Education Commons^™

Develop A Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Sids) Education Package In Jordan: Using Participatory Action Research Approach To Create Ripple Of Change, Shereen Hamadneh, Jehan Hamadneh

eCULTURE

IInfant mortality is high in Jordan, a developing country in the Middle East, at 19 per 1000 live births. Most mortality risk factors are preventable. The SIDS incidence rate has also been extrapolated as 11.22 per 1000 live births [1]. This is much higher than the United State of America (USA), a developed country (0.54 per 1000 live births) [2]. Most of modifiable SIDS risk factors can be reduced by increasing knowledge, change behaviors and practices regarding SIDS risks and prevention measures.

There has not been a major investment in educating Jordanians about SIDS. Heath care providers are identified …

Averting Uncertainty: A Practical Guide To Physical Activity Research In Australian Schools, Jerome N. Rachele, Thomas F. Cuddihy, Tracy L. Washington, Steven M. Mcphail

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Preventative health has become central to contemporary health care, identifying youth physical activity as a key factor in determining health and functioning. Schools offer a unique research setting due to distinctive methodological circumstances. However, school-based researchers face several obstacles in their endeavour to complete successful research investigations; often confronted with complex research designs and methodological procedures that are not easily amenable to school contexts. The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical guide for teachers (both teacher educators and teaching practitioners) seeking to conduct physical activity-based research in Australian school settings, as well as discuss research practices. The …

Assessing Preservice Teachers’ Presentation Capabilities: Contrasting The Modes Of Communication With The Constructed Impression, Matt G. Bower, Robyn A. Moloney, Michael S. Cavanagh, Naomi Sweller

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A research-based understanding of how to develop and assess classroom presentation skills is vital for the effective development of pre-service teacher communication capabilities. This paper identifies and compares two different models of assessing pre-service teachers’ presentation performance – one based on the Modes of Communication (voice, body language, words, and alignment between those elements) and another based on features of the Constructed Impression of the communication acts (confidence, clarity, engagement and appropriateness). The Modes of Communication and the Constructed Impression of 164 pre-service teacher presentations were rated. The Constructed Impression model provided a better fit to data, while averaging of …

I See, I Think I Wonder: An Evaluation Of Journaling As A Critical Reflective Practice Tool For Aiding Teachers In Challenging Or Confronting Contexts, Geoffrey M. Lowe, Peter Prout, Karen Murcia

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In October 2011, five selected Western Australian teachers took part in a teacher mentoring project in Tanzania. The teachers spent a month embedded in local primary and secondary schools, working collaboratively with their Tanzanian counterparts. As a strategy for making sense of their experiences, each teacher was asked to maintain a reflective journal, using the Harvard Visible Thinking Routine of ‘see, think, wonder’ as a critical structure for guiding their journal writing. The purpose of this article is to discuss the effectiveness of journaling for teachers in challenging teaching situations, and the usefulness of the Harvard approach in structuring the …

Two On-Line Tools For Feedback On Grammar And Style In Academic Writing, Greg B. Maguire

eCULTURE

"This paper introduces two online academic writing tools which should help address two common feedback problems at ECU. Undergraduate students often consider that they receive little appraisal of the style (including grammar), rather than the content, of their academic writing. In contrast, many research students frustrate their supervisors by failing to learn from detailed corrections of their writing style. I independently developed a coding system for specific types of style errors, as have other academics and editors. The more significant innovation is the much more expansive interactive web tool which matches the numbered fault types to multi-layered explanations of each …

Surviving Teamwork: Engaging In The Process To Develop And Sustain A Key Employability Skill, Linda Riebe, Dean Roepen, Bruno Santarelli, Glenda Scott, Glenda Scott

eCULTURE

"The ‘Employability Skills Framework’ developed by peak industry bodies, The Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has identified that teamwork is a skill that is highly sought after by Australian employers. The ability to work in teams has also been identified as a significant graduate outcome of higher education. However, there are issues associated with engaging students in teamwork at university, for example: student perceptions of working in teams; free-riding and; valid assessment of both process and product aspects. This paper presents a small scale literature review identifying effective practice in the introduction of …

Challenging The Status Quo. What Is Driving Change In Assessment In Higher Education?, Patricia A. Williams

eCULTURE

Assessment is an integral part of the student learning experience. It can be argued that it has the single greatest impact on student learning. Therefore it is imperative that we understand how assessment in higher education is changing, what drives these changes and how these changes affect individual teaching practice. This paper discusses assessment as a driver for change by examining the stakeholder perspectives and expectations of assessment, and equating these to potential drivers for change in student learning.

