Good Bulbs, Bad Jobs: Workers and Conditions Behind Your New Compact Fluorescent

The study highlights labor violations at a Xiamen Topstar Lighting Co. Ltd. factory, a joint venture in which GE has a stake. The report recommends that GE follow its own policies and ensure that its bulbs are made in a way that does not compromise the health and rights of workers who make them

Strategic Foresight in Métis Communities: Lessons from Indigenous Futurism

In this paper, I explore and critique the use of strategic foresight methods with Métis Nations and consider the possibility of Indigenous futurism for decolonizing the field. Working in collaboration with the Métis Nation of Ontario to explore their future as a self-governing nation, I assess the suitability of the Three Horizons foresight method in an Indigenous context. Collecting data from a facilitated Three Horizons workshop and a focus group session, the paper follows an Indigenous methodological approach. My findings show that while the Three Horizons method was robust in engaging the Nation around this subject matter, futurists must revisit the mental models from which they approach futures studies. Concepts and lessons from Indigenous futurism could challenge futures practitioners to explore new understandings. I conclude by arguing that to avoid colonizing the future, futurists must make space for foresight practices that are community-led, privilege Indigenous voices, and shift power away from expert-led dialogues

Assessing and reporting employability skills of senior secondary students

The author describes a study, undertaken with David Curtis, that has developed a new picture of how senior secondary students’ achievement of employability skills across Australia might be assessed and reported

Towards a National Core Curriculum for Year 12

In February this year Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop released the report, Year 12 Curriculum Content and Achievement Standards, prepared by ACER. This provides a strong case for a common curriculum core in at least some senior school subjects after a review of curricula found there is already a high degree of consistency in what is being taught, as Gabrielle Matters writes. This study, undertaken in the second half of 2006, provides the first Australia-wide picture of what is expected of students taking five subjects – English (including Literature), mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Australian History – in the final years of secondary school

A report to the Queensland Studies Authority : assessment approaches in Queensland senior science syllabuses

This commissioned paper deals with appropriate assessment in senior science subjects in Queensland. The terms of reference were: To investigate the theoretical underpinnings of the two approaches to criteria-based and standards-referenced assessment in the Queensland senior science syllabuses; To make recommendations as to which approach is the more applicable in the current context; and To model the proposed approach, and provide advice about implementation

Using Data to Support Student Learning

Although there has been an increase in the amount of information collected from and about Australian schools, this information is not always being used effectively to enhance learning writes Gabrielle Matters, author of the latest edition of the Australian Education Review

Analysis of the Nuclear Structure of Rhenium-186 Using Neutron-Induced Reactions

Evaluated nuclear data for 186Re identify the majority of spin-parity assignments as tentative, with approximate values for the energies of several levels and transitions. In particular, the absence of known transitions that feed the J = 8+ isomer 186mRe motivates their discovery. This isomer, which has a half-life of 2 105 years, has a potential application in an isomer power source. Additionally, the isomer s role in certain nucleosynthesis processes is not well understood, so measured cross sections for transitions that feed the isomer would have astrophysical implications. Using the GErmanium Array for Neutron Induced Excitations (GEANIE) spectrometer at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), (n,2n ) and (n,n ) reactions in a 99.52% enriched 187Re target were used to obtain -ray spectra from 186Re and 187Re, respectively. The experimental data reveal 5 new transitions in186Re and 4 new transitions in 187Re. Similarities between the level schemes of 184Re and 186Re suggest that one of the newly-observed transitions in 186Re feeds the isomer from a level at 414.9 keV. The -ray energy measured for this transition implies an isomer energy of 148.2(5) keV, which is a significant improvement over the adopted value of 149(7) keV

AENEAS IN THE ANTIPODES The teaching of Virgil in New South Wales schools from 1900 to the start of the 21st century

Aeneas in the Antipodes offers an Australian perspective on the teaching of Virgil's poetry in the secondary school. The study examines practices in the State of New South Wales from 1900 to the early years of the twenty-first century. The changing role of Latin in the curriculum is traced through a historical account showing the factors which caused a decline in the status and popularity of the subject from the beginning of the century to the 1970s. This decline, not confined to Australia, stimulated the introduction of new teaching methods with different emphases which were, to some extent, successful in preserving Latin from extinction in schools. Against this background of change, Virgil remained the Latin author most frequently studied in the final year of school. Because this poetry was so consistently prescribed for public examinations, a detailed investigation is made of the questions set and of the examiners' comments on candidates' performance, as evidence of changes in expectations and hence, in teaching methods. The influence of trends in Virgilian scholarship is assessed by means of a review of all the officially recommended commentaries and secondary works. The growth of literary criticism from the 1960s is shown to have had a marked effect on syllabuses and examinations, and consequently on the approach taken in the classroom. The role of local professional organizations in supporting the teaching of Virgil has been documented, showing how the disappearance of official support for Latin teaching was to some extent counterbalanced by an increase in voluntary effort. The resources and methods used to introduce Virgil to comparative beginners are classified and reviewed. An assessment is also offered of approaches made to teaching Virgil in English at both junior and senior secondary levels. The final chapter reviews the changes brought about since 2000. Current teaching practices are documented through classroom observations and teacher surveys, substantiating the impression that while most students at the beginning of the twenty-first century are less prepared than their predecessors to translate Virgil independently, they are expected to attempt a far more sophisticated analysis of the literary features Note: For appendix 3-10 please see hardcopy edition