Education Conference Papers

RANTS (and Raves!): Rich Algebra and Number Tasks

Lorraine Day — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 20:46:08 PST

Rich tasks, incorporating open-ended questions and investigations, can be used to expose students to alternative representations, reasoning and approaches to problem solving leading to deeper understanding. Students who are encouraged to look for patterns in their answers will discover rules and make meaning of them rather than trying to memorise rules that have no meaning for them. The Number and Algebra Strand of the Australian Mathematics Curriculum provides an opportunity for the development of rich tasks to link algebraic reasoning and arithmetical thinking to develop them simultaneously. The process of personalising, contextualising and adapting existing tasks to ensure they are rich, relevant and have the Mathematical Proficiencies embedded provides further opportunities. There are some great tasks and puzzles available that can be used as the catalyst for developing tasks that reflect your personality and interests and those of your students.

The NAME Four Factor Model for Engaging Students in Academic Support Services

Keith McNaught et al. — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:55:37 PDT

This paper describes the first student experience survey of a newly established academic and support service, delivered by an “Academic Enabling and Support Centre” (AESC) at The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle campus. The purpose of the study was to identify the key factors that would be likely to increase student access and participation rates, and accordingly enhance student outcomes. There was an overt institutional focus on the needs of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, driven, in part, by the national agenda to increase student diversity and participation in the tertiary sector. The survey demonstrated that several operational aspects related to the Centre’s programs needed to be reviewed, and that changes needed to occur to respond to the feedback provided. The results, and the staff dialogue that followed, have led to the articulation of a ‘Four Factor Model’ for increasing student engagement with support services. Known by the acronym NAME (Normalisation, Access, Marketing and Engagement) the model became a way to describe the salient features necessary to have students engage with academic support.

Using ‘core academic literacy’ course results to create a profile for potentially ‘at risk’ students

Keith McNaught et al. — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:44:36 PDT

This paper suggests students who are ‘at risk’ might also be identified through the analysis of performance within a core academic literary unit, taken within the first semester of their course. By identifying students with a low pass score in a core academic literacy unit, and analysing these students by a range of factors, a course and/or faculty specific ‘at risk’ profile may be created. In an analysis of students undertaking a Health Science core academic literacy unit in Semester 1, 2010, and tracking those students over their first year of studies, three factors, when in combination, emerged to create an ‘at risk’ profile. Those factors were being male, using a Certificate IV to meet minimum entry requirements and being students within the Health and Physical Education program. Adequately supported, there is nothing to suggest that such students could not be successful in their studies. However, the major identified issue is that these students are reluctant to engage in support programs, and the reasons for this lack of support engagement are explored, and it is contended that the potential reasons are for the most part, not academic, but related to psychological dispositions and personal characteristics.

Understanding Parent Perceptions of a 1:1 Laptop Program in Western Australia

Frank G. Bate et al. — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:04:58 PDT

This paper provides some initial findings from a current longitudinal study that examines the implementation of a student-owned 1:1 laptop program in a school for boys in Perth, Western Australia. This research tracks 196 students, their families and associated teachers for a 3-year period (2010-2012). Underpinning this research is a mixed methods approach investigating how boys use their laptops for learning, teachers’ pedagogy and use of ICT, implementation differences between a junior and middle school, and possible impact of the laptops on learning. One theme that emerged from the first two years of data collection was a decrease in parent satisfaction with the extent to which the educational objectives of the laptop initiative were being met. This paper explores possible reasons for this decline in satisfaction, focusing on parent and student perceptions of (a) the time spent on laptops and (b) the activities that students are seen to be engaging with on their laptops. These perceptions are discussed in the context of parents’ own knowledge of, and skills in, information and communications technologies (ICT) and relate to both school and home-based settings.

Managing Student Distraction: Responding To Problems of Gaming and Pornography in a Western Australian School for Boys

Frank G. Bate et al. — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:50:03 PDT

This paper provides some initial findings from a current longitudinal study that examines the implementation of a 1:1 laptop program in a school for boys in Perth, Western Australia. One issue that has emerged from the study is the problem of managing student distraction. The school in this study has taken a proactive approach to managing student conduct on its own network. Two student monitoring initiatives were implemented during the course of the research. The first: parental control software sought to integrate the parental control features of the laptops with the school network. The second initiative: e-safe is a web tracking service that records suspicious searches and URLs that students visit. When used in tandem, these tools were shown to have a marked impact on the conduct of students in using their laptops. This paper describes these initiatives including their effect on the broader school community, and suggests some ways in which student distraction can be best managed in future practice.

University corporatisation: The assault of rationalism on the academic spirit

Richard G. Berlach — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 22:28:02 PST

The world-wide obsession with rationalistically-based decision-making processes has resulted in individuals and societies alike suffering at the hands of bureaucrats and their masters, federal and state politicians. Institutions, industries, and even governments are now being seen as organisations to be managed by cold reason with little or no account being taken of the human spirit or of the attitudes and values of individuals. It appears that human worth and dignity have been replaced by rationalistically-motivated expediency cloaked in jargon divined by corporate management. Sadly, this form of rationality has found its way into Australian universities and is detrimentally affecting the mission of, and academic culture within, these institutions of higher learning. Such reshaping has resulted in most publicly-funded universities now evolving as businesses rather than autonomous centres of learning, research and scholarship. The present work explores the antecedents of rationalism, challenges the value of this prevailing ideology, and presents an alternative paradigm for maintaining the mission and culture of the university.

Designing assistive technology training for paraprofessionals

Dianne J. Chambers — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 22:06:09 PST

With an increase in the number of students with disabilities being included in regular education settings internationally, there has also been a subsequent increase in the number of paraprofessionals supporting these students (Ghere & York-Barr, 2007; Giangreco, Smith & Pinckney, 2006). In many school situations, the paraprofessional holds responsibility for assisting students with special needs to access the curriculum of the classroom, as well as to manage the social and emotional environment (Carter, O'Rourke, Sisco & Pelsue, 2009).

Parent and student perceptions of the initial implementation of a 1:1 laptop program in Western Australia

Frank G. Bate et al. — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:51:34 PST

This paper provides some initial findings from a current longitudinal study that examines the implementation of a student-owned 1:1 laptop program in a school for boys in Perth, Western Australia. This research tracks 196 students, their families and associated teachers for a 3-year period (2010-2012). Underpinning this research is a mixed methods approach investigating how boys use their laptops for learning, teachers’ pedagogy and use of ICT, implementation differences between a junior (primary) and middle (secondary) school, and possible impact of the laptops on learning. One theme that emerged from the first year of data collection was a decrease in parent satisfaction with the extent to which the educational objectives of the laptop initiative are being met. This paper explores possible reasons for this decline in satisfaction, focusing on parent and student perceptions of (a) the time spent on laptops and (b) the activities that students are seen to be engaging with on their laptops. These perceptions are discussed in the context of parents’ own knowledge of, and skills in, information and communications technologies (ICT) and relate to both school and home-based settings.

A teaching team: More than the sum of its parts

Lorraine Day et al. — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:34:16 PST

Team teaching is not a new idea with a history spanning more than 40 years. It is an enduring idea yet its practice would not be the norm in most Australian school settings and across most content areas. This paper discusses the experiences of two educators who were given the opportunity to team teach in the area of mathematics education at a tertiary institution. It explores some of the challenges and joys of working in an educational environment which celebrates discourse, questioning and risk taking while modelling a collaborative approach for students.
Keywords: team teaching, professional practice, pedagogy, tertiary teaching, dialogic teaching

Trialling the use of a mathematics diagnostic assessment task

Keith McNaught — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:22:39 PST

Mathematics units often present the greatest difficulty for enabling pathway ('bridging course') students for a wide range of reasons. Many of these students have limited prior mathematics content knowledge, and report, like much of the general population, of feeling phobic towards mathematics and lacking confidence. At the University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA), Fremantle campus, a student's final mark in their mathematics enabling unit often results in failing to meet the institutionally required benchmarks to move into undergraduate study. As staff experimented with a diagnostic mathematics assessment for teaching and learning purposes, a new proposition emerged: Could diagnostic assessment be used to help students make an informed decision about their choice of enabling program, and select a less intense course, without mathematics in the first semester? The benefits in having a student in the 'right course' should improve retention, and increase the number of students successfully transitioning to undergraduate study. UNDA is piloting the use of the diagnostic mathematics assessment to help students select the specific enabling program (either the "Tertiary Enabling Program" (TEP) or "Foundation Year" program) best suited to their background and experience.

E-portfolios in preservice teacher education as a means of enhancing science communication

Marguerite Maher — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:12:36 PST

In 2007 when I was lecturing in New Zealand, our university became one of six tertiary institutions to participate in the development of an open source e-portfolio platform. E-portfolios were introduced to all final year Education students across seven units. High proportion of Maori and Pasifika students. In Curriculum Subject Science students had a choice in assignment – traditional essay or an e-portfolio task.

Culturally responsive assessment and evaluation strategies for Indigenous teacher education students in remote communities of the Northern Territory of Australia

Marguerite Maher — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:57:28 PST

Preservice teacher educators at university level have a seemingly conflicting role of designing culturally responsive evaluation and assessment strategies that inform future classroom practitioners yet meet university assessment regulations. This paper reports how this duality is being successfully accomplished within the Growing Our Own Indigenous teacher education project run by Charles Darwin University in five remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, Australia.

Nakata’s (2007b) culturally responsive principles are used as a framework for tailoring evaluation within the teacher education program. These are:

the need to focus on the graduates’ capacity to work in complex and changing terrains,
the need for curriculum design and evaluation to build on the current capacities and experiences of Indigenous students, and
the need to provide stronger support for Indigenous students to ensure they engage more rigorously since the challenges they face need more attention in curriculum and evaluation design.

Strategies are described whereby lecturers ensure that learning, assessment and evaluation strategies for Indigenous perservice teachers reflect their ways of knowing, being and doing, their remote learning context, their world experience, their primary language and their family and community values. These strategies generalise across settings yet might become compromised within the increasing emphasis on nationally consistent standards, and challenge the tendency of teaching primarily to tests rather than to culturally diverse needs found in every classroom.

Bilingualism and the Aymara Mathematics Register: Bilingüismo y el registro matemático aymara

Boris Handal — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:35:14 PST

Una variable que no puede ser sustraída del análisis de la comunicación profesor-educando es el manejo del lenguaje. Este análisis hace que el servicio educativo pueda ser planteado óptimamente (Handal y Herrington, 2003). La naturaleza lingüística del alumno campesino y su proceso de socialización considerando a la escuela como uno de sus principales factores, son elementos que merecen ser explorados.

Collaborative self-study supporting new technology: The Mahara e-portfolio project

Philippa Gerbic et al. — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 22:52:51 PST

E-portfolios have long been used to support learning and development and to showcase achievement. This paper discusses a new and innovative use of e-portfolios which relates to the ways in which they can support collaborative research. The collaborative self-study which accompanied the implementation of an e-portfolio within a teacher education programme is described and then followed by discussion of three of its features. These were the value of the collaboration for supporting the deep understanding of a new technology, ethical issues for such a research study and the use of the e-portfolio environment as a data collection instrument.

Improving Engagement: The Use of ‘Authentic Self and Peer Assessment for Learning’ to Enhance the Student Learning Experience

Sean P. Kearney et al. — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:57:29 PDT

The University system in the United States has been criticized for depersonalizing education (Tae 2009). The depersonalization of learning shows a lack of engagement on the part of the educator and the student and consequently the university. We ask the question: Can incorporating self and peer assessment into tertiary studies help to reengage students in their education?

Innovative assessment practices have the capacity to significantly change the perceptions of students with regard to their tertiary studies. Assessment drives learning (Boud, 1990); however, the wrong type of assessment drives the wrong type of learning. Traditional tests, meaningless essays, research projects that do not have value outside of the classroom reinforce surface learning and memorization (Gardner, 1997). What is needed is a reinvigoration of authentic assessment practices that foster useful metacognitive skills and are focused on deep, sustainable, authentic learning. While initiating innovative assessment practices might not solve the problem of overcrowded lecture theatres, it may be able to guide learning and encourage students to be more engaged.

In a recent study conducted at a small private university in Australia, we found that by incorporating the ASPAL Model (Authentic Self & Peer Assessment for Learning) (Kearney & Perkins, 2010), students were more engaged, had increased efficacy and felt that they were a part of the educative process, rather than being subjected to it.

This paper will present initial, qualitative findings, from research conducted in the School of Education at the University of Notre Dame, Australia where 280 undergraduate primary education students were surveyed prior to undertaking ASPAL and after undertaking ASPAL. While the quantitative results are still being analysed, the students’ perceptions of the process in the post survey will be reported and discussed in this paper and some broad conclusions drawn with regard to the use of self and peer assessment in engaging students in their studies.

