The best of both worlds – how vocational education can enhance university studies in construction management

Australian post-compulsory vocational or technical education and higher education (university) has traditionally been delivered separately. Attempts to collaborate on curriculum development and delivery have mostly been at the margins of articulation and educational pathways. This study examines a pilot project in construction management education conducted at RMIT University over a two-year period. The study demonstrates the challenges with mutual curriculum development between vocational and higher education in Australia and demonstrates the methods utilised to overcome these challenges. The results of the project reveal that the benefits to students in hands-on experiences, theoretical knowledge gained and practical demonstrations were invaluable and worthy of ongoing research and development. The article also raises critical questions about flexibility and mobility in educational institutions in Australia.

Pedagogy of connections : findings of a collaborative action research project in outdoor and environmental education

Improving human-nature relationships is often a stated aim of outdoor education, yet this aim is not always made explicit in practice. This paper reflects on a pedagogical intervention which aims to find ways to explicitly develop students' connections with natural places through a tertiary outdoor and environmental education program. It describes the intervention process, which is guided by principles of collaborative action research. Furthermore, the intervention uses a multi-pronged teaching approach incorporating repeated visits to natural places utilizing different 'ways of knowing', weekly readings, journal writing, collaborative discussions, and others. We summarize the key findings of the research project and report that repeated visits to a natural place using different ways of knowing (e.g., historical, scientific, ecological, artistic, experiential, etc.) are influential in improving connections. We conclude with a discussion of the opportunities and dilemmas of using action research as a form of pedagogy.

Analysing the relationship between new housing supply and residential construction costs with the regional heterogeneities

New housing supply in Australia has been experiencing a low rate of increase in conjunction with a dramatic increase in residential construction costs since the 1990s. This study aims to estimate the relationship between new housing supply and residential construction costs with the regional heterogeneities. Based on a panel error correction model, it can be identified that there is a causal link as well as a significant correlation between new housing supply and construction costs in the Australian sub-national housing construction markets. The model developed in this research assists policy makers to better understand the nature of the supply side of the housing sector and then enact appropriate policies to improve the new housing supply in Australia.

Conceptualising challenges for teachers and learning futures

The assumption that all education prepares students for their futures is misguided. Rather, students are prepared, through curriculum and institutional practices for politically constructed notions of the future, which are often based on another assumption that what has worked in the past will continue to work in the future. This is evident in the absence of articulated futures within curriculum and other policy documents. This research showcases a critical ethnography which was undertaken in a Victorian primary school. The specific project focussed on the ways in which Year 5/6 classroom teachers reconceptualised curriculum to incorporate futures thinking as a result of ongoing professional learning and support. Through the use of analytical bracketing and post-analytic ethnomethodology for analysis across the data, the presenter proposes a conceptual model which highlights the complexity of this work as well as a theoretical explanation of why futures remains the missing dimension in education.

Infrastructure development using alliances : lessons and observations

This research provides a deeper insight into the performance of Alliances for the construction of road, rail and water projects. The results review 18 public infrastructure projects across Australia that utilized the Alliance form of procurement. The results were based on interviews which addressed the most important management issues impacting on the performance of Alliances. The respondents were selected from a sample of members of the Alliance Leadership Teams (ALT) and the Alliance Management Teams (AMT) that had recently completed a range of infrastructure projects. Results revealed that communication and trust between the ALT and AMT teams was a major issue that impacted on the effectiveness of the Alliance. Further, the research identified several factors that are necessary preconditions for the Alliance to be successful. The study reported on the perceived performance of Alliances to deliver in the key areas that was identified by the client organizations prior to commencement of the project. There are an increasing number of international organizations contemplating construction projects using “Alliancing”. The results of this paper will assist clients in making more informed decisions about the possibility that this form of procurement will be effective in meeting the needs of the project and its stakeholders.

Pathways to formally assessed work placement : employers' perspectives on collaborative education in the Australian construction industry

The QS and construction industry is uniquely impacted by project-based work environments. This creates special challenges for collaborative, work-integrated education of pre-professional students. This research is based on investigating the attitudes of employer’s towards the use of formally assessed internships. The study comprised two stages- firstly a series of pilot interviews were undertaken with employers to test a number known issues and secondly, the results from the interviews were used to refine a set of questions that were put to a large focus group of employers who were invited from across the property and construction sector in Australia. The results showed that many employer organisations expressed considerable goodwill towards collaborative education with universities. However, the challenges caused by project-based work environments restrict employers' ability to provide comprehensive learning opportunities. This research discusses some of the distinctive issues associated with work-integrated learning in the construction industry and proposes some potential opportunities for overcoming these restrictions.

