Correct interpretation of chemical diagrams requires transforming from one level of representation to another

17 volunteer non-major chemistry students taking an introductory university chemistry course were interviewed about their understanding of a variety of chemical diagrams. All the students' interviewed appreciated that diagrams of laboratory equipment were useful to show how to set up laboratory equipment. However students' ability to explain specific diagrams at either the macroscopic or sub-microscopic level varied greatly. The results highlighted the poor level of understanding that some students had even after completing both exercises and experiments using the diagrams. The connection between the diagrams of the macroscopic level (equipment, chemicals), the sub- microscopic level (molecular) and the symbolic level (equations) was not always considered explicitly by students. The results indicate a need for chemical diagrams to be used carefully and more explicitly to ensure learner understanding. Correspondingly, students need to interpret visual chemical diagrams using meta-visualisation skills linking the various levels of representation, and appreciating the role of the diagrams in explanations need to be developed.

Australian teaching and learning centres through the eyes of their directors : characteristics, capacities and constraints

This paper is based on research to identify common factors that contribute to the effective strategic leadership of teaching and learning centres. The second of three phases of data collection involved a survey of Directors of Australian teaching and learning centres. The data collected were quantitatively analysed using a range of descriptive, parametric and non-parametric techniques. Based on a response rate of 81.6 percent, we present a contemporary, comprehensive and representative quantitative snapshot of Australian teaching and learning centres, as seen through the eyes of their Directors. The time since last restructure, incumbency of the current Director and total Directorship experience of the current Centre Director all have mean values of ‘sometime in the previous one to three years’. Most Centres would consider their work in the areas of ‘recognition and reward’ and ‘professional development of staff’ as high impact functions, and they would be pleased with their efforts in the former area, and wish to perform better on the latter. The principal constraint identified by Centres was ‘lack of staff time’, both in the Faculties and in the Centre, to engage in teaching and learning improvement activities. Overall, Centres feel well included in relevant university committees and other activities.

Student equity's starring role in Australian higher education : not yet centre field

The field of Australian higher education has changed, is changing and is about to change, repositioned in relation to other ‘‘fields of power’’. It is a sector now well defined by its institutional groupings and by their relative claims to selectivity and exclusivity, with every suggestion of their differentiation growing. The potential of a ‘‘joined-up’’ tertiary education system, of vocational education and training (VET) and universities, has the potential to further rework these relations within Australian higher education, as will lifting the volume caps on university student enrolments. Moreover, Australian universities now compete within an international higher education marketplace, ranked by THES and Shanghai Jiao Tiong league tables. ‘‘Catchment areas’’ and knowledge production have become global. In sum, Australian universities (and agents within them) are positioned differently in the field. And being so variously and variably placed, institutions and agents have different stances available to them, including the positions they can take on student equity. In this paper I begin from the premise that our current stance on equity has been out-positioned, as much by a changing higher education field as by entrenched representations of social groups across regions, institutions, disciplines and degrees. In taking a new stance on equity, the paper is also concerned with the positioning in the field of a new national research centre with a focus on student equity in higher education. In particular, the paper asks what stance this new centre can take on student equity that will resonate on a national and even international scale. And, given a global field of higher education, what definitions of equity and propositions for policy and practice can it offer? What will work in the pursuit of equity?

A content analysis of early childhood teachers’ theoretical and practical experiences with infants and toddlers in Australian teacher education programs

 In Australia, the growth in the provision of early childhood services for very young children aged birth to three years has placed increased demands on pre-service teachers as new policy stipulates the need for qualified early childhood teachers. While many teacher education programs offer early childhood courses, they have traditionally had a greater focus on kindergarten and the formal years of schooling. Less is known about the amount of time devoted to developing the specialist educational capacity for teaching and caring for infants and toddlers. This paper explores 55 Australian early childhood teacher undergraduate education programs to provide data regarding what pre-service teachers learn about children from birth to three years of age during their formal program of study. It explores: if pre-service teachers engage in practical experiences with this age range; what content they learn; and how knowledge for this age range is assessed. Utilising information from fully accessible public program websites, data in the form of course details were examined to reveal the extent and nature of courses inclusive of teaching and learning focusing on children aged from birth to three years. Of the 55 programs, 18 programs provided practical experience with infants and toddlers, and to a lesser extent content was evident and assessed. Most of the programs which included a focus on birth to three years of age were delivered by Victorian institutions. Findings are important for the future of early childhood teacher education in Australia and hold key messages for teacher registration bodies.

Characterisation of the use of Twitter by Australian universities

Universities are now observed using social media communications channels for a variety of purposes, including marketing, student recruitment, student support and alumni communication. This paper presents an investigation into the use of the Twitter social media platform by universities in Australia, using publicly available Twitter data over a 2-year period. A social media network visualisation method is developed to make visible the interactions between a university and its stakeholders in the Twitter environment. This analysis method provides insights into the differing ways in which Australian universities are active on Twitter, and how universities might more effectively use the platform to achieve their individual objectives for institutional social media communications.

