Search

Biology as an integral part of science learning continues to be maximized by integrating technology into its learning design. The definite manifestation of this integration process is to achieve meaningfulness, activeness, and effectiveness of the learning carried out. The flipped classroom (FC) is gaining popularity as a pedagogical model that uses the important benefits of technology in its learning environment. FC is proven to be an effective teaching mode that empowers students' 21st-century skills, stimulates students' self-learning, and improves academic performance. The potential of the FC is interesting to explore to what extent biology welcomes the FC. The aimed of this systematic literature review is to review and analyze articles published by Scopus indexed journals. We used the keywords "Flipped classroom and biology" in the search menu in the Scopus database and succeeded in finding 72 articles. There were 21 articles that met the criteria for further analysis. The inclusion and exclusion model used is PRISMA. The findings obtained are the trend of FC publications in biology learning over the last ten years. The approaches used in this research include quantitative, mixed method, case study and qualitative. Key words that are often used by writers are student, human, biology. The biology keyword has a branch, namely active learning. There are 9 countries of origin of authors who publish articles. The United States is a country that is active in publishing. Articles published on each continent are not evenly distributed. The dominant articles are published in collaboration with one country and rarely are articles published by one author. We have succeeded in formulating a picture of the existence of the FC in biology learning over the last ten years. These findings can be a consideration or reference for researchers to explore and study more deeply research related to the FC in biology learning based on their respective urgency.

Today's teachers play a critical role in preparing students for the integration of educational technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), into their lessons. It is thought that AR implementation improves collaboration, motivation, and learning outcomes. Considering this, this study aims to determine the teachers' perceptions of the benefits and obstacles of employing mobile AR applications (mAR) in their biology education, along with suggestions for practice, app developers, and policymakers. Therefore, a mixed-methods study was used to examine Austrian secondary school biology teachers' opinions. A questionnaire containing open-ended and closed-ended questions was distributed to 35 teachers. Descriptive statistics were employed to process quantitative data, whereas grounded theory was utilized to process qualitative data. According to the findings, biology teachers likely utilize mAR apps to teach about human anatomy or to identify living things (e.g., plant determination). According to the teachers, mAR can improve students' learning outcomes, motivation, and collaboration, and further their enthusiasm for learning biology. The main obstacles that teachers encounter whilst integrating mAR into their lessons are lack of technical devices, Internet issues, inconsistency with the curriculum, and questionable scientific accuracy of information. Despite the promising results, additional future studies with larger sample sizes are needed.

Governance and regulation of the use of live animals in research and teaching is examined in Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China, Japan and India. A comparison of the systems in different countries will enable the determination of best practice and fit-forpurpose regulation. The most comprehensive government regulation of animal welfare in institutions covers a broad range of animals and institutions are required to have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, whose membership is specified in guidelines or regulations. The work of the Committees is rigorously overseen by government and facilities that use live animals are audited externally. All countries examined have legislation governing the use of live animals in research, although only Australia and Malaysia have a fully equivalent mandated oversight of teaching. Teaching that uses live animals is partly covered in the Philippines, Japan, Singapore and Thailand This paper thus aims to review the regulation of animal use in different Asian jurisdictions in order to determine best practices that are appropriate to those settings. The most comprehensive oversight is provided in Australia and Malaysia that essentially use the same regulatory framework.

The method for producing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) was first published in 1975. MAbs have revolutionised research, diagnosis, and disease treatment approaches. While students need a good understanding of MAb production, teaching the key steps via traditional methods can be challenging. Numerous resources exist, but these focus on hybridoma selection omitting other key steps. In 2016, an interactive simulation was developed where students produced a virtual MAb. The simulation was used in conjunction with a lecture and tutorial, providing an alternate approach for students to learn and test their understanding. The simulation is interactive, placing students in charge of all key decisions, with immediate feedback provided at all stages. The impact of the simulation on student learning was assessed between 2017-19. Ten formative multiple-choice questions were included so students could test their understanding. The impact of the simulation on student performance was assessed in a quiz. Students that used the simulation consistently scored significantly higher in all assessment items than students who did not access the simulation. Students were engaged and the positive feedback indicated that they enjoyed this novel, alternative teaching method. This demonstrates that a simulation is a novel, learning aid for teaching students all aspects of MAb production.

Students' level of engagement and approach to learning can significantly impact their overall success in a course. This study used the student course engagement questionnaire (SCEQ) to assess the engagement levels of first-year undergraduate students studying three different introductory units (chemistry, biology and nursing) at a regional Australian university. No significant differences in engagement were found between genders, or for students studying different units. One of the most notable factors influencing engagement was student age, with students under 20 years of age scoring significantly less than mature age students across nearly all measures of engagement. Tertiary educators could use several complementary approaches to improve engagement in younger students, including the use of interactive multimedia and social media to connect with students, making the unit content relatable and relevant to students' lives, providing authentic and engaging assessment items, and pursuing interactive approaches to lectures and tutorials. Given that many university students take an introductory science course during their first year, these results are likely to be relevant across a range of disciplines.

