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This research summary presents the key results of the research project led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Bukavu (ISP Bukavu) in Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

This report presents the final results of the Building Resilience in Crisis through Education (BRiCE) research project, which is led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Bukavu (ISP Bukavu). The research project is part of the BRiCE education programme funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships and led by Save the Children in Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This report presents the results of the endline evaluation of two components of the BRiCE education programme: Teacher Professional Development (TPD) and Improving Learning Environments Together (ILET). It also presents an in-depth analysis of teacher wellbeing and teaching quality in the regions of Zinder and Diffa in Niger, and the territories Uvira and Fizi in South Kivu province in the DRC. The report summarises the final results of the project regarding the causes and consequences of violence against teachers, and also investigates teacher’s knowledge on how to deal with the effects of violent conflict at school.

This report presents the results of the midline study of the Building Resilience in Crises through Education (BRiCE) research project, which is led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Bukavu (ISP Bukavu). The research project is part of the BRiCE education programme funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships and led by Save the Children in Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This report presents the results of the midline evaluation of two components of the BRiCE education programme: Teacher Professional Development (TPD) and Improving Learning Environments Together (ILET). It also presents an in-depth analysis of teacher wellbeing and teaching quality in the regions of Zinder and Diffa in Niger, and Uvira and Fizi in South Kivu province in the DRC. Specifically, the report explores several key factors in teachers’ wellbeing: their employment status, which structures inequalities in the teaching profession in Niger and the DRC; their social identity, with a particular focus on gender and ethnicity, which play an important role in teachers’ professional and social life; and their exposure to violence, analysing how violent conflict penetrates the school environment and affects teachers’ work.

This article reports on a study exploring student perspectives on the collection and use of student data for learning analytics. With data collected via a mixed methods approach from 2,051 students across six Australian universities, it provides critical insights from students as a key stakeholder group. Findings indicate that while students are generally comfortable with the use of data to support their learning, they do have concerns particularly in relation to the use of demographic data, location data and data collected from wireless networks, social media and mobile applications. Two key themes emerged related to the need for transparency to support informed consent and personal-professional boundary being critical. This supports findings from other research, which reflects the need for a nuanced approach when providing information to students about the data we collect, including what we are collecting, why and how this is being used. Implications for practice or policy: When implementing the use of dashboards, institutions should ideally include opportunities for students to opt in and out, rather than being set so that students have agency over their data and learning. When undertaking work in relation to learning analytics, staff need to ensure the focus of their work relates to student learning rather than academic research. When institutions and academic staff collect and use student data (regardless of the purpose for doing so), all aspects of these processes need to be transparent to students.

While learning analytics (LA) developments and applications remain promising, the systematic application and value of such technology and applications have yet to be fully realised. Proposed reasons why these initiatives are not adopted across entire institutions include a lack of understanding among academic staff and students regarding the potential usefulness of LA, concerns regarding ethics and privacy and a range of resourcing and professional development issues. This chapter draws on three separate but related studies, two of which were undertaken by the Australian Innovative Research Universities (IRU) network exploring the views of staff (n = 393) and students (n = 2017) regarding the use of LA to support and improve learning and teaching. The IRU institutions share some common traits but are at different stages of online delivery and LA adoption, and they all have their own contextual considerations. These studies therefore provide insights across a broad cross-cut of the sector with a diversity of staff, students and programs. This research identified concerns raised by both students and staff; many are known (such as the concerns regarding ethics and privacy) while others are less commonly discussed (particularly those from staff and related to pedagogical approaches). Results from these studies provide important and potentially beneficial perspectives from these significant stakeholders (staff and students) regarding the use of LA. The findings offer unique insights across a broad spectrum of stakeholders to identify both roadblocks and opportunities to inform institutional LA development beyond localised practice. The insights include a mismatch across staff and student perspectives where students’ LA needs and concerns are at times given lower priority, an increased need for leadership and policy development regarding the transparency of data collection and greater opportunities for both staff and students to use and gain insights into how they can leverage data to improve teaching and learning outcomes.

