Government Department Of Education Research Articles

168-LB: Prediction for Risk-Stratified Care for Women with Gestational Diabetes: The PeRSonal GDM Study

Objective: To develop and validate a prediction model for adverse pregnancy outcomes at the time of gestational diabetes (GDM) diagnosis to stratify care. Research Design and Methods: A prediction model development and validation study was conducted on data from a retrospective population-based study. The outcome to be predicted was a composite for adverse pregnancy outcome: hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, large-for-gestational (LGA) age neonate, neonatal hypoglycaemia requiring intravenous therapy, shoulder dystocia, perinatal death, neonatal bone fracture and nerve palsy. Results: Predictors of the composite adverse pregnancy outcome were: fasting and 1 hour glucose from the diagnostic OGTT, gestational age of GDM diagnosis, previous macrosomia, previous pre-eclampsia or eclampsia, previous LGA, ethnicity, weight at GDM diagnosis and parity. The apparent performance of the model was reasonable: c-statistic was 0.691 (95% CI, 0.662 - 0.720) and the calibration plot showed near perfect agreement between predicted and observed risks (Figure 1). Conclusions: A promising prediction model for adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with GDM was developed. Model estimation using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator method is currently underway to correct for over-optimism. External validation and decision curve analysis will determine suitability for clinical application. Disclosure S. Cooray: None. J. Boyle: None. G. Soldatos: None. J. Zamora: None. B.M. Fernandez-Felix: None. J. Allotey: None. S. Thangaratinam: None. H. Teede: Other Relationship; Self; Roche Diagnostics France. Funding National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (APP1151242); Australian Academy of Science; Diabetes Australia Research Program; Medical Research Future Fund of Australia; Australian Government Department of Education and Training (7167_2019)

German Teacher Educators' Conceptions About Teaching Problem Solving in Mathematics Classroom - an Obstalce to a Large-Scale Dissemination?!

Problem solving in Germany has roots in mathematics and psychology but it found its way to schools and classrooms, especially through German Kultusministerkonferenz, which represents all government departments of education. For the problem solving standard to get implemented in schools, a large scale dissemination through continuous professional development is very much needed, as the current mathematics teachers are not qualified to do so. As a consequence, one organ in Germany focuses on setting up courses for teacher educators who can “multiply” what they have learned and set up their own professional development courses for teachers. However, before attaining to this work, it is crucial to have an understanding what conceptions about teaching problem solving in mathematics classroom mathematics teacher educators hold. In this research report, I focus on mathematics teacher educators’ conceptions about problem solving standard and their effects regarding a large-scale dissemination.

Mentoring communities of practice: what’s in it for the mentor?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the critique of researchers, who question the effectiveness and sustainability of mentoring as a continuing professional development and learning (CPDL) process. Where a lack of awareness exists surrounding the potential benefits of mentoring for the mentor, this paper investigates whether engaging in and with mentoring through a mentoring community of practice (M-CoP) assists mentors to accrue and realise the benefits of engagement. A relationship will be drawn between the community of practice (CoP) dimensions as outlined by Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2015): domain, practice and community, and the perceived benefits accrued for mentors will be reported.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was taken, using a participatory action learning action research strategy. In total, 12 mentors came together to form a developing M-CoP. They attended four M-CoP workshops where they grew as mentors, through the three dimensions of a CoP: domain, practice and community. Workshops were audio visually recorded and observed. Further data were gathered through an M-CoP questionnaire, pre-workshop questions, M-CoP artefacts, stimulus recall, reflective journals, reflective journey plans and extended focus group discussions. Respondent validation, inter-rater and intra-observer reliability were used. Data were coded manually and using NVivo-10 software.FindingsMany of the benefits reported were directly linked to participants’ engagement in and with the three M-CoP dimensions: domain, practice and community. Such benefits related to mentor identity, support and solidarity, engagement and interaction, sharing “for” and learning “from” other mentors, and knowledge expansion and boundary spanning. Participants reported that engaging in and with mentor education through an M-CoP was an effective CPDL process, which was beneficial for them as developing mentors.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size was limited, based in one country and focussed upon one subject specialism. Such reported benefits need to be disseminated in order to raise the awareness of policy makers, teacher education institution managers and teacher educators, teachers and school leaders of the benefits of engaging in mentoring CPDL through the process of M-CoP engagement.Practical implicationsThe findings from this study can be used to inform policies related to the continuum of teacher education. A recommendation is made for policy makers, teacher education institution managers, school leaders and CPDL service providers to facilitate the development of M-CoPs and to support their growth. It is also suggested that government departments of education and professional standards bodies account for the resourcing of such work in the design and implementation phase of school placement developments.Originality/valueThis paper closes the following gaps in the literature: CPDL benefits of engaging in and with an M-CoP for the mentor, the relationship between CPDL benefits and CoP dimensions and the development of M-CoPs in the given socio-cultural, historical and economic context of Ireland’s teacher education system and those of similar contexts.