The significance of the role of students' interpretation and creation of multiple forms of representation in science learning has long been established and advocated, but there is a paucity of research into the extent to which this emphasis in science education is reflected in high stakes final year high school science examinations. This study investigated the inclusion of visualizations in the questions within such examinations that require students to construct a response, and also the extent to which such questions required students to create or modify diagrams or graphs within their responses. Examinations in physics, biology and chemistry from the Cambridge International Examination, New Zealand, Singapore and the States of New South Wales and Victoria in Australia over a six-year period (2014-2019) were analysed. The results indicate that less than one third of constructed response item (CRI)questions include visualisations, with most occurring in physics, then biology and then chemistry. An infinitesimally small percentage of questions across all subjects and in all butone of the jurisdictions required the creation or augmentation of visualisations. The misalignment between the integral role of visualizations in science pedagogy and the paucity of visualizations in CRIs in final year high school examinations as well as implications for examination re-design and associated further research are discussed.

The need to make higher education curricula gender-inclusive is increasingly pressing as student cohorts diversify. We adopted a student-staff partnership approach to design, integrate, and evaluate a module that taught first-year science students the difference between biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation in the context of genetics concepts at an Australian university. This module aimed to break the binary in misconceptions of both sex and gender, emphasising that both exist on separate spectra. Data triangulation was used to evaluate students' attitudes towards the module and their learning of module concepts. Students' attitudes were positive overall, and evaluation of students' learning indicated that the majority of students understood and retained key concepts, while also identifying common misconceptions. Perhaps the most important finding was that students who identified as belonging to a minority group had significantly more positive attitudes towards the module than non-minority students. This finding supports previous research that has found inclusive curricula have greater benefit for students from minority backgrounds, indicating the importance of making such curriculum enhancements. Our results speak to both the co-creation process and students' learning outcomes, providing valuable insights for practitioners both within science and beyond.

Amidst endorsement of inquiry based learning (IBL) in primary and lower secondary settings in Australia, research indicates that IBL is underrepresented and/or under utilised in senior science education. To investigate this apparent pedagogical misalignment, a phenomenological study was undertaken to explore senior biology teachers' perspectives and practices around IBL. Six senior biology teachers working in government schools in Victoria participated in this study. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews, transcribed, coded and thematically analysed. Findings revealed that despite being in favour of IBL, participants experienced tensions in teaching senior biology through inquiry and felt compelled to adopt transmissive techniques with senior secondary cohorts. Three major sets of commonalities causing tensions were identified: (1) Ambiguity in teachers' interpretation of IBL; (2) Lack of student readiness for, or expertise in, IBL; and (3) Pressures around school culture/expectations at senior secondary level. The research concludes with suggestions to address these identified tensions and create opportunity for IBL, including avenues for further research.

This study aimed to adapt the Get Set2 quiz and design a diagnostic quiz for implementation under assumed knowledge admissions into university science degrees. The GetReady Quiz that was designed, comprised five modules benchmarked against the high school curriculum in Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology. The significance of this study stems from the development of an alternate approach to support students, with deficiencies in mathematical skills, who enter university STEM programmes with recommended foundational knowledge in mathematics and science. A mixed-mode research methodology was employed in which quiz design was coupled with implementation and evaluation with a pilot study. The GetReady Quiz design featured five discipline modules in Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology, with progression of question difficulty. Knowledge gaps and apparent difficulties for some students with conceptual understanding were evident. Students displayed a realization of their lack of knowledge by reporting that completion of the GetReady Quiz helped them identify areas for revision. The findings indicated that the GetReady quiz was appropriate for assumed knowledge self-diagnosis for commencing students. Approaches to diagnostic testing, such as the GetReady Quiz, should be recommended, if not compulsory, for university students who commence study with STEM assumed knowledge admission.

Menstrual health literacy has a direct impact on young peoples' quality of life, health, academic and professional performance. In Australia, the key learning area of Health and Physical Education [HPE] provides opportunities for students to develop menstrual health literacy. This paper reports on the findings of a survey of 5007 young Australian women aged 13-25 on their experiences of menstruation, dysmenorrhea and education. The discussion herein relates to the qualitative component that asked the question 'What was the most useful information about menstruation received in HPE [Health and Physical Education] class?' Applying a thematic analysis to the data, three key themes emerged. These include: (a) it's all just biology; (b) the cause but not the effect, and; (c) too little, too late. The findings suggest limitations in educational approaches taken by teachers potentially resulting in poor menstrual health literacy portending long-term negative health consequences for some individuals.

When most people think "King Island," they think of a place synonymous with premium Australian dairy products. But hidden away from the lush, green pastures of grazing cows is an island teeming with invertebrate and plant species. You could probably eat some of those too, but that wasn't the intent of the Bush Blitzers who set off to find them. Bush Blitz is an initiative of the Australian Government through the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, and Parks Australia along with BHP and the Earthwatch Institute Australia. This article describes how a team of scientists, along with representatives from the government and industry (Bush Blitz), set up base on the stunning island to scour its waterways, seashores and vegetation in the hopes of discovering previously undescribed plants and creatures, and of recording the presence of those already known.

