Choosing to become a 'lost cause': the perverse effects of benefit preconditions

This paper argues that preconditions for welfare benefit entitlements based on labour market prospects can be counterproductive when they create an incentive for individuals to abstain from any investment earlier in life that could improve future prospects. Benefit entitlements based partly on investments made prior to labour market entry are then Pareto-improving.

Choosing "interesting" research methods and facing the challenges for publication

This paper discusses the choice to use two less conventional or “interesting” research methods, Q Methodology and Experience Sampling Method, rather than “status quo” research methods so common in the marketing discipline. It is argued that such methods have value for marketing academics because they widen the potential for discovery. The paper outlines these two research methods, providing examples of how they have been used in an experiential consumption perspective. Additionally the paper identifies some of the challenges to be faced when trying to publish research that use such less conventional methods, as well as offering suggestions to address them.

Choosing landmarks for risky planning

This work examines the effect of landmark placement on the efficiency and accuracy of risk-bounded searches over probabilistic costmaps for mobile robot path planning. In previous work, risk-bounded searches were shown to offer in excess of 70% efficiency increases over normal heuristic search methods. The technique relies on precomputing distance estimates to landmarks which are then used to produce probability distributions over exact heuristics for use in heuristic searches such as A* and D*. The location and number of these landmarks therefore influence greatly the efficiency of the search and the quality of the risk bounds. Here four new methods of selecting landmarks for risk based search are evaluated. Results are shown which demonstrate that landmark selection needs to take into account the centrality of the landmark, and that diminishing rewards are obtained from using large numbers of landmarks.

Choosing work and care : four Australian women negotiating return to paid work in the first year of motherhood

Australian women make decisions about return to paid work and care for their child within a policy environment that presents mixed messages about maternal employment and child care standards. Against this background an investigation of first-time mothers’ decision-making about workforce participation and child care was undertaken. Four women were studied from pregnancy through the first postnatal year using interview and diary methods. Inductive analyses identified three themes, all focused on dimensions of family security: financial security relating to family income, emotional security relating to child care quality, and pragmatic security relating to child care access. The current policy changes that aim to increase child care quality standards in Australia present a positive step toward alleviating family insecurities but are insufficient to alleviate the evidently high levels of tension between workforce participation and family life experienced by women transitioning back into the workforce in Australia.

Choosing your niche : the social ecology of the International Baccalaureate Diploma in Australia.

The International Baccalaureate’s branding and reputation targets academic high achievers aiming for university entrance. This is an empirical examination of the growing popularity of this transnational secondary credential amongst local populations in Australia, focusing on its uptake across the community, and the discourses underpinning its spread and popularity. This paper reports on online surveys of 179 parents and 231 students in schools offering the IB as an alternative to Australian state curricula. It sets out to understand the social ecology of who chooses the IB and who it chooses. Statistically significant differences between IB and non-IB choosers were found in terms of family income, parent education, student aspirations, transnational lifestyles, and neoconservative, neoliberal and cosmopolitan beliefs. The analysis demonstrates how the reproduction of advantage is accomplished through choice behaviours in stratified educational markets.

Technological tools for science classrooms : choosing and using for productive and sustainable teaching and learning experiences

