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This is an interpretive-descriptive analysis of responses to 41 open ended questionnaires returned by academics working beyond normal retirement age. The sample consisted mainly of academics from the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. The research addressed the question of what motivates some academics to continue working beyond the "usual" retirement age. The main motivation for continuing was strong interest and commitment, particularly to research and writing. Some also gave social, financial, and other reasons for continuing. Those not in full time employment described barriers, including finance and facilities and the support that they needed to maintain their activities. In most countries institutional and government policies made it possible for them to stay involved academically even if it meant making a personal effort. Most of them would have liked better support or recognition from their universities. The results suggest that universities should more actively support older academics in continuing activity.

There has not been ample recent research on teaching older adults. However, as described below, there is mounting research in how and why older adults want to learn. This brief discussion is derived from work undertaken for a workshop in Hong Kong on issues in teaching older adults. It combines recent research on learning and teaching in higher education as it applies to older adults. The paper addresses: learning and ageing, learning choices, an information processing view of learning, deep and surface learning, teaching and learning approaches, formal, non-formal and informal learning, teaching roles, evaluation, and technology. Some sections are exemplified with information from teaching older adults in Australia and Hong Kong

Epistemological beliefs (beliefs about knowing and knowledge) have provided interesting insights into effective teaching and learning in higher education over the last 30 years. However, to date, little research has taken place in regard to teaching and learning in the technical and further education (TAFE) context in Australia Seventeen 1st and 2nd year child care students studying for a Diploma in Children's Services were interviewed about the nature of their epistemological beliefs. The findings revealed new ways of thinking about evaluativistic beliefs, described as "practical evaluativism". These beliefs may have implications for the way in which students evaluate theory and practice for implementation in their own child care practice. (Contains 2 tables.)

In this article, the discussion of loss and its relationship to learning is based on the analysis of interview data from 39 older adults in Hong Kong and 40 in Australia. The focus of the research was on ageing and learning. The phenomenon of life changes, specifically losses, and their relationship to learning was frequently mentioned, and this theme is described here. Three different kinds of loss were identified in the data as motivators for organized or nonorganized learning or for negatively affecting learning. These included loss of aspects of health, of job, or of partner. The results are potentially useful to policy makers and learning providers in encouraging older adults to engage in learning as one way of coping with loss.

This article is an overview and summary of the findings from a General Research Fund project funded (2012-2014) by the Research Grants Council of the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong to investigate cross cultural understanding of ageing and learning by seniors in Hong Kong and Australia. Results have been published separately in Boulton-Lewis, & Buys (2015), Boulton-Lewis, Aird, & Buys (2016), Boulton-Lewis, Tam, Buys, & Chui (2016), Tam (2016), Tam & Chui (2016) and Tam, Aird, Boulton-Lewis & Buys (2016). These articles have dealt separately and variously with either a qualitative or quantitative analysis of learning choices in Australia, structural barriers to learning in Australia, a comparison of views of and ageing and learning in both cultures, Chinese views of later life learning, the meaning of ageing and learning to Chinese elders and an analysis and comparison of results in both places. The focus of this article is a summative discussion based mainly on the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the main themes of ageing and learning. It intends to provide an overview of the findings in some of the publications above. Other details can be found in the publications listed.

This article reports on the findings of qualitative, semistructured interviews conducted with 40 older Australian participants and 39 participants in Hong Kong who either did or did not engage in organized learning in the last 6 months. Phenomenology was used to guide the interviews and analysis to explore the experiences and perspectives of these older people. The meaning older people attribute to aging and learning and their possible relationship in their lives in both societies is described and compared.

This paper reports on the findings of qualitative, semistructured interviews conducted with 40 older Australian participants who either did or did not engage in organized learning. Phenomenology was used to guide the interviews and analysis to explore the lived learning experiences and perspectives of these older people. Their experiences of learning can be described in two main categories of pleasure and leisure or purpose and relevance. Almost all the activities described in these categories have the potential to support health and wellbeing. Organizers of activities should take these reasons into account.

While investment in young children is recognised as important for the development of moral values for a cohesive society, little is known about early years teaching practices that promote learning of moral values. This paper reports on observations and interviews with 11 Australian teachers, focusing on their epistemic beliefs and beliefs about teaching practices for moral education with children aged 5-8 years. The analysis revealed three main patterns of thinking about moral education: following others, reflecting on points of view, and informing reflection for action. These patterns suggest a relationship between epistemic beliefs and beliefs about teaching practices for moral learning which have implications for teacher professional development concerning experiences in moral education.

