Climate change in the kitchen and on the public health agenda

Direct or indirect consequences of climate change on the vulnerable groups within communities are discussed. The health impacts of climate change will be felt in all facets of life and will be a significant challenge to public health systems and in health promotion fields.

Climate change in the Victorian Alps : can VET be a change agent?

Of all the factors contributing to turbulent times in Australia, climate change is one that offers both challenges and opportunities for VET. In a time when the response to water availability is subject to ‘extensive debate and policy attention’, our presentation explores what adults living and working in the Alpine region of Victoria understand about the changes to water availability, and what they have learned about adapting to significant climatic changes in their local area. Interviews were conducted in the towns of Bright, Mount Beauty and Albury, with participants from across the Alpine region. Our study found evidence of a strong understanding of the direct impact of climate change on participants’ local community area, and a keen desire to learn about adaptation to change. In addition to an identified need for more information around climate change issues and projected impacts in general, participants saw practical hands-on water education strategies as an important way to educate people to help themselves. Conversations about where or how people learned to adapt to change were broad ranging, and clearly connected to the participants’ backgrounds, livelihoods or where they were situated. This raised the question of what responses VET might develop to address these identified learning needs. Major local industries
of tourism, agriculture, water harvesting and land care are all covered by national Training Packages that include industry- specific units of competence to support learning to live and work in an environmentally sustainable way. In addition, the national Employability Skills framework offers opportunities to build climate change awareness and adaptation into units of competency where they may not be explicitly incorporated. Our presentation will outline the opportunities for VET to act as a change agent in this and other Australian communities impacted by climate change.

An XRD/XPS approach to structural change in conducting PPy

Electrochemically synthesised polypyrrole (PPy) with 1,5 naphthalene disulfonate (1,5-NDS) counterions treated with simple acid and base was characterised using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The as synthesised film was found to be amorphous with short-range ordering in the polymer backbone. Ordering was lost after thermal ageing with evidence of counterion degradation. Base treatment lead to loss of ordering as well as dedoping of the polymer whereas acid treatment at high temperature increases short range ordering. Conductivity was also increased dramatically with evidence of ion exchange. Ordering induced by the treatment was maintained even after thermal ageing.

Teacher change in exploring representational approaches to learning science

The researcher worked closely with two biology-trained teachers to plan three teaching sequences in the topics of forces, substances and astronomy that were subsequently taught to Year 7 students. The sequences sought to develop a model of classroom practice that foregrounds students’ negotiation of conceptual representations.

The difficulties encountered by individuals in learning science point to the need for a very strong emphasis of the role of representations in learning. There is a need for learners to use their own representational, cultural and cognitive resources to engage with the subject-specific representational practices of science. Researchers who have undertaken classroom studies whereby students have constructed and used their own representations have pointed to several principles in the planning, execution and assessment of student learning (diSessa, 2004; Greeno & Hall, 1997). A key principle is that teachers need to identify big ideas, key concepts, of the topic at the planning stage in order to guide refinement of representational work. These researchers also point out the need for students to engage with multiple representations in different modes that are both teacher and student generated. A representation can only partially explain a particular phenomenon or process and has both positive and negative attributes to the target that it represents. The issue of the partial nature of representations needs to be a component of classroom practice (Greeno & Hall, 1997) in terms of students critiquing representations for their limitations and affordances and explicitly linking multiple representations to construct a fuller understanding of the phenomenon or process under study. The classroom practice should also provide opportunities for students to manipulate representations as reasoning tools (Cox, 1999) in constructing the scientifically acceptable ideas and communicating them.

Research question: What impact was there on the participating teacher’s practice through the adoption of a representational focus to teaching science?

Data collection included video sequences of classroom practice and student responses, student work, field notes, tape records of meetings and discussions, and student and teacher interviews based in some cases on video stimulated recall. Video analysis software was used to capture the variety of representations used, and sequences of representational negotiation.

