Re-thinking pedagogy for middle school students with little, no or severely interrupted schooling

The arrival of substantial cohorts of English language learners from Africa with little, no or severely interrupted schooling is requiring new pedagogic responses from teachers in Australia and other Western countries of refugee re-settlement. If the students are to have optimal educational and life chances, it is crucial for them to acquire resources for conceptually deep and critical literacy tasks while still learning basic reading and writing skills. This requires teachers to extend their pedagogic repertoires: subject area teachers must teach language and literacy alongside content; high school teachers must teach what has been thought of as primary school curriculum. The aim of this article is to describe some teacher responses to these challenges. Data are drawn from a study involving an intensive language school and three high schools, and also from the author’s experience as a homework tutor for refugees. Stand-alone basic skills programs are described, as are modifications of long-established ESL programs. It is also argued that teachers need to find ways of linking with the conceptual knowledge of students who arrive with content area backgrounds different from others in their class. Everyday life experiences prior to, and after re-settlement in the West, are rich with potential in this regard.

Practice briefing : Is BOT the best financing model to procure infrastructure projects? A case study of the Hong Kong-Shuhai-Macau Bridge

Abstract: Purpose – Several major infrastructure projects in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) have been delivered by the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model since the 1960s. Although the benefits of using BOT have been reported abundantly in the contemporary literature, some BOT projects were less successful than the others. This paper aims to find out why this is so and to explore whether BOT is the best financing model to procure major infrastructure projects. Design/methodology/approach – The benefits of BOT will first be reviewed. Some completed BOT projects in Hong Kong will be examined to ascertain how far the perceived benefits of BOT have been materialized in these projects. A highly profiled project, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, which has long been promoted by the governments of the People's Republic of China, Macau Special Administrative Region and the HKSAR that BOT is the preferred financing model, but suddenly reverted back to the traditional financing model to be funded primarily by the three governments with public money instead, will be studied to explore the true value of the BOT financial model. Findings – Six main reasons for this radical change are derived from the analysis: shorter take-off time for the project; difference in legal systems causing difficulties in drafting BOT agreements; more government control on tolls; private sector uninterested due to unattractive economic package; avoid allegation of collusion between business and the governments; and a comfortable financial reserve possessed by the host governments. Originality/value – The findings from this paper are believed to provide a better understanding to the real benefits of BOT and the governments' main decision criteria in delivering major infrastructure projects.

Accounts of the visual art classroom : catering for artistically talented students

Inclusive education practices call for the diverse and individual needs of all students to be met satisfactorily. The needs and experiences of artistically talented students in Australian visual art classrooms are currently unknown. This study addresses this gap in research through an inquiry into the experiences of artistically talented students and their teachers in visual art classrooms, by examining the accounts of a group of students and teachers at one high school in South East Queensland. This study is significant as it provides teachers, parents and others involved in the education of artistically talented students with additional means to plan and cater for the educational needs of artistically talented students. Teacher and student accounts of the visual art classroom in this study indicated that identification processes for artistically talented students are unclear and contradictory. Furthermore, teacher and student accounts of their experiences presented a wide variety of conceptions of the visual art classroom and point towards an individualised approach to learning for artistically talented students. This study also discovered a mismatch between assessment practices in the subject visual art and assessment of art in the ‘real world’. Specifically, this study proposes a renewal of programs for artistically talented students, and recommends a revision of current procedures for the identification of artistically talented students in visual art classrooms.

Part-time work of high school students and impact on educational outcomes

While increasing numbers of young high school students engage in part-time work, there is no consensus about its impact on educational outcomes. Indeed this field has had a dearth of research. The present paper presents a review of recent research, primarily from Australia and the US, although it is acknowledged that there are considerable contextual differences. Suggestions for school counsellors to harness the students’ experiences to assist in educational and career decision-making are presented.

Elastic lateral buckling of simply supported LiteSteel beams subject to transverse loading

The buckling strength of a new cold-formed hollow flange channel section known as LiteSteel beam (LSB) is governed by lateral distortional buckling characterised by simultaneous lateral deflection, twist and web distortion for its intermediate spans. Recent research has developed a modified elastic lateral buckling moment equation to allow for lateral distortional buckling effects. However, it is limited to a uniform moment distribution condition that rarely exists in practice. Transverse loading introduces a non-uniform bending moment distribution, which is also often applied above or below the shear centre (load height). These loading conditions are known to have significant effects on the lateral buckling strength of beams. Many steel design codes have adopted equivalent uniform moment distribution and load height factors to allow for these effects. But they were derived mostly based on data for conventional hot-rolled, doubly symmetric I-beams subject to lateral torsional buckling. The moment distribution and load height effects of transverse loading for LSBs, and the suitability of the current design modification factors to accommodate these effects for LSBs is not known. This paper presents the details of a research study based on finite element analyses on the elastic lateral buckling strength of simply supported LSBs subject to transverse loading. It discusses the suitability of the current steel design code modification factors, and provides suitable recommendations for simply supported LSBs subject to transverse loading.

