Statistics critical in securing our food supply

“World food security … is at its lowest in half a century,” wrote Julian Cribb FTSE, a wellknown consultant in science communication and founding editor of www.sciencealert. com.au in the lead article in the 2008 ATSE Focus magazine issue entitled “Food for the world: the nation’s challenge”. Food security continues to be a key national and international concern and it is pleasing to see this issue of Focus again exploring aspects of the topic with the aim of continuing to raise awareness of issues and influencing relevant policy decisions. Statistics (or statistical science, more broadly) has been critical to the information and decision-making value chain needed to optimise agriculture and the food supply chain. The key steps are most often addressed by multidisciplinary research groups including statisticians in collaboration with life and physical scientists, agri-industry personnel and other relevant stakeholders.

Information literacy and the serious leisure participant : variation in the experience of using information to learn

This thesis examines, by way of phenomenographic methodology, the qualitatively different ways in which people engaged in Serious Leisure activities (within the area of 'heritage') experience information literacy. The study identified the presence of four distinct categories of information literacy experience, each with variation in regard to the serious leisure participant's experience of learning and information. In addition it also identified the existence of a further dimension of variation pertaining to the way in which individual identity is experienced during engagement with a serious leisure activity.

Children's advertising literacy for advergames : perception of the game as advertising

This study examined whether children recognized advergames as a type of advertising and the efficacy of an advertising literacy program. Results indicated that without the advertising literacy education, about three-quarters of the children did not recognize advergames as a type of advertising. However, those with advertising literacy education showed a significantly enhanced understanding. Also, a series of mediation tests showed that recognition of advertising was an indirect-only mediator between the advertising literacy and skeptical attitudes toward advertising. Only those who viewed the advergame as a type of advertising demonstrated more skeptical attitudes toward it.

Web professionals : how do they experience information literacy?

This phenomenographic research investigated variation in web professionals' understanding of information literacy. The outcome is of value for the education of practitioners both in the areas of information literacy, and web design and development. Analysis of 23 in-depth interviews with web workers from different stages of web design and development process revealed that they experience information literacy as staying informed, building a successful website, solving a problem or participating in a community of practice. The present research advances the existing understanding of the concept of information literacy, especially in an occupational context. Additionally, using the web professionals' world as the context of the study, the research also contributes to the field of website design and development by shedding light on less-researched experiences of people involved in this industry.

Globalisation and national curriculum reform in Australia : the push for Asia literacy

This chapter explores the policy context for the push for a national curriculum and the inclusion of Asia literacy for schooling in Australia in the light of current links between globalisation, education and policy analysis and the notion of the learning/knowledge society of the twenty-first century. It is anticipated that discussion of the Australian context will be insightful for those other nations concerned with positioning Asia in school curricula, including for example, New Zealand, Canada, USA and UK. In doing so, the chapter considers the challenges to the implementation of Asia literacy in Australia with specific reference to current and future teachers for, as with many nations, the teaching profession in Australia is on the cusp of generational change as large numbers of teachers aged in their mid to late fifties embark on retirement (Teaching Australia, 2007). A major challenge in addressing these demographic shifts in Australia, lies with meeting the demand for replacement teachers and preparing future teachers (Skilbeck, & Connell, 2004; McKenzie, 2012) with Asia-related knowledge.

Language and literacy in mathematics: stepping stones or stumbling blocks in accelerating junior-secondary students

The authors have collaborated in the development and initial evaluation of a curriculum for mathematics acceleration. This paper reports upon the difficulties encountered with documenting student understanding using pen-and-paper assessment tasks. This leads to a discussion of the impact of students’ language and literacy on mathematical performance and the consequences for motivation and engagement as a result of simplifying the language in the tests, and extending student work to algebraic representations. In turn, implications are drawn for revisions to assessment used within the project and the language and literacy focus included within student learning experiences.

Sustainability literacy of older people in retirement villages

With many developed countries experiencing the aging of the population, older people play a large role in contributing to environmental problems but also to environmental solutions. The purpose of this research is to understand the awareness and behavior of current older people living in retirement villages towards sustainability development. To achieve this, a sustainability literacy survey was conducted with 65 older residents of a private retirement village located 10 Km outside the Brisbane, Australia’s central business district (CBD). Most of residents recognized the importance of environment protection and would like to lead a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. In addition, the majority were willing to pay higher prices for a living environment with sustainable features. The importance of positive social communications was emphasized with most residents having established good relationships with others in the village. The findings provide an important insight into consumer perspectives regarding the sustainable features that should and can be incorporated into the village planning and development.

Conceptualisation and enactment of critical literacy for senior high school EAL learners in Queensland, Australia : commitments, constraints and contradictions

This case study examined four teachers' understandings and teaching of Critical Literacy with senior English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners in two Queensland high schools. Despite continuous, rapid curriculum change in Australia and efforts to diminish Critical Literacy, the four teachers continued to feature it successfully in their teaching with often marginalised learners. They used critical literacy to provide access to and critique dominant language codes, and to draw on learners' diverse experiences. To a lesser extent, the teachers created opportunities for redesigning dominant texts. Implications are important for policy production and interpretation, school planning and teacher professional development.

