Algebraic insight : The algebra needed to use CAS
- Authors: Pierce, Robyn , Stacey, Kaye
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Mathematics Teacher Vol. 95, no. 8 (2002), p. 622-627
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000145
Discovering EFL learners' perception of prior knowledge and its roles in reading comprehension
- Authors: Lin, Zheng
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Research in Reading Vol. 25, no. 5 (2002), p. 172-190
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This paper investigates EFL learners' perception of prior knowledge and its roles in reading comprehension. It is based on a survey conducted among 400 EFL students studying at secondary and tertiary levels in China. Through the analysis of the ranked multiple responses to the questions posed in the questionnaire, the paper shows that EFL students in mainland China believe that their command of English vocabulary plays a crucial role in their reading comprehension. However as their linguistic knowledge increases, they tend to attach less importance to their linguistic knowledge, especially the knowledge of English syntax and formal structures. At the same time, conceptual and sociocultural knowledge seems to gain greater importance. Furthermore, the perceived importance of linguistic knowledge seems to start diminishing around the end of secondary education, when EFL students have acquired a vocabulary of about 3000 words and the basic knowledge of English syntax and formal structures. The final replacement of linguistic knowledge by conceptual or sociocultural knowledge as the top factor that affects their reading comprehension seems to take place one year after the beginning of the tertiary EFL course. This may well be considered as an indication of the EFL threshold level for EFL students in China.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000045
'Not everyone has a perfect life' : Becoming somebody without school
- Authors: Robert, Hattam , Smyth, John
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Pedagogy, Culture & Society Vol. 11, no. 3 (2003), p. 379-398
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This article draws on the Students Completing Schooling Project, conducted in Australia, which has developed an account of early school leaving though listening to how 209 young people made sense of their experiences of leaving school. In this study, we were keen to understand the way young people deliberate upon how schooling fits into their plans for living a life: for 'becoming somebody'. We propose understanding early school leaving as a tactical manoeuvre and part of the complex process of identity formation. Our interview material indicates that a powerful 'interactive trouble' contributes to the non-completion of school and involves underestimating the demands of private life, especially for those living in poverty.
- Description: 2003003524
Literacy, technology and the economics of attention
- Authors: Lankshear, Colin , Bigum, Chris , Knobel, Michele , Rowan, Leonie
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature Vol. 3, no. (2003), p. 95-122
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This article is based on aproject aimed at generating practicalsuggestions based on research findings abouthow new technologies might be used to enhanceL1 literacy attainment in disadvantagedsettings. The project involved designing,implementing and researching an innovativeapproach to curriculum and pedagogy using newdigital technologies in language and literacyeducation within classroom settings involvingsmall groups of ''disadvantaged'' learners. Thepaper reports activity and findings from one offour study sites. It focuses on four Grade 9boys seen by their teachers as troublemakersand at risk of failing in English. Theresearchers draw on current conceptual andtheoretical work associated with the emergenceof an Attention Economy theory to design acollaborative activity around constructing awebsite, and to identify and analyse positiveliteracy learning outcomes associated with thepedagogical approach taken. The authors showhow this new perspective on attention informs acritique of conventional approaches to schoolorganization and classroom learning, and how itcan be used to envisage alternative approachesto understanding and teaching students whodisplay literacy learning difficulties atschool.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000454
Poetic representations in sport and physical education : Insider perspectives
- Authors: Sparkes, Andrew , Nilges, Lynda , Swan, Peter , Dowling, Fiona
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sport Education and Society Vol. 8, no. 2 (Oct 2003), p. 153-177
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: As part of the emergence of new writing practices in the social sciences, qualitative researchers have begun to harness the potential of poetic representations as a means of analysing social worlds and communicating their findings to others. To date, this genre has been little used within the domains of sport and physical education. Accordingly, in this article, we provide examples of poetic representations and seek to generate insights into the process of their construction by exploring the perspectives of their authors. A rationale for choosing this genre is outlined and the potential benefits and risks of making this choice for both the researcher and the audience are considered. It is concluded that poetic representations are a worthy addition to the analytical repertoire in qualitative research.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000563
Quality learning of physics : Conceptions held by high school and university teachers
- Authors: Brass, Catherine , Gunstone, Richard , Fensham, Peter
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Research in Science Education Vol. 33, no. 2 (2003), p. 245-271
