Academic literature on the topic 'School-based management Victoria'

This Special Issue is based on selected papers from the Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) and Sustainability Conference (2021). This is the second ESG conference held by Victoria University Business School (VUBS) and the Institute of Sustainable Industries and the Liveable Cities (ISILC) of Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.

Abstract: This article is a book review created by Ibtisam Abu-Duhou's entitled School Based Management. This is very representative book as one of the main references in understanding the school-based management (SBM) concept, since it was compiled at the very beginning when the SBM concept was introduced in Indonesia. This book consists of five chapters. The discussion begins with a review of the basic concepts, origins and character of SBM decentralization. The first chapter examines the main character of reforms and education management aspects relatively centralistic and decentralized. The second chapter discusses some research in English-speaking countries to provide answers and concrete evidence from the SBM movement. The third chapter describes the radical overall implementation of SBM in Victoria, Australia. The fourth chapter provides an example of the approach and efforts made by policy makers in identifying problems. The fifth chapter elaborates further on the material in the previous chapters to summarize the reform main characters. One consequence of implementing SBM is the realization of community participation, even as spirit and substance. Community participation is a concept of school empowerment in order to improve the quality and school independence. In implementing the SBM concept, community participation has many forms, both in educational, cultural or institutional interaction patterns.

Abstract:Health and medical informatics education has meanwhile gained considerable importance for medicine and for health care. Specialized programs in health/medical informatics have therefore been established within the last decades.This special issue of Methods of Information in Medicine contains papers on health and medical informatics education. It is mainly based on selected papers from the 5th Working Conference on Health/Medical Informatics Education of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), which was held in September 1992 at the University of Heidelberg/Technical School Heilbronn, Germany, as part of the 20 years’ celebration of medical informatics education at Heidelberg/Heilbronn. Some papers were presented on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the health information science program of the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Within this issue, programs in health/medical informatics are presented and analyzed: the medical informatics program at the University of Utah, the medical informatics program of the University of Heidelberg/School of Technology Heilbronn, the health information science program at the University of Victoria, the health informatics program at the University of Minnesota, the health informatics management program at the University of Manchester, and the health information management program at the University of Alabama. They all have in common that they are dedicated curricula in health/medical informatics which are university-based, leading to an academic degree in this field. In addition, views and recommendations for health/medical informatics education are presented. Finally, the question is discussed, whether health and medical informatics can be regarded as a separate discipline with the necessity for specialized curricula in this field.In accordance with the aims of IMIA, the intention of this special issue is to promote the further development of health and medical informatics education in order to contribute to high quality health care and medical research.

This article examines teachers' views of their management styles, classified as either ‘coercive’ or ‘relationship’ -based, for 145 primary and 363 secondary school teachers in Victoria, Australia. It finds that management that combines punishment with aggressive and hostile behaviour can exacerbate misbehaviour and increase student distraction. In contrast a combination of rewards and punishments, set in a context of discussion, validation of appropriate behaviour, involvement and trust, will encourage student responsibility and reduce misbehaviour. This study seeks to extend upon a 2001 study that reported generally similar findings from the reports of 3500 students attending the same schools as the teachers whose views are reported in this article. The discussion considers the most effective management strategies for reducing student misbehaviour and distraction, comparing both students' and teachers' views, as well as techniques that increase student responsibility and protection of rights, emphasising techniques and strategies that involve the use of recognition and rewards.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effectiveness of image-repair strategies adopted by organizations to restore their public image and reputation following crisis situations, the lessons learned from these cases and the significance of contextual factors that are likely to affect image-repair efforts and strategies adopted. Design/methodology/approach Three cases have been reviewed in this paper: Weather, Jordan; Nestlé Waters, Jordan; and Victoria College School, Jordan. Information was obtained from published materials, such as YouTube commentaries, local newspapers and online news agents, primarily the Jordan Times, which is considered the number one daily in the country. The discussion of these cases is original and based on academic theory and literature. Findings Organizations differ in terms of the ways they respond to corporate crises and the strategies they are likely to adopt to restore/recover their reputation and public image. Practical implications Corporate reputation or public image is an asset that is built over time. Organizations within all industries seek to secure positive images in the minds of people. The image of an organization however can be threatened by crises. Trust and public image decline when stakeholders feel they have not been adequately informed in times of crises regarding the different attributes of the situation or how the organization is dealing with the crisis. Organizations have the choice to adopt one image-repair strategy at a time or a combination of strategies according to the requirements of the situation. Originality/value Image-repair strategies have been examined in American and European contexts but have, to the author’s knowledge, never been examined in the context of Arab organizations and more specifically in the context of Jordanian organizations. This paper therefore provides a new insight into how to apply these strategies in a unique and new context and will also motivate future research in this regard.

