Redefining excellence : a strategic policy framework for community engagement and higher education

This report provides a current overview and analysis of the role of universities in local community development in the State of Victoria. Drawing on successful programs of community engagement in Victoria, Australia, Europe, Africa, and North America, the report proposes policy strategies for fostering community development for Victorian Higher Education through effective community engagement programs.

Demand side response to mitigate electrical peak demand in Eastern and Southern Australia

The aim of this work is to develop a Demand-Side-Response (DSR) model, which assists electricity end-users to be engaged in mitigating peak demands on the electricity network in Eastern and Southern Australia. The proposed innovative model will comprise a technical set-up of a programmable internet relay, a router, solid state switches in addition to the suitable software to control electricity demand at user's premises. The software on appropriate multimedia tool (CD Rom) will be curtailing/shifting electric loads to the most appropriate time of the day following the implemented economic model, which is designed to be maximizing financial benefits to electricity consumers. Additionally the model is targeting a national electrical load be spread-out evenly throughout the year in order to satisfy best economic performance for electricity generation, transmission and distribution. The model is applicable in region managed by the Australian Energy Management Operator (AEMO) covering states of Eastern-, Southern-Australia and Tasmania.

Decision support to green technology implementation on Australian university campuses

As the societal awareness on sustainability is gaining momentum worldwide, the higher education sector is expected to take the lead in education, research and the promotion of sustainable development. Universities have the diversity of skills and knowledge to explore new concepts and issues, the academic freedom to offer unbiased observations, and the capacity to engage in experimentation for solutions. There is a global trend that universities have realized and responded to sustainability challenge. By adopting green technologies, buildings on university campuses have the potential to offer highly productive and green environments for a quality learning experience for students, while minimising environmental impacts. Despite the potential benefits and metaphorical link to sustainability, few universities have moved towards implementing Green Roof and Living Wall on campuses widely, which have had more successful applications in commercial and residential buildings. Few past research efforts have examined the fundamental barriers to the implementation of sustainable projects on campuses from organizational level. To address this deficiency, an on-going research project is undertaken by Queensland University of Technology in Australia. The research is aimed at developing a comprehensive framework to facilitate better decision making for the promotion of Green Roof and Living Wall application on campuses. It will explore and highlight organizational factors as well as investigate and emphasize project delivery issues. Also, the critical technical indicators for Green Roof and Living Wall implementation will be identified. The expected outcome of this research has the potential to enhance Green Roof and Living Wall delivery in Australian universities, as a vital step towards realizing sustainability in higher education sectors.

Recognising Torres Strait Islander women’s knowledges in their children’s mathematics education

This paper discusses women’s involvement in their children’s mathematics education. It does, where possible, focus Torres Strait Islander women who share the aspirations of Aborginal communities around Australia. That is, they are keen for their children to receive an education that provides them with opportunities for their present and future lives. They are also keen to have their cultures’ child learning practices recognised and respected within mainstream education. This recognition has some way to go with the language of instruction in schools written to English conventions, decontextualised and disconnected to the students’ culture, Community and home language.

Surveying the state of higher education in energy efficiency, in Australian engineering curriculum

This paper presents the method and results of a survey of 27 of the 33 Australian universities teaching engineering education in late 2007, undertaken by The Natural Edge Project (hosted by Griffith University and the Australian National University) and supported by the National Framework for Energy Efficiency. This survey aimed to ascertain the extent of energy efficiency (EE) education, and to identify preferred methods to assist in increasing the extent to which EE education is embedded in engineering curriculum. In this paper the context for the survey is supported by a summary of the key results from a variety of surveys undertaken over the last decade internationally. The paper concludes that EE education across universities and engineering disciplines in Australia is currently highly variable and ad hoc. Based on the results of the survey, this paper highlights a number of preferred options to support educators to embed sustainability within engineering programs, and future opportunities for monitoring EE, within the context of engineering education for sustainable development (EESD).

Improving the provision of learning assistance services in higher education

This study is motivated by the need to look continually for ways to improve Griffith University's learning assistance services so that they meet the changed needs of stakeholders and are at the same time cost-effective and efficient. This study uses the conceptual tools of cultural-historical activity theory and expansive visibilisation to investigaate the developmenet and transformation of learning assistance services at Griffith University, one of Australia's largest mult-campus universities.

A case study of how primary school teachers in Papua New Guinea understand outcomes-based education

