Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploration Of The Critical Success Factors Associated With Implementing A Public Health Plan In Local Governments Within Western Australia, Anne Polley

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Public Health planning in local governments in Western Australia (WA) is a relatively new approach to addressing local health needs. The Western Australian Public Health Act came into effect in 2016. The Public Health Act 2016 encompasses a range of legislative requirements, some of which include the development of Local Public Health Plans. A range of roles within the local government workforce therefore are likely to require support to plan and implement Public Health Plans, which in the past have not directly been a component of their role. There is limited understanding and evidence of the barriers and enablers that …

Factors Affecting The Survival And Implantation Of Human Blastocysts Following Vitrification, Hamish Barblett

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The increased cell numbers, presence of the blastocoel and rapid cell re-organisation have required the development of specific survival criteria post warm to effectively select the most viable blastocyst for transfer. Pre-freeze blastocyst expansion and post warm re-expansion have been shown to contribute significantly to the chances of an implantation and subsequent live birth. The aim of this study was to explore factors that influence the outcome of blastocyst transfers after vitrification and warming, and hopefully improve outcomes by further applying improvements in future cycles. Variables from 8 years of vitrified/warmed blastocysts were retrospectively compiled and analysed to determine the …

Emerging Strategies For Western Australian Secondary School Jazz Ensemble Directors: Improving Engagement With Drum Set Students, Gregory Roy Brenton

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Drum set education is a specialised field, but its importance is often underestimated in Western Australian (WA) secondary school jazz ensembles. Many secondary school jazz ensemble directors specialise in instruments other than drum set, and consequently may lack knowledge and skills in this area to the detriment of both the drum set student and the ensemble. This research project investigated the interaction between selected secondary school jazz ensemble directors in WA, and their drum set students during rehearsals. In particular, it set out to examine the impact of the jazz ensemble director on student engagement, inclusion, leadership, collaborative learning and …

Linking Patient Safety To Clinical Practice: The Insight Of New Graduate Registered Nurses, Melanie Murray

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

New graduate registered nurses’ (NGRNs) transition to practice with limited clinical experiences and skills. The related anxiety and stress predispose new graduate nurses to increased risk of contributing to preventable errors or adverse events. This risk, together with the new graduate’s fledgling ability to manage clinical deterioration, potentially compromises quality and safety of patient outcomes.

A longitudinal mixed methods design was used to develop an understanding of new graduate registered nurses’ patient safety knowledge and actions within the first year of nursing registration and offer important insights into NGRNs’ transition with a patient safety focus. New graduate registered nurses employed …

Investigating The Use Of The Interactive Notebook As A Pedagogical Tool In A Primary Music Specialist Classroom, Kristie Anne Gray

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study aimed to investigate how using the Interactive Notebook as a pedagogical tool in a primary music classroom impacted students’ music making and responding and developed their metacognitive skills. Authentic music education is strongly linked to positive social-emotional, physical and academic developmental outcomes. While the importance of a quality music education is highly recognised, generalist trained teachers are commonly placed in the role and may lack confidence. This study used an action research approach with a generalist trained teacher-as-researcher in a Western Australian Year Six music classroom. Observations from video technology and interviews were used to consider how the …

Video Cued Teacher Reflection To Guide Enhancement Of Student Engagement In A Specialist Primary Classroom, Tamara Nicole Standley

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Specialist primary teachers confront the challenging task of teaching extensive learning content of the Western Australian Curriculum, within limited weekly timetabled lessons. This was the motivating factor behind this study aimed at investigating the use of self-tracking video technology as a tool for teacher reflection, to guide enhancement of student engagement and learning in the specialist classroom. Reflective practice is integral to monitoring and improving teaching pedagogy but without an effective reflection tool, it can potentially be a waste of time.

