Training School-Based Consultants: Some Thoughts On Grains of Sand and Building Anthills

This article reviews the major themes and issues emerging from this special issue on training school-based consultants. It is suggested that the building of anthills from individual and often seemingly disconnected grains of sand provides a useful metaphor for work in this arena. To date we have failed to establish a compelling and integrated body of empirical evidence addressing consultant training, although some excellent preliminary data have been reported. All agree that substantially more scholarly work is essential. It is proposed that the most important challenge facing us is the adoption of a unifying theoretical model to guide the organization and synthesis of our disparate "grains of sand" so that we can create meaningful and coherent "anthills" that can be of value to consultation trainers. Ecological and systems orientations are presented as the most appropriate and powerful approaches to achieve this goal. Small-N and qualitative research methodologies seem particularly well suited to this task. A number of specific research and practice ideas are suggested, although each has yet to garner sufficient empirical support and each is considered to be subsidiary to the adoption of an ecological paradigm to guide trainers and researchers in drafting a blueprint for future scientific work. As sure as worker ants can build phenomenally complex anthills from the most meager beginnings, so can we develop a scientific body of knowledge regarding consultant training. However, substantially more intellectual capital will need to be invested in this task if we are to succeed. Ultimately, it is up to us, as interested scholars, to make this happen.     

The dimensions of research in undergraduate learning

Most Australian Universities offer a selection of research-intensive pathways at the graduate level, which provides opportunities for independent inquiry and intellectual autonomy. Undergraduate students, however, are somewhat short-changed in their experience in research. They are exposed to a variety of areas and disciplines, which forms a general cluster of knowledge, but students graduate without obtaining the skills associated with research and inquiry. Digital communication networks and the ways in which information is disseminated in modern society play an important role in the way people live and learn. At the same time, younger generations are emerging with greater skills in digital literacy, which bears an impact on how knowledge is produced and information is shared. This prompts to question, are undergraduate students acquiring the generic attributes that will help them to cope with the complexities of an information-driven society? The following article is based on the premise that undergraduate students need to be empowered to construct their own knowledge as potential producers rather than mere consumers of knowledge. It provides a synthesis of cross-disciplinary perspectives and educational debates that support the argument for, and benefits of, providing research-enriched learning for undergraduate students. This article adopts a framework for the dimensions of research in undergraduate learning. The different models presented in this article aim to illustrate the various ways that research can be integrated with teaching to benefit learning.     

Learning about movies: the impact of movie release types on the nationwide box office

Major Hollywood studios typically release new movies in North America in one of the two ways, wide release or platform release. In this paper, we investigate how release form affects the demand of a new movie after it is nationally released. In particular, we focus on movies for which the platform release is pre-planned to make the problem tractable. We estimate our model using a sample of Hollywood movies that eventually received nationwide release from 1999 to 2003. Our results show that platform release shifts consumers’ perception of unobservable movie appeal through its first stage performance, which turns out to be a stronger effect than that of advertising. Meanwhile, we find that the demand for platform movies decays faster than for wide release ones after their national release. Using counterfactual analysis, we find that more than half of the platform movies which later went to national release would have earned higher profits if they had been given a wide release.     

Granite desalination using electromigration. Influence of type of granite and saline contaminant

We describe the results of electromigration desalination of two soluble salt-contaminated Galician granites. The efficacy of electromigration, which had not been previously applied to granite, was assessed for two types of granite contaminated with a 20% NaCl solution and seawater. Desalination effectiveness was evaluated as follows: (1) analysis of anode and cathode ion content during testing; (2) analysis of ions at different distances from the electrodes after testing; (3) pH assessment of the stone surfaces; and (4) evaluation of colour changes. Results were very satisfactory; by the end of testing, chloride was reduced by almost 100% in both the NaCl and seawater contaminated samples. Sulfate reduction was also significant, despite this ion's lower mobility. The granite pH values remained close to neutral and colour changes were minimal. The difference in effectiveness of the process for the two types of stone was associated with their dissimilar pore structure.     

Conservation of stained glass windows with protective glazing: Main results from the European VIDRIO research programme

The methodology of protecting the European stained glass windows against environmental risk (e.g. meteorological factors, air pollution, microorganisms) by means of an external glazing is not new. In spite of many scientific studies carried out in the last 20 years, some questions were still up for discussion. The European VIDRIO (2002–2005) project gave an answer to these questions. The research carried out by the different project partners established a new multidisciplinary approach aimed at evaluating the efficiency of the protective glazing systems and their effects on stained glass windows conservation, and finally at assessing the most appropriate strategy to preserve stained glass windows. Scientific results showed that the so-called isothermal glazing (i.e. ventilation by the air coming from the inside of the building) protected efficiently the ancient stained glass window from environmental attack (i.e. rain, pollutants, condensation, thermal shocks) with very limited secondary effects. The scientific research highlighted that its efficiency was strongly related to the technical design of the protective system. In particular, the ventilation and the size of the interspace had to be carefully considered. The research developed within the VIDRIO project was turned into general recommendations to the owners and practitioners on the best practice for the stained glass windows future conservation.     

Soviet military maps and archaeological survey in the Samarkand region

In Central Asia, the introduction of mechanised farming and the transformation of the landscape caused by agricultural intensification over the last 50 years have resulted in the massive destruction of archaeological remains. In this paper, we focus on an underestimated and unexploited type of remote sensing for the study of landscape change and anthropic impact on cultural heritage: 1:10,000 Soviet military maps of the 1950s. We present their use in the case study of the Archaeological Map of the Samarkand region. We argue that their precision and the early date at which they were produced make it possible to employ them as a reference tool for systematic survey and archaeological heritage management in Central Asia and throughout the former Soviet Union. We discuss the results of an archaeological survey based on these maps and show how they can be used to evaluate the destruction of archaeological mounds during the last 50 years, by contrasting them with modern satellite imagery.     

The link between student-perceived teacher talk and student enjoyment,anxiety and discursive engagement in the classroom

This study seeks to understand the emotional connection of teachers' academically productive talk (APT) with student learning from the students' perspective. Using a sample of 2,225 students (N_{7th grade} = 1,146 and N_{8th grade} = 1,079) from 16 middle schools in a city of China, we investigate the relationship between students' perceptions of their teachers’ APT, student emotions (enjoyment and anxiety) and their discursive engagement with others in the mathematics classroom. Results from structural equation modelling and mediation analysis show that after controlling for gender, family resources and mathematics achievement, student-perceived teacher APT was positively associated with their discursive engagement with classmates. Furthermore, student enjoyment and anxiety in class mediated the relationship between student-perceived teacher APT and student discursive engagement with classmates. Multi-group analysis revealed that the model was invariant across genders and grades, indicating that the associations were applicable to male and female students as well as to seventh and eighth graders. These findings shed light on the emotional relationship of teacher APT with the discursive engagement of their students. Although prior research observes a positive relationship between teacher productive classroom talk and student discursive engagement primarily through classroom observations and teacher reflections, this study provides evidence from the students’ perspective and highlights the mediating role of student emotions in the relationship.