Staff in Australia\u27s Schools

A major survey of the teaching and leadership workforce in Australia’s schools has provided a detailed demographic picture of the Australian teaching workforce and also highlighted a range of specific issues for future workforce planning. Phillip McKenzie describes the study and its results. The Staff in Australia’s Schools survey was conducted by ACER with the assistance of the Australian College of Educators (ACE) between October 2006 and April 2007. Around 20 000 teachers and school leaders were randomly selected and invited to participate in the study. The survey included primary teachers, secondary teachers, primary leaders and secondary leaders from Government, Catholic and Independent schools from all states and territories. Leaders were defined as Principals, Deputy/ Vice Principals and their equivalents in the different school systems. Final survey responses were received from 5209 primary teachers, 5394 secondary teachers, 1116 primary leaders and 1393 secondary leaders

Lifelong learning as a policy response

This paper attempts to identify the major elements of a lifelong learning framework, and the policy priorities if its aims are to be realised. In doing so, it comments on the progress that Australia has already made in this regard

Employability skills for Australian industry: Literature review and framework development

The Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) and the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) funded a project in 2001 to analyse and report on industry requirements for ‘employability skills’. This project was jointly managed by the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and was completed in March 2002. Employability skills were defined for the purposes of the project as ‘skills required not only to gain employment, but also to progress within an enterprise so as to achieve one’s potential and contribute successfully to enterprise strategic directions’. The project was commissioned to provide: (a) advice on possible new requirements for generic employability competencies that industry needs, or will need in the forseeable future, since the development of the Mayer key competencies; (b) clear definitions of what Australian industry and enterprises perceive as employability skills and the terminology being used to describe them; and (c) a proposed suite of employability skills and assessment and reporting options. The project also investigated industry reactions to the proposed suite and reporting options and undertook case studies involving a number of large enterprises and focus group research with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This report is based on a review of Australian and overseas policy and research literature on key employability skills. It clarifies concepts and terminology, analyses the principles and purposes of different approaches to key employability skills, develops a framework of such skills to support the fieldwork aspects of the overall project, and suggests strategies to facilitate the development of these skills more effectively within Australian education and training

Australian Young People, their families and postschool plans : a research review

This literature review is part of a project commissioned by The Smith Family that is investigating the effects and influences of family expectations on the cost benefit analyses undertaken by students when they are considering their post-school plans. The 2006 report for The Smith Family, On track? Students choosing a career, pointed to the possibility of a strong effect of family expectations on young people’s post-school plans (Beavis, 2006). Post-school plans often include decisions about further education, so a family’s influence or involvement in assessing the costs and benefits associated with this decision is not surprising (Usher, 2005). On track? identified uncertainties about how and to what extent family expectations shape young people’s educational plans. It concluded that the extent to which this influence is shaped by the gender, interests and ability of the young people remains unknown The present project is intended to help better understand the inter-relationships between family expectations and young people’s plans. It comprises this literature review which informs the development and analysis of some intensive case studies of a small number of young people and their families. The report includes a consideration of the key issues resulting from the research as well as suggestions for policy and further practice

Antagonist conditioning contractions impair agonist functioning

This study assessed the effect of antagonist conditioning contractions (ACC) on the subsequent force and electromyography of an agonist. Twelve subjects performed isokinetic elbow flexion on a dynamometer in 4 test conditions including a baseline condition without, and 1, 3 and 6 seconds after, isometric triceps extension. Average peak torque (T), peak torque/body weight (T:BW), average power (P), and rate of torque development (RTD) were assessed. Electromyographic data were obtained from elbow extensors and flexors. A repeated measures ANOVA with post hoc analysis demonstrated that T, T:BW, P, and RTD were higher in the baseline, compared to the post ACC conditions (P ≤ 0.05), and appears to be due to higher brachioradialis activation in the baseline condition in compared to some post ACC conditions (P ≤ 0.05)

Staff in Australia\u27s schools 2010 : main report on the survey

The Staff in Australia’s Schools (SiAS) survey was commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) in April 2010. It was conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) from August to December 2010. The survey is intended to provide a detailed picture of the Australian teacher workforce, and to gather information to assist in future planning of the workforce. It is also designed to provide comparative and updated data following on from the first SiAS survey conducted in 2006-07. The work was supported by an Advisory Committee2 that included representatives from DEEWR, government education authorities from all states and territories, the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC), the Independent Schools Council of Australia (ISCA), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and the following national associations: Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE) Australian Education Union (AEU) Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA) Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) Australian Secondary Principals Association (ASPA) Catholic Secondary Principals Australia (CaSPA) Independent Education Union of Australia (IEUA

OECD improving school leadership activity: Australia country background report

Prepared for the Australian Government by the Australian Council for Educational Research in 2006 and released in January 2008, this report provides information on school leadership in Australia, including school governance, the links between leadership and learning outcomes, the attractiveness of the leadership role, and training and professional development for school leaders. The report helped inform the OECD\u27s International Comparative Report on school leadership, due for release in April 2008

Mapping Qualifications Frameworks across APEC Economies

This report on qualification frameworks was undertaken for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Human Resources Development Working Group (HRDWG) Education Network Subgroup (EDNET). The project aimed to facilitate increased transparency and reliability of information about qualification frameworks across the APEC region, share knowledge and skills and identify future areas of collaboration. A qualifications framework is an instrument for classifying qualifications according to a set of criteria for levels of learning outcomes. Considerable benefits are expected of national qualification frameworks (NQFs). If backed by a good system of quality assurance, they can support the development of workers’ skills, facilitate educational and labour market mobility, and help improve the access of individuals to higher and different levels of education and training over their lives. Education and training providers and authorities are able to design more consistent and linked qualifications when descriptors of qualifications are developed within NQFs. Employers benefit in their recruitment and training of staff when they can understand and have confidence in qualifications. The international recognition of an economy’s qualifications can be enhanced by the transparency of qualifications to which an NQF can contribute. This report is based on desktop analysis of qualification frameworks, contacts made by members of the project team and on a survey of APEC member economies carried out in the project

Autonomous motility of polymer films coupled to stimuli gradients

Adaptive soft materials exhibit a diverse set of behaviors including reconfiguration, actuation, and locomotion. These responses are typically optimized in isolation. Here, we explore the interrelation between these behaviors by developing a behavioral phase diagram for hygromorphic polymer films. We determine that the dynamic behaviors are a result of not only a response to, but also an interaction with a humidity gradient, which can be tuned via control of the environment and film characteristics, including size, permeability and coefficient of hygroscopic expansion to target a desired behavior such as multi-modal locomotion. Using the improved understanding of stimuli interactive materials gained from our study of monolithic polymer films, we demonstrate how robust composites can be designed to exhibit autonomous, environmentally-responsive behaviors, and how these concepts can be incorporated into origami structures to engineer the extent and sequence of motions