Lateral buckling strength of simply supported LiteSteel beams subject to moment gradient effects

The flexural capacity of of a new cold-formed hollow flange channel section known as LiteSteel beam (LSB) is limited by lateral distortional buckling for intermediate spans, which is characterised by simultaneous lateral deflection, twist and web distortion. Recent research has developed suitable design rules for the member capacity of LSBs. However, they are limited to a uniform moment distribution that rarely exists in practice. Many steel design codes have adopted equivalent uniform moment distribution factors to accommodate the effect of non-uniform moment distributions in design. But they were derived mostly based on the data for conventional hot-rolled, doubly symmetric I-beams subject to lateral torsional buckling. The effect of moment distribution for LSBs, and the suitability of the current steel design code rules to include this effect for LSBs are not yet known. This paper presents the details of a research study based on finite element analyses of the lateral buckling strength of simply supported LSBs subject to moment gradient effects. It also presents the details of a number of LSB lateral buckling experiments undertaken to validate the results of finite element analyses. Finally, it discusses the suitability of the current design methods, and provides design recommendations for simply supported LSBs subject to moment gradient effects.

Are the financial services external complaints resolution schemes subject to judicial review?

In Australia seven schemes (apart from the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal) provide alternative dispute resolution services for complaints brought by consumers against financial services industry members. Recently the Supreme Court of New South Wales held that the decisions of one scheme were amenable to judicial review at the suit of a financial services provider member and the Supreme Court of Victoria has since taken a similar approach. This article examines the juristic basis for such a challenge and contends that judicial review is not available, either at common law or under statutory provisions. This is particularly the case since Financial Industry Complaints Service Ltd v Deakin Financial Services Pty Ltd (2006) 157 FCR 229; 60 ACSR 372 decided that the jurisdiction of a scheme is derived from a contract made with its members. The article goes on to contend that the schemes are required to give procedural fairness and that equitable remedies are available if that duty is breached.

A gendered educational agenda : what's wrong with 10 Things I Hate About You?

Both William Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew (1593) and the film 10 thing I hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999) contain tropes of gender and education and gendered education, and both represent and perform 'education'. That is, they depict characters undergoing a range of educational experiences and in turn educate their audience about what it means to be educated appropriately. It seems fitting then that these pairng of texts has been popular with high school teachers who, more often than not, use them as ways into teaching Shakespeare to contemporary adolescents. I suggest that the play-film pairing can be more productively introduced into the classroom as texts that offer critical readers the opportunity to contest the values of education and gender contatined within them, rather than as tools to reintroduce outdated notions of gendered agency and cultural authority. Indeed it is precisely because 10 Things is unequivocally a romantic comedy that aims to work within the audience's comfort zone that we must seriously interrogate the cultural politics of gender and education it promotes.

Questions of English : ethics, aesthetics, rhetoric, and the formation of the subject in England, Australia and the United States

The impact and content of English as a subject on the curriculum is once more the subject of lively debate. Questions of English sets out to map the development of English as a subject and how it has come to encompass the diversity of ideas that currently characterise it. Drawing on a combination of historical analysis and recent research findings Robin Peel, Annette Patterson and Jeanne Gerlach bring together and compare important new insights on curriculum development and teaching practice from England, Australia and the United States. They also discuss the development of teacher training, highlighting the variety of ways in which teachers build their own beliefs and knowledge about English.

How can flexible learning centres use social networking to improve their ongoing educational assessments?

Most online assessment systems now incorporate social networking features, and recent developments in social media spaces include protocols that allow the synchronisation and aggregation of data across multiple user profiles. In light of these advances and the concomitant fear of data sharing in secondary school education this papers provides important research findings about generic features of online social networking, which educators can use to make sound and efficient assessments in collaboration with their students and colleagues. This paper reports on a design experiment in flexible educational settings that challenges the dichotomous legacy of success and failure evident in many assessment activities for at-risk youth. Combining social networking practices with the sociology of education the paper proposes that assessment activities are best understood as a negotiable field of exchange. In this design experiment students, peers and educators engage in explicit, "front-end" assessment (Wyatt-Smith, 2008) to translate digital artefacts into institutional, and potentiality economic capital without continually referring to paper based pre-set criteria. This approach invites students and educators to use social networking functions to assess “work in progress” and final submissions in collaboration, and in doing so assessors refine their evaluative expertise and negotiate the value of student’s work from which new criteria can emerge. The mobile advantages of web-based technologies aggregate, externalise and democratise this transparent assessment model for most, if not all, student work that can be digitally represented.