Background: In Western countries, middle-aged women are more vulnerable to breast cancer. Globally, almost a million new cases were identified in 1998. One in 12 women in England and Wales will get the disease at some point.1 Even 5,000 years after it was first reported, the etiology of breast cancer is still unclear, and effective preventative measures are even further off. Aim: To characterize the varied ways in which breast cancer has presented itself among patients at Bahawal Victoria Hospital in Bahawalpur. Methods: This investigation employed a descriptive case series research design. This research was conducted at Bahawal Victoria Hospital's Surgery Department in Bahawalpur (Pakistan). From March 13th, 2020 through March 12th, 2021, the study was conducted (12 months). With their assent, 100 women with definite cases of breast cancer were enrolled in the study. Results: Cancer of the breast most commonly affected women between the ages of 31 and 50 (59%). Seventy-six patients arrived from the outlying rural areas of Bahawalpur and the neighboring districts. Only 18 patients had completed high school after 10 years and 5 patients were discovered to be college graduates. The single rate was 12%, with 12 patients. Eighty-one percent of patients reported having a breast lump. 56% of breast cancers involve the left breast, while 43% involve the right. One patient alone had breast cancer that had spread to both of her breasts. Illness duration varied from 1 month to 5 years. Stage III was the most prevalent presentation, with 46 instances, and Stage IV was the least common, with 16 patients. Practical implication Community based effective awareness and prompt screening programme will improve better outcomes in breast cancer management. Conclusion: Breast cancer is very common cancer in the females, and most commonly it presented as a lump in the breast, because of some social aspects, lack of awareness, poverty, no proper screening programs and above all the fear of diagnosis, females try to hide this problem and often it presented at late and more advance stage. Keywords: Breast, Nipple, Cancer, Lump, Surgery, Tumor

