Search

The aim of this research is to investigate the intergenerational changes that have occurred in Australian Jewish day schools and the challenges these pose for religious and Jewish education. Using a grounded theory approach according to the constant comparative method (Strauss 1987), data from three sources (interviews [296], observations [27], and documents) were analyzed, thus enabling triangulation. Findings show that there is an incongruity between what the adult community defines as the central components of Jewish and religious identity, which are more particularistic, and the perspectives of Jewish youth, which are more universalistic.

The Makerspace phenomenon has morphed into three readily identifiable types characterised by accessibility: dedicated, distributed, and mobile. The research presented in this paper describes a type of Makerspace that is defined by its purpose: to improve the confidence and ability of primary education students in STEM education. This approach is innovative and timely given the renewed interest and investment of the federal and state governments into STEM education. A new model of professional learning that is currently being validated in an extended, funded project framed this research that involved 9 female teacher education students and 71 schoolgirls in Years 5 and 6. Whilst a large set of qualitative data was collected, this paper reports on the progress and reflections of the teacher education students, and shares insights into their personal learning and development as teachers.

The Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme-Tertiary Tuition (ITAS-TT) has provided Australian government funding for one-to-one and group tutorial study support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students attending Australian universities since 1989. It has been a central plank supporting Indigenous university students in their studies. However, evaluation of the scheme has identified quality limitations, under-utilisation, administrative burdens, and eligibility issues, and criticised the deficit or low academic expectations assumptions inherent in the scheme. In the 2016-2017 Budget the Australian government modified ITAS into an Indigenous Student Success Program. Reporting on research undertaken at a time of impending changes to funding arrangements and the continuation of ITAS, this paper builds on recent research into the transition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders into higher education. The paper investigates the scheme through the perspectives of ITAS tutors and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students receiving ITAS tutoring in two regional universities in New South Wales. Qualitative research found that ITAS tutoring has enabled many students to manage their transition through university and complete their studies. Students and tutors identified limitations in the scheme in terms of guidelines, institutional expectations, access to learning management systems, and the timing of support. The study outcomes suggest that ITAS provides valuable support but has become static, and is not keeping up with developments in online learning and administration.

Increased migration of people(s), goods, ideas and ideologies necessitate global understanding, empathies and responses on the part of teachers and their students. This paper investigates the effects on 100 primary pre-service teachers' understandings of and attitudes toward a semester-long course exploring, inter alia, global development. The research was undertaken in Sydney, Australia. Near-identical surveys were administered at the course's beginning and end, for comparison. Additionally, four students volunteered to participate in a focus group for further discussion. Students' understandings, including misunderstandings, are examined in the context of their future professional responsibilities and of the related literature. While attitudes to those in underdeveloped countries appeared generally empathetic, this was premised on relatively limited or inaccurate "knowledge." The paper questions the adequacy of compassion as a motivating factor in global development education and action, and related subject shortcomings. Moreover, it examines the contribution of compassion as an enabler or impediment to global equities and justices, and considers other approaches. The paper also explores implications for teacher education and accordingly posits some recommendations.

Over the last 10 years the higher education sector has undergone a myriad of changes both in student demographics and the influx of international students. With these changes, concerns about the ability of students to meet the English language and academic demands of tertiary study have come to the forefront. This paper reports on a project of embedding academic literacy into nine units across four disciplines, which spanned the duration of a decade. The paper documents the process by which the Unit Support Program (USP) evolved from a discipline-based reading program in a university preparation context to an embedded, integrated and team-taught approach in the university mainstream. It sought to determine whether the introduction of the program improved student learning in the discipline, specifically in English language and academic literacy development. Using data drawn from over 2500 students relating to progression rates, final grades, participation levels, and qualitative data relating to student and staff perceptions, this longitudinal study demonstrated a positive relationship between embedding academic literacy in the disciplines and student learning. The added benefit of academic socialisation for staff is also a reported result of this study. Although significant ongoing institutional support is needed, this paper advocates that an embedded, integrated and team-taught model should be incorporated into the first year of study. Using a case study approach, this paper firstly explains the rationale to embed language and academic literacy development within disciplinary contexts; the framework from which the Unit Specific Model emanated; and the team teaching approach used in the delivery of the Unit Support Program (USP) across a variety of disciplines. It considers the comparative results for both participating and non-participating groups, and the impact of collaboration across the faculty on the success of USP. Finally the paper recommends strategies for the long term sustainability of these programs.

Positive experiences of teamwork in design contexts significantly improve students' satisfaction with teaching and their attitudes towards future teamwork. Thus, an understanding of the factors leading to negative and positive team experiences can inform strategies to support effective teamwork. This paper examines design students' perceptions and experiences of teamwork. Three sources of qualitative data were analysed: a pilot survey completed by 198 design students in four institutions; five focus groups with 23 students; and a national survey completed by 417 students from 18 Australian universities. Students were from a range of design disciplines, with the majority studying architecture. The findings provide insights into issues and challenges of learning how to design in teamwork contexts, in particular the importance of adopting strategies to promote individual accountability within a team and ensuring fair assessment that acknowledges levels of individual contributions. The paper concludes with recommendations for teachers.

The provision of musical experiences for youth, especially in low socio-economic areas (SES), requires funded support and imaginative resourcing. This paper presents data from the Penrith (NSW Australia) Youth String Program offered in partnership by the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), Penrith Symphony Orchestra (PSO) and The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre (The Joan) over a period commencing in 2015-2016. The current context for young musicians in the locality is one of inequitable distribution of educational resources and access to knowledge. Consequently, this research is framed by Opportunity to Learn theory. The program has been designed to encourage young string players in the Penrith area through a program of guided rehearsals and tutorials. The evaluation plan incorporates the following data: student practice logs; and student, parent and tutor focus groups as well as site visit observations to capture information about the quality of program implementation. This paper reports on the research question: What did the participants gain from their involvement in the program? Findings demonstrate that the participants developed both skills in performance and expressive ensemble playing. Implications are that the program has encouraged the students to be aware of their own progress and to develop personal goals, whether they are to play a challenging piece of music well or to imagine a future in professional music making. The impact of the carefully spaced rehearsals in the program, the combination of local and visiting tutors and the development of personal goals suggest avenues for future research.

Portfolios are used in midwifery education to provide students with a central place to store their accumulative evidence of clinical experience for initial registration in Australia. Portfolio formats can be paper-based or electronic. Anecdotal discussion between midwifery students in Queensland debated the best format to document the requirements for the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) standard 8.11. Midwifery students using paper-based portfolios envisioned that an ePortfolio would be streamline, simple, safe to use, and able to be used anywhere with WIFI, while some students using an ePortfolio expressed a desire to have a paper-based portfolio as a hard copy. This situation called for evidence of a comparison to resolve the debate. The aim of this study was to investigate midwifery students' experiences of the benefits and challenges between paper-based and ePortfolios when compiling evidence to meet the requirements for initial registration as a midwife in Australia (ANMAC, 2014). • Each type of portfolio had challenges and benefits. • Portfolio completion is time consuming, and stressful due to the need for verification of evidence. • Students require early and regular feedback on portfolio development. • National standards are required for consistency in documentation across universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided Inquiry (GI) is an emerging pedagogy based on the Information Search Process (ISP), a research-based information-literacy model identified by Carol C. Kuhlthau (1985, 1988a, 1988b, 1988c, 1989b) and operationalized by the Guided Inquiry Design (GID) process (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, and Caspari 2007, 2012, 2015). This study investigated perceptions and use of GI by Year 9 students at an Australian independent private school engaged in an inquiry unit in their Personal Development, Health, and Physical Education class focused on "Overcoming Adversity." Two academic researchers and the school librarian collaborated on this mixed-methods study collecting data from survey questionnaires, focus-group interviews, and students' work in digital inquiry process journals and final product presentations. Findings indicate students understand important elements of the GID process, including its independent nature, structure, and pacing through stages, and the element of choice. However, they differ on whether these aspects have a positive or negative effect on their learning and research process. An implication for GI practice from this study is a greater focus on allowing students independence and to proceed at their own pace, as expressed in a student's comment and the title of this paper: "Just let me go at it."

This paper presents the research findings from a study reviewing graduates' opinions on completing online reflective journaling tasks during work integrated learning as an undergraduate. The study was divided into two parts with an initial focus group conducted with six physiotherapy graduates seven months following graduation. Findings from the focus group guided the development of a questionnaire sent to graduates nine months after course completion. Results from both the focus group and questionnaire (n = 25) highlighted the benefits of online, structured, assessed reflective writing tasks. Graduates provided specific examples of their personal and professional development and perceived benefits from undertaking reflective journaling during work integrated learning. These findings may have application across a wide variety of tertiary courses of study with work integrated learning incorporated into curriculum. [Papers included in this "Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education" ("APJCE") Special Issue stem from selected manuscripts from the Australian Collaborative Education Network Annual Conference 2012.]

Throughout Australia, many government and non-government schools have implemented a one-laptop-per-student (1:1) policy. Whilst there was initial interest in the implementation of these programs, little has been done to track the uptake of digital learning technologies afforded by access to the laptops. This study examined pre-service teachers' reflections on their experiences with 1:1 laptop programs in their secondary schooling. The lens for this reflection was their consideration of their aspirational teaching practice. Qualitative data were collected from two successive cohorts (2014 and 2015) of the first year of a Bachelor of Education course. The objectives of the research presented in this paper were to: capture recollections of the students' experience of 1:1 laptop programs; categorise these recollections into positive and negative experiences; and investigate the impact of 1:1 laptop programs on students' perceptions of teaching with ICTs and their personal learning at university.