Distorted representations of the‘capability approach’ in Australian school education

Recently, curriculum developments in Australia have seen the incorporation of functionalist ‘general capabilities’ as essential markers of schooling, meaning that any pedagogical expression of classroom-based practice, including subsequent instruction, should entail the identification and development of operational general capabilities. The paper questions and critiques recent curriculum developments in Australia that characterises capabilities purely in functionalist terms, something that the broader capabilities literature eschews. The analysis is informed by aspects of the theoretical frameworks of Martin Heidegger and Pierre Bourdieu. It examines the notion of ‘general capabilities’ in the Australian Curriculum. The paper argues that there is an inherent contradiction in Australian education policy, namely a vocationally oriented national school curriculum with implied functionings that cannot fulfil designated purposes. The paper finds that the curriculum's connection to increased individual and national economic prosperity, one championing ‘jobs and careers of the twenty-first century’, is evident, although current populous forms and categories of employment seem to suggest otherwise.

Moving beyond a ‘bums-on-seats’ analysis of progress towards widening participation: reflections on the context, design and evaluation of an Australian government-funded mentoring programme

In 2010 the Australian Government established the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships programme – a funding agenda to promote programmes that respond to the underrepresentation in higher education of people from what is often denoted low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Many government-funded programmes and projects have since emerged that respond to the problem of low SES underrepresentation, based on partnerships between higher education providers and other organisations. The arguments made in this paper draw on one such project: a mentoring programme implemented from 2011 to 2013 that targeted the aspirations of Year 9 regional secondary students. We discuss data and documentation that provide insights into the conception and design of the mentoring programme, and the strategies used to evaluate it, in order to discuss how funding and policy contexts influences the possible solutions that might be implemented in response to the underrepresentation in higher education of people from low SES backgrounds.

Cultural and gender politics in Australian education, the rise of edu-capitalism and the 'fragile project' of critical educational research

This paper draws on research by Australians on Australian education to explore the tension between being critical and being marginalised. In it, I examine how research is positioned in the changing field of education in relation to government, society and the economy in the context of the rise of edu-capitalism globally. I then explore the policy shifts framing the cultural and gender politics of the research/policy problematic in Australia from the perspective of policy critique, policy service and policy advocacy. I consider how the global reconfiguring and reframing of higher education is impacting on the nature and institutional base of educational research, and it’s gendered implications. Finally, I argue that critical educational research is what makes educational research distinctive and also ‘makes a difference’ within a democratic society.

The politics of public sector change: trends in health and education sector change in South Australia

BACKGROUND: As the changes underpinning the Coordinated Care Trials in South Australia have become more apparent, similarities have emerged between the rationalisation of public schooling in the mid 1980s and the transformation of public health in the 1990s.

OBJECTIVE: This article aims to discuss the evolution of health services in South Australia and help us answer the question of how best to manage our public and private health infrastructure in a changing economic and social context.

DISCUSSION: Both strategies in education and health share common elements of cost cutting, attempts at improving efficiencies, a flirting with the private sector and the attendant risk of reduced quality of services to the public. This situation in both sectors is indicative of a shift in public policy and a growth in the belief that private management of public sector infrastructure can help resolve the funding crises around our education and health systems.

Revealing future research capacity from an analysis of a national database of discipline-coded Australian PhD thesis records

This article reports how statistical analyses of PhD thesis recordscan reveal future research capacities for disciplines beyond theirprimary fields. The previous research showed that most thesescontributed to and/or used methodologies from more than onediscipline. In Australia, there was a concern for declining mathematicalteaching and research capacity. We decided to investigatethe ‘hidden’ mathematics research capacity in PhDs outside ofmathematics. Australian PhD records were re-coded with up tothree fields. Records with mathematics as one of their codes wereselected and analysed for their relationships to disciplines in theirother codes. Triple-coding revealed ‘hidden’ mathematicalresearch capacity that had previously been single-coded inanother field had mathematics as one of their subsequent fields.The findings have implications for policy and planning for mathematicsin Australia, and multiple coding of PhD theses recordsenables analyses for other disciplines to be undertaken to showtheir research capacities.

The Victorian Certificate of Education - a gendered affair?

Drawing on data from the Victorian Certificate of Education (1994- 1999), this paper examines whether gender differences in Mathematics still exist. The discussion is developed in the context of ongoing debates about girls' and boys' comparative performance, and about modification in Year 11 and 12 curriculum and assessment. The paper identifies some of the subtle issues that lie behind the statistics, and school to work inequalities that continue to exist.

Emerging technologies in building envelopes

Advancements in engineering and space technology are increasingly finding application in buildings. Building envelopes are utilising components of high-technological solutions resulting in better visibility, greater light transmission, increased energy generation and storage capacity, improved shading and ventilation and integration with the external environment. This report summarises several technological advancements and suggests forthcoming directions for building envelope design. Many of the technologies presented here have been invented and developed in Australia, yet are not commonly used by the building construction industry.

Emerging technologies in ventilation

Innovation in ventilation systems is becoming an increasingly popular and targeted topic of architectural discourse. Architects, consultants and contractors are introducing new products and proposing new systems, subject to client requests for an environmentally responsive architecture. The authors, in compiling the research for this guide, experienced a large increase in Australian constructed buildings that focused specifically on ventilation strategies and systems. This note presents and discusses the underlying principles of different ventilation techniques. Applications of specific ventilation techniques are demonstrated through building examples constructed in Australia as well as overseas. Although a particular building design may demonstrate several ventilation concepts simultaneously, this note illustrates the most dominant ventilation features in each example.