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This article explores the interplay of the 'live' experience of drama learning in the classroom and curated digital content on learner meaning making, collaborative creation and subjectivities. It examines a case study conducted in an inner-city secondary school in Sydney, Australia, as part of a larger innovative international collaborative drama exercise entitled 'The Water Reckoning Project' (http://www.water-reckoning.net) which focussed on sustainability education. Data collected and analysed included ethnographic observations, video documentation and digital curation of students' creative work, focus groups, and pre- and post-surveys. Findings of this study reveal the importance of the aesthetically charged, embodied experience of drama as the key driver of learning when integrating drama with digital technologies. This unique project enabled students to critically and creatively engage with significant real and fictional contexts, as well as issues of local and global relevance.

Sustainability is a Cross-Curriculum Priority (SCCP) in the Australian Curriculum and is intended to be integrated into teaching and learning where deemed appropriate by teachers. This article explores teachers' knowledge, understanding, and beliefs about curriculum priorities and the situational context of teaching and learning in Queensland schools. In this article we discuss the ways in which teachers describe their relationship with sustainability education and the SCCP. Data were collected from interviews with 26 Queensland teachers, teaching across all year levels from early childhood to Year 12, as part of two different PhD research projects. Queensland teachers participating in both studies indicated strong support for the inclusion of sustainability within formal curriculum; however, this strong support did not translate into practice in most cases. As a result of curriculum and policy pressures, teachers indicated that despite their belief that Education for Sustainability (EfS) is important, few believe they have the time or support for teaching EfS. The current educational context teachers have described offers limited opportunity for teachers to integrate sustainability in ways that are meaningful and relevant to their students. The SCCP did not influence planning or teaching decisions, and many teachers were unaware of its existence. Data from both studies question the adequacy of current educational policy and curriculum documents for supporting teachers to engage with sustainability education.

Graduate students are often plagued by stress and anxiety in their journeys of becoming researchers. Concerned by the prevalence of poor graduate student wellbeing in Australia, we share our experiences of kin-making and collaboration within #aaeeer (Australasian Association for Environmental Education Emerging Researchers), a collective of graduate students and early career researchers formed in response to the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) conference in Hobart, Tasmania, in 2014. In this article, we begin to address the shortage of research into graduate student wellbeing, led by graduate students. Inspired by Donna Haraway's work on making kin in the Chthulucene, we present an exploration that draws together stories from the authors about the positive experiences our kin-making collective enables, and how it has supported our wellbeing and allowed us to work collaboratively. Specifically, we find that #aaeeer offers us a form of refuge from academic stressors, creating spaces for 'composting together' through processes of 'decomposing' and 'recomposing.' Our rejection of neoliberal norms has gifted us experiences of joyful collective pleasures. We share our experiences here in the hope of supporting and inspiring other emerging and established researchers to 'make kin' and challenge the potentially isolating processes of becoming researchers.

Background: Children with an intellectual disability (ID) have complex health needs that extend beyond the expected cognitive deficits, affecting a myriad of developmental domains. These children frequently receive inadequate health care such that their needs remain poorly managed. Methods: Staff from the Sydney Children's Hospital Network (N = 160) completed a survey on attitudes, experiences, and training satisfaction when working with patients with ID. The 48-question needs analysis survey was distributed electronically to staff from a variety of disciplines and experience levels. Results: Although staff considered themselves broadly competent in caring for children with ID, they were less confident in specific skills, such as managing associated challenging behaviours in the clinic. As confidence in skills such as these decreased, the desire for further training increased. Conclusion: This study emphasises the importance of providing accessible, high-quality professional development resources to further develop these skills.

Following the inaugural Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) research symposium in November 2014, we--a group of emerging researchers in Environmental Education/Sustainability Education (EE/SE)--commenced an online collaboration to identify and articulate our responses to the main themes of the symposium. Identifying as #aaeeer, our discussions coalesced into four main areas that we felt captured not only some of our current research interests, but also "under-explored" areas that need further attention and that also held the potential for meaningful and "dangerous" contributions to EE/SE research and practice. These themes were: (1) uncertain futures, (2) traditional knowledges for the future, (3) community EE/SE, and (4) the rise of the digital, explorations of which we present in this article. By no means intended to capture all that is worth researching in this field, these themes, and this article, are deliberately presented by #aaeeer to spark discussions, as well as showcase an example of online collaboration between researchers in a number of countries. [Paper presented at the 18th AAEE Biennial Conference--Sustainability, Smart Strategies for the 21st Century.]

Medical trainees are at risk of psychological distress due to training workload demands. Dropping out of medicine has hidden and real costs to both the public and the individual. Using quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this study assessed differences in stress and coping strategies between those serious and not serious about dropping out of medicine. A total of 854 medical students and junior doctors completed a web-based survey assessing training stress, problem-solving coping, seeking support coping, avoidance coping, and risky behaviour coping. Those serious about dropping out of medicine were high on training stress, avoidance coping, and risky behaviour coping. Specifically, males were high on risky behaviour coping, and doctors were high on avoidance coping. Reasons for contemplating dropping out of medicine were professional fit, workload, work--life balance, and the medical education training system. Identification of at-risk groups can inform efforts to design and deliver wellness interventions for medical trainees.

Background: Maternal responsiveness has been shown to predict child language outcomes in clinical samples of children with language delay and non-representative samples of typically developing children. An effective and timely measure of maternal responsiveness for use at the population level has not yet been established. Aims: To determine whether a global rating of maternal responsiveness at age 2 years predicts language outcomes at ages 3 and 4 in a community sample of slow-to-talk toddlers. Methods & Procedures: In an Australian population-based study, at child age 1:6 years, 301 slow-to-talk toddlers (scoring =20th percentile on a parent-reported expressive vocabulary checklist) were invited to take part in a 15-min free-play video of mother-child interaction at 2:0 years. Each free-play video was rated for maternal responsiveness using a five-point global rating scale, where 1 is "very low" responsiveness and 5 is "very high" responsiveness. Language skills were measured at 3:0 years using PLS-4 and at 4:0 years using the CELF-P2. Outcomes & Results: In adjusted linear regression models (potential confounders: gender, maternal education, socioeconomic status) maternal responsiveness strongly predicted receptive, expressive and total language standard scores at ages 3 (coefficient = 5.9, p < 0.001; coefficient = 5.4, p < 0.001; coefficient = 6.2, p < 0.001, respectively) and 4 years (coefficient = 4.6, p < 0.001; coefficient = 3.1, p = 0.004; coefficient = 4.0, p < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions & Implications: Slow-to-talk toddlers of mothers with higher global ratings of responsiveness have higher language scores at 3 and 4 years of age. This global measure of maternal responsiveness could be further developed as a clinical tool for identifying which slow-to-talk toddlers are most in need of early intervention.

Practical work is often considered to be a highlight of science classes for students. However, there are few opportunities for students to engage in an investigation which is situated in a real world problem and students are required to contribute their own ideas to the design and conduct of an experiment. This paper reports on a Scientists in Schools (SiS) partnership between teachers at Leeming Senior High School and scientists at Curtin University. A low cost experiment is described that can be adapted for many educational settings. Students' reports of the practical work have been used to illustrate the paper which documents both the teachers' and scientists' positive perceptions of the SiS experience. (Contains 1 table and 5 figures.)

The use of blogging (online diaries), to support student learning and reflection has increasingly been adopted for assessment purposes in higher education. The relative ease of use and accessibility of the tools indicate that these social networking applications are, potentially, a convenient means of documenting and sharing individual student learning. There are relatively few instances, however, of the use of "group" blogs for this purpose, that is where ownership of the blog is a collective enterprise rather than an individual one. This case study examines the use of group blogs to support collaborative processes in drama for the activity known as playbuilding, or group devised theater. The efficacy of the group blog is compared with the alternative it replaces--the individual, paper based journal. Using an action research methodology, the findings are based on the results of focus groups, interviews, surveys and blog entries, and raise issues about the avoidances of Web 2.0 technologies, support for creative group work, student engagement and reflective practice. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

Theatre and drama are areas of performance and inquiry which usually assume engagement and commitment to the ensemble or group process, supported by strong individual input. How can this "dynamic" be brought into a fully online distance course? In this article we analyse and reflect on the design and implementation of an online theatre studies course using theatrical metaphors to consider the "mise-en-scene," students' entrances and exits into the online space, their solo and ensemble work, and the importance of "teaching presence." Attention is paid to fostering a "course dynamic" that echoes the social world of the learners. The action research undertaken indicates that a fully online course can be as engaging, interesting, and innovative as any course designed for more traditional settings. (Contains 6 figures.)

The paper proposes a metric, the research quality index (RQI), for assessing and tracking university research quality. The RQI is a composite index that encompasses the three main areas of research activity: publications, research grants and higher degree by research activity. The public availability of such an index will also facilitate benchmarking (internally, competitively and generically) by academic units in universities. This has become an important activity in Australia with the proposed introduction of the Research Quality Framework (RQF) as the future research funding mechanism for Australian universities. The RQF is a quality-based system that will replace the existing funding system that is focused on the volume of research output, not quality. Benchmarking, using the RQI, will allow academic units to track their progress towards their quality targets and facilitates internal and competitive benchmarking, allowing academic units to assess the efficacy of their research quality enhancement strategies and policies on an annual basis. The paper illustrates the compilation and operation of the RQI. The RQI is a short-term tracking methodology for use in between the cyclical major research quality assessments. With modifications, it is applicable in a wide range of countries.