Objective. To outline the major findings of a qualitative evaluation of an Early Psychosis Service 3 years after its establishment. Design. Data to evaluate the service were collected from team meetings, focus groups, individual interviews and questionnaires administered to clinicians, school staff, patients, carers and families. Setting. Barwon Health; Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol Services provide public mental health care to the Geelong, Victoria, region (population 270 000), which is a mixed urban and rural setting. The Early Psychosis Service model implemented involved the placement of two early psychosis workers into each of five adult geographically based Area Mental Health Teams rather than the establishment of a single Early Psychosis Team. Results. The service was found not to adhere to its original design in several key respects. Caseloads and periods of case management were found to be lower and shorter respectively than was originally planned for, caseworkers often experienced isolation and resentment from their adult service coworkers, the service was perceived to be difficult to access and premises not to be youth friendly and communication and engagement with external agencies and service providers was perceived to be poor. Conclusions. The choice of service model, inadequate consultation with stakeholders and inadequate promotion of the service contributed to its failure to reach early expectations. Because of these and other issues, including difficulties distinguishing between early psychosis and non-psychosis, a decision was made to restructure youth services and a separate youth mental health service, which incorporated the Early Psychosis Service function, was established.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The world of public school education systems is currently experiencing a reform phenomenon in which almost exclusively, the focus of reform is to create decentralized models of school governance described as school-based management (SBM). Issues such as the challenges of the global knowledge economy are fuelling the focus on SBM as a means of providing educational opportunities essential for the nations to remain competitive. An important component of SBM is the school council or board which is the vehicle for shared governance. Since the 1970's, Australia has become a world leader in the introduction of SBM. In particular, the initiatives by the state of Victoria played a lead role while continuing to refine and fine-tune its SBM focus as the key principle underpinning development of its large public education system. New South Wales (NSW) attempted to introduce SBM in the early 1970's and on several occasions since but was unsuccessful until 1990. The model of SBM, its introduction and political commitments have differed between NSW and Victoria. This study compared the effectiveness of school councils in each state as an indicator of the effectivemess of SBM. The research was conducted in 2006 using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies comprising of an empirical survey with a sample of 100 Victorian and 150 NSW schools ans semi-structured interviews with 41 participants belonging to all categories of stakeholders as well as documentary analyses. Data generated from the two phases of the research correlated strongly and identified a number of important issues. Most principals see school councils as supportive of their role but ironically, the effectiveness of a school council is dependent on the knowledge, skills and commitment of the principal. School councils in Victoria are significantly more effective when compared to NSW, however, the data indicated that the role of school councils can and should be broadened and strengthened in both states. Although at the schools where school councils have been established in NSW there is general support of the concept, there is confusion about the place and future of school councils especially in view of the luke-warm support they receive from the NSW bureaucracy.

This thesis investigates the impact of ICT on the learning outcomes for Learning Disabilities (LD) or special needs students, in a special school setting. The literature reported a significant prevalence of LD universally, ranging from physical and mild to extreme disabilities. It highlighted that there are a significant number of students with learning disabilities who require assistance and support in their learning. Assistive technology plays a significant role for educators and students with learning disabilities in facilitating the learning outcomes. The Internet and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a major part in shaping the knowledge and skills of LD students. Assistive technology has introduced awareness for both educators and students and, for the past decade, there has been a growing effort in designing and developing ICT based platforms to enhance the learning outcomes of these students. With the emergence of new technologies like Web 2.0, the need to design appropriate tools and provide an environment that is conducive to successful learning is stronger. This thesis examines the various teaching methodologies and ICT innovation in a holistic way. The literature shows that although there are some studies that investigate the impact of technology on the learning for special needs students, most of the data are second source. This study presents results from participant observations in two outer suburban special schools with students aged between 14-18 years, and in addition, examines the role and impact of Education Department policies on the schools‘ ICT environment. These observations are compared with a study based on an individual case of a student from Prep to Year 12 and TAFE. This study identified different categories of special needs students who were catered for in these special schools. These ranged from students with physical or cognitive disabilities, to mainstream students placed temporarily in a hospital. The latter group received ICT support to continue their studies which is now facilitated through a virtual classroom environment.

