Funds of knowledge of sorting and patterning : networks of exchange in a Torres Strait Island community

The purpose of this article is to describe a project with one Torres Strait Islander Community. It provides some insights into parents’ funds of knowledge that are mathematical in nature, such as sorting shells and giving fish. The idea of funds of knowledge is based the premise that people are competent and have knowledge that has been historically and culturally accumulated into a body of knowledge and skills essential for their functioning and well-being. This knowledge is then practised throughout their lives and passed onto the next generation of children. Through using a community research approach, funds of knowledge that can be used to validate the community’s identities as knowledgeable people, can be used as foundations for future learnings for teachers, parents and children in the early years of school. They can be the bridge that joins a community’s funds of knowledge with schools validating that knowledge.

Screening and managing cannabis use: comparing GP's and nurses' knowledge, beliefs, and behavior

Background: General practitioners (GPs) and nurses are ideally placed to address the significant unmet demand for the treatment of cannabis-related problems given the numbers of people who regularly seek their care. The aim of this study was to evaluate differences between GPs and nurses’ perceived knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors toward cannabis use and its screening and management. Methods: This study involved 161 nurses and 503 GPs who completed a survey distributed via conference satchels to delegates of Healthed seminars focused on topics relevant to women and children’s health. Differences between GPs and nurses were analyzed using χ2- tests and two-sample t-tests, while logistic regression examined predictors of service provision. Results: GPs were more likely than nurses to have engaged in cannabis-related service provision, but also more frequently reported barriers related to time, interest, and having more important issues to address. Nurses reported less knowledge, skills, and role legitimacy. Perceived screening skills predicted screening and referral to alcohol and other drug (AOD) services, while knowing a regular user increased the likelihood of referrals only. Conclusions: Approaches to increase cannabis-related screening and intervention may be improved by involving nurses, and by leveraging the relationship between nurses and doctors, in primary care.

Creating fashion professionals for the 21st century : a tale of pedagogical tensions and emerging challenges

The ‘Fashion Tales’ Conference identifies three fashion discourses: that of making, that of media, and that of scholarship. We propose a fourth, which provides a foundational base for the others: the discourse of fashion pedagogy. We begin with the argument that to thrive in any of these discourses, all fashion graduates require the ability to navigate the complexities of the 21st century fashion industry. Fashion graduates emerge into a professional world which demands a range of high level capabilities above and beyond those traditionally acknowledged by the discipline. Professional education in fashion must transform itself to accommodate these imperatives. In this paper, we document a tale of fashion learning, teaching and scholarship – the tale of a highly successful future-orientated boutique university-based undergraduate fashion course in Queensland, Australia. The Discipline consistently maintains the highest student satisfaction and lowest attrition of any course in the university, achieves extremely competitive student satisfaction scores when compared with other courses nationally and internationally, and reports outstanding graduate employment outcomes. The core of the article addresses how the course effectively balances five key pedagogical tensions identified from the findings of in-depth focus groups with graduating students, and interviews with teaching staff. The pedagogical tensions are: high concept/ authenticity; high disciplinarity/ interdisciplinarity; high rigour/ play; high autonomy/ scaffolding; and high individuality/ community, where community can be further divided into high challenge and high support. We discuss each of these tensions and how they are characterised within the course, using rich descriptions given by the students. We also draw upon the wider andragogical and learning futures literatures to link the tensions with what is already known about excellence in 21st century higher and further education curriculum and pedagogic practice. We ask: as the fashion industry becomes truly globalised, virtualised, and diversified, and as initial professional training for the industry becomes increasingly massified and performatised, what are the best teaching approaches to produce autonomous, professionally capable, enterprising and responsible graduates into the future? Can the pedagogical balances described in this case study be maintained in the light of these powerful external forces, and if so, how?

How can schools support beginning teachers? A call for timely induction and mentoring for effective teaching

Induction programs largely focus on informing the beginning teacher about the school culture and infrastructure yet the core business of education is teaching and learning. This qualitative study uses a survey, questionnaire, and interviews to investigate 10 beginning teachers’ needs towards becoming effective teachers in their first year of teaching. Findings were synonymous with studies in other countries that showed they required more support in the induction process, particularly around the school context, networking, managing people, and creating work-life balances. It also found that these beginning teachers required more support in school culture and infrastructure with stronger consideration of developing teaching practices, such as: pedagogical knowledge development and behaviour management. It highlighted willing and capable assigned mentors who can model practices and provide feedback on the beginning teachers’ practices as pivotal to induction and mentoring processes.

