Enriching student experience and inter-professional learning of inclusive design with Second Life

This position paper reflects rapid advances in immersive 2D and 3D eLearning technologies and the expanding pool of ideas and applications in higher education across two professions. Inspiration has been drawn from examples in design learning, and various multidisciplinary collaborative projects through developmental research in Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs). Linden Lab's Second Life (SL) is the most mature and popular of the ‘persistent’ virtual worlds. The study described in this paper aims to increase the authenticity of student learning through a range of SL simulated ‘life experiences’ relating to accessibility and mobility in the built environment. Significantly, the successes of such initiatives lie in several elements: teaching champions with vision and courage; detailed scripting of precise role-play encounters for first-time users to provide supportive ‘blended learning’ contexts; careful and vigilant strategic management of facilities and resources, and a robust design program. This paper focuses on the crucial alignment of these elements to the specific challenges of designing and navigating conception and development processes, to enable the execution and delivery of a tightly defined script for meaningful and memorable learning outcomes. This innovative pedagogical approach lacks time-tested outcomes, but is recognised equally as opportunity and challenge; risk and reward.

Trade-off manipulations in the development of negotiation decision support systems

Our model of negotiation for constructing Negotiation Decision Support Systems is based upon Principled Negotiation and uses trade-off manipulations in order to provide decision support. A resulting system, Family_Winner, was constructed using several information systems techniques. Trade-off Maps (a variant of Constraint Diagrams) are used to represent trade-off opportunities, while an empirically derived formula calculates the amount of compensation given to the ratings of issues remaining in dispute. The Issue Decomposition Hierarchy embedded in the system allows for the incorporation of sub-issues. Family_Winner was originally built for use in Australian Family Law. We believe our model can be extended for use in various other domains.

Family_Winner has been evaluated in the areas of industrial relations, international disputation and company disputes. Results from our evaluation suggest the system works satisfactorily in these domains. We conclude this paper by describing future projects that will develop and extend Family_Winner's functions and applicability.

Incorporating fairness into development of an integrated multi-agent online dispute resolution environment

The paper describes the development of an integrated multi-agent online dispute resolution environment called IMODRE that was designed to assist parties involved in Australian family law disputes achieve legally fairer negotiated outcomes. The system extends our previous work in developing negotiation support systems Family_Winner and AssetDivider. In this environment one agent uses a Bayesian Belief Network expertly modeled with knowledge of the Australian Family Law domain to advise disputants of their Best Alternatives to Negotiated Agreements. Another agent incorporates the percentage split of marital property into an integrative bargaining process and applies heuristics and game theory to equitably distribute marital property assets and facilitate further trade-offs. We use this system to add greater fairness to Family property law negotiations.

Policing, rule of law, state capacity and sustainable peace in Timor-Leste

This paper sets out to demonstrate the link between development, state capacity and peace, employing Timor-Leste as the case study. It employs the association between state capacity and development to illustrate where if state capacity is lacking or functions improperly there is likely to be a low level of state legitimacy. This in turn manifests as lack of respect for or failure of rule of law, developing as generalised lawlessness and anti-state activity and eventually manifesting as intra-state or civil conflict. In particular, policing is seen as a critical component in state legitimacy, being the 'front line' of the judicial system from which legitimacy ultimately derives. This issue is particularly critical in states emerging from traditional legal and judicial structures, but which have not yet articulated into 'rational-legal' structures. Ipso facto, key state institutions, such as the judicial system and police are required to function well, while these are alone not enough to guarantee peace, they are significant contributors to and guarantors of peace.

The development of an accreditation scheme for accredited exercise physiologists

Background: Accredited Exercise Physiologists provide exercise services for people living with chronic disease, disability or injury and are recognised in Australia as Accredited Exercise Physiologists (AEP) under a national certification system administered by Exercise and Sport Science Australia (ESSA). A major breakthrough occurred for the AEP in 2006 when the Australian Department of Health and Ageing approved the AEP to deliver clinical exercise services for people with chronic medical conditions under the taxpayer-funded national health scheme, Medicare Australia.

Aims: In light of these developments, the authors recognised the need for new accreditation criteria, and our report summarises the work that we did on behalf of the profession and ESSA in restructuring the accreditation system.