The visibility of female role models in science is vital for engaging and retaining women in scientific fields. In this study, we analyse four senior secondary science courses delivered across the states and territories in Australia: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Physics. We compared male and female representation within the science courses by examining the mentions of male and female scientists along with the context of their inclusions in the syllabuses. We find a clear gender bias with only one unique mention of a female scientist. We also find a clear Eurocentric focus and narrow representation of scientists. This bias will contribute to the continuing low engagement of women in scientific fields. We outline possible solutions to address this issue, including the accreditation of scientific discoveries to include female scientists and explicit discussion of structural barriers preventing the participation and progression of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

In researching student learning experience in Higher Education, a dearth of studies has investigated cognitive, social, and material dimensions simultaneously with the same population. From an ecological perspective of learning, this study examined the interrelatedness amongst key elements in these dimensions of 365 undergraduates' personalised learning networks. Data were collected from questionnaires, learning analytics, and course marks to measure these elements in the blended learning experience and academic performance. Students reported qualitatively different cognitive engagement between an understanding and a reproducing learning orientation towards learning, which when combined with their choices of collaboration, generated five qualitatively different patterns of collaboration. The results revealed that students had an understanding learning orientation and chose to collaborate with students of similar learning orientation tended to have more successful blended learning experience. Their personalised learning networks were characterized by self-reported adoption of deep approaches to face-to-face and online learning; positive perceptions of the integration between online environment and the course design; the way they collaborated and positioned themselves in their collaborative networks; and they were more engaged with online learning activities in the course. The study had significant implications to inform theory development in learning ecology research and to guide curriculum design, teaching, and learning.

We reviewed 48 articles related to the engineering design process in science education published from 2010 to 2020. There are several previous literature review studies that analyzed the engineering design process in science education. However, we have not found any that investigates projects, discussed topics, as well as the benefits of the implementation of the engineering design process in science education. The research method used was a systematic literature review. This study analyzed the characteristics of the content based on year of publication, type of publications, countries that implement it, research approach, educational stage, and science content. The findings show that the projects used in the implementation of the engineering design processes in science education varied according to the discussed topics. The benefits of the implementation of the engineering design process in science education include cognitive benefits, procedural (skills) benefits, attitudinal benefits, and a combination of the three benefits.

Learning objectives outline the knowledge and skills to be taught in a subject, thus signaling what is worth learning and what type of thinking is valued. The aim of this syllabus analysis is to determine the cognitive demand of learning objectives in the recently reformed Queensland physics, chemistry and biology syllabus and to analyse whether the development of students' metacognitive and self-system thinking is embedded in the curriculum. Marzano and Kendall's (2007) New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives was used as a theoretical framework for the analysis. Results show that cognitive levels of learning objectives are skewed towards the lower order thinking skills retrieval and comprehension in all three sciences, with less than 50% of learning objectives at analysis or knowledge utilisation level. Teaching metacognitive and self-system thinking were found to be implicit rather than explicit objectives of the new syllabi. There may be a mismatch between the policy goals of science education in Australia and the cognitive demands emphasised in the new syllabi, fuelling the debate about the right balance of lower order and higher order cognitive skills in secondary science. Implications for pedagogy and stakeholders in science education are discussed.

In Australia, a significant number of students enrol in first-year university biology without the benefit of high school biology. In order to help students support each other, the authors of this paper (a central unit academic developer and a biology coordinator of first-year biology) created a classroom activity that facilitated the distribution of the more experienced students of biology throughout the practical work groups. An important feature of this creative design for forming groups, called the GLO Activityin this paper, was the embedding of two of the University's key teaching and learning priorities within the activity. These were the University's eight graduate learning outcomes (GLOs) and, inclusive education practice. We discuss creative pedagogies in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and their link to supporting students in their first year of university study. We explain our scholarly thinking behind the GLO Activity and evaluate its impact. Finally, we reflect on how we, the educators, found satisfaction in thinking deeply to create a new learning structure for a biology practical class that solved one teaching challenge but also met a number of the University's curriculum principles.

Public education is not just a way to organise and fund education. It is also the expression of a particular ideal about education and of a particular way to conceive of the relationship between education and society. The ideal of public education sees education as an important dimension of the common good and as an important institution in securing the common good. The common good is never what individuals or particular groups want or desire, but always reaches beyond such particular desires towards that which societies as a whole should consider as desirable. This does, of course, put the common good in tension with the desires of individuals and groups. Neo-liberal modes of governance have, over the past decades, put this particular educational set up under pressure and have, according to some, eroded the very idea of the common good. This set of contributions reflects on this state of affairs, partly through an exploration of the idea of publicness itself -- how it can be rearticulated and regained -- and partly through reflections on the current state of education in the 'north' and the 'south.'

