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.

Incorporating community history into urban redevelopment

A community history project must be relevant to each person within it so that they see themselves as part of the socio-cultural fabric of the area and feel a sense of ownership of their environment. The Mill Albion community history project is a diverse, multi-layered public history/art program that captures the social heritage of The Mill Albion and allows the community to contribute to their ongoing history. The Albion Flour Mill was built in 1930 at a time when Australia was feeling the effects of its worst economic depression and continued operations for more than 72 years. After ceasing operation in 2005 the site was left to deteriorate. The FKP Property Group purchased the land to undertake a new urban redevelopment project, drawing on the design principles of a traditional ‘village’, while valuing the importance of remembering the community that once included the Flour Mill. This paper reflects on the this project and showcases some of the culturally creative ways this community’s history was told, using methods such as digital stories, contemporary and historical photography and oral history.

Settlement geography of African refugee communities in Southeast Queensland : an analysis of residential distribution and secondary migration

Before 2001, most Africans immigrating to Australia were white South Africans and Zimbabweans who arrived as economic and family-reunion migrants (Cox, Cooper & Adepoju, 1999). Black African communities are a more recent addition to the Australian landscape, with most entering Australia as refugees after 2001. African refugees are a particularly disadvantaged immigrant group, which the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (in the Community Relations Commission of New South Wales, 2006) suggests require high levels of settlement support (p.23). Decision makers and settlement service providers need to have settlement data on the communities so that they can be effective in planning, budgeting and delivering support where it is most needed. Settlement data are also useful for determining the challenges that these communities face in trying to establish themselves in resettlement. There has been no verification of existing secondary data sources, however, or previous formal study of African refugee settlement geography in Southeast Queensland. This research addresses the knowledge gap by using a mixed-method approach to identify and describe the distribution and population size of eight African communities in Southeast Queensland, examine secondary migration patterns in these communities and assess the relationship between these geographic features and housing, a critical factor in successful settlement. Significant discrepancies exist between the primary data gathered in the study and existing secondary data relating to population size and distribution of the communities. Results also reveal a tension between the socio-cultural forces and the housing and economic imperatives driving secondary migration in the communities, and a general lack of engagement by African refugees with structured support networks. These findings have a wide range of implications for policy and for groups that provide settlement support to these communities.

Ubiquitous eco cities : telecommunication infrastructure, technology convergence and urban management

Efficient and effective urban management systems for Ubiquitous Eco Cities require having intelligent and integrated management mechanisms. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated, transparent and open decision-making system and necessary infrastructure and technologies. In Ubiquitous Eco Cities telecommunication technologies play an important role in monitoring and managing activities via wired and wireless networks. Particularly, technology convergence creates new ways in which information and telecommunication technologies are used and formed the backbone of urban management. The 21st Century is an era where information has converged, in which people are able to access a variety of services, including internet and location based services, through multi-functional devices and provides new opportunities in the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities. This chapter discusses developments in telecommunication infrastructure and trends in convergence technologies and their implications on the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities

Reverse immigration

This book (256 pages, written in Korean) is a critical essay that reviews, questions, and criticises Korean and Eastern immigrants’ thinking and behaviour styles in Australia from their cultural perspectives, and discuss and proposes a creative cultural dimension for their better life in a multicultural context. Multiculturalism is not supportive of Eastern cultures because of individualistic collection of cultures, while transculturalism facilitates nurture of their culture in a community-oriented way within multicultural circumstances. Korean and Eastern immigrants, sharing oriental cultural systems and values, should approach to the Australian multicultural context with transculturalism which allows creating new cultural values in collaboration with and by participation into local communities. ------------------------------------------------------------ Many Eastern immigrants live in their own ethnic communities without or less interacting with Australian (communities). The author defines this phenomenon as “reverse immigration”. Reverse immigration refers to re-immigrating to their ethnic community in Australia or to their birth country despite they did not anticipate that this would happen to them before immigration to Australia. The author argues that Easterners’ collectivistic culture often devalues individuality and vice versa. Cultural clash between West and East often forces the immigrants to choose reverse immigration because of their lack of understanding of Western culture and their cultural characteristics such as low individuality, high power distance, and high uncertainty avoidance. For example, a vague boundary between individualist and collectivist in a collectivistic context (within their ethnic group) often leads to maladjustment to local communities and enhancement of cultural conservatism. The author proposes that the cultural clash can be overcome by cross-cultural activities named “transculturalism”. To Eastern immigrants, transculturalism can be achieved by acculturation of their two predominant cultures, the third-person perspective and generalised others. In a multicultural context, the former refers to the ability to share another person's feelings and emotions as if they were your own, and the latter does the ability to manage community and public expectations. When both cultural values are used for quality interactions between East and West, they allow Eastern immigrants to be more creative and critical and Australian to be more socially inclusive and culturally tolerant. With these discussions, the author discusses cultural differences throughout the book with four topics (chapters) and proposes transculturalism as a solution to the reverse immigration. ------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 1 criticises Koreans’ attitudes and methods towards learning English that is less pragmatic and practical, but more likely to be a scholarly study. The author explains that Koreans’ non-pragmatic towards learning English has been firmly built based on their traditional systems and values that Koreans view English as a discipline and an aim of academic achievements rather than a means of communication. Within their cultural context, English can be perceived as more than a language, but something like vastly superior to their language and culture. Their collectivistic culture regards English as an unreachable and heterogeneous one that may threaten their cultural identity, so that “scholarly studying” is only the way to achieve (not learn) it. This discourages the immigrants to engage and involve in daily dialogues by “using” English as a second language. The author further advises the readers to be aware of Eastern collectivistic culture in communication and interaction that sometimes completely reverses private and public topics in a Western context. This leads them to feel that they have no content to talk to natives. ------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 2 compares between Korea and Australia in terms of their educational systems and values, and proposes how Eastern overseas students can achieve critical and creative thinking within a Western educational setting. Interestingly, this chapter includes an explanation of why Eastern overseas students easily fail assessments including essay writing, oral presentations and discussions. One of the reasons the author explains is that Eastern students are not familiar to criticise others and think creatively, especially when they recognise that their words and ideas may harm the collectivistic harmony. Western educational systems focuses on enhancement of individuality such as self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-expression, while Eastern educational systems foster group-oriented values such as interpersonal relationship, and strong moral and spiritual values. Yet, the author argues that the collectivistic approach to criticism and creativity is often more critical and creative than Western individuals when they know what they are supposed to do for a group (or a community). Therefore, Eastern students need to think their cultural merits and demerits by using an individual perspective rather than generalised others’ perspective. The latter often discourages individual participation in a community, and the generalised others in a Western culture is weaker than Eastern. Furthermore, Western educational systems do not educate students to transform (loose) their individuality to fit into a group or a community. Rather they cultivate individuality for community prosperity. ------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 3 introduces various cases of reverse immigration in workplaces that many immigrants return to their country or their ethnic community after many trials for acculturation. Reverse immigration is unexpected and not planned before immigration, so that its emotional embarrassment increases such severe social loneliness. Most Eastern immigrant workers have tried to adjust themselves in this new cultural environment at the early stages of immigration. However, their cultural features of collectivism, high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, and long-term oriented cultures suppress individual initiative and eliminate the space for experiments in ways of acculturation. The author argues that returning to their ethnic community (physically and psychologically) leads to two significant problems: their distorted parenting and becoming more conservatives. The former leads the first generation of immigrants to pressure their children to pursue extrinsic or materialist values, such as financial success, fame and physical appearance, rather than on intrinsic values, while the latter refers to their isolated conservative characters because of their remoteness from the changes of their own country. The author also warns that their ethnic and religious groups actively strengthens immigrants’ social loneliness and systematically discourages immigrants’ interests and desire to be involving into local communities. The ethnic communities and leaders have not been interacting with Australian local communities and, as a result, are eager to conserve outdated cultural systems values. Even they have a tendency to weed out those people who wish to settle down within Australian local communities. They believe that those people can threaten their community’s survival and continuity. ------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 4 titled multiculturalism argues that Korean and Eastern immigrants should more precisely understand Australia as a multicultural society in a way of collaboratively creating new cultural values. The author introduces multiculturalism with its definitions and history in Australia and argues the limitations of multiculturalism from an Easterner’s perspective. With well known tragedies of the second generations of U.S. immigrants, Cho Seung-Hui, a university student, massacred 32 people on the Virginia Tech before committing suicide and Hidal Hassan, an Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people at Fort Hood and the responses of ethnic community, the author explains that their mental illness may be derived from their parents’ (or ethnic group) culturally isolated attitude and socially static viewpoint of U.S. (Western system and values). The author insists that multiculturalism may restrict Eastern immigrants’ engagement and involvement in local communities. Multiculturalism has been systematically and historically developed based on Western systems and cultural values. In other words, multiculturalism requires high self-confidence and self-esteem that Eastern immigrants less prioritise them. It has been generally known that Easterners put more weight on human relationship than Westerners, but the author claims that this is not true. Within an individualistic culture, Westerners are more interested in building person-to-person connections and relationships. While Easterners are more interested in how individuals can achieve a sense of belonging within a group and a community. Therefore, multiculturalism is an ideology which forces Eastern immigrants to discard their strong desire to be part of a group and does not give a sense of belonging. In a consequence, the author advises that Eastern immigrants should aim towards “transculturalism” which allows them to actively participate in and contribute to their multicultural community. Transculturalism does not ask Easterners to discard their cultural values, but enables them to be a collectivistic individualist (a community leader) who is capable of developing new cultural values in a more creative and productive way. Furthermore, transculturalism encourages Western Australians in a multicultural context to collaborate with ethnic minorities to build a better community.

