Teacher change and professional development in mathematics education

It is generally agreed that if authentic teacher change is to occur then the tacit knowledge about how and why they act in certain ways in the classroom be accessed and reflected upon. While critical reflection can and often is an individual experience there is evidence to suggest that teachers are more likely to engage in the process when it is approached in a collegial manner; that is, when other teachers are involved in and engaged with the same process. Teachers do not enact their profession in isolation but rather exist within a wider community of teachers. An outside facilitator can also play an active and important role in achieving lasting teacher change. According to Stein and Brown (1997) “an important ingredient in socially based learning is that graduations of expertise and experience exist when teachers collaborate with each other or outside experts” (p. 155). To assist in the effective professional development of teachers, outside facilitators, when used, need to provide “a dynamic energy producing interactive experience in which participants examine and explore the complex components of teaching” (Bolster, 1995, p. 193). They also need to establish rapport with the participating teachers that is built on trust and competence (Hyde, Ormiston, & Hyde, 1994). For this to occur, professional development involving teachers and outside facilitators or researchers should not be a one-off event but an ongoing process of engagement that enables both the energy and trust required to develop. Successful professional development activities are therefore collaborative, relevant and provide individual, specialised attention to the teachers concerned. The project reported here aimed to provide professional development to two Year 3 teachers to enhance their teaching of a new mathematics content area, mental computation. This was achieved through the teachers collaborating with a researcher to design an instructional program for mental computation that drew on theory and research in the field.

The challenge of assessing professional competence in work integrated learning

A fundamental aspect of work integrated learning (WIL) is the development of professional competence, the ability of students to perform in the work place. Alignment theory therefore suggests that the assessment of WIL should include an assessment of students’ demonstration of professional competence in the workplace. The assessment of professional competence in WIL is, however, problematic. It may be impractical for the academic supervisor to directly assess professional competence if there is a large number of students in external placements. If evidence of professional competence is provided by the student, the student’s ability to articulate his or her own capabilities will interfere with the validity of the assessment. If evidence of professional competency is provided by the supervisor then the assessment is heavily dependent on the individual supervisor and may be unreliable. This paper will examine the literature relating to the assessment of professional competence in WIL. The paper will be informed by the author’s experience in coordinating a WIL subject in an undergraduate law course. It will recommend that a mix of evidence provided by the student, the workplace supervisor and the academic supervisor should be used to assess professional competence in WIL.

Exploring intercultural competence : a service-learning approach

This study explored the developing intercultural competence of fourth-year Australian education pre-service teachers through a core unit of study on inclusive education, following a service-learning pathway. The Australian pre-service teachers volunteered to be 'of service' to a cohort of second-year Malaysian pre-service teachers studying in Australia in a transnational twinning program. Students participated in a Patches program which included writing 'patches' (reflections) and engaging in social exchanges. Data were gathered from focus group interviews, written reflection logs and Patches writing books and were analysed through Butin's (2005) four-lenses of service-learning: technical, cultural, political and post-modern lenses. Data revealed that initially the Australian pre-service teachers felt their presumptions but by the end of the semester embraced the basic tenants of inclusion and were able to project how they could take their new understandings into the classroom as inclusive teachers.

E-portfolios : developing nurse practitioner competence and capability

Objective: This paper aims to integrate nurse practitioner literature on competence and capability with post graduate and nursing literature on e‑portfolios in order to demonstrate the potential merits of e‑portfolios in nurse practitioner education for competence and capability development. Primary Argument In the Nurse Practitioner Standards Project, competence and capability were proposed as key criteria to assess candidates in nurse practitioner educational courses. Portfolios have traditionally been used to demonstrate competence in nursing and are integral to nursing education as well. An examination of the portfolio and electronic portfolio literature in postgraduate nursing education and professional practice indicates that these portfolios fall under two main structures, each with different purposes: 1) A spinal column structure, with evidence and reflective pieces aligned to competency standards or course objectives, for the purposes of meeting prescribed competencies, professional development planning and showcasing evidence for authorisation or potential employers; and 2) A cake mix structure, which consists of a reflective narrative tying evidence together, which enables a greater focus on personal learning journeys, reflection and the development of personal qualities. Finally, evidence from the general nursing literature suggests the complexity of e‑portfolios in assessment and evaluation can be overcome by using qualitative research methods. Conclusion: To meet the competence and capability needs of nurse practitioners, portfolios could be used, for competence and showcasing and for learning and capability. Further research would be useful to refine and explore the use of e‑portfolios to meet the needs of NP candidates and their educators, clinical mentors, authorisation personal and employers. The current evidence on nurse practitioner education, competence, capability and e‑portfolios points to the integration of the use of an e‑portfolio into current nurse practitioner curriculum models to meet the unique needs of nurse practitioner candidates.

