Universal access to preschool education: approaches to integrating preschool with school in rural and remote communities

In 2012, the government of South Australia responded to Federal agreements aimed at universal access to preschool education for children in the year before starting formal schooling by introducing a trial designed to ‘integrate’ preschool children into first year of school programmes in rural and remote areas of the state. This paper reports on the evaluation of this trial, exploring the ways in which integration was interpreted and implemented in eight rural and/or remote sites, the perceived value of collaboration in planning integrated provision and the ways in which two new curriculum documents – one for the prior-to-school years and the other for compulsory school – influenced the delivery of integrated preschool–school programmes. Results identify several types of integration, highlight some of the challenges of collaboration in integrating preschool with school and share the caution of educators about the push down of school curriculum into preschool contexts.     

“Lies,damn lies and statistics”: a history of museum visits in Australasia

ABSTRACT

While a great deal of attention has been paid to museum visit data in the last few decades, very little is known about long-term trends. This article examines the distinctive history of museum visits in Australasia through a comparative study of eight key institutions from across the region. Archival research was undertaken at each institution to compile as complete as possible a data set of annual visitation from opening until present day. Any stated changes in funding, admission charges, buildings etc. were also recorded, along with comments indicating contemporary explanations for fluctuations in visitation. Sources included official documents such as annual reports and trustee minutes, as well as visitor books and attendance records. We provide an initial overview of the quantitative and contextual data we collected from the case study museums focusing on a number of key questions: How have museums in Australasia been counting and reporting visit data over the past 150 years? What does this reveal about changes over time in the perceived value of visit data and museum attitudes towards their visitors? What are the key trends in museum attendance at the local, national and regional level in Australia and New Zealand? What contemporary explanations were given for fluctuations in museum attendance and are they supported by a long-term, cross-institutional comparison of the data? The study provides insights into historical shifts in thinking about the importance of visitors, appropriate methods for recording visitation, and the value of this data. The findings are also relevant to how museums today interpret attendance figures. The ways in which visit data were included or excluded from historical narratives about the value of museums highlights the constructed nature of visitor data and raises questions about the role of visitor research in contemporary museums.     

Australian Book Market: An Overview

In this article, Andrew Wilkins, the former publisher of bookseller+publisher magazine, provides an annual overview of the Australian book marketplace, offering statistics on the market and analysis of the key publishers, retailers and consumer habits. The second half of the article concentrates on international rights sales, an important aspect of the Australian publishing industry. This article was originally published in 2007 as part of the annual Think Australian magazine, which aims to support Australian publishers and literary agents at the Frankfurt Book Fair (see ).     

Research Support in Australian Academic Libraries: Services,Resources, and Relationships

ABSTRACT

In the last decade Australian academic libraries have increasingly aligned their research support services with assessment criteria used in the national research evaluation exercise (Excellence for Research in Australia). The same period has seen growing interest in research impact outside of traditional measures, such as bibliometrics. Social media has provided opportunities for research dissemination and new tools, altmetrics, to measure these activities have emerged. This article reports on research into the extent and nature of research support services at Australian academic libraries, how the services are managed, and the factors that influence their development and delivery. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to compare the findings with an earlier study and to provide a deeper understanding of research support in Australia. Three key themes, services, staff and resourcing, and relationships, are discussed in relation to the management and challenges faced in providing research support.     

澳大利亚两类医学院校毕业生的从业情况

本文以纽卡斯尔大学医学院与悉尼大学医学院毕业生为例，采用配对的统计方法，对传统与非传统医学院毕业生的从业情况作了比较分析。结果显示：纽卡斯尔大学毕业生比悉尼大学毕业生更可能选择家庭医学或精神病学工作，而两所学校毕业生在主要职业、临床工作地点、工作单位和相同的招生标准方面的差异不显著。     

澳大利亚高等教育发展:战略分析的视角

90年代以来澳大利亚高等教育的规模、质量和效益均得到显著发展,国际声誉日渐高企,这在很大程度上与其高等教育战略规划密切相关.本文尝试从战略分析的视角,探悉澳大利亚高等教育的战略定位,战略目标和战略实施途径,并对其发展战略的特点进行剖析.     

中澳职业教育体制的比较与借鉴

他山之石可以攻玉,澳大利亚政府在职业教育方面有很多做法值得我们借鉴,本着学以致用和具体问题具体分析的原则,有选择、有发展地学习与借鉴,逐步摸索出既符合我国国情又具有职教特点和本地、本校特色的职教发展路子,进一步促进我国职教的健康发展。     

澳大利亚职业技能竞赛体系及其国际化研究

澳大利亚以世界技能大赛为标杆,形成了“地区—国家—世赛”职业技能竞赛体系,同时创立了全球技能挑战赛这一具有自身特色的国际职业技能竞赛品牌,并广泛参与竞赛相关的国际交流与合作,在世界职业技能教育与培训领域形成了一定影响力。通过实地考察和相关文献梳理所得出的澳大利亚职业技能竞赛组织和国际交流活动经验,将为我国优化职业技能竞赛组织和打造具有广泛影响力的国际职业技能竞赛品牌提供有益参考。     

澳洲大学图书馆读者服务管理的借鉴及启示

文章介绍了澳洲大学图书馆在读者服务管理中引入诚信管理的内容及其做法。分析了我国诚信管理中出现的问题，并对加强诚信管理进行了探讨。     

The student departure puzzle: do some faculties and programs have answers?

University attrition prevention strategies are typically generic, centrally managed, whole of university strategies that have emerged from an examination of whole of university attrition data. This paper takes an intra‐organisational comparative approach, through the examination of faculty and program attrition rates of students who joined an Australian university in the first term of 2004. The faculty with the highest attrition had a rate two‐and‐a‐half times that of the faculty with the lowest rate, and in programs with 40 or more students enrolled the program with the highest attrition had a rate over five times that of the program with the lowest rate. The paper identifies five practical implications of these findings and concludes that investigating the causes of these differences will help in understanding student attrition. It also suggests that universities wishing to reduce student attrition may benefit from adopting integrated and situated strategies that take into account faculty and program differences.