Western Sydney University Research Articles

Building Teacher Capital in Pre-Service Teachers: Reflections on a New Teacher-Education Initiative.

This discussion considers a new pre-service teacher education initiative at the University of Western Sydney, called Classmates. Classmates aims to prepare pre-service teachers to work in diverse and challenging schools. The paper argues that the neo-liberal industrial model of mass teacher education may be limited in its capacity to adequately prepare pre-service teachers for the difficulties they may encounter in a society where sociocultural inequality is growing. It points out that pre-service teacher-education needs to build teacher capital to better prepare graduates and to buffer the transition from tertiary student to beginning teacher. Classmates offers one way that this may be achieved. Findings from the Classmates research clearly point to the pre-service teachers’ acquisition of several forms of teacher capital, identified as (i) knowledge about students; (ii) knowledge about teaching and the institution; and (iii) knowledge about professional networks. The continuous Classmates practicum was perceived to make a major contribution to the development of this capital.

The Heterogenous Citizen

The Heterogenous Citizen

Promoting staff learning about assessment through digital representations of practice: Evaluating a pilot project

<span>The Assessment Snapshots digital resource is a current project to support academic learning about assessment by diffusing knowledge and understanding of locally contextualised good practice in assessment at the University of Western Sydney. An initial collection of Snapshots was made available to academic staff on the university web site in early 2006. This paper describes how the resource has been utilised by teachers and explains the uses that academic developers have made of the resource in supporting teachers to extend their learning about assessment. The paper reflects on the extent to which the pilot project has been successful in disseminating effective assessment practice and promoting reflection and discussion about assessment issues. It proposes future directions for more effectively integrating and contextualising resources for professional learning with teachers' everyday teaching practice.</span>

Beyond a command performance: reflections on Classmates as a new teacher preparation initiative

This paper reflects on a new pre‐service teacher education initiative, Classmates. Classmates is a collaboration between the University of Western Sydney (UWS) and the New South Wales Department of Education and Training (DET), South Western Sydney Region. Classmates aims to prepare pre‐service teachers to work in challenging, hard‐to‐staff schools. These contexts typically have socially disadvantaged populations and annually experience teacher shortages and high teacher turnover, particularly amongst beginning and early career teachers. Classmates seeks to produce beginning teachers who are highly prepared for, confident and mentally and emotionally equipped to work in such environments. This discussion focuses on some of the positive attributes about the initiative, particularly its practicum structure; its nurturing of pre‐service teachers to work in challenging contexts; and its strong focus on networking and development of ongoing support structures.

Medical schools can cooperate: a new joint venture to provide medical education in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales

The medical schools at the University of Western Sydney, University of Wollongong and University of Sydney have developed a joint program for training medical students through placements of up to 40 weeks on the New South Wales North Coast. The new partnership agency - the North Coast Medical Education Collaboration - builds on the experience of regional doctors and their academic partners. A steering committee has identified the availability and support requirements of local practitioners to provide training, and has undertaken a comparative mapping of learning objectives and assessments from the courses of the three universities. The goals of the program include preparing doctors who can perform effectively in rural settings and multidisciplinary health care teams, and to advance research in medical education.

Promoting Community Resilience in Disasters: The Role for Schools, Youth, and Families

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 18 No. 1 (2008) ISSN: 1546-2250 Promoting Community Resilience in Disasters: The Role for Schools, Youth, and Families Ronan, Kevin R. and Johnston, David M. (2005). Springer; 210 pages. $59.95. ISBN 0387238204. This excellent volume brings together research, practice and systems approaches to provide guidance for intervention programs to improve resilience in the face of disaster in school and community settings. In addressing community resilience, the book focuses on the role of schools as institutions that are central to community life, and that engage children, youth and families. There is great value in the way the authors have, in each chapter, provided a research basis from their own and other studies, then translated these into practical guidelines for action. The first few chapters deal with a theoretical review of resilience in disaster; the roles of schools, youth and families; collaborative partnerships and a multi-disciplinary perspective; and the SS4R model of Strengthening Systems (SS). The following chapters address the “4Rs”: Risk Reduction, Readiness, Response and Recovery. The text moves through the stages of readiness, response and recovery, and addresses in each chapter the science, practice and advice for effective action, with appropriate emphasis on the need for flexibility in decision-making. The model of multiple “gating” and stepped care provides a sound and effective framework with which to focus resources on those at highest risk and with greatest need. The final two chapters, “Evidence-Based Guidelines for Practice” and “Research-Practice Interface and Recommendations,” provide succinct and clear guidance for those who would adopt such models. This book is carefully organized and provides a well-researched resource with templates for action. It constitutes powerful advocacy for a schools-based focus that can engage communities in ways no other system can. It demonstrates the science of building trust, 530 readiness and engagement in non-threatening, effective ways in order to deal with all types of hazards. It should become essential reading for all school principals and those in the community who assist them to deal with such crises. It is an effective manual and an excellent guide to positive action, as well as a tool for advocacy and building resilience, which is now at the forefront of attempts to address major hazards. The authors are to be congratulated on their unique, practical and excellent contribution to this field. Reviewer Information Raphael, Beverley Beverley Raphael is a Professor of Population Mental Health and Disasters within the Medical School at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. ...

