Objectifying the Subjective : Assessment and Feedback in Creative Arts Studio Learning and Teaching

This paper examines the Assessment and Feedback aspects of Studio Teaching as Creative Arts pedagogy. Prompted by USQ’s newly offered Bachelor of Creative Arts (BCA), the author has developed an Assessment Matrix specifically designed to satisfy a number of imperatives, including: • ‘objectifying’ the subjective aspects of creative practice as assessable coursework/research • providing the means by which accurate, detailed, personalised and confidential feedback may be provided to students individually • providing consistent, accurate, meaningful assessment records for student, lecturer, and institution • ensuring consistency, continuity, and transparency of assessment processes and records to satisfy quality audits • minimising marking and assessment time, whilst maximising assessment integrity and depth • requiring only basic level skills and knowledge of a computer application already in common use (Microsoft Excel) • adaptability to a range of creative courses ‐ across disciplines This Assessment Matrix has been in development (and trialled) since January 2009.

A state-wide systems approach to embedding the learning and teaching of sustainability in teacher education

Education systems have a key role to play in preparing future citizens to engage in sustainable living practices and help create a more sustainable world. Many schools throughout Australia have begun to develop whole-school approaches to sustainability education that are supported by national and state policies and curriculum frameworks. Preservice teacher education, however, lags behind in building the capacity of new teachers to initiate and implement such approaches (ARIES, 2010). This proposed project seeks to develop a state-wide systems approach to embedding Education for Sustainability (EfS) in teacher education that is aligned with the Australian National Curriculum and the aspirations for EfS in the Melbourne Declaration and other national documents. Representatives from all teacher education institutions and other agents of change in the Queensland education system will be engaged in a multilevel systems approach, involving collaboration at the state, institutional and course levels, to develop curriculum practices that reflect a shared vision of EfS.

Prison rates, social democracy, neoliberalism and justice reinvestment

This chapter will begin with a brief summary of some recent research in the field of comparative penology. This work will be examined to explore the benefits, difficulties and limits of attempting to link criminal justice issues to types of advanced democratic polities, with particular emphasis on political economies. This stream of comparative penology examines data such as imprisonment rates and levels of punitiveness in different countries, before drawing conclusions based on the patterns which seem to emerge. Foremost among these is that the high imprisoning countries tend to be the advanced western liberal democracies which have gone furthest in adopting neoliberal economic and social policies, as against the lower imprisonment rates of social democracies, which variably have attempted to temper free-market economic policies in various ways. Such work brings both social democracy and neoliberalism into focus as issues for, or subjects of, criminology. Not in the sense of new ‘brands’ of criminology but rather as an examination of the connections between the political projects of social democracy and neoliberalism, and issues of crime and criminal justice. In the new comparative penology, social democracy and neoliberalism are cast in opposition, simultaneously raising the questions of to what extent and how adequately both social democracy and neoliberalism have been constituted as subjects in criminology and whether dichotomy is the only available trope of analysis?

Current trends and issues in geographical education

In this introductory chapter to Schmeinck, D. and Lidstone, J. (2014) “Current trends and issues in geographical education” in Schmeinck, D. and Lidstone, J. (2014) Eds) Standards and Research in Geographical Education: Current Trends and International Issues. Berlin. Mensch und Buch Verlag. Pp. 5 - 16. , the authors review and analyse eleven papers originally presented to the Congress of the International Geographical Union held in Cologne in 2012. Taking the collection of papers as a single corpus representing the “state of the art” of geography education, they applied lexical and bibliometric analyses in an innovative attempt to identify the nature of geographical education as represented by this anthology of peer reviewed chapters presented at the start of the second decade of the Twenty-first century?

