Music teacher education partnerships as professional development

This paper reports my reflections of a school and university partnership carried out in Semester One 2008 by the Bachelor of Teaching (Primary/Secondary) music education specialist at a University in Melbourne. As students have a specific 'situated learning' experience at a primary school, their five-week visit during the ten-week semester acts as onsite professional development by both the music teacher and myself. Here students are able to reflect and discuss both content and pedagogical knowledge. They are also given the opportunity to teach small groups whilst being mentored by the music teacher and myself. I contend that by universities providing such opportunities as good exemplars of best practice in music education as a form of professional development students can only improve teaching and learning and be better prepared when entering the teaching profession.

In this paper I report on my pre-service music education students' experience as school based music teaching and learning as an effective form of professional development. My reflections are supported by my observational notes are informed by self study methodology I consider the link between tertiary and school partnership as a way forward to improve both the teaching and learning of music education. Universities in Australia are increasingly encouraged to forge pathways with schools where students and teacher educators have the opportunity to observe best practice, engage in teaching and learning onsite and reflect on both content and pedagogical knowledge. Such practice promotes educational praxis for a sustainable future.

The Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ): An outcomes and evaluation measure for patient education and self-management interventions for people with chronic conditions

Objective: This paper describes the development and validation of the Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ). The aim was to develop a user-friendly, relevant, and psychometrically sound instrument for the comprehensive evaluation of patient education programs, which can be applied across a broad range of chronic conditions.

Methods: Item development for the heiQ was guided by a Program Logic Model, Concept Mapping, interviews with stakeholders and psychometric analyses. Construction (N = 591) and confirmatory (N = 598) samples were drawn from consumers of patient education programs and hospital outpatients. The properties of the heiQ were investigated using item response theory and structural equation modeling.

Results: Over 90 candidate items were generated, with 42 items selected for inclusion in the final scale. Eight independent dimensions were derived: Positive and Active Engagement in Life (five items, Cronbach's alpha (α) = 0.86); Health Directed Behavior (four items, α = 0.80); Skill and Technique Acquisition (five items, α = 0.81); Constructive Attitudes and Approaches (five items, α = 0.81); Self-Monitoring and Insight (seven items, α = 0.70); Health Service Navigation (five items, α = 0.82); Social Integration and Support (five items, α = 0.86); and Emotional Wellbeing (six items, α = 0.89).

Conclusion:The heiQ has high construct validity and is a reliable measure of a broad range of patient education program benefits.

Practice Implications: The heiQ will provide valuable information to clinicians, researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders about the value of patient education programs in chronic disease management.

A critical look at the role of self-management for people with arthritis and other chronic diseases

Most patients with chronic conditions, such as osteoarthritis, only have contact with healthcare professionals for a few hours over the course of a year. Good self-management programs are, therefore, critical for patients to cope with their conditions on a daily basis. Drs Osborne, Jordan and Rogers discuss the importance of engaging patients, clinicians and policymakers in the development and implementation of self-management programs.

Rationale, restrictions and responses : online academic development to promote a community of practice

Casual academics play a major role in higher education in Australia today. In their roles as tutors, demonstrators and markers, casual academics need access to opportunities to develop as teachers. As such, Deakin University has developed an online academic development program designed to better equip new and inexperienced casual academics for their roles. This paper reports on the approach that has been taken to designing one module of an online academic development program for casual academics, considering the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) on this design, and discusses an analysis of the feedback on the module by the participants who completed it. A conclusion is drawn that aligning self paced online learning with induction into a community of practice via ICT presents particular challenges.

Habitual fish consumption does not prevent a decrease in LCPUFA status in pregnant women (the Seychelles Child Development Nutrition Study)

Information on the status of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs) in pregnancy and breast milk in very high fish-eating populations is limited. The aim of this study was to examine dietary intake and changes in fatty acid status in a population of pregnant women in the Republic of Seychelles. Serum docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) decreased significantly between 28-week gestation and delivery (n=196). DHA status did not correlate significantly with length of gestation and was not associated with self-reported fish intake, which was high at 527 g/week. In breast milk, the ratio of DHA to arachidonic acid (AA) was consistent with those observed in other high fish-eating populations. Overall the data suggest that high exposure to LCPUFAs from habitual fish consumption does not prevent the documented decrease in LCPUFA status in pregnancy that occurs as a result of foetal accretion in the third trimester of pregnancy.

