Education Commons^™

Leading And Managing For High Performance, John West-Burnham

APC Monographs

This paper explores some of the changing perceptions of leadership in education. It focuses in particular on the issue of 'performance', which is at the heart of much educational reform.

The Apc Summer Institute, 2002 : Reconfiguring Schooling For The 21st Century, Brian Caldwell, Bruce Wilson, Bert Van Halen, Gabrielle Leigh

APC Monographs

The APC Summer held in January 2001 aimed to provide: a two-day intensive program that linked theory and practice in a chosen area relevant to school leaders in their day to day work; an opportunity for practising school leaders to develop an operational framework to be applied to strategy planning or to the management of key projects in their school; a big picture framework in which school leaders can contextualise their work; and a series of exemplary practices whose underlying principles can be adapted for use in other settings.

Closing The Gap Between Research And Practice : Foundations For The Acquisition Of Literacy., Molly De Lemos

Literacy and Numeracy

Over the years two main approaches have emerged in the teaching and learning of reading and writing. One is the 'whole language' approach; the other concentrates more on instruction in phonics. This paper focuses on the theoretical assumptions underlying these two approaches to the teaching of literacy, and the studies which have been undertaken, in the international arena, to find out how children progress, from their earliest educational years, in attaining both initial reading skills and lifelong literacy.

Learning From International Studies Of Teaching : The Timss-R Video Study., James Hiebert, Hilary Hollingsworth

2002 - Providing World-Class School Education

This paper discusses the Third International Mathematics and Science Study - Repeat (TIMSS-R) Video Study. In addition to the broad goal of describing mathematics teaching in seven countries including a number of countries with records of high achievement, the study had the following research objectives: to develop objective, observational measures of classroom instruction to serve as appropriate quantitative indicators of teaching practice in each country; to compare teaching practice and identify similar or different lessons; and to describe patterns of teaching practice for each country.

Pisa From Australia's Perspective, Jan Lokan

2002 - Providing World-Class School Education

This paper discusses the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey and the Australian teenagers that took part with students from thirty-one other countries. The paper describes the background to PISA, an initiative of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) keen to have measures of outputs from compulsory level schooling to accompany regularly collected country-level data on educational context and investment in education of human and monetary resources. The author describes the goals and features of PISA, its scope, Australian representatives and, school and background factors.

Australian 14-Year-Olds’ Civic Knowledge And Attitudes, And How Teachers And Schools Might Improve Them, Suzanne Mellor

2002 - Providing World-Class School Education

This paper describes the Australian content for the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Civic Education Study and the conduct of the IEA in Australia. The IEA concept of civil knowledge and attitudes towards the civics knowledge of Australian students is discussed. Some general trends and influences identified in the meta data are considered. The author discusses the value of comparing student responses and activities across like countries and considers what the data shows about the total civic knowledge of Australian students and the extent of their civil engagement.

Information And Communication Technologies In Classrooms : Perspectives From An International Study, John Ainley, Diana Banks, Marianne Fleming

2002 - Providing World-Class School Education

Many countries have envisaged a significant role for information and communications technologies (ICT) in their education systems. For example, in Australia one of the goals in the declaration of the Ministerial Council on Education, Training and Youth Affairs on national goals for schooling stated that students should be confident, creative and productive users of new technologies and understand the impact of those technologies on society. A national action plan, Learning in an Online World, has set three priority areas for development making available connections of sufficient bandwidth to allow schools to integrate online services into curriculum practice; providing effective pre-service …

Retrieving Information, Interpreting, Reflecting, And Then... : Using The Result Of Pisa Reading Literacy., Juliette Mendelovits

2002 - Providing World-Class School Education

This paper discusses the results achieved by Australia in the initial report on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The German reaction to a low score for German students is described. Three responses to PISA reading literacy results in Australia are described. These include: pragmatic use of the PISA reading literacy results at a national level; retrieving information from the international study and using it to create a benchmark for reading literacy for fifteen year-olds in Australia; and, using what has been learnt about reading literacy to question, evaluate and perhaps modify the way that reading literacy is taught …

Providing World-Class School Education (Conference Proceedings), Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

2002 - Providing World-Class School Education

International achievement studies are capable of identifying international best practice in school education and providing decision makers at all levels—from policy maker to system manager to school leader to classroom teacher—with information that may be useful in their own efforts to improve student learning outcomes. These studies assist us in answering such questions as: What is ‘world-class’ education? and What characterises outstanding educational provision?

Citizenship And Democracy : Australian Students' Knowledge And Beliefs : The Iea Civic Education Study Of Fourteen Year Olds, Suzanne Mellor, Kerry Kennedy, Lisa Greenwood

Civics and Citizenship Assessment

This Civic Education Study was carried out in two phases by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Phase 1 examined the contexts and meaning of civic education in 24 countries. In Phase 2, nationally representative samples of nearly 90,000 students in the usual grade for 14 year olds in 28 countries were surveyed on topics ranging from their knowledge of fundamental democratic principles and skills in interpreting political information to their attitudes toward government and willingness to participate in civic activity. This Australian national report analyses and interprets the Australian data collected.