Lawyer Dissatisfaction, Emotional Intelligence and Clinical Legal Education

This paper reflects on a trial of blended learning conducted in the elective Unit Intellectual Property at the University of Western Sydney over Summer 2008. The trial was conducted in order to establish whether a ‘replacement’ model of blended learning was suitable for law students and to assess the benefits and challenges this model presents. The overall results of the trial demonstrate that, with sufficient time invested in the design and production of quality learning materials, blended learning can potentially deliver significant benefits in this discipline, both to students and also to academics. In particular, the blended mode of delivery offers opportunities to make learning in law units more active, without entirely sacrificing the detailed explanations of content, typical of traditional lectures, that law students often place great value upon. By combining the best aspects of face-to-face and online teaching, this model can offer students the best of both worlds.

Editorial: JCN – Developments in 2008

In the past two years we have started the year by raising questions related to the content of JCN such as the extent to which it is clinical (Watson 2006) or international (Watson et al. 2007). This year, we start the year with good news and this is related to proposed developments in JCN as well as achievements in 2007 which, presumably, demonstrate the extent to which JCN meets its own target of being a clinically relevant journal of international importance. Since 2006 we have been running 12 issues annually and this year has seen a further increase in manuscripts submitted and, as a consequence, manuscripts accepted. At the same time we have every indication that the quality of papers in JCN is being maintained and 2008 will witness developments which respond to this. One of the most important achievements in 2008 was the further increase in the impact factor of JCN from 1·027 to 1·430. This means that, according to this internationally accepted indicator of journal quality, JCN remains the leading UK academic nursing journal and is now sixth out of 36 in the world ranking of academic nursing journals. This impact factor is an indication of the impact of the journal in the scientific community in terms of the extent to which work in JCN is cited but it also raises our profile internationally and ensures that we continue to receive a steady and increasing stream of papers from across the world. To view the kind of papers that are highly cited please see Williamson and Hoggart (2005), Whitehead (2005), Defloor and Grypdonck (2005), Nikoletti et al. (2005), Verhaeghe et al. (2005) which were our top five cited papers in 2005 and 2006. Another way the impact and profile of JCN is increasing is through our media outreach. This works through the identification of papers that are likely to be of general interest to the public, beyond our professional and academic readership. In 2006–2007 we were able to publicise the following papers: Smith (2006), Haglund et al. (2006), Yang et al. (2006), Chen and Chiang (2007), Mamhidir et al. (2007). The papers are picked up in the UK by daily broadsheets and across the world by important newspapers. For an indication of how well this raises the profile of JCN please check http://news.bbc.co.uk/ and search for ‘Journal of Clinical Nursing’. This year sees a further increase in the pages being published and this is a direct response to our increased intake and acceptance of manuscripts and to ensure that the time between acceptance of manuscripts and publication is kept to under a year. To enable this development, each issue of JCN will be published in two parts. One part will sharpen our focus on clinical practice and the other will broaden our horizon to highlight papers on issues that have an impact on clinical practice. Until now both these types of papers have featured in JCN but have been gathered under clinical headings. This new development will allow us to aim one part at nurses in practice while accommodating an increasing number of papers that are important and highly relevant to practice but which are directed more at nurse educators, managers and policy makers. The new sections will be specifically edited by two new editors who I will introduce below and each of these editors has been invited to provide their own vision for their respective parts of JCN (Haigh 2008, Jackson 2008). The editor of this section will be Carol Haigh from the UK. Carol works as a Senior Lecturer at The University of Salford in the School of Nursing and is a member of the Institute for Health & Social Care Research, where she is the Research Admissions Co-ordinator, and of the Salford Centre for Nursing, Midwifery & Collaborative Research. Her principal research interest is pain but she also studies older people and organisation of care. The editor of this section will be Debra Jackson from Australia. Debra works as a Professorial Fellow in the School of Nursing at the University of Western Sydney where she is part of the N-FORCE research group which brings a multidisciplinary perspective to support for vulnerable families and chronic and complex care. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Carol and Debra into the JCN team. These are crucial appointments and I look forward to working with both of them in the 2008 and beyond.

