The role of communication in meeting MPA objectives

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) play an important role in conserving the marine environment. An integral part of managing MPAs is communicating to its users and the broader community the existence of the park and its regulations. In two studies looking at the Victorian Marine National Parks and Sanctuaries it was found that there was a low level of awareness of the parks existence [1]. Television news was found in both studies to account for the majority of respondents awareness yet television advertisements were the main media used to inform the community, along with signage at parks and sanctuaries [2].

Education and communication are the main ways that management agencies inform the broader community about the parks and the regulations governing their management. They are generally directed at two main groups: formal education within schools and universities and communication towards the wider community. Communicating to the broader community the existence of an MPA is achieved through signs, brochures, self guided or ranger walks. These are developed by education experts within management agencies. Yet little is known of the public’s level of knowledge about MPAs or the marine environment. Therefore, our research aims to discover the communities existing knowledge of MPAs and the marine environment and how this can help create effective communication strategies. This research focuses on the public who use MPAs and the wider community in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.

Teaching literacy in the new media age through the arts

Many school literacy practices often ignore youths' creativity in the 'new media age'. School curricula often do not acknowledge the range of skills adolescents acquire outside formal education. Youths' new multi- modal social and cultural practices - as they fashion themselves creatively in multiple modes as different kinds of people in 'New Times' - points to the liberating power of new technologies that embrace their imagination and creativity. In two middle years classes, adolescents' creativity was recognised and validated when they were encouraged to re-represent curricular knowledge through multi-modal design (New London Group 1996). The results suggest the changed classroom habitus produced new and emergent discursive and material practices where creativity emerges as capital in an economy of practice. Recommendations are put forth for schools to recognise adolescents' creativity - that often manifests itself through their cultural and social capital resources - as they integrate and adapt to the new affordances acquired through their out-of-school literacy practices.

Arts leadership : case studies of Vietnamese arts managers

Since the economic reform in Vietnam in 1986, the arts community has had more opportunity to develop, given greater artistic and financial autonomy. In this context it has become necessary for arts leaders to develop management skills to adapt to a new competitive context. This has become more important since the Vietnamese government sought to relieve the problem of inadequate state funding for arts organisations through its policy of socialisation (self-finance). In this research, a case study approach was employed, using judgmental sampling. Arts administrators involved with managing large performing arts organisations in Vietnam, were interviewed in-depth. The findings of this study indicate that formal education and training in arts management is required to provide arts managers with modern arts management skills, in order both to smooth the process of becoming more self sustaining, and subsequently to take advantage of this new context. In addition, arts leaders in Vietnam need to adopt the role of an entrepreneur, to adapt and manage performing arts organisations, given the pressure of global economics and culture.

Gender and national identity : the people's theatre in the Philippines (1967-2000)

The Philippine Education Theater Association (PETA), the People’s Theatre in the Philippines was founded within the bounds of the nationalist leftist tradition. Its origin therefore determines to a great extent the contours of the discourse on the feminist movement in the Philippines, its participation within the cultural movement and the founding years of the pioneering People’s Theatre in the country. As a grass roots theatre from a Third World nation, the PETA theatre model responded to the needs in raising socio-political and economic consciousness and can therefore serve as an alternative tool to formal education for other Third World countries. This thesis argues, the People’s Theatre development is determined within the matrix of gender, class, politics and the nationalist movement to which it is intertwined or inextricably linked. The feminist, nationalist and radical movements have become superimposed upon the history of the People’s Theatre and have nurtured its development as a consciousness raising educational tool.

