Digital Commons Network^™

Embedding Innovative Assessment Practices To Develop Critical Appraisal Skills In A Third Year Social Science Unit, Susan Teather, Catherine Moore

eCULTURE

There is a growing imperative in tertiary education (nationally and internationally) to enable lifelong learning as a graduate outcome (Bologna Process, 2010: Boud & Falchikov, 2006; Oliver, 2011). At ECU our new undergraduate curriculum framework titled Curriculum 2012: enabling the learning journey promotes lifelong learning and assessment for learning. Lifelong learning implies developing both the capacity to learn and the ability to direct learning. In order to successfully direct their own learning beyond university students need to be able to identify the standard of performance to which they should aspire as a result of that learning, accurately locate where they …

First Year Experience (Fye): International Students’ Experiences , Catherine Ferguson, Bronwyn Harman, Lynne Cohen, Shelley Beatty, Mary Boyce, Sue Sharp, Kevin Vanderplank

eCULTURE

International students confront a range of challenges during their transition to living and studying in Australia. Despite these challenges over 80% of international students reported high satisfaction with their life and study within Australia. This qualitative study reports on the experiences of 53 first year international students at ECU. Participants were students from across a range of study areas who responded to an online or face to face survey. Participants were required to respond to four questions which were analysed thematically to provide a summary of their experiences. Survey questions included their positive and negative experiences of being a first …

“When The Wattle Comes Out, The Turtles Are Ready”: Success Of The Enhanced Teacher Training Program, Ingrid Harrington

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teacher preparation and preparedness have been the focus of much research connecting quality teaching and learning, retention, and teacher satisfaction (Halsey, 2005; Hayes, Mills, Christie, & Lingard, 2006; MCEETYA, 2006). The successful recruitment and retention of teachers to rural and remote schools Australia-wide has been problematic for all states and territories (Vinson, 2002). Education departments have implemented a number of immersion programs with success (Halsey, 2005) in order to empower new teachers with the cultural and classroom awareness necessary for teaching in Indigenous communities. In 2006, the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education and Training (DET) implemented the Enhanced …

“I Am A Pibidiana”: Societal Relations As The Locus Of Sustained Development In A Teacher Education Program In Brazil, Michele Salles El Kadri, Wolff-Michael Roth

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Many teachers point to the theory-practice gap between university training and their school-based work. Coteaching in conjunction with cogenerative dialoguing as a means of teacher induction has been shown to overcome this gap. In this paper, we articulate teacher development in the praxis-centered {coteaching | cogenerative dialoguing} setting of one Brazilian teacher education program in terms of changing societal relations. We draw on Vygotsky, Leont'ev, and Dewey's ideas on development. The results exhibit the experience of teaching generally and the extant societal relations specifically as the condition for teacher development. Implications for teaching education programs are discussed.

Turkish Primary School Teachers’ Opinions About Problem Posing Applications: Students, The Mathematics Curriculum And Mathematics Textbooks, Çiğdem Kılıç

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Problem posing is one of the most important topics in a mathematics education. Through problem posing, students gain mathematical abilities and concepts and teachers can evaluate their students and arrange adequate learning environments. The aim of the present study is to investigate Turkish primary school teachers’ opinions about problem posing applications for students, the mathematics curriculum and textbooks. A 30-item questionnaire was developed by the researcher and administered to 18 primary schools. Altogether, 277 primary school teachers participated in the study. The results showed that Turkish primary school teachers have positive views about problem posing applications related to students but …

“Miss, I Am Not Being Fully Prepared”: Student - Teachers’ Concerns About Their Preparation At A Teacher Training Institution In Jamaica, Carmel G. Roofe, Paul Miller

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The issue of teacher preparation continues to occupy academic discourse relating to student outcomes and student achievement (Stronge, Ward & Grant, 2011). Research has supported the view that there is an inextricable connection between student outcomes, quality of teaching and teachers, and teacher preparation (Darling-Hammond 2005; Grover 2002). Similarly, theories about students’ self efficacy beliefs (e.g. Bandura, 1977; Dweck, 2000) and Institutional Habitus (Bourdieu, 1977) have been advanced in relation to students’ study experience, motivation and coping mechanisms. Using data from a focus group comprising 30 third year students enrolled in a four year teacher training pogramme in Jamaica, this …

Education For Sustainability: A Case Study Of Pre-Service Primary Teachers' Knowledge And Efficacy, Gerard Effeney, Julie Davis

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study investigated the relationships between knowledge and efficacy for teaching sustainability in a sample of 266 pre-service primary teachers at a large, metropolitan university in Australia. A survey gathered information about the participant’s attitudes and self-efficacy for education for sustainability, along with their perceived and actual knowledge of environmental sustainability issues. The participants typically believed they were confident in their abilities to engage with education for sustainability with self-efficacy increasing with increased levels of perceived knowledge. However no relationship was found between perceived knowledge and actual knowledge which suggests that the participants either do not feel constrained by their …

