Teachers using annotations to engage students in assessment conversations : recontextualising knowledge

Assessment for Learning practices with students such as feedback, and self- and peer assessment are opportunities for teachers and students to develop a shared understanding of how to create quality learning performances. Quality is often represented through achievement standards. This paper explores how primary school teachers in Australia used the process of annotating work samples to develop shared understanding of achievement standards during their curriculum planning phase, and how this understanding informed their teaching so that their students also developed this understanding. Bernstein's concept of the pedagogic device is used to identify the ways teachers recontextualised their assessment knowledge into their pedagogic practices. Two researchers worked alongside seven primary school teachers in two schools over a year, gathering qualitative data through focus groups and interviews. Three general recontextualising approaches were identified in the case studies; recontextualising standards by reinterpreting the role of rubrics, recontextualising by replicating the annotation process with the students and recontextualising by reinterpreting practices with students. While each approach had strengths and limitations, all of the teachers concluded that annotating conversations in the planning phase enhanced their understanding, and informed their practices in helping students to understand expectations for quality.

Creative occupations as knowledge practices : innovation and precarity in the creative economy

The ARC Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation (herewith CCI) was established with two simple policy objectives. One was to assess anecdotal and boosterish claims about the growth rates of the creative industries, and hence, to measure the size of the creative industries contribution to gross domestic product (GDP). The other was to ascertain the contribution of the creative industries to employment. Preliminary research detailed in Cunningham and Higgs (2009) showed that the existing industrial classifications did not incorporate the terminology of the creative industries, nor did they disaggregate new categories of digital work such as video games. However, we discovered that occupational codes provide a much more fine-grained account of work that would enable us to disaggregate and track economic activity that corresponded to creative industries terminology. Thus was born one major centrepiece of CCI research – the tracking of national occupational codes in pursuit of measuring creative industries policy outcomes. This paper commences with some description of empirical work that investigates creative occupations; however, the real point is to suggest that this type of detailed, occupation-based empirical work has important theoretical potential that has not yet been fully expended (though see Cunningham 2013; Hearn and Bridgstock 2014; Bakhshi, Freeman and Higgs 2013; Hartley and Potts 2014).

The legal concept of work-related injury and disease in Australian OHS and workers' compensation systems

This paper analyses the concept of ‘work-relatedness’ in Australian workers’ compensation and occupational health and safety (OHS) systems. The concept of work-relatedness is important because it is a crucial element circumscribing the limits of the protection afforded to workers under the preventative OHS statutes, and is a threshold element which has to be satisfied before an injured or ill worker can recover statutory compensation. While the preventive and compensatory regimes do draw on some similar concepts of work-relatedness, as this paper will illustrate, there are significant differences both between, and within, these regimes.

The OHS regulatory challenges posed by agency workers: evidence from Australia

The purpose of this research is to analyse the problems for occupational health and safety (OHS)regulators posed by agency work/leased labour (also known as labour hire in Australasia), using Australian evidence. The analysis is based on an examination of prosecutions involving labour hire firms along with other documentary records (union, industry and government reports and guidance material). The study also draws on interviews with approximately 200 regulatory officials, employers and union representatives since 2001 and workplace visits with 40 OHS inspectors in 2004‐2005.The triangular relationship entailed in labour leasing, in combination with the temporary nature of most placements, poses serious problems for government agencies in terms of enforcing OHS standards notwithstanding a growing number of successful prosecutions for breaches of legislative duties by host and labour leasing firms. Research to investigate these issues in other countries and compare findings with those for Australia is required, along with assessing the effectiveness of new enforcement initiatives. The paper assesses existing regulatory responses and highlights the need for new regulatory strategies to combat the problems posed by labour. The OHS problems posed by agency work have received comparatively little attention. The paper provides insights into the specific problems posed for OHS regulators and how inspectorates are trying to address them.

Regulating supply-chains to address the occupational health and safety problems associated with precarious employment: The case of home-based clothing workers in Australia

Over the past 20 years the labour market, workforce and work organisation of most if not all industrialised countries have been significantly refashioned by the increased use of more flexible work arrangements, variously labelled as precarious employment or contingent work. There is now a substantial and growing body of international evidence that many of these arrangements are associated with a significant deterioration in occupational health and safety (OHS), using a range of measures such as injury rates, disease, hazard exposures and work-related stress. Moreover, there is an emerging body of evidence that these arrangements pose particular problems for conventional regulatory regimes. Recognition of these problems has aroused the concern of policy makers - especially in Europe, North America and Australia - and a number of responses have been adopted in terms of modifying legislation, producing new guidance material and codes of practice and revised enforcement practices. This article describes one such in itiative in Australia with regard to home-based clothing workers. The regulatory strategy developed in one Australian jurisdiction (and now being ‘exported’ into others) seeks to counter this process via contractual tracking mechanisms to follow the work, tie in liability and shift overarching legal responsibility to the top of the supply chain. The process also entails the integration of minimum standards relating to wages, hours and working conditions; OHS and access to workers’ compensation. While home-based clothing manufacture represents a very old type of ‘flexible’ work arrangement, it is one that regulators have found especially difficult to address. Further, the elaborate multi-tiered subcont racting and diffuse work locations found in this industry are also characteristic of newer forms of contingent work in other industries (such as some telework) and the regulatory challenges they pose (such as the tendency of elaborate supply chains to attenuate and fracture statutory responsibilities, at least in terms of the attitudes and behaviour of those involved).

