Flinders News - Latest news from Flinders University

Flinders University is playing a leading role with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation in helping the Australian Army develop the skills required to educate soldiers for increasingly diverse and complex operations.

A collaboration between the School of Education at Flinders and DSTO is contributing to the restructuring of learning within the Australian Army, as part of an initiative known as “Adaptive Army”.

Flinders academic Dr Paddy O’Toole said that there is growing military focus in Australia and overseas on the “human dimension”, and particularly on the need to improve the individual, collective and organisational learning capacity among armed services personnel.

DSTO social scientist Ms Maya Drobnjak said that the Army has recognised that the way it does its business is changing.

“The key is the soldier, and his or her ability to deal with the various groups and cultures with whom they interact,” Ms Drobjak said.

Dr O’Toole said the Army acknowledges the need for soldiers to adapt to meet change at the pace it happens around them, and that establishing a supportive learning environment is the key mechanism in becoming adaptive.

“When you look at the needs of Army, it’s not really about traditional battles any more - it’s more about warfare in urban areas, it’s about humanitarian operations and peacekeeping, and individual soldiers need to have the capacity to cope with and operate in very complex situations,” Dr O’Toole said.

Teaching critical thinking and giving soldiers the ability to respond on their feet is crucial to the aim of equipping lower ranks to make decisions without necessarily referring back through a chain of command.

A major part of the project is to enhance and accelerate the Army’s development as a “learning organisation”, with a focus on improved learning processes and quicker dissemination of useful information.

Much of the theoretical modeling and language about the development of a learning organisation draws from the corporate sector, and part of the DSTO/Flinders group’s task is to assist the Army in translating the concepts to a more familiar and useful context.

The research plan proposes the use of questionnaires to survey and benchmark current learning capability in the Army at individual, group and organisational levels. Focus groups would identify key issues, and a longitudinal study to follow the learning and training trajectory experienced by new recruits is envisaged.

“The Army has to achieve an improved learning environment by itself: our role is to provide the support and the tools to assist them on an action learning journey,” Dr O’Toole said.

“From a Flinders point of view, it means we are involved in a very important project at the national level, and in terms of adding to the body of knowledge concerning learning and adaptation in the military, it has implications on an international scale.”

Dr O’Toole said the broad conceptual approach proposed by Flinders and DSTO was recently embraced at senior levels within the Army following a workshop in Canberra.

Where is the best place for Master of Education (MEd) students to learn how to support children having trouble with maths? In the classroom, of course.

Since 2005, lecturer Anne Bayetto has taught and supervised the topic Numeracy, Mathematics and Learning Difficulties, which brings postgraduate students into one-on-one contact with students at the local Bellevue Heights Primary School.

“One of the qualities we’re trying to engender with our Uni students is their ability not only to understand the research and the theory, but also how they transfer that into working practice,” Mrs Bayetto said.

And so, once a week, every week for a semester, Mrs Bayetto and her MEd students spend three hours at the school.

The topic introduces some of the big issues in numeracy and mathematics for students with learning difficulties and their teachers, as well as the practices for dealing with them.

“We discuss why some students struggle with math and numeracy and we start to unpick big questions around teacher knowledge, about curriculum, about delivery,” she said.

Bellevue Heights Primary School teachers nominate students who they believe would benefit from intervention. Each MEd student is assigned a young person for the semester.

They observe the student in the classroom, undertake a diagnostic assessment and write a report for the teacher and parents. They then implement an intervention program.

At the end of each session, the MEd students participate in a lecture/workshop and discuss their intervention program with each other.

“Toward the end of the semester, the students prepare summative reports for the teacher and parents, indicating what has been achieved and what recommendations they have for ongoing support in that area of math.”

Bellevue Heights Primary School Assistant Principal Mary Arnold said the school is very keen to continue its role in the program, which has been a positive experience to date.

“Making links with the broader community, including Flinders University, is a school priority,” Ms Arnold said.

“The students enjoy the one to one contact with the MEd students and appreciate that they are helping them with an area of difficulty,” she said.

Mrs Bayetto said that feedback from the Uni students had always been “very strong”.

“They really enjoy the opportunity to put the theory into practice and to see it through,” she said.

