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There is increasing recognition of the importance of university and school research partnerships for developing approaches to supporting student learning and wellbeing. However, this is a relatively under-explored area of research particularly in regional community contexts. Drawing on data from a 3-year study of learning and wellbeing in low SES regional schools, this paper focusses on research partnerships between a regional university and three regional government schools in the Australian state of Tasmania. The three case studies presented consider the diverse ways that university and school partnerships can serve as catalysts for teachers’ professional experimentation within their classroom practice.

To facilitate the professional learning of teachers and bring about changes in pedagogical practices, it is necessary to understand the process by which teachers grow professionally. Professional growth can be achieved when teachers work together to engage in professional experimentation and see results in terms of salient outcomes for their students. This paper reports on a study of teachers’ pedagogical practices as they introduced adaptations to focus on personalising students’ learning in mathematics. Two cases are presented to demonstrate how teachers in two schools used student mathematics test data to determine students’ strengths and needs, in order to personalise learning experiences. The findings highlight how shared responsibility and purposeful use of student data can lead to positive professional growth for teachers and improved learning outcomes for students.

Despite many claimed benefits, teacher collaboration remains patchy, under-theorised, and resisted. At the same time, new large teaching spaces offer teachers opportunities to teach in teams within and across school subjects to enhance teacher and student learning. In this paper we aim to contribute to theorising the nature and means of this form of collaboration, drawing on both relevant literature and analyses of three case studies of team teaching. We found that team teaching (a) is enabled and constrained by multiple contextual factors, and (b) potentially changes and enhances the nature and scope of teacher professional learning.

Martin (1989) described persuasive language as the language of power. When a person can use persuasive language effectively in speech and writing, it increases their ability to participate and access power in democratic societies. Persuasive writing is one of three key text types in the Australian Curriculum: English, and language features of persuasive text types are taught across the curriculum. Australian students’ ability to write persuasive texts has been assessed in seven of the past nine years of National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing. One of the language features that is considered important in persuasive writing is grammatical metaphor. This paper employs concepts from systemic functional linguistics (SFL) to examine how ideational grammatical metaphor was used in the 32 highest scoring persuasive texts written by Tasmanian primary and secondary school students for the 2011 NAPLAN test. The results show that high achieving students demonstrated an ability to use ideational metaphor in their persuasive writing from the middle primary school years. This paper aims to provide guidance for Australian primary and secondary school educators by showing how and in what ways high achieving students use grammatical metaphor for persuasive purposes in NAPLAN responses across the tested year levels.

Citizenship and political education has increasingly been identified as an important component in educating young people for democratic citizenship. The National Curriculum Framework for School Education in Nepal 2007, the Nepalese social studies school curriculum, and textbooks explicitly underline the promotion of a democratic system and culture along with the development of civic and citizenship skills among Nepalese citizens. This article reports on a qualitative analysis of selected civic awareness images in Nepalese social studies textbooks using a ‘visual grammar’ framework. The analysis reveals that the images attempt to promote a message of national unity and respect for diversity in the country. However, the low quality black and white images and textbooks have some adverse teaching and learning implications for teachers and students and tend towards idealized representations.

Australian students’ performance on national and international literacy assessments has declined since 2000, while teachers in contemporary classrooms contend with conditions of increased complexity and uncertainty. In July 2017, the Australian Government commissioned a panel of experts to provide advice on how to improve Australian students’ achievement and school performance. The panel concluded that Australian schools must support every student to realise their full learning potential through an increased emphasis on personalised student learning and collaborative teacher practices. This paper outlines a case study of complexities and influences in enabling and constraining a local curriculum innovation in literacy that sought to personalise learning and promote teacher collaboration in conditions of constant change and disruption. Named Literacy Toolbox, this initiative was developed by Year 7 and 8 literacy leaders at a Tasmanian secondary school to increase student agency and enhance teaching around a model of deprivatised or shared practice. The findings provide insight for education researchers and schools regarding the challenges and opportunities of attempts to enact personalised learning and co-teaching in the current context.

