Teacher education for rural communities : a focus on 'incentives'

In Australia we face a national crisis in attracting and retaining teachers and other professionals with regard to rural areas. In response to this difficulty in ‘staffing the empty schoolhouse’ (Roberts 2004), the majority of state  education departments have initiated some form of rural incentive scheme designed to attract teachers to rural schools. This paper argues that such  schemes have little chance of success unless teachers taking up such  incentives have actually been prepared for teaching in nonmetropolitan   schools. Although many universities claim to prioritise rural and regional  education and community development as part of their vision statements, in reality relatively few education providers reflect this rhetoric in their practice  and only a handful have made direct links to such state-based schemes in  pre-service teacher education, or initiated their own rural incentives. A  preliminary study into pre-service preparation and rural incentive schemes, as part of a three-year ARC Discovery Grant, indicates that, nationally, the  majority of Faculties and Schools of Education have no easily accessible or  advertised incentive programs to encourage students to undertake a rural  practicum. Nor do many reflect rural education in their course-work.

This paper will introduce the ‘TERRAnova’ project, and then discuss findings of the preliminary work to date that has focussed on identifying incentives and their significance. Drawing on evidence collected from websites from   Australian Universities representing all pre-service teacher education programs in the nation, we argue that few Faculties and Schools appear to  see it necessary or desirable to provide students with links to information  about particular state-based rural funding opportunities. We show how some, either directly or indirectly, imply the importance of a rural practicum, and that  a few teacher education programs provide written advice to students who  are considering taking up a rural practicum. It is unclear, however, whether  follow-up advice is provided, so that the impact and effectiveness of such advice on students’ experiences and willingness to take rural education   seriously can be questioned. Our analysis so far indicates that it is the regional universities which are more likely to address rural education needs, and on this basis we question the metro-centricity of teacher education practice more broadly and suggest ways of expanding the options of teachers in their initial teaching appointments.

Comprehension strategies of above average English as a foreign language (EFL) readers

The study reported in this thesis is a single-shot case study, which aims to provide a detailed description ofthe reading comprehension strategies used by fifteen student teachers ofEnglish from Indonesian- and Javanese-speaking backgrounds in the last year of their four-year Strata-One study at a university In Yogyakarta, Indonesia. These readers were above average among their peers in that their average indexes of grades in Reading and Speaking classes were 3.22 and 3,34 respectively, while the average indexes ofthe peer group were 271 and 2.63, respectively, out ofa scale of 0 to 400. In addition, while students in this university may complete their study by course work or by research, these readers were all enrolled as research students. As studying comprehension strategies involves complex issues, a multi-method approach is required, not only for breadth of coverage, but also to allow for a check on the validity of individual methods. To achieve the goal of the study, thinka1oud tasks, retellings, a reading comprehensIon test, indepth interviews and observations were employed to explore the strategies used. An analysis of the recorded data indicates that these readers used thirty strategies classified under five clusters: infomiation gathering, information processing, text interpretation, comprehension monitoring, and comprehension utilisation. In general, readers started gathering information by silent reading, interpreted the text by an inference or a paraphrase, and ended the task by making selfreflections relevant to the text. Most readers managed to identify problems when they occurred, and monitored their comprehension when they doubted their interpretation, as could be seen from their rereading the text or vocalising its pail(s). When direct interpretation was difficult, readers associated the text with prior knowledge or interrelated parts of the text, The readers in this study share characteristics of both poor and good native readers, in the sense that there was evidence ofgood strategy use butthe readers did not manage to maintain it consistently. As a result, even the successful readers were not able to maximise their potential. The implication is that in order to develop students into independent readers, strategy instruction should be part of and appropriately embedded in, the reading instruction. There is a need not merely to teach strategies as such, but rather to teach flexibility in strategy use. While there was sufficient evidence that thinkaloud tasks and their complementary methods worked to achieve the goals ofthe present study, similar studies with different cohorts are suggested for crosschecks.

Advanced virtual engineering educational program for engineering research and teaching excellence

In this paper, an advanced virtual engineering educational program developed at University of South Australia for both on-campus and off-shore students will be studied. This extensive training program is based on a comprehensive online tutorial and comprises both face-to-face and online learning. The program provides a tailored evaluation format to ensure that all postgraduate students, including course work and research students, will have appropriate exposure to updated learning skills and research resources. Although the internet (WWW) is the primary resource being used in this educational program, other resources such as video conference, video taping, and face-to-face lecturing have also played a role in promoting engineering teaching and research excellence. The feedback from students in recent years has been very encouraging, showing increased information literacy skills and improved researching abilities. As off campus class numbers have increased, further development of the program to meet their requirement has been a priority.

