Teaching the teachers Aboriginal studies : illuminating successful strategies

The study was commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under its Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Programme (IESIP). The project goals were supported by the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Inc.; New South Wales Teachers Federation, New South Wales Primary Principals' Association; New South Wales Department of Education and Training (NSW DET); the national Aboriginal Studies Association; and the Australian Council of Deans of Education. This paper reports on the qualitative component of the study (Craven, Halse, Marsh, Mooney & Wilson-Miller, in press a, in press b). The qualitative component of the project consists of in-depth interviews with Heads of Schools, Directors of Aboriginal Education Units and teacher educators and includes three Case Studies. Fifteen institutions in Australia offer Aboriginal Studies as a core, perspective or elective program in Primary Teacher Education Courses in Australia. Of these institutions seven institutions from four States responded to the invitation to participate in the study. From these institutions three were engage to submit a case study of their institution as they had demonstrated that they had successfully introduced core Aboriginal Studies teacher units in their course. This paper presents the findings and discusses teaching Aboriginal Studies, its inclusion in curriculum and its worth for fostering reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians within universities, schools and the wider community.

Postgraduate teachers' commitment to teach Aboriginal studies in Australian schools

This study was commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under its Education Innovation Program (EIP). The project goals were supported by the NSW Teachers Federation, NSW Primary Principals' Association; NSW Department of Education and Training (NSW DET); NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Inc.; the Aboriginal Studies Association; and the Australian Council of Deans of Education. This paper presents the findings emanating from the qualitative component of the study. The qualitative component of this project followed and elaborated on the quantitative study which aimed to: a) critically evaluate the impact of preservice primary teacher education Aboriginal Studies courses on practising teachers' self-perceived abilities to appreciate, understand and effectively teach Aboriginal Studies, Aboriginal perspectives, and Aboriginal children in Australian schools; b) compare and contrast the self-perceptions of teachers who had undertaken a core or elective course in Aboriginal Studies in their initial teacher education course with the self-perceptions of teachers who had not undertaken such courses; c) characterise participating teachers' initial teacher education courses in relation to the Aboriginal Studies content covered; and d) identify teachers' perceptions of useful structure and content to consider including in future teacher education courses. The responses from telephone interviews with teachers in schools and responses to open-ended questions in surveys are discussed. The findings identify congruence and dissonance in the areas of: the contribution of preservice teacher education; benefits of preservice Aboriginal Studies for students in schools; the place of Aboriginal Studies in schools and the curriculum; Aboriginal Studies and student ethnicity; strategies for teaching Aboriginal Studies; and the content of preservice courses.

Practice teaching in the Republic of the Maldives : issues and challenges

Practicum is an important but challenging part of primary teacher education especially in developing countries like the Republic of the Maldives where the effectiveness of practicum can be impeded by geographical distance, isolation, levels of teacher expertise, and by a highly structured system of primary schooling and teacher education. The current paper reports on a study of beginning teachers in their first year of full-time teaching practice and their perceptions of the effectiveness of their practicum experiences during their teacher training both generally and in terms of developing desirable teaching competencies. Teachers reported that their relationship with school and academic staff was one of the most effective and positive features of practice teaching but reported less positively on the processes used to assess and evaluate students during their teaching practice.

Cultural politics in the English classroom : textually dangerous territory?

How might one approach cultural politics in the English classroom? What might the role of the class text be in these discussions? This article is a snapshot of the author's journey from a pre-service English teacher to her most recent experiences of English teaching. Her pre- service pedagogy indicated a 'minimization' of the role of the text in unpacking cultural politics; the text itself was overshadowed by the important points the teacher was making about critiquing the way the world is socially, culturally and politically organised. In her beginning teaching year, the author was in a remote rural school where she encountered attitudes to hegemonic masculinity and heterosexuality which she felt she did not deal appropriately with. She now believes that more emphasis on how the features of the text itself work to create meaning and construct identities is needed. She recognises the importance of close textual analysis as a way toward engaging in culturally political conversations about constructions of gender and sexuality in media and non-media texts. If she were to have her beginning teaching years over again, she would probably collate a series of contrasting representations of masculinity and femininity from a variety of sources, including popular culture. She would then develop activities based around undertaking textual analysis of the constructions of gender and sexuality, and ask students to identify the different elements in the texts that create meaning, and compare similarities and differences between texts.