Teachers’ Knowledge Of Anxiety And Identification Of Excessive Anxiety In Children, Clea Headley, Marilyn A. Campbell

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study examined primary school teachers’ knowledge of anxiety and excessive anxiety symptoms in children. Three hundred and fifteen primary school teachers completed a questionnaire exploring their definitions of anxiety and the indications they associated with excessive anxiety in primary school children. Results showed that teachers had an understanding of what anxiety was in general but did not consistently distinguish normal anxiety from excessive anxiety, often defining all anxiety as a negative experience. Teachers were able to identify symptoms of excessive anxiety in children by recognizing anxiety-specific and general problem indications. The results provided preliminary evidence that teachers’ knowledge of …

Beginning Teachers’ Perceptions Of Their Pedagogical Knowledge And Skills In Teaching: A Three Year Study, Doris Choy, Angela F. L. Wong, Kam Ming Lim, Sylvia Chong

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the beginning teachers’ perceptions of pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching in Singapore. Data was collected from the beginning teachers at three time points: the exit point of the teacher education programme, the end of their first year and third year of teaching. In this three year study, the focus is to examine the beginning teachers’ perceptions of their development in the following teaching related factors: lesson planning, classroom management and instructional strategies. The results showed that beginning teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and skills increased significantly, but at different rates, in all three …

The Moral Imagination In Pre-Service Teachers’ Ethical Reasoning, Amy Chapman, Daniella Forster, Rachel Buchanan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper will discuss findings from a teaching project pilot study designed to investigate the ways in which pre-service teachers understand and reason through ethical tensions perceived to arise during their final professional experience situation. The project utilised an assessment strategy based on the ‘community of inquiry’ model to document the ways in which pre-service teachers understand and reason through ethical tensions perceived to arise in their profession. Whilst there is significant research examining the pedagogical development of pre-service teachers’ knowledge and skills after their internship experience, there is little research examining their experience of ethical tensions, nor ways to …

Are They All The Same? Lurkers And Posters On The Net, Beth Walker, Janice Redmond, Andras Lengyel

eCULTURE

Contemporary trends aim to shift the majority of services offered online. While expectations are very high that people will engage, learn and communicate via the Internet not everyone does and not all technologically designed services are successful. Little is known about online behaviour. This paper adds to the knowledge about two online behavioural groups, Lurkers and Posters by identifying two categories within each of these groups. The two types of Lurkers identified were categorised as Passive and Active Lurkers while the two types of Posters identified have been categorised as either Initial or Responding Posters. This information is valuable as …

Using Digital Lectures To Assist Student Learning, Ray Boffey, Paul Gerrans, Sophie Kennedy

eCULTURE

This study explores the use and usefulness of digital lectures as a resource to augment conventional face-to-face lectures for students in an undergraduate business course. Twelve digital lectures were provided to students enrolled in a third year finance unit of study. The digital lectures were prepared at the desktop using proprietary software to record on-screen activity (including lecture slides, real-time annotations and demonstrations) and voice-over narration. Each lecture was made available online and on CD concurrently with the face-to-face lecture (attendance at which was voluntary). Twelve principles of multimedia design (Mayer 2009), based on dual-coding theory (Paivio 2006) and a …

Five Myths And Realities About Generation Y, Jenny Devine

eCULTURE

The notion of generational differences has been around since society has been documented. The bible documents conflict between generations. In the 1950’s, Elvis Presley’s unashamed hip swivelling was surely going to be the end of society. Our parents did not understand us, and we struggle to understand why our children would prefer to spend hours on interactive video games instead of kicking a football in the park. Our world is very different today from the world of our parents, grandparents and their parents, so it stands to reason that generations will adapt to a different world as well as influence …

Children’S Literature And The Early Years Learning Framework, Helen Adam

eCULTURE

This paper looks at the value of using children’s literature to achieve the outcomes of the recently released Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). The author makes a case for curriculum developers and higher education trainers of early childhood carers and educators to understand the value of using children’s literature as a resource to achieve the outcomes of the EYLF. The author firstly looks at the background and key aims of the EYLF. The author examines research evidence of the uses of children’s literature in values education and in the social, emotional and the psychological development of the child. The author …

Learning To Teach; What Do Pre-Service Teachers Report?, Dawn Naylor

eCULTURE

This study seeks to understand the phenomenon of learning to teach. This phenomenon was approached by questioning who is learning to teach; what has to be learnt; where, when and how does learning to teach occur? In this regard the individual, professional and contextual aspects of learning to teach represent a socio-cultural perspective. This study seeks to examine the extent to which pre-service teachers identify and attribute individual, professional and contextual aspects as significant influences on learning to teach. The study involved a mixed model approach. The main qualitative part of the study was based on phenomenological research as it …

