Heritage and Sustainability in Early Music

This thesis is an investigation of the ways in which musicians, and particularly those in the area of early music, view and interact with the notion of sustainability. Current discussion of sustainability highlights growing environmental problems and their related social and economic dimensions, but a fourth aspect – the cultural – is particularly relevant in music. Every discipline, including music, has a responsibility to contribute towards solutions to such problems. Previous work carried out by the author and colleagues in a variety of academic disciplines resulted in the identification of a three-level model of conceptions of sustainability. An examination of the literature that conjoins music and sustainability reveals that the model is applicable in the field of music and that the great majority of the writings are based in ethnomusicology and the related developing field of ecomusicology. There is to date no explicit consideration of sustainability in the area of early music, an absence that is redressed in this thesis. Examples are given to illustrate engagement with sustainability in early music at each level of the model of conceptions of sustainability. In these examples, the link between early music and sustainability is identified and brought to the foreground. The research thus provides a basis for discussion of the possible role of music, and particularly early music, in engaging with problems of sustainability in all their variety

Academics adopting mobile devices: The zone of free movement.

This exploratory research characterised the degree of adoption of mobile learning (ML) devices among academic staff at an Australian university. It also sought to evaluate the impact of academics’ perceptions about possibilities and constraints in the adoption of these technologies. A zone of free movement (ZFM) scale was developed and validated to quantify the magnitude and direction of those perceptions. Results showed that academic staff are characteristically at the third of the Russell’s (1995) six developmental stages of technological adoption. Lack of time to integrate ML into courses, limited availability of mobile devices, little familiarity with the tools, as well as the perception that students cannot use them as a word- processor, act as inhibitors to the adoption of the technology. In turn, the perception that mobile tools enhance student-lecturer communication outside class was found to be a positive predictor of adoption

Business as Usual: Business Students\u27 Conceptions of Ethics

There is continuing debate about how best to teach ethics to students in business, that is, how best to help them to develop the ethical aspects of their future profession. This debate has covered whether to teach ethics, what to teach and whether it has any effect on students\u27 views or future behaviour. For the most part, the views of the students themselves are in the minority. Yet it seems likely that the most effective pedagogical approaches would be those based on students’ own ideas of the nature of ethics and the role of ethical considerations in their studies and professional lives. The research we report here investigates the nature of such ideas in a cohort of students studying business at an Australian university. We discuss the pedagogical implications of our findings and conclude that approaches that encourage students to become ethically-aware professionals are likely to be most useful

Characterising the perceived value of mathematics educational apps in preservice teachers

This study validated the semantic items of three related scales aimed at characterising the perceived worth of mathematics-education-related mobile applications (apps). The technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) model was used as the conceptual framework for the analysis. Three hundred and seventy-three preservice students studying primary school education from two public and one private Australian universities participated in the study. The respondents examined three different apps using a purposively designed instrument in regard to either their explorative, productive or instructive instructional role. While construct validity could not be established due to a broad range of variability in responses implying a high degree of subjectivity in respondents’ judgments, the qualitative analysis was effective in establishing content validit

Peer learning beyond the curriculum in university statistics courses

Peer learning in statistics can occur in a variety of settings, including class collaborations and assessment in the form of group projects. Most reports indicate that it has positive effects on learning. However, peer learning can also be organised by students themselves outside course requirements, to similar positive effect. In this paper, we investigate this second form, sometimes referred to as ‘peer learning beyond the curriculum’. The parameters of the project were derived from a similar study in the discipline of music, conceived as an action research collaboration between students and academics. A series of focus group interviews was carried out with students in a range of university statistics classes, introductory and later-year, majoring in statistics or studying statistics as a component of another discipline. These were arranged and run by a group of statistics students participating as researchers and peer learners in a ‘vertical’ research team that also included more experienced academics from statistics and other disciplines. The team found that first-year students were well aware of the academic and social benefits of forming study groups to support each other’s statistics learning, and they gave clear advice to future students to do so. By contrast, peer learning in later-year classes played a more nuanced role that seemed to depend on the major discipline in which statistics was being studied – possibly due to the particular aspects of statistics that were in focus. Comparisons with peer learning in other disciplines shed more light on the various ways that peer learning in statistics can be utilised in different contexts, and suggest various implications for improving statistics pedagogy

Reading Statistics

There has been a substantial increase in the cultural and academic diversity of commencing tertiary students over the previous decade. From 1990 to 2000 the total number of students in higher education increased by 43% (to just under 700,000), while the number of overseas students increased by a factor of four (to just under 100,000), raising the ratio to one-in-seven students (Department of Education, Science and Training, 2002). With this increase in number and cultural diversity comes an increase in their academic diversity. At the same time, changes in the nature and scope of professional work are placing an increasing demand on the range of skills, linguistic and numerical, that are needed by a successful graduate. A challenge for mathematics and statistics educators is the development of curriculum that addresses the language-related difficulties of language minority students, the numerical difficulties of students with diverse mathematical backgrounds, and enhances the learning outcomes for all students. This paper describes our approach to this challenge, based on our research in student conceptions of statistics and the language needs of professionals in the mathematical sciences, and embodied in the learning materials that we are currently developing. Australian government and professional bodies have recognised the importance of this area. A recent review with a scope of ‘the 15 years from 1995–2010’, finds ‘unequivocal evidence that, as an economic and social instrument, advanced mathematical services relying on the mathematical sciences are critically important to Australia’ (National Committee for Mathematics, 1996). Recent government initiatives have targeted declining interest, standards and resourcing in mathematics (see for example Thomas, 2000). Similarly, universities are moving towards the integration of ‘generic skills’ within the curriculum, loosely equating statistical study with a higher-level ‘numeracy’

Preparing for the transition to professional work

This paper looks at the final outcome of a science degree program, and considers what happens when students leave university as graduates and the skills they have acquired (or should have acquired). In studying this area we are hampered by lack of data. To study the experience of the large numbers of students entering first year we have good data on students’ entry levels (HSC results and so on), on students’ demographic backgrounds and on their progress through university. This is available at our fingertips on most university computer systems. In contrast, data on graduates are much less extensive. Firstly, many departments do not keep information on their alumni, who are, in any case, spread far and wide. Graduates are no longer a captive audience and any data that are collected will be voluntary. One such source is the course experience questionnaire (CEQ), answered by students a few months after they finish their degree: about 70% of students complete the CEQ each year. In particular, there is no clear indication that students in science courses leave university with welldeveloped ‘generic skills’ such as concepts of ethics (professional or personal), sustainability, creativity, computing skills, information skills, communication skills, interpersonal skills and teamwork skills. This raises many questions: should we as science lecturers be teaching this material, should students be learning it as part of life, should graduates learn the skills on the job, should the careers services of the university be teaching these skills along with résumé writing? This paper also looks at research on students’ perceptions of their future work and career and the current research that is investigating the connections between these perceptions and their learning at university. We consider ways that professional work can be modelled in classroom activities so that students develop realistic ideas of the workforce and extend their range of proficiency in other areas

Statistics—worse than a poke in the eye?

The majority of students studying statistics are not majoring in that subject: they are taking a service course in statistics as part of their studies in another discipline to prepare themselves for a career where statistics will be a professional component tool. Many of them find such a course difficult or even distasteful. A recent advertisement put up at Macquarie University by someone offering tutoring services began: ‘If you think statistics is worse than a fork in the eye, then you need help!’ We have previously reported on conceptions of statistics held by statistics major students (Reid and Petocz 2002). In this paper, we extend that study by looking at the views of statistics held by students taking service statistics courses in various areas of science. We also investigate their expectations of their use of statistics in their future studies and profession. The students’ views were obtained using an anonymous, open-ended questionnaire, and we have analysed the content of the responses using our previous theoretical framework. Based on the results obtained, we discuss teaching and learning approaches and materials that can help such students to engage with the ideas of statistics and to develop an appreciation for its possible uses in their future professional lives