Will it work? an initial examination of the processes and outcomes of converting course materials to CD-ROMs

The Faculty of Business and Law at Deakin University (Victoria, Australia) decided to dispense of all printed post-graduate learning materials and replace them with CD-ROMs from the commencement of the 2006 academic year. In addition, CD-ROMs were developed for a limited
number of undergraduate units as part of a future delivery plan for this cohort of students. The following paper describes this project, the reasons underpinning it, and the processes the Faculty adopted to implement the project. The project is ongoing and part of a broader agenda for change
that will see an even greater application of electronic technology to teaching and learning within the Faculty. Although only initial findings and observations are possible at this stage, the project provides a basis for longitudinal reporting and, potentially, a guide for other institutions who may
be considering such a move. The paper reports on these observations and on those in the educational development arena and suggests that the Faculty will need to learn from these initial experiences and evaluate the project in greater depth to guarantee a smooth transition for all stakeholders.

Silly us! Of course the grid doesn`t work : reading methodologies and policy texts on principals' work

This symposium presents work in progress from an ARC (discovery grant) funded investigation of principal supply, conducted by Jill Blackman, Judyth Sachs and Pat Thomas. Our research goals are to examine claims of an impending shortage of school principals in particular schools and localities, critically evaluate a range of possible reasons for this shortage, and ultimately, through woprk with principals' organisations, to develop some possibilities for policy action. In this symposium we focus on: (1) existing studies of principal supply (2) trends apparent from demographic and employment data, and (3) a text and interview based study of 'human resources' policy. We invite discussion on the implications of this first stage for the next - a national survey and interviews with teachers in pre-service training and in their first years of teaching.

Designing, implementing and evaluating a social work practice skills course: a case example

Practice skills, such as communication and interviewing skills, are an integral part of every undergraduate course that aims to provide professional qualification for social workers. While there is substantial literature about the skills required to be a proficient social work practitioner, there is a dearth of literature about how to teach such skills and particularly how students experience such a course. By critically reflecting on the design, implementation and evaluation of a social work practice skills course, this article is offered as a contribution toward filling an identified gap in social work education literature. The course evaluation particularly highlights the importance of face to face interaction between students and teachers to the process of learning.

Ghosts in the machine : student participation and grade attainment in a web-assisted social work course

For many social work educators, the debate about whether social work education should be delivered using online technology has, as a result of institutional imperatives, moved on to how best this can be done. In this article, the process of designing and delivering part of a social work course using asynchronous online discussion is described and reflected upon. Student participation in the online environment is also compared with final course grades and the findings discussed in relation to existing literature. Recommendations for the future delivery of social work courses using online technology emerging from this discussion are offered.

'Of course I didn't work … only when I had to': narratives of women's working lives and what really counted

There was a long-held belief, that, prior to the 1970s, women were no longer involved in paid labour once they were married or began to have children. Official statistics also supported this particular national narrative. This paper argues that this narrative did not accurately reflect the historical situation because the methods used to determine who worked and when did not fully capture all of women's paid labour at the time. This is reflected in a small study of older women and their recollections of paid employment. Some women initially claimed that they did no paid work after marriage, but with low key, in-depth and persistent questioning, it became clear that many women did work in an unofficial capacity (in the black economy) or alongside their husbands in their paid employment. This is a preliminary study that underlines the importance of life-course narratives in the social sciences to delve deeply into women's memories and thus their experiences.

Are negative perceptions of the accounting profession perpetuated by the introductory accounting course? An Australian study

This study investigates perceptions of the work of accountant:! held by first-year accounting students as part of a national survey of accounting students. First-year commerce students from five tertiary institutions were surveyed about their perceptions of the accounting profession as well as their intention to complete a major study of accounting at tertiary level. lnfluences on the formation of their perceptions formed an important part of the study. The results reported in this paper serve to illustrate that the majority of students surveyed had negative perceptions of accounting. The source of influences on perceptions indicated that perceptions were mainly derived from tertiary education experiences. As perceptions influence choice of major and career choice, the findings have important implications for accounting educators and professional accounting bodies

Towards enhancement of practicum teaching and learning: a theoretical framework to inform social work field education

During 1996 eighty social work students and 130 field educators from New Zealand were surveyed about their experiences of the teaching during students' first field placements. The sample was drawn from three schools of social work facilitating student placements with clients across nine broad types of client services. Ten percent of the total student and field educator
sample were later interviewed about these experiences and the findings related to this research have been reported elsewhere (Maidment, 2000; 1999). During the course of conducting the research it became apparent that the practicum component of social work education was somewhat bereft of learning theory that could be specifically used to understand the
unpredictable and varied nature of field education and the complexity of the student! supervisor relationship. Hence the development of a conceptual framework to both guide the research and later explain the findings on field teaching and learning became a major focus of the research. The following article traces the process used to develop a framework to understand the diverse nature of practicum education.

Distance learning for laboratory practical work in microcontrollers

This paper presents a simple and relatively straightforward solution to the problems of equity in laboratory practical exposure between distance-education students and their traditional, on-campus, fellow cohort. This system has been implemented for the past five years in a university that is amongst the leaders in distance education delivery and has proved to be extremely successful and very well accepted by all students. While the intention was to allow distance education students easy access to the required laboratory practical content of the course, the solution found has proved to have many advantages for the on-campus students. Although this specific implementation is based upon microcontroller technology units in an engineering degree course, the methodology is easily transferable to other disciplines and courses.

