'Voiced' research as a sociology for understanding 'dropping out' of school
- Authors: Smyth, John , Hattam, Robert
- Date: 2001
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sociology of Education Vol. 22, no. 3 (Spetember 2001 2001), p. 402-415
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- Description: How people obtain more complex understandings of the phenomenon of 'dropping out' of school is one of the most urgent policy and practice issues facing educational practitioners, policy-makers and sociological researchers at the moment. Smyth and Hattam argue that a different 'sociological imagination' is required--one that is simultaneously more attentive to the lifeworlds of young people and more reflexive of its own agenda.
The role of the computer in learning Ndj bbana
- Authors: Auld, Glenn
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Language Learning and Technology Vol. 6, no. 2 (2002), p. 41-58
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- Description: While Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is being superseded by an integrated approach to language learning and technology, it still has great potential to assist indigenous peoples in becoming print-literate in their own languages. This can also help to combat the disempowerment experienced by indigenous people as their world is penetrated by others with radically different backgrounds. This paper reports on research on an application of CALL implemented among the Kunib dji, a remote, indigenous Australian community. It focuses on the use of talking books in Ndj bbana, a language with only 200 speakers; the books were displayed on touch-screens at various locations in the community. Investigations into the roles of the computer to support language learning and cultural understanding are also reported. The computer was found to be a useful tool in promoting Kunib dji collaboration and cultural transformation.
- Description: 2003000137
Unmasking teachers' subjectivities in local school management
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Education Policy Vol. 17, no. 4 (2002), p. 463-482
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- Description: Relatively little is known about how teachers are affected by reforms that have moved schools increasingly in the direction of becoming self-managing schools. While there has been much hype about the alleged benefits that flow from more flexible decision making processes shifted closer to the point of learning, the cutting of bureaucratic red tape, and the notion that schools are made more accountable to parents and students - relatively little is known about how this impacts on the way teachers think or act in relation to their work. This paper takes a particular instance of an Australian primary school and examines how teachers' subjectivities are worked on and how teachers' pedagogical selves are being disrupted and fundamentally recast as a consequence of local school management.
What can we say about 112,000 taps on a Ndjebbana touch screen
- Authors: Auld, Glenn
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education Vol. 30, no. 1 (2002), p. 1-7
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- Description: In a remote Aboriginal Australian (Kunibidji) community, three touch-screen computers containing 96 Ndjebbana-language talking books were made available to children in informal settings. The computers' popularity is explained by the touch screens' form and the talking books' intertextual and hybrid nature. The Kunibidji are transforming their culture by including new digital technologies that represent their social practice.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000139
An exploration of the role that expert knowledge plays in the assessment of undergraduate clinical competence: registered nurses' experiences
- Authors: Paliadelis, Penny , Cruickshank, Mary
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Rural and remote health Vol. 3, no. 2 (2003 2003), p. 191-191
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- Description: INTRODUCTION: This phenomenological study, conducted in rural Australia, explored the experiences of registered nurses (RNs) responsible for assessing the clinical competence of undergraduate nursing students. The purpose of the study was to gain insight into the experiences of a group of registered nurses who assess student competence by exploring how they perform the assessment process. A key assumption on which this study was based is that the participants are 'expert nurses', as defined by Benner. METHOD: Participants were recruited using purposive sampling from a population of registered nurses who assessed the clinical performance of undergraduate nursing students studying at a rural university in New South Wales, Australia. Individual unstructured interviews were conducted and audiotaped with the participants' permission. The analysed data were given to all participants to check for accuracy and validation and a thematic analysis of the data was conducted. RESULTS: Four themes were identified; the major theme, described in this article, was identified in all the narratives. The participants all acknowledged that they use their expert nursing knowledge to assist them when assessing the clinical competence of nursing students. The participants used a variety of terms to describe this type of knowledge such as intuition, instinct, gut feeling and 'just knowing'. CONCLUSION: While the findings of this study confirmed that experienced nurses unconsciously use their expert nursing knowledge when making decisions about students' competence, the findings also indicated a lack of awareness or underestimation of the value of expert clinical knowledge. These findings reinforce the need for further investigation to determine the role of expert nursing knowledge in the clinical competency assessment process. This is particularly significant for rural registered nurses employed in small health-care facilities, who often assume the role of assessors of student clinical competence.