The play's the thing? : Hamlet, Slings & Arrows, and the authority of theatrical consumption

This paper reads season 1 of the critically-acclaimed Canadian television series “Slings & Arrows” (2003). This six-episode series is set in a fictionalised version of the Stratford Festival, and tells the story of a plagued production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It follows the play’s rehearsal after the death of the festival’s artistic director; Geoffrey Tennant (himself a plagued Hamlet) takes over the role of director, and must face his past in order to produce a Hamlet that will save the festival, redeem his reputation, and repair his interpersonal relationships. Drawing on popular and theatrical understandings of Shakespeare’s play, the series negotiates tropes of metatheatre, filiality, cultural production and consumption, in order to demonstrate the ongoing relevance and legitimacy of “Shakespeare” in the twenty-first century. The “Slings & Arrows” narrative revolves around the doubled-plot of Hamlet and the experiences of the company mounting Hamlet. In quite obvious ways, the show thus thematises ways in which Shakespeare can be used to read one’s own life and world. In the broader sense, however, the show also offers theatre/performance as a catalyst for affect. In doing so, the show functions as a relatively straight adaptation of Hamlet, and a metatheatrical/metafictional commentary on the functions of Hamlet within contemporary culture. In Shakespeare’s play, the production of “The Mouse-Trap” proves, both to Hamlet and the audience, the legitimacy of the ghost’s claims. Similarly, in “Slings & Arrows”, the successful performance of Hamlet legitimises Geoffrey’s position as artistic director of the festival, and affirms for the viewer the value of Shakespearean production in contemporary culture. In each text, theatre/performance enables and legitimises a son carrying out a dead father’s wishes in order to restore or reproduce socio-cultural order. The metatheatrics of these gestures engage the reader/viewer in a self-reflexive process whereby the ‘value’ of theatre is thematised and performed, and the consumer is positioned as the arbiter and agent of that value: complicit in its production even as they are the site of its consumption.

A comparative knowledge-based urban development analysis : Vancouver, Melbourne and Manchester vs. Boston

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to introduce a knowledge-based urban development assessment framework, which has been constructed in order to evaluate and assist in the (re)formulation of local and regional policy frameworks and applications necessary in knowledge city transformations. Design/methodology/approach - The research reported in this paper follows a methodological approach that includes a thorough review of the literature, development of an assessment framework in order to inform policy-making by accurately evaluating knowledge-based development levels of cities, and application of this framework in a comparative study - Boston, Vancouver, Melbourne and Manchester. Originality/value - The paper, with its assessment framework, demonstrates an innovative way of examining the knowledge-based development capacity of cities by scrutinising their economic, socio-cultural, enviro-urban and institutional development mechanisms and capabilities. Practical implications - The paper introduces a framework developed to assess the knowledge-based development levels of cities; presents some of the generic indicators used to evaluate knowledge-based development performance of cities; demonstrates how a city can benchmark its development level against that of other cities, and; provides insights for achieving a more sustainable and knowledge-based development.

