Teacher reform in Indonesia: can offshore programs create lasting pedagogical shift?

Regional and national interest in reforming teaching in Indonesia has seen governments, NGOs and education specialists combine to drive pedagogical changes among school teachers there. Results of these programs have been indifferent at best. This paper reports on teacher reform programs in Provinsi Papua, one of the most marginal societies in Indonesia. The Papuan Provincial Government, AusAID and an Australian University focused on bringing cohorts of secondary teachers and Principals for professional development to Australia. An evaluative, survey inquiry was conducted into the effectiveness of a series of AusAID (now DFAT Australian Aid) Scholarship programs on changing capacities and approaches of teachers and Principals at least eighteen months after their off-shore experience. Findings revealed significant changes in teaching practices, improved quality of teacher-student relationships and improved interactions with colleagues. We argue that our findings demonstrate an appetite for student-centred approaches to teaching and that off-shore programs may have important outcomes that larger scale, in-country programs fail to realise. This has implications for DFAT Australian Aid-funded and similar Scholarship programs.     

Can ‘pooling teaching tips’ be more than ‘pooling teaching tips’?

Tertiary Education and Management - There is increasing interest in how academic development of various kinds influences university teaching and student learning. To date the focus has been on...     

Advancing Testimonio Traditions in Educational Research: A Synoptic Rendering

Through our understanding of decolonizing Hispanophone curriculum, our synoptic rendering seeks to better situate US-based research on testimonio within Latin American literary traditions. Specifically, we provide a synoptic rendering that outlines the testimonio tradition’s literary criticism and an analysis of key testimonio texts. Of particular emphasis in our analysis, we provide representations from Latin American testimonio traditions’ sociological, journalistic, fictionalized, and poetic dimensions. Our synoptic rendering concludes with implications for the advancement of testimonio traditions in education research with emphasis on testimonio resources for Latin@ graduate students.     

Women of Vision: Understanding the Ways Women Lead Change

In the midst of numerous global uncertainties, leaders are expected to have the ability to articulate a compelling vision of a preferred future that energizes and engages followers. In fact, Kouzes and Posner (2009) have argued that “Being forward-looking—envisioning exciting possibilities and enlisting others in a shared view of the future—is the attribute that most distinguishes leaders from nonleaders” (p. 20). Given that context, it is notable that research by Ibarra and Obodaru (2009) that involved 360-degree evaluations of 2,816 leaders in the corporate sector concluded that male raters of executive performance viewed women as being less visionary than men. In contrast, women were rated by both male and female raters as being as effective or more effective than male executives on 9 of 10 other “critical components of leadership” (Ibarra & Obodaru, 2009, p. 66). The authors offer three potential explanations for this anomaly, including the possibility that the collaborative leadership style of many women gives credit to the group for visionary thinking and actions rather than taking individual credit. In the male-normed culture of Christian higher education (Longman & Anderson, 2016), the perception that women are less “visionary” may contribute to their underrepresentation in senior leadership positions. This article reports the findings of a qualitative, grounded theory study that explored how 12 female leaders at Christian colleges and universities successfully developed and implemented a vision that resulted in institutional change. The participants were asked to describe their process of envisioning and the internal drivers that motivated them to persevere through challenges related to the institutional change process. Data analysis led to the identification of four primary themes: (a) the role of internal drivers such as confidence, a sense of purpose, and calling; (b) evidence of a strong orientation toward people throughout the process; (c) language barriers that often seemed to inhibit envisioning; and (d) the importance of the change aligning with the institutional mission and values.     

Impact of carbohydrate mouth rinsing on time to exhaustion during Ramadan: A randomized controlled trial in Jordanian men

Mouth rinsing using a carbohydrate (CHO) solution has been suggested to improve physical performance in fasting participants. This study examined the effects of CHO mouth rinsing during Ramadan fasting on running time to exhaustion and on peak treadmill speed (V_peak). In a counterbalanced crossover design, 18 sub-elite male runners (Age: 21?±?2 years, Weight: 68.1?±?5.7?kg, VO_2max: 55.4?±?4.8?ml/kg/min) who observed Ramadan completed a familiarization trial and three experimental trials. The three trials included rinsing and expectorating a 25?mL bolus of either a 7.5% sucrose solution (CHO), a flavour and taste matched placebo solution (PLA) for 10?s, or no rinse (CON). The treatments were performed prior to an incremental treadmill test to exhaustion. Three-day dietary and exercise records were obtained on two occasions and analysed. Anthropometric characteristics were obtained and recorded for all participants. A main effect for mouth rinse on peak velocity (V_peak) (CHO: 17.6?±?1.5?km/h; PLA: 17.1?±?1.4?km/h; CON: 16.7?±?1.2?km/h; P?η_p²?=?0.49) and time to exhaustion (CHO: 1282.0?±?121.3?s; PLA: 1258.1?±?113.4?s; CON: 1228.7?±?98.5?s; P?=?.002, η_p²?=?0.41) was detected, with CHO significantly higher than PLA (P?P?P?>?.05). Energy availability from dietary analysis, body weight, and fat-free mass did not change during the last two weeks of Ramadan (P?>?.05). This study concludes that carbohydrate mouth rinsing improves running time to exhaustion and peak treadmill speed under Ramadan fasting conditions.     

Retrieval comparison of EndNote to search MEDLINE (Ovid and PubMed) versus searching them directly

Using EndNote version 7.0, the authors tested the search capabilities of the EndNote search engine for retrieving citations from MEDLINE for importation into EndNote, a citation management software package. Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed were selected for the comparison. Several searches were performed on Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed using EndNote as the search engine, and the same searches were run on both Ovid and PubMed directly. Findings indicate that it is preferable to search MEDLINE directly rather than using EndNote. The publishers of EndNote do warn its users about the limitations of their product as a search engine when searching external databases. In this article, the limitations of EndNote as a search engine for searching MEDLINE were explored as related to MeSH, non-MeSH, citation verification, and author searching.     

Suppression of predatory behaviors in laboratory mice following lithium chloride injections or electric shock

The present study compared the relative effectiveness of electric-shock and lithium chloride (LiC1) injections in suppressing cricket killing and eating by mice. Male ICR mice were tested for cricket killing and eating. Mice that attacked and ate a cricket were punished (with electric shock or LiC1 injections) after killing and eating crickets. Control mice received saline injections, delayed shock, or delayed LiCl injections after attacking and eating crickets. LiCl injections and electric shock were both effective in suppressing cricket killing and eating. Shock suppressed both attack and eating responses, while LiCl injections suppressed eating responses more than attack responses.