Technology advances : transforming university teaching through professional development

Increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in universities is a global trend. However, many teaching academics are unfamiliar with the possibilities of ICTs and have limited understanding of how to integrate them into their teaching in pedagogically appropriate ways. Th is highlights a need for universities to provide professional development opportunities to assist staff to better understand their teaching practices, and the theoretical perspectives underpinning them, in order to exploit current educational technologies for the benefi t of student learning. This paper introduces the broad trends infl uencing the advancement of technology in higher education before considering the opportunities that the new context off ers for pushing the boundaries of theory and practice relating to learning and teaching in higher education. It then describes an online professional development initiative which responds to these opportunities. Th is is an exemplars website entitled Designing Electronic Learning and Teaching Approaches (DELTA) which has been introduced at Monash University to support pedagogically appropriate teaching with technology.

The management of depressed elderly care recipients : family perspectives on the skills of professional carers

Recent studies have identified high levels of depression among older people, both those in their own homes and those in residential care. With the world's population ageing, it is timely for health service providers to consider how the escalating population of depressed elderly people will be managed. Although treating general practitioners may be the health professionals most expected to detect, treat, and monitor depression among the elderly, professional carers are well placed to assist in the detection and monitoring of the disorder. This study conducted individual interviews with 15 family members of depressed aged-care recipients to determine their perceptions of the skills and knowledge of depression of professional carers. Family members reported that carers are more likely to avoid than engage with their clients about depressive symptomatology and do not communicate their concerns with managers or general practitioners (GPs). Family members believed that, in general, professional carers were undertrained in these areas. The implications of these findings for health service planning and staff training are discussed.

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.

Competition in the mature markets of professional versus final consumer information products

Factors are explored of decision making in regard to buying and/or upgrading information products. Mature information product markets are considered. Comparing two cases - professional and final consumer information products - the decision making process is considered on the choice of product variant. We distinguish three groups of users according to their ultimate decisions to either not to upgrade the existing system, or to upgrade it with the existing provider, or to switch to another provider. Consumer decision is based on multiple characteristics of information product quality, network effects, price and switching costs, whereas producers have to compete not only with their competitors, but also with the previous versions of the own products. Based on the considered cases, differences in consumer priorities are discussed in the markets of professional versus final consumer information products.

IT security certifications : stakeholder evaluation and selection

Information technology (IT) security certifications have proliferated in recent years. However they differ in regards to stakeholder considerations of credibility, accessibility and relevance. Key stakeholders with an interest in selecting an IT security certification (IT security professionals, employers, governments and higher education institutes) lack a systematic approach for differentiating between candidate certifications and selecting the “best” certification to satisfy requirements. The paper focuses on reporting a confirmatory focus group from a recent research project. It provides a framework for supporting stakeholder evaluation and selection of IT security certifications and discusses key implications for the IT security industry, IT security certifications, and the higher education sector.

Professional issues related to allegations and assessment of child sexual abuse in the context of family court litigation

This article focuses on the challenge of dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse in the context of the Family Court of Australia. Of all cases that come before the Court, those involving such allegations are relatively uncommon. they tend to be the most difficult cases, however, and are more likely to require a trial and the involvement of qualified practitioners. The review establishes that parental separation is a special circumstance in which sexual abuse may be more likely to occur, and many allegations of sexual abuse are found to be true. There is evidence, however, that a proportion of allegations made by people other than the child concerned may be false. Whether these false allegations are well intentioned and genuinely believed, or maliciously motivated has been a contentious issue. Issues considered include the mishandling of cases, the failure by professionals to consider equally plausible alternative hypotheses than the sexual abuse of a child, confirmation bias, and the profound repercussions of allegations for all members of the family. It is concluded that all allegations of child sexual abuse must be evaluated in a thorough and sensitive manner to separate the few false allegations from the many that are true.

Narrative and portfolio approaches to teacher professional standards

This paper analyses various uses of narrative in the exploration of teacher identity. It highlights the way many contemporary education writers use terminology such as ‘storying lives’ and ‘storied landscapes’ to describe teacher processes of reflection on practice. In this paper the authors discuss some recent approaches to narrative that incorporate or suggest systematic uses of narrative theory (Conle 2003, Kamler, 2001, Richardson, 2003). Consideration is also given to the links between critical ethnography and narrative in order to critique the use of teacher portfolios, as in a recent Australian initiative for the appraisal of beginning teachers. The authors conclude with an argument for the rehabilitation and refinement of narrative theory in the ‘writing’ of teacher identity.

