Digital Commons Network^™

Student Perceptions Of Effective Foreign Language Teachers: A Quantitative Investigation From A Korean University, Bruce D. Barnes, Graeme Lock

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract: The present study uses a questionnaire instrument to measure the importance that students from a Korean university place on a wide range of effective foreign language teacher attributes. Respondents to the present study placed high importance on rapport attributes such as friendliness, care, and patience; and delivery attributes which included the provision of clear explanations, error correction, and a participatory mode of instruction. Impartiality, target language knowledge, and good preparation were attributes also rated highly. The results also provided insights into student opinions about various instructional issues, such as the selective use of the students’ first language, explicit grammar …

A Case Study Of Bilingual Student-Teachers’ Classroom English: Applying The Education-Linguistic Model, Jinghe Han, Jun Yao

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper explores the practicum experience of a group of bilingual student-teachers who taught Chinese using English to learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in Western Sydney schools. Specifically it explores how these student-teachers used English as the instructional language in class and what strengths and weaknesses they demonstrated compared to their host teachers. Data were collected through observing and audio-recording the participants’ teaching, aiming to capture the actual features of their English use in class. The data were structurally-coded employing the ELM categories. Discourse analysis was employed to interpret and understand the language use of the bilingual …

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Votes: Graphicacy Skills For Political Debate, Amanda Rainey, Stuart Medley

Research outputs 2013

Political campaigns are greatly influenced by changes in technology and communication, from FDR’s ‘Fireside Chats’ to JFK’s embrace of television. Now a combination of technologies allows almost everyone to create, reproduce, transform, and share images with friends and family, or with the world. Individuals and grassroots organisations can communicate using images alongside mainstream media, corporations and governments. There is now a great need for all of us to develop the visual literacy – or graphicacy – required to interpret and recreate images, to communicate as educated equals in this new political environment. Political advertising can use graphic design to make …

Towards A Natural History Of Internet Use? Working To Overcome The Implications For Research Of The Child-Adult Divide, Lelia R. Green, Donell J. Holloway, David Holloway

Research outputs 2013

Using a metaphor borrowed from the biological sciences, this paper discusses a ‘natural history’ of Internet use. As ‘digital natives’ many of today’s teenagers and young people have grown up and matured interacting with the Internet from an early age. Research about young people’s Internet use tends, however, to focus on the protection of minors. Young people, 16 years or older, are often excluded from noncommercial research about how young people grow into more mature patterns of Internet use. This paper highlights how parents with teenagers are building dynamic models of their children’s engagement with the Internet as they mature. …

Chinese Students' Perceptions Of Their Creativity And Their Perceptions Of Western Students' Creativity, Bingxin Wang, Kenneth M. Greenwood

Research outputs 2013

This paper applies the Four C Model of Creativity ('Big-C, little-c, mini-c and Pro-c') to determine Chinese students' perceptions of their own creativity and their perceptions of Western students' creativity. By surveying 100 Chinese students and interviewing 10 of them, this paper discovered that Chinese students generally perceived their creativity to be less than that of Western students. Differences on mini-c and Pro-c were larger in the direction of Western students being superior, and the items that differed in the opposite direction and those which did not differ were part of the subset of little-c items. The perceived superiority of …

Through The Viewfinder: Reflecting On The Collection And Analysis Of Classroom Video Data, Angela Fitzgerald, Mark Hackling, Vaille Dawson

Research outputs 2013

The possibilities inherent in the collection and use of video footage point to an important innovation for classroom research. Unfortunately, researchers often experience uncertainty about incorporating video into their methodological approach as it can present a potential minefield of operational, technical, and ethical issues that require consideration and negotiation. Nevertheless, with the increased emphasis on the use of digital technologies, the timing is right to engage in more in-depth discussions about the role of video data in education research. In contributing to this discussion, this article unpacks several issues connected to the use of video technology as a tool for …

Sustaining Online Communities In The Charitable Health Sector: How To Keep A Good Thing Going, Leesa N. Costello, Julie S. Dare, Lelia R. Green

Research outputs 2013

What happens when an online community part-funded by a competitive grant process in partnership with a relevant charitable organisation reaches its use-by date? What reasons might an organisation have for continuing (or not) to support the community and its future development? How is ‘ownership’ transferred from the research institution to the not-forprofit organisation, along with any possible risks? These are all good questions: not least because it seems that most communities in this position are not ‘adopted’ by their not-forprofit sponsors, but languish on the sidelines waiting for a benefactor to pick up the potential costs and risks. This paper …

Cooking From Life: The Real Recipe For Street Food In Ha Noi, Lelia Green, Van H. Nguyen

Research outputs 2013

No abstract provided.