Young children’s metarepresentational competence in data modelling

longitudinal study of data modelling across grades 1-3. The activity engaged children in designing, implementing, and analysing a survey about their new playground. Data modelling involves investigations of meaningful phenomena, deciding what is worthy of attention (identifying complex attributes), and then progressing to organising, structuring, visualising, and representing data. The core components of data modelling addressed here are children’s structuring and representing of data, with a focus on their display of metarepresentational competence (diSessa, 2004). Such competence includes students’ abilities to invent or design a variety of new representations, explain their creations, understand the role they play, and critique and compare the adequacy of representations. Reported here are the ways in which the children structured and represented their data, the metarepresentational competence displayed, and links between their metarepresentational competence and conceptual competence.

The Development of Competency Standards for Specialist Critical Care Nurses

In defining the contemporary role of the specialist nurse it is necessary to challenge the concept of nursing as merely a combination of skills and knowledge. Nursing must be demonstrated and defined in the context of client care and include the broader notions of professional development and competence. This qualitative study sought to identify the competency standards for nurse specialists in critical care and to articulate the differences between entry-to-practice standards and the advanced practice of specialist nurses. Over 800 hours of specialist critical care nursing practice were observed and grouped into 'domains' or major themes of specialist practice using a constant comparison qualitative technique. These domains were further refined to describe attributes of the registered nurses which resulted in effective and/or superior performance (competency standards) and to provide examples of performance (performance criteria) which met the defined standard. Constant comparison of the emerging domains, competency standards and performance criteria to observations of specialist critical care practice, ensured the results provided a true reflection of the specialist nursing role. Data analysis resulted in 20 competency standards grouped into six domains: professional practice, reflective practice, enabling, clinical problem solving, teamwork, and leadership. Each of these domains is comprised of between two and seven competency standards. Each standard is further divided into component parts or 'elements' and the elements are illustrated with performance criteria. The competency standards are currently being used in several Australian critical care educational programmes and are the foundation for an emerging critical care credentialling process. They have been viewed with interest by a variety of non-critical care specialty groups and may form a common precursor from which further specialist nursing practice assessment will evolve.

Development of a survey instrument to measure TEFL academics' perceptions about, individual and workplace characteristics for conducting research

The Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) initiatives to improve the English competence of college students, as well as increased proficiency level of entering college students (Cheng, 2002) have contributed to greater demands on Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) academics (MOE, 2004), as “the upgrading of national English proficiency, then, is predicated largely on the professional competence of the teaching force” (Hu, 2005, p. 655). For TEFL academics, one component of this competence is the capacity to conduct research (Shu, 2002), which also reflects other changes in Chinese higher education. The aspirations of higher education institutions at all levels have led to more rigorous recruitment policies and promotion requirements (Che, 2004; Wang, 2007), stressing research as an important indicator of academics’ performance (Shi, 2002; Pan, 2006). These changes highlight the role of research in higher education institutions’ efforts to raise their national status and world ranking (Zhang, Wang, & He, 2006), and have exerted influences on faculty’s academic role. Academics are obliged to engage in research activities, and this has posed challenges to teaching-oriented institutions and disciplines.