As populations grow along coastlines and the urban poor find homes in larger cities with inadequate infrastructure, the impact of natural disasters is likely to grow rather than subside, according to Professor Paul Arbon, the Dean of Nursing and Midwifery at Flinders University.

Professor Arbon is the new president-elect of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM), an international organisation of some 1,000 members that is devoted to improving the delivery of pre-hospital and emergency care and enhancing disaster health and preparedness.

“Unlike the Red Cross or Medicins Sans Frontieres, WADEM is not a response agency; rather, it provides the scientific support for developing practice and evaluation of responses,” Professor Arbon said.

Professor Arbon is the first non-physician to be elected president, a post he takes up in 2011. He said the membership is interdisciplinary, comprising not only health professionals, but also engineers, social scientists and historians.

WADEM publishes a journal, which as well as communicating the latest research developments to a network of international health bodies, is the organisation’s chief source of funding.

Professor Arbon’s own research interests lie in the area of mass gatherings, supplementing his work on first aid and emergency triage methods, all of which are relevant to his new post.

“There’s a real overlap between large populations of displaced people and massed gatherings in terms of the health issues they face,” he said.

Professor Arbon said that worldwide, living conditions and population shifts are creating a potential increase for casualties from natural disasters.

“If there is an earthquake, a cyclone or a bushfire, it will have a bigger impact than it would have had a few years ago, so there needs to be more understanding and support of what might be done in terms of prevention and, to some extent, response,” he said.

Professor Arbon said that several staff from the School of Nursing & Midwifery at Flinders had presented papers at the recent WADEM conference in Canada.

“It’s good for us to be doing something that is truly relevant in terms of humanitarian work and in making a difference out there.”

Flinders University students have been working with Indigenous communities in Western Australia to uncover the archaeological history of important cultural sites with a view to developing plans for their management and conservation.

The research has the backing of key stakeholders, including BHP Billiton, the National Trust of Australia’s (WA) Gabbie Kylie Foundation, the WA Department of Indigenous Affairs and the Western Australian Museum.

Head of Flinders’ Archaeology Department, Dr Heather Burke and senior lecturer Dr Lynley Wallis last month led a two-week field school at Lake Pleasantview (near Albany), Esperance and Munglinup where they undertook vegetation surveys, excavations, artefact recordings and oral history interviews with traditional owners about the significance of the areas to them.

Joining the 15 Flinders students were peers from other universities, as well as staff from BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam, Queensland’s Ergon Energy and Aboriginal Affairs Victoria.

“The Indigenous communities really drove the research. They were very clear they wanted to know how old and extensive the sites were, whether there were other sites nearby and how the landscape relates to people’s use of the place,” Dr Burke said.

“There are things they already do know but the archaeology gives them a different, scientific perspective,” she said.

Dr Wallis said the Esperance field trip involved a detailed survey of a stone arrangement, some 700m in length that is being overtaken by vegetation; while at Munglinup, about 100km west, another group of students worked on stone artefact exposures.

“One of the things we’re doing is making detailed recordings as a baseline for the community, who can then make informed decisions about how they will manage the site,” Dr Wallis said.

“If the community wants to open up the site to the public or allow heritage tourism visits, they’ll need to have that baseline information,” she said.

Students were also involved in a geophysical survey of the Albany Memorial Cemetery to determine the location of unmarked graves of Indigenous Australians buried there in the early 19th century.

Dr Wallis said the field school offered students a unique cross-cultural experience.
“There were Aboriginal people on the field school as students and as traditional owners. This is cross-cultural experience in a real life setting.”

Dr Burke said the industry-supported field school is part of a broader program that ensures Flinders archaeology students are employable at the end of their training.

“They know what it’s like to work with a community and to have practical outcomes from research,” she said.

Finding the most efficient and sustainable solution to irrigating crops is more complicated than most people think.

As Bachelor of Science (Honours) student Samantha Conner’s [pictured] project examining the irrigation of almond groves shows, there are many, sometimes conflicting, factors that farmers have to consider when deciding how best to water their crops.

“Drip irrigation might deliver water exactly where it’s needed, but it has several disadvantages,” Ms Conner said.

