Interpreting Fanger's comfort equation within the adaptive paradigm

This paper reviews the evolution of Fanger's heat balance equation in regard of adaptive opportunities. Heat balance and adaptive response are integrated into one model as two fundamental aspects of human-environment interaction that define thermal comfort perception, rather than being seen as two concepts of alternative comfort paradigms. The paper suggests to extent Fanger's model with a heat storage term in order to account for comfort perception under transient thermal conditions, and to review Fanger's modelling assumptions in order to allow for a greater variety of adaptive response options. In the presented model heat exchange is modulated through adaptation of physiological, environmental and behavioural parameters in the human-environment system defined through Fanger's heat exchange equations. A computational prototype is implemented to determine 'comfortable' values and ranges of the six comfort dimensions alternatively to Fanger's comfort indices. Thereby values of for example 'comfortable' clothing and metabolic rate are results rather than necessary input parameters, which are difficult to determine. This approach allows generating design advice for physical, organisational and social environments based on heat balance calculation in the six-dimensional opportunity space defined through Fanger's comfort equation. A starting point for the development of a dynamic adaptive comfort model is set.

Evaluating a strategic approach to professional development through guided reflection

Research on quality in early childhood has consistently shown that staff are the cornerstone of excellence, and that staff training makes a difference to services provided to children and families. There is also a growing awareness of the importance of adopting a planned approach to career development and that this begins with self-assessment, and can be enhanced through the use of guided reflection with a mentor. The Early Childhood Consortium Victoria (ECCV) at The University of Melbourne, has developed a self-assessment manual (SAM) designed as a tool for early childhood practitioners to explore their work in a strategic way. It serves the dual purposes of assisting practitioners to address issues of service quality, as well as promoting individual professional development through reflective practice. SAM has now been piloted in a number of early childhood settings in Australia and this paper presents a formative evaluation of this work and discusses its potential for professional development planning.

Encouraging the reflection process in undergraduate teachers using guided reflection

This article reports on the findings of a study conducted with a group of early childhood education undergraduate students from the second year of the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education course offered at the University of Melbourne. The study trialled a number of guided reflection techniques that acted to stimulate and provide a structure for reflection. These techniques were further supplemented by focus group discussions based on reflective principles, in the hope of fully engaging the students in the reflective process over the course of a year. All techniques were designed to assist the student teachers in becoming aware of the current philosophy they hold in relation to teaching and learning, and also in understanding how this has been shaped by past experiences, beliefs and knowledge. The effectiveness of the guided reflection techniques was evaluated by the participants at the end of the project. The surveys showed that three of the techniques were particularly successful. Student perceptions as to the success of the process are reported in the article.

Scenarios as springboards for reflection on practice : stimulating discussion

Increasingly there is an expectation that new graduates will have developed, prior to their induction into teaching, sound theoretical knowledge in relation to practice. However, in Australia, many pre-service teachers have insufficient time in the field to develop reflective practice and to observe how experienced teachers enhance their own knowledge through reflection on practice. In this article we discuss one way to introduce teacher education students to the notion of reflective practice. We explore the potential of scenarios to develop reflective thinking in pre-service teacher education students and highlight the processes and requisite criteria for developing scenarios that capture the rich and complex experiences of classroom practitioners. The scenario presented here has been fashioned from a pre-service teacher's story of classroom practice collected from her during an interview for a research project. While the scenario was intended for use only with pre-service teachers in order to increase their knowledge-base and analytical skills, when it was trialled with a group of experienced teachers in order to ascertain its suitability for novice teachers, an unexpected outcome was that it resonated with the teachers in ways that enabled them also to reflect more deeply on their professional practices. We speculate that the processes of scenario construction may also be valuable in other settings where reflective practice is a professional requisite.

Structural equation modelling of complex sample survey : an application to brand signalling data

The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical analysis of complex sample data with regard to the biasing effect of nonindependence of observations on standard error parameter estimates. In a two-factor confirmatory factor analysis model, using real data, we show how the bias in standard errors can be derived when the nonindependence is ignored. We demonstrate that the standard error bias produced by the nonindependence of observations can be considerable and we briefly discuss solutions to overcome the problem.

A blog says I am here! : Encouraging reflection on performance-making and drama practice through blogs

This chapter considers the use of social software, in particular the blog, emerging from youth web-culture as a space for groups and individuals to reflect upon performance-making processes. lt focuses on the Drama Australia VINE project, launched at the beginning of 2006 through to its conclusion at the end of2007. The VINE project brought together groups of drama students within schools, universities and the broader community to make group performances based on a common theme. Using a multi-user blogging environment, vineblogs net, groups or individuals maintained blogs of their performance-making processes. This allowed the work to l¡e shared within the VINE project community and potentially with a worldwide audience. A case study was set up involving one class of students and their teachers who were involved in the VINE project and participants were asked to reflect and comment upon the performance-making and blogging experience. The chapter considers the challenge that we face as educators to find appropriate avenues to engage young people in reflection. It considers the ways in which students engage with technology that are ofter different from their teachers. The chapter goes on to discuss how blogs can contribute to the creation of a sense of individual or group identity and recognition. It asks, 'how do blogs encourage reflection upon performance-making processes and facilitate the creating of connections and the building of community between drama students and teachers across a range of settings?' Finally the chapter describes what we've learned about blogs in drama and considers where we go from here'

Fruits of the vine : reflection on performance-making through blogs

In 2006 Drama Australian launched the VINE Project, bringing together groups of drama students within schools, universities and the broader community to make group performances based on a common theme. Using the VINE Project's multi-user blogging environment, group or individuals maintained blogs of their performance-making processes. This allowed the work to be shared within the VINE Project community and potentially a world-wide audience.

This paper contributes to the discussion on the applications of information and communication technologies (ICT) in drama and theatre education. It considers the blog, emerging from web-culture, as a space for groups and individuals to reflect upon performance-making processes. A range of VINE Project participants was asked to reflect and comment upon the performance-making and blogging experience. This paper presents emerging understandings of the role of blogs in encouraging reflection, in creating a sense of group identity and significance, in validating performance-making processes and in building a sense of connection and community among student performance-makers.

Art embodied and disembodied : expression, representation, and reflection

In this chapter a group of writers from very diverse academic backgrounds deal with the embodied and disembodied arts - from an exploration of dance with preschool children to the use of the webblog for eleven and twelve year olds to reflect on the creation of a group performance about how to change the world. The Deans & Young case study takes the reader into the world of the preschooler and the delicate craft of the dance and drama teachers who guide their small dancers through myriad choreographic and conceptual tasks in their pursuit of kinaesthetic learning. Jo Raphael allow the young bloggers to speak from themselves in her case study. How to Change the World. Through the voices of the Year 6 students, Jo raises the critical question of how to build meaningful reflection into the arts-making process, and suggests that for the current generation of 'cyber-natives', the digital world offers many great possibilities. Theory concerning forms of expression and representation in the embodies and digital world is also discussed.