Child complainants and the court process in Australia

In recent years, it has been recognised that child complainants in the criminal justice system can experience difficulties over and above those of other complainants and that children can experience the court process as extremely traumatising. This can be exacerbated if children are complainants in child sexual offence matters and if they have to give evidence against a family member. This paper has three primary aims. First, it outlines the major factors that contribute to making court processes harrowing for child complainants. Second, it outlines some of the main initiatives that have been introduced to address these factors. Finally, it weighs up the evidence about initiatives designed to assist child complainants and concludes that such initiatives have had only limited practical impact for child complainants in the criminal justice system. The limited impact is attributed to the need to balance the rights of the accused with consideration for the complainant, a failure to translate legislative changes into practice, the impact of judicial discretion and/or a focus on protecting child complainants at the expense of increasing convictions.

Indexing and efficient instance-based retrieval of process models using untanglings

Process-Aware Information Systems (PAISs) support executions of operational processes that involve people, resources, and software applications on the basis of process models. Process models describe vast, often infinite, amounts of process instances, i.e., workflows supported by the systems. With the increasing adoption of PAISs, large process model repositories emerged in companies and public organizations. These repositories constitute significant information resources. Accurate and efficient retrieval of process models and/or process instances from such repositories is interesting for multiple reasons, e.g., searching for similar models/instances, filtering, reuse, standardization, process compliance checking, verification of formal properties, etc. This paper proposes a technique for indexing process models that relies on their alternative representations, called untanglings. We show the use of untanglings for retrieval of process models based on process instances that they specify via a solution to the total executability problem. Experiments with industrial process models testify that the proposed retrieval approach is up to three orders of magnitude faster than the state of the art.

A grand challenge : reflecting on university science curriculum design, collaborative partnerships and integration of information literacy skills

In 2012, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) committed to the massive project of revitalizing its Bachelor of Science (ST01) degree. Like most universities in Australia, QUT has begun work to align all courses by 2015 to the requirements of the updated Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) which is regulated by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). From the very start of the redesigned degree program, students approach scientific study with an exciting mix of theory and highly topical real world examples through their chosen “grand challenge.” These challenges, Fukushima and nuclear energy for example, are the lenses used to explore science and lead to 21st century learning outcomes for students. For the teaching and learning support staff, our grand challenge is to expose all science students to multidisciplinary content with a strong emphasis on embedding information literacies into the curriculum. With ST01, QUT is taking the initiative to rethink not only content but how units are delivered and even how we work together between the faculty, the library and learning and teaching support. This was the desired outcome but as we move from design to implementation, has this goal been achieved? A main component of the new degree is to ensure scaffolding of information literacy skills throughout the entirety of the three year course. However, with the strong focus on problem-based learning and group work skills, many issues arise both for students and lecturers. A move away from a traditional lecture style is necessary but impacts on academics’ workload and comfort levels. Therefore, academics in collaboration with librarians and other learning support staff must draw on each others’ expertise to work together to ensure pedagogy, assessments and targeted classroom activities are mapped within and between units. This partnership can counteract the tendency of isolated, unsupported academics to concentrate on day-to-day teaching at the expense of consistency between units and big picture objectives. Support staff may have a more holistic view of a course or degree than coordinators of individual units, making communication and truly collaborative planning even more critical. As well, due to staffing time pressures, design and delivery of new curriculum is generally done quickly with no option for the designers to stop and reflect on the experience and outcomes. It is vital we take this unique opportunity to closely examine what QUT has and hasn’t achieved to be able to recommend a better way forward. This presentation will discuss these important issues and stumbling blocks, to provide a set of best practice guidelines for QUT and other institutions. The aim is to help improve collaboration within the university, as well as to maximize students’ ability to put information literacy skills into action. As our students embark on their own grand challenges, we must challenge ourselves to honestly assess our own work.

Approaches to inquiry teaching : elementary teacher’s perspectives

Learning science through the process of inquiry is advocated in curriculum documents across many jurisdictions. However, a number of studies suggest that teachers struggle to help students engage in inquiry practices. This is not surprising as many teachers of science have not engaged in scientific inquiry and possibly hold naïve ideas about what constitutes scientific inquiry. This study investigates teachers’ self-reported approaches to teaching science through inquiry. Phenomenographic interviews undertaken with 20 elementary teachers revealed teachers identified six approaches to teaching for inquiry, clustered within three categories. These approaches were categorized as Free and Illustrated Inquiry as part of experience-centered category, Solution and Method Inquiry as part of problem-centered category, and Topic and Chaperoned Inquiry as part of a question-centered category. This study contributes to our theoretical understanding of how teachers approach Inquiry Teaching, and suggests fertile areas of future research into this valued and influential phenomenon broadly known as “Inquiry Teaching”.

