Enabling organisational cultural change using systemic strategic human resource management - a longitudinal study

The paper reports on a longitudinal assessment of sustained organizational cultural change in the Australian Taxation Office. Results from a major action research change project are provided. A clear finding from this research is that the cultural change had been sustained through the systemic application of strategic human resource management.

Using professional atandards : assessing work integrated learning in initial teacher education

All Australian teacher education programs must include practical experience--the practicum. It is a critical part of learning to become a teacher.  One of the major challenges in initial teacher education is to provide good quality assessment of the practicum.  Assessing the practicum is filled with tension for both the individual supervisor as well as the pre-service teacher. In 2011 the Australian National Professional Standards for Teachers were established.  On completion of teacher education programs, graduate teachers will have gained the knowledge and practice to meet the seven national standards.  For teacher preparation programs, the successful implementation of the standards will rely on the opportunities for preservice teachers to gather evidence of achieving the standards. This project focussed specifically on evidence of achievements of these standards through assessment practices during practicum.
The overall aim of this project was to enhance the academic and school-based teacher educators' and preservice teachers' capacities and understandings of assessing the practicum.  To achieve this aim, four outcomes were developed to provide professional leaning for improving the assessment practices of the practicum: a website resource, a collaborative partnership process, a professional learning model (PLM) and a developmental 'inventory' of evidence of achievement of the first five national standards.  The website resource provides materials and activities for staff involved in the design of professional experience in initial teacher education programs, to work with partner schools and preservice teachers to facilitate high quality supervision and assessment in practicum sites.  The collaborateive partnership process used for achieving these soutcomes -- communities of reflective practitioners--is integral to the professional learning focus of the project.  It guides the use of the resource in future teacher education sites of practice.  The professional learning model and website materials emphasise the critical role that evidence-informed judgements play at school sites in learning and assessment of future teachers.

Self-education expenses: some thoughts for taxpayers and their advisers

With the advent of another tax year, the nature and form of self-education expenses come to mind. The income tax return for individuals makes a perceived distinction between forms of education for tax purposes but it may not be that clear for taxpayers and their advisers. Item D4 of the individual tax return allows for taxpayers to make a claim for work related self education expenses that relate to formal qualifications from a school, college or university. The individual tax return implies that there is a distmction between formal self-education and informal self-education. However when one looks at the relevant Australian Tax Office (ATO) material, this distinction could easily be over-looked.

Planning for country: empowering built environment students with Indigenous protocols and knowledge

Increasingly, Built Environment (BE) professionals, including planner, architect and landscape architect practitioners, are becoming involved in the planning and design of projects for, and in direct consultation with Indigenous communities and their proponents. These projects range from inserting Indigenous cultural landscape analysis into planning schemes, including Indigenous protocols and aspirations in policy statements; designing cultural centres, information centres and housing; drafting cultural tourism strategies and devising cross-cultural land management plans. This entails working with Indigenous communities or their nominated representatives as stakeholders in community engagement, consultation, and planning processes. Critically, BE professionals must be able to plan and design with regard to Indigenous community’s cultural protocols, issues and values. Yet many (domestic and or international) students graduate with little or no comprehension of Indigenous knowledge systems or the protocols for engagement with the communities in which they are required to work, whether they be Australian or international Indigenous communities. Contextually, both PIA and the planning academe have struggled with coming to terms with this realm over the last 10 years. This paper will report on a recently completed Australian Government Office of Learning & Teaching (OLT) funded research project that has sought to improve opportunities to improve the knowledge and skills of tertiary students in the BE professions through the enhancement of their competency, appreciation and respect for Indigenous protocols and processes that also implicates the professional accreditation systems that these courses are accountable. It has proposed strategies and processes to expose students in the BE professions to Australian Indigenous knowledge and cultural systems and the protocols for engaging with Indigenous Australians about their rights, interests, needs and aspirations. Included in these findings is the provision of a tool that enables and offers guidance to BE tertiary students and academics how to enhance comprehension, exposure to, and knowledge and cultural systems of, Indigenous Australians. While the scope of this report is cross-BE, this paper will focus upon the planning practice, policy and academe realms.

Visualising data in digital cinema studies: more than just going through the motions?

This article examines the critical role visualisation plays for digital cinema studies and proposes that cinema studies has an equally critical role to play in evaluating and developing visualisation methods. The article reflects on work undertaken in the Kinomatics Project, a multidisciplinary study that explores, analyses and visualises the industrial geometry of motion pictures and which is one of the first “big data” studies of contemporary cultural diffusion. Its examination of global film flow rests on a large dataset of showtime information comprising more than 330 million records that describe every film screening in forty-eight countries over a thirty-month period as well as additional aggregated box-office data.

