Education Commons^™

Repositioning Research As Writing To Improve Student Learning, Sara Booth

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In recent years teacher education has used the process and practices of research to improve pre-service teachers’ pedagogical practices. Pre-service teachers, however, generally prefer to understand the practices of teaching rather than research. This paper considers the writing process rather than the research process as central to the construction of pre-service teachers’ subjectivities. It explores the responses of twenty-six Tasmanian Secondary English postgraduate pre-service teachers in 2004 and 2005, drawing on data from research writing projects, surveys and interviews. These responses indicated that when writing is positioned central to the research process it can change pre-service teachers’ construction of research …

Many Treasure Soup: A School-Based Project For Pre-Service Teacher Educators, Sally Godinho, Julie White, Trevor Hay, Pamela St Leger

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper narrates the development of a project developed by four researchers with differing approaches to qualitative research. The aim of the study was to examine the value of a school-based approach to pedagogy and curriculum subjects for pre-service teachers. What emerged from our collaboration was the accommodation of significant differences about what constituted ‘evidence.’ The article begins with an account of the project itself, followed by a number of research narratives. The researchers draw upon diverse traditions in qualitative research fields that include program evaluation, empirical research and narrative inquiry. Our study embraced Lather’s (2006) notion of paradigm proliferation …

Turkish Pre-Service Teachers' Beliefs About The Importance Of Teaching Chemistry, Esen Uzuntiryaki, Yezdan Boz

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The purpose of this study was to describe Turkish pre-service chemistry teachers’ beliefs about the importance of teaching chemistry in high schools. For this purpose, 45 pre-service chemistry teachers were administered a questionnaire involving open-ended questions which asked what the importance of teaching chemistry is, and why we teach chemistry in high schools. Based on the written responses, 12 pre-service teachers were chosen to be interviewed to obtain more elaborated information about their beliefs. Data analysis revealed that most of the pre-service teachers expressed that chemistry should be taught in order to explain daily life events. However, a very small …

Voices Echoing The Past: 'I Decided To Do Teaching Because Of The Teacher That I Had.' Thirteen Female Secondary Entry-Level Teachers Candidates Teaching Not Only What But Also How They Were Taught, Steven S. Sexton

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports on a study that sought to uncover and explore the beliefs female secondary pre-service teachers held about teaching and being the teacher as they entered into their teacher education programs. The results indicated that for the participating teacher candidates it was their prior teachers in their intended subject who most informed how they saw themselves in the role as the teacher. Specifically, those secondary teachers who sought critical thinking in them as students impacted upon this teacher-role identity the most. Implications highlight the lack of research on females in secondary education and the importance in-service teachers play …

Unpacking The Millennials: A Cautionary Tale For Teacher Education, Sharn Donnison

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper is about the millennial generation. Much has been written about the generation: their character; beliefs; motivations; values; and future potentialities. This literature has gained momentum as marketers, employers, and educators seek to understand the generation as they come of age and enter into positions of social responsibility. The purpose of this paper is to examine the claims made about the Millennials, determine who are making these claims and why, and discuss the utility of such claims for teacher educators. This paper argues that teacher educators should be cautious about accepting and adopting popular discourses about the generation as …

A Cross-Cultural Teacher Training Program For Singaporean Muslim Students, Margaret Bowering

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Drawing upon evaluations of a teacher-training program for Muslim participants presented by Edith Cowan University staff in Singapore, this case study provides readers with insights into program design and management. It reports on lecturer and student attitudes as revealed in evaluations of the Singapore short course. In drawing the conclusion that attention must be given to cultural matters such as religious values and obligations and issues of language and assessment, the article asks the reader to rethink the universality of prevailing notions about internationalisation, particularly those relating to the necessary redesign of the curriculum. It ends with the suggestion that …

Prospective Teachers Of Secondary School Learners: Learning To Teach - Teaching To Learn, Felicity-Ann Lewis

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Prospective teachers in their third year of a Bachelor of Education degree in secondary teacher education use a journal to respond to a range of questions about their experiences as learners prior to, during and after their first practicum. These stories are used as a source of data to analyze how 14 prospective secondary teachers understand the interaction between university–based and school-based studies; the points of conjunction and disjunction that they experience. The paper shows that during the first teaching practicum their ideas about learners and pedagogy are challenged and argues that more can be done in both the university …

Professional Knowledge In Initial Teacher Education (Ite): A Preliminary Review Of Hispanic Literature, Raymond Mccluskey

