Cracking the language code : NAPLAN numeracy tests in years 7 and 9

Focusing on the use of language is a crucial strategy in good mathematics teaching and a teacher’s guidance can assist students to master the language of mathematics. This article discusses the statements with reference to recent year 7 and 9 NAPLAN numeracy tests. It draws the readers’ attention to the complexities of language in the field of mathematics. Although this article refers to NAPLAN numeracy tests it also offers advice about good teaching practice.

Learning in the global classroom : a guide for students in the multicultural university

This unique and fascinating book is written for tertiary level students in the multi-cultural classroom, whether studying abroad or at home alongside international students. It relates a genuine understanding of the student perspective of learning in a multi cultural classroom, highlighting how students possess different learning styles and attitudes to teaching and learning and demonstrating that students not only face language issues, but also numerous other unanticipated challenges.

Contemporary children's literature and film : engaging with theory

Bringing together the voices of leading and emerging scholars, this book provides critical approaches for reading children's literature and film. It argues for the significance of theory for reading texts written and produced for young people and integrates a wide range of critical perspectives, including schema theory, theories of space and place, cultural globalization, feminism, ecocriticism, adaptation theory, postcolonialism, and posthumanism.

Whole-proteome phylogeny of large dsDNA viruses and parvoviruses through a composition vector method related to dynamical language model

Background The vast sequence divergence among different virus groups has presented a great challenge to alignment-based analysis of virus phylogeny. Due to the problems caused by the uncertainty in alignment, existing tools for phylogenetic analysis based on multiple alignment could not be directly applied to the whole-genome comparison and phylogenomic studies of viruses. There has been a growing interest in alignment-free methods for phylogenetic analysis using complete genome data. Among the alignment-free methods, a dynamical language (DL) method proposed by our group has successfully been applied to the phylogenetic analysis of bacteria and chloroplast genomes. Results In this paper, the DL method is used to analyze the whole-proteome phylogeny of 124 large dsDNA viruses and 30 parvoviruses, two data sets with large difference in genome size. The trees from our analyses are in good agreement to the latest classification of large dsDNA viruses and parvoviruses by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Conclusions The present method provides a new way for recovering the phylogeny of large dsDNA viruses and parvoviruses, and also some insights on the affiliation of a number of unclassified viruses. In comparison, some alignment-free methods such as the CV Tree method can be used for recovering the phylogeny of large dsDNA viruses, but they are not suitable for resolving the phylogeny of parvoviruses with a much smaller genome size.

Autopoiesis, language, literacy and the brain

When we attempt to speak about the relationship between language, literacy, and the brain, we find ourselves ill equipped to deal with these conceptually and qualitatively different phenomena. Immediately we must straddle different academic traditions that treat each of these as separate “things”. Broadly speaking, the study of language firstly belongs to the domain of biology, then to anthropology, sociology, and linguistics. At its most functional, a study of literacy education is a study of a particular technology, its diffusion techniques, and the abilities and motivations of people to adopt, or adapt themselves to, this technology. The brain is most commonly studied in the field of neurology, which is also a sub-discipline of biology, biochemistry, and medicine.

Reflections, successes and pitfalls of coordinating online discussion forums in a foreign language

The advent of e-learning has seen the adaptation and use of a plethora of educational techniques. Of these, online discussion forums have met with success and been used widely in both undergraduate and postgraduate education. The authors of this paper, having previously used online discussion forums in the postgraduate arena with success, adopted this approach for the design and subsequent delivery of a learning and teaching subject. This learning and teaching subject, however, was part of an international collaboration and designed for nurse academics in another country – Vietnam. With the nursing curriculum in Vietnam currently moving to adopt a competency based approach, two learning and teaching subjects were designed by an Australian university for Vietnamese nurse academics. Subject materials constituted a DVD which arrived by post and access to an online platform. Assessment for the subject included (but was not limited to) mandatory participation in online discussion with the other nurse academics enrolled in the subject. The purpose behind the online discussion was to generate discourse between the Vietnamese nurse academics located across Vietnam. Consequently the online discussions occurred in both Vietnamese and English; the Australian academic moderating the discussion did so in Australia with a Vietnamese translator. For the Australian University delivering this subject the difference between this and past online discussions were twofold: delivery was in a foreign language; and the teaching experience of the Vietnamese nurse teachers was mixed and frequently very limited. This paper will provide a discussion addressing the design of an online learning environment for foreign correspondents, the resources and translation required to maximise the success of the online discussion, the lessons learnt and consequent changes made, as well as the rationale of delivering complex content in a foreign language. While specifically addressing the first iteration of the first learning module designed, this paper will also address subsequent changes made for the second iteration of the first module and comment on their success. While a translator is clearly a key component of success, the elements of simplicity and clarity in hand with supportive online moderation must not be overlooked.