Cyberbullying, schools and the law: a comparative study in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

Background: This study addresses the fast developing behavioural issue of cyberbullying in schools and its complex legal context.Purpose: This study set out to investigate teachers’ perceptions of the extent of cyberbullying and the extent to which school leaders in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland feel knowledgeable and confident about dealing with cyberbullying problems in school. The study also examined the legal responsibility that schools in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have in dealing with incidents of cyberbullying.Sample: The sample comprised 14 headteachers and senior teachers from primary and post-primary schools (focus groups), and a further 143 school headteachers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland who responded to the postal questionnaire.Design and Methods: The sample was stratified according to geographical location, school management type and school size. The study had qualitative and quantitative elements. Focus group discussions were held in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland involving experienced primary and post-primary teachers and headteachers. Questionnaires were sent to primary and post-primary school headteachers (n = 143 completed: response rate = 28.6%). Data were analysed to provide a descriptive overview of knowledge and attitudes as well as the experiences of staff working in schools in both jurisdictions.Results: The study indicates that school leaders in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland reported a level of frustration in their attempts to deal with the growing and very complex problem of cyberbullying. They expressed a desire for more guidance from their respective government departments of education. Analysis of data suggests that confusion surrounding the legal responsibilities of schools was common in both jurisdictions. Findings indicate that rather than relying on evidence-based strategies and procedures proposed by government, school leaders were resorting to ad hoc solutions, at best consulting neighbouring schools, while trying to unravel intricate webs of interpersonal online aggressive acts, many of which had taken place outside of school and outside-of-school hours.Conclusion: Recommendations are made in relation to the development and dissemination of training and resources for schools in both jurisdictions. In describing the challenges faced by school leaders in dealing with cyberbullying, this study highlights, more generally, the need for the development of guidance and professional support frameworks to help educators manage the problems that are presented by this complex and evolving social phenomenon.

How context shapes practitioner research and professional learning in schools in Singapore and NSW

The New South Wales (NSW) Government Department of Education and Communities and the Singapore Ministry of Education have encouraged teachers to engage in practitioner research as part of their professional learning agenda because it is perceived as a powerful means of investigating and improving educational practice. Drawing on a Schatzkian perspective, where social life is understood as being tied to a context, or ‘the site of the social’, we examine teachers’ experiences as practitioner researchers in NSW and Singapore. We also argue that practitioner research has been remodelled and re-interpreted differently in different contexts and that cultural context is a potent constituent of the practice architecture that prefigures practitioner research. Using data collected from interviews with 42 participants comprising academics, policy makers and teachers, we specifically illuminated those contextual/cultural characteristics respondents identified as factors that actively shape teachers’ experiences as practitioner researchers.

Far away from home: the housing question and international students in Australia

It has become commonplace for scholars and education managers to talk of the globalisation of higher education. How to provide housing for the growing numbers of international students, however, remains contentious. This paper presents the situation in Australia by analysing the results of two large surveys and official reports published by student associations, housing authorities, the University of Sydney, and the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. It shows that the authorities have not succeeded in providing an answer to the international student housing question. In turn, accommodation remains a difficult issue for most international students and threatens to undermine the quality of higher education. Understood only as an accommodation problem, it may be argued that the situation could be improved if more affordable student housing was provided. However, this paper argues that until the problem is framed in socio-economic terms and analysed from a broad perspective, a solution will remain elusive.

Beyond Articulation: A Sustainable Model for Collaboration

This report summarises the achievements of the Beyond Articulation project, funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The report summarises research into the benefits of collaboration between vocational and higher education providers in terms of: improved teaching and learning arrangements; enhanced outcomes for students and the development of sustainable solutions for cross-sectoral collaboration.

Editorial

Editorial

Science education as South Africa's Trojan Horse

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have helped revitalize science education in South Africa and breach the iron control exercised over Black education by the apartheid government. Yet, back in the early 1970s NGOs in science education did not exist. This article is based on the story of one such NGO and the role it played in reconceptualizing science education in South Africa. It describes how the Science Education Project (SEP) confronted authoritarian practices not only of government departments of education but also within its own ranks. It concludes by suggesting that a way can be found whereby science education can become the Trojan horse of any authoritarian system. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 373–385, 1999