The educational affordances of generative media in arts education

Network Jamming systems provide real-time collaborative media performance experiences for novice or inexperienced users. In this paper we will outline the theoretical and developmental drivers for our Network Jamming software, called jam2jam. jam2jam employs generative algorithmic techniques with particular implications for accessibility and learning. We will describe how theories of engagement have directed the design and development of jam2jam and show how iterative testing cycles in numerous international sites have informed the evolution of the system and its educational potential. Generative media systems present an opportunity for users to leverage computational systems to make sense of complex media forms through interactive and collaborative experiences. Generative music and art are a relatively new phenomenon that use procedural invention as a creative technique to produce music and visual media. These kinds of systems present a range of affordances that can facilitate new kinds of relationships with music and media performance and production. Early systems have demonstrated the potential to provide access to collaborative ensemble experiences to users with little formal musical or artistic expertise.This presentation examines the educational affordances of these systems evidenced by field data drawn from the Network Jamming Project. These generative performance systems enable access to a unique kind of music/media’ ensemble performance with very little musical/ media knowledge or skill and they further offer the possibility of unique interactive relationships with artists and creative knowledge through collaborative performance. Through the process of observing, documenting and analysing young people interacting with the generative media software jam2jam a theory of meaningful engagement has emerged from the need to describe and codify how users experience creative engagement with music/media performance and the locations of meaning. In this research we observed that the musical metaphors and practices of ‘ensemble’ or collaborative performance and improvisation as a creative process for experienced musicians can be made available to novice users. The relational meanings of these musical practices afford access to high level personal, social and cultural experiences. Within the creative process of collaborative improvisation lie a series of modes of creative engagement that move from appreciation through exploration, selection, direction toward embodiment. The expressive sounds and visions made in real-time by improvisers collaborating are immediate and compelling. Generative media systems let novices access these experiences with simple interfaces that allow them to make highly professional and expressive sonic and visual content simply by using gestures and being attentive and perceptive to their collaborators. These kinds of experiences present the potential for highly complex expressive interactions with sound and media as a performance. Evidence that has emerged from this research suggest that collaborative performance with generative media is transformative and meaningful. In this presentation we draw out these ideas around an emerging theory of meaningful engagement that has evolved from the development of network jamming software. Primarily we focus on demonstrating how these experiences might lead to understandings that may be of educational and social benefit.

Literacy and Educational Fundamentalism: An Interview

An interview on literacy at McGill University, 2003.

Curriculum design innovation in flexible science teaching

In this paper you will be introduced to a number of principles which can be used to inform good teaching practice and rigorous curriculum design. Principles relate to: * Application of a common sequence of events for how learners learn; * Accommodating different learning styles; * Adopting a purposeful approach to teaching and learning; * Using assessment as a central driving force in the curriculum and as an organising structure leading to coherence of teaching and learning approach; and * The increasing emphasis that is being placed on the development of generic graduate competencies over and above discipline content knowledge. The principles are particularly significant in relation to adult learning. The paper will use three specific applications as illustrations to help you to learn how these principles can be applied. The illustrations are taken from a second year subject in supercomputing that uses scientific case studies. The subject has been developed (with support from Silicon Graphics Inc. and Intel) to be taught entirely via the Internet.

ePortfolio use by university students in Australia: Informing excellence in policy and practice

In mid 2007, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), formerly the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, commissioned an intensive research project to examine the use of ePortfolios by university students in Australia. The project was awarded to a consortium of four universities: Queensland University of Technology as lead institution, The University of Melbourne, University of New England and University of Wollongong.---------- The overarching aim of the research project, which was given the working title of the Australian ePortfolio Project, was to examine the current levels of ePortfolio practice in Australian higher education. The principal project goals sought to provide an overview and analysis of the national and international ePortfolio contexts, document the types of ePortfolios used in Australian higher education, examine the relationship with the National Diploma Supplement project funded by the Federal government, identify any significant issues relating to ePortfolio implementation, and offer guidance about future opportunities for ePortfolio development. The research findings revealed that there was a high level of interest in the use of ePortfolios in the context of higher education, particularly in terms of the potential to help students become reflective learners who are conscious of their personal and professional strengths and weaknesses, as well as to make their existing and developing skills more explicit. There were some good examples of early adoption in different institutions, although this tended to be distributed across the sector. The greatest use of ePortfolios was recorded in coursework programs, rather than in research programs, with implementation generally reflecting subject-specific or program-based activity, as opposed to faculty- or university-wide activity. Accordingly, responsibility for implementation frequently rested with the individual teaching unit, although an alternative centralised model of coordination by ICT services, careers and employment or teaching and learning support was beginning to emerge. The project report concludes with a series of recommendations to guide the process, drawing on the need for open dialogue and effective collaboration between the stakeholders across the range of contexts: government policy, international technical standards, academic policy, and learning and teaching research and practice.