The development of pattern-related abilities through play activities in young children

This thesis investigates nursery children's knowledge, understanding and skills in patternmaking as an aspect of early mathematical development. It presents two discrete but closely related studies, a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study. The methodology includes use of structured assessment activities using familiar play materials. Assessment focuses firstly on different aspects of pattern-making; secondly, on pattern perception; and thirdly, on wider aspects of developing cognition. The methodology includes collection of case study data in the naturalistic setting of the nursery class. The cross-sectional study, focused on knowledge, understanding and skil1s in pattern-making at 3½ and 4½ years, finds an increasing minority of children successful in repeated pattern-making and 2D spatial pattern-making but not linear symmetrical pattern-making. Few children evidence pattern perception at either age but an increasing minority evidences an emergent understanding of the word 'pattern.' The longitudinal study tracks children's development towards and within pattern-making from 3½ to 4½ years. It details development in two key aspects of pattern-making, colour and spatial organisation, through case study data. An examination of commonalities in development leads to hypothesised developmental pathways in both aspects of pattern-making. A single pathway leads towards complex colour organisation. Distinct pathways lead to basic and complex spatial organisation and to the basic elements of pattern. Pathways to 2D spatial pattern-making are more varied than pathways to repeated pattern-making. Quantitative analysis confirms key features of the pathways although some findings remain tentative. Differences in the detail of individual pathways are highlighted, as are wide differences in children's rates of development and in their interests and motivation. There are no findings of significant gender-related differences. Children's competencies in the colour organisation strand of pattern-making are significantly associated with abilities across key areas of developing cognition. Spatial organisation competencies are at first associated with a narrow range of primarily spatial abilities but this extends to include number and rhythmic abilities at 4½ years. The study confirms and extends some earlier findings, and also presents new findings. Findings lead to questioning of guidance on curriculum goals and pedagogy for the age-group. They highlight a need to acknowledge the creativity of many young children in this area of mathematics

Student engineers: lecturing, teaching and assessing

A traditional lecture tends to operate in only one or two quadrants of Kolb's learning circle and promotes strategic and, at worse, surface learning. Software engineering is an important subject for computing engineering students. It is imperative they establish a deep understanding of the subject to ensure best working practices. Supplemental instruction, teaching others a subject, often promotes a high level of learning. The paper demonstrates the results of such an exercise by groups of students lecturing on a component of the software engineering course. Both peer and self-assessment was used to measure individual performances, efforts and impact. The paper reports on student reactions to this assessment and offers a strategy for the informed practice and development of peer assessment and some guidelines on how to assist students to develop and present a lectur

Valuing water for sustainable development

Achieving universal, safely managed water and sanitation services by 2030, as envisioned by the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, is projected to require capital expenditures of USD 114 billion per year (1). Investment on that scale, along with accompanying policy reforms, can be motivated by a growing appreciation of the value of water. Yet our ability to value water, and incorporate these values into water governance, is inadequate. Newly recognized cascading negative impacts of water scarcity, pollution, and flooding underscore the need to change the way we value water (2). With the UN/World Bank High Level Panel on Water having launched the Valuing Water Initiative in 2017 to chart principles and pathways for valuing water, we see a global opportunity to rethink the value of water. We outline four steps toward better valuation and management (see the box), examine recent advances in each of these areas, and argue that these four steps must be integrated to overcome the barriers that have stymied past efforts

Modelling to bridge many boundaries: the Colorado and Murray-Darling River basins

Increasing pressure on shared water resources has often been a driver for the development and utilisation of water resource models (WRMs) to inform planning and management decisions. With an increasing emphasis on regional decision-making among competing actors as opposed to top-down and authoritative directives, the need for integrated knowledge and water diplomacy efforts across federal and international rivers provides a test bed for the ability of WRMs to operate within complex historical, social, environmental, institutional and political contexts. This paper draws on theories of sustainability science to examine the role of WRMs to inform transboundary water resource governance in large river basins. We survey designers and users of WRMs in the Colorado River Basin in North America and the Murray-Darling Basin in southeastern Australia. Water governance in such federal rivers challenges inter-governmental and multi-level coordination and we explore these dynamics through the application of WRMs. The development pathways of WRMs are found to influence their uptake and acceptance as decision support tools. Furthermore, we find evidence that WRMs are used as boundary objects and perform the functions of ‘boundary work’ between scientists, decision-makers and stakeholders in the midst of regional environmental changes

