Artscience in practice : exploring the critical and creative potentials of transdisciplinary art and science practice using a methodological and conceptual framework of creative becoming

In response to a growing interest in art and science interactions and transdisciplinary research strategies, this research project examines the critical and conceptual affordances of ArtScience practice and outlines a new experiential methodology for practice-lead research using a framework of creative becoming. In doing so, the study contributes to the field of ArtScience and transdisciplinary practice, by providing new strategies for creative development and critical enquiry across art and science.

Perspectives on Reconceptualizing Early Mathematics Learning

This introductory section provides an overview of the different perspectives on reconceptualizing early mathematics learning. The chapters provide a broad scope in their topics and approaches to advancing young children’s mathematical learning. They incorporate studies that highlight the importance of pattern and structure across the curriculum, studies that target particular content such as statistics, early algebra, and beginning number, and studies that consider how technology and other tools can facilitate early mathematical development. Reconceptualizing the professional learning of teachers in promoting young children’s mathematics, including a consideration of the role of play, is also addressed. Although these themes are diffused throughout the chapters, we restrict our introduction to the core focus of each of the chapters.

Literacy, place-based pedagogies and social justice

Our long-term program of research has considered the relationships between teachers’ work and identities, literacy pedagogies and schooling, particularly in high-poverty communities. Over the past decade, we have worked with teachers to consciously explore with them the possible productive synergies between critical literacy and place-based pedagogies, and the affordances of multimodal and digital literacies for students’ engagement with the places where they live and learn. These studies have been undertaken with teachers working and living in various locales—from the urban fringe to inner suburban areas undergoing urban renewal, to rural and regional communities where poverty and the politics of place bring certain distinctive opportunities and constraints to bear on pedagogy for social justice. There is now wider recognition that “social justice” may need rethinking to foreground the nonhuman world and the relation between people and politics of places, people, and environments in terms of “eco-social justice” (Green 2010; Gruenewald 2003b) or spatial justice (Soja 2011). In this chapter, we explore place as a site of knowing and as an object of study as developed through the Special Forever project by teachers in schools located in the Murray-Darling Basin bioregion. Putting the environment at the center of the literacy curriculum inevitably draws teachers into the politics of place and raises questions concerning what is worth preserving and what should be transformed. We consider how the politics of place both constrains and opens up possibilities for pedagogy for eco-social justice and review the pedagogical work that one teacher, Hannah, undertook with her upper primary class.

Editors' introduction : literacy, learning & culture

We come together as editors to prepare an introduction to this international volume at a time of economic turbulence, new uncertainties about the future, and a growing demand on the part of most governments for further alignment of education with the economy. Literacy, in particular, is in the vanguard, for literacy only too frequently is positioned as a proxy for education. What are the purposes of literacy teaching and how is it to be achieved? What counts as literacy in ‘new times,’ in ‘participatory culture’ where people ‘believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another’ (Abrams and Merchant, Chapter 23)? How can everyone be included as critical citizens of the world in whatever definition of literacy we endorse? What fresh perspectives, new ways of thinking, and good ideas for the understanding of literacy are out there? What are the possibilities for the future? An exploration of these kinds of questions and their answers, however tentative, provides us, we believe, with our best defense against the uncertainties of our age. In some respects this is our overall purpose in the volume, to explore our understanding and future possibilities by bringing together critical reviews of the major theories, methods, and pedagogical advances that have taken place in the past 20 years in the field of literacy research at the primary/elementary school level. Each chapter in the volume is newly written for the Handbook while overall the book is intended to be a distillation of key thinking and theory which offers new directions for research in literacy. It aims to revisit current interpretations, make novel connections, frame new possibilities, and encourage researchers to pursue innovative and compelling lines of inquiry...

Perspectives on schooling from early adolescent video diaries

The aim of this project was to gain the voice of the early adolescent (aged between 11 and 13 years) about the things that are genuinely important to them in their lives. Eight participants were asked to record a private video diary entry each night for one week. A number of thematic topics were identified including: their experiences and perspectives on school curriculum and assessment, opinions about schooling structures, and importance of friendship and family. Giving young adolescents the opportunity to voice their opinions has been valuable in gaining insight to the relative impacts of teaching and learning approaches in their school contexts and the issues they consider as the most important in their lives.

A critical realist perspective of enterprise architecture evolution : preliminary findings

This paper investigates how Enterprise Architecture (EA) evolves due to emerging trends. It specifically explores how EA integrates the Service-oriented Architecture (SOA). Archer’s Morphogenetic theory is used as an analytical approach to distinguish the architectural conditions under which SOA is introduced, to study the relationships between these conditions and SOA introduction, and to reflect on EA evolution (elaborations) that then take place. The paper focuses on reasons for why EA evolution could take place, or not and what architectural changes could happen due to SOA integration. The research builds on sound theoretical foundations to discuss EA evolution in a field that often lacks a solid theoretical groundwork. Specifically, it proposes that critical realism, using the morphogenetic theory, can provide a useful theoretical foundation to study enterprise architecture (EA) evolution. The initial results of a literature review (a-priori model) were extended using explorative interviews. The findings of this study are threefold. First, there are five different levels of EA-SOA integration outcomes. Second, a mature EA, flexible and well-defined EA framework and comprehensive objectives of EA improve the integration outcomes. Third, the analytical separation using Archer’s theory is helpful in order to understand how these different integration outcomes are generated.

