title: Science in the New Zealand Curriculum e-in-science

authors: Buntting, Catherine Michelle

subjects: education

abstract: This milestone report explores some innovative possibilities for e-in-science practice to enhance teacher capability and increase student engagement and achievement. In particular, this report gives insights into how e-learning might be harnessed to help create a future-oriented science education programme. 
“Innovative” practices are considered to be those that integrate (or could integrate) digital technologies in science education in ways that are not yet commonplace. “Future-oriented education” refers to the type of education that students in the “knowledge age” are going to need. While it is not yet clear exactly what this type of education might look like, it is clear that it will be different from the current system. 
One framework used to differentiate between these kinds of education is the evolution of education from Education 1.0 to Education 2.0 and 3.0 (Keats & Schmidt, 2007). Education 1.0, like Web 1.0, is considered to be largely a one-way process. Students “get” knowledge from their teachers or other information sources. Education 2.0, as defined by Keats and Schmidt, happens when Web 2.0 technologies are used to enhance traditional approaches to education. New interactive media, such as blogs, social bookmarking, etc. are used, but the process of education itself does not differ significantly from Education 1.0. Education 3.0, by contrast, is characterised by rich, cross-institutional, cross-cultural educational opportunities. The learners themselves play a key role as creators of knowledge artefacts, and distinctions between artefacts, people and processes become blurred, as do distinctions of space and time. Across these three “generations”, the teacher’s role changes from one of knowledge source (Education 1.0) to guide and knowledge source (Education 2.0) to orchestrator of collaborative knowledge creation (Education 3.0). The nature of the learner’s participation in the learning also changes from being largely passive to becoming increasingly active: the learner co-creates resources and opportunities and has a strong sense of ownership of his or her own education. In addition, the participation by communities outside the traditional education system increases. 
Building from this framework, we offer our own “framework for future-oriented science education” (see Figure 1). In this framework, we present two continua: one reflects the nature of student participation (from minimal to transformative) and the other reflects the nature of community participation (also from minimal to transformative). Both continua stretch from minimal to transformative participation. Minimal participation reflects little or no input by the student/community into the direction of the learning—what is learned, how it is learned and how what is learned will be assessed. Transformative participation, in contrast, represents education where the student or community drives the direction of the learning, including making decisions about content, learning approaches and assessment.

text: Science in the New Zealand Curriculum e-in-science This milestone report explores some innovative possibilities for e-in-science practice to enhance teacher capability and increase student engagement and achievement. In particular, this report gives insights into how e-learning might be harnessed to help create a future-oriented science education programme. 
“Innovative” practices are considered to be those that integrate (or could integrate) digital technologies in science education in ways that are not yet commonplace. “Future-oriented education” refers to the type of education that students in the “knowledge age” are going to need. While it is not yet clear exactly what this type of education might look like, it is clear that it will be different from the current system. 
One framework used to differentiate between these kinds of education is the evolution of education from Education 1.0 to Education 2.0 and 3.0 (Keats & Schmidt, 2007). Education 1.0, like Web 1.0, is considered to be largely a one-way process. Students “get” knowledge from their teachers or other information sources. Education 2.0, as defined by Keats and Schmidt, happens when Web 2.0 technologies are used to enhance traditional approaches to education. New interactive media, such as blogs, social bookmarking, etc. are used, but the process of education itself does not differ significantly from Education 1.0. Education 3.0, by contrast, is characterised by rich, cross-institutional, cross-cultural educational opportunities. The learners themselves play a key role as creators of knowledge artefacts, and distinctions between artefacts, people and processes become blurred, as do distinctions of space and time. Across these three “generations”, the teacher’s role changes from one of knowledge source (Education 1.0) to guide and knowledge source (Education 2.0) to orchestrator of collaborative knowledge creation (Education 3.0). The nature of the learner’s participation in the learning also changes from being largely passive to becoming increasingly active: the learner co-creates resources and opportunities and has a strong sense of ownership of his or her own education. In addition, the participation by communities outside the traditional education system increases. 
Building from this framework, we offer our own “framework for future-oriented science education” (see Figure 1). In this framework, we present two continua: one reflects the nature of student participation (from minimal to transformative) and the other reflects the nature of community participation (also from minimal to transformative). Both continua stretch from minimal to transformative participation. Minimal participation reflects little or no input by the student/community into the direction of the learning—what is learned, how it is learned and how what is learned will be assessed. Transformative participation, in contrast, represents education where the student or community drives the direction of the learning, including making decisions about content, learning approaches and assessment.

year: 2012

title: Institutional work and the interplay of stability and change in public budgeting reform: the case of public universities in Iran

authors: Aliabadi, F. Jalali

subjects: Social Sciences

abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the efforts of key social actors in influencing the reform of Iranian public universities budgeting system, from incremental to performance-based budgeting (PBB), the tensions that arose as competing efforts of institutional change were undertaken, and ultimately the impact of these efforts on of the extent to which the Iranian government transitioned to a system of PBB in public universities.
Design/methodology: Data comprises of semi-structured interviews with managers and experts involved in the budget setting process and an analysis of budgetary policy documents, reports and archival material such as legislation. An institutional work lens is employed to interpret the findings. 
Findings: While actors advocating the change were engaged in institutional work efforts of disrupting the old budgetary rules by disassociating the rules moral foundations and creating new budgetary rules (through new legislation), universities undertook subtle resistance by engaging in extended evaluation of the new proposed PBB rules to maintaining the old budgetary rules. The reforms undertaken to introduce PBB in Iranian universities achieved minimal success whereby incremental budgeting continued to constitute by far a larger percentage of the budget allocation formula for university budgets. This finding illustrates change and continuity in university budgetary systems resulting from institutional work of actors competing for control of resource allocation basis under the proposed PBB but proposing contradicting models. 
Practical implications: The findings highlight the importance of understanding the interplay of institutional work undertaken by competing social actors as they seek to advance their goals in shaping the budgetary reform in the public-sector. Such an understanding may inform policy makers who intend to introduce major reforms in public-sector budgeting approaches.  
Originality: Unlike prior studies that largely focused on how organisation-level budgeting practices responded to changes in public budgeting rules (i.e., at the site of implementation of the rules ), this paper highlights how strategies of change and resistance are played out at the site of setting budgetary norms.

text: Institutional work and the interplay of stability and change in public budgeting reform: the case of public universities in Iran Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the efforts of key social actors in influencing the reform of Iranian public universities budgeting system, from incremental to performance-based budgeting (PBB), the tensions that arose as competing efforts of institutional change were undertaken, and ultimately the impact of these efforts on of the extent to which the Iranian government transitioned to a system of PBB in public universities.
Design/methodology: Data comprises of semi-structured interviews with managers and experts involved in the budget setting process and an analysis of budgetary policy documents, reports and archival material such as legislation. An institutional work lens is employed to interpret the findings. 
Findings: While actors advocating the change were engaged in institutional work efforts of disrupting the old budgetary rules by disassociating the rules moral foundations and creating new budgetary rules (through new legislation), universities undertook subtle resistance by engaging in extended evaluation of the new proposed PBB rules to maintaining the old budgetary rules. The reforms undertaken to introduce PBB in Iranian universities achieved minimal success whereby incremental budgeting continued to constitute by far a larger percentage of the budget allocation formula for university budgets. This finding illustrates change and continuity in university budgetary systems resulting from institutional work of actors competing for control of resource allocation basis under the proposed PBB but proposing contradicting models. 
Practical implications: The findings highlight the importance of understanding the interplay of institutional work undertaken by competing social actors as they seek to advance their goals in shaping the budgetary reform in the public-sector. Such an understanding may inform policy makers who intend to introduce major reforms in public-sector budgeting approaches.  
Originality: Unlike prior studies that largely focused on how organisation-level budgeting practices responded to changes in public budgeting rules (i.e., at the site of implementation of the rules ), this paper highlights how strategies of change and resistance are played out at the site of setting budgetary norms.

