Changing places : testing the relevance of educational research and teacher education

Frequent reviews of teacher education in recent times seem to indicate that those charged with the responsibility for teacher education have little understanding of the contemporary needs of teachers. Just how does educational research inform teachers in their day-to-day practice and how is its relevance tested? As an educational researcher Professor Shirley Grundy challenges her own notions of 'relevance' by returning from academia to the school system in Western Australia. This experience expanded her understanding of how conceptual frameworks and the realities of schools complemented each other. She reflects on the agenda for change faced by education systems and the ensuing transformation of curriculum planning, pedagogy, assessment and reporting procedures in some schools while not in others.

Her reference to Habermas' work relating to 'system' and 'lifeworld' provided her with an explanation for the social conditions of schooling, while her exploration of discourse theory provides some understanding of the practices related to the exercise of power in school settings. Interchanges such as that experienced by Grundy are to the mutual benefit of both parties.

Health promotion and health education in schools : trends, effectiveness and possibilities

This report involved an extensive literature review as well as discussions with ten leading school health and traffic safety education researchers and practitioners. The findings of the report show that despite health promotion and health education activities occurring in all Victorian schools, school health related initiatives could be improved by focusing on cognitive outcomes and involving appropriate components of Health Promoting School (HPS) framework. Providing teachers with professional development and utilising interactive resources that complement the curriculum is also important. The report recommendations outline ways to improve the Health Promotion and Health Education and provide a potential framework for delivering TSE provision in schools.

Globalisation and citizenship

Explores the impact of globalization upon citizenship, with special reference to the transitional challenge that globalisation poses. It also examines how different concepts, theories and practices of citizenship are evolving in response to globalisation and that seek to modify its impact. Australian authors.

The impact of information and communications technology on teaching and design of flexible, online and distance education courses at Deakin University

This paper describes the use of an online learning environment which has been established for postgraduate students studying at Master’s level in Professional Education and Training Deakin University. A detailed evaluation of the use of computer conferences in an Open and Distance Education specialism was undertaken during 2000 as part of a CUTSD funded project, Learner Centred Evaluation of Computer Facilitated Learning Projects in Higher Education. As the Open and Distance Education specialism is being revised and new units are written, the information gathered in this evaluation is being integrated into the pedagogical planning and the technological decisions being made about the design of the new master’s program.

Integration of information literacy training into engineering and technology education

Information literacy has become an important skill for undergraduate students due to societal changes that have seen information become a valuable commodity, the need for graduates to become lifelong learners, and the recognition that information literacy is an underpinning generic skill for effective learning in higher education. This paper describes a sequence of purposefully designed activities to help students learn and practice information literacy skills that were integrated into a first-year engineering and technology study unit as a core element of the unit syllabus. A formal evaluation of these activities was planned and undertaken in semester 1 2003.

Crossing cultural boundaries, flexible approaches and nurse education : a case study

Computer-mediated conferencing commonly is used to promote collaborative learning, including student learning across distance. This article presents the outcomes and experiences of Master of Nursing students in three countries using flexible learning approaches facilitated by the use of computer-mediated conferencing. It examines issues relating to support for global nursing education, presents an evaluation of one particular unit, and presents themes in the feedback from students about their experience. The authors report the findings in three categories: broadened perspectives, tackling the technology, and adaptive learning. Furthermore, the article offers suggestions for enhancing student-learning experiences when computer-mediated conferencing facilities are used.

Is off-campus engineering study off the agenda? Professional accreditation and distance education

In engineering, distance/off-campus study is an essential element of access to education for those in remote locations and/or seeking to upgrade their qualifications via the lifelong learning route whilst employed. Internationally, engineering education accrediting bodies have moved toward outcomes-based assessment of graduate competency, but are still struggling to relinquish their historical attachment to the measurement of inputs. A genuinely outcomes-based accreditation system based on the demonstrated individual student attainment of appropriate graduate attributes (which might be delivered/gained by a range of means) offers the best way forward for an equitable, representative and socially just undergraduate engineering education system that encourages suitably qualified candidates from a range of social, employment, educational, gender, age and geographic circumstances to aspire to the professional sphere of the engineering workforce. Until outcomes-based education becomes the norm in engineering, it is likely that distance learners in engineering will face significant difficulties.

Teachers' work and gifted education

This paper examines the perspectives of teachers and personnel working in a State Government primary school situated in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, four years after participating in the Bright Futures gifted professional development. Although the school proudly proclaims a tradition of scholarship and excellence within a friendly, caring and democratic ethos, the data from semi-structured interviews in a qualitative, single case casestudy, shows considerable ambivalence towards gifted education programs. This has significant negative repercussions for meeting the individual educational needs of gifted students. Using a Foucaultian framework, I analyse the data showing that whilst teachers are striving to improve the learning outcomes for all students, they are caught within a complex reality, created by the often conflicting influences of educational policy, formal school rhetoric and their own personal beliefs, which in turn have been influenced by egalitarian principles detrimental to gifted education.