An evaluation of a project-based learning initiative in engineering education

Project-based learning (PBL) is a well-known methodology for engineering design education due to a number of benefits it is claimed to offer. This paper presents the initial offering of a first-year engineering PBL unit at Griffith University in Australia. An evaluation of student perceptions of the unit revealed that students generally enjoyed the experience, with the oral presentation aspect receiving the lowest satisfaction rating. There was no significant difference in the ratings between any demographic grouping, suggesting that all students were able to participate in, and experience, the unit in essentially the same way. The best aspects of the unit and those aspects needing improvement were similar to the findings of other investigations documented in the literature. It is proposed that future offerings of the unit will reduce the number of design projects from three to two per semester and will attempt more sophisticated individualisation of marks for group work activities.

Using action research to improve the quality of teaching in basic education in remote schools in PNG.

This paper discusses the use of action research with teachers in remote primary schools in PNG to provide sustainable professional learning to help improve the quality of schooling. It arises from an ADRA research project being undertaken by the authors. The paper describes the project’s research design and its implementation to investigate the introduction, implementation and feasibility of teachers using action research to solve their own problems related to providing basic education in remote communities. If successful, action research may prove to be an effective approach to sustaining professional learning communities in locations where traditional approaches and means of professional development are difficult or impossible to sustain.

The paper describes the research team’s approach to identifying and engaging schools in remote districts of Western and East Sepik provinces, surveying teachers in those districts about their professional learning needs and circumstances, identifying schools to trial action research, and to undertake the fieldwork to implement action research and to study its implementation. The teachers’ experiences with using action research are presented in the context of their particular research topics chosen for their school. To date, the findings suggest that teachers can use action research to help them improve the quality of the education they provide for children. However, the initiation and sustainability of such an action research approach is influenced by the capacities and commitment of head teachers and standards officers, in particular, valuing and understanding reflective practice and action research for professional learning in school communities.

A life in environmental education : an autobiographical case study

This thesis reveals that context can be used as a tool to explore the connections, interpretations and meanings individuals assign to their existence and unique constructions of reality. Effective and transformative environmental education is dependent on a deeper understanding and examination of these unique existential and contextual forces.

Exploring the development and assessment of work-readiness using reflective practice in construction education.

It is well known that the construction industry is characterized by the need for practical knowledge and skill. However, this creates special challenges for universities in the development of work readiness in graduates. This research investigates the attitudes of students towards a course which was designed to develop work-readiness skills in construction management. The paper focuses on the distinctive issues associated with Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) using a formally assessed industry-mentored course of study. Past research shows that university degrees should promote reflective thinking since, in construction, it is necessary to make reflective judgements which deal with ill-defined problems. This is a generic capability that is needed by all graduates in knowledge-based occupations. The study utilized reflective practice to examine the perceptions of construction management students towards the development of attributes which were known to improve work skills. The students were asked to capture their reflections on their experiences in the form of reflective diaries, which were prepared weekly throughout the course. The results showed that the students expressed very positive views about their learning experiences. This occurred in spite of the challenges caused by the formal assessment processes that were undertaken as part of the course. This paper compares the student perceptions with the teachers’ reflections on the ability of traditional assessment methods to measure graduate attributes and work-readiness. The research explores the issues associated with assessing work-readiness skills in higher education. The findings suggest that student reflection is a necessary precondition to the development of effective work-readiness. In addition, the research concludes that more nontraditional assessment approaches are needed in construction programmes in order to develop the type of graduate required by the industry.

Kinetically controlled homogenization and transformation of crystalline fiber networks in supramolecular materials

Supramolecular materials with three-dimensional fiber networks have applications in many fields. For these applications, a homogeneous fiber network is essential in order to get the desired performance of a material. However, such a fiber network is hard to obtain, particularly when the crystallization of fiber takes place nonisothermally. In this work, a copolymer is used to kinetically control the nucleation and fiber network formation of a small molecular gelling agent, N-lauroyl-L-glutamic acid di-nbutylamide (GP-1) in benzyl benzoate. The retarded nucleation and enhanced mismatch nucleation of the gelator by the additive leads to the conversion of a mixed fiber network into a homogeneous network consisting of spherulites only. The enhanced structural mismatch of the GP-1 during crystallization is quantitatively characterized using the rheological data. This effect also leads to the transformation of an interconnecting (single) fiber network of GP-1 into a multidomain fiber network in another solvent, isostearyl alcohol. The approach developed is significant to the production of supramolecular materials with homogeneous fiber networks and is convenient to switch a single fiber network to a multidomain network without adjusting the thermodynamic driving force.

Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) adsorption in tertiary wastewater treatment : experiments and models

Wastewater treatment has always been a major concern in the developed countries. Over the last few decades, activated carbon adsorption has gained importance as an alternative tertiary wastewater treatment and purification process. In this study, granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption was evaluated in terms of total organic carbon (TOC) removal from low strength synthetic wastewater. This paper provides details on adsorption experiments conducted on synthetic wastewater to develop suitable adsorption isotherms. Although the inorganics used in the synthetic wastewater solution had an overall unfavourable effect on adsorption of organics, the GAC adsorption system was found to be effective in removing TOC from the wastewater. This study showed that equation of state (EOS) theory was able to fit the adsorption isotherm results more precisely than the most commonly used Freundlich isotherm. Biodegradation of the organics with time was the most crucial and important aspect of the system and it was taken into account in determining the isotherm parameters. Initial organic concentration of the wastewater was the determining factor of the model parameters, and hence the isotherm parameters were determined covering a wide range of initial organic concentrations of the wastewater. As such, the isotherm parameters derived using the EOS theory could predict the batch adsorption and fixed bed adsorption results of the multi-component system successfully. The isotherm parameters showed a significant effect on the determination of the mass transfer coefficients in batch and fixed bed systems.

Courting kazaa : judicial approaches towards P2P networks in the US and Australia

As with the litigation involving its predecessor Napster, cases involving the Australian based P2P service Kazaa and its US licensees Grokster and Morpheus required from the courts to balance the legitimate interests of the computer industry and the public in new and advanced technologies on the one hand and of so-called "content providers " of the media and entertainment industry on the other hand. The article examines, how US and Australian courts have approached this task and, in spite of differences in the legal frameworks of the two countries, have reached similar conclusions.

Mobility, aspiration, voice : a new structure of feeling for student equity in higher education

There is a changed ‘structure of feeling’ emerging in higher education systems, particularly in OECD nations, in response to changed social, cultural and economic arrangements. Taking a student equity perspective, the paper names this change in terms of ‘mobility’, ‘aspiration’ and ‘voice’. It argues that (1) new kinds and degrees of mobility are now a significant factor in sustaining unequal access to and experience of higher education for different student groups, (2) despite government and institutional aspirations to expand higher education, students' desires for university are not a given among new target populations and (3) while universities are seeking to enroll different students in greater numbers, the challenge now is how to give greater voice to this difference. Drawing on these themes of mobility, aspiration and voice and taking recent changes to higher education policy in Australia as the case, the paper presents a new conceptual framework for thinking about student equity in HE. The framework extends from established approaches that focus on barriers to accessing higher education in order to focus on people's capacities in relation to higher education participation.