Applying outcomes of lifelong learning to organisational achievement

The focus of this doctoral research study is making the most what a person knows and can do, as an outcome from their lifelong learning, so as to better contribute to organisational achievement. This has been motivated by a perceived gap in the extensive literature linking knowledge with organisational achievement. Whereas there is a rich body of literature addressing the meta-philosophies giving rise to the emergence of learning organisations there is, as yet, scant attention paid to the detail of planning and implementing action which would reveal individual/organisational opportunities of mutual advantage and motivate, and sustain, participation at the day-to-day level of the individual. It is in this space that this dissertation seeks to contribute by offering a mechanism for bringing the, hindsight informed, response “but that’s obvious” into the abiding explicit realm at the level of the individual. In moving beyond the obvious which is prone to be overlooked, the emphasis on “better” in the introductory sentence, is very deliberately made and has a link to awakening latent individual, and hence organisational, capabilities that would otherwise languish. The evolved LCM Model – a purposeful integration valuing the outcomes from lifelong learning (the L) with nurturing a culture supporting this outcome (the C) and with responsiveness to potentially diverse motivations (the M) – is a reflective device for bringing otherwise tacit, and latent, logic into the explicit realm of action. In the course of the development of the model, a number of supplementary models included in this dissertation have evolved from the research. They form a suite of devices which inform action and lead to making the most of what an individual knows and can do within the formal requirements of a job and within the informal influences of a frequently invisible community of practice. The initial inquiry drew upon the views and experiences of water industry engineering personnel and training facilitators associated with the contract cleaning and waste management industries. However, the major research occurred as an Emergency Management Australia (EMA) project with the Country Fire Authority (CFA) as the host organisation. This EMA/CFA research project explored the influence of making the most of what a CFA volunteer knows and can do upon retention of that volunteer. In its aggregate, across the CFA volunteer body, retention is a critical community safety objective. A qualitative research, ethnographic in character, approach was adopted. Data was collected through interviews, workshops and outcomes from attempts at action research projects. Following an initial thirteen month scoping study including respondents other than from the CFA, the research study moved into an exploration of the efficacy of an indicative model with four contextual foci – i.e. the manner of welcoming new members to the CFA, embracing training, strengthening brigade sustainability and leadership. Interestingly, the research environment which forced a truncated implementation of action research projects was, in itself, an informing experience indicative of inhibitors to making the most of what people know and can do. Competition for interest, time and commitment were factors governing the manner in which CFA respondents could be called upon to explore the efficacy of the model, and were a harbinger of the influences shaping the more general environment of drawing upon what CFA volunteers know and can do. Subsequent to the development of the indicative model, a further 16 month period was utilised in the ethnographic exploration of the relevance of the model within the CFA as the host organisation. As a consequence, the model is a more fully developed tool (framework) to aid reflection, planning and action. Importantly, the later phase of the research study has, through application of the model to specific goals within the CFA, yielded operational insight into its effective use, and in which activity systems have an important place. The model – now confidently styled as the LCM Model – has three elements that when enmeshed strengthen the likelihood of organisational achievement ; and the degree of this meshing, as relevant to the target outcome, determines the strength of outcome. i.e. - • Valuing outcomes from learning: When a person recognises and values (appropriately to achievement by the organisation) what they know and can do, and associated others recognise and value what this person knows and can do, then there is increased likelihood of these outcomes from learning being applied to organisational achievement. • Valuing a culture that is conducive to learning: When a person, and associated others, are further developing and drawing upon what they know and can do within the context of a culture that is conducive to learning, then there is increased likelihood that outcomes from learning will be applied to organisational achievement. • Valuing motivation of the individual: When a person’s motivation to apply what they know and can do is valued by them, and associated others, as appropriate to organisational achievement then there is increased likelihood that appropriately drawing upon outcomes from learning will occur. Activity theory was employed as a device to scope and explore understanding of the issues as they emerged in the course of the research study. Viewing the data through the prism of activity theory led not only to the development of the LCM Model but also to an enhanced understanding of the role of leadership as a foundation for acting upon the model. Both formal and informal leadership were found to be germane in asserting influence on empowering engagement with learning and drawing upon its outcomes. It is apparent that a “leaderful organisation”, as postulated by Raelin (2003), is an environment which supports drawing upon the LCM model; and it may be the case that the act of drawing upon the model will move a narrowly leadership focused organisation toward leaderful attributes. As foreshadowed at the beginning of this synopsis, nurturing individual and organisational capability is the guiding mantra for this dissertation - “Capability embraces competence but is also forward-looking, concerned with the realisation of potential” (Stephenson 1998, p. 3). Although the inquiry focussed upon a need for CFA volunteer retention, it began with a broader investigation as part of the scoping foundation and the expanded usefulness of the LCM Model invites further investigation. The dissertation concludes with the encapsulating sentiment that “You have really got to want to”. With this predisposition in mind, this dissertation contributes to knowledge through the development and discussion of the LCM model as a reflective device informing transformative learning (Mezirow and Associates 1990). A leaderful environment (Raelin 2003) aids transformative learning – accruing to the individual and the organisation - through engendering and maintaining making the most of knowledge and skill – motivating and sustaining “the will”. The outcomes from this research study are a strong assertion that wanting to make the most of what is known and can be done is a hallmark of capability. Accordingly, this dissertation is a contribution to the “how” of strengthening the capability, and the commitment to applying that capability, of an individual and an organisation.