Professional standards for physical education teachers' professional development : technology for performance?

Background: The widespread and diverse models of professional standards for teaching raise questions with respect to the need to provide teachers with a pathway for continuing professional development balanced with the public nature of surveillance and accountability that may accompany standards. Ways of understanding technologies of power in relation to standards for
teaching gives us a new language and, in turn, new questions about the standards agenda in the physical education profession.
Purpose: To analyse how one health and physical education (HPE) teacher worked with Education Queensland’s (EQ) professional standards for teaching within the broader context of teacher professional development and renewal.
Participants and setting: An experienced HPE teacher working in an urban secondary school was the ‘case’ for this article. Tim was the only experienced HPE teacher within the larger pilot study of 220 selected teachers from the volunteer pool across the state.
Data collection: The case-study data comprised two in-depth interviews conducted by the first author, field notes from workshops (first author), teacher diaries and work samples, notes from focus groups of which Tim was a member, and electronic communications with peers by Tim
during the course of the evaluation.
Findings: Tim was supportive of the teaching standards while they did not have a strong evaluative dimension associated with technologies of power. He found the self-regulation associated with his reflective practices professionally rewarding rather than being formalised within a prescribed
professional development framework.
Conclusion: Tim’s positive response to the professional standards for teaching was typical of the broader pilot cohort. The concept of governmentality provided a useful framework to help map how the standards for teaching were received, regardless of teacher specialisation or experience.
We suggest that it is not until the standards regimes are talked about within the discourses of
power (e.g. codification for career progression, certification for professional development imperatives) that we can understand patterns of acceptance and resistance by teachers to policies
that seek to shape their performance.

Filming for professional learning : collaborations in innovation

It is not unusual for academics to bemoan the reticence of teachers in adopting innovative tools and pedagogies, never more so than in the area of new technologies and multimodal literacies in classrooms. Typically, educational bureaucracies seek to dictate change in new technologies through a diffusion-adoption model of professional learning where ‘inservicing’ or ‘professional development’ of teachers is used to influence them to implement curriculum innovations. Typically a set of resources are developed for this purpose and teachers engage with workshop leaders as passive recipients of knowledge rather than active knowledge constructors. This paper explores an alternative form of engagement in which teachers are co-opted as collaborators and documenters of educational change. Its innovation is to use filming of teacher interviews and classroom practice – in this case to extend the teachers’ repertories.

This article will discuss the film-infused model of professional learning which was developed within the context of a research project on literacy teachers’ engagement with multimodality, but has potential for wider application. The research context will be outlined and four elements of a film-infused professional learning model will be discussed in detail. The effects of this model on the resource development and professional learning will then be addressed.

Making it real : pre-service music teacher education students ideas about artists-in-schools

Globally teacher educators try to prepare culturally inclusive students in an ever-crowded curriculum It is difficult to give students in-depth experiences of other musics and their cultural contexts. In schools, teachers are also faced with the. same challenges. This shortfall may be met by artists-in-schools programs. This paper focuses on the perceptions of pre-service music educators concerning artists-in- schools programs. The study builds on ongoing research (2003-2008), Intercultural attitudes of preservice music education students, between Deakin and Monash universities. Australia only the 2008 interviews (analysed using interpretative Phenomenological Analysis) are discussed. The paper reports only on one aspect that underpins artists-in-schools programs — the importance of authentic practice. Although international studies have, provided insights into artists-in—schools programs little attention has been paid to pre-service specialist music teacher understandings of such programs. It is imperative to know the attitudes that our teachers carry with theta into their future professional engagement The findings of this study provide insight into the need br artists-in-schools programs and the ways in which teachers can link theory to practice, fill in omissions in their own knowledge, skills and understandings. and also heighten student understandings of multicultural musics.