Engaging the education sector: A policy orientation to stop damaging our schools
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Learning Communities Vol. , no. 1 (2003), p. 22-40
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- Description: In this paper the author makes a passionate 'plea for discontent', arguing that there is something fundamentally wrong with the overall direction of education policy as it is being applied to schools, and that new ways of re-engaging with it must be found. The author commences by arguing for a proposition, presenting some evidence from some research, and using that as a basis for suggesting a fundamental re-think in the way educational policy operates in relation to schools. In doing this, he underscores the centrality and significance of social capital as the basis for this re-engagement. The underlying question concerns how educational policy making is to be engaged so that it is central to institutional building. With the threat of losing schools as social institutions under the current regime of educational policy, the author argues that new ways of re-engaging educational policy beyond parallel discourses are needed. The underlying proposition is that schools that succeed are ones that have trusting relationships between school systems, teachers, parents and students. Trust between those making educational policy and schools, produces better outcomes for all, and trust is given expression through meaningful partnerships, authentic accountability, and distributed (or enabling) leadership. Social capital is central to any educational policy re-engagement with schools. The underlying argument of this paper is that schools have a social responsibility as places that 'manufacture hope' often in situations of increasing 'despair' and adversity.
From the margins to the mainstream : Facilitating the inclusion of students with disabilities into university nursing courses
- Authors: Ryan, Janette , Struhs, John
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Learning Vol. 9, no. (2003), p. 1273-1295
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- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000473
Tackling school leaving at its Source: A case of reform in the middle years of schooling
- Authors: Smyth, John , McInerney, Peter , Hattam, Robert
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British journal of sociology of education Vol. 24, no. 2 (2003), p. 177-193
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- Description: One of the most pervasive educational issues confronting Australia, and other countries, at the moment is the declining completion rates in high schools. While a period of success was experienced after the Second World War, there is now a pressing need to reform high schools in the ways they connect with young lives. In this paper, we present a 'sociology of the high school' as a way of encapsulating the high school as an institution that: is still largely stuck in a 'continuity of practice' (Elmore, 1987); has an 'attachment to familiar pedagogical routines' (Eisner, 1992); fails to listen to students; is hierarchically structured; treats students in immature ways; is hung up with passing on content; and seems more concerned with insulating itself from, rather connecting with or appropriating, young lives into the curriculum. As an alternative, we examine the notion of middle schooling that requires a version of whole school reform that engages with structures, cultures and changing pedagogy in ways more resonant with, and respectful of, young lives. We examine the tensions and dilemmas experienced at Investigator [1] High School in Australia, and conclude that the centerpiece has to be breaking the mold of the 'scripted' teacher and its replacement by the 'teacher-as-improviser'.
The making of young lives with/against the school credential
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Education and Work Vol. 16, no. 2 (2003), p. 127-146
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- Description: This article provides argument and 'voiced' evidence from an Australian study (Smyth et al., 2000) of 209 young people who had chosen not to complete their secondary schooling. It reports on how they made these complex decisions, particularly around the credentialling process. There is support here for Wyn and Dwyer's (2000) thesis that some young people are not propelled through schooling by the lure of a credential, and quite to the contrary, they have a high level of agency in constructing alternative biographies for themselves that undermine the policy trajectory. Far from being victims who 'drop out', these young people presented in individualistic ways that amounted to accommodation and resistance to the impediments of a policy credential for university entrance which they labelled as irrelevant, despite its declared intention to be inclusive of all.
