It’s part of my life: engaging university and community to enhance science and mathematics education - final report, March 2017

This project is designed to improve mathematics and science teaching in Australian schools by engaging pre-service teachers with the mathematics and science that underpins everyday life in Australian regional communities. The project draws together the strengths of university mathematicians, scientists, and specialist educators to enhance the higher education mathematics and science education curriculum framework by grounding it in the practical contexts that are an integral part of our daily lives. In so doing, 'It's part of my life' addresses two critical issues in mathematics and science education: lack of teacher confidence, and lack of student interest. Along with a flexible and adaptive, scalable model for embedding real-world contexts and related teaching strategies into curriculum, project outcomes include an open educational resource of evaluated and documented real-life scenarios for inclusion in curriculum across all educational levels, tools for evaluating new scenarios, and increased networking amongst university researchers, specialist educators and members of the wider community

Universities and public libraries supporting student success: an exploratory study

As universities seek new ways to engage and support students in their learning, in Australia, students from regional and remote areas pose a challenge for universities given their geographical, social and technological isolation compared with their metropolitan counterparts. Much of the literature that address challenges associated with distance learning focus on teaching, course design and ways of accessing learning materials. Little is known about the provision of learning support services. Public libraries are well placed within their communities to assist university students with their learning needs. The aim of this research was to explore the idea of universities and public library services working together to support regional student success. The University of Southern Queensland, provided the context for this study. Semi-structured interviews with representatives from public library services in regional areas of Queensland were conducted to find out what service is currently being provided to students; challenges, opportunities and related issues. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes that told the ‘story’ within the data. Findings suggest there is an opportunity for universities and public libraries to work together to support regional student success, and that this opportunity is worthy of further discussion and exploration

Challenging the Science Curriculum Paradigm: TeachingPrimary Children Atomic-Molecular Theory

Solutions to global issues demand the involvement of scientists, yet concern exists about retention rates in science as students pass through school into University. Young children are curious about science, yet are considered incapable of grappling with abstract and microscopic concepts such as atoms, sub-atomic particles, molecules and DNA. School curricula for primary (elementary) aged children reflect this by their limitation to examining only what phenomena are without providing any explanatory frameworks for how or why they occur. This research challenges the assumption that atomic-molecular theory is too difficult for young children, examining new ways of introducing atomic theory to 9 year olds and seeks to verify their efficacy in producing genuine learning in the participants. Early results in three cases in different schools indicate these novel methods fostered further interest in science, allowed diverse children to engage and learn aspects of atomic theory, and satisfied the children’s desire for intellectual challenge. Learning exceeded expectations as demonstrated in the post-interview findings. Learning was also remarkably robust, as demonstrated in two schools eight weeks after the intervention, and in one school, one year after their first exposure to ideas about atoms, elements and molecules

Designing professional development for teachers teaching out-of-field

Learning to teach out-of-field is a challenge that many teachers worldwideface at some time in their career. Whether they aremotivated to seek formalprofessional development as additional qualifications in this area, however,depends on many factors. Alignment between the specific professionaldevelopment needs of out-of-field teachers and the planned learningexperiences is essential to maximise sustained learning and applicabilityto teachers’ classrooms. This paper reports on a government-funded programdesigned to support teachers teaching ‘out-of-field’ in science andmathematics. The initial design of the program drew on existing literatureon effective teacher professional learning. Using the theoretical lens of‘boundary crossing’ this paper reports on the perceived discontinuitiesthat teachers ‘brought with them’ in order to understand where the potentialfor learning lay, and compared this to teachers’ perceptions of theirchanged practice. Growth in teachers’ confidence and relational understandingsof content, pedagogy and curriculum was evident. Implicationsfor future programs to support out-of-field teachers are provided

Open access enabling courses: Risking academic standards or meeting equity aspirations

Open access enabling courses have experienced growth in Australia. The growth is evidenced in student enrolments and the number of public and private institutions offering such courses. Traditionally these courses have provided a second chance to many students from various equity groups who have been unable to access tertiary education due to poor academic achievement in high school or lack of post-secondary education. In recent years, open access enabling courses have attracted both young and mature-age students from mid and high socio-economic backgrounds, and international students. Open access enabling courses are similar to final year of high schooling and enable students to access degree courses. These courses are not regulated and not part of Australian Qualifications Framework and nor are they subject to any external accreditation or assessment. This paper argues that in the quest to achieve equity aspirations in the absence of appropriate regulation and accreditation in a rapidly expanding market, institutions are at risk of failing to monitor the academic quality and standards and the extent to which students are prepared for success in undergraduate study. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Open access enabling courses: Risking academic standards or meeting equity aspirations

