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Despite recognition of the value of music in education, the policies of governments have not always been reflected in the provision for music teaching in schools. This article represents a retrospective analysis and review of government policy in relation to the provision of music teachers and teacher training in Australia, with a focus on the government school system in the State of Victoria. This analysis takes account of changing social influences and particularly economic circumstances, and identifies the lessons to be derived from past policies and practices that need to be considered in future policy formation. Music was introduced to school education in Victoria during the 1850s. Over the following decades of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there were several oscillations in government policy that have failed to adequately address adequate provision for music in schools. Drawing on findings from government reports and commissions of inquiry over a period of 170 years, the evolution of music education policy is documented. The value of an historical perspective on issues such as educational policy enables us to gain an understanding of past deficiencies so that we can become more informed and impartial as decision-makers and therefore avoid making the same errors in the future.

Papua New Guinea confronts unique and complex challenges with national reform policies promoting the increase of children with a disability enrolling in mainstream schools. Despite these policies being introduced in the last two decades, the translation to practice has been slow. In order to equip teachers with the necessary skills, knowledge and dispositions to implement inclusive education in Papua New Guinea, there is a pressing need to identify and understand the challenges teacher-educators experience. Data collected as part of an Australian-funded Fellowship, from ten Papua New Guinea education leaders, elucidate the perceived challenges associated with teacher-training for inclusive education. Content analysis of the participants' reflections revealed insights into how and what pedagogical and curriculum transformations in teacher education training courses could improve inclusive education practices in Papua New Guinean schools. These findings enhance agency for the education leaders to promote positive change so that Papua New Guinea can further its implementation of inclusive education.

Understanding the school nurse's experience in human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine promotion can reduce vaccine disparities. HPV vaccination is critical to cancer prevention. Despite the importance of the school nurse in vaccine promotion, there is a lack of understanding. This article aims to examine the knowledge, attitude, experience, and role of school nurses related to HPV vaccination and promotion in school settings. A systematic search for school nurses and their experiences related to HPV vaccination was conducted. A thematic synthesis was undertaken using the socioecological model. This review highlights the complexity of HPV vaccine promotion in schools over time. Multilevel factors impact nursing practice. Nurses have good vaccine knowledge and positive attitudes. Poor workflow processes, competing demands, and vaccine communication challenge school nurses. The themes that were synthesized informed the LEADS model. With the support of school nurses, reaching the goal of eliminating cervical cancer as a public health problem is possible.

This article describes a program that was developed to introduce senior high school students in Melbourne, Australia to the technique of X-ray crystallography within the context of chemistry research. Students had an opportunity for original experimentation, performing reactions and attempting to grow crystals of reaction products in a school laboratory. The program was remarkably successful, based on student feedback and scientific outcomes. In most cases, the compounds generated by students had not been synthesized before and their structures were previously unknown. X-ray diffraction data were collected on these crystalline products, and the students participated in data analysis and structure determination. New crystal structures were submitted to the international Cambridge Structural Database, with appropriate recognition of the students involved. Two peer-reviewed reports have been accepted for publication in the research literature with the students listed as coauthors. The experiences of the authors in developing this program should be of particular interest to science educators designing outreach activities for high school students.

This article problematises Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and assessment practices to contribute to the ongoing work of decolonising higher education. It critiques the entanglement of military imaginaries and ITE via a diffractive reading of ITE discourse and policy in the Australian context through military imaginaries in academic and SF literature. In military imaginaries there exists an imperative to enact warfare as 'target processing'; that is, the essence of warfare is understood to be the operationalisation of a continuous cycle of identification of targets, selection and implementation of pre-determined methodologies to match these targets, followed by measurement of the outcomes of the process. This article considers how current ITE expectations prioritise a similar continuous cycle of selection and implementation of standardised methodologies and measurement of effects; effectively an ideology of 'teaching as processing'. It examines how this expectation assists in creating certain concerning expectations and disappearances within teaching and education.