The Value Of Practical Placements: What Student Journalists Learnt By Working With Aboriginal Communities., Trevor Cullen

eCULTURE

Non-Aboriginal journalists seldom get to meet and talk with Aboriginal people about their life and beliefs, and this often results in narrow and misinformed reporting. This paper reports on an ongoing initiative between the Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health (CUCRH) and the undergraduate journalism program at Edith Cowan University. Every January and July (since July 2008), eight final-year ECU journalism students spend a month with Aboriginal communities in two Western Australian towns in the Pilbara region. This is a significant departure from the usual ECU journalism placement unit, where students apply for a one-month internship in a Perth based …

Teacher Identity In The Early Career Phase: Trajectories That Explain And Influence Development, Chad M. Morrison

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Early career teaching is a difficult phase to navigate with many newly qualified teachers choosing to leave the profession within the first few years. The professional identities of these and other teachers are shaped by challenging and unanticipated experiences. The schools where this teaching takes place also have profound influence on these teachers’ individual responses to their new roles. This paper reports on how the contexts and professional environments of fourteen early career teachers contributed to the establishment of three distinct trajectories of teacher identity: the emergent, tenuous and distressed. An examination of their developing identities revealed the influential experiences …

Building Early Career Teacher Resilience: The Role Of Relationships, Rosie Le Cornu

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

There are serious concerns around the sustainability of teaching given the attrition rate of early career teachers. In Western countries we know that between 25% and 40% of beginning teachers are likely to leave the teaching profession in the first 5 years (Ewing & Smith, 2003; Day & Gu, 2010). Clearly, there is a need to better understand the experiences of early career teachers and to investigate, in new ways, how the problem of teacher attrition can be addressed. This paper is based on a collaborative qualitative research project funded by the Australian Research Council that aimed to investigate the …

Literacy Coaching Roles In Diverse Contexts Of Teaching And Learning: New Ways Of Working, Lisa J. Van Leent, Beryl Exley

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

As the demands placed on the literacy coach have evolved, so too have the roles of these educational providers who are often responsible for working with school teams to turn around student performance on standardized literacy tests. One literacy coach based in a Queensland primary school recounts her experiences via open-ended interview over a two year period. We offer a theorisation of the newways of working as a literacy coach in a context of teaching and learning marked by diversity.

Workplace-Based Practicum: Enabling Expansive Practices, Bruce A. Pridham, Craig Deed, Peter Cox

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Effective pre-service teacher education integrates theoretical and practical knowledge. One means of integration is practicum in a school workplace. In a time of variable approaches to, and models of, practicum, we outline an innovative model of school immersion as part of a teacher preparation program. We apply Fuller and Unwin’s (2004) expansive and restrictive conceptual framework of workplace learning to a case study of an immersive practicum experience to discuss themes of participation, personal development and institutional arrangements in relation to school-based practicum. Enablers and constraints are identified for our immersion model of workplace-based practicum. Based on the data analysis …

Pre-Service Teachers’ Preferred Methods Of Assessment: A Perspective From Saudi Arabia, Amani K. Hamdan Alghamdi

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teacher-candidate course assessment is one topic that has not been adequately explored in teacher education literature where pre-service teachers’ voices are rarely heard. Assessment methods in pre-service teacher programs across the world, including in Saudi Arabia, have received little exploration in the literature. This mixed-methods study explored a group of female pre-service teachers (n = 83) enrolled in a Diploma of Education program to identify their preferred method of assessment for their learning. The results showed that these individuals preferred a group assignment, consisting of a written report and an oral presentation, over an individual assignment, consisting of an …

Pre-Service Secondary Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education, Shane Costello, Christopher Boyle

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The attitudes held by pre-service teachers have been shown to affect their willingness and ability to implement an inclusive approach to education. A sample consisting of 193 pre-service secondary teachers enrolled in secondary education courses at an Australian university were surveyed to determine their attitudes towards inclusive education, with a particular focus on attitudinal changes across the years of study. Results indicated that pre-service secondary teachers held positive attitudes towards inclusive education; however there was a significant decline in positive attitudes through the years of study. Pre-service secondary teachers enrolled in postgraduate programs were more inclusive than those enrolled in …

Middle Level Mathematics Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Growth Through Professional Development: Differences Based On Mathematical Background, Tara Stevens, Zenaida Aguirre-Munoz, Gary Harris, Raegan Higgins, Xun Liu

