Resisting innovation talk in higher education teaching and learning

The exhortation to innovate is a pervasive one that occupies a central position across university mission statements, strategic plans, marketing literature and job titles. This paper locates a discourse of innovation within a history of Australian federal higher education policy, a history that may bear similarity with other national contexts. This paper names this discourse as an innovation talk that influences our teaching and learning practices, a discourse that can be reconfigured in a way that opens up the possibility for change. As such, this paper presents an analytical process used to resist taken-for-granted views of what constitutes valuable teaching practices. Suggestions for re-conceptualising how universities govern and support teaching and learning innovation are drawn from analysis of key federal policies that have influenced university practices in recent years.

Turbulence measurements in a small subtropical estuary under king tide conditions

In natural waterways and estuaries, the understanding of turbulent mixing is critical to the knowledge of sediment transport, stormwater runoff during flood events, and release of nutrient-rich wastewater into ecosystems. In the present study, some field measurements were conducted in a small subtropical estuary with micro-tidal range and semi-diurnal tides during king tide conditions: i. e., the tidal range was the largest for both 2009 and 2010. The turbulent velocity measurements were performed continuously at high-frequency (50Hz) for 60 h. Two acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADVs) were sampled simultaneously in the middle estuarine zone, and a third ADV was deployed in the upper estuary for 12 h only. The results provided an unique characterisation of the turbulence in both middle and upper estuarine zones under the king tide conditions. The present observations showed some marked differences between king tide and neap tide conditions. During the king tide conditions, the tidal forcing was the dominant water exchange and circulation mechanism in the estuary. In contrast, the long-term oscillations linked with internal and external resonance played a major role in the turbulent mixing during neap tides. The data set showed further that the upper estuarine zone was drastically less affected by the spring tide range: the flow motion remained slow, but the turbulent velocity data were affected by the propagation of a transient front during the very early flood tide motion at the sampling site. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Real-time detection of concealed chemical hazards under ambient light conditions using Raman spectroscopy

Current concerns regarding terrorism and international crime highlight the need for new techniques for detecting unknown and hazardous substances. A novel Raman spectroscopy-based technique, spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS), was recently devised for non-invasively probing the contents of diffusely scattering and opaque containers. Here, we demonstrate a modified portable SORS sensor for detecting concealed substances in-field under different background lighting conditions. Samples including explosive precursors, drugs and an organophosphate insecticide (chemical warfare agent surrogate) were concealed inside diffusely scattering packaging including plastic, paper and cloth. Measurements were carried out under incandescent and fluorescent light as well as under daylight to assess the suitability of the probe for different real-life conditions. In each case, it was possible to identify the substances against their reference Raman spectra in less than one minute. The developed sensor has potential for rapid detection of concealed hazardous substances in airports, mail distribution centers and customs checkpoints.

Teaching in a nutshell : navigating your teacher education program as a stdent teacher

Teacher education programs bridge the interests of two worlds - the world of educational theory and the world of teaching practice. Despite teacher educators’ best attempts to convince pre-service teachers that theory and practice are linked, it is often during their practicum placements when pre-service teachers claim that their ‘real’ learning takes place. It is also on practicum when students teachers face (and are surprised by) the ‘extensive decision-making role of the teacher, the emotional aspects of teaching, and the sheer volume of work’ (p.4). Kosnick and Beck’s new book Teaching in a Nutshell utilises the authors’ extensive research with beginning teachers to help students ‘navigate’ their way through their programs. Identifying what they have found in their research to be the seven key priorities for teachers, each chapter follows a helpful structure beginning with an overview of current thinking in the priority area, followed by a case study of a beginning teacher showing how s/he implements the strategy...