Neighbourhood Effects And Community Spillovers In The Australian Youth Labour Market, Dan Andrews, Colin Green, John Mangan

LSAY Research Reports

Neighbourhood effects refer to the situation whereby residential location impacts on the social outcomes of individuals, above and beyond what would be expected from their personal and family characteristics. A number of theories of neighbourhood effects exist. These can be broadly classified as theories of collective socialisation theories; contagion-based or 'epidemic' theories; and information network theories. Existing Australian research has focused mainly on the impact of neighbourhoods on youth education decisions. In contrast, this study models the probability of unemployment as a function of personal characteristics, family structure and neighbourhood composition. [Executive summary, ed]

Educational Attainment In Australia : A Cohort Analysis, Ahn Le, Paul Miller

LSAY Research Reports

This paper attempts to explain differences in the schooling decisions of two cohorts, namely individuals born in 1961 and 1970. The aims are to establish whether the way in which education decisions are made differ across cohorts, and to assess whether any such differences can be related to the institutional reforms that occurred over the 1960 to 1980 period. The study emphasises differences in schooling decisions across gender. [p.v]

Firm-Based Training For Young Australians : Changes From The 1980s To The 1990s, Michael Long, Stephen Lamb

LSAY Research Reports

This report examines changes in the extent, pattern and outcomes of participation in firm-based education and training by young Australians. It compares results for the mid-1990s from the Australian Youth Survey (AYS) with the already- published results for the mid-1980s from the Australian Longitudinal Survey (ALS). The decade between these two surveys witnessed substantial policy initiatives intended to lift the quantity and quality of training experienced by Australian workers. This research report draws on the most comprehensive available data to analyse the changes in training experienced by young workers over that time. The key findings which are examined in the …

Boys In School And Society, John Cresswell, Ken Rowe, Graeme Withers

Gender and education

In the past decade there has been a growing perception in Australia that girls have become more successful pursuing their educational goals than boys - especially in educational outcomes relating to literacy. In addition there is evidence from a range of studies that boys regard their school experience less favourably than girls and are less strongly engaged in the work of schools. This paper focuses on students' achievement and attitudes to school, and the influences that shape different outcomes for boys and girls. Areas of difference discussed include literacy, year 12 performance, mathematics, proficiency with computers, educational participation, and social …

Messages For Minority Groups In Australia From International Studies, Lisa Greenwood, Tracey Frigo, Paul Hughes

Indigenous Education Research

Results from international studies such as the recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tend to be reported in the media in terms of national averages, with a focus on the ranking of participating countries. However, the disaggregation and analysis of data collected from various social groupings within countries provides an opportunity to investigate the extent to which countries support students from various minority groups to achieve equitable educational outcomes. In Australia, the gap between educational outcomes for Indigenous1 and non-Indigenous students at all levels of education has long been a concern (Long et al, 1999). In recent years, …

Mathematics And Science Achievement Of Junior Secondary School Students In Australia, Susan Zammit, Alla Routitsky, Lisa Greenwood

TIMSS Australia Monograph Series

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1998 assessed the mathematics and science achievement of students in their second year at high school. Testing for the study was carried out in 38 countries in 1998–99.1 Extensive information was collected from students, teachers and school principals about the context of mathematics and science teaching and learning. Among the countries participating in TIMSS 1998, 26 countries, including Australia, also participated in TIMSS 1994. It was therefore possible to report on any significant changes between the two studies. Two reports, TIMSS 1999 International Mathematics Report and International Science Report were released in …

Bridging The Home And School: A Case Study Of One Web-Enabled Technology, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

In today's society, there are many new technologies that educators have at their disposal to use both inside and outside of the classroom. One such technology was the focus of the first stage of an on-going project on the "open school" model. This "open school" model is designed to provide access to information on a child's schooling to both students and parents outside of the traditional school day. This article considers the use of one web-enabled technology called ThinkWave in two one term, elective courses.

Analysis Of Student Demand For Courses At Western Fall Quarter, 2001, Carl Simpson, Sharon Schmidtz

Office of Institutional Effectiveness

Each time a student attempts to register for any Western course. a computer record is created, including the student ID, the course sought, and the outcome of the attempt. Using those records, we can generate estimates of the demand for each course at Western. This report presents findings for fall quarter, 2001. We plan parallel reports for winter and spring quarters-hopefully early enough to be used by departments considering course offerings for 2002-2003. The major limitation of the data presented here is that students use Classfinder to identify courses that are already filled vs. open. That means some demand for …

An Investigation Of Factors That Influence How Students Decide On A Major At Western Kentucky University, Cinnamon C. White

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

During telephone interviews, students at Western Kentucky University were asked to explain how and why they chose a particular academic major. The students' race and majors were used in an attempt to determine if there were any noticeable differences in race/major categories. the study also examined some factors in students' backgrounds to determine if past experiences affected their decisions regarding majors.

