Education Commons^™

Social Value And Its Impact Through Widening Participation: A Review Of Four Programs Working With Primary, Secondary & Higher Education Students, Jioji Ravulo, Shannon Said, Jim Micsko, Gayl Purchase

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In 2017 the Office of Widening Participation conducted a program- wide analysis of the Social Return On Investment (SROI) to evaluate the impact of four Widening Participation programs at Western Sydney University (WSU). The programs evaluated were Fast Forward, Strive Towards Educational Participation and Success (STEPS), First Foot Forward, and Pasifika Achievement To Higher Education (PATHE). The overlapping aim amongst the four programs is to increase higher education participation rates, particularly for students coming from low socio-economic backgrounds. The SROI framework provided a holistic analysis by intertwining qualitative and quantitative data. The analysis showed that each program-albeit with differences-produced a …

Connecting And Collaborating Across Oceania And Its Diaspora: A Shared Approach To Meaningful Development And Engagement, Jioji Ravulo

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Through this short, critical piece, I, as someone who comes from an Indigenous Pacific heritage, aim to challenge the way in which mainstream society positions societal problems as siloed, isolated from a structural, collective understanding of societal problems generally evident in Indigenous epistemologies. I suggest that by using an anti-oppressive social work practice approach where power imbalances are examined and understood within a wider context, we, as a Pacific community, are better equipped to create strategies and solutions that are inclusive of those traditionally not included in the conversation for change. We need to promote the importance of creating a …

Wheat, Sheep Or Elvis Presley? Rural Australia Has Had To Change Its Tune, John Connell, Christopher R. Gibson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Rural and regional Australia have had a hard time of late. The economies of Sydney and Melbourne are growing, but much of the rest of their states are not. The population of regional areas is stagnating and agriculture is struggling. Perhaps worst of all there is a feeling that no-one in Canberra or in the booming coastal periphery cares about this. The people of Orange have apparently spoken. Outside Sydney, behind what seems like an impervious sandstone curtain, not all is well. Even the largest towns in regional New South Wales are struggling to retain their populations and have faced …

The Lessons To Be Learned Now The Abc's Pulled Its 'Inaccurate' Wi-Fried Program, Rodney J. Croft

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The ABC has this week announced that an episode of its Catalyst television program "breached the ABC's impartiality standards" when it raised concerns about the safety of wireless devices such as mobile phones.

The episode, titled Wi-Fried? and broadcast on February 16 this year, claimed that the radiofrequency (RF) emissions from Wi-Fi was causing health effects ranging from DNA damage to cancer.

Such statements are not mainstream scientific positions, but rather are views that leading health authorities have considered when concluding that there is no evidence that low-level RF, such as that from Wi-Fi, mobile phones or base stations, impairs …

Slow Eyelid Closure As A Measure Of Driver Drowsiness And Its Relationship To Performance, Melinda L. Jackson, Susan Raj, Rodney J. Croft, Amie C. Hayley, Luke Downey, G Kennedy, Mark E. Howard

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Objective: Slow eyelid closure is recognized as an indicator of sleepiness in sleep-deprived individuals, although automated ocular devices are not well validated. This study aimed to determine whether changes in eyelid closure are evident following acute sleep deprivation as assessed by an automated device and how ocular parameters relate to performance after sleep deprivation. Methods: Twelve healthy professional drivers (45.58 ± 10.93 years) completed 2 randomized sessions: After a normal night of sleep and after 24 h of total sleep deprivation. Slow eye closure (PERCLOS) was measured while drivers performed a simulated driving task. Results: Following sleep deprivation, drivers displayed …

The Challenge Of Overdiagnosis Begins With Its Definition, Stacy M. Carter, Wendy Rogers, I Heath, Chris Degeling, Jenny Doust, Alexandra Barratt

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The implicit social contract underpinning healthcare is that it will reduce illness and preventable death and improve quality of life. But sometimes these promises are not delivered. Sometimes health services take people who don't need intervention, subject them to tests, label them as sick or at risk, provide unnecessary treatments, tell them to live differently, or insist on monitoring them regularly. These interventions don't improve things for people; they produce complications or illness, reduce quality of life, or even cause premature death. Active health intervention is not always a good thing: it can be "too much medicine," or produce what …

