Emotional intelligence and teaching situations : development of a new measure

This article reports on the development of a new measure entitled: Reactions to Teaching Situations to indicate levels of emotional intelligence among beginning teachers. This article discusses the concept of emotional intelligence and defends the development of such a measure specifically related to the situations in the teaching environment, an environment where emotional intelligence is considered to influence a teachers' thoughts and actions. The measure was found to have acceptable reliability and a range of individual differences was reported. Gender differences were found where female teachers reported greater likelihood of demonstrating emotional intelligence compared to male teachers. There was partial support for the four branch model of emotional intelligence. The discussion includes some projections for these findings and for the use of this measure with more experienced teachers.

The Gondwanan Carboniferous-Permian Boundary Revisited: New Data from Australia and Argentina

The identification and correlation of the Carboniferous-Permian (Gzhelian-Asselian) boundary within the sedimentary sequences of Gondwana has always been a topic of debate. Type latest Carboniferous and earliest Permian marine sequences are characterised by warm tropical faunas and come from the Uralian Region of Russia and Kazakhstan. Faunas include conodonts and fusulinid foraminiferids which are prime tools for correlation. Such faunal groups are absent from most Gondwanan sequences where reliance for correlations must be placed primarily on brachiopods, bivalve molluscs and palynology. The Western Australian marine sequences, with their contained ammonoids, provide a pivotal link for the dating and correlating of Early Permian Gondwanan sequences with those of the type regions and their palynostratigraphical record is essential for trans-Australian correlations and correlations elsewhere throughout Gondwanaland.

Emotional intelligence and teaching : further validation evidence

Further evidence is presented to demonstrate the validity of a new measure of emotional intelligence: Reactions to Teaching Situations (RTS). Using criterion-related groups of high and low scorers on the RTS, it is shown that high scorers give more responses coded as emotional intelligence in their answers to sentence completion tasks relating to ten situations found in teaching. The questions of convergent and discriminant validity is tackled by examination of correlations of emotional intelligence scores and scores on the Multiple Intelligences Checklist for Adults (MICA) and information processing preferences as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The results confirm that emotional intelligence (as assessed by the RTS) bears significant relationships to both intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences and also to linguistic intelligence, but emotional intelligence shows no significant relationships with the MBTI preferences.

Strange reading: Keith Windschuttle on race, Asia and White Australia

In his recently published book, The White Australia Policy, Keith Windschuttle accuses academic historians of errors of fact and judgement in their accounts of white Australia. This article examines these claims of exaggeration and distortion with particular reference to the nature and meaning of race, racism and representations of Asia in Australian history. The article rejects Winschuttle's sweeping claim that academic historians have sought to make Australia appear a much more racist society than the historical record would suggest.

Research challenges inherent in determining improvement in university teaching

Using a recent study that examined the effectiveness of a particular approach to improving individual university teaching as a case study, this paper examines some of the challenges inherent in educational research, particularly research examining the effects of interventions to improve teaching. Aspects of the research design and methodology and of the analysis of results are discussed and recommendations for improvements for future research are made.

Emotional intelligence and teacher self efficacy : the contribution of teacher status and length of experience

Practicing teachers and principals in selected Government schools in Victoria provided data on their levels of emotional intelligence and teacher efficacy beliefs. The data supported the theoretical expectation of a linkage between emotional intelligence and teacher self efficacy. Regression analyses showed that neither gender nor age moderated this relationship. However length of teaching experience and current status add significant direct effects on predicting teacher self efficacy but did not moderate the relationship between emotional intelligence and teacher self efficacy. These findings are significant as this now demonstrates a relationship between levels of emotional intelligence in teachers, their self efficacy beliefs and teacher effectiveness.

Dancing between diversity and consistency: refining assessment in postgraduate degrees in dance

Guidelines for best practice in Australian Doctoral and Masters by Research Examination, encompassing the two primary modes of investigation, written and multi-modal theses, their distinctiveness and their potential interplay.

Can the impact on health of a government policy designed to create more liveable neighbourhoods be evaluated? an overview of the RESIDential Environment Project

There is growing interest in the impact of community design on the health of residents. In 1998, the Western Australian Government began a trial of new subdivision design codes (i.e. Liveable Neighbourhoods Community Design Code) aimed at creating pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods to increase walking, cycling and public transport use. The trial provided a unique opportunity for a natural experiment to evaluate the impact of a government planning policy on residents. Nevertheless, evaluations of this kind present a number of methodological challenges in obtaining the highest quality evidence possible. This paper describes the RESIDential Environment Project’s study design and discusses how various methodological challenges were overcome.

