Graduate-entry pre-service teachers : The relationship between their experience using technology in their previous occupations and their technological pedagogical beliefs

An important aspect of teachers’ work is integrating technology to support student learning. Teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, and skills related to technology develop well before their pre-service teacher education begins. For those graduate-entry pre-service teachers, prior experiences may play a valuable role in shaping their self-efficacy for, and use of technology in their pedagogical practice. This paper presents findings from the first phase of a mixed method study of students enrolled in a one-year graduate teaching course (N = 146). Graduate-entry pre-service teachers at an Australian university were invited at the commencement of their course to complete a survey about their self-efficacy beliefs using technology in their previous occupations, and their self-efficacy beliefs for integrating technology into classroom teaching. The connections between previous occupational experiences using technology and technology self-efficacy beliefs were examined. Analysis revealed a significant relationship between the four variables: application of technology, types of technological tools used, general technology self-efficacy and technology pedagogy self-efficacy. The greater the experience in applying a wide variety of technological tools in their previous workplace, the higher the participant’s self-efficacy beliefs for both general technology and technology pedagogy. The results are particularly interesting of those participants (n = 58), who used specialised professional technology applications while working in these roles. For this subsample, there was a significantly higher positive linear relationship between the types of technological tools used in previous occupations, and their self-efficacy beliefs regarding both general technology and technology pedagogy. The implications of this study are to provide a greater understanding of the technological skills, expertise and beliefs graduate-entry teachers bring with them from previous roles. It aims to highlight how graduate-entry teachers’ experience of using specialised technology pertinent to their previous professions, could facilitate the achievement of mandated technology pedagogy reforms

Collaborating with patient and public members in developing the COVID - Curated and open analysis and research platform (CO-CONNECT).

Objectives We aimed to support the work of CO-CONNECT by meaningfully involving patient and public members across all project work packages.  In addition, we aimed to ensure that the team members and outputs are connected to public perspectives and that public voices are adequately represented and embedded throughout CO-CONNECT. Approach We have two public members on our leadership team who co-lead our Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) work stream with support from academics.  They convened a “Public User Group” (PUG) of five public members from across the United Kingdom who regularly contribute to all aspects of CO-CONNECT.  Our PPIE work was co-produced with our public members and a PPIE strategy was developed to ensure meaningful involvement throughout CO-CONNECT.  At the beginning of the project, we developed an information pack for our public members to provide insight into CO-CONNECT and the importance of their role. Results To ensure complete transparency with the public, our PUG members attend and actively contribute to all team meetings within CO-CONNECT.  This provides opportunities for public voices to be heard and acted upon in relation to questions about the use of, and access to, healthcare data in healthcare research.  PUG members have contributed to the development of the CO-CONNECT website including providing information for biographies to increase public awareness of the involvement of public members in CO-CONNECT.  They have written blogs and been interviewed for newsletter articles on the important of public involvement in research.  Together we have created videos discussing their experience of being involved with CO-CONNECT and created a set of “Frequently Asked Questions” to provide more information about CO-CONNECT for the public-facing website. Conclusion The PPIE work within CO-CONNECT has created an innovative approach to ensuring public voices are heard and acted upon within data linkage networks.  This model has the potential to be used in future projects to ensure inclusive and meaningful involvement of patient and public members in healthcare research

Hospital service use for young people with chronic health conditions : a population-based matched retrospective cohort study

Aim: This study aims to identify the hospitalised morbidity associated with three common chronic health conditions among young people using a population-based matched cohort. Methods: A population-level matched case-comparison retrospective cohort study of young people aged ≤18 years hospitalised with asthma, type 1 diabetes (T1D) or epilepsy during 2005–2018 in New South Wales, Australia using linked birth, health and mortality records. The comparison cohort was matched on age, sex and residential postcode. Adjusted rate ratios (ARR) were calculated by sex and age group. Results: There were 65 055 young people hospitalised with asthma, 6648 with epilepsy, and 2209 with T1D. Young people with epilepsy (ARR 10.95; 95% confidence interval (CI) 9.98–12.02), T1D (ARR 8.64; 95% CI 7.72–9.67) or asthma (ARR 4.39; 95% CI 4.26–4.53) all had a higher risk of hospitalisation than matched peers. Admission risk was highest for males (ARR 11.00; 95% CI 9.64–12.56) and females with epilepsy (ARR 10.83; 95% CI 9.54–12.29) compared to peers. The highest admission risk by age group was for young people aged 10–14 years (ARR 5.50; 95% CI 4.77–6.34) living with asthma, children aged ≤4 years (ARR 12.68; 95% CI 11.35–14.17) for those living with epilepsy, and children aged 5–9 years (ARR 9.12; 95% CI 7.69–10.81) for those living with T1D compared to peers. Conclusions: The results will guide health service planning and highlight opportunities for better management of chronic health conditions, such as further care integration between acute, primary and community health services for young people