Purpose: The purpose of this meta-analytic study was to identify clinical characteristics, defined as child factors that can be assessed by a speech-language pathologist as part of a routine speech-language evaluation that may differentiate children who persist in stuttering from children who eventually recover from stuttering. Clinical characteristics explored included sex, age at onset, family history of stuttering, stuttering frequency and severity, speech-language skills, and temperament. Method: Studies were identified through electronic databases, journals, and reference lists of relevant reports (e.g., research articles). Eligible studies followed young children who stutter (i.e., under 6 years old) for at least 24 months, assessed a potential clinical marker at study entry, and determined talker group classification (i.e., persistent or recovered) at study completion. Sex and family history differences were estimated using risk ratios; all other differences were estimated using Hedges's "g." Heterogeneity and methodological differences among studies were evaluated. Results: Eleven studies (41 reports) met eligibility criteria. Persistent children were older at stuttering onset and exhibited higher frequencies of stuttering-like disfluencies, lower speech sound accuracy, and lower expressive and receptive language skills than recovered children. Males and children with a family history of stuttering were also more likely to persist. Conclusions: Clinical characteristics were identified that are associated with increased risk for stuttering persistence. Future studies have the potential to translate these clinical characteristics into prognostic markers for stuttering persistence risk.

Some students struggle through medical school and do not have the confidence to seek help. This pilot study sought to explore the challenges and needs of medical students experiencing academic difficulty. Semi-structured interviews and online surveys were used to collect data from an academic advisor and thirteen medical students who had experienced academic difficulty. Unexpected academic failure and the loss of self-efficacy contributed to students hiding their academic difficulty and avoiding available support systems. Despite the sampling limitations, the findings of this pilot study have value in giving direction to future research. Programs that will change the current attitudes to academic difficulty, normalising access to support and encouraging early intervention, are needed to build the capacity for excellence among these students.

For white settler researchers aiming to contribute to the work of decolonising education, actively seeking ways to disturb and destabilise long-held onto-epistemological assumptions associated with colonial modernity is important. In this article I investigate how these disturbances might occur in a diffractive and decolonising reading methodology. I outline two prior diffractive reading experiences that drew on decolonial theory and Barad's diffraction theory: A situated inquiry of the Great Barrier Reef as a pedagogical agent; and a reading of Australian teacher education policy through military imaginaries. In this article I read these prior diffractive reading experiences through one another, attending to further methodological patterns. I identify two connected methods of defamiliarisation that are generative for destabilising colonising ways of knowing, norms and thinking in education. These are: Bringing ostensibly different phenomena together in diffractive relations with one another; and reading difference in the spirit of companionship, that is, in an orientation to learning from difference rather than to master difference. I suggest that if education continues to rely on and wield the same modern critical tools that support colonial-capitalist systems it will be unable to recognise, address and reimagine the continued violence of these systems.

This study explored whether Year 1 school children exposed to a 12-week classroom-based gross motor program progressed differently than Year 1 children undertaking their regular school program in motor proficiency, mathematics, and reading outcomes. Fifty-five Australian Year 1 school children (25 boys, 30 girls, mean age 6.77 ± 0.40 years) were exposed to either (i) their normal school program (Class N) or (ii) a 12-week program comprised of gross motor circuits and physically active: a) reading lessons (Class R) or b) mathematics lessons (Class M). Motor proficiency and academic performance in mathematics and reading were assessed using the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (2nd Edition) and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test--2nd Edition--Australian Standardised Edition, respectively. Differences in outcomes between classes following the 12-week program were assessed. Mean change scores for the mathematics composite were significantly greater for participants in Class R (9.61 ± 5.62, p = 0.001) and Class M (7.57 ± 5.79, p = 0.019) than for participants in Class N (0.76 ± 8.00). Mean change scores for reading (11.54 ± 7.51, p = 0.017) and total motor composites (6.12 ± 5.07, p = 0.034) were also significantly greater for participants in Class M than Class N (4.47 ± 3.50 and 0.82 ± 4.38 respectively). A 12-week classroom-based gross motor program may be beneficial for motor skill development and learning in Year 1 school children. This pilot evaluation may usefully inform future experimental studies to further investigate whether classroom-based motor skill programs have a beneficial effect on motor proficiency and academic outcomes in children in the early years of primary school.

