Submission to the New Zealand Parliamentary Inquiry : New Zealand Convention Centre Bill 2013

The Bill outlines the overarching purpose of the NZICC Agreement ‘to provide economic benefits to New Zealanders’. It is really a form of PPP (Public Private Partnership) where the beneficiaries are said to be the Crown and SkyCity but the real payment comes from the losses of the (mainly) community members who will gamble on the expanded facilities outlined in the Agreement. The Howeth International Convention and Exhibition Centre study (2009) established a clear business case for an international convention centre; with an optimistic benefit-cost ratio of 1.433 (which translates into a benefit to the economy of $1.433
for ever $1 spent). Aside from the short-term stimulus to jobs of the construction phase, a convention centre with capacity for 1000 delegates would create about 800 new jobs and attract up to 35 additional conferences of between 150 and 2500 delegates per year (an additional 22,000 additional international visitors and more than 200,000 extra visitor days, worth approximately $85.4 million in tourism-related expenditure per year15. It is therefore questionable as to why this venture needs to be captured by gambling interests, which will also dictate the location. This points to the efficacy of a non-casino provider being able to tender for establishment of an International Convention Centre that could be run profitably without being part of the for-profit model based on expanded gambling machines/revenue.

An inquiry into the effectiveness of student generated MCQs as a method of assessment to improve teaching and learning

 In anticipation of helping students mature from passive to more active learners while engaging with the issues and concepts surrounding computer security, a student generated Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) learning strategy was designed and deployed as a replacement for an assessment task that was previously based on students providing solutions to a series of short-answer questions. To determine whether there was any educational value in students generating their own MCQs students were required to design MCQs. Prior to undertaking this assessment activity each participant completed a pre-test which consisted of 45 MCQs based on the topics of the assessment. Following the assessment activity the participants completed a post-test which consisted of the same MCQs as the pre-test. The pre and post test results as well as the post test and assessment activity results were tested for statistical significance. The results indicated that having students generate their own MCQs as a method of assessment did not have a negative effect on the learning experience. By providing a framework to the students based on the literature to support their engagement with the learning material, we believe the creation of well-structured MCQs resulted in a more advanced understanding of the relationships between the concepts of the learning material as compared with plainly answering a series of short-answer questions from a textbook. Further study is required to determine to what degree this learning strategy encouraged a deeper approach to learning.

Developing teachers of inquiry: an emerging humanities model of inquiry (HMI)

Inquiry pedagogies have been an integral mode by which understandings connected to the Humanities have been developed in primary classrooms. For the purposes of this paper, the Humanities incorporates areas of learning associated with Civics and Citizenship, History, Geography and Economics. In primary classrooms, these discipline areas have often been taught in interdisciplinary ways through other iterations such as Social Studies and Studies of Society and Environment. This paper is a reflection on the work with pre-service teachers in a quest to disrupt more traditional and transmissive pedagogies for teaching and learning in this area. It proposes a new way of conceptualising inquiry for rigorous and disciplinary learning.

Using Mead's Theory of Emergence as a framework for sociological inquiry into pre-service teacher education

In this paper we take up Chang's (2004) challenge to apply Mead's theory of emergence in sociological inquiry. Largely overlooked by scholars, this theory is shown to prove explanatory in one field where limited solutions have been found to date. Specifically, the theory sheds light on how the theory-practice gap is created and sustained in pre-service teacher education. The argument is that under current institutional arrangements the trainee/beginning teacher encounters different and oft-times conflicting environmental, social and cultural conditions in the two 'fields of interaction' (Mead, 1934: 249) of their training program, namely, the on-campus pre-service program and the school. The argument draws on interview and focus group data collected via a study of first-year graduate teachers of an Australian pre-service teacher education program. We conclude that the Meadian mechanisms of role taking and self-regulated behaviour within the two environmental fields of interaction inhibit the trainee/beginning teacher from exercising the power of agency to implement theory learned at university in practice in the classroom. In this sense Mead's theory of emergence predicts the obduracy of the gap between theory and practice in teacher education.

