Learning about inclusion from developing countries : using the index for inclusion

There is a need for a more critical perspective and reporting about the value of taking a model of inclusion developed in western countries and based upon the human rights ethos applying it in developing countries. This chapter will report firstly on how the Index for Inclusion (hereinafter referred to as the Index) was used in Australia as a tool for review and development; and secondly how the process of using the Index is adjusted for use in the Pacific Islands and other developing nations in collaborative and culturally sensitive ways to support and evaluate progress towards inclusive education. Examples are provided from both contexts to demonstrate the impact of the Index as an effective tool to support a more inclusive response to diversity in schools.

Teaching peer review reflective processes in accounting

A well designed peer review process in higher education subjects can lead to more confident and reflective learners who become skilled at making independent judgements of their own and others’ work; essential requirements for successful lifelong learning. The challenge for educators is to ensure their students gain these important graduate attributes within the constraints of a range of internal and external tensions currently facing higher education systems, including, respectively, the realities of large undergraduate Accounting subjects, culturally diverse and time-poor academics and students, and increased calls for public accountability of the Higher Education sector by groups such as the OECD. Innovative curriculum and assessment design and collaborative technologies have the capacity to simultaneously provide some measure of relief from these internal and external tensions and to position students as responsible partners in their own learning. This chapter reports on a two phase implementation of an online peer review process as part of the assessment in a large, under-graduate, International Accounting class. Phase One did not include explicit reflective strategies within the process, and anonymous and voluntary student views served to clearly highlight that students were ‘confused’ and ‘hesitant’ about moving away from their own ideas; often mistrusting the conflicting advice received from multiple peer reviewers. A significant number of students also felt that they did not have the skills to constructively review the work of their peers. Phase Two consequently utilised the combined power of e-Technology, peer review feedback and carefully scaffolded and supported reflective practices from Ryan and Ryan’s Teaching and Assessing Reflective Learning (TARL) model (see Chap. 2). Students found the reflective skills support workshop introduced in Phase Two to be highly useful in maximising the benefits of the peer review process, with 83 % reporting it supported them in writing peer reviews, while 90 % of the respondents reporting the workshop supported them in utilising peer and staff feedback.

Emotional experiences of preservice science teachers in online learning : the formation, disruption and maintenance of social bonds

The enactment of learning to become a science teacher in online mode is an emotionally charged experience. We attend to the formation, maintenance and disruption of social bonds experienced by online preservice science teachers as they shared their emotional online learning experiences through blogs, or e-motion diaries, in reaction to videos of face-to-face lessons. A multi-theoretic framework drawing on microsociological perspectives of emotion informed our hermeneutic interpretations of students’ first-person accounts reported through an e-motion diary. These accounts were analyzed through our own database of emotion labels constructed from the synthesis of existing literature on emotion across a range of fields of inquiry. Preservice science teachers felt included in the face-to-face group as they watched videos of classroom transactions. The strength of these feelings of social solidarity were dependent on the quality of the video recording. E-motion diaries provided a resource for interactions focused on shared emotional experiences leading to formation of social bonds and the alleviation of feelings of fear, trepidation and anxiety about becoming science teachers. We offer implications to inform practitioners who wish to improve feelings of inclusion amongst their online learners in science education.

'Women on a Wiki’ : the role of interactive websites in reflective learning practices for undergraduate women’s health students

Aim Our pedagogical research addressed the following research questions: 1) Can shared ‘cyber spaces’, such as a ‘wiki’, be occupied by undergraduate women’s health students to improve their critical thinking skills? 2) What are the learning processes via which this occurs? 3) What are the implications of this assessment trial for achieving learning objectives and outcomes in future public health undergraduate courses? Methods The students contributed written, critical reflections (approximately 250 words) to the Wiki each week following the lecture. Students reflected on a range of topics including the portrayal of women in the media, femininity, gender inequality, child bearing and rearing, domestic violence, mental health, Indigenous women, older women, and LGBTIQ communities. Their entries were anonymous, but visible to their peers. Each wiki entry contained a ‘discussion tab’ wherein online conversations were initiated. We used a social constructivist approach to grounded theory to analyse the 480 entries posted over the semester. (http://pub336womenshealth.wikispaces.com/) Results The social constructivist approach initiated by Vygotsky (1978) and further developed by Jonasson (1994) was used to analyse the students’ contributions in relation to four key thematic outcomes including: 1) Complexities in representations across contexts; 2) Critical evaluation in real world scenarios; 3) Reflective practice based on experience, and; 4) Collaborative co-construction of knowledge. Both text and image/visual contributions are provided as examples within each of these learning processes. A theoretical model depicting the interactive learning processes that occurred via discussion of the textual and visual stimulus is presented.

