Knowledge Types Used by Researchers and Wool Producers in Australia under a Workplace Learning Typology: Implications for Innovation in the Australian Sheep Industry

Abstract

This paper reports on research into the learning aspects of adopting integrated parasite management practices for sheep (IPM-s) applying a workplace learning framework. An analysis of four primary data sources was conducted; a postal survey of Australian wool producers, a Delphi process with IPM-s researchers, focus groups and interviews with wool producers.

Researchers had a high expectation of conceptual and high level procedural knowledge for IPM-s, while wool producers had a tendency to rely on low- and high-level procedural knowledge for parasite management. Researchers also showed concern for disposition as it related to parasite management. Practices identified as potentially problematic for extension, included worm egg count testing (according to best practice), supplementary feed (specifically for worm management), selecting estimated breeding value-tested rams, weighing and monitoring body condition scores, and keeping written paddock histories.

This research provides significant empirical insights into the knowledge differences between researchers and producers that can affect how research is developed and communicated for the IPM-s project to facilitate behaviour change. The identification of some IPM practices as problematic for producers will also allow targeted extension for these practices.     

A Multilevel Perspective on the Design and Analysis of Intervention Studies

The level (pupil, classroom or school) at which an educational intervention is assigned affects both the kinds of questions which can be answered in evaluation research, and the statistical methods used to answer them. This paper sets out ways of analysing different kinds of designs using multilevel models. It also considers practical issues such as the method used to allocate interventions, leakage, integrity of delivery, and cost, and how these interact with the more technical issues of model specification. These practical issues are illustrated by two recent British intervention studies. Résumé Le niveau - élève, classe ou école - auquel s'adresse une intervention éducative affecte tout à la fois le genre de questions qui peuvent trouver réponse dans la recherche évaluative et les méthodes statistiques pour y répondre. Cet article présente des voies pour analyser différents types de "design" qui utilisent des modèles à plusieurs niveaux. Il traite aussi de certains aspects pratiques tels que la méthode d'allocation des interventions, les pertes, l'intégrité des données et les coÛts, ainsi que la manière dont ces différents aspects interagissent avec les questions plus techniques de spécification des modèles. Ces aspects pratiques sont illustrés à l'aide de deux études d'intervention britanniques récentes. (Traduction: Walo Hutmacher, Sociologue, Genève)     

CLASSROOM CLIMATE IN AN ORTHODOX DAY SCHOOL: The Contribution of Emotional Intelligence,Demographics, and Classroom Context

I had completed a long list of wonderful ideas for the Synagogue School of the 21st Century, and was about to sit down and write my paper, when my eye glanced upon the Spring-Summer 1990 issue of Jewish Education. When I noticed the articles of Alvin Schiff and Rela Geffen Monson, I read through them before beginning to write: Lo and behold, everything I had written down and was already there — in Jewish Education under the title, “Toward the Year 2000.”     

Learning about the educational uses of the internet by producing an educational web site in an interdisciplinary and virtual team

ABSTRACT

In this paper we describe the use of an interactive software package designed to raise issues and questions about the role of information technology within the primary classroom and to highlight the partnership aspects inherent within a teacher tutor/mentor approach to the supervision of school placements. Data were collected from a variety of people concerned in the exercise: teacher tutors, university liaison tutors and student teachers. These data concerned not only the efficacy of the materials themselves, but also the effect or impact of the exercise upon the school placement experience. A number of issues emerged from our exploration into this exercise revealing attitudes towards information technology in education. These concerned ownership of learning and questions of expertise, access to partnership and co‐professionality, staff and student attitudes towards information technology and towards partnership and implications for the future. Our data suggest that learning becomes powerful when the learner takes ownership. Information technology can enable the shift towards creator and is a powerful means of achieving that.     

三星对抗黑莓,谁输谁赢?

三星渴望成为企业领域第一的野心Tip:三星一直致力于抢占企业市场,而该公司为此所做的努力也颇见成效——无论是在前不久结束的第85届奥斯卡颁奖礼上针对企业所投放的广告,还是美国航空公司、碟形网络、波士顿科学公司等客户对三星手机与平板电脑的青睐,都让三星渴望成为企业领域第一的野心看起来并不那么遥不可及.曾为黑莓效力,现为三星企业销售副总裁的蒂姆·瓦格纳也对三星成为企业领域第一的目标充满了信心.     

