Adventure Ausrama Blog

More women are moving into academia every year. This is the overall picture. Some areas are still sparsely populated by women. Physics is such a sector of learning. Name a woman physicist - any woman! Few recognise that maths is easier for men, but this is true. There is something about the male hormone that creates this state. Just like women are better at using words. Notably female physics students at the University of Melbourne have admitted that most women do not have the capacity to master physics. There will always be a few exceptions. However, the reality is that generally, women find study in this specialty difficult. Many female students who try physics ultimately end up in chemistry. They do feel more comfortable there. The survey of first year females showed more than 50 per cent had a negative outlook of their chances of succeeding. This makes one wonder why they are in the course. However, some were studying physics as a requirement of other degree...

There is nothing wrong with the quality of Australian teachers. Saying that we can learn a lot from Asian teachers is absolutely wrong. It is the culture of the student that determines whether he/she will be successful in becoming educationally proficient. Children of Chinese immigrants to Australia do much better than offspring of many other subcultures. Native third generation Australians do worst of all. This is because their parents get on with living their own lives and leave their kids to learn by themselves. There is nothing wrong with this policy. Chinese parents do similarly, but they do help much more financially with education. Mao Tse-tung was once asked by a Western reporter what was the most difficult thing about governing China. He replied it was teaching children to believe in Communism when Chinese are born Capitalists. Trading has been an important part of Chinese culture for thousands of years so calculating and finance are important. To be successful in l...

A new survey has found that school children under 17 years who smoke cannabis are less likely to complete their high school education. This is not surprising as cannabis "kills" the rational part of the brain and makes users impulsive, unable to control their actions. Addicts are driven through a path in life from one pleasurable thing to another. They avoid all uncomfortable situations immediately, seeking the nearest pleasure at hand. This is why they end up breaking the law and becoming incarcerated. Suicide is high amongst cannabis users because good experiences are not always for the taking. When one works at a job it is not pleasant, nor is it truly sought after. However, unless the discomfort is suffered there will be no pleasure from spending the income. Legalization for medical use is another step toward general access. Many young people are already unfit for the workforce because schools do not teach work related skills. Education needs radical r...

There is a reason more women are not in high income occupations. Let's face it the truth is the truth - most women do not have a mathematical mind. It is based on evolution where women developed social skills to collect berries and tubers. Men on the other hand had to hunt dangerous large animals and this needed calculating brains. Even today the sexes express their differences. More men choose university degrees in maths, engineering, technology and science. This where big money is earned. Humanities degrees especially the common or garden Bachelor of Arts will leave you in the unemployment line. Australians generally persist in studying for a BA despite all the statistics showing how weak this honor is. They know it is easy to get, but the easy way is not the best and more rational way. Just choosing a non-humanities degree is not that easy for females. A few have extremely good mathematical skills. They are at least equal to men. Most do not have the ment...

Students from overseas are saving Australia's tertiary education system. This is particularly true for postgraduate degrees. Most Australians attend a social science postgraduate course. This is despite the fact that these pieces of paper are virtually worthless in getting a job in today's world. Modern economies need IT, management, commerce, science, engineering, architecture and agriculture postgraduates. Doing maths and science at high school is the key but Australian students avoid these. This is due to the poor organization of subjects. Some states have no less than five grades of maths choices. There should be compulsory broad based maths despite failures along the way. Avoiding the difficult is not the way to go. We have teachers who are only qualified in social sciences teaching maths and science because there are too few fully-educated technical teachers. This is despite the fact that there is an oversupply of teachers generally. Foreign students...

For many years it has been said that Australia lacks maths and science graduates. Maths teachers are in short supply we are told. Professor Ian Chubb, a chief scientist, certainly pushes this case. Unfortunately, data does not support this premise. Like qualified information technology people, maths and science graduates find the job market difficult. It seems there is real demand only in geological science. A little more than half of graduates say their qualifications are relevant to their work. They hold down jobs only in distantly related fields. One would think that with science and technology moving forward at a rapid pace such qualified people would be sorely needed. Employment in agricultural science is falling because young people are leaving rural towns and refuse to learn about farming. It is seen as glorified laboring. Getting a post-graduate qualification does not help to find work. Employers see higher degrees as narrowing educational scope. Government is cont...

Despite the widespread use of computers, Australia is not producing enough qualified computer specialists. Although the computer related economy is equal to mining, and the extractive industry is what is driving the Australian economy and keeping the dollar strong, too few young people are willing to study for employment in the digital industry. This is probably because everyone is a little computer "savvy" and most believe that there is not much more to learn. Of course this is a mistake. You may have a website and know a trick or two, but there is a barrier that you cannot jump over if you are to truly understand the whole area, unless you are a born computer geek where you soak up all the knowledge like a sponge. What academics fail to understand though is that computer study is very much like learning mathematics. Students are avoiding maths like the "plague" because there are much easier subjects to do. For example, English and History teachers are a ...

There isn't much doubt that the bonus scheme for teachers will not work. Like the mystique of "time and motion" where the claim is made that human productivity is linear and is an increasing curve, it's a pipe dream! Machinery can only be speeded up so much before parts start flying off in all directions and everything shuts down for maintenance. Furthermore, when task are done too quickly a lot of "non-size" rubbish is produced. While output in some industry can be improved, for paper carriers such as teachers this is virtually impossible. Some teachers are better than others and for the main part this is innate: it is not learned and never can be. The only measurement is the quality of students that are lucky enough to be taught by them. Even then, tying down the factors that do improve matters is not easy to identify. Usually. students have an affinity with a teacher; thus they are prepared to work harder. It is not the teacher who is putting in m...

In a move to take the politics out of education the Labor Government has literally taken politics out of education. Retired Prime Minister John Howard's attempt to relinquish all blame for all Australians for persecution of Aboriginals has caused this. The Labor Government has hit back in kind, taking out all teaching relevant to the development of Liberalism in Australia. Note we have a Liberal party in Australia that is really a far right conservative party. A touch of welfare, a lot of big business, but essentially no change should occur unless it is to collect more tax from the ordinary taxpayer. Stop the new tax on mining companies and stop the new National Broadband Network Though this hatred of the new NBN is due to Labor doing it not them. No education system should be without instruction on how the market economy formed. But this argument over the true "facts" of history goes very deep indeed, so Labor puts a red pen through curriculum covering "free" m...

The new computer aimed at "poor" Indian students will not be successful. It is like the current craze for eBooks - why buy a machine that is built mainly for reading copies of the written page when you can buy a normal computer for a little bit more? eBooks and the student computer will end up in the bin in time. Few students will be able to buy the new eBerry laptop because it is too expensive. It comes with a package of student related software. The manufacturer says it will be fun to use a "virtual classroom". Yes, it can also fun playing games on your computer after doing your homework. Another problem is that the eBerry locks you into homework mode. Only teachers and parents will have the password to access the Internet per se . At $811 it is an incredibly high price for third world consumers. Openwiis in the Netherlands offers a much cheaper alternative. It provides computers to children in developing countries and it doesn't seek a profit. People ...