Developing intercultural competence in pre-service teachers from Australia and Malaysia : insights from the “Patches” programme

Developing intercultural competence in pre-service teachers from Australia and Malaysia: Insights from a Patches program. Innovative pedagogies can offer pre-service teachers the opportunity to develop their intercultural competence and take up more globalised viewpoints. One such innovation is the Patches program which brought together Malaysian and Australian pre-service teachers who were studying at the same university in Brisbane, Australia, to actively explore issues of cultural and linguistic difference. The participants were 14 Australian fourth-year pre-service teachers who were enrolled in a program on inclusive education, and 58 Malaysian pre-service teachers who had recently arrived at the university in Brisbane to commence their second year of an international education program. In peer groupings, these domestic and international pre-service teachers engaged in a series of interactive tasks and reflective writing workshops exploring intercultural experiences, over a period of ten weeks. Each element or ‘patch’ in the program was designed to build up into a mosaic of intercultural learning. The flexible structuring of the Patches Program provided a supportive framework for participant interaction whilst allowing the groups to decide for themselves the nature and extent of their involvement in a series of community-related tasks. The process of negotiating and implementing these activities formed the basis for establishing meaningful relationships between the participants. The development of the participants’ intercultural competence is traced through their reflective narratives and focus group discussions, drawing on Byram’s concept of the five savoirs. Explaining aspects of Australian culture to their newly arrived Malaysian peers, allowed the Australian pre-service teachers to take a perspective of outsideness towards their own familiar social practices. In addition, being unusually positioned as the linguistic other amongst a group of Bahasa Melayu speakers, highlighted for the Australian pre-service teachers the importance of being inclusive. For the Malaysian pre-service teachers, participation in the Patches program helped to extend intercultural understandings, establish social networks with local students, and build a sense of community in their new learning environment. Both groups of pre-service teachers noted the power of “learning directly by interacting rather than through books”. In addition to interacting interculturally, the process of reflecting on these intercultural experiences is seen as integral to the development of intercultural competence.

Developing academic and intercultural competence : the impact of a Patches program

This symposium focuses on an innovative Patches program that addresses imperatives with respect to the development of intercultural competence. The term, Patches, in this project refers to writing tasks and intercultural activities wherein each task becomes a ‘patch’ that eventually creates a quilt of learning as experienced by 58 second year BEd students from Malaysia and 14 fourth year domestic (Australian) BEd students. We take intercultural competence to mean students “ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations based on [their] intercultural knowledge, skills and attitudes” (Deardorff, 2006). The papers in this symposium provide detailed information about the design of the program, its impact on students’ perceptions of themselves as students, writers, and emerging professionals, and students’ development of intercultural competence.

Assessing testamentary and decision-making competence/capacity in the Australian context

Australia lacks a satisfactory, national paradigm for assessing competence and capacity in the context of testamentary, enduring power of attorney and advance care directive documents. Competence/capacity assessments are currently conducted on an ad hoc basis by legal and/or medical professionals. The reliability of the assessment process is subject to the skill set and mutual understanding of the legal and/or medical professional conducting the assessment. There is a growth in the prevalence of diseases such as dementia. Such diseases impact upon cognition which increasingly necessitates collaboration between the legal and medical professions when assessing the effect of mentally disabling conditions upon competency/capacity. Miscommunication and lack of understanding between legal and medical professionals involved could impede the development of a satisfactory paradigm. A qualitative study seeking the views of legal and medical professionals who practise in this area has been conducted. This incorporated surveys and interviews of 10 legal and 20 medical practitioners. Some of the results are discussed here. Practitioners were asked whether there is a standard approach and whether national guidelines were desirable. There was general agreement that uniform guidelines for the assessment of competence/capacity would be desirable. The interviews also canvassed views as to the state of the relationship between the professions. The results of the empirical research support the hypothesis that relations between the professions could be improved. The development of a national paradigm would promote consistency and transparency of process, helping to improve the professional relationship and maximising the principles of autonomy, participation and dignity.

Entrepreneurial network development as a sign of business emergence

This study aims to explain the entrepreneurial processes as developments of entrepreneurial networks. As a theoretical framework, this study adopts the theory of experimentally organized economy and competence blocs. As suggested by this theory, entrepreneurs select profitable innovations and commercialise them. Through logistic regressions on the subjective and objective dependent variables, we find that nascent firms’ various activities to network customers, innovators, investors, and employees are positively associated with the business emergence. This study identifies the roles of entrepreneurs and the other actors in the entrepreneurial processes.