AABRI International Conference, Las Vegas, October 6 - 8, 2011

Development of the New Academic: The Case for Blended Delivery

Boris Handal et al. — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:43:01 PDT

This case study reports the design, implementation and evaluation of an academic induction program, delivered using a blend of in campus and online environments at Macquarie University.

Mathematics for first-year success

Keith McNaught et al. — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:10:15 PDT

Successful completion of tertiary courses within Health Sciences and Biomedical Sciences relies on competency in mathematics. Competency, and, confidence with mathematics, is innately connected. Most students enter University courses by obtaining the requisite Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) score for their chosen course. However, increasingly, students also enter via “alternative entry pathways”. Such students could be at a disadvantage compared to those who have studied mathematics throughout high school. To test this idea we implemented a diagnostic assessment pilot study for literacy (n = 269) of midyear entry students across six Schools and a low cognitive mathematics test on a smaller cohort of students (n = 31) who had completed the literacy test and were enrolled in courses within the School of Health Sciences on the University of Notre Dame Australia’s Fremantle campus. The data shows that in contrast to expectations the “alternative entry pathway” students that had completed the bridging course scored better in the reading test compared to ATAR or Cert IV graduates. In addition, Cert IV and TEP graduates performed comparably in the mathematics test compared to ATAR students but the overall performance of all student groups in the mathematics test was well below expectation. As universities move towards Post Entrance Literacy Assessments (PELA), the need for parallel Post Entrance Numeracy Assessments (PENA) warrants further research, based on the results of this study.

Pedagogies of hope explored through playing in the in-between

Cynthia à Beckett — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 23:08:28 PDT

When people in early childhood settings focus on community, inclusion and building relations these centres are often inspirational places that engender hope. New views on the way relations form may be able to extend this work through the concept of the in-between supported by the work of Donald Winnicott and Martin Buber.

The Importance of Induction Programmes for Beginning teachers in Independent Catholic Secondary Schools in New South Wales

Sean P. Kearney — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:22:59 PDT

Beginning teacher induction is an important process in acculturating teachers to their new profession (Kearney, 2010). Researchers argue that the first year of teaching is crucial in the success, retention and development of teachers (Smith & Ingersoll 2004). The aim of this research is to ascertain the effectiveness of induction programmes in Catholic Independent High Schools in NSW; establish whether those programmes are congruent with what the literature deems as best practice; and to determine the implications this has for policy for the independent school sector. The study will comprise: an extensive literature review; a document review of induction/mentoring policies in NSW and in the schools chosen for the research; and in-depth interviews with administrators and participants of induction programmes. Researchers point out that the support and guidance in the first year of teaching is critical in arresting growing attrition rates and enabling the capacity to establish beginning teachers as valuable members of the profession (Smith & Ingersoll 2004, Wong 2004). With a looming teacher shortage crisis in NSW, effective induction programmes could be the answer; however, there has been insufficient research, especially in the independent sector, with regards to these programmes.

Understanding the need for Induction Programmes for Beginning Teachers in Independent Catholic Secondary Schools in New South Wales

Sean P. Kearney — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:16:56 PDT

This article reports on the initial findings and justification for research undertaken in a Doctor of Education course at the University of Wollongong regarding induction programmes for beginning teachers in New South Wales independent Catholic high schools in the Sydney region. A review of relevant literature has identified seven elements of effective induction that have been utilised to select six Catholic independent high schools in Sydney to participate in a collective case study, which seeks to ascertain the nature of effective induction in these schools. The purpose of the case studies is to better understand the successes and limitations of these programmes and prepare policy recommendations for relevant bodies, such as the Association of Independent Schools (AIS) and the Independent Schools Council of Australia (ISCA), to inform the development of training programmes for school leaders to implement effective beginning teacher induction in their schools. The research will involve purposive sampling of schools that meet the criteria specified for effective induction; interviews of administrators and beginning teachers in the selected schools to better understand their perceptions and expectations of the programme; and, a document review of relevant policies, both from the schools and pertinent agencies, both government and private, that are related to the independent education sector. This paper will present the initial findings from the literature review that has culminated in the seven elements of ‘best practice’ in beginning teacher induction and the justification and the necessity of this research to enhance student learning and improve teacher retention.