Stepping Stones A world-Class Mathematics program for the Australian Curriculum Year 1 (Student Journal)

ORIGO Stepping Stones gives mathematics teachers the best of both worlds by delivering lessons and teacher guides on a digital platform blended with the more traditional printed student journals. This uniquely interactive program allows students to participate in exciting learning activites whilst still allowing the teacher to maintain control of learning outcomes. It is the first program in Australia to give teachers activities to differentiate instruction within each lesson and across school years. Written by a team of Australia's leading mathematics educators, this program integrates key research findings in a practical sequence of modules and lessons providing schools with a step-by-step approach to the new curriculum. Click links on the right to explore the program.

Managing specialised knowledge in technopreneurial firms : evidence from Australian SMEs

This paper analyses particularities of the knowledge management process in technopreneurial firms with particular focus on knowledge identification, acquisition, utilisation and integration. Using a qualitative investigation from a sample of Australian SMEs, a number of key observations are derived which show the challenges of managing knowledge and how important knowledge management is as a management tool for R&D and innovation process in technology-oriented SMEs. Findings suggest that knowledge management and integration processes in these firms are very much project focused and mainly based on ad hoc and informal processes and not embedded within the overall organisational routines.

From bust to boom : towards a strategic cognition perspective on Australian mining firms’ adaption

While the role of executives’ cognition in organisations’ responses to change is a central topic in strategic cognition research, changes in firms’ environment are typically not measured directly but described either as an event (for example, new industry legislation) or represented by a time period (e.g. when a new technology impacted an industry). The Australian mining sector has witnessed a historically significant change in demand for its products and we begin by developing measures of changes in supply and demand for key commodities during the period 1992-2008. We identify sub-groups of firms based on their activities and commodity sector and examine the relation of these variables to executives’ cognition and to firms’ CapEx. We find industry, firm and cognitive variables are related to both strategic cognition and firms’ CapEx.

Learning or legitimacy? an exploration of business planning amongst Australian social enterprises

In recent years, the value of business planning for new business ventures and small firms has been the subject of debate amongst entrepreneurship researchers (Brinckmann et al 2010: 24). Drawing on institutional theory, a number of writers suggest that business planning is primarily used to confer symbolic legitimacy on businesses seeking investment and engagement from external stakeholders ( Karlsson & Honig 2009; Zimmerman & Zeitz 2002; Delmar & Shane 2004). In this sense, business planning may not have any significant effects on firm learning, but may be used as evidence of good business operations in order to attract external resources. Meta-evaluation of the available empirical literature contests this proposition, finding that both the symbolic and organisational learning effects of business planning influence small firm performance (Brinckmann et al 2010: 36) While social enterprise – which we define as organisations that exist for a public or community benefit and trade to fulfill their mission - the study of social enterprise is a nascent and pre-paradigmatic area of inquiry (Nicholls 2010). As a consequence, there has been relatively little empirical analysis of the nature or effects of business planning amongst social enterprises (for two exceptions, see exploratory studies by Hynes 2009 and Bull & Crompton 2006). In this paper, we examine business planning practices amongst Australian social enterprises. Drawing on a survey of 365 social enterprises conducted in 2010 and in-depth interviews with 11 social entrepreneurs and managers from eight social enterprises, we find that social enterprises report being more actively engaged in business planning activities than their mainstream business counterparts. Our exploratory research suggests that both legitimacy and learning drive business planning amongst social enterprises, although legitimacy is the stronger driver. Our results also suggest that, as multi-stakeholder businesses led by mission, business planning can serve unique communicative and relational functions for this business type.

Governing depression in Australian legal education : power, psychology and advanced liberal government

Legal educators in Australia have increasingly become concerned with the mental health of law students. The apparent risk posed by legal education to a student’s mental health has led to the deployment of a variety of measures to address these problems. By exploring these measures as productive power relations attempting to shape law students, this paper outlines how this government of depression is achieved, and the potential costs of these power relations. It examines one central Australian text offering advice about how students and law student societies can address depression, and argues that doing so not only involves students adopting particular practices of self-government to shape their legal personae, but also relies on an extension of the power relations of legal education. In addition, this paper will link this advice — which privatises the issue of depression, responsibilises individuals and communities, privileges psychological expertise, and seeks to govern ‘at a distance’ — to broader forms of social administration that presently characterise many Western societies. Doing so allows legal educators to reflect on the effects of their attempts to govern depression, and to consider new ways of altering the power relations of legal education.

