Digital Commons Network^™

Reflecting On Improving Our Practice: Using Collaboration As An Approach To Enhance First Year Transition In Higher Education, Sharn Donnison, Debra Edwards, Diane Itter, Dona Martin, Zali Yager

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper is concerned with teacher collaboration in Higher Education. Specifically, it focuses on how a ‘community of practice’ emerged and developed during the process of enhancing first year transition for pre-service teachers. It is written from the perspective of five teacher educators and is situated within the literature of the first year in higher education and teacher collaboration. In this paper we describe how the process of conceptualising an innovative first year teacher education program, designed to facilitate student retention and engagement, increased our own engagement, motivation and teaching practice. Our experiences suggest that collaboration in Higher Education is …

Health And The Nature Of Urban Green Spaces, May Elizabeth Carter

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Recognition that city-dwelling people can benefit from contact with nature is not new. The urban open air movement of the 19th century advised retention of greenways and development of urban parks and gardens to stop disease spread through lack of fresh air, poor sanitation and overcrowding. Now, in the early 21st century, urban green spaces are under threat from inner city infill projects and clearing of remnant vegetation to accommodate suburban sprawl.

While much literature discusses positive health benefits of contact with nature, few studies explore explicit pathways between urban green space and health, despite mounting concern that disassociation between …

Expanding The Ecological Consciousness Of Social Work Students: Education For Sustainable Practice, Peter Jones

EDU-COM International Conference

Social work has a long tradition of being explicitly concerned with the ‗person-in-environment‘, recognising the need to take account of context when working to address disadvantage and maximise wellbeing. This concern with environment, and indeed with the concept of sustainability has, however, been focused primarily on the social rather than the ecological (Coates 2003; Besthorne & McMillen 2002). At a time when increasing attention is being paid to the importance of promoting education about, and for, sustainability in higher education (Sipos, Battisti & Grimm 2008; Wright 2002; Thomas 2004), the social work profession also needs to begin engaging in a …

The Development Of Community Business Networks Of Sanpapao, Nongyeang And Sunnameng Sub-Districts In Amphoe Sansai, Chiang Mai To Strengthen Sustainability, Preeda Srinaruewan, Jumnien Boonmark, Donragorn Kwankam, Sunnee Thechathakerng

EDU-COM International Conference

The study aimed to probe the characteristics of community, and community businesses and their development through a co-learning process between researchers, communities, and their alliances. The Participatory Action Research (PAR) was used as a tool to analyse response from 80 members of 10 community business groups in Amphoe Sansai, Chiangmai. Participants included professors, students, communities and alliance organizations to participate in identifying issues and their underlying cause in addition to developing and implementing an action plan based on the experience of the participants. The results indicated there was a disconnect between the local wisdom and technology which led to the …

Implementation Of Generic Skills In The Curriculum, Sulaiman Yassin, Fauziah Abu Hasan, Wan Amin, Nur Amiruddin

EDU-COM International Conference

In many cultures and countries including Malaysia, the issue of incorporating generic skills into the curriculum taught to students in higher learning institutions has gained momentum in recent years. The raison d'être to inculcate generic skills among students is to enable the country to meet human resource requirements which will be more competitive in the advent of a borderless world. Growing concerns of the employability of graduates and the expansion in the size and diversity of student populations also form the basis to implement the generic skills program in universities. All undergraduate programs offered in public higher learning institutions in …

An Investigation Into A Community Information Database System In The Northeast Of Thailand: Community Empowerment Through Community Learning Centres, Chumnong Wongchachom

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Following the economic downturn in the late 1990s the Government of Thailand restructured the economy resulting in rapid economic recovery. The society now needs developments to project it into the Information Age. This study is but one creative response to this need. To initiate the study, an extensively validated Questionnaire was implemented with a snowball sample comprising 500 representative, non-randomised respondents from the four provinces of the Inpeng Community Network (ICN). The purpose of the Questionnaire was to ascertain levels of information needs and local knowledge, and to identify ten local experts from ICN for subsequent In-depth Interviews. Data obtained …

Dryland Salinity In Western Australia: A Local Government Perspective, Paul Scalzi

Theses : Honours

This study evaluated local government's response to the problem of dryland salinity in the Western Australian Wheatbelt, and to what extent local government has the capacity to meet its statutory obligations. Salinity is a significant environmental problem that has the potential to have a marked effect on Western Australia's economy, environment and social fabric. The problem has been the focus of much Commonwealth and State attention, but the same level of involvement is not apparent in the institution of local government. This is also reflected in the paucity of published literature in the area of local government and salinity. Local …

The Construction Of A Business English Curriculum, Relevant To The Workplace, And Making Use Of Word Processing In Place Of Handwriting, Ladawan Wattanaboot

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Since the Thailand economic crisis in 1997 there has been a sense of urgency expressed in many areas of the society that businesses must modernize their practices and focus more on international trade and communication. Two important components of the changes required are better use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and better use of the English language for business communication. In the education arena this has translated into the need to provide graduates with better skills in the use of English and computers. These two skill areas come together naturally in the study of Business English. In Thailand Rajabhat …

On Being-In-Community : A Phenomenological Explication Of The Experience Of Being-In-Community : In The Context Of The Community Building Workshop Tm And Business, Carl Holroyd

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

A call for business to introduce a humanistic workplace ethos within a supportive work community resounds throughout the western world. Scott Peck's model of community building workshops is explored as a tool for creating a business ethos centred-on human flourishing which embraces the principles of socially responsible community. The CBW provides a concrete experience of a psychological and physiological sense of deep-community. In -Peck's vernacular, this is termed as being in-community. In my research the experience of being-in-community is explicated via phenomenological analysis, which allows some of the eidetic structures of the phenomenon to come to light. The experience is …

Building The Veco Online Community : A Model For Encouraging Novices., Michelle Williams, Janine Bowes.

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Building online networks and designing network activity is becoming central to how educators and other education-based professionals work, train others and teach students. It is only since 1995 that Internet connectivity in Australia has provided the critical mass and momentum which alters how people work, who they work with and how they learn. Thus the business of helping professional networks develop and become part of the lives of their members is uncharted territory and an area for research and development for educators in all fields. This paper shares the story of the development of an Australian Network for Vocational Education …

The Factors That Influence Psychological Sense Of Community For Students Living On Campus At Edith Cowan University, Colleen Dalton

Theses : Honours

A psychological sense of community (PSOC) has been found to facilitate adjustment and well-being. However, little research has been conducted in Australian universities. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena, a qualitative approach was adopted. This research explored PSOC from the participants' perspective using McMillan and Chavis's (1986) theoretical framework as a guide and investigated the following research questions. (1) What is the residential students' perception of PSOC, at Edith Cowan University (ECU)? (2) What factors, within the student village, facilitate and inhibit PSOC? (3) What factors within the university setting and beyond, in the wider community, …