Addressing quality teaching in hard to staff settings : the Exceptional Teachers for Disadvantaged Schools Project

This Exceptional Teachers for Disadvantaged Schools (ETDS) project sets out to design a new model of Australian teacher education responding to recent demands for quality education in low SES and disadvantaged schools. The project moves teacher education from the ‘missionary’ (Larabee, 2010) or deficit (Comber and Kamler 2004; Flessa, 2007) approaches, towards a focus on notions of quality and academic excellence. Rice (2008, p.1) argues for a need to place more of the “very best teachers into the most challenging schools”, yet the problem is not merely one of training more teachers, for disadvantaged schools already receive disproportionate numbers of beginning teachers (Connell, 1994; Vickers & Ferfolja, 2006). Rather, Grossman and Loeb (2010, p. 245) argue the problem centers on the common practice of “[p]lacing the least experienced teachers with the most needy students”. This paper reports on the first year trial of the project. The ETDS project is at present, the only mainstream Australian teacher education model that targets cohorts of academically high achieving pre-service teachers with the overt aim of preparing graduates of the program to teach in disadvantaged schools. At the end of its first year, the ETDS program graduated 20 new teachers, each of whom had over the previous 18 months engaged with a specialized curriculum and carefully monitored/scaffolded practicum placements in disadvantaged schools around Brisbane, Australia.

Teachers’ work in curricular markets : conditions of design and relations between the International Baccalaureate Diploma and the local curriculum

School level strategy enabled by neoliberal choice policies can produce internal curricular markets whereby branded curricula such as the International Baccalaureate are offered alongside the local government curriculum in the same school. This project investigated how such curricular markets operating in Australian schools impacted on teachers’ work. This paper reports on teachers work in three case study schools that offered both the International Baccalaureate Diploma program and the local senior schooling curriculum, then draws on an online survey of 225 teachers in 26 such schools across Australia. The analysis reveals the impact of curricular markets along two dimensions: the curriculum’s internal design; and the relational aspects of how schools manage to deliver tandem offerings within institutional constraints. Teachers working in the IBD Diploma program were shown to relish its design, despite additional demands, while teachers working in just the local curriculum reported more relational issues. The paper argues that these trends suggest that there are winners and losers emerging in the work conditions produced by curricular markets.  

Empirical analysis on relationship between traffic conditions and crash occurrences

This paper investigates relationship between traffic conditions and the crash occurrence likelihood (COL) using the I-880 data. To remedy the data limitations and the methodological shortcomings suffered by previous studies, a multiresolution data processing method is proposed and implemented, upon which binary logistic models were developed. The major findings of this paper are: 1) traffic conditions have significant impacts on COL at the study site; Specifically, COL in a congested (transitioning) traffic flow is about 6 (1.6) times of that in a free flow condition; 2)Speed variance alone is not sufficient to capture traffic dynamics’ impact on COL; a traffic chaos indicator that integrates speed, speed variance, and flow is proposed and shows a promising performance; 3) Models based on aggregated data shall be interpreted with caution. Generally, conclusions obtained from such models shall not be generalized to individual vehicles (drivers) without further evidences using high-resolution data and it is dubious to either claim or disclaim speed kills based on aggregated data.

Elementary teacher education in papua new guinea: towards a culturally connected perspective of teaching

Global and national agendas for quality education have led to reforms in Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) elementary education, but criticism of the learner-centred, Western pedagogies has emerged. One key influence on quality teacher education relates to perspectives of teaching. Existing research shows teachers’ beliefs and perceptions of teaching influence their practice, however to date little research has investigated perspectives of teaching for elementary education in PNG. This single exploratory case study investigated the perspectives of teaching for eighteen elementary teacher trainers as they studied for a Bachelor of Early Childhood (Teacher Education). The study, drawing on an interpretivist paradigm, analysed journals and course planning documents using a thematic approach. The findings revealed that while the trainers’ perspectives of teaching children tended to reflect a learning-centred perspective (focused on what the teacher does), their perspectives of teaching adults were both learning-centred and learner-centred (what the learner does). Based on these findings, a culturally connected perspective of teaching is advocated for PNG elementary teacher education. This perspective enables the co-existence of both the learning-centred and learner-centred perspectives of teaching in the PNG cultural context and has implications for teacher education and the communities involved in elementary education in general.

Reclaiming the art of teaching

This paper explores the art and craft of teaching in higher education. It presents a model of the relationship between art and craft drawn from the author’s theoretical and empirical work, and provides examples from the higher education context to illustrate the model. It discusses the characteristics of teaching as art and craft and critiques the move towards standardisation and conformity in favour of originality, creativity and innovation. It suggests that to see teaching as art is more holistic, satisfying and transformative than to see it as craft. It argues for reclaiming the art of teaching and provides strategies for encouraging and supporting artistic teaching.