Open access enabling courses have experienced growth in Australia. The growth is evidenced in student enrolments and the number of public and private institutions offering such courses. Traditionally these courses have provided a second chance to many students from various equity groups who have been unable to access tertiary education due to poor academic achievement in high school or lack of post-secondary education. In recent years, open access enabling courses have attracted both young and mature-age students from mid and high socio-economic backgrounds, and international students. Open access enabling courses are similar to final year of high schooling and enable students to access degree courses. These courses are not regulated and not part of Australian Qualifications Framework and nor are they subject to any external accreditation or assessment. This paper argues that in the quest to achieve equity aspirations in the absence of appropriate regulation and accreditation in a rapidly expanding market, institutions are at risk of failing to monitor the academic quality and standards and the extent to which students are prepared for success in undergraduate study. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Salinity Range Related to Sperm Motility and Propagation Response in Some Tilapiinse (Abstract)

This paper describes a collaborative project involving mathematicians, scientists and educators at an Australian university where an innovative initial teacher education (ITE) degree in mathematics/science was developed. The theoretical frameworks of identity theory and academic brokerage and their use in understanding the challenges associated with the early stages of collaborative projects is described. Data from reflections andinterviews of the participants after involvement in the project from one to three years are presented to illustrate these challenges. The paper concludes with a description of the importance of the academic broker in overcoming identity challenges and facilitating cultural change for academics involved in cross-disciplinary collaborations and the timeand resource requirements to achieve a successful outcome

The enhancement–lesson–reflection: a resource manual for science and mathematics learning and teaching

This project is designed to improve mathematics and science teaching in Australian schools by engaging pre-service teachers with the mathematics and science that underpins everyday life in Australian regional communities. The project draws together the strengths of university mathematicians, scientists, and specialist educators to enhance the higher education mathematics and science education curriculum framework by grounding it in the practical contexts that are an integral part of our daily lives. In so doing, 'It's part of my life' addresses two critical issues in mathematics and science education: lack of teacher confidence, and lack of student interest. Along with a flexible and adaptive, scalable model for embedding real-world contexts and related teaching strategies into curriculum, project outcomes include an open educational resource of evaluated and documented real-life scenarios for inclusion in curriculum across all educational levels, tools for evaluating new scenarios, and increased networking amongst university researchers, specialist educators and members of the wider community

Enhancing science and mathematics teacher education: Evaluating an enhancement module for science pre-service teachers

Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Motivated and well-trained science and mathematics teachers are a requirement for sustaining an industrialised economy. The Australian government has funded several projects to satisfy this requirement designed to improve pre-service teacher (PST) education in regional and rural Australia. One such project uses a collaboration nexus model with lesson feedback and Reflection Module in an iterative process using a repeated sequence comprised of an Enhancement Module, a subsequent Teaching Lesson and a Reflection Module. This paper reports on qualitative investigations of the effectiveness of the collaboration nexus in the Enhancement Module and comments on the value of the iterative process. Results from small-scale trials with PSTs indicate that the module positively engages participants, PSTs, university scientists and specialist educators. The module and its iterations appear to be effective in grounding PST education in targeting regional contexts relevant to the daily lives of both PSTs and their classroom students

Collaboration and co-creation in regional and remote education: Case studies from initial teacher education programs

Education policies and practices developed for urban populations are not always effective when implemented in regional and remote locations. Despite government policy initiatives that may provide for collaboration across communities, a singular issue is that a diversity of solutions may be required rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach. This article presents a potential solution to this problem through engaging collaboration and co-creation to optimise educational opportunities in initial teacher education in Australia. Qualitative analysis of a collaborative and co-created process of enhancement, lesson development and reflection brings together the every-day problem-solving processes used by preservice teachers and classroom students with those used by research scientists and community experts. A consequence of such a process that benefits regional and remote communities is the development of collaborative networks founded in cocreation of educational opportunities and based on daily life in local communities