Research from the fields of science representation, genre pedagogy and disciplinary literacy for adolescents indicates that achievement for students, including those from linguistically diverse backgrounds, will improve if they engage with the meaning-making conventions of disciplinary texts, but there is no current agreement on the nature of teaching practices for supporting such work. This paper reports on the pedagogical changes that occurred when a high-school biology teacher was supported to develop knowledge about systemic functional linguistics and to use genre pedagogy. The case study of one biology teacher discussed here demonstrates that student participation in dialogue about the language patterns of scientific texts improves when the teacher uses genre pedagogy during text deconstruction. Student involvement in dialogue about content area language increases when the teacher focuses on specific parts of texts, prepares students for what to look for within texts, and elaborates on student input. Preparation included converting language to everyday meanings, while elaboration involved recasting to academic language, as well as prompting to reword and expand meaning.

Critical thinking (CT) is a highly valued skill, based on feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, and thus academics have long sought to embed CT into undergraduate curricula. In this study, we investigated foundation biology students' self-efficacy of their CT skills (including three CT sub-elements), and whether such self-efficacies changed over a year of study. We also assessed students' actual CT ability, and whether there were differences in self-efficacy and actual ability between male and female students. While students' self-efficacy of their overall CT ability increased over the course of the year, this value was significantly lower than each of the CT sub-element efficacies, at both commencement and completion of the study. Conversely, students' actual CT skills did not change over the year, although females scored higher than males in the one of the two units of study. We conclude that (i) there is a disconnect between our students' self-efficacy of, and actual, CT ability; and (ii) there is a gender-based difference in their self-efficacy and actual CT ability. We recommend interventions to enhance foundation biology students' understanding of CT and through this, improve the concordance between their self-efficacy of their CT skills and their actual CT ability.

Transfer of mathematical learning to science is seen as critical to the development of education and industrial societies, yet it is rarely interrogated in applied research. We present here research looking for evidence of transfer from university mathematics learning in semester one to second semester sciences/engineering courses (n = 1125). A transfer index measure was derived from extant university assessments, calculated on content-matched questions requiring mathematical concepts and skills in students' completed mathematics and science/engineering exams. We found that transfer could be measured in this way, and present path models of how transfer is associated with educational attainment and other factors. However, transfer was observed only in physics (n = 258) and engineering (n = 426); biology and molecular bioscience assessments did not provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their mathematical learning. In physics and engineering courses, mathematical attainment had a strong, direct, positive effect, with transfer of learning providing an additional direct and mediating effect upon students' performance in these subjects. In physics and engineering, transfer was also associated with higher levels of educational attainment in general. This new, applied approach to examining transfer trialed here may provide opportunities for analysing, evaluating, and improving cross-disciplinary transfer of learning within universities.

This study aimed to compare the objectives of environmental education topics in various countries. The present study is a qualitative study and content analysis was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that the categories of the objectives regarding the environment topic in the primary education were found to be higher in Turkey compared to other countries. The concept of the ozone layer in chemistry curricula and the concept of biodiversity in biology curricula were intensively included. No country had objectives regarding all subcategories in primary education. There are no objectives regarding field trip in physics subject in all countries. Objectives regarding the category of identifying issues and research question were included only in Australia. However, the activities for environmental education were determined to be at a low level in all the countries.

Recently, students' interest in science has been conceptualized as a network model: the science interest network model (SINM) in which affective, behavioural and cognitive components interact together; building on science interest being a dynamic relational construct. In the current study, we combine the Australian Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 and Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth 2008 data (N = 4758) to investigate relationships between the network characteristics of Year 10 students with their decision to enrol in a science course in Year 12. Specifically, we identified indicators central to the SINM and tested whether they predicted chemistry, physics and biology course enrolment. Students' intentions to pursue a science-related study or career (future intentions in science) and their enjoyment of science (science enjoyment) were the most central indicators for all three science courses. Centrality was strongly related to course enrolment (r = 0.36-0.74), lending support to the validity of network theory in the context of science interest, as central indicators may play an influential role within the network.

The present article analyses the changes in practices, ideas, and attitudes proposed by a group of novice science teachers during a further education teacher training program. The research on which it is based is focused on monitoring the training program and its impact on the participating teachers. The training program has as its starting point the practical problems teachers encounter, and is developed fundamentally through team work, debates, and reflection. The study demonstrates the suitability of these procedures to facilitate change and influence the professional development of these teachers.

