Education Commons^™

Remembered Landmarks Enhance The Precision Of Path Integration, John W. Philbeck, Shannon O'Leary

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

When navigating by path integration, knowledge of one’s position becomes increasingly uncertain as one walks from a known location. This uncertainty decreases if one perceives a known landmark location nearby. We hypothesized that remembering landmarks might serve a similar purpose for path integration as directly perceiving them. If this is true, walking near a remembered landmark location should enhance response consistency in path integration tasks. To test this, we asked participants to view a target and then attempt to walk to it without vision. Some participants saw the target plus a landmark during the preview. Compared with no-landmark trials, response …

Supporting Self-Management Of Diabetes In Aboriginal People Living With Diabetes Through A 5-Day Residential Camp, Caroline Harris, Owen Curtis

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The aim of a 5-Day Diabetes Self-management Residential Camp was to develop, trial and evaluate a culturally appropriate model of disease self-management in a group of Aboriginal people with established diabetes and their partners, focusing on education, diet, exercise, attitudes and beliefs. The camp was effective in providing education, addressing barriers to good control of clinical signs and symptoms, fostering self-management skills, changing lifestyle behaviors and improving diabetes outcomes.

Using Online Assessment To Inform Teaching And Learning In Primary And Secondary Classrooms, Jim S. Tognolini

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In the 1980's there was a conscious effort around Australia and in many other countries around the world to shift the focus in assessment from notions of passing and failing to those of monitoring growth; from comparing students against each other to building up an image of what it is that students know and can do at particular stages in their development; and, from collecting marks to summarise performance to providing students and teachers with information from assessment activities that can be used to help diagnose potential weaknesses and strengths and lead to improved learning. The Australian Council for Educational …

Novel In Vitro Exposure Techniques For Toxicity Testing And Biomonitoring Of Airborne Contaminants, Shahnaz Bakand, Chris Winder, Christian Khalil, Amanda Hayes

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Poster presented at the 5th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences, 21-25 August 2005, Berlin, Germany

Interactions Between Genetic And Environmental Factors Determine Direction Of Population Lateralization, Chao Deng

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Direction of the embyro's head rotation is determined by asymmetrical expression of several genes (such as shh, nodal, lefty, and fgf8) in hensen's node. this genetically determined head-turning bias provides a base for light-aligned population lateralization in chicks, in which the direction of the lateralization is determined by genetic factors and the degree of the lateralization is determined by environmental factors.

Online Learning As Information Delivery: Digital Myopia, J. Herrington, T. C. Reeves, R. Oliver

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

In business and commerce, the concept of marketing myopia has been a useful tool to predict, analyze and explain the rise and fall of businesses. In this paper, we question whether the concept can also be used to predict the ultimate downfall of online learning in higher education, if universities continue to confuse their key mission—education—with the much more product-oriented aim of information delivery. The proliferation of information-based online courses is examined within the context of the limitations imposed by widely used course management systems, institutional impediments and other factors that encourage teachers to adopt information delivery in preference for …

Learning Designs To Support Educationally Effective E-Learning Using Learning Objects, Barry M. Harper, Susan J. Bennett, Jason Lukasiak, Lori Lockyer

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

This paper describes a design approach for integrating learning objects based on a strong pedagogical framework, the Smart Learning Design Framework (SLDF). The framework is based on the assumptions that good learning settings focus on pedagogically sound design and that reusable learning objects can be effectively located and incorporated into learning settings. This paper describes a tool developed to illustrate the framework through metadata tagging of learning objects using an application profile which incorporates a pedagogical vocabulary, and development of units of study based on high quality learning designs and the inclusion of learning objects.

Below The Metaphor Of Intent: One Author-Illustrator's View Of The Monstrous, And What He Didn't See, Philip R. Fitzsimmons

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

This paper details the findings of a project that focused on illuminating how one of Australia’s leading graphic-novelists, Marcello Baez, created the ideal of the monster and the monstrous in his best selling text, Diablo. The initial ‘focussing interview’, concentrating on the inspiration and impetus behind the drafting process and what I perceived to be an obvious, but disconnected elements of the monstrous inserted in this text. This initial discussion revealed Baez deliberately inserted a series of symbolic elements in his frames of visual storytelling. In this particular instance he deliberately underpinned the text-illustration journey with his personal view …

Connections, Conjectures And Problem Solving In Primary Mathematics: The Role Of Magic Squares, Mohan Chinnappan