year: 2021-03-02

title: Materials for enhancing denitrification performance in partially saturated vertical flow wetlands for marae

authors: Liu, Lucian XiaoRan

abstract: There are upwards of 773 marae in New Zealand which are responsible for many key events for the indigenous people, Māori, many of which are located rurally and have inadequate on-site wastewater treatment mostly comprising of a septic tank followed by land application. Māori have many strong beliefs about water and subsequently criteria surround the treatment of wastewater due to the effects it can have on people and environment. One proposed solution that meets criteria are treatment wetlands, more specifically partially saturated vertical flow wetlands which require a smaller footprint and produce better effluent than traditional wetland designs. NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) has experimented with mesocosm scale versions of this design and has encountered issues with denitrification in the saturated zone.

This research is therefore directed at enhancing denitrification in the saturated zone with materials that are able to supplement organic carbon for denitrification. Several woodchip materials (Eastern Cottonwood, Mahogany, Manuka, Eucalyptus, Crack Willow, Princess Tree and Pine) along with two industry by-product materials (Brewers Spent Grain and Slum gum) and Coir (Coconut derivative) were examined for denitrification capabilities and to serve in producing a leachate for dosing the proposed system to supplement organic carbon for denitrification.

The research is split into three phases; the first examines the ability of materials to release organic carbon into water over 60 days, the second examines the same but over three 10 day cycles, and the third quantifies denitrification performance of the materials at lab scale.

Results showed that producing a suitable leachate is not possible without the use of fresh material for each batch. By-product materials had great capacity for releasing organic carbon into water and denitrification (up to 85.5% nitrate removal) but had limited lifespans as media. While woodchip materials did not exhibit as great carbon release, they achieved comparable denitrification (74.2-74.5% nitrate removal) with long lifespans. Therefore, a woodchip and industry by-product mix could be the solution. Alternatively, there are many woodchip species, some which could have better denitrification capacity or suitable industry by-products with longer useful lifespans.

text: Materials for enhancing denitrification performance in partially saturated vertical flow wetlands for marae There are upwards of 773 marae in New Zealand which are responsible for many key events for the indigenous people, Māori, many of which are located rurally and have inadequate on-site wastewater treatment mostly comprising of a septic tank followed by land application. Māori have many strong beliefs about water and subsequently criteria surround the treatment of wastewater due to the effects it can have on people and environment. One proposed solution that meets criteria are treatment wetlands, more specifically partially saturated vertical flow wetlands which require a smaller footprint and produce better effluent than traditional wetland designs. NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) has experimented with mesocosm scale versions of this design and has encountered issues with denitrification in the saturated zone.

This research is therefore directed at enhancing denitrification in the saturated zone with materials that are able to supplement organic carbon for denitrification. Several woodchip materials (Eastern Cottonwood, Mahogany, Manuka, Eucalyptus, Crack Willow, Princess Tree and Pine) along with two industry by-product materials (Brewers Spent Grain and Slum gum) and Coir (Coconut derivative) were examined for denitrification capabilities and to serve in producing a leachate for dosing the proposed system to supplement organic carbon for denitrification.

The research is split into three phases; the first examines the ability of materials to release organic carbon into water over 60 days, the second examines the same but over three 10 day cycles, and the third quantifies denitrification performance of the materials at lab scale.

Results showed that producing a suitable leachate is not possible without the use of fresh material for each batch. By-product materials had great capacity for releasing organic carbon into water and denitrification (up to 85.5% nitrate removal) but had limited lifespans as media. While woodchip materials did not exhibit as great carbon release, they achieved comparable denitrification (74.2-74.5% nitrate removal) with long lifespans. Therefore, a woodchip and industry by-product mix could be the solution. Alternatively, there are many woodchip species, some which could have better denitrification capacity or suitable industry by-products with longer useful lifespans.

year: 2023