New Orleans: A Disaster Waiting To Happen?, Rodney J. Giblett

Research outputs 2013

New Orleans is one of a number of infamous swamp cities—cities built in swamps, near them or on land “reclaimed” from them, such as London, Paris, Venice, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Petersburg, and Perth. New Orleans seemed to be winning the battle against the swamps until Hurricane Katrina of 2005, or at least participating in an uneasy truce between its unviable location and the forces of the weather to the point that the former was forgotten until the latter intruded as a stark reminder of its history and geography. Around the name “Katrina” a whole series of events and images congregate, …

Masculinity, Mass Consumerism And Subversive Sex: A Case Study Of Second Life's 'Zeus' Gay Club, Judith A. Elund

Research outputs 2013

This article is a case study of a Second Life region in reference to the prevailing attitudes of sexual conservatism and the growing acceptance of homosexual coupling. The site of Zeus is a contested site of legitimacy in view of tensions regarding masculinity as it applies to sex, sexuality, gender conformity and consumption practices. Furthermore, it is representative of the tensions between an acceptable, albeit conservative gay male identity, and the subversive hyper-sexual and hyper-masculine subject of desire.

The Western Australian New Music Archive: Finding, Accessing, Remembering And Performing A Community Of Practice, Catherine A. Hope, Lelia R. Green, Tos Mahoney

Research outputs 2013

In 2009, the music composition department at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University (ECU) and Perth organisation Tura New Music embarked upon a project to develop and establish the Western Australian New Music Archive (WANMA), a digital repository and interface of new music by Western Australian composers from 1970 to the current day. The project seeks to discover, collect, collate, digitise, store and disseminate music recordings, video documentation, scores and other evidence surrounding Western Australian new music. WANMA is now a funded Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage research project involving collaboration between the State …

Inside Schizophrenia: Mending The Internal Conflict; And, The Historical, Cultural And Social Aspects Of Schizophrenia, Fiona Erica Nichols

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis comprises a memoir and essay on schizophrenia. It is estimated that 285,000 people suffer some form of schizophrenia in Australia. This means, on average, one in seventy people in Australia suffer from the disorder. For males, schizophrenia often develops in early adulthood. For females, it has later onset. There are about five types of schizophrenia: paranoid, catatonic, disorganised, undifferentiated, and residual. The focus of this thesis is on the diagnosis of Paranoid Schizophrenia. There is no cure, but it is treatable. However, people with a treatment resistant schizophrenia can find life difficult. The aim of the thesis is …

An Exploratory Examination Of The Factors Influencing Indonesian Sme's Sustainability Practices In The Textile And Chemical Industries, Bulan Prabawani

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

All firms have an impact on the environment in which they operate, for example in the exploration and processing of environmental resources to make a profit. Manufacturing firms, in particular have the potential to pollute the environment with dangerous liquid and solid wastes. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) make a significant contribution to the global economy in both developing and developed countries. Individually, SMEs appear to have little environmental impact, but accumulatively, they have a considerable impact, not only economically but also environmentally. However, managing environment impact is not usually core business for SMEs.

SMEs often suffer from a …

Human Factors And Cultural Influences In Implementing Agile Philosophy And Agility In Global Software Development, Anuradha Sutharshan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

As software becomes increasingly important to all aspects of industry, developers should be encouraged to adopt best practice and hence improve the quality of the processes used, and achieve targets relating to time, budget and quality. In the software industry, several software methodologies have been used to address software development problems; however some of these processes may be too bureaucratic. The Agile Alliance formed in 2001, sought to address this problem; accordingly, they developed a manifesto and twelve principles, to which all agile software methods adhere. The purpose of the manifesto and its principles is to uncover better ways of …

What Bothers Australian Kids Online? Children Comment On Bullies, Porn And Violence, Lelia Green, Danielle Brady, Donell Holloway, Elisabeth Staksrud, Kjartan Ólafsson

Research outputs 2013

This briefing on what bothers Australian kids online builds upon a short report from the EU Kids Online network: In their own words: What bothers children online? Based upon research across 25 European nations, with 25,142 children (aged 9-16) and the parent or caregiver most involved in supporting the child’s internet use, the In their own words report addresses children’s answers to the question: ‘What things on the internet would bother people about your age?’ Children had not been asked about troubling content at this stage in the research, so their open-ended answers to this question represent the issues and …

Nutritional Narratives: Cultural And Communications Perspectives On Plant-Based Diets, Julie S. Dare, Leesa N. Costello, Lelia R. Green

