How collaborative technology supports cognitive processes in collaborative process modeling : a capabilities-gains-outcome model

We examine which capabilities technologies provide to support collaborative process modeling. We develop a model that explains how technology capabilities impact cognitive group processes, and how they lead to improved modeling outcomes and positive technology beliefs. We test this model through a free simulation experiment of collaborative process modelers structured around a set of modeling tasks. With our study, we provide an understanding of the process of collaborative process modeling, and detail implications for research and guidelines for the practical design of collaborative process modeling.

Literacy coaching roles in diverse contexts of teaching and learning : New ways of working

As the demands placed on the literacy coach have evolved, so too have the roles of these educational providers who are often responsible for working with school teams to turn around student performance on standardized literacy tests. One literacy coach based in a Queensland primary school recounts her experiences via open-ended interview over a two year period. We offer a theorisation of the new ways of working as a literacy coach in a context of teaching and learning marked by diversity.

Embedding graphic organisers in the teaching and learning of family and consumer sciences (home economics) in Kuwait

Educational reforms currently being enacted in Kuwaiti Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) in response to contemporary demands for increased student-centred teaching and learning are challenging for FCS teachers due to their limited experience with student-centred learning tools such as Graphic Organisers (GOs). To adopt these reforms, Kuwaiti teachers require a better understanding of and competency in promoting cognitive learning processes that will maximise student-centred learning approaches. This study followed the experiences of four Grade 6 FCS Kuwaiti teachers as they undertook a Professional Development (PD) program specifically designed to advance their understanding of the use of GOs and then as they implemented what they had learned in their Grade 6 FCS classroom. The PD program developed for this study was informed by Nasseh.s competency PD model as well as Piaget and Ausubel.s cognitive theories. This model enabled an assessment and evaluation of the development of the teachers. competencies as an outcome of the PD program in terms of the adoption of GOs, in particular, and their capacity to use GOs to engage students in personalised, in-depth, learning through critical thinking and understanding. The research revealed that the PD program was influential in reforming the teachers. learning, understanding of and competency in, cognitive and visual theories of learning, so that they facilitated student-centred teaching and learning processes that enabled students to adopt and adapt GOs in constructivist learning. The implementation of five GOs - Flow Chart, Concept Maps, K-W-L Chart, Fishbone Diagram and Venn Diagram - as learning tools in classrooms was investigated to find if changes in pedagogical approach for supporting conceptual learning through cognitive information processing would reduce the cognitive work load of students and produce better learning approaches. The study as evidenced by the participant teachers. responses and classroom observations, showed a marked increase in student interest, participation, critical thought, problem solving skills, as a result of using GOs, compared to using traditional teaching and learning methods. A theoretical model was developed from the study based on the premise that teachers. knowledge of the subject, pedagogy and student learning precede the implementation of student-centred learning reform, that it plays an important role in the implementation of student-centred learning and that it brings about a change in teaching practice. The model affirmed that observed change in teaching-practice included aspects of teachers. beliefs, as well as confidence and effect on workplace and on student learning, including engagement, understanding, critical thinking and problem solving. The model assumed that change in teaching practice is inseparable from teachers. lifelong PD needs related to knowledge, understanding, skills and competency. These findings produced a set of preliminary guidelines for establishing student-centred constructivist strategies in Kuwaiti education while retaining Kuwait.s cultural uniqueness.

Collaborative 3D BPMN Editor Two

Video presented as part of AMCIS 2010 conference in Lima Peru. New improved collaborative BPMN editor video, showing a new interface and collaboration capabilities via remote login of another avatar.

Collaborative 3D BPMN Editor

Video presented as part of ACIS 2009 conference in Melbourne Australia. This video outlines a collaborative BPMN editing system, developed by Stephen West, an IT Research Masters student at QUT, Brisbane, Australia. The editor uses a number of tools to facilitate collaborative process modelling, including a presentation wall, to view text descriptions of business processes, and a tile-based BPMN editor. We will post a video soon focussing on the multi-user capabilities of this editor. For more details see www.bpmve.org.

Collaborative BPMN process modelling

Situated on Youtube, and shown in various locations. A video showing members of the QUT BPM research group using a Mimio pen-based tabletop system for collaborative process modelling.

Collaborative design learning for traditional crafts industry

Traditional craft industries need assistance with being transformed into creative industries; as such a transformation will support them to face the future competitive global market. Assistance such as advisory programs should serve long-term benefit for crafts industries as well as optimize self-help potential. Advisory programs using participatory methods will enable craftspeople and stakeholders to reveal resources and potencies, such as socio-cultural value, tradition and other kind of heritages, to generate new innovative ideas of craft design in a sustainable way.