Public and stakeholder values and knowledge of wildlife in Victoria, Australia

Prompted by a lack of human dimensions research in Australia, this study investigated the values and knowledge relating to wildlife held by members of the public within distinct demographic subsets of the Victorian population and members of wildlife management stakeholder groups; and compared these characteristics with how Victorian wildlife managers perceive these groups. A combination of semi-structured interviews and postal questionnaires were used. Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted to explore how wildlife managers perceive the values and knowledge of wildlife held by members of various subsets of the Victorian population. A total of 1,431 questionnaires were completed by members of 13 public and stakeholder groups throughout Victoria, and these were analysed to explore values and knowledge relating to wildlife in Victoria. The findings of this study suggest that Victorian people have a strong emotional attachment to individual animals (the humanistic value), and an interest in learning about wildlife (the curiosity/learning/interacting value). The dominionistic/wildlife-consumption, utilitarian-habitat, aesthetic and negativistic values were not expressed by the majority of respondents from the public samples. The data also suggest that Victorian people have relatively low levels of factual knowledge about Australian wildlife. Thus, wildlife managers should expect support for wildlife management objectives that reflect the strong humanistic orientation of Victorians and tailor management and education programs to appeal to this value and Victorians' interest in learning about wildlife. Members of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (FNCV), Bird Observers Club of Australia (BOCA), Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) stakeholder groups and management agency Parks Victoria expressed a strong interest in learning about wildlife. Members of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) obtained high humanistic value scores; and members of the Victorian Field and Game Association (VFGA) obtained high domimomstic/wildlife-consumption value scores. Importantly, the humanistic and curiosity/learning/interacting values were the most strongly expressed values in all six groups and these values could be the key to more effective communication and collaboration between groups. Relationships between demographic factors, and values and knowledge relating to wildlife were found. For example, rural Victorians held a stronger dominionistic/ wildlife-consumption value than urban Victorians; females held stronger humanistic, curiosity/learning/interacting and negativistic values than males; young Victorians (18-34 years) held a lower curiosity/learning/interacting value and lower factual knowledge of wildlife than older Victorians; and more highly educated Victorians were more knowledgeable about wildlife than people with less formal education. No statistically significant differences were found between the values and knowledge of wildlife held by different income classes. While relationships between demographic factors, and values and knowledge relating to wildlife were found, they were generally much smaller than expected based on wildlife managers' perceptions and previous research. For example, the results suggest that Victorian females have a slightly stronger humanistic value of wildlife than males do. However, the important message emerging from the data is that males and females both express a strong emotional attachment to individual animals. Importantly, the results indicate that the effects of demographic factors on values and knowledge relating to wildlife are not always consistent across different geographic locations and stakeholder groups. For example, the slightly stronger interest in learning about wildlife among females when compared with males was observed in the rural and urban-fringe samples but not in the urban samples. This suggests that caution must be used when generalising the findings from human dimensions studies from one type of community or stakeholder group to another. Management programs should be tailored to the specific characteristics of the target audience. The findings also indicate that Victorian wildlife managers have diverse perceptions about the values and knowledge of wildlife held by members of different publics and stakeholder groups, and that the perceptions held by wildlife managers are not always consistent with the actual values and knowledge of wildlife held by members of different publics and stakeholders. For example, counter to the perceptions expressed by the interviewed wildlife managers, the interest in and factual knowledge of wildlife held by members of voluntary conservation groups equalled or surpassed that of wildlife managers; young Victorian adults (18-34 years) held a slightly lower curiosity/learning/interacting value and slightly lower level of factual knowledge of wildlife than older Victorians; and rural and urban communities in Victoria held low dominionistic and utilitarian values. Such discrepancies highlight the importance of investigating the actual values and knowledge held by members of such groups, so that appropriate and effective wildlife management programs can be implemented. Inaccurate perceptions and assumptions may contribute to ineffective communication between managers, stakeholders and publics; and adversely effect the success of wildlife management programs.

The clinical utility of a suite of continence assessment tools for use in residential aged care facilities

According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 80% of direct care in nursing homes in the USA is provided by workforce that has least formal education about patient care (1). This situation is echoed in Australian residential aged care facilities where the day-to-day management is largely provided by unregulated workers (i.e. nursing assistants, personal carers and nursing aides) and is overseen by registered nurses. Some facilities additionally have access to expert advice from continence nurse advisors. In order to assist the residential aged care workforce to provide continence care that is evidence-based, a team of researchers developed and trialled a suite of continence assessment tools that were mainly targeted to unregulated workers. This paper presents information on the development of the tools (Stage 1) and on their evaluation (Stage 2).

Economic implications of obesity among people with atherothrombotic disease

Objective: The purpose of this study was to ascertain the impact of obesity on the cost of disease management in people with or at high risk of atherothrombotic disease from a governmental perspective using a bottom-up approach to cost estimation. In addition, the aim was also to explore the causes of any differences found.

Method: The health-care costs of obesity were estimated from 2819 participants recruited into the nationwide Australian REACH Registry with established atherothrombotic disease or at least three risk factors for atherothrombosis. Enrollment was in 2004, through primary care general practices. Information was collected on the use of cardiovascular drugs, hospitalizations and ambulatory care services. Bottom-up costing was undertaken by assigning unit costs to each health-care item, based on Australian Government-reimbursed figures 2006-2007. Linear-mixed models were used to estimate associations between direct medical costs and body mass index (BMI) categories.