Research outputs 2013

This paper responds to a range of popular materials circulating in the public sphere asserting a plant-based (PB) diet is of benefit to humans and a protection against many chronic diseases. Although directed at a lay audience, books such as The China Study (Campbell & Campbell) are based upon extensive academic research, and highlight multiple health, environmental and social advantages of PB diets over traditional western diets. Arguments advocating PB nutrition, however, generally struggle to achieve traction in the public sphere. Narratives around PB food choices, and difficulties in shifting mainstream eating patterns, reflect the cultural symbolism attached to food, …

Toward A Phen(Omen)Ology Of The Seasons: The Emergence Of The Indigenous Weather Knowledge Project (Iwkp), John Charles Ryan

Research outputs 2013

Since European settlement, the Western calendar has insufficiently accounted for the seasonal nuances and multiple temporalities of Australia. Beginning with Tim Entwistle’s recent proposal to revise the four-season Australian norm, this article traces the emergence of the Western calendar in Europe and its institutionalization ‘Down Under.’ With its emphasis on land-based calendars, the Indigenous Weather Knowledge Project (IWKP) is a partnership between Aboriginal communities and the Bureau of Meteorology aimed at preserving and promoting knowledge of the endemic seasons of Australian regions. As the most recent addition to the IWKP, the six-season Nyoongar calendar of the South-West of Western Australia …

Exceptional Connections : A Cross-Cultural Exploration Of The Actual Teacher Behaviours That Contribute To Positive Relationships With Gifted Secondary Students And Secondary Students With Emotional/Behavioural Disorders, Trevor Capern

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This cross-cultural study examined the teacher behaviours that contributed to positive student-teacher relationships with gifted secondary students and secondary students with Emotional/Behavioural Disorders (EBD) in Western Australia and Canada. The study also examined which categories of social support (emotional, instrumental, informational, appraisal) were considered most important in developing positive relationships according to the exceptional students and their teachers. Behaviours were identified through a mixedmethods approach that included surveys, teacher interviews, and student focus groups. Participants included gifted secondary students (N = 133) and their teachers (N= 49), and secondary students with EBD (N = 89) and their teachers (N=23) in …

Bury Me Deep In Isolation: A Cultural Examination Of A Peripheral Music Industry And Scene, Christina Ballico

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Since 1998, Perth bands have had a strong presence within the Australian music scene. Primarily, each year between 1998 and 2009, songs by indie pop/rock acts from Perth have charted within national broadcaster triple j’s Hottest 100 countdown. Many of the albums from which these songs have been taken have sold in excess of 35,000 copies, and a number of successful and recognised Perth bands have toured with the nation’s largest music festival, the Big Day Out as well as their own high profile national tours. At the same time, Perth’s local indie pop/rock music industry has undergone tremendous growth …

Pictures In Words : Indexing, Folksonomy And Representation Of Subject Content In Historic Photographs, Brian Stewart

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Subject access to images is a major issue for image collections. Research is needed to understand how indexing and tagging contribute to make the subjects of historic photographs accessible.

This thesis firstly investigates the evidence of cognitive dissonance between indexers and users in the way they attribute subjects to historic photographs, and, secondly, how indexers and users might work together to enhance subject description. It analyses how current indexing and social tagging represent the subject content of historic photographs. It also suggests a practical way indexers can work with taggers to deal with the classic problem of resource constraints and …

Critically Reflective Leadership, Christine L. Cunningham

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Critical Reflective Practice (CRP) has a proven reputation as a method for teacher-researchers in K-12 classrooms, but there have been few published examples of this method being used to document school leaders’ work-based practice. This article outlines adaptations made by the author from an original CRP method to a Critically Reflective Leadership (CRL) method that she developed to document her own lived experiences as a principal and then director of an American International School in South America. The method described in this paper may be useful for school leaders who wish to become practitioner-researchers in their own work places. The …

Passive Flora? Reconsidering Nature's Agency Through Human-Plant Studies (Hps), John Ryan

Research outputs 2012

Plants have been—and, for reasons of human sustenance and creative inspiration, will continue to be—centrally important to societies globally. Yet, plants—including herbs, shrubs, and trees—are commonly characterized in Western thought as passive, sessile, and silent automatons lacking a brain, as accessories or backdrops to human affairs. Paradoxically, the qualities considered absent in plants are those employed by biologists to argue for intelligence in animals. Yet an emerging body of research in the sciences and humanities challenges animal-centred biases in determining consciousness, intelligence, volition, and complex communication capacities amongst living beings. In light of recent theoretical developments in our understandings of …