Sapporo World Window : urban interaction through public and private screens

This paper introduces Sapporo World Window, a screen-based application that is currently under development for the new underway passage at the centre of Sapporo City. There are ten large public screens installed in the space, displaying user-generated videos about various aspects of the city and a real-time map that visualises users’ interaction with the city. The application aims to engage the general public by functioning as a unique ‘point of connection’ for socio-cultural and technological interactions, making the space a lively social place where people can have meaningful experiences of interacting with people and places of Sapporo through mobile phones (keitai) and the public screens in the space. This paper first outlines the contextual background and key concept for the application’s design. Then the paper discusses the user interaction processes, technical specifications, and interface design, followed by the conclusions and outlook.

Developing a motorcycle and scooter safety compendium for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

Motorcycle and scooter crashes are significant contributors to road trauma in many low, medium and high income countries. The APEC Transportation Working Group has commissioned CARRS-Q to develop a compendium of best practice measures that can be used to reduce crashes, post-crash trauma and associated socio-economic costs. The compendium will be informed by findings from a literature review and an expert survey. The literature review examined motorcycle and scooter safety usage and fatalities along with socio-cultural factors which might influence safety in each economy. A discussion is provided regarding the processes involved in the expert survey and how this might be integrated with the findings from the literature review. The implications for developing the compendium are discussed as is the next step of a workshop to further disseminate findings. This will enable the identification of important motorcycle safety issues in APEC economies and implications for implementation of countermeasures.

Ubiquitous eco cities : infrastructure, technology and management

Efficient and effective urban management systems for Ubiquitous Eco Cities require having intelligent and integrated management mechanisms. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated, transparent and open decision-making system and necessary infrastructure and technologies. In Ubiquitous Eco Cities telecommunication technologies play an important role in monitoring and managing activities via wired and wireless networks. Particularly, technology convergence creates new ways in which information and telecommunication technologies are used and formed the backbone of urban management. The 21st Century is an era where information has converged, in which people are able to access a variety of services, including internet and location based services, through multi-functional devices and provides new opportunities in the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities. This chapter discusses developments in telecommunication infrastructure and trends in convergence technologies and their implications on the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities.

Age and gender differences in ambulance utilisation in Queensland

Introduction Queensland has the highest ambulance utilisation (150 per 1000 population) in Australia and growing 4.4% annually. However, the impact of gender and age on utilisation is unknown. Methods & Materials Data on ambulance utilisation from Queensland Ambulance Service for the period 2002-2009 were analysed. Results Between 2002 and 2009, the number of ambulance patients per 1000 population increased overall by 17% (females) and 18% (males). The utilisation rate remained highest among the elderly but grew differently across age groups. For females, the rates were 55% (0-14yo), 73% (15-29yo), 38% (30-44yo), 22% (45-59yo), -9% (60-74yo) and -6% (75,+ yo); for males they were 48%, 59%, 38%, 17%, -13% and -2% respectively. Within the same age groups and period, the population adjusted number of males per 100 females (M:F ratio) changed from 134 to 128 (-5% growth), 98 to 91 (-8%), 101 to 100 (-0.4%), 115 to 111 (-3%), 114 to 108 (-5%) and 106 to 111 (4%). Conclusion Understanding the impact of patients’ demographic profiles on service utilisation and broader effects on the emergency health system is imperative for policy-making, demand management, designing public health campaigns and health promotions. Gender and age characteristics of ambulance users in Queensland appear to be changing most noticeably in the youngest and oldest groups. Physical and mental health, attitudinal, lifestyle, parenting, financial and socio-cultural reasons may account for these trends, but little evidence exists. A theoretical framework will be discussed to contextualise the findings.