Teenage technological experts : Bourdieu and the performance of expertise

This thesis explores the construction of technological expertise amongst a heterogenous group of New Zealand teenagers, specifically in regard to their home computer use, which for many of them is their primary site of leisure. This thesis explores the field in which these teenagers are positioned, and explains the practice constituting that field. In this field, the trajectories towards expertise are explained including the time, experimentation, and pleasure evident in their praxis. The qualitative study involved observations and interviews with eight teenagers aged 13 – 17. Five boys and three girls participated and each attended one of various secondary schools located within a provincial city in New Zealand. All of the participants considered themselves to be technological experts, and their peers and/or their family supported this comprehension. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s socio-cultural theories, the capital (cultural, economic, social) and habitus of the teenagers are described (habitus being what makes them who they are, and continues to define who they are in the future). Chapter five centres on explaining the field the teenagers have positioned themselves in, namely the field of out-of-school leisure and home computer use. It also explores the construction and performance of technological expertise within the field. Chapter six examines traditional views of schooling and expertise, and contrasts these views with what the teenagers think about their learning and expertise. This gap is specifically explained with regard to differences between the concepts and value of learning, expertise, and technology, and how they are recognised and valued differently between generations. Chapter seven explores the praxis that the participants exhibit, which is arguably misrecognized by those whose interests are in the established order (e.g. institutional, societal structures). The field they are placed in is arguably part of the broader field of education, yet the findings suggest their capital is misrecognized by digital newcomers, and therefore not legitimated. This thesis concludes that the gap between teenager and adult understandings of expertise is exacerbated in the digital world in which the teenagers position themselves. Their schooling is mainly positioned in the print culture of previous generations and consequently, in the lives of these teenagers, schooling has had little influence on the development of their technological expertise. Additionally, gender has had little impact in their development of expertise; therefore stereotypical notions of female underachievement as computer experts are contested.

Factors affecting the engagement of experienced teachers in schools

With the changing age profile of teachers in Australian schools, considerable numbers of experienced teachers need to feature as educational leaders, before their workplace knowledge and expertise will be lost to schools with retirement. Stereotypes of veteran teachers depict individuals, wearied by decades of work experiences, entering professional decline when educational systems need these experienced practitioners to remain connected, communicative and motivated in their work. This thesis explores the careers and contemporary professional lives of experienced practitioners — predominantly classroom teachers — currently working in a school with a long standing commitment to student-centred education. The research identified the factors that influenced their career pathways and affected their engagement with their work. Critical incidents in the teachers’ careers and professional lives are discussed in relation to the theories of motivation and the nature of Professional Learning Communities. The study showed that necessary factors for engagement were: mutual alignment with a well-articulated and practised ethos; supportive leadership; experiencing professional influence; opportunities for learning; and variety in work. Disillusion resulted if school actions were contrary to the espoused ethos. Severely negative experiences of performance management were survived by withdrawing, and enduring management tenures but these remain very poignant memories. The teachers had few career regrets yet reflection revealed the arbitrary nature of their career progression. The research identified a need to recognise the global and societal factors influencing the nature of teachers’ work. It is argued that schools and systems need to have a greater alignment between these external forces and their internal goals whilst recapturing the moral purpose of education. Furthermore, it is asserted that educational systems need to provide better human resource management for the teaching workforce through emphasising life-balance and well-being. Additionally, professional appraisal and staff management would benefit from strong recognition and deployment of the workplace knowledge and expertise of experienced teachers. A serendipitous outcome of the research was the benefit participants gained from reflecting on their careers which proved extremely affirming, and contributed to enhanced professional identities and changed career plans.