The contribution of three components of nutrition knowledge to socio-economic differences in food purchasing choices

Objectives: To assess socio-economic differences in three components of nutrition knowledge, i.e. knowledge of (i) the relationship between diet and disease, (ii) the nutrient content of foods and (iii) dietary guideline recommendations; furthermore, to determine if socio-economic differences in nutrition knowledge contribute to inequalities in food purchasing choices. Design: The cross-sectional study considered household food purchasing,nutrition knowledge, socio-economic and demographic information. Household food purchasing choices were summarised by three indices, based on self-reported purchasing of sixteen groceries, nineteen fruits and twenty-one vegetables. Socio-economic position (SEP) was measured by household income and education. Associations between SEP, nutrition knowledge and food purchasing were examined using general linear models adjusted for age, gender, household type and household size. Setting: Brisbane, Australia in 2000. Subjects: Main household food shoppers (n 1003, response rate 66?4 %), located in fifty small areas (Census Collectors Districts). Results: Shoppers in households of low SEP made food purchasing choices that were less consistent with dietary guideline recommendations: they were more likely to purchase grocery foods comparatively higher in salt, sugar and fat, and lower in fibre, and they purchased a narrower range of fruits and vegetables. Those of higher SEP had greater nutrition knowledge and this factor attenuated most associations between SEP and food purchasing choices. Among nutrition knowledge factors, knowledge of the relationship between diet and disease made the greatest and most consistent contribution to explaining socio-economic differences in food purchasing. Conclusions: Addressing inequalities in nutrition knowledge is likely to reduce socio-economic differences in compliance with dietary guidelines. Improving knowledge of the relationship between diet and disease appears to be a particularly relevant focus for health promotion aimed to reduce socio-economic differences in diet and related health inequalities.

Literacy report 2008 [2008 futureSACE School to Work Innovation Program]

This project was designed to support high school teachers in participating schools to work with students whose literacy proficiency in key elements of the literacy component of the Year 9 LaN tests were in the low bands. -- p. 5.

Literacy and numeracy project: Final report 2009

Literacy and numeracy are critical for young people during and after their schooling. The subjects and courses that students undertake during their school years incorporate a range of academic literacy and numeracy practices which students must be able manage if they are to be successful. Pathways beyond schooling also require specific, and changing, understandings of, and proficiencies with, literacy and numeracy as new communication technologies increasingly impact on further study, work, and everyday life. Teaching and learning numeracy is a new emphasis in the SACE and as yet we have little understanding about the ways in which secondary schools handle this area. Students in Years 10 and 11 are at a crucial point in their educational and life pathways as they begin to refine their future aspirations. For those who have difficulty with academic literacies and numeracies – and often a long history of such problems – this period can be fraught unless teachers are able to provide specific support when it is needed, or students are able to access it from care-givers or community members. The School to Work Literacy and Numeracy Project involved teachers from nine schools across the three sectors and university researchers working together to design curriculum interventions for students with a history of low measurable achievement in literacy and/or numeracy. The project started from the premise that working with ‘rich tasks’, an approach to learning and assessment developed in the Productive Pedagogies work undertaken in Queensland (Hayes et al., 2006), would improve students’ motivation, engagement and learning and that this work could best be done by teachers working in school-based, cross-curriculum teams with a school leadership team member and a university researcher as mentor. A key idea in designing rich tasks is that students will have opportunities to demonstrate their learning in assessments which are aligned with the learning expectations (for example a film festival to publicly launch student-produced films, advertising to sell student-made cubby-houses, a household budget based on students’ likely incomes in future work). In other words the assessments should be designed to allow for authentic communication and displays of what the students have learned through serious engagement with the curriculum. The project was conducted from Term 1-4 2009, with follow-up checks with some project teachers in the early weeks of 2010.

Afterschool MediaClub: Critical literacy in a high diversity, high poverty urban setting

In this chapter we present analyses of data produced with young people in an afterschool digital literacy program for 9 – 12 year olds. The young people were students at a high diversity, high poverty outer suburban elementary school in Queensland, Australia. The club was part of the URLearning research project (2010-14). In the classroom-based component of the project we worked with teachers to develop intellectually substantive and critical digital literacy practice. MediaClub was in some ways complementary to the classroom component; it was designed to skill up interested kids as digital media experts not only for their families and communities, but also for the classroom. Given the critical literacy traditions established in Australian schools, we approached MediaClub with certain critical expectations. In this chapter we look at what ensued, highlighting unanticipated critical outcomes at a time of heightened struggle over English curriculum. Critical literacy has been part of official English curriculum in Queensland since the early 1990s. The approach has been primarily text analytic, concerned with giving students access to genres of power and tools for understanding the ideological work of language through text. Many ideas for translating this normative critical project into classroom practice have been developed for use from the earliest elementary grades onwards. However, curricular space for critical literacy is under pressure. Amongst other things, this reflects both the development of Australia’s first national curriculum and the construction of a regimen of national literacy testing. At MediaClub we found a certain resistance to learning activities which were “too much like school”. However, in a context of increased control of teachers’ and students’ work in the classroom, MediaClub evolved as a learning space that can be understood in critical terms. Our experience in this regard might be of interest to teachers and researchers in high diversity high poverty settings that are strongly controlled through increasingly prescriptive – even scripted – pedagogies.