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- Description: This paper reports an exploration of the conceptions of quality learning held by two samples of physics teachers - final year, high school physics teachers and academics teaching first year university physics. We begin by outlining our view of quality learning, that is a view of learning in which learners take control of their own learning and engage with active construction and reconstruction of their own meanings for concepts and phenomena. This view of quality learning recognises the crucial role of the affective dimension of learning on the extent to which students engage with and maintain such constructivist and metacognitive approaches to learning. The study explored the qualitatively different ways in which individuals conceptualise quality learning in physics, using semi structured interviews that explored aspects of learning that the respondents regarded as worth fostering in their classrooms. The interview approach was a modification of the Interview-About-Instances approach that allowed the possibility of interviewees suggesting instances of particular relevance to their view of quality learning. This process resulted in a considerable quantity of rich and complex data related to a large range of aspects of physics learning. These data are summarised here, and the qualitatively different conceptions of the respondents with respect to four significant aspects of physics learning are discussed. These aspects are: doing experimental work; linking physics to the real world; students taking responsibility for their own learning and being confident/feeling proud of what you can do. © 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
- Description: C1
The challenge of digital epistemologies
- Authors: Lankshear, Colin
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Education, Communication and Information Vol. 3, no. 2 (2003), p. 167-186
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This article identifies a range of changes associated with intensified digitization of daily life that require us to rethink what it means for people to know things and what kinds of things it may be most important to know. In short, we need digital epistemologies. The argument focuses on four key dimensions of change that have epistemological significance. These are 'changes in the world to be known', 'changes in conceptions of knowledge and processes of coming to know things', 'changes in the nature of knowers,' and 'changes in the relative significance of different modes of knowing.' Concrete everyday examples are provided for each dimension of change. On the basis of these examples and the arguments constructed around them it is concluded that conventional epistemology faces serious challenges. These challenges in turn have far-reaching implications for contemporary educational practice and educational research.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000456
The digital divide : Differences in computer use between home and school in low socio-economic households
- Authors: Angus, Lawrence , Sutherland-Smith, Wendy , Snyder, Ilana
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Educational Studies in Language and Literature Vol. 3, no. (2003), p. 5-19
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- Reviewed:
- Description: This article examines information and communication technologies (ICTs) practices in the home and school settings of four disadvantaged families. It reports the findings of a year-long study that investigated the nexus between computer-mediated literacy practices at home and at school and whether this inter-connectivity could make a difference in school success. The findings indicate that there was disjunction between home and school use. The ``digital divide'' exists for the families of this study, not in terms of access but in the gap between ICT practices at home and school. Schools in this study did not integrate ICT skills learned and demonstrated in the home environment into ICT practices at school. The study concludes that constructing pedagogical connections between home and school ICT practices may begin to bridge the ``digital divide''.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000427
Monitoring progress in algebra in a CAS active context: Symbol sense, algebraic insight and algebraic expectation
- Authors: Pierce, Robyn , Stacey, Kaye
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education Vol. 11, no. 1 (2004), p. 1-11
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- Description: The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers with a shared framework, terminology and tool to improve the coherence of research into learning mathematics with CAS and to assist its findings to accumulate into a significant body of knowledge. Experience with calculators in arithmetic led to a framework for number sense. There is an obvious parallel for algebra, where the development of algebraic insight to monitor symbolic work will assume high importance. We present a framework for algebraic insight then explore one aspect, algebraic expectation, in detail. Just as estimation is a valued skill for monitoring arithmetic calculations, we suggest that expectation should be a focus in teaching algebra, especially when symbolic technology is available. Through typical examples, we demonstrate the value of the algebraic insight framework for monitoring students’ work with CAS.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000924
Teaching linear functions in context with graphics calculators : Students' responses and the impact of the approach on their use of algebraic symbols
- Authors: Bardini, Caroline , Pierce, Robyn , Stacey, Kaye
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education Vol. 2, no. 3 (2004), p. 353-376
- Full Text:
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- Description: This study analyses some of the consequences of adopting a functional/modelling approach to the teaching of algebra. The teaching of one class of 17 students was observed over five weeks, with 15 students undertaking both pre- and post-tests and 6 students and the teacher being interviewed individually. Use of graphics calculators made the predominantly graphical approach feasible. Students made considerable progress in describing linear relationships algebraically. They commented favourably on several aspects of learning concepts through problems in real contexts and were able to set up equations to solve contextualised problems. Three features of the program exerted a triple influence on students use and understanding of algebraic symbols. Students concern to express features of the context was evident in some responses, as was the influence of particular contexts selected. Use of graphics calculators affected some students choice of letters. The functional approach was evident in the meanings ascribed to letters and rules. Students were very positively disposed to the calculators, and interesting differences were observed between the confidence with which they asked questions about the technology and the diffidence with which they asked mathematical questions.
