Development of a workplace wellness promotion pilot framework : a case study of the Blue Care Staff Wellness Program

Workplace wellness initiatives are currently unreflective of the multidimensional and holistic nature of the wellness construct. There exists an opportunity for promoters of health to move toward models of workplace wellness promotion that more fully appreciate the interconnected nature of health dimensions and promote them even-handedly. The Blue Care Staff Wellness Program framework was developed in response to a recognised need for consistent and wellness-focused constructs for workplace wellness promotion and dissemination. The framework promotes and supports the individual and organisational wellness of the Blue Care employee population by providing a comprehensive and sustainable employee wellness program. This has been achieved by the adoption of consistent wellness principles to guide the framework conception and theory based development. The use of the framework in a pilot program will provide insight into the frameworks effectiveness in promoting a comprehensive workplace wellness program, and go further to establish the relationship between wellness and productivity in the workplace.

Building the foundations : skill acquisition in children

Introduction: Why we need to base childrens’ sport and physical education on the principles of dynamical systems theory and ecological psychology As the childhood years are crucial for developing many physical skills as well as establishing the groundwork leading to lifelong participation in sport and physical activities, (Orlick & Botterill, 1977, p. 11) it is essential to examine current practice to make sure it is meeting the needs of children. In recent papers (e.g. Renshaw, Davids, Chow & Shuttleworth, in press; Renshaw, Davids, Chow & Hammond, in review; Chow et al., 2009) we have highlighted that a guiding theoretical framework is needed to provide a principled approach to teaching and coaching and that the approach must be evidence- based and focused on mechanism and not just on operational issues such as practice, competition and programme management (Lyle, 2002). There is a need to demonstrate how nonlinear pedagogy underpins teaching and coaching practice for children given that some of the current approaches underpinning children’s sport and P.E. may not be leading to optimal results. For example, little time is spent undertaking physical activities (Tinning, 2006) and much of this practice is not representative of the competition demands of the performance environment (Kirk & McPhail, 2002; Renshaw et al., 2008). Proponents of a non- linear pedagogy advocate the design of practice by applying key concepts such as the mutuality of the performer and environment, the tight coupling of perception and action, and the emergence of movement solutions due to self organisation under constraints (see Renshaw, et al., in press). As skills are shaped by the unique interacting individual, task and environmental constraints in these learning environments, small changes to individual structural (e.g. factors such as height or limb length) or functional constraints (e.g. factors such as motivation, perceptual skills, strength that can be acquired), task rules, equipment, or environmental constraints can lead to dramatic changes in movement patterns adopted by learners to solve performance problems. The aim of this chapter is to provide real life examples for teachers and coaches who wish to adopt the ideas of non- linear pedagogy in their practice. Specifically, I will provide examples related to specific issues related to individual constraints in children and in particular the unique challenges facing coaches when individual constraints are changing due to growth and development. Part two focuses on understanding how cultural environmental constraints impact on children’s sport. This is an area that has received very little attention but plays a very important part in the long- term development of sporting expertise. Finally, I will look at how coaches can manipulate task constraints to create effective learning environments for young children.