The aim of this study was to describe the educational experiences shaping the teaching and learning beliefs held by a group of beginning lecturers in higher education at various tertiary institutions in the Pacific Island Countries (PICs). A total of sixty three essays written by participants in an online course on teaching in higher education comprised the data for the study. A modified version of narrative analysis was used. This is a powerful methodology in qualitative research that can provide remarkable insights into individuals' beliefs. The critical experiences that were thought to shape their beliefs in teaching and learning were identified and discussed in the light of relevant literature. The participants described a range of influences that shaped their beliefs about teaching and learning including realisation about the need to work harder and know more, the importance of independence, support systems, curriculum, qualities of a teacher, teaching and learning process, teaching and learning strategies, and learning environments. This information was useful in teaching these students and for further courses.

Previous research has emphasized the importance of active citizenship in the early years for the development of a tolerant and cohesive Australian society. This paper presents findings related to young children's beliefs about exclusion based on gender and race. The findings draw from a larger study exploring the development of children's moral and social values and teachers' beliefs and practices related to teaching for moral development in the early years of school in Australia. This current study examined reasoning about exclusion in early childhood with children aged five-eight years. One hundred children from seven schools (Preparatory to Year 3) answered questions relating to two scenarios where the children had to make a decision about whether to include others of different gender or race in their play. The majority of children believed that others should be included in their play, regardless of their gender or race. When asked to explain, the children primarily gave reasons related to moral concern and fairness. They were then asked whether they would continue to include or exclude if their friends (social consensus) or teachers (authority) suggested otherwise. Most maintained their beliefs when beliefs to the contrary were voiced by their peers and teachers. The implications of these responses are discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 1 footnote.)

While there is strong interest in teaching values in Australia and internationally there is little focus on young children's moral values learning in the classroom. Research shows that personal epistemology influences teaching and learning in a range of education contexts, including moral education. This study examines relationships between personal epistemologies (children's and teachers'), pedagogies, and school contexts for moral learning in two early years classrooms. Interviews with teachers and children and analysis of school policy revealed patterns of relationships between personal epistemologies and pedagogies within each school. A whole-school approach to understanding personal epistemologies and practice for moral values learning is suggested. (Contains 3 tables.)

The intention of the analysis in this paper was to determine, from interviews with 11 early years' teachers, what informed their knowledge of children's learning and teaching strategies regarding moral development. Overall, the analysis revealed four main categories: definitions of moral behaviour, understanding of children's learning, pedagogy for moral learning, and the source of knowledge for moral pedagogy. Children's learning was attributed by five of the teachers to incidental/contextual issues. Nine of the teachers reported using pedagogies that involved discussion of issues, in various contexts, as a way of teaching about social and moral issues. The majority of the teachers (n = 7) described the source of their knowledge of pedagogy as practical/observed as opposed to being theoretically informed. There was no clear relationship between teachers' definitions, understanding of children's learning, pedagogy or source of knowledge. These results suggests a strong need for the teaching of moral development to be given more prominence and addressed directly in in-service courses so that teachers are clear about their intentions and the most effective ways of achieving them.

Understandings of young children as active and capable citizens, while evident in discourses of early childhood education and research, are not widely reflected in the policy for the early years of schooling in Australia. This paper makes an analysis of the gaps and tensions between discourses of young children as active citizens and policy for citizenship education at the national level in Australia and at the Queensland State level. There is a widespread discourse within early childhood that regards young children as citizens and democratic participants in their own lives, as a reflection of the oft-cited Article 12 in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, educational policy and curriculum for citizenship in Australia, by and large, adheres to age and stage understandings of children that deem young children unable to conceptualise and/or articulate ideas of what it means to "be a good citizen". We ask which discourses are being harnessed in educational policy for citizenship in Australia, what discourses are silenced or ignored and what this tells us about how young children are thought about in Australian politics and education.

This paper is concerned with the general issues of ageing, learning, and education for the elderly. It also examines the more specific issues of why, how and what elders want to learn. The world's population is ageing rapidly. For example, it is estimated that by 2020 20% of the population in the USA will be 65 years old and over. It is predicted that 24% of the Hong Kong population will be over 65 years old by 2025 (Bartlett & Phillips, 1995). The phenomenon has been described in colorful terms as the "silver tsunami" (Pew Report, 2001 cited in Summer, 2007). Ageing has an impact on all aspects of human life including the social, economic, cultural, and political domains. Understanding and providing for ageing is, therefore, an important issue for the twenty-first century. The World Health Organisation ([WHO], 2002) has proposed a model of active ageing based on optimizing opportunities for health, participation, and security in order to enhance quality of life for people as they age. The focus in this paper is on the education and learning aspect of participation as people age. (Contains 1 table.)

