Primary school teachers' conceptions of pedagogical responses to concepts of diverse sexualities

This thesis reports on a social constructionist study that identified teachers' conceptions of their pedagogical responses to concepts of diverse sexualities in primary schools in Queensland. The study shows that teachers face a range of scenarios in which students raise awareness of diverse sexualities as part of their everyday experiences, yet teachers have little guidance about how to respond.

Understanding preservice teachers’ development of pedagogical knowledge practices when co-teaching primary science to peers

Preservice teachers articulate the need for more teaching experiences for developing their practices, however, extending beyond existing school arrangements may present difficulties. Thus, it is important to understand preservice teachers’ development of pedagogical knowledge practices when in the university setting. This mixed-method study investigated 48 second-year preservice teachers’ development of pedagogical knowledge practices as a result of co-teaching primary science to peers. Data were collected through a survey, video-recorded lessons, extended written responses and researcher observations. The study showed how these preservice teachers demonstrated 9 of 11 pedagogical knowledge practices within the co-teaching arrangement. However, research is needed to determine the level of development on each pedagogical knowledge practice and how these practices can be transferred into authentic primary classroom settings.

An investigation of early career teachers’ perceptions of professional development opportunities and career advancement for teachers in rural and remote Queensland

It is generally accepted that to live and work in the remote regions of Australia requires specific skills and expertise to accommodate the shifting demands of outback life. For professionals assigned to such areas by employing bodies, this is particularly the case, and teachers are no exception. In addition to such personal attributes, professionals such as teachers must maintain currency in their professional practice both to serve their students appropriately and to ensure that they become eligible for future promotions and transfers possibilities. This study investigated whether teachers in rural and remote regions are disadvantaged in ways that could potentially affect their teaching careers in negative ways, in particular in terms of professional development and career advancement opportunities. Such opportunities are crucial if teachers are to provide an education of high relevance to rural and remote children who are already considered to be significantly disadvantaged in terms of educational provision. The data are presented in the form of a single teacher narrative, a composite tale aimed at telling the story of rural and remote teachers, professional development provision and career advancement opportunities. It was apparent that teachers in these contexts face serious challenges in terms of their professional and career development.

The relationship between teachers' perceptions of school leadership and their perceptions of the implementation of the national curriculum

The National Curriculum is a current innovation in Australian schooling history which is likely to have a widespread and long-term impact on schools, teachers and students. This paper has investigated educational change during the early phase of curriculum implementation in a large secondary school, north of Brisbane, Australia. Specifically, this study explored teachers’ perceptions of the principal’s transformational leadership skills during an early stage of the curriculum’s implementation along with teachers’ perceptions of implementing a National Curriculum in their classroom. For this research, sixty-nine teachers were surveyed about their perceptions of their principal’s leadership and their perceptions of the difficulty of implementation of the new curriculum. Findings indicated that teachers with positive perceptions of their principal's leadership also had positive perceptions of their capacity to implement the new National Curriculum. Specifically, teachers who perceived the principal as holding high expectations and providing intellectual stimulation believed they had the capacity to successfully implement curriculum change.

Professional spaces for pre-service teachers: sites of reality, imagination and resistance

Questions about the practicum within teacher education tend to focus on the amount of time allocated to it in programs. In this research, we were interested in the quality of the experience rather than assuming ‘more is better’. To understand what is going on and where, this study focussed on the school and specially the departmental office of room as a site for workplace learning. Using qualitative methods we constructed narratives from the data provided by a cohort of four-year bachelor degree pre-service teachers during and following their final major (10 week)practicum experience. Using theories of spatiality to make sense of the data, we found that the narratives revealed stories of spaces where compliance, disappointment were the key features of the practicum, and where resistance through absence (from the departmental office) was an important strategy to manage the experience. This research challenges the ‘more is better’ argument.

Cross database training of audio-visual hidden Markov models for phone recognition

Speech recognition can be improved by using visual information in the form of lip movements of the speaker in addition to audio information. To date, state-of-the-art techniques for audio-visual speech recognition continue to use audio and visual data of the same database for training their models. In this paper, we present a new approach to make use of one modality of an external dataset in addition to a given audio-visual dataset. By so doing, it is possible to create more powerful models from other extensive audio-only databases and adapt them on our comparatively smaller multi-stream databases. Results show that the presented approach outperforms the widely adopted synchronous hidden Markov models (HMM) trained jointly on audio and visual data of a given audio-visual database for phone recognition by 29% relative. It also outperforms the external audio models trained on extensive external audio datasets and also internal audio models by 5.5% and 46% relative respectively. We also show that the proposed approach is beneficial in noisy environments where the audio source is affected by the environmental noise.

