Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students' conceptions of formal learning and experiences of informal learning

This paper describes an investigationof conceptions of learning held by 22 Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander students from threeuniversities in Queensland, Australia. Other areasinvestigated were students' experiences of informallearning, their reasons for studying and thestrategies they used to learn. Research intoconceptions of learning is gaining impetus and currentbeliefs include the premise that approaches tolearning adopted by university students, and hencelearning outcomes, are closely related to theirconceptions of learning. There is substantial researchfocused on Aboriginal learning styles in earlychildhood and primary school which indicates thatAboriginal children prefer to learn in a practical wayas well as through observation and imitation and trialand error. Very little research has focusedspecifically on Aboriginal university students'conceptions of learning. Results of this study foundthat these students view and approach formaluniversity learning in much the same way as otheruniversity students and most hold quantitativeconceptions of learning. The most interesting resultwas the difference between students' conceptions offormal learning and their experiences of informallearning. Many students' experiences of informallearning were grounded in practical activities orexhibited a cultural focus, however, most formallearning is not dependent upon practical or culturalknowledge. It is proposed that formal learning forIndigenous students recognise and include anIndigenous perspective such as integrating, whereappropriate, practical strategies for learning. Wealso suggest that Indigenous students be helped todevelop conceptions that will enable them to learnformal, theoretical material successfully.     

The literacy practices of vocational training in Carpentry and Automotive Technology

Prior studies indicate that vocational students’ literacy practices are more demanding than is generally recognised. Employing a view of literacy acquisition as socialisation, we investigated the literacy practices of trades training in Carpentry and Automotive Technology, by interviewing tutors and examined course books and student writing. A register of spoken language was identified, which differed from everyday language in being highly technical, reflecting specialist knowledge and indexing an identity as a member of a trade. Students were found to read a wide variety of texts, including complex professional texts such as Building Standards, Specifications, Codes and manufacturer’s instructions, as well as tutor-produced course books. Writing was less prominent and included assignment questions, and tests and some preparation for professional writing. Further research into the oral practices of vocational study, based on observation of pedagogical practice, is suggested. Implications for vocational pedagogy include a focus on support for reading.     

Surface protein gradients generated in sealed microchannels using spatially varying helium microplasma

Spatially varied surface treatment of a fluorescently labeled Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) protein, on the walls of a closed (sealed) microchannel is achieved via a well-defined gradient in plasma intensity. The microchips comprised a microchannel positioned in-between two microelectrodes (embedded in the chip) with a variable electrode separation along the length of the channel. The channel and electrodes were 50 μm and 100 μm wide, respectively, 50 μm deep, and adjacent to the channel for a length of 18 mm. The electrode separation distance was varied linearly from 50 μm at one end of the channel to a maximum distance of 150, 300, 500, or 1000 μm to generate a gradient in helium plasma intensity. Plasma ignition was achieved at a helium flow rate of 2.5 ml/min, 8.5 kV_pk-pk, and 10 kHz. It is shown that the plasma intensity decreases with increasing electrode separation and is directly related to the residual amount of BSA left after the treatment. The plasma intensity and surface protein gradient, for the different electrode gradients studied, collapse onto master curves when plotted against electrode separation. This precise spatial control is expected to enable the surface protein gradient to be tuned for a range of applications, including high-throughput screening and cell-biomolecule-biomaterial interactions.     

The graphics calculator as a teaching aid in statistics

This article explores some ideas for the imaginative use of a graphics calculator in introductory statistics teaching.     

Hospitals and consumer health information in New Zealand: the role of the library

A research project was conducted with the primary objective of finding out what New Zealand hospitals are doing about providing consumer health information to patients, and specifically, the role played by hospital libraries. A database was compiled of all New Zealand hospitals, both public and privately funded. An individual responsible for consumer health information was identified at each hospital and a questionnaire sent directly to them. A 64% response rate was achieved, representing 196 hospitals. Fifty‐four hospitals reported having an in‐house Library or Information Centre for patients, but the materials and services provided varied widely. Results from this survey show that the provision of consumer health information in the hospital sector in New Zealand is ad hoc, and libraries are not necessarily involved.     

Secondary School Students’ Understanding of Science and Their Socioscientific Reasoning

Research in socioscientific issue (SSI)-based interventions is relatively new (Sadler in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 41:513–536, 2004; Zeidler et al. in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 46:74–101, 2009), and there is a need for understanding more about the effects of SSI-based learning environments (Sadler in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 41:513–536, 2004). Lee and Witz (International Journal of Science Education 31:931–960, 2009) highlighted the need for detailed case studies that would focus on how students respond to teachers’ practices of teaching SSI. This study presents case studies that investigated the development of secondary school students’ science understanding and their socioscientific reasoning within SSI-based learning environments. A multiple case study with embedded units of analysis was implemented for this research because of the contextual differences for each case. The findings of the study revealed that students’ understanding of science, including scientific method, social and cultural influences on science, and scientific bias, was strongly influenced by their experiences in SSI-based learning environments. Furthermore, multidimensional SSI-based science classes resulted in students having multiple reasoning modes, such as ethical and economic reasoning, compared to data-driven SSI-based science classes. In addition to portraying how participants presented complexity, perspectives, inquiry, and skepticism as aspects of socioscientific reasoning (Sadler et al. in Research in Science Education 37:371–391, 2007), this study proposes the inclusion of three additional aspects for the socioscientific reasoning theoretical construct: (1) identification of social domains affecting the SSI, (2) using cost and benefit analysis for evaluation of claims, and (3) understanding that SSIs and scientific studies around them are context-bound.     

An Evaluation of a Children's Safety Training Programme

This paper reports an experimental evaluation of a children's safety training programme,Kidscape, which aims to increase primary school children's ability to deal with four types of potentially unsafe situation: being bullied, being approached by a stranger, being subject to inappropriate intimacy from a known adult and to pressure from such adults to keep such intimacy secret. Assessments of children's safety awareness were carried out in three schools which used the programme, and in three matched control schools which did not, with children at two age levels, 6 years and 10 years. These assessments of children's awareness were made on three occasions: before, immediately after and 2‐3 months after the training programme for the experimental sample (60 children) and on corresponding occasions for the control sample (60 children). The results revealed a significant improvement in the safety awareness of the experimental (trained) group after training and also a significant difference between the groups, in favour of the trained group. However, an improved performance of the control (untrained) group suggests that factors other than the Kidscape programme itself may influence these differences. Age differences in children's wariness of the four safety situations are also discussed.     

A longitudinal study of learning for a group of indigenous Australian university students: Dissonant conceptions and strategies

Conceptions of learning andstrategies used by 15 indigenous students inthree Australian universities were studiedlongitudinally over three years. Their academicachievements were good, but at a high cost interms of time and effort. In spite of the factthat almost half of the students expressedhigher-order (qualitative) conceptions oflearning in the first year and more in thesecond and third years, all of the studentsreported using highly repetitive strategies tolearn. That is, they did not vary their way oflearning, reading or writing in the beginningof their studies and less than half of them didso at the end of the three years. It is arguedthat encountering variation in ways of learningis a prerequisite for the development ofpowerful ways of learning and studying.