Reading and spelling in adults: are there lexical and sub‐lexical subtypes?

The dual‐route model of reading proposes distinct lexical and sub‐lexical procedures for word reading and spelling. Lexically reliant and sub‐lexically reliant reader subgroups were selected from 78 university students on the basis of their performance on lexical (orthographic) and sub‐lexical (phonological) choice tests, and on irregular and nonword naming. In spelling of irregular words and nonwords to dictation, the group comparisons failed to support the dissociative predictions for lexical and sub‐lexical reliance that were derived from the dual‐route model: lexical readers were not superior to sub‐lexical readers on spelling irregular words as well as inferior to sub‐lexical readers on spelling regular letter strings (nonwords). In line with a single‐route view, print exposure and phonological coding (nonword naming accuracy) appear to be key factors in the effective learning of both regular and irregular words.     

Development of an Online Education Program for Midwives in Australia to Improve Perinatal Oral Health

It is recommended that all pregnant women should receive a comprehensive oral health evaluation because poor maternal oral health may affect pregnancy outcomes and the general health of the woman and her baby. Midwives are well placed to provide dental health advice and referral. However, in Australia, little emphasis has been placed on the educational needs of midwives to undertake this role. This article outlines the development of an online education program designed to improve midwives’ dental health knowledge, prepare them to assess the oral health of women, refer when required, and provide appropriate dental education to women and their families. The program consists of reading and visual material to assist with the oral health assessment process and includes competency testing.     

‘Teaching Is Still a Good Job for a Woman’: the influence of gender on career and life choices

This article reports on an investigation of primary and early‐childhood teacher‐education students’ understandings and beliefs about the influence of gender on their careers and life choices. The research was undertaken by a collaborative team from three Victorian universities. We took as our premiss that if teacher‐education students are to be effective in promoting gender inclusiveness throughout the schooling culture, they must first reflect on the operation of the sex/gender system in their own lives. A range of viewpoints are included about the gendered understandings commonly held by the tertiary students surveyed. The resulting insights enabled us to suggest more effective strategies for fostering gender awareness in teacher education.     

Learning action learning: a journey

The action learning set (ALS) is an often-used tool in practice development to facilitate group reflection. As such, its use evolves in the hands of the participants as they become more comfortable with the process and as trust develops amongst group members. This paper aims to discuss the journey of one ALS over a 2-year period. It seeks to highlight the process of learning through an ALS and the complexity of making the process meaningful for the participants. The role of trust within an ALS cannot be overstated. This was an imperative factor in the overall effectiveness of the set.     

Defining administrators and new professionals

An audit of economics provision shows that over the past decade economics has disappeared from large parts of the UK's higher education landscape, especially the post-1992 universities. In the north of Britain the binary system has effectively re-emerged leaving many potential students unable to study key subjects such as economics. Post-1992 institutions appear to have responded to forces in the higher education market by retreating from key subjects. The experience of economics shows how universities exercising their autonomy deal with complex issues such as the link between research and subject provision and the stratification of applicants along social class lines.     

Moderation and consistency of teacher judgement: Teachers’ views

Major curriculum and assessment reforms in Australia have generated research interest in issues related to standards, teacher judgement and moderation. This article is based on one related inquiry of a large‐scale Australian Research Council Linkage project conducted in Queensland. This qualitative study analysed interview data to identify teachers’ views on standards and moderation as a means to achieving consistency of teacher judgement. A complementary aspect of the research involved a blind review that was conducted to determine the degree of teacher consistency without the experience of moderation. Empirical evidence was gained that most teachers, of the total interviewed, articulated a positive attitude towards the use of standards in moderation and perceived that this process produces consistency in teachers’ judgements. Context was identified as an important influential factor in teachers’ judgements and it was concluded that teachers’ assessment beliefs, attitudes and practices impact on their perceptions of the value of moderation practice and the extent to which consistency can be achieved.     

How front-end loading contributes to creating and sustaining the theory-practice gap in higher education programs

In this paper, I show how Mead’s theory of emergence can prove explanatory in how the theory-practice gap is co-created and sustained in front-end loading university programs. Taking teacher education as an exemplar, I argue that trainee teachers encounter different and oft-times conflicting environmental, social and cultural conditions in the two ‘fields of interaction’ of their training program, namely, the on-campus pre-service program and the in-school experience. The argument draws on interview and focus group data collected via a study of first-year graduate teachers of an Australian pre-service teacher education program. My conclusions are two-fold. First, I argue that role taking and self-regulated behaviour within the two environmental fields of interaction in front-end loading programs inhibit the trainee professional from exercising the power of agency to implement theory learned at university in practice in the workplace. Second, I conclude that Mead’s theory of emergence proves effective in predicting the obduracy of the gap between theory and practice in front-end programs.