Predicting crack initiation due to ratchetting in rail heads using critical element analysis

This paper presents a strategy to predict the lifetime of rails subjected to large rolling contact loads that induce ratchetting strains in the rail head. A critical element concept is used to calculate the number of loading cycles needed for crack initiation to occur in the rail head surface. In this technique the finite element method (FEM) is used to determine the maximum equivalent ratchetting strain per load cycle, which is calculated by combining longitudinal and shear stains in the critical element. This technique builds on a previously developed critical plane concept that has been used to calculate the number of cycles to crack initiation in rolling contact fatigue under ratchetting failure conditions. The critical element concept simplifies the analytical difficulties of critical plane analysis. Finite element analysis (FEA) is used to identify the critical element in the mesh, and then the strain values of the critical element are used to calculate the ratchetting rate analytically. Finally, a ratchetting criterion is used to calculate the number of cycles to crack initiation from the ratchetting rate calculated.

Emergency Health Services (EHS) : demand and service delivery models. monograph 3 : patients’ reasons and perceptions

Executive Summary Emergency health is a critical component of Australia’s health system and emergency departments (EDs) are increasingly congested from growing demand and blocked access to inpatient beds. The Emergency Health Services Queensland (EHSQ) study aims to identify the factors driving increased demand for emergency health and to evaluate strategies which may safely reduce the future demand growth. This monograph addresses the perspectives of users of both ambulance services and EDs. The research reported here aimed to identify the perspectives of users of emergency health services, both ambulance services and public hospital Emergency Departments and to identify the factors that they took into consideration when exercising their choice of location for acute health care. A cross-sectional survey design was used involving a survey of patients or their carers presenting to the EDs of a stratified sample of eight hospitals. A specific purpose questionnaire was developed based on a novel theoretical model which had been derived from analysis of the literature (Monograph 1). Two survey versions were developed: one for adult patients (self-complete); and one for children (to be completed by parents/guardians). The questionnaires measured perceptions of social support, health status, illness severity, self-efficacy; beliefs and attitudes towards ED and ambulance services; reasons for using these services, and actions taken prior to the service request. The survey was conducted at a stratified sample of eight hospitals representing major cities (four), inner regional (two) and outer regional and remote (two). Due to practical limitations, data were collected for ambulance and ED users within hospital EDs, while patients were waiting for or under treatment. A sample size quota was determined for each ED based on their 2009/10 presentation volumes. The data collection was conducted by four members of the research team and a group of eight interviewers between March and May 2011 (corresponding to autumn season). Of the total of 1608 patients in all eight emergency departments the interviewers were able to approach 1361 (85%) patients and seek their consent to participate in the study. In total, 911 valid surveys were available for analysis (response rate= 67%). These studies demonstrate that patients elected to attend hospital EDs in a considered fashion after weighing up alternatives and there is no evidence of deliberate or ill-informed misuse. • Patients attending ED have high levels of social support and self-efficacy that speak to the considered and purposeful nature of the exercise of choice. • About one third of patients have new conditions while two thirds have chronic illnesses • More than half the attendees (53.1%) had consulted a healthcare professional prior to making the decision. • The decision to seek urgent care at an ED was mostly constructed around the patient’s perception of the urgency and severity of their illness, reinforced by a strong perception that the hospital ED was the correct location for them (better specialised staff, better care for my condition, other options not as suitable). • 33% of the respondent held private hospital insurance but nevertheless attended a public hospital ED. Similarly patients exercised considered and rational judgements in their choice to seek help from the ambulance service. • The decision to call for ambulance assistance was based on a strong perception about the severity of the illness (too severe to use other means of transport) and that other options were not considered appropriate. • The decision also appeared influenced by a perception that the ambulance provided appropriate access to the ED which was considered most appropriate for their particular condition (too severe to go elsewhere, all facilities in one spot, better specialised and better care). • In 43.8% of cases a health care professional advised use of the ambulance. • Only a small number of people perceived that ambulance should be freely available regardless of severity or appropriateness. These findings confirm a growing understanding that the choice of professional emergency health care services is not made lightly but rather made by reasonable people exercising a judgement which is influenced by public awareness of the risks of acute health and which is most often informed by health professionals. It is also made on the basis of a rational weighing up of alternatives and a deliberate and considered choice to seek assistance from a service which the patient perceived was most appropriate to their needs at that time. These findings add weight to dispensing with public perceptions that ED and ambulance congestion is a result of inappropriate choice by patients. The challenge for health services is to better understand the patient’s needs and to design and validate services that meet those needs. The failure of our health system to do so should not be grounds for blaming the patient, claiming inappropriate patient choices.