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Profile analyses were used to investigate differences in the self-efficacy growth of teachers with more and less mathematics background as the teachers participated in professional development across two summers. Professional development activities were associated with increases in teachers’ self-efficacy; however, without considering mathematics knowledge for teaching, teachers with more math background tended to benefit more than those with less background. Nonetheless, teachers with less math background had higher levels of teacher self-efficacy although this gap was closed by the last measurement. Such considerations are important when designing professional development as teachers may have different needs based on specific characteristics such …

The River In A Landscape Of Creative Practice: Creative River Journeys., Kylie J Stevenson

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

In my current PhD study, Creative River Journeys, I use the metaphor of the river as a data capture tool when interviewing artist-researchers about their experiences of conducting creative practice within a university context. My use of the river functions as a metaphor for the creative process. I have adapted the River Journey tool from its previous use as a map of teacher identity and professional development, and in a project about children’s musical experience. This PhD project follows a long tradition of using the river as a metaphor. For example, the river has been used in a narrative therapy …

Persons As Plants: Ecopsychology And The Return To The Dream Of Nature, Monica Gagliano

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Abstract. In this article, I examine human-plant perceptions and interactions in terms of developing a new perspective on the perception and the actions of people towards plants. By combining my scientific understanding of the biological world and my own experiences working with plant shamans, storytellers and mystics from around the world, I engage with the idea that the hierarchical structure by which Western science defines the variety of life forms as ‘primitive’ or ‘more evolved’ is at the root of the current environmental crisis and I argue that the solution to it rests in a change of this very perspective.

The Effects Of Problem-Based Learning On Metacognitive Awareness And Attitudes Toward Chemistry Of Prospective Teachers With Different Academic Backgrounds, Cemal Tosun, Erdal Senocak

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The aim of this study was to reveal the effects of Problem-based Learning (PBL) on the metacognitive awareness and attitudes toward chemistry of teacher candidates with different academic backgrounds. The study was carried out on one group using both pre- and post-test experimental studies. The findings of the study were obtained through quantitative approaches. The sample of the study was 70 first-year undergraduate students at a state university in Turkey taking General Chemistry/General Chemistry-II classes. The study was implemented during the spring semester of the 2011-2012 academic years and for a period of 20 hours. Quantitative data was obtained using …

Self- Efficacy And Participation In Choosing The Teaching Profession As Predictors Of Academic Motivation Among Arab Student's Girls, Qutaiba Ali Agbaria

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The purpose of this study is to examine the link between learning motivation among teaching trainees and self- efficacy and the rate of participation in choosing the profession of teaching. The main assumptions: There will be a clear positive link between the rate of self-efficacy of students and academic motivation, with its various elements. There will be a clear positive link between the rate of participation in choosing the profession (teaching) and academic motivation.

The sample included 181 female students. The sample was random relative to students of each academic year and specialization.

The findings of the study corroborated most …

Novice Teachers Learning From Others: Mentoring In Shanghai Schools, Hairon Salleh, Charlene Tan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper explores critically the practice of teacher mentoring in Shanghai schools. It begins with a review of the literature on teacher mentoring, which is followed by an introduction to education and teacher mentoring in the schools. The next section critiques teacher mentoring in Shanghai and we highlight three key characteristics and strengths of the practice of teacher mentoring that ensure the effectiveness and smooth implementation of mentoring in Shanghai schools. In terms of the weaknesses, we argue that the success of teacher mentoring in Shanghai is inhibited by a performative culture that emphasises examination scores and an instrumental view …

Engagement In Practice: Case Studies Of Teaching And Learning At Ecu, Iris Mao, Charn Nang

eCULTURE

A paradigm shift to a life-long learning model has increased the demand for the Tertiary Education Institution to engage closely with external community in teaching and learning practice. Engagement activities have been undertaken in universities across Australia but its type and scope varies across the universities. A need is identified to develop valid and reliable indicators to measure the level and value of engagement for the key stakeholders. This paper examines the theoretical aspects of engagement in teaching and learning and discusses issues and problems of the engagement activities at Edith Cowan University using two case studies. It aims to …

Surviving And Sustaining Teaching Excellence: A Narrative Of ‘Entrapment’, Heather Sparrow

eCULTURE

"This paper discusses the key concepts of ‘surviving’ and ‘sustaining’ in the context of teaching excellence in contemporary universities, and reports the findings emerging from a work-in-progress study of Award Winning Teachers. It provides evidence that teachers recognized for their passion, commitment and expertise in teaching, work well beyond their paid hours to achieve excellence. Most become ‘entrapped’ in a culture of over-work that can have a negative impact on their lives and well-being. Factors that influence ‘teaching sustainability’ are presented, to support university teachers, administrators and managers in thinking about ways to improve the teaching and learning environment for …