Pedestrian safety programs - a review of the literature and operational experience. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Office of Research, Washington, D.C.

Factors influencing research engagement : research interest, confidence and experience in an Australian speech-language pathology workforce

Background Recent initiatives within an Australia public healthcare service have seen a focus on increasing the research capacity of their workforce. One of the key initiatives involves encouraging clinicians to be research generators rather than solely research consumers. As a result, baseline data of current research capacity are essential to determine whether initiatives encouraging clinicians to undertake research have been effective. Speech pathologists have previously been shown to be interested in conducting research within their clinical role; therefore they are well positioned to benefit from such initiatives. The present study examined the current research interest, confidence and experience of speech language pathologists (SLPs) in a public healthcare workforce, as well as factors that predicted clinician research engagement. Methods Data were collected via an online survey emailed to an estimated 330 SLPs working within Queensland, Australia. The survey consisted of 30 questions relating to current levels of interest, confidence and experience performing specific research tasks, as well as how frequently SLPs had performed these tasks in the last 5 years. Results Although 158 SLPs responded to the survey, complete data were available for only 137. Respondents were more confident and experienced with basic research tasks (e.g., finding literature) and less confident and experienced with complex research tasks (e.g., analysing and interpreting results, publishing results). For most tasks, SLPs displayed higher levels of interest in the task than confidence and experience. Research engagement was predicted by highest qualification obtained, current job classification level and overall interest in research. Conclusions Respondents generally reported levels of interest in research higher than their confidence and experience, with many respondents reporting limited experience in most research tasks. Therefore SLPs have potential to benefit from research capacity building activities to increase their research skills in order to meet organisational research engagement objectives. However, these findings must be interpreted with the caveats that a relatively low response rate occurred and participants were recruited from a single state-wide health service, and therefore may not be representative of the wider SLP workforce.

Diversity or perversity?: Award-winning children's literature and the Australian curriculum

Two of the three cross-curriculum priorities for the national Australian Curriculum prescribed by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) are focussed on what might be called diversity education: “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture”, and "Asia and Australia's Engagement with Asia” (ACARA, “Cross”). One need not be versed in complex rhetorical theory to understand that, laudable and legitimate as such priorities are, their existence implies that mainstream education in Australia has been or is characterised by the marginalisation or erasure of Australia's history—the original Indigenous cultures are not only living and vibrant today, but also have tens of thousands of years’ “head start” on Australia’s settler cultures—and of its geography—Australia is, after all, located in some physical proximity to Asia. Some might even suggest that Australia is in Asia. These temporal and spatial “forgettings” constitute a kind of cultural perversity which the cross-curricular priorities both seek to address and serve to reinscribe. Even as ACARA requires Australian school students to engage with Aboriginal and Asian histories, cultures, societies, they imply that such histories, cultures, and societies are “diverse”, that they are not those of the students in Australian classrooms; producing them as objects of study rather than as lived experience. This should not necessarily be surprising. Michael W. Apple has provocatively argued that: “one of the perverse effects of a national curriculum actually will be to ‘legitimise inequality.’ It may in fact help create the illusion that whatever the massive differences in schools, they all have something in common” (18). In the Australian context, attempts to mitigate such perversity are articulated via the selection of literary texts. As educators move to resource ACARA’s cross-curricular priorities, ACARA notes that “Teachers and schools are best placed to make decisions about the selection of texts in their teaching and learning programs that address the content in the Australian Curriculum while also meeting the needs of the students in their classes” (ACARA, “Advice”). This assertion appears on a webpage called “Advice on selection of literary texts” which is notable first and foremost for its total lack of any literary texts being named, and its list of weblinks pointing to lists of texts compiled elsewhere, by other organisations, and in the main, compiled to serve agendas other than the Australian curriculum. One of the major resources referred to by ACARA for literary text selection is the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA). Of course, the CBCA’s annual book awards do not share ACARA’s educational priorities, but do have a history of being drawn upon by schools as a curriculum resource. In this paper, I consider the literary texts which have been prized by the CBCA in recent years attending to their engagements with Aboriginal cultures.

Children’s Literature and English Teaching – Swedish Teachers’ Methods and Attitudes

This study investigates how primary school teachers of grades F-3 pupils in a number of sample schools in Sweden use children’s literature and other methods to enhance their teaching of English. The study explores the attitudes of these teachers’ to using English children’s literature as a teaching tool to promote language development in their pupils, focusing on vocabulary. An empirical questionnaire study was carried out including a total of twenty-three respondents from seven schools in a Stockholm suburb. The respondents are all working teachers with experience of teaching English to young learners, particularly in grades F-3. This study contributes with new knowledge about the often-recommended use of children’s literature as a method for teaching English to young learners, connecting international research with empirical data from the Swedish context. While the results suggest that the majority of the respondents are positive to using children’s literature in their teaching and regularly do so, many of them feel that it is somewhat difficult to find relevant materials to plan, implement and evaluate lessons within the allocated time-frame. Based on these results, further research about how to create more effective ways of using children’s literature as a method for English vocabulary teaching in Swedish schools is recommended.