The landscape of arts education is changing, with an increased focus on collaborative partnerships between schools and arts sectors for the purpose of creating richer arts education - both process and products. Using a combination of phenomenology and autoethnography, this research explores how one particular form of arts education partnerships function in order to consider the enablers and constraints to working effectively together. The study draws on data from interviews of eight key education (School Professionals) and industry staff (Industry Professionals based at a professional venue) and the first author's reflective journal conducted over a ten-day period during the staging of a high school musical. The findings reveal how traditional roles and practices are being re-visioned and reshaped to encompass both industry and education values connecting aesthetic quality with educational outcomes. The result of these partnerships at their best, produce not only richer experiences for students, and deep learning, but also closer industry and education relationships that are inclusive, productive and mutually beneficial.

Industry engagement, commonly implemented as a 12 week industry placement during a vacation towards the end of the degree, has traditionally been a provider-mandated component of externally accredited professional engineering degrees in Australia. Such placements are intended to bridge knowledge and capability gaps between academic study and engineering employment and contextualise the final phase of academic study. Changes in the composition of Australia's engineering industries have made it progressively harder to source such placements. In-curriculum exposure to engineering practice has also been expected, but has been delivered with considerable variability. In 2014 the authors completed a national project, led by the Australian Council of Engineering Deans (ACED), with peak industry bodies and several partner universities, funded from the Commonwealth Department of Industry Workplace Innovation Program, to explore how improving industry engagement could contribute further to engineering graduates' learning outcomes and employability. The data collected from the engineering students and employers, reported in this paper, can now be regarded as baseline data on industry engagement, against which subsequent developments can be referenced. For the first time, students' ratings of the value of different methods for industry engagement are shown to be related to their 'authenticity'. Several industry-inspired in-curriculum interventions were also trialled at partner universities. Guidelines for good practice were developed from melding the experiential findings with theoretical perspectives. In the years since completing the project, the accreditation body, Engineers Australia, has updated and intensified its focus on engagement with practice (including changing its language from 'exposure' to 'engagement'), and many engineering faculties have significantly enhanced their models and requirements for work integrated learning and industry engagement. This paper outlines these changes and examples of new implementations, including virtual and electronically-mediated methods that also reflect ongoing changes in engineering industry practice.

This article is a reexamination of the author's understanding of pedagogy, aimed at developing an increased awareness of the provinciality, limits and blind spots of the pedagogy and knowledge systems of colonial modernity. It engages with particular Indigenous epistemological theorisations of non-human agency, with Haraway's notion of multispecies entanglement, and with the Australian Great Barrier Reef in an inquiry aimed at noticing absences and hauntings of pedagogies of modernity, including the absence of ways of knowing and being without separability and determinacy and the damage that has come of this. This opens space for contemplating separability and determinacy as ontological difficulties contributing to socio-ecological crises of our time. The article is intended as a move by the author toward developing greater capacity to stay with the trouble of educating and living on a damaged planet that is fast becoming uninhabitable.

Pre-service drama teachers enter teacher training with established ideas and beliefs about teaching. These beliefs, based on experience, are informed by many hours spent in schools, and the pedagogies--both effective and ineffective--utilised by their teachers. This research explores the influence of some of these prior experiences on pre-service drama teachers' beliefs about teaching drama, this being important in the way that not only shapes their practicum experiences, but also what will then influence their own teaching of drama. Individual interviews with four pre-service drama teachers revealed the complexity and dynamics of these participants' lived experience with narrative portraits constructed as part of the process of inquiry. This process not only built on the ways that knowledge is constructed, and the beliefs and values that underscore these, but also how these are shared and made known. Three key beliefs emerged. First, drama both provides and creates a sense of belonging: belonging being key for students and integral to the work of drama teachers. Second, drama education can promote self-discovery and personal development, having therefore the potential to transform lives. Third, effective drama teachers are valued as hardworking, highly skilled professionals dedicated to bringing out their students' potential. This paper emphasises the importance for pre-service drama teachers to be aware of how their beliefs and subjectivities both influence their own experiences, and consequently have influence over the ways they work with students in the drama space.