Supply chain regulation to protect the occupational health and safety of vulnerable workers

The last two decades have witnessed a fragmentation of previously integrated systems of production and service delivery with the advent of boundary-less, networked and porous organisational forms. This trend has been associated with the growth of outsourcing and increased use of contingent workers. One consequence of these changes is the development of production/service delivery systems based on complex national and international networks of multi-tiered subcontracting increasingly labelled as supply chains. A growing body of research indicates that subcontracting and contingent work arrangements affect design and decision-making processes in ways that can seriously undermine occupational health and safety (OHS). Elaborate supply chains also present a regulatory challenge because legal responsibility for OHS is diffused amongst a wider array of parties, targeting key decision-makers is more difficult, and government agencies encounter greater logistical difficulties trying to safeguard contingent workers. In a number of industries these problems have prompted new forms of regulatory intervention, including mechanisms for sheeting legal responsibility to the top of supply chains, contractual tracking devices and increasing industry, union and community involvement in enforcement. After describing the problems just alluded to this paper examines recent efforts to regulate supply chains to safeguard OHS in the United Kingdom and Australia.

The establishment of an ISO compliant cancer biobank for Jordan and its neighboring countries through knowledge transfer and training

Research studies aimed at advancing cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment depend on a number of key resources, including a ready supply of high-quality annotated biospecimens from diverse ethnic populations that can be used to test new drugs, assess the validity of prognostic biomarkers, and develop tailor-made therapies. In November 2011, KHCCBIO was established at the King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) with the support of Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) funding from the European Union (khccbio.khcc.jo). KHCCBIO was developed for the purpose of achieving an ISO accredited cancer biobank through the collection, processing, and preservation of high-quality, clinically annotated biospecimens from consenting cancer patients, making it the first cancer biobank of its kind in Jordan. The establishment of a state-of-the-art, standardized biospecimen repository of matched normal and lung tumor tissue, in addition to blood components such as serum, plasma, and white blood cells, was achieved through the support and experience of its European partners, Trinity College Dublin, Biostor Ireland, and accelopment AG. To date, KHCCBIO along with its partners, have worked closely in establishing an ISO Quality Management System (QMS) under which the biobank will operate. A Quality Policy Manual, Validation, and Training plan have been developed in addition to the development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for consenting policies on ethical issues, data privacy, confidentiality, and biobanking bylaws. SOPs have also been drafted according to best international practices and implemented for the donation, procurement, processing, testing, preservation, storage, and distribution of tissues and blood samples from lung cancer patients, which will form the basis for the procurement of other cancer types. KHCCBIO will be the first ISO accredited cancer biobank from a diverse ethnic Middle Eastern and North African population. It will provide a unique and valuable resource of high-quality human biospecimens and anonymized clinicopathological data to the cancer research communities world-wide.

The building blocks of digital media literacy: Socio-material participation and the production of media knowledge

This article outlines the knowledge and skills students develop when they engage in digital media production and analysis in school settings. The metaphor of ‘digital building blocks’ is used to describe the material practices, conceptual understandings and production of knowledge that lead to the development of digital media literacy. The article argues that the two established approaches to media literacy education, critical reading and media production, do not adequately explain how students develop media knowledge. It suggests there has been too little focus on material practices and how these relate to the development of conceptual understanding in media learning. The article explores empirical evidence from a four-year investigation in a primary school in Queensland, Australia using actor–network theory to explore ‘moments of translation’ as students deploy technologies and concepts to materially participate in digital culture. A generative model of media learning is presented with four categories of building blocks that isolate the specific skills and knowledge that can be taught and learnt to promote participation in digital media contexts: digital materials, conceptual understandings, media production and media analysis. The final section of the article makes initial comments on how the model might become the basis for curriculum development in schools and argues that further empirical research needs to occur to confirm the model’s utility.

An examination of Saudi high school teachers' ICT knowledge and implementation

This study investigated Saudi high school teachers' implementation of ICT in schools. The study also explored the relationship between the teachers' level of TPACK and their implementation of ICT. In the first phase of the study, more than 250 Saudi teachers from Al-Madinah administrative area filled in a four-part self reported questionnaire while in the second, 12 teachers completed semi-structured interviews. Findings from both phases of the study revealed that Saudi high school teachers demonstrated low level of effectiveness of ICT implementation. Among a number of barriers, Teachers' TPACK knowledge was found as the best predictor of the effectiveness of ICT implementation.