Internet and competitive advantage in Australian professional sport organisations

The electronic revolution has proven to be a powerful stimulus for change in business practice. As a business tool however, the Internet must endure the same scrutiny under which other business activities are placed. If the use of the Internet in business is a sound strategy, then it must contribute toward competitive advantage. The sport business industry has not been isolated from the vagaries of Internet applications. Moreover, as the industry has become more competitive, forcing sporting organisations towards unprecedented levels of accountability and business practice, the Internet has been increasingly seen as a potential 'holy grail' for sport organisations struggling for revenue (Stewart & Smith, 1999). This research is a response to these pressures. It seeks to identify Internet based opportunities for competitive advantage, and to provide strategies and recommendations for the successful use of the Internet in Australian professional sport organisations. In realising this objective, a newly developed and integrated Business Activity Model has been constructed. The model assists in the identification of specific Internet based competitive advantage strategies, and provides a theoretical framework for this research. The Business Activity Model conceptualises, for the first time, the relationships between the value chain, constituents of electronically enabled competitive advantage, and the Internet. With Australia's limited group of fully professional sports capable of sustaining the human resources and budgets necessary to implement comprehensive e-commerce strategies, the organisations selected to participate in this research represent the pinnacle of Australian professional sport clubs. Specifically, the 55 clubs competing in the Australian Football League (A.F.L.), National Basketball League (N.B.L.), National Rugby League (N.R.L.), and National Soccer League (N.S.L.) constituted the research sample and population. In concert with the 87% participation rate, sampling approached a census. A telephone-administered survey, based primarily on the rigorously tested instrument developed by Sethi and King (1994), was employed for data collection. This research employs a comprehensive set of descriptive statistics, and is bolstered by a confirmatory and an exploratory factor analysis, undertaken on one component of the data. The outcome of this research was the identification of seven practical recommendations for Australian professional sport organisations seeking to improve competitive advantage via the Internet. These recommendations were based on an inventory of the 'gaps' between the strategies proposed by the literature, and the practices of the sample, and relate to both overall Internet strategy, and specific web site applications. The development of the new Business Activity Model and the identification of key online strategy themes support and complement these recommendations. An examination of variations in the practices of participating organisations, and some comparisons against United States sporting organisations, also provides depth and context to the findings. This research provides a platform for sport managers to effectively harness the potential of the Internet, through their web sites in particular, and realise significant competitive advantages. The Business Activity Model provides managers in all industries with a tool for the detection and understanding of potential elements of competitive advantage, and incorporates all activities critical to business in the new digital economy. Seven practical recommendations for improved online performance based on identified competitive advantage and strategies fulfils the primary objective of this research. E-commerce continues to grow at astronomical rates, and with the Internet poised to become the life-blood of 21st century sporting organisations, these recommendations will assist managers in their ongoing search for competitive advantage.