Open Innovation (OI) is a new paradigm in innovation suitable for organisations characterised by Research and Development (R&D), and for organisations that are global and operating in high- technology industries. Although exceedingly relevant to Australian businesses due to the location challenge faced by Australia, to date OI is only sparsely researched in the Australian context. The majority of research published on OI is in the European or American context. This qualitative case study therefore, investigated OI in the Victorian Biotechnology Industry, which meets the characteristics of organisations suitable for OI. The aim of this research is to understand the micro-foundations of OI and its implications from individual managers’ perspective in Biotechnology organisations; and to explore how organisations and individuals can manage these implications. The results of this study show how the implications of OI can be managed at an individual level and also at, the organisational level without heavy investment or major changes. Applying the lens of Knowledge Based Theory of the firm, this research examines the perspectives of various stakeholders on OI in the Biotechnology industry. This research explored individual managers’ interpretation of the OI phenomenon based on their overall experience of OI in their organisations. The interpretivist paradigm enabled an understanding into the reality of the phenomenon as seen by the practitioners of OI. It allowed the Researcher to search for patterns of meaning while describing meanings that the managers assigned to OI; their view of the implications of being open for innovation, and examining how OI was managed in their organisations. The data for this study was collected based on the considerations of theoretical saturation which was achieved from eight Biotechnology organisations in the state of Victoria in Australia. A total of twenty interviews were conducted with ten participants from the eight Biotechnology organisations. In addition, for triangulation, six interviews with five participants from: a Contract Research Organisation (CRO), a premier Australian Research Institute (RI), and an Industry Body (IB) for the Biotechnology industry were conducted. By including a variety of stakeholders from the industry this research is able to present a holistic picture of OI in the Victorian Biotechnology industry. Although a small sample, saturation of information was reached from the rich data that emanated from the semi-structured interviews, analysis of documents collected, and from information posted on websites. The data set was so rich that issues of validity and reliability were easily justified from the analysed data. Literature on OI has suggested that one of the implications of OI is that it requires considerable changes in the policies, processes and systems of organisations. The findings of this research suggest that the nature of the Biotechnology industry is such that it is knowledge intensive, participates in R&D, is technology based, and adopts OI without much effort in change management. OI was viewed as ingrained in the nature of scientific work and not an entirely novel phenomenon within the Biotechnology industry in Victoria. The Biotechnology firms investigated did not have to incorporate any major changes to realise OI, nor required implementing any specific systems, processes or procedures for the management of OI. Consequently, the changes experienced by individuals in these organisations for OI were minimal. The findings of this research, vary from earlier studies on OI in the American and European context that suggest that there are considerable implications due to the ‘not-invented-here’ syndrome. This research instead suggests that there are other implications that need more attention. For the Biotechnology organisations in this research OI promoted greater learning, improved staff morale and more team work. OI also required individuals to balance diverse stakeholder demands, learn better time management and communication, be more open to change as well as overcome ego, fear and distrust while attempting to form external partnerships. Additionally, these research findings suggest that entrepreneurial thinking, team work and cross-disciplinary knowledge are major enablers for OI in organisations. The findings on the implications of OI in terms of the benefits and challenges highlight the dichotomy of saving time and money due to OI while also facing the challenge of risking time and money when working with external partners. To realise the benefits of OI these organisations had to harness the advantages of opposing forces such as: revealing and being open, efficiency and innovation, hierarchy and networks, teamwork and individual accountability, maintaining cost control and ensuring quality, as well as a centralised vision with decentralised autonomy. For individuals in the Biotechnology organisations this meant dealing with these paradoxes. The findings highlight that at an individual level OI can lead to a struggle to manage timelines and resource constraints while striving for quality; learning to balance between disclosure and discretion when interacting with external partners; retrieving internal knowledge while gaining new knowledge; working collaboratively internally and externally while being individually responsible. The findings of this study suggest that OI increasingly requires knowledge exchange while contending with dualities and paradox at both individual and organisational level. Importantly this research highlights that Organisational Fluidity and Agility enables balancing and managing these dualities and paradox. The characteristics of Organisational Fluidity and Agility such as: porous boundaries, fluidity in processes and systems, resource mobility and temporary project teams are useful for OI as determined from the Biotechnology organisations. As these organisations were also Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that are generally known to be responsive and flexible, it is deemed that the overall agility and fluidity of these organisations further provided on-going support for OI. This research confirms that OI was facilitated in these Biotechnology SMEs due to their Organisational Fluidity and Agility at an individual and organisational level. At the individual level, Organisational Fluidity and Agility was supported through the use of flexible processes, systems, roles and responsibilities. This allowed employees to better handle the dual demands placed on their time, knowledge and skills for OI. The contribution this study makes is that OI is closely linked to Organisational Agility and Fluidity, both at the individual and organisational levels. Organisations do not necessarily need to undergo major transformation to gain the benefits of OI. The characteristics of agile and flexible organisations (such as: porous boundaries, fluidity in processes & systems, resource mobility and temporary project teams) appear to facilitate OI in the Biotechnology industry. At the individual level, individuals in Biotechnology SMEs are orientated towards collaboration (internally and externally) due to their scientific training and overall nature of knowledge intensive drug development process. Additionally, the small size and resource constraints of these Biotechnology organisations is the reason for individuals to adopt a more collaborative attitude towards innovation to stay ahead of competition. However, these findings are from one industry compromising of SMEs. Future research is required to explore these findings in other industries.