Increasingly learning analytics (LA) has begun utilising staff- and student-facing dashboards capturing visualisations to present data to support student success and improve learning and teaching. The use of LA is complex, multifaceted and raises many issues for consideration, including ethical and legal challenges, competing stakeholder views and implementation decisions. It is widely acknowledged that LA development requires input from various stakeholders. This conceptual article explores the LA literature to determine how student perspectives are positioned as dashboards and visualisations are developed. While the sector acknowledges the central role of students, as demonstrated here, much of the literature reflects an academic, teacher-centric or institutional view. This view reflects some of the key ethical concerns related to informed consent and the role of power translating to a somewhat paternalistic approach to students. We suggest that as students are the primary stakeholders – they should be consulted in the development and application of LA. An ethical approach to LA requires that we engage with our students in their learning and the systems and information that support that process rather than assuming we know we know what students want, what their concerns are or how they would like data presented.

In this article we report on the findings of a project funded by the Australian Office for Learning and Teaching and entitled “Learning Analytics: Assisting Universities with Student Retention.” While this project was primarily focused on retention as a potential outcome of learning analytics, its application could be related to the broader concept of student success. Student success allows for a focus on pedagogy and the use of learning analytics for the improvement of learning and teaching with a firm scholarly evidence base. The data gathered for the project provide the background for a discussion about the potential of learning analytics to inform the practice of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. A case study demonstrates the potential of this approach. Overall, clear pedagogical questions are important in the application of learning analytics to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and we suggest potential ways to explore pedagogical questions with big data methods.

Background This paper describes a protocol for determining the incidence of serious fall injuries for Strategies to Reduce Injuries and Develop Confidence in Elders (STRIDE), a large, multicenter pragmatic clinical trial with limited resources for event adjudication. We describe how administrative data (from participating health systems and Medicare claims) can be used to confirm participant-reported events, with more time- and resource-intensive full-text medical record data used only on an “as-needed” basis. Methods STRIDE is a pragmatic cluster-randomized controlled trial involving 5451 participants age ≥ 70 and at increased risk for falls, served by 86 primary care practices in 10 US health systems. The STRIDE intervention involves a nurse falls care manager who assesses a participant’s underlying risks for falls, suggests interventions using motivational interviewing, and then creates, implements and longitudinally follows up on an individualized care plan with the participant (and caregiver when appropriate), in partnership with the participant’s primary care provider. STRIDE’s primary outcome is serious fall injuries, defined as a fall resulting in: (1) medical attention billable according to Medicare guidelines with a) fracture (excluding isolated thoracic vertebral and/or lumbar vertebral fracture), b) joint dislocation, or c) cut requiring closure; OR (2) overnight hospitalization with a) head injury, b) sprain or strain, c) bruising or swelling, or d) other injury determined to be “serious” (i.e., burn, rhabdomyolysis, or internal injury). Two sources of data are required to confirm a serious fall injury. The primary data source is the participant’s self-report of a fall leading to medical attention, identified during telephone interview every 4 months, with the confirmatory source being (1) administrative data capturing encounters at the participating health systems or Medicare claims and/or (2) the full text of medical records requested only as needed. Discussion Adjudication is ongoing, with over 1000 potentially qualifying events adjudicated to date. Administrative data can be successfully used for adjudication, as part of a hybrid approach that retrieves full-text medical records only when needed. With the continued refinement and availability of administrative data sources, future studies may be able to use administrative data completely in lieu of medical record review to maximize the quality of adjudication with finite resources. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02475850). Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40621-019-0190-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The purpose of this instrumental case study is to understand what role faculty play in providing academic support to first- and second-year medical students at an osteopathic medical college in the United States. Academic support is defined as instructional methods or educational services provided to students in an effort to help them meet learning standards, The theory guiding this study is andragogy, developed by Malcolm Knowles (1913- 1997), as faculty's beliefs about the needs of adult learners may affect how they provide academic support to students demonstrating poor academic performance. One central question and three sub-questions guided this study. The central research question for this study is: How do faculty provide academic support to first- and second-year medical students? Participants included six faculty and six students from the research site who met selection criteria. The researcher explored the phenomenon of interest using individual interviews, a group interview, and observations. Data analysis included reading and memoing, detailed descriptions, emergent coding, classification and development of themes, interpretation, naturalistic generalizations, representation of data, and member checking. An analysis of the data revealed three themes: responsibility, willingness, and effectiveness. The major finding of this study was that the academic support provided by faculty to first- and second-year medical students was extremely complex. A multitude of factors influenced the provision and access to academic support, some which were previously found by research and others not. Further research is recommended on the academic supports provided in medical education to aid policymakers, administrators and faculty in designing effective academic support initiatives.