Preservice teachers teaching technology with robotics

This study investigates the value of a robotics-based school engagement experience for preservice teachers enrolled in a fourth year technology education curriculum unit and analyses their perceived abilities and confidence to design and implement engaging technology activities following this experience. Technology is a key learning area in Australian schools but research shows that most teachers find this subject challenging to teach. This could be attributed to teachers’ attitudes and their lack of knowledge, hence investigating preservice teachers’ involvement with technology may provide further insights. In this study, 30 preservice teachers used robotics to implement technology activities with 22 primary school students from a school in a low socio-economic area. Surveys were administered to ascertain the preservice teachers' perceptions of their school engagement experiences. The data gathered from the participants showed that they had gained confidence and knowledge from the experience and felt the engagement activity would assist them to develop and implement technology activities in their future classrooms.

The heart of quality teaching : a values-based pedagogy for pre-service teacher education

In an ever changing world the adults of the future will be faced with many challenges. To cope with these challenges it seems apparent that values education will need to become paramount within a child.s education. A considerable number of research studies have indicated that values education is a critical component within education (Lovat & Toomey, 2007b). Building on this research Lovat (2006) claimed that values education was the missing link in quality teaching The concept of quality teaching had risen to the fore within educational research literature in the late 20th century with the claim that it is the teacher who makes the difference in schooling (Hattie, 2004). Thus, if teachers make such a difference to student learning, achievement and well-being, then it must hold true that pre-service teacher education programmes are vital in ensuring the development of quality teachers for our schools. The gap that this current research programme addressed was to link the fields of values education, quality teaching and pre-service teacher education. This research programme aimed to determine the impact of a values-based pedagogy on the development of quality teaching dimensions within pre-service teacher education. The values-based pedagogy that was investigated in this research programme was Philosophy in the Classroom. The research programme adopted a nested case study design based on the constructivist-interpretative paradigm in examining a unit within a pre-service teacher education programme at a Queensland university. The methodology utilised was qualitative where the main source of data was via interviews. In total, 43 pre-service teachers participated in three studies in order to determine if their involvement in a unit where the focus was on introducing pre-service teachers to an explicit values-based pedagogy impacted on their knowledge, skills and confidence in terms of quality teaching dimensions. The research programme was divided into three separate studies in order to address the two research questions: 1. In what ways do pre-service teachers perceive they are being prepared to become quality teachers? 2. Is there a connection between an explicit values-based pedagogy in pre-service teacher education and the development of pre-service teachers. understanding of quality teaching? Study One provided insight into 21 pre-service teachers. understandings of quality teaching. These 21 participants had not engaged in an explicit values-based pedagogy. Study Two involved the interviewing of 22 pre-service teachers at two separate points in time . prior to exposure to a unit that employed a values-explicit pedagogy and post this subject.s lecture content delivery. Study Three reported on and analysed individual case studies of five pre-service teachers who had participated in Study Two Time 1 and Time 2, as well as a third time following their field experience where they had practice in teaching the values explicit pedagogy. The results of the research demonstrate that an explicit values-based pedagogy introduced into a teacher education programme has a positive impact on the development of pre-service teachers. understanding of quality teaching skills and knowledge. The teaching and practice of a values-based pedagogy positively impacted on pre-service teachers with increases of knowledge, skills and confidence demonstrated on the quality teaching dimensions of intellectual quality, a supportive classroom environment, recognition of difference, connectedness and values. These findings were reinforced through the comparison of pre-service teachers who had participated in the explicit values-based pedagogical approach, with a sample of pre-service teachers who had not engaged in this same values-based pedagogical approach. A solid values-based pedagogy and practice can and does enhance pre-service teachers. understanding of quality teaching. These findings surrounding the use of a values-based pedagogy in pre-service teacher education to enhance quality teaching knowledge and skills has contributed theoretically to the field of educational research, as well having practical implications for teacher education institutions and teacher educators.