Barriers to blood donation in African communities in Australia: the role of home and host country culture and experience

BACKGROUND: An influx of African migrants and refugees can strain a host country's blood services, because often migrants have unique blood needs that cannot be sourced from local donors. To increase blood donation by the new migrants, host country blood services need to understand how blood and blood donations are viewed by immigrant communities, because recruitment models that are not culturally adapted may have limited success.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Nine focus groups representing a cross-section of Australian-based African communities were conducted in multiple languages, facilitated by bilingual workers. The qualitative protocol was guided by the literature on blood donation by African migrants and communities in Africa. Thematic analysis identified the relevance of issues previously included in the literature and whether other issues facilitated or prohibited blood donation.

RESULTS: Home country cultural issues were not generally raised as barriers to donation, and respondents were positively disposed toward donation. Home country experiences shaped respondents' views in Australia. Participants focused on assisting “individuals in need,” rather than giving to a blood service that many viewed with suspicion because of issues in their home country. There was a lack of knowledge about the donation process in Australia. More importantly, respondents perceived that their blood would not be wanted, based on a perception of host country mistrust and discrimination.

CONCLUSION: Developing an intervention that encourages migrants to donate blood needs to be culturally focused. It appears that addressing perceptions based on home country experiences is essential. Overcoming a general perception of discrimination is beyond any blood service, but there can be an attempt to ensure that blood donation is seen as an inclusive process—blood from everyone, for everyone.

Once upon a time: children's literature and mathematics

What was your favourite book as a child? Remember the joy of reading it over and over again until the pages were worn and the corners curled. Have you thought about introducing your favourite book into a mathematics classroom? Utilising books in mathematics can engage and benefit every child in your class. Building on children’s wonder of literature can enhance their experience in mathematics. Building on children’s wonder of mathematics can enhance their experience of literature. In this paper we present the joy and value of employing children’s literature in the middle to upper primary mathematics classroom supported with engaging tasks that will have your students noticing maths in every story they read.

Close Enough to One Another and Far Apart as Well´: The Intersection of Literature and History in Seamus Deane´s Reading in the Dark

This article analyses the intersection of narrative and history in Seamus Deane’s Reading in the Dark (1996). It uses the Benjaminian notions of memory, narration and experience to investigate how this novel creates a self through a language characterized by the absence of what it refers to. The analysis will eventually demonstrate that the tension between recollection and obliteration makes Literature and History converge as products of a narrative act.

Natural History on Blocks, in Bodies, and on the Hearth: Juvenile Science Literature and Games, 1850-1875.

This article examines the role of domestic spaces and images in mid-nineteenth-century science writing for children. Analyses of John Mill’s The Fossil Spirit, A.L.O.E.’s Fairy Frisket, John Cargill Brough’s The Fairy Tales of Science, Annie Carey’s “Autobiography of a Lump of Coal,” and an assortment of boxed games reveal a variety of ways in which overwhelming scientific concepts are domesticated. Moreover, juvenile science literature contributes this appeasing domestication to the broader scientific discourse, consistently framing natural history in terms of human experience.

Bouveret's syndrome: presentation of two cases with review of the literature and development of a surgical treatment strategy

BACKGROUND Bouveret's syndrome causes gastric outlet obstruction when a gallstone is impacted in the duodenum or stomach via a bilioenteric fistula. It is a rare condition that causes significant morbidity and mortality and often occurs in the elderly with significant comorbidities. Individual diagnostic and treatment strategies are required for optimal management and outcome. The purpose of this paper is to develop a surgical strategy for optimized individual treatment of Bouveret's syndrome based on the available literature and motivated by our own experience. CASE PRESENTATION Two cases of Bouveret's syndrome are presented with individual management and restrictive surgical approaches tailored to the condition of the patients and intraoperative findings. CONCLUSIONS Improved diagnostics and restrictive individual surgical approaches have shown to lower the mortality rates of Bouveret's syndrome. For optimized outcome of the individual patient: The medical and perioperative management and time of surgery are tailored to the condition of the patient. CT-scan is most often required to secure the diagnosis. The surgical approach includes enterolithotomy alone or in combination with simultaneous or subsequent cholecystectomy and fistula repair. Lower overall morbidity and mortality are in favor of restrictive surgical approaches. The surgical strategy is adapted to the intraoperative findings and to the risk for secondary complications vs. the age and comorbidities of the patient.

