MITIE C-Arm - Advanced innovation in education

Aim: In 2013 QUT introduced the Medical Imaging Training Immersive Environment (MITIE) as a virtual reality (VR) platform that allowed students to practice general radiography. The system software has been expanded to now include C-Arm. The aim of this project was to investigate the use of this technology in the pedagogy of undergraduate medical imaging students who have limited to no experience in the use of the C-Arm clinically. Method: The Medical Imaging Training Immersive Environment (MITIE) application provides students with realistic and fully interactive 3D models of C-Arm equipment. As with VR initiatives in other health disciplines (1–2) the software mimics clinical practice as much as possible and uses 3D technology to enhance 3D spatial awareness and realism. The application allows students to set up and expose a virtual patient in a 3D environment as well as creating the resultant “image” for comparison with a gold standard. Automated feedback highlights ways for the student to improve their patient positioning, equipment setup or exposure factors. The students' equipment knowledge was tested using an on line assessment quiz and surveys provided information on the students' pre-clinical confidence scale, with post-clinical data comparisons. Ethical approval for the project was provided by the university ethics panel. Results: This study is currently under way and this paper will present analysis of initial student feedback relating to the perceived value of the application for confidence in a high risk environment (i.e. operating theatre) and related clinical skills development. Further in-depth evaluation is ongoing with full results to be presented. Conclusion: MITIE C-Arm has a development role to play in the pre-clinical skills training for Medical Radiation Science students. It will augment their theoretical understanding prior to their clinical experience. References 1. Bridge P, Appleyard R, Ward J, Phillips R, Beavis A. The development and evaluation of a virtual radiotherapy treatment machine using an immersive visualisation environment. Computers and Education 2007; 49(2): 481–494. 2. Gunn T, Berry C, Bridge P et al. 3D Virtual Radiography: Development and Initial Feedback. Paper presented at the 10th Annual Scientific Meeting of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy, March 2013 Hobart, Tasmania.

A three dimensional virtual medical imaging computed tomography suite: Innovation in education

Aims: The Medical Imaging Training Immersive Environment(MITIE) Computed Tomography(CT) system is an innovative virtual reality (VR) platform that allows students to practice a range of CT techniques. The aim of this pilot study was to harvest user feedback about the educational value of teh application and inform future pedagogical development. This presentation explores the use of this technology for skills training. Background: MITIE CT is a 3D VR environment that allows students to position a patient,and set CT technical parameters including IV contrast dose and dose rate. As with VR initiatives in other health disciplines the software mimics clinical practice as much as possible and uses 3D technology to enhance immersion and realism. The software is new and was developed by the Medical Imaging Course Team at a provider University with funding from a Health Workforce Australia 'Simulated Learning Environments' grant Methods: Current third year medical imaging students were provided with additional 1 hour MITIE laboratory tutorials and studnet feedback was collated with regard to educational value and performance. Ethical approval for the project was provided by the university ethics panel Results: This presentation provides qualitative analysis of student perceptions relating to satisfaction, usability and educational value. Students reported high levels of satisfaction and both feedback and assessment results confirmed the application's significance as a pre-clinical tool. There was a clear emerging theme that MITIE could be a useful learning tool that students could access to consolidate their clinical learning, either on campus or during their clinical placement. Conclusion: Student feedback indicates that MITIE CT has a valuable role to play in the clinial skills training for medical imaging students both in the academic and clinical environment. Future work will establish a framework for an appropriate supprting pedagogy that can cross the boundary between the two environments

A behavioural economics inquiry into inequality in education: Three empirical essays

This thesis investigates behavioural processes for inequality in education and solutions to mitigate such effects, applying conceptual and methodological insights from behavioural and experimental economics. It explores relative age differences in economic preferences of young individuals, the influence of stereotypes and positive discrimination on performance, and evaluates a program that offers strong encouragement for educational achievement of indigenous high school students.

Re-thinking ancillary: Australian screen content in education

The use of Australian screen content in Australian schools and universities is undergoing rapid change due to digital and online distribution capacity on the supply side and digital and online affordance embedded in student cultures. This paper examines the ways in which Australian screen content and its distribution are beginning to adapt to educational usage. Issues facing content rights holders, distribution companies and emerging digital platforms reflect broad-based digital disruption patterns. Learning opportunities that can coincide with the growth in uptake of Australian screen content in Australia's education sector are not immune to the challenges posed by emerging digital consumption behaviours and issues of sustainability. At the same time, the growth in the use of digital and online screen content learning resources, under current copyright conditions, poses significant increases in the underlying cost structure for educational interests. This paper examines the innovations occurring in both the supply and the demand sides of Australian screen content and the expanded learning opportunities arising out of emerging digital affordances. Precedents in the UK are explored that demonstrate how stronger connections can be forged between nationally produced film and media content and a national curriculum. While addressing recent issues arising out of the Australian Law Review Commission's inquiry into copyright in the digital economy, the purpose of this discussion is not to assess policy debates about fair use versus fair dealing. What is clear, however, is that independent research is required that draws upon research-based evidence with an aim to better understanding the needs of the education sector against the transformative shifts taking place in digital-based learning materials and their modes of delivery.

Using Bourdieu in education research: Theory and methods

This workshop will snapshot Bourdieu's sociology. In recognition of Bourdieu's work as a powerful theoretical instrument to speculate the reproduction of social orders and cultural values, the workshop will firstly discuss the core concepts of habitus, capital, and field – the foundational triad of Bourdieu's sociology. Although Bourdieu's original work was built on some quantitative studies, his sociology has been largely qualitatively used in education research. Different from the bulk of extant research, the workshop will secondly showcase some quantitative and mixed methods research that uses a Bourdieusian framework. Mindful of such a framework helping understand social practice at a macro level, the workshop will then make an attempt to think through the macro and the micro by weaving together Bourdieu's sociology with Garfinkel's ethnomethodology. The workshop will conclude with some reflections and communications in terms of how to better realise the full value of Bourdieu in education research.