New teachers, professional knowledge and educational reform in New Zealand

This thesis examines the professional knowledge of new secondary school teachers in New Zealand, their negotiation of multiple discourses encountered in policy and practice, and their processes of professional identity formation. It is also a study of policy reform. In New Zealand, as elsewhere, recent educational and social reforms have brought about major changes to the way education is managed and implemented. These reforms emphasise market ideologies promoting consumer choice and responsibility, while measuring and monitoring quality and effectiveness. At the same time, the reforms attempt to alleviate social inequality. Teachers' negotiation of an accountability culture and the dominant equity policies is a major focus of this study. The study draws upon group interviews held with nine new teachers during the first two years of their teaching careers. The group interviews were designed to elicit extended narratives from individual teachers, as well as promote more interactive dialogue and reflections within the groups. Because the interviews were conducted at different points in their early careers, the study also has a longitudinal element, allowing insight into how teachers' views are formed or changed during an intense period of professional learning. Analysis of the teachers' narratives is informed by poststructural and feminist understandings of identity and knowledge and by a methodological orientation to writing as a method of enquiry. The thesis develops three main types of discussion and sets of arguments. The first examines new teachers' negotiation of the 'macro' context of teacher knowledge formation that is, their negotiation of an educational policy environment that juxtaposes an equity agenda with accountability controls. In order to historically situate these dilemmas, the particular political, social and educational context of New Zealand is examined. It is argued that teachers negotiate competing political and conceptual debates about social justice, equity and difference, and that this negotiation is central to the formation of professional knowledge. The analysis illustrates ways in which teachers make sense of equity discourses in educational policy and practice, and the apparent contradictions that arise from placing tight accountability standards on schools and teachers to achieve associated equity goals. The second type of discussion focuses on teachers' negotiation of the 'micro' dimension of professional knowledge, looking closely at the processes and practices that form professional identity. Against stage or developmental models of teacher identity, it is argued that professional identity is formed in an ongoing, uneven and fluid manner and is socially and discursively situated/embedded. It is further argued that professional knowledge and identity are entwined and that this relationship is most usefully understood through analysis of the discursive practices that frame teachers' working lives and through which teachers work out who they are or should become and what and how they (should) think. This analysis contributes new perspectives to debates in teacher education about teacher preparation and the knowledge required of teachers in current 'new times'. The final cluster of arguments brings together these macro and micro aspects of professional knowledge and identity with a case study of how new teachers negotiated a recent educational reform of senior secondary school qualifications in New Zealand. This reform has had a significant impact on secondary schools and on the way teachers, and New Zealanders in general, think about education, achievement and success. It was found that this reform significantly challenged new teachers to question their beliefs about assessment and justice in education, and what counts as success. This case study draws attention to the tensions between equity, academic excellence and standards-based assessment, and contributes to understanding how teacher professional knowledge forms both in the context of a specific educational policy reform and in relation to educational reform in general. This study contributes new knowledge to the formation of teacher professional knowledge and identity in an educational climate of change in New Zealand. The findings offer new insights for teacher educators, policymakers and schools into how teachers build, shape and sustain professional knowledge; how they juggle contradictions between a desire for justice, policy imperatives and teacher education rhetoric; the self-constructed, but contingent nature of professional knowledge and identity; and the urgency to address identity formation as part of teacher education and to take account of the dynamic ways in which identities form. These matters need to be articulated in teacher education both pre-service and in-service in order to address teacher retention and satisfaction, and teachers' commitment to equity reform in education.

