Students' perceptions of assessment process : questionnaire
- Authors: Waldrip, Bruce , Fisher, Darrell , Dorman, Jeffrey
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 5th International Conference on Science, Mathematics and Technology Education. Science Mathematics and Technology Education: Beyond Cultural Boundaries
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- Description: Research aimed at developing and validating an instrument to assess middle school students’ perceptions of assessment was conducted. Following a review of literature, a tentative 6-scale instrument of 48 items was trialled with a sample of 320 students in 7 Australian schools. Based on internal consistency reliability data and exploratory factor analysis, refinement decisions resulted in a 5-scale instrument called the Student Perceptions of Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ). The scales of the SPAQ are Congruence with Planned Learning, Authenticity, Student Consultation, Transparency, and Diversity. A sample of 3,098 students in 150 classrooms was used to validate the final SPAQ.
Student perceptions of personalised learning : development and validation of a questionnaire with regional secondary students
- Authors: Waldrip, Bruce , Cox, Peter , Deed, Craig , Dorman, Jeffrey , Edwards, Debra , Farrelly, Cathleen , Keeffe, Mary , Lovejoy, Valerie , Mow, Lucy , Prain, Vaughan , Sellings, Peter , Yager, Zali
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Learning Environments Research Vol. 17, no. 3 (2014), p. 355-370
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- Description: This project sought to evaluate regional students’ perceptions of their readiness to learn, assessment processes, engagement, extent to which their learning is personalised and to relate these to academic efficacy, academic achievement, and student well-being. It also examined teachers’ perceptions of students’ readiness to learn, the assessment process, engagement, and the extent to which students’ learning is personalised. The sample involved students in years 7–10 from six Victorian secondary schools. An instrument Personalised Learning Environment Questionnaire (PLQ) was developed to measure students’ perceptions of the factors effecting the implementation of Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs). It employed the latest scales to assess a range of PLP indicator variables, with all scales modified for use in an Australian context, and the total number of items kept to a minimum. Only scales more sensitive to PLPs were used to minimise the length of the instrument. There were three outcome variables: academic efficacy, academic achievement, and student well-being. The PLPs were assessed through scales that assess several contributing, distinct dimensions: selfdirected learning readiness, personal achievement, goal orientation, learning environment, personalised teaching and learning initiatives, curriculum entitlement and choice, and perceptions of assessment for learning. The trail PLQ was administered to 220 students, resulting in a 19 scale questionnaire with three or four items per scale. This paper reveals good data to model fit for the majority of items and each scale had good reliability. The paper describes the analytic techniques and results, how the instrument was refined and identifies common and uncommon student perceptions based on a post hoc analysis. The main study consisted of 2,407 students from four schools in the Bendigo Education Plan. They responded to this refined 19 scale version of the PLQ that was developed from the trial PLQ. All scales had satisfactory internal consistency reliability. © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
Explaining Newton's laws of motion : Using student reasoning through representations to develop conceptual understanding
- Authors: Waldrip, Bruce , Prain, Vaughan , Sellings, Peter
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Instructional Science Vol. 41, no. 1 (2013), p. 165-189
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- Description: The development of students' reasoning and argumentation skills in school science is currently attracting strong research interest. In this paper we report on a study where we aimed to investigate student learning on the topic of motion when students, guided by their teacher, responded to a sequence of representational challenges in which their representational claims functioned as both process and product for reasoning about this topic. This qualitative case study entailed collection of data through classroom observation, transcripts of student/teacher interactions, and interviews with teacher and students. We found that students participated in various reasoning processes in generating and critiquing their own and other students' representations on the topic of motion, contributing to positive engagement with the topic and conceptual understanding. We identified several pedagogical principles that support this learning. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
Ecopoetic practice : Writing the wounded land
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies Vol. 12, no. 1 (2012), p. 15-21
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- Description: In this article the author discusses the experience of poetic writing as a form of autoethnographic practice. Poetic writing, more than other textual forms, offers considerable potential to represent the journey toward "empathetic insidedness" between author, culture, and a sense of place. The author draws examples from his recently published collection of poems titled The Song of the Wounded River. The poems were first drafted on a long canoe journey down the river to the old farm pioneered by the author's ancestors over a century ago. In an ecopoetics of place the writer strives to reconcile differences between past, present, and future and between their experiences of inner and outer landscapes. In an echo of Romanticism the ecopoet writes to heal the world's wounds through singing the land. Seen in this light poetry and empathy provide the counterbalance to science and rationality. Both are needed to sustain the human relationship with the Earth. Humans damage places not because they fail to understand them, but because they are yet to feel for them, like kin. This article draws together and discusses the physical search for place, the act of poetic writing, and the cultural significance of this kind of work. © 2012 SAGE Publications.
