A Story of English Language Learning – How Can Children’s Literature be Used in Teaching Vocabulary to Young English Language Learners? : - A Literature Review

This study aims to find research relating to the use of children’s literature to promote vocabulary development in young children, particularly English language learners in Sweden. The main questions address how (methods) children’s literature can be used and why (reasons) children’s literature is often recommended for the teaching of vocabulary to young learners. The study also aims to explore reasons against the use of children’s literature in vocabulary teaching found in previous research. A systematic literature review was carried out, including results from five empirical studies. The studies involved native speakers, second language learners and foreign language learners from various backgrounds. The results suggest that while research has shown children’s literature to be a good tool to use with young learners, careful lesson planning needs to be carried out. Direct instruction and scaffolding using pictures, technology and gestures is recommended. Hence, the teacher plays an important part for the vocabulary development using children’s literature in the classroom.

Pedagogical methods in web-based language teaching-mapping

The purpose of this presentation is to introduce the research project progress in “the mapping of pedagogical methods in web-based language teaching" by Högskolan Dalarna (Dalarna University). This project will identify the differences in pedagogical methods that are used for online language classes. The pedagogical method defined in this project is what the teachers do to ensure students attain the learning outcomes, for example, planning, designing courses, leading students, knowing students' abilities, implementing activities, etc. So far the members of this project have analyzed the course plans (in the language department at Dalarna University) and categorized the learning outcomes. A questionnaire was constructed based on the learning outcomes and then either sent out remotely to teachers or completed face to face through interviews. The answers provided to the questionnaires enabled the project to identify many differences in how language teachers interact with their students but also, the way of giving feedback, motivating and helping students, types of class activities and materials used. This presentation introduces the progress of the project and identifies the challenges at the language department at Dalarna University. Finally, the advantages and problems of online language proficiency courses will be discussed and suggestions made for future improvement.

Enhancing quality in online learning : scaffolding planning and design through proactive evaluation

A major issue confronting educators is the extent to which they wish to conform to so-called paradigm shifts in teaching and learning. In the contemporary world of tertiary education these shifts embrace both pedagogy (from instructivist to constructivist) and technology (from classroom to online). As teachers and learners are faced with the potential of these new learning environments, the extent to which learning outcomes are achieved remains a high priority and subject to a wide range of evaluation strategies. Conventionally, evaluation has been positioned at the end of the instructional development cycle, to assess first whether or not the creative effort achieved the original product goals and second whether or not the desired learning outcomes were realized. In the context of online teaching and learning environments, however, the level of understanding teachers, learners and developers have of the medium can impact the ultimate effectiveness of the product. This paper articulates an additional dimension to post-development evaluation processes in proposing proactive evaluation, a framework that identifies critical online learning factors and influences that will better inform the planning, design and development of learning resources. This notion of proactive evaluation advocates resource development being undertaken where all planning activities are assessed against the evaluation criteria that would normally be applied during formative assessment. By performing these evaluation checks proactively, online learning resources will, in principle, work first time as all relevant factors and issues will have been considered and resolved. More importantly, for those participants who are new to online environments, proactive evaluation will perform a scaffolding and professional development role by enhancing online teaching or learning competencies.

Information technology applications for planning in deconstruction

In recent years, there has been obvious emphasis on the shift from design and construction of new facilities to maintenance, refurbishment, and demolition management of existing facilities. Demolition technology has gradually changed from conventional destruction to the recently developed deconstruction. Demolition management, particularly deconstruction management, is becoming a novel, but a fertile teaching and research discipline. This paper focuses on an important issue of deconstruction management, how to work out a deconstruction plan using information technologies.

The impact of enterprise resource planning systems on management accounting : an Australian study

Information technology is significantly changing the operating practices of an increasing number of companies globally. These developments have important implications for the accounting profession and in particular accounting practices in the twenty-first century. This study examines the development of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as a means of illustrating how changes in information technology allows all systems in a company to be linked to manage operations holistically.

The study investigates the change in accounting systems using a sample of Australian companies with emphasis on the adoption of ERP systems including the potential impact of ERP on capital budgeting processes. The results show that ERP systems are changing management accounting practices, although at this stage, the impact on capital budgeting techniques appears to be limited. The findings contribute to the emerging body of literature on the development of ERP systems and its impact on management accounting teaching and research.

Teaching values

Teaching Values has been designed to support teachers to introduce the Nine Values for Australian Schooling (Australian Government 2005) to their students and to build on the work that they and their schools do in the name of values education. It does not set out to be the definitive text rather it contributes to the current and historical discourse in this area by providing a unique approach to this complex area of the school curriculum. Using a range of texts sourced from collections held by the National Museum of Australia the book uses textual analysis as an approach to teaching values.