Collaborative learning in the rural Indonesian craft industry

The research explores the potential for participatory and collaborative approaches in working with the Indonesian glass-bead rural craft industry, which currently struggles to sustain its business. Contextual inquiry and participatory action research were used to understand the local context, including motivations, barriers and opportunities and to collaboratively develop strategies for advancement and innovation. The study documents participatory design projects undertaken to make, sell and promote hedonic products. It identifies the importance of understanding local context and individual craftsperson aspirations in designing collaborative support programs. It also provides an in depth insight into the Indonesian rural craft industry.

Unsupervised online learning of condition-invariant images for place recognition

This paper presents an online, unsupervised training algorithm enabling vision-based place recognition across a wide range of changing environmental conditions such as those caused by weather, seasons, and day-night cycles. The technique applies principal component analysis to distinguish between aspects of a location’s appearance that are condition-dependent and those that are condition-invariant. Removing the dimensions associated with environmental conditions produces condition-invariant images that can be used by appearance-based place recognition methods. This approach has a unique benefit – it requires training images from only one type of environmental condition, unlike existing data-driven methods that require training images with labelled frame correspondences from two or more environmental conditions. The method is applied to two benchmark variable condition datasets. Performance is equivalent or superior to the current state of the art despite the lesser training requirements, and is demonstrated to generalise to previously unseen locations.

Facebook for adults ? A longitudinal study of MBA student’s use of an enterprise social network for collaborative learning

The rapid pace of social media means that our understanding of the way in which it facilitates the learning process continues to lag. The findings of a longitudinal study of an executive MBA cohort over the period of eight months in their use of the social media application is presented. Over time the ownership and use of the Yammer site shifted to become student driven and facilitated. The motivations behind the site’s use, perceived advantages and disadvantages and changes in usage patterns are documented. The case provides a useful insight into the way in which students used this technology to facilitate their learning goals and how patterns of behaviour changed in response to the changing needs of the cohort.

Developing an international survey of bicycle and helmet usage

The European Union‐funded collaborative network, COST Action TU1101: Towards safer bicycling through optimization of bicycle helmets and usage, aims to increase scientific knowledge about bicycle helmets in regards to traffic safety and to disseminate this knowledge to stakeholders, including cyclists, legislators, manufacturers, and the scientific community. The COST research team has developed a uniform international survey to better understand attitudinal and other factors that may influence bicycle and helmet usage, as well as crash risk. The online survey is being distributed by project partners in Europe, Israel, Australia, and potentially the US and Canada. The survey contains four types of questions: (1) biographical data, (2) frequency of cycling and amount of cycling for different purposes (e.g., commuting, health, recreation) and in different environments (e.g., bicycle trails, bike lanes, on sidewalks, in traffic), (3) frequency and circumstances for use and non‐use of helmets, attitudes and reasons for it, and; (4) crash involvement and level of reporting to the police. While the potential value of comparative data across countries with very different cycling cultures and safety levels is substantial, there are numerous challenges in developing, conducting, and analyzing the results of the survey. This presentation will focus on the scope of the international study, methodological issues and pitfalls of such a collaborative effort, and on initial results from one country (Israel). To illustrate, two findings from the preliminary Israeli survey indicate that: (1) none of the crashes were reported to the police including the ones involving hospital admission. Although underreporting of bicycle crashes by police is well documented in all countries the extent is unknown, and can be extreme. (2) Older riders tend to ride more for health/exercise reasons, while younger riders tend to ride more for commuting. Thus there is an interaction between riders’ age and the place and times of riding.

The potential for utilising the collaborative learning spaces approach in the delivery of résumé development education

This study investigated the potential for using collaborative learning spaces for the development of résumé writing knowledge and skills in higher education students. Utilising a collaborative learning environment, 227 students from a mix of programmes and year levels participated in one of 24 workshops centering on a technology supported, shared review and reflection approach to résumé construction. It was concluded that use of technology supported collaborative learning spaces has the potential to be a valuable, innovative approach for the delivery of career management related skills in higher education.