As learning analytics activity has increased, a variety of ethical implications and considerations have emerged, though a significant research gap remains in explicitly investigating the views of key stakeholders, such as academic staff. This paper draws on ethics-related findings from an Australian study featuring two surveys, one of institutional leaders (n = 22) and one of academic staff (n = 353), as well as a set of follow-up interviews (n = 23) with academic level staff. A self-selecting sample of participants was asked about the ethical issues they see as important in learning analytics and about the types of ethical principles or considerations they thought should guide learning analytics use. Data showed participants’ views did tend to align with established ethical principles, though the language used to express this varied widely. Building on, and in response to, both the data and the literature review the paper proposes an ethical decision making framework that encourages institutional leaders and those involved in implementing learning analytics to consistently apply and document ethical decision making processes as part of an overall approach to developing well-aligned and transparent institutional policies and broader ethical literacy.

This chapter draws on data collected as part of an Australian Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) funded project, which explored the use of learning analytics for student retention and success (West et al., 2015). The focus in this chapter is on the critical role of leadership in learning analytics development and the challenges of implementation, especially when it comes to connecting learning analytics to the classroom. The challenges associated with learning analytics implementation are summarised as: 1) complexity of the learning experience; 2) coherence around accountability and role; 3) communication; 4) potential exclusion of teaching staff, and; 5) potential exclusion of the student voice. Strong and effective leadership has the potential to address these challenges to varying degrees. We argue in this chapter that successful development of learning analytics capability and capacity, as well as successful leveraging of such capacity, requires a combination of positional and distributive leadership, and it requires, above all, a coherent and consistent whole-of-institution approach. Most importantly however, applying learning analytics in a meaningful way that is applicable in the classroom requires people with different types of expertise and knowledge to work together, which in turn is significantly aided by strong and effective leadership.

Several studies have been conducted to evaluate the experience and involvement of academics in learning analytics (LA) due to its potential for improving teaching and learning. However, findings often reflect an educational culture which is indicative of the institutional or national context where the study has occurred, resulting in bias regarding LA perspectives. Therefore, this study seeks to compare and contrast the experiences of LA among academics in Australia and Malaysia, with intentions to learn from each other’s experience. Areas of comparison were: (1) academics’ involvement in LA activities; (2) academics’ responses to the institutional capacity in supporting LA; and 3) academics’ concerns about the ethical issues surrounding LA. A survey of 353 Australian and 224 Malaysian academics revealed similarities and differences. It is evident from these results that the context and infrastructure for LA are at different stages of development in both countries. Nevertheless, the results provide an interesting reflection on academics’ needs, institutional understanding, policies, and educational cultural biases in applying LA in teaching and learning in higher education institutions.

This study provides insight into technology-enhanced assessment (TEA) in diverse higher education contexts. The effectiveness of using technology for assessment in higher education is still equivocal, particularly in regard to evidence of improvements in student learning. This empirical research explores the affordances that technology offers to assessment for transforming student learning. A systematic literature review, guided by an analytic survey tool, was used to identify and interrogate recent scholarly articles published in 19 international journals. From a total of 1713 articles, 139 articles were identified as being focused on the use of technology for assessment. The analytic tool guided the rigorous exploration of the literature regarding the types of technology being used, the educational goal, the type of assessment, and the degree of “transformation” afforded by the technology. Results showed that, in the sample investigated, TEA is used most frequently for formative peer learning, as part of the task design and feedback stages of the assessment cycle, and that social media has been a major affordance for this. Results are discussed with a view to fostering a future culture of inquiry and scholarship around TEA in higher education.