The variant concept of transportation disadvantaged : evidence from Aydin, Turkey and Yamaga, Japan

Transportation disadvantaged groups, in the previous studies, are defined as those who are low income earners, family dependent, limited access to private motor vehicles and public transport services, and also those who oblige to spend relatively more time and money on their trips. Additionally those disable, young and elderly are considered among the natural groups of transportation disadvantaged. Although in general terms this definition seems correct, it is not specific enough to become a common universal definition that could apply to all urban contexts. This paper investigates whether travel difficulty perceptions vary and so does the definition of transportation disadvantaged in socio-culturally different urban contexts. For this investigation the paper undertakes a series of statistical analysis in the case study of Yamaga, Japan, and compares the findings with a previous case study, where the same methodology, hypothesis, and assumptions were utilized in a culturally and demographically different settlement of Aydin, Turkey. After comparing the findings observed in Aydin with the statistical analysis results of Yamaga, this paper reveals that there can be no explicitly detailed universal definition of transportation disadvantaged. The paper concludes by stating characteristics of transportation disadvantage is not globally identical, and policies and solutions that work in a locality may not show the same results in another socio-cultural context.

Managing ubiquitous eco cities (管理信息全方位生态城市)

Efficient and effective urban management systems for Ubiquitous Eco Cities require having intelligent and integrated management mechanisms. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated, transparent and open decision making mechanism and necessary infrastructure and technologies. In the Ubiquitous Eco Cities, telecommunication technologies plan an important role in monitoring and managing activities over wired, wireless and fibre-optic networks. particularly technology convergence creates new ways in which the information and telecommunication technologies are used and formed the back bone or urban management systems. The research paper reports and introduces recent approaches on urban management systems, such as intelligent urban management systems, that are suitable for Ubiquitous Eco Cities.

Rethinking global media : creative diversity and media dispersal

Communications media have been central to globalizing processes in modern societies. As technological forms, communication media have long extended the transmission of messages across space in ways that challenge the socio-cultural dimensions of the nation-state and national cultures, and the global communications infrastructure that has developed rapidly since the 1980s has further promoted global information flows and cross-border commercial activity. As institutional and organisational forms through which information and content is produced and distributed, media corporations have been at the forefront of international expansion of their market reach and the development of new sites of production and distribution, and media industries are highly dynamic on a global scale. Finally, as cultural forms, or providers of the informational and symbolic content that is received and used by consumers/audiences/users, global media constitute a core means through which people make sense of events in distant places, and the information and images that they carry are central to the existence of common systems of meaning and understanding across nations, regions and cultures.

Minority activism : trends informing political participation across Australian communities

In the late 1990’s, intense and vigorous debate surrounded the impact of minority communities on Australia’s mainstream society. The rise of far-right populism took the stage with the introduction to the political landscape of Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party, whilst John Howard’s Liberal-National Coalition Government took the fore on debate over immigration issues corresponding with an influx of irregular arrivals. In 2001, following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States of America and subsequent attacks on western targets globally, many of these issues continued to be debated through the security posturing that followed. In recent years, much effort has been afforded to countering the threat of terrorism from home grown assailants. The Government has introduced stringent legislative responses whilst researchers have studied social movements and trends within Australian communities, particularly with respect to minorities. In 2008, the Scanlon Foundation, in association with Monash University and various government entities, released its findings into its survey approach to mapping social cohesion in Australia. It identified a number of spheres of exploration which it believed were essential to measuring cohesiveness of Australian communities generally including, economic, political and socio-cultural factors (Markus and Dharmalingam, 2008). This doctoral project report will explore the political sphere as identified in the Mapping Social Cohesion project and apply it to identified minority ethnic communities. The Scanlon Foundation project identified political participation as one of a number of true indicators of social cohesion. This project acknowledges that democracy in Australia is represented predominantly by two political entities representing a vast majority of constituents under a compulsory voting regime. This essay will identify the levels of political activism achieved by minority ethnic communities and access to democratic participation within the Australian political structure. It will define a ten year period from 1999 to 2009, identifying trends and issues within minority communities that have proactively and reactively promoted engagement in achieving a political voice, framed within a mainstream-dominated political system. It will research social movements and other influential factors over that period to enrich existing knowledge in relation to political participation rates across Australian communities.