Gatekeeping or redressing social exclusion : expectations on social work educators in relation to incarcerated students

Until recently, the author was in Scotland, where professional registration in social work extends to students and involves criminal record checks prior to acceptance into a course of study. She is now teaching at Deakin University in Australia, which places a high priority on making higher education available to persons and groups who have traditionally been excluded, both through the provision of courses through off campus (distance education) study mode and an innovative and culturally sensitive mode of provision for indigenous Australians. One result of our attempts to redress social exclusion is that, on occasion, we discover that some of our students are incarcerated. There are important logistical issues which may emerge as a consequence of accepting prisoners into a program of social work education. However, it would seem that the inclusion of prisoners is symbolic of a fundamental difference in philosophy with programmes of social work education in countries where there is a strong expectation that social work educators act as gatekeepers to the profession, especially in respect of students with criminal convictions. This in tum reflects an expectation among social work educators in Australia that it may be more appropriate for professional associations or registration bodies to determine whether or not a graduate with a criminal record is suitable for employment as a professional social worker. In some settings, a prior criminal record is not a barrier to being an effective service provider, as well as international differences in understandings of the social work role and employment
destinations of social work graduates.

Mathematical knowledge of some entrants to a pre-service education course

Standards for teaching emphasise the need for teachers to have deep content knowledge. To assess the mathematical knowledge of students enrolling in its B.Ed. program, the University of New England has introduced a mathematics diagnostic test. This work is the first stage of an ongoing research project into the numeracy needs of students entering the B.Ed. program. The test is a pen-andpaper test that replaces previous on-line, multiple-choice tests. This paper reports on the test results, discusses some common errors made by students and outlines the future direction of the research.

Dietary patterns across the life course, mammographic density and implications for breast cancer : results from a British prospective cohort

Background : Previous epidemiological studies have investigated the relationship between individual nutrients such as vitamin D and vitamin B12 and mammographic density, a strong marker of breast cancer risk [1], with varied results. There has been limited research on overall dietary patterns and most studies have focused on adult dietary patterns [2]. We examine prospective data to determine whether dietary patterns from childhood to adult life affect mammographic density.

Methods : The Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development is a national representative sample of 2,815 men and 2,547 women followed since their birth in March 1946 [3]. A wealth of medical and social data has been collected in over 25 follow-ups by home visits, medical examinations and postal questionnaires. Dietary intakes at age 4 years were determined by 24-hour recalls and in adulthood (ages 36, 43 years) by 5-day food records. Copies of the mammograms (two views for each breast) taken when the women were closest to age 50 years were obtained from the relevant NHS centres. A total of 1,319 women were followed up since birth in 1946 for whom a mammogram at age 50 years was retrieved, and the percentage mammographic density was measured using the computer-assisted threshold method for all 1,161 women. Breast cancer incidence for the whole cohort is being ascertained through the National Health Service Central Register.

Statistical analysis : Reduced rank regression analysis, a relatively new approach to dietary pattern analysis, is being used to identify dietary patterns associated with mammographic density [4]. This approach identifies patterns in food intake that are predictive of an intermediate outcome of the disease process, such as mammographic density, and subsequently examines the relationship between the identified dietary patterns and breast cancer risk.

Results : Preliminary analyses so far suggest that variations in dietary patterns in adulthood might explain more than 10% of the variation in percentage mammographic density at age 50 years (age 36 years: 13%; age 43 years: 14%), with variations in patterns in childhood explaining slightly less. Further work is being carried out on the characteristics of these dietary patterns and their effects on percentage mammographic density and its two components (that is, absolute areas of dense and nondense tissues) and on breast cancer risk, after adjusting for socioeconomic status, anthropometric variables and reproductive factors.

Conclusion : The present study will provide for the first time information on the relationship between dietary patterns across the life course and mammographic density, and will help to clarify the pathways through which diet may affect breast cancer risk.

An exploration of the pedagogies employed to integrate knowledge in work-integrated learning

This article describes a three-sector, national research project that investigated the integration aspect of work-integrated learning (WIL). The context for this study is three sectors of New Zealand higher education: business and management, sport, and science and engineering, and a cohort of higher educational institutions that offer WIL/cooperative education in variety of ways. The aims of this study were to investigate the pedagogical approaches in WIL programs that are currently used by WIL practitioners in terms of learning, and the integration of academic-workplace learning. The research constituted a series of collective case studies, and there were two main data sources � interviews with three stakeholder groups (namely employers, students, and co-op practitioners), and analyses of relevant documentation (e.g., course/paper outlines, assignments on reflective practice, portfolio of learning, etc.). The research findings suggest that there is no consistent mechanism by which placement coordinators, off-campus supervisors, or mentors seek to employ or develop pedagogies to foster learning and the integration of knowledge. Learning, it seems, occurs by means of legitimate peripheral participation with off-campus learning occurring as a result of students working alongside professionals in their area via an apprenticeship model of learning. There is no evidence of explicit attempts to integrate on- and off-campus learning, although all parties felt this would and should occur. However, integration is implicitly or indirectly fostered by a variety of means such as the use of reflective journals.