Introduction by Max Angus, Guest Editor, and, contents page

This issue will focus on the National Schools Project, an ambitious action research project involving 200 schools across the country. At one level, the Project is only incidentally pertinent to teacher educators - it has been a large, costly attempt to change the way schools operate; should it succeed in the longer term in achieving its purposes, prospective teachers will require a new range of skills and understandings. There is a second more immediate reason. In some states, teacher educators have played an influential role as \u27critical friends\u27 of school staff engaged in the taxing task of changing the way schools operate. Their work, and the principles that have underpinned the way in which they have worked in schools, suggest that \u27teacher educator\u27 may no longer be an appropriate appellation for University-based educators, smacking as it does of an expert-novice relationship. School teachers and university teachers are learners as well as educators. Finally, it is conceivable that school restructuring may provide lessons for imminent teacher education restructuring

School systems in transition: the future of government school education in Australia

Since the mid-eighties state governments have initiated the restructuring of the public school systems in order to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. However, after controversial beginnings, the commitment to the principles underpinning the reforms has weakened. The reality lags far behind the loosely-applied rhetoric of devolution, accountability and productivity. While in this disabling transitional state, schools are now subjected to a new wave of change propelled by the economic restructuring agenda of the Commonwealth Government. Extraordinary expectations are being set for schools as a consequence of policies designed to connect the outcomes of education more closely to the requirements of industry. Under these conditions, public school systems are virtually unmanageable. Professor Angus explores the reasons why efforts to restructure public school systems have stalled. He examines policy options which might enable school systems to respond to the mounting demands being placed upon them. A key question considered is whether the concept of a \u27government school system\u27 which has served Australia during this century can survive into the next

The Regulation of Teaching : Lessons from the National Schools Project

It is conceivable that the present generation of Australian teachers has been engaged in more workplace reform over a longer period of time than any other occupational group. Teachers can recite a near-interminable list of changes to work practices initiated during the 70s and 80s which required revisions of content to be taught, changes in methods of instruction and the introduction of modified patterns of school organisation. Yet the more things change the more they appear the same. The salient features of schools of 20 years ago are salient today - classes of thirty of so students, dominated by teacher talk and student silence, the content prescribed, instructional groups standardised by age, and teachers isolated from colleagues while they teach. Teachers, except for a relatively small band of enthusiasts, are sceptical of claims that there are better way of doing things and are disinclined to take new reform efforts too seriously

Clinical specialty training in UK undergraduate medical schools: A retrospective observational study

Objectives: To determine if increased exposure to clinical specialties at medical school is associated with increased interest in pursuing that specialty as a career after foundation training. Design: A retrospective observational study. Setting: 31 UK medical schools were asked how much time students spend in each of the clinical specialties. We excluded two schools that were solely Graduate Entry, and two schools were excluded for insufficient information. Main outcome measures: Time spent on clinical placement from UK undergraduate medical schools, and the training destinations of graduates from each school. A general linear model was used to analyse the relationship between the number of weeks spent in a specialty at medical school and the percentage of graduates from that medical school entering each of the Core Training (CT1)/Specialty Training (ST1) specialties directly after Foundation Year 2 (FY2). Results: Students spend a median of 85 weeks in clinical training. This includes a median of 28 weeks on medical firms, 15 weeks in surgical firms, and 8 weeks in general practice (GP). In general, the number of training posts available in a specialty was proportionate to the number of weeks spent in medical school, with some notable exceptions including GP. Importantly, we found that the number of weeks spent in a specialty at medical school did not predict the percentage of graduates of that school training in that specialty at CT1/ST1 level (ß coefficient=0.061, p=0.228). Conclusions: This study found that there was no correlation between the percentage of FY2 doctors appointed directly to a CT1/ST1 specialty and the length of time that they would have spent in those specialties at medical school. This suggests that curriculum adjustments focusing solely on length of time spent in a specialty in medical school would be unlikely to solve recruitment gaps in individual specialties

The Pipeline Project: Trajectories of classroom behaviour and academic progress : a study of student engagement with learning

The Pipeline Project addresses three questions concerning the relationship between the classroom behaviour of students and their academic performance. First, to what extent does classroom behaviour explain why students fall behind and fail to meet acceptable standards in literacy and numeracy; second, if student classroom behaviour does influence academic performance, what forms of classroom behaviour are of most significance; and third, are the students whose behaviour has contributed to their underperformance in literacy and numeracy likely to ever catch up

Jack Carington Smith : watercolours

Catalogue of an exhibition held at The Fine Arts Gallery, University of Tasmania

Reference to the index of the correspondence, diaries and writigs of Clive Sansom (1910-1981), poet and speech educator.

Clive Sansom (1910-1981), poet and speech educator, was born at Finchley, North London, in 1910. He worked as a clerk and salesman in London and studied speech and drama under Marjorie Gullan at the Polytechnic, Regent Street, and the Speech Institute (1930-35) and phonetics under Professor Daniel Jones at University College, London (1935-6). He lectured in speech training at Borough Road Training College, Isleworth, and the Speech Fellowship (1937-9) and edited the Speech Fellowship Bulletin (1934-49). He was instructor in the Drama School of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and examiner in speech and spoken poetry.In 1937 he married a fellow student and speech teacher, Ruth Large from Tasmania. Although neither was at the time a Quaker, they were married in the Friends Meeting House at Winchmore Hill. They were both interested in the Society of Friends and had attended a few Meetings. Clive's teacher and friend, Marjorie Gullan, was a Quaker. Soon they both joined the Friends.In 1949 Clive and Ruth Sansom travelled to Hobart to visit Ruth's family and decided to settle in Tasmania. Clive was appointed, with Ruth, Supervisor of Speech Education for the Tasmanian Education Department and was responsible for the Speech Centre 1950-1965 and was also examiner in speech and drama for the A.M.E.B. He and Ruth broadcast and wrote scripts for the ABC. programs for primary schools. Clive also wrote or edited a number of short plays for schools

Auxin regulates adventitious root formation in tomato cuttings

Adventitious root (AR) formation is a critical developmental process in cutting propagation for the horticultural industry. While auxin has been shown to regulate this process, the exact mechanism and details preceding AR formation remain unclear. Even though AR and lateral root (LR) formation share common developmental processes, there are exist some differences that need to be closely examined at the cytological level. Tomato stem cuttings, which readily form adventitious roots, represent the perfect system to study the influence of auxin on AR formation and to compare AR and LR organogenesis.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-019-2002-

Development of a Coaxial 3D Printing Platform for Biofabrication of Implantable Islet-Containing Constructs

Over the last two decades, pancreatic islet transplantations have become a promising treatment for Type I diabetes. However, although providing a consistent and sustained exogenous insulin supply, there are a number of limitations hindering the widespread application of this approach. These include the lack of sufficient vasculature and allogeneic immune attacks after transplantation, which both contribute to poor cell survival rates. Here, these issues are addressed using a biofabrication approach. An alginate/gelatin-based bioink formulation is optimized for islet and islet-related cell encapsulation and 3D printing. In addition, a custom-designed coaxial printer is developed for 3D printing of multicellular islet-containing constructs. In this work, the ability to fabricate 3D constructs with precise control over the distribution of multiple cell types is demonstrated. In addition, it is shown that the viability of pancreatic islets is well maintained after the 3D printing process. Taken together, these results represent the first step toward an improved vehicle for islet transplantation and a potential novel strategy to treat Type I diabetes