1948 and 1968 Czech refugee settlers in Australia : a comparison of the settlement and integration processes among two waves of settlers

Nearly eighteen years ago when I first became interested in the history and sociology of Australian immigration, I was particularly attracted by the fact and opportunity to incorporate immigration settlement, experience and accomplishments in my history teaching in secondary school. In particular it was the area of the settlement of Australia that needed a fuller understanding in the teaching of Australian history. By that I mean it was needed to show that there were many other ethnic groups besides the Anglo-Saxon group which had participated in the development of Australia since 1788. Since the end of World War II, the Australian population has doubled, the population structure and characteristics have changed and knowledge about the diverse groups forming the Australian nation is now sought. Sane ethnic groups, mainly the numerically large, have been studied and numerous reports are available. But many of the smaller groups have attracted little interest among Australian scholars. This was one of the reasons that I decided to research the behaviour of one of the smaller groups - the Czechs - to find out about their immigration history to Australia; their immigration processes such as re-settlement and re-establishment; and their community life since World War II. Because of the scarcity of written materials on Czechs in Australia, I had to rely on interviews, personal reminiscenses, letters and documents translated from the Czech language. I should like to express my gratitude to all people and officials of Czech ethnic organisations and clubs in Australia, who agreed to be interviewed and who provided me with documentary material so important for my work. Respecting the wishes of my interviewees their anonymity had to be preserved. In the course of my research, I have received substantial help and the encouragement from the Editor of the now extinct Czech language paper Newspaper Hlas domova, Mr. F.V., whose co-operation is gratefully recognised. I am also grateful to Associate Professor William D. Rubinstein for his help and encouragement in all stages of my work. The introductory part of the study is covered in Chapter One. She reasons for the need to increase Australia's population after World War II and an analysis of the development of settlement in Australia between 1947 and 1984 are discussed. The emigration of Czechs into Australia and their place in the post-war immigration scheme is introduced. To obtain an overview of how Czechs have emigrated around the world, the literature describing their settlement is compared. Also discussed in the literature on Czech settlement in Australia from an historical point of view. The studies on the concept of ethnicity and settlement in Australia are used to document the theoretical issues for an understanding of Australian society. This chapter also contains aspects of sources and research, shewing the processes of documentary research, interviews and related matters. In Chapter Two the history of Czech emigration is discussed, covering the period from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. The first contacts with Australia are highlighted, continuing into the inter-war period and finally the re-settlement of Czechs after World War II. To understand why Czechs left their ancestral country after World War II, the political situation in Czechoslovakia is analysed. The third chapter concentrates mainly in the 1948 wave of settlers, who left Czechoslovakia after the communist take-over in 1948. Their means of departure from their homeland, selection of Australia as a new homeland and their re-settlement and re-establishment are discussed. Their attitudes after their arrival and their later stages of their settlement are analysed. The formation of numerous Czech ethnic organisations which mushroomed between 1950 and 1954 led to an active community life which began to change about five years after their arrival. These charges led to disorganisation of Czech community's life. The causes of these changes which were influential for the failure of the 1948 group to establish a viable community in Australia are analysed. In Chapter Four the wave of 1968 is viewed, their arrival and settling is covered. The study of their group attitudes and formation of group institutions is the main part of this section. A comparison of my data of the two waves, 1948 and 1968, reveals the information that these two groups did not develop the harmonious relationship expected of them as members of the one ethnic group. Chapter Five discusses immigration typologies and concentrates on the differences between legal and illegal emigrants from the Czechoslovak point of view. The integration processes of Czechs and their incorporation into Australian society are discussed. The sixth chapter sums up the findings of this disertation and states the influences which were responsible for the divisions in Czech ethnic life in Australia in the 1980s.

Framing everyday experience

This practice-based research involved two blogs created within different contexts: one in the small Western Australian town of Kellerberrin, the other in the Sydney suburb of Petersham. Blogging was developed as an artform: to deepen social connection within small geographical areas; to reveal new knowledge about these specific localities; and to extend and critique traditions of socially-engaged and "relational" art practice.

Identification and genetic determination of an early life risk disposition for depressive disorder : atypical stress-related behaviour in early childhood

Progress in psychiatric genetics has been slow despite evidence of high heritability for most mental disorders. We argue that greater use of early detectable intermediate traits (endophenotypes) with the highest likely aetiological significance to depression, rather than complex clinical phenotypes, would be advantageous. Longitudinal data from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study were used to identify an early life behavioural endophenotype for atypical hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenocortical function in adolescence, a neurobiological indicator of anxiety and depression. A set of descriptors representing rigid and reactive behaviour at age 1 year discriminated those in the top 20% of the free salivary cortisol exposure at age 17 years. Genetic association analysis revealed a male-sensitive effect to variation in three specific single nucleotide polymorphisms within selected genes underpinning the overall stress response. Furthermore, support for a polygenic effect on stress-related behaviour in childhood is presented.