Risk and school science education

In this paper I consider a role for risk understanding in school science education. Grounds for this are described in terms of current sociological analyses of the contemporary world as a ‘risk society’ and recent public understanding of science studies where science and risk are concerns commonly linked within the wider community. These concerns connect with support amongst many science educators for the goal of science education for citizenship. From this perspective scientific literacy for decision making on contemporary socioscientific issues is central. I argue that in such decision making risk understanding has an important role to play. I examine some of the challenges its inclusion in school science presents to science teachers, review previous writing about risk in the science education literature and consider how knowledge about risk might be addressed in school science. I also outline the varying conceptions of risk and suggest some future research directions which would support the inclusion of risk in classroom discussions of socioscientific issues.

Principals’ and teacher leaders’ perceptions of their role and interaction under current Chinese reform : a case study in Shandong province

This study aims to explore the perceptions of principals and teacher leaders regarding their roles and the interaction between these roles in Chinese urban primary schools at the time of unprecedented curriculum reform. This involves a complexity of factors such as the influence of globalisation, the impact of traditional Chinese cultural attitudes towards education through Confucianism, and the implementation requirements of the current education reforms. All of these wider contextual factors help to shape the leadership practices that are described in the study. A qualitative exploratory case study approach has been utilised to undertake this investigation. The conceptual framework for this study draws upon scholars‘ work from Western countries but has been adapted in order to address three research questions for the study‘s focus on the context in Shandong province, Mainland China. Three research questions were addressed: First, what are principals‘ perceptions of their leadership roles in Mainland China under current educational reform? Second, what are teacher leaders‘ perceptions of their leadership roles in Mainland China under current educational reform? And finally, what are principals‘ and teacher leaders‘ perceptions of how their roles interact? With reference to the principals in the study, the findings confirm Gurr‘s (2008) comprehensive leadership model relating to four roles, specifically, learning and teaching, symbolic and cultural awareness, future orientation, and accountability. Significantly, some sub-roles that emerge from the data are uniquely Chinese. For example, school culture construction is a very deliberate process in which principals and their staff talked openly about and were involved in creating a positive school climate comprising spiritual, material, and system dimensions. Another finding relates to school feature construction. This refers to the process that principals and staff used to make their schools distinctive and different from other schools and included such features as the school‘s philosophy and the school-based curriculum. In seeking to understand the nature of teacher leadership in Chinese primary schools, this research confirms some findings identified in Western literature. For instance, teacher leaders in Shandong province were involved in decision-making, working with parents and community members, undertaking and planning professional development for staff, and mediating between colleagues (Day & Harris, 2002; Harrison & Killion, 2007; Leithwood, Jantzi, & Steinbach, 1999; Muijs & Harris, 2006; Smylie, 1992). However, some new aspects, such as a heightened awareness of the importance of accountability, emerge from this study. The study‘s conceptual framework also draws upon some significant insights from micropolitics and, in particular, two core constructs, namely cooperation and conflict (Blase, 1991), to explore the interactions between principals and teacher leaders. In this study, principals and teacher leaders employed exchange and facilitation as two strategies in cooperative processes; and they adopted enforcement and compromise in conflictive processes. Finally, the study‘s findings indicate that principals and teacher leaders were developing new ways of interacting in response to the requirements of significant education reform. Most principals were exercising their power through (Blase, 1991) their teacher leaders who in turn, were working in alignment with their principals to achieve the desired outcomes in schools. It was significant that this form of 'parallel leadership' (Crowther, Ferguson, & Ham, 2009) characterised the teacher leadership roles at this period of change to the curriculum in Mainland China.