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Problem solving has been given focus in current reform statements and classroom practices of mathematics teaching and learning. Clearly, there is consensus on the value of engaging students in problem-based activities in which the learner will be driven to make more meaning from the apparent disparate concepts and procedures that are taught in the classroom. Research in the area of mathematical problem solving has identified numerous processes and knowledge components that support successful problem-solving attempts by young students. Among these, the need to model or represent a given problem appropriately has been the focus of debate in discussions about problem-solving …

Water Loss As A Function Of Energy Intake, Physical Activity And Season, Klaas R. Westerterp, Guy Plasqui, Annalies H. C Goris

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Although water is an important nutrient, there are no recommended intake values. Here, water intake, energy intake, physical activity and water loss was measured over 1 week in summer and in winter. Subjects were healthy volunteers, forty-two women and ten men, mean age of 29 (sd 7) years and mean BMI 21·8 (sd 2·2) kg/m². Water intake was measured with a 7 d food and water record. Physical activity level (PAL) was observed as the ratio of total energy expenditure, as measured with doubly labelled water, to resting energy expenditure as measured in a respiration chamber. Water loss …

Pre-School Experience And Literacy And Numeracy Development At The End Of Key Stage 1, Louise Quinn, Edward Melhuish, Karen Hanna, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Pam Sammons, Brenda Taggart, Aidan Doyle

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This longitudinal study assesses the attainment and development of children followed from the age of 3 until the end of Key Stage 1 (age 8). Over 700 children were recruited to the study during 1998 and 1999 from 80 pre-school centres in Northern Ireland. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to explore the effects of pre-school experience on children's cognitive attainment and social/behavioural development at entry to school and any continuing effects on such outcomes up to 8 years of age. In addition to the effects of pre-school experience, the study investigates the contribution to children's development of individual …

Social Work Education In Australia: At The "Crossroads", Peter J. Camilleri

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The term 'crossroads' is being used in two senses in this paper. The first refers to the Australian Government's recent Review of Higher Education (referred to as 'Crossroads Report') and the impact that the changes will have on the higher education sector and consequently social work education. And secondly, 'crossroads' is being used in the sense that social work education is being restructured by the changes occurring in universities. Social work programs are expected to be more 'entrepreneurial', more research oriented ('publish or perish'), and more efficient in teaching methodology (this has meant emphasis on technology, use of adjunct staff …

Factors Influencing The Employment Experience And Aspirations Of A Cohort Of Beginning Teachers: Two Years On, Ted Booth, Jennifer Runge

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Contemporary beginning teachers have a diverse mix of ages and prior experiences and many are seeking teaching work beyond their own state in a rapidly changing national and international market. The purpose of this longitudinal study is to investigate the employment experience and changing aspirations of a cohort of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) who entered the teaching workforce in 2003 in a ‘tight teaching labour market’. The case study commenced with a sample of 174 beginning teachers from a regional Australian university. The purpose of this paper is to report on their employment experiences two years on and changes in …

Hanging Out In The School Ground : A Reflective Look At Researching Children's Environmental Learning, Paul Tranter, Karen A. Malone

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

The authors take a reflective journey to explore the research methodology utilised in a multi-method, multi-site research study of children’s environmental learning in schoolgrounds in Australia. Informed by an extensive literature review and dialogue with researchers around the world, the study constructed a research design and procedure that could be utilized by practitioner researchers and academic researchers as the foundation for further research on children’s learning in schoolgrounds. This paper has the specific task of sharing our research story and lessons learnt as a conversation to those who intend to conduct future research with children on schoolground greening projects.

Science Thinking Books: Children Talking, Thinking And Drawing Their Way Into Science, Karen A. Malone

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

This article presents the story of how as a science teacher I came to use Science Thinking Books as a tool for supporting children to explore and share their experiences, thinking and understanding of the world.