Research supervision of international students in engineering and information technology disciplines (Resources)

This report provides an overview of the results of a collaborative research project titled "A model for research supervision of international students in engineering and information technology disciplines". This project aimed to identify factors influencing the success of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) higher degree research (HDR) students in the fields of Engineering and Information Technology at three Australian Universities: Queensland University of Technology, The University of Western Australia and Curtin University.

Assessment as a Generative Dance : Connecting Teaching, Learning and Curriculum

This chapter focuses on learning and assessment as social and cultural practices situated within national and international policy contexts of educational change. Classroom assessment was researched using a conceptualization of knowing in action, or the ‘generative dance’. Fine-grained analyses of interactivity between students, and between teacher and student/s, and their patterns of participation in assessment and learning were conducted. The findings offer original insights into how learners draw on explicit and tacit forms of knowing in order to successfully participate in learning. Assessment is re-imagined as a dynamic space in which teachers learn about their students as they learn with their students, and where all students can be empowered to find success.

Collaborative governance and innovation in social enterprises

While social enterprises have gained increasing policy attention as vehicles for generating innovative responses to complex social and environmental problems, surprisingly little is known about them. In particular, the social innovation produced by social enterprises (Mulgan, Tucker, Ali, & Sander, 2007) has been presumed rather than demonstrated, and remains under-investigated in the literature. While social enterprises are held to be inherently innovative as they seek to response to social needs (Nicholls, 2010), there has been conjecture that the collaborative governance arrangements typical in social enterprises may be conducive to innovation (Lumpkin, Moss, Gras, Kato, & Amezcua, In press), as members and volunteers provide a source of creative ideas and are unfettered in such thinking by responsibility to deliver organisational outcomes (Hendry, 2004). However this is complicated by the sheer array of governance arrangements which exist in social enterprises, which range from flat participatory democratic structures through to hierarchical arrangements. In continental Europe, there has been a stronger focus on democratic participation as a characteristic of Social Enterprises than, for example, the USA. In response to this gap in knowledge, a research project was undertaken to identify the population of social enterprises in Australia. The size, composition and the social innovations initiated by these enterprises has been reported elsewhere (see Barraket, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to undertake a closer examination of innovation in social enterprises – particularly how the collaborative governance of social enterprises might influence innovation. Given the pre-paradigmatic state of social entrepreneurship research (Nicholls, 2010), and the importance of drawing draw on established theories in order to advance theory (Short, Moss, & Lumpkin, 2009), a number of conceptual steps are needed in order to examine how collaborative governance might influence by social enterprises. In this paper, we commence by advancing a definition as to what a social enterprise is. In light of our focus on the potential role of collaborative governance in social innovation amongst social enterprises, we go on to consider the collaborative forms of governance prevalent in the Third Sector. Then, collaborative innovation is explored. Drawing on this information and our research data, we finally consider how collaborative governance might affect innovation amongst social enterprises.

Incongruence between self-reported and observed senior physical education teaching styles : an analysis using Mosston and Ashworth’s spectrum