Curriculum for entrepreneurial creativity and resourcefulness in New Zealand

This thesis asks: ‘How can tertiary education nurture entrepreneurial creativity?’ Entrepreneurship is considered to be a vital determinant of economic growth and the entrepreneur is understood as someone who innovates and commercialises their own innovation. The setting is New Zealand which is struggling to make the shift from relying on primary production to becoming a ‘creative economy.’ The creative individual has been identified as a new mainstream but it is argued that in New Zealand, education provision is inadequate for supporting the development of the practice of entrepreneurship. The problem is not unique. Various writers are critical of business education generally, and of the mismatch between the passion and chaos in entrepreneurs’ lives and the way education programs are typically organised as a linear sequence of discipline-based courses with prescribed content, activities and outcomes. Rich data were gathered from in-depth interviews with twelve nascent, new or experienced entrepreneurs and two associates (one a marketer, the other a scientist). Each participant was drawn from a different area of economic endeavour. They were asked to share their stories and views about creativity, the connections between creativity and entrepreneurship, business success, formal and informal education, and ways to improve tertiary education programs. The research found that a suitable environment for nurturing creativity will most likely have structure but will also enable chaos. It will present opportunities for experiencing diversity, and will stimulate unconscious and conscious mental processes. It will provide scope for hard work that is fun and involves authentic risk-taking, and will enable both individual and purposeful teamwork. The study also found that business success is not based on knowledge but is rather about being resourceful. The becoming of the creative entrepreneur thus includes developing capability to network with peers and mentors and communicate with customers and staff, and developing passion for and resilience in the pursuit of a dream. The findings suggest that in an age of uncertainty, nurturing entrepreneurial creativity and resourcefulness requires learning to be viewed as a practice-based community process where knowing and doing are interwoven with being. It is argued that this needs to align with Ronald Barnett and Kelly Coate’s (2005) notion of ‘a curriculum for engagement.’ It is suggested that an entire program might simply invite students to work collaboratively to identify and exploit an entrepreneurial opportunity by producing and commercialising an appropriate product/service innovation; to undertake this work as two separate projects – one within an existing organisation, and the other as a new venture; and to theorise their work. It is proposed that a suitable framework lies in William Doll’s (2002) advocacy for a curriculum based on a matrix of five Cs: ‘currere,’ complexity, cosmology, conversation, and community. To these, creativity is added as a sixth C.

Picturing Currere towards c u r a : rhizo-imaginary for curriculum

This critical inquiry in curriculum studies uses poststructuralist and Deleuzian rhizomatic approaches alongside an original 'picturing' methodology. The author genealogically maps historical and contemporary curriculum theorising to deconstruct curriculum 'development' and foreground currere (curriculum reconceptualising). In performing Deleuzian philosophy, his proposed c u r a reimagines curriculum via currere to envision generatively living-learning

Word processing in the classroom

This study describes the use of one word processor in a working classroom of Grade Four children over a period of nine months. The class had only limited access to the computer as, it was shared with several other grades - the computer was mobile to be moved from room to room. The study was aimed not only at monitoring the reactions of the children to the Introduction of the computer itself, but also on the wider impact within the classroom through a series of cycles. The study is a report of a form of action research. The findings were that children were highly, motivated to write when using a word processor for creative writing. The writing of the children in this study was enhanced by using a word processor. The word processor could be used at several levels of its full potential for various purposes and at different grade levels. It could be used successfully and integrated into an existing creative writing program such as the ‘writing process’ approach and used concurrently with other writing materials. Creative writing can be enhanced and classroom implementation of word processors can be facilitated by peer-group and cross-age tutoring.

Process analysis of the solution strategies used for problems contained in the Minnesota Paper Board Form Board test

This thesis reviews progress toward an understanding of the processes involved in the solution of spatial problems. Previous work employing factor analysis and information processing analysis is reviewed and the emphasis on variations in speed and accuracy as the major contributers to individual differences is noted. It is argued that the strategy used by individuals is a preferable explanatory concept for identifying the cognitive substratum necessary for problem solving. Using the protocols obtained from subjects solving The Minnesota Paper Form Board (Revised), a test commonly regarded as measuring skill in spatial visualization, a number of different strategies are isolated. Assumptions as to the task variants which undergird these strategies are made and tested experimentally. The results suggest that task variants such as the size of the stimulus and the shape of the pieces interact with subject variables to produce the operating strategy. Skill in problem solving is revealed in the ability to structure the array, to hold a structured image and to reduce the number of answers requiring intensive processing. The interaction between task and subject variables results in appropriate or inappropriate strategies which in turn affect speed and accuracy. Results suggest that strategy formation and usage are the keys to explaining individual differences and an heuristic model is presented to explain the performance of individual subjects on the problems involved in the Minnesota Paper Form Board. The model can be used to predict performance on other tests; and as an aid to teaching subjects experiencing difficulties. The model presented incorporates strategy variation and is consequently mores complex than previously suggested models. It is argued that such complexity is necessary to explain the nature of a subject's performance and is also necessary to perform diagnostic evaluation. Certain structural -features of the Minnesota Paper Form Board are questioned and suggestions for improvement included. The essential explanatory function of the strategy in use makes the prevalent group administration approach suspect in the prediction of future performance in spatial or vocational activity.