An Enterprise Opportunity for Entrepreneurial Students: Student Enterprise Development and Experience Assessed through the Student Voice

Purpose: This research investigates the effectiveness of an experiential learning approach, available to students in all disciplines that combined a hands-on entrepreneurial and enterprise experience with professional consultant mentoring by using a competition to win business start-up funding. Design/methodology/approach: Students at a UK university had the chance to enter a competition in which they developed an entrepreneurial idea and then designed and presented a business plan to win business start-up capital. Students who were entrepreneurially motivated, but who lacked capital to start up their business, were targeted, as these students have been argued to benefit the most from a combination of business plan training and entrepreneurial development. Feedback and data was obtained from the students at each stage of the process and was thematically analysed to assess the development of students’ entrepreneurial skills and knowledge through the experience. Findings: The research found that the benefits gained from this approach included both enterprising and entrepreneurial skills, with the greatest impact being on student confidence and belief in their ability to start a business. The practical skills had a ‘demystifying’ effect on students that made them feel like entrepreneurship and enterprise start-up were attainable. Research limitations/implications: The research focused on students at one UK University and centered on entrepreneurship in a retail business. The competition thus appealed mainly to students who were interested in retail start-up, thus leaving out some enterprising students whose feedback may have been different. In addition, while entrepreneurial skills are assessed in the data, the students who would be interested in the competition would be assumed to be proactive, and this skill was not able to be analyzed. This research is a single case, and thus could be enhanced by more cases and looking at other enterprise start-up means beyond retail. Originality/value: This research makes a case that, in light of literature critical of the use of business plan training in entrepreneurship education, certain students are appropriate candidates for this approach. Specific skills and knowledge can be developed in university students using a live enterprise experience, supported by entrepreneurial mentoring. By making the event extracurricular, the study sought to capture the feedback of students who self-selected into the program, who can benefit most from combined entrepreneurial and business-plan development experience.

Autism behind bars : a review of the research literature and discussion of key issues

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may experience difficulties coping at all levels of involvement in the criminal justice system. Questions remain, however, regarding the presence and type of difficulties faced by individuals with ASD in the context of incarceration within prison settings. Despite the potential impact for community safety and concerns regarding justice, these issues have received very little academic attention. The research that does exist is generally limited by poor methodology and small sample sizes. The current paper provides a brief review and discussion of the limited extant literature regarding the experiences of prisoners with ASD with the view to summarising areas of difficulties potentially faced by such individuals. It is hoped that this brief review may highlight the need for academic attention in order to inform practice and policy regarding the criminal justice response to this potentially vulnerable population.

SAP-Related Education - Status-Quo and Experience

Integrating Enterprise Systems solutions in the curriculum of not only universities but all types of institutes of higher learning has been a major challenge for nearly ten years. Enterprise Systems education is surprisingly well documented in a number of papers on Information Systems education. However, most publications in this area report on the individual experiences of an institution or an academic. This paper focuses on the most popular Enterprise System - SAP - and summarizes the outcomes of a global survey on the status quo of SAP-related education. Based on feedback of 305 lecturers and more than 700 students, it reports on the main factors of Enterprise Systems education including, critical success factors, alternative hosting models, and students’ perceptions. The results show among others an overall increasing interest in advanced SAP solutions and international collaboration, and a high satisfaction with the concept of using Application Hosting Centers.

Seeing music performance : visual influences on perception and experience

Drawing from ethnographic, empirical, and historical / cultural perspectives, we examine the extent to which visual aspects of music contribute to the communication that takes place between performers and their listeners. First, we introduce a framework for understanding how media and genres shape aural and visual experiences of music. Second, we present case studies of two performances, and describe the relation between visual and aural aspects of performance. Third, we report empirical evidence that visual aspects of performance reliably influence perceptions of musical structure (pitch related features) and affective interpretations of music. Finally, we trace new and old media trajectories of aural and visual dimensions of music, and highlight how our conceptions, perceptions and appreciation of music are intertwined with technological innovation and media deployment strategies.

STRATÉGÉ – Study of Transparent Recognition, Accreditation Tools and Experience in a Global Environment

Engineering graduates of today, face a working environment that assumes global mobility in the labour market. This challenge means, amongst universities worldwide, a demand to increase the globalisation of educational programs, context, and increase and support the mobility of students through mechanisms such as student exchange and double masters degrees. Engineering student mobility from Australia is low with only a few Engineering Faculties encouraging students to go internationally. This comparative study, using universities in Australia and Europe, of feedback from students who have been on exchange or proposing to go on exchange, employers and faculty addresses the motivators and barriers to student mobility and exchange from the perspectives of the university, faculty, students and employers. Recommendations will be presented on how student mobility and exchange can be improved, and mechanisms such as double Masters Degrees, dual accreditation and Erasmus Mundus 2009 – 2013 can be utilised to improve student mobility.