“As far as almond trees are concerned, it produces weaker trees and can allow water to penetrate the soil before the trees can use it,” she said.

“Sprinkler irrigation, however, produces stronger, more stable trees but allows more water to be lost to evaporation.”

Add to these quandaries the need to occasionally leach the soil with water to prevent the accumulation of salt, and harvesting methods that limit measures to control evaporation, and the irrigator’s plight becomes apparent.

Ms Conner, with her supervisor Flinders University meteorologist Dr Cäcilia Ewenz and colleagues from the South Australian Research and Development Institute, has completed phase one of her project thanks to a National Program for Sustainable Irrigation scholarship that allowed her to conduct field research at Loxton for six weeks.

“We’ve measured the water lost from almond groves through evaporation from the soil and transpiration from the trees,” Ms Conner said.

“The aim now is to use that data to make irrigation more precise by getting the balance right between tree and atmospheric needs.”

It’s said that old habits die hard, and for sufferers of Alzheimer’s disease, the resilience in the memory of practical skills may provide a pathway to learn new things.

Flinders psychology PhD student Chris Materne has begun a study involving people with probable or mild Alzheimer’s that aims to teach them to learn and remember simple, important facts or instructions.

The technique makes use of the complex, multi-layered nature of human memory, Ms Materne said.

“Different bits of memory hold on for longer than others - in particular, things that have become habitual tend to last,” she said.

“Highly practiced skills, such as playing the piano, seem to be more resistant to the disease process of Alzheimer’s than short term memory information, such as remembering names of people you’ve just met.

“We are trying to see if we can capitalise on that residual capacity to get information that is important and relevant to the individual into the memory system by bypassing the normal channels.”

Ms Materne says participants will be involved in nine hour-long sessions that aim to improve memory retention, with follow-up assessments after a few months.

The technique works by prompting participants to retrieve a fact or instruction over gradually increasing time intervals. The approach has achieved promising results in the United States, where results suggest that once an interval of about 12 to16 minutes has been attained, the information is consolidated and can be remembered for days or weeks.

The trial study will test the technique to assess how well it works as the disease progresses.
Ms Materne said that practical nature of the memory tasks - where keys are kept, or the names of grandchildren, for instance - means that environmental reinforcement is likely: that is, the questions will also get asked in real life.

The attitude of partners or carers is crucial, Ms Materne said. “Even if we achieve an effect with the training, if people don’t believe it will make a difference and fail to make use of it in the real world, then you don’t get any benefit,” she said.

Interested carers or partners of people with early Alzheimer’s who are living at home can contact Ms Materne about participating on (08) 8201 5870.

The Appin murder mystery, the historical 18th century event at the centre of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Kidnapped, may have been solved 150 years ago by another great Scottish novelist.

Flinders University’s Professor Graham Tulloch, an authority on the works of Sir Walter Scott, believes that Scott not only may have known the identity of the murderer, but also wrote a short story about him.

Stevenson’s famous novel centres on the unsolved 1752 murder of Colin Campbell, shot by an unknown assailant in woods on the west coast of Scotland. The murder of Campbell, who was the manager of lands forfeited to the British Crown in the wake of the Jacobite uprising of 1745, caused a hue and cry. Alan Breck Stewart, who in a famous sequence in Kidnapped hides in the heather from pursuing English soldiers with the fictional hero, David Balfour, was a real suspect in the murder, but escaped to France.

It was another local clansmen, James Stewart, who, despite his alibi, was convicted as an accomplice to the murder in a show trial and hanged.

In the course of his research for a new edition of Scott short stories, Professor Tulloch’s has put together three pieces of previously unlinked evidence that point to the murderer’s possible identity.

One is A Highland Anecdote, one of four stories submitted by Scott for the 1829 edition of a Christmas compendium, The Keepsake. Published later and separately, it was never included in Scott’s collected works and is little known.

Professor Tulloch said A Highland Anecdote tells the story of a character, Duncan, who is crippled by a stag during a hunt. The story also mentions Duncan’s alleged role as the perpetrator or accomplice in a “famous murder”.

Professor Tulloch says there also exists a printed letter of Scott’s that reveals he had not only met the man on whom he based the story, but that the murder in question was the Appin murder.