Environmental water governance in federal rivers:Opportunities and limits for subsidiarity in Australia's Murray-Darling River

A reform process is underway in the Murray-Darling Basin (Australia) to reallocate water from irrigated agriculture to the environment. The scale, complexity and politics of the recovery process have prompted interest in the role of local environmental water managers within state and federal governance arrangements. This paper examines prospects for a local role in environmental water management through the lens of the subsidiarity principle: the notion that effective governance devolves tasks to the lowest level with the political authority and capacity to perform them. The article defines and applies the subsidiarity principle to assess evolving federal-state-local interactions in environmental water policy, planning and practice in Australia's Murray-Darling River. In this context, subsidiarity is useful to clarify institutional roles and their coordination at a whole-of-river level. This analysis demonstrates opportunities for a local role in information gathering, innovation and operational flexibility to respond to opportunities in real time. It identifies significant limits to local action in upstream-downstream tradeoffs, economies of scale, capacity building and cost sharing for basin-wide or national interests, and accountability mechanisms to balance local, state and national rights and responsibilities. Lessons are relevant internationally for regions confronting complex allocation tradeoffs between human and environmental needs within multi-jurisdictional federal systems

Supplemental instruction a higher level learning

A traditional lecture presents the material to be learnt and encourages them to participate in strategic and, at worse, surface learning. The aim as academics is to encourage deep learning and best working practices of a topic, so they can contribute to the world of engineering. Software engineering is one such subject. Can supplemental instruction promote an opportunity for a higher level of learning? The paper examines if it can by demonstrating; the results of such an exercise, the students’ reactions to do the teaching

Adaptive basin governance and the prospects for meeting Indigenous water claims

The United States and Australia confront the challenge of meeting multi-faceted Indigenous water requirements within the wider context of intensified competition for freshwater supplies and expiation of historic inequality of access. Fulfilment of Indigenous water claims requires acceptance of currently unrecognised uses that may be in conflict with water planning in irrigation-dominated basins. Adaptive governance regimes have been applied to deal with uncertainly and change in water planning and allocation decisions, including changes related to the recognition of Indigenous water claims, values, and knowledge. This paper examines the prospects of adaptive governance regimes to combine: (a) insights into decision-making and policy learning in contexts of high levels of uncertainty over the information base and legal and policy arrangements; with (b) institutional arrangements to coordinate decision-making and accountability across multiple decision-making units, values and jurisdictions, to accommodate Indigenous water claims. In both countries, efforts have involved (re)allocation of water entitlements and greater participation in multi-stakeholder basin planning. In this paper we find that a mix of these adaptive governance mechanisms shows greatest promise for overcoming resistance to the recognition of Indigenous water claims

Sustaining local values through river basin governance:community-based initiatives in Australia's Murray–Darling basin

Australia's Murray–Darling basin (MDB) water plan is an ambitious attempt to balance ecological, social and economic benefits, where a key aspect of the reform process has been recovery of water for environmental use. This paper focuses on a set of initiatives established by a local non-governmental organisation and an Indigenous community designed to engage with local values and priorities and incorporate them into this complex river basin governance system. Contrary to expectations that local and basin-scale interests and outcomes will diverge, the case studies reveal the ability for local groups to collaboratively manage both land and water resources to achieve locally important outcomes, and contribute to basin-scale outcomes. The analysis also highlights a progressive style of community-based environmental management for water management that utilises multiple institutional arrangements and planning pathways to protect the values that are important to local communities, and to nest those values within the broader effort to sustainably manage the basin's water resources