Developing An Internet-Based Community For Special Education In Bulgaria, R. Peterson

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Research on special education practices in Bulgaria to develop an Internet-based community of practice is now underway. The study will answer a call to action to test the potential of online communities of practice (OCoPs) to close the gap between education research and practice. A secondary goal is to update findings about the feasibility of Internet-based instruction in Bulgaria. Qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to develop and evaluate a website and propose design principles for future OCoP development. Research has been guided by situated learning and legitimate peripheral participation theory as well as the design-based research approach. This …

The State Of The Art Of Design-Based Research, R. Peterson, J. Herrington

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Ann Brown (1992) and Allan Collins (1992) introduced the term design experiment in 1992 as an innovative approach to educational research. Today, commonly termed design-based research (DBR), the approach itself is still very much being designed. There is a general consensus that DBR standards need to be set by addressing such questions as: What kinds of knowledge should DBR be expected generate? What theoretical requirements should be imposed on DBR? and What types of research can be considered DBR? Given the drive for empirical educational research and escalating interest in DBR, it is hoped that continued expert commentary will lead …

Authentic Tasks In E-Learning Designs, Janice A. Herrington

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Constructivist approaches to learning design, while gaining increased acceptance in the higher education community, are the exception rather than the rule in the majority of web-based courses currently offered by universities throughout the world. The adoption of university quality standards and the widespread use of course management programs have inadvertently constrained more authentic and innovative approaches to online learning. Contemporary trends in e-learning designs are highlighting the value of authentic approaches to learning. This paper argues that authentic tasks that guide complex and sustained learning endeavours can be adopted in web-based courses, and provides guidelines for implementation, together with examples …

Re-Organising And Integrating The Knowledge Bases Of Initial Teacher Education : The Knowledge Building Community Program, Julie Kiggins, Brian Ferry, Brian L. Cambourne

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

In a Report submitted to the NSW government in 2000, Gregor Ramsay made a claim that should challenge pre-service teacher educators in all Western democracies:

“…it is possible to reorganise the knowledge bases of undergraduate teacher education subjects so that they are more integrated with school and classroom culture, and therefore more relevant, more meaningful, better appreciated by student teachers, with less duplication across subject areas” (Ramsay, 2000, p57)

While such rhetoric sounds appealing, it begs the question of how pre-service teacher educators might realise such rhetoric in practice, given the entrenched transmission of information + practicum model of program …

An Investigation Into Visual Design In The Development Of Educational Web-Based Projects, Lesley J. Knapp, Susan J. Bennett, Ian M. Brown

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

There is an increasing demand on teachers to use computer technology in their teaching practice, often without support or training to use the technology to its full potential. The study reported in this paper investigated teachers from an Australian government secondary school, involved in a qualitative study into methods of developing visually coherent educational projects for the World Wide Web. The teachers participated in a university funded project, to develop Web-based learning materials for high-school students. The teachers involved in the study developed a project from a multidisciplinary perspective, specifically for the World Wide Web. The perceptions and experiences of …

Efficiency, Technology And Productivity Change In Australian Universities, 1998-2003, A. C. Worthington, B. L. Lee

Faculty of Business - Accounting & Finance Working Papers

In this study, productivity growth in thirty-five Australian universities is investigated using nonparametric frontier techniques over the period 1998 to 2003. The inputs included in the analysis are full-time equivalent academic and non-academic staff, non-labour expenditure and undergraduate and postgraduate student load and the outputs are undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD completions, national competitive and industry grants and publications. Using Malmquist indices, productivity growth is decomposed into technical efficiency and technological change. The results indicate that annual productivity growth averaged 3.3 percent across all universities, with a range between -1.8 percent and 13.0 percent, and was largely attributable to technological progress. …

Scaffolding Clinical Problem Based Learning Within An Online Collaborative Environment, Lori Lockyer, John W. Patterson

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

With a specific focus on addressing the health care needs of regional, rural and remote communities, the new medical school at the University of Wollongong will open the doors to its first cohort of students in January 2007. Clinical placements will see students spend substantial periods of time in general practices located in these target communities – which may be as far as 1200km from campus. Problem based learning (PBL) is the underpinning educational strategy used to facilitate students’ integration of medical science knowledge and clinical competencies. Educational technology has made a significant impact on the quality of the resources …

Simulation Technology In Pre-Service Teacher Education: 'Pleasurable Learning' To Inspire 'Passionate Teaching', Lisa K. Kervin, Janice B. Turbill, Brian L. Cambourne, Brian Ferry

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Reviews of beginning teacher programs over the past eighty years within an Australian context continually identify a number of key skills that are not well developed by traditional pre-service teacher preparation programs. In more recent times the teaching of literacy has been targeted as needing specific attention, especially at the pre-service level. Advances in educational software have demonstrated that it is feasible to create a representation of a real situation through simulation. The authors believe that creating a virtual classroom environment for pre-service teachers to interact with is one way to support them with understanding the theory of literacy learning …

