Department of Education and Communities

About: Department of Education and Communities is a government organization based out in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Student engagement & Mental health. The organization has 88 authors who have published 69 publications receiving 657 citations. The organization is also known as: NSW Department of Education & Technical and Further Education.

Using digital technology to enhance student engagement in physical education

Abstract: This paper explored the use of video technology as an aid to student engagement in physical education. Working in a comprehensive high school in Australia with disaffected students, the study used the New South Wales Quality Teaching Program as a basis for assessing the effectiveness of video technology in enhancing students' engagement in Physical Education lessons aimed at facilitating deeper understanding of throwing and catching. The results highlighted the effectiveness of video technology in enhancing engagement and subsequently suggest that such a degree of commitment helped students to develop understanding beyond technical replication and towards rational and reasoned student investigations around their learning. Additionally, it helped students to feel less marginalised and enabled them to be more engaged in their learning.

Short-term Effectiveness of a School-based Early Intervention Program for Adolescent Depression

Abstract: This article reports on the effectiveness of an early intervention program, 'Adolescents Coping with Emotions' (ACE), for depression in girls. ACE was assessed in a short-term wait-list control trial. In 1999, 882 students (aged 13-16 years) were screened using the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). One hundred and seventy-nine students (63% female) who scored above the CDI cutoff (of 18) were offered the program and 143 (65% female) agreed to participate. On a school basis, participants were allocated to the intervention group (n= 76; 56% female) who commenced the program within one month, or to a wait-list control condition (control group, n= 50; 79% female) who commenced the ACE program after 10 weeks. Data analysis was conducted for 82 female participants. All students completed the CDI, Adolescent Coping Scale and Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale at pre-And post-intervention. The intervention group alsocompleted a 6-month follow-up. At post-intervention, female ACE participants reported signif...

Trends and Variations in South Pacific Island and Ocean Surface Temperatures

Abstract: An analysis of temperature variability and trends in the South Pacific, mainly in the twentieth century, using data from 40 island stations and optimally interpolated sea surface and night marine air temperature data is presented. The last-named dataset is new and contains improved corrections for changes in the height of thermometer screens as ships have become larger. It is shown that the South Pacific convergence zone plays a pivotal role in both variability and trends in all three datasets. Island, collocated sea surface temperature, and night marine air temperature time series for four large constituent regions are created and analyzed. These have been corrected for artificial changes in variance due to changes in the availability of constituent island stations whose intrinsic variance varies from station to station. The method is described in detail. Objective estimates of uncertainty in the sea surface temperature data are also provided. The results extend previous work, showing that annual and seasonal surface ocean and island air temperatures have increased throughout the South Pacific. Variations in trends in the island and marine data show reasonable consistency, with distinctly different patterns of multidecadal change in the four regions. However, a notable inconsistency is the recent lack of warming in night marine air temperature in one of the tropical regions relative to sea surface temperature, with signs of this effect in a second tropical region. Another tropical region near the South Pacific convergence zone shows recent strong warming in the island data but not in the marine data.

Influence of large-scale climate modes on daily synoptic weather types over New Zealand

Abstract: This article examines the influence of El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) on the synoptic weather types over New Zealand. The effects of ENSO (indicated by the Southern Oscillation Index, SOI), SAM and IPO on the occurrence of synoptic types are estimated in a holistic framework using the maximum likelihood method via applications of generalized linear models, both annually and by seasons. The average within-class variations in the intensity and air-mass characteristics (as expressed in the Auckland Airport meteorological variables) of synoptic systems were examined for individual types at the annual level. The results show that ENSO, SAM and IPO have significant effects on the probability of occurrence and to lesser degree the intensity and air-mass characteristics of some synoptic types. The effects vary considerably with seasons, synoptic types and phases of SOI, SAM and IPO and it is the confounding effects of different large-scale modes that lead to the observed changes in the type frequencies. The findings, with respect to ENSO and SAM in all cases and for IPO at the seasonal level, are in good agreement with the literature. However, the annual changes in type frequencies associated with the 1976/1977 IPO phase shift do not support the observed changes in the strength of anomalous southwesterly windflows over New Zealand, and the influence of the recent negative IPO phase also appears different from what we expect based on the existing research. It appears that the interaction between IPO and ENSO is important for understanding the observed climatic effects of IPO on New Zealand's weather and climate. This aspect deserves further attention in future studies. The findings from this work have important methodological and practical implications for New Zealand climate research. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society

The Use and Effects of Anti-Bullying and Anti-Harassment Policies in Australian Schools:

Abstract: Although it is widely recognized that bullying in schools has long term negative consequences, many schools respond to incidents as they arise rather than taking a systematic approach. When this is...