Results: Annual pharmaceutical costs per person increased with increasing BMI category, even after adjusting for gender, age, living place, formal education, smoking status, hypertension and diabetes. Adjusted annual pharmaceutical costs of overweight and obese participants were higher (7 (P0.004) and 144 (0.001), respectively) than those of the normal weight participants. This was due to participants in higher BMI categories receiving more pharmaceuticals than normal weight participants. There was no significant change across the BMI categories in annual ambulatory care costs and annual hospital costs.

Conclusion: In these participants with or at high risk of atherothrombotic disease, annual pharmaceutical costs were greater in participants of higher BMI category, but there was not such a gradient in the annual hospital or ambulatory care costs. The greater cardiovascular pharmaceutical costs for participants of higher BMI categories remained even after adjusting for a range of demographic factors and comorbidities. Our results suggest that these costs are explained by the higher number of drugs used among people with atherothrombotic disease. Further investigation is needed to understand the reasons for this level of drug use.

Visual impairment and eye care among Alaska native people

Purpose: To estimate the prevalence of visual impairment, eye disease and eye care in the Alaska Native (AN) population, by demographic and socioeconomic factors.

Methods: Population-based cross-sectional study of 3,793 AN adults aged 18–94 years enrolled in the Education and Research Towards Health (EARTH) Study from March 2004–March 2006. Data on self-reported visual impairment, cataract, glaucoma, diabetic eye disease and previous dilated eye examinations were collected using audio computer-assisted self-administered questionnaires.

Results: The unadjusted prevalence of self-reported visual impairment was 8.7% (95% confidence interval (CI): 7.9–9.7), cataract 5.9% (95% CI: 5.2–6.7), glaucoma 2.5% (95% CI: 2.0–3.0) and diabetic eye disease 1.3% (95% CI: 0.9–1.7). In all cases, age-sex adjusted prevalence estimates for the AN population were greater than available estimates for the general U.S. population. Prevalence of visual impairment and each eye disease increased with age (P < 0.01). Additional factors associated with visual impairment were education and annual household income. Overall, 70.0% (95% CI: 68.5–71.6) of participants reported a dilated eye examination within the previous two years. Dilated eye examination within the previous two years was associated with increasing age (P < 0.001). However, men and participants with lower formal education were less likely to report recent dilated eye examination. Among those with diabetes, only 67.7% (95% CI: 60.8–74.1) reported a dilated eye examination within the recommended previous one year.

Conclusions: Self-reported visual impairment, cataract, glaucoma and diabetic eye disease are prevalent in the AN population. These data may be useful in healthcare planning and education programs.

Letters to a young scientist by Edward O. Wilson : interview

I am an early- to mid-career researcher, and Letters to a Young Scientist struck a chord with me from the very first page. The journey from amateur enthusiast to professional scientist is an exciting, challenging and often difficult one, and Edward Wilson - a Pulitzer prizewinner and one of the world's greatest entomologists - is well qualified to guide and advise the new generation. Written as a collection of letters filled with anecdotes and well-considered advice, this book is inspired by the author's experience of the journey from being a young boy enthused by ants to an eminent scholar. Like many in his field, Wilson's education began when he was a child fascinated by insects in the garden (my own summers spent excavating ant nests feel somewhat validated). He traces his progression through formal education to the establishment of his own scientific research programme.

Widening access to lifelong learning for adults in Ethiopia: opportunities with recognition of prior learning

Socio-economic implication of the lifelong learning for all agenda is enormous. The very idea of lifelong learning frees learning from time and space constraints. It advocates learning to be an activity of a lifetime both within and without the formal education system. The assumption is that lifelong and life-wide learning will promote competitiveness, creativity, employability and social cohesion. Taking it in the context of developing countries such as Ethiopia, lifelong learning as an educational organising principle may play a vital role in supporting efforts to eradicate illiteracy and reduce poverty. Recently, Ethiopia has introduced the third phase of their education sector development programme, which underscores the importance of adult education, and a national strategy for adult education. This paper analyses the two documents to understand the extent to which non-formal and formal education are linked, and thereby to highlight the significance of institutionalising the recognition of prior learning (RPL) to promote lifelong learning for adults and working population.

