Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Undergraduate Student Acceptance of a Unit Design for Developing Independent Learning Abilities

Samar Zutshi — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:59:35 PST

This paper describes a method intended to advance students along the path to independent learning. The method is consistent with the principles of enquiry-based Learning. It involves restructuring student contact class time into a single three-hour block, and dedicating the majority of this time to working in small research project groups. Non-punitive, formative feedback is provided continuously on student work through the semester. In order to gain insight into the student experience of the design, a qualitative study using focus groups was conducted across two consecutive semesters. Reflection on the teaching experience in light of the student responses provides insight into aspects that have worked well, particularly the nature and channels of support provided to students. Despite the students’ unfamiliarity with the unit design, the contact structure and the group work has been popular and has been perceived as contributing to the students’ learning experience. The levels of support and feedback made possible through the unit design have also been very positively viewed. However, interesting questions are also raised. The first is regarding the balance between encouraging independent learning and the provision of structure and support by staff. The second is related to going beyond student perceptions and reliably measuring changes in independent learning abilities.

Helping university students to ‘read’ scholarly journal articles: the benefits of a structured and collaborative approach

Yuka Fujimoto — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:59:32 PST

Academics often treat students’ discipline-specific literacy as unproblematic. In doing so they may underestimate the difficulties for university students as they move between subjects of study that may involve different disciplines, language genres and academic practices. This paper describes an initiative aimed at supporting students in reading academic articles in preparation for completing an essay for an assessment task. This initiative involved a structured and collaborative two-week tutorial exercise that provided students with practice in using a framework to extract the main ideas from academic readings. Students were surveyed after this exercise, and their reflections of its value are described in this paper. The findings of this study will inform further stages of the project which aim to develop and investigate practical ways to develop student’s academic literacy across several business disciplines.

Practical and Pedagogical Aspects of Learning Through Participation: the LTP Assessment Design Framework

Jacqueline A. Mackaway — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:59:29 PST

Assessment of student learning in experience-based education is recognised as being a complex but important task. Practitioners are faced with a myriad of practical and pedagogical issues that influence what and how they assess, and can severely impact the effectiveness of assessment strategies.

This paper presents a synthesised overview of the literature about assessment of student learning that is usually discussed in dispersed arenas and under different headings, such as work-integrated learning, cooperative education, practicum, project-based learning and service-learning etc. The term Learning through Participation (LTP) is introduced to cover all of these areas, but especially those where students undertake experiences and placements that incorporate community engagement and which are based within the curriculum.

The literature in this area highlights a number of issues that add layers to the complexity of assessment of LTP. The synthesis presented herein discusses questions of validity, objective verification of learning, the roles and expectations of various stakeholders in the process of assessment, and the role and purpose of reflection in learning and assessment. To assist practitioners a LTP Assessment Design Framework has been created, which guides academics though a consideration and analysis of the practical and pedagogical context of LTP and some of the most important issues. The framework consists of two parts. The first part involves the development of a Placement Profile, to better understand the operational conditions for which the assessment package must be designed, and the second part is a set of Guiding Questions about assessment and feedback.

Teaching for Civic Engagement: Lesson Learned from Integrating Positive Psychology and Future Studies

Jeanie K. Allen — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:59:27 PST

Teaching for civic education holds promise for assisting colleges and universities that suggest the promotion of global citizenship in their mission statements. This paper presents the study of a course where readings and activities from the literature of positive psychology were integrated with studies about current global issues and potential future scenarios, with the goal of enhancing students’ civic engagement. The hypothesis was that using activities designed to assist individuals in the development of hope, optimism, resilience, and other positive traits would encourage students to become more engaged in global issues. The analysis of students’ reflective essays reveals insights into the student experience. These results, combined with literature on the current thinking about teaching for civic engagement, provides educators and policymakers with factors to consider in evaluating their own programs. In addition, two overarching questions emerged: Can a college class enhance civic engagement? and How does this fit within the purpose of a university education?

In-service Development For Graduate Teaching Assistants: A Blended-learning And Formative Approach

David Santandreu Calonge — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:59:23 PST

Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are front-line facilitators with first-hand contact with students. They play an important role in providing an engaging learning experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students. However, most of them have not received adequate training and guidance in teaching. This paper reports on an intensive and compulsory education development course for postgraduate students, which aims to prepare them for their upcoming teaching role whilst they are still research students; The course provides an introduction to the basic theoretical knowledge and practical skills required before they begin to take up teaching responsibilities at the University, in a Chinese (Hong Kong/Mainland China) and English Medium Instruction context. Blended learning technologies, active learning strategies, formative assessment and an outcomes-based approach are extensively used throughout the course to enable and encourage participation and collaboration. To measure the outcome performance of the course in alignment with the University’s strategic goals, a number of key performance indicators are assessed. The result shows that students found the course very useful and the blended instructional methods used facilitated the achievement of the Intended Learning Outcomes.