The capacity for a teacher to engage in reflection-on-action through real time video analysis enables a deeper understanding of …

The Impact Of Video As A Self-Reflective Tool For Improvement Of Teacher Feedback Practices, Julia Mueller

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Teacher reflection on instructional practices can improve performance and positively influence student achievement. This qualitative quasi-ethnographic study investigated the impact of self-tracking video technology as a reflective tool for improvement of teacher feedback in a specialist primary classroom. Video provided observational data which was analysed using a checklist and researcher and reviewer annotations. The study concluded that the teacher used non-specific feedback strategies more than specific-feedback to respond to behavioural, engagement and learning issues. Thus, context was identified as an important determinant of effectiveness in feedback. The video technology features enhanced the teacher’s reflection and strengthened the collaborative reflective processes.

Parents As Partners In Learning, Stephanie Louise Mcdonald

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Globally, teachers and school leaders are increasingly encouraging parents to become more directly involved in their children’s schooling and academic development. This study was designed to support the parents of students who experience difficulty with academic learning via a school-based Parent Mindset Program comprised of three parent engagement workshops delivered fortnightly over six weeks by a teacher. The Program was designed to support participants to practice growth mindset knowledge and skills at home with their child and receive feedback to support skill mastery. Cognitive tools were used to create the social process essential for learning by providing a point of …

Cultural Diversity And Children’S Literature: Kindergarten Educators’ Practices To Support Principles Of Cultural Diversity Through Book Sharing, Helen Joanne Adam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Since Australia became a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, the importance of recognising, valuing and respecting a child’s family, culture, language and values has been increasingly articulated in education policy. Diversity and inclusion are now central themes guiding the principles and quality measures of early childhood education and care as encompassed by the National Quality Framework, including both the National Quality Standard and the Early Years Learning Framework (Early Childhood Development Steering Committee, 2009). Children’s literature can be a powerful tool for extending children’s knowledge and understandings of themselves and others …

Mobility Management In 5g Heterogeneous Networks, Mohammad Arifin Rahman Khan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In recent years, mobile data traffic has increased exponentially as a result of widespread popularity and uptake of portable devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops. This growth has placed enormous stress on network service providers who are committed to offering the best quality of service to consumer groups. Consequently, telecommunication engineers are investigating innovative solutions to accommodate the additional load offered by growing numbers of mobile users.

The fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication standard is expected to provide numerous innovative solutions to meet the growing demand of consumer groups. Accordingly the ultimate goal is to achieve several key …

An Investigation Of Ict Policy Implementation In An Efl Teacher Education Program In Vietnam, Phan Thu Ngan Vo

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Due to the increasing pace of advances in technology and attempts to integrate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into education in Vietnam, teachers are now expected to make routine use of ICT in their teaching. The Vietnamese government has promulgated ambitious policies aimed at engaging in an increasingly globalised world and promoting the country’s economic development. These policies focus on education, and in particular, the development of ICT and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) competencies, seen as key requirements for greater international participation. The competencies of teachers are a major factor in the successful implementation of these educational changes. …

Factors Enabling A Successful Transition To Boarding School For Australian Aboriginal Students, Peter Barrett

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Boarding school has been and continues to be an important stage in the educational experiences of many Aboriginal people living in remote communities in Northern Territory, Australia. The experience of moving away from family, land and community presents many challenges for students moving to boarding school and managing the dramatic transition between two vastly different cultures. This study focused on identifying the factors that help students successfully transition from a remote community to boarding school.

The study used an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach to investigate and analyse the experiences of Aboriginal students at a regional boarding school in the …

Pre-Primary Teachers’ Enacted Understandings Of Explicit Instruction Of Phonics And Phonological Awareness As Evidenced In Practice, Helen Faith Jensen

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Whether or not teachers use the research-based practices of Explicit Instruction (EI) in lessons matters, since the salient features of EI design and delivery, backed by empirical research (Hattie, 2009), enable the transfer of new and difficult information from short- to long-term memory (Kirschner et al., 2006). How teachers interpret EI is important, because effective early instruction in “systematic, direct and explicit” phonics and phonological awareness (PA) can reduce the incidence of reading difficulties (Moats, 2010).

