Studies in supervisory practice : the effectiveness of the practicum in teacher education in the Northern Territory

In this thesis we descend into the swampy lowlands to meet with student-teachers and their supervisors and observe them working together at different sites across the Top End of Australia. In the process we discover the multiple relationships that comprise the practicum text and the discomforting untidiness and unwieldiness, as well as the awkwardness of complexity, which surrounds research into supervisory practice. The thesis demonstrates the need to attend to the subjectivities of the participants and highlights the conflicting attitudes, beliefs, interests, and desires which are only partially realised or understood. It moves us beyond language to the sentient world of anger, love, disgust, hope, fear, despair, joy, anguish, and pain and we become immersed in a murky, incoherent, interior world of hints, shadows, and unfamiliar sounds, a world of lost innocence and conflict in which knowledge is truly embodied. Encompassing a view of supervision as moral praxis, particular attention was given to the care and protection of the self and a romanticist conception of the self was seen to predominate. The thesis demonstrates the part played by positioning and agency in the process of subjectification, the importance of emotional and relational bonding in the emergence of collegiality, the tactics of power employed by supervisors, the struggle for personal autonomy, the presence of anxiety induced by failure to pro vide feedback, the inculcation of guilt, and the complex interplay of age-related and gender effects. Attention is also given to the degree to which supervisors adopt reflective and constructivist approaches to their work. The stories reveal that supervision is much more than advising student-teachers on curriculum content, resource availability and lesson presentation. It is a process of interiority in which supervisors may need to provide emotional support in the face of displacement and disorientation, and assume the role of an abiding presence, someone capable of imaginative introjection, someone who ‘knows’. Particular attention is paid to the language of supervision which was marked by indirection, diffidence, imprecision, irony, and understatement. At the same time, the agonistic nature of language associated with the politics of the personal is made apparent. Whilst in the opinion of Liaison Lecturers, context-of-site did not appear to matter as far as acquiring teaching competence was concerned, the failure to attend to context-of-site affected how student-teachers engaged with difference and diversity. In spite of attempts to contest the myths of Aboriginal education and interrupt the discourse of impoverishment, colonialist attitudes and resistance to liberatory education persisted. The thesis ends with suggestions for alternatives to the traditional practicum and discusses the introduction of Field-Based Teacher Education into Northern Territory schools

EFL Students' Writing Strategies in Saudi Arabian ESP Writing Classes: Perspectives on Learning Strategies in Self-Access Language Learning

This study was part of a PhD research to explore the writing strategies of 121 second-year undergraduate Saudi student writers who are studying English as a foreign language and for specific purposes in one of the Saudi industrial colleges: Jubail Industrial College (JIC). The writing strategies under investigation had been classified into two categories (process-oriented writing strategies and product-oriented writing strategies) based on their instructional philosophies. A strategy questionnaire was designed to collect data. Although JIC writing classes were assumed to be product-oriented as reported by the majority of the participants' description of their teachers' writing approach, the results showed that almost all of the participants (95.9%) were mixing the two kinds of strategies. More surprisingly, the top five writing strategies used by the participants were process-oriented

EFL Writing Apprehension: The Macro or the Micro?

This study was part of a doctoral project to explore the writing apprehension levels of 121 second-year undergraduate Saudi student writers who were studying English as a foreign language and for specific purposes in a Saudi industrial college.The study draws on Dörnyei's (1994) framework of L2 motivation levels and their micro-motivational conditions in L2 learning situations, and addresses EFL writing apprehension in strategy-related conditions. For data collection, aWriting Strategy Apprehension Scale (WSAS) was developed and adapted from a test designed by John Daly and Michael Miller (1975) and from the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) designed by Cheng (2004).The participants were classified into three levels of apprehension (apprehensive strategy users, average apprehensive strategy users, and low apprehensive strategy users). The results showwhile the majority of the participants (57.9%) were average in their stress and apprehension levels towards writing strategies, almost a third of them (31.4%) were highly apprehensive. In addition, the most stressful strategies were those that indicate the lack of generating ideas, the care about accuracy, and the follow of teacher's expectations

The impact of Linguistic knowledge on Learner Strategy Deployment

It is generally accepted that linguistic knowledge is a key element in the comprehension of reading of texts in a second language (L2). Research on the ‘threshold level' argues that learners need to reach to a certain level of L2 proficiency in order to be able to understand printed text. However, it is still not clear when and how learners reach the threshold level and, when they do, which reading skills are sensitive to this proficiency. It is argued that Strategy Based Instruction (SBI) may provide beginning level students with tools to cope with challenges of reading. However, although learners are able to use learner strategies as guiding mechanisms while reading, a lack of linguistic knowledge can short-circuit the deployment of such. This paper presents extracts from think-aloud protocols that were conducted as part of a quasi-experimental study carried out with 12-year-old secondary school students in Cyprus. Strategy deployment was analysed in terms of order, complexity and simplicity, symbiotic relationships and sophistication. The findings show that learners, despite their weak linguistic knowledge, were able to use certain strategies to cope with difficulties. Nevertheless, examples are also offered which suggest that weak linguistic knowledge can sometimes get in the way of successful strategy deployment; thus providing evidence to support the threshold hypothesis. It is argued that SBI can offer a guiding mechanism for beginner level students' language learning. Such students can use strategies as tools to cope with the challenges of reading texts. However, a certain level of proficiency is necessary if students are to be able to draw on these strategies

Mill's 'very simple principle': Liberty, utilitarianism and socialism.

