An IT Bachelor degree using modern technologies to illustrate core concepts and principles and building generic skills

Information Technology (IT) changes very quickly and influences business, industry and the public in an enormous manner. Outsourcing of IT jobs to cheaper overseas labor and globalization of IT companies become a common practice. Graduates of IT university courses must be well prepared to address the needs and expectations of business, industry and every day life. Many factors in an Information Technology curriculum influence graduates’ professional preparation and image. The most important of them is to reflect technology change, the current state of knowledge of computing, business and industry demands and students’ expectations. The aim of our project was to develop a new Bachelor of IT curriculum that satisfies these requirements. In this report we concentrate our attention on two critical aspects of IT curriculum content, the modern technologies to be used to illustrate basic concepts and principles of computing, and the generic skills that each graduate is expected to acquire to get a job in Australia.

Migrant youth, cultural identity and media representation

The current social climate of heightened intercultural tensions in culturally pluralist societies such as Australia highlights the need to develop a more nuanced understanding of the complex cultural adjustment processes  encountered by migrant youth in developing and articulating a sense of  national belonging, To this end, this chapter examines migrant settlement experiences as a 'process by which individuals and groups ... maintain their cultural identity while actively participating in the larger societal framework' (Karac 2001). Research into these critical aspects of integration and  acculturation examines identity formation as a cultural process of  renegotiating individual and group identity, and focuses on concepts of belonging, recognition and self-respect (Berry '997). While cultural factors are considered critical indicators of successful integration into the host community, insufficient research has been conducted into the particular processes of group and individual identity formation that take place amongst migrant youth. In the case of Australia, this process has been made  particularly difficult for some cultural groups due to the contemporary resurgence of populist and exclusionary discourses of national identity. In such a context, the construction of identity amongst migrant youth is all the more challenging, especially when this process exhibits notions of dual attachment, hybridity and difference. For migrant youth, the engagement with different social institutions such as family, school and wider societal networks often affects the processes of identity 'formation that are inherently  dynamic and 'necessarily multiple and fluid' (Noble & Tabar 2002, pp.I28). Negotiating life in-between cultures, youths from migrant backgrounds experience identity construction as a highly contested territory.

Cultural identity is a central issue for immigrants, regardless of how much time has elapsed since leaving their country of origin. This issue is particularly salient for first- and second-generation1 migrant youth, who negotiate identity space comfortably alongside, in opposition to, or more commonly, somewhere in between, their immigrant parents' conceptions of culture and the receiving culture in which they live. Unlike their native peers,  the children of immigrants arc exposed to intra-ethnic and inter- ethnic   dynamics and experiences in their journey towards cultural identity formation. These experiences are complex and diverse, and are navigated within multi- layered ethnic, racial, familial, gendered, socioeconomic and educational  contexts.

The chapter begins by providing theoretical frameworks for conceptualising  cultural diversity and cultural identity. It then examines how migrant youth  negotiate cultural identity in the public realms of family networks and school  environments and how these translate into key educational and behavioural  outcomes. It will draw on some qualitative snapshots as a way of illustrating  shifting migrant youth attitudes towards society, school and culture.

An investigation of middle secondary students' mathematical conceptions of rate

This study identified four educationally critical aspects of ‘rate’ through analysis of phenomenographic, video-recorded interviews with Year 10 students. Further analysis indicated understandings in one representation or context were not necessarily transferable.

What is rate? Does context or representation matter?

Rate is an important, but difficult, mathematical concept. Despite more than 20 years of research, especially with calculus students, difficulties are reported with this concept. This paper reports the results from analysis of data from 20 Australian Grade 10 students. Interviews targeted students’ conceptions of rate, focussing on the influence of representation and context on their expression of their understanding of rate. This analysis shows that different representations of functions provide varying levels of rate-related information for individual students. Understandings of rate in one representation or context are not necessarily transferred to another representation or context. Rate is an important, but commonly misunderstood, mathematical concept with many everyday applications (Swedosh, Dowsey, Caruso, Flynn, & Tynan, 2007). It is a complicated concept comprising many interwoven ideas such as the ratio of two numeric, measurable quantities but in a context where both quantities are changing. In mathematics classes, this is commonly expressed as change in the dependent variable resulting from a unit change in the independent variable, and variously described as constant or variable rate; average or instantaneous rate. In addition, rate may be seen as a purely abstract mathematical notion or embedded in the understanding of real-world applications. This paper explores the research question: Are students’ expressions of their conceptions of rate affected by either context or mathematical representation? This question was part of a larger study (Herbert, 2010) conducted with Grade 10 students from the Australian state of Victoria.