The Australian Catholic University (ACU National at www.acu.edu.au) is a public university funded by the Australian Government. There are six campuses across the country, located in Brisbane, Queensland; North Sydney, New South Wales; Strathfield, New South Wales; Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT); Ballarat, Victoria; and Melbourne, Victoria. The university serves a total of approximately 27,000 students, including both full- and part-time students, and those enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Through fostering and advancing knowledge in education, health, commerce, the humanities, science and technology, and the creative arts, ACU National seeks to make specific and targeted contributions to its local, national, and international communities. The university explicitly engages the social, ethical, and religious dimensions of the questions it faces in teaching, research, and service. In its endeavors, it is guided by a fundamental concern for social justice, equity, and inclusivity. The university is open to all, irrespective of religious belief or background. ACU National opened its doors in 1991 following the amalgamation of four Catholic tertiary institutions in eastern Australia. The institutions that merged to form the university had their origins in the mid-17th century when religious orders and institutes became involved in the preparation of teachers for Catholic schools and, later, nurses for Catholic hospitals. As a result of a series of amalgamations, relocations, transfers of responsibilities, and diocesan initiatives, more than twenty historical entities have contributed to the creation of ACU National. Today, ACU National operates within a rapidly changing educational and industrial context. Student numbers are increasing, areas of teaching and learning have changed and expanded, e-learning plays an important role, and there is greater emphasis on research. In its 2005–2009 Strategic Plan, the university commits to the adoption of quality teaching, an internationalized curriculum, as well as the cultivation of generic skills in students, to meet the challenges of the dynamic university and information environment (ACU National, 2008). The Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) Program at ACU Canberra Situated in Australia’s capital city, the Canberra campus is one of the smallest campuses of ACU National, where there are approximately 800 undergraduate and 200 postgraduate students studying to be primary or secondary school teachers through the School of Education (ACT). Other programs offered at this campus include nursing, theology, social work, arts, and religious education. A new model of pre-service secondary teacher education commenced with the introduction of the Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) program at this campus in 2005. It marked an innovative collaboration between the university and a cohort of experienced secondary school teachers in the ACT and its surrounding region. This partnership was forged to allow student teachers undertaking the program to be inducted into the teaching profession with the cooperation of leading practitioners from schools in and around the ACT. In the preparation of novices for the teaching profession, an enduring challenge is to create learning experiences capable of transforming practice, and to instill in the novices an array of professional skills, attributes, and competencies (Putnam & Borko, 2000). Another dimension of the beginning teacher experience is the need to bridge theory and practice, and to apply pedagogical content knowledge in real-life classroom practice. During the one-year Graduate Diploma program, the student teachers undertake two four-week block practicum placements, during which they have the opportunity to observe exemplary lessons, as well as to commence teaching. The goals of the practicum include improving participants’ access to innovative pedagogy and educational theory, helping them situate their own prior knowledge regarding pedagogy, and assisting them in reflecting on and evaluating their own practice. Each student teacher is paired with a more experienced teacher based at the school where he/she is placed, who serves as a supervisor and mentor. In 2007, a new dimension to the teaching practicum was added to facilitate online peer mentoring among the pre-service teachers at the Canberra campus of ACU National, and provide them with opportunities to reflect on teaching prior to entering full-time employment at a school. The creation of an online community to facilitate this mentorship and professional development process forms the context for the present case study. While on their practicum, students used social software in the form of collaborative web logging (blogging) and threaded voice discussion tools that were integrated into the university’s course management system (CMS), to share and reflect on their experiences, identify critical incidents, and invite comment on their responses and reactions from peers.