The thesis aims to examine the political consequences of applying J.S. Mill's "very simple principle" of liberty in practice: whether the result would be free-market liberalism or socialism, and to what extent a society governed in accordance with the principle would be free. 2 Contrary to Mill's claims for the principle, it fails to provide a clear or coherent answer to this "practical question". This is largely because of three essential ambiguities in Mill's formulation of the principle, examined in turn in the three chapters of the thesis. 3 First, Mill is ambivalent about whether liberty is to be promoted for its intrinsic value, or because it is instrumental to the achievement of other objectives, principally the utilitarian objective of "general welfare". The possibility that he might mean the latter implies that, because liberty and utilitarian objectives are at least potentially incompatible, application of the principle does not preclude the sacrifice of individual liberty in the pursuit of general welfare, and therefore does not preclude paternalistic (and illiberal) state socialism. 4 Arguments advanced by commentators, notably Gray, to suggest that there is no inconsistency between the liberal and utilitarian objectives in Mill's writing, are not sustainable. 5 Secondly, the principle's criterion for sanctioning interference in liberty - the prevention of "harm to others" - is so vague and elastic as to be compatible with almost any degree of interventionism and indeed totalitarianism. Because of the interdependence of men in society, there is virtually no limit to the classes of activity which can be said to cause harm to others, and hence no limits to the interference sanctioned by Mill's principle. Thus the principle does not preclude the suppression of legitimate economic activity by a socialist state committed to preventing economic "harm". 6 Attempts by commentators such as Rees and Ten to show that Mill's use of "harm" is narrower and more specific, are not supported by either textual or logical analysis. 7 Thirdly, Mill's principle fails to make clear whether "liberty" should be understood to mean classical ("negative") liberty or some form of "positive liberty" such as ability/power. It therefore does not preclude the adoption of socialist measures to promote "ability". On examination, "ability" can be seen to be an entirely different phenomenon from liberty. The promotion of "ability" (attainable through central allocation of material resources) can only be undertaken at the expense of liberty, particularly economic liberty. The justification for safeguarding economic liberty lies in respect for private property rights, the absence of which entails enslavement and inhumanity. 8 If a principle were to be framed avoiding these three ambiguities, it could serve as a firmer foundation for the protection and promotion of liberty

Wetlands in drylands: Diverse perspectives for dynamic landscapes

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP 1997) classifes global drylands according to an Aridity Index (AI), defned as the ratio between mean annual precipitation (MAP) and potential evapotranspiration (PET). Drylands are areas where AI is <0.65, collectively incorporating subhumid, semiarid, arid and hyperarid settings (UNEP 1997; see Fig. 1). Wetlands in drylands (hereafter WiDs) have distinctive hydrogeomorphological, biogeochemical, ecological, and social-ecological features, and as a result, they require carefully tailored research and management strategies

Reflecting in/on field theory in practice

O artigo discute a dimensão da reflexividade na obra do teórico social Pierre Bourdieu. Ele alude à origem da teoria da prática de Bourdieu e da epistemologia que a sustenta. A linguagem é um elemento chave na reflexividade e o artigo, portanto, esboça a abordagem de Bourdieu da linguagem e a importância que ela tem no desenvolvimento de seus conceitos chave, assim como na relação entre sujeito e objeto. Há referências às obras de Habermas, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty e outros para oferecer uma base para a questão do que exatamente é a reflexividade bourdieusiana e como ela opera na prática. Também se mencionam fases e estágios na metodologia, além de como a reflexividade deve operar dentro deles. Por fim, a importância da discussão é enfatizada com referência a resultados consequentes.The article discuses the dimension of reflexivity within the work of the social theorist Pierre Bourdieu. It alludes to the provenance of Bourdieu’s theory of practice and the epistemology, which underpins it. Language is a key element in reflexivity, the article therefore outline’s Bourdieu approach to language and the significance it holds in the development of his key concepts, as well as the relationship between subject and object. Reference is made to the works of Habermas, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and others to offer a ground base in just what Bourdieusian reflexivity is and how it operates in practice. Phases and stages in methodology are referred to as well as how reflexivity should operate within them. Finally, the significance of the discussion is underlined with reference to consequent outcomes