The primacy of the mother tongue : Aboriginal literacy and non-standard English
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Muir, Wayne , Lin, Zheng
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education Vol. 32, no. (2003), p. 51-60
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- Description: This article describes Indigenous Australian languages as having a history of pejoration dating from colonial times, which has masked the richness and complexity of mother tongues (and more recently developed kriols) of large numbers of Indigenous Australians.The paper rejects deficit theory representations of these languages as being inferior to imported dialects of English and explains how language issues embedded in teaching practices have served to restrict Indigenous Australian access to cultural capital most valued in modern socio-economic systems.We go on to describe ways in which alternative perspectives where acknowledgment of rich,complex and challenging features of Indigenous Australian languages may be used by educators as empowering resources for teacher education and teaching in schools. Our paper stresses the urgency of establishing frameworks for language success within which to develop other successful learning outcomes of Indigenous Australians.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000496
A framework for monitoring progress and planning teaching towards the effective use of computer algebra systems
- Authors: Pierce, Robyn , Stacey, Kaye
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning Vol. 9, no. 1 (2004), p. 59-93
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- Description: This article suggests a framework to organise a cluster of variables that are associated with students' effective use of computer algebra systems (CAS) in mathematics learning. Based on a review of the literature and from the authors' own teaching experience, the framework identifies the main characteristics of students' interactions with CAS technology and how these may be used to monitor students' developing use of CAS; from this, the framework may be used to plan teaching in order to gain greater benefit from the availability of CAS. Four case studies describing students' development over a semester are reported. These demonstrate a variety of combinations of technical competencies and personal attributes. They indicate the importance of both the technical and personal aspects but suggest that negative attitudes rather than technical difficulties can limit the effective use of CAS. Finally practical suggestions are given for teaching strategies which may promote effective use of CAS.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000923
A truncated functional behavioral assessment procedure for children with disruptive classroom behaviors
- Authors: Packenham, Melissa , Shute, Rosalyn , Reid, Robert
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Education & Treatment of Children Vol. 27, no. 1 (2004), p. 9-25
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- Description: Schools are now required by law to create behavior support plans based on functional behavioral assessment (FBA) for students with behavior problems. Although FBA has been shown to be effective, there are questions as to its feasibility in the schools. In this pilot study we examined the effectiveness of a truncated FBA procedure. The FBA used a simplified procedure for the teacher to identify the function of a behavior and to formulate a hypothesis. Results suggested that the teacher was able to select the probable function of the problem behavior, formulate a summary statement and design an intervention with guidance from the researcher. Problem behavior decreased during intervention and maintenance. Teacher acceptance of the truncated FBA procedure was confirmed with a social validity questionnaire.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003006019
An evaluation of how student expectations are formed in a higher education context: The case of Hong Kong
- Authors: Willis, Mike , Kennedy, Rowan
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Marketing for Higher Education Vol. 14, no. 1 (2004), p. 1-21
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- Description: This research identifies a range of issues and factors which impact on the formation of initial expectations developed by local university students wishing to study for a foreign degree program in Hong Kong. Key factors were foreign university Internet sites, exhibitions, agents and associations, brochures and friends. This is one of the first times this kind of research has been undertaken relating to the delivery of foreign programs within the home country, as previous research has tended to focus on study abroad, where the student travels to the foreign country to undertake a degree program. The research also considers how expectations change over time, as students undertake their study for a foreign degree program in Hong Kong, and develops the concept of continuous formation of expectations whereby students mould change, rebuild and continually revisit their expectations of the university program as they undertake a wide range of subjects. This part of the research is quite new and indicates the volatile and changeable nature of the educational service encounter. Both parts of the research are of value not just in regard to the location of the data collection but potentially further afield as an indicator of formative factors regarding expectations and in regard to the concept of continuous formation of expectations.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003007130
Critical pedagogy and situated practice : An ethnographic approach to pre-service teacher education
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Smith, Patricia
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Learning Vol. 10, no. (2004), p. 3455-3461
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- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000804
Critical Theory and the Human Condition
- Authors: Noone, Lynne , Davidson, Christina
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Policy Futures in Education Vol. 2, no. 2 (2004), p. 428-434