In this age of rapidly evolving technology, teachers are encouraged to adopt ICTs by government, syllabus, school management, and parents. Indeed, it is an expectation that teachers will incorporate technologies into their classroom teaching practices to enhance the learning experiences and outcomes of their students. In particular, regarding the science classroom, a subject that traditionally incorporates hands-on experiments and practicals, the integration of modern technologies should be a major feature. Although myriad studies report on technologies that enhance students’ learning outcomes in science, there is a dearth of literature on how teachers go about selecting technologies for use in the science classroom. Teachers can feel ill prepared to assess the range of available choices and might feel pressured and somewhat overwhelmed by the avalanche of new developments thrust before them in marketing literature and teaching journals. The consequences of making bad decisions are costly in terms of money, time and teacher confidence. Additionally, no research to date has identified what technologies science teachers use on a regular basis, and whether some purchased technologies have proven to be too problematic, preventing their sustained use and possible wider adoption. The primary aim of this study was to provide research-based guidance to teachers to aid their decision-making in choosing technologies for the science classroom. The study unfolded in several phases. The first phase of the project involved survey and interview data from teachers in relation to the technologies they currently use in their science classrooms and the frequency of their use. These data were coded and analysed using Grounded Theory of Corbin and Strauss, and resulted in the development of a PETTaL model that captured the salient factors of the data. This model incorporated usability theory from the Human Computer Interaction literature, and education theory and models such as Mishra and Koehler’s (2006) TPACK model, where the grounded data indicated these issues. The PETTaL model identifies Power (school management, syllabus etc.), Environment (classroom / learning setting), Teacher (personal characteristics, experience, epistemology), Technology (usability, versatility etc.,) and Learners (academic ability, diversity, behaviour etc.,) as fields that can impact the use of technology in science classrooms. The PETTaL model was used to create a Predictive Evaluation Tool (PET): a tool designed to assist teachers in choosing technologies, particularly for science teaching and learning. The evolution of the PET was cyclical (employing agile development methodology), involving repeated testing with in-service and pre-service teachers at each iteration, and incorporating their comments i ii in subsequent versions. Once no new suggestions were forthcoming, the PET was tested with eight in-service teachers, and the results showed that the PET outcomes obtained by (experienced) teachers concurred with their instinctive evaluations. They felt the PET would be a valuable tool when considering new technology, and it would be particularly useful as a means of communicating perceived value between colleagues and between budget holders and requestors during the acquisition process. It is hoped that the PET could make the tacit knowledge acquired by experienced teachers about technology use in classrooms explicit to novice teachers. Additionally, the PET could be used as a research tool to discover a teachers’ professional development needs. Therefore, the outcomes of this study can aid a teacher in the process of selecting educationally productive and sustainable new technology for their science classrooms. This study has produced an instrument for assisting teachers in the decision-making process associated with the use of new technologies for the science classroom. The instrument is generic in that it can be applied to all subject areas. Further, this study has produced a powerful model that extends the TPACK model, which is currently extensively employed to assess teachers’ use of technology in the classroom. The PETTaL model grounded in data from this study, responds to the calls in the literature for TPACK’s further development. As a theoretical model, PETTaL has the potential to serve as a framework for the development of a teacher’s reflective practice (either self evaluation or critical evaluation of observed teaching practices). Additionally, PETTaL has the potential for aiding the formulation of a teacher’s personal professional development plan. It will be the basis for further studies in this field.

The influence of teachers on students' decisions about choosing science : comparing student and teacher perceptions

This paper reports results from a study comparing teachers’ and students’ perceptions about the relative degree of influence parents, teachers, friends, older students and careers advisors have on students’ decisions about enrolling in non-compulsory high school science subjects. The comparison was carried out as part of the Choosing Science project - a large-scale Australian study of 15 year-old students’ experiences of school science and intentions regarding further participation. The study found that students considered their science teachers to have had the greatest influence, followed by parents and then friends. In contrast, however, science teachers believed their students to be most influenced in their decisions by friends and peers, followed by older students and siblings and parents, with teachers themselves having relatively little influence. Both groups believed that advice from careers advisors was of little influence. The findings are unique in the science education literature in providing an insight into differences and similarities in the perceptions of students and their teachers. In particular they indicate that teachers play a far greater role in students’ decisions about enrolling in science than they believe. This has important implications for science teachers and teacher educators in terms of appreciating their influence and applying it in ways that encourage participation in science courses.

Choosing science : understanding the declines in senior high school science enrolments

'Choosing Science' reports on the most thorough study yet undertaken in Australia to investigate Year 10 students' decisions about whether to take science subjects. The study was well supported by ASTA members, with around 590 teachers and 3800 students participating. It examined teachers' views on the persistent declines in science enrolments, and students' perceptions of school science and aspirations towards further study and careers. The report discusses students' attitudes to science, their enrolment deliberations, sources of advice and recommendations for change. The report identifies the most likely and unlikely contributors to enrolment declines, and makes 10 recommendations.

The making of control : an ethnomethodology of choosing management accounting systems [La fabrique du controle : une ethnomethodologie du choix des outils de gestion]

This paper sets out to contribute to the literature on the design and the implementation of management control systems. To this end, we question what is discussed when a management control system is to be chosen and on what decision-making eventually rests. This study rests upon an ethnomethodology of the Salvation Army’s French branch. Operating in the dual capacity of a researcher and a counsellor to management, between 2000 and 2007, we have unrestricted access to internal data revealing the backstage of management control: discussions and interactions surrounding the choosing of control devices. We contribute to understanding the arising of a need for control, the steps and process followed to decide upon a management control system, and controls in nonprofits. [Cet article vise à contribuer à la littérature sur la mise en place des systèmes de contrôle de gestion. À cette fin, nous questionnons ce qui est discuté lors du choix d’un système de contrôle et sur quoi repose in fine la décision. Cet article est fondé sur une approche ethnométhodologique de l’Armée du Salut en France permise par notre double qualité de chercheurs mais également de conseiller auprès de la direction de l’organisation entre 2000 et 2007. Un accès illimité à des données internes nous permet ainsi de mettre en lumière les aspects méconnus et invisibles du contrôle de gestion : les discussions et interactions entourant le choix d’outils. Nous contribuons à la compréhension de l’émergence du besoin de contrôle, des étapes et du processus de choix d’outils et enfin du contrôle de gestion dans une organisation à but non lucratif.]

