ERIN News and Events 2011
November
THE SEMANTIC WAVE: HOW TO HELP STUDENTS EXPERIENCE CUMULATIVE LEARNING
Presented by Dr Karl Maton from the University of Sydney
Friday 4 November 2011
12:00pm - 1:30pm, Hunter Building, HA158
Abstract:
The desire for students to experience cumulative learning is at the heart of education. Yet, many students experience segmented learning, where knowledges and skills remain rooted in their contexts. In this paper I discuss collaborative research on cumulative learning centred on Legitimation Code Theory. This approach extends and integrates insights from the approaches of Pierre Bourdieu and Basil Bernstein and is becoming widely used in research. Focusing on the ARC-funded DISKS project (‘Disciplinary Knowledge in Secondary School”) at Sydney University, I explore how teaching students to master ‘the semantic wave’ – movements in context-dependence and condensation of meaning – is crucial to cumulative learning and an issue of social justice.
Download: Audio recording (WMA, 78MB) and PowerPoint presentation (PDF, 3MB)
October
SEMINAR - ARC LINKAGE PROJECTS & SBE
Presented by Professor Elizabeth Kendall
WHEN Friday 21 October 2011, 10.30am to 12noon
WHERE The Treehouse
RSVP BY FRIDAY 14 OCTOBER Kristy.Rocavert@newcastle.edu.au or #15341
Click here for more information
August
PROMOTING THE RIGHTS OF YOUNG CHILDREN, FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES THROUGH INTEGRATED EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (ECD) IN KWAZULU-NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA
Friday 26 August 2011
4:00pm - 5:30pm, Hunter Building, HA96
Abstract:
Norma Rudolph is engaged in a systemic action research project aimed at strengthening the capacity of participating partners, including international and local non-government organizations and schools,. The project aims to strengthen protective factors and minimize risk factors impacting on the well-being of children. One of the partners is an ECD resource and training agency using a home visitor programme to enable families and communities to support the well-being of young children. The appreciative rights-based approach to building partnerships for collaborative action will be presented and discussed with findings from implementation by Little Elephant Training Centre in Early Childhood Development (LETCEE) in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
Download: Audio recording (WMA, 16MB)
August
CAUSAL EFFECTS OF SOCIAL CAPITAL ON CHILD OUTCOMES
Presented by Professor Adam Gamoran from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Tuesday 23 August 2011
3:00pm - 4:30pm, Nelson Room, Shortland Union Building
Abstract:
For disadvantaged families, lack of parent involvement and family engagement with schools is widely regarded as a major barrier to children’s school success. Some have argued that this barrier can be overcome by boosting family-school "social capital," that is, relations of trust and shared expectations that help parents obtain information and support norms of behaviour that enhance the academic and social development of their children. Researchers have struggled to test this proposition due to the difficulty of disentangling cause from effect: Does social capital promote child development, or does social capital emerge when children are thriving? A randomised experiment can address this dilemma, but families cannot be randomly assigned to social capital. Instead, we randomly assigned 52 schools to an intervention that promotes social capital, or to serve as untreated controls. The intervention, "Families and Schools Together" (FAST), provides 8 weekly sessions of structured activities that strengthen relationships within families, among parents, and between parents and school staff. Quantitative results provide evidence for causal effects of social capital, and in-depth interviews and focus groups further illuminate the role of social capital in enhancing child development.
Download: Audio recording (WMA, 15MB)
August
ERIN Public Lecture
Professor Adam Gamoran
WHEN: Thursday 18 August, 6pm-8pm
WHERE: Newcastle City Hall
TOPIC: Is your child getting a 'fair go'?"
RSVP: ERIN-Research@newcastle.edu.au
Professor Adam Gamoran is a member of the National Research Council’s Board on Science Education and chairs the Independent Advisory Panel of the National Assessment of Career and Technical Education for the U.S. Department of Education. In 2010, he was appointed by President Obama to serve as a member of the National Board for Education Sciences.
In the U.S., No Child Left Behind is a federal law that requires schools to implement standards-based education reform and measurable goals to improve individual outcomes in education. Australia has embraced standards-based reform with the inception of NAPLAN testing and MySchool performance ranking.
