The Healing Organization

How do we transform our organizations into spaces of community, wellness, collaboration, and safety? Looking at the entire campus as “The Healing Organization” we focus on human-centered leadership practices to create a better future for our departments and our classrooms

Edepillim: a new muon energy reconstruction for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Neutrinos are an ideal tracer particle for high energy astrophysics as they are not deflected by magnetic fields. As such they can be detected at Earth with their directional information intact, however because of the low interaction probability they are difficult to detect. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory operates by observing Cherenkov radiation emitted from charged secondary interaction particles of neutrinos such as muons. As a muon travels though the detector it experiences energy loss due to radiative processes which will be represented by an energy loss pattern with stochastic losses, the probability of these losses is dependent on the initial energy of the muon. The muon energy reconstruction method Edepillim described in this work takes into account the entire pattern of energy loss along the muon track and uses probability distribution functions describing muon energy losses to perform a maximum likelihood reconstruction for the initial muon energy. This work demonstrates the good reconstruction resolution of this method on idealised simulation by comparison to other energy reconstruction methods. In addition the method was implemented on simulated muon events where the pattern of energy losses have been reconstructed, and the limitations and improvements needed to be made to the energy loss pattern for optimal resolution are discussed. Finally in this work the energy reconstruction method was tested on a sample of up-going neutrino-induced muon events, by performing a diffuse fit to atmospheric and astrophysical ux predictions. This fit demonstrates the improvement that this energy resolution has on the confidence interval on the value of the fitted astrophysical flux results. Also discussed is a specific example of reconstructing IceCube's highest energy muon neutrino event using Edepillim.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Physical Sciences, 201

The place of language in supporting children’s mathematical development: two Grade 4 teachers’ use of classroom talk

Measures of mathematics achievement (documented locally, and in internationally comparative terms) have shown that South African learners whose first language (L1) is different from their language of learning and teaching (LoLT) are at a significant disadvantage, most particularly learners from vulnerable or marginalised communities. This transdisciplinary case study looks at two experienced Grade 4 teachers’ mathematics classroom talk practices. It is situated within a second language (L2) teaching/learning context in which teachers and learners share the same first language, but mathematics learning and teaching takes place officially through an L2 (English). The study is located within a qualitative and interpretive framework. It brings together insights from a range of distinct but complementary theoretical disciplines in its analysis of the empirical classroom observation and interview data. Its theoretical framing derives initially from professional literature relating to L2 teaching and learning. This is then embedded within a broader theoretical frame deriving from the work of Vygotsky, Bernstein and Halliday, each of whom has focussed on the centrality of language to the teaching/ learning process, as well as contributed to a heightened appreciation of socio-cultural influences on learners’ meaning-making processes. The study illuminates some of the linguistic challenges to L2 children’s maximal participation in the learning of school mathematics. It points too to the significant challenge many South African mathematics teachers face in trying to meet curriculum coverage and pacing demands, while simultaneously facilitating their learners’ ongoing induction – in and through L2 predominantly – into mathematically-appropriate discourse. Grade 4 is a year in which such challenges are often more acutely felt. Independently of the transition across to an L2 for the majority of South African learners, this is the year also where - relative to the foundation phase years - learners encounter an expansion of knowledge areas and more specialised academic text. Many learners struggle to adjust to these higher conceptual and linguistic demands, often leading to what has been termed a ‘fourth-grade slump’. The study highlights the need for more sustained and proactive challenging of perceptions that English as LoLT is the obvious route to educational - and subsequent economic - opportunity. Recognition of the consequences deriving from the choice of English as the main LoLT for mathematics teaching and learning could help counterbalance deficit discourses implicating poor teaching as a major contributor to South Africa’s poor mathematics education outcomes. The study highlights further that, if language is genuinely to be used as the ‘tool’ for learning it is claimed to be, synergistic opportunities for the dovetailing of insights into L2 learners’ literacy/ numeracy development require further exploration. It points to the need for ongoing professional development support for teachers of mathematics (at both pre- and in-service levels) that focuses on broadening and deepening their understandings around the linguistic, and hence epistemological, consequences of learning mathematics through an L2. Expanding mathematics teachers’ repertoires of strategies for supporting learners’ developing cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in mathematics (in both L1 and L2) would involve a conception of ‘academic language’ in mathematics which goes beyond a constrained interpretation of ‘legitimate’ mathematical text as that which is in texts such as curriculum documents and text books. Especially important here are strategies which foreground the value of classroom talk in assisting L2 children towards becoming more confident, competent and explorative bilingual learners, and thereby, more active agents of their own mathematical meaning-making processes. The study argues that such meaning-making processes would be further strengthened were additive bilingualism (in place of current predominantly subtractive practices) to be genuinely taken up as core to any teaching and learning of mathematics in contexts such as those described in this case study