Students commencing tertiary education enter through a number of traditional and alternative academic pathways. As a result, tertiary institutions encounter a broad range of students, varying in demographic, previous education, characteristics and academic achievement. In recent years, the relatively constant increase in tertiary applications in Australia has not translated to an increase in student retention or graduate numbers. The Health Sciences discipline typically falls within this paradigm, prompting various approaches to promote academic success and overall student retention. In this study, the demographic and previous education of health science students at an Australian University, were analysed along with first year science grades from a core first year anatomy and physiology unit. A generalized linear model (GLM) demonstrated statistically significant relationships between performance in the unit (measured by grade point average) and year 12 Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) subjects (human biology and chemistry; p<0.001) and gender (p<0.001). No significant performance correlation was observed with household socioeconomic status, as measured by socio-economic indexes for areas. Taken together, the results from this study facilitate estimation of academic success by some parameters prior to their commencement at University.

The topic of living things is ideal for exploring the ideas of children in the early years of school. Preschool and primary school teachers are reasonably confident with the subject matter and all children will have had some life experiences that contribute to their prior knowledge. For this reason, the question 'Is it alive?' is one that Foundation-year students will be ready to engage with. The diversity of living things and non-living artefacts that children have encountered in their everyday lives provides a rich foundation for discussion. Engaging children in talking about familiar topics is a good way to support emergent science ideas and the development of scientific thinking and inquiry skills. This paper presents a sequence of learning tasks comprising about one hour of lesson time from a unit of work for Foundation-year students. Emphasis is placed on supporting children to develop the science inquiry skill of communicating with a focus on early argumentation. Talk with fellow students and adult teachers supports children expressing their ideas and observations with reasons and evidence, a practice central to science communication (Russell & McGuigan, 2016). The learning experiences featured occurred early in Term 1 of the school year in two kindergarten classes. Both groups of children were involved in learning about living things and their survival needs. In this all-girls school, a science specialist (author) taught each class collaboratively with their classroom teacher.

Science and science education are recognised internationally as essential for ensuring a sustainable and prosperous future. At the same time, significant equity issues are apparent in science education. This study used enrolment and academic result data, routinely collected from government schools in Victoria, Australia, to examine the impact of socioeconomic status and school location on patterns of participation and achievement in senior school Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics and Psychology. This research shows that though non-metropolitan students are less likely to have the sciences provided by their school, where they are provided they enrol in similar proportions to metropolitan students. In line with other research, it shows that high SES students are more likely than other students to study senior secondary Chemistry and Physics, and outperform low SES students in all senior sciences. While the findings of this study suggest that non-metropolitan students underperform their metropolitan counterparts in senior sciences, they suggest the gap in performance is not dramatic. More promising, the variation in school performance revealed in this study suggests that non-metropolitan schools can achieve just as well as metropolitan schools in the sciences. The study also suggests location has a moderating effect on SES not noted in the current literature, where science achievement in non-metropolitan schools appears less impacted upon by SES than similar schools in urban environments. This provides impetus for further research into high science performing non-metropolitan schools as a step towards addressing some of the equity concerns in science education.

STEM is about the integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. To teach STEM effectively, students need practical examples of subject integration. A good example is the use of an electron microscope in teaching physics and biology. An electron microscope is an instrument in which the operation depends on electromagnetism and quantum mechanics, in particular wave-particle duality. In teaching physics, an electron microscope can be used to measure the separation of repeated structures that give rise to interference phenomena. This paper describes the use a tabletop scanning electron microscope to teach physics and biology together through imaging butterfly wings. Students are able to identify structures with a spacing comparable to visible light on butterflies exhibiting structural colour and much larger spacing on wings without structural colour.

Senior secondary students were tasked with generating slowmation representations of biological processes they had already learned about during Year 11 VCE biology. The slowmation task therefore connects work with representations to review of course material. Results indicate that students negotiated between the textbook (and some teacher-specific direction) and their representations to clarify the processes and to ensure accuracy. In a two-hour class, students remained fully engaged and developed skills in digital capture, representation construction, and knowledge of the biological process. We argue that slowmation is an effective pedagogical strategy for engaging students in the review process, which results in deepening learning.

Adding to concerns about falling participation rates in science education, the profile of certain student groups who go on to study decreases, particularly as the year level increases. The aim of this paper is to examine if, and in what ways, demographic factors predict students' post-16 participation in biology, physics, chemistry and earth/space sciences. The study was conducted in Australia, drawing on data from over 4,300 students. Characteristics of focus include students from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds, indigeneity and gender. Outcomes of this study indicate that SES predicts participation in post-16 science subjects in each science domain. Indigenous status was a negative predictor of student participation in biology, physics and chemistry, but not earth/space sciences, where there were no significant differences in participation. Gender is a significant predictor in biology and physics participation, but not chemistry or earth/space sciences. Drawing on Bourdieusian perspectives, the authors discuss associations between participation and access to cultural, social and science capitals. Implications for the ways in which students' capital may impact their subject choices and how capital may be enhanced, are explored.