Teaching for social justice: reflections from a core unit in a teacher education program

Teacher educators need forms of pedagogy and counter-knowledge that challenge their internalised ideologies and subjective identities. Pre-service teachers need to critique ideologies, examine the influences on their thinking and identities and consider the kind of teachers they want to become. They need to be active in constructing and maintaining classrooms that promote social justice. While teachers are expected to interrogate social justice incidents, this requires skill and courage in the current context. In many instances it has been much easier to resort to methods of discipline, control, and silence when faced with a sense of inadequacy. Often, the complexities that emerge during periods of social crisis are marginalised and silenced. Given the location of the University of Western Sydney – in the very suburbs of Greater Western Sydney where these shifting identity politics are most urgently contested – it is important that we, as educators, play a major role, especially in responding to major educational and community concerns around issues of social justice. Such a focus will allow teachers to evaluate social institutions critically and commit them to working democratically with others. Hence, teachers need not only be aware of and eventually respect those from diverse cultural backgrounds but also be critical of the policies and practices of the school systems in which they work. This paper focuses on the actual educational practices regarding social justice that are enacted in a university lecture room. I examine the impact of a Social Justice Education coursework unit in nurturing transformative practices and capacities among a group of diverse university students who have the ability to keep an open mind and bring about change in the teaching-learning process. The paper is based on findings of a study, conducted from February 2004 to July 2004 that examined the pre-service teachers’ beliefs and knowledge for social justice before and after they completed the ‘Social Justice Issues in Secondary Education’ unit and after they completed their four week (May 2004) student teacher practicum in the field. The study focused on how and if the knowledge, experiences, activities, and strategies that the students engaged in and learned about in the ‘Social Justice Issues in Secondary Education’ class influenced their beliefs and practices about integrating a social justice perspective in their student teaching.

Alliance Through Change

Following a landmark organisational change event within the University of Western Sydney, when the university ceased operating as a federation of four distinct, inter‐related elements and merged to become a single entity, four foundation College Managers made a strategic decision to form an alliance. This alliance significantly enhanced the organisational impact and effectiveness of each partner during what was a highly turbulent, competitive and constantly shifting change setting. This paper describes the environmental conditions that led to the formation of this partnership and details the three core alliance strategies implemented by the College Managers. Such strategies included the creation of lateral and hierarchical communication channels, the engagement of staff, plus the provision of a supportive work environment. The success, or otherwise, of the alliance and its strategies is discussed.

The energy challenge of direct contact membrane distillation in low temperature concentration

AbstractDirect contact membrane distillation (DCMD) was operated at low temperatures from 25 to 40 °C to suit the purpose of thermally concentrating sensitive liquid foods, especially fruit juices to high solid content concentrate with most of the quality attributes preserved.A lab scale DCMD unit has been set up at the Centre for Plant and Food Science, University of Western Sydney. Hollow fibre modules (HFM) using five types of fibres of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and Halar material, with mass transfer areas ranging from 281 to 573 cm2 were employed. Experiments for concentration of glucose solutions from 30 to 60% (w/w) were carried out. Results indicated that not only the operating conditions were important, but also the membrane properties. It was found that Halar fibres were performing 2–3 times better than PVDF fibres in term of removing water from the feed, and 3–4 times better in term of energy saving. Results also showed that an increase of the feed inlet temperature from 25 to 40 °C improved the mass flux up to 6 times and energy efficiency (EE) up to 2.5 times depending on the feed concentration.With flux up to 2.88 kg m−2 h−1 for PVDF and 5.83 kg m−2 h−1 for Halar fibres when concentrating 30% glucose solution at 40 °C, DCMD appeared to be an attractive concentration technique, when product quality is the priority. However, with EE from as low as 2.1–14.9%, PVDF fibres employed in the study seemed not to be very suitable for DCMD liquid food concentration under low temperature condition. DCMD in Halar fibres with EE up to 45.6% still encounters the challenge of energy and could only be cost competitive to osmotic distillation and evaporative concentration when cheaper energy sources or heat recovery measures are employed. Copyright © 2007 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Juggling the balls—study, work, family and play: student perspectives on flexible and blended heutagogy

