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This article examines Australian nationalism as disseminated to Victorian primary school children in the 1950s. Drawing on school readers it argues that by that decade Australian identity was told as focused around 'the home'. Following the structure of Robert Menzies' 'Forgotten People' speech the concept of home is divided into three: homes material, homes human and homes spiritual. Under 'homes material' cluster the primacy of home ownership in the 1950s, the firming of the nation-state's boundaries and the acceptance into the Australian home of migrants who had crossed the sea. 'Homes human' refers to the economic relationships that would hold Australians together. By membership in the networks of production and consumption and by comfortable residence in the Australian rural landscape, 1950s Australians were to belong to the Australian family. With 'homes spiritual' the article turns to Britain and its royal family, arguing that by the 1950s the Queen was located as belonging in Australia instead of, as previously, Australia belonging to the Empire. This enabled links to Britain to be retained even as nationalism grew. This home-centered nationalism meant, however, the contraction of identity into an exclusionary political space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses whether, in an age of social and cultural globalisation, place-specific cultural differences continue to exist between domestic Australian and international Asian university students, resulting in divergent leisure patterns among these populations. The paper is based on a survey of the leisure behaviour of Australian, Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Korean, and Singaporean students enrolled at the University of Queensland, Australia. A total of 126 domestic students and 191 international students took part in the study. Analysis of the data shows there are some significant differences and similarities in the leisure behaviour of the students from the seven nationalities selected. These results indicate the existence of place-specific, nationally based cultures that influence leisure behaviour even when people are away from their home country. In addition, a student culture that cuts across national boundaries, creating behavioural similarities between different nationalities in the process, appears to exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a suite of policies that comprise the National Partnership Agreement between federal, state and territory governments in Australia that are ostensibly aimed at improving the educational attainment levels of young Australians. It specifically explores the policy terrain of educational targets that have been arrived at by Australian governments and associated policies, using a critical policy ethnography approach. It first traces out the historical development of populist policies such as this, demonstrating how attainment targets affect the lives of young people from the most challenging backgrounds. The second, ethnographic component of this paper provides some powerful insights into what is missing from the policy although of central importance to the existential lives of the young Australians targeted by such policy reform initiatives. This paper reveals how both school and societal circumstances create barriers to the capacity of these young people to meet policy demands. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper will discuss how Web 2.0 technologies were used in one of the foundation units for the Bachelor Degree of Commerce at Curtin Business School. The research targets undergraduate students, lecturers, and tutors of the Business Information Systems (BIS100) at the School of Information Systems in Curtin University. The research sample size is 122 students for surveys, ten students and seven instructors for interviews. Only 88 students responded to the post-survey. Most universities have already planned, or are currently planning, to change from instructor-delivered teaching to studentfacilitated learning with the help of Web 2.0. Because interest has been expressed in the application of Web 2.0 technology in education in some schools, it was deemed worthwhile to carry out further research on the subject. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of Web 2.0 technologies on teaching and learning performance at Curtin University, Australia. This research will provide additional information about why Web 2.0 should be adopted in education and will provide several strategies to formulate the adoption of Web 2.0 successfully. The Critical Realism paradigm, which consists of both positivism and interpretive, were applied in the study to explore and understand the relationship between the use of Web 2.0 and the teaching and learning performance. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to collect data from surveys and interviews. The results from the post-survey were compared with pre-survey results, to determine any changes in the levels of both awareness and knowledge since the pre-survey. On top of that, face-to-face and email interviews were conducted with students and email interviews with tutors. Significant findings show that the levels of awareness and knowledge of students using Web 2.0 were low at the beginning of the semester, with a slight increase in the levels of awareness and knowledge as the students were exposed to several Web 2.0 tools. In addition, it was noticed that males have more knowledge of Web 2.0 technologies than do females, and are more interested in technology than are females. It was also found that the percentage of students using Web 2.0 to organise group meetings, to communicate with other classmates, and to communicate with their tutors has increased by 6.62%, 7.7%, and 1.82% respectively. Some students found Web 2.0 technologies easy to use and very flexible because they can be easily customised according to users' requirements, such as Blackboard, the Learning Management System at Curtin University. Web 2.0 tools facilitate easy networking. They help students to more easily collaborate and communicate. Moreover, students do not have to rush to complete, print, and submit assignments to the tutor or lecturer. In regards to teaching, adopting Web 2.0 technology will increase student engagement and it will make classes more interesting and interactive, which may lead to an increase in, creativity, usability, and participation. This technology may encourage better interaction amongst students, and between students and the tutor. However, the Internet is always a necessary part of any work with the Web 2.0 tools. If Web 2.0 tools are used in classes, students may find it difficult to focus and be distracted by other activities such as browsing, chatting, or playing games online. The use of Web 2.0 technology in classes may discourage social interaction, although this depends on how the teacher uses the tools. Further research should be carried out to tackle any disadvantages and challenges of adopting web 2.0 in teaching and learning in Australia and globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key assumption of equity policies in Australia, as in many countries, is that pathways from lower-status, vocationally oriented 'second' tiers of tertiary education to 'first' tier higher education are able to act as an equity mechanism. This is because students from low socio-economic backgrounds are over-represented in former and underrepresented in the latter. The assumption that pathways support equity is tested in this paper through an analysis of the socio-economic profile and institutional destination of student transfers from vocational education and training to higher education in Australia. It finds that educational pathways deepen participation in education by existing social groups but do not effectively widen participation for groups that do not have equitable access. This is as a consequence of the hierarchical structuring of qualifications within VET as well as in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities in Australia, like their counterparts abroad, are making available several different kinds of electronic information services for their student communities. University students need different types of information for the frequently entwined purposes of learning and living, and such information may be available from a variety of information channels and sources; often the required information may be hidden within the complex structure of various internal and external information systems and services. Organising and processing such a wide variety of information to allow easy access and retrieval is a great challenge. This paper calls for a concerted research effort in this direction, and specifies various tasks of a proposed research project: these range from identifying the learning and living information needs of various categories of students in Australian universities, to organising and processing such information for easy access based on the task, context, and characteristics of the student users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although their rate of admission to university appears to be improving, the academic success of former TAFE students depends on the extent to which universities are prepared to meet their need for support in developing academic literacy skills. Australian universities' traditional reliance on schools to deliver students who are academically literate appears to disadvantage many students admitted to university on the basis of TAFE awards. This paper highlights the different rates of admission of TAFE award holders between universities and examines the experience of TAFE award holders in their first year of higher education. The author concludes that higher admission rates to university for TAFE award holders will not translate into improved completion rates for this group unless universities are willing to change their course delivery to cater for a more diverse student population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the factors associated with the decision by school students in Australia to work part-time. I find substantial variation in the probability of working across the eight Australian states and territories, as well as by remoteness. Those who live in households with low income are less likely to work. A person's ancestry is also associated with variation in the probability of working, as is the type of school they attend. This paper also looks at unemployment amongst school students. In addition to Indigenous Australians, one group of students found to be substantially more likely to be unemployed are those who live in a household where no one else is employed. Other authors have found that those who spend long hours at work have been found to achieve poorly across a number of outcomes. The biggest differences in the probability of working long hours are associated with the industry in which the student works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reveals differences in primary school education practices experienced by selected university students in China and Australia. This research utilised a case study approach and found the education experiences differed greatly between Chinese and Australian students. In addition, the paper analyses how these vastly diverse experiences on the part of students contribute to different worldviews in the context of collective and individualist cultures. An enriched in-depth understanding as to how education is served as a tool for preserving cultural and societal values may be an outcome of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data gathered as part of a study of young people's early career attainments, this paper examines factors that influence Australian high school seniors' plans to attend college and their actual entry into college. The paper applies the Fishbein-Ajzen (1975) model of attitude-behavior relations to the particular issue of the link between intentions to continue school and the realization of those intentions. Results show that the Fishbein-Ajzen model provides a useful, but incomplete, representation of the educational attainment process. In accord with the Fishbein-Ajzen model, favorable attitudes toward higher education, parental encouragement, and Friends' college plans all lead to the formation of intentions to enter college. Intentions, in turn, predict actual college attendance. Other results, however, suggest revisions in the Fishbein-Ajzen model. In particular, college entry was affected by attitudes toward college, academic achievement, and parental encouragement, over and above the effect of intentions. Moreover, behavioral intentions were shaped by academic achievement and by perceived academic ability, in addition to attitudes and perceived social norms. Finally, evidence was obtained that several variables in the model, such as gender and perceived parental encouragement, have interactive effects on college plans and college attendance. The results lend support to Liska's (1984) argument that social-structural opportunities and resources must be considered when applying the Fishbein-Ajzen model to behaviors such as entry into higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports provisional Australian comparison data and scoring instructions for theTest of Word Reading Efficiency(TOWRE). The TOWRE is a popular reading fluency test used in reading research, classroom assessment and clinical practice. Approximate ‘norms’ were obtained from children attending four primary schools in New South Wales. Results suggested that the US norms for the TOWRE may overestimate the reading level of Australian children in lower grades and that the performance on the two parallel forms (A and B) of the subtests (Sight Word EfficiencyandPhonemic Decoding