Arts education in Western Australian primary schools consist of learning opportunities outlined by mandated curriculum. However, assumptions underlying this curriculum involving access, resources and support impact schools' capacity to implement the curriculum without them being adequately addressed by the written curriculum. Drawing on the policy enactment theory of Ball, Maguire, and Braun (2012), four contextual variables (situated contexts, professional cultures, material contexts and external factors) are used to highlight the differences between the written published curriculum and the implemented, practised curriculum. Drawing on interviews with 24 participants across four schools issues of geographic location, use of arts specialists, appropriate learning spaces and the stresses associated with mandated literacy and numeracy testing are reported as contextual pressures by this study. This paper details the disruptive interference of these contextual pressures that we describe as 'noise.' The provision of a better understanding of this contextual landscape brings schools and teachers away from the 'noise' of disruption and closer to curriculum harmony.

The meta-analysis described in this paper evaluated the relationships between 11 types of leadership practices and 7 organizational, teaming, leader, and employee outcomes. A main focus of analysis was whether the leadership practices were differentially related to the study outcomes. Studies were eligible for inclusion if the correlations between leadership subscale measures (rather than global measures of leadership) and outcomes of interest were reported. The random effects weighted average correlations between the independent and dependent measures were used as the sizes of effects for evaluating the influences of the leadership practices on the outcome measures. One hundred and twelve studies met the inclusion criteria and included 39,433 participants. The studies were conducted in 31 countries in different kinds of programs, organizations, companies, and businesses. Ninety-six percent of the practice-outcome effect sizes were statistically significant where approximately half of the relationships were moderated by organizational types (for-profit, not-for-profit, education, healthcare, government, etc.). Results indicated that the 11 types of leadership practices were differentially related to the study outcomes even in the presence of considerable between study heterogeneity. Implications for leadership development are described.

Education research journals regularly report on small-scale studies that have been successful in changing mathematics teachers' classroom practices. But it is rare to find professional development programs for teachers of mathematics that have been scaled up and sustained over time. This article reports on a research-informed, large-scale professional development project initiated by a state education system in Australia that now involves a large number of schools and teachers. The project developed a cluster model for bringing together primary and secondary school teachers to build their curriculum knowledge, confidence, and enthusiasm for teaching mathematics. The study aimed to identify factors that contribute to the sustainability and scaling up of this initiative. Drawing mainly on interviews with 61 participants -- teachers, school curriculum leaders, principals, and regional education leaders -- the study identified factors related to professional development content, collective action, and leadership at the school and regional levels. The findings contribute to the literature on mathematics education reform and identify implications for supporting teachers and schools in this enterprise.

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a tool for teaching and learning both in Australia and overseas is now very much taken for granted across all areas of learning and at all levels of education. But how did this addition to the range of pedagogical means and methods employed in music education come about? This article is written from a dual perspective -- as a music education historian and as an early adopter and promoter of technology-based approaches to music education in Australia. The first part of the article is largely autobiographical as I recount my experiences as a tertiary academic with reference to developments in technology infrastructure (hardware and software) and associated pedagogies. In the second part, I refer to recent scholarly opinion on technology in music education and then reflect on future directions and possibilities. Although curricula produced by education authorities advocate the embedding of technology in all learning areas, the inclusion of ICT in curriculum guidelines has been described as 'an afterthought'. It is argued that adoption of technology-based approaches to music learning is reliant on two factors -- adequate opportunities for ICT in teacher education, and individual teacher motivation and commitment.

As with other Pacific Island nations, the scientific efforts of the Kingdom of Tonga have been hampered through a lack of local scientists and science graduates. As observed globally, the region appears to face a steady decline in student interest and achievement in science, resulting in reduced uptake of science subjects in schools and universities. This study aims to provide insight into the attitudes of Tongan senior secondary students toward science, using the validated Test of Scientific Related Attitudes (TOSRA) instrument. The sample population comprised 2636 students of approximately 15-18 years of age, from 26 schools across Tonga. Overall, the mean attitudes of Tongan senior secondary students toward science were lower than that previously observed for Australian secondary students (Grades 7-10) and Fijian senior secondary students. A significant reduction in attitude was found between forms 5 and 6 for female students from rural areas, but not those from urban areas. No significant changes across different form levels were found for male students. The greatest difference between students' perspectives was found for the normality of scientists, which may be indicative of cultural views toward this topic. Combined with the similar results of previous research in Fijian students, this may point toward broader differences in the attitudes toward science between students in Pacific Island countries more generally.