Middle school social sciences : exploring teachers’ conceptions of essential knowledge

This study examines teachers’ conceptions of essential knowledge in the humanities and social sciences, commonly referred to as "social education", in the middle years of schooling. Social education has long been a highly contested area of the curriculum in Australia. In Queensland, social education comprises the integrated learning area of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE). However, the new Australian Curriculum marks a return to discipline-based study of history and geography. This phenomenographic study addresses a perceived lack of understanding in the current research literature in Australia of the nature of middle school teachers’ professional knowledge for teaching the social sciences. Teachers are conceptualised in this study as curriculum makers in the classroom and, as such, their conceptions of essential knowledge are significant. Shulman’s (1986, 1987) theory of teachers’ knowledge forms the theoretical foundation of the study, which is contextualised in Federal and State education policies and the literature on the middle phase of schooling. Transcripts of interviews conducted with a group of thirty-one Queensland middle school teachers of SOSE were subjected to phenomenographic analysis, revealing seven qualitatively different categories of description. Essential aspects of knowledge for social education emerging from the study were: (1) discipline-based knowledge; (2) curriculum knowledge; (3) knowledge derived from teaching experience; (4) knowledge of middle years learners; (5) knowledge of integration; (6) knowledge of current affairs; and (7) knowledge invested in teacher identity. The three dimensions of variation that linked and differentiated the categories were: (1) content; (2) inquiry learning; and (3) teacher autonomy. These findings are presented as an outcome space where the categories are grouped as knowledge of the learning area, knowledge of contexts and knowledge of self as teacher. The results of the study suggest that social education teachers’ identity and knowledge of self are critical aspects of their knowledge as curriculum makers. The results illustrate that the professional and personal domains intersect, extending Shulman’s (1986, 1987) original theorisation of teachers’ knowledge into the personal arena. Further, middle years teachers’ conceptions of essential knowledge reveal a practice-based theorisation of knowledge for social education that fits the goals of middle schooling. The research concludes that attention to teacher identity in teacher education and in-service professional development has considerable potential to grow teachers’ knowledge in the social sciences and enhance their capacity for school-based curriculum leadership.

Preservice teachers teaching technology with robotics

This study investigates the value of a robotics-based school engagement experience for preservice teachers enrolled in a fourth year technology education curriculum unit and analyses their perceived abilities and confidence to design and implement engaging technology activities following this experience. Technology is a key learning area in Australian schools but research shows that most teachers find this subject challenging to teach. This could be attributed to teachers’ attitudes and their lack of knowledge, hence investigating preservice teachers’ involvement with technology may provide further insights. In this study, 30 preservice teachers used robotics to implement technology activities with 22 primary school students from a school in a low socio-economic area. Surveys were administered to ascertain the preservice teachers' perceptions of their school engagement experiences. The data gathered from the participants showed that they had gained confidence and knowledge from the experience and felt the engagement activity would assist them to develop and implement technology activities in their future classrooms.

Preservice teachers teaching technology with robotics

This study investigates the value of a robotics-based school engagement experience for preservice teachers enrolled in a fourth year technology education curriculum unit and analyses their perceived abilities and confidence to design and implement engaging technology activities following this experience. Technology is a key learning area in Australian schools but research shows that most teachers find this subject challenging to teach. This could be attributed to teachers’ attitudes and their lack of knowledge, hence investigating preservice teachers’ involvement with technology may provide further insights. In this study, 30 preservice teachers used robotics to implement technology activities with 22 primary school students from a school in a low socio-economic area. Surveys were administered to ascertain the preservice teachers' perceptions of their school engagement experiences. The data gathered from the participants showed that they had gained confidence and knowledge from the experience and felt the engagement activity would assist them to develop and implement technology activities in their future classrooms.

What pre-service teachers need to know to be effective at values-based education

Evidence is mounting that values education is providing positive outcomes for students, teachers and schools (Benninga, Berkowitz, Kuehn, & Smith, 2006; DEST, 2008; Hattie, 2003; Lovat, Clement, Dally, & Toomey, 2010). Despite this, Australian pre-service teacher education does not appear to be changing in ways necessary to support skilling teachers to teach with a values focus (Lovat, Dally, Clement, and Toomey, 2011). This article presents findings from a case study that explored current teachers’ perceptions of the skills pre-service teachers need to teach values education effectively. Teachers who currently teach with a values focus highlighted that pre-service teacher education degrees need to encourage an ongoing commitment to continual learning, critical reflection and growth in pre-service teachers, along with excellent questioning and listening skills. Further, they argued that pre-service teachers need to be skilled in recognising and responding to student diversity. This article ends by arguing for some changes that need to occur in pre-service teacher education in order for teachers to teach effectively with a values focus, including the need for stronger connections between pre-service and experienced teachers.