Sustainability leading to building intelligence - knowledge sharing and transfer

A sustainable building regards energy use and greenhouse gas emissions as major components, and its sustainability is within a larger context of benefits about productivity, efficiency, health and safety, and serviceability. An intelligent building requires a quality building automation system design which increases productivity, reduces operational costs and protects the people using the facilities. Council House 2 (CH2) is claimed to change the way Australia approaches ecologically sustainable design and construction. Its building intelligence can be evaluated by energy and water efficiency and quality of indoor environments that elevate productivity and lower operational costs. This paper uses triangulation techniques, based upon the "Building Intelligence Quotient" by the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) and "Green Star Rating" by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), to cross-verify CH2’s sustainability and intelligence. The author examines 18 design reports and 10 research papers to case-study the effectiveness and efficiency of CH2 and concludes that it is not just another sustainable construction but an intelligent building per se. By leveraging the existing knowledge base of green rating, building professions can measure the intelligence without "reinventing the wheel".

Small within-day increases in temperature affects boldness and alters personality in coral reef fish

Consistent individual differences in behaviour, termed personality, are common in animal populations and can constrain their responses to ecological and environmental variation, such as temperature. Here, we show for the first time that normal within-daytime fluctuations in temperature of less than 3°C have large effects on personality for two species of juvenile coral reef fish in both observational and manipulative experiments. On average, individual scores on three personality traits (PTs), activity, boldness and aggressiveness, increased from 2.5- to sixfold as a function of temperature. However, whereas most individuals became more active, aggressive and bold across temperature contexts (were plastic), others did not; this changed the individual rank order across temperatures and thus altered personality. In addition, correlations between PTs were consistent across temperature contexts, e.g. fish that were active at a given temperature also tended to be both bold and aggressive. These results (i) highlight the importance of very carefully controlling for temperature when studying behavioural variation among and within individuals and (ii) suggest that individual differences in energy metabolism may contribute to animal personality, given that temperature has large direct effects on metabolic rates in ectotherms.

Professional ethics for UK construction professionals

The construction industry has a number of unique characteristics, including a temporary organisational structure, and it is one of the most dangerous of all industries. Therefore, it is important for construction professionals to have a high level of professional ethics. However, the public standing of construction professional ethics may not be high and it attracts a lot of attention.

This paper investigates UK construction professionals' view on professional ethics. The issues which are investigated for quantity surveyors include their view on ethical behaviours, their ranking and rating of parties and constituencies when they face ethical dilemmas and their opinion on whether they think the ethical standards have declined over the last decade. The paper also outlined the UK construction managers' view on the ethical perception of other construction managers. In addition, the factors influencing the ethical decision making of the UK quantity surveyors and construction managers are also identified. Furthermore, the background of influence on the views of professional ethics is also outlined.

The research method of the project is through questionnaire survey, one set of questionnaires was sent to quantity surveyor and the other was sent to construction managers. The questions in the questionnaires are developed from the previous literature.

Georg Simmel, the stranger and the sociology of knowledge

The Simmelian stranger has been extensively studied and critiqued. This paper suggests that although this body of literature has contributed to a conceptual refinement of the category, its analysis confines itself to Simmel’s seminal essay on the stranger. A broader and deeper analysis of Simmel’s stranger is possible when we contextualise it within Simmel’s broader intellectual project and link it to his conception of historical knowledge, 10 his reflections on the third element, the cosmopolitan aesthetic sensibility and the genius. It is suggested that the affinities between the stranger and other ideas within his work allow us to ponder the contribution that Simmel can make to the debate on standpoint epistemologies.

Virtual design studio within a blended social network

Online interactions, multimedia, mobile computing and face-to-face learning create blended learning environments to which some Virtual Design Studios (VDS) have reacted. Social Networks (SN), as instruments for communication, have provided a potentially fruitful operative base for VDS. These technologies transfer communication, leadership, democratic interaction, teamwork, social engagement and responsibility away from the design tutors to the participants. The implementation of a Social Network VDS (SNVDS) moved the VDS beyond its conventional realm and enabled students to develop architectural design that is embedded into a community of learners and their expertise both online and offline. Problem-based learning (PBL) becomes an iterative and reflexive process facilitating deep learning. The paper discusses details of the SNVDS, its pedagogical implications to PBL, and presents how the SNVDS is successful in empowering architectural students to collaborate and communicate design proposals that integrate a variety of skills, deep learning, knowledge and construction with a rich learning experience.

Factors influencing mathematics and science teachers' self-assessment as teaching 'out-of-field' in rural and regional schools