Teaching Chinese, teaching in Chinese, and teaching the Chinese

This article examines specific issues encountered in various areas of Chinese teaching in Australia. These issues are linked to the spheres of language planning as acquisition and as recovery and language planning as retention (Lo Bianco, 10.1007/s10993-006-9042-3). Specifically relevant to Chinese in Australia is its current prominence in formally declared national language policy, its changing status over time and its similarities and differences with Chinese in the United States (Wang, 10.1007/s10993-006-9043-2). The internationalization of education, and its commodification, has in recent years led to a major expansion in the range of offerings in Chinese in Australia, now catering to growing, and in some institutions to numerically dominant, groupings of native speakers with radically different language and academic needs from the traditional clientele of tertiary and school Chinese programs.

Teaching practices for effective cooperative learning in an online learning environment (OLE)

As a teaching practice the application of cooperative learning in tertiary education can present unique challenges for both the practitioner and her students. Mastering this teaching approach requires careful planning, design and implementation for effective deployment in a face-to-face setting. In this setting the success of the cooperative learning approach has been demonstrated. The complexity is significantly increased by additional variables such as the selection and application of technological teaching tools and the change in nature of existing variables including awareness of students' social and communication skills when applying this practice in an Online Learning Environment (OLE). In addition student acceptance of this e-learning approach to learning also needs to be carefully considered. The practitioner must be aware of these factors and have suitable methods in place to support collaboration and interaction between student groups to ensure the ultimate goal with regard to students' learning is achieved. This paper considers how cooperative learning can be combined effectively with these variables and factors of an OLE, and begins with the presentation of a conceptual framework to represent this relationship as a constructive teaching practice. It is anticipated that the conceptual framework would be applied by other practitioners to facilitate cooperative teaching within their OLE. To demonstrate the validity of the framework a case scenario is provided using an Information Technology (IT) undergraduate unit named 'IT Practice'. This is a wholly online unit where extensive participation by the students within small groups is a core requirement. The paper demonstrates the themes of designing curriculum and assessment, as well as flexible teaching strategies for learner diversity but primarily concentrates on managing an effective OLE; that is managing small groups in an online teaching environment.

Continuous professional learning through school based strategic planning

There is ample evidence that in many countries school science is in difficulty, with declining student attitudes and uptake of science. This presentation argues that a key to addressing the problem lies in transforming teachers’ classroom practice, and that pedagogical innovation is best supported within a school context. Evidence for effective change will draw on the School Innovation in Science (SIS) initiative in Victoria, which has developed and evaluated a model to improve science teaching and learning across a school system. The model involves a framework for describing effective teaching and learning, and a strategy that allows schools flexibility to develop their practice to suit local conditions and to maintain ownership of the change process. SIS has proved successful in improving science teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools. Experience from SIS and related projects, from a national Australian science and literacy project, and from system wide science initiatives in Europe, will be used to explore the factors that affect the success and the path of innovation in schools.

Sharing good teaching practice: Practical strategies to integrate ICT into the classroom

Situated in regional areas of Victoria, a group of 16 primary and secondary teachers participated in an intensive program of professional development designed to assist them in embedding lCT into their classroom practice. Most teachers made significant changes to their teaching practice becoming risk-takers and problem solvers.This paper reports on the strategic innovations introduced by the teachers including training, preparation, curriculum planning, software evaluation and selection, classroom management strategies, cooperative learning strategies and embedded assessment tasks. The paper will explore the ways these innovations responded to a variety of constraints including limited resources, time and support.

The impact of information and communications technology on teaching and design of flexible, online and distance education courses at Deakin University

This paper describes the use of an online learning environment which has been established for postgraduate students studying at Master’s level in Professional Education and Training Deakin University. A detailed evaluation of the use of computer conferences in an Open and Distance Education specialism was undertaken during 2000 as part of a CUTSD funded project, Learner Centred Evaluation of Computer Facilitated Learning Projects in Higher Education. As the Open and Distance Education specialism is being revised and new units are written, the information gathered in this evaluation is being integrated into the pedagogical planning and the technological decisions being made about the design of the new master’s program.
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Researching effective teaching and learning in science : The science in schools research project

In 2000 a consortium headed by Deakin University was funded by the Victorian Department of Education, Employment and Training to develop a model of effective teaching and learning for science in schools from P-10. Initially working with 27 study schools, the Project has continued in 2001 with 126 participating schools. This paper will discuss the model for school and classroom change that we have been developing, with a particular focus on the change strategies being used by the research team and in the participating schools. Central to the model has been the appointment in each school of a SiS (Science in Schools) coordinator with time release and additional funding for resources. The Coordinator has used strategies including mapping each participating teacher against the eight components of effective teaching and learning (the SiS components); student preferences surveying; auditing of curriculum, resources and school policy; and team planning of priorities, actions, implementation and monitoring strategies. The emphasis has been on school ownership of the change process and the school leadership has been identified as central to its success. As well as focusing on actions in schools the paper will also discuss the research process from the research team's perspective.
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Teaching and learning force as a representational issue : insights from a classroom video study