Towards visualising people’s ecology of hybrid personal learning environments

Ambient media architecture can provide place-based collaborative learning experiences and pathways for social interactions that would not be otherwise possible. This paper is concerned with ways of enhancing peer-to-peer learning affordances in library spaces; how can the library facilitate the community of library users to learn from each other? We report on the findings of a study that employed a participatory design method where participants were asked to reflect and draw places, social networks, and activities that they use to work (be creative, productive), play (have fun, socialize, be entertained), and learn (acquire new information, knowledge, or skills). The results illustrate how informal learning – learning outside the formal education system – is facilitated by a personal selection of physical and socio-cultural environments, as well as online tools, platforms, and networks. This paper sheds light on participants’ individually curated ecologies of their work, play, and learning related networks and the hybrid (physical and digital) nature of these places. These insights reveal opportunities for ambient media architecture to increase awareness of and connections between people’s hybrid personal learning environments.

Mentoring preservice teachers' reflective practices towards producing teaching outcomes

Reflective practice appears crucial for professional growth, and making connections between mentoring practices and mentees’ reflections may assist mentors to guide reflective processes. This interpretive study initially explores, through the literature (e.g., Dewey, Schön), common processes of reflective thinking and uses a mentoring feedback framework with six practices to collect and analyse video, audio and observational data around two mentor-mentee case studies. The findings showed that these mentors (experienced primary teachers) articulated expectations for teaching, modelled reflective practices to their mentees (preservice teachers), and facilitated time and opportunities for advancing teaching practices, which influenced the mentees’ reflective practices and their pedagogical development. This study showed that the mentors’ personal attributes influenced the mentoring relationship and the mentees’ abilities to critically reflect on their practices.

Submission to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee - Youth Justice (Boot Camp Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012

This submission addresses the Youth Justice (Boot Camp Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 which has as its objectives (1) the introduction of a Boot Camp Order as an option instead of detention for young offenders and (2) the removal of the option of court referred youth justice conferencing for young offenders. As members of the QUT Faculty of Law Centre for Crime and Justice we welcome the invitation to participate in the discussion of these issues which are critically important to the Queensland community at large but especially to our young people.

Imagination in school children's choice of their learning environment: An Australian study

A visual research project addressed school children's concepts of ideal learning environments. Drawings and accompanying narratives were collected from Year 5 and Year 6 children in nine Queensland primary schools. The 133 submissions were analysed and coded to develop themes, identify key features and consider the uses of imagination. The children's imagined schools echo ideas promoted by progressive educators. The results of this study suggest benefits for school designers can emerge from the imaginative contributions of children in creating engaging environments, while educational policy makers can benefit from children's ideas in the promotion of engaging, student-centred pedagogies.

Using the index for inclusion to develop inclusive school communities

This chapter provides an overview of how school communities can work together in processes or review and development to strive towards a more inclusive approach to education. The writers of this chapter have been using a resource called the Index for Inclusion (Booth & Ainscow, 2005, 2011) for a number of years in Australia and in a pilot trail in New Zealand to support education staff in processes of review, with the aim to increase the participation and learning of all students. The resource supports the development of collaborative community processes and defines inclusion as ‘putting values into action’ (Booth & Ainscow, 2011, p.18). The process of review and development for more inclusive and socially just schools supports the development of a school culture, policy and practice where people are valued and treated with respect for their varied knowledge and experiences. In our experience, this resource has been useful to challenge our thinking about education in school communities and in region/districts about inclusive school development. We suggest the Index framework is broad enough to be used in a range of settings and countries. The resource is also useful for pre-service and in-service teacher development to provoke reflection and discussion about inclusion. This chapter provides an overview of the dimensions and framework that inform the Index of Inclusion. We discuss how the Index can be used in school contexts and draw on our own experience to give real examples of how teachers, paraprofessionals, students, principals and parents have experienced the Index when used in their local school communities in Australia and New Zealand. The chapter concludes with some points for discussion to challenge the status quo in schools and to inspire teachers to work towards a more socially just society through making changes at a school level.