Research in Chemical Education - the Third Branch of Our Profession

Almost everyone who teaches chemistry in the K-12 system (or its foreign equivalents) and almost everyone employed as a faculty member in a chemistry department qualifies as a chemical educator: we are chemists interested in helping others understand chemistry. One way to look at the chemical education community is to divide our activities into a spectrum of three intertwined branches: instruction, practice, and research. The branches intertwine because many of us are active in more than one branch.Instruction is familiar to all of us. Even if we do not engage in instruction, we have been on the receiving end. Instructors use their knowledge to assist their clientele’s learning. It is not difficult to identify the largest group of instructors: we are teachers in K-12 classes or faculty in post-secondary classrooms and teaching laboratories at all levels (from technical schools and two-year colleges to medical and graduate schools). Graduate teaching assistants, who bear a significant part of the responsibility for delivering instruction at many institutions, constitute another group. However, instruction occurs in settings other than the classroom and teaching laboratory. Tutors who staff learning centers are instructors. Research directors who direct the laboratory work of undergraduate and graduate students are instructors. The chemical education component of their activities lies in the transmission of attitudes, skills, and habits of inquiry to their students.Many chemical educators are practitioners. Practitioners coordinate or direct programs and develop the tools and methods used to teach chemistry. The obvious practitioners are directors of general chemistry or directors of teaching laboratories. Others of us include software developers, textbook authors, and those who develop laboratory experiments or lecture demonstrations. Less obvious may be those involved in curriculum development, outreach, and teacher preparation. We should also include institutional staff at the ACS, NSF, and government departments of education in addition to laboratory managers and many other professional staff at post-secondary institutions. Another important and overlooked group are reviewers. Their work goes almost unnoticed, yet a thoughtful review can greatly improve a textbook, laboratory experiment, or journal article.A smaller group of chemical educators do research in chemical education. Those engaged in chemical education research examine what works and why or why not. Some are members of schools of education; others are members of chemistry departments. Chemical education researchers can provide tested, theory-based, or data-based insights and methodologies to the chemical education community. We focus on a variety of basic research questions. How and why do students learn? Why is chemistry difficult, even for many good students? What works to facilitate effective learning

National policy and planning: The Australian model for computer education

In the 1980s, several nations have moved towards national initiatives in the area of policy and planning for computer education. In Australia, the Commonwealth Schools Commission within the federal government Department of Education, initialised national planning and reported to the Australian government on the need for a National Computer Education Program. This Program has operated from 1984 to 1986. This paper is structured around some basic principles of policy development and describes the Australian model. Consideration is given to the strategies used in preparing the report for the Australian government. Prioritising of areas and implementation of the Report are described.

Choice within a National Framework for the School Curriculum

Summary A total curriculum programme designed for the purpose of a general education for all has a number of distinctive features. These features are briefly outlined as a basis for a national framework for curriculum and assessment, from which the structuring of pupils’ choices is made clear. [1] The majority of this paper was presented to the Education section of the 139th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at the University of Aston in Birmingham in September 1977. Some of the ideas were developed from the author's opening lecture to the 23rd National Conference of the Australian Science Teachers’ Association “Questions of Choice” held in Melbourne in May 1974, and subsequently published by the Association, the Australian Federal Government Department of Education and the State of New South Wales Department of Education.

La educación pre-escolar en las escuelas publicas de Puerto Rico

Since Puerto Rico had been obliged for financial reasons to concentrate on its general school system, preschool classes were not introduced till 1960. During the spring of that year, Senora Josefita Monserrate de Selles, consultant to the Government Department of Education, organized courses in kindergarten pedagogy. Then an experimental kindergarten pedagogy. Then an experimental kindergarten class was established. In 1961 further courses were given by Amy Hostler and Margaret Divine, both of U.S.A., who also visited the new kindergarten. It was a great loss when Senora Selles died in 1961, but the two American educators continued to visit Puerto Rico regularly, at least once per year, and co-operated with the preschool specialist at the University of Puerto Rico for further training of promising students. Every year groups of students also visited Mills College of Education (New York) for courses of three weeks.

Changes in secondary education in Australia

A striking feature of the post-war educational scene in Australia has been the growth of secondary education. Rapidly changing economic, demographic and social conditions have obliged all states to pay serious attention to the kind and amount of education required by adolescents and to the ways in which such can be best provided. In the past decade four states x) have conducted major inquiries into the provision of second? ary education and all six have undertaken extensive expansion programmes. Developments in the states have much in common but there are numer? ous significant differences. In the following generalized description and analysis of major changes and trends in Australian secondary education attention is drawn where appropriate to important interstate variations. Consideration is first given to an exposition of the main changes and trends, then to the reasons for the changes, then to factors adversely affecting the implementation of changes and, finally, to an appraisal of the changes. Data for the dicussion come from official reports, relevant literature and replies to a questionnaire which was completed by representatives of the government department of education, university departments of edu? cation and the major teachers* organization in each state.