The impact of work-integrated learning experiences on attaining graduate attributes for exercise and sports science students
- Authors: Hall, Melinda , Pascoe, Deborah , Charity, Megan
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: Australian Collaborative Education Network 2016 Annual Conference; Sydney, Australia; 28th-30th September 2016; published in Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education Vol. 18, p. 101-113
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- