Description:
This study employs a modified form of the Fisher 16-item Feeling Good, Living Life measure of spiritual well-being (assessing quality of relationships across four domains: self, family, nature and God) among a sample of 1,328 students drawn from year five and year six classes within Church in Wales primary schools, alongside measures of frequency of worship attendance and frequency of personal prayer. The data demonstrate frequency of personal prayer is a much stronger predictor than frequency of worship attendance in respect of spiritual well-being. This finding is consistent with the view that personal prayer is a key factor in the formation of individual spirituality.
What would you like? Identifying the required characteristics of an industry-wide incident reporting and learning system for the led outdoor activity sector
Description:
The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics that led outdoor activity providers agree are necessary for the development of a new industry-wide incident reporting and learning system (UPLOADS). The study involved: 1) a literature review to identify a set of characteristics that are considered to be hallmarks of successful reporting and learning systems in other safety-critical domains; and (2) the presentation of these characteristics to 25 Australian led outdoor activity providers using a two round modified-Delphi technique to obtain consensus views on their relative importance in this domain. Thirteen out of 30 characteristics were endorsed as "essential" for developing an incident reporting and learning system for the led outdoor activity sector, and a further 13 were endorsed as "required". "Essential" characteristics primarily related to operational or practical characteristics of the system, while "required" characteristics primarily related to system infrastructure, data quality and the basis for developing of countermeasures to address identified injury risks. The findings indicate that although led outdoor activity providers are primarily concerned that the demands of reporting do not adversely impact on their day to day operations, they also recognise that data collection methods and countermeasure development need to be of high quality. The paper concludes by highlighting some potential strategies for implementing the characteristics considered "essential" and "required".
Description:
The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics that led outdoor activity providers agree are necessary for the development of a new industry-wide incident reporting and learning system (UPLOADS). The study involved: 1) a literature review to identify a set of characteristics that are considered to be hallmarks of successful reporting and learning systems in other safety-critical domains; and (2) the presentation of these characteristics to 25 Australian led outdoor activity providers using a two round modified-Delphi technique to obtain consensus views on their relative importance in this domain. Thirteen out of 30 characteristics were endorsed as "essential" for developing an incident reporting and learning system for the led outdoor activity sector, and a further 13 were endorsed as "required". "Essential" characteristics primarily related to operational or practical characteristics of the system, while "required" characteristics primarily related to system infrastructure, data quality and the basis for developing of countermeasures to address identified injury risks. The findings indicate that although led outdoor activity providers are primarily concerned that the demands of reporting do not adversely impact on their day to day operations, they also recognise that data collection methods and countermeasure development need to be of high quality. The paper concludes by highlighting some potential strategies for implementing the characteristics considered "essential" and "required".
Description:
Australia has around 1,000 Men’s Sheds – informal community- based workshops offering men beyond paid work somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to. They have proven to be of great benefit for older men's learning, health and wellbeing, social integration, and for developing a positive male identity focusing on community responsibility and care. A Men’s Shed is typically self- organized and 'bottom-up', which is also a key success factor, since it provides participants with a sense of ownership and empowerment. Men's Sheds are now spreading rapidly internationally, but the uptake of the idea varies with the local and national context, and so too may the consequences. Our paper describes how the Men's Shed travelled to Denmark, a country with considerably more 'social engineering' than in Australia, where Sheds were opened in 2015, via a 'top-down' initiative sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Health. Using data from the study of the web pages of the Danish 'Shed' organizations, from interviews with the central organizer, and from visits and interviews with participants and local organizers at two Danish Men's sheds, we describe how the idea of the Men's Shed on the Australian model was interpreted and translated at central and local levels. Preliminary data indicate that similar positive benefits as exist in Australia may result, provided that local ownership is emphasized.
Description:
Learning through life experiences as distinct from learning through the academy and courses have become increasingly important themes in later life adult education research and practice. Whilst the dominant discourse for most younger people is still about education and training for students in standardised and accredited courses, there is increasing concern to find ways of giving voice to empower people otherwise excluded, disempowered or missing from mainstream education, learning, research and the community. This paper specifically explores and actively mirrors ways of using techniques developed through academic autoethnography to empower older people to share and make sense of the lives they have lived by exploring some of the unexamined assumptions that govern everyday life, behaviour and decision making including in the many, often very informal contexts well beyond educational institutions, the academy and paid work. In essence, like autoethnography, our paper seeks to identify, interrogate and celebrate ways of revealing and displaying multiple layers of consciousness connecting the personal to the cultural for sharing and celebrating diversity in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Australian Journal of Adult Learning is the property of Copyright Agency Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Description:
Due to changes to Australia's economic landscape (e.g., falling productivity and the end of the mining boom) and the emergence of disruptive digital technologies, the shape of the Australian workforce is rapidly changing and the development of STEM skills is an imperative. There has been a decline, however, in the number of students studying STEM subjects in senior secondary school, and the underrepresentation of females in many STEM disciplines further compounds the problem. The University of New England is a regional Australian university where a large proportion of students are from rural and regional areas, are mature-aged, and come from low SES backgrounds. Many commence their tertiary studies in STEM with diverse backgrounds, often without the necessary assumed knowledge. A mentoring program was designed to assist female students develop STEM-related study and career goals. Important components of the program included: face-to-face and online training and professional development for participants, two mentors (one academic and one industry-based) per student, accessibility for students studying at a distance, guest speakers, and outreach activities promoting STEM to the wider community. This program could be readily adapted for other cohorts of students (e.g., indigenous students) and expanded (e.g., for all students embarking on STEM studies). The program helped students recognise and address potential roadblocks to a sustained and successful STEM-based career, build confidence in pursuing study and career goals, and develop sound decision-making skills in career planning. For mentors, the program offered STEM-related professional development opportunities. Furthermore, academic mentors reported a positive impact on their approach to STEM teaching as a result of participation in the program.