Self-Assessment Of Employability Skill Outcomes Among Undergraduates And Alignment With Academic Ratings, Denise Jackson

Research outputs 2013

Despite acknowledgement of the benefits of self-assessment in higher education, disparity between student and academic assessments, with associated trends in over- and underrating, plagues its meaningful use, particularly as a tool for formal assessment. This study examines self-assessment of capabilities in certain employability skills in more than 1000 Australian business undergraduates. It evaluates the extent to which student self-assessments differ from academics, in what ways and the influence of certain individual and background characteristics - such as stage of degree, gender and academic ability - on rating accuracy. Explanations for documented disparities are presented, in addition to implications and strategies …

The Contribution Of Work-Integrated Learning To Undergraduate Employability Skill Outcomes, Denise Jackson

Research outputs 2013

WIL has attracted considerable attention as an instrument for enhancing professional practice and developing work-readiness in new graduates. It is widely considered as a point of difference in developing graduate employability by enhancing skill outcomes, such as team-work, communication, self-management and problem solving, employment prospects and student understanding of the world-of-work. This paper investigates the role of WIL in improving undergraduate employability skills; gauging its impact on a range of skills; and identifying variations in outcomes for certain demographic, study background and placement characteristics using survey data from 131 WIL students in an Australian university. Results indicate a significant improvement …

Student Perceptions Of The Importance Of Employability Skill Provision In Business Undergraduate Programs, Denise Jackson

Research outputs 2013

Studies examining student perceptions of employability skill development in business undergraduate programs are limited. Assurance of student buy-in is important to ensure learners engage with skill provision; to enable them to articulate their capabilities to potential employers and to facilitate the transfer of acquired skills. This study examines 1019 students’ perceptions of the importance of employability skill development, the relative importance of skills and the influence of certain demographic/background characteristics. Findings indicate undergraduates value skill development, most particularly communication and team-working, and some significant variations in importance ratings. Alignment with other stakeholder perceptions and the influence of context are discussed.

The Reality Of Reform : Teachers Reflecting On Curriculum Reform In Western Australia, Jessica Lyle

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Australia is implementing its first national curriculum, the Australian Curriculum, after many years of debate regarding the validity and practicality of such an undertaking. Although it is widely accepted that “the effects of education policies and programs depend chiefly on what teachers make of them” (Cohen & Ball, 1990, p. 233), little is known about teachers’ perceptions of the Australian Curriculum or their prior experiences of mandatory curriculum reform as they begin engaging with this unique reform. To provide a means of exploring these perceptions and experiences, 18 teachers, four Head of Learning Areas (HOLAs) and the principal from a …

Business Graduate Employability – Where Are We Going Wrong?, Denise Jackson

Research outputs 2013

Persistent gaps in certain non-technical skills in business graduates continue to impact on organisational performance and global competitiveness. Despite business school’s best efforts in developing non-technical skills, widely acknowledged as fundamental to graduate employability, there has been considerably less attention to measuring skill outcomes and even less on their subsequent transfer to the workplace. It appears stakeholders are assuming transfer occurs automatically in graduates, neglecting the influence of learning program, learner and workplace characteristics on this complex process and its potential impact on graduate employability.