Overseas trained nurses working in regional and rural practice settings: do we understand the issues?
- Authors: Wellard, Sally , Stockhausen, Lynette
- Date: 2010
- Type: Journal article
- Relation: Rural and Remote Health Vol. 10, no. 3 (2010), p. 1458
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- Description: Introduction: Issues associated with the employment of overseas trained nurses (OTNs) in regional and rural practice settings have received little professional attention in Australia. The global nursing workforce crisis has dominated discussion about the migration of nurses. This review explored the contemporary understandings of the employment of OTNs in Australian regional and rural practice settings. Methods: An integrative literature review was undertaken to incorporate a range of literature types related to OTN employment. A search of electronic databases and relevant web pages was undertaken for the publication period 1995-2008. Integrative literature reviews incorporate assessment of empirical research as well as theoretical and opinion-based literature to present a broad synthesis of the topic of interest. Following identification of relevant literature, thematic analysis was undertaken to reveal patterns and relationships among concepts facilitating synthesis of findings across the range of literature. Results: There is an abundance of literature exploring the international migration of nurses that demonstrates an imbalance of migration from poorer countries to more affluent countries. This review identified a number of economic and ethical issues, together with risks for potential exploitation of migrant nurses. There was minimal literature specific to the experiences of OTNs working in regional and rural areas. However, there has been some exploration of issues associated with medical recruitment to rural areas. Conclusions: The employment of OTNs is accompanied by complex and varied issues which require resourceful and proactive responses by healthcare employers. Further research is needed to understand the challenges OTNs have in working in rural settings, particularly in Australia. Increased understanding in clinical settings of factors that influence nurses to migrate, as well as the range of barriers they face in working and living in host countries, may assist in the retention of these nurses.
Surveying the landscape five years on : An examination of how teachers, and the teaching of Australia's shared-history, is constructed within Australian academic literature
- Authors: Weuffen, Sara
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Teaching and Teacher Education Vol. 78, no. (2019), p. 117-124
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- Description: The purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review of academic debates relating to the Australian Curriculum: History (ACH), in particular subjective constructions of teachers, and the teaching of Australian History and Aboriginal peoples' and Torres Strait Islanders’ histories. The literature reviewed from a socio-political lens, examines functions of power/knowledge operating in discourses of education to illuminate how teachers, Aboriginal peoples, and Torres Strait Islanders, take up and/or resist subjectivities constructing them. Drawing from the toolbox of post-structuralism, this literature review troubles the notion of the non-Indigenous perspective as dominant, and the teacher as an active, non-critical participant in the process.
Gender, power and managerialism in universities
- Authors: White, Kate , Carvalho, Teresa , Riordan, Sarah
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management Vol. 33, no. 2 (2011), p. 179-188
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- Description: This article explores the role of senior managers in consolidating and interpreting new managerialism in higher education in Australia, South Africa and Portugal, and perceptions of potential effects on gender. The impact of managerialism on decision-making in Australia was increased centralisation with the Vice Chancellor operating as a Chief Executive Officer; in South Africa tension existed between collegial and managerial models evident in power struggles between Vice Chancellors and faculties, plus overt risk and strong political considerations; while in Portugal decision making remained collegial with Rectors seeing themselves as primus inter pares (first among equals). The major finding was that while women as senior managers had an increased capacity to impact on decision-making in managerial universities, mainly related to 'soft' management skills, these were not valued in a competitive management culture strongly focused on research output. Thus managerialism presents a great challenge for women in senior management in higher education.