Blended learning in a higher education multicultural environment

This thesis has two outcomes. First, it provides a detailed analysis of how international computing students experience a blended learning environment, identifying their perceptions of the new environment, perceptions of the use of ICT in their studies, preparedness and experiences in using ICT tools, and effective participation in ICT-mediated activities as critical aspects of teaching and learning environments that warrant particular attention by teachers of these students. The second outcome of this thesis is a set of pedagogical principles for the design and development of blended learning, contextualised in local and broader educational challenges typical of a multicultural student body, consistent with a globalised world.

Mathematical thinking of preschool children in rural and regional Australia : research and practice

At what age do young children begin thinking mathematically? Can young children work on mathematical problems? How do early childhood educators ensure young children feel good about mathematics? Where do early childhood educators learn about suitable mathematics activities?

A good early childhood start in mathematics is critical for later mathematics success. Parents, carers and early childhood educators are teaching mathematics, either consciously or unconsciously, in any social interaction with a child.

Mathematical Thinking of Preschool Children in Rural and Regional Australia is an extension of a conference of Australian and New Zealand researchers that identified a number of important problems related to the mathematical learning of children prior to formal schooling. A project team of 11 researchers from top Australian universities sought to investigate how early childhood education can best have a positive influence on early mathematics learning.

The investigation complements and extends the work of Project Good Start by focusing attention on critical aspects of parents, carers and early childhood educators who care for young children. Early childhood educators from regional and rural New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria were interviewed, following a set of structured questions. The questions focused on: children’s mathematics learning; support for mathematics teaching; use of technology; attitudes to mathematics; and assessment and record keeping.

The researchers also reviewed research focusing on the mathematical capacities and potential foundations for further mathematical development in young children (0–5 years) published in the last decade and produced an annotated bibliography. This should provide a good basis for further research and reading.

Based upon the results of this investigation, the researchers make 11 recommendations for improving the practices of early childhood education centres in relation to young children’s mathematical thinking and development. The implications for policy and decision makers are outlined for teacher education, the provision of resources and further research.

Challenges and advances in the heterologous expression of cellulolytic enzymes: a review

Second generation biofuel development is increasingly reliant on the recombinant expression of cellulases. Designing or identifying successful expression systems is thus of preeminent importance to industrial progress in the field. Recombinant production of cellulases has been performed using a wide range of expression systems in bacteria, yeasts and plants. In a number of these systems, particularly when using bacteria and plants, significant challenges have been experienced in expressing full-length proteins or proteins at high yield. Further difficulties have been encountered in designing recombinant systems for surface-display of cellulases and for use in consolidated bioprocessing in bacteria and yeast. For establishing cellulase expression in plants, various strategies are utilized to overcome problems, such as the auto-hydrolysis of developing plant cell walls. In this review, we investigate the major challenges, as well as the major advances made to date in the recombinant expression of cellulases across the commonly used bacterial, plant and yeast systems. We review some of the critical aspects to be considered for industrial-scale cellulase production.

Mapping variation in children’s mathematical reasoning: the case of ‘what else belongs?’

Explaining appears to dominate primary teachers’ understanding of mathematical reasoning when it is not confused with problem solving. Drawing on previous literature of mathematical reasoning, we generate a view of the critical aspects of reasoning that may assist primary teachers when designing and enacting tasks to elicit and develop mathematical reasoning. The task used in this study of children’s reasoning is a number commonality problem. We analysed written and verbal samples of reasoning gathered from children in grades 3 and 4 from three primary schools in Australia and one elementary school in Canada to map the variation in their reasoning. We found that comparing and contrasting was a critical aspect of forming conjectures when generalising in this context, an action not specified in frameworks for generalising in early algebra. The variance in children’s reasoning elicited through this task also illuminated the difference between explaining and justifying.

Modelling relational aspects of critical infrastructure systems

The relational aspects for critical infrastructure systems are not readily quantifiable as there are numerous variability’s and system dynamics that lack uniformity and are difficult to quantify. Notwithstanding this, there is a large body of existing research that is founded in the area of quantitative analysis of critical infrastructure networks, their system relationships and the resilience of these networks. However, the focus of this research is to investigate the aspect of taking a different, more generalised and holistic system perspective approach. This is to suggest that that through applying network theory and taking a ‘soft’ system-like modelling approach that this offers an alternative approach to viewing and modelling critical infrastructure system relational aspects that warrants further enquiry.

A critical sociological perspective on harm minimisation

This text concentrates on the political factors and forces which determine government illicit drug policies. Provides relevant case study and source material which is used to analyse the influence of ideas and ideologies around the causation of illicit drug use, and potential solutions and impact of different local interest lobbies.