The Lived Experience of Flexible Education – Theory, Policy and Practice

Stuart R. Palmer — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:59:21 PST

The range of rationales that underpin conceptions of flexible education, and the re-making over time of the official meaning of flexibility in national education policy, have led to the point where flexibility might be found, or be required, in nearly every aspect of Australian higher education. This paper seeks to identify those rationales and the development of public policy rhetoric that have framed the development of the meaning of flexible education over time in an Australian context. By considering the intersection of theoretical and policy perspectives on flexible education with the realities of teaching and learning practice in the discipline context of engineering, this paper proposes the essential importance of individual context and agency in the making of real meaning from, and creating practical boundaries around, the otherwise tenuous definitions of flexibility often offered by institutional policy.

Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice Editorial 8.3

Geraldine E. Lefoe — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:59:19 PST

Welcome to the third and final issue of Volume 8 of the Journal of University Teaching and Learning (JUTLP) in 2011. As the year draws to a close we are seeing some striking changes to the higher education sector internationally. In England budget cuts have seen the closure of the twenty-four Higher Education Academy subject centres at the same time as the establishment of student fees. In Australia the cap has been lifted across the board on the number of students that can be enrolled in universities with the resultant projected increased student numbers. The focus in Australia is on social inclusion yet in England the concern for the introduction of fees is just the opposite, these will be the very students who may now be excluded.

The changes in both countries see new measures of accountability and more complex regulations put in place. Will this cause people to rethink the way we teach and the way students learn? For the Higher Education Academy in the UK, new directions see the hosting of a summit on learning and teaching with a focus on flexible learning, an indicator of new directions for many institutions. In Australia, we see a renewed opportunity to investigate such changes through the opening of the Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) and its role of recognising the importance of learning and teaching through grants and awards schemes. We hope in 2012 we’ll hear more from our authors about the impact of these transformations, as well as those changes occurring in other countries around the world, on teaching practice in our universities.

Using Nominal Group Technique to Develop a Consensus Derived Model for Peer Review of Teaching Across a Multi-school Faculty

Tracy Burrows — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:02:00 PDT

This paper describes the development of a peer review of teaching model for the Faculty of Health at the University of Newcastle, Australia. The process involved using the nominal group technique to engage Faculty academic staff to consider seven key decision points that informed the development of the peer review of teaching model. Use of the consensus based nominal group technique established collegial discussion and networking among participants, and has expanded the discussion within the Faculty about peer review of teaching. Although the academics come from a diverse multi-school and multi-program Faculty, there was high levels of consensus on the structure and process of the developed peer review of teaching model.

Pedagogical Approaches that Facilitate Writing in Postgraduate Research Candidature in Science and Technology

Janice Catterall — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:01:58 PDT

The current higher education climate seems to be demanding increasing levels of written output from doctoral researchers during candidature. In this context this study employed an online questionnaire, individual interviews and focus group discussions to collect information on the challenges and successes of doctoral writing. It was found that feedback on student writing was universally regarded as the primary pedagogical tool for teaching and learning research writing and for most, the supervisor’s role was central to this. Some supervisors employed ‘writing for publication’ as a complimentary tool. A number of supervisors and students also reported positively about the value of participating in social writing and critiquing environments such as writing groups, writing retreats, or writing for peer feedback. This research suggests that there would be benefit in tertiary institutions pursuing a more systematic approach to the support of writing both as a learning tool for research students and for the promotion of a vibrant, scholarly, research community.

Web-based-Research as Critical Pedagogy: A Reflection on its Application to Undergraduate Management Education.

Gabriela Coronado — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:01:57 PDT

In disciplines such as Management, where research capacity is not seen as an obvious workplace skill, it is difficult to get students to engage in research activities. They see them as too difficult and without value. However, research activities in undergraduate Management education are vital as tools for developing key learning attributes such as critical thinking and skills in analysis and argument. Convinced of the high value of integrating research activities into undergraduate Management Education, I took on the challenge to find alternative ways for students to develop their research capacity and engage in actual research. Drawing on reflections on my experience of teaching undergraduate management subjects with research components, in this paper I discuss how Web-based research can promote critical thinking and raise consciousness among management students. This experience included designing strategies to introduce a form of electronic literacy into undergraduate education, to assist students to learn how to use the Web critically for research purposes, while enhancing learning based on conventional resources. In the methodology I propose for researching contemporary issues by collecting and analysing data from the Web I adapt the critical pedagogy of Freire for adult literacy into new forms of literacy involving critical use of the new media of communication.