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
Why do Chinese universities seek foreign university partners: An Investigation of the motivating factors behind a significant area of alliance activity
- Authors: Willis, Mike
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Marketing for Higher Education Vol. 16, no. 1 (2006), p. 115-14
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- Description: Considerable research has been undertaken into the issue of Sino foreign strategic alliances in the area of higher education, particularly since the late 1990s, when universities in China signed an increasing large number of alliance agreements with foreign universities (Willis 2000, 2005a). Although there has been considerable research regarding various aspects of these alliances, including the types of activities undertaken, and the levels of alliances formed in this sector (Hayhoe 1989, 1996; Willis 2000), there has been less evaluation of the factors which have motivated the majority of Chinese universities to actively seek suitable foreign partners for collaboration particularly in regard to the delivery of activities and programs within China. This research identifies a range of factors driving the Chinese desire to form alliances with foreign universities. These in general relate to the special and somewhat idiosyncratic role of universities as agents of social and economic change in China. To effect this change they have often sought foreign partners who are able to assist China to develop a market economy. Universities within the Chinese top 100 university system have become increasingly selective in their choice of foreign universities and are requiring far higher levels of commitment than hitherto. It is now not unusual for foreign universities to deliver degree programs in China, and not just via study abroad and distance means. Gradually, over time, Chinese universities have become more discerning, particular and careful in the selection of foreign university partners. To this end, this paper identifies three distinct phases of Chinese university selection of foreign partners, dating back to 1978. The current phase, which emerged around 2000-2001 underscores the growing desire on the part of Chinese universities to select better quality, more committed and longer-term foreign partners-partly an issue of signing agreements with fewer, but better universities than in the past when a more “scattergun” approach was utilised.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003007125
Retaining a foothold on the slippery paths of academia : University women, indirect discrimination, and the academic marketplace
- Authors: Wilson, Jacqueline , Marks, Genee , Noone, Lynne , Hamilton-Mackenzie, Jennifer
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Gender and Education Vol. 22, no. 5 (2010), p. 535-545
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- Description: This paper examines indirect discrimination in Australian universities that tends to obstruct and delay women's academic careers. The topic is defined and contextualised via a 1998 speech by the Australian Human Rights Commission's Sex Discrimination Commissioner, juxtaposed with a brief contemporaneous exemplar. The paper discusses the prevalence of women among casual and fixed-term academic workers, and the contrasting low numbers of women in senior academic positions. It is argued that the neo-liberal 'marketisation' of higher education, which still prevails, has fostered a number of indirectly discriminatory practices and conditions that substantially disadvantage women. A selection of studies of the problem are critiqued. It is argued that a broad statistical methodology is inadequate due to its tendency to 'homogenise' the academy and its component individuals, in the process giving scope for unjustified optimism among university policy-makers. A particulate approach is advocated, acknowledging the wide variation between and within universities, and the range of hidden difficulties individual women academics can face. It is concluded that despite apparent reforms over the past decade, the situation of women has improved little in practical terms.
- Description: 2003007854
Enhancing learning, teaching, assessment and curriculum in higher education : Theory, cases, practices
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Higher Education Research & Development Vol. 29, no. 2 (2010), p. 212-214
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From supervising practica to mentoring professional experience : Possibilities for education students
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Teaching Education Vol. 16, no. 4 (2005), p. 349-357
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- Description: This paper explores the possibilities presented in examining taken for granted aspects of pre-service teacher practicum practices, especially in terms of naming and positioning within teacher education, as they present at a regional university in Ballarat, Australia. The University of Ballarat has introduced a new P-10 teacher education course which is about to enter its fourth year. The course has focused some of its attention on traditional aspects of paid supervisory and assessment roles of practising teachers in relation to student teachers. As a result, changes have been made, with reconfigured foci on the roles of both practising teachers and undergraduate students, as well as those of other staff who support the new programme. One such focus is on what Schön described as "indeterminate zones of practice," and the result has been a research programme exploring those zones as part of mentorship in relation to mandated supervision and assessment requirements for graduate registration. Examination of data provided by transcripts of focus groups conducted with the students, mentors, community coordinators, and university teachers involved in the programmes suggests possibilities that may serve to inform efforts to meet a major part of the challenge to better prepare pre-service teachers in finding innovative and relevant ways to improve practicum experience from the outset of undergraduate education. Those involved in the programme at the University of Ballarat have examined assumptions underlying participants' roles in relation to partnerships within communities of practice in relation to the roles of university and educators in the field, as well as critically examining concepts of mentoring that guide reflection on practice and scaffold student learning. Such considerations go beyond concerns of individual pre-service teacher classroom performances, focusing on the generalizability of pre-service teacher experience in relation to the profession as a whole. © 2005 School of Education, University of Queensland.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001329
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
A clash of chronotopes: Adult reading of children's and young adult literature
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Pass, Charlotte , Jampole, Ellen
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The International Journal of the Book Vol. 7, no. 4 (2010), p. 89-97
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- Description: In this paper we explore ways in which adults engage children's and young adult books in primary and secondary schools in relation to Bakhtin's (1981) posited chronotope. We base our discussion on an analysis of experienced practising teachers' own engagement with books that are offered to children and young adults as part of teachers' didactic activities in developing literacy skills and literature appreciation in classrooms, drawing on the concept of the chronotope as going beyond the didactic to embrace the artistic and cultural in children's responses to their reading and writing. The suggestive possibilities of the chronotope as an organising feature of teaching reading and writing in a number of genres and production of text types, affords new ways of approaching reading by teachers, at the same time as it invites these teachers to examine their own responses to the literature that they engage in the process. The concept of the chronotope opens up spaces for literary and pedagogical responses that derive from children's own experience of their world, but we argue that teacher responses that are restricted by their own views of the world may inhibit a full exploration by children of the possibilities that the books that they encounter as didactically bound and culturally limiting.
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