Teaching practices respond to the prompts, resources and inherent potential of a school’s physical, social and cultural landscape. This study involved how teachers adapt their practice in response to contemporary flexible learning environments. An Australian case study focused on how teachers framed and enacted changes in practice by perceiving action possibilities of the flexible environment and (re)configuring the classroom environment over time through their professional agency. An enactment model of teacher adaptation is proposed, based on the case study and the relevant literature. The model suggests that the phases in the adaptation process are awareness, experimentation and coherence.

Assessment is a central feature of student learning in higher education and has a strong influence on the student experience. Accordingly, the appropriate communication of assessment aims is a prio...

There is a recent advocacy for students to experience their learning as personalised, but this expectation poses challenges for teachers tasked with addressing prescribed curricula. In this article, we draw on relevant literature and our analyses of three case studies to propose a framework within which teachers can achieve both goals. We first clarify what we mean by personalising learning, noting problems in how it is currently conceptualised and enacted. We suggest that any attempt to support students to personalise their learning needs to be contextualised within broader curricular goals, and that its developmental nature entails progressions in specific learner capabilities, and therefore the need for students to be supported in this process. In proposing a framework for this support, we focus on general principles around the what and how of this process rather than on particular discipline areas.

Background: The Epley maneuver is generally considered to be the preferred initial treatment for canalithiasis of the posterior semicircular canal. Although the Semont maneuver was originally developed to treat patients with posterior canal cupulolithiasis, several studies have demonstrated successful outcomes when the Semont maneuver is used to treat patients with posterior canal canalithiasis.Objectives: The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Semont maneuver to treat canalithiasis of the posterior semicircular canal as compared to that of the Epley maneuver.Methods: Applicable research articles were obtained through a literature search of the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Complete, ProQuest Medical Library, and PubMed databases using the search terms ‘Semont’ AND ‘Epley’ AND ‘randomized’ AND ‘positional vertigo’ OR ‘positioning vertigo’ OR ‘positional nystagmus’ OR ‘positioning nystagmus.’ The Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine 20...

What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study that sought to understand and interpret the valued language choices in the highest scoring persuasive texts written by Tasmanian primary and secondary school students for the 2011 NAPLAN writing test, and to critique the impact of such high-stakes, standardised testing on Australian primary and secondary school teachers’ persuasive writing instruction, straddling between positivist, interpretivist and critical paradigms, and adopting qualitative research?

This paper seeks to explicate the broad range of evaluative language choices made by Tasmanian Year 3 students who scored highly on the 2011 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy writing test. Each text is analysed using the three systems of Appraisal (Martin & White, 2005) from systemic functional linguistics (Halliday, 1994), highlighting how these young writers attempted to persuade their readers. Building on prior studies into young students’ use of evaluative language in their writing, this paper aims to provide a starting point for Year 3 educators who wish teach language choices that are highly valued in the context of formal examinations. This paper highlights that even at the young age of eight years old, students must demonstrate a wide range of complex language skills to write effective persuasive texts.

Article outlined a history of adult education and the change it has taken in California with a brief look at its future. (RK)

Aims The aim of this study is to investigate the health-related quality of life in children with severe lower limb trauma after at least 12 months post-injury and to assess patient and injury characteristics in association with the health-related quality of life scores. Methods All children in the state of Victoria, who were 18 years of age or younger, suffering from severe lower limb injury before 2006 were studied. Patient and injury characteristics were abstracted from medical records. The health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scores were obtained using the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory. Results Thirty-two out of 64 eligible patients participated in this study. All aspects of health-related quality of life in children with severe lower limb trauma after at least 12 months post-injury were significantly poorer compared with non-affected children, particularly in the physical health domain (difference: −12.51 ± 7.43: P 0.05). Conclusions The HRQOL in children with severe lower limb trauma was significantly impaired even after 12 months post-injury, notably in patient group with bilateral limb involvement and need for soft tissue management. Traumatic amputation, gender, growth plate injury, joint bony injury and accident mechanism did not have an impact on quality of life.

Many children are living in extreme poverty; barely meeting their daily survival needs. Yet in the more developed world we are spending billions of dollars per year on toys and games. Surely this money is better spent helping to evaluate the problems associated with world poverty? Surely it could be used to help the problems with water? Surely it is better spent on education in undeveloped countries? It is really simple – think before you buy.