Impact of chronic health conditions and injury on school performance and health outcomes in New South Wales, Australia : a retrospective record linkage study protocol

Introduction: Children who have sustained a serious injury or who have a chronic health condition, such as diabetes or epilepsy, may have their school performance adversely impacted by the condition, treatment of the condition and/or time away from school. Examining the potential adverse impact requires the identification of children most likely to be affected and the use of objective measures of education performance. This may highlight educational disparities that could be addressed with learning support. This study aims to examine education performance, school completion and health outcomes of children in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, who were hospitalised with an injury or a chronic health condition compared with children who have not been hospitalised for these conditions. Method and analysis This research will be a retrospective population-level case-comparison study of hospitalised injured or chronically ill children (ie, diabetes, epilepsy, asthma or mental health conditions) aged ≤18 years in NSW, Australia, using linked health and education administrative data collections. It will examine the education performance, school completion and health outcomes of children who have been hospitalised in NSW with an injury or a chronic health condition compared with children randomly drawn from the NSW population (matched on gender, age and residential postcode) who have not been hospitalised for these conditions. Ethics and dissemination The study received ethics approval from the NSW Population Health Services Research Ethics Committee (2018HRE0904). Findings from the research will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at scientific conferences

Mental disorders and their impact on academic performance in Australia: a matched population-based cohort study.

Objectives To compare scholastic performance and high school completion of young people hospitalised with a mental disorder compared to young people not hospitalised for a mental disorder by sex. Approach A population-based matched case-comparison cohort study of young people aged ≤18 years hospitalised for a mental disorder during 2005-2018 in New South Wales, Australia using linked birth, health, education and mortality records. The comparison cohort was matched on age, sex and residential postcode. Generalised linear mixed modelling examined risk of school performance below the national minimum standard (NMS) and generalised linear regression examined risk of not completing high school for young people with a mental disorder compared to matched peers. Results Young males with a mental disorder had over a 1.7 times higher risk of not achieving the NMS for numeracy (ARR: 1.71; 95%CI 1.35-2.15) and reading (ARR: 1.99; 95%CI 1.80-2.20) compared to matched peers. Young females with a mental disorder had around 1.5 times higher risk of not achieving the NMS for numeracy (ARR: 1.50; 95%CI 1.14-1.96) compared to matched peers. Both young males and females with a disorder had around a three times higher risk of not completing high school compared to peers. Young males with multiple disorders had up to a six-fold increased risk and young females with multiple disorders had up to an eight-fold increased risk of not completing high school compared to peers. Conclusions Early recognition and support could improve school performance and educational outcomes for young people who were hospitalised with a mental disorder. This support should be provided in conjunction with access to mental health services and school involvement and assistance

En/countering disablement in school life in Australia : children talk about peer relations and living with illness and disability

This paper reports the experiential accounts of 24 young people with physical disability or chronic illness as they make the transition to junior high school, with a particular focus on their social experiences with peers and friends. Children's reports were examined in a reflexive, disability studies framework, in which commonalities and difference in experience were examined. These reports highlight a common experience of disability-related harassment and differential experiences of friendship, peer rejection and school culture. While children encounter and actively counter disablement in a variety of ways, it is clear that these children are also cognisant of the stigma, prejudices and disabling expectations that are at the core of these experiences.14 page(s

Towards a theory of the Ecology of Reflection: Reflective practice for experiential learning in higher education

Reflective practice is widely adopted across the field of experience-based learning subjects in higher education, including practicums, work-integrated learning, internships, service learning and community participation. This adoption of reflective practice implies that it supports student learning through experience. When reviewing the evidence for the role of reflection for learning, it became evident that not only was there no clear agreement about the definition of reflection, there has been little theoretical development in this area. An integrated participatory action research and ecological approach was adopted to build a theory about the ecology of reflection for learning through experience. Through this process the assumptions, or truths that are taken for granted, that underpin the new theory were declared and substantiated. Key concepts and the principle tenets of the theory were then identified and defined, leading to an overview of the ecologies of the learner, the learning context and the experiential learning context