This article examines the relationships between the embodiment of dramatic characters, gender, and identity. It draws on ethnographic data based on observations and interviews with 24 drama teachers and senior secondary drama students in Western Australia. We explore how student becomings in year 12 drama classrooms are mediated and constituted through socially overcoded gender binaries in a dominant neoliberal culture of competitive performativity. We ask the questions: What constructions of femininity and masculinity are students embodying from popular dramatic texts in the drama classroom at a critical time in their social and emotional development? Are these constructions empowering? Or disempowering? What factors are influencing teachers' choices of texts for their predominantly female students? Our research shows that what is delimiting about this potentiality in a time of identity exploration and formation are the constraining gender-binary roles available to young women particularly, and the performative pressures teachers are experiencing.

The practicum is internationally recognised as a valuable component of teacher education. It is an opportunity for pre-service teachers to develop teaching skills in authentic ways and pursue professional inquiry into practice. While extensive research has been conducted into the practicum generally, little research focuses on the practicum experience for pre-service drama teachers. This article, investigates the preparation of drama teachers for the profession with a particular focus on the practicum component of pre-service education. Drawing on the experiences of 19 pre-service drama teachers from a Western Australian university, focus-groups were conducted in order to scope the key components of the enablers and constraints embedded in their practicum. Four key themes were identified: stress, self-efficacy, mentoring practices, and teaching craft. In addition, the dimensions of each theme in relation to the adequate preparation of drama teachers were further revealed. Particular to the research was the role played by the extra curricula demands associated with drama as a learning area, and the mismatch between participant's experience of drama and the culture shock many experienced in contemporary times. The research further emphasised the highs and lows of practicum, illuminating conditions most conducive to a quality practicum where pre-service drama teachers are able to develop pedagogy and the self-efficacy necessary to be an effective drama teacher, and importantly, one who remains in the profession.

Evidence suggests that multiple factors affect implementation of school-based physical activity interventions. This survey study examined the factors that influence the provision of classroom-based physical activity to students in the early years of primary school in Australia. A social ecological approach guided questionnaire design and analysis. A 45-item online questionnaire was administered to Australian classroom teachers and assistant, deputy and school principals working with students in Prep/Kindergarten to Year 2. Descriptive analysis determined response frequencies and content analysis was used to identify common themes in open-ended responses. The survey response rate was 22%; 34 of the 75 participants answered at least 93% of the survey questions. Barriers to providing classroom-based physical activity include: insufficient time, limited training opportunities, limited resources, educator attitudes to physical activity, and confidence. Proposed strategies to overcome barriers include the provision of training and resources to improve educator knowledge of the benefits of classroom-based physical activity for children's health and learning, and to improve their confidence in delivering classroom-based physical activity. Creating a supportive school culture towards physical activity through implementation of whole-of-school physical activity policies is recommended. Overall, the results of this study suggest that multiple strategies, targeted at the individual (i.e., educator) and organisational (i.e., school) levels, may be necessary to enable Australian schools to overcome perceived barriers to providing physical activity opportunities to students in the early years of school during class time. Findings from this research elucidate how Australian schools may be best supported to implement classroom-based physical activity programs, as part of a whole-of-school approach to physical activity promotion.

This experimental writing piece by the Earth Unbound Collective explores the ethical, political and pedagogical challenges in addressing climate change, activism and justice. The provocation Earth Unbound: the struggle to breathe and the creative thoughts that follow are inspired by the contagious energy of what Donna Haraway (2016) calls response-ability or the ability to respond. This energy ripples through monthly reading groups and workshops organised by this interdisciplinary collective that emerged organically in January 2020.

