This paper considers Australian academic staff members' attitudes to their colleagues in positions of university leadership, based on responses to the international Changing Academic Profession (CAP) survey conducted in 2007. When compared with responses from other participating nations, Australian academics indicate considerably lower…

This study examined the contributions of orientations to happiness (pleasure, engagement and meaning) to subjective well-being. A sample of 12,622 adults from the United States completed on-line surveys measuring orientations to happiness, positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. A sample of 332 adults from Australia also completed…

Objectives: The purpose of the current article was to explore perceptions of transitional employment and training and development amongst blue collar workers employed in technical, trade, operations or physical and labour-intensive occupations within the local government system. Methods: The responses of manual workers to two national surveys…

Assessment plays an integral role in teaching and learning in higher education and teachers have a strong interest in debates and commentaries on assessment as and for learning. In a 1-year graduate entry teacher preparation program, the temptation is to emphasize assessment in an attempt to ensure students "cover" everything as part of…

The purpose of the current study was to benchmark a broad range of work practices and outcomes in Australian universities against other industries. Past research suggests occupational stress experienced by academic staff is worse than experienced by employees in other industries. However, no other practices or outcomes can be compared confidently.…

An increasing number of working parents are making use of out of school hours care (OSHC) for their young primary-school aged children, but in Australia very little is known about how effectively these services meet parent needs. The present pilot study aimed to gather information non-directively from employed parents, first, about how OSHC use…

This article extends current understandings of sources of job (dis)satisfaction for childcare staff by investigating the hypothesis that early childhood professionals' satisfaction with regulatory requirements is a predictor of job satisfaction. Findings show that for early childhood professionals in New South Wales, Australia, satisfaction with…

This article considers the issue of facilitating policies that enhance population happiness. An impediment to such action is the failure of most policy makers to understand that subjective wellbeing can be measured and understood within the framework of science. Additionally, they fail to realize that enhancing the subjective wellbeing of…

Research has shown that the underlying teaching beliefs or theories of any particular teacher have generally been considered relatively stable and static throughout his or her career. However, this study investigates how one teacher's beliefs regarding both teaching and learning were changed during a short-term study and immersion program abroad.…

Findings of a study that investigated parents' expectations and experiences of their children's outcomes with cochlear implants are presented. A survey completed by 247 parents whose children had received implants in eastern Australia compared parents' reports of their preimplant expectations with their experiences of postimplant outcomes on…

This paper conveys the findings of a study conducted to evaluate the initiation of an interactive online computer-assisted learning module, called WEBLEARN, in an undergraduate introductory accounting course at an Australian university. The purpose was to aid students in the preparation of cash flow statements, a topic that from the student…

Higher education has been actively encouraged to find more effective and flexible delivery models to provide all students with access to quality learning experiences yet also meet institutional imperatives for efficiency and accountability. Blended learning, commonly defined as an integration of traditional face-to-face and online approaches to…

In order to improve recruitment of teachers to rural schools, preservice teachers need opportunities to become familiar with rural education contexts, overcome anxieties promoted by negative stereotypes and build confidence in their professional and personal abilities. Traditional approaches involve rural practicums which are not feasible for many…

This report examines whether the presence of children in marriage differentially influences the risk of wives or husbands initiating separation. The analytic sample consists of 9,118 first marriages from the Households, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey (2001). Using event history and competing risks analysis, I find weak evidence…

It has often been suggested that actual or anticipated final grades may influence the ratings given by students in student experience surveys but few studies have been able to test this using actual grades. A study was carried out involving six courses over all four year levels of an undergraduate engineering programme, where students were asked…