Moving forward and giving back : making the change to teaching

Recent trends in teacher recruitment have seen an emphasis placed upon the recruitment of professionals from other fields or new graduates from disciplines other than education (Teach for Australia, Teach First UK). There appears to be little Australian educational research about the perceived qualities these candidates might bring to the teaching profession, coupled with limited understanding of the characteristics of the current pre-service population. Much of the current research evidence about the characteristics of teachers is based on international evidence or US indices of occupational status, with fewer examples detailing the Australian context. This research suggests that for teacher education programs to be sustainable, the changing demographic of pre-service teachers and the motivations of students enrolling in teaching programs must be understood in order to effectively engage students and prepare them for teaching. Unlike previous research on career change teachers, this research is informed by the ANU4 rankings of occupations: an Australian socioeconomic index that links education, occupation and income. This study analyzed the responses of 87 pre-service teachers enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs at a Sydney university. Self-reported motivation for teaching as a career path revealed that while some pre-service teachers saw teaching as an opportunity to ‘give something back to the community’ others considered themselves to be moving into an occupation of a higher status: higher than the occupations of their previous employment although not always higher than the occupations of their parents. While this the sample size is relatively small it showed that the proportion of women entering increased with age. The occupational status (ANU4 rankings) of students and their parents was also cross-referenced with the age groups of the students revealing that, in both cases, the older the student the higher the status was likely to be and the more highly motivated than their peers to teach.11 page(s

Relational aggression and prosocial behaviours in Australian preschool children

Relational aggresion is a subtle form of aggressive behaviour that uses dyadic relationships and manipulation as a vehicle of harm. Little is known about relational aggression in preschool-age children in cultural contexts outside the United States. This study examined relationally aggressive behaviours and prosocial behaviours in Australian preschoolers. The sample consisted of 60 children aged from three to five years (35 boys, 25 girls). Teachers rated children's social behaviour in terms of relational aggression and prosocial behaviour. Results indicated that teachers report significantly more relational aggression in the oldest age group of children (aged > 4.5 years). Relational aggression was related to lower scores of prosocial behaviour (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found between boys' and girls' engagement in relational aggression and prosocial behaviours. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of recognising the prevalence of these aggressive behaviours in Australian preschool-age children and the need for immediate intervention.5 page(s

Understanding teachers of the future

As we progress through the first decade of the new century, teachers, teaching and teacher education continue to feature prominently in public debates and media reports. In 2000, Marilyn Cochran-Smith (2000) heralded an emerging phenomenon of criticism and “even bashing”(p.13) of teacher education within the political and historical contexts of the last decade. As Cochran-Smith noted, such criticism of teacher education was not new in United States history, but was now dominated by the standards movement, accreditation concerns, and wider debates about the purpose of public schooling. In Australia, the political and historical discourses surrounding teaching and teacher education appear to parallel those outlined by Cochran-Smith (2000). Increased public scrutiny of education has seen the emergence in NSW of a standards based teacher accreditation system, matched with an accreditation system for teacher education programmes. Indeed, developments in our systems of schooling and debate over the purpose of schooling, also parallel those later outlined by Cochran-Smith. This is apparent in the increasing privatisation of schooling options, and increased debate about the rights of public versus private schools to equitable shares of public funding monies. This recent public debate has contributed to a range of inquiries, reports and political investigations of teaching and teacher education. The NSW Teachers Federation and the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations contributed to the debate with the "Inquiry into Public Education" (Vinson, Esson, & Johnston, 2002), and various State and Federal reports have examined the costs of qualifying teachers; recruitment of teachers; shortages of teachers in specific subject areas; content of teacher education programs and the attrition of teachers from the teaching workforce (see House of Representatives, 2007). Thus, the context of teacher education in the new century is one that must acknowledge a discomforting level of disagreement and concern about the aim and purpose of teacher education and the inevitable links made to the quality of outcomes for our students. As Cochran-Smith (2004) asserted, ‘teacher education in dangerous times’ requires us to ‘take stock’ of what she calls a convergence of factors, “…pushing us dangerously close to a technical view of teaching, a training model of teacher education, the isomorphic equating of learning with testing….” (p.3). This paper proposes that the examination of teacher education should encompass research strategies to examine at least some of these concerns, as teacher education programmes, and indeed our ‘teachers for the future’, are not immune to the political and historical discourses circumscribing teacher education on a global scale. In particular, the qualities of people entering teacher education, their eventual success or attrition in the teaching career path, and the contributions they make to schooling are topics of burgeoning research scrutiny. Yet how these factors will change, or be influenced by the ‘dangerous times’ purported by Cochran-Smith (and certainly alluded to by others) remains of pivotal concern.10 page(s