Methods and Outcomes: We first performed a background study that defined the scope of practice of the AEP and benchmarked the AEP against other allied health professions in Australia and Clinical Exercise Physiologists internationally. We then constructed a new set of accreditation criteria comprising sets of pathologyspecific knowledge and experiences, together with a set of generic standards including communication, professional behaviour and risk management. All participating Australian universities (18 out of 27 responded) and 29 practitioner experts were then invited to provide comment and input into the draft guidelines. There was strong support for the new system that was implemented nationally on 1 January 2008 and is now administered by ESSA.

Conclusions: This work has stimulated an unprecedented level of activity in the Australian university sector in developing new curricula in clinical exercise science and practice, and is intended to lead to improved standards of clinical exercise practice.

The role of assessment in the development of judgement

This paper introduces an integrated assessment model developed within a project management discipline stream in a Construction Management course. Following Boud and Falchikov (2007) this model starts with practice, that is, the actual ‘doing’ of project management as the basis for shaping assessment that equips students to learn for the rest of their lives. Practice is understood as a holistic conception of what professionals do in particular contexts, and a theoretical construct that provides a method of framing ways in which we can investigate the world (Schatzki, 2001). This approach opens the way for considerations of assessment that engage with, and cultivate, certain kinds of professional learning and identity formation including the development of judgement. Integral to the model is the non-sequential nature of assessment activities, evolving team formation and ongoing self and communal reflection. The paper concludes that the use of an authentic and integrated assessment model creates a compelling learning environment that contributes meaningfully to the development of skills, knowledge and identities for future professional learning.

Partnerships for learning : an international perspective on the development of inclusive schools

One of the most difficult issues faced in school university partnerships is the legitimacy of the collaborative relationship. Getting invited in as a university partner and staying on to support teacher knowledge is challenging. Through an account of a case study set in one large secondary school located in the western suburbs of Victoria, we disentangle the importance of seldom considered barriers that impact on professional learning. Shaping our understanding through a theoretical model where the movement between identity, beliefs and decision and action is identified as 'noticing' (Moss et al. 2004, Mason 2002) we describe the potential of the model in developing a 'pedagogy of hope' (hooks 2003). Noticing, working at the elusive intersections of observation and construction, permits non-linear connections. A 'pedagogy of hope' works for a sustainable learning community- a community for all students, teachers and school leaders.

Early childhood teachers' professional development in music : a cross-cultural study

This paper deals with professional teacher development. It specifically focuses on a research study of early childhood teachers' views and involvement in teaching music to young children. It presents findings from a comparative study of 38 teachers in three childcare centres in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and 24 teachers in four childcare centres in South Australia. Two research questions are discussed and answered: (1) What are early childhood teachers' levels of involvement in professional development in music? (2) Are there any significant relationships, that is differences and commonalities, in the findings between teachers' levels of involvement in these two cultural contexts? A unique research tool entitled Teachers' Music Development Scale was devised to collect data and measure teachers' involvement in music development. Specific findings and their implications are presented in the paper.

Development of enhanced curriculum through student-based research

The introduction of the new “Early Years Learning Framework” (DEEWR, 2009 has shifted, the focus in Early Childhood Centres (ECC) from incidental learning through play, to planning curriculum with play as the vehicle to achieve learning. Our Teaching and Learning Grant Project was intended to identify instances of educator practice that fit with the new framework, and video practitioners’ sessions to select vignettes to use as part of an Early Childhood Science Education Unit. The method of identifying and collecting such illustrations is examined here for its feasibility as a research design to collect data to explore a range of educator practices that fit with the new framework. The data collection method was found useful for these purposes.

The development of the Melbourne low vision ADL index : a measure of vision disability

PURPOSE. To develop a new test of activities of daily living (ADLs) appropriate for the low-vision population: the Melbourne Low-Vision ADL Index (MLVAI).

METHODS. The MLVAI was designed as a desk-based clinical assessment, comprising 18 observed items on complex ADLs in part (a) and 9 questions on broad self-care ADLs in part (b). Each item was rated on a five-level descriptive scale from 0 to 4, based on independence, speed, and accuracy of performance. It was designed to be administered under standardized conditions with regard to the instructions, illumination, and working distances. The validity and reliability of the new MLVAI was determined for 122 subjects who were representative of the general low-vision population, in a cross-sectional study.