Why are early maturing girls less active? Links between pubertal development, psychological well-being, and physical activity among girls at ages 11 and 13

Previous research has shown that early maturing girls at age I I have lower subsequent physical activity at age 13 in comparison to later maturing girls. Possible reasons for this association have not been assessed. This study examines girls' psychological response to puberty and their enjoyment of physical activity as intermediary factors linking pubertal maturation and physical activity. Participants included 178 girls who were assessed at age 11, of whom 168 were reassessed at age 13. All participants were non-Hispanic white and resided in the US. Three measures of pubertal development were obtained at age I I including Tanner breast stage, estradiol levels, and mothers' reports of girls' development on the Pubertal Development Scale (PDS). Measures of psychological well-being at ages I I and 13 included depression, global self-worth, perceived athletic competence, maturation fears, and body esteem. At age 13, girls' enjoyment of physical activity was assessed using the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale and their daily minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were assessed using objective monitoring. Structural Equation Modeling was used to assess direct and indirect pathways between pubertal development at age I I and MVPA at age 13. In addition to a direct effect of pubertal development on MVPA, indirect effects were found for depression, global self-worth and maturity fears controlling for covariates. In each instance, more advanced pubertal development at age I I was associated with lower psychological wellbeing at age 13, which predicted lower enjoyment of physical activity at age 13 and in turn lower MVPA. Results from this study suggest that programs designed to increase physical activity among adolescent girls should address the self-consciousness and discontent that girls' experience with their bodies during puberty, particularly if they mature earlier than their peers, and identify activities or settings that make differences in body shape less conspicuous.

Achieving competence: The interactional features of children's storytelling

Early years researchers interested in storytelling have largely focused on the development of children’s language and social skills within constructed story sessions. Less focus has been given to the interactional aspects of storytelling in children’s everyday conversation and how the members themselves, the storytellers and story recipients, manage storytelling. An interactional view, using ethnomethodological and conversation analytic approaches, offers the opportunity to study children’s narratives in terms of ‘members work’. Detailed examination of a video-recorded interaction among a group of children in a preparatory year playground shows how the children managed interactions within conversational storytelling. Analyses highlight the ways in which children worked at gaining a turn and made a story tellable within a round of second stories. Investigating children’s competence-in-action ‘from within’, the findings from this research show how children invoke and accomplish competence through their interactions.

Developing young students’ meta-representational competence through integrated mathematics and science investigations

This paper describes students’ developing meta-representational competence, drawn from the second phase of a longitudinal study, Transforming Children’s Mathematical and Scientific Development. A group of 21 highly able Grade 1 students was engaged in mathematics/science investigations as part of a data modelling program. A pedagogical approach focused on students’ interpretation of categorical and continuous data was implemented through researcher-directed weekly sessions over a 2-year period. Fine-grained analysis of the developmental features and explanations of their graphs showed that explicit pedagogical attention to conceptual differences between categorical and continuous data was critical to development of inferential reasoning.

Perceived quality of e‐health services: A conceptual scale development of e‐health service quality based on the C‐OAR‐SE approach

Purpose Health service quality is an important determinant for health service satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate requirements of e‐health services and to develop a measurement model to analyze the construct of “perceived e‐health service quality.” Design/methodology/approach The paper adapts the C‐OAR‐SE procedure for scale development by Rossiter. The focal aspect is the “physician‐patient relationship” which forms the core dyad in the healthcare service provision. Several in‐depth interviews were conducted in Switzerland; first with six patients (as raters), followed by two experts of the healthcare system (as judges). Based on the results and an extensive literature research, the classification of object and attributes is developed for this model. Findings The construct e‐health service quality can be described as an abstract formative object and is operationalized with 13 items: accessibility, competence, information, usability/user friendliness, security, system integration, trust, individualization, empathy, ethical conduct, degree of performance, reliability, and ability to respond. Research limitations/implications Limitations include the number of interviews with patients and experts as well as critical issues associated with C‐OAR‐SE. More empirical research is needed to confirm the quality indicators of e‐health services. Practical implications Health care providers can utilize the results for the evaluation of their service quality. Practitioners can use the hierarchical structure to measure service quality at different levels. The model provides a diagnostic tool to identify poor and/or excellent performance with regard to the e‐service delivery. Originality/value The paper contributes to knowledge with regard to the measurement of e‐health quality and improves the understanding of how customers evaluate the quality of e‐health services.