Description:
Increased access to university by students with different backgrounds and capabilities from those in the past has posed, and continues to pose, dilemmas for lecturers who seek effective ways of addressing the challenge of undergraduate literacy and learning. To this end, we have been engaged on a Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development (CUTSD) funded program that we call TULIP (Tertiary Undergraduate Literacy Integration Program) which focuses on the integration of tertiary literacy within content teaching as a means of enhancing student literacy. The broad aim of the TULIP Project was to build on collaborative and reflective teaching and learning partnerships between lecturers and students, between lecturers across two universities, and between lecturers in disparate disciplines. The project developed, trialed and evaluated a suite of learner-centred literacy strategies that comprise the TULIP Resource Kit which foregrounds the embeddedness of tertiary literacy within content teaching.
Description:
This paper reports on the results of a study of the learning preferences of adult males in small, rural Australian towns. The researcher employed a survey of men in each of ten towns in 2004 to explore and compare their learning experiences and preferences-in adult and community education (ACE) programs on one hand, and in community-based volunteer organisations (fire services, landcare senior citizens and football clubs) on the other. The research confirms the considerable importance for men of regular learning experienced in less formal learning contexts as community volunteers, and highlights the barriers ICT poses for older men.
Description:
This paper reports on the results of a study of the learning preferences of adult males in small, rural Australian towns. The researcher employed a survey of men in each of ten towns in 2004 to explore and compare their learning experiences and preferences-in adult and community education (ACE) programs on one hand, and in community-based volunteer organisations (fire services, landcare senior citizens and football clubs) on the other. The research confirms the considerable importance for men of regular learning experienced in less formal learning contexts as community volunteers, and highlights the barriers ICT poses for older men.
Description:
Reflects on the articles in this themed issue on reflective practice. Notes that these teacher/authors have been influenced by prior learning, past experience, feelings, attitudes, values, the school constraints on the learning environment, and their own assumptions about teaching. Describes how teachers have formed a learning community to increase awareness of reflective teaching.
Description:
This article reports the outcomes of a study on the nature of the change process when a regional tourism network seeks to adopt e-commerce. The study builds on Rogers' seminal work on the diffusion of innovations and makes a unique contribution to existing ICT diffusion studies by its focus on the nature of the network links and by its application of an action-oriented methodology to untangle the effects of the embedded network structure. The study suggests a strong relationship between diffusion and network positioning, both in terms of place (status and position in the network) and space (the geographic make-up of the network). Diffusion additionally hinged on network cohesion and actors' trust in and engagement with the network.
Description:
This article reports the outcomes of a study on the nature of the change process when a regional tourism network seeks to adopt e-commerce. The study builds on Rogers' seminal work on the diffusion of innovations and makes a unique contribution to existing ICT diffusion studies by its focus on the nature of the network links and by its application of an action-oriented methodology to untangle the effects of the embedded network structure. The study suggests a strong relationship between diffusion and network positioning, both in terms of place (status and position in the network) and space (the geographic make-up of the network). Diffusion additionally hinged on network cohesion and actors' trust in and engagement with the network.
Description:
Narrative or story telling has long been used to structure and organise human experience. In contrast to logical models of reasoning, narrative models enable complex situations to be understood and recalled by humans readily. There is also some indication that narrative models represent the way in which jurors weigh up the veracity of legal evidence. In this work a narrative model is integrated into a logical reasoning model for the purpose of advancing a learning environment that promises to be engaging and effective. The narrative model includes a representation of the point of a story and a simple story grammar. The learning environment is designed to enable the automated generation of plausible scenarios representing a variety of family law property division cases told from the point of view of numerous characters.
Description:
Corio Bay Innovators, trading as dal Gourmet Café and Catering, is an innovative supported training and employment service that operates a gourmet catering service and two retail cafes in Geelong. Currently, dal has around forty staff who receive federal or state disability funding, and about half as many support staff. Rather than being seen as an agency providing supported employment, dal is regarded as a successful and competitive business that is very popular locally, and is in demand in the hospitality sector. Yet dal’s primary purpose is not the friendly service, great atmosphere, and delicious food, but the creation of a range of innovative employment opportunities in a caring work environment for adults who have been labeled as having disabilities. Most significant, however, is the extremely strong emphasis on inclusion in the local community, in combination with an actively supportive and empowering workplace. Staff at dal have voted that they do not want to be labelled as having disabilities but to have it noted that they have special needs. While the choice of such terminology may not necessarily be in line with current “politically correct” discourse, it is a choice that is respected at dal. It is a description worn with pride in difference and collective identification adopted by other oppressed communities and acknowledged by Meekosha (2000) and Barton (2003). While exploring dal as a model of best practice in training young people for the hospitality industry, this paper will explore the conflicts raised by contrasts between the voices of the staff at dal and the discourses of educators and trainers, in an attempt to develop a sustainable model for the future.
