This
month's question:
Have you
had any success introducing undergraduates to discipline based education
research? Many universities offer programs for undergraduate students to
participate in research, have you tried education research projects? Share your
stories to samnetaustralia@gmail.com
2.
Conferences & publication
The 8th
Australian NZ Mathematics Convention – The University of Melbourne. 8-12
December, 2014
The
conference is building in a Mathematics Education session and they are looking
for a significant group of participants. Talks in the session will be 25
minutes.
Abstracts
are due on November 17
Other
discipline conferences in September and December:
The annual
conference for the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
(ComBio2015) | 28 September-2 October, Canberra
Australian
Institute of Physics Congress | 7-11 December, Canberra
Royal Australian Chemical Institute National Congress
| 7-12 December, Adelaide
3.
Connections/Events
Future:
The Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics
Education (ACSME) – The University of Sydney and The University of
Technology, Sydney. September 29 – October 1, 2014.
This conference is the main annual gathering of the SaMnet Australia Community.
We will not be hosting an exclusive gathering, rather we encourage SaMnet to
use all aspects of the conference as an opportunity to network with each other
and our colleagues in the wider community.
Arthur Phillip High School,
Parramatta NSW – October 3, 2014
Do you know any high school
teachers who are keen and interested in improving experiments and lab
experiences for their students? Yes- please pass on the flyer.
Online registrations close
today (22 September 2014).
4.
SaMnet activity
ACSME is
next Monday!
SaMnet
will be active at the ACSME conference through many presenters (both talks and
posters) and conference delegates coming from the SaMnet community. We will not
have an exclusive gathering but look forward to seeing many of you there next
week.
5.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) (Edited by - Emma Bartle, UQ)
Steve
Kolowich
Intuition
tells us that to effectively teach a concept to a student we need to explain it
in clear and straightforward terms. Dr Derek Muller (Former student of the
Sydney University Physics Education Research group) which actually concluded
the opposite – ambiguous and “confusing” educational videos actually
demonstrated better learning outcomes straightforward and clear videos on the
same topic.
Margaret
Clifford
Learning
is the ultimate goal of education. This paper explains, however, that
experiences of failure may actually promote academic success. Failure can
result in increased persistence, task initiation, task interest and,
eventually, performance improvement. The authors proposes a set of factors
which can be used to predict whether failure will have a positive or negative
impact on student performance.
6.
Leadership insights (Edited by
Matt Hill & Will Rifkin, USyd)
Craig
McInnis, Paul Ramsden and Don Maconachie
This
resource presents the fundamental principles of good teaching, in the context
of leadership in an educational institution. How can leadership decisions shape
positive educational ourcomes? It helps ‘distributed leaders’ of our community
to understand motivations of those above them... and to manage upward.
Excerpt
from Academic Research, Chapter 4 of The Full-Time Faculty Handbook by Sharon
Ahern Fechter (compiled by Rick Reis)
Managing
your research takes leadership. Leadership in constructing a research agenda
allows for your work to be defined, focussed and influential. How do you decide
what you will be researching next?
7.
Initiative in Focus:
All three
of the 2013 OLT National Fellowships that we have been keeping you up to date
with this year will be heavily involved in the ACSME conference. Come along to
meet the fellows and investigate their projects further.
Manju
Sharma (The
University of Sydney)
Keynote –
Monday 9:15-10:15am – Using engagement in lectures as an entree for learning
Garry
Hoban (The
University of Wollongong)
“DigiXFest
– Science Media” Event – Monday 5:15-7:15pm Monday) – Drinks and canapés
followed by showcase and judging
Chris
Creagh (Murdoch
University)
Afternoon
Workshop on the Discipline Day (At UTS) – Wednesday 1:00-3:00pm – A Toolbox of
Diagrams and Interrogating Formulas
8.
Classifieds
The 8th
Australian NZ Mathematics Convention organisers are looking for
suggestions of appropriate keynote speakers in Mathematics Education. Contact Deb King.
