Outcomes, standards and benchmarks

The use of outcomes as a tool for curriculum development has considerable currency in Australia. It is widely perceived as representing world's best practice (South Australia Department of Education, Training and Employment, 2000, foreword) and as providing an effective means for quality assurance and enhancement (Willis & Kissane, 1997). At a system level, these assumptions have been unquestioned and unexamined, and curriculum frameworks in all Australian States now consider themselves to be 'outcome-based'. Surprisingly, this results in little similarity between Australian State educational frameworks, and raises the question of what I really understood about the concept of an 'outcome'. This essay explores some definitions of the term and related concepts of 'standards' and 'benchmarks'. The latter terms have less currency in Australia but can be shown to more accurately describe much of what we consider to be outcomes. The issue is not a semantic one, but goes to the very heart of our intentions in specifying learning outcomes. The indiscriminate use of the term 'outcome' has largely devalued it to the point that there is little real understanding and little debate about the efficacy of outcome setting as the primary process in curriculum production in Australia.

Handbook of teacher education : globalization, standards and professionalism in times of change

This book provides an international review of the current state of teacher education, with chapters from an international group of teacher educators. It focuses on major issues that are confronting teacher educators now and in the next decade. These include the impact of globalization on the profession of teaching, and how teacher education must deal with changing accountability requirements from governments and establish a set of minimum standards acceptable to enable a person to teach. The work also considers aspects of the three major phases of teacher education: the period prior to commencing in the profession, successful induction into the profession, and the ongoing professional development of teachers. Finally, it identifies ways in which new technologies can be used to improve the training and ongoing development of teachers. Cases from different countries are used to provide a rich base of data to help us understand how the profession is moving onwards.

Elucidation of defence responses and signalling pathways induced in Arabidopsis thaliana following challenge with Phytophthora cinnamomi

Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) Col-0 was inoculated with Phytophthora cinnamomi to assess the interaction and defence responses involved. Pathogen ingress and asexual reproduction occurred on root tissue but not leaf tissue. The colonisation of root tissue did not cause disease symptoms or plant death, indicating that Arabidopsis Col-0 was tolerant of the infection. The induction of several plant defence responses including the expression of defence-related genes were found, with differences displayed between inoculated root and leaf tissue. Arabidopsis defence-related gene mutant/over-expressing lines were also inoculated with P. cinnamomi but none of the lines tested exhibited a marked increase in susceptibility to the pathogen.

Extending double standards and stereotyping approaches to hiring older workers

This thesis examined factors underlying discrimination against older job applicants. Drawing upon stereotyping and double standards-based approaches to discrimination the thesis found that positive and negative aspects of the older worker stereotype can have cumulative effects on hiring decisions and may interact with job requirements to affect discrimination.

A preliminary investigation of adult defence style and physiological reactivity to infant distress signals

Species whose offspring require extended care-giving ought to be predisposed to being biologically responsive to their infant's signalling. This paper examined the interplay between biological and psychological aspects of adult response to an infant's distress. HR (heart rate) and GSR (galvanic skin response) were recorded continuously, while 50 adults listened to white noise and an infant cry audio recording. Participants completed the defence style questionnaire and the state trait anxiety inventory. HR acceleration occurred in response to the control sound, while HR decelerated in response to the infant cry. GSR responsiveness was positively correlated with immature and neurotic defence styles. When controlling for other variables, immature defence was a unique and independent predictor of GSR change in response to infant distress. Defence demonstrated a stronger relationship than self-reported anxiety, than that with physiological responsiveness. Employing defence mechanisms appears to reduce an individual's perceived anxiety, though it has little effect on physiological arousal levels.

American defence policy and the challenge of austerity : some implications for Southeast Asia

This article examines the Obama administration’s attempt to rebalance U.S. strategy towards the Asia-Pacific region with special emphasis on Southeast Asia. It argues that America’s regional pivot is occurring at a time of unprecedented domestic fiscal austerity caused by a staggering level of national debt.

The U.S. domestic budget crisis, the current “declinist” debate, concern over the rise of China, and the impact of sequestration on American defence spending are analysed and their implications for Southeast Asia are assessed. The article suggests that the most serious aspect of the U.S. debt crisis may be its impact upon American strategic resilience and geopolitical confidence.

Thus, while many ASEAN nations have welcomed the U.S. strategic pivot as a valuable reinforcement of their security, they remain unsure that it is a sustainable policy. In the future, it is likely that reassuring ASEAN of the longevity of the U.S. commitment to the Asia-Pacific will require of Washington a skilled blend of budgetary reform, military presence, and sustained diplomatic effort.

Technology transfer, quality standards, and North–South trade

This paper examines the economic consequences of technology transfer through licensing in a North–South model of vertical product differentiation, based on a product-line pricing framework. With its limited technological expertise, the southern firm cannot export to the northern market without purchasing the northern firm's “clean” and low-cost technology. With North–South cost-asymmetry, we conclude that the transfer of technology through licensing promotes trade, product variety and improves global welfare. However, without government intervention, the private levels of product quality chosen by firms tend to be lower than the socially optimal levels. This finding helps to explain why developed countries often set quality standards for imported foreign products.

Comparing the strength of auditing and reporting standards and investigating their predictors in Europe and Asia

The World Economic Forum conducted an opinion survey to determine the strength of auditing and reporting standards (SARS) in 133 countries. It then assigned a score for SARS to each country as one of its global competitive indices. This is a unique dataset on SARS at country level. Using this dataset, this paper compares SARS scores for 72 countries (41 European and 31 Asian). A multi-phase regression analysis is employed to empirically investigate the predictors of SARS using five sub-models. Findings from the study support existing theory and add new findings to the auditing and reporting literature at a regional level. It suggests that there are nine predictors of SARS which are similar for both Europe and Asia but with different magnitude. In Asia the efficiency of the legal framework and the size of the foreign export market are also significant predictors of SARS compared to Europe.