Shannon Research Press

Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.

Switch View to Grid View Slideshow

The Seeker

Sivakumar Alagumalai ed., Murray Thompson ed., James Anthony Gibbons ed., and Andrew Dutney ed.

This book is dedicated to acknowledge and honour the work Prof John P Keeves. A seeker of knowledge, John is exemplary in highlighting the nexus between instruction, learning and research. John’s diversity of learning experiences and contributions to students, colleagues and the broader community are highlighted through the broad range of articles in the book.

PART 1 FROM SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY
- Chapter 1 Observations from a Family Perspective by John S. Keeves & Wendy Keech
- Chapter 2 Student Days at PAC by Ren Potts
- Chapter 3 Prince Alfred College 1934-1977 by Murray Thompson & Alan Dennis
- Chapter 4 John’s Reflection of PAC and beyond by Ron Gibbs & Murray Thompson
- Chapter 5 Teaching Days at PAC 1947-49, 52-56, 58-61 by David Prest
- Chapter 6 Wesley College Council by David Prest
- Chapter 7 Port Willunga by David Prest
- Chapter 8 Teacher and Scout Leader by John Willoughby
PART 2 CONTRIBUTIONS AND COLLABORATIONS BEYOND AUSTRALIA
- Chapter 9 Ten Questions by which to Judge the Soundness of Educational Achievement Surveys by T. Neville Postlethwaite
- Chapter 10 Exploring the Effects of Language Proficiency upon Secondary Students’ Performance in Mathematics in a Developing Context by Sarah J Howie & Tjeerd Plomp
- Chapter 11 The Subversive Influence of Formative Assessment by Paul Black
- Chapter 12 Diversity of Research on Teaching by Toh Kok Aun
PART 3 FLINDERS UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND BEYOND
- Chapter 13 Investigating Good Quality Knowledge about Learning and Teaching by Michael J. Lawson & Helen Askell-Williams
- Chapter 14 Future Directions for the Reform of Education in Oceania by G R (Bob) Teasdale
- Chapter 15 Students’ Knowledge of Normal Swallowing: Tracking Growth and Determining Variables by Ingrid Scholten
- Chapter 16 Rasch Scaling and the Judging of Produce by Murray Thompson
- Chapter 17 Modelling and Experiments by Tony Gibbons
- Chapter 18 Theological Education and the Identity of the Uniting Church in Australia by Andrew Dutney
- Chapter 19 Teaching Out of the Unconscious: The Role of Shadow and Archetype by Robert Matthews
- Chapter 20 Collaboration over the Net: HTML & Java, the Necessary Tools by Sivakumar Alagumalai & Jury Mohyla
- Chapter 21 Factors Influencing Reading Achievement in Germany and Finland: Evidence from PISA 2000 by Dieter Kotte & Petra Lietz
- Epilogue Lifelong Learning and the Place for ICT: Learning and Research for the Twenty-first Century by John P. Keeves
The Quality of Learners' Knowledge About Teaching and Learning

Helen Askell-Williams

The aim of this monograph is to report the development and application of a framework for identifying quality in teachers' and learners' knowledge about teaching and learning.
On Reflection

James Anthony Gibbons

This book commences with a criticism of constructivism as the basis for curriculum design followed by an attempt to argue an alternative. It is possible to proceed to criticise constructivism as the basis for curriculum design by illustrating the issues with references to extracts from curricula used by various countries and Departments of Education. This book takes a different route. The assumption is made that criticism will be clearer if related to a substantial part of a curriculum rather than extracts from a variety of curricula from a variety of countries. The focus is on the recently developed, and currently in use, South Australian Curriculum Standards and Accountability Framework (the Framework) and the Science Curriculum within it. This is not to indicate that the criticisms of the Framework do not have application beyond the confines of South Australia. It is clear from the arguments that they do.
Life values and approaches to learning: a study of university students from Confucian heritage cultures

Bobbie Matthews

This study seeks to examine the principles that guide the lives of students from East Asia who come to Australia to study. The more specific purpose is to investigate the values and approaches to learning that are important in the lives of Asian tertiary students and to examine changes that may occur when students come from East Asia in order to pursue their education in Australia.
Alternative education : an international perspective

Yoshiyuki Nagata

Chapter 1 discusses how the characteristics of alternative education are to be understood, for the purposes of this research, in the contemporary context and in light of former interpretations. Chapters 2 to 8 take up cases of alternative education in practice in six countries and discuss the realities of the systems and mechanisms involved in practice and theory in alternative schools.
Retaining Knowledge Through Organizational Action

