Comparison of the levels of students' career maturity resulting from two models for the delivery of career education programs in selected Victorian government secondary schools

At both national and state levels, the delivery of career education has been recommended to follow an integrated model with a high level of staff participation across the school. However it has been found that in many schools the career education program is primarily delivered by a careers teacher. This study compared whether the recommended integrated model or the specialist careers teacher model delivered better outcomes for students in terms of their levels of career maturity. The main finding of the research is that the integrated model of delivery of career education programs did make a significant difference to the cognitive career maturity of the students in the selected Victorian governement secondary schools.

Intention to claim a Medicare rebate among women receiving private Victorian pregnancy termination service

Objectives: To determine the proportion of women who have pregnancy terminations as private patients in Victoria who do not intend to claim a procedure fee rebate from Medicare, to compare characteristics of women who intend to submit a Medicare claim with those who do not and to compare the findings to the results from a similar study conducted in NSW in 1992.

Design, setting and participants: This was a cross-sectional observational study over a 12-week period. Women having a pregnancy termination service in eight large Victorian private clinics were invited to complete a brief written questionnaire.

Outcome measurer: The proportion of women who did not have a Medicare card or who had a Medicare card but did not intend to use it to claim from Medicare.

Results: Of the 1,329 women who responded, 13.1% either did not have a Medicare card or did not intend to use their card to claim a Medicare rebate. A further 20.7% of respondents were not sure about whether they would submit a claim. Women who intended to claim a Medicare rebate were different from women who did not according to age, language spoken at home, residency, citizenship and distance travelled to the service. These results are very similar to the findings from the 1992 NSW study.

Conclusion: Between 13.1% and 33.8% of private Victorian pregnancy terminations were estimated to not be recorded at the Health Insurance Commission. Health Insurance Commission records of Medicare rebate claims for pregnancy terminations are an incomplete and somewhat biased record of the services that are provided and are likely to have been so for some time.

An initiative to address the gender imbalance in tertiary IT studies

Gender imbalance in the IT sector is a problem with few females choosing information technology (IT) as a career. This paper describes an initiative conducted in Victoria, Australia, that aimed to expand the career horizons of secondary school girls aged 14 to 18 by showing them the range of career opportunities available in information technology. The event was a two day showcase where industry speakers from a wide variety of areas within the sector spoke about their careers. The event participants - students and their accompanying teachers - were surveyed. Both students and teachers indicated that the Showcase had been a worthwhile event that had made them much more aware of some of the career options available in the IT sector. The most significant finding was that after the event a considerable percentage of the students indicated that they would consider a career in IT, when only about half of those surveyed indicated that they had considered IT beforehand.

Prioritizing policy interventions to improve diets? Will it work, can it happen, will it do harm?

Policies from non-health sectors have considerable impacts on the food environment and in turn on population nutrition. Health impact assessment (HIA) methods have been developed to identify the potential health effects of non-health policies; however, they are underused both within and outside the health sector. HIA and other assessment methods and tools can be used more extensively in health promotion to assist with the identification of the best policy options to pursue to improve and protect health. A participatory process is presented in this paper which combines HIAs with feasibility and effectiveness assessments. The intention is to enable health promoters to more accurately identify which policy change options would be most likely to improve diets, considering both impact and likelihood of implementation. The process was successfully used in Fiji and Tonga and provided a more systematic way of understanding which policy interventions showed the most promise.

Early career teaching : learning to be a teacher and staying in the job

This article provides insights into the ways that teacher education programs might equip early career teachers beginning their professional identity. Situated in Melbourne (Australia), it discusses tertiary music education preparation for the profession and recognises the value and importance of having critical friends and mentors as a beginner teacher. By using narrative reflection both lecturer and graduate allow their voices to be heard as they make a contribution to understand the challenges new teachers face when building their professional identity and ‘staying in the job’. The discussion provided by the graduate, outlines her experience and engagement regarding the ‘positives’ and ‘negatives’ as she establishes her professional identity. Concerns and issues raised may be similar to those experienced by others. The lecturer contends that ongoing research with graduates is necessary when preparing pre-service students as they begin developing their teacher identity and remain within the profession after graduation.