Computing in a social context : gender difference in participation

The thesis reviews the literature relating to girls and computing within a framework which is structured around three specific questions. First, are there differences between girls and boys in their participation in class computing activities and/or in non-class computing activities? Second, do these differences in participation in computing activities have broader implications which justify the growing concern about the under-representation of girls? Third, wahy are girls under-represented in these activities? Although the available literature is predominantly descriptive, the underlying implicit theoretical model is essentially a social learning model. Girl's differential participation is attributed to learned attitudes towards computing rathan to differences between girls and boys in general ability. These attitudes, which stress the masculine, mathematical, technological aspects of computing are developed through modelling, direct experience, intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcement and generalisation from pre-existing, attitudes to related curriculum areas. In the literature it is implicitly assumed that these attitudes underlie girl's decisions to self-select out of computing activities. In this thesis predictions from a social learning model are complemented by predictions derived from expectancy-value, cognitive dissonance and self-perception theories. These are tested in three separate studies. Study one provides data from a pretest-posttest study of 24 children in a year four class learning BASIC. It examines pre- and posttest differences between girls and boys in computing experience, knowledge and achievement as well as the factors relating to computing achievement. Study two uses a pretest-posttest control group design to study the gender differences in the impact of the introduction of Logo into years 1, 3, 5 and 7 in both a coeducational and single-sex setting using a sample of 222 children from three schools. Study three utilises a larger sample of 1176 students, drawn from three secondary schools and five primary schools, enabling an evaluation of gender differences in relation to a wide range of class computing experiences and in a broader range of school contexts. The overall results are consistent across the three studies, supporting the contention that social factors, rather than ability differences influence girls' participation and achievement in computing. The more global theoretical framework, drawing on social learning, expectancy-value, cognitive dissonance and self-perception theories, provides a more adequate explanation of gender differences in participation than does any one of these models.

Women's bodies, self perception and physical activity : a naturalistic study of women's participation in aerobics classes

The aim of this study was to describe the behaviour and perceptions of women in aerobic or exercise to music classes. In particular, the study examined the meaning women attach to this activity choice and the interaction of aerobics participation with cultural pressures and beliefs such as that of the ‘ideal female bodyshape’. A naturalistic method of study was chosen in order to gain a comprehensive view of the subjective experience of aerobics participation. Approximately fifty female health club members were observed over a three month period in order to identify and describe patterns of involvement, behaviour and perception and the factors affecting them. Six groups of women were identified. These were ‘Naturals’, ‘Compulsive’, ‘Functional Feminist’. Several factors were observed as potentially contributing to the patterns observed. These included attitude toward perceived cultural ideals and pressures of female expectation and shape, perceptions of aerobics and exercise, pre-occupation with slenderness and bodyshape, self-image and body image. The relationship between these factors was found to be dynamic and reciprocal, with participation possibly intensifying or alternately reducing bodyshape concern. Aerobics was seen to have a multifaceted yet very individual and important appeal to the women observed.

Gender and genre : a case study of a girl and a boy learning to write

This study addresses questions of gender and genre in early writing by drawing on systemic linguistic theory, It is a longitudinal case study that compares the writing development of two children, a boy and a girl/ who learned to write in classrooms that adopted an approach to writing known in Australia as 'process writing1, The children's written texts were analysed using the systemic functional grammar as developed by MAK, Hallidey and the models of genre and register as proposed by J,R, Martin. The children were followed for the first two and a half years of their schooling, from the first day of kindergarten to the middle of grade two. They were observed weekly during the daily ‘writing time’ and all texts were collected. Although the children were ostensibly 'free’ to determine both the writing topics and text types they produced, systemic analysis revealed that: 1) the majority of texts written were of one genre, the Observation genre, in which the children reconstructed their personal experience with family and friends and offered an evaluation of it. 2) a significant pattern of gender differences occurred within this genre, such that the boy reconstructed experience in terms of the male cultural stereotype of being an active participant in the world, while the girl reconstructed experience in terms of the female stereotype of being a more passive observer of experience. It is the strength of systemic linguistic analysis that it revealed how the choices the children made in language were constrained by a number of social and cultural contexts, including: a) the teacher's theoretical orientation to literacy; b) the models of spoken and written language available to the children; and c) the ideology of gender in the culture. In particular, the analysis made visible how children appropriate the meanings of their culture and socialise themselves into gender roles by constructing the ideology of gender in their writing. The study contributes to an understanding of genres by offering a revised description of the Observation genre, which derives from the Observation Comment genre originally identified by Martin and Rothery (1981). It also raises a number of implications for teacher training and classroom practice, including the need for: 1) increased teacher consciousness about gender and genre, especially an understanding that choices in language are socially constructed 2) a critical reassessment of the notion of 'free topic choice’ promoted by 'process writing' pedagogy, a practice which may limit choice and tacitly support the gender status quo.