Background Very early aphasia rehabilitation studies have shown mixed results. Differences in therapy intensity and therapy type contribute significantly to the equivocal results. Aims To compare a standardized, prescribed very early aphasia therapy regimen with a historical usual care control group at therapy completion (4–5 weeks post-stroke) and again at follow-up (6 months). Methods & Procedures This study compared two cohorts from successive studies conducted in four Australian acute/sub-acute hospitals. The studies had near identical recruitment, blinded assessment and data-collection protocols. The Very Early Rehabilitation (VER) cohort (N = 20) had mild–severe aphasia and received up to 20 1-h sessions of impairment-based aphasia therapy, up to 5 weeks. The control cohort (n = 27) also had mild–severe aphasia and received usual care (UC) therapy for up to 4 weeks post-stroke. The primary outcome measure was the Aphasia Quotient (AQ) and a measure of communicative efficiency (DA) at therapy completion. Outcomes were measured at baseline, therapy completion and 6 months post-stroke and were compared using Generalised Estimating Equations (GEE) models. Outcomes & Results After controlling for initial aphasia and stroke disability, the GEE models demonstrated that at the primary end-point participants receiving VER achieved 18% greater recovery on the AQ and 1.5% higher DA scores than those in the control cohort. At 6 months, the VER participants maintained a 16% advantage in recovery on the AQ and 0.6% more on DA scores over the control cohort participants. Conclusions & Implications A prescribed, impairment-based aphasia therapy regimen, provided daily in very early post-stroke recovery, resulted in significantly greater communication gains in people with mild–severe aphasia at completion of therapy and at 6 months, when compared with a historical control cohort. Further research is required to demonstrate large-scale and long-term efficacy.

This paper presents findings from a study of Australian and New Zealand academics (n = 276) that teach tertiary education students. The study aimed to explore participants’ early experiences of learning analytics in a higher education milieu in which data analytics is gaining increasing prominence. Broadly speaking participants were asked about: (1) Their teaching context, (2) Their current student retention activities, (3) Their involvement in, and aspirations for, learning analytics use, (4) Their relationship with their institution around learning analytics. The sampled teaching staff broadly indicated a high level of interest but limited level of substantive involvement in learning analytics projects and capacity building activities. Overall, the intention is to present a critical set of voices that assist in identifying and understanding key issues and draw connections to the broader work being done in the field.

The concept of followership in higher education has been given limited attention despite the fact that followers are key players in the follower/leader equation and that leadership is increasingly seen as vital to improving the student learning experience. This paper explores this concept, reporting on the findings of a qualitative study underpinned by a socio-constructivist framework. Thirty-eight narratives describing the experience of being a follower and interacting with a formal leader were collected from academic teachers in seven institutions worldwide and analysed using inductive content analysis. The richness of the narratives collected illustrates the intricate relationship formed by the followership/leadership interaction. The results affirm the premise that, just as teachers are defined by their students’ learning, leaders are defined by their followers’ engagement. However, some teachers also display a strong reluctance towards the very idea of being a follower in academia where critical and independent thinking form the backbone of all practices. Negotiation, responsibility, and mutual respect appear essential aspects of any form of followership/leadership interaction as it directly or indirectly influences student learning and personal development. The research presented suggests that, in challenging times, academic leaders must attend to the characteristics and needs of their followers.