Supporting working parents: findings from the AHRC’s national inquiry into the prevalence of pregnancy and return to work discrimination in the workplace

In July 2014 the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) released the findings of its national review into pregnancy and return to work discrimination in the workplace1 which it conducted following a request from the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department.2 The review comes 15 years after the commission’s first inquiry into pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.3Federal law has prohibited pregnancy discrimination in the workplace since the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (SDA) came into force.4 It is now unlawful in every state and territory.5 Discrimination on the basis of breastfeeding and family or carer’s responsibilities is also prohibited.6 Since 2009 the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) has prohibited workplace discrimination based on pregnancy and family or carer’s responsibilities7 and the Act gives employees additional entitlements relating to their parental and caring responsibilities. Male and female employees who are the primary caregiver for a child are entitled to 12 months unpaid parental leave upon the birth or adoption of the child and can request an additional 12 months leave.8 Upon returning to work, they can request flexible working conditions9 and they are protected from adverse action, such as dismissal, for exercising these rights.10 Yet despite these legal protections, the findings of the national review show that employees continue to experience discrimination during pregnancy, when taking parental leave and upon re-entering the workforce. This note presents the main findings from the surveys and consultations that were held with employers and employees as part of the review and the review’s recommendations for addressing the prevalence of what it terms ‘pregnancy/return to work discrimination’.

North Korean human rights and the international community: responding to the UN Commission of Inquiry

Of all the difficult conversations to have with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) regime, the one over human rights has proven the most troubling for the international community. Once human rights issues are placed on the table, diplomatic efforts become quickly de-railed. Because of this, and because issues such as non-proliferation are seen as more pressing than human rights, there has been a conspicuous absence of any official, systematic response to the question of human rights violations in North Korea. Of course, most human rights campaigns experience some amount of politicisation. This is unsurprising, given the deeply political nature of the very concept of human rights. The North Korean human rights issue, however, suffers from this phenomenon more than most, tied up as it is with wider ideological battles that hark back to the circumstances of the division of the Korean peninsula. In this context, the 2014 report delivered by the United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry (COI) into North Korean human rights represents an effort to move above and beyond the politicisation of the issue and was largely successful in this regard.

Responses and relationship dynamics of men and their spouses during active surveillance for prostate cancer: health literacy as an inquiry framework

BACKGROUND: Early stage prostate cancer patients may be allocated to active surveillance, where the condition is observed over time with no intervention. Living with a cancer diagnosis may impose stress on both the men and their spouses. In this study we explore whether the scores of and verbal responses to a Health Literacy Questionnaire can be used to identify individuals in need of information and support and to reveal differences in perception and understanding in health related situations within couples. METHODS: We used the nine-domain Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) as a framework to explore health literacy in eight couples where the men were on active surveillance for prostate cancer progression. Scores were calculated for each domain for both individuals. For each couple differences in scores were also calculated and related to the informants' self-reported experiences and reflections in relation to participating in an active surveillance program. Also an inductive analysis was performed to identify themes in the responses and these themes were compared to those of HLQ. RESULTS: The men tended to score higher than their spouses. There was no consistent relation between scores and the reported experiences and reflections. However, some interesting patterns emerged, e.g. in two of the three couples with the largest within couple differences in HLQ scores, responses revealed discrepancies in how the men and their spouses perceived their situation. Also, three themes emerged which related to six of the HLQ domains, i.e. involvement of spouses and other people around the men; support from and interaction with healthcare professionals; and use of the Internet for information retrieval. CONCLUSIONS: Using the HLQ as an interview framework provided insight into the differences within couples and provided new perspectives on their experiences, including their contact with health professionals and the patient-spouse interaction when dealing with prostate cancer. The HLQ used as a dialogue tool may be an adjunct to assist healthcare providers to understand the need for support and information of men with prostate cancer on active surveillance and the dynamics within couples.

Inquiry-based learning in teacher education: a primary humanities example

Inquiry-based learning features strongly in the new Australian Humanities and Social Sciences curriculum and increasingly in primary school practice. Yet, there is little research into, and few exemplars of, inquiry approaches in the primary humanities context. In this article, we outline and explain the implementation of a place-based simulation as a vehicle for inquiry in a humanities subject in a teacher education course. Preliminary findings of surveys of pre-service teachers conducted pre and post the implementation of the inquiry model suggest increased engagement and enhanced learning outcomes. Further analysis is required in order to determine the depth of pre-service teachers’ understanding of inquiry approaches.