Olympic Engagement and the Use of Olympic Solidarity Programmes by Gulf Cooperation Council States

This paper seeks to address the extent to which Olympic Solidarity (OS) funding patterns are consistent with the organisation's explicit mission, namely to serve the interests of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and in particular those in greatest need. In addition, the paper reviews the extent to which Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have been able to avail themselves of such resources. While OS funding has tended at the level of the World Programme, to reflect a tendency to favour NOCs from less affluent economies, this tendency towards progressive funding has been weakening and to some extent reversed, since the mid-2000s. Funding of GCC states has tended to be well below that of other NOCs of comparable dimensions, reflecting the fact that Gulf States have not followed a ‘linear’ path to ‘modernity’ in sport. Such a linear path might be characterised as in an initial concern with growing participation, improving governance (through issues such as women's role in sport) and enhancing performance, but GCC states have instead focused on elements of a what might be characterised as a post-modern approach in the form of hosting of major events and the celebration of spectacle, and thus drawing relatively modestly on OS resources.     

Practical work: Its effectiveness in primary and secondary schools in England

We report here on the first of two evaluations of a national project (Getting Practical: Improving Practical Work in Science—IPWiS) designed to improve the effectiveness of practical work in both primary and secondary schools in England. This first baseline evaluation of the effectiveness of practical work is based on a study of a diverse range of 30 practical lessons undertaken in non‐selective primary (n = 10) and secondary (n = 20) schools prior to the teachers undertaking a training intervention designed to improve their effective use of practical work. A multi‐site case study approach employing a condensed fieldwork strategy was used in which data were collected, using audiotape‐recorded discussions, interviews, and observational field notes. The analysis, based on work by Millar et al. and Tiberghien, considers what students do and think relative to what their teacher intended them to do and think. In both primary and secondary schools, the widespread use of highly structured “recipe” style tasks meant that practical work was highly effective in enabling students (n = 857) to do what the teacher intended. Whilst tasks in primary schools tended to be shorter than in secondary schools, with more time devoted to helping students understand the meaning of new scientific words, neither primary nor secondary teachers' lesson plans incorporated explicit strategies to assist students in making links between their observations and scientific ideas. As such, tasks were less effective in enabling students to use the intended scientific ideas to understand their actions and reflect upon the data they collected. These findings suggest that practical work might be made more effective, in terms of developing students' conceptual understanding—an aim of the IPWiS project—if teachers adopted a more “hands‐on” and “minds‐on” approach and explicitly planned how students were to link these two essential components of practical work. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1035–1055, 2012     

Egocentrism and automatic perspective taking in children and adults

Children (aged 6-10) and adults (total N = 136) completed a novel visual perspective-taking task that allowed quantitative comparisons across age groups. All age groups found it harder to judge the other person's perspective when it differed from their own. This egocentric interference did not decrease with age, even though, overall, performance improved. In addition, it was more difficult to judge one's own perspective when it differed from that of the other person, suggesting that the other's perspective was processed even though it interfered with self-perspective judgments. In a logically equivalent, nonsocial task, the same degree of interference was not observed. These findings are discussed in relation to recent findings suggesting precocious theory-of-mind abilities in infancy.     

Expanding assessment methods and moments in history

History courses at The University of Auckland are typically assessed at two or three moments during a semester. The methods used normally employ two essays and a written examination answering questions set by the lecturer. This study describes an assessment innovation in 2008 that expanded both the frequency and variety of activities completed by 182 undergraduates taking a course on the history of African‐American freedom struggles. All week‐by‐week tutorial assignments were collected for textual analysis to see if students were moving beyond the recollection and regurgitation of facts (surface learning) and instead were dealing with the deeper historical issues. The quality of student work coupled with our own classroom observations indicate that innovative assessment methods at regular moments during the semester made a positive difference to the student learning experience.