Personal Epistemologies and Teaching

Over the last three decades, a growing body of research related to epistemic beliefs has been identified as a crucial for understanding teaching and learning (Yadav, Herron, & Samarapungavan, 2011). In particular, research related to beliefs about teaching, learning and knowledge has been considered important for understanding why teachers engage in certain approaches to pedagogy, curriculum and assessment in classrooms (Stromlo & Bråten, 2011). The beliefs held by teachers about knowledge and knowing, otherwise known as personal epistemology (Hofer, 2010), have been shown to influence other knowledge and beliefs (Schommer-Aikens, 2004). Five and Buehl (2012) indicated that because an individual’s understanding of reality is always seen through the lens of existing beliefs, the role of beliefs as a filter is particularly relevant in the context of teacher education. That is, if beliefs influence how individuals interpret new information and experiences, preservice and practicing teachers’ beliefs shape what and how they learn about teaching.” (p. 470-480). It is likely that such beliefs have an important relationship with teacher knowledge and practices...

Research in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability : International Perspectives and Provocations

Sustainability is a global issue that urgently needs addressing, the most serious consequences of which concern children and future generations. This insightful research text tackles one of the most significant contemporary issues of our times – the nexus between society and environment – and how early childhood education can contribute to sustainable living. By offering international and multidisciplinary research perspectives on Early Childhood Education for Sustainability, each chapter explores and investigates the complex topic of sustainability and its relationship to early childhood education. A particular emphasis that runs through this text is young children as empowered citizens, capable of both contributing to and creating change for sustainability. The chapter authors work from, or are aligned with, a transformative education paradigm that suggests the socio-constructivist frameworks currently underpinning Early Childhood Education require reframing in light of the social transformations necessary to address humanity’s unsustainable, unjust and unhealthy living patterns. This research text is designed to be provocative and challenging; in so doing it seeks to encourage exploration of current understandings about Early Childhood Education for Sustainability, offers new dimensions for more deeply informed practice, and proposes avenues for further research in this field.

Porohyperelastic finite element model for the kangaroo humeral head cartilage based on experimental study and the consolidation theory

Solid-extracellular fluid interaction is believed to play an important role in the strain-rate dependent mechanical behaviors of shoulder articular cartilages. It is believed that the kangaroo shoulder joint is anatomically and biomechanically similar to human shoulder joint and it is easy to get in Australia. Therefore, the kangaroo humeral head cartilage was used as the suitable tissue for the study in this paper. Indentation tests from quasi-static (10-4/sec) to moderately high strain-rate (10-2/sec) on kangaroo humeral head cartilage tissues were conduced to investigate the strain-rate dependent behaviors. A finite element (FE) model was then developed, in which cartilage was conceptualized as a porous solid matrix filled with incompressible fluids. In this model, the solid matrix was modeled as an isotropic hyperelastic material and the percolating fluid follows Darcy’s law. Using inverse FE procedure, the constitutive parameters related to stiffness, compressibility of the solid matrix and permeability were obtained from the experimental results. The effect of solid-extracellular fluid interaction and drag force (the resistance to fluid movement) on strain-rate dependent behavior was investigated by comparing the influence of constant, strain dependent and strain-rate dependent permeability on FE model prediction. The newly developed porohyperelastic cartilage model with the inclusion of strain-rate dependent permeability was found to be able to predict the strain-rate dependent behaviors of cartilages.

Understanding causal relationships between the built and social environment, health and associated behaviours and risk factors