This paper unpacks the concept of transfer and proposes a model of graduate employability which …

Digital Representation Of Visual Artworks For High-Stakes Assessment, Christopher P. Newhouse

Research outputs 2013

The collection and marking of student artwork across a large jurisdiction such as Western Australia is challenging where the work is submitted to a central location to be marked by experts and returned to students. An alternative approach would be to submit digital representations of the artworks online for marking. However, to give a valid and reliable measure the representations would need to be of adequate quality. Further, judgements of artworks are necessarily subjective giving concern about the reliability of marking for high-stakes assessment. The comparative pairs method of marking lends itself to addressing this problem and is feasible where …

Computer-Based Exams In Schools: Freedom From The Limitations Of Paper?, Christopher Paul Newhouse

Research outputs 2013

There is little doubt that the curriculum content and pedagogy in schools is driven by the structure and forms of assessment employed, particularly for summative purposes. When most such assessment was limited to what a student could do with a pen and paper in short ‘exams’ this pushed the content of the curriculum towards small descriptive chunks, and the pedagogy towards memorisation and replication techniques. Over the past two decades alternative forms of assessment supported by the power of computer systems have been conceived and tried. This paper discusses progress towards various forms of computer-based exams and how these may …

Using Digital Representations Of Practical Production Work For Summative Assessment, C. Paul Newhouse

Research outputs 2013

This paper presents the findings of the first phase of a three-year study investigating the efficacy of the digitisation of creative practical work as digital portfolios for the purposes of high-stakes summative assessment. At the same time the paired comparisons method of scoring was tried as an alternative to analytical rubric-based marking because we believed that it was likely that a more holistic approach to scoring would be more appropriate. Researchers created digital representations of the practical submissions of 75 Visual Arts and 82 Design students graduating from secondary school in Western Australia. These digital portfolios were scored using the …

Engaging Students In Peer Review: Feedback As Learning, Catherine Moore, Susan Teather

Research outputs 2013

There is a growing interest in tertiary education in Australia about developing the capacity of learners to evaluate and improve both their own work and that of others (Boud & Falchikov, 2006; Oliver, 2011). In order to successfully direct their own learning beyond university (and engage in lifelong learning), students need to be able to evaluate their performance in relation to a standard, identify gaps, and determine how to bridge them in order to achieve the desired standard if required. One strategy that can be employed to help students achieve this is engaging them actively in a feedback process, so …

Collaborative Research Network: An Institutions Perspective, Darren Gibson

ECU Presentations

No abstract provided.

Engaging Students In Peer Review: Feedback As Learning, Catherine Moore, Susan Teather

Research outputs 2013

There is a growing interest in tertiary education in Australia about developing the capacity of learners to evaluate and improve both their own work and that of others (Boud & Falchikov, 2006; Oliver, 2011). In order to successfully direct their own learning beyond university (and engage in lifelong learning), students need to be able to evaluate their performance in relation to a standard, identify gaps, and determine how to bridge them in order to achieve the desired standard if required. One strategy that can be employed to help students achieve this is engaging them actively in a feedback process, so …

E-Invigilator: A Biometric-Based Supervision System For E-Assessments, Nathan L. Clarke, P Dowland, Steven M. Furnell

Research outputs 2013

The creation of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) have revolutionized the online delivery of learning materials, from traditional lectures slides through to podcasts, blogs and wikis. However, such advances in how we assess such learning have not evolved - with physical attendance at proctored exams still a necessity for formal assessments. This paper presents a novel model to enable remote and electronic invigilation of students during formal assessment. The approach utilizes transparent authentication to provide for a non-intrusive and continuous verification of the candidates identity throughout the examination timeframe. A prototype is developed and a technology evaluation of the platform demonstrates …

Teaching Excellence : An Illusive Goal In Higher Education Teaching And Learning, Heather Sparrow

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In the last decades of the 20th Century, and through the first decade of the 21st Century, both the natural world and human society have experienced dramatic change. Contemporary society world-wide has high expectations of the contribution that universities can make in helping people learn to live with change, to lead change, to manage change, and to support improvement in all spheres of life. The global community seeks ‘excellence’ across all higher education roles: community engagement and leadership, research and innovation, and teaching and learning. However, universities are not always regarded as effective in fulfilling the needs of students, business …