The aim of this thesis was to investigate, describe and analyse teachers’ enacted understanding of Explicit Instruction in phonics and phonological awareness, and identify …

The Use Of Ict By Science Teachers In Middle Secondary Science Education In The Himalayan Kingdom Of Bhutan, Sampa Tshewang

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research investigated Bhutanese middle secondary science teachers’ ICT knowledge, skills, perceptions and attitudes, patterns of ICT use, and associated factors linked to effective ICT implementation in their classrooms. The study was based on the hypothesis that the use of ICT in secondary science education in Bhutan was affected by the teachers’ attitudes and perceptions towards the use of ICT; their knowledge and skills related to ICT; their TPACK and the barriers associated with effective implementation of ICT.

The research was primarily an exploratory study accommodating a post-positivist approach employing mixed design of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. A questionnaire …

Treatment Fidelity In The Very Early Rehabilitation In Speech (Verse) Randomised Controlled Trial: An Exploration Of Treatment For Aphasia, Emily Louise Brogan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Background

Aphasia is a neurological condition that affects the expression and/or comprehension of language and can have considerable impact on a person’s quality of life. Treatment for aphasia from speech language pathologists is effective. However, more information is needed on the nature of effective intervention including consideration for what therapy is provided, when it is commenced and how it is delivered. Treatment fidelity is concerned with ensuring research treatment protocols are implemented as they were intended, which assists in uncovering the specifics of how and why treatments work. When treatment fidelity is investigated thoroughly, researchers and research consumers can be …

The Placenta And Cardiovascular Disease: A Meta-Analysis, Ruben Phillips

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The uterine environment in which a fetus grows and develops is now recognised as a risk factor for the development of adult diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). A fetus relies on the nutrients and conditions delivered via the placenta, and as such the placenta plays a vital role in the establishment and maintenance of appropriate uterine conditions. Unfavourable uterine conditions such as an inadequate resource flow from the placenta can lead to diminished growth of the fetus and may ultimately result in both short and long-term increases in risk of CVD for the baby. This has been demonstrated in …

The Application Of Maximal Mean And Critical Speed And Metabolic Powers For The Quantification Of External Load In Soccer, Cameron Nicholas Lord

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In Association football, often referred to as “soccer”, competitive match play is typically known to represent the greatest physical demand that players experience. The demands associated with match running performance may impact training outcomes and injury risk. As a result, practitioners evaluate these demands to ensure that performance is optimised. To assist in this process, global positioning systems (GPS) are typically used to quantify displacement variables and, more recently, the interaction between running speed and acceleration. However, traditional player monitoring methods tend to apply identical and somewhat arbitrary displacement, velocity and acceleration bands to describe movement “intensity”, and thus to …

Performance Practice In Hungarian Folk Music And Its Relationship To The Style Hongrois, Teresa Vinci

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study investigates style and performance practice within the oral traditions of Hungarian folk music, and explores intersections with the nineteenth-century idiom style hongrois. Interviews, lessons, and workshops were undertaken as part of a practice-based immersive research experience, and comparisons with the style hongrois made via analysis of scores and recordings of Jeno Hubay (1858-1937). The research strives towards an ‘Historically Informed Performance’ specific to these styles, and explores how they can inform each other. Findings are presented through a dissertation and a CD recording “Never Far Away…” comprising the researcher’s violin performance as leader of an Hungarian folk …

Teacher Educators’ And Pre-Service Teachers’ Preparedness To Use Ict: A Western Australian Perspective, Huifen Jin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

With the ongoing development of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), a wide variety of devices, software and apps are available that could be used in education. As a result, universities and schools are adopting different policies and strategies for integrating these new technologies. As teachers are a key element in the implementation of educational innovation, teacher educators and pre-service teachers need to be confident in using ICT effectively in teaching and learning.

