4582 research outputs found
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Do learner's gender ethnicity really matter for academic performance evaluation
No full textThis study aims to determine whether different perceptions based on a learner’s characteristics of age, gender, ethnicity, and duration of stay in Australia provide an explanation of teaching performance evaluations. Perceptions determine interpersonal behaviour (including communication and motivation)and the way a learner believes that they are going to be assessed by the teacher. Thereby, this will impact on a student’s formal evaluation of teaching performance through a student survey of teaching (SST). This study considers the existence of ethnic and gender bias in postgraduate students undertaking accounting-related courses. The study applies a combination of quantitative online and offline surveys which include SST data and additional questions identifying demographic data to demonstrate that a learner’s evaluation of teaching performance is influenced by the learner’s perceptions. Whilst there were no significant findings related to gender, we identified that students from certain ethnic backgrounds and citizenship, had different perceptions of a teacher’s performance. In addition we identified age and duration of stay in Australia as two demographic elements which were also statistically significant.
The contribution of actors to achieving sustainability in Australia through water policy transitions
No full textDesigning porous and permeable pavements for stormwater harvesting and reuse
No full textWater is a scarce resource in Australia and the conservation and re-use of stormwater runoff is often important to supplement the municipal water supply. The quality of the runoff is also important to ensure that it can be reused, or discharged to a location where it will not have negative impacts. Pavements are ubiquitous in our urban environment and consequently they have become an intrinsic and seldom thought-about part of life. However, for developers and local authorities who have to address stormwater flooding and water quality issues, they are very much at the forefront of the planning process. This is because impervious surfaces such as pavements have such a major impact on water quality and on the health of natural ecosystems. In response, Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) strategies, such as permeable and porous pavements, have been developed to reduce the environmental footprint of new growth. Porous and permeable pavements are becoming more prevalent as a stormwater management tool. Porous and permeable paving provide an ability to infiltrate stormwater on site, or harvest stormwater for fit-for-purpose reuse using geomembrane sealed subsurface ‘tanks’. This paper describes experiments conducted at the University of South Australia to investigate the reuse potential of water harvested using porous and permeable pavements. The experiments focused on identifying and quantifying the water quality processes occurring in the storage mechanism. This paper also describes the new PERMPAVE software program which has been developed as part of the same research program.
Inner and outer body space
No full textExplores notions of presenting the body in space and manifestations of body processes that function below the level of normal vision by glass.
Things are heating up
No full text"The Ends of the Earth by Jane Castle and Linda Dement is an installation of leaking and congealing blood, video loops on hacked digital players, anomalous machinery and a soundscape from recordings made at the ends of the earth. We are now in the process of shutting down our life support system. The challenge for every single human being is enormous: do we have vision to see our interconnectedness? Do we have the will to act on it in time to save ourselves?"(exhibition catalogue).
An arm of the state? : linking citizenship education and schooling practice
No full textThis paper charts the ways in which schools in Australia have traditionally served the needs of the nation state in terms of civics and citizenship education. A brief historical overview provides a platform for developing a tripartite model of this process which sees civics and citizenship education being developed through (i) the structures of schooling (ii) the cultures and processes of schools and (iii) the formal representations of civics and citizenship in the curriculum. The period around 1970 is identified as a time of fracturing of these traditional modalities, a transformation brought about by population change, technological developments and the increasingly felt pressures of a globalising economy. Hence in 1990 the federal government began a process of reclamation of civics education in schooling. Our analysis of this process and its outcomes demonstrates that there has been a subsequent re-invocation of the traditional model and points to a lack of fit between this model and current concerns to equip young Australians to take their place in an increasingly globalised world.