- Description: 2003000925
What do Chinese and foreign universities value about their strategic alliances? Exploring a dimension of higher education alliances in a cross cultural context
- Authors: Willis, Mike
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Teaching in International Business Vol. 15, no. 2 (2004), p. 5-26
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: There are now over 5,000 alliances between Chinese and foreign universities but there is little research on how managers from the two sides value the various aspects of their educational alliances. This research finds that both sides valued a range of alliance levels, types, activities, sizes and structures but there were significant differences. Chinese respondents tended to prefer larger and higher level alliances which they perceived as being more long term, viable and indicative of foreign commitment. Foreign alliance managers liked to start their alliance associations in China with smaller scale alliance models which could then be expanded into larger and more complex alliances. Chinese alliance managers preferred an alliance model which aimed to establish a benchmark educational standard in China; foreign staff preferred what has been termed pragmatic alliances which were cheaper to organize and manage. Chinese respondents liked alliances which ensured that at least a range of foreign academic and administrative staff were located in China: foreign respondents preferred to fly staff in and out for particular projects and activities. More generally, foreign respondents discussed the value of alliances in business and income generation terms while their Chinese colleagues conceptualized the key value of alliances in terms of their ability to assist China to develop a highly skilled workforce capable of taking its place in an internationalized market economy.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003007137
Educating for sustainability : An innovative interactive CD and internet resource
- Authors: Kentish, Barry , Darby, Linda
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Teaching Science Vol. 51, no. 3 (2005), p. 30-33
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: There is concern that interest in environmental issues is declingin, particularly among young people.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001094
Science students' perceptions of engaging pedagogy
- Authors: Darby, Linda
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Research in Science Education Vol. 35, no. 4 (2005), p. 425-445
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: During their years of schooling, students develop perceptions about learning and teaching, including the ways in which teachers impact on their learning experiences. This paper presents student perceptions of teacher pedagogy as interpreted from a study focusing on students' experience of Year 7 science. A single science class of 11 to 12 year old students and their teacher were monitored for the whole school year, employing participant observation, and interviews with focus groups of students, their teacher and other key members of the school. Analysis focused on how students perceived the role of the teacher's pedagogy in constructing a learning environment that they considered conducive to engagement with science learning. Two areas of the teacher's pedagogy are explored from the student perspective of how these affect their learning: instructional pedagogy and relational pedagogy. Instructional pedagogy captures the way the instructional dialogue developed by the teacher drew the students into the learning process and enabled them to "understand" science. How the teacher developed a relationship with the students is captured as relational pedagogy, where students said that they learned better when teachers were passionate in their approach to teaching, provided a supportive learning environment and made them feel comfortable. The ways in which the findings support the direction for the middle years and science education are considered. © Springer 2005.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001317
Community-based sustainability : Conservation in the Ballarat region
- Authors: Kentish, Barry , Robottom, Ian
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Environmental Education Vol. 22, no. 2 (2006), p. 33-43
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Abstract: The discourse of sustainability is promoted internationally, with the United Nations declaring 2005-2014 as a Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. There is discussion concerning the nature, status and significance of Education for Sustainability and its relationship with the somewhat established discourse of environmental education. This debate requires continuing theorising and one approach is to reflect critically on specific examples of sustainability within specific communities. This article seeks to promote further discussion about sustainability, and to contribute to ongoing theorisation about Education for Sustainability, by considering a particular instance - that of environmental sustainability in the Ballarat region of Victoria. The case study suggests that implementation of this local environmental sustainability strategy was dominated by technocratic and individualistic ideologies.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001641
Get Ready Get Set... Flow in sport as a model for enhancing vocal peformance
- Authors: Bourne, Tracy
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Australian National Association for Teaching,
- Full Text: false
Harry Potter and the terrors of the toilet
- Authors: Mills, Alice
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Childrens Literature in Education Vol. 37, no. 1 (2006), p. 1-13
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- Description: The Harry Potter series focuses upon the toilet as a site for heroic action and a threshold between worlds as well as a more traditional place for boys to be bullied and girls to weep. This article offers a Kristevan reading of the toilets as abject in Harry Potter, and shows how this concept helps us make sense of wider issues within the series, especially Harry's uneasy relation to the maternal. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003002843
Retro Future: Adapting a Medieval process as means to redefine contemporary (Australian) society
- Authors: Mann, Allan
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The First International Conference on the Arts in Society Vol. 1, no. 2 (15-18 August 2006 2006), p. 121-128
- Full Text:
- Description: 2003007056
Student response to the IT handicap
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Beales, Brad
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International journal of learning Vol. 12, no. 10 (2006), p. 39-43
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- Description: This paper investigates undergraduates' innovative reflection-as a scripted and performed comedy routine in their School Revue-on their introduction as pre-service teachers (PSTs) to the discourses of Information Technologies (ITs) in teaching in schools. It is a small case study that we present here, mondful of the lack of generalisability that this presents, but we feel that it does lend itself to a close examination of a wide array of issues, experiences and outcomes in this small group that wrote and implemented the sketch in the Revue. Given the primacy of the role of language in any educational undertaking, it is perhaps not surprising that the focus of this sketch is on language, particularly as it is received by students, in that group of novice IT for Education students.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001862
Towards a pedagogy of group work : Working the rhetoric of group work in an undergaduate curriculum and pedagogy unit at the University of Ballarat
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Davis, Robert , Russell, Rupert , Menon, E.
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Learning Vol. 12, no. 10 (2006), p. 205-211
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- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001856
Trends in economic degree enrolments within Australia 1990-2004
- Authors: Millmow, Alex
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australasian Journal of Economics Education Vol. 3, no. 1&2 (2006), p. 111-124
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- Description: This paper argues that unlike the American experience where economic degree enrolments have now staged a complete recovery from the decline in the 1990s the situation in Australia remains subdued.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003002154