Knowing practice in English teaching? Research challenges in representing the professional practice of English teachers

This article problematises representations of professional practice. It investigates assumptions behind received accounts of professional practice, including professional standards that purportedly capture what accomplished English teachers “should know and be able to do”, “scientific” studies that construct accounts of classrooms from the standpoint of academic researchers, and narratives written by teachers that claim to explore dimensions of classroom teaching that elude outside observers. Especially significant are attempts by practitioner researchers to develop accounts of their professional practice vis-a-vis constructions of their work from other standpoints. We argue that it is timely for practitioner researchers to reflexively examine the conditions for producing such accounts, and to address the question of the validity of their knowledge claims. Yet this is also – crucially – more than an epistemological issue, but one that requires acknowledging the primacy of practice for engaging with the complexities of classroom settings. This article gives an account of our ongoing efforts to develop forms of representation that might begin to do justice to the complexities of practice in comparison with accepted accounts of what English teachers know and do. We intend it to be read as a position paper which outlines a framework for research on English teaching as a dynamic culture practice.

Editorial : the construction of academic literacy and difference

In recent years, academic literacy has been a subject of heated scholarly and political debates. How academic literacy is defined, whom it serves, and what its purposes are shape both educational policies and the pedagogical practices adopted in classrooms. Any definition of academic literacy, its purposes and its learners also constructs powerful notions of difference. For instance, many traditional definitions of academic literacy posit “out of school” literacy (or literacies) as its opposite; current literacy standards and performance measures create categories of students as able or struggling; and so on. At a time when English classrooms around the world are becoming more multicultural, multilingual and international, how might understandings of academic literacy respond to cultural, linguistic, gender, economic, (dis)ability and other differences? How can literacy be taught to difference without reducing it to sameness? Framing the curriculum around dominant cultural literacy and establishing communal homogeneity, whilst de-legitimizing the Other and announcing ever-new strangers, is not feasible in a new multilingual, multiculural order. There is an increasing need to resist conservative tendencies and to continue a socially critical model of literacy education that is more response-able to the lives of strangers and other forms of difference in a late-modern, globalized society at the same time that it provides opportunities for all students to expand their communicative repertoires and to gain agency in the “design of their social futures” (New London Group, 2000). Articles in this issue respond in different ways to this agenda.

Attitudes and knowledge of shade-coffee farmers towards vertebrates and their ecological functions.

The purpose of this study was to assess farmers’ attitudes, as well as perceptions and knowledge that shape those attitudes, toward the ecological role of vertebrates inhabiting shaded-coffee farms. We also aimed to determine whether differences existed among two groups of farmers: one that had attended environmental education workshops, and one that had not. We conducted 36 oral interviews of farmers in the region of Cuetzalan, Mexico. All farmers were members of an important regional cooperative, Tosepan Titataniske. In general, farmers’ attitudes towards birds were positive. Snakes were perceived as useful but dangerous animals. Attitudes towards nonflying mammals were mostly indifferent. Bats were poorly understood and badly perceived. Seed dispersal was perceived as an important ecological function performed by animals. Pollination was also perceived as important, but to a lesser degree. Knowledge about ecological functions was high for seed dispersal, and low for pollination. We found a positive correlation between attendance of educational workshops and the presence of “environmentally-friendly” attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge. However, a cause-effect relationship could not be clearly established. We suggest that environmental education programs include the objective of increasing the knowledge of people about the ecological functions played by different groups of animals that live in agroecosystems. Particular efforts should be directed toward improving the way in which certain non-charismatic groups of animals, such as bats, are perceived.

Web mathematics anyone?

The World Wide Web has had an impact on many areas of teaching and learning. Mathematics teaching however has only recently begun to utilise and develop this educational resource. This paper outlines a research program, which aims to uncover the extent the Internet, in particular the World Wide Web, is being used for High School mathematics education. The program includes searching out discernible Web-based teaching strategies and examining their impact on mathematics teaching and learning attitudes and achievements. Of particular interest is the extent to which deployment of the Web in mathematics teaching might increase student interest in mathematics. The first step in this
process is to develop a preliminary typology of mathematical elements on the Web. The nature of these elements, their categorisation and their possible roles in the teaching and learning of mathematics are discussed.