This article reports on how mathematics teachers connect face-to-face and virtual professional learning communities by expanding the notion of lurker and broker within both environments. Through an analysis of 18 interviews with K-12 mathematics teachers, categories of participation are presented to describe the nuances between the ways mathematics teachers connect learning experiences across learning environments. This article provides examples of the ways mathematics teachers leverage learning within one space to broker information in the other. Methodological and practical implications of this research are discussed. Methodologically, this article presents the usage of artifact-stimulated recall during interviews to promote reflection of virtual learning interactions. Practically, this article seeks to push the field of mathematics teacher's professional learning beyond traditional forms of learning to see the value of informal learning in virtual spaces.

Background: A sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is a lifelong treatment that improves health and better outcomes are associated with follow‐up. However, there is lack of access or high attrition to aftercare. This potentially contributes to sub‐optimal dietary intake and a lack of evidence for nutrition interventions. The present study assessed the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a nutrition intervention to improve diet quality in Australian adults living with a SG. Methods: Adults (n = 96) post‐SG were recruited into a cross‐sectional diet quality study, with 68 eligible for randomisation to an intervention or wait‐list control group. Over 10 weeks, a Facebook group was used to post daily nutrition education. Feasibility outcomes included participant recruitment, engagement, retention and acceptability. Preliminary efficacy was assessed using change in Australian Recommended Food Score (ARFS). Linear mixed models were used to measure differences in mean outcome between the experimental groups over time. Results: Sixty‐eight participants (97% female) aged 48.2 ± 9.8 years, body mass index 33.1 ± 5.8 kg/m2, and mean ± SD ARFS 39 ± 9 points were randomised to the intervention, with 66% retention at 10 weeks. At follow‐up, diet quality increased for the intervention group (mean ARFS, 95% confidence interval = 0.2 [−1.5 to 1.9]) and decreased for the control group (mean ARFS, 95% confidence interval= −2.0 [−5.2 to 1.2]) with no between group difference (p = 0.2). Participants (n = 30) rated the intervention positively. Conclusions: Recruiting and retaining adults post‐SG into a nutrition intervention is feasible. Low‐cost recruitment attracted strong interest from women to identify greater support to know what to eat following SG. A future fully powered trial to assess intervention efficacy is warranted. Highlights: An online nutrition education intervention for Australian adults' post‐sleeve gastrectomy has been found to be effective and feasibleThe interventions attracted strong interest, especially from women, who were looking for greater support in understanding what to eat after a sleeve gastrectomy.Researchers recommend conducting a fully powered trial to assess the efficacy of this intervention further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of targeted professional development activities on teachers' perceptions of self-efficacy with mobile learning remains understudied. Power (2015a) used the Mobile Teacher's Sense of Efficacy Scale (mTSES) survey instrument to measure the effects of a mobile learning themed professional development course on teachers' confidence with and interest in mobile learning. The current study looks at changes in perceptions of self-efficacy amongst participants in another open course about mobile learning called "Instructional Design for Mobile Learning" (ID4ML), which took place from May 4-June 6, 2015 (Power, Bartoletti & Kilgore, 2015). The purpose of this study is to verify the reliability and construct validity of the mTSES instrument developed by Power (2015a, 2015b) and Power, Cristol and Gimbert (2014), and to explore trends in self-efficacy changes amongst a more diversified participant population. This paper reports on the findings from the analysis of data collected using the mTSES tool. The findings provide useful feedback on the impacts of participating in the ID4ML course. They also provide further support for the utility of the mTSES instrument as a measure of perceptions of self-efficacy with mobile learning. These findings point to the potential utility of the mTSES as a tool for both planning and evaluating mLearning professional development training for teachers.

There is an urgent need for our educational system to shift assessment regimes from a narrow, high-stakes focus on grades, to more holistic definitions that value the qualities that lifelong learners will need. The challenge for learning analytics in this context is to deliver actionable assessments of these hard-to-quantify qualities, valued by both educators and learners. This practitioner report contributes to this by documenting the iterative refinement of a practical approach for tracking student effort, deployed in successive versions over six years in secondary schools. This demonstrates how teachers can assess a student quality such as "effort" in a practical way, and the insights that visual analytics can provide as a basis for productive dialogue among staff and students. The engagement and professional development of teachers is critical to embedding and sustaining novel analytics of this sort.