Use your freedom of choice : reasons for choosing homeschool in Australia

In Australia, the decision to home educate is becoming increasingly popular (cf. Harding & Farrell, 2003; Townsend, 2012). In spite of its increasing popularity, the reasons home education is chosen by Australian families is under-researched (cf. Jackson & Allan, 2010). This paper reports on a case study that set out to explore the links between families that unschool and the parenting philosophies they follow. In- depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with a group of home education families in one of Australia’s most populated cities. Data were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis. The analysis revealed that there were links between the parents’ beliefs about home education and their adherence to Attachment Parenting.

Choosing an appropriate modelling framework for analysing multispecies co-culture cell biology experiments

In vitro cell biology assays play a crucial role in informing our understanding of the migratory, proliferative and invasive properties of many cell types in different biological contexts. While mono-culture assays involve the study of a population of cells composed of a single cell type, co-culture assays study a population of cells composed of multiple cell types (or subpopulations of cells). Such co-culture assays can provide more realistic insights into many biological processes including tissue repair, tissue regeneration and malignant spreading. Typically, system parameters, such as motility and proliferation rates, are estimated by calibrating a mathematical or computational model to the observed experimental data. However, parameter estimates can be highly sensitive to the choice of model and modelling framework. This observation motivates us to consider the fundamental question of how we can best choose a model to facilitate accurate parameter estimation for a particular assay. In this work we describe three mathematical models of mono-culture and co-culture assays that include different levels of spatial detail. We study various spatial summary statistics to explore if they can be used to distinguish between the suitability of each model over a range of parameter space. Our results for mono-culture experiments are promising, in that we suggest two spatial statistics that can be used to direct model choice. However, co-culture experiments are far more challenging: we show that these same spatial statistics which provide useful insight into mono-culture systems are insuffcient for co-culture systems. Therefore, we conclude that great care ought to be exercised when estimating the parameters of co-culture assays.

Choosing appropriate contract methods for design-build projects

For design-build (DB) projects, owners normally use lump sum and Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) as the major contract payment provisions. However, there was a lack of empirical studies to compare the project performance within different contract types and investigate how different project characteristics affect the owners’ selection of contract arrangement. Project information from Design-build Institute of America (DBIA) database was collected to reveal the statistical relationship between different project characteristics and contract types and to compare project performance between lump sum and GMP contract. The results show that lump sum is still the most frequently used contract method for DB projects, especially in the public sector. However, projects using GMP contract are more likely to have less schedule delay and cost overrun as compared to those with lump sum contract. The chi-square tests of cross tabulations reveal that project type, owner type, and procurement method affect the selection of contract types significantly. Civil infrastructure rather than industrial engineering project tends to use lump sum more frequently; and qualification-oriented contractor selection process resorts to GMP more often compared with cost-oriented process. The findings of this research contribute to the current body of knowledge concerning the effect of associated project characteristics on contract type selection. Overall, the results of this study provide empirical evidence from real DB projects that can be used by owners to select appropriate contract types and eventually improve future project performance.

Choosing a model of maternity care: decision support needs of Australian women

- BACKGROUND Access to information on the features and outcomes associated with the various models of maternity care available in Australia is vital for women's informed decision-making. This study sought to identify women's preferences for information access and decision-making involvement, as well as their priority information needs, for model of care decision-making. - METHODS A convenience sample of adult women of childbearing age in Queensland, Australia were recruited to complete an online survey assessing their model of care decision support needs. Knowledge on models of care and socio-demographic characteristics were also assessed. - RESULTS Altogether, 641 women provided usable survey data. Of these women, 26.7 percent had heard of all available models of care before starting the survey. Most women wanted access to information on models of care (90.4%) and an active role in decision-making (99.0%). Nine priority information needs were identified: cost, access to choice of mode of birth and care provider, after hours provider contact, continuity of carer in labor/birth, mobility during labor, discussion of the pros/cons of medical procedures, rates of skin-to-skin contact after birth, and availability at a preferred birth location. This information encompassed the priority needs of women across age, birth history, and insurance status subgroups. - CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates Australian women's unmet needs for information that supports them to effectively compare available options for model of maternity care. Findings provide clear direction on what information should be prioritized and ideal channels for information access to support quality decision-making in practice.