Introduction: Built environment interventions designed to reduce non-communicable diseases and health inequity, complement urban planning agendas focused on creating more ‘liveable’, compact, pedestrian-friendly, less automobile dependent and more socially inclusive cities.However, what constitutes a ‘liveable’ community is not well defined. Moreover, there appears to be a gap between the concept and delivery of ‘liveable’ communities. The recently funded NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Healthy Liveable Communities established in early 2014, has defined ‘liveability’ from a social determinants of health perspective. Using purpose-designed multilevel longitudinal data sets, it addresses five themes that address key evidence-base gaps for building healthy and liveable communities. The CRE in Healthy Liveable Communities seeks to generate and exchange new knowledge about: 1) measurement of policy-relevant built environment features associated with leading non-communicable disease risk factors (physical activity, obesity) and health outcomes (cardiovascular disease, diabetes) and mental health; 2) causal relationships and thresholds for built environment interventions using data from longitudinal studies and natural experiments; 3) thresholds for built environment interventions; 4) economic benefits of built environment interventions designed to influence health and wellbeing outcomes; and 5) factors, tools, and interventions that facilitate the translation of research into policy and practice. This evidence is critical to inform future policy and practice in health, land use, and transport planning. Moreover, to ensure policy-relevance and facilitate research translation, the CRE in Healthy Liveable Communities builds upon ongoing, and has established new, multi-sector collaborations with national and state policy-makers and practitioners. The symposium will commence with a brief introduction to embed the research within an Australian health and urban planning context, as well as providing an overall outline of the CRE in Healthy Liveable Communities, its structure and team. Next, an overview of the five research themes will be presented. Following these presentations, the Discussant will consider the implications of the research and opportunities for translation and knowledge exchange. Theme 2 will establish whether and to what extent the neighbourhood environment (built and social) is causally related to physical and mental health and associated behaviours and risk factors. In particular, research conducted as part of this theme will use data from large-scale, longitudinal-multilevel studies (HABITAT, RESIDE, AusDiab) to examine relationships that meet causality criteria via statistical methods such as longitudinal mixed-effect and fixed-effect models, multilevel and structural equation models; analyse data on residential preferences to investigate confounding due to neighbourhood self-selection and to use measurement and analysis tools such as propensity score matching and ‘within-person’ change modelling to address confounding; analyse data about individual-level factors that might confound, mediate or modify relationships between the neighbourhood environment and health and well-being (e.g., psychosocial factors, knowledge, perceptions, attitudes, functional status), and; analyse data on both objective neighbourhood characteristics and residents’ perceptions of these objective features to more accurately assess the relative contribution of objective and perceptual factors to outcomes such as health and well-being, physical activity, active transport, obesity, and sedentary behaviour. At the completion of the Theme 2, we will have demonstrated and applied statistical methods appropriate for determining causality and generated evidence about causal relationships between the neighbourhood environment, health, and related outcomes. This will provide planners and policy makers with a more robust (valid and reliable) basis on which to design healthy communities.

Improving criteria and feedback in student assessment in law

Spurred on by both the 1987 Pearce Report1 and the general changes to higher education spawned by the “Dawkins revolution” from 1988, there has been much critical self-evaluation leading to profound improvements to the quality of teaching in Australian law schools.2 Despite the changes there are still areas of general law teaching practice which have lagged behind recent developments in our understanding of what constitutes high quality teaching. One such area is assessment criteria and feedback. The project Improving Feedback in Student Assessment in Law is an attempt to remedy this. It aims to produce a manual containing key principles for the design of assessment and the provision of feedback, with practical yet flexible ideas and illustrations which law teachers may adopt or modify. Most of the examples have been developed by teachers at the University of Melbourne Law School. The project was supported in 1996 by a Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching grant and the manual will be published late in 1997.3 This note summarises the core principles which are elaborated further in the manual.

Developing a Cross-cultural Law Curriculum

This work makes the case that cross cultural issues are central to the purposes of legal education, and no longer can such issues be seen as an add-on to the traditional curriculum. The authors argue instead for a critical multiculturalism that is attuned to questions of gender, class, sexuality and social justice, and that must inform the whole law school curriculum.

Laugh Lines : Exploring Humour in Children's Literature

Humour takes many shapes and forms. It can be as sharp as a surgeon's knife or as gentle as a touch of silk. It can convey uncomfortable truths, point up life's absurdities, challenge the imagination, take us by surprise, release us from fears and anxieties. And while it's true that we don't all agree about what's funny, it's also true that everyone of us finds pleasure in some form of humorous literature.