Paddy O'Toole

The main goal of this study is to contribute to the understanding of knowledge retention in organisations. Knowledge retention relates to the storage of knowledge within organisations. The word 'storage', however, gives an erroneous impression of the active and dynamic way in which knowledge is manifested and retained within the organisation. Knowledge may be retained via documents, databases or within the culture and structure of the organisation. Knowledge can be held in one individual head, or be synthesised by groups. This book gives an account of research that investigated development of knowledge retention structures, the communication of knowledge and the protection and management of knowledge in three different sites in one organisation.
The Measurement of Adolescent Depression

Leigh Roeger

Very broadly the general aims of this study are: to examine whether the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) measures depressive symptomatology equivalently across adolescent boys and girls; and to examine whether schools exert effects on student levels of depressive symptomatology independently of individual level characteristics. In the course of this study quite a number of subsidiary questions are also addressed. Most of these questions centre around the psychometric properties of the CES-D scale when used with adolescent samples.
Implementation of Information Technology in Local Government in Bali, Indonesia

I Gusti Ngurah Darmawan

The adoption and implementation of information technology (IT) has been a source of interest for many people and sectors in developed countries. Research in this field has traditionally focused mainly on organisations in developed countries, without considering how these frameworks and models can be applied and extended to developing countries. This study investigates the adoption and utilisation of IT in local government in Bali.
Measuring school effects across grades

Njora Hungi

This study investigates the issue of the value-added components of the education provided across Grade 3 and Grade 5 in primary schools in South Australia and how these components could be measured. The study shows that it is very difficult to identify effective or ineffective schools because the amount of variance left unexplained at the school-level is small. As a solution to this problem, it is more meaningful to identify effective or ineffective schools when the school effects are expressed in terms of years of learning that a student spends at school.
Optimism and Pessimism in Children

Shirley M. Yates

Areas of learning where performance is measured through systematic and responsible assessment can contribute to the conceptualisation and valuing of art education through the provision of evidence of learning and development of artistic skills. There is a need for measurement to be undertaken in assessment in art production, on the basis of a shared symbol system, that allows for detailed classifications of visual art works. The aim of this study was to improve validity, reliability and credibility in measuring student performance in art production, and thereby increase the positive impact of assessment in the visual arts discipline.
Changes in mathematics achievement over time in Australia and Ethiopia

Tilahun Mengesha Afrassa

This study has five major purposes: to develop a general theoretical model which considers the multivariate structure of the available data; to examine the changes of the mathematics achievement level of Australian lower secondary school students over time; to develop a common mathematics scale to enable investigation of mathematics achievement over time and across countries; to develop a theoretical model of student level factors influencing the mathematics achievements of lower secondary students in Australia and Ethiopia and to examine these hypothesised interrelationships between variables; and to investigate the views and attitudes of Australian and Ethiopian students towards mathematics and schooling and to develop common scales which are independent of the samples of students tested and the items employed.
Building a national vocational education and training system

Robin Ryan

This study seeks to establish that policy in vocational education has oscillated between two poles. At one, vocational education is seen largely as an adjunct to economic development and the primary concern of the sector is to meet the needs of industry rather than of students. At the other, vocational education is seen as primarily student centred, encompassing goals of individual self-development and the creation of a more equitable society. In practice both these perspectives are present at any time, and both may be almost equally emphasised in VET policy and rhetoric.
Listening to the boys: issues and problems influencing school achievement and retention

Malcolm Slade

This work summarises the views of 1800 boys, from 60 secondary schools in South Australia, balanced across all sectors. Their views have been clear and largely uniform across the schools, year levels and levels of achievement. Several popularly held views, that the problems start in the primary years, and that the issues are reducible to matters of gender difference, gender equity, peer pressure or literacy and numeracy, are rejected, by the boys and others, as simplistic to the point of being false. Issues about masculinity are conspicuous in their absence. Instead, the boys identify a broad range of interconnected factors, fundamental to which is that the adult world is not really listening and not genuinely interested in either their concerns or their future needs.
Science, technology and society in science education

Debra Tedman

This study had four major purposes. First, the study developed and used scales to measure the strength and coherence of students', teachers', and scientists' views, beliefs and attitudes in relation to science, technology and society (STS). Second, the factors which influenced the development of strong and coherent views on STS by students, were examined. Third, the study investigated whether male and female students differed in the strength and coherence of their views on STS. Fourth, structured group interviews with teachers provided information for the consideration of the problems encountered by teachers and students in the introduction of STS courses.
Learning the Chinese language in an Australian school

Ruilan Yuan

This study deals with the learning of Chinese as a foreign language across school grades in South Australia. The purposes of the study are briefly to measure student achievement in learning the Chinese language across grade levels from Year 4 to Year 12 over a period of 12 months; investigate the factors that influence learners' continuing with the study of the Chinese language; and identify the factors that influence student achievement in learning the Chinese language within and between school grades. The term 'Chinese language' in this study refers to the Mandarin Chinese language, rather than the many other dialects spoken in China.