Description:
In this study more than 40% of the 355 student nurses who completed a pre-test, involving comparisons of decimal numbers, made errors that indicate an incomplete or incorrect conceptual understanding. This includes students who are sometimes able to achieve 100% on drug calculations tests. Seven test items with error rates of between 10% and 26% form the focus of our discussion. A sub-group of the students attended a one-hour remedial intervention using various physical materials to give conceptual meaning to decimal numbers. A matched post-test three months after the intervention, detected a statistically significant improvement for the intervention students but not for those who only practiced drug calculation procedures. Conceptual teaching for number sense is needed to underpin procedures.
Description:
In this study more than 40% of the 355 student nurses who completed a pre-test, involving comparisons of decimal numbers, made errors that indicate an incomplete or incorrect conceptual understanding. This includes students who are sometimes able to achieve 100% on drug calculations tests. Seven test items with error rates of between 10% and 26% form the focus of our discussion. A sub-group of the students attended a one-hour remedial intervention using various physical materials to give conceptual meaning to decimal numbers. A matched post-test three months after the intervention, detected a statistically significant improvement for the intervention students but not for those who only practiced drug calculation procedures. Conceptual teaching for number sense is needed to underpin procedures.
Description:
Adults in Australia have tended to return relatively recently to learning in patterns that are significantly different by gender. These patterns of gender segmentation for adults are particularly noticeable in the findings of recent research by the author into adult, community and vocational learning in small and remote towns in Victoria. The issues associated with such patterns form the basis of this exploratory paper.
Description:
Adults in Australia have tended to return relatively recently to learning in patterns that are significantly different by gender. These patterns of gender segmentation for adults are particularly noticeable in the findings of recent research by the author into adult, community and vocational learning in small and remote towns in Victoria. The issues associated with such patterns form the basis of this exploratory paper.
Description:
Narrative or story telling has long been used to structure and organise human experience. In contrast to logical models of reasoning, narrative models enable complex situations to be understood and recalled by humans readily. In this work a narrative model is integrated into a logical reasoning model for the purpose of advancing a learning environment that promises to be engaging and effective. The narrative model includes a representation of the point of a story and a simple story grammar. The logical reasoning model is based on an argumentation model. The learning environment is designed to enable the automated generation of plausible scenarios that involves an intensive care unit nurse responding to a low oxygen level alarm.
Description:
Eligibility traces have been shown to substantially improve the convergence speed of temporal difference learning algorithms, by maintaining a record of recently experienced states. This paper presents an extension of conventional eligibility traces (compiled traces) which retain additional information about the agent’s experience within the environment. Empirical results show that compiled traces outperform conventional traces when applied to policy evaluation tasks using a tabular representation of the state values.
Description:
Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) are powerful tools for both doing and learning mathematics. They may be used to perform algorithmic routines both quickly and correctly but harnessing this power in a manner which is effective for promoting learning is not trivial. Research undertaken with both secondary school and undergraduate students clearly indicates that, while students quickly come to appreciate the availability of CAS to check their answers, several key factors influence the development of their use of the facility of CAS to extend both access to mathematics and support learning of mathematical concepts. First, the institutional value which the technology is afforded influences the degree to which students are willing to apply themselves to the task of learning technical skills necessary to work with CAS. Second, the use of multiple representations may both increase students’ conceptual understanding and provide them with alternative methods through which to progress solution of problems. Finally, students need to be guided in judicious use of CAS. This will involve teaching students to be discriminating in their use of technology for functional purposes, that is, to find solutions to difficult or time consuming problems, and strategic in their use of CAS to explore patterns and link representations in order to gain greater insight into mathematical processes and concepts.
Description:
Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) are powerful tools for both doing and learning mathematics. They may be used to perform algorithmic routines both quickly and correctly but harnessing this power in a manner which is effective for promoting learning is not trivial. Research undertaken with both secondary school and undergraduate students clearly indicates that, while students quickly come to appreciate the availability of CAS to check their answers, several key factors influence the development of their use of the facility of CAS to extend both access to mathematics and support learning of mathematical concepts. First, the institutional value which the technology is afforded influences the degree to which students are willing to apply themselves to the task of learning technical skills necessary to work with CAS. Second, the use of multiple representations may both increase students’ conceptual understanding and provide them with alternative methods through which to progress solution of problems. Finally, students need to be guided in judicious use of CAS. This will involve teaching students to be discriminating in their use of technology for functional purposes, that is, to find solutions to difficult or time consuming problems, and strategic in their use of CAS to explore patterns and link representations in order to gain greater insight into mathematical processes and concepts.
