Implementing a holistic process for embedding sustainability: A case study in first year engineering, Monash University, Australia

While there is clear recognition of the need to incorporate sustainable development into university curricula, there is limited research that examines how to achieve that integration or evaluates its impacts on student learning. This paper responds to these knowledge gaps through a case study of curriculum renewal that involved embedding sustainability into a first year engineering curriculum. The initiative was guided by a deliberative and dynamic model for curriculum renewal that brought together internal and external stakeholders through a structured sequence of facilitated workshops and meetings. That process identified sustainability-related knowledge and skills relevant for first year engineering, and faculty members teaching in the first year program were guided through a process of curriculum renewal to meet those needs. The process through which the whole of curriculum renewal was undertaken is innovative and provides a case study of precedent in the field of education for sustainability. The study demonstrates the contribution that can be made by a web-based sustainability portal in supporting curriculum renewal. Learning and teaching outcomes were evaluated through ‘before and after surveys’ of the first year engineering students. Statistically significant increases in student's self-reported knowledge of sustainability were measured as a result of exposure to the renewed first year curriculum and this confirmed the value of the initiative in terms of enhancing student learning. While applied in this case to engineering, the process to achieve integration of sustainability into the curriculum approach is likely to have value for other academic disciplines. Considering student performance on assignments and exam questions relating to sustainability would provide a stronger basis for future research to understand the impact of initiatives like this on student learning.

Cultural content matters: A critical sociology of language and literacy curriculum

A theoretical rationale, policy analysis and research agenda for a critical sociology of language and literacy curriculum, outlining the agenda for a political economy of textbooks.

Introduction to the first international workshop on process management for highly dynamic and pervasive scenarios(PM4HDPS 2008)

Nowadays, process management systems (PMSs) are widely used in many business scenarios, e.g. by government agencies, by insurance companies, and by banks. Despite this widespread usage, the typical application of such systems is predominantly in the context of static scenarios, instead of pervasive and highly dynamic scenarios. Nevertheless, pervasive and highly dynamic scenarios could also benefit from the use of PMSs.

Globalisation and national curriculum reform in Australia : the push for Asia literacy

This chapter explores the policy context for the push for a national curriculum and the inclusion of Asia literacy for schooling in Australia in the light of current links between globalisation, education and policy analysis and the notion of the learning/knowledge society of the twenty-first century. It is anticipated that discussion of the Australian context will be insightful for those other nations concerned with positioning Asia in school curricula, including for example, New Zealand, Canada, USA and UK. In doing so, the chapter considers the challenges to the implementation of Asia literacy in Australia with specific reference to current and future teachers for, as with many nations, the teaching profession in Australia is on the cusp of generational change as large numbers of teachers aged in their mid to late fifties embark on retirement (Teaching Australia, 2007). A major challenge in addressing these demographic shifts in Australia, lies with meeting the demand for replacement teachers and preparing future teachers (Skilbeck, & Connell, 2004; McKenzie, 2012) with Asia-related knowledge.

Exploring the Potential to Educate “Good Citizens” through the Australian Civics and Citizenship Curriculum.

This chapter examines the ways in which notions of ‘a good citizen’ and ‘civic virtue’ have been conceptualized in the new Civics and Citizenship Curriculum for students in Years 3 – 10 in Australia. It argues that whilst Civics and Citizenship Education (CCE) has, over time and in various ways, been recognized as a significant aspect of Australian education, only recently has attention been given to the relational and multidimensional conceptions of citizenship. Considerations of ‘morality’, ‘a good citizen’ and ‘civic virtue’ offer possibilities to engage with multidimensional notions of citizenship, which acknowledge that citizenship perspectives can be affected by personal, social, spatial and temporary situations (Cogan & Derricott, 2000). In the current statement on national goals for schooling in Australia, which informed the development of CCE, the Melbourne Declaration (MCEETYA, 2008) called for young Australians to be educated to “act with moral and ethical integrity” and be “committed to national values of democracy, equity and justice, and participate in Australia’s civic life” (MCEETYA, 2008, pp. 8–9). The chapter claims that this maximal emphasis (McLaughlin, 1992), based on active, values based and interpretive approaches to democratic citizenship which encourage debate and participation in civil society, was evident in the new Civics and Citizenship Curriculum. However, it contends that the recommendations of the recent Review of the Australian Curriculum: Final report (Australian Government, 2014a & b), will now limit CCE’s potential to deliver the sort of active and informed citizenship heralded by the Melbourne Declaration. This is because the Review advocates for a content-focused minimal (McLaughlin, 1992) emphasis on civic knowledge, with diminished attention to citizenship participation and processes. In doing so, the Review foregrounds conceptions of the ‘good citizen’ in more limited terms of responsibility, obligations and compliance with the status quo.

String-like propagation of the 5-coordinated defect state in supercooled water: molecular origin of dynamic and thermodynamic anomalies

We find that at low temperature water, large amplitude (similar to 60 degrees) rotational jumps propagate like a string, with the length of propagation increasing with lowering temperature. The strings are formed by mobile 5-coordinated water molecules which move like a Glarum defect (J. Chem. Phys., 1960, 33, 1371), causing water molecules on the path to change from 4-coordinated to 5-coordinated and again back to 4-coordinated water, and in the process cause the tagged water molecule to jump, by following essentially the Laage-Hynes mechanism (Science, 2006, 311, 832-835). The effects on relaxation of the propagating defect causing large amplitude jumps are manifested most dramatically in the mean square displacement (MSD) and also in the rotational time correlation function of the O-H bond of the molecule that is visited by the defect (transient transition to the 5-coordinated state). The MSD and the decay of rotational time correlation function, both remain quenched in the absence of any visit by the defect, as postulated by Glarum long time ago. We establish a direct connection between these propagating events and the known thermodynamic and dynamic anomalies in supercooled water. These strings are found largely in the regions that surround the relatively rigid domains of 4-coordinated water molecules. The propagating strings give rise to a noticeable dynamical heterogeneity, quantified here by a sharp rise in the peak of the four-point density response function, chi(4)(t). This dynamics heterogeneity is also responsible for the breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein relation.