Challenges to Brand Australia: international students and the problem with speaking

Although communication skills in English are important for both their career prospects and the success of their overall study experience, many international students find their spoken English a barrier to employment after graduation. In this paper, we draw on longitudinal interview data from international postgraduates to investigate the individual and social factors that impacted on the development of their speaking skills as they studied in Australia. Our findings suggest that, despite high levels of motivation to improve, they received little instruction in such skills on their English for Academic Purposes programs and had little access to them in the community. We argue that for compelling moral as well as economic reasons universities urgently need to address these issues through both instruction and social integration initiatives if they are to safeguard their lucrative but vulnerable overseas markets.     

Where, when, and why young athletes use imagery: an examination of developmental differences

The purpose of this study was to investigate young athletes' imagery use from a developmental perspective. The participants were 110 male and female athletes competing in both team and individual sports. They represented four different age cohorts (i.e., 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, and 13-14 years). Sixteen focus groups, two for each age category and gender, were used as the method of data collection. The findings indicated "where," "when, " and "why" young athletes use imagery and how imagery use changes as children move from early childhood through to early adolescence. Overall, results revealed that all age cohorts reported using imagery in both training and competition and for both cognitive and motivational purposes. The present research also found support for studying imagery use by young athletes from a developmental perspective.     

Laptops in the Scottish Primary School: Interim Report

Abstract

The following paper should be seen as an addition to that provided in the Proceedings of the 7th ICTE.’ For reasons of brevity, it does not deal to any large extent with the background to the project, but details the progress of a study into the effects of introducing laptops into primary (elementary) school. The project has provided every pupil in one class with a laptop computer and has tracked the use being made of it as a curriculum tool for writing. The second phase of the project is under way, with a completion date of April 1991.     

Information overload within the health care system: a literature review

There is a widespread view held by health clinicians that their work effectiveness is impaired by 'information overload.' Building upon a previous work by Wilson, a review of the literature was undertaken to look for the evidence of this. It was found that the literature, particularly in the context of the clinical environment, was limited. This review explores the diverse overarching theories of information overload, effects of the phenomenon that are perceived to occur and proposed solutions to this problem. Many of the papers noted an information explosion but only three authors explicitly attempted to measure both the quantity and the complexity of this information. It was also found that the typology of the information studied was severely limited with most studies exploring information such as guidelines, access to journals, research findings and other knowledge intensive areas. Solutions proposed seem to concentrate on technological means rather than exploring the use of humans either in management of information or as a step in the filtering process.