The victories of failure: C. J. Degaris and his Corio garden suburb

Mildura's Clement John De Garis (1884 - 1926) was renowned in his lifetime as an entrepreneur, promoter of Australian literature, publicist, pioneering aviator, author, lyricist, orator, dramatist, irrigationist, newspaper proprietor, magazine editor, land developer and most importantly, a visionary.

The effect of school suspensions and arrests on subsequent adolescent antisocial behavior in Australia and the United States

Purpose: To examine the effect of school suspensions and arrests (i.e., being taken into police custody) on subsequent adolescent antisocial behavior such as violence and crime, after controlling for established risk and protective factors in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States (U.S.). Methods: This article reports on analyses of two points of data collected 1 year apart within a cross-national longitudinal study of the development of antisocial behavior, substance use, and related behaviors in approximately 4000 students aged 12 to 16 years in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, U.S. Students completed a modified version of the Communities That Care self-report survey of behavior, as well as risk and protective factors across five domains (individual, family, peer, school, and community). Multivariate logistic regression analyses investigate the effect of school suspensions and arrests on subsequent antisocial behavior, holding constant individual, family, peer, school, and community level influences such as being female, student belief in the moral order, emotional control, and attachment to mother. Results: At the first assessment, school suspensions and arrests were more commonly reported in Washington, and school suspensions significantly increased the likelihood of antisocial behavior 12 months later, after holding constant established risk and protective factors (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1–2.1, _p < .05). Predictors of antisocial behavior spanned risk and protective factors across five individual and ecological areas of risk. Risk factors in this study were pre-existing antisocial behavior (OR 3.6, CI 2.7–4.7, _p < .001), association with antisocial peers (OR 1.8, CI 1.4–2.4, _p < .001), academic failure (OR 1.3, CI 1.1–1.5, _p < .01), and perceived availability of drugs in the community (OR 1.3, CI 1.1–1.5, _p < .001). Protective factors included being female (OR 0.7, CI 0.5–0.9, _p < .01), student belief in the moral order (OR 0.8, CI 0.6–1.0, p < .05), student emotional control (OR 0.7, CI 0.6–0.8, _p < .001), and attachment to mother (OR 0.8, CI 0.7–1.0, _p < .05). Conclusions:  School suspensions may increase the likelihood of future antisocial behavior. Further research is required to both replicate this finding and establish the mechanisms by which school suspensions exert their effects.

Variation in consumer outcomes : does the type of failure (process or outcome) matter?

Literature suggests that various customer outcomes are likely to be negative after a failed service encounter. Service failures can arise for many reasons and consumers may react differently, depending on the type of failure. This study focuses on exploring whether consumer outcomes differ based on whether the consumer experiences a process failure or outcome failure. The results from this study suggest that variations in consumer outcomes differ across the two types of failures; with consumers generally being more dissatisfied in outcome failure situations as compared to process failure situations.

Reducing consumer switching intentions following service failure : do empowerment and apology help?

This research explores the effectiveness of apology and empowerment as service recovery actions and their impact on consumers switching intentions within the hospitality industry. It also examines two different types of failure - process failure and outcome and whether consumer-switching intentions vary based on failure type. Results suggest that apology is effective in reducing switching intentions in both types of failure. Employee empowerment reduces switching intentions in outcome failure situations, but increases switching intentions in process settings. There is also an interaction effect of apology and empowerment in the outcome failure setting, but not in the process failure setting. Recommendations for managing service recovery are provided.

Chronic heart failure programs : does more equal less? (BENCH study)

The national multi-centre study (49 programs, 1158 patients) developed a quality score (HF-IS) and the national benchmarks for heart programs. The higher a program scored on the HF-IS the greater the reduction in hospital admissions and mortality. This score has the potential to change national nursing practice and improve health outcomes of patients.

Can improving working memory prevent academic difficulties? a school based randomised controlled trial

Background: Low academic achievement is common and is associated with adverse outcomes such as grade repetition, behavioural disorders and unemployment. The ability to accurately identify these children and intervene before they experience academic failure would be a major advance over the current ‘wait to fail’ model. Recent research suggests that a possible modifiable factor for low academic achievement is working memory, the ability to temporarily store and manipulate information in a ‘mental workspace’. Children with working memory difficulties are at high risk of academic failure. It has recently been demonstrated that working memory can be improved with adaptive training tasks that encourage improvements in working memory capacity. Our trial will determine whether the intervention is efficacious as a selective prevention strategy for young children at risk of academic difficulties and is cost-effective.

Methods/Design: This randomised controlled trial aims to recruit 440 children with low working memory after a school-based screening of 2880 children in Grade one. We will approach caregivers of all children from 48 participating primary schools in metropolitan Melbourne for consent. Children with low working memory will be randomised to usual care or the intervention. The intervention will consist of 25 computerised working memory training sessions, which take approximately 35 minutes each to complete. Follow-up of children will be conducted at 6, 12 and 24 months post-randomisation through child face-to-face assessment, parent and teacher surveys and data from government authorities. The primary outcome is academic achievement at 12 and 24 months, and other outcomes include child behaviour, attention, health-related quality of life, working memory, and health and educational service
utilisation.

Discussion: A successful start to formal learning in school sets the stage for future academic, psychological and economic well-being. If this preventive intervention can be shown to be efficacious, then we will have the potential to prevent academic underachievement in large numbers of at-risk children, to offer a ready-to-use intervention to the Australian school system and to build international research partnerships along the health education interface, in order to carry our further studies of effectiveness and generalisability.