Attributions of laziness, reflected in teacher comments such as "Just try harder and you will shine", may mask specific cognitive, learning, attentional or emotional problems that could explain low motivation in some children. This paper reports findings from an investigation of 20 children, aged 7 to 10 years, who were regarded as lazy by their parents and teachers. Questionnaire measures provided evidence of low levels of motivation and classroom engagement. Psychometric assessments revealed the presence of a range of difficulties including phonologically based learning disabilities and significant problems with attention in 17 of the 20 children. The paper concludes that the special needs of an unknown number of children may be overlooked because they are simply presumed to be lazy.

This paper identifies and describes Hong Kong secondary business teachers' conceptions of student competence in business education, and their choice of teaching approaches to developing such competence. It also addresses the relationship between the conceptualisation of competence and teaching approaches in developing student competence. Phenomenography and grounded theoretical coding techniques were employed in the study, and the participants were 26 in-service business teachers. These teachers' conceptions of competence and their choice of teaching approaches were found to be multifaceted and semi-hierarchical. The identified conceptions address the basic and higher levels of competence that require different approaches in teaching. On the basis of the findings, it is recommended that teachers should not adopt an over-simplified view of the constitution of business students' competence and their competence development. They should be aware of their conceptions of competence, choice of teaching approaches and facilitation of student reflection in competence development. (Contains 2 tables.)

Learning is an important aspect of active ageing, yet older people are not often included in discussions of the issue. Older people vary in their need, desire, and ability to learn, and this is evident in the context of technology. The focus of the data analysis for this paper was on determining the place of learning and technology in active ageing. The paper describes results from 2,645 respondents aged from 50 to 74+ years, in Australia, to a 178-item variable postal survey. The survey measured aspects of learning; work; social, spiritual and emotional status; health; vision; home; life events; and demographics. There was also an open-ended question about being actively engaged in life. Ordinal regression analysis showed that interest in learning, keeping up to date, valuing communication, being younger, and being male are predictors of learning about technology. The results are at variance with an earlier analysis of our data which showed that women are generally more interested in learning. The open statements contained mentions of learning about technology for the purposes of communication, learning, family links, keeping up to date, enjoyment, staying mentally alert, and just using the computer. These results are discussed in terms of the subtle but important differences between needing and wanting to learn about technology and the opportunities for such learning by older people. A list of sample websites for seniors is appended. (Contains 3 tables and 1 footnote.)

Learning is an important aspect of aging productively. This paper describes results from 2645 respondents (aged from 50 to 74+ years) to a 165-variable postal survey in Australia. The focus is on learning and its relation to work; social, spiritual, and emotional status; health; vision; home; life events; and demographic details. Clustering analysis showed that learning and health were most important. The relationship between variables was then investigated using the Gamma test by age, and factor and regression analyses. Of the respondents, 6% discussed learning in the open statement on the questionnaire. Implications are drawn from the results for learning. (Contains 1 table.)

In the present study, the personal epistemological beliefs of group leaders in toddler child care programmes are investigated. Epistemological beliefs are beliefs about knowing and learning. It is considered that the quality of these beliefs is influenced by educational experiences. In this study, such beliefs are assumed to be mediating factors in the nature and quality of child care practice. Six caregivers in toddler programmes (children aged 18 months to 3 years) in Australia were videoed within their programmes and subsequently asked to describe their personal epistemological beliefs as well as their beliefs about how children learn. In the interviews, excerpts from the video were presented and the caregivers asked to reflect on their practices. The interview data for each caregiver were analysed to ascertain the nature of the personal epistemological beliefs and the nature of beliefs about children's learning. The manner in which caregivers' reflective responses about their practices observed in the video aligned with caregivers' personal epistemologies and their beliefs about children's learning was also considered. Two caregivers, who held relativistic beliefs, also held strong constructivist perspectives about children's learning that aligned with how they reflected on their practices. The other caregivers evidenced mixed or multiplistic epistemological beliefs. They described learning by children as an active or modelling process. These caregivers' reflections on practice were congruent with their personal epistemologies and beliefs about children's learning in viewing their educative role as a guide or a model for the children. Implications for how the exploration of personal epistemologies about knowing and learning can inform and enhance professional development programmes are discussed. (Contains 4 tables.)

