Web mathematics anyone?

The World Wide Web has had an impact on many areas of teaching and learning. Mathematics teaching however has only recently begun to utilise and develop this educational resource. This paper outlines a research program, which aims to uncover the extent the Internet, in particular the World Wide Web, is being used for High School mathematics education. The program includes searching out discernible Web-based teaching strategies and examining their impact on mathematics teaching and learning attitudes and achievements. Of particular interest is the extent to which deployment of the Web in mathematics teaching might increase student interest in mathematics. The first step in this
process is to develop a preliminary typology of mathematical elements on the Web. The nature of these elements, their categorisation and their possible roles in the teaching and learning of mathematics are discussed.

Seeing 'things' differently : recognition, ethics, praxis

This essay focuses on the recent introduction by the Australian Federal Government of standardised literacy testing in all states across Australia (that is, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy, or NAPLAN), and explores the way this reform is mediating the work of English literacy educators in primary and secondary schools. We draw on data collected as part of a research project funded by the Australian Research Council, involving interviews with teachers about their experiences of implementing standardised testing. These interviews indicate that the introduction of standardised testing does not merely constitute an additional part of teachers” workloads, but that it is having a significant impact on their identity as language educators, their understanding of curriculum and pedagogy, and the relationships they seek to maintain with their students. By introducing the NAPLAN tests, the Australian Federal Government is going down the path of other neo-liberal governments around the world. No doubt the story we tell will be familiar to readers in other countries. Our aim, however, is more than simply to give yet another account of the tensions experienced by committed language and literacy teachers as they implement neoliberal policy mandates. Key questions for us include: Why is the Australian government persisting with such policies, even when they have had such dubious consequences (teaching to the test, dumbing down, and so on.) in other national settings? How might educators resist these reforms? What intellectual resources might enable us to articulate an alternative vision of language education to that imposed by neoliberal reforms?
We present an account of conversations with a group of teachers in a primary school in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, not in order to make large claims about how the profession in Australia as a whole judges standards based reforms, but because their talk prompts reflection about the possibility of resisting such policy initiatives. Our impulse is largely a philosophical one – we are raising questions about how neoliberal reforms construct teachers and their students, what they presuppose about the nature of life and its potential, and how educators might dissent from the world view that is being imposed. And rather than simply investigating how teachers are grappling with standards-based reforms, as though it is yet again a matter of putting teachers under the spotlight, we also raise questions about the responsibility of academics and teacher educators to maintain a critical standpoint within the policy environment created by such changes.

Internationalising the curriculum in Australian schools

In the Australian educational context, the International Baccalaureate Diploma has had a measurable effect on both state and independent schools. This globally recognised international program has fostered and encouraged national curriculum innovation through standardization in assessment, criteria based reporting, content rich staff development and whole school change.

Impact of learning environment and learning context on student satisfaction : a comparative study of postgraduate students from Asia

The growth of the international education market with increasing export income has created a highly competitive environment among education providers worldwide. WTO reports that this market is now worth around $27 billion a year (Alderman, 2001) while IDP Australia has estimated an increase in the number of students seeking higher education overseas at 7.2 million by 2025. This alludes to the attractiveness of the international education market in the form of both pecuniary and non pecuniary benefits to provider nations and the higher educational institutions and hence the need for strategies to maintain a globally competitive position. This paper looks at the impact of the learning environment and the learning context on student satisfaction among international postgraduate students from Asia studying in Australian universities. The growing competition requires provider institutions to be highly responsive to the needs and aspirations of the diverse student community and to deliver services to create satisfaction and loyalty, which would be critical in sustaining a competitive position. The study, based on the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm, and a model of post choice satisfaction in the educational setting, uses logistic regression, MANOVA, ANOVA and chi square testing, investigates factors relevant to student learning environment and the learning context to assess satisfaction levels of these students. The sample size used in the study is 371 and is drawn from a mail survey of five leading universities in Australia.