Since 2008, it has been compulsory for all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to complete a number of standardised tests known as the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Completed yearly, the NAPLAN tests are designed to assess students’ reading, writing, language (spelling, grammar, and punctuation), and numeracy skills (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2010).

This chapter reports on a study of student mobile practices in one high school in Tasmania. This school provided all year 7 and 8 students with iPod Touches, and aimed to explore new forms of pedagogy that reflected a more relevant and contemporary curriculum for young people in the 21st century. Surveys and interviews were conducted with students to explore the effectiveness of the school’s program, as well as to understand the kinds of common practices students engaged in with mobile technologies in general. Surprisingly, the results revealed that the school practices were emerging somewhat slowly and students reported mixed comments about the program. Based on the research findings, recommendations are offered to teachers in order to maximize the benefits of mobile learning (commonly referred to as mLearning) to enhance pedagogy.

The aim of this study is to investigate the health-related quality of life in children with severe lower limb trauma after at least 12 months post-injury and to assess patient and injury characteristics in association with the health-related quality of life scores.All children in the state of Victoria, who were 18 years of age or younger, suffering from severe lower limb injury before 2006 were studied. Patient and injury characteristics were abstracted from medical records. The health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scores were obtained using the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory.Thirty-two out of 64 eligible patients participated in this study. All aspects of health-related quality of life in children with severe lower limb trauma after at least 12 months post-injury were significantly poorer compared with non-affected children, particularly in the physical health domain (difference: -12.51 ± 7.43: P0.05). It was observed that bilateral limb involvement and the need for soft tissue management were related to poor physical functioning (P0.05). Other characteristics such as traumatic amputation, gender, growth plate injury, joint bony injury and accident mechanism did not affect the overall HRQOL scores (P0.05).The HRQOL in children with severe lower limb trauma was significantly impaired even after 12 months post-injury, notably in patient group with bilateral limb involvement and need for soft tissue management. Traumatic amputation, gender, growth plate injury, joint bony injury and accident mechanism did not have an impact on quality of life.

I investigated how anthropogenic acidification influences stream metabolism and nitrogen (N) cycling by considering the stress response of microbial compartments responsible for these ecosystem processes. Microcosm incubations of leaf biofilms from streams of differing pH revealed greater rates of fungal biomass-specific respiration (i.e. the stress metric qCO₂) and biomass-specific N uptake (i.e. qN) with increasing acidity. The positive relationship between qCO₂ and qN indicated alternate fates for N other than structural biomass, possibly related to increased exoenzyme production as part of the stress response. Whole-stream ¹⁵N experiments and measurements of respiration and fungal standing crop across the pH gradient resulted in similar patterns in qCO₂ and qN found in microcosm experiments, supporting qCO₂ as an ecosystem-level stress indicator and providing insight towards controls over N cycling across the pH gradient. Fungal biomass and ecosystem respiration declined with increasing acidity while N uptake metrics were not related to pH, which suggested qN in acid streams was sufficiently high to counteract declines in fungal abundance. During spring, chlorophyll a standing crops were higher in more acidic streams despite lower nutrient concentrations. However, N uptake rates and gross primary production differed little between acid and circumneutral streams. Reduced heterotrophy in acid streams was apparent in lower whole-stream respiration rates, less ability to process organic carbon, and little response of N uptake to added carbon resources. Overall, acid-induced stress in streams was found to impair decomposer activity and caused a decoupling of carbon and nitrogen cycles in these systems. Ph. D.

The rapid decline in Australian students’ performance on the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) writing test is an issue of national concern. This paper presents the first investigation into patterns of achievement and progress on the NAPLAN writing test across the tested year levels (3, 5, 7 and 9) between 2011 and 2018, with a focus on gender differences. The findings reveal a considerable decline in writing performance for both genders over time, with a major disparity of up to 2 years of learning in test outcomes between male and female students. While performance of girls exceeded year-level standards when averaged over the 8 years, the average performance of boys was consistently below standards, with male students falling further behind female students across the school years. Yet average scores for both genders have declined significantly since 2011. Drawing on current international research into the teaching of writing and standardised writing tests, the paper considers two possible causes for this decline which are often communicated by education stakeholders: ineffective writing instruction, and issues with the design and implementation of the NAPLAN writing test. The paper calls for a national conversation about how we might effectively teach and assess writing.