Information literacy programs and research: reflections on 'Information literacy programs and research: An international review' by Christine Bruce. 2000. The Australian Library Journal 49, 3: 209-218

Although in the late 1990s there was much discussion as to whether the idea of information literacy was necessary or had longevity, global interest in the phenomenon has increased rather than diminished. In the midst of all this activity, what has happened to the way in which we interpret the idea of information literacy in the last decade or more? The label of information literacy has certainly become widely applied, especially to library based programs and remains more popular in formal learning environments.Ultimately information literacy is about peoples’ experience of using information wherever they happen to be. Information literacy is about people interacting, engaging, working with information in many contexts, either individually or in community. Emerging technologies may transform the kinds of information available and how it is engaged with. Nevertheless, we continue to need to understand the experience of information use in order to support people in their information environments. We continue to need to develop programs which reflect and enhance peoples’ experiences of using information to learn in ever widening and more complex settings (Bruce, 2008; Bruce & Hughes, 2010).

The emergence of JD in the Australian Legal Education marketplace and its impact on academic standards

Over the last decade there has been an expansion in the number of Juris Doctor (JD) courses in the Australian legal education marketplace. Across the board it is graduate-entry, but it is currently offered in undergraduate, postgraduate and ‘hybrid’ forms. In this article we will discuss recent research conducted as part of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council grant. This project included an exploration of whether JD courses in Australia were applying different and higher level academic standards to those operating in Bachelor of Laws degrees. Our research findings reveal justification for concerns about the academic standards of some JD courses, particularly where masters level students were being taught alongside their undergraduate counterparts. They also provide some insights into perceptions in the marketplace of JD graduates. Finally, we will discuss the future viability of such courses in light of recent revisions to the Australian Qualifications Framework.

Australian universities and the challenges of internationalization

In a little over twenty years, Australia has succeeded in developing an industry in international education worth $15.5 billion Australian dollars. Most universities engaged in this industry see themselves as integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into teaching, research and service. We examine the internationalization challenges faced by Australia's universities, and explore how curriculum and mobility are understood by academics interviewed at two case study universities.

Practice and procedure : a recent Court of Appeal case examines the meaning of 'third party payer' in terms of Part 3.4 of the Legal Profession Act 2007.

In Legal Services Commissioner v Wright [2010] QCA 321 the Queensland Court of Appeal allowed an appeal from the first instance decision. The decision involved the construction of “third party payer” in Part 3.4 of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld).

A Delphi study on the critical sustainability criteria and indicators for Australian road infrastructure projects

With increasing media exposure and evidence of environmental impacts, it is increasingly recognized that incorporating sustainability principles in construction works is both crucial and beneficial. However a recent survey reveals that among stakeholders of infrastructure projects such as roads, there is no common understanding on what constitutes sustainability in real-life projects. Sustainability has been interpreted widely and differently and as a result, sustainability outcomes are not tangible at the project level or often neglected. Under such conditions, policies and strategies on sustainability remain largely ideological and cannot be sufficiently reflected in the actual project delivery. The major difficulty of this sustainability pursuit lies in the lack of consensus among the experts on sustainability criteria and indicators. To move ahead, these criteria and indicators are to be agreed upon. This paper reviews the sustainable infrastructure development, its criteria and indicators, focusing on road infrastructure context. It goes on to introduce a Delphi study, an integral part of a QUT research, aimed at identifying critical sustainability criteria and indicators for Australian road infrastructure projects. It paves the way for further identification of solutions for each critical indicator at a subsequent stage. The criteria, indicators and solutions will be encapsulated into a decision making framework for the enhancement of sustainability deliverables. By doing so, the research will promote more integrated thinking of and consistent approaches to the sustainability agenda in road and highway infrastructure projects in Australia.

A study of environmental and management drivers of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions in Australian agro-ecosystems

Australian climate, soils and agricultural management practices are significantly different from those of the northern hemisphere nations. Consequently, experimental data on greenhouse gas production from European and North American agricultural soils and its interpretation are unlikely to be directly applicable to Australian systems. A programme of studies of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture has been established that is designed to reduce uncertainty of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions in the Australian National Greenhouse Gas Inventory and provide outputs that will enable better on-farm management practices for reducing non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions, particularly nitrous oxide. The systems being examined and their locations are irrigated pasture (Kyabram Victoria), irrigated cotton (Narrabri, NSW), irrigated maize (Griffith, NSW), rain-fed wheat (Rutherglen, Victoria) and rain-fed wheat (Cunderdin, WA). The field studies include treatments with and without fertilizer addition, stubble burning versus stubble retention, conventional cultivation versus direct drilling and crop rotation to determine emission factors and treatment possibilities for best management options. The data to date suggest that nitrous oxide emissions from nitrogen fertilizer, applied to irrigated dairy pastures and rain-fed winter wheat, appear much lower than the average of northern hemisphere grain and pasture studies. More variable emissions have been found in studies of irrigated cotton/vetch/wheat rotation and substantially higher emissions from irrigated maize.

Designing a capstone experience for Australian legal education

Literature suggests that universities, and law schools in particular, are not engaging final year students in a genuine capstone experience which supports the development of their professional identity and their transition out of university. Students in their final year also face significant transition issues which are just as challenging as those facing first year students entering the tertiary environment (Jervis & Hartley, 2005, 314)...