This study explores the views of doctoral students and supervisors about two doctoral thesis-writing models: the traditional monograph and the thesis that includes published articles in its body. Doctoral theses in biological and health sciences usually follow one of these two common models. Doctoral theses with publications are increasingly utilised in Australian and New Zealand universities. This article provides insights into the factors that doctoral students and supervisors in Australia and New Zealand consider when deciding how to format a student's thesis. A cross-sectional survey was conducted of supervisors and doctoral students in biological and health sciences at The University of Auckland (UoA) and The Australian National University (ANU). Basic descriptive quantitative data analysis was undertaken. Qualitative data from open-ended survey questions were analysed using a general purpose thematic approach. Overall, 144 completed surveys were returned with a total response rate of 22.9%. More than half of the respondents identified as doctoral students (UoA 54.4%, ANU 73.3%). Respondents' primary consideration when weighing up the risks and benefits of each thesis model was the impact of publications on furthering aims of both the student and the supervisor. Other points included quality and style of writing, extent of peer review, development of skills, and time management. If they were to embark on another doctorate, most respondents indicated that they would do a doctorate that included published articles in its body. Based on findings, we recommend supervisors of students who are including articles in their thesis should be clear with students from the outset about what their own contributions will be in the writing process, as well as their expectations concerning publication processes and outputs. We argue for a move towards multimodal theses formats.

Although the benefits of addressing cognitive, social and affective aspects of learning in order to support conceptual change have been discussed in the literature, there are few studies of such interventions in the normal classroom. This study used a multidimensional conceptual change framework in order to teach five biology and physics topics over one year to two classes, one from Grade 9 and one in Grade 10. Pre- and post-tests were administered to determine the degree of conceptual change. Results were compared with those from teaching comparison classes using more traditional methods. Interviews were conducted with students at various points throughout the year to determine their perceptions of the learning framework. Significant positive changes in conceptual test results were observed for all topics. In most cases these changes were significantly greater than those of students in comparison classes. Students also reported increased interest in studying science, adoption of mastery goals for learning and confidence in being able to understand concepts and write scientific explanations. This study has presented research findings within a framework that can be adopted to effectively teach a variety of topics through a multidimensional conceptual change lens.

Research has shown that achieving gender equality in science goes beyond equal gender ratios in the classroom. Female students in science disciplines with relatively higher female participation rates (e.g. biology and chemistry) still experience similar gender issues as students in male-dominated science disciplines (e.g. physics and mathematics). Yet, when studying gender inequality in science, these so-called 'gender-balanced' disciplines are frequently ignored. This study aimed to investigate gender issues for students in biology and chemistry and explore how these experiences were impacting their persistence in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational and career pipeline. Findings showed that both male and female students commonly believed that issues of gender were restricted to the male-dominated science disciplines. However, female students still reported experiences of gender bias, commonly through the form of implicit discrimination. The importance of the affective domains was also highlighted, with science identity and belonging impacting the female student experience and their intentions to persist in the sciences. Results from this study suggest further work is needed in 'gender-balanced' science disciplines, specifically in the emotional domains of science identity and belonging. This research may help educators develop more effective intervention programmes for increasing women's persistence in the STEM pipeline.

In Australia, the employment outcomes of new graduates are surveyed yearly and evidence of successful employment is linked by some to education quality. Subsequently, higher education providers must ensure their graduates acquire relevant generic attributes as employers seek graduates with 'work ready' skills. Students studying a BSc Human Biology Preclinical degree (HBP) at Curtin University do not have a prescribed profession at graduation, nor do they have fieldwork or clinical practice during their degree to help them confirm their career goals. The Graduate Destination Survey shows that most Curtin HBP graduates are involved in further studies four months post-graduation, but there is little information on what HBP graduates do after completing further studies. Since there is no long-term information on HBP graduate pathways, it is difficult to match valued attributes with career destinations. This study explores the destinations of Curtin HBP graduates between 2003 and 2012 and their perceptions of the most influential and useful aspects of the course. A mixed-methods approach was used for data collection. Focus group feedback was used to modify an online survey which was distributed to graduates via personal or university emails, or via social media. The study sample was sorted into graduate profiles based on initial goals, goals formed during their HBP degree and those still without goals at graduation. Most believed the degree itself did not lead directly to satisfactory employment but provided the fundamentals required for further studies. Many graduates were involved in further studies before seeking a career-related job, and most settled into a career four years after graduating from HBP. The study reports the achievements of HBP graduates and recommends strengthening some aspects of the HBP curriculum. It also suggests what information may be most useful to prospective students on whether or not a generic undergraduate degree is a potential pathway to achieving their desired career.

Every sphere of life has been revolutionised by science. Thus, science understanding is an increasingly precious resource throughout the world. Despite the widely recognised need for better science education, the percentage of school students studying science is particularly low, and the numbers of students pursuing science continue to decline internationally. This study establishes a new measure to investigate students' science self-concepts, motivation, and aspirations. The instrument shows sound psychometric properties in investigating secondary students' science self-concepts in different disciplines of science. Though available data show that students' science self-concepts are domain specific, it could not be shown that motivation and aspirations are.