Making mentoring explicit : articulating pedogogical knowledge practices

Mentoring pedagogical knowledge is fundamental towards developing preservice teachers’ practices. As a result of a train-the-trainer mentoring program, this study aimed to understand how mentors’ engagement in a professional development program on mentoring contributes to their mentoring of pedagogical knowledge practices. This qualitative research analyses the mentoring of pedagogical knowledge from six paired mentor teachers and preservice teachers (n=12) after a four-week professional school experience. Findings indicated the train-the-trainer model was successful for mentoring pedagogical knowledge on 10 of the 11 advocated practices. This suggested that a well-constructed professional development program on mentoring can advance the quality of mentoring for enhancing preservice teachers’ practices.

Combinatorial design of key distribution mechanisms for wireless sensor networks

Secure communications in wireless sensor networks operating under adversarial conditions require providing pairwise (symmetric) keys to sensor nodes. In large scale deployment scenarios, there is no prior knowledge of post deployment network configuration since nodes may be randomly scattered over a hostile territory. Thus, shared keys must be distributed before deployment to provide each node a key-chain. For large sensor networks it is infeasible to store a unique key for all other nodes in the key-chain of a sensor node. Consequently, for secure communication either two nodes have a key in common in their key-chains and they have a wireless link between them, or there is a path, called key-path, among these two nodes where each pair of neighboring nodes on this path have a key in common. Length of the key-path is the key factor for efficiency of the design. This paper presents novel deterministic and hybrid approaches based on Combinatorial Design for deciding how many and which keys to assign to each key-chain before the sensor network deployment. In particular, Balanced Incomplete Block Designs (BIBD) and Generalized Quadrangles (GQ) are mapped to obtain efficient key distribution schemes. Performance and security properties of the proposed schemes are studied both analytically and computationally. Comparison to related work shows that the combinatorial approach produces better connectivity with smaller key-chain sizes.

The role of knowledge intermediaries in developing firm learning capabilities

Regional innovation systems (RISs) literature has emphasized the critical role of interactive learning and knowledge exchange amongst firms and a variety of spatially connected innovation institutions as the foundation of regional innovation. Knowledge intermediaries have been analysed in terms of the technology-transaction services they provide firms and/or knowledge producers such as universities and therefore the role they play in facilitating interaction within the RIS. However, innovation also depends on the capability of the firm to learn. Some studies have suggested that intermediaries also play a role in that regard as participation in intermediary knowledge transfer programmes can contribute to the development of firm capabilities for problem-solving and learning. Our research is based on two case study intermediary programmes involving interviews with facilitators and participants. Our data show that knowledge intermediaries affect organizational learning capabilities by impacting on firms' network relationships, internal and external communication channels and internal learning processes which in turn affect the ability to interpret and use knowledge within the firm. This suggests that the role of knowledge intermediaries might be greater than facilitating interactions in the innovation system, as knowledge intermediation may affect the ability of firms to learn and absorb knowledge from their environment.

The significance of the resident’s knowledge management in managing the residential property

Most commonly, residents are always arguing about the satisfaction of sustainability and quality of their high rise residential property. Often, all the shortcomings and weaknesses will be blamed on the developers without considering the lack of knowledge management from the residents themselves. It is important, therefore, to show that knowledge management of the residents should be taken into account in relation to the satisfactory and the quality of the high rise residential property. This paper aims to discuss the resident’s knowledge management level of the high rise residential property in showing that resident’s knowledge management is really important to maintain the property at least. To evaluate this situation, the questionnaire surveys are being conducted. The paper analyses and structures the social science research on the importance of knowledge as a resource. The survey evidence demonstrates that, the resident’s knowledge management level was highly related in having high quality and sustainable high rise residential property in Johor Bahru.

