The rigour of IFRS education in the USA: analysis, reflection and innovativeness

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are accepted throughout the world, particularly in the European Union, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Emerging economies are also are aligning their practices with IFRS. Historically, the USA has been cautious about accepting IFRS. However, following acceptance of IFRS worldwide, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has recently allowed the filing of IFRS-based financial statements from foreign issuers and is presently considering the same from domestic issuers. Owing to lack of IFRS education and training in the country, concerns have been expressed about such moves of the USA towards IFRS. Following such concerns, the aim of the present study is to review previous literature on IFRS education to reflect on the present status of IFRS education in the USA. The research method includes a review of past literature on IFRS education in the Business Source Complete database from 2001 to 2012. In line with the review, this study reports that active learning approaches that stimulate critical thinking and judgement skills of students are the best methods to teach IFRS. The studies reviewed also report the lack of teaching materials, including software and technologies, to effectively teach IFRS. The only active learning strategies advocated in previous studies were the use of case studies and real life examples. Additionally, this study advocates the use of problem-based learning strategies. This study also reports the lack of research investigating students’ and educators' perceptions of available resources and approaches. Future studies are suggested in this direction, employing surveys and interviews.

Early childhood teachers' perspectives on and experience of multicultural education

The multicultural nature of early childhood services in New Zealand is highlighted by the statistical reality that 22 percent of children are Māori, 7 percent are Pasifika, and 11 percent are Asian and other non-European/Pākehā ethnicities. Multicultural early childhood education has become a vital practice underpinning educational reforms. This is evident in a range of government initiatives including, for example, building partnerships with whānau Māori to improve Māori success in education, introducing equity funding to reduce educational disparities between different community groups, and developing a Pasifika Education Plan that improves Pasifika children’s educational achievement. In this article, multicultural education is examined, considering early childhood teachers’ perspectives and experiences through the lens of Sleeter and Grant’s five approaches to multicultural education. The findings suggest that the teachers’ focus on children, culture, and community building drives their endeavours, and indicate that the use of a social reconstructionist approach has the potential to lead to transformative changes to multicultural education.

The discourse of public education: an urban campaign for a local public high school in Melbourne, Victoria

This paper explores the metonymic slippage surrounding the discourse of public education, through observations and interviews with Lawson High School active campaigners in the state of Victoria, Australia. The notion of campaigning for public education has become an ever-present issue on an international scale, and this article aims to contribute qualitative knowledge regarding the key concepts that lobbyists produce and articulate within their meetings concerning public education. Data have been obtained through direct participatory observation within a contextually specific campaigning site, lobbyists' publications and one-on-one interviews with active campaigners. Findings indicate that campaigners present distinct conceptualisations of public education as a discourse and a well-defined model of their school-of-choice.

Incorporating new technology into the delivery of property education

Property education has changed substantially in Australia in recent years. Whilst there has been an increase in the number of courses being offered in property education, the profile of a typical student has also changed. Property students are under increasing pressure to balance study and work due to the higher cost of living and the associated cost of education. This in turn has placed pressure on the education system to deliver property in a manner which meets the needs of the industry and the students. At the same time, there has been a marked increase in the use of technology in the business and corporate world which has resulted in increased efficiencies. This paper critiques the potential for a property education course to embrace new technology rather than 100% face-to-face teaching and only paper-based assignments. The focus is placed on the delivery of material and the interaction between the students, the lecturing staff and the wider community. Using the new Deakin property course as a case study approach, the emphasis is placed on pushing the boundaries of the conventional property education process, including the delivery of property lectures, assignment submission and assessment, as well as the overall communication process. The findings conclude that by embracing technology in a property course, there can be a 'win-win' scenario for the students, the staff and the industry stakeholders. Whilst different property courses embrace varying levels of technology, it seems inevitable that we must continue to evolve the delivery of property education in order to become efficient and effective over the long-term.

Investigating the effectiveness of teacher education for early career teachers in diverse settings: the longitudinal research we have to have

There have been more than 100 reports focusing on the effectiveness of teacher education in Australia over the last 35 years with many positioning teacher education as flawed and in need of reform. These frequent criticisms have drawn attention to the difficulty teacher educators can experience when trying to interrupt or contest this representation: a situation not unique to Australia. In the United States, for example, Pam Grossman has suggested that those in teacher education “seem ill prepared to respond to critics who question the value of professional education for teachers with evidence of our effectiveness” (Grossman in J Teach Educ 59(1):10–23, 2008). A key question facing teacher educators, therefore, concerns the kinds of research that will most effectively allow us to lead debates about teacher preparation. This paper outlines an approach to the conceptualization and conduct of research into the effectiveness of teacher education that seeks to move debates in new directions. Drawing upon the theoretical resources of Soja (Thirdspace: journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places, 1996) and Lefebre (The production of space, 1991) we outline the ways in which a spatial approach to conceptualizing teacher education influenced the design and conduct of a large scale, longitudinal project that investigated the question of the effectiveness of teacher education in Australia. In exploring the design features of this ARC linkage grant the paper demonstrates how research changes when teacher education is conceptualised from a spatial point of view and illustrates the ways in which consideration of the conceived, perceived and lived spaces of teacher education can move research about effectiveness into new directions.

The implications of contractualism for the responsibilisation of higher education

Within the context of heightened perceptions of risk within thehigher education sector worldwide, responsibility for outcomes isincreasingly required not only of universities but, also, ofindividual academics. In turn, contracts have become a key formof governance for institutions in mediating and modulating thisrisk and responsibility. While much writing around the use ofcontracts in higher education has focused on market-based,competitive neoliberal conceptions of contractualism, thisarticle argues that there are, in fact, two largely antagonisticnew modes of contractualism – market contractualism andrelational contractualism – and a third, residual mode, paternalcontractualism. These three modes of contractualism coexistwithin universities, in tension. The article draws on two Australianexemplars to highlight how these tensions play out and tohighlight the potential for contractualism to create spaces forshared goals and projects and shared risks resulting from theways in which responsibility and individual agency are negotiated.

Cultural influence on global assessment of higher education service quality: The case of Central Queensland University, Australia

© 2014 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. This study compares students' cultural influence on global assessment of higher education service quality. In particular, this study surveyed the full-time students (that is at least 24 credit points of study in a semester) studying at the Central Queensland University (CQU), Australia. CQU has ten campuses and is one of the largest universities in Australia, with more than 14,000 students, in which 3,000 students are enrolled as full-time students and 11,000 as part-time students. An online survey was undertaken, and 227 responses from full-time students were returned for data analysis. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to determine valid and reliable dimensions of perceived service quality. Tests of differences such as ANOVA and t-test were conducted to examine the differences of perceived service quality in terms of four cultural dimensions; namely, power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity. Findings show that different cultures perceive service quality differently; especially administrative service quality and physical facilities service quality.