The teachers in this study reported substantial shifts in their classroom practices, and in the quality of classroom discussions, arising from adopting a representational focus. The shifts were reported by them as a three-fold challenge. First, there was an epistemological challenge as they came to terms with the culturally produced nature of representations in the topics of force, substance and astronomy and their flexibility and power as tools for analysis and communication, as opposed to their previous assumption that this was given knowledge to be learnt as an end point. The second challenge was pedagogical, in that this approach was acknowledged to place much greater agency in the hands of students, and this brought a need to learn to run longer and more structured discussions around conceptual problems. The third challenge related to content coverage. The teachers sacrificed coverage for the greater depth offered by this approach, and were unanimous in their judgment that this had been a change that had paid dividends in terms of student learning.

Cultivating teachers' knowledge and skills for leading change in schools

Australian policy initiatives and state curriculum reform efforts affirm a commitment to address student disengagement through the development of inclusive school environments, curriculum, and pedagogy. This paper, drawing on critical social theory, describes three Australian projects that support the cultivation of teachers’ beliefs, knowledge and skills for critical reflection and leading change in schools. The first project reports on the valued ethics that emerged in pre-service teacher reflections about a Service-learning Program at a university in Queensland. The second project reports on a school-based collaborative inquiry approach to professional development with a focus on literacy practices. The final project reports on an initiative in another university in Victoria, to operationalise pedagogical change and curriculum renewal in Victoria, through the Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT). These case studies illustrate how critical reflection and development of beliefs, knowledge and skills can be acquired to better meet the needs of schools.

Motivating offenders to change in therapy: an organizing framework

Objectives. Motivating offenders to change in therapy is an important aspect of effective offender treatment, yet despite this, offenders' motivation to change has received little close attention in the academic and professional literature. This situation is a result of an over-emphasis on the risk management model of rehabilitation, and a consequent failure to construe motivation within an overarching theory of offender rehabilitation.

Method. We present a social cognitive model of offender motivation — the Good Lives Model (GLM) — that provides a framework for incorporating factors that have been shown to be of importance in enhancing offender motivation. This is based upon the notion that all humans strive to achieve primary goods that are intrinsically rewarding and essential to well-being. Where offenders are concerned, criminogenic problems relate, not to the goods offenders seek, but to the way they seek them. Any treatment approach should take this into account and focus positively on equipping people with the skills required to achieve goals rather than simply look to manage risk. The motivational construct that we use here is that of goals. In the GLM, goals are the less abstract depictions of primary human goods and it is with these that people are typically engaged in their day-to-day activities and lives. Looking at therapeutic goal-setting, methods and styles of therapy, and therapist approaches, we derive theoretically-based key issues in motivating offenders to change in therapy.

Conclusion. In conclusion, we present a summary of 12 strategies and techniques that will not only help practitioners enhance their therapeutic effectiveness, but hopefully also act as a catalyst in the development of research on offenders' motivation to change.

Change in running kinematics after cycling are related to alterations in running economy in triathletes

Emerging evidence suggests that cycling may influence neuromuscular control during subsequent running but the relationship between altered neuromuscular control and run performance in triathletes is not well understood. The aim of this study was to determine if a 45 min high-intensity cycle influences lower limb movement and muscle recruitment during running and whether changes in limb movement or muscle recruitment are associated with changes in running economy (RE) after cycling. RE, muscle activity (surface electromyography) and limb movement (sagittal plane kinematics) were compared between a control run (no preceding cycle) and a run performed after a 45 min high-intensity cycle in 15 moderately trained triathletes. Muscle recruitment and kinematics during running after cycling were altered in 7 of 15 (46%) triathletes. Changes in kinematics at the knee and ankle were significantly associated with the change in VO₂ after cycling (p < 0.05). The change in ankle angle at foot contact alone explained 67.1% of the variance in VO₂. These findings suggest that cycling does influence limb movement and muscle recruitment in some triathletes and that changes in kinematics, especially at the ankle, are closely related to alterations in running economy after cycling.

Not the spice trade : Australian women's contribution to educational change in Pakistan

This thesis critiqued the professional practices of an Institute’s graduates in order to establish the effectiveness of a teacher education innovation in Pakistan shaped in partnership with Australian educators. The research findings show that relevant, high quality teacher education, capable of effecting positive changes in schooling, is achievable within Pakistan.