Professor Gamoran’s lecture at Newcastle City Hall will focus on U.S. efforts to hold schools and teachers accountable for student performance. Issues he will address include:
1. In what ways has No Child Left Behind succeeded, and in what ways has it failed?
2. What are the implications of No Child Left Behind for inequality in student opportunities for learning and achievement?
3. The goal of No Child Left Behind was to bring ALL children to standard by 2014. That is not going to happen. What comes next?
Professor Gamoran will discuss the lessons learned from the nearly 20 years of standardised testing and the improvements and dilemmas for schools which serve disadvantaged populations. This event is of significant interest for teachers, parents, students, researchers, and educational departments and entities and is highly topical in the current Australian educational climate.
Links:
Professor Gamoran’s webpage from WCER: http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/people/staff.php?sid=413
TV interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cvQbKByaiY
Research presentation: http://neaacademy.framewelder.com/presentations/adam_gamoran.html
Download Prof Adam Gamoran information flyer for more details
Download: Video recording (MOV, 655MB)
August
FEDUA RESEARCH INSTITUTES 2011 FORUM
All staff are invited to join us for a forum to hear from the Programme Leaders of the six funded research programmes about their achievements to date and plans for the future.
The forum will conclude with a Q&A session with the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Institute Directors and an announcement about Round 3 of funding for the Institutes’ Research Programmes.
WHERE: The Treehouse, Callaghan campus
WHEN: Tuesday 16 August 9.30am to 12.30pm
RSVP: by 31 May to Kristy Rocavert 4921 5341
July
CHANGING EDUCATIONAL TERRITORIES: PUZZLING OVER EDUCATIONAL WORK, PROFESSIONALISM AND RESEARCH
Presented by Professor Terri Seddon from Monash University
Friday 29 July 2011
12:00pm - 1:30pm, Hunter Building, HA96
Abstract:
In this presentation I will consider contemporary changes in the social organisation of teaching and their implications for professionalism and research. I link these themes by drawing on the discourse of political geography, which sees ‘territory’ as the construction of social spaces and ‘territoriality’ as the ongoing labour of protecting, defending, claiming, and counterclaiming the boundaries and contents of the territory. This perspective raises questions about the effects of globalisation and what counts as ‘education’. It also positions teachers as political actors and focuses attention on the way educators are actively remaking educational territories at the national scale. I will invite discussion about what these developments mean for professionalising agenda and for education research.
Download: Audio recording (WMA, 19MB)
April - November
Faculty of Education and Arts Workshops
RESEARCH STRENGTHENING:
A Development Program for ECRS & MCRS
WHEN: 5 x Thursdays from April to September , 12.30-2.00pm
WHERE: Shortland Building (Treehouse or Nelson Room)
RSVP BY: FRIDAY 18 March to Kristy.Rocavert@newcastle.edu.au
For more information visit Faculty Research Workshops
Writing ARC Discovery Projects: A 5 Workshop Series
WHERE Isabella’s (upstairs)
WHEN 5 x Fridays June to November, 3 - 5pm
RSVP: Kristy.Rocavert@newcastle.edu.au
For more information visit Faculty Research Workshops
March
DIALOGUE: CREATING A PATHWAY FOR TEACHER CHANGE BY PROBING TEACHER ASSUMPTIONS
Presented by Associate Professor Donna Qualters from Suffolk University, Boston
Friday 18 March 2011
10:30pm - 12:00pm, Hunter Building, HA96
Abstract:
Dialogue (Isaacs, 1992) is a method of allowing individuals to come together in community to explore practice assumptions. It is a unique process by which one can engage in triple loop learning whereby teachers not only uncover their assumptions about education and the role they play in learning, but also understand how that belief was formed, and most importantly begin to explore the validity of the belief. This presentation will present the results of a qualitative study of two very different higher education faculty groups measuring how using Dialogue as a faculty development intervention allowed the participants to progress through Prochaska Norcross and DiClemente’s stages of change. Using a participant observer model, I was able to lead the Dialogue while also studying the reactions and changes of the faculty involved in the sessions.
The uniqueness of this study resides the use of Dialogue as a faculty development tool. Prior to this study, Dialogue was a conflict management tool often used in negotiation situations. I will outline the dialogue procedure, share major themes that emerged from the study, and talk about the stories that faculty shared about their growth and movement toward change through Dialoguing.
Downloads: Audio recording (M4A, 148MB) and PowerPoint presentation (PDF, 1.4MB)