This paper explores the application of a network approach within the context of a community development project in suburban Northern Australia which aimed to develop positive social connections across different cultural groups. A neighbourhood group facilitated by a social worker drew upon network approaches to community development and created an ‘umbrella body’ comprising citizens and organisations to work towards the project aims. This paper presents research (pre- and post-project social network analysis and qualitative thematic analysis) that explores some of the impacts of this umbrella body. The social network analysis demonstrates positive changes in terms of developing a larger and more cohesive community network of people and organisations. The thematic analysis shows that organisations benefited from being involved in a range of ways, including networking opportunities, adding value to their existing work and being able to access and work with inspiring ideas from the community. In short, the research highlights the positive differences a small volunteer group can have upon a community when overtly embracing ‘network thinking’.

Preparing social work students to be effective practitioners is a complex and challenging task undertaken in a dynamic environment both in terms of the field of social work and the higher education sector. There have been recommendations that self knowledge, empirical knowledge, theoretical knowledge and procedural knowledge are the keys to high standards of social work practice. This paper suggests that the concept of practice wisdom is a useful focus for integrating these different aspects of informed practice and for focusing educational programmes for social work. As practice wisdom is more about process than possessed characteristics then there are important motivational and value-based considerations in developing wise practitioners. This discussion considers motivational and personal narrative aspects of practice wisdom so that it can be integrated into social work teaching.

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. Background: Communication outcomes following stroke are improved when treatments for aphasia are administered early, within the first 3 months after stroke, and provided for more than 2 hours per week. However, uncertainty remains about the optimal type of aphasia therapy. Aims: We compared constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT) with individual, impairment-based intervention, both administered early and daily after acute stroke. Methods&Procedures: This prospective, single-blinded, randomised, controlled trial recruited participants with mild to severe aphasia within 10 days of an acute stroke from acute/subacute Perth metropolitan hospitals (n = 20). Participants were allocated by computer-generated block randomisation method to either the CIAT (n = 12) or individual, impairment-based intervention group (n = 8) delivered at the same intensity (45–60 min, 5 days a week) for 20 sessions over 5 weeks (15–20 hours total). The primary outcome, measured after completing the intervention, was the Aphasia Quotient (AQ) from the Western Aphasia Battery. Secondary outcomes were the AQ at 12 and 26 weeks post stroke, a Discourse Analysis (DA) score and the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale (SAQoL), measured at therapy completion, 12 and 26 weeks post stroke. There was a 10% (n = 2) dropout at the primary end point, both participants were in the CIAT group. The estimates for each treatment group were compared using repeated measures ANOVAs. Data from the 26-week follow-up assessment are presented, however, were not included in the between-group comparisons due to the low number of data points in each group. Outcomes & Results: Within groups analyses comparing performance at baseline, therapy completion, and 12 weeks post stroke revealed a statistically significant treatment effect for the AQ (p

Digital badges point to a significant and innovative disruption to higher education in how learning achievements will be recognised, made more visible and reach beyond institutions. Digital badges provide a means to display transparent and information-rich links directly via metadata to standards achieved, the badge issuer, the criteria for earning the badge, as well as evidence of the skill or competency the badge represents (Bowen, Open badges anatomy (post on blog Class Hack). Retrieved from http://classhack.com/post/45364649211/open-badge-anatomy-updated, 2013).

In the current higher education environment, providing high quality teaching and learning experiences to students has moved beyond desirable to essential. Quality improvement takes many forms, but one core aspect to ensure sustainable improvement is the development of a culture of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Developing such an institutional culture is surprisingly challenging yet essential to improving the status of teaching in higher education (HE), being successful in teaching and learning awards and grants, and, improving the student experience. The Australian Government’s Promoting Excellence Network initiative funds networks to foster collaboration between HE institutions to improve outcomes in national learning and teaching award and grant programs. Supported by this funding, the South Australian / Northern Territory Promoting Excellence Network (SANTPEN), a grouping of six institutions, formed. Bringing together a diverse network of institutions, similar only by virtue of geographic location is challenging. This paper describes the first three years of SANTPEN’s journey from the context of our own development with the concept of SoTL and how we applied this to build a culture of SoTL in and between our institutions. It also demonstrates how a modest budget can be put to effective use to benefit those immediately involved, institutional objectives and the aims of the national funding body. We provide evidence of this effectiveness and conclude with our collective aspirations for the future of SANTPEN and other likeminded and funded networks. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The use of digital badges in the tertiary sector, while gaining some momentum, is still in its infancy with institutions just beginning to think about how they might be used. While seen as one of the emerging technologies to watch in coming years, discussion on the use of badges can be connected to various concepts around the future of higher education and approaches to learning and teaching. Within this discussion issues are raised around credentialing, micro-credentialing (and the place of higher education in this), the relationship of this to competency based education, pedagogy and the role of emerging technologies.