Description:
This paper begins by teasing out the nature of social capital and its particular and current relevance to adult learning policy and practice in Australia. The paper identifies a number of benefits and significant problems with social capital as an organising construct for adult learning research and policy in Australia. Some connections are made between social capital and lifelong learning, and important distinctions are drawn between 'bonding' and 'bridging' social capital. I draw on my experiences and insights over the past seven years using network diagrams as a research tool. Network diagrams are identified as a useful tool for charting relationships between learning organisations and individuals. The paper suggests ways of using the network relationships in these diagrams as a proxy for social capital in a range of formal and informal settings in which adult learning occurs in Australia. Network diagrams are seen to have particular utility in situations where communities and organisations become too small for surveys, where relationships become complex and ambiguous as well as in rural and remote communities where distance and spatial relationships affect access to learning.
Description:
This paper begins by teasing out the nature of social capital and its particular and current relevance to adult learning policy and practice in Australia. The paper identifies a number of benefits and significant problems with social capital as an organising construct for adult learning research and policy in Australia. Some connections are made between social capital and lifelong learning, and important distinctions are drawn between 'bonding' and 'bridging' social capital. I draw on my experiences and insights over the past seven years using network diagrams as a research tool. Network diagrams are identified as a useful tool for charting relationships between learning organisations and individuals. The paper suggests ways of using the network relationships in these diagrams as a proxy for social capital in a range of formal and informal settings in which adult learning occurs in Australia. Network diagrams are seen to have particular utility in situations where communities and organisations become too small for surveys, where relationships become complex and ambiguous as well as in rural and remote communities where distance and spatial relationships affect access to learning.
Description:
Through the experiences of refugees from Bosnia, Iraq and Sudan, this research sought to explore the role multicultural community organisations play in creating important informal networks and learning spaces that connect people from refugee backgrounds to the wider Australian community. In particular, the research sought to identify how such organisations assist refugees in their learning of English language and work skills.
Description:
At the University of Ballarat, pre-service teachers (PSTs) in their second year of the Bachelor of Education (P-10) are required to plan community-based teaching and learning in conjunction with school students, their teachers and schools along with community organisations. These requirements are in synergy with curriculum developments in schools and appear to be valued by them. While the transformative potential of community-based teaching and learning for teacher educators is acknowledged, there is a clear need for more research into the factors which underlie the success or otherwise of such approaches. In this paper, the implementation of community-based teaching and learning programs developed by pre-service teachers is examined for educational and organisational issues that shaped the outcomes for students. The paper highlights a number of consistent themes that throw light on factors that appear to affect the success of such pre-service courses. These insights contribute to the understanding of community-based pre-service teacher education curricula and pedagogies as an important and emerging area of interest.
Description:
At the University of Ballarat, pre-service teachers (PSTs) in their second year of the Bachelor of Education (P-10) are required to plan community-based teaching and learning in conjunction with school students, their teachers and schools along with community organisations. These requirements are in synergy with curriculum developments in schools and appear to be valued by them. While the transformative potential of community-based teaching and learning for teacher educators is acknowledged, there is a clear need for more research into the factors which underlie the success or otherwise of such approaches. In this paper, the implementation of community-based teaching and learning programs developed by pre-service teachers is examined for educational and organisational issues that shaped the outcomes for students. The paper highlights a number of consistent themes that throw light on factors that appear to affect the success of such pre-service courses. These insights contribute to the understanding of community-based pre-service teacher education curricula and pedagogies as an important and emerging area of interest.
Description:
This paper argues that there is an opportunity to improve the way that social science theory is taught by introducing an exercise in facilitated theory testing through active experimentation. This paper describes a learning experience that enables students to discover the dynamic nature of theoretical discoveries. This idea is grounded in the notion that students will gain much from learning about and testing theory experientially using real world data. A data based exercise is outlined and illustrated to reveal a learning experience that provides an opportunity to improve the way social science is taught by linking theory to empirical data. We argue that this provides an opportunity to offer a more holistic learning experience for theory teaching. The paper will be of special interest to those teaching theory in management, commerce, business and organisational studies courses. It will also be of interest to a more general audience because it provides a framework that can be modified whenever forging a connection between theory and ‘the real world’ is a primary learning objective.