Pre-service teachers' pedagogical relationships and experiences of embedding Indigenous Australian knowledge in teaching practicum

This paper argues from the standpoint that embedding Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in Australian curricula occurs within a space of tension, ‘the cultural interface’ (Nakata, 2002), in negotiation and contestation with other dominant knowledge systems. In this interface, Indigenous knowledge (IK) is in a state of constancy and flux, invisible and simultaneously pronounced depending on the teaching and learning contexts. More often than not, IK competes for validity and is vexed by questions of racial and cultural authenticity, and therefore struggles to be located centrally in educational systems, curricula and pedagogies. Interrogating normative western notions of what constitutes authentic or legitimate knowledge is critical to teaching Indigenous studies and embedding IK. The inclusion (and exclusion) of IK at the interface is central to developing curriculum that allows teachers to test and prod, create new knowledge and teaching approaches. From this perspective, we explore Indigenous Australian pre-service teachers’ experiences of pedagogical relationships within the teaching habitus of Australian classrooms. Our study is engaged with the strategic transgressions of praxis. We contend that tensions that participant Indigenous Australian pre-service teachers experience mirror the broader (and unresolved) political status of Indigenous people and thus where and why IK is strategically deployed as ‘new’ or ‘old knowledge within Australian liberal democratic systems of curriculum and schooling. It is significant to discuss the formation and transformation of the pedagogical cultural identity of the teaching profession within which Indigenous and non-Indigenous pre-service teachers are employed.

Preservice teachers’ perceptions of their middle schooling teacher preparation : a sample of the Australian context

Reviews into teacher education and reform measures, such as implementing professional standards for teachers, are designed to raise the quality of education. Such reviews and reforms also target preservice teachers; hence universities examine their teacher education programs to address these issues, including developing programs that are current with the literature. Over the past fifteen years, concerns have arisen about Australian early adolescents and their disengagement from the schooling system, their “at risk” behaviour and their need for social, emotional and academic support. These concerns have prompted a middle schooling movement in Australia with the literature recognising a need for specialised middle school teachers. As a result, various universities have responded by developing courses specifically designed to graduate teachers who possess the theoretical and pedagogical knowledge for engaging early adolescent learners. This mixed-method study analysed the responses of preservice teachers from three universities across two states in Australia near the completion of their middle years teacher preparation program. The three aims of the study were to: (1) investigate final-year preservice teachers’ perceptions of their confidence to teach in the middle years of schooling; (2) analyse the experiences included in their teacher preparation course that made them feel confident; and (3) describe strategies for enhancing middle schooling teacher education preparation. Data were gathered from final-year preservice teachers (n=142) using a survey that was developed in response to middle schooling literature and the Professional Standards for Queensland Teachers (Queensland College of Teachers, 2006). A questionnaire collected extended information about the participants’ (n=142) experiences that made them feel confident. It also gathered information about strategies for enhancing middle years teacher preparation. One-to-one, 45-minute interviews (n=10) were conducted to elicit in-depth responses aligned with the research aims. Quantitative results indicated that the majority of preservice teachers (n=142) claimed confidence associated with survey items relating to creating a positive classroom environment (range: 70-97%), developing positive relationships for teaching (71-98%), pedagogical knowledge for teaching (72-95%), and implementation of teaching (70-91%). Qualitative findings suggested that the experiences that assisted them to be confident for teaching were practicum and associated field studies coursework, a positive mentor teacher, specifically designed middle years subjects, the pedagogical approaches of university staff, and other real-world experiences such as volunteering in schools and participating in professional development alongside their mentors. This study demonstrated that universities presenting middle years teacher preparation need to consider: the quality of the practicum experience; the suitability of mentor teachers; the significance and practicalities of middle years subjects; university lecturers’ modelling of pedagogical practices; and the inclusion of real-world learning experiences. Although the findings of this study provided evidence as to how preservice teacher confidence for teaching has been influenced by their middle schooling teacher preparation, further research is required to investigate how confidence translates into practice within their first years of teaching.