In 2010, we proposed that integrating social network analysis into community development practice may be a useful way to make overt the links between micro- and macro-level issues in communities, and for researching the impacts of community development work (Ennis, G. and West, D. (2010) Exploring the potential of social network analysis in asset-based community development practice and research, Australian Social Work, 63 (4), 404-417). This article presents research drawn from a community case study and provides a real example of how network analysis can be embedded in community development processes. The research demonstrates that social network analytic techniques can be useful in a range of ways, including: facilitating a critical analysis of 'the community'; focusing community work processes; and providing particular understandings about the outcomes and impacts of community work. In summary, the findings demonstrate that social network analysis is a useful tool for facilitating community development and measuring the efficacy of community development projects.

Universities are inherently learning communities in the broadest sense. Central to this and generally explicit in university mission statements are their goals in providing quality experiences for students. The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is a core element in the ongoing improvement of the student experience which embodies a valued scholarly research process. The idea of building an institution wide learning community with a focus on SoTL should therefore be at the heart of the university’s agenda and a relatively easy undertaking. Yet for a range of reasons it proves elusive in many institutions. This paper explores the underlying issues surrounding this challenge and identifies a range of factors which lay the foundation for building a SoTL learning community. It begins with an examination of the key concepts of SoTL, learning communities and structuralism to set the scene. The paper then examines key literature and existing data on SoTL and concludes with the presentation of a framework for building an institution wide learning community which supports the improvement of learning and teaching for students using a SoTL approach.

This paper reports results of analyses of data from an online 360 degrees; feedback survey with 19 heads of school, 23 line managers and 120 significant others (peers, academic staff and administrative staff) from Australian universities. It focuses on the heads'; effectiveness, and the extent and importance of several leadership roles. A series of repeated measures analyses of variance that examined the differences between the heads'; of school self-perceptions and the perceptions of their line managers and significant others were undertaken. The analysis of the effectiveness data showed that the heads'; of school self-evaluations were lower (but not significantly so) than the scores from the other two groups. The three groups agreed on how much importance they ascribed to the leadership roles, and on the extent to which these roles were displayed by the heads of school. There were significant differences between the roles in the extent to which they were displayed and considered important. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

• Summary: Society has changed substantially and rapidly with the advent of globalization where technology is both a catalyst for and a response to globalization. Concurrently and connected to these trends has been the advent of neo-liberalism, new managerialism and postmodernism. Globalization, technological change and neo-liberalism underpin and are driven by each other in a continual cycle. This rapidly changing, globally connected and technologically based society is the context for clients and social workers alike. This article explores the connections between globalization, ICT and neo-liberalism. This forms the basis for critical reflection on theories, models and modes of practice in light of the changing context allowing a proactive response to the challenges that face the profession and our clients. • Findings: Irrespective of the agency of employment, social workers are faced with challenges that arise out of an ideology of outsourcing, reductionism, speed of response, accountability and cost effectiveness with a decreased value on practice wisdom and holistic approaches. However, many of our theories and models were developed at a time when social structure, political ideology and economic underpinnings were different. As such workers are left being reactive to situations with limited opportunities to influence the core issues. This has contributed to the decreasing role and value of social workers. • Application: To remain relevant social work needs to continue to influence systems for the benefit of society while reviewing and updating theories and models to reflect current lifestyles, modes and patterns of communication and the impact of globalization.

Strengths-based practice appears to be a popular approach to social work practice. Increasingly, it has become the approach of choice in community work, with the “asset-based community development” model being utilised both in Australia and internationally. However, asset-based community development has been criticised for its lack of an evidence base, lack of theoretical depth, and its lack of consideration of the macro level causes of disempowerment. While concepts of networks are central to asset-based community development, social network theory and analysis have rarely been utilised in a comprehensive manner in asset-based community development practice or research. This article contends that asset-based community development practice can benefit from the integration of key concepts from social network theory. Similarly, it is proposed that social network analysis holds promise as an appropriate methodology in terms of understanding the efficacy of asset-based community development projects.

The present article explores the question of what Northern Territory (NT) social workers want from the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW). In a dynamic social work landscape, this question is a critical one for our professional association. Using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, data were obtained from 49 social workers with the primary aim of understanding their views about the AASW and what they wanted from their professional association. The findings indicate that, in general, social workers agreed with the AASW's stated objectives. Participant concerns centred on the urgent need for professional registration, access to quality Continuing Professional Education (CPE), the pursuit of social justice activities, and for the AASW to better articulate its overall role and purpose. Problematically, social workers expect the AASW to fulfil many roles and further research is required to provide a clearer, national picture.

In 1970, anthropologist Margaret Mead put forward a theory on the changing patterns in culture from a post-figurative stage which embodies traditional patterns of interaction and learning through to an emerging pre-figurative stage where younger people play a much greater role. Such a fundamental shift places different values on ways of knowing, learning, and what is conceived of as wisdom. The movement to this pre-figurative stage can be seen as being driven by our ‘new economy’ where the link between the use of information technology and the generation of income is fundamental. Additionally this shift is driving the need for an increase in the skill base of the population and subsequently the push for lifelong learning. This paper outlines the connections between the two dialogues on the information economy and lifelong learning. It argues that the emergence and solidification of the pre-figurative stage is in fact based on the predominance of information technology in all aspects of life but particularly in the economic sphere. As such, it explores the interplay of lifelong learning, the ‘new economy’ and the implications for our changing understandings of wisdom.

Social workers are increasingly working with people, families and communities that are affected by the ramifications of environmental issues. Currently social work practice works from a person-in-environment perspective with particular emphasis on the social environment. Very few social work models make explicit reference to the natural environment and even fewer actually highlight the natural environment as a key factor in intervention (West, 2006). The fact that a holistic approach based on social justice and cultural inclusion is enshrined in our code of ethics (AASW, 1999) provides further impetus for exploration and development of updated theoretical frameworks. Previous work highlighted the limitations of the mainstream sociological understandings for social work education and practice (West, 2006). The current paper explores the implications of this mainstream approach in an era when global and environmental issues are increasingly impacting on social work clients. To highlight the interconnection, examples are drawn from within the Australian and international context. This article then moves to outline the key philosophical underpinnings and theory base of a holistic environmental model of social work practice.

Bridging the Gap, a South Australian research based program, was designed to introduce the concepts of modern technology and some Internet skills to people over 55. Target populations included people in rural areas, those with a first language other than English and people who were frail or had a disability. Informal, interactive, hands-on sessions were developed which demonstrated the concepts underpinning modern computer-based devices and their applications in society. Major findings indicated that most participants identified feeling less anxious and more confident about using modem technology after the program and that they were using a new range of computer-based skills.