Neoliberalising learning : generating alternate futures consciousness

Both educators and education policies have long claimed a role in preparing students for ‘the future’. This has been referred to as the rhetoric of futures in education, as the notion of a future is assumed, abstract and not articulated (Bateman 2010). Recent research indicates that teachers give little attention to futures thinking in interpreting and enacting curriculum documents. Only when their ‘futures consciousness’ was increased were they able to generate explicit alternate futures scenarios and make connections with learners (Bateman 2012). In light of international education policy agendas pressing countries to adopt economic competitiveness in national curriculum policies, the ‘future’ vision looks narrow and constrained. We argue that current educational reforms in Australia provide little scope to address the concept of multiple futures, which are significant in enabling citizens to shape and contribute in personal, local and global contexts.

Problem-based learning curricula in engineering

This chapter explores Problem-Based Learning (PBL) curricula in engineering in Australasian universities, in particular its effects on student approaches to learning in PBL teams. Exploring from the three view points: curriculum design and implementation; institutional support structures assisting the transition to PBL for both students and academics; and student learning experiences in PBL teams this chapter intends to close the loop for institutions and academics using PBL to educate future engineers. In particular, this chapter examines the design of engineering PBL courses or subjects within programs and the ways in which learning experiences are designed for students, the support structures that institutions put in place for both academics and students to transition to PBL, teacher practices and student experiences of learning both individually and as a team in PBL. It is argued that many engineering programs still undermine the need for designing learning experiences to help students achieve the desired learning outcomes; seldom consider the learning cultures adopted by PBL teams and how students engage in learning as individuals and as a team. This chapter argues the need for approaches to PBL that enhance student learning and experiences in engineering and the need for support structures that assist both students and academics in the transition to problem-based learning.

Mediating teacher professional identity : The emergence of humanness and ethical identity

Over the past couple of years, international vocational education and training has been much debated at the nexus of the commercialisation of vocational education and social justice for international students. This nexus has significantly affected the professional identity and responsibilities of teachers who are directly involved in providing vocational education and training for international students. Drawing on a research project funded by the Australian Research Council, this paper offers an alternative lens on vocational teachers' process of mediating professional identity in response to the flow of international students and the commercialisation of vocational education. It employs the logic of relationality as a conceptual framework to interpret teachers' journey of identity re-construction. The humanness and ethical dimensions of identity have been at the heart of the teachers' negotiation over the kind of teachers they are and to which they aspire. The teachers in this research draw on humanness and ethical dimensions to engage in critical reflection of their own teaching practices, their interaction with international students and the socio-political context shaping international vocational education and training. They perceive their professional responsibility not only in relation to the facilitation of students' development of vocational skills and knowledge, but also the provision of pastoral care for international students and the advocating for social justice for this student cohort.

A study of materiality auditing: case study from Libya

The results demonstrate strong agreement between Libyan auditors about the materiality concept. In terms of the international auditing standards, not all Libyan auditors follow these standards. The percentage of the item being audited is the most important quantitative form, followed by the item’s position in the financial statements and the absolute value. The results also identified 16 qualitative factors for materiality auditing decisions.

Motion Bank : Phase One

 Motion Bank Phase One (2010-2013) was a four-year international and interdisciplinary research project of The Forsythe Company providing a broad context for research into choreographic practice. The main focus was on the creation of on-line digital scores in collaboration with guest choreographers, to be made publicly available via this website. For Phase One, the guest choreographers were Deborah Hay, Jonathan Burrows & Matteo Fargion, Bebe Miller and Thomas Hauert. Teams from the Motion Bank Score Partners worked with these artists to make their diverse choreographic approaches accessible in new ways through the digital medium with the results published here: http://scores.motionbank.org/. Alongside this core research, Motion Bank Education Partners and an International Education Workgroup researched ways to integrate the new on-line digital scores and related choreographic resources produced by other artists into their academic programs. Accompanying the Motion Bank education research was an interdisciplinary initiative titled Dance Engaging Science aiming to stimulate new forms of collaborative research involving dance practice. Motion Bank public events offered at The Frankfurt Lab included performances and talks with the guest choreographers as well as a series of Motion Bank Workshops with internationally recognized practitioners from different fields. An extensive series of reports and documentation on all Motion Bank activities and results are available on-line at http://motionbank.org.

Motion Bank Score Partners:
- Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design and Department of Dance at The Ohio State University
- Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD
- Hochschule Darmstadt - University of applied sciences
- Hochschule für Gestaltung (HFG) Offenbach.

Motion Bank Education Partners:
- Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts
- Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden