Interest from Tertiary Educated Persons in Fostering Children with Higher Care needs under a Professional (Paid) Model Compared with General Foster Care

The number of Australian children requiring foster care due to abuse and neglect is increasing at a faster rate than suitable carers can be recruited. Currently increased numbers of foster children are presenting with higher care needs. Evidence suggests carers with a higher education could contribute to placement stability and ultimately provide more positive outcomes for this group of children. This paper explores the level of interest by tertiary educated persons toward a model of fostering for children with higher needs. Using a descriptive survey methodology, a convenience sample of 644 university undergraduate and postgraduate students within faculties of health sciences, and education, arts and social sciences was employed. Psychology students in the 17-26 year old age group showed greatest interest in a professional foster care model and this was statistically significant (p=0.002 955 CI .000-.010) when compared to other health professionals and other age groups. Education students held the highest interest in general fostering although not statistically significant. When these survey results were extrapolated to the total number of health professionals in Australia there could be 8,385 potential recruits for a model professional foster care. Focused campaigns are required to source professional as recruits to fostering with the benefit of servicing the placement needs of higher care needs children and contributing to general foster care resources.

Modelling web search behaviour : a user’s cognitive style perspective [Unpublished]

Many researchers have investigated and modelled aspects of Web searching. A number of studies have explored the relationships between individual differences and Web searching. However, limited studies have explored the role of users’ cognitive styles in determining Web searching behaviour. Current models of Web searching have limited consideration of users’ cognitive styles. The impact of users’ cognitive style on Web searching and their relationships are little understood or represented. Individuals differ in their information processing approaches and the way they represent information, thus affecting their performance. To create better models of Web searching we need to understand more about user’s cognitive style and their Web search behaviour, and the relationship between them. More rigorous research is needed in using more complex and meaningful measures of relevance; across a range of different types of search tasks and different populations of Internet users. The project further explores the relationships between the users’ cognitive style and their Web searching. The project will develop a model depicting the relationships between a user’s cognitive style and their Web searching. The related literature, aims and objectives and research design are discussed.

The social work & human services workforce : report from a national study of education, training and workforce needs

This report analyses the national curriculum and workforce needs of the social work and human services workforce. Australia’s community and health services are among the fastest growing sectors of employment in the nation but the sustainability of an appropriately qualified workforce is threatened. Yet there is little integration of education and workforce planning for the community services sector. This contrasts markedly with the health services sector, where key stakeholders are collaboratively addressing workforce challenges. Our research confirmed rapid growth in the social work and human services workforce and it also identified: • an undersupply of professionally qualified social work and human service practitioners to meet workforce demand; • the rapid ageing of the workforce with many workers approaching retirement; • limited career and salary structures creating disincentives to retention; • a highly diverse qualification base across the workforce. This diversity is inconsistent with the specialist knowledge and skills required of practitioners in many domains of community service provision. Our study revealed a lack of co-ordination across VET and higher education to meet the educational needs of the social work and human services workforce. Our analysis identified: • strong representation of equity groups in social work and related human service programs, although further participation of these groups is still needed; • the absence of clear articulation pathways between VET and higher education programs due the absence of co-ordination and planning between these sectors; • substantial variation in the content of the diverse range of social work and human service programs, with accredited programs conforming to national standards and some others in social and behavioural sciences lacking any external validation; • financial obstacles and disincentives to social work and human service practitioners in achieving postgraduate level qualifications. We recommend that: • DEEWR identify accredited social work and human services courses as a national education priority (similar to education and nursing). This will help ensure the supply of professional workers to this sector; • VET and higher education providers are encouraged to collaboratively develop clear and accessible educational pathways across the educational sectors; • DEEWR undertake a national workforce analysis and planning processes in collaboration with CSDMAC, and all social and community services stakeholders, to ensure workforce sustainability; and • COAG develop a national regulation framework for the social and community services workforce. This would provide sound accountability systems, and rigorous practice and educational standards necessary for quality service provision. It will also ensure much needed public confidence in this workforce.

Assessment of the influence of cultural barriers to HDR supervision of non-English speaking background (NESD) students in engineering and information technology (IT) disciplines

The paper details the results of the first phase of an on-going research into the sociocultural factors that influence the supervision of higher degrees research (HDR) engineering students in the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering (BEE) and Faculty of Science and Technology (FaST) at Queensland University of Technology. A quantitative analysis was performed on the results from an online survey that was administered to 179 engineering students. The study reveals that cultural barriers impact their progression and developing confidence in their research programs. We argue that in order to assist international and non-English speaking background (NESB) research students to triumph over such culturally embedded challenges in engineering research, it is important for supervisors to understand this cohort's unique pedagogical needs and develop intercultural sensitivity in their pedagogical practice in postgraduate research supervision. To facilitate this, the governing body (Office of Research) can play a vital role in not only creating the required support structures but also their uniform implementation across the board.

Let's talk (listen feel think act) : communication for health professionals

This book is designed with undergraduate university students in mind, with the aim of teaching you the importance of being an effective communicator.

Upskilling in scholarly communication practices

As the research landscape continues to change with new technologies, advances in data management and new means, expectations and polices surrounding scholarly communication, the role of the Library and Librarian in supporting research is shifting. At the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), the Library has made a positive impact on the scholarly communication practices of QUT researchers in the last decade in several ways: � 1. A university-wide deposit mandate on self-archiving was introduced in 2003. It states that QUT authors must place the author’s accepted manuscript version of refereed research articles and conference papers in the digital repository QUT ePrints. 2. Liaison Librarians remind their researchers to self-deposit their accepted manuscript versions of peer-reviewed research outputs into QUT ePrints, and provide training and support when needed. 3. The Library pays author publication fees for true gold road open access publishers including: BioMed Central, Public Library of Science, Hindawi Press. Liaison Librarians actively assist researchers in the gold road publishing process.� Liaison Librarians play a key role in educating their researchers on university policy and the latest advances in scholarly communication. However, their knowledge and skills related to scholarly communication practices have largely been learnt on the job or self-taught. This poster presents the results of a survey where QUT Liaison Librarians rated their skills in various practices related to eResearch, including scholarly communication.

"Criatividade na Educação e Formação de Talentos" (Creativity in Education and Development of Talent)

Historically, 'Creativity' has had a complex set of meanings. Not long ago, 'Creativity' had a kind of marginal or peripheral status, being seen as the province of a gifted few; in many cases it was associated almost exclusively with the arts and with artists. But these traditional attitudes to creativity are changing. Mainstream businesses are employing people with creative skills as diverse as writing, directing, graphic design and event management. So what we’re beginning to see is an innovation framework and creative content adding value not just to SMEs, but to traditional industries such as manufacturing and mining, and to wider service industries. And this is why Education is such an important element, particularly with a focus on innovation, and on creative people and the contributions they make across different parts of the economy.

Using Web 2.0 tools to facilitate knowledge transfer in complex organisational environments : a primer

An often neglected but well recognised aspect of successful engineering asset management is the achievement of co-operation and collaboration between various occupational, functional and hierarchical levels present within complex technical environments. Engineering and technical contexts have been well documented for the presence of highly cohesive groups based around around functional or role orientations. However while highly cohesive groups are potentially advantageous they are also often correlated with the emergence of knowledge and information silos based around those same functional or occupational clusters. Improved collaboration and co-operation between groups has been demonstrated to result in a number of positive outcomes at an individual, group and organisational level. Example outcomes include an increased capacity for problem solving, improved responsiveness and adaptation to organisational crises, higher morale and an increased ability to leverage workforce capability. However, an essential challenge for organisations wishing to overcome informational silos is to implement mechanisms that facilitate, encourage and sustain interactions between otherwise disconnected groups. This paper reviews the ability of Web 2.0 technologies and mobile computing devices to facilitate and encourage knowledge sharing between “silo’d” groups. Commonly available tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Wiki’s and others will be reviewed in relation to their applicability, functionality and ease-of-use by engineering and technical personnel. The paper also documents three case examples of engineering organisations that have successfully employed Web 2.0 to achieve superior knowledge management. With a number of clear recommendations he paper is an essential starting point for any organization looking at the use of new generation technologies for achieving the significant outcomes associated with knowledge transfer.

