Do dynamic work instructions provide an advantage over static instructions in a small scale assembly task?

Recent studies exploring the effects of instructional animations on learning compared to static graphics have yielded mixed results. Few studies have explored their effectiveness in portraying procedural-motor information. Opportunities exist within an applied (manufacturing) context for instructional animations to be used to facilitate build performance on an assembly line. The present study compares build time performance across successive builds when using animation, static diagrams or text instructions to convey an assembly sequence for a handheld device. Although an immediate facilitating effect of animation was found, yielding a significantly faster build time for Build 1, this advantage had disappeared by Build 3.     

‘Jeesis is alive! He is the King of Australia’: segregated religious instruction,child identity and exclusion

Religious categorisation occurs at enrolment in Australian state-run (public) primary schools, with children segregated into religious instruction classes during their first week. Lesson content has no government oversight and, in some schools, options are limited to Christianity. The effect of this categorisation on children’s attitudes to religious diversity is not well researched but the role of religion in public schools is increasingly controversial. Social identity theory (SIT) considers cultural hegemony as a factor in individual identity construction. SIT posits that inter-group bias increases with in-group identification and suggests that categorisation itself is a source of prejudice. This paper explores the implications of SIT in the development of children’s strength of religious identity. An exploratory study suggests that a Christian emphasis at school may influence a child’s tendency to exclude those with different beliefs.     

How Do I Understand the Term Queer? Preservice Teachers,LGBTQ Knowledge,and LGBTQ Self-Efficacy

This article describes a study that investigated preservice teachers' understandings and self-efficacy related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) students and families. The preservice teachers indicated a broad range of understandings in relation to LGBTQ terms. They reported a relatively high sense of self-efficacy in working with LGBTQ students, with slightly lower self–efficacy in identifying biases in curricular materials and school contexts and in teaching LGBTQ content in their classrooms.     

Parental education, grade attainment and earnings expectations among university students

While there is an extensive literature on intergenerational transmission of economic outcomes (education, health and income for example), many of the pathways through which these outcomes are transmitted are not as well understood. We address this deficit by analysing the relationship between socio-economic status and child outcomes in university, based on a rich and unique dataset of university students. While large socio-economic differences in academic performance exist at the point of entry into university, these differences are substantially narrowed during the period of study. Importantly, the differences across socio-economic backgrounds in university grade attainment for female students is explained by intermediating variables such as personality, risk attitudes and time preferences, and subject/college choices. However, for male students, we explain less than half of the socio-economic gradient through these same pathways. Despite the weakening socio-economic effect in grade attainment, a key finding is that large socio-economic differentials in the earnings expectations of university students persist, even when controlling for grades in addition to our rich set of controls. Our findings pose a sizable challenge for policy in this area as they suggest that equalising educational outcomes may not translate into equal labour market outcomes.     

Effects of cochlear implants on children's reading and academic achievement

This article presents a critical analysis of empirical studies assessing literacy and other domains of academic achievement among children with cochlear implants. A variety of recent studies have demonstrated benefits to hearing, language, and speech from implants, leading to assumptions that early implantation and longer periods of implant should be associated with higher reading and academic achievement. This review, however, reveals that although there are clear benefits of cochlear implantation to achievement in young deaf children, empirical results have been somewhat variable. Examination of the literature with regard to reading achievement suggests that the lack of consistent findings might be the result of frequent failures to control potentially confounding variables such as age of implantation, language skills prior to implantation, reading ability prior to implantation, and consistency of implant use. Studies of academic achievement beyond reading are relatively rare, and the extent to which performance in such domains is mediated by reading abilities or directly influenced by hearing, language, and speech remains unclear. Considerations of methodological shortcomings in existing research as well as theoretical and practical questions yet to be addressed provide direction for future research.     

Improving library services for graduate nurse students in New Zealand

BACKGROUND: Graduate students are expected to have basic information literacy skills. Knowing how to access and select relevant information and then utilize that information is a necessary skill in today's knowledge and information-age world. In the health-care sector, the rise in evidence-based medicine has brought into focus the importance of information literacy skills for nurses. In the case described, information literacy skills are embedded in the curriculum and strengthened in collaboration with library staff. AIMS: To identify graduate student nurses' use of the library, and the library's response to findings. METHODS: A case-study approach was used with both quantitative and qualitative data. An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to all nurses enrolled in graduate courses in the second semester of 2002. Interviews were then undertaken with library staff. RESULTS: The university library services were not used by 43% of graduate nursing students and the library responded by developing a number of initiatives. CONCLUSIONS: Finding a deficit in use of the library by graduate nurses, this paper outlines the response by the library to improving awareness of services, access and providing education in a bid to improve literacy skills.