University programs are currently faced with a number of challenges: how to engage students as active learners, how to ensure graduates are "work ready" with broad and relevant professional skills, and how to support students to see their potential as agents of social change and contributors to social good. This paper presents the findings from a study that explored the impact of an authentic, interdisciplinary project with health, architecture and landscape students. This project facilitated students' entrée into the lived experience of women and children requiring refuge services as a result of homelessness and/or domestic violence. Students collaborated with stakeholders from the refuge sector, visiting sites, undertaking individual research, exchanging ideas and problem-solving, to develop a design guide for a women's refuge. Focus groups were conducted at the conclusion of the activity to gauge students' perceptions of the value of the activity. Results indicated that the "hands-on" and collaborative nature of the learning experience in a real-world context was valued, primarily due to its direct relevance to professional practice. Architecture and landscape participants reported an increase in their understanding and knowledge of refuge clients, and many expressed a commitment to further learning and contribution to the sector. Nursing students felt that the authentic learning experience helped prepare them for the "real world" of practice and that it aided development of their professional identities and capacity to effect real-world change. The learning activity had a positive impact on knowledge acquisition and students' confidence to act as agents of social change.

This paper reports on an action research project involving the redesign, implementation and evaluation of a peer tutor program in a first year design studio in higher education. The effectiveness of the revised program, particularly its capacity to support learning for commencing students in the environment of a creative studio, is examined through focus groups with first year students and third year peer tutors. The study suggests that peer tutors play a pivotal role in the studio that is different from, but complementary to, the role of the studio tutor. When employed purposefully, peer tutors can make a significant contribution to the development of a positive studio culture and the enhancement of a collaborative community of practice, and amplify students' engagement with iterative processes of design learning. Results are discussed in relation to current theories about what constitutes a successful peer tutor program, growing evidence of the unique role played by peer tutors in design and other practice-based disciplines, and the potential contribution of peer tutors to the development of creative skills valued in 21st century design practice.

Textbooks have been used to enhance teaching in mathematics at all levels of schooling for many years. The use of textbooks enables the mathematics content to be presented in a sequenced, coherent and logical way. There are very few studies, however, that explore student thoughts about the use of electronic textbooks (e-texts) in secondary classrooms. This paper reports the results of a study that aimed to develop an understanding of the phenomenon of student experiences of using an e-text during mathematics lessons; specifically those aspects that dominate the experiences and the ways students perceive their relationships amongst themselves and their teacher when using a mathematics e-text. The results of this study suggest that students using the e-text had a very positive experience. The use of e-texts brings a renewed approach to learning by providing students with what they perceive to be a useful, empowering experience.

This paper presents findings from research conducted in two primary schools in South Australia with New Arrivals Programs (NAPs). The paper considers findings derived from a content analysis of photo elicitation data and a thematic analysis of focus group data in order to elaborate some of the ways in which the uses of, and assumptions about, space and place within the schools negatively impact upon students in NAPs. Specifically, the findings suggest that students in NAPs photographed a less diverse range of school spaces than did students not in NAPs, and that in focus groups students not in NAPs were explicit in stating that they saw school spaces as territory to be claimed. Importantly, the findings suggest that students in NAPs wished that they could roam more freely within school spaces, were they able to do so. The paper concludes with suggestions that may assist schools with NAPs to ensure that school spaces better meet the needs of all students.

Many young West Australians learn musical instruments through school based elective programs. However, many students drop out from these programs, particularly in lower secondary school. This paper reports on a study I conducted into the motives of 48 lower secondary school students for playing a musical instrument, and the role of the instrument lesson in influencing student decisions to continue learning. Students in their first year in secondary school in WA (Year 8) were chosen, because the first year of secondary school has been identified as a time when student motivation towards elective activities in general decline. Focus group interviews revealed that while Year 8 students generally enjoyed playing an instrument and described playing as important to affirming notions of self, their competence beliefs were fragile. Importantly, students also indicated that the instrument lesson did impact their competence beliefs, and that competence beliefs can, in turn, impact student decisions to continue learning. After discussing the implications of the findings, I conclude the paper with a series of recommendations for teaching practice, designed to target the competence beliefs of lower secondary students.

In 2014, the School of Medicine Fremantle of the University of Notre Dame Australia initiated a study to explore the curriculum underpinning portfolios used by first-year medical students. The School had used portfolios since 2005 and judged it timely to consider digital technologies as a mechanism to enhance student learning and improve efficiencies. A qualitative approach was adopted that investigated how the curriculum intersected with two ePortfolio platforms: Blackboard and Mahara. Data pertaining to the way in which Blackboard and Mahara ePortfolio platforms supported existing curriculum were collected from students through focus groups and tutors via interviews. As a measure of comparison, data were also collected from students and tutors who used the existing paper-based portfolio system. Findings confirmed that the curriculum should shape the way in which technology solutions are interpreted and implemented. It is posited that low-tech solutions are sometimes most appropriate for the curriculum context. However, exploring the potential of digital technologies helped the School to imagine other possibilities for curriculum renewal. Indeed, one outcome of the research was the development of a plan to re-invigorate portfolios, shifting the current task-based emphasis to one which recognizes the key role of reflection. The study may be of interest to teachers and managers seeking to explore ePortfolios as part of broader curriculum renewal initiatives.

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution of disease in human populations. This means that authentically teaching primary data collection in epidemiology is difficult as students cannot easily access suitable human populations. Using an action research methodology, this paper studied the use of a virtual human population (called "The Island") to enable students to experience many features of authentic primary data collection in epidemiological research. "The Island" was used in a course introducing epidemiology and biostatistics for students in non-quantitative disciplines. This paper discusses how "The Island" was introduced into the course, and then evaluates the change. Students were highly engaged, and students and teaching staff responded favourably to the use of "The Island," with 70% of students agreeing or strongly agreeing that "The Island" was easy to use, and 64% agreeing or strongly agreeing that the use of a virtual population was beneficial to their understanding of epidemiology.

In view of the minimal attention pronunciation teacher preparation has received in second language (L2) teacher education, this study examined the cognition (i.e. beliefs, thoughts, attitudes and knowledge) development of 15 student teachers during a postgraduate subject on pronunciation pedagogy offered at an Australian tertiary institution. Findings revealed that, as a result of taking the subject, student teachers' cognition shifted from teaching individual sounds (i.e. segmentals) to favouring a more balanced approach to pronunciation instruction. That is, teaching the melody of the English language (i.e. suprasegmentals) was seen as important as teaching segmentals. Non-native speakers' self-perceived pronunciation improvement, an increase in their awareness of their spoken English, and native/non-native collaboration played critical roles in facilitating participants' cognition growth. The findings also showed that cognition development is a complex process. The paper concludes with recommendations for preparing L2 teachers to teach English pronunciation in their classroom contexts.

Research involving student and tutor responses to a "pedagogy of the heart" approach in a first year university health science topic revealed anxiety, insecurity and perceptions of unpredictability in relation to an innovative arts-based assignment designed to elicit and assess experiential or imaginal knowledge. Using the lens of contemporary theories of risk, and explicitly considering the role of emotion in assessment, this paper identifies both the effectiveness of and challenges encountered in this form of assessment. It also explores the relationships between risk and emotion, and between risk and assessment, particularly for young people in the higher education context. By comparing the risks involved with the benefits to be gained, the efficacy of adopting such a pedagogical approach is reviewed.

This paper reports on a study aimed at developing an improved understanding of the support needs of international students. Using a case study approach at one Australian university, a three stage data collection process was adopted: interviews with key support service providers in the university, student focus groups, and a large-scale survey. Emphasis was placed on identifying the issues that are significant to international students in terms of their study experience, the services they consider as valuable and the factors that contribute to take-up. The findings reveal that, while most respondents felt that the range of support services provided is appropriate, current services could be improved by offering a more student-centred service structure and delivery. Issues identified as influencing service use include the institutional culture, perceived importance and awareness of services, the quality of information provided about those services, ease of access, timeliness of service provision and cost.

In a highly globalised world with increasing ethno-nationalistic tensions and conflicts, the importance of intercultural education has never been greater. The challenge remains, however, as to whether educating for mutual respect and social cohesion can be achieved through traditional modes of schooling or whether additional approaches that are not necessarily school-centric are required. Drawing on in-depth qualitative data including video diaries, narrative interviews and focus groups with Australian secondary school students and semi-structured interviews with teachers, this paper discusses such an endeavour in which a museum exhibition on identity and belonging is employed as an interactive space for meaningful encounter among students and as a form of professional learning that enlivened teaching practice. Using the concept of reflexive ethnicity, this paper examines whether cognitive and affective encounters outside the "school gate" create opportunities for critical learning about ethnicity that can complement and enhance school curricula and classroom learning. More importantly, the paper explores how the possibility of building on such activities to create and sustain teaching practice can challenge entrenched static notions of ethnicity. The paper concludes that reflexive encounters with "difference" within an interactive museum space can unsettle prejudice and provide a deeper and more meaningful understanding of ethnic identity that goes beyond rote classroom learning.

In this paper, we propose computational scientific inquiry (CSI) as an innovative model for learning important scientific knowledge and new practices for "doing" science. This approach involves the use of a "game-like" virtual world for students to experience virtual biological fieldwork in conjunction with using an agent-based computer model to enable computational inquiry activities. After an overview of literature into learning about scientific inquiry and the use of virtual worlds and game-like systems for learning science, we provide a description of the technology systems we developed and the methods of the study. The results are reported of a two-week intervention involving the use of a CSI approach in two eighth-grade classes that found significant learning gains by students. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings and a consideration of CSI more generally for learning important and difficult scientific knowledge and practices.

Many approaches to make mathematics relevant to first-year engineering students have been described. These include teaching practical engineering applications, or a close collaboration between engineering and mathematics teaching staff on unit design and teaching. In this paper, we report on a novel approach where we gave higher year engineering and multimedia students the task to "make maths relevant" for first-year students. This approach is novel as we moved away from the traditional thinking that staff should produce these resources to students producing the same. These students have more recently undertaken first-year mathematical study themselves and can also provide a more mature student perspective to the task than first-year students. Two final-year engineering students and three final-year multimedia students worked on this project over the Australian summer term and produced two animated videos showing where concepts taught in first-year mathematics are applied by professional engineers. It is this student perspective on how to make mathematics relevant to first-year students that we investigate in this paper. We analyse interviews with higher year students as well as focus groups with first-year students who had been shown the videos in class, with a focus on answering the following three research questions: (1) How would students demonstrate the relevance of mathematics in engineering? (2) What are first-year students' views on the resources produced for them? (3) Who should produce resources to demonstrate the relevance of mathematics? There seemed to be some disagreement between first- and final-year students as to how the importance of mathematics should be demonstrated in a video. We therefore argue that it should ideally be a collaboration between higher year students and first-year students, with advice from lecturers, to produce such resources.

Research involving the plurilingualism of young people has begun to focus upon how we must re-conceptualise language learning to acknowledge the language resources of children with plurilingual experiences. This is particularly important in countries like Australia with a traditionally monolingual mindset embedded in policy, education, and the views of much of the community. Growing arguments posit that it is more important to focus on the resourceful use of language than attempts to measure skill, competence, or fluency in one language. In this paper, the movement between languages of children with a range of linguistic repertoires is explored in the Australian context. Data are taken from student and teacher interviews and focus groups with parents across five different primary schools, each with a bilingual education programme. The paper argues that bilingual programmes aimed at monolingual background students can have benefits for more than one kind of plurilingual student. It was found that plurilingual children drew on their home language(s) as a resource in school contexts where other languages were used, showed an increased enjoyment of learning, and developed learning strategies which built on their plurilingual experiences. Additionally, the data showed how teachers in these contexts worked towards expanding their own linguistic repertoires.

In the context of increasing linguistic and cultural diversity in Australian schools, it is important to consider the value of students' multilingual resources for learning. This paper reports on an ethnographic case study conducted in an Australian metropolitan secondary school where the student body represented more than 40 cultures and languages, yet where the broader structures of education were dominated by a monolingual orientation. The study draws data from student artefacts, student focus groups, a staff questionnaire, and staff interviews to reveal the ways in which multilingual students and their teachers construct and enact language policy at the classroom level. Key themes to emerge from the data included students' application of multilingual resources for individual and collaborative learning and the way multilingualism and related practices, such as translanguaging, were valued by students. Additionally, the data illustrated teachers' situated approaches ranging from a resistance towards multilingual practices, through to active construction of a multilingual classroom. Teachers' approaches which facilitated students' use of their own linguistic resources for learning, and how these approaches were negotiated within a context otherwise dominated by monolingual pedagogies will also be discussed in the paper.

Background: Alongside academic and vocational goals, schools are increasingly being called upon to address student well-being. Existing evidence suggests that strong relationships and a sense of connectedness in school communities are important for fostering subjective well-being. However, identifying the specific nature of such relational dynamics, and accommodating the "personal" within school cultures increasingly dominated by "performance" narratives, remains a problematic task. Purpose: This paper draws on Honneth's recognition theory to offer fresh insight into how relationships act to facilitate and limit the experience of well-being at school. We suggest that such an approach holds considerable potential for developing teachers' understanding of the tacit and explicit ways they and their students experience being cared for, respected and valued and the ways in which such actions impact on well-being. Design and methods: The paper reports the qualitative findings from a large mixed-method study, involving students and staff across primary and secondary schools in three regions of Australia. The qualitative phase involved focus groups with 606 primary and secondary students and individual interviews with 89 teachers and principals. Results: Across the focus groups and interviews, students and teachers placed substantial emphasis on the importance of relationships, while reporting differences in their views about "which" relationships support well-being. Alongside this, there were differences in the importance teachers and students placed on each of the three strands of Honneth's recognition theory (translated for this study as being cared for, respected and valued) for influencing student well-being. Conclusions: The findings affirm the critical role that relationships play in promoting well-being in the context of schools. Using recognition theory to analyse students' and teachers' views and experiences of well-being provides much greater insight into "how" these relationships are enacted--this being through the mutual experience of being cared for, respected and valued--within the context of schools.

This paper examines how students in a third year management unit at a university of technology in Australia evaluate the usefulness of film as a tool for developing a deeper understanding of the theoretical leadership effectiveness model developed by Robbins (1997). The study reviews the range of studies describing the use of films in teaching leadership, playing into a perceivable gap in empirical studies demonstrating how students engage in applying the concepts of leadership. This study specifically considers whether films are effective interventions for achieving engagement in an assessment task aimed at identifying applications of theory to cases of leadership in action. As part of an action research cycle, thirty students (30) participated in three different focus groups. Transcriptions subsequently produced thick descriptions on which thematic analysis was conducted to extract key themes (Ryan & Bernard, 2003). The results suggest that films can communicate, embody and articulate the effectiveness of behaviours of leadership Robbins conveyed. The results also indicate that students value films as a medium for contextualising actions that demonstrate different leadership styles. It is perceived as a way of catering to diverse learning styles and as a way of building autonomy. We conclude that while films can be motivating and lend authenticity to assessment tasks, students need clear direction in making links between theoretical concepts and narrative filmic constructions of leaders and leadership behaviour. This leads to the next stage of our action research cycle.

This paper explores the role of identity in helping international students form social networks at an Australian institution and how these networks contribute to creating a sense of home away. The findings suggest that international students form distinct social networks that are not necessarily solely made up of fellow students from their home countries. Rather, international students form a mixture of social networks that are based on the complex individual identities of each student centred on a variety of common factors, such as: course of study, place of work, neighbourhood, culture, religion and personal interests (hobbies). Hence many students are part of social groups that consist of international students from their specific region and beyond, as well as local (Anglo and non-Anglo) students. These locally based social networks complement existing home-based networks which are maintained virtually through social media to create a home away from home.

This paper presents an empirical study undertaken to develop a typology of international student community engagement activities that incorporates the perceptions of three key stakeholder groups--the international students, the community and the university. Framed by the notion of value co-creation, our exploratory study was undertaken at a rapidly growing, regional Australian university. Qualitative data was collected via interviews with community members (n = 5) and university staff members (n = 4) and focus groups with international students (N = 22). Our resulting typology comprises three clusters of engagement activity--highly unstructured, semi-structured and highly structured--with two engagement types in each cluster. Thus, the six major types of international student university-community engagement activities are: spontaneous occurrences and daily interactions (highly unstructured), informal social gatherings and casual employment (semi-structured) and formal social organisation participation and professional work experience (highly structured). Our typology offers a useful platform for strategic endeavours related to international student university-community engagement.

The current research education context in Australia is one of increased pressures for timely completion with a spotlight on the scope and depth of training and a profound increase in enrolments. These factors inevitably shape the supervision experiences of doctoral candidates. This paper discusses student perceptions of supervision. Supervision is the most influential factor in candidates' doctoral satisfaction. While this may be no real surprise, there is a need to tease out the differences and tensions in perceptions of supervision quality. Students' notions of "the good supervisor" can identify some common characteristics but also some variance depending on learning style and previous experiences. As a result, students' expectations can be very different across and amongst modes of study, disciplines and stages of the candidature. This paper discusses the implications of these perceptions in relation to quality agendas. It draws on taxonomies of supervision and Foucault's notions of subjectivity and power/knowledge to analyse the tensions that emerge from these different perceptions and what they reveal about the role of power, agency and knowledge production within a "quality" supervisory relationship.

This paper discusses pre-service teachers' responses to a critical analysis of gender/power relations using examples from a final assessment for an intensive elective unit called Teaching Sexuality in the Middle Years. This unit critically examines gender/power relations, the production of difference, heteronormativity and pleasure and desire, employing a feminist post-structural framework. Despite the focus on critical thinking, reflection and interrogating structural inequalities in this unit some students were resistant or unable to engage with this approach in their assessments, although appearing to do so in workshops. We consider the broad range of sexuality education discourses mobilised by this unit to try to make sense of what looks like resistance but may be something more complex and difficult to negotiate. The paper ends with a consideration of some of the implications of this approach for practice.

Background: Over the last 20 years, curriculum development in Health and Physical Education (HPE) (or Physical Education, Physical Education and Health, Sport Education as it is variously called) has repeatedly attempted to address issues of equity and social inclusion. Why then does systemic educational disadvantage persist, and why do the poorest members of society acquire less privileged and privileging forms of HPE knowledge, skills and bodily dispositions? What constitutes relevant and responsive HPE curriculum for which groups of students remains a site of considerable contestation. Purpose: At a time when significant changes are being suggested to HPE curricula with the development of the Australian (National) Curriculum (see http://consultation. australiancurriculum.edu.au/), this paper is an attempt to refocus the analysis of education for Indigenous students in Australia upon the power and control relations operating within schools, rather than external social relations, using principles of pedagogic discourse from the sociological theories of Basil. The paper contributes to the growing corpus of studies on the social relations within schooling which constitute HPE curriculum, and the possibilities for interrupting systemic social inequity through the redesign of school curriculum and pedagogy. Methods: Using critical ethnographic methodology, a single, intrinsic case study of a school in a Torres Strait Islander community in Australia was undertaken. Document collation, observation and researcher notes, and individual and focus group interviews with stakeholders, comprised the data collection methods. Stakeholders including female students (n = 13), teachers (n = 7), parents (n = 2), school administrators (n = 4), regional education staff (n = 2), community advisors in education and health (n = 2), and regional health professionals (n = 6) comprised the group of key informants and research participants. Discussion and Conclusion: Government policy initiatives have reinforced a dominant and persistently negative discourse about "educational disadvantage" when representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) students and educational outcomes. This paper challenges these negative discourses and focuses attention on the social relations within schooling which constitute the "what" and "how" of HPE curriculum, contributing to the large corpus of Bernsteinian studies of HPE curriculum which "look beneath the surface appearances of progress and innovation, to how inequities endure, despite rhetorical claims to the contrary that they have been eroded or have disappeared". It also reveals the important contribution that Indigenous communities and educators have made and continue to make to curriculum decision-making in HPE for Indigenous Australian students.

In 2010, the Australian Commonwealth government initiated an $8m project called Teaching Teachers for the Future. The aim of the project was to engage teacher educators in a professional learning network which focused on optimising exemplary use of information and communications technologies in teacher education. By taking part in this network, participants were afforded opportunities to transform their practice through a range of localised initiatives that applied information and communications technologies to the art and science of teaching and learning. One of these initiatives involved reengineering a university mathematics unit targeted at pre-service teachers. Information and communications technologies were purposefully embedded using Mishra and Koehler's (2006) Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge model as a conceptual framework. This paper discusses the outcomes of the initiative. Pre-service teachers and staff involved in the unit shared their stories about the changes they had noticed in both their thinking and practice. The results of the initiative were heartening, and it is hoped that the constructs used will translate into other learning areas. (Contains 4 figures and 5 tables.)

This paper reports how one Australian university and the Queensland Department of Education and Training (DET) are working together to increase the number of school students from low socio-economic backgrounds enrolling in undergraduate university degrees. This innovative program involves university lecturers and school teachers working together in the delivery and assessment of four Bachelor of Education units (or subjects) to a cohort of Year eleven and twelve students at a secondary school. Focus group interviews collected data from 26 students, 7 parents, 4 school and 3 university staff to assess the effectiveness of the program. All stakeholders viewed the program as a highly valuable opportunity to experience university learning with 31 high school graduating students being made offers to enter full-time university in the 2010 and 2011. This positive result has particular significance in the current drive in Australia and elsewhere to increase the participation in higher education of young people from under-represented groups. (Contains 3 tables.)

Drawing from a study of the experiences of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students, this paper presents an overview of the specific needs of these students as they enter and progress through their tertiary education. Extracts from a set of case studies developed from both staff and student interviews and an online survey are used to illustrate what we have categorised as the emotional, motivational, financial, study, literacy, and transitional needs of this particular cohort of students. Our findings, supported strongly by other current research, point to the need for a whole-of-university approach to enhancing the educational and subsequent employment opportunities for Aboriginal students. This includes acknowledging cultural and familial responsibilities, recognising and accommodating Aboriginal knowledge, and ensuring equitable experiences of university life.

Increasing complexity is one of the most pertinent issues when discussing the role and future of design, designers and their education. The evolving nature of digital media technology has resulted in a profession in a state of flux with increasingly complex communication and design problems. The ability to collaborate and interact with other disciplines has recently been strongly articulated as an imperative skill for the future designer. How the education of such a designer is facilitated in practice is less well defined. The implementation of authentic problem-solving processes that introduce design students to workplace realities is often missing in design education. In order to manage the increasing complexities of design problems and technology a learning and teaching approach that facilitates the interaction of multiple disciplines was implemented and trialed over a period of two years in an undergraduate digital media design programme. This approach, known as the POOL model framework, is based on a "pool" of resources and people to be applied as needed when responding to complex design problems. This paper focuses on the extent to which complex interactive design projects can be managed through multidisciplinary collaboration. Feedback from students and educators is presented and which reveals that the framework does provide an opportunity for students to resolve complex design and technological problems and contribute to project outcomes that could not be achieved when working individually.

This paper examines data drawn from interviews with homeless people who were undertaking a "Clemente" programme offered by the Australian Catholic University in the Vincentian Village in East Sydney. The "Clemente" programme, conceptualised by Shorris, is based on the belief that an education in the humanities empowers people to engage in a more controlled way with the world in which they live, and that they will therefore be less likely to react simply to contexts and events. Two of the striking things about the interview data were the rejection of "vocational courses" and the way in which the learners referred to changes in their bodies that flowed from the humanities programme: the way they walked, the straightness of their backs, together with the metaphor of climbing. The present paper seeks to interpret these and other changes in terms of Mauss's and Bourdieu's conceptions of "habitus," bodily "hexis" and dispositions, and possible implications for teaching and learning in vocational education. (Contains 4 figures.)

This paper reports the results of a small qualitative pilot study on the role of alcohol in college life, undertaken at three residential colleges at an Australian university. Focus groups (involving 43 students aged between 17 and 23 years) investigated participants' views of the social functions of alcohol in the residential college environment. Participants regarded drinking as an entrenched and highly valued aspect of college culture at all three colleges. They portrayed alcohol as contributing in positive ways to "sociability and relaxation" as well as "bonding and social inclusion" at college. Although drinking was acknowledged as disruptive of students' sleep, study, and daily routines, such impacts were often played down or normalised. The article concludes that normative studies, with a particular focus on first-year students, may be fruitful avenues for reducing alcohol-related harm among college-based university students. Qualitative studies like the one reported here can provide detailed, context-specific information about "local drinking cultures", which are essential for informed decision-making about intervention approaches and policy change.

This paper describes a method intended to advance students along the path to independent learning. The method is consistent with the principles of enquiry-based learning. It involves restructuring student contact class time into a single three-hour block, and dedicating the majority of this time to working in small research project groups. Non-punitive, formative feedback is provided continuously on student work through the semester. In order to gain insight into the student experience of the design, a qualitative study using focus groups was conducted across two consecutive semesters. Reflection on the teaching experience in light of the student responses provides insight into aspects that have worked well, particularly the nature and channels of support provided to students. Despite the students' unfamiliarity with the unit design, the contact structure and the group work has been popular and has been perceived as contributing to the students' learning experience. The levels of support and feedback made possible through the unit design have also been very positively viewed. However, interesting questions are also raised. The first is regarding the balance between encouraging independent learning and the provision of structure and support by staff. The second is related to going beyond student perceptions and reliably measuring changes in independent learning abilities. (Contains 2 tables.)

This paper considers the experience of a small group of young adults who were born in Africa, entered Australia under the humanitarian entry program, and are enrolled in tertiary education. It investigates the expectations and experiences of these students and the associated teaching staff at a South Australian university. This body of students comprises a diverse group of individuals, and their educational success is equally varied. In focus groups many of the students revealed a range of pressures such as challenges adapting to new educational contexts, high community expectations, and difficult home environments for study. Students recounted a mixed educational experience with staff as they interfaced with practical issues of seeking academic support, accessing study materials, and studying in another language. Perhaps reflecting the determination and self-reliance that has brought them to this point, they primarily speak of academic success as their own responsibility, as well as their best support being other students from the same background. An awareness of, and a response to, these issues may help to ease refugee students' transition to tertiary study. (Contains 1 table.)

Better learning outcomes flow from higher levels of student engagement. When the perception is that student engagement is in decline, there is genuine concern amongst committed academic teaching staff. This paper reports on a pilot study designed to foster an understanding of the factors that influence engagement in undergraduate students in the business school at a regional Australian university. Two focus groups were conducted with the assistance of 22 students enrolled in the major study areas of the school, and the information obtained informed the development of an on-line questionnaire aimed at exploring the drivers of engagement and disengagement. Eighty-five students completed the questionnaire, and 67 usable responses were available for analysis--a response rate of 17 per cent, which could be seen as illustrative of student disengagement. However, the findings of the pilot study suggest that the majority of students believed themselves to be engaged with their studies. Students reported that the instructors' approach, class and assignment structure, learning support and other personal factors affected their level of engagement. A "preliminary model of student engagement" was developed from the findings. Key factors have been drawn from this to inform learning and teaching policy and practices within the School. (Contains 2 figures and 3 tables.)