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From slogan to pedagogy : Teacher education and reflection at the University of Ballarat
- Authors: Smith, Patricia , Zeegers, Margaret , Russell, Rupert
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Learning Vol. 10, no. (2004), p. 3357-3371
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- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000806
Individual differences in implicit and declared self esteem as predictors of response to negative performance evaluation : Validating implicit association test as a measure of self attitudes
- Authors: Meagher, Brendan , Aidman, Eugene
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Testing Vol. 4, no. 1 (2004), p. 19-42
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Differential and combined influence of implicit and explicit self-esteem (SE) on individual's response to negative feedback was examined in a controlled experiment. Sixty-three psychology undergraduates performed a simulated social interaction task, followed by an artificial negative feedback on their performance. Self-reported (explicit) SE was found to be predictive of participants' evaluation of the confederate who conveyed the feedback but was unrelated to their emotional response to feedback itself. The magnitude of this emotional response was predicted by an implicit SE measure derived from Implicit Association Test (IAT) but was unrelated to explicit SE. Findings are consistent with the theorized link between SE and sensitivity to criticism, thus supporting IAT's construct validity as a measure of implicit SE.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000957
Power, prestige and pedagogic identity : A tale of two programs recontextualizing teacher standards
- Authors: O'Meara, James , MacDonald, Doune
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 32, no. 2 (2004), p. 111-129
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- Description: Worldwide there has been a range of initiatives in the area of standards for teachers as part of a discourse of professionalism. In Australia there are a plethora of standards: state and territory frameworks, generic and subject-specific, systemic and cross-systemic, for pre-service, beginning and experienced teachers. Little has been written as to how teacher education programs are responding to the standards agenda. This paper positions standards as integral to the recontextualizing field (Bernstein, 2000) for teacher educators and their programs. Using Bernsteinian concepts of fields, identities and framing, we compare the responses of two physical education teacher education programs to their state's standards imperatives. The authors conclude that the academic orientation of the university, together with the framing of the standards, affect the degree of programmatic change it will undertake in response to the changes in teacher certification standards.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000802
The attitudes of Australian heterosexual university students towards the suicide of gay, lesbian and heterosexual peers
- Authors: Molloy, Mari , McLaren, Suzanne
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education Vol. 2, no. 2 (2004), p. 27-51
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- Description: This study sought to examine the attitudes of heterosexual university students to peer suicide when that peer was gay, lesbian, or heterosexual. University students (n = 206) completed several questionnaires, including The Suicide Attitude Vignette Experience. Results indicated that the suicide act was seen as more justified, acceptable, and necessary when the adolescent was gay or lesbian. Further, gay and lesbian youth suicide victims were shown significantly less empathy than heterosexual suicide victims. Participants' level of homophobia was found to be a significant predictor of attitudes toward gay and lesbian youth suicide. Results indicate that the peer group of gay and lesbian youth is unsupportive of their sexual orientation, and these attitudes may be an additional risk factor for gay and lesbian youth suicide.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000950
University education for all? Barriers to full inclusion of students with disabilities in Australian universities
- Authors: Ryan, Janette , Struhs, John
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Inclusive Education Vol. 8, no. 1 (2004), p. 73-90
- Full Text: false
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- Description: In Australia, anti-discrimination legislation and government policies have been introduced which aim to facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities in employment and education. However in the area of nursing, attitudinal barriers persist that effectively hinder the full participation of people with disabilities in nurse education programs. These attitudinal barriers prevail despite such legislative and policy changes, and run counter to changing community views about disability. Normative assumptions about the ideal attributes of nurses appear to influence these attitudes, especially in the area of admission of students with disabilities to nurse education programs per se, and to their participation in the practicum component of nurse education programs. This paper reports on research conducted in Victoria, Australia, by nurse academics and equity practitioners at three Victorian universities, into the barriers facing such students. The research examined the views of undergraduate student nurses, their lecturers and their clinical educators, nurse clinicians, and university disability practitioners about the participation of people with disabilities in nurse education programs. The research also sought to document their responses to a framework, developed through the research that aims to facilitate the inclusion of students with disabilities in undergraduate nursing programs. It did this against a pluralistic and technological milieu that in the researchers' view requires a more diverse mix within the nursing profession.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000761