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The global dominance of English as the principal language of international interchange in the teacher education field has, perhaps, diverted English-speaking scholars from the task of reviewing discourses in non-English languages. Taking as its focus the issue of professional knowledge in ITE, the present article considers scholarship predominantly of Spanish origin – to a lesser extent Portuguese and Latin American also – in an effort to begin to form an understanding of both historical antecedents and more recent approaches to professional knowledge in a Hispanic context. While the remit of the present article is one of introducing the work and …

Reflecting On Teaching Practices Using Digital Video Representation In Teacher Education, C Paul Newhouse, Jenny Lane, Claire Brown

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports on the perceptions of teacher education student of the value of using digital tools to analyse video-based information on the practice of teachers in classrooms. This strategy was employed to address a dilemma in providing sufficient exposure to real examples of good classroom teaching to link theory with practice. The use of video of teachers in action could augment their practicum experience in schools but this required efficient and effective access to appropriate video material. For this purpose, the use of digital tools in a system called LessonLab was successfully implemented in an introductory unit focussed on …

Stopping The Leak: Retaining Beginning Teachers, Rita C. Richardson, Linda L. Glessner, Homer Tolson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The need for teacher retention has prompted numerous American states to provide programs for training mentors. The goal of mentor training is to offer a support mechanism that will retain novice teachers and assist them in developing their teaching skills. Such a program is the Texas Beginning Educator Support System (TxBESS) which has supported over 10,000 beginning teachers since its implementation in 1999 (State Board for Educator certification, 2004). A group of TxBESS supported interns was surveyed and the data suggest that both retention rates and teacher satisfaction were. high. The interns reported satisfaction particularly with regard to the effectiveness …

Problem-Based Learning In Early Childhood And Primary Pre-Service Teacher Education: Identifying The Issues And Examining The Benefits, Susan Edwards, Marie Hammer

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Problem Based Learning (PBL) has been used with increased frequency in Higher Education settings since first introduced by Barrows and Tamblyn during the 1980’s. Since this time PBL has been used in medical, engineering and education faculties to support pre-service students in the acquisition of skills and content knowledge relevant to their disciplines. This paper explores the perceptions early childhood and primary pre-service teachers held regarding their participation in a unit of study structured around the use of a PBL scenario. The paper examines the frustrations pre-service teachers experienced within the PBL scenario as well as the perceived benefits regarding …

Secondary Beginning Teacher's Preparedness To Teach Literacy And Numeracy: A Survey, Marion Milton, Mary Rohl, Helen House

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports the findings of an Australia-wide survey conducted as part of a national teacher education research project that explored the preparation of teachers to teach literacy and numeracy in Australian schools (Louden, Rohl, Gore, Greaves, McIntosh, Wright, Siemon & House, 2005) 1. The project included various phases of inquiry, beginning with a desk audit of teacher education program characteristics and an international literature review (Gore & Griffiths, 2002), that drew on literature published in English in the last few decades. The issues identified in the literature review guided the construction of a set of national focus groups that …

Teachers Professional Knowledge And The Teaching Of Reading In The Early Years, Sarah Ohi

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

What are the sources of teachers’ professional knowledge for the teaching of reading? This paper reports findings from a study that investigated the role of teachers in the current Research-Policy-Praxis Nexus (RPPN). This was achieved by a specific focus upon constructions of reading in the early years in Victoria, Australia. All of the teacher participants either implemented or coordinated the Victorian Early Years Literacy Program (EYLP) in the primary school setting. These teachers were interviewed in order to hear their views on reading development and reading pedagogy and to identify the sources of this professional knowledge. The findings from this …

Initial Preparation Of Secondary Teachers: Implications For Australia, Penny Collett

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Observation of secondary art teacher education in the United Kingdom and Australia has revealed a range of differences, including a greater role for schools in initial teacher education (ITE) in UK. The literature reporting on research into preparation of teachers in UK indicates a general satisfaction among students regarding their experiences in schools. However some issues of concern arise which need to be considered if there is a move towards greater involvement of schools in ITE in Australia.

Establishing Professional Identity: Narrative As Curriculum For Pre-Service Teacher Education, Neil Hooley

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

It is unclear to what extent Australian teachers over recent years have resisted the impact of globalisation, marketisation and commodification on education generally and their daily work in classrooms specifically. Do teachers still see education as a public good, of personal and democratic importance in its own right regardless of the socio-economic background of students, or is education a critical component of material gain and individual, competitive advancement? Have teachers confronted these issues in reference to their own professional identities, in developing a strong relationship with their own knowledges as the essence of their educative role with young people? This …

The Learning Community Development Model: A Lens For Exploring Community Development In Online Learning, Christopher Brook, Ron Oliver

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper presents an exploration of the community experience in online settings where the development of a learning community was a key instructional aim. The inquiry used the Learning Community Development Model (Brook & Oliver, 2003) to guide the exploration of the community experience in online settings The paper reports the findings of a multi-case study that sought to investigate instructor actions that support community development in online settings.