Practice-based learning in community contexts: A collaborative exploration of pedagogical principles

The primary focus of this chapter is an exploration of four pedagogical principles emerging from a practice-based learning lab. Following an overview of community engaged learning and the Lab approach, the chapter is structured around a discussion of pedagogical principles related to (1) collaboration, (2) interdisciplinarity, (3) complexity and uncertainty and (4) reflection. Through a participatory action research (PAR) framework, students, academics and community partners have worked to identify and refine what it takes to support students negotiate complexity and uncertainty inherent in problems facing communities. It also examines the pedagogical strategies employed to facilitate collaboration across disciplines and professional contexts in ways that leverage difference and challenge values and practices.

Online learning of autonomous helicopter control

This paper details the development of an online adaptive control system, designed to learn from the actions of an instructing pilot. Three learning architectures, single layer neural networks (SLNN), multi-layer neural networks (MLNN), and fuzzy associative memories (FAM) are considerd. Each method has been tested in simulation. While the SLNN and MLNN provided adequate control under some simulation conditions, the addition of pilot noise and pilot variation during simulation training caused these methods to fail.

International trends in the implementation of assessment for learning: Implications for policy and practice

This paper discusses the emergence of assessment for learning (AfL) across the globe with particular attention given to Western educational jurisdictions. Authors from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, and the USA explain the genesis of AfL, its evolution and impact on school systems, and discuss current trends in policy directions for AfL within their respective countries. The authors also discuss the implications of these various shifts and the ongoing tensions that exist between AfL and summative forms of assessment within national policy initiatives.

Gearing up academics for collaborative Building Information Modelling (BIM) education

Building information modelling (BIM) radically changes the practices in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) and creates new job opportunities. Many governments, such as the United Kingdom, have made BIM a mandatory requirement. This substantially drives the demand for a BIM-literate workforce. Universities are facing the challenge to incorporate BIM into their curricula and produce “BIM ready” graduates to meet the needs of the industry. Like other universities, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is at the heart of this change and aspires to develop collaborative BIM education across AEC. Previous BIM education studies identify that inadequate BIM awareness of AEC academics is one of the challenges for developing a BIM curriculum and there is a dearth in the learning and teaching support for academics on BIM education. Equipping the AEC academics for a more BIM focused curriculum is all the while more important. This paper aims to leverage knowledge drawn from a Learning & Teaching project currently undertaken at QUT. Its specific objectives are to: 1) review the existing learning and teaching initiatives on BIM education; and 2) briefly describe the learning and teaching activities on collaborative BIM education at QUT. Significance of the paper lies on revealing the importance of building up the capacity of AEC academics for collaborative BIM education. The paper contributes to sparking the interests in better equipping AEC academics to understand what curriculum changes would assist in BIM uptake within the relevant courses to provide context for changes in units; and how the use of BIM can improve the understanding by students of the large amounts of professional knowledge they need to function effectively as graduates.

An international comparison of the continuing professional development process (CPD) in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom

Background: The Pharmacy Board of Australia stipulated that for renewal of registration, pharmacists must have accrued a minimum of 20 CPD credits over the 2010-11 registration years (1). Mandatory CPD is not new in Pharmacy. The UK and New Zealand have both established systems of CPD in recent years. The purpose of this study is to investigate established CPD processes in the UK and New Zealand with the view to making recommendations for the implementation of the CPD process in Australia. Objectives: To compare the acquisition and guidance on documentation of CPD credit points in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Methodology: A comparative online search of the websites of each of the registering authorities was undertaken. Any practice standards or guidelines which relate to registration or continuing professional development were analysed and compared. Results: In New Zealand the Pharmacy Council require Pharmacists to have a minimum of 12 outcome credits over a 3-year period for recertification (2, 3). The outcome credit related to each CPD action and is based on relevance to the pharmacist and their practice. It is graded between one, for CPD which has occasional relevance to practice and three which have considerable relevance to practice. There are examples of completed CPD recording sheets on their website (8). In the UK, The General Pharmaceutical Council require Pharmacists to make a minimum of nine CPD entries per year (4) and detailed guidance on how to record CPD activities is provided (5,7). The Pharmacy Board of Australia divides CPD activities into three groups (6). Of the 20 credits required annually only 10 can be gained from group one activities, which is information accessed without assessment. There is only brief guidance on the recording of CPD. Discussion: The GPhC in the UK provided the most comprehensive guidance on acquisition of CPD credit points and documentation (5,7) The Pharmacy Council of New Zealand made CPD points relevant to practice.(2,8) The Pharmacy Board of Australia provided limited information for pharmacists on CPD activities, which may impede pharmacist participation. Information may assist in increasing pharmacists’ engagement in CPD activities. In conclusion, there is variation between the three countries in the amount and type of information provided about CPD requirements.