Confronting the shortage of skilled and professional workers : A large scale industry-school partnership initiative

In most of the advanced economies, students are losing interest in careers especially in engineering and related industries. Hence, western economies are confronting a critical skilled labour shortage in areas of technology, science and engineering. The aim of this paper is to document how the organisational and institutional elements of one industry-school partnerships initiative – The Gateway Schools Program - contribute to productive knowledge sharing and networking. In particular this paper focuses on an initiative of an Australian State government in response to a perceived crisis around the skills shortage in an economy transitioning from a localised to a global knowledge production economy. The Gateway Schools initiative signals the first sustained attempt in Australia to incorporate schools into production networks through strategic partnerships linking them to partner organisations at the industry level. We provide case examples of how four schools operationalise the partnerships with the mining and energy industries and how these partnerships as knowledge assets impact the delivery of curriculum and capacity building among teachers. A program theory approach to analysis, informed by theoretical perspectives of Bailey (1994), Bagnall (2007) and Walsh (2004) was adopted. Each of these theorists provides a related but different perspective on the establishment, purpose, and effectiveness respectively of partnerships. Our ultimate goal is to define those characteristics of successful partnerships that do contribute to enhanced interest and engagement by students in those careers that are currently experiencing critical shortages.

From tiers to tables – enhancing student experience through collaborative learning spaces

BACKGROUND Collaborative and active learning have been clearly identified as ways students can engage in learning with each other and the academic staff. Traditional tier based lecture theatres and the didactic style they engender are not popular with students today as evidenced by the low attendance rates for lectures. Many universities are installing spaces designed with tables for group interaction with evolutions on spaces such as the TEAL (Technology Enabled Active Learning) (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d.) and SCALE-UP (Student-Centred Activities for Large-Enrolment Undergraduate Programs) (North Carolina State University, n.d.) models. Technology advances in large screen computers and applications have also aided the move to these collaborative spaces. How well have universities structured learning using these spaces and how have students engaged with the content, technology, space and each other? This paper investigates the application of collaborative learning in such spaces for a cohort of 800+ first year engineers in the context of learning about and developing professional skills representative of engineering practice. PURPOSE To determine whether moving from tiers to tables enhances the student experience. Does utilising technology rich, activity based, collaborative learning spaces lead to positive experiences and active engagement of first year undergraduate engineering students? In developing learning methodology and approach in new learning spaces, what needs to change from a more traditional lecture and tutorial configuration? DESIGN/METHOD A post delivery review and analysis of outcomes was undertaken to determine how well students and tutors engaged with learning in new collaborative learning spaces. Data was gathered via focus group and survey of tutors, students survey and attendance observations. The authors considered the unit delivery approach along with observed and surveyed outcomes then conducted further review to produce the reported results. RESULTS Results indicate high participation in the collaborative sessions while the accompanying lectures were poorly attended. Students reported a high degree of satisfaction with the learning experience; however more investigation is required to determine the degree of improvement in retained learning outcomes. Survey feedback from tutors found that students engaged well in the activities during tutorials and there was an observed improvement in the quality of professional practice modelled by students during sessions. Student feedback confirmed the positive experiences in these collaborative learning spaces with 30% improvement in satisfaction ratings from previous years. CONCLUSIONS It is concluded that the right mix of space, technology and appropriate activities does engage students, improve participation and create a rich experience to facilitate potential for improved learning outcomes. The new Collaborative Teaching Spaces, together with integrated technology and tailored activities, has transformed the delivery of this unit and improved student satisfaction in tutorials significantly.

