-up interviews were conducted with the participants to assess their development in the Christian belief a month after the baptism course ended.

YOUND037

School and Classroom Effects on Student Ambition: A Comparison of Rural and Urban Schools in Western Australia

Deidra J. Young and Beverley J. Webster, Curtin University of Technology

The Western Australian School Effectiveness Study commenced in 1995 and this paper reports on some of the findings from the 1996 and 1997 longitudinal data collection.

A structural equation model was used to compare rural and urban schools. The effect of school and classroom characteristics was analysed with emphasis on the student's ambition and the relationships between ambition, achievement, self-concept and the school/classroom features.

YULAE373

Decontextualization and recontextualization of educational reform in Indonesia

Ella Yulaelawati, University of Queensland

This paper will be presented as part of Symposium 22, Reworking education in postcolonial conditions: Local and global contexts for change.

Confronting the problem of marginalisation in Aboriginal Education

(Jane) Qinjuan Zhang, Batchelor College

This paper discusses a couple of issues around the quality-compromised education in the area of Aboriginal adult education. It analyses the causes of compromising course requirements which results in that many Aboriginal students become academically handicaped, also discusses its far reaching consequence.

Through underlining the taken-for-granted assumptions that constrain the way we see the world and that influence the way we think and act in a way to prevent the teachers and students to attain greater achievements in Aboriginal education, I argue that it may not be the case that the academic curriculum failed the Aboriginal people, rather, Aboriginal people have never had academic curriculum because of the quality-compromised education under a onslaught of "cultural differences" explanation of educational disadvantage.

A critical reflection on the teaching and learning experiences shows that Aboriginal students in many courses are treated as "other" by teachers, or asked to be treated as "other" by Aboriginal students themselves.

If education of today is useful to people only if it is of quality, then, as teachers, we need to confront our marginalisation of "othering " Aboriginal students, whereas Aboriginal students should be challenged to confront their own marginalisation of "othering" themselves, so that we can all become active participants in the modern society heading towards the 21st Century.

Changing financial relations between government and higher education in China: A new view

Fang Zhao, University of Western Sydney

In late 1978, a new Chinese administration headed by Deng Xiao-ping announced a program to reshape the Chinese economy. The economic reform involved relaxation of direct central-planning controls, decentralisation of economic decision making, a shift towards a market-oriented economy and an opening of China's economy to the outside world. The radical and dramatic changes in Government economic policies have exerted a significant influence upon the governance and financing of higher education.

This paper examines changes in financial relations between Government and higher education caused by decentralisation for mobilisation of financial resources for higher education. These changes include shifting funding responsibility from Central to local governments, and diversification of funding sources through stimulating institutional income generation, and increasing fee charges. This paper will revolve around the impact of the changes upon equity, efficiency and quality of higher education provision in China.

Analysis of data mainly collected from interviewing, questionnaire surveys and case study (the data have been collected as a part of this writer's doctoral research) will lead to a new view on China's higher education funding reform, its strengths and problems at the current stage, and its implications for future action. The updated findings of this paper will also be constructive for future comparative and empirical research of similar issues in international perspectives.

ZIPIL298

The West debates: A Bourdieuian field analysis

Lew Zipin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Since government formation of a review committee to propose future higher education policy, debate has raged in Australian newspapers over the 'fundamental role' of universities, centering on chairman West's valorization of a (higher-order) "spirit of inquiry", against (lower-order) "practical training". Some argue that the core agenda of the committee is micro-management reform, and debate about values is a distraction created by a "naive outsider". But prominent university "insiders" have joined along West's divisive lines, indicating their half-truth appeal to a deep-structural reality: that while university activities are diverse, they never share equal status within "the field". In my paper, I amplify the rhetoric of the "West debate" as it appears in newspapers, and apply Pierre Bourdieu's "field analysis" framework to decode it. I address the following questions: Given the real complexity of academic projects and purposes, what is the ideological appeal of simplified binary definitions of the "true university"? How do such rhetorical fictions work in relation to power struggles that divide and shape an "academic" field? How are stakes intensified in a "crisis" time of political-economic shift, when the "university sector" is not just rhetorically defined, but also materially re-structured?