Stories of Young Migrants' Cross-Cultural Educational Transitions

New Zealand society can benefit socially, culturally and economically when migrants feel as if they belong and are included. Given that Aotearoa/New Zealand is becoming increasingly multicultural, it is important that the education system meets the needs of migrants and makes them feel that they are included. Previous research has shown that this is not always the case – that migrants do not always feel that they belong at school in New Zealand. Much of the literature that has investigated migrants’ educational transition experiences has conceptualised “belonging” and “identity” as fixed states. This research took a different approach and used a narrative inquiry method underpinned by social constructionism. The purpose of this research was to contribute to our understandings of migrants’ transitions into the New Zealand education system. The study had three aims. The first was to investigate the stories young migrants told about their transition to secondary school in New Zealand; the second was to look at how belonging and inclusion were narrated by the participants; the third was to examine how the education system could better develop a culture of inclusion. Seven young migrants who moved to New Zealand when they were secondary school age took part in this research. The participants were from countries in South East Asia, East Asia and the Pacific Islands. Their stories were gathered through narrative interviews. The interviews were initially analysed individually and were presented as summaries. Next, analysis across the interviews was conducted, with a particular focus on looking at how the stories were performed. Based on my interaction with the stories, I described three of the stories as “opening up” stories and four as “closing down” stories. Those who told “opening up” stories had many connections to people and opportunities to tell their stories. They positioned themselves as belonging at school. Those who told “closing down” stories appeared to have had fewer opportunities to share their stories with others compared to those who told “opening up” stories. These individuals positioned themselves as socially isolated. The way the participants’ stories were performed in the interviews was also related to the previous storytelling opportunities the participants had access to. Some of the stories participants told about their lives in their home countries became unavailable to tell in the New Zealand context and, as a result, these stories had to change when they migrated. This study suggests that, in order to tell new stories, migrants need opportunities to interact with other New Zealanders to create and practise new storylines. Furthermore, New Zealanders also need to be able to tell new stories about themselves and find ways to connect with migrants in order to promote a culture of belonging. A relational view of identity and belonging is presented, in which these are conceptualised as negotiated processes that can occur through stories. It is suggested that it would be beneficial if spaces within the education system were created in order to allow new possible storylines to emerge which support a culture of belonging

An investigation of the evolution and current status of the core theoretical disciplines in the training of primary school teachers at selected English-medium training institutions in South Africa

This investigation examines developments which have taken place in the theoretical component of pre-service courses for primary teachers. Revised conceptions of the purpose and scope of primary education, and the attendant demand for better qualified primary teachers to implement such education, resulted in a considerable increase in the theoretical component of primary teacher preparation courses . Better theoretical understanding of the educative task was perceived to be essential to the production of more effective primary teachers. The emergence of various schemes for the preparation of South African primary teachers is outlined. The Cape Province provides the major exemplar. The nature of educational theory, and its precise contribution to enhanced teaching ability has been a subject of fierce debate within educational circles. An analysis of theory, in general, and as it applies in the educational context, is undertaken. The evolution of the core theoretical disciplines of education - history, philosophy, psychology and sociology of education - is traced. The current status of these disciplines at selected South African institutions undertaking primary teacher preparation is then investigated, and the views of lecturing staff at these institutions on the optimal approach to the teaching of educational theory are presented. The disciplines still play an important role in the South African Bachelor of Primary Education degree courses surveyed. In British teacher preparation courses, however, disenchantment with the disciplines' format has given rise to demands for new approaches to the teaching of educational theory. Some of these alternative approaches are evaluated. An overall assessment is made of the contribution that can be expected from educational theory in pre-service courses for primary teachers, and some recommendations are made for the management of the theoretical component of pre-service courses for South African primary teachers