Wetlands in drylands: diverse perspectives for dynamic landscapes

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP 1997) classifes global drylands according to an Aridity Index (AI), defned as the ratio between mean annual precipitation (MAP) and potential evapotranspiration (PET). Drylands are areas where AI is <0.65, collectively incorporating subhumid, semiarid, arid and hyperarid settings (UNEP 1997; see Fig. 1). Wetlands in drylands (hereafter WiDs) have distinctive hydrogeomorphological, biogeochemical, ecological, and social-ecological features, and as a result, they require carefully tailored research and management strategies.Fil: Grenfell, Suzanne. STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY (SUN);Fil: Grenfell, Michael. University of Cape Town; SudáfricaFil: Tooth, Stephen. Aberystwyth University.; Reino UnidoFil: Mehl, Adriana Ester. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa; ArgentinaFil: OGorman, Emily. Macquarie University; AustraliaFil: Ralph, Tim. Macquarie University; AustraliaFil: Ellery, William. Rhodes University; Sudáfric

Dynamics and Morphodynamic Implications of Chute Channels in Large, Sand-Bed Meandering Rivers

Chute channel formation is a key process in the transition from a single-thread meandering to a braided channel pattern, but the physical mechanisms driving the process remain unclear. This research combines GIS and spatial statistical analyses, field survey, Delft3D hydrodynamic and morphodynamic modelling, and Pb-210 alpha-geochronology, to investigate controls on chute initiation and stability, and the role of chute channels in the planform dynamics of large, sand-bed meandering rivers. Sand-bed reaches of four large, tropical rivers form the focus of detailed investigations; the Strickland and Ok Tedi in Papua New Guinea, the Beni in Bolivia, and the lower Paraguay on the Paraguay/Argentina border. Binary logistic regression analysis identifies bend migration style as a key control on chute channel initiation, with most chute channels forming at bends that are subject to a rapid rate of extension (elongation in a direction perpendicular to the valley axis). Bend extension rates are shown to track variation in potential specific stream power, such that reaches and sub-reaches of the rivers studied fit within a planform continuum expressed though increasing bend extension rates and chute initiation frequency, and driven by increasing stream power relative to bedload calibre. Field observations of point bar geomorphology and vegetation dynamics illustrate the importance of rapid bend extension in forming wide sloughs between scroll bars that are aligned with the direction of over-bar flow, and in breaking the continuity of vegetation encroachment on point bars. Bathymetric surveys and Delft3D simulations for the Strickland River provide insight into flow and sediment division at bifurcate meander bends. Coupled with GIS analyses, these simulations show that stable chute channels have higher gradient advantages than chute channels subject to infill, but that upstream and downstream changes in bend orientation can also influence chute stability. The process of bend extension is typically associated with an increase in the chute gradient advantage, further elucidating the role of bend migration style in chute stability. At the reach scale, rivers with higher sediment loads (Qs/Q) are characterised by higher rates of chute infill. Strickland River floodplain sedimentation rates derived through Pb-210 alpha-geochronology are substantially higher adjacent to single-thread bends than adjacent to bifurcate bends, potentially due to an observed increase in channel capacity (and reduction in floodplain inundation frequency) associated with bend bifurcation. Further research is needed to determine whether this observation is significant in light of high uncertainty in the spatial variability of sedimentation rate estimates, but the data presented highlight a need for carefully considered stratified sampling approaches in floodplain coring campaigns, and illustrate the complexity of possible sediment dispersal mechanisms, and associated ecological responses. GIS analysis of the response of the Ok Tedi in Papua New Guinea to direct addition of mine tailings elucidates interplay between channel steepening due to the propagation of a tailings sediment slug, and mid-channel bar formation induced by the increased sediment load, with associated topographic forcing of bend and chute development. A temporal pattern of increased chute initiation frequency on the Ok Tedi mirrors the inter- and intra-reach spatial pattern of chute initiation frequency on the Paraguay, Strickland and Beni Rivers, where increased stream power is associated with increased bend extension and chute initiation rates. The process of chute formation is shown to be rate-dependent, and the threshold value of bend extension for chute initiation is shown to scale with reach-scale stream power, reminiscent of slope-ratio thresholds in river avulsion. However, Delft3D simulations suggest that chute formation can exert negative feedback on shear stress and bank erosion in the adjacent mainstem bifurcate, such that the process of chute formation is also rate-limiting. Chute formation is activated iteratively in space and time in response to changes in river energy, selectively targeting sites of greatest change, and thereby mediating the river response

A genetic geomorphic classification system for Southern African palustrine wetlands: Global implications for the management of wetlands in drylands

Due to climatic constraints in dryland regions, wetlands usually occur at confluences of flow paths, whether from surface flow, inter-flow or at locations of groundwater discharge. Long-term landscape processes that shape valleys and focus the movement of water and sediment are accountable for providing a suitable template with which hydrology interacts to allow wetland formation. Current hydrogeomorphic classification systems do not address system-scale linkages of sediment and water transport across the landscape, and are therefore unable to contextualise long-term process dynamics. Misunderstanding long-term earth system processes can result in the application of inappropriate restoration strategies that isolate wetlands from longitudinal drivers of their formation. We propose a genetic classification system that focuses on the mode of wetland formation, and is based on the understanding that genetic processes impact on the outcome hydrology, sedimentology, geomorphology, ecosystem service provision, and long-term dynamics of wetlands in drylands