Alternate destinies for survey items destined for the island of misfit toys: An analysis of teachers' perceptions of NAPLAN

This is a methodological paper describing when and how manifest items dropped from a latent construct measurement model (e.g., factor analysis) can be retained for additional analysis. Presented are protocols for assessment for retention in the measurement model, evaluation of dropped items as potential items separate from the latent construct, and post hoc analyses that can be conducted using all retained (manifest or latent) variables. The protocols are then applied to data relating to the impact of the NAPLAN test. The variables examined are teachers’ achievement goal orientations and teachers’ perceptions of the impact of the test on curriculum and pedagogy. It is suggested that five attributes be considered before retaining dropped manifest items for additional analyses. (1) Items can be retained when employed in service of an established or hypothesized theoretical model. (2) Items should only be retained if sufficient variance is present in the data set. (3) Items can be retained when they provide a rational segregation of the data set into subsamples (e.g., a consensus measure). (4) The value of retaining items can be assessed using latent class analysis or latent mean analysis. (5) Items should be retained only when post hoc analyses with these items produced significant and substantive results. These suggested exploratory strategies are presented so that other researchers using survey instruments might explore their data in similar and more innovative ways. Finally, suggestions for future use are provided.

Bhutanese eighth grade students' and teachers' perceptions of their classroom learning environment in relation to the new mathematics curriculum

This thesis examined how Bhutanese eighth grade students and teachers perceived their classroom learning environment in relation to a new standards-based mathematics curriculum. Data were gathered from administering surveys to a sample of 608 students and 98 teachers, followed by semi-structured interviews with selected participants. The findings of the study indicated that participants generally perceived their learning environments favorably. However, there were differences in terms of gender, school level, and school location. The study provides teachers, educational leaders, and policy-makers in Bhutan new insights into students' and teachers' perceptions of their mathematics classroom environments.

How professional development impacts on experienced teachers' perceptions of their ICT practices

Teachers are at the forefront of Information Communication Technology (ICT) use in schools. Teachers face many challenges and competing priorities such as literacy, numeracy and changing curriculum frameworks and are expected to adopt new ICT practices to improve students¿ outcomes. Effective professional development (PD) methods must be identified and implemented. This research examined two core issues: (1) experienced teachers' perceptions of their ICT practices and (2) how PD courses have affected these practices. This case study and its findings has important implications for the implementation of effective PD in schools.

Pre-service teachers’ perceptions of authentic learning in a capstone unit

Capstone units in higher education courses are learning experiences which are designed to bring reflection and focus to a whole course of study while, at the same time, leading students toward their entry into a new world of work (Humphrey, Brown, & Benson, 2005). The capstone experience described in this paper runs as a conference, called the Stepping Out Conference. The conference is delivered as one unit and is mandatory for all fourth year pre-service teachers. Participation in a capstone unit is an effective way for students to begin thinking of themselves as teaching professionals rather than as continuing students. Students engage in the assessment as part of their capstone experience. The assessment is designed to measure students’ knowledge and skills as they relate to ‘authentic’ real life situations (Darling-Hammond, 1991). This paper details pre-service teachers’ experiences of authentic learning through their participation in a capstone unit.

Surveying the field: Primary school teachers’ conceptions of the literacy capabilities of recently graduated primary school teachers

In 2015, ALEA National Council provided funds to support the implementation of a research project which was undertaken by a group of teacher educators and researchers from a range of universities across three Australian states. Stage one of the project, which is reported on here, examined primary school teachers’ perceptions of the personal and professional literacy capabilities of recently graduated primary school teachers. This stage of the project also examined primary school teachers’ perceptions of the impact of initial teacher education on the personal and professional literacy capabilities of recently graduated primary school teachers. The project team, led by Associate Professor Beryl Exley (Queensland University of Technology), included Chief Investigators Dr Eileen Honan (The University of Queensland), Associate Professor Lisa Kervin (University of Wollongong), Associate Professor Alyson Simpson (University of Sydney) and Dr Muriel Wells (Deakin University), with Dr Sandy Muspratt as the Statistical Analyst and Lesley Friend as the Research Assistant with primary responsibility for the publication of the online survey.

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.

Teachers reporting suspected child sexual abuse : results of a three-state study

Over 3000 cases of child sexual abuse are identified every year in Australia, but the real incidence is higher still. As a strategy to identify child sexual abuse, Australian States and Territories have enacted legislation requiring members of selected professions, including teachers, to report suspected cases. In addition, policy-based reporting obligations have been developed by professions, including the teaching profession. These legislative and industry-based developments have occurred in a context of growing awareness of the incidence and consequences of child sexual abuse. Teachers have frequent contact and close relationships with children, and possess expertise in monitoring changes in children’s behaviour. Accordingly, teachers are seen as being well-placed to detect and report suspected child sexual abuse. To date, however, there has been little empirical research into the operation of these reporting duties. The extent of teachers’ awareness of their duties to report child sexual abuse is unknown. Further, there is little evidence about teachers’ past reporting practice. Teachers’ duties to report sexual abuse, especially those in legislation, differ between States, and it is not known whether or how these differences affect reporting practice. This article presents results from the first large-scale Australian survey of teachers in three States with different reporting laws: New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia. The results indicate levels of teacher knowledge of reporting duties, reveal evidence about past reporting practice, and provide insights into anticipated future reporting practice and legal compliance. The findings have implications for reform of legislation and policy, training of teachers about the reporting of child sexual abuse, and enhancement of child protection.