“On top of that, Scott writes in his journal that he has sent to the Keepsake’s editor the story of ‘Duncan Stewart’ and the stag,” Professor Tulloch said.

While literary detective work seems to have revealed the murderer’s name, the case can’t quite be closed - there are records of four contemporary Duncan Stewarts who might match the details given by Scott .

Professor Tulloch and research associate Dr Judy King have edited eight Scott short stories which will appear shortly in the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels under the title Shorter Fiction.

Monique Bégin [pictured], twice Canadian health and welfare minister in Pierre Trudeau’s governments and chief architect of Canada’s Medicare, has launched the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity at Flinders University.

Professor Bégin and Mr David Swan, Executive Director, Operations in the SA Department of Health,  unveiled a banner to mark the official opening of the Institute.

It is the culmination of a public health seminar chaired by Flinders University Vice-Chancellor Michael Barber and featuring distinguished speakers such as Professor Julian Disney, Dr Rosemary Crowley and former Flinders Vice-Chancellor Emeritus Professor Anne Edwards.

The Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity has been established through Professor Fran Baum’s Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship, supported by the SA Department of Health, the SA Social Inclusion Unit and the Premier’s Science and Research Fund.

The Institute is named after the late Associate Professor Deane O Southgate, Head of then Department of Primary Care and Community Medicine in the School of Medicine, Flinders University at the time of his death in 1991.

Professor Baum said the Southgate Institute aims to build on the reputation of Flinders University for conducting policy and practice relevant research on the social and economic determinants of health and health equity in particular.

“The research focus will be on what can be done about the underlying factors that determine the distribution of health and wellbeing outcomes,” Professor Baum said.

“It will have a particular emphasis on labour market, social exclusion, housing, structure of suburban environments; economic, social and structural determinants of risky and unhealthy behaviours (including drug and alcohol and other addictions, interpersonal violence, injuries, low physical activity levels and nutrition); and social, cultural and economic barriers to health and other related service use,” she said.

The new $200 million Health and Medical Research Institute announced in the Federal Budget this week will underpin a new phase of medical research in South Australia, according to the Vice-Chancellors of the State’s three universities.

Welcoming the decision to build the new Institute in Adelaide, the South Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee (SAVCC) said the facility would be a catalyst for new partnerships and strengthen existing relationships between university researchers and the hospitals in the State.

Speaking on behalf of his University of Adelaide and University of South Australia colleagues, Professor James McWha and Professor Peter Høj respectively, SAVCC Chair and Flinders Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Barber said the Institute would add a new dimension to the health and medical research effort in SA.

“The Institute will encourage collaborations between the various parties, draw on the skills and strengths in our respective institutions, and produce positive results from an enhanced research effort,” Professor Barber said.

“New and innovative research will help solve the medical mysteries that compromise the health and lifestyle of our people and communities,” he said.

“We applaud this significant investment in the future health of our nation and look forward to working with the State and Federal governments on the further development of this important initiative.”

A new era of good corporate governance is more likely to come from the values of Gen Y than through stricter government regulation, according to the Dean of Flinders Business School, Professor Angèle Cavaye.

Professor Cavaye said the baby boomer mindset of personal prosperity, materialism and shareholder wealth is likely to be replaced by the next generation’s strong sense of social responsibility.

“Corporate governance has come under increased scrutiny thanks to the global financial crisis, and that can only be a good thing,” Professor Cavaye said.

“However, I think the business world in the years ahead will be shaped by the values of Gen Y – their concern for the environment, equity, philanthropy, and caring for others – rather than the pursuit of personal gain,” she said.

“This generation doesn’t strive for the same things that baby boomers aimed for in life. In 20 years time, they will be the CEOs and they will be the ones in control and business will be done differently.”

Professor Cavaye says that despite criticism in educating some of the high profile business leaders associated with the crisis, business schools internationally will play a vital role in the recovery from the global financial crisis.

“While the finger has been pointed at a small group of elite business leaders for the global downturn, we need the best financial and economic brains to help us out of this crisis. The world needs the insights and knowledge of the emerging business leaders and we have an opportunity to complement their new values with the skills required to tackle challenges in the modern economy,” she said.