This paper describes students' experience of participating in a case-based peer-assisted learning (PAL) program in order to examine whether the approach is pedagogically effective and likely to contribute to students' professional development. It presents the findings of a study which examined the integration of PAL and case-based learning (CBL) in a multidisciplinary radiologic biology unit as part of an undergraduate degree program in Radiography and Medical Imaging. The study indicated the value of students working together in small groups to prepare and offer a case-based tutorial for their peers, with the cases offering a focus for their research and teaching in the multidisciplinary context. Working in groups and peer teaching were the most beneficial aspects of the program for enhancing student learning. The program involved three episodes of peer assessment (assessing teaching, assessing learning and assessing contributions to group work), with the first of these contributing most to the program, though further development and exploration of the latter two aspects are needed. The integration of PAL with CBL provided a "real world" context for teaching and learning. Students recognised that interacting with peers would be an important aspect of their professional lives and that the program offered them opportunities to prepare for this. Implementation and evaluation of this approach with other groups of students in vocational and non-vocational courses would determine its broader pedagogical effectiveness.

The article discusses the link between a curriculum based on academic subjects derived from disciplinary knowledge and a progressive pedagogy that endeavours to engage students from all backgrounds with it. Section 1 describes the realist theory of knowledge which justifies the argument for this accommodation between curriculum and pedagogy. Section 2 explains how conceptual progression serves as an effective curriculum design strategy for supporting pedagogy. The final section discusses how concepts and studies from within the social realist tradition can be used to theorise an accommodation between curriculum and pedagogy that promotes cumulative knowledge building among students and teachers by being responsive to both the students and to the knowledge being taught in motivating ways.

There is a well-documented absence of inclusive school-based sex and relationships education (SRE) for Australian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth. Moreover, relatively few studies specifically examine how bisexual and queer-identifying young Australian women experience SRE. This qualitative study addresses the gap and contributes new perspectives by examining bisexual and queer young women's experiences of school-based SRE in the state of Tasmania through the lens of sexual citizenship. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 15 Tasmanian bisexual and queer young women, we argue that biomedical, risk-based and heteronormative approaches to SRE reduce young women's sexual health literacy. By framing SRE around the concept of 'sexual citizenship', this article provides important guidance on how SRE can more effectively provide bisexual and queer young women with the skills they need to be effective, engaged sexual citizens.

Global progress has arisen from scientific advances and we currently live in the age of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); science as a way of increasing the knowledge base, technology as a means of manifesting the science, engineering as a way of building and creating with it, and mathematics to devise the language we use for science to explore new realities. Strengthening science-related economies requires more students to pursue STEM subjects which means that we need to retain them early in the education pipeline in order to strengthen knowledge-based communities and nations' economic growth. In Australia, however, there is a trend of more occupations requiring STEM skills while there is a declining interest in studying STEM subjects at secondary school. The disengagement of students from STEM subjects is most notable amongst girls towards the physical sciences such as physics and mathematics. When girls are considering life pathways at high school they generally view STEM subjects as difficult, leading to career pathways that are not aligned to their interests. With the exception of biology girls do not deem STEM subjects as relevant to improving the human condition. Moreover, the STEM subjects are not viewed as interconnected and contributing to areas of knowledge that impact our lives. To increase the accessibility of STEM subjects and STEM careers to enable students and unblock the pipeline into the work sector we need to rationalise how the STEM areas work together and impacts the fabric of life beyond the knowledge silos. In addition, as educators we need to show young people how STEM skills and learnings are integrated into areas such as psychology, economics, computing, and data science. In this paper we describe how a pilot of the "Growing Tall Poppies STEM" program (GTP) has enabled female high school students and (largely) female scientists at the University of the Sunshine Coast to explore the interdigitated nature of STEM subjects and psychology to support the understanding of how STEM skills are important, relevant, and life changing. By way of background, the GTP program framework was developed to encourage secondary students, particularly girls, to choose to study STEM subjects in their final years of secondary school by demonstrating (a) the relevance of these subjects to their everyday lives, (b) that girls are capable of STEM-related academic success, (c) that STEM subjects are career-empowering, by (d) providing examples that debunk the stereotypic expectations of female students and employees. This pilot project highlighted how the STEM skills of critical thinking, problem solving, and innovation can be used "beyond" traditional STEM disciplines such as psychology. In this regard, a group of four Year 10 girls were immersed in an applied social psychology laboratory in 2016 to participate in a genuine research investigation, and students were given autonomy to contribute and take charge of their own project question. Thus the girls experienced firsthand the interdisciplinary nature of STEM disciplines, and in this way STEM learnings were related to a broader range of applications and career paths for these students. While this pilot was the first university-high school GTP collaboration, pleasingly this group of students advised that they felt inspired to continue in their study of STEM subjects on their return to school, and indicated that they were more inclined to choose STEM subjects beyond Year 10.