Very early aphasia rehabilitation studies have shown mixed results. Differences in therapy intensity and therapy type contribute significantly to the equivocal results.To compare a standardized, prescribed very early aphasia therapy regimen with a historical usual care control group at therapy completion (4-5 weeks post-stroke) and again at follow-up (6 months).This study compared two cohorts from successive studies conducted in four Australian acute/sub-acute hospitals. The studies had near identical recruitment, blinded assessment and data-collection protocols. The Very Early Rehabilitation (VER) cohort (N = 20) had mild-severe aphasia and received up to 20 1-h sessions of impairment-based aphasia therapy, up to 5 weeks. The control cohort (n = 27) also had mild-severe aphasia and received usual care (UC) therapy for up to 4 weeks post-stroke. The primary outcome measure was the Aphasia Quotient (AQ) and a measure of communicative efficiency (DA) at therapy completion. Outcomes were measured at baseline, therapy completion and 6 months post-stroke and were compared using Generalised Estimating Equations (GEE) models.After controlling for initial aphasia and stroke disability, the GEE models demonstrated that at the primary end-point participants receiving VER achieved 18% greater recovery on the AQ and 1.5% higher DA scores than those in the control cohort. At 6 months, the VER participants maintained a 16% advantage in recovery on the AQ and 0.6% more on DA scores over the control cohort participants.A prescribed, impairment-based aphasia therapy regimen, provided daily in very early post-stroke recovery, resulted in significantly greater communication gains in people with mild-severe aphasia at completion of therapy and at 6 months, when compared with a historical control cohort. Further research is required to demonstrate large-scale and long-term efficacy.

This article describes initial results of a collaborative action research endeavor between a regional university and a local school (Grade 6 level) using learning environments research to monitor alignment of classroom learning activities with a constructivist viewpoint while integrating technology into the curriculum. Student perceptions as measured by the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) were explored. Teacher logs, teacher interviews, and fieldnotes from team discussion groups and classroom observation provided further understanding of interactions in the classroom. A one-way analysis of variance in which the set of four classroom learning environment variables for the CLES, the set of five variables for each of the CLES-Mathematics and the CLES-Science and time of administration (prior to technology integration and after technology integration) yielded no significant changes in student perceptions of the classroom learning environment over the duration of the academic year. Interpretation of results led teachers to construct a new set of questions and a new plan of action to bring their classroom learning environment into closer alignment with a constructivist perspective for teaching and learning.

Book reviews in this article: Objective: The South Australian Government funded the Rural Online Research Project to investigate Internet use by older people in rural South Australia. Method: Information was gathered from this population via questionnaires in relation to their use of computers and the Internet and focus groups were held to supplement this data. Results: Findings indicated that of the 16% of older rural residents who used the Internet the most common uses were email, browsing, games and accessing travel or entertainment information. Over half of those not using the Internet indicated that they would like to learn and the majority indicated that major barriers to use were lack of opportunity and cost involved. Conclusion: Opportunity, cost and a supportive learning environment are key factors in encouraging Internet use by older people in rural areas.

Child protection and youth justice are two domains which have historically been of strong sociopolitical interest in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. Within both of these domains, the courts play a central role in the complex systems through which policies become operable. Traditionally, the courts have faced difficult challenges within this context because the remoteness of much of the NT, inconsistent resourcing, cultural diversity and widespread variation in socio-economic outcomes are factors which, through their presence, have contributed to a dynamic policy context that has fluctuated between ideals of care, coercion, punishment and rehabilitation. This chapter explores the role of the courts through both exploration of current and past policies and direct reflection from 44 people who work in child protection and youth justice.

An audit of Pneumocystis carinü pneumonia prophylaxis used in HIV-infected patients within Bloomsbury health authority in 1989 was carried out. A total of 134 patients who were prescribed 167 courses of PCP prophylaxis, with a variety of different regimens, was included in the study. Fifty three patients were prescribed 60 courses of primary prophylaxis, 55 of which were given with concurrent zidovudine. Eighty two patients were prescribed 107 courses of secondary prophylaxis, 96 after one episode of PCP and 11 after two episodes. Patients given primary prophylaxis, together with zidovudine, had a lower incidence of PCP than patients receiving no treatment. With secondary prophylaxis, a higher rate of relapse was seen with nebulised pentamidine than with co-trimoxazole (16 per cent compared with 4.5 per cent). The incidence of adverse effects with co-trimoxazole was higher in secondary than in primary prophylaxis. Compliance with nebulised pentamidine therapy was poor. Compliance with oral therapy was not monitored.