Children's Interests In The National Classification Scheme Review, Lelia Green

Research outputs 2012

It is twenty years since the last thorough review of the National Classification System, and those twenty years have witnessed the burgeoning of the internet and the impact of convergence on what used to be the separate spheres of media, telecommunications and information and communication technologies. Over that time there has been an increasing emphasis placed on children: the need to promote their opportunities in the digital world, and the responsibility of parents, policy makers, content providers and other adults to help protect them from risks. This paper examines the recommendations of the National Classification System Review bearing in mind …

Nature Is Ordinary Too: Raymond Williams As The Founder Of Ecocultural Studies, Rodney Giblett

Research outputs 2012

In a recent article in Cultural Studies, Jennifer Daryl Slack called for the jettisoning of ecocultural studies as an add-on to Cultural Studies and the revitalizing of Cultural Studies with the eco as integral to it. One way I propose of doing so in this article is to revalue and re-establish the beginnings of Cultural Studies, and of ecocultural studies, in the work of Raymond Williams in which both were integral to the other. I call Williams both a founder of Cultural Studies and the founder of ecocriticism and ecocultural studies, though of course he did not use these terms, …

Cca3101/4101 Environmental Humanities: The History Of A Unit Through An Ecopedagogical Lens, John Ryan

Research outputs 2012

In 2011 the author taught, for the first time, the well-established unit CCA3101/4101 Environmental Humanities in the School of Communications and Arts at ECU (Edith Cowan University) in Western Australia. The unit has a 20-year history through associate professor Rod Giblett and parallels the development of the environmental humanities as a field in Australia, advanced since the 1990s by environmental scholars Deborah Bird Rose, Val Plumwood, Libby Robin, and Rod Giblett. The interdisciplinary field represents growing scholarly interest in the ecological aspects of humanities disciplinesincluding literature, visual arts, theology, philosophy, and cultural studies—and the development of humanities-based approaches for addressing …

Narrative Environmental Ethics, Nature Writing, And Ecological Science As Tradition: Towards A Sponsoring Ground Of Concern, John Ryan

Research outputs 2012

Over the last 30 years, environmental philosophers and ecological researchers have turned their attention to the possibilities of narratives: the stories people tell about their lives in conjunction with the human and non-human agents they live with. An interest in narrative environmental ethics reflects a re-evaluation of canonical ecophilosophical texts. Works such as Paul W. Taylor’s Respect for Nature suggest an essentialist view of environmental ethics in which predetermined principles are imposed on places and situations. On the other hand, Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac combines first-person prose with science-based explanations of the “biotic pyramid” towards the development of …

Self-Revelation In An Online Health Community: Exploring Issues Around Co-Presence For Vulnerable Members, Leesa Costello, Cynthia Witney, Lelia Green, Vanessa Bradshaw

Research outputs 2012

Problem: This paper addresses the implications of working with vulnerable groups in the context of an online health community when members move from co-presence online to co-presence offline. Theoretical Approach: The case study presented in this paper challenges the expectation that self-revelations are usually more common in online environments because of the anonymity and comfort experienced there. Methodology: Taking as its example the events in a research project designed to investigate the relative features of online communities and social network sites by using a ‘netnographic’ approach, this paper examines the introduction of live chat sessions with a view to building …

As Long As Your're Resilient You'll Succeed: School Disaffected Adolescents' Perspectives On Their Willingness To Engage In High Injury-Risk Graffiti-Writing Activities, Myra Taylor

Research outputs 2012

A lack of sense of school belonging can be a destabilising aspect in disaffected students’ lives, so much so that they will often seek an alternative sense of belonging outside of the school arena. Gaining out-of-school acceptance within the non-conforming, graffiti subculture is dependent upon proving one’s worth through willing engagement in visual acts of high-risk daring. This exemplar study examines the health-risk injuries sustained by eight adolescent crew leaders within the graffiti subculture. The study’s findings reveal four reoccurring sources of graffiti-related injury (ie. tagging hard-to-reach places, fighting rival crews, graffing under the influence, and eluding Police capture). A …

Is There A Tiger Mother Effect? : An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis Of Immigrant Vietnamese-Australian’S Parenting Experience, Tony Nguyen

School of Psychology and Social Science Presentations

Current census data reports that more than a quarter of Australia’s population is from overseas (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2007). With respect to the Vietnamese population, the 2006 Census has reported over 150 thousand Vietnamese-born people in Australia (ABS, 2007). While there has been a steady rise in the immigrant Vietnamese population, few studies have examined this population and this is extended to the parenting and acculturation literature (Nguyen & Cheung, 2009). The research literature has also tended to lump together distinct ethnic groups that make up the “Asian” designation, thus obscuring the inter-cultural diversity of research (Liu, Pope-Davis, …

Capturing The Cape: A Photographic Case Study Of The Cape Range Bioregion Of Northwest Australia, David J. Bradley

ECU Research Week

No abstract provided.