Understanding global student mobility: exploring new ways of capturing international experiences using in-county overseas students

Australian universities have large numbers of overseas students who do not engage meaningfully with local students about their international experience. The objective of this research, an initiative that was part of a project funded by Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), entitled the Global Canopy, was to develop pedagogy to promote local students’ awareness about international study based on an in-country teaching program. The research study aimed to develop new knowledge about how domestic students understand global mobility through interacting with international students enrolled in the same university. The initiative included two workshops that brought together a number of project team members, three overseas students and academic staff mentors, representatives from Deakin Global Student Mobility office, and 31 undergraduate domestic students. Data was collected from a series of in-depth interviews with students involved in the program. Initial findings suggested that the workshops were successful, with 12 undergraduate students enrolled in winter schools in India after completion of the program. The paper concludes with lessons learned from the initiative and calls for exploring new ways of identifying international experiences that can be facilitated within discipline curriculum of the home university.

School-based pedagogies and partnerships in primary science teacher education: the Science Teacher Education Partnerships with Schools (STEPS) project

The STEPS project responds to international concern about primary teachers' lack of science knowledge and confidence to teach science, and recent questioning of the effectiveness of traditional approaches to teacher education.It will review and build on established, innovative and successful practices at five universities, to develop and promote a framework supporting school-based approaches to pre-service teacher education.The models involve partnerships between universities and primary schools to engage pre-service primary teachers in classroom teaching and learning that effectively connects theory with practice.Through critical appraisal of these and similar models, the project will identify key features of the approach and the critical success factors required to establish and maintain strong working relationships with schools and build student capacity.The principles, framework, and resources together with exemplifying case studies, will be designed and disseminated to promote uptake of these innovative practices in the sector.This website documents the nature of the project, the emerging Interpretive Framework, principles and resources, case studies, and other project outputs.

Out of touch

In June 2016, an Australian on minimum wage earned $656.90 per week. That is $34,159 a year, before tax. According to the Australian Tax Office’s ‘simple tax calculator’, the tax owed would be $3030, leaving a take-home salary of $31,128. Let’s call it $600 a week.It’s fair to say that many of us would struggle to make ends meet on that income – $600 a week does not go very far in modern Australia.

Educating for design teamwork: what do students think of current teaching practice?

This paper examines the role of teachers in facilitating effective team functioning and supporting student teams. The study draws upon the qualitative data from a survey completed by design students in 18 Australian Higher Education Institutions. The survey was administered in 2012-2013 as part of a project funded by Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching1, “Enhancing and Assessing Group and TeamLearning in Architecture and Related Design Contexts”2 , and addressed questions about students’ perceptions and experiences of teamwork in design. Students commented about how their teachers could have better designed team assignments. Drawing upon the major themes emerged from these comments, the paper concludes with recommendations on how these findings may inform teaching and assessment of teamwork in design.

Sustainability and within use office building adaptations : a comparison of Dutch and Australian practices

Local Authorities worldwide are encouraging adaptation as a means of reducing building related urban energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The City of Melbourne is promoting the retrofit of 1,200 CBD properties before 2020 with sustainability measures as part of their policy to become a carbon neutral city. Australian cities date from 1837 to the present day whereas some European cities have been inhabited for over two millennia. The concepts of adaptation and evolution of buildings and suburbs is well developed in Europe, though the scale of some of the post war developments has created different forms of building perhaps less adaptable or suited to change. The need to adapt buildings and to reduce environmental footprints becomes more pressing over time as global concentrations of carbon dioxide increase. Is it possible for Europeans to learn from Australian practices and vice averse? Through examination of office building adaptation in Melbourne and Amsterdam, it is possible to learn where similarities and differences exist and where new practices can be shared.

This paper addressed the questions; What are the key attributes influencing adaptations in Melbourne and Amsterdam office buildings, and what are the similarities and differences? Using the Melbourne CBD and Amsterdam as a case study, the research analysed 7393 commercial building adaptations in Melbourne and 98 office buildings in Amsterdam where adaptations were completed. The outcomes of this research show where similarities and differences exist and are relevant to all urban areas where adaptation of existing office buildings can mitigate the impacts of climate change and enhance the city for another generation of citizens and users.