Curriculum, assessment teaching and learning for all

This chapter explores how the culture of classrooms and schools can acknowledge diversity and meet all learning needs. Classroom and school culture can and should enhance the belonging and learning of all students. Understanding of learning, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment influences the ways teachers consider their expectations of student achievement and participation in school. We revisit the theory of social constructionism to emphasise the development of shared and valued curriculum, which meets all learner needs. Decisions about what to teach, how to teach and assess, and what supports student needs are important considerations discussed in this chapter. Key messages drawn from the Australian and New Zealand curriculum reinforce the need to ensure education responds to the diversity of students in classrooms. A range of models of pedagogy that have influenced education in Australia and New Zealand are presented, with a particular focus on meeting the needs of students who have disabilities. In addition, the issues related to student and teacher identity, the importance of respectful partnerships that acknowledge family knowledge, and respectful collaboration are discussed. Belonging to a community of learners is made possible through teachers forming authentic relationships with students and their families. In turn, these relationships support teachers to understand how the students in their classrooms learn, and to know their students’ strengths and interests.

Negotiating teacher identities : dialogic reflections on classroom interaction in a transnational context

This study investigates the development of teacher identity in a transnational context through an analysis of the voices of sixteen preservice teachers from Hong Kong who engage in interaction with primary students in an Australian classroom. The context for this research is the school-based experience undertaken by these preservice English as a second language teachers as part of their short language immersion (SLIM) program in Brisbane, Australia. Such SLIM programs are a genre of study abroad programs which have been gaining in popularity within teacher education in Australia, attended by preservice and inservice teachers from China, Hong Kong, Korea, and other Asian countries. This research is conducted at a time when the imperative to globalise higher education provision is a strategic factor in the educational policies of both Australia and Hong Kong. In Australia, international educational services now constitute the country’s third largest export with more than 400,000 students coming to Australia to study annually. In order to maintain Australia’s current global position as the third most popular Englishspeaking study destination, the government is now focusing on sustainability and the quality of the study experience being offered to international students (Bradley Review, 2008). In Hong Kong, the government sponsors both preservice and inservice English as a second language (ESL) teachers to undertake SLIM programs in Australia and other English-speaking countries, as part of their policy of promoting high levels of English proficiency in Hong Kong classrooms. Transnational teacher education is an important issue to which this study contributes insights into the affordances and constraints of a school-based experience in the transnational context. Second language teacher education has been defined as interventions designed to develop participants’ professional knowledge. In this study, it is argued that participation in a different community of practice helps to foreground tacit theories of second language pedagogy, making them visible and open to review. Questions of pedagogy are also seen as questions of teacher identity, constituting the way that one is in the classroom. I take up a sociocultural and poststructural framework, drawing on the work of James Gee and Mikhail Bakhtin, to theorise the construction of teacher identity as emerging through dialogic relations and socially situated discursive practices. From this perspective, this study investigates whether these teachers engage with different ways of representing themselves through appropriating, adapting or rejecting Discourses prevailing in the Australian classroom. Research suggests that reflecting on dilemmas encountered as lived experiences can extend professional understandings. In this study, the participants engage in a process of dialogic reflection on their intercultural classroom interactions, examining with their peers and their lecturer/researcher selected moments of dissonance that they have faced in the unfamiliar context of an Australian primary classroom. It is argued that the recursive and multivoiced nature of this process of reflection on practice allows participants opportunities to negotiate new understandings of second language teacher identity. Dialogic learning, based on the theories of Bakhtin and Vygotsky, provides the theoretic framing not only for the process of reflection instantiated in this study, but also features in the analysis of the participants’ second language classroom practices. The research design uses a combined discourse analytic and ethnographic approach as a logic-of-inquiry to explore the dialogic relationships which these second language teachers negotiate with their students and their peers in the transnational context. In this way, through discourse analysis of their classroom talk and reflective dialogues, assisted by the analytic tools of speech genres and discourse formats, I explore the participants’ ways of doing and being second language teachers. Thus, this analysis traces the process of ideological becoming of these beginner teachers as shifts in their understandings of teacher and student identities. This study also demonstrates the potential for a nontraditional stimulated recall interview to provide dialogic scaffolding for beginner teachers to reflect productively on their practice.