`I feel enlightened now, but...`: the limits to the pedagogic translation of critical social discourses in physical education

The emancipatory goal that underpins critical theories of teaching and learning is built on a theory of rational self-determination. In the context of physical education, critical educators believe that through a process of enlightenment teachers can recognize and transform elements of injustice and inequality that exist, albeit unwittingly, in their practice. However, despite the broad appeal of this orientation there are relatively few empirical accounts of how theories of enlightenment manifest themselves in the practice of emancipation. Propelled by the lacuna that clearly exists between critical theory and critical practice, this paper reports on the introduction of critical social discourses to a preservice PE program. It uses a case study methodology to report on two student-teachers' engagement with a range of critical social discourses during a year-long PE unit. The paper discusses some of the ways these students engaged with the theory and practice of a critical orientation for teaching and learning in physical education. Aspects of their experiences are then interpreted through Fay's (1987) critical but postmodern "limits to change" thesis. The paper concludes with tempered optimism about the potential for critical social discourses to guide preservice teachers in practical ways.

Foucault's 'What is an author' : towards a critical discourse of practice as research

A vexed issue for many artistic researchers is related to the need for the artist/researcher to write about his or her own work in the research report or exegesis. In the creative arts, the outcomes that emerge from an alternative logic of practice are not easily quantifiable and it can be difficult to articulate conclusions objectively given the emotional and ideological investments and the intrinsically subjective dimension of the artistic process. How then, might the artist as researcher avoid on the one hand, what has been referred to as 'auto-connoisseurship', the undertaking of a thinly veiled labour of valorising what has been achieved in the creative work, or alternatively producing a research report that is mere description or history?

In this paper I suggest that a way of overcoming such a dilemma is for creative arts researchers to shift the critical focus away from the notion of the work as product, to an understanding of both studio enquiry and its outcomes as process. I’d like to draw on Michel Foucault’s essay ‘What is An Author ‘ to explore how we might move away from art criticism to the notion of a critical discourse of practice-led enquiry that involves viewing the artist as a researcher, and the artist/critic as a scholar who comments on the value of the artistic process as the production of knowledge.

Foucault’s essay provides artistic researchers with a template for more objective and distanced discourse on the practice-led research process and its writing. It allows researchers to locate themselves within contexts of theory and practice and provides an analytical framework though which researchers might locate themselves and their work within the broader social arena and field of research, As I will show with reference to the work of Donna Haraway and a number of commentaries on Pablo Picasso’s Demioselles d’Avignon, an application of Foucault’s ideas need not negate those subjective and situated aspects of practice as research.

The diversity of critical care nursing education in Australian universities

A range of critical care nursing educational courses exist throughout Australia. These courses vary in level of award, integration of clinical and academic competence and desired educational outcomes; this variability potentially leads to confuson by stakeholders regarding educational and clinical outcomes. The study objective was to describe the range of critical care nursing courses in Australia. Following institutional ethics approval, all relevant higher education providers (n=18) were invited to complete a questionnaire about course structure, content and nomenclature. Information about desired professional and general graduate characteristics and clinical competency was also sought.

A total of 89% of providers (n=16) responded to the questionnaire. There was little consistency in course structure in regard to the proportion of each programme devoted to core, speciality or generic subjects. In general, graduate certificate courses concentrated on core aspects of critical care, graduate diploma courses provided similar amounts of critical care core and speciality content, while master's level courses concentrated on generic nursing issues. The majority of courses had employment requirements, although only a small proportion specified the minimum level of critical care unit required for clinical experience. The competency standards developed by the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (ACCCN) were used by 83% of providers, albeit in an adapted form, to assess competency. However, only 60% of programmes used personnel with a combined clinical and educational role to assess such competence.

In conclusion, stakeholders should not assume consistency in educational and clinical outcomes from critical care nursing education programmes, despite similar nomenclature or level of programme. However, consistency in the framework for speciality nurse education has the potential to prove beneficial for all stakeholders.

Sport consumer typologies : a critical review

The desire to understand the behavior of sport consumers has been a long-standing goal for sport marketers. This paper critically examines models of sport consumption by undertaking a comparative analysis of the major works completed to the present time. It is suggested that while past works have identified important motivational and behavioral differences, they frequently provide only partial explanations of sport consumer behavior. They are often constrained by an overemphasis on social-psychological traits, and give only limited attention to the cultural and economic context in which behaviors take place. Moreover, they rarely explain how fans might move between different segments, or how relationships with sport teams are formed in the first place. Sport consumer research will be enhanced by a more holistic analysis of values and beliefs that illuminates some of the more shadowy aspects of sport consumer formation, commitment, identity, and game attendance patterns.