This article draws on research with the student cohort in one of the early childhood teacher education programmes at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. It explores students’ perceptions of a flexible and blended pedagogy, or ‘heutagogy’ which combines online work with face‐to‐face lectures and tutorials. Research into teaching and learning suggests that heutagogy (encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning), rather than pedagogy, more closely approximates the way knowledge is appropriated by adult learners in the modern world. The study investigates the relevance of flexible and blended delivery modes and using heutagogy for students who have taken up university study after completion of lower level courses at a technical institution. The programme developed acknowledges students’ need to work and considers the dynamics of family life. In recognition of students’ complex study/work/family responsibilities and the need in some cases for considerable travel across Sydney, f...

Information literacy for first-year students: an embedded curriculum approach

The ability to access, evaluate and synthesise high-quality research material is the backbone of critical thinking in academic and professional contexts for Engineers and Industrial Designers. This is the premise upon which teaching and library staff developed Information Literacy (IL) components in Engineering & Industrial Design Practice—a first-year unit of study in the School of Engineering at the University of Western Sydney. This paper documents the IL teaching and learning experience and evaluates and reflects upon how effective it was at helping students navigate their first tertiary level research tasks. It concludes that library sessions and assessment tasks were effective in introducing IL skills in concurrent development of critical thinking, based on feedback from library sessions, an online IL test, and assessment results.

Culture and Complexity

Culture and Complexity

What Type of Orthosis is Most Effective in Treating Chronic Plantar Fasciitis?

Oakwood Healthcare System, Plymouth, Michigan, USA Correspondence about the original study: Karl B. Landorf, PhD, Department of podiatry, School of Human Biosciences, La Trobe University, Victoria 3086, Australia (e-mail: [email protected]). Source of funding for the original study: Australian Podiatry Education and Research Foundation and the University of Western Sydney. Orthotic materials were donated by Orthotic Laboratory, Foot Science Internal, and Allied Health Industries.

The Rise and Fall of Innovative Education: An Australian University Case Study

From 1980 to 1995, the University of Western Sydney at Hawkesbury (formerly Hawkesbury Agricultural College) in Richmond, New South Wales, Australia, pioneered an innovative undergraduate degree in Systems Agriculture based on experiential education, systems thinking, and adult learning theory. Today this program is in trouble and has reverted back to a more traditional teacher-directed approach. This article discusses the rise of the innovative education paradigm at Hawkesbury, the unique Systems Agriculture program itself, and its eventual decline. Reasons for both the shift to innovative education and its eventual downfall are explored. Implications for institutions of higher education contemplating innovative educational approaches are suggested.

An Integrative Framework to Protocol Analysis and Repair: Bellare–Rogaway Model + Planning + Model Checker

A modified version of the Bellare and Rogaway (1993) adversarial model is encoded using Asynchronous Product Automata (APA). A model checker tool, Simple Homomorphism Verification Tool (SHVT), is then used to perform state-space analysis on the Automata in the setting of planning problem. The three-party identity-based secret public key protocol (3P-ID-SPK) protocol of Lim and Paterson (2006), which claims to provide explicit key authentication, is used as a case study. We then refute its heuristic security argument by revealing a previously unpublished flaw in the protocol using SHVT. We then show how our approach can automatically repair the protocol. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first work that integrates an adversarial model from the computational complexity paradigm with an automated tool from the computer security paradigm to analyse protocols in an artificial intelligence problem setting - planning problem - and, more importantly, to repair protocols. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not reflect those of the Australian Government and Australian Institute of Criminology. Research was performed while the author was with the Intelligent Systems Laboratory / University of Western Sydney.