This study proposed to investigate how teacher educators’ and pre-service teachers’ integration of ICT in their teaching and learning. A mixed methods design, that included both quantitative …

Social Impacts Of Climate Change And Occupational Heat Stress And Adaptation Strategies Of Mining Workers In Ghana, Victor Fannam Nunfam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Excessive heat exposure due to rising temperatures associated with climate change adversely affects workers’ health, safety, productivity, and psychosocial well-being in occupational settings. In the hot and tropical regions of developing countries, long hours of physically demanding work, coupled with inadequate adaptation policies to climate change, increases the occurrence of heat-related illnesses and injuries, and contributes to the loss of productive capacity, poor decision making, and other negative effects on the social well-being of workers.

Based on the theories of social impact assessment, risk assessment, adaptation and resilience planning, this study assesses the social impacts of climate change and occupational …

Learning In A Digitally Connected Classroom: Secondary Science Teachers’ Pedagogical Reasoning And Practices, Julie Boston

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Despite decades of research surrounding Information Communication Technology (ICT) use in schools, the pedagogical reasoning required to provide meaningful ICT enabled learning opportunities is rarely analysed in the literature. The purpose of this research was therefore to investigate teachers’ pedagogically reasoned practice. This study involved three exemplary Australian secondary science teachers, renowned for their expertise in utilising ICT working in classrooms where students had school issued one-to-one computers and reliable network access. The research utilised qualitative methods, including semistructured interviews, video-based observational data, and an array of lesson artefacts. The study followed a naturalistic multiple-case study design to explore the …

Being A Bad Vegan, Lelia Green

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

According to The Betoota Advocate (Parker), a CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) paper has recently established that “it takes roughly seven minutes on average for a vegan to tell you that they’re vegan” (qtd. in Harrington et al. 135). For such a statement to have currency as a joke means that it is grounded in a shared experience of being vegan on the one hand, and of encountering vegans on the other. Why should vegans feel such a need to justify themselves? I recognise the observation as being true of me, and this article is one way to …

Addressing The Environmental, Community And Health Impacts Of Resource Development: Challenges Across Scales, Sectors And Sites, Margot W. Parkes, Sandra Allison, Henry G. Harder, Dawn Hoogeveen, Diana Kutzner, Melissa Aalhus, Evan Adams, Lindsay Beck, Ben Brisbois, Chris G. Buse, Annika Chiasson, Donald C. Cole, Shayna Dolan, Anne Fauré, Raina Fumerton, Maya K. Gislason, Louisa Hadley, Lars K. Hallström, Pierre Horwitz, Raissa Marks, Kaileah Mckellar, Helen Moewaka Barnes, Barbara Oke, Linda Pillsworth, Jamie Reschny, Dionne Sanderson, Sarah Skinner, Krista Stelkia, Craig Stephen

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Work that addresses the cumulative impacts of resource extraction on environment, community, and health is necessarily large in scope. This paper presents experiences from initiating research at this intersection and explores implications for the ambitious, integrative agenda of planetary health. The purpose is to outline origins, design features, and preliminary insights from our intersectoral and international project, based in Canada and titled the “Environment, Community, Health Observatory” (ECHO) Network. With a clear emphasis on rural, remote, and Indigenous communities, environments, and health, the ECHO Network is designed to answer the question: How can an Environment, Community, Health Observatory Network support …

Intergenerational Influences Of Hunger And Community Violence On The Aboriginal People Of Western Australia: A Review, Francesca Robertson, David Coall, Dan Mcaullay, Alison Nannup

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

There is a consensus in the literature that hunger and community violence inaugurates adverse health impacts for survivors and for their descendants. The studied cohorts do not include Western Australian Aboriginal people, although many experienced violence and famine conditions as late as the 1970s. This article describes the pathways and intergenerational impacts of studied cohorts and applies these to the contemporary Western Australian context. The authors found that the intergenerational impacts, compounded by linguistic trauma, may be a contributor to current health issues experienced by Aboriginal people, but these are also contributing to the resurgence in population numbers.

