Search

Innovative educational approaches for schooling require changes to the traditional teacher role towards operating as co-facilitators and co-learners, and working in teacher teams, with considerable professional learning supporting this. Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been acknowledged as highly effective, with their characteristics being identified with reasonable consistency. However, specific processes through which PLCs operate are less evident. Furthermore, there is little research about the links between PLCs and student learning outcomes in innovative contexts. This paper uses teacher interviews within three innovative case-study schools, and considers student learning outcomes and the links to teacher learning within PLC contexts from a teacher perspective. Findings provide specific examples of PLC learning processes with regard to co-planning, co-teaching and co-assessment. Using achievement data, student work samples, teacher observations and self-reports, all teachers perceived that PLCs supported changes in their practices relevant to innovative contexts. Teachers indicated increased learning outcomes for students in terms of achievement, social skills, emotional aspects, independence and creativity. Significantly, the overall key impacts arising from effective PLCs operating within innovative contexts seem to be increased well-being of teachers and students. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Adult mental illness in the community including depression and anxiety has achieved greater public awareness and visibility in recent years and this has also resulted in increased recognition about the widespread impact on dependent children. During the past decade in Australia, policies and specific programs for infants, children and youth in terms of prevention, early intervention and promotion in relation to children of parents with a mental illness (‘copmi’) have been devised. However, these have generally been disconnected projects, essentially supported only by non-recurrent funding. In more recent years, systematic and interconnected responses involving a wider range of government, non-government and consumer and carer organisations to build sustainability have become the focus. However, little research about change processes affecting the organisational systems serving children of parents with mental illness and their families has been undertaken. This aim of the current study is to describe the enablers and barriers that contribute to change in systems and government and non-government organisations in relation to children of parents with a mental illness in Australia over the past decade, within the context of sustainability. The study involved interviews, focus groups and website and literature searches regarding systems change across Australian states and territories and nationally in relation to the enablers, barriers and future directions. Strategic and intentional processes within organisations, more evolutionary ongoing cross-agency processes and links to sustained changes are key systems change findings. Relevance for change in other health services is highlighted. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Experiential placements are increasingly recognised as an essential component of university programmes, providing students with real‐world contexts to apply their knowledge and to develop practical skills and personal attributes. In Australia, professions such as pharmacy have traditionally developed experiential placement programmes within state and territory regulatory requirements and situations. The evolution of national competency and accreditation frameworks provide opportunities for collaborative approaches, including consideration of experiential placements. A research study was conducted in 2007 using Australian Government Carrick Institute funding to map experiential placements across Australian pharmacy programmes. Based on university interviews and programme mapping, consultations with over 250 participants and handbook analysis, various structures and approaches for university experiential placements were evident. In relation to learning and assessment tasks, some universities use some elements of planning process. In these, objectives are linked to pre‐placement preparatory and placement learning tasks and there are opportunities for student negotiation of assessment tasks and criteria. However, in relation to assessment and explicit criteria, links to the competencies of the profession and to more generic skills were generally vague. While student evaluations of experiential placement programmes were usually evident, a systematic evaluation process involving various stakeholders including transparent processes and feedback regarding the impact on future programme planning was not present. This study highlights the importance of comprehensive planning and scaffolding of learning related to competency and other outcomes, including relevant assessment tasks and explicit criteria based on graduated descriptors during experiential placements. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

There is a paucity of recent, formal education research that listens directly to students’ views of learning with technologies. Much of the research that has been conducted has tended to focus on evaluating students’ current experiences within a specific course, or concerned with tangible issues such as frequency of computer use, access to computers and the Internet, and evaluations of technical skill levels. Available research has tended to use quantitative or mixed method approaches, with data collected through surveys using convenience samples, Likert scales and free response questions. These methods are sometimes supplemented with interviews and observations. To establish an understanding of existing research, and to provide a foundation for the chapters that follow, this chapter reviews a selection of studies published since 2005 that collected data directly from students. It is apparent from this chapter that there is room for more formal research that listens to students’ views of learning with technologies.