University Students' Subject Matter Knowledge And Misconception Of Teaching Games For Understanding And Its Implication To Teaching Practice, Julismah Jani, Phil Pearson, Greg Forrest, Paul Webb

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This study is to track the subject matter knowledge of and misconception about Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) of fourth year undergraduate pre-service teachers' physical education majors at an Australian university. The test of reliability on misconception scale are subjected to a Rasch analysis (KR-20 = .52) which consists of 20 dichotomous questions with true/false answers. Analyses of the data reveal that students achieve a credit on subject matter knowledge and attain four misconceptions about TGfU. There is a significant (p < 0.05) difference in the scores for subject matter knowledge and concepts of TGfU through paired samples t test. These results imply that subject matter knowledge does have an effect on students' concepts of TGfU but with very low relationship (r(53 = .19, p < 0.05). The implication of content knowledge to teaching is to resist the pre-concept or misconception of the subject matter. If pre-service teachers are to improve the quality of teaching and learning in content areas, he or she needs to possess a deep understanding of games both within and across categories in TGfU. Misconceptions tend to be very resistant to instruction because learning entails replacing or radically reorganizing student knowledge. This puts teachers in the very challenging position of needing to bring about significant conceptual change in student knowledge. Therefore pre-service teachers must know the subject matter they teach and their performance will be determined by the depth of their content knowledge in relation to teaching, making this an essential component to their teaching practice. Teachers must know the subject they teach and this is important to teacher competency.

Fast Food Loses Tick But Can The Heart Foundation Regain Its Credibility?, Sandra C. Jones

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The Heart Foundation today announced plans to dump its tick from takeaway foods, citing unfair advantage for companies such as McDonalds over small takeaway outlets that can’t afford the accreditation fees. The tick will still be available to supermarket food manufacturers. So what does the tick actually mean? And does it improve consumer decisions? Professor Sandra Jones, the Director of the Centre for Health Initiatives at the University of Wollongong, explains: The Heart Foundation tick is perceived by consumers to mean a product is healthy. But it’s more complicated than that. The tick means a product is healthier than other …

Get Up, Stand Up: West Papua Stands Up For Its Rights: A Rebuttal Of The International Crisis Group Report No. 188, Radicalisation And Dialogue In Papua: West Papuans Unite Against Special Autonomy And For A Referendum On Independence, Jim Elmslie, Camellia B. Webb-Gannon, Peter King

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This report addresses the momentous events that have transpired in West Papua and its diaspora in recent months. A response to the recent International Crisis Group (ICG) report entitled Radicalisation and Dialogue in Papua1 is also necessary as it is being used as justification by the Indonesian government in two serious initiatives currently underway: the prosecution of activist leader Victor Yeimo on charges of 'rebellion' and the unfolding TNI military operations in the highlands of West Papua. One initiative may unjustly deprive a man of his liberty; the other will almost certainly cost the lives and livelihoods of innocent Papuan …

The Role Of The Media And Communication In Recovery From Natural Disasters: A Case Study Of The Canberra 'Firestorm' And Its Aftermath 2003-2007, Susan Nicholls, Jolyon Sykes, Peter J. Camilleri

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The enormous tragedy of bushfires with significant loss of life, destruction of property, and differential recovery resulting in community division-that is, 'cleavage planes'-has become an all too common feature of the Australian experience. Research on the communication aspects of emergencies has tended to focus on preparedness and response with little in-depth analysis of the role of the media and communication strategies relating to the recovery process. In this paper, focusing on the Canberra 'firestorm' of 2003 and the aftermath recovery process, we report on a study seeking survivors' views on the functions of communication in the recovery process. The key …

Sure Start And Its Evaluation In England, Edward Melhuish, Jay Belsky, Jacqueline Barnes

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In 1998 a U.K. government review concluded that disadvantage among young children was increasing and early intervention could alleviate poor outcomes. It recommended a change in service design and delivery, integrating across all relevant agencies, to be area-based, with all children under five and their families as clients. Among the aims were avoiding the stigmatization often associated with targeted programs while fostering child, family and community functioning. From 1999 the first Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) focused on the 20% most deprived areas, including about half of children living below the official poverty line. Sure Start has evolved over time …