Investigating early childhood teachers’ understandings of and practices in education for sustainability in Queensland: A Japan-Australia research collaboration

In a study undertaken in Queensland, Australia, analysis of a survey that included both qualitative and quantitative questions revealed that, like their Japanese counterparts, early childhood teachers do not have well-developed ideas and practices in education for sustainability (EfS). Instead, they mainly practise traditional nature-based activities, such as gardening or playing outdoors, and teaching about resource conservation through books, posters or fact sheets. Teachers’ understandings of nature education, environmental education, and education for sustainability seem to influence their educational practices. Deeper understandings about sustainability are necessary to extend beyond such traditional practices. Even though national curriculum frameworks and guidelines point to the importance of sustainability within early childhood curriculum, these appear to be insufficient in strengthening early childhood teachers’ ideas of sustainability and how to practise it effectively. We suggest that it would be beneficial for early childhood teachers, both preservice and inservice, to have professional development opportunities that build deeper understandings of sustainability and its implementation in their settings.

Persistence is fertile: Pushing methodological potentialities in education research

As more is known about contemporary cultural shifts and the effect this has on the young, research must consider how children operate as global citizens. Children are innocent and vulnerable, but also actively participate in the world; research into early childhood must therefore refine ideas and conceptions and develop research methodologies that see children as superdiverse young citizens. Intergenerational collaborative drawing, which involves adult researchers and children drawing together, is a method that supports superdimensions. A group of researchers tested the method to consider the politics of research, particularly when researcher neutrality and the conventions around gathering ‘unsullied’ data are challenged.

Video-stimulated recall in cross-cultural research in education: A case study in Vietnam

This paper examines incorporating video-stimulated recall (VSR) as a data collection technique in cross-cultural research. With VSR, participants are invited to watch video-recordings of particular events that they are involved in; they then recall their thoughts in relation to their observations of their behaviour in relation the event. The research draws on a larger PhD project completed at an Australian university that explored Vietnamese lecturers’ beliefs about learner autonomy. In cross-cultural research using the VSR technique provided significant challenges including time constraints of participants, misunderstandings of the VSR protocol and the possibility of participants’ losing face when reflecting on their teaching episodes. Adaptations to the VSR technique were required to meet the cultural challenges specific to this population, indicating a need for flexibility and awareness of the cultural context for research.

International representations of inclusive education: How is inclusive practice reflected in the professional teaching standards of China and Australia?

Inclusive education focuses on addressing marginalisation, segregation and exclusion within policy and practice. The purpose of this article is to use critical discourse analysis to examine how inclusion is represented in the education policy and professional documents of two countries, Australia and China. In particular, teacher professional standards from each country are examined to determine how an expectation of inclusive educational practice is promoted to teachers. The strengthening of international partnerships to further support the implementation of inclusive practices within both countries is also justified.

Public-private partnerships in ICT for education

A recent World Bank report notes that across the world, per capita economic growth is driven by three information and communication technology (ICT)-related factors: investments in equipment and infrastructure, investments in human capital (i.e. in education and innovation), and efficient use of labour (human resource) and capital that increases productivity (Schware 2005). These three factors have a direct impact on the provisioning of education. For one, the demand to adopt ICT-supported education services, or e-education, is outweighing the capacity of governments to adequately support education reform and expansion.

Education futures : transforming teacher education in the middle years

The young people who populate our classrooms live in a changed and rapidly changing society: a society where information is the most valued commodity and where traditional ‘truth’s such as nation and family are increasingly destabilized and fragmented. Educators at primary, secondary and tertiary level must, with some urgency, address issues relating the emergence of new citizenships and identities, the impact of new technologies and new economies. Our pedagogy and curriculums must be relevant to the need of students now and in the future. The School of Education, The University of Queensland is addressing issues of change, new technologies, new work places, critical citizenry and the need for pedagogical and curriculum innovation through the development of a new Middle Years of Schooling Dual Degree program. This program is designed to equip pre-service teachers to approach pedagogy and curriculum in innovative ways and to challenge them to embrace diversity and change. This paper outlines the key features of the Middle Years of Schooling Dual Degree, identifying a number of innovative approaches to pre-service teacher education.

Engaging with the promises of education : African refugee students in Australian secondary schools

The research reported in this paper investigated the engagement of students who arrived in Australian secondary schools as refugees from Africa. Enrolment of large cohorts of refugees from Africa is a relatively new phenomenon in the English-speaking West. The literature provides evidence that emotional engagement with the promises of schooling is strong for many of the young African refugees. Students envision successful professional careers as doctors, engineers, lawyers, and IT experts; they envision returning to their country as professionals able to help the people. The question investigated in this paper is: How does schooling in Australia impact on young African refugees’ education and career aspirations? Engagement is understood in Bourdieuian terms as dispositions to be and to become an educated person. This is a disposition which entails fundamental belief in the value of the stakes of schooling. The data analysed in the paper were produced in a study undertaken in the state of Queensland where 5000 of the 39 000 African refugees who have arrived in Australia since 2000 have settled. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students and their parents and teachers after arrival in an intensive language school, and then after transition to a regular secondary school. The findings show both the durability and malleability of educational dispositions in conditions of dramatic social change occasioned by refugee experience. Engagement in the stakes of schooling is both built and eroded as students flee their homelands for countries of refuge. Previously unimaginable educational dreams are possible for some; but for others, long-held dreams become unattainable. The paper concludes with recommendations for better supporting young people through this re-shaping of self.