Adolescent substance use and educational attainment: an integrative data analysis comparing cannabis and alcohol from three Australasian cohorts

BACKGROUND: The relative contributions of cannabis and alcohol use to educational outcomes are unclear. We examined the extent to which adolescent cannabis or alcohol use predicts educational attainment in emerging adulthood. METHODS: Participant-level data were integrated from three longitudinal studies from Australia and New Zealand (Australian Temperament Project, Christchurch Health and Development Study, and Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study). The number of participants varied by analysis (N=2179-3678) and were assessed on multiple occasions between ages 13 and 25. We described the association between frequency of cannabis or alcohol use prior to age 17 and high school non-completion, university non-enrolment, and degree non-attainment by age 25. Two other measures of alcohol use in adolescence were also examined. RESULTS: After covariate adjustment using a propensity score approach, adolescent cannabis use (weekly+) was associated with 1½ to two-fold increases in the odds of high school non-completion (OR=1.60, 95% CI=1.09-2.35), university non-enrolment (OR=1.51, 95% CI=1.06-2.13), and degree non-attainment (OR=1.96, 95% CI=1.36-2.81). In contrast, adjusted associations for all measures of adolescent alcohol use were inconsistent and weaker. Attributable risk estimates indicated adolescent cannabis use accounted for a greater proportion of the overall rate of non-progression with formal education than adolescent alcohol use. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are important to the debate about the relative harms of cannabis and alcohol use. Adolescent cannabis use is a better marker of lower educational attainment than adolescent alcohol use and identifies an important target population for preventive intervention.

Affirming emergent practices in educational technology: the politics of usage

Drawing on de Certeau's characterisation of everyday practice as reuse, this paper focuses on the micropolitics of mobile touch-screen devices (MTSD) usage, and how emergent practices - appropriations and (re)deployments - interface with institutionalised notions of learning. The recontextualisation of technological artefacts into formal education settings can (and often does) result in a 'domestication' or 'schooling' of technology, bringing with it familiar power relations and patterns of success. However, the indeterminacy of technology allows for potentially subversive practices, for surreptitious appropriation and re-deployment of devices, processes and texts, and for 'counterplay' that challenges the ways that schooling is traditionally done. This paper discusses three examples of MTSD usage that highlight the productive role of users as creators of their own contexts for learning. The examples include young children's home usage of iPads, an early year teacher's use of iPads in her classroom, and a young child's account of his use of an iPad app at school. The paper is framed by a discussion of the possibilities opened up by practice-based approaches (such as that of de Certeau) for change-oriented research that seeks to affirm emergent and/or marginalised practices; to trouble tacit assumptions about schooling; and, to understand the relation between everyday practices and the institutionalised ground that they transform.

Medical student exposure to general practice in Australian medical courses

BackgroundThere is a wide variation in how much general practice exposure, medical students get in Australian medical courses.AimsThis study is designed to identify the time spent in GP specific formal education and in clinical attachments to general practices in each Australian Medical School.MethodSurvey sent to the Head of Discipline for general practice at each Australian Medical School.ResultsGP specific formal education, GP attachment time and timings in the course will be presented.ConclusionAttracting high calibre applicants to GP vocational training requires more emphasis on GP medical student exposure.

Responding to the widening participation agenda through improved access to and within 3D virtual learning environments

The Australian Government's widening participation agenda - also referred to as the social inclusion agenda - considers equity through the triple focus of access, participation and outcomes. These foci are catalysts for re-examining teaching and learning approaches in formal education. This article considers this national refocus and the possibilities for addressing access and equity issues through and within threedimensional virtual learning environments (3DVLEs). The findings of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC)-funded project that investigated the potential of an accessible 3DVLE for increasing access and participation of students with disabilities are reported, and strategies for improving outcomes (i.e. retention, success and completion) proposed. The article also highlights some of the remaining challenges with regard to the goal of improving outcomes for under-represented learner groups. The final section of the article identifies areas for further research.

Bridging formal and informal learning : a mobile learning attitude scale for higher education

Problem Statement: Over the past decade there has been an increasing global demand towards the integration of mobile technologies for teaching and learning. There has emerged a need for a survey instrument that can form a solid foundation for objective judgment of leaner perspectives as they begin using mobile applications for learning. The Mobile Learning Scale, a seven-item, Likert-type survey instrument, was developed by the authors in response to this need. Items were drawn from the key points developed for a 2011 paper by the authors on mobile learning prospects for informal learning in higher education [13], with many of these points initially developed during group discussions at the 2011 International Summit on ICT in Education hosted at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France. Approach: In order to access the performance of the instrument, data were gathered from 81 undergraduate and graduate university students during August and September of 2011. Follow-up data were also gathered from 19 undergraduates in February, 2012. Results: Initial indications are the instrument has good reliability (Alpha = .80 - .85) as well as acceptable content, construct, and criterion-related validity when used with its intended audience. Conclusions/Recommendations: The authors conclude that the Mobile Learning Scale v1.0 performs well as a unidimensional scale that is capable of assessing pre-post gains resulting from a mobile learning intervention within a university course. The authors propose that this new instrument should be useful for helping guide educators in the process of meaningful integration of Mobile Applications (Apps) into teaching and learning, inside and outside the classroom.