Academic rigour in science assessment tasks

The critical problem of student disengagement and underachievement in the middle years of schooling (Years 4 . 9) has focussed attention on the quality of educational programs in schools, in Australia and elsewhere. The loss of enthusiasm for science in the middle years is particularly problematic given the growing demand for science professionals. Reshaping middle years programs has included an emphasis on integrating Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and improving assessment practices to engage students in higher cognitive processes and enhance academic rigour. Understanding the nature of academic rigour and how to embed it in students. science assessment tasks that incorporate the use of ICTs could enable teachers to optimise the quality of the learning environment. However, academic rigour is not clearly described or defined in the literature and there is little empirical evidence upon which researchers and teachers could draw to enhance understandings. This study used a collective case study design to explore teachers' understandings of academic rigour within science assessment tasks. The research design is based on a conceptual framework that is underpinned by socio-cultural theory. Three methods were used to collect data from six middle years teachers and their students. These methods were a survey, focus group discussion with teachers and a group of students and individual semi-structured interviews with teachers. Findings of the case study revealed six criteria of academic rigour, namely, higher order thinking, alignment, building on prior knowledge, scaffolding, knowledge construction and creativity. Results showed that the middle years teachers held rich understandings of academic rigour that led to effective utilisation of ICTs in science assessment tasks. Findings also indicated that teachers could further enhance their understandings of academic rigour in some aspects of each of the criteria. In particular, this study found that academic rigour could have been further optimised by: promoting more thoughtful discourse and interaction to foster higher order thinking; increasing alignment between curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, and students. prior knowledge; placing greater emphasis on identifying, activating and building on prior knowledge; better differentiating the level of scaffolding provided and applying it more judiciously; fostering creativity throughout tasks; enhancing teachers‟ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, and providing more in-depth coverage of fewer topics to support knowledge construction. Key contributions of this study are a definition and a model which clarify the nature of academic rigour.

Shared leadership in Queensland schools : a collective case study

Shared leadership has been identified as a key governance base for the future of government and Catholic schools in Queensland, the state’s two largest providers of school education. Shared leadership values the contributions that many individuals can make through collaboration and teamwork. It claims to improve organisational performance and reduce the increasing pressures faced by principals. However despite these positive features, shared leadership is generally not well understood, not well accepted and not valued by those who practice or study leadership. A collective case study method was chosen, incorporating a series of semi-structured interviews with principals and the use of official school documents. The study has explored the current understanding and practice of shared leadership in four Queensland schools and investigated its potential for use.

On collective unintelligence

The idea of collective unintelligence is examined in this paper to highlight some of the conceptual and practical problems faced in modeling groups. Examples drawn from international crises and economics provide illustrative problems of collective failures to act in intelligent ways, despite the inputs and efforts of many skilled and intelligent parties. Choices made of “appropriate” perceptions, analysis and evaluations are examined along with how these might be combined. A simple vector representation illustrates some of the issues and creative possibilities in multi-party actions. Revealed as manifest (un-)intelligence are the resolutions of various problems and potentials that arise in dealing with the “each and all” of a group (wherein items are necessarily non-parallel and of unequal valency). Such issues challenge those seeking to model collective intelligence, but much may be learned.

System identification and control of an aerobot drive system

Fast thrust changes are important for authoritive control of VTOL micro air vehicles. Fixed-pitch rotors that alter thrust by varying rotor speed require high-bandwidth control systems to provide adequate performace. We develop a feedback compensator for a brushless hobby motor driving a custom rotor suitable for UAVs. The system plant is identified using step excitation experiments. The aerodynamic operating conditions of these rotors are unusual and so experiments are performed to characterise expected load disturbances. The plant and load models lead to a proportional controller design capable of significantly decreasing rise-time and propagation of disturbances, subject to bus voltage constraints.

Disability, deinstitutionalisation and discourse : an analysis of institutional reform policies in Queensland, 1994-1996

The closure of large institutions for people with intellectual disability and the subsequent shift to community living has been a feature of social policies in most western democracies for more than two decades. While the move from congregated settings to homes in the community has been heralded as a positive and desirable strategy, deinstitutionalisation has continued to be a controversial policy and practice. This research critically analyses the implementation of a deinstitutionalisation policy called Institutional Reform in the state of Queensland from May 1994 until it was dismantled under a new government in the middle of 1996. A trajectory study of the policy from early conceptualisation through its development, implementation and final extinction was undertaken. Several methods were utilised in the research including the textual analyis of policy documents, discussion papers and newspaper articles, interviews with stakeholders and participant observation. The research draws on theories of discourse and focuses on how discourses of disability shape policy and practice. The thesis outlines a number of implications for policy implementation more generally as well as for disability services. In particular, the theoretical framework builds on Fulcher's (1989) disabling discourses - medical, charity, lay and rights - and identifies two additional discourses of economics and inclusion. The thesis argues that competing disability discourses operated in powerful ways to shape the implementation of the policy and illustrates how older discourses based on fear and prejudice were promoted to positions of dominance and power.

The body literate: Discourse and inscription in early literacy

The collection will cover all the major fields of discourse studies: including, grammar, stylistics, conversation analysis, narrative analysis, argumentation, psychology of comprehension, ethnography of speaking, and media. It will include classic articles, work from the top scholars in the field, and reflect all the significant debates.

The concept of vulnerability and the protection of human subjects of research

This article provides an overview of the concept of vulnerability through the lens of the U.S. federal regulations for the protection of human subjects of research. General issues that emerge for nurse researchers working with regulated vulnerable populations are identified. Points of current controversy in the application of the regulations and current discourse about vulnerable groups are highlighted. Suggestions for negotiating the tension between federally regulated human subject requirements and the realities of research with vulnerable subjects are given. The limitations of the designation of vulnerable as a protection for human subjects will also be discussed.