The emergent structure of feeling : what does it mean for critical educational studies and research?

Critical research in education is not what it used to be. It must now engage with a differently structured and globalized world with different social and material conditions for its peoples. This paper sets out to name the contemporary structure of feeling in which education researchers now work, particularly in terms of what now is to be the object of their educational theorizing and research and what are to be the intellectual resources brought to bear on such activity. The intention is to open up debate, recognizing that there are no easy answers and yet acknowledging the need for answers to be attempted. It is, therefore, an invitation premised on an optimism of the will to complement legitimate pessimism of the intellect. It concludes that a critical engagement with these matters demands a modernist/postmodernist, reconstructive/deconstructive reflexivity in the mobilizing of a new sociological imagination applied across the broad spectrum which is educational research.

Where to from here? Career choices of pre-service teachers undertaking a dual early childhood / primary qualification

Recent Australian government initiatives in the early childhood education and care sector are placing demands for an increase in the number of degree qualified early childhood teachers. Many universities are now offering courses with dual qualifications as a way to provide alternate career opportunities for pre-service teachers; however it cannot be assumed that an equal number of graduates will filter into both primary school and early childhood education jobs. This paper presents a study which examined the expected career choices of pre-service teachers from two Victorian universities who were undertaking a dual early childhood / primary qualification. The findings of the study have implications for teacher education curriculum design in relation to the practical components of courses. The authors therefore argue that more attention needs to be focused on the practical components of teacher training courses considering issues of quality and timing.

It can be quite difficult to have your creativity on tap : balancing client expectations and artistic practice in the tattoo industry

Tattoo artists work in a commission structure. Their artistic practice, possibly more than in any other creative career, requires the complete approval of the client prior to the creation of the final work. An unsatisfactory tattoo cannot be on-sold, discarded or easily replaced. Rarely can a tattooer practice their art without external participation. Therefore, tattoo artists come up with a number of strategies to manage their client base to ensure that the art they are asked to create satisfies both the client and their own artistic skills and preferences. Drawing on phenomenological research conducted for my PhD investigating artistic persona, this paper will explore the strategies tattoo artists use to construct their portfolios, manage the tattoo consultation and design process, and develop their own artistic skills, in order to build a successful and rewarding career in the tattoo industry.

IMF®-Therapy (Intention controlled Myo-Feedback) — an innovative method in the treatment of peripheral nerve lesions

Physiotherapy is a well established part of the rehabilitation of peripheral nerve paralysis. The aim of this type of treatment is to re-establish arbitrary functions by improving the patients’ active and passive mobility as well as their strength and stamina. IMF®-Therapy (Intention controlled Myo-Feedback) is an innovative method in the treatment of peripheral nerve lesions that goes beyond the purely neuro-scientific framework and also takes into account methods and concepts of the psychology of learning. The essential assumption is that things learnt in the past are firmly established in the long term motor memory and can be reactivated by the patient. From results achieved in 32 patients treated with this therapy it can be concluded that IMF®-Therapy may be a promising additional rehabilitation tool in peripheral nerve lesion.

Investigating the effectiveness of teacher education for early career teachers in diverse settings: analysis of large-scale survey data

‘As researchers and practitioners in the field of teacher education, we seem ill prepared to respond to critics who question the value of professional education for teachers with evidence of our effectiveness’ (Grossman, 2008, p.13). While there are many small-scale, nuanced case studies that speak about the particularities of specific teacher education practices, large scale, systematic, longitudinal studies that can provide rich and comprehensive data about the effectiveness of teacher education are limited (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005). In Australia, the Studying the Effectiveness of Teacher Education (SETE) project is addressing this gap by investigating the effectiveness of teacher education programs in preparing teachers for the variety of school settings in which they begin their careers. This three-year study utilises large-scale surveys and case studies to construct a deeper understanding of early career teachers’ experiences. It tracks all 2010/2011 teacher education graduates in Queensland and Victoria to investigate the effectiveness of particular characteristics of their teacher education programs in equipping them with the capacity to meet the learning needs of young people in a diverse range of Australian school settings.