Critiquing The School Community: A Qualitative Study Of Children's Conceptualization Of Their School, Julie Ann Pooley, Lauren Breen, Lisbeth T. Pike, Lynne Cohen, Neil M. Drew

Research outputs pre 2011

Schools are traditionally seen as responsible for the educational outcomes of our children. However, schools also play an important role in the development of aspects such as selfefficacy, participation, competence and self-determination. As schools are often run as societies rather than communities, they offer little opportunity for these attributes (selfefficacy, participation, competence and self-determination) to develop. Forty-six children aged from nine to 12 years were interviewed to ascertain their conceptualizations of the school community. The children define their school in terms of people, places for activities and interaction, a place for safety, cooperation, influence and functionality. The responses closely align …

Reusing And Sharing Learning Designs In Higher Education, Ron Oliver

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper discusses the emerging need and opportunities for the development of representations and forms for learning designs, the activities a teacher plans to engage learners in learning settings. The paper argues that effective teaching practice, especially that involving ICT, should be able to be described and represented in ways that facilitate sharing and reuse. The paper discusses the ways in which descriptions of learning activities and practices can be described and stored so that they might be accessed and used by others. It describes a Carrick Institute project which seeks to develop strategies and resources that will provide answers …

Explorations In Metacognition: The Design, Development, And Implementation Of An Online Teamwork Tracking Environment, Mark Mcmahon, Joseph Luca

Research outputs pre 2011

Research shows that both metacognitive and cognitive strategies are needed for successful learning. In this study, an online tool was developed with a view to help students working in teams reflect on their learning strategies through a process of planning, monitoring and evaluation. An evaluation of the tool was administered at the end of the semester that showed the students valued the tool for tracking their teamwork, but weren’t so convinced it help them plan, monitor and evaluate their learning. These results are discussed, and recommendations are made for improvement using a design-based research approach.

Reducing The Effects Of Bullying Among Aboriginal Children Living In Rural Western Australia: Annual Report, Child Health Promotion Research Unit, Edith Cowan University

Research outputs pre 2011

It is unknown how Aboriginal children and adults conceptualize childhood bullying and what school/community intervention programs are appropriate. The Solid Kids, Solid Schools project will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to develop culturally informed and determined understandings of bullying among Aboriginal children. These understandings can then be used to formatively develop a sustainable school and community-based bullying prevention and reduction program with strategies identified by Aboriginal people for use in schools in the Yamaji region or Midwest, Murchison Education District of Western Australia.

According to the funding proposal a Steering Committee was established to provide project …

Comparing The Performance And Satisfaction Of Face-To-Face And Virtual Teams In A Learning Enviroment, Ying-Chieh A. Liu

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The main purpose of this study is to find whether virtual teams perform as effectively as face-to-face teams and if not, whether solutions can be derived to improve the levels of performance. To this end, the study compares the performance and satisfaction perception levels of virtual teams with face-to-face teams in a learning environment. In order to develop a sound framework for the research, a detailed literature review of prior research encompassing team satisfaction and performance in face-to-face and CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) supported environments was undertaken. Additionally the researcher performed a meta-analysis of previous research studies and from these …

The Introduction Of Recurrent Funding To Non-Government Schools In Western Australia : National Statesmanship Or Provincial Pragmatism?, Heather De Leuil

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

State aid to private schools has been a controversial issue in Australia since the beginning of European settlement. This was true in all colonies' and remains a national issue in the twenty-first century. At various times colonial governments chose to provide to private schools, principally those operated by the Catholic and major churches. However as the colonies grew and statehood loomed, the of the day sought to withdraw their aid from private schools and their funding on the growing non-denominational, public school systems.