Do good things and talk about them : a theory of academics usage of enterprise social networks for impression management tactics

Enterprise social networks provide benefits especially for knowledge-intensive work as they enable communication, collaboration and knowledge exchange. These platforms should therefore lead to increased adoption and use by knowledge-intensive workers such as consultants or indeed researchers. Our interest is in ascertaining whether scientific researchers use enterprise social networks as part of their work practices. This focus is motivated by an apparent schism between a need for researchers to exchange knowledge and profile themselves, and the aversion to sharing breakthrough ideas and joining in an ever-increasing publishing and marketing game. We draw on research on academic work practices and impression management to develop a model of academics’ ESN usage for impression management tactics. We describe important constructs of our model, offer strategies for their operationalization and give an outlook to our ongoing empirical study of the use of an ESN platform by 20 schools across six faculties at an Australian university.

Gain's in knowledge, attitude and skills of counselors across three trainings programs

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) sponsored by the G20 nations has helped fund the development of training programs for HIV/AIDS counselors in India. To date no study has examined the effectiveness of these training programs. This study, therefore, aimed to examine the impact of a 12 training program in improving the knowledge of new HIV/AIDS counselors in West Bengal and compare benefits of three training programs. Pre and post measures were taken from 87 counsellors attending three training programs organized by the GFATM-7 team of the Department of Applied Psychology, University of Calcutta. Overall pre and post training scores of three training programs together show significant improvements in knowledge. The findings from this study provide confidence that the 12 day training program can be effectively implemented among West Bengal HIV/AIDS counsellors.

Configuring retroreflective markings to enhance the night-time conspicuity of road workers

This study investigated whether the night-time conspicuity of road workers can be enhanced by positioning retroreflective strips on the moveable joints in patterns that convey varying degrees of biological motion. Participants were 24 visually normal adults (12 young M = 26.8 years; 12 older M = 72.9 years). Visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and glare sensitivity were recorded for each participant. Experimenters acting as road workers walked in place on a closed road circuit within simulated road work sites, facing either the oncoming driver or the roadway (presenting sideways to the driver) and wearing one of four clothing conditions: (i) standard road worker vest; (ii) standard vest plus thigh-mounted retroreflective strips; (iii) standard vest plus retroreflective strips on ankles and knees; (iv) standard vest plus retroreflective strips positioned on the extremities in a configuration that conveyed biological motion (“biomotion”). As they drove along the closed road participants were instructed to press a button to indicate when they first recognized that a road worker was present. The results demonstrated that regardless of the direction of walking, road workers wearing biomotion clothing were recognized at significantly (p < 0.05) longer distances (3×), relative to the standard vest alone. Response distances were significantly shorter for the older drivers. Contrast sensitivity was a better predictor of the ability to recognize road workers than was visual acuity or glare sensitivity. We conclude that adding retroreflective strips in the biomotion configuration can significantly improve road worker conspicuity regardless of the road worker's orientation and the age of the driver.

System dynamics model of the knowledge management process

To effectively manage the challenges being faced by construction organisations in a fast changing business environment, many organisations are attempting to integrate knowledge management (KM) into their business operations. KM activities interact with each other and form a process which receives input from its internal business environment and produces outputs that should be justified by its business performance. This paper aims to provide further understanding on the dynamic nature of the KM process. Through a combination of path analysis and system dynamic simulation, this study found that: 1) an improved business performance enables active KM activities and provide feedback and guidance for formulating learning-based policies; and 2) effective human resource recruitment policies can enlarge the pool of individual knowledge, which lead to a more conducive internal business environment, as well as a higher KM activity level. Consequently, the desired business performance level can be reached within a shorter time frame.

Knowledge work at the boundary : making a difference to educational disadvantage

This paper aims to contribute to the literature about boundary crossing and explicate how boundaries carry learning potential. We aim to do this by theorising the work of school-based researchers (SBRs) in a school–university partnership project aimed at addressing issues of educational disadvantage. We conceptualise the worlds of teaching and research as characterised by different types of knowledge work and ways of knowing, and by different interaction rituals and emotional investments for engaging with that knowledge. Yet we also contend that the practice boundary that separates also connects and intertwines, as people, objects and knowledge move back and forth across it and become transformed in the process. We suggest that the kind of transformative knowledge work discussed in this paper entails understanding the power and control relations involved in recontextualising knowledge as it moves across the research–practice gap. This process necessitates recognising and acknowledging the emotional investments, energies and interaction rituals attached to local, domain specific knowledge and ways of knowing. By discussing the work of school-based researchers we aim to show how processes of recontextualisation at the boundary between researcher and practitioner knowledge can hold the potential to make a difference to issues of seemingly entrenched educational disadvantage.

Recruiting, Sampling and Data Collection with Difficult Populations: Clients of Male Sex Workers.

Although there are many potential new insights to be gained through advancing research on the clients of male sex workers, significant social, ethical and methodological challenges to accessing this population exist. This research project case explores our attempts to recruit a population that does not typically form a cohesive or coherent 'community' and often avoids self-identifying to mitigate the stigma attached to buying sex. We used an arms-length recruitment campaign that focussed on directing potential participants to our study website, which could in turn lead them to participate in an anonymous telephone interview. Barriers to reaching male sex-work clients, however, demanded the evolution of our recruitment strategy. New technologies are part of the solution to accessing a hard-to-reach population, but they only work if researchers engage responsively. We also show how we conducted an in-depth interview with a client and discuss the value of using secondary data.