Transitions and re-engagement through second chance education

The issue of school non-completion continues to be a matter of concern for policy makers and practitioners in Australia today. Despite the efforts of governments and school systems to improve participation and retention rates, often one in three students drop out of school before completing Year 12. Major factors influence non-completion and militate against young people remaining at school. Findings from recent research indicate that some non-completers choose to re-enter education through second chance programs outside the school environment. The argument for second chance education presented in this paper is developed within the context of the ‘risk’ society and in relation to recent theories of youth transitions.     

The effect of processing depth on ESL reading comprehension

This study investigated the effect of depth of processing on second-language reading comprehension. It was hypothesized that questions which entailed shallow cognitive processing would be easier to answer than questions which entailed deeper cognitive processing. Three of the four research hypotheses were confirmed. Previous training (or lack of it) may account for why one of the predictions was not confirmed. This paper concludes with a cautionary note about the types of reading performance teachers can expect, and the recognition of open-ended testing techniques in secondlanguage reading assessment.     

Defining the future: an interrogation of education and time

This paper examines notions of ‘educational time’ with particular reference to the work of Basil Bernstein. It focuses closely on the 1967 Plowden report as a particularly appropriate policy case study to demonstrate how different constructions of time can exist within the same document. It then develops educational models originally mapped out by Bernstein, arguing that a full understanding of the areas of consensus and conflict among these models is vital if we are to understand how teaching professionals think about the future. The paper addresses the following questions: How does time affects education? What influence does this have on educational outcomes? How does this relate to public policy initiatives? Assuming a tacit, collective understanding of time and the future can undermine the very policy intentions a government might be seeking to promulgate.     

CILT2000: Community Tools

Community tools are technologies designed to foster social processes of learning through active inquiry, project-based learning, and related collaborative pedagogical approaches. Current research and development in this field are moving from generic tool design towards the development of sociotechnical systems that address learning in relation to specific domains of knowledge or activity and social issues such as equitable access to learning opportunities.