New teachers, professional knowledge and educational reform in New Zealand

This thesis examines the professional knowledge of new secondary school teachers in New Zealand, their negotiation of multiple discourses encountered in policy and practice, and their processes of professional identity formation. It is also a study of policy reform. In New Zealand, as elsewhere, recent educational and social reforms have brought about major changes to the way education is managed and implemented. These reforms emphasise market ideologies promoting consumer choice and responsibility, while measuring and monitoring quality and effectiveness. At the same time, the reforms attempt to alleviate social inequality. Teachers' negotiation of an accountability culture and the dominant equity policies is a major focus of this study. The study draws upon group interviews held with nine new teachers during the first two years of their teaching careers. The group interviews were designed to elicit extended narratives from individual teachers, as well as promote more interactive dialogue and reflections within the groups. Because the interviews were conducted at different points in their early careers, the study also has a longitudinal element, allowing insight into how teachers' views are formed or changed during an intense period of professional learning. Analysis of the teachers' narratives is informed by poststructural and feminist understandings of identity and knowledge and by a methodological orientation to writing as a method of enquiry. The thesis develops three main types of discussion and sets of arguments. The first examines new teachers' negotiation of the 'macro' context of teacher knowledge formation that is, their negotiation of an educational policy environment that juxtaposes an equity agenda with accountability controls. In order to historically situate these dilemmas, the particular political, social and educational context of New Zealand is examined. It is argued that teachers negotiate competing political and conceptual debates about social justice, equity and difference, and that this negotiation is central to the formation of professional knowledge. The analysis illustrates ways in which teachers make sense of equity discourses in educational policy and practice, and the apparent contradictions that arise from placing tight accountability standards on schools and teachers to achieve associated equity goals. The second type of discussion focuses on teachers' negotiation of the 'micro' dimension of professional knowledge, looking closely at the processes and practices that form professional identity. Against stage or developmental models of teacher identity, it is argued that professional identity is formed in an ongoing, uneven and fluid manner and is socially and discursively situated/embedded. It is further argued that professional knowledge and identity are entwined and that this relationship is most usefully understood through analysis of the discursive practices that frame teachers' working lives and through which teachers work out who they are or should become and what and how they (should) think. This analysis contributes new perspectives to debates in teacher education about teacher preparation and the knowledge required of teachers in current 'new times'. The final cluster of arguments brings together these macro and micro aspects of professional knowledge and identity with a case study of how new teachers negotiated a recent educational reform of senior secondary school qualifications in New Zealand. This reform has had a significant impact on secondary schools and on the way teachers, and New Zealanders in general, think about education, achievement and success. It was found that this reform significantly challenged new teachers to question their beliefs about assessment and justice in education, and what counts as success. This case study draws attention to the tensions between equity, academic excellence and standards-based assessment, and contributes to understanding how teacher professional knowledge forms both in the context of a specific educational policy reform and in relation to educational reform in general. This study contributes new knowledge to the formation of teacher professional knowledge and identity in an educational climate of change in New Zealand. The findings offer new insights for teacher educators, policymakers and schools into how teachers build, shape and sustain professional knowledge; how they juggle contradictions between a desire for justice, policy imperatives and teacher education rhetoric; the self-constructed, but contingent nature of professional knowledge and identity; and the urgency to address identity formation as part of teacher education and to take account of the dynamic ways in which identities form. These matters need to be articulated in teacher education both pre-service and in-service in order to address teacher retention and satisfaction, and teachers' commitment to equity reform in education.

MBA experience by distance education : an ethnographic study of a professional development program

The author's ethnographic study of a professional development program for managers and aspiring managers taught at a distance intends to make a substantial contribution to both the theory and practice of continuing education for professionals. The study focused on a group of Deakin University Master of Business Administration (MBA) participants and their experiences of the final two years of the program. Theorising on the professional development experience was based on data gathered from the direct observation of participants working in their study groups and at residential schools. Moreover, data drawn from end-of-year interviews with participants and discussions with MBA teachers also contributed to the theorising process. Theorising spanned a broad set of interactions encompassing participants' formal educational, professional and personal worlds. The thesis is devoted to two aspects of the professional development experience, namely: participants' interactions in their study groups and at residential schools; and participants' attempts to grow and develop as competent professional practitioners during their MBA studies. Interactions with key learning contexts orchestrated by the teaching institution (i.e. study groups and residential schools) are grounded in an analysis of the changing group cultures observed to accommodate the different educational demands of the program. Group interaction on a broader scale is also analysed in the context of the residential schools. The residential school provided a powerful forum for the development of participant activism over the future development of the MBA program. The analysis of the study groups in action led the author to identify the key characteristics of effective educational work groups. The implications of the success of these essentially egalitarian and leaderless groups for the formation of self-managed groups in the workplace is examined. On the matter of professional development, the author reveals the relationships between the nature of participants' jobs, their search for professional integration, their stage of professional empowerment, the strategies they pursued either to empower themselves or others in their organisations and the barriers which were encountered in the pursuit of empowerment. Dramatic examples of professional disempowerment are analysed indicating that interaction between formal off-the-job learning and professional practice in the workplace is not necessarily a smooth and positive experience. The group of participants studied are seen to be heterogeneous in relation to the above factors characterising professional development The implications of the theorising are considered in relation to professional pedagogies, assessment strategies and distance education. Distance education is seen to socially construct the roles of both teachers and students in the educational process. Specifically, teachers are seen to be somewhat marginalised during the program in use whereas the participants are located at the centre of the educational experience. The primacy of participants in the educational process is highlighted through the growing reliance on self-and peer-group assessment skills as participants progressed through the program. It is argued that the teaching institution should encourage and maintain the development of these skills as they represent a major learning outcome of the professional development experience, i.e. the ability to engage in the process of critical self-reflection and informed action.