Linking Teaching and Research Through Scholarship Projects: A Case Study

Natalie Braber — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:01:55 PDT

Many lecturers find that teaching and research compete for their time. However, teaching and research can be linked closely together, and there are many ways of linking the two. This article will consider how research can be incorporated into teaching through a case study in Linguistics at Nottingham Trent University (in the United Kingdom), where undergraduate students are invited to participate on a research project. This project aims to foster and strengthen the links between teaching and research in the undergraduate curriculum to enhance the student learning experience (both for the students involved in the project and the wider student community). Allowing students to become involved in academic research before their final year can influence teaching and learning practice by encouraging students to look beyond lectures and seminars at the work which is carried out by their own lecturers. In order for learning to be most effective, it must be seen as relevant to the real world and by inviting students onto active research projects will show them how academic research is relevant to, and involved with, the wider world outside academia. By enthusing students with the actual potential of their studies, will increase learning and allow us to link research and teaching actively for all students.

An Investigation of the Impact of Research-led Education on Student Learning and Understandings of Research.

Fuming Jiang — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:01:53 PDT

This study investigated the impact of two approaches to research-led education on students’ learning and their understandings of research in the context of two university courses in international business involving third year undergraduate and graduate students. One approach involved the lecturer using his research as the basis for a case-study assignment involving an intercultural business negotiation. In the second approach students conducted a research project in which they reviewed the academic literature to identify practical implications for business and theoretical gaps as the basis for future research. A questionnaire was used to explore students’ perceptions of the impacts on their learning and understandings of research. Students’ understandings of research were most informed by the research based learning project which was presented to them as an experience of doing research. Students valued the lecturer using his research in the course because of his enthusiasm and his expertise and mentoring in doing research. However many students developed only limited understandings of research in the subject area, despite their direct experience of the lecturers’ research. The implications for the design of research-led education approaches are explored.

Teething Problems in the Academy: negotiating the transition to large-class teaching in the discipline of history

Philip A. Keirle — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:01:52 PDT

In this paper we provide a template for transitioning from tutorial to larger-class teaching environments in the discipline of history. We commence by recognising a number of recent trends in tertiary education in Australian universities that have made this transition to larger-class sizes an imperative for many academics: increased student enrolments in the absence of a concomitant rise in teaching staff levels, greater emphasis on staff’s research and service, and governmental and institutional pressures to maximize resource efficiency. All this, of course, taking place in an environment where staff are required to engage with discipline-specific pedagogies in teaching and learning to ensure that their departments, faculties and institutions successfully meet and maintain standards of quality in the delivery of higher education. The main challenge historians face here, we argue, is to ensure that the ‘higher order thinking skills’ associated with the discipline are developed in a learning environment often deemed incompatible with doing so. Dealing with this issue requires a particular approach to curriculum design, one that systematically unpacks the signature skills of historical thinking/writing/reading and engages with the pedagogy of large-class teaching environments. What follows is an account of our foray into unfamiliar territory, which, we hope, can act as a guide to academics moving in a similar direction.

Catering for Student Diversity: Building Academic Skills in Graduate Attributes Learning and Assessment Opportunities through Collaborative Work

Susanne Owen — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:01:50 PDT

Australian higher education institutions are increasingly operating within broader political, economic and social frameworks and the global context. The link between productivity and high level skills and qualifications and the importance of establishing a systematic process for ensuring increased participation of those from under-represented groups have been emphasised.

In relation to the law profession in Australia, over the past twenty years there has been a proliferation of law schools established to meet increasing demand, with higher student numbers and greater diversity of backgrounds evident. Concerns about the stresses on law students and the consequences for their mental well-being (especially compared to students in other disciplines) have come to the fore following recent research into the issue.

In 2007, funding was provided to the Council of Australian Law Deans (CALD) to establish a national exploration of approaches to and the practices of legal education, with the aim of ensuring the provision of high quality outcomes for the increasingly diverse range of legal education students. A key focus was building legal academic skills in using scaffolded learning approaches through establishing collaborative workshops. Surveys, baseline data analysis and network meetings were some of the other methodological processes utilised in the project.

The collaborative workshop processes occurring at a national level, resulted in the development of quality assessment tasks in areas such as group work and reflection, with positive written feedback being obtained. This paper focuses on the links between wider assessment approaches within graduate attributes and catering for student diversity.

Relevance for redefining effective academic practice within other professional disciplines in the changing contexts of higher education is evident.

Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice Editorial 8.2

Geraldine E. Lefoe — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:01:48 PDT

Welcome to the second issue, Volume 8 of the Journal of University Teaching and Learning (JUTLP). We are very pleased to see the way the journal continues to grow and the improvement in the quality of the papers. For this we would like to thank our editorial board and reviewers for their considerable efforts in providing valuable feedback to the contributors. Recently many people farewelled the Australian Learning and Teaching Council at the Opera House in Sydney as they presented the final round of Teaching and Learning awards and citations. Recognition for these outstanding teachers, as well as support through a multi-million dollar grant system, has seen the profile of teaching and learning raised significantly within higher education in Australia and we look forward to seeing further support through the government body who have taken over this role.

Continuous Team Assessment to Improve Student Engagement and Active Learning

Alexis S. Esposto — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:17:40 PDT

A strategy of continuous team assessment over three years, comprising of a series of tests and a major project, was introduced into scheduled tutorial classes in an attempt to improve flagging attendance and low student motivation. The assessment tasks were designed to be undertaken in teams of two students, with ongoing feedback as an integral component. After a single semester of implementation, attendance at tutorials improved (to nearly double the previous year), and this rate was sustained over a three year period. Average assessment marks rose a full grade compared to the previous student cohort, and this was also sustained over the same period. Students' output improved, and they were actively engaged in their work and with their colleagues. These results indicate the change in assessment strategy achieved the desired outcomes of improving student engagement and active learning.

Factors that Encourage Student Engagement: Insights from a Case Study of ‘First Time’ Students in a New Zealand University.

Barbara Russell — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:17:39 PDT

This case study reports on the findings from one of nine tertiary institutions that took part in a project funded by the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) in New Zealand. The research question explored how institutional and non institutional learning environments influence student engagement with learning in a higher education, university setting. Data was collected initially by means of a questionnaire; subsequently more in-depth data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with students randomly selected from those who indicated, on the questionnaire, that they were willing to be interviewed. Respondents were enrolled for the first time in this institution, but not necessarily for the first time in a tertiary education programme. A conceptual model with four strands: motivation and agency; transactional engagement; institutional support and active citizenship was used to organise the data. Findings were analysed against a synthesis of current literature and suggest that factors identified in the first three strands of the conceptual model played a significant role in student engagement with learning; active citizenship, however, did not feature highly in student responses and is an aspect of engagement that could benefit from further research.

Right from the Start: A Rationale for Embedding Academic Literacy Skills in University Courses

Cathy Gunn — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:17:38 PDT

This paper summarizes relevant research concepts, and then describes a case where online tutorials were used to integrate one generic academic skill - information literacy - into first year business courses. Tutorials covering the skills and information required to complete course assignments were designed so the content can be easily modified for different subjects and assessment tasks. Feedback from trials suggests that significant gains can be made using this embedded approach. Theoretical grounding of design concepts, integration into course activities and collaboration between course lecturers and academic support staff are all key success factors. The authors propose that this integrated approach is the most effective way to promote academic literacy skills development in large university classes, and that the learning design principles used in this case for Information Literacy could work equally well in other academic skill areas. Further research will be conducted to test this assumption.

Using self- and peer-assessment to enhance students’ future-learning in higher education.

Glyn Thomas — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:17:37 PDT

In higher education settings, assessment tasks get the attention of students, but once students submit their work they typically become disengaged with the assessment process. Hence, opportunities for learning are lost as they become passive recipients of assessment outcomes. Future-learning oriented assessment engages students in the assessment process to improve both short- and long-term outcomes by requiring students to make sophisticated judgments about their own learning, and that of their peers. In this paper, we describe and critique three initiatives that experimented with future-learning oriented assessment within a faculty of education. These initiatives involved self- and peer-assessment in a mathematics education subject for first year pre-service teachers; peer assessment of individual contributions in a group project using a Wiki; and self- and peer-assessment to help students learn about leadership. Based on our experiences, we conclude with suggestions of how others might also use self- and peer-assessment to work towards better short- and long-term learning outcomes in higher education.

The Pros and Cons of Problem-Based Learning from the Teacher’s Standpoint

Luis Roberto C. Ribeiro — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:17:36 PDT

This article focuses on a teacher’s evaluation of an experiment with problem-based learning (PBL) and its effects on his professional development. This case study, of a descriptive-analytical nature, involved the collaboration between the researcher and teacher in the planning, implementation of PBL and, to some extent, analysis of results. Research data—collected via participant observation of classes and open-ended interviews with the teacher—were analyzed in light of the literature on PBL, teacher knowledge base, and professional development. Results indicate teacher satisfaction, but also point to higher class unpredictability and increased time/workload. PBL also seems to distribute teaching workload more evenly throughout the semester than traditional methods do. This hinders routinisation and constrains teachers’ autonomy. On the other hand PBL appeared to foster the teacher’s development of his teaching knowledge base, especially regarding the knowledge of students, their reasoning mode and interests.