An Instrument For Assessing Knowledge Gain In A First Course In Circuit Theory, Vishnu K. Lakdawala, Stephen A. Zahorian, Oscar R. González, Amit Kumar H., James Leathrum

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Although there has been considerable research on the development and use of assessment instruments to measure the effectiveness of various pedagogical approaches to teaching introductory physics classes (Hestenes et al. 1, Hestenes et al 2, Hake 3, Saul et al. 4) and other science courses (for example, see Vosniadou 5), there is relatively little similar work that has been done to develop assessment instruments for the first circuit theory course that is taught in electrical and computer engineering. Given the large numbers of students nationwide who take such a course, the challenge this course presents to beginning engineering students, and …

Graduate Skills Assessment : Stage One Validity Study, Sam Hambur, Ken Rowe, Luc T. Le

Higher education research

The Graduate Skills Assessment (GSA) is a new test with complex aims and is in the first stages of development and application. Principally, the test aims to assess a set of valued and widely applicable generic skills that may be developed by the university experience and which are relevant to university achievement and graduate work.

This publication reports on the validity of the first stage of the Graduate Skills Assessment test (GSA Stage One Validity Study), which covers the first two tests, Exit 2000 and Entry 2001. These tests involved the participation of 3663 students drawn from nine broad fields …

Employability Skills For Australian Industry: Literature Review And Framework Development, David C. Curtis, Phillip Mckenzie

Transition and Post-School Education and Training

The Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) and the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) funded a project in 2001 to analyse and report on industry requirements for ‘employability skills’. This project was jointly managed by the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and was completed in March 2002. Employability skills were defined for the purposes of the project as ‘skills required not only to gain employment, but also to progress within an enterprise so as to achieve one’s potential and contribute successfully to enterprise strategic directions’. The project was commissioned to provide: (a) …

Acer 2001-2002 Annual Report, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

ACER Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Computer-Based Testing In Vocational Assessment And Evaluation: A Primer For Rehabilitation Professionals, Tina M. Anctil Peterman, Nancy J. Adams

Counselor Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Current technologies, including computerized assessments, assistive technology, and information/resource technology, are effective tools that offer the rehabilitation professional a variety of applications for vocational evaluation and work assessment. "The ability of vocational evaluators to effectively utilize computers to obtain useful information (e.g. availability of specific electronic devices, job accommodation techniques, job-matching) for vocational recommendations could ultimately affect the outcome goals achieved in the rehabilitation process" (Chan, Lam, Leahy, Parker, & Wong; 1989, p. 113). In order to appropriately use these technologies, rehabilitation professionals need to understand the issues surrounding the use of these tools (e.g., reliability, validity) and ethical concerns …

How Physicians Feel About Assisting Female Victims Of Intimate-Partner Violence, Ramani N. Garimella, Stacey B. Plichta, Clare Houseman, Laurel Garzon

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Purpose. To assess the feelings of physicians about assisting female victims of intimate-partner violence (IPV), and to examine factors related to positive and negative feelings about assisting victims of IPV.

Method. In 1998, a total site sample of 150 physicians practicing in a large general hospital in the area of Virginia Beach, Virginia, was surveyed by questionnaire via the mail. Four specialties were represented: emergency medicine, family practice, obstetrics-gynecology, and psychiatry. The questionnaire asked about medical training and training in assisting victims of IPV The physicians' feelings about working with victims of IPV were measured on a nine-item, five-point …

Teaching Postgraduate Research Methods Using A Novel Problem-Based Learning Approach, Roisin Donnelly

Other resources

This session describes both the reasons for and the process of designing and delivering a Research Methods Module using a Problem-based Learning (PBL) approach in a Postgraduate Diploma in Third Level Learning and Teaching at a higher education institute in Ireland. The students who undertake this part-time Module are cohorts of academic staff (Faculty Members) in Higher Education (HE). They are hitherto referred to as participants. This module is one of eight offered on the PG Diploma, all designed and delivered using Problem-based Learning. The entire PG Diploma is voluntary, and only Faculty who are keen to implement novel pedagogical …

Civic Knowledge And Engagement: An Iea Study Of Upper Secondary Students In Sixteen Countries, Jo-Ann Amadeo, Judith Torney-Purta, Rainer Lehmann, Vera Husfeldt, Roumiana Nikolova

Civics and Citizenship Assessment

No abstract provided.

Retention In The New Millennium, Pat Davison

Graduate Research Papers

This study examined the effects of retention in regards to children's academic success. The features of retention, research and literature associated with retention, and the benefits and disadvantages were discussed. Guidelines were presented for teachers, along with the appropriate strategies to use in grade level retention. In addition, conclusions were drawn from literature and recommendations for the future facilitation of retention policies.