RESULTS. Two items were found to be redundant and were eliminated from the test. Thus, the final test comprised 25 items, with 100 being the highest possible score. Cronbach’s α indicated an internal reliability of 0.96, and an intraclass correlation coefficient indicated an overall reliability of 0.95. The SE of measurement was 4.5. According to Spearman’s correlation coefficient, the test–retest reliability was 0.94 (P < 0.001), and the interpractitioner reliability for five different pairs of practitioners was 0.90 or higher (P < 0.001). With regard to validity, there was a moderately high correlation with vision impairment (r = −0.68, P < 0.001). Using Rasch analysis, content validity was also demonstrated by good separation indexes (4.70 and 9.88) and high reliability scores (0.96 and 0.99) for the person and items parameters, respectively. Separate calculation of indexes and reliability scores for parts (a) and (b) indicated high content validity and reliability of each part. However, the separation indexes and reliability scores were higher for part (a) than for part (b). The correlation coefficient for part (a) and part (b) was 0.68.

CONCLUSIONS. The MLVAI is a highly valid and reliable standardized test of ADL performance for the general low-vision population. It may be used to assess patients with low vision and has the potential to be used as a measure of low-vision rehabilitation outcomes.

Development of an expert system modelling the construction process

The construction industry in the UK needs to improve its performance and provide clients with an improved level of satisfaction. The inefficient design and construction process is usually criticised as one of the main causes of poor performance.

A new construction process system, CONstruction Best Practice System (CONBPS), has been developed based on the use of an expert system. CONBPS is based on the traditional procurement strategy as it is probably the most popular procurement method in the UK and yet it is subject to most criticism. This model clearly identifies the roles and responsibilities of the major parties within the building team and identifies the activities and the key issues within the project cycle. The completed model reflects the full project cycle from inception to completion.

The prototype of this system has been demonstrated to the construction participants for their comments. The practitioners included architects, quantity surveyors, planning supervisors, private and public clients. The method of collecting data was through the use of semi-structured interviews.

Following feedback from practitioners, the CONBPS has been updated. This version is more robust; besides, it is more practical and user-friendly as it incorporates the comments from practitioners, who are also the potential users.

The primary aim of this paper is to discuss the development of the updated CONBPS. The improvement of the updated CONBPS includes the information for constructing the system, the computerised functions, system structure, knowledge representation structure and the system operation.

Moments of disruption and the development of expatriate TESOL teachers

TESOL teachers, like mainstream teachers, often experience key incidents in their professional development. In expatriate TESOL, however, unfamiliar cultural and linguistic contexts may disrupt teachers' sense of both professional and personal identity. In this article, narratives constructed from interviews of teacher experiences document a selection of critical events and discuss their implications for professional development in TESOL. Teachers reported that deep reflection on their experiences led to a re-conceptualisation of their professional and cultural identities. The analysis of their reflections may have significant implications for TESOL work in the context of the global and the local. The narratives specifically explore teachers' initial experiences of readjustment, awareness of differences in expectations of their roles as teachers, the impact of being perceived as representatives of 'Western' culture, and their re-appraisal of the educational and cultural-linguistic values of 'home'.

The development of theoretical frameworks for understanding the learning of chemistry

Chemistry has unique characteristics that make it a difficult subject to understand including the abstract concepts, the three levels of representation of matter – the macroscopic level, the sub-microscopic level and the symbolic level, and the complexities concerning the representational and theoretical qualities and the reality of each level. Drawing on data from a study with first year university students learning introductory chemistry, this chapter looks at how these students’ understandings of the characteristics of chemistry influence the way they understand and learn chemistry. Two theoretical frameworks to describe how chemical concepts can be presented and understood are developed based on the research data: the expanding triangle and the rising iceberg. The aim of the frameworks are to further develop the ways of thinking about how students learn chemistry thereby developing a chemical epistemology – that is, an understanding of the knowledge of how chemical ideas are built and an understanding of the way of knowing about chemical processes. These two frameworks are proposed as useful tools for chemistry educators to better understand students learning, linking chemical education research to practice so as to inform pedagogical content knowledge. Chemical education research can be theoretical and is sometimes criticised for not impacting on teachers practice, so the pedagogy of chemistry teachers is discussed with the aim of exploring ways the two frameworks can be useful in developing teachers’ professional understandings of learning and teaching chemistry to promote changes in their practice and support student understandings.