Pedagogical styles, methods, models, practices or strategies are valued for what they claim they can achieve. In recent times curriculum documents and governments have called for a range of teaching approaches to meet the variety of learner differences and allow students to make more independent decision making in physical education (Hardy and Mawer, 1999). One well known system of categorizing teaching styles is the Mosston and Ashworth’s Spectrum of Teaching Styles (2002). In Queensland, prior to 2005, no research had been conducted on the teaching styles used by teachers of Physical Education. However, many teachers self-reported that they employed a variety of teaching styles depending on the aims and content of the material to be taught (Cothran, et al., 2005). This research, for the first time, collected teacher’s self-reported use of teaching styles and through observations verify the styles that were being used to teach Senior Physical Education in Queensland. More specifically the aims of the research were to determine: a) What teaching styles teachers of Senior Physical Education in Queensland believe they use? i) Were they using a range of teaching styles? ii) Were teachers of Senior Physical Education in Queensland using teaching styles that the Queensland Senior Physical Education Syllabus (2004) required? b) If Mosston and Ashworth’s (2002) Spectrum of Teaching Styles were used to categorise styles observed during the teaching of Senior Physical Education did the styles being used provide opportunities for evaluating as described by the Queensland Senior Physical Education Syllabus (2004)? The research was conducted in two phases. Part A involved use of a questionnaire to determine the teaching styles Queensland teachers of Senior Physical Education reported using and how often they reported using them. The questionnaire was administered to 110 teachers throughout Queensland. The sample was determined from 346 schools teaching Senior Physical Education (in 2006) across the state of Queensland, Australia. 286 questionnaires were sent to 77 non-randomised schools. There were 66 male and 44 female respondents in the sample. A wide range of teaching styles were reportedly used by teachers of Senior Physical Education with Practice Style-Style B, Command Style-Style A and Divergent Discovery Style-Style H, the most reportedly used. The Self-Teaching Style-Style K was reportedly used the least by teachers involved in this study. From the respondents a group of teachers were identified to form the participants for Part B. Part B of the study involved observation of a group of volunteer participants (from those who had completed the questionnaire) who displayed many of the ‘typical’ characteristics, and a cross-section of backgrounds, of teachers of Senior Physical Education in Queensland. In the case of this study, the criteria used to select the group of teachers to be observed teaching were, teaching experience (number of years: 0-4, 5-10 and 11 years and over), gender, geographical location of schools (focused on Brisbane and near area for travel/access purposes), profile of the students at schools (girls, boys or co-educational), nature of school (Government or Private) and the physical activities being taught in a school (activities to reflect all the areas of physical activity outlined within the syllabus). A total of 27 questionnaire respondents from Part A indicated that they were willing to be observed teaching practical lessons. The respondents who volunteered to be involved in Part B of the study came from different regions across the state of Queensland and was not confined to the Brisbane metropolitan area or large cities. From the group of people who volunteered for Part B four came from outside Brisbane and 23 from the Brisbane area. The final observation group of nine participants included eight teachers from the Brisbane area and one from a rural area. The characteristics of the final group included three females and six males from private and public schools with a range of teaching experience in years and a range of physical activities. Four year 12 and five year 11 teachers and their classes were videoed on three occasions as they progressed through an eight – nine week unit of work. This resulted in 24 hours 48 minutes and 20 seconds (or 4465 observations) of video teaching data which was subsequently coded by several researchers (99% interobserver reliability) to determine the teaching styles employed by the participants. This research indicated that, based on Mosston and Ashworth’s (2002) Spectrum of Teaching Styles, teachers of Senior Physical Education in Queensland used predominantly one style to teach 27 observed lessons. This is in sharp contrast to the variety of styles 110 teachers self- reportedly used and in spite of the Queensland Senior Physical Education Syllabus (2004) suggesting a range of specific styles be used. These results are discussed in the context of the Queensland Senior Physical Education Syllabus (2004), teacher knowledge of teaching styles and high-stakes curriculum and external pressures such as national testing and the publication of data from schools in tabloid newspapers. The data and findings in this research provide a rationale for improving teacher knowledge regarding teaching styles and the need for a clear definition of terminology in syllabus documents. Careful examination of the effects that the publishing of school data may have on teaching styles is advised. This research not only collected teacher’s perceptions of the teaching styles they believed they used it also verified these claims through direct observations of the teachers while teaching. These findings are relevant to syllabus writers, teacher educators, policy makers within education and teachers.

Effects of introducing an interactive teaching and learning activity (TLA) in the engineering classroom

This research study examines qualitatively and quantitatively the influence of introducing an activity in the traditional engineering classroom. It studies instances of active learning and its relationship with the student learning outcomes. The primary purpose of this study was to compare the learning outcomes of students who were involved in an active TLA with those students who were not, instead they learned under traditional teaching and studying approaches. I present the argument that the introduction of a TLA in class stimulates student engagement bringing enormous benefits to student learning. The outcomes of this study were measured using qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the levels of student engagement, achievement and satisfaction in the terms of Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs). Results indicate that students held positive attitude towards the activities in class and also, that a positive link between TLA, learning approach and learning outcome exist. It also provides insights about the potential benefits of active learning when compared with traditional, passive and teacher-centred methods of teaching & learning.

Teaching design thinking : Expanding horizons in design education

The term design thinking is increasingly used to mean the human-centred 'open' problem solving process decision makers use to solve real world 'wicked' problems. Claims have been made that design thinking in this sense can radically improve not only product innovation but also decision making in other fields, such as management, public health, and organizations in general. Many design and management schools in North America and elsewhere now include course offerings in design thinking though little is known about how successful these are with students. The lack of such courses in Australia presents an opportunity to design a curriculum for design thinking, employing design thinking's own practices. This paper describes the development of a design thinking course at Swinburne University taught simultaneously in Melbourne and Hong Kong. Following a pilot of the course in Semester 1, 2011 with 90 enrolled students across the two countries, we describe lessons learned to date and future course considerations as it is being taught in its second iteration.

Reorganizing a technical services division using collaborative evidence based information practice at Auraria Library

The article focuses on the evidence-based information practice (EBIP) applied at the Auraria Library in Denver, Colorado during the reorganization of its technical services division. Collaboration processes were established for the technical services division through the reorganization and redefinition of workflows. There are several factors that form part of the redefinition of roles including personal interests, department needs, and library needs. A collaborative EBIP environment was created in the division by addressing issues of workplace hierarchies, by the distribution of problem solving, and by the encouragement of reflective dialogue.