This paper will discuss findings from the first of a series of online surveys completed by teacher education graduates in Queensland and Victoria (March-April 2012). Survey data includes teacher demographic information which form independent variables to inform inferential statistical analysis. Beginning teacher responses are mapped against key characteristics of participants' pre-service programs and framed in relation to the key themes of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, behaviour management, and engagement with school stakeholders and local community. The findings will assist teacher educators design teacher education programs for effective beginning teaching in diverse settings and will also provide an evidentiary basis for policy decisions regarding teacher education and beginning teaching.

Developing IT professionals in New Zealand using project-based learning

The thesis shows that students gained skills required for entry to a career in IT, there was no direct involvement by the IT sector to link these skills to professional practice. This thesis suggests a holistic model for sector engagement, from secondary education through tertiary to graduate placement and employment.

Failure to thrive: mid-career women in higher education

Gender underrepresentation in higher education (HE) is a persistent global phenomenon. The purpose of this research was to re-examine it through symbolic interactionism (SI). Eight women aspiring to leadership were invited to participate in semi structured interviews after attending a leadership programme specifically designed to enhance their prospects. Analysis indicated ambiguities and contradictions surround notions of leadership, as well as opportunities for leadership. This was evidenced by their appraisal of the existing leadership, speculations regarding their leadership capacity, how the participants position themselves and are positioned in their workplace. Actively “paying it forward” was seen as facilitating promotion, and line managers’ familiarity with the work undertaken by aspirants. Formal leadership training was advocated rather than experiential processes. 

What about us? We have careers too! The career experiences of Australian sport scientists

 he professionalisation of sport has provided career opportunities for athletes, coaches and sport scientists alike. The career development literature for athletes is well established and the empirical career literature for coaches is growing, but little is known about the careers of sport scientists. The purpose of this investigation was to explore and examine the career experiences of Australian sport scientists. In-depth interviews were conducted with six practicing Australian sport scientists at different career stages. Several themes emerged from the data on careers of sport scientists that are unique to sport. Sport scientists identify strongly with their role in sport success and yet they receive little recognition for what they do. All participants experienced career dissonance as they transitioned from practitioner to another career such as academia or sport management. Feelings of loss were identified by participants as their applied work diminished when they moved away from their early career service roles. All six participants believed that in order to advance their career in sport their options were moving overseas, working in academia, or retraining for a career in sports management. It is recommended that sport scientists be provided with better career education and more structured professional development.

Understanding career aspirations of Information Technology students at Deakin University

Students need to develop informed and realistic career aspirations to gain the most from their university studies towards their initial career development. However developing their aspirations, goals, and expectations is a complex process. In Information Technology (IT) no clear career development framework is evident in the literature. We present a pilot study which investigates the career aspirations of novice students studying IT at an Australian University. Through a series of career activities their aspirations were explored with the aim of improving support for career development. Results indicate that students have no clear short- or long- term aspirations, yet believe that programming skills are key to achieve a career in IT.

Using rubrics in IT: experiences of assessment and feedback at Deakin University

 Students need to develop informed and realistic career aspirations to gain the most from their university studies towards their initial career development. However developing their aspirations, goals, and expectations is a complex process. In Information Technology (IT) no clear career development framework is evident in the literature. We present a pilot study which investigates the career aspirations of novice students studying IT at an Australian University. Through a series of career activities their aspirations were explored with the aim of improving support for career development. Results indicate that students have no clear short- or long- term aspirations, yet believe that programming skills are key to achieve a career in IT.