Assessing suitability for offender rehabilitation : development and validation of the treatment readiness questionnaire

Although the need to assess appropriate candidates for offender rehabilitation programs is widely acknowledged, few assessment tools are available that have been validated for use with offender populations. This article reports on the development and validation of a brief self-report measure designed to assess treatment readiness in offenders who have been referred to a cognitive skills program. The measure, the Corrections Victoria Treatment Readiness Questionnaire, displayed acceptable levels of convergent and discriminant validity, and was able to predict treatment engagement and treatment performance at the midpoint of the program. Suggested cutoff points are reported for use in assessing offenders for this type of program. It is concluded that the measure can play a valuable role in the assessment of offenders who are being considered for rehabilitative treatment.

A systematic grounded approach to the development of complex interventions : The Australian WorkHealth Program – Arthritis as a case study

Despite demands for evidence-based research and practice, little attention has been given to systematic approaches to the development of complex interventions to tackle workplace health problems. This paper outlines an approach to the initial stages of a workplace program development which integrates health promotion and disease management. The approach commences with systematic and genuine processes of obtaining information from key stakeholders with broad experience of these interventions. This information is constructed into a program framework in which practice-based and research-informed elements are both valued. We used this approach to develop a workplace education program to reduce the onset and impact of a common chronic disease – osteoarthritis.

To gain information systematically at a national level, a structured concept mapping workshop with 47 participants from across Australia was undertaken. Participants were selected to maximise the whole-of-workplace perspective and included health education providers, academics, clinicians and policymakers. Participants generated statements in response to a seeding statement: Thinking as broadly as possible, what changes in education and support should occur in the workplace to help in the prevention and management of arthritis? Participants grouped the resulting statements into conceptually coherent groups and a computer program was used to generate a ‘cluster map’ along with a list of statements sorted according to cluster membership.

In combination with research-based evidence, the concept map informed the development of a program logic model incorporating the program's guiding principles, possible service providers, services, training modes, program elements and the causal processes by which participants might benefit. The program logic model components were further validated through research findings from diverse fields, including health education, coaching, organisational learning, workplace interventions, workforce development and osteoarthritis disability prevention.

In summary, wide and genuine consultation, concept mapping, and evidence-based program logic development were integrated to develop a whole-of-system complex intervention in which potential effectiveness and assimilation into the workplace for which optimised.

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.

Entrepreneurship policy development : New Zealand in comparison

This paper first examines the impact of entrepreneurship research on policy development in 20 countries of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project. Curiously, despite its entrepreneurial endowments, the impact on New Zealand falls behind other countries. For a deeper insight, the paper then compares entrepreneurship and innovation policies in New Zealand and Sinaloa, Mexico. New Zealand has a robust innovation policy yet places little emphasis on the needs of actual individual entrepreneurs and their decision to choose self-employment. In Sinaloa, the emphasis is on creating more and better entrepreneurs, but there is no innovation policy. Both sides have something to learn from the other.

An evaluation of a self-intiated practice exercise for investigative interviewers of children

The current study extends debate and research on the important role of practice in promoting and sustaining complex skills in investigative interviewing. Specifically, we explored the use of self-initiated practice as one avenue for facilitating ongoing development of professionals who interview children about abuse. A group of 40 investigative interviewers were required to organise and administer their own practice opportunities and to document these sessions in a diary. The professionals were aware of the important role of practice and what constitutes best-practice interview guidelines; however no instruction was given about the desired format, structure and timing of the practice sessions. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed poor adherence to self-initiated practice, and the practice (among those who adhered to this model) had negligible impact on performance. Overall, these findings highlight the need for careful monitoring and evaluation of all interviewer practice tasks.