Organizational culture and willingness to share knowledge : a competing values perspective in Australian context

A considerable amount of research has confirmed the relationship between organizational culture and knowledge sharing behaviours. However, less research has been conducted on the impact of project sub-cultures in relation to the sharing of knowledge between projects, particularly in project based organizations (PBOs). The unique structures and contexts characterized by PBOs indicate the need to investigate further the impact of cultures present within PBOs and their effect on knowledge sharing. We report on a rich case study of four large Australian-based PBOs whereby the cultural values of these large organizations were seen to impact significantly on whether project teams were more or less likely to improve inter-project knowledge sharing. Furthermore, this research demonstrates the utility of using Cameron and Quinn's (2005) Competing Values Framework to evaluate culture in the context of PBOs

Information practices of teen content creators : the intersection of action and experiences a grounded theory study

What are the information practices of teen content creators? In the United States over two thirds of teens have participated in creating and sharing content in online communities that are developed for the purpose of allowing users to be producers of content. This study investigates how teens participating in digital participatory communities find and use information as well as how they experience the information. From this investigation emerged a model of their information practices while creating and sharing content such as film-making, visual art work, story telling, music, programming, and web site design in digital participatory communities. The research uses grounded theory methodology in a social constructionist framework to investigate the research problem: what are the information practices of teen content creators? Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and observation of teen’s digital communities. Analysis occurred concurrently with data collection, and the principle of constant comparison was applied in analysis. As findings were constructed from the data, additional data was collected until a substantive theory was constructed and no new information emerged from data collection. The theory that was constructed from the data describes five information practices of teen content creators. The five information practices are learning community, negotiating aesthetic, negotiating control, negotiating capacity, and representing knowledge. In describing the five information practices there are three necessary descriptive components, the community of practice, the experiences of information and the information actions. The experiences of information include information as participation, inspiration, collaboration, process, and artifact. Information actions include activities that occur in the categories of gathering, thinking and creating. The experiences of information and information actions intersect in the information practices, which are situated within the specific community of practice, such as a digital participatory community. Finally, the information practices interact and build upon one another and this is represented in a graphic model and explanation.

Uncovering the impact of organisational culture types on the willingness to share knowledge between projects

Current literature has established that organisational culture influences knowledge management efforts; however, it is only recently that research on project management has focused its interest on organisational culture in the context of knowledge sharing and some preliminary studies have been conducted. In response, this paper adds a significant contribution by providing rich empirical evidence of the relationships between culture and the willingness to share knowledge, demonstrating which cultural values are more and which are less likely to improve inter-project knowledge sharing behaviours. The use of interviews and the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) (Cameron & Quinn, 2005) in the cross-case examination of culture in four participating cases has resulted in rich empirical contributions. Furthermore, this paper adds to the project management literature by introducing the Competing Values Framework (CVF) of Cameron and Quinn (2005) to evaluate knowledge sharing in the inter-project context.

Policy measures for creating an integrated and brand-focused innovation system for film industries in shadow nations : an application to Australia's national film industry

Shadow nations face particular problems in constructing competitive film industries. Shadow nations refer to nations whose relative competitiveness suffers from easy product substitutability by products initiated, produced and distributed by powerful actors, such as media conglomerates located in Hollywood. The dominant literature has so far neglected the developing policy recommendations for dealing explicitly with the challenges of shadow nations. This paper aims to develop and apply a normative model for the development of film industries in shadow nations. The model integrates insights from innovation system studies and place branding. The developed model is applied to the Australian film industry as Australia represents a typical shadow nation within the film industry.

Assessing performance and capability in the work place : focusing on essential skills and knowledge in student work placements

The determination of performance standards and assessment practices in regard to student work placements is an essential and important task. Inappropriate, inadequate, or excessively complex assessment tasks can influence levels of student engagement and the quality of learning outcomes. Critical to determining appropriate standards and assessment tasks is an understanding and knowledge of key elements of the learning environment and the extent to which opportunities are provided for students to engage in critical reflection and judgement of their own performance in the contexts of the work environment. This paper focuses on the development of essential skills and knowledge (capabilities) that provide evidence of learning in work placements by describing an approach taken in the science and technology disciplines. Assessment matrices are presented to illustrate a method of assessment for use within the context of the learning environment centred on work placements in science and technology. This study contributes to the debate on the meaning of professional capability, performance standards and assessment practices in work placement programs by providing evidence of an approach that can be adapted by other programs to achieve similar benefits. The approach may also be valuable to other learning contexts where capability and performance are being judged in situations that are outside a controlled teaching and learning environment i.e. in other life-wide learning contexts.