Efficiency) of the TOWRE did not differ from each other. While no performance differences were found between boys and girls overall, it was noted that the youngest boys outperformed the youngest girls on Form A of the Sight Word Efficiency subtest, and the youngest girls outperformed the youngest boys on Form B of the Sight Word Efficiency subtest. Limitations of the current study are discussed and a brief reference is made to a new (2012) edition of TOWRE (TOWRE-2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reaches into a comprehensive study of a generation of young people in Australia, drawing on a comparison with Canadian longitudinal data. It argues that this is a generation of reluctant change makers who have created new ways of living as a response to economic changes and government policies. These new ways of living, once exposed, ‘speak back’ to neoliberal policies, exposing their human costs. Australians found it more difficult than their Canadian counterparts to establish secure jobs and households, impacting on their patterns of family formation. These changes have secondary effects in other areas of young people's lives, particularly in health and well-being where patterns of inequality are reflected in levels of mental and physical problems – exposing the poverty of neoliberal policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Young adults are a frequent target of health promotion campaigns in Australia yet there is evidence to suggest that this cohort has little understanding of the nature and intent of Public Health initiatives in their own environment. This paper describes the results of a study that evaluated the knowledge and understanding of public health of a sample of 333 first year health science students at an Australian University. Students were asked to submit photographs depicting their ideas about public health and accompany these with a written rationale for their choices. The results of the study suggest that the students at this level have a narrow interpretation of public health and do not understand the organized nature of public health efforts or the aims of such initiatives. This study provides important insight into the thinking of this cohort of young Australians, both in the context of preparing them for future careers in public health as well as in relation to their response to health promotion campaigns targeting them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates regional Australian students' aspirations and expectations for their future and, more specifically, the manner in which these are formulated around a view to move outward -- that is, away from regional, remote and rural communities -- and onward -- that is, to make something of their lives. Drawing upon interview data, the paper highlights the ways in which rural students from across Australia expressed high-level aspirations, most of which centred on future careers. It explores features of student talk which demonstrates that many of them had thought about their futures in detailed ways and had accumulated knowledge and "street savvy" that would assist them in steering their futures. The paper also examines the ways in which student talk about the changing context of the world of work and the inescapability of further education emerge as a naturalised discourse in justifying their future plans. Finally, the paper explores the implications of such research findings for career advisers and teachers working in regional areas of Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The underachievement of boys has been a focus of intense concern in Australia for over 15 years. Historical analyses suggest that male students' poor performance has traditionally been attributed to factors external to boys themselves (methods, teachers, texts), deflecting attention from the relationship between masculinity construction and successful engagement with school. This paper turns the focus back, addressing the ways in which gender itself was constructed within hearings held for the Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into Boys' Education. Discursive analysis demonstrates that witnesses to the Inquiry drew upon a series of gender binaries in representing male and female students, and accounting for their relative attainment. These binaries worked to associate masculinity with 'authentic' learning, such that the success of male students was naturalised even in the absence of achievement. Conversely, the association of femininity and 'inauthentic learning' worked to undermine female students' demonstrated success. The role of these binaries in the reproduction of a paradoxical relationship between gender and achievement is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing trend for the globalisation of business has highlighted the need for a better understanding of the factors that influence levels of intercultural awareness within organisations. Within the higher education sector, one initiative that aims to address this issue is student study abroad programs. This paper reports on a study that investigates factors that influence Australian students' propensity to engage in these programs. Using both qualitative and quantitative analysis, we examined the role of students' personality in the decision to participate in study abroad programs. The implications for education in international business are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International comparative studies and cross-cultural studies of mathematics achievement indicate that Chinese students (whether living in or outside China) consistently outperform their Western counterparts. This study shows that the gap between Chinese-Australian and other Australian students is best explained by differences in motivation to achieve, attributing success to effort, the influence of parental help and the use of extra mathematics curricula. The argument explored is, in order to promote students' mathematics achievement, we must improve the pedagogical knowledge of classroom teachers of mathematics, as well as to encourage parents' involvement in the mathematics education of their children and to promote students' motivation to learn mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the significance of the Victorian Educational Department in the middle of World War 1. It students and teachers were taught to give focus on the history of Australia. It cites the book "Glorious Deeds of Australians in the Great War," by E. C. Buley, which was used to read by students and teachers has called thousands of men in a day to get enlisted in the department. This book details the significance of the history of Australia. Meanwhile, in the early 1900s, the Victoria's Education Department expected its students in grades III-VIII to purchase its monthly School Paper, a publication in which the department has considered it as a far in advance on any book of the kind issued in the state.