An enormous amount of research in the conceptual change tradition has shown the difficulty of learning fundamental science concepts, yet conceptual change schemes have failed to convincingly demonstrate improvements in supporting significant student learning. Recent work in cognitive science has challenged this purely conceptual view of learning, emphasising the role of languages, and the importance of personal and contextual aspects of  understanding science. The research described in this paper is designed around the notion that learning involves the recognition and development of students’ representational resources. In particular, we argue that difficulties with the concept of force are fundamentally representational in nature. The paper describes the planning and implementation of a classroom sequence in force that focuses on representations and their negotiation, and reports on the effectiveness of this perspective in guiding teaching and learning. Classroom sequences involving three teachers 158 2008 NARST Annual International Conference were videotaped using a combined focus on the teacher and groups of students. Video analysis software was used to code the variety of representations used, and sequences of representational negotiation. Stimulated recall interviews were conducted with teachers and students. The paper will report on the effect of this approach on teacher knowledge and pedagogy, and on student learning of force.

Using everyday experiences in teaching secondary mathematics in Malawi : possibilities and constraints for change

Proponents of socially and culturally oriented mathematics education have argued that teaching approaches which value and connect with the learner's prior knowledge and everyday experience are more likely to promote active, meaningful, relevant and liberatory learning than approaches which rely on transmission and abstract presentation of mathematical content. In Malawi, proposals to reform the outdated secondary mathematics curriculum have been made with the aim of aligning mathematics instruction with the social and political changes in the current Malawian society. Using a case study approach, this study investigated the extent to which everyday experiences could be used as a vehicle for changing the learning and teaching of secondary mathematics in Malawi. The study was collaborative, taking place over a period of five months in severely overcrowded and poorly resourced classes in two schools. It involved three mathematics teachers in a cycle of planning and teaching mathematics lessons based on the use of everyday experiences, and observation of and reflection on these lessons, in order to document the effects of using everyday experiences on student learning and teachers' teaching practices. The data was collected through student questionnaires; classroom observations and fieldnotes; interviews and reflective meetings with teachers; and informal meetings with key education officials in Malawi. Mathematics examination results from students involved in this study and a corresponding group from the previous year were collected. A reflective and critical approach was adopted in the interpretation and discussion of the data. Teachers' participation in this study resulted in heightened awareness of their teaching roles and the value of linking school mathematics with everyday experience. The study also shows that students found mathematics interesting and important to learn despite their lack of success in it. In addition, the study documented a number of constraints to change in mathematics instruction such as teachers' focus on mathematics content and examination requirements, and students' resistance to inquiry learning. It also recorded possibilities and barriers to collaboration both between teachers and researchers, and teachers themselves. The findings of this study are timely since they could serve to inform the reform of the Malawian secondary mathematics curriculum currently being undertaken, which began without a critical examination of the classroom conditions necessary to accommodate a socio-politically relevant mathematics education.

Rewriting Australian planning from the margins

If planning is the conscious formulation of a preferred.future and deliberate actions to realise that future in the landscape, then Indigenous Australians have long been involved in planning settlements and regions. Yet such actions - pre and post-contact - are absent from the history of Australian planning, as evidenced by some major texts on the subject. That also passes without serious comment in the planning literature and contemporary practice are the theoretical implications of admitting key aspects of recent Indigenous history - such as prior occupancy, ongoing sovereignty, resistance strategies, ghettoisation and Native Title. There are, therefore, significant gaps in the history and theory of Australian planning which impact negatively on its current teaching and practice. The consequences of such omissions range.from incomplete histories to ongoing injustices in Australian planning practice. My larger research project will collate these absences before reworking the history of Australian planning from the perspective of those systematically excluded from it -women, migrants from racially marked non-white backgrounds and Indigenous Australians. This paper will consider only a small part of this larger project. It will first examine some of the key texts which construct the history of Australian planning before examining one place - Lake Condah in Western Victoria - as one site of permanent settlement by the Gundijmara people who lived in stone houses arrayed in villages around an engineered sophisticated fish farming enterprise. Here then is but one example - admittedly subject to contestation over its scale, anthropological and archaeological fundamentals - which challenges the view of indigenous Australians as not only nomadic and "primitive" but also as legitimately placed outside the history of Australian planning. I will conclude by speculating on what this example might mean to any reworking of that history.