Description:
Social networking offers teachers and learners exciting opportunities to communicate. Web 2.0 and its synchronous communications platforms provide new avenues for teachers to deliver curriculum and facilitate learning. Further, they provide new avenues for students to engage and intensify their own learning. Being able to chat in real-time with a teacher, usually via face-to-face discussions, is something that many students studying in on-campus (or day) mode take for granted, and is something that distance or off-campus students are generally unable to experience. In the evolving, flexible-learning tertiary environment, viable and effective computer mediated communication (CMC) alternatives to face-to-face teaching need to be explored. These alternatives will only work if they prove useful to students. This article considers student reactions to social media as a teaching tool, probing its benefits and limitations. Over the course of a semester, third year on- and off-campus students communicated with an academic, outside lecture times, via the social networking site facebook®. Students were allowed to ask any questions they had that related to the unit. At the end of the semester students were provided with a 10-item questionnaire asking them to evaluate their experience. This study looked at a specific aspect of social networking — synchronous text-based chat — and the students’ perceptions of its usefulness for their learning
Description:
Higher education institutions, and the way education is delivered and supported, are being transformed by digital technologies. Internationally, institutions are increasingly incorporating online technologies into delivery frameworks and administration – both through internal learning management systems (LMS) and external social networking sites (SNSs). This study aims to explore how higher education students in a regional Australian dual-sector institute use and manage SNSs for personal and study-related activities and their perceptions of how this impacts their educational experiences. This mixed-methods study involved a quantitative and qualitative survey of 355 vocational training and higher education students and in-depth focus groups with ten higher education students. Four key themes were identified through thematic analysis: SNSs as a tool for fostering peer connectedness with fellow students; deliberate and distinct variation between personal and educational use of SNSs; resistance to external SNSs within education settings; and, need for a balance between digital and face-to-face learning and connectedness. Implications for curriculum design and delivery, and development of support for students in diverse learning contexts, are considered.
Description:
Higher education institutions, and the way education is delivered and supported, are being transformed by digital technologies. Internationally, institutions are increasingly incorporating online technologies into delivery frameworks and administration – both through internal learning management systems (LMS) and external social networking sites (SNSs). This study aims to explore how higher education students in a regional Australian dual-sector institute use and manage SNSs for personal and study-related activities and their perceptions of how this impacts their educational experiences. This mixed-methods study involved a quantitative and qualitative survey of 355 vocational training and higher education students and in-depth focus groups with ten higher education students. Four key themes were identified through thematic analysis: SNSs as a tool for fostering peer connectedness with fellow students; deliberate and distinct variation between personal and educational use of SNSs; resistance to external SNSs within education settings; and, need for a balance between digital and face-to-face learning and connectedness. Implications for curriculum design and delivery, and development of support for students in diverse learning contexts, are considered.
Description:
This paper explores the complex and changing nature of adventure as a form of cultural practice. Borrowing from Joseph Conrad's memoirs The Mirror of The Sea (1907), sea kayaking is contextualized here as a journey that takes place just as much between 'landfall and departure' as it does between the paddler's ears (i.e., in the paddler's mind). That is to say, to gain useful insights into the experience of sea kayaking it is necessary to consider both the external and internal journey of the paddler, and the relationship that exists between these two phenomena. Using tenets of personality psychology which presents new ways of understanding narrative identity, we will 'waymark' textual vignettes from four modern day sea kayaking adventure narratives to explore ideas of self, narrative identity and meaning making. These key passages aim to reveal how the adventurer's story is influenced by "external factors that shape the public expression of stories about the self" (McAdams & McLean, 2013, p. 233). Summary discussion will address potential implications for contemporary outdoor adventure education, offering a way of stimulating reflective practice about the culturally and textually constructed nature of adventure.
Description:
This paper explores the complex and changing nature of adventure as a form of cultural practice. Borrowing from Joseph Conrad's memoirs The Mirror of The Sea (1907), sea kayaking is contextualized here as a journey that takes place just as much between 'landfall and departure' as it does between the paddler's ears (i.e., in the paddler's mind). That is to say, to gain useful insights into the experience of sea kayaking it is necessary to consider both the external and internal journey of the paddler, and the relationship that exists between these two phenomena. Using tenets of personality psychology which presents new ways of understanding narrative identity, we will 'waymark' textual vignettes from four modern day sea kayaking adventure narratives to explore ideas of self, narrative identity and meaning making. These key passages aim to reveal how the adventurer's story is influenced by "external factors that shape the public expression of stories about the self" (McAdams & McLean, 2013, p. 233). Summary discussion will address potential implications for contemporary outdoor adventure education, offering a way of stimulating reflective practice about the culturally and textually constructed nature of adventure.
Description:
The Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) recognises education as a lifelong process, and there is a need for continuing education and training to be available to rural communities. This paper examines the satisfaction levels of accounting continual professional development (CPD) when provided by a rural accounting professional body. Prior research has noted that rural accountants are disadvantaged when completing CPD because professional accounting bodies are city centric, and cost is prohibitive. Results of this study show that when CPD is locally provided this led to high levels of satisfaction. Implications for professional accounting bodies and rural accountants are discussed, as well as limitations and areas for further research.
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:
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:
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.