When the whole 'bloke' thing starts to crumble : men's access to chronic illness (arthritis) self management programs

This thesis explores the issue of men's access to chronic illness self management programs from a social constructionist perspective. A combination of research methodologies was used; a quantitative analysis to confirm gender differences in levels and patterns of service use; a qualitative analysis to gain an increased understanding of the factors affecting men's access; and a trial to test the application of the research findings. The clients and services of Arthritis Victoria were chosen as the setting for this research. The quantitative analyses were conducted on contingency tables and odds ratios and confirmed that men were under-represented as service users. The analyses also identified gender differences in patterns of service use. The qualitative analysis was based on a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews. It was undertaken from a grounded theory approach to allow for the development of theoretical explanations grounded in the data. It was found that men's decisions to access chronic illness self management programs were strongly influenced by dominant social constructions of masculinity which constrained help-seeking and health management behaviour. However, the restrictive influence of hegemonic masculinity was progressively undermined by the increasing severity of the chronic condition until a crisis point was reached in terms of the severity of the condition or its impact on lifestyle. This resulted in a reformulation or rejection of hegemonic masculinity. The described conceptual framework was consistent for men from diverse social groupings, although it appeared less prominent in both younger and older men, suggesting that dominant social constructions of masculinity have the greatest influence on health decisions during the middle stage of adulthood when work and family obligations are greatest. The thesis findings informed the development of some guiding principles for reviewing the structure and delivery of chronic illness self management services for men. The guiding principles will have direct application in the planning of Arthritis Victoria programs, and implications for other chronic illness self management programs in Australia, and also in Western countries with a similar health and sociocultural setting to Australia.

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.

Young children’s understanding of photo self-representations

This experiment examined delayed self-recognition in 24 2.5-year-old and 24 3-year-old children. Children were marked covertly with a sticker on their forehead while playing a game, after which their photograph was taken. When show this photograph, the 3- but not the 2.5-year-olds reached to remove this sticker reliably. However, the older children reached reliably only when first shown how a recently taken photograph can be used to guide their search for an object in the testing room that was not directly visible to the unaided eye. Implications of the findings in terms of the development of a temporally extended sense of self are discussed.

Young children’s use of a delayed video representation to solve a retrieval problem pertaining to self

The experiments reported here were concerned with the development of delayed self-recognition. Children were videotaped playing a game and were marked covertly with a sticker on their forehead while doing so. The findings, of both a cross-sectional sample and a prospective longitudinal one, revealed that 3- but not 2.5-year-old children reached to remove this sticker reliably during video playback only after they had been trained to use the video to guide their search for an object that was not directly visible to the unaided eye. It appears that by 3 years of age children understand that their briefly delayed self video-representation is related to their present self. In contrast, while 2.5-year-olds can use delayed vid of information to locate objects in space that cannot be seen by the unaided eye, they cannot use this type of information to locate an object that pertains to a part of self that is not directly visible, such as a sticker on one’s hair. The findings are discussed in terms of the emergence of an extended
sense of self.

Scale development of individual and organisation infrastructure for heart health promotion in regional health authorities

Objective : The purpose of this study was to validate measures of individual and organisational infrastructure for health promotion within Alberta's (Canada) 17 Regional Health Authorities (RHAs).

Design : A series of phases were conducted to develop individual and organisational scales to measure health promotion infrastructure. Instruments were designed with focus groups and then pre-tested prior to the validation study.

Setting : In 1993 all hospitals and Public Health Units in the province of Alberta were regionalised into 17 RHAs, with responsibility for public health, community health, and acute and long-term care. While regionalisation may offer more opportunity for community participation, reorganisation of the public health system may have fragmented and diluted resources and skills for heart health promotion in some RHAs. Infrastructure (for example, human and financial resources), amongst other items, is believed to contribute to the capacity to promote health.

Method : All 17 RHAs participated in the study, yielding a total of 144 individuals (that is board members, senior/middle management, and front line staff). These representative employees completed a self- administered questionnaire on individual- and organisational-level infrastructure measures.

Results : Psychometric analyses of survey data provided empirical evidence for the robustness of the measures. Principal component analyses verified the construct validity of the scales, with alpha coefficients ranging from 0.75 to 0.95.

Conclusion : The scales can be used by health professionals and researchers to assess individual- and organisational-level infrastructure, and tailor interventions to increase infrastructure for health promotion in health organisations.