Personality and the emergence of the pace-of-life syndrome concept at the population level

The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis specifies that closely related species or populations experiencing different ecological conditions should differ in a suite of metabolic, hormonal and immunity traits that have coevolved with the life-history particularities related to these conditions. Surprisingly, two important dimensions of the POLS concept have been neglected: (i) despite increasing evidence for numerous connections between behavioural, physiological and life-history traits, behaviours have rarely been considered in the POLS yet; (ii) the POLS could easily be applied to the study of covariation among traits between individuals within a population. In this paper, we propose that consistent behavioural differences among individuals, or personality, covary with life history and physiological differences at the within-population, interpopulation and interspecific levels. We discuss how the POLS provides a heuristic framework in which personality studies can be integrated to address how variation in personality traits is maintained within populations.

How the concept of agency aids in teaching about sustainability

Sustainability education is becoming an integral part of education for all students.The paper revisits startling results from large scale international studies that show the dissonance between young people’s sustainability knowledge and the resistance of young people to put into practice. The reluctance to enact sustainability knowledge necessitates a review of current teaching practices as these raise important issues about current models of education and how sustainability is captured within education. Education about sustainability seeks to future proof our society through the teaching and learning of actions that ensure our collective long term future. For this reason teaching about sustainability incorporates a focus on social responsibility as well as individual responsibility. 

Occasional paper : Towards the development of an online learning environment (OLE) quality management framework

The project is committed to understanding, recognising and developing various forms of institutionally relevant distributed leadership in developing and trialling various components of a quality management framework for online learning environments in Australian higher education. This paper provides an overview of issues related to the management and improvement of quality, including in the context of higher education. In response to the complex and multi-dimensional nature of both quality and online learning environments (OLEs), the concept of a framework for organising policies, procedures and actions relating to the good governance of OLEs can be found in the literature. Such frameworks vary in scope, format and title, and a (non-exhaustive) sample is presented in summary here. Key learnings that can be drawn from the exemplars frameworks and the related literature include:
- the processes for the design of such frameworks;
- the components of such frameworks;
- the measurement mechanisms and metrics employed in such frameworks; and
- the validation of such frameworks.

Outcome measurement of community based mental health services in Western Australia: literature and concept summary

The paper aims to provide a brief overview of key ideas related to outcome measurement relevant to community based mental health services and their consumers in WA. Due to the breadth of scope of the paper, it is not an extensive or rigorous literature review but provides a scan of the literature that could shape a more thorough literature review in any of the content areas. The paper has been written with the aim of informing the sector of key ideas, issues, concepts and approaches.