Clostridium Difficile Ribotype 017–Characterization, Evolution And Epidemiology Of The Dominant Strain In Asia, Korakrit Imwattana, Daniel R. Knight, Brian Kullin, Deirdre A. Collins, Papanin Putsathit, Pattarachai Kiratisin, Thomas V. Riley

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Clostridium difficile ribotype (RT) 017 is an important toxigenic C. difficile RT which, due to a deletion in the repetitive region of the tcdA gene, only produces functional toxin B. Strains belonging to this RT were initially dismissed as nonpathogenic and circulated largely undetected for almost two decades until they rose to prominence following a series of outbreaks in the early 2000s. Despite lacking a functional toxin A, C. difficile RT 017 strains have been shown subsequently to be capable of causing disease as severe as that caused by strains producing both toxins A and B. While C. difficile RT …

Establishment Of Coral-Bacteria Symbioses Reveal Changes In The Core Bacterial Community With Host Ontogeny, Rachele Bernasconi, Michael Stat, Annette Koenders, Andrea Paparini, Michael Bunce, Megan J. Huggett

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Bacterial communities are fundamental symbionts of corals. However, the process by which bacterial communities are acquired across the life history of corals, particularly in larval and early juvenile stages, is still poorly characterized. Here, transfer of bacteria of the Scleractinian coral Acropora digitifera from adults to spawned egg-sperm bundles was analyzed, as well as acquisition across early developmental stages (larvae and newly settled spat), and 6-month-old juveniles. Larvae were reared under manipulated environmental conditions to determine the source (maternal, seawater, or sediment) of bacteria likely to establish symbiotic relationships with the host using amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. …

Using Local Rural Knowledge To Enhance Stem Learning For Gifted And Talented Students In Australia, Julia Morris, Eileen Slater, Michael T. Fitzgerald, Geoffrey W. Lummis, Eddie Van Etten

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In order to supply a future Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce, Australia needs to engage its most capable and gifted secondary students in quality STEM learning, either within school or through extra-curricular opportunities, so that they will continue into STEM-based tertiary degrees. High-achieving students in rural communities may face additional barriers to STEM learning that can limit their ability to pursue advanced STEM studies and occupations. This small-scale research project sought to explore a group of gifted lower secondary students’ engagement and experiences in a STEM programme designed around a local rural knowledge model as reported by Avery …

The Prospect Of 'Chindia' As A World Power, Jonathan D. James

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

A significant global development in the first decade of the 21st Century has been the rise of several nationshitherto not considered key players in the international scene. The following up and coming nations have recentlybeen grouped respectively as BRIC and BASIC: Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC); and Brazil, South Africa,India, and China (BASIC) (Wilson & Purushothaman, 2003). Noticeably, the two nations featured in both thesegroupings are China and India. China’s and India’s meteoric rise to the global arena, and the sheer magnitude oftheir populations, has led some scholars to assert that there is an ‘irresistible’ shift of global power …

From Rivers To Confetti: Reconfigurations Of Time Through New Media Narratives, Laura Glitsos

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In the contemporary West, experiences of time are shaped by—and inextricably linked to—the nature of media production and consumption. In Derrida and Steigler’s estimation, teletechnologies bring time “into play” and thus produce time as an “artifact”, that is, a knowable product (3). How and why time becomes “artifactually” produced, according to these thinkers, is a result of the various properties of media production; media ensure that “gestures” (which can be understood here as the cultural moments marked as significant in some way, especially public ones) are registered. Being so, time is constrained, “formatted, initialised” by the matrix of the media …

Ever-Widening Circles: Consolidating And Enhancing Wirlomin Noongar Archival Material In The Community, Clint Bracknell, Kim Scott

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Returning archival documentation of endangered Indigenous languages to their community of origin can provide empowering opportunities for Indigenous people to control, consolidate, enhance and share their cultural heritage with ever-widening, concentric circles of people, while also allowing time and space for communities to recover from disempowerment and dislocation. This process aligns with an affirming narrative of Indigenous persistence that, despite the context of colonial dispossession, can lead to a positive, self-determined future. In 2007, senior Noongar of the Wirlomin clan in the south coast region of Western Australia initiated Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Inc., an organisation set up to …