This case study explored how a group of primary school teachers in Papua New Guinea (PNG) understood Outcomes-based Education (OBE). OBE measures students. learning against specific outcomes. These outcomes are derived from a country.s vision of the kind of citizen that the education system should produce. While countries such as Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States have abandoned OBE, others such as PNG have adopted it in various ways. How teachers understand OBE in PNG is important because such understandings are likely to influence how they implement the OBE curriculum. There has been no research to date which has investigated PNG primary school teachers. understandings and experiences with OBE. This study used a single exploratory case study design to investigate how twenty primary school teachers from the National Capital District (NCD) in PNG understood OBE. The study, underpinned by an intepretivist paradigm, explored the research question: How do primary school teachers understand outcomes-based education in PNG? The data comprised surveys, in-depth interviews and documents. Data were analysed thematically and using explanation building techniques. The findings revealed that OBE is viewed by teachers as a way to equip them with additional strategies for planning and programming, teaching and learning, and assessment. Teachers also described how OBE enabled both students and teachers to become more engaged and develop positive attitudes towards teaching and learning. There was also a perception that OBE enhanced students. future life skills through increased local community support. While some teachers commented on how the OBE reforms provided them with increased professional development opportunities, the greatest impediment to implementing OBE was perceived to be a lack of sufficient teaching and learning resources. The process of planning and programming classroom activities was also regarded as onerous. Some teachers indicated that they had been required to implement OBE without adequate in-service training support. The social constructivist theory of knowledge which underpins OBE.s student-centred pedagogy can cause tensions within PNG.s cultural contexts of teaching and learning. Teachers need to be aware of these tensions when conducting peer or group learning under OBE in PNG. By exploring how these PNG primary teachers understood OBE, the study highlighted how teachers engaged with OBE concepts when interpreting syllabus documents and how they applied these concepts to curriculum. Identifying differences in teacher understanding of OBE provides guidance for both the design of materials to support the implementation of OBE and for the design of in-service training. Thus, the outcomes of this study will inform educators about the implementation of OBE in PNG. In addition, the outcomes will provide much needed insight into how a mandated curriculum and pedagogical reform impacts teachers‟ practices in PNG.

Teacher change and professional development in mathematics education

It is generally agreed that if authentic teacher change is to occur then the tacit knowledge about how and why they act in certain ways in the classroom be accessed and reflected upon. While critical reflection can and often is an individual experience there is evidence to suggest that teachers are more likely to engage in the process when it is approached in a collegial manner; that is, when other teachers are involved in and engaged with the same process. Teachers do not enact their profession in isolation but rather exist within a wider community of teachers. An outside facilitator can also play an active and important role in achieving lasting teacher change. According to Stein and Brown (1997) “an important ingredient in socially based learning is that graduations of expertise and experience exist when teachers collaborate with each other or outside experts” (p. 155). To assist in the effective professional development of teachers, outside facilitators, when used, need to provide “a dynamic energy producing interactive experience in which participants examine and explore the complex components of teaching” (Bolster, 1995, p. 193). They also need to establish rapport with the participating teachers that is built on trust and competence (Hyde, Ormiston, & Hyde, 1994). For this to occur, professional development involving teachers and outside facilitators or researchers should not be a one-off event but an ongoing process of engagement that enables both the energy and trust required to develop. Successful professional development activities are therefore collaborative, relevant and provide individual, specialised attention to the teachers concerned. The project reported here aimed to provide professional development to two Year 3 teachers to enhance their teaching of a new mathematics content area, mental computation. This was achieved through the teachers collaborating with a researcher to design an instructional program for mental computation that drew on theory and research in the field.

An ecological footprint for an early learning centre : identifying opportunities for early childhood sustainability education through interdisciplinary research

In this study, engineers and educators worked together to adapt and apply the ecological footprint (EF) methodology to an early learning centre in Brisbane, Australia. Results were analysed to determine how environmental impact can be reduced at the study site and more generally across early childhood settings. It was found that food, transport and energy consumption had the largest impact on the centre’s overall footprint. In transport and energy, early childhood centres can reduce their impact through infrastructure and cultural change, in association with changed curriculum strategies. Building design, the type of energy purchased and appliance usage can all be modified to reduce the energy footprint. The transport footprint can be reduced through more families using active and public transport, which can be encouraged by providing information, support and facilities and appropriate siting of new centres. Introducing the concept of ecological footprint in early childhood education may be an effective way to educate children, staff and parents on the links between the food they eat, land usage and environmental impact. This study responds directly to the call in this journal for research focused on early childhood education and for more to be made of interdisciplinary research opportunities.

Gender equity in the professoriate : a cohort study of new women professors in Australia

According to statistics and trend data, women continue to be substantially under- represented in the Australian professoriate, and growth in their representation has been slow despite the plethora of equity programs. While not disputing these facts, we propose that examining gender equity by cohort provides a complementary perspective on the status of gender equity in the professoriate. Based on over 500 survey responses, we detected substantial similarities between women and men who were appointed as professors or associate professors between 2005 and 2008. There were similar proportions of women and men appointed via external or internal processes or by invitation. Additionally, similar proportions of women and men professors expressed a marked preference for research over teaching. Furthermore, there were similar distributions between the genders in the age of appointment to the professoriate. However, a notable gender difference was that women were appointed to the professoriate on average 1.9 years later than mens. This later appointment provides one reason for the lower representation of women compared to men in the professoriate. It also raises questions of the typical length of time that women and men remain in the (paid) professoriate and reasons why they might leave it. A further similarity between women and men in this cohort was their identification of motivation and circumstances as key factors in their career orientation. However, substantially more women identified motivation than circumstances and the situation was reversed for men. The open-ended survey responses also provided confirmation that affirmative action initiatives make a difference to women’s careers.