Play, language and social skills of children attending a play-based curriculum school and a traditionally structured classroom curriculum school in low socioeconomic areas

Aim and method: A comparison study of four six-year-old children attending a school with a play-based curriculum and a school with a traditionally structured classroom from low socioeconomic areas was conducted in Victoria, Australia. Children’s play,
language and social skills were measured in February and again in August. At baseline assessment there was a combined sample of 31 children (mean age 5.5 years, SD 0.35 years; 13 females and 18 males). At follow-up there was a combined sample of 26
children (mean age 5.9 years, SD 0.35 years; 10 females, 16 males).
Results: There was no significant difference between the school groups in play, language, social skills, age and sex at baseline assessment. Compared to norms on a standardised assessment, all the children were beginning school with delayed play ability. At follow-up assessment, children at the play-based curriculum school had made significant gains in all areas assessed (p values ranged from 0.000 to 0.05). Children at the school with the traditional structured classroom had made significant positive gains in use of symbols in play (p < 0.05) and semantic language (p < 0.05). At follow-up, there were significant differences between schools in elaborate play (p < 0.000), semantic language (p < 0.000), narrative language (p < 0.01) and social connection (p < 0.01), with children in the play-based curriculum school having significantly higher scores in play, narrative language and language and lower scores in social disconnection.
Implications: Children from low SES areas begin school at risk of failure as skills in play, language and social skills are delayed. The school experience increases children’s skills, with children in the play-based curriculum showing significant improvements in all areas assessed. It is argued that a play-based curriculum meets children’s developmental and learning needs more effectively. More research is needed to replicate these results.

Doing without school! Spaces becomes places? Adolescent identity and engagement

This thesis highlights the failure of mainstream education to meet the diverse needs of some adolescent students. The interwoveness of identity, engagement and learning are significant, as it discusses the underlying assumptions that operate in many educational institutions, and that serve only a portion of adolescent populations.

Exploring children’s work involvement and school attendance in rural Cambodia

This thesis is entitled: Exploring children’s work involvement and school attendance in rural Cambodia. The author identified that children’s participation in education is heavily influenced by family financial strain, limited school and community engagement, risks of school dropout for unskilled work opportunities and the failure of education leading to employment.

Student and school factors associated with school suspension : A multilevel analysis of students in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States.

One of the common issues schools face is how best to handle challenging student behaviors such as violent behavior, antisocial behavior, bullying, school rule violations, and interrupting other students' learning. School suspension may be used to remove students engaging in challenging behaviors from the school for a period of time. However, the act of suspending students from school may worsen rather than improve their behavior. Research shows that suspensions predict a range of student outcomes, including crime, delinquency, and drug use. It is therefore crucial to understand the factors associated with the use of school suspension, particularly in sites with different policy approaches to problem behaviors. This paper draws on data from state-representative samples of 3,129 Grade 7 and 9 students in Washington State, United States and Victoria, Australia sampled in 2002. Multilevel modeling examined student and school level factors associated with student-reported school suspension. Results showed that both student (being male, previous student antisocial and violent behavior, rebelliousness, academic failure) and school (socioeconomic status of the school, aggregate measures of low school commitment) level factors were associated with school suspension and that the factors related to suspension were similar in the two states. The implications of the findings for effective school behavior management policy are that, rather than focusing only on the student, both student and school level factors need to be addressed to reduce the rates of school suspension.

Effects of early adolescent alcohol use on mid-adolescent school performance and connection: a longitudinal study of students in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States

This article examines the effect of early adolescent alcohol use on mid-adolescent school suspension, truancy, commitment, and academic failure in Washington State, United States, and Victoria, Australia. Also of interest was whether associations remain after statistically controlling for other factors known to predict school outcomes.

A longitudinal study of the association of adolescent polydrug use, alcohol use and high school non-completion

AIMS: Failure to complete high school predicts substantial economic and social disadvantage in adult life. The aim of this study was to determine the longitudinal association of mid-adolescent polydrug use and high school non-completion, relative to other drug use profiles. DESIGN: A longitudinal analysis of the relationship between polydrug use in three cohorts at grade 9 (age 14-15 years) and school non-completion (reported post-high school). SETTING: A State-representative sample of students across Victoria, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2287 secondary school students from 152 high schools. The retention rate was 85%. MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was non-completion of grade 12 (assessed at age 19-23 years). At grade 9, predictors included 30-day use of eight drugs, school commitment, academic failure and peer drug use. Other controls included socio-economic status, family relationship quality, depressive symptoms, gender, age and cohort. FINDINGS: Three distinct classes of drug use were identified-no drug use (31.7%), mainly alcohol use (61.8%) and polydrug use (6.5%). Polydrug users were characterized by high rates of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use. In the full model, mainly alcohol users and polydrug users were less likely to complete school than non-drug users [odds ratio (OR) = 1.54, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.17-2.03) and OR = 2.51, 95% CI = 1.45-4.33), respectively, P < 0.001]. These effects were independent of school commitment, academic failure, peer drug use and other controls. CONCLUSIONS: Mid-adolescent polydrug use in Australia predicts subsequent school non-completion after accounting for a range of potential confounding factors. Adolescents who mainly consume alcohol are also at elevated risk of school non-completion.