Conceptualising and measuring student engagement through the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) : a critique

Student engagement has rapidly developed a central place in the quality agenda of Australian universities since the introduction of the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE). The AUSSE is based on one developed in the USA. The main arguments given for adopting this survey in Australia are that it provides a valid instrument for measuring engagement and that it enables international comparisons. However, the survey instrument and scales have been adopted with little scrutiny of these arguments. This paper examines these arguments by considering different perspectives of engagement, examining the importance of contextual differences and evaluating the AUSSE engagement scales in the light of both. The paper concludes that the AUSSE results should be used by universities and policy-makers with caution.

Knowledge-building : designing for learning using social and participatory media

This report presents the results of a classroom action research that looked at how one teacher redesigned her curriculum while integrating social media, Web 2.0 and face-toface teaching in an Australian public high school. It explores the qualities that social and participatory media bring to the classroom while focussing on students as active and valued participants in the learning process. Building knowledge using the uniqueness of social media enabled students to become active and valued resources for both the teacher and their peers. Designing for learning is a key challenge facing education today; this case offers ideas for learning designers and contributes to a research base that can support educators from all sectors.

Equity and technology : a case study

I am researching equitable and socially just teaching practices when using technology for the mathematical learning of disadvantaged and marginalised students in junior secondary school. Using data gathered from teacher interviews and a meeting of teachers, I present a case study of one teachers’ practice. The case suggests that there are some equity considerations for the use of an integrated project approach to teaching mathematics and that whole class problem solving with technology can provide access to mathematical ideas when students have limited access or skills with technology.

Pedagogical practices with digital technologies : pre-service and practicing teachers

In this paper the pedagogical practices of practising teachers and pre- service teachers when using digital technologies are described and compared. Data were collected by observation of presentations about using digital technology in mathematics by teachers and pre-service teachers and practising teachers were interviewed. Teachers generally used pedagogical approaches involving student-centred activity whereas pre-service teachers were more likely to use technology to teach concepts by demonstration and were not inclined to use the more student- centred approaches, though many used guided tasks. The study enabled some analysis and reflection upon the promoted action in the learning environments of pre-service teachers.

Proteolytic processing of the P2/nucleocapsid cleavage site is critical for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA dimer maturation

Differences in virion RNA dimer stability between mature and protease-defective (immature) forms of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) suggest that maturation of the viral RNA dimer is regulated by the proteolytic processing of the HIV-1 Gag and Gag-Pol precursor proteins. However, the proteolytic processing of these proteins occurs in several steps denoted primary, secondary, and tertiary cleavage events and, to date, the processing step associated with formation of stable HIV-1 RNA dimers has not been identified. We show here that a mutation in the primary cleavage site (p2/nucleocapsid [NC]) hinders formation of stable virion RNA dimers, while dimer stability is unaffected by mutations in the secondary (matrix/capsid [CA], p1/p6) or a tertiary cleavage site (CA/p2). By introducing mutations in a shared cleavage site of either Gag or Gag-Pol, we also show that the cleavage of the p2/NC site in Gag is more important for dimer formation and stability than p2/NC cleavage in Gag-Pol. Electron microscopy analysis of viral particles shows that mutations in the primary cleavage site in Gag but not in Gag-Pol inhibit viral particle maturation. We conclude that virion RNA dimer maturation is dependent on proteolytic processing of the primary cleavage site and is associated with virion core formation.

Role of cation in enhancing the conversion of the Alzheimer's peptide into amyloid fibrils using protic ionic liquids

We report on the impact of changes in the protic ionic liquid (pIL) cation on the fibrilisation kinetics and the conversion of the A 16-22 from monomers to amyloid fibrils. When we compare the use of primary, secondary, and tertiary amines we find that the primary amine results in the greatest conversion into amyloid fibrils. We show that the pIL is directly interacting with the peptide and this likely drives the difference in conversion and kinetics observed.

Equivalence and relational thinking: opportunities for professional learning

In this article an argument for the use of collaborative professional learning teams to improve teaching and children's achievement is presented together with an explanation of how this can be done. The case provided in this article concerns children's understanding of equivalence and the way in which teachers together can explore children's conceptions and misconceptions held by children in their classroom. An effective teaching strategy using a number talk about a true/false number sentence is also described.

Developing IT professionals in New Zealand using project-based learning

The thesis shows that students gained skills required for entry to a career in IT, there was no direct involvement by the IT sector to link these skills to professional practice. This thesis suggests a holistic model for sector engagement, from secondary education through tertiary to graduate placement and employment.