In Good Conscience, Valerie Harwood

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

‘I choose not to collaborate in my own oppression by restricting a basic human right…’ ‘To me this is a matter of conscience’. — Sister Jeannine Gramick (Rick & Maysles, 2004, p. 93). When sister Jeanine Gramick made the above remark she was commenting on the Vatican’s attempts to stop her work with lesbian and gay Catholics. Her struggle to resist this silencing has been made into the compelling film documentary In Good Conscience, which has been widely shown, including in North America and London, and has recently been show in Melbourne and Brisbane at the 2005 Queer Film …

The Conceptual Interface Between Secondary And University Mathematics: A Schema-Based Analysis, Mohan Chinnappan

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

In this paper I provide a theoretical analysis of difficulties experienced by students in having to transfer concepts they have learnt in high school to university mathematics. This analysis is based on the assumption that mathematical knowledge can be represented in the form of organised structures called schemas. The organisational quality of students’ mathematical schemas is a function of spread of network and strength of links between pieces of information. Well-developed schemas are argued here to facilitate assimilation of university mathematical concepts and the use of this new information in the solution of novel problems.

Evaluating Online Mathematics Resources: A Practical Approach For Teachers, B Handal, Parvin Handal, Anthony J. Herrington

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

This paper describes a teacher-friendly approach to evaluating online mathematics resources. The Alessi and Trollip (2001) evaluation form is recommended as an instrument for assessing the worthiness of online resources from an instructional design point of view. An exploration of nearly 250 mathematics education websites revealed the benefits and limitations associated with using such a checklist. These issues are discussed through screen snapshots of webpages available from the WWW. This exploration also revealed that online resources from professional organisations’ websites seem to be better designed, organised, easy to search and more comprehensive than those from individuals’ websites.

From Classroom Reality To Virtual Classroom: The Role Of Teacher-Created Scripts In The Development Of Classroom Simulation Technology, Lisa K. Kervin, Brian L. Cambourne, Janice B. Turbill, Brian Ferry, John Hedberg, David H. Jonassen, Sarah Puglisi

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

This paper describes a specific kind of teacher narrative (the teacher created script) to support the design of a classroom simulation to be used in pre-service teacher education. We intend to share our experiences in exploring and developing the kind of narrative text which can be developed from a large reservoir of ethnographically generated data collected from the teachers and classrooms we have closely observed and documented over the last two decades. In particular, we explore the role which these narratives play within the development of the kind of classroom simulation we have produced.

Reflection has long been acknowledged as …

Children's Sense Of Place As Literacy Learners In Their Classroom, Pauline J. Harris

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

This paper focuses on children's sense of place that they find in their classroom literacy situations This paper presents findings of child interviews and samples of classroom observations from the author's classroom-based research, to explore the pleasures and passions that children bring to or find in their classroom literacy situations and the provocations they encounter there. Children's pleasures, passions and provocations provide a backdrop for exploring and understanding their patterns of participation. This paper examines how particular kinds of classroom situations may help or hinder children's participation and the sense of place that they find as literacy learners at school.

Building Online Communities Of Practice For Teachers, Anthony J. Herrington, Janice A. Herrington, Ian W. Olney

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Numerous online communities of practice have emerged, in both formal and informal settings, to meet the professional needs of diverse groups throughout the world. While some of these communities fail, many become self-sustaining in their ability to meet the needs of their members. Using current research and theory relating to the creation of online communities, this paper describes the development o f a generic model to guide the design and development of sustained, engaging, supportive and collaborative communities. The paper illustrates the way a website built for the professional development and support of beginning primary teachers can be used as …

An Investigation Of Computer Generated Knowledge Retention Activities In Computer-Based Training With Adult Learners, Doug Reid, D M. Jacobsen, Larry Katz

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

The goal of this investigation was to evaluate the impact of training and the effectiveness of different types of knowledge retention activities delivered by computer-based training programs. This study focused on a computer-based learning system called the Profound Learning Delivery System (PLS). PLS is an application designed to improve the content knowledge retention of adult learners who are completing computer-based training. This study used a pretest-posttest experimental design to compare adult learners’ knowledge of Microsoft Outlook ("Outlook, " 1997) before and after a computer-based training session. Participants were trained using two different computer-based instructional programs; a commercially available software program …