In this paper, absorbing markov chains are used to analyse the flows of higher degree by research candidates (doctoral and master) within an Australian faculty of business. The candidates are analysed according to whether they are full time or part time. The need for such analysis stemmed from what appeared to be a rather poor completion rate (as reported by the University concerned). However, this reported completion rate was a "macro" figure that aggregated PhD and Master (by full time and part time) completions together. If there really was a problem, then the Faculty needed to know where in the system it was and what potentially might then be done to remedy the problem. The assembling of data into an appropriate database was difficult and required considerable care, but an adequate database was developed. The application of the absorbing markov chains to the problem resulted in an increase in the level of understanding associated with the long term underlying probabilities of completion and also expected durations of candidature. This information highlighted one area of concern. With the information gained from this study, appropriate strategies can subsequently be put in place for the rectification of some of the areas of concern discovered in the analysis. Areas for further research are also highlighted in this paper.

The Northern Territory's bilingual education programmes, in which local Australian Aboriginal languages and English were used side by side in a minority of Aboriginal primary schools in remote northern Australia, came into being in 1973 under the broader federal government policy imprimatur of "self-determination" for Indigenous Australians. These programmes enjoyed considerable support from Indigenous Australian communities, until 1998 when the Northern Territory Government passed legislation to axe these programmes. This ran counter to the articulated wishes of the overwhelming majority of Aboriginal community members and Aboriginal school staff in affected communities. The authorities' stated reason for the closure of these programmes was that of the putative "poor standards in English literacy" in bilingual schools, in comparison with English-only Aboriginal schools, although no evidence has ever been proffered to support such a claim. Since the official closure of the programmes, some of the schools that were formerly bilingual have been attempting to "go it alone" to keep their bilingual education programmes operational. This is however a difficult task given that the bilingual education programmes are no longer state-sanctioned. Supporters of the former Indigenous Australian bilingual education programmes perceive the current emphasis on a monolingual curriculum in English in Indigenous primary schools in the Northern Territory schools as a denial of the human rights of significant numbers of Aboriginal children. In this paper the reasons why Indigenous communities wish to retain these programmes are outlined and it is explained that the lack of official support for these programmes is a long-term phenomenon, rather than a recent development.

A final-year teacher education unit in New South Wales (Australia) uses action research as a learning process for interns. Online communication is the key support mechanism for interns placed in distant rural schools. Students appreciate the move to online work because it forces them to read, and bulletin boards provide support for complex projects. (Contains 32 references.) (TD)

Problems resulting from Australia's recently adopted policy of charging full educational costs to overseas students and actively marketing its institutions in Malaysia are discussed, including the response of foreign governments, educational issues, and the concerns of Australia's faculty. (MSE)

Recent Australian policy allowing higher education institutions to market their services to overseas students at full cost and the resulting pressures to privatize public higher education further are discussed in the context of both general educational and economic principles and the specific conditions of Australian education. (MSE)

The Australian study investigated the effect of cued speech on the speech reception abilities of 18 profoundly hearing impaired children under seven conditions of presentation: audition; lipreading; audition and lipreading; cues; audition and cues; lipreading and cues; and audition, lipreading, and cues. (Author)

Abstract: This study assesses the impacts of projected climate change on Australia's tourism industry. Based on application of the Tourism Climatic Index, it investigates potential changes in climatic attractiveness for Australia's major destinations, and discusses implications for tourist flows and tourism planning, development and management. Australia may see considerable changes in spatial and temporal patterns of climatic suitability for tourism, with a southward shift in the most desirable conditions and a decline in the climatic attractiveness of northern locations. For destinations in which conditions are projected to decline, increased investment in indoor amenities may become increasingly necessary; where conditions are projected to improve, the provision of adequate infrastructure to accommodate potential increases in visitation and implementation of mechanisms to minimise the impacts of excess use may be more important. Adoption of a pro-active rather than reactive stance to climate change will maximise the ability of tourism stakeholders to successfully adapt. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The emergence of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing as a policy issue over the past two decades has galvanised efforts to advance the regulation of high seas fishing to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of fishery resources. This process enabled the introduction of environmental provisions into international trade under the guise of ensuring the lawful sourcing of seafood. This has proven more acceptable to the trade regime than bans on unsustainably harvested seafood. The European Union and the United States have led the establishment of legality as a proxy for different environmental and social accountability concerns and have implemented unilateral trade measures to prevent seafood sourced from IUU fishing from entering their markets through traceability schemes. Although the EU and US are huge markets, the ultimate success of such measures in reducing IUU fishing lies in their take up in other countries and the potential for harmonisation at the supra-state level. This research has explored the potential for implementation of anti-IUU trade measures in Australia through discourse analysis of semi-structured interviews and public policy documents. Our findings show that there is very limited potential for anti-IUU fishing trade measures in Australia due to socio-specific constructions of IUU and of fisheries management. These findings are relevant for the potential policy diffusion of anti-IUU trade measures in market states. • Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a policy and trade issue. • Unilateral measures on IUU fishing are compatible with international trade regimes. • Discursive analyses reveal socio-specific constructions of IUU fishing as a problem. • IUU fishing policy is bounded by problem characterisation. • Australia shows limited potential to adopt anti-IUU unilateral trade measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]