Teacher Education for the Future: Some Australian Perspectives

Teacher Education for the Future: Some Australian Perspectives As a result of presentations in the PCC Conference in Sydney in 2005, this research aims to contribute Australian voices to the project being conducted simultaneously in other countries from the Pacific Circle Consortium. The research used project-devised survey and interview instruments with purposive sampled pairs of teachers and pre-service teachers during professional experience in 2005 and with teacher educators from the University of Western Sydney. The findings indicated that the participants have a common view of the purpose of education. However, there were range of issues that this view prompted participants to discuss. There were also perceived constraints, especially expressed by the experienced teachers. Implications of this finding are that teachers need forums in which to discuss their deep-seated philosophical approaches as they build a sustainable community of practice. The findings of this project can powerfully contribute to policy making at national and international government and university levels as they raise implications of how we meet challenges in future teacher education.

Editorial December 2006

Welcome to the second issue of the International Journal for Educational Integrity for 2006. As we publish this issue, planning is underway for the 3rd Asia-Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity: Creating a culture of integrity, to be held at the University of South Australia, on 6-7 December 2007. Please mark this date in your calendars and consider making a submission for presentation at the conference (the Call for Papers will commence in January 2007). We are very pleased to announce that Professor Cathy Small, from Northern Arizona University, and Associate Professor Brian Martin from the University of Wollongong have both agreed to present keynote addresses to the conference.
 
 Turning to the Journal, the current issue comprises four very different papers. The first, by Sandy Darab at Southern Cross University, is a revised version of a paper presented at the 2nd Asia-Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity. Darab provides an empirical review of an effort to embed a preventative approach to plagiarism in the online assessment of a first year unit. Using action research, and qualitative data that sought to ‘capture the lived experience of the students’, Darab concludes that incorporating academic skills training within the online environment provides a useful framework for the development of students’ understandings of academic integrity.
 
 In the second paper, Julianne East from LaTrobe University offers insight into one of the issues that international students face as they encounter the concept of plagiarism in Australian universities. Using the idea of ‘high’ and ‘low-context’ cultures, East proposes that the Australian university is a high-context culture in that understandings of plagiarism and academic conventions are often implicit and taken for granted. Theorising from the perspective of critical pedagogy, East argues further that educators need to uncover and challenge authoritarian practices within the academy which have the potential to marginalise and exclude newcomers.
 
 Neera Handa and Wayne Fallon, both from the University of Western Sydney, provide an expanded and revised version of the paper they presented at the 2nd Asia-Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity. The authors evaluate a development workshop which was designed to orient international students regarding the expectations of their new academic environment. Based on analysis of 39 surveys completed by students at the end of the workshop, and a further 30 follow-up evaluations, the authors recommend repeat workshops as an integral part of the overall program content.
 
 Taking a broader approach to educational integrity, the fourth and final paper by Peter Slade and Chris McConville from the University of the Sunshine Coast, examines the ethical issues of requiring teaching staff to be evaluated by students, using the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET). They argue that the SET is invalid and ultimately flawed as an evaluation instrument. Slade and McConville conclude that the compulsory administration of the SET is ‘a violation of academic freedom and lecturers’ rights’.
 
 All four papers make an important contribution to the emerging area of scholarly inquiry known as academic or educational integrity. Both the Darab paper and that of Handa and Fallon have focused on how best to embed academic skills training and development within students’ programs of study, while East has theorised the underpinning culture of Australian universities as one which has the potential to exclude outsiders. Slade and McConville take the concept of educational integrity beyond the classroom, by questioning the institutional integrity issues of administering a flawed evaluation instrument.
 
 We thank the authors for their contributions to this issue and look forward to receiving papers for the next issue, due for publication in April 2007.
 
 Editors
 
 Helen Marsden: helen.marsden@unisa.edu.au
 Tracey Bretag: tracey.bretage@unisa.edu.au

Celebrating Heritage and the Female Orphan School

The Female Orphan School, completed in 1818, is now a part of the University of Western Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. This recently restored building has been referred to as a rejuvenated heritage jewel and a forgotten heritage treasure, but which aspects of heritage, and whose heritage, are being celebrated? This paper investigates the Orphan School’s discursive construction in historical documents and more recent media releases. Using a theoretical approach informed by the work of Michel de Certeau and Michel Foucault, and drawing on the writings of various modern historical geographers, the paper considers the ways in which understandings of the Institution and the building have been created and argues that many interesting aspects have been overlooked in an effort to produce a heritage designed to appeal to a relatively privileged constituency.