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Full-Text Articles in Education

Measuring The Value Of Professional Indexing, Philip Hider, Pru Mitchell, Robert Parkes Oct 2019

Measuring The Value Of Professional Indexing, Philip Hider, Pru Mitchell, Robert Parkes

Pru Mitchell

This study provides both a quantitative estimate and qualitative analysis of the additional ‘retrieval power’ that professionally assigned subject indexing affords users of a typical database in the field of education. A full version of Informit’s A+ Education database and one stripped of its subject indexing were searched by four research assistants tasked with compiling exhaustive bibliographies on forty-eight topics. The searchers were then surveyed about their use of the two databases, while their bibliographies and search logs were also examined. A two-way ANOVA model was constructed to estimate the percentage of additional resources found by the searchers on the …


Challenges In Stem Learning In Australian Schools, Michael J. Timms, Kathryn Moyle, Paul R. Weldon, Pru Mitchell May 2018

Challenges In Stem Learning In Australian Schools, Michael J. Timms, Kathryn Moyle, Paul R. Weldon, Pru Mitchell

Pru Mitchell

Australian STEM education seems caught in a whirlpool of problems that are contributing to one another. Student engagement and performance in STEM are declining, but we do not have the supply of qualified teachers we need to improve learning. The STEM curriculum is unbalanced and fragmented, leading to less interest among students. It is not possible to break out of the downward cycle from within the current system and it requires policy changes that address the issues raised in this report. This means developing well-considered, systemic and joined-up policies that address the following challenges: Improving student outcomes, building the STEM …


Challenges In Stem Learning In Australian Schools: Literature And Policy Review, Michael J. Timms, Kathryn Moyle, Paul R. Weldon, Pru Mitchell May 2018

Challenges In Stem Learning In Australian Schools: Literature And Policy Review, Michael J. Timms, Kathryn Moyle, Paul R. Weldon, Pru Mitchell

Pru Mitchell

This literature and policy review outlines the complex context related to STEM learning in Australian schools and focuses on student outcomes, the teacher workforce and the curriculum. This paper also sheds light on possible policy directions by examining lessons from other countries. STEM education is a broad enterprise that starts in early childhood education, continues through the years of schooling and extends into tertiary education supported by contributions from extracurricular and enrichment activities, science centres and museums. However, the focus in this document is on primary and secondary schooling. Australian STEM education seems caught in a whirlpool of problems that …


Early Years Transitions: Supporting Children And Families At Risk Of Experiencing Vulnerability: Rapid Literature Review, Jacynta Krakouer, Pru Mitchell, Jenny Trevitt, Anita Kochanoff Apr 2017

Early Years Transitions: Supporting Children And Families At Risk Of Experiencing Vulnerability: Rapid Literature Review, Jacynta Krakouer, Pru Mitchell, Jenny Trevitt, Anita Kochanoff

Pru Mitchell

This rapid literature review on support for children and families at risk of experiencing vulnerability in early years transitions was commissioned by the Victorian Department of Education and Training. It sought to understand how Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services, professionals and teachers could better support children at risk of vulnerability, and their families, during transitions. The transitions included are from home, out-of-home care (OOHC) and other programs/services to ECEC services and to school. In particular, this review focuses on the support needs of children who have experienced trauma, children living in out-of-home care, refugee children, and children who …


The School Library Workforce In Australia, Pru Mitchell, Paul R. Weldon Aug 2016

The School Library Workforce In Australia, Pru Mitchell, Paul R. Weldon

Pru Mitchell

A literature review by Lonsdale in 2003 observed that ‘a lack of systematically aggregated national data makes it difficult to gain an accurate picture of national trends in Australia in relation to the staffing of school libraries’ and noted ‘an apparent decline in the numbers of qualified teacher librarians employed in school libraries in public schools in Australia.’ This absence of data was also acknowledged in the 2011 report from the Inquiry of the House of Representatives Education and Employment Committee, which recommended a thorough workforce gap analysis of teacher librarians across Australian schools. New analysis of the Staff in …


That's My Content. That's My Creativity. That's My Curriculum! Do You Want Copyright And Cataloguing With That?, Pru Mitchell Aug 2009

That's My Content. That's My Creativity. That's My Curriculum! Do You Want Copyright And Cataloguing With That?, Pru Mitchell

Pru Mitchell

What are libraries doing about collecting and managing user-generated content? In an era of globalisation we increasingly value the unique and the locally grown over the mass-produced, high food miles equivalent. At the growers' market we carefully select ingredients despite the odd shapes, unpredictable quantities and without accompanying metadata about ingredients, nutritional value and use-by dates. However, it seems that teacher librarians are slow to apply the same philosophy when they select resources for their libraries. Instead of relishing the variety, freshness and freedom of open, user-generated content, they are restricting library users to a diet of commercial content and …


That's My Content. That's My Creativity. That's My Curriculum! Do You Want Copyright And Cataloguing With That?, Pru Mitchell Aug 2009

That's My Content. That's My Creativity. That's My Curriculum! Do You Want Copyright And Cataloguing With That?, Pru Mitchell

Pru Mitchell

What are libraries doing about collecting and managing user-generated content? In an era of globalisation we increasingly value the unique and the locally grown over the mass-produced, high food miles equivalent. At the growers' market we carefully select ingredients despite the odd shapes, unpredictable quantities and without accompanying metadata about ingredients, nutritional value and use-by dates. However, it seems that teacher librarians are slow to apply the same philosophy when they select resources for their libraries. Instead of relishing the variety, freshness and freedom of open, user-generated content, they are restricting library users to a diet of commercial content and …