Teaching 'out-of-field' occurs when teachers teach a subject for which they have no disciplinary or methods qualification. The incidence of out-of-field mathematics, science and technology teaching are particularly high in rural and regional areas. Given that mathematics and science are key areas of policy concern, there is an urgent need to understand teachers‟ position in this increasingly common practice in order to provide appropriate system responses. This paper asks the question, how are mathematics and science teachers‟ professional identities influenced by having to teach out-of-field? Twenty teachers who had taught science or mathematics at some time in their career, two school leaders, and two support staff, took part in semi-structured interviews, which I then transcribed. This paper reports on a thematic analysis of a subset of the data that isolated factors influencing teachers‟ self-assessment of themselves as out-of-field or in-field. Excerpts from the interviews are used to introduce and contextualise these factors within rural and regional settings. These factors are used to generate a theoretical model, the Boundary Between Fields (BBF) Model, that enables analysis of the impact of these factors on identity construction during a boundary crossing event. The Model highlights the influence of support mechanisms, contextual factors and personal resources on the nature of teachers‟ negotiation of subject boundaries and its impact on professional identity. This innovative model provides a platform for re-conceptualising these experiences as opportunities for professional learning occurring within schools as communities of practice, where teachers are supported and enabled to expand their professional identity. These findings provide insight for policy-makers, school leaders and teacher educators, into the complexity of the issue for teachers, as well as the conditions required for such teaching to be considered learning opportunities.

Inclusion in participatory research: what were the whitefellas doing in an Aboriginal health project?

Health research in indigenous communities, like many interactions between such communities and white-dominated institutions, has a chequered history leading to a three-fold decrement: suspicion and resistance to research that is seen as coming from outside of the community; a shortage of research generators and leaders within the community; and cumulative gaps in the research evidence base, both in terms of coverage of topics and in terms of meeting the priorities of the community.

Additionally, these decrements have been mistakenly located as problems being caused from within the community, rather than recognising that these are outcomes of wider contextual, historical and institutional factors and failings. Good research, as culturally appropriate, inclusive of community voices and meeting the needs and priorities of the community, is necessary in an increasingly evidence-based-practice culture within policy and health settings. Culturally safe research with and for indigenous communities has the potential to be empowering, and to bring community voices, views and experiences into the influential realm of'evidence.

This process of developing safe, appropriate and inclusive research is not straightforward: the decrements are recursive, with a shortage of connections between the community, its priorities and research. However, as the Healing Stories project that we discuss here has shown, it is possible to develop culturally safe participatory research by working with Elders from within the community and with leaders from within white institutions, in a spirit of reconciliation. The methods and findings of Healing Stories have been reported elsewhere, with an emphasis on the voices from the community; this chapter explores some of the 'behind the scenes' processes, from the perspective of the white researchers working from within white- dominated institutions.

After briefly describing the Healing Stories project, this chapter reflects on three parts of the participatory research process: getting started, leading together, and working together. The first of these considers laying the foundations for participatory research, working with Elders and leaders, and planning for inclusion, examining participatory research as a recognisable research design, with potential for rigour, cultural safety and inclusion. The second explores developing participatory methods, working with communities, and opportunities and choices for inclusion. The third examines the process of being participatory, working together and engaging in inclusion across the long-term commitment to the project.

Comparative evaluation of PBL and traditional lecturebased teaching in undergraduate engineering courses : evidence from controlled learning environment

Project and problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely recognised as an active, collaborative, cumulative and integrative learning approach that engages learners, motivates team creativity and centres on practical education. On the other hand, traditional lecture-tutorial teaching is often criticised for being a passive, surface learning and exam-focused approach. In spite of these evidence-based observations and claims over the years, the traditional lecture-tutorial teaching approach still dominates as the preferred teaching approach at Australian universities. This study sets up a control environment to compare these two teaching and learning approaches by analysing data from students' actual performance, course evaluation and expectation in two large undergraduate engineering courses in 2009 and 2010. The evidence reported in this study is broadly interesting in that both courses were taught by the same teaching staff using two entirely different learning and teaching approaches to the same cohort of students in the same semester within the same degree program. The analysis shows that there are significant differences between the students' actual performance, course evaluation and their expectation. Such conflicting differences may be some of the reasons that may negatively impact teaching staff deterring them from switching to PBL from traditional lecture-tutorial teaching.

Business relationship development and management in China

The Australian Government's White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century, released in October 2012, is based on the premise that the transformation of the Asian region into the world's economic powerhouse is not only unstoppable, it is gathering pace. Asia's extraordinary ascent has already changed the Australian economy, society and strategic environment. Within a few years, Asia will be the world's largest producer of goods and services, as well as the largest consumer market and the home of the majority of the world's middle class. The White Paper notes that thriving in the Asian century requires the Australian nation to have a clear plan to seize the economic opportunities and manage the strategic challenges that will arise, by taking a farsighted approach focused on fairness. To do so, Australians must be Asia-literate and Asia-capable, with a thorough understanding of Asian cultures and languages. These capabilities are needed to build stronger connections and partnerships across the region. Australia's commercial success in the region requires that highly innovative, competitive Australian firms and institutions develop collaborative relationships with others m the region. Australian firms need new business models and new mind-sets to operate and connect with Asian markets. Against this backdrop, this chapter discusses several important issues relating to Australian firms developing and managing their business relationships in China, in the context of urban planning, architecture, civil engineering and construction. The chapter examines the Chinese business environment, in terms of guanxi, business opportunities, risks and strategies, in a case study of the successful partnerships established to manage the 'Water Cube' for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.