Early years teachers’ attitudes towards mathematics

Worldwide, there is considerable attention to providing a supportive mathematics learning environment for young children because attitude formation and achievement in these early years of schooling have a lifelong impact. Key influences on young children during these early years are their teachers. Practising early years teachers‟ attitudes towards mathematics influence the teaching methods they employ, which in turn, affects young students‟ attitudes towards mathematics, and ultimately, their achievement. However, little is known about practising early years teachers‟ attitudes to mathematics or how these attitudes form, which is the focus of this study. The research questions were: 1. What attitudes do practising early years teachers hold towards mathematics? 2. How did the teachers‟ mathematics attitudes form? This study adopted an explanatory case study design (Yin, 2003) to investigate practising early years teachers‟ attitudes towards mathematics and the formation of these attitudes. The research took place in a Brisbane southside school situated in a middle socio-economic area. The site was chosen due to its accessibility to the researcher. The participant group consisted of 20 early years teachers. They each completed the Attitude Towards Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) (Schackow, 2005), which is a 40 item instrument that measures attitudes across the four dimensions of attitude, namely value, enjoyment, self-confidence and motivation. The teachers‟ total ATMI scores were classified according to five quintiles: strongly negative, negative, neutral, positive and strongly positive. The results of the survey revealed that these teachers‟ attitudes ranged across only three categories with one teacher classified as strongly positive, twelve teachers classified as positive and seven teachers classified as neutral. No teachers were identified as having negative or strongly negative attitudes. Subsequent to the surveys, six teachers with a breadth of attitudes were selected from the original cohort to participate in open-ended interviews to investigate the formation of their attitudes. The interview data were analysed according to the four dimensions of attitudes (value, enjoyment, self-confidence, motivation) and three stages of education (primary, secondary, tertiary). Highlighted in the findings is the critical impact of schooling experiences on the formation of student attitudes towards mathematics. Findings suggest that primary school experiences are a critical influence on the attitudes of adults who become early years teachers. These findings also indicate the vital role tertiary institutions play in altering the attitudes of preservice teachers who have had negative schooling experiences. Experiences that teachers indicated contributed to the formation of positive attitudes in their own education were games, group work, hands-on activities, positive feedback and perceived relevance. In contrast, negative experiences that teachers stated influenced their attitudes were insufficient help, rushed teaching, negative feedback and a lack of relevance of the content. These findings together with the literature on teachers‟ attitudes and mathematics education were synthesized in a model titled a Cycle of Early Years Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Mathematics. This model explains positive and negative influences on attitudes towards mathematics and how the attitudes of adults are passed on to children, who then as adults themselves, repeat the cycle by passing on attitudes to a new generation. The model can provide guidance for practising teachers and for preservice and inservice education about ways to foster positive influences to attitude formation in mathematics and inhibit negative influences. Two avenues for future research arise from the findings of this study both relating to attitudes and secondary school experiences. The first question relates to the resilience of attitudes, in particular, how an individual can maintain positive attitudes towards mathematics developed in primary school, despite secondary school experiences that typically have a negative influence on attitude. The second question relates to the relationship between attitudes and achievement, specifically, why secondary students achieve good grades in mathematics despite a lack of enjoyment, which is one of the dimensions of attitude.

Facilitating growth in prospective teachers’ knowledge : teaching geometry in primary schools

This paper reports on a study that focused on growth of understanding about teaching geometry by a group of prospective teachers engaged in lesson plan study within a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Participation in the activity was found to facilitate considerable growth in the participants’ pedagogical-content knowledge (PCK). Factors that influenced growth in PCK included the nature of the lesson planning task, the cognitive scaffolds inserted into the CSCL virtual space, the meta-language scaffolds provided to the participants, and the provision of both private and public discourse spaces. The paper concludes with recommendations for enhancing effective knowledge-building discourse about mathematics PCK within prospective teacher education CSCL environments.

Exceptional teachers for disadvantaged schools

This article reports on the first year of the Exceptional Teachers for Disadvantaged Schools project, a teacher education approach designed to prepare high quality teachers for low socio-economic schools. The Exceptional Teachers for Disadvantaged Schools (ETDS) project is an innovative way to prepare high-quality teachers for employment in low-SES schools. The program, based at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), offers a specialised curriculum, designed to equip high-achieving pre-service teachers for work in the schools that need them most. Selected pre-service teachers at QUT are invited to take part in the trial course, based on their academic performance over the first two years of their four-year Bachelor of Education degree, and on a demonstrated commitment to social justice. These participants undertake a modified version of QUT's B Ed on-campus curriculum. They have their practicum/field experience at one of a range of disadvantaged schools throughout Queensland which have agreed to partner with QUT in the program. In the past, teacher education for disadvantaged schools has been described as applying a 'missionary' or deficit model (Larabee, 2010; Comber and Kamler, 2004; Flessa, 2007). The principals of schools participating in the ETDS react strongly against such an approach, and have explicitly asked project staff not to send them anyone who 'thinks they can save the world'. The ETDS project has moved well away from such a model, towards a position that is explicitly centred on notions of academic excellence. The project is now at the end of its first trial year.

Leading the transformation of learning and praxis in science classrooms

Individual science teachers who have inspired colleagues to transform their classroom praxis have been labelled transformational leaders. As the notion of distributed leadership became more accepted in the educational literature, the focus on the individual teacher-leader shifted to the study of leadership praxis both by individuals (whoever they might be) and by collectives within schools and science classrooms. This review traces the trajectory of leadership research, in the context of learning and teaching science, from an individual focus to a dialectical relationship between individual and collective praxis. The implications of applying an individual-collective perspective to praxis for teachers, students and their designated leaders are discussed.

