Lindsey Conner

Learning to Be Leaders in Higher Education: What Helps or Hinders Women’s Advancement as Leaders in Universities:

This article examines 110 reported incidents from an online survey of 26 women from each of the eight universities in New Zealand. They responded to questions asking them to describe times when work and non-work situations have helped or hindered their advancement in university leadership roles. Five key themes, incorporating a range of factors, emerged as making a difference to advancement as leaders. These themes are: work relationships; university environment; invisible rules; proactivity; and personal circumstances. This research is part of the L-SHIP (Leadership- Supporting Higher Intent & Practice) project and has two main aims. First, to identify factors in universities that help and hinder women’s advancement as leaders, as reported by women; second, to provide useful evidence to underpin the development of programmes supporting women’s advancement in university leadership roles. This research is a first step in the development of the L-SHIP Toolkit for good practice in leadership development in higher education.

Comparative water loss from leaves of Solanum laciniatum plants cultured in vitro and in vivo

Abstract Water loss from fully turgid leaves of Solanum laciniatum Ait. plants cultured in vitro was considerably greater than that from either acclimatized plants or the parent plants from which cultures were established. Microscopic examination of lower epidermal strips from detached leaves (initially fully turgid) of transplanted and parent plants revealed 100% stomatal closure within 30 min. In contrast, half of the stomata from leaves of plants cultured in vitro were still fully open 16 h after detachment. Scanning electron microscopy revealed an absence of visible epicuticular waxes on leaves of plants cultured in vitro. However, since (1) leaf cuticles are mainly effective in controlling water loss after stomatal closure and (2) epicuticular waxes remained considerably reduced on leaves of acclimatized plants, the rapid water loss from leaves of S. laciniatum plants cultured in vitro was attributed primarily to failure of stomatal closure.

Conscious knowledge of learning: accessing learning strategies in a final year high school biology class

This paper reports on a qualitative case study investigation of the knowledge and use of learning strategies by 16 students in a final year high school biology class to expand their conscious knowledge of learning. Students were provided with opportunities to engage in purposeful inquiry into the biological, social and ethical aspects of cancer. A constructivist approach was implemented to access prior content and procedural knowledge in various ways. Students were encouraged to develop evaluation of their learning skills independently through activities that promoted metacognition. Those students who planned and monitored their work produced essays of higher quality. The value and difficulties of promoting metacognitive approaches in this context are discussed, as well as the idea that metacognitive processes are difficult to research, because they have to be conscious in order to be identified by the learner, thereby making them accessible to the researcher.

Seed biology of Chordospartium stevensonii

Abstract Chordospartium stevensonii Cheesem. seeds show dormancy and germination characteristics typical of many legumes. Seed dormancy is due to a water impermeable testa and seeds germinated very poorly without intentional seed scarification. However, both acid scarification (10–40 min in 18M H2SO4) and mechanical scarification (nicking the testa) permitted 100% germination within several days. Once the seed coat dormancy is alleviated, germination occurs over a wide range of environmental conditions with respect to varying temperature, light, and water potential. A feature atypical of legumes with hard seeds is a rapid loss of seed viability (complete loss of viability within 6.5 years of dry storage at room temperature).

Seed germination of five subalpine Acaena species

Abstract The effects of temperature, light, and water availability on seed germination are examined in Acaena caesiiglauca, A. fissistipula, A. glabra, A. inermis, and A. profundeincisa. Germination requirements are quite specific with maximum germination usually below 60%. Seed predominantly germinates over a narrow temperature range (approximately 14–21°C) and is promoted by light and high water availability. Seed of A. inermis only germinated well in the presence of 2% potassium nitrate. Seed germination declined during dry storage at room temperature, with virtually no germination 10 months after harvest.

Students' Use of Evaluative Constructivism: Comparative Degrees of Intentional Learning.

Evaluative constructivism is used to describe how students derived learning intentions and made choices about what they would do during a unit of work in a final-year high school biology class, as they conducted an inquiry into the social and ethical issues associated with cancer. The context of the study, theoretical background and overview of students’ awareness of their learning strengths and needs are related to the level of achievement in the essays they wrote. The case studies illustrate the diversity in the extent of knowledge and use of learning strategies and the implications this has for the level of support teachers can provide to enable students to be more self-directed. The concepts outlined here have very wide application to multiple learning contexts.

Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners in New Zealand

One of the interesting features of New Zealands education system is the greater level of students’ diversity, learning needs, and achievement levels within-school classrooms than what exists between different schools. Addressing these issues and differences poses significant challenges to teachers; however, potential solutions are emerging from everyday practice that incorporates cultural worldviews and concepts. This article provides several specific strategies developed by teachers in schools, explains how teachers adjusted their approaches to teaching, and describes the assessment evidence collection process followed to document how student learning was influenced by the teaching method changes made.

Teachers as Leaders and Learners: Building Teacher Leadership in a Bangladeshi Secondary School

This chapter examines the ways a creative and innovative principal in a Bangladeshi secondary school developed his teachers as leaders. The leadership practices that have developed in this school are significant because they offer a model of shared responsibility for engagement with students and community in the Bangladeshi context where authoritarian leadership is still the more common practice and the norm. This case study uses a qualitative approach that draws primarily on the principal’s perceptions and experiences. It offers a contribution to educational change that is drawn from working within a local context rather than simply based on outside, and possibly alien, international models.

The Promise of Science Education Research

The promotion of STEM to advance economies and educational and vocational chances for people is high on the agenda of many governments. This chapter argues that, worldwide, we need to focus on how science education can enhance people’s lives through providing new solutions to general life, health, and environmental imperatives. Therefore, we need research that supports the future directions of science education, mostly related to how we engage students with science and scientists and with communities and the development of science teaching to enthuse and excite people, to develop a restless curiosity and fascination with the world and how it works, as well as to see science as a way of generating new ideas and knowledge that can contribute to better quality of life. While much research on science education assumes that teachers are able to make changes to their teaching to enhance student outcomes, the research on learning environments has recently highlighted the social inequities related to access of information in many urban/rural schools around the world and how other conditions often have to be redressed before the reform agenda in science education can be advanced. There is a need to understand how to make science education more engaging and relevant.

Biology Student Teachers’ Reflections in Eportfolios as a Trigger for Self-Study of a Teacher Educator

This chapter discusses how I used preservice teachers’ (PSTs) reflections in a Graduate Diploma biology class to inform my teaching of a senior biology curriculum course. I focussed on students’ reflections they wrote in their eportfolios. This involved categorising how often students reflected on ways to learn content knowledge, evaluated pedagogy and resources, as well as how they made links with their observations of their mentor or associate teachers in schools during professional experiences and school students’ class work. These reflections triggered my own reflections as a teacher educator and challenged my assumptions about how students were experiencing the activities. Their statements and frank discussion of how they felt, gave much more in-depth information than would be possible during class sessions. My analysis of PSTs’ reflections is discussed including the implications for my shifting identity from “Knower” (about teaching biology) to “knowing” (about my students experiences) through evidence-informed professional learning.