The intrinsic and extrinsic benefits of music education incorporate academic, social, emotional, and behavioral spheres. To deny students access to music education essentially locks them out of such benefits, limiting their potential. Music education programs have declined significantly in Australia in the last few decades and access to such programs serves as a reminder of the widening gap of inequality in the Australian school system. The reasons for the decline in music education, both at a preservice and inservice level, and the political landscape which has influenced and undermined the concept of a level playing field in public education are interrelated. Through extensive data analysis, a picture of how and why music education serves as an example of wider issues of access and equity in Australian schools will be demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2008 Australia has held the National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy (known as NAPLAN) for all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Despite the multilingual character of the Australian population, these standardized literacy and numeracy tests are built on an assumption of English as a first language competency. The capacity for monitoring the performance of students who speak languages other than English is achieved through the disaggregation of test data using a category labelled Language Background Other than English (LBOTE). A student is classified as LBOTE if they or their parents speak a language other than English at home. The category definition is so broad that the disaggregated national data suggest that LBOTE students are outperforming English speaking students, on most test domains, though the LBOTE category shows greater variance of results. Drawing on Foucault’s theory of governmentality, this article explores the possible implications of LBOTE categorisation for English as a Second Language (ESL) students of refugee background. The article uses a quantitative research project, carried out in Queensland, Australia, to demonstrate the potential inequities resultant from such a poorly constructed data category. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the late 1980s, research on post-industrialized economies shows that the boundary between work and family is increasingly becoming blurred. The continuing evolution of e-technology allows work for some to be done anywhere, anytime. This article examines the degree to which e-technology has transferred work into the home lives of academics and how this has affected their work/life balance. Drawing on a study in an Australian university of academics with young children, we utilise the terms 'work extensification' and 'work intensification' to explore whether these new technologies are a blessing or a curse in their work lives. At the same time we describe the deteriorating working conditions for Australian academics whose work has intensified and extended into their private lives with longer working hours in a speeded up environment. Our findings revealed the use of metaphors such as invasion and intrusion of e-technologies into academics' homes and their need to establish boundaries to separate work and family life. Most felt that having e-technologies at home was of benefit to their work but they came at a cost to their family life-delivering a blessing and a curse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most traditional models of academic motivation focus on a small number of specific factors. However, the Student Motivation and Engagement Scale (MES) (Martin, 2007b) includes a fairly comprehensive range of perspectives on general student motivation. The current study set out (a) to provide an independent test of the proposed 11-factor structure of the MES for boys and girls when (b) applied to high school mathematics in Australia (N = 1014; Years 7 to 11). It also examined (c) the covariation of different facets of motivation and engagement with gender, year level, and scholastic achievement. The hypothesised 11-factor model fit reasonably well across gender, and there was clear evidence of specificity to maths compared to English achievement. Some gender and grade effects were observed as well. The study provides support for the value of the Martin model and its instrument. It also extends our knowledge of student motivation to mathematics in Australian rural high schools. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What are the main factors in the public sector workplace that are likely to attract university graduates to seek public sector employment? This research on final-year Australian university students examines the importance that they attach to three areas in the workplace - extrinsic rewards, intrinsic rewards and line managers - and the reasons behind their views. This article utilizes the psychological contract theory to help explain their expectations about the availability of these three factors by prospective employers. It also analyses whether their emphasis on these three factors are shaped by disciplinary background and prior employment experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about nation and national positioning within the global exemplified in the Australian culture, history and literacy 'wars' have tended to be definitive and apparently oppositional in tone. Yet these debates have proceeded in the absence of a concretized notion of Australian identity and do not adequately address the complexities of political identification and allegiance. Despite intense concerns in these 'wars' about the views of young people and the role of their schooling, young people do not necessarily have less well-developed conceptions of Australia's place in a globalizing world than their elders. Our research on young people's responses to globalization, global cultural products and national identity offers some suggestive new directions for considering these issues and the school curriculum, directions which are built upon the actual ways in which young Australians express uncertainty about US—Australian relations, while simultaneously identifying with American cultural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent international studies have highlighted the success of students from Hong Kong in mathematics and problem-solving, and have begun to suggest some of the factors associated with this success. Other studies have suggested that Hong Kong students are averse to risk-taking, favouring memorisation and imitation in their solution strategies. Year 5 students in Hong Kong and Australia were given mathematics assessments of different types: orally presented mental computation problems, and a performance task that was undertaken in normal classroom conditions. Observations of the students' approaches to these tasks in the classroom and analyses of their responses revealed similarities and differences between the two countries. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of the curriculum diversity and differences in metacognitive skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses the thinking style of university students in three different countries and answers the key research question posed by the study's design: is there a difference amongst the thinking styles of university students from Australia, China and Italy? Using the Thinking Style Inventory (TSI) designed by Sofo (2002) as the data collection tool, 450 students enrolled in universities in the three countries were assessed on their thinking style. The results reveal that the Chinese students had statistically significant lower scores than both the Australian and Italian samples on the Inquiring subscale of the TSI, yet significantly higher scores on the Independent subscale. Overall, Chinese students were found to have a significantly different thinking style profile compared to Italian and Australian students since there was no significant difference found between the Italian and Australian students. The findings of this study indicate a number of interesting points of convergence and similarly, two points of divergence in thinking style among the three samples of students. The opportunity exists for the study to be extended to include a comparative analysis of a wider selection of students (such as those from differing disciplines) or to explore the similarities and differences between post-graduates or those students in the second or third year of their university studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article advocates an approach to supporting students who experience difficulties in learning, irrespective of nosology, particularly in the key areas of literacy and numeracy. In the state of Queensland, Australia, a distinction has been made between students' experiencing learning difficulties and those who have learning disabilities (LD). However, government priorities for improved achievement in literacy and numeracy have focused schools on the performance of all low-achieving students, without regard to diagnostic category. Many are now mobilizing a schoolwide effort that combines resources into a unified plan, using a three-wave approach. The first wave is high-quality classroom teaching, the second is early intervention, and the third is ongoing support for those students who have persistent difficulties, using adapted instruction and intensive tutoring. A further theme is the promise of neuropsychological advances for giving meaning to the underlying impairments of some students--who do have LD--that justifies the provision of adaptations to sustain their learning throughout their schooling and beyond. Throughout this article, the different yet converging understandings of LD in Australia and the United States are tracked, with suggestions made for future research that avoid the problems of operationalizing the definition of LD proposed by Keogh in 1982. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a national roundup of press reports on youth issues in Australia as of September 2003. Results of a series of YouthSCAN surveys by Quantum Market Research involving Australian youths; Rise in violent student behavior against teachers in Western Australia; Status of the child protection system in Victoria according to a draft report.

The aim of this research was to ascertain changes in sun-related knowledge, attitudes and self-care practices among Australian secondary school students between 1993 and 1996. Two cross-sectional surveys of sun-related attitudes, beliefs and behavior of young people aged 12-17 years of age, were conducted in 1993 and 1996. Over 80% of adolescents at both time periods knew about the issues related to skin cancer prevention, frequency of burning and burning on cloudy days. Adolescent attitudes had shifted positively in the areas of staying inside in 1996 [relative risk (RR): 1.13; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.09-1.17] and staying under shade in 1996 (RR: 1.16; 95% CI: 1.13- 1.18). Desire for a moderate or dark tan was lower in 1996 (45%) than in 1993 (50%). Respondents reported that they were less likely to wear brief clothing to get a suntan in 1996 (RR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.78-0.84) and were significantly more likely to stay in the shade in 1996 (RR: 1.19; 95% CI: 1.16-1.23). We conclude that there has been a shift in attitudes towards use of shade and avoidance of unnecessary exposure, and away from use of sunscreens and sunglasses. The results suggest that adolescents may be more ready to accept structural changes that move desired activities out of the sun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of how to interpret the relation between the production of subjectivity and the effects of different forms of schooling. Two kinds of problem are explored. The first is the immediate empirical and historical one of understanding how gender and class subjectivity takes shape and is embodied by Australian secondary-school students. This is investigated through close readings of interviews with two young people who are participants in a qualitative, longitudinal study of Australian secondary-school students—the '12 to 18 Project'. The article thus examines the developmental and longitudinal aspect of identity formation, and addresses the impact of feminism on gender change. The second problem is how to theorise the subjectivity–schooling relation, and this is explored through an analysis of the interactions between individual biographies and the aspirations and discursive practices of different schools. After considering some contemporary approaches to subjectivity, the discussion proposes a return to Bourdieu's notions of habitus and social field and, through an analysis of the two case studies, illustrates how habitus is formed over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many young adults who drop out of school elect to re-enter the secondary education system after a period of absence. Reports the findings from a survey of 215 providers of education to re-entry students in three states of Australia. Few of these ed ucational providers possess formal qualifications in adult education, but most hold favourable attitudes to working with students who return to school. In general, the re-entry students were perceived to have high rates of academic success but also high rates of withdrawal. The study identified a number of challenges and problems associated with school re-entry, and makes recommendations to enhance rates of re-entry student participation, satisfaction and success. Emphasizes the advantages associated wi th re-entering an "innovative" senior secondary environment, rather than a traditional high school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]