The First Steps Program : a case study of a new model of community child health service

Community Child Health Nursing Services provide support for new mothers; however, the focus has often been on individual consultations, complemented by a series of group sessions soon after birth. We describe a new model of community care for first-time mothers that centres on group sessions throughout the whole contact period. The model was developed by practicing child health nurses for a large health service district in south-east Queensland, which offers a comprehensive community child health service. Issues identified by clinicians working within existing services, feedback from clients and the need for more resource-efficient methods of service provision underpinned the development of the model. The pilot program was implemented in two community child health centres in Brisbane. An early individual consultation to engage the family with the service was added in response to feedback from clinicians and clients. The modified model has since been implemented service-wide as the ‘First Steps Program’. The introduction of this model has ensured that the service has been able to retain a comprehensive service for first-time parents from a universal population, while responding to the challenges of population growth and the increasing number of complex clients placing demands on resources.

The ecology of Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritdae) : what do we know to assist pest management?

The distribution, systematics and ecology of Bactrocera tryoni, the Queensland fruit fly are reviewed. Bactrocera tryoni is a member of the B. tryoni complex of species, which currently includes four named species, viz. B. tryoni s.s., B. neohumeralis, B. melas and B. aquilonis. The species status of B. melas and B. aquilonis are unclear (they may be junior synonyms of B. tryoni) and their validity, or otherwise, needs to be confirmed as a matter of urgency. While Queensland fruit fly is regarded as a tropical species, it cannot be assumed that its distribution will spread further south under climate change scenarios. Increasing aridity and hot dry summers, as well as more complex, indirect interactions resulting from elevated CO2, make predicting the future distribution and abundance of B. tryoni difficult. The ecology of B. tryoni is reviewed with respect to current control approaches (with the exception of Sterile Insect Technique which is covered in a companion paper). We conclude that there are major gaps in the knowledge required to implement most non-insecticide based management approaches. Priority areas for future research include host plant interactions, protein and cue-lure foraging and use, spatial dynamics, development of new monitoring tools, investigating the use of natural enemies and better integration of fruit flies into general horticultural IPM systems.

Using Web 2.0 tools to facilitate knowledge transfer in complex organisational environments : a primer

An often neglected but well recognised aspect of successful engineering asset management is the achievement of co-operation and collaboration between various occupational, functional and hierarchical levels present within complex technical environments. Engineering and technical contexts have been well documented for the presence of highly cohesive groups based around around functional or role orientations. However while highly cohesive groups are potentially advantageous they are also often correlated with the emergence of knowledge and information silos based around those same functional or occupational clusters. Improved collaboration and co-operation between groups has been demonstrated to result in a number of positive outcomes at an individual, group and organisational level. Example outcomes include an increased capacity for problem solving, improved responsiveness and adaptation to organisational crises, higher morale and an increased ability to leverage workforce capability. However, an essential challenge for organisations wishing to overcome informational silos is to implement mechanisms that facilitate, encourage and sustain interactions between otherwise disconnected groups. This paper reviews the ability of Web 2.0 technologies and mobile computing devices to facilitate and encourage knowledge sharing between “silo’d” groups. Commonly available tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Wiki’s and others will be reviewed in relation to their applicability, functionality and ease-of-use by engineering and technical personnel. The paper also documents three case examples of engineering organisations that have successfully employed Web 2.0 to achieve superior knowledge management. With a number of clear recommendations the paper is an essential starting point for any organization looking at the use of new generation technologies for achieving the significant outcomes associated with knowledge transfer.

Open source software for workflow management : the case of YAWL

"This column is distinguished from previous Impact columns in that it concerns the development tightrope between research and commercial take-up and the role of the LGPL in an open source workflow toolkit produced in a University environment. Many ubiquitous systems have followed this route, (Apache, BSD Unix, ...), and the lessons this Service Oriented Architecture produces cast yet more light on how software diffuses out to impact us all." Michiel van Genuchten and Les Hatton Workflow management systems support the design, execution and analysis of business processes. A workflow management system needs to guarantee that work is conducted at the right time, by the right person or software application, through the execution of a workflow process model. Traditionally, there has been a lack of broad support for a workflow modeling standard. Standardization efforts proposed by the Workflow Management Coalition in the late nineties suffered from limited support for routing constructs. In fact, as later demonstrated by the Workflow Patterns Initiative (www.workflowpatterns.com), a much wider range of constructs is required when modeling realistic workflows in practice. YAWL (Yet Another Workflow Language) is a workflow language that was developed to show that comprehensive support for the workflow patterns is achievable. Soon after its inception in 2002, a prototype system was built to demonstrate that it was possible to have a system support such a complex language. From that initial prototype, YAWL has grown into a fully-fledged, open source workflow management system and support environment

Script proposals: a device for empowering clients in counselling

Much of the research on the delivery of advice by professionals such as physicians, health workers and counsellors, both on the telephone and in face to face interaction more generally, has focused on the theme of client resistance and the consequent need for professionals to adopt particular formats to assist in the uptake of the advice. In this paper we consider one setting, Kid’s Helpline, the national Australian counselling service for children and young people, where there is an institutional mandate not to give explicit advice in accordance with the values of self-direction and empowerment. The paper examines one practice, the use of script proposals by counsellors, which appears to offer a way of providing support which is consistent with these values. Script proposals entail the counsellors packaging their advice as something that the caller might say – at some future time – to a third party such as a friend, teacher, parent, or partner, and involve the counsellor adopting the speaking position of the caller in what appears as a rehearsal of a forthcoming strip of interaction. Although the core feature of a script proposal is the counsellor’s use of direct reported speech they appear to be delivered, not so much as exact words to be followed, but as the type of conversation that the client needs to have with the 3rd party. Script proposals, in short, provide models of what to say as well as alluding to how these could be emulated by the client. In their design script proposals invariably incorporate one or more of the most common rhetorical formats for maximising the persuasive force of an utterance such as a three part list or a contrastive pair. Script proposals, moreover, stand in a complex relation to the prior talk and one of their functions appears to be to summarise, respecify or expand upon the client’s own ideas or suggestions for problem solving that have emerged in these preceding sequences.

Design Led Innovation : exploring the synthesis of needs, technologies and business models

The term Design is used to describe a wide range of activities. Like the term innovation, it is often used to describe both an activity and an outcome. Many products and services are often described as being designed, as they describe a conscious process of linking form and function. Alternatively, the many and varied processes of design are often used to describe a cost centre of an organisation to demonstrate a particular competency. However design is often not used to describe the ‘value’ it provides to an organisation and more importantly the ‘value’ it provides to both existing and future customers. Design Led Innovation bridges this gap. Design Led Innovation is a process of creating a sustainable competitive advantage, by radically changing the customer value proposition. A conceptual model has been developed to assist organisations apply and embed design in a company’s vision, strategy, culture, leadership and development processes.

If Big Brother comes to a venue near you! Employee surveillance issues and the communication professional

Todoy's monogers-drowing on the expertise of their IT professiono/s-communication and control issues, the current legal climate, and ethical issues that communication professionals need to address to forestall future problems. lA questionnaire is included as a starting point for communication professionals to assess their own attitudes and values to workplace surveillance.