Benchmarking citation measures among the Australian education professoriate

Individual researchers and the organisations for which they work are interested in comparative measures of research performance for a variety of purposes. Such comparisons are facilitated by quantifiable measures that are easily obtained and offer convenience and a sense of objectivity. One popular measure is the Journal Impact Factor based on citation rates but it is a measure intended for journals rather than individuals. Moreover, educational research publications are not well represented in the databases most widely used for calculation of citation measures leading to doubts about the usefulness of such measures in education. Newer measures and data sources offer alternatives that provide wider representation of education research. However, research has shown that citation rates vary according to discipline and valid comparisons depend upon the availability of discipline specific benchmarks. This study sought to provide such benchmarks for Australian educational researchers based on analysis of citation measures obtained for the Australian education professoriate

New communication media challenges for supervisors and external doctoral students

This study investigated perceptions of doctoral students and supervisors in an Australian university about communication challenges in doctoral distance education, frequency of communication between candidate and supervisors, satisfaction with meetings or communication, use of communication media and use of new types of personal media of communication. Forty-one doctoral students and nine supervisors confirmed their reliance on email communication via responses on a communications survey. Subtle differences emerged between the perceptions of doctoral students and their supervisors with reference to the adaptation of distance learning materials, the mix of synchronous and asynchronous interaction, and the use of new media of communication in the university. There was a less than positive perception of the use of discussion boards or online communities as learning tools

Primary connections in a provincial Queensland school system: relationships to science teaching self-efficacy and practices

The teaching of science is important, both to meet the need for future workers in fields requiring scientific capability and to equip students for full participation in modern societies where many decisions depend upon knowledge of science. However, many teachers in Australian primary schools do not allocate science education sufficient amounts of time to achieve these outcomes. This study reports data obtained from 216 teachers in the primary schools in a provincial Australian school system. The purpose of the study was to assess the effects of existing strategies using Primary Connections for promoting science teaching and to inform future professional development strategies. Teachers reported moderate levels of self-efficacy for teaching science and a proportion reported allocating little or no time to teaching science. Both self-efficacy for science teaching and the amount of science taught were higher for teachers who had used Primary Connections curriculum materials

If this is the second coming of coding will there be rapture or rejection?

Coding made the national headlines in 2015 and appears to have garnered sufficient support from politicians to be seen as an essential component of education for all. Educators with longer memories will recognise that this is not the first but the second coming of coding for all as a focus of education in technologies. The first coming ended in rejection because too few teachers really understood the potential. The immediate response to the second coming appears to be rapture but it could easily end in rejection. How do we develop a sane response to the current impetus for coding and sustain it? The answer lies in preparing teachers with sufficient knowledge of coding and computational thinking for it to be authentically useful in their own lives. Only then will they appreciate its value for learners in their classrooms

From creation to curation: evolution of an authentic 'Assessment for Learning' task

Authenticity is an important characteristic of learning experiences and contributes to transfer of learning into practice but maintaining authenticity as practice changes is challenging. This paper describes action research undertaken to guide the evolution of an authentic assessment task in a teacher preparation course responding to changes in the program and the wider educational environment. As teaching resources have become more readily available online, the task has evolved from one of creating teaching resources to curating and sharing collections of resources that may be adapted or adopted. Lessons learned through reflection during the evolutionary process and prospective developments are discussed in light of the effectiveness of the evolution of the task in responding to the changing circumstances

Pre-service teachers' TPACK confidence in a regional Australian university

The extent of transformation of education by integration of ICT appears not to match that in other sectors. More effective preparation of teachers is widely assumed to be part of any solution, leading to interest in what knowledge, skills and dispositions are required of teachers and how best to develop those. The Australian Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF) project appears to have demonstrated some success in enhancing pre-service teachers' TPACK confidence. This paper presents data from a regional Australian university where the change appears to have preceded implementation of TTF and considers factors that may have contributed to that change

Auditing the TPACK confidence of Australian pre-service teachers: the TPACK confidence survey (TCS)

This chapter describes the construction and validation of an instrument to measure teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). The TPACK Confidence Survey (TCS) contains scales that measure teachers’ attitudes toward using ICT; confidence to use ICT for teaching and learning tasks (TPACK); competency with ICT; Technology Knowledge (TK); and TPACK Vocational Self-efficacy. The scale measuring TPACK confidence uses the Learning With ICTs: Measuring ICT Use in the Curriculum instrument that has been evaluated and reported previously. This paper proposes that the TCS provides a valid and reliable instrument with which to audit teachers’ TPACK confidence

TPACK as shared practice: toward a research agenda

The task of using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to effectively teach hundreds of pre-service educators, many of whom never attend campus, is a significant challenge, which is amplified by the need to do so in ways that model how they might use ICT in their own classrooms once they graduate. This paper analyses a collection of posts written across a teaching year on a group blog by three teacher educators as they explored their practice and attempted to learn how to meet this challenge. The analysis uses a distributed view of knowledge and learning to identify the barriers and enablers encountered, and how the teacher educators developed their distributed TPACK throughout the year. The paper argues that a distributed view of TPACK offers some interesting insights that can inform practitioners, researchers and policy makers as they explore practice and learn how to meet the technology integration challenge

The impact of social networks on male student motivation in UAE tertiary education

This paper presents data obtained from focus groups conducted to investigate male students’ experience of higher education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Among the issues discussed by students was the impact of social networks addiction on student motivation and this paper focuses on that issue. Thirteen focus groups were conducted with 83 EFL male students at four government campuses including United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) at Al Ain Campus, Higher College of Technology (HCT) at Ras Al-Khaima Campus), and two campuses (Abu Dhabi and Dubai) of Zayed University (ZU). Students access social networks (SN) site for both educational and non-educational aspects. Students spoke about their experiences and how SN addiction influenced their academic motivation to study. The resulting themes from the focus groups show SN addiction has had an impact on student class performance and in some cases led to class failure. Recommendation for better class management and intervention programs are suggested to policy makers and instructors to foster a better student learning experience

Open educational practice and preservice teacher education: understanding past practice and future possibilities

‘Open’ is a commonly applied descriptor for a variety of educational initiatives but its meaning and implications vary widely. This paper reviews some more recent understandings of ‘open’ in Education and what that could mean for teacher education. Frameworks for understanding Open Educational Practice are reviewed, and past and present practices used in example teacher education courses are evaluated against these frameworks to develop understandings of how selected practices match the characteristics of openness. Directions for future development of open educational practice in teacher education are proposed