Cultivating The Civic Scientist: Science Communication & Tertiary Biotechnology Education, Joanne Edmondston

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Biotechnology is one of the most rapidly growing industries of the 21st Century and governments worldwide have invested significant funds to support research and development in this area. The belief that the commercialisation of biotechnology will offer significant social and economic benefits to the communities investing in this industry, however, is not a universally accepted view. Surveys of attitudes towards biotechnology in a number of countries have indicated that there are widespread concerns about the risks presented by the industry and the application of biotechnology products (Smith, 2001). These public concerns have resulted in a stronger focus being placed on …

Perceptions And Needs Of Rural Young People In The South-West Of Western Australia : Implications For Pedagogy, Rhonda Oliver, Lynelle Watts, Joan Strikwerda-Brown, David Hodgson, Marilyn Palmer

Research outputs pre 2011

The original purpose of this study was to investigate youth needs, specifically in the south western region (the 'South West') of Western Australia, and then to explore how these needs might be addressed in terms of current curriculum and teaching practices. The following research questions guided our investigation:

- What are the educational and occupational aspirations of young people from the South West of Western Australia?

- What do young people identify as influences on their educational and occupational aspirations and attainment?

As the data collection progressed, it was evident to all those involved that, whilst there were expressed needs, …

A Self-Assessment Tool To Help Learners Develop Teamwork Skills, Mark Mcmahon, Joseph Luca, Christina John

Research outputs pre 2011

Teamwork skills and the ability to effectively collaborate with peers continue to be hailed as essential skills by employers and higher education funding authorities, and many employers require new graduates to demonstrate these skills as part of the selection criteria. How then can we prepare graduates for this employment market that actively assesses teamwork and other generic skills such as communication, problem solving and leadership skills? This paper outlines the self-assessment component of an on-line learning tool designed to help students develop understandings of themselves and their skill levels. These results are used to help select team roles and provide …

Primary Connections: Reforming Science Teaching In Australian Primary Schools, Mark Hackling, Shelley Peers, Vaughan Prain

Research outputs pre 2011

Concerns about the status and quality of science teaching in Australian primary schools led the Australian Academy of Science to develop Primary Connections over 2004-8 with funding from DEST and the support of states and territories. Primary Connections is a teacher professional learning program supported with curriculum resources that aims to enhance learning outcomes in science and the literacies of science by supporting both inservice and preservice primary teachers to teach science effectively. Primary Connections is a systematic, widespread and innovative reform that complements programs within states and territories. The program is based on an innovative teaching and learning approach …

Waiting In Line: African Refugee Students In Western Australian Schools, Yvonne Haig, Rhonda Oliver

Research outputs pre 2011

This study has been commissioned by the Westralian Association of Teachers English to Speakers of Other Languages (WATESOL) to determine the perceptions and expectations of those stakeholders involved in the education of African refugee children.

To do this study first a literature review was undertaken in order for the researchers to determine how much information was available and to improve their understanding of the subject matter. It appears that there is a growing body of research in Australia investigating the social, psychological and educational needs of African refugees, particularly those who have faced trauma (Earnest, IIousen, & Gillieatt, 2007; 2004). …

Using Technology Supported Inquiry Learning To Engage First Year Students In Large Classes, Ron Oliver

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper describes a study that explored the promotion of learner engagement among first year students through a technology facilitated inquiry learning approach. Students were given a series of authentic inquiry tasks supported by a raft of learning scaffolds. The technology-facilitated system supported timely feedback and support and administrative efficiencies for the tutors and teacher. This paper describes the web based system and reports aspects of an inquiry exploring the factors seen to influence students' levels of engagement and achievement. Recommendations are drawn from the study for further instantiations of the approach with appropriate revisions and changes.

Design-Based Research And Doctoral Students: Guidelines For Preparing A Dissertation Proposal, J Herrington, S Mckenney, T Reeves, Ron Oliver

Research outputs pre 2011

At first glance, design-based research may appear to be such a long-term and intensive approach to educational inquiry that doctoral students, most of whom expect to complete their Ph.D. degree in 4-5 years, should not attempt to adopt this approach for their doctoral dissertations. In this paper, we argue that design-based research is feasible for doctoral students, and that candidates should be encouraged to engage in it. More specifically, we describe the components of a dissertation proposal or prospectus that utilizes design-based research methods in the context of educational technology research.

Using Mobile Technologies And Podcasts To Enhance Learning Experiences In Lecture-Based University Course Delivery, Ron Oliver, Joseph Luca

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper describes a study that sought to explore the use of mobile technologies as a means to enhance the learning experience of students in a tertiary course of study. In particular the study involved the development of podcasting and vodcasting as an alternative to lecturing. Digital lectures were created to replicate the content usually presented in formal lectures. Students were able to access the lectures through such mobile devices as iPods and wireless enabled computers. The study sought to explore how students used these digital resources and the educational advantages that were achieved.