Creating creative classrooms

My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status. (Robinson, 2006) This bold assertion from Sir Ken Robinson, a leading expert and speaker on creativity, is perhaps even truer now than it was six years ago. Literacy (and numeracy) have always been, and should remain, fundamental to education. However, creativity is not a rival to literacy or numeracy education; it is not an addition to these (or any other) areas of the curriculum. Creativity should be a core, integrated element of teaching and learning throughout the curriculum and the school environment. In the new national curriculum, “critical and creative thinking” are highlighted as general capabilities “that can be developed and applied across the curriculum” (ACARA, 2011, p. 15). Moreover, an aim of education noted by the 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians is “to support all young Australians to become ... confident and creative individuals” (MCEETYA, 2008, p. 8). These are confirmation that creativity should have high “status” in Australian education.

Towards teaching in partnership : lessons still to be learned

This article seeks to analyse current dilemmas in responding to calls to narrow 'the gap' between academic and school culture in the area of preservice teacher preparation. It critiques traditional practices and current policies which focus on the narrowly vocational at the expense of the contextual. Further, it acknowledges the problems in the teaching of theory as it has been traditionally understood. Finally, it assesses the benefits for teachers and academics of forms of pedagogical partnership and the likelihood of progress in this area, and suggest that a number of fundamental changes need to be made in academic culture for genuine partnerships to become a reality.

Looking Yonder : Longitudinal Research and Evaluation of the Yonder Participative Arts-based Learning Model Report 2010-2012

Since 2007, KITE Arts Education Program @ QPAC has been engaged in a series of arts and drama-based experiences for students in selected primary schools on the edges of Brisbane and in regional Queensland. The in-school workshop experiences of the program have culminated in a performance by the children for their school community, parents and carers at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre or a regional cultural venue. In conducting an analysis of the Yonder project, the researcher aimed to provide evidence of outcomes brought about through participation by schools, school staff, students and their communities in the Yonder project. To develop longitudinal data project initiators, participants were interviewed at six-monthly intervals to establish patterns of engagement and participation. The report analyses arts-based workshops conducted by the teacher artist in edge-city Brisbane and a regional centre; interviews with teachers and school administrators from the participating schools; interviews with teacher artist and professional artists; interviews with community partners; teacher professional development workshops; community-based workshops; performance outcomes that were the culminating events of the workshop program; student work samples and student reflections on the program. This document covers data and project outputs from February 2010 to July 2012. There have been five iterations of the Yonder project since its commencement in mid-2009 — three in regional Queensland (February–April 2010; February–May 2011; February–May 2012) and two in edge-city1 Brisbane (July–September 2010; August–October 2011). This report is a result of a research partnership between Queensland Performing Arts Centre and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Creative Industries Faculty(Drama).

‘Wanna do more math’: engaging underachieving Indigenous learners the YuMi Deadly way.

The Accelerating Indigenous Mathematics (AIM) Program offered by the YuMi Deadly Centre from QUT accelerates the mathematics learning of underperforming students in Years 8 - 10 by a) apportioning Years 2-10 Australian Curriculum: Mathematics content into three years, and b) provides a teaching approach that accelerates the mathematical learning. The philosophy of the YuMi Deadly teaching approach for mathematics is one that requires a ‘body’, ‘hand’, ‘mind’ pedagogy. This presentation will provide examples of the “‘body’, ‘hand’, ‘mind’” mathematics pedagogy. In AIM classrooms, mathematics is presented this approach is having a positive impact. Students are willing ‘to have a go’ without shame; and they develop the desire to learn and improve their numeracy.

Reforming the preparation of future STEM teachers

This paper begins by identifying the key attributes for future STEM teachers. Then based on a review of the literature, a framework for informing reforms to pre-service teacher education programs to facilitate the development of these attributes in future STEM teachers is presented and discussed. This framework consists of a set of three principles together with eight strategies for the operationalization of these principles. During the discussion, the implications for the structure and implementation of future pre-service STEM teacher education programs are explored.