Book Review: "Rethinking Learning in Early Childhood Education" written by Nicola Yelland, Libby Lee, Maureen O’Rourke & Cathie Harrison

There is a growing body of work that responds to the impact of the rapid uptake of information and communication technology (ICT) on education (Buckingham, 2003; Cheung, 2003; Cuban, 2003; Leung, 2003; Prensky, 2005; Green & Hannon, 2007; Brooks-Gunn & Donahue, 2008; Lyman et al, 2008). Mostly, this work has been positioned in the context of upper-primary or secondary classrooms. More recently, there has been a growing call for research about the impact of ICT on the early years or in early childhood contexts. This text initiates a response to that call. The authors concur that today’s children are a generation who create, learn, work, play and communicate very differently from their parents and teachers (Buckingham, 2003), and that classroom activity needs to reflect this difference.

Indigenous mathematics : creating an equitable learning environment

This chapter examines how a change in school leadership can successfully address competencies in complex situations and thus create a positive learning environment in which Indigenous students can excel in their learning rather than accept a culture that inhibits school improvement. Mathematics has long been an area that has failed to assist Indigenous students in improving their learning outcomes, as it is a Eurocentric subject (Rothbaum, Weisz, Pott, Miyake & Morelli, 2000, De Plevitz, 2007) and does not contextualize pedagogy with Indigenous culture and perspectives (Matthews, Cooper & Baturo, 2007). The chapter explores the work of a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics from the YuMi Deadly Centre who are turning the tide on improving Indigenous mathematical outcomes in schools and in communities with high numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

Here’s a story : using student podcasts to raise awareness of language

Thirty-five years ago, a landmark article entitled 'What The "Good Language Learner" Can Teach Us' suggested that if more was known about what 'successful learners' did, then those strategies could be taught to poorer learners to enhance learning (Rubin, 1975, p. 42). Since publication of Rubin's article, language instruction has begun to encompass technological applications (Chinnery, 2006) through mobile-assisted language learning (MALL or m-learning) like podcasts. Podcasting extends the classroom, offers convenience for diverse learners, and provides authentic listening opportunities. Although the effects of podcasting in higher education have yet to be investigated (Educause, 2007), this article describes how action research lead to the creation of a student learning strategy webpage featuring peer podcasts and successful language learning strategies in higher education.

Ceremony and cybrary : Digital libraries and the dialectic of place and space

This article examines social, cultural and technological change in the systems and economies of educational information management. Since the Sumerians first collected, organized and supervised administrative and religious records some six millennia ago, libraries have been key physical depositories and cultural signifiers in the production and mediation of social capital and power through education. To date, the textual, archival and discursive practices perpetuating libraries have remained exempt from inquiry. My aim here is to remedy this hiatus by making the library itself the terrain and object of critical analysis and investigation. The paper argues that in the three dominant communications eras—namely, oral, print and digital cultures—society’s centres of knowledge and learning have resided in the ceremony, the library and the cybrary respectively. In a broad-brush historical grid, each of these key educational institutions—the ceremony in oral culture, the library in print culture and the cybrary in digital culture—are mapped against social, cultural and technological orders pertaining to their era. Following a description of these shifts in society’s collective cultural memory, the paper then examines the question of what the development of global information systems and economies mean for schools and libraries of today, and for teachers and learners as knowledge consumers and producers?

Doorway to research : Issues in the development of an interactive website for international graduate students

This paper describes results of a study evaluating the content, functionality and design features of an innovative online website called the Doorway to Research (http://rsc.acid.net.au/Main.aspx) , which was developed to support international graduate students studying at universities in Australia. First, the key features of the website are described. Second, the result of a pilot study involving 12 students and faculty members who tested key aspects of the design, content and functionality of the website and provided written and oral feedback base on task-based questions and focus group discussions are explored. Finally, recommendations for future development are presented. Results of the study indicate general student satisfaction with the website and its design, content and functionality, with specific areas identified for further development.

Recognising Torres Strait Islander women’s knowledges in their children’s mathematics education

This paper discusses women’s involvement in their children’s mathematics education. It does, where possible, focus Torres Strait Islander women who share the aspirations of Aborginal communities around Australia. That is, they are keen for their children to receive an education that provides them with opportunities for their present and future lives. They are also keen to have their cultures’ child learning practices recognised and respected within mainstream education. This recognition has some way to go with the language of instruction in schools written to English conventions, decontextualised and disconnected to the students’ culture, Community and home language.