Investigation of the effects of microcomputers on the work of professional accountants

Information technology research over the past two decades suggests that the installation and use of computers fundamentally affects the structure and function of organisations and, m particular, the workers in these organizations. Following the release of the IBM Personal Computer in 1982, microcomputers have become an integral part of most work environments. The accounting services industry, in particular, has felt the impact of this ‘microcomputer revolution’. In Big Six accounting firms, there is almost one microcomputer for each professional accountant employed, Notwithstanding this, little research has been done on the effect of microcomputers on the work outcomes of professional accountants working in these firms. This study addresses this issue. It assesses, in an organisational setting, how accountant’ perceptions of ease of use and usefulness of microcomputers act on their computer anxieties, microcomputer attitudes and use to affect their job satisfaction and job performance. The research also examines how different types of human-computer interfaces affect the relationships between accountants' beliefs about microcomputer utility and ease of use, computer anxiety, microcomputer attitudes and microcomputer use. To attain this research objective, a conceptual model was first developed, The model indicates that work outcomes (job satisfaction and job performance) of professional accountants using microcomputers are influenced by users' perceptions of ease of use and usefulness of microcomputers via paths through (a) the level of computer anxiety experienced by users, (b) the general attitude of users toward using microcomputers, and (c) the extent to which microcomputers are used by individuals. Empirically testable propositions were derived from the model to test the postulated relationships between these constructs. The study also tested whether or not users of different human-computer interfaces reacted differently to the perceptions and anxieties they hold about microcomputers and their use in the workplace. It was argued that users of graphical interfaces, because of the characteristics of those interfaces, react differently to their perceptions and anxieties about microcomputers compared with users of command-line (or textual-based) interfaces. A passive-observational study in a field setting was used to test the model and the research propositions. Data was collected from 164 professional accountants working in a Big Six accounting firm in a metropolitan city in Australia. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to test the, hypothesised causal relationships between the components comprising the general research model. Path analysis and ordinary least squares regression was used to estimate the parameters of the model and analyse the data obtained. Multisample analysis (or stacked model analysis) using EQS was used to test the fit of the model to the data of the different human-computer interface groups and to estimate the parameters for the paths in those different groups. The results show that the research model is a good description of the data. The job satisfaction of professional accountants is directly affected by their attitude toward using microcomputers and by microcomputer use itself. However, job performance appears to be only directly affected by microcomputer attitudes. Microcomputer use does not directly affect job performance. Along with perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, computer anxiety is shown to be an important determinant of attitudes toward using microcomputers - higher levels of computer anxiety negatively affect attitudes toward using microcomputers. Conversely, higher levels of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness heighten individuals' positive attitudes toward using microcomputers. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness also indirectly affect microcomputer attitudes through their effect on computer anxiety. The results show that higher levels of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness result in lower levels of computer anxiety. A surprising result from the study is that while perceived ease of use is shown to directly affect the level of microcomputer usage, perceived usefulness and attitude toward using microcomputers does not. The results of the multisample analysis confirm that the research model fits the stacked model and that the stacked model is a significantly better fit if specific parameters are allowed to vary between the two human-computer interface user groups. In general, these results confirm that an interaction exists between the type of human-computer interface (the variable providing the grouping) and the other variables in the model The results show a clear difference between the two groups in the way in which perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness affect microcomputer attitude. In the case of users of command-line interfaces, these variables appear to affect microcomputer attitude via an intervening variable, computer anxiety, whereas in the graphical interface user group the effect occurs directly. Related to this, the results show that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have a significant direct effect on computer anxiety in command-line interface users, but no effect at all for graphical interface users. Of the two exogenous variables only perceived ease of use, and that in the case of the command-line interface users, has a direct significant effect on extent of use of microcomputers. In summary, the research has contributed to the development of a theory of individual adjustment to information technology in the workplace. It identifies certain perceptions, anxieties and attitudes about microcomputers and shows how they may affect work outcomes such as job satisfaction and job performance. It also shows that microcomputer-interface types have a differential effect on some of the hypothesised relationships represented in the general model. Future replication studies could sample a broader cross-section of the microcomputer user community. Finally, the results should help Big Six accounting firms to maximise the benefits of microcomputer use by making them aware of how working with microcomputers affects job satisfaction and job performance.