Thirty-nine participants aged over 40 and 16 participants aged under 40, from a medical organization and a transport organization, were interviewed to obtain data regarding their conceptions of work and learning at work amid changing workplace practices. A phenomenographic approach was adopted to analyse the data. Frequency distributions of conceptions and a comparative analysis between the two age groups were also carried out. In addition, an analysis of the implications of these conceptions was conducted to understand workers' behaviours in light of current changes in work practices and to assess the potential implications for knowledge creation and use. The results indicated that there were four and five hierarchical conceptions for work and learning at work respectively and that these were spread across Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) levels and workplaces. There were also differences between the two age groups and their distribution across the conceptions. (Contains 2 tables.)

Investigated how Indigenous Australian university students' went about learning and the relationship between individual students'"core" conceptions of learning and the ways in which they learned. Results indicated that their conceptions and ways of learning were similar in some respects to those found for other university students. However, some students went about learning in ways that were incongruent with the core conception of learning they held. (EV)

Interviews with 39 workers over 40 addressed their conceptions of work (job, challenging experience, personal empowerment, life-structuring device) and of learning at work (acquiring survival skills, observing/experiencing, taking courses, learning lifelong, and changing personally). Their conceptions were mostly incongruent with their levels in the Australian Qualifications Framework. (Contains 32 references.) (SK)

Interviews with 17 older adults about learning needs and barriers resulted in a questionnaire completed by 160 elders. Most important needs were associated with transportation, health, and safety. Physical disabilities were the chief barrier. They felt most confident addressing health, safety, leisure, and transportation needs but not technology-related needs. (Contains 42 references.) (SK)

A survey of 40 workers over age 40 found four conceptions of work: as a job, as a challenging experience, as personally empowering, and as structuring one's life. In spite of large investments in skills training, these workers' beliefs do not appear to be in line with the assumptions underlying new work practices. (SK)

Examined the beliefs about knowing and learning among six toddler caregivers as well as their conceptions of good caregiving. Found that two caregivers held relativistic epistemological beliefs and four held multiplistic and mixed epistemological beliefs. The latter group lacked the same degree of reflectivity as the former group. Caregivers with relativistic epistemological beliefs held sophisticated caregiving conceptions that integrated ideas and made more linkages between teaching and learning. (Author/KB)

Interviewed and surveyed 490 high school students regarding their approaches to learning and their perceptions of teaching and learning in the classroom. Overall, students with deep approaches to learning generally perceived the same learning environments differently than did students with surface approaches (they had more sophisticated understanding of the learning opportunities offered to them). Teaching strategies also influenced students' perceptions. (SM)

Evaluated a teaching program designed to foster reflection on and development of more sophisticated epistemological beliefs among pre-service graduate teacher education students at Queensland University of Technology. Students reflected in journals on the content of an educational psychology unit in relation to their epistemological beliefs. Compared to a control group, students showed more growth in sophisticated epistemological beliefs. (Contains 3 Tables, 54 References, and 2 Appendexes.)(EV)

Studied the conceptions of formal learning held by 22 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from 3 Australian universities, a group with a high attrition rate in tertiary education. Results show that these students view and approach university learning in much the same way as other students, but the strategies these students used did not match the conceptions of learning they held. (SLD)

Students in construction technology (n=65) described their general and subject-specific conceptions of learning. Among general conceptions were lifelong and self-directed leaning; subject-specific conceptions included self/career development and obtaining grades to get a degree. Differences between the two were influenced by context and motivation. (SK)

Examines concepts of learning, motivational orientations, and use of range of learning strategies focusing on high schools students (n=222) in Australia and in Malaysia (n=168). Indicates that Malaysian students obtained higher scores for more motivation strategies than Australian students. Includes references. (CMK)

Describes a study conducted at two Australian secondary schools that investigated relationships between perceptions of the classroom learning environment, approaches to learning, and self concept as a learner. Examines gender and age differences, describes measurement techniques used, and considers results of statistical analyses. (Contains 59 references.) (Author/LRW)

Examined students' conceptualizations of learning with 519 Australian, Indonesian, and South African undergraduate and graduate students using the Reflections on Learning Inventory. Analysis did not support a single, clearly defined empirical model of conceptions of learning and associated constructs. Instead, there was consistent evidence that underlying empirical structures appear to be sensitive to the response context and other factors. (Author/DB)

Examines arithmetic and algebra knowledge from a cognitive perspective in an effort to determine what constitutes a pre-algebraic level of understanding. Presents results of a longitudinal study designed to investigate students' readiness for algebra. Proposes a model for the transition from arithmetic to pre-algebra to algebra. Contains 29 references. (Author/ASK)

Presents a study in which children in grades 1-3 (n=67) and grades 4-6 (n=66) were tested for their ability to read and record analogue and digital times. Concludes that the sequence of time acquisition proposed in this study was confirmed for grades 1-3, whereas irregularities occurred with grades 4-6. Contains 20 references. (Author/NB)