Approaches to inquiry teaching : elementary teacher’s perspectives

Learning science through the process of inquiry is advocated in curriculum documents across many jurisdictions. However, a number of studies suggest that teachers struggle to help students engage in inquiry practices. This is not surprising as many teachers of science have not engaged in scientific inquiry and possibly hold naïve ideas about what constitutes scientific inquiry. This study investigates teachers’ self-reported approaches to teaching science through inquiry. Phenomenographic interviews undertaken with 20 elementary teachers revealed teachers identified six approaches to teaching for inquiry, clustered within three categories. These approaches were categorized as Free and Illustrated Inquiry as part of experience-centered category, Solution and Method Inquiry as part of problem-centered category, and Topic and Chaperoned Inquiry as part of a question-centered category. This study contributes to our theoretical understanding of how teachers approach Inquiry Teaching, and suggests fertile areas of future research into this valued and influential phenomenon broadly known as “Inquiry Teaching”.

Relationship between head contractors and subcontractors in the construction industry : a critical review

The interaction between head contractor and subcontractor in modern construction often contributes to the degree of success or failure of any large-scale construction project. In this paper, previous research on the relationship and interaction between head contractor and subcontractor is examined in order to establish how these relationships will affect the overall performance of a project. Based on the review, research questions on how to best manage the interaction and relationship between these two vital project participants are proposed and future research direction discussed.

A Century of American Economic Review : Insights on Critical Factors in Journal Publishing

By using information collected from numerous American Economic Review publications from the last 100 years, Torgler and Piatti examine the top publishing institutions to determine their most renowned AER papers based on citation success. Areas of interest include how often an individual can publish in the AER, how equally successful citations are distributed and who the top AER publishing authors are. The book explores what the level of cooperation is among authors and what drives systems such as the alphabetical name ordering. Torgler and Piatti critically examine the individual characteristics of AER authors, editors, editorial board members and referees and even tackle more intricate details such as the frequency of female publications in the AER. The authors observe and analyse the relationship between academic age and publication performance to see if there is any pattern on these factors and citation success. The book then goes on to analyse data concerning awards, and whether awards can increase the probability of publishing in the AER at a later stage

Client and consultant perspectives of prequalification criteria

A crucial task in contractor prequalification is to establish a set of decision criteria through which the capabilities of contractors are measured and judged. However, in the UK, there are no nationwide standards or guidelines governing the selection of decision criteria for contractor prequalification. The decision criteria are usually established by individual clients on an ad hoc basis. This paper investigates the divergence of decision criteria used by different client and consultant organisations in contractor prequalification through a large empirical survey conducted in the UK. The results indicate that there are significant differences in the selection and use of decision criteria for prequalification.

Reimagining school libraries : children's perspectives and new opportunities

The Federal Government’s recent Building the Education Revolution program resulted in, among other features, the creation of over 600 new school libraries in Queensland alone. This paper reports on a component of a research project carried out with students in six primary schools and one secondary school that benefitted from the program, investigating the influences of these new physical environments on learning and teaching. In particular, this paper discusses one missing voice from the design process - that of the students who would be key users of the newly-created spaces in those schools. While opportunities for real involvement in design were minimal for most potential users of the new spaces, students’ imagined possibilities for school libraries, as submitted to the research project, suggest that students could have contributed different perspectives to enhance learning engagement through imaginative design elements. The findings of the project have relevance for teachers and teacher librarians in reconsidering the ways in which the new learning spaces are used as well as informing school designers in planning engaging school facilities. The findings may be extrapolated to the design and planning of general classrooms and other learning environments.

The effects of the indoor environment of residential care homes on dementia suffers in Hong Kong : a critical incident technique approach

Dementia is an irreversible and incurable syndrome that leads to progressive impairment of cognitive functions and behavioural and psychological symptoms such as agitation, depression and psychosis. Appropriate environmental conditions can help delay its onset and progression, and indoor environmental (IE) factors have a major impact. However, there is no firm understanding of the full range of relevant IE factors and their impact levels. This paper describes a preliminary study to investigate the effects of IE on Hong Kong residential care homes (RCH) dementia residents. This involved six purposively selected focus groups, each comprising the main stakeholders of the dementia residents’ caregivers, RCH staff and/or registered nurses, and architects. Using the Critical Incident Technique, the main context and experiences of behavioural problems of dementia residents caused by IE were explored and the key causal RCH IE quality factors identified, together with the associated responses and stress levels involved. The findings indicate that the acoustic environment, lighting and thermal environment are the most important influencing factors. Many of the remedies provided by the focus groups are quite simple to carry out and are summarised in the form of recommendations to current RCHs providers and users. The knowledge acquired in this initial study will help enrich the knowledge of IE design for dementiaspecific residential facilities. It also provides some preliminary insights for healthcare policymakers and practitioners in the building design/facilities management and dementia-care sectors into the IE factors contributing to a more comfortable, healthy and sustainable RCH living environment in Hong Kong.