A theory of process modelling impact

Process modelling – the design and use of graphical documentations of an organisation’s business processes – is a key method to document and use information about business processes. Still, despite current interest in process modelling, this research area faces essential challenges. Key unanswered questions concern the impact of process modelling in organisational practice, and the mechanisms through which impacts are developed. To answer these questions and to provide a better understanding of process modelling impact, I turn to the concept of affordances. Affordances describe the possibilities for goal-oriented action that technical objects offer to specified users. This notion has received growing attention from IS researchers. I report on my efforts to further develop the IS discipline’s understanding of affordances and impacts from informational objects, such as process models used by analysts for purposes of information systems analysis and design. Specifically, I seek to extend existing theory on the emergence and actualisation of affordances. I develop a research model that describes the process by which affordances are perceived and actualised and explain their dependence on available information and actualisation effort. I present my plans for operationalising and testing this research model empirically, and provide details about my design of a full-cycle, mixed methods study currently in progress.

What is plan B? Using Foucault’s archaeology to enhance policy analysis

Many governments in western democracies conduct the work of leading their societies forward through policy generation and implementation. Despite government attempts at extensive negotiation, collaboration and debate, the general populace in these same countries frequently express feelings of disempowerment and undue pressure to be compliant, often leading to disengagement. Here we outline Plan B: a process for examining how policies that emerge from good intentions are frequently interpreted as burdensome or irrelevant by those on whom they have an impact. Using a case study of professional standards for teachers in Australia, we describe how we distilled Foucault’s notions of archaeology into a research approach centring on the creation of ‘polyhedrons of intelligibility’ as an alternative approach by which both policy makers and those affected by their policies may understand how their respective causes are supported and adversely affected.

Does Venture Opportunity Variation Matter? Investigating Systematic Process Differences Between Innovative and Imitative New Ventures

The central thesis in the article is that the venture creation process is different for innovative versus imitative ventures. This holds up; the pace of the process differs by type of venture as do, in line with theory-based hypotheses, the effects of certain human capital (HC) and social capital (SC) predictors. Importantly, and somewhat unexpectedly, the theoretically derived models using HC, SC, and certain controls are relatively successful explaining progress in the creation process for the minority of innovative ventures, but achieve very limited success for the imitative majority. This may be due to a rationalistic bias in conventional theorizing and suggests that there is need for considerable theoretical development regarding the important phenomenon of new venture creation processes. Another important result is that the building up of instrumental social capital, which we assess comprehensively and as a time variant construct, is important for making progress with both types of ventures, and increasingly, so as the process progresses. This result corroborates with stronger operationalization and more appropriate analysis method what previously published research has only been able to hint at.

Exploring the Possibilities and Methodological Challenges of Evaluation Practice : A Democratic Question

In our exploration of the methodological possibilities and challenges of evaluation practice that foregrounds a democratic approach, we argue that having sensitivity to participants’ different positions, ideological perspectives, and values, and an understanding of the existing power relationships are paramount for the evaluators if the evaluation is to achieve its goals. This chapter draws on our experiences as evaluators in Australia, where school leaders and teachers are currently experiencing significant curriculum and assessment changes, and now work in a context of heightened accountability. Our evaluation practices with schools are used to illustrate how democratic practices can be incorporated into evaluation in ways that provide opportunities and support for school self-evaluation. It is paramount to recognise that evaluation is a political and ideological practice, and therefore is not a neutral process. Our argument is that it remains the responsibility of evaluators to design spaces that build sustainable relationships with participants and the targets of the programmes being evaluated; ensure that dialogue and deliberation are valued between all stakeholders; represent a range of interests; and give a service back to the evaluated communities by offering understandings and promoting reflective practice and informed decision-making throughout programme implementation.

The potential of combining phenomenography, variation theory and threshold concepts to inform curriculum design in higher education

This chapter describes an innovative method of curriculum design that is based on combining phenomenographic research, and the associated variation theory of learning, with the notion of disciplinary threshold concepts to focus specialised design attention on the most significant and difficult parts of the curriculum. The method involves three primary stages: (i) identification of disciplinary concepts worthy of intensive curriculum design attention, using the criteria for threshold concepts; (ii) action research into variation in students’ understandings/misunderstandings of those concepts, using phenomenography as the research approach; (iii) design of learning activities to address the poorer understandings identified in the second stage, using variation theory as a guiding framework. The curriculum design method is inherently theory and evidence based. It was developed and trialed during a two-year project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, using physics and law disciplines as case studies. Disciplinary teachers’ perceptions of the impact of the method on their teaching and understanding of student learning were profound. Attempts to measure the impact on student learning were less conclusive; teachers often unintentionally deviated from the design when putting it into practice for the first time. Suggestions for improved implementation of the method are discussed.

Inquiry pedagogy and the Australian Curriculum

This paper explores inquiry skills in the Australian Curriculum in relation to inquiry learning pedagogy. Inquiry skills in the Australian Curriculum are represented as questioning skills (i.e. posing and evaluating questions and hypotheses), information literacy (i.e. seeking, evaluating, selecting and using information), ICT literacy (i.e. fluency with computer hardware and software) and discipline specific skills (i.e. data gathering, mathematical measurement, data analysis and presentation of data). This paper provides an explanation of inquiry learning pedagogy that complements the Australian Curriculum inquiry skills.

Rethinking sustainable urban development: Towards an integrated planning and development process

A city is the most dramatic manifestation of human activities on the environment. This human dominated organism degrades natural habitats, simplifies species composition, disrupts hydrological systems, and modifies energy flow and nutrient cycling. Sustainable urban development is seen as a panacea to minimise these externalities caused by widespread human activities on the environment. The concept of sustainable urban development has been around over a considerably long-time as the need to adopt environmentally sustainable behaviours made the international community commit to it. However, to date such development has not been achieved in large scales anywhere around the globe. This review paper aims to look at the sustainable urban development concept from the lens of planning and development integration to generate new insights and directions. The paper reports the outcome of the review of the literature on planning and development approaches—i.e., urban planning, ecological planning, urban development, sustainable urban development—and proposes a new process to support the efforts for achieving sustainable urban development—i.e., integrated urban planning and development process. The findings of this review paper highlights that adopting such holistic planning and development process generate a potential to further support the progress towards achieving sustainability agendas of our cities.

Susan Carson in conversation with Donna Lee Brien on research higher degree examination administration

This paper is the edited transcript of a conversation between Susan Carson and Donna Lee Brien about an administrator’s perspective of the process of examining doctoral theses in the creative industries. Susan was central to the process in the Faculty of Creative Industries from 2008 to 2012, and has overseen the carriage of examination for creative arts theses in the creative industries disciplines of creative writing, performance studies, media and communication, journalism, film and television, visual arts, and interaction and visual design.

A critical analysis of business process management education and alignment with industry demand : an Australian perspective

Business Process Management (BPM) is accepted globally as an organizational approach to enhance productivity and drive cost efficiencies. Studies confirm a shortage of BPM skilled professionals with limited opportunities to develop the required BPM expertise. This study investigates this gap starting from a critical analysis of BPM courses offered by Australian universities and training institutions. These courses were analyzed and mapped against a leading BPM capability framework to determine how well current BPM education and training offerings in Australia address the core capabilities required by BPM professionals globally. To determine the BPM skill-sets sought by industry, online recruitment advertisements were collated, analyzed, and mapped against this BPM capability framework. The outcomes provide a detailed overview on the alignment of available BPM education/training and industry demand. These insights are useful for BPM professionals and their employers to build awareness of the BPM capabilities required for a BPM mature organization. Universities and other training institutions will benefit from these results by understanding where demand is, where the gaps are, and what other BPM education providers are supplying. This structured comparison method could continue to provide a common ground for future discussion across university-industry boundaries and continuous alignment of their respective practices.

Application of lean production to reducing operational waste in a tile manufacturing process

Roofing tile manufacturing is a mass production process with high operational and inventory wastes and costs. Due to huge operational costs, excessive inventory and wastes, and quality problems, roofing tile manufacturers are trying to implement lean manufacturing practice in their operations in order to remain competitive in an ncreasingly competitive global market. The aim of this research is to evaluate the possibility of reducing the operational and inventory costs of the tile manufacturing process through waste minimization. This paper analyses the current waste situation in a tile manufacturing process and develops current and future value stream mapping for such a process with a view to implementing lean principles in manufacturing. The focus of the approach is on cost reduction by eliminating non-value-added activities.

Cultural content matters: A critical sociology of language and literacy curriculum

A theoretical rationale, policy analysis and research agenda for a critical sociology of language and literacy curriculum, outlining the agenda for a political economy of textbooks.