Building academic capability to facilitate and support the transition of first year social inclusion business students

The first year in higher education has been of growing interest particularly in light of the Australian Federal Government's mandate to target students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. This paper reports on one faculty's Social Inclusion Project designed to help teachers support first year student transition into tertiary studies. This paper outlines an action learning project directed at building knowledge and skills around transition pedagogy for subject coordinators of core first year business subjects. The project was deliberately designed to develop academics' ability to confidently monitor students' progress through the use of both formative and summative assessment practices and to modify their teaching according to students' needs. This paper describes an approach to creating a community of practice around sharing, reflecting and collaboration among coordinators of first year subjects, to embed inclusive teaching strategies into first year subjects.