This study investigates the relationship between performances on the speaking component of the TOEFL iBTTM with performances on academic oral assessment tasks. For the academic tasks, we recorded and transcribed the performances of five local and five high-achieving international undergraduate students on oral assessment tasks in core first-year subjects in three faculties, a total of thirty students. For the TOEFL speaking tasks, we transcribed the performances of six high scoring students from mixed language backgrounds on the two independent and four integrated speaking tasks of the TOEFL iBTTM. On the basis of an analysis of the rhetorical moves characteristic of the two speaking contexts, we conclude that while the moves characteristic of the TOEFL tasks are largely represented in the academic tasks, there are also some differences across the two contexts. These findings both support and challenge the domain definition inference of the TOEFL iBTTM validity argument.

This paper reports on an Action Research project that investigated the integration of Aboriginal and Western knowledge into science learning in a Montessori classroom in regional Queensland, Australia. Drawing on the local knowledge of fauna of community members, the study explored the teaching of science to 12 year 8-9 students in an Aboriginal independent high school in Queensland. The overall study covered 83 lessons that included an initial Short-beaked echidna study. It applied thematic analysis to data to explore the effect of this integrated approach on students' pride in heritage, cultural knowledge, learning and the Linnaean zoology taxonomy. Results revealed that the contextualisation of Aboriginal and Western science knowledge strengthened students' Aboriginal personal identity as well as identities as science learners and status of local Aboriginal knowledge.

In the age of educational accountability, national and statewide measures are assumed to secure and improve the educational quality. However, educators often wonder how much a new accountability measure may improve the actual teaching and learning practices when the agents of change (teachers) are not active participants of such educational reform. Nevertheless, in Australia, the National Curriculum is rolling in for the first time for K-10 school education in 2012-13. In Western Australia, the new Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) system with new compulsory exit examination requirements has been implemented recently for Years 11-12. In this study, using the contextual curriculum theory (Cornbleth, 1990) and the levels of curriculum (van den Akker, 1998, 2003) as our theoretical framework, we investigated how experienced Biology teachers are making sense of the recent changes in the curriculum and the exit examination requirements: what they perceive as the major changes in the new WACE system; and how they implement the changes in their teaching practice. We discuss how the teachers' teaching philosophy, their school environments, and the new curriculum interact to create a spectrum of the implemented curriculum. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper investigates the magnitude of difference of academic achievement scores by language of instruction of prior education and the magnitude of interaction between language of instruction of prior education and students' preferred learning trait on academic performance of a group of international students in two teaching and learning practices. The magnitude of difference and magnitude of interaction were determined by using Cohen's "d" with Hedges "g" correction. Coe's spread sheet was used for the analysis. The study showed that the magnitude of difference of academic achievement score was found to be "very small" on Traditional method of Teaching and Learning (TTL) and small on Problem-Based method of Learning (PBL). However, the magnitude of interaction between language of instruction of prior education and learning traits varied from very small to large. It is a challenging task to accommodate international students from different language background and optimize the whole learning process in an English speaking teaching and learning environment.

This paper investigates various approaches to learning and their effect on performance of a cohort of international students in two different pedagogical environments. The effect of approaches to learning on performance was determined by using Cohen's "d" with Hedges "g" correction. Coe's spread sheet was used for the purpose. The study showed that the magnitude of difference in the effect of approaches of learning on performance varied from "very small" to "medium". Teaching international students from diverse educational, linguistic and cultural backgrounds is a complex task. Students from different cultural backgrounds tend to exhibit greater diversity in their approaches to learning. Appropriate teaching strategies are suggested to use to enhance the learning process of international students. An understanding about the magnitude of difference in performance of students with various approaches of learning helps to optimize the learning environment.

This paper explores the teaching of beauty therapy in the Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector. It uses the theoretical concept of bio-power to examine how the body is compliant with intimate treatments in the name of beauty. Bio-power makes visible the anatomical and biological transformation and re-formation of the human body. Bio-power constructs and is in turn constructed by the work of beauty therapy teachers in the practice of transforming the body, regulating the physical functions of the body and disciplining the choices of teachers working with training packages. Through this conceptual framework, a unit of competency is analysed to determine the association of bio-power with two training packages when teaching beauty therapy. It will show that working intimately with the human body from the inner mechanisms at the cellular level to managing the therapist/client relationship is both physically and emotionally laborious. Consequently, the two training packages that are meant to frame and conceptualise this work may not provide adequate explanations of its complexity.

Are there neurobiological reasons why we are willing to trust other people and why "trust" and moral values such as "care" play a quite pivotal role in our social lives and the judgements we make, including our social interactions and judgements made in the context of schooling? In pursuing this question, this paper largely agrees with claims made by Patricia Churchland in her 2011 book "Braintrust". She believes that moral values are rooted in basic brain circuitry and chemistry, which have been shaped over evolutionary time. However, these naturalistic claims raise important issues, including the standard philosophical objection that they fall victim to the naturalistic and/or deontic fallacies. This paper provides an overview of the neurobiology of trust and examines some of the main objections, in the belief that recognising the neurobiological substrate of care and trust can deepen our appreciation of the role these play in education.