Mapping WIL activities in the curriculum to develop graduate capabilities : a case study in accounting

Big business continues to request universities to produce graduates who possess both technical and generic skills. Although work-integrated learning (WIL) programs can be used to develop these skills, WIL placements in Australia are undertaken by a minority of students. Perceiving a gap, one Australian university undertook a major WIL revamp to expand WIL offerings embedded within its courses. This required major organizational change that impacted significantly on curriculum design. From a quality assurance perspective, this paper provides an overview of a revised WIL program in the accounting discipline, and discusses the issues and challenges associated with the revised WIL program four years after its implementation. The findings demonstrate that the discipline area has not yet fully met the revamped WIL program as defined by university policy. Recommendations are provided that form a valuable learning tool for educational institutions considering embedding broadly defined WIL within their courses.

TESOL professional standards in the "Asian century": dilemmas facing Australian TESOL teacher education

Australian teacher education programmes that prepare teachers of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) are confronting the nexus of two facets of globalization: transformations in the Asian region, captured in the notion of the "Asian century", and shifting conceptions of professionalism in TESOL in non-compulsory education. In booming Asian economies, English language learning is integral to the demand for high-quality education. This has produced increases in TESOL Teacher Education Programme (TTEP) enrolments of both domestic Australian students and international students from Asia. Growth in demand for TTEPs has necessitated that they cater to student diversity, and the intended contexts of practice. This demand has coincided with a concurrent movement towards professional standards for TESOL that, we argue, confronts complexities around quality, accountability, and professional identity and achieving conceptual and contextual coherence. Drawing on discourses of managerialism and performativity, this paper explores tensions between increased student demands for TTEPs, professional standards discourses which are part of the global policy discourses on teacher quality, and the achievement of programmatic conceptual and contextual coherence from the perspective of Australian TTEPs.

Prospective observational study of emergent endotracheal intubation practice in the intensive care unit and emergency department of an Australian regional tertiary hospital

Objective: The present study aimed to describe the characteristics and outcomes of intubation occurring in the ICU and ED of an Australian tertiary teaching hospital. Methods: This was a prospective observational study of intubation practice across the Geelong Hospital over a 6 month period from 1 August 2012 to 31 January 2013. Data were entered by the intubating team through an online data collection form. Results: There were 119 patients intubated and 134 attempts at intubation in the ED and ICU over a 6 month period. The first-pass success rate was 104/119 (87.4%), and all but a single patient was intubated by the second attempt. Propofol, fentanyl, midazolam and suxamethonium were the most common drugs used in rapid sequence induction. AEs were reported in 44/134 (32.8%) of intubation attempts, with transient hypoxia and hypotension being the most common. A significant adverse outcome, namely aspiration pneumonitis, occurred in one patient. There were no peri-intubation deaths. Conclusion: The majority of airways are managed by ICU and ED consultants and trainees, with success rates and AE rates comparable with other published studies. © 2014 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.

Surf and turf: music education riding the wave and/or planted firmly in teacher education arts courses across two Australian universities

Tertiary Arts educators are exhorted to offer The Australian Curriculum: The Arts (Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts) in their teacher education programs. This paper situates itself across two interstate universities (Deakin in Victoria and Griffith in Queensland) where both authors are music educators at these institutions. They discuss the two different ways that primary Arts education is offered at their universities by focusing on the Bachelor of Primary course (program/degree). The focus at Griffith University is on integrating the Arts whereas at Deakin University, the Arts are taught as a discipline within the unit (subject). Across both universities two teaching units for primary Arts education is core within the four-year program. Drawing on the author’s narrative reflection, observation, student questionnaire data, anecdotal feedback and student end of semester evaluations we discuss two different methods of delivery, assessment and challenges the units present to the authors and students. Though tertiary Arts educators are challenged to be inclusive of a rich and diverse arts curriculum as music educators we question whether the students are merely surfing the crest of the wave or being firmly planted in the ground to effectively implement music education in their future primary classrooms. We invite dialogue with other music educators who face similar situations where the delivery of music education is not located within the Arts and is dependent on staffing, resourcing and time limits and in some situations is almost drowning.

Negotiating the hidden curriculum: power and affect in negotiated classrooms

Garth Boomer's ideas in Negotiating the Curriculum (1992a) resonate with discussions of shifting teacher and student roles and relationships in the 'student voice' movement. Boomer (1988) critiqued his earlier conception of power in Negotiating the Curriculum, asserting that he would 'now like to write a book on Negotiating the Hidden Curriculum', in which he would conduct an ethnographic 'micro-analysis' of the 'moment-by-moment dance' between teachers and students and the fluctuations in the 'flows and ebbs of affect and primal resistance in teachers and taught' (p. 171). This article takes up this provocation, considering a 2013 meeting of a cross-age student voice group where students, teachers and researchers collectively discussed the meanings and manifestations of the hidden curriculum through exploring Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall (Waters, 1979), other film representations of school, and their own school. Four students and I analysed a transcript from this meeting, considering the dynamics of power and affect in negotiated classrooms.

The sixth oceanic conference on international studies: Transitions in the Asia pacific

The Sixth Oceanic Conference on International Studies (OCIS) was held in Melbourne, Australia between 9 and 11 July 2014. The conference was hosted by the School of Social and Political Sciences at University of Melbourne and supported by the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Deakin University, La Trobe University, Monash University, RMIT University and Swinburne University. The Sixth OCIS had a broad organizing theme of ‘transition’ focused on the changing balances of power shaping the Oceanic and Asia Pacific regions and related questions of social and political change in this context. Over 200 papers were presented at the conference, reflecting a wide variety of issues in international studies and related fields of scholarship. Amongst this diversity, the conference did have some recurring themes relating to great power rivalry, the influence of China, and the implications of multilateral frameworks and key bilateral relationships on the security and economic dynamics of the region. Significant attention was also devoted to analysing the foreign policies and political institutions for managing problems of peacebuilding, terrorism, gender inequality and sexual discrimination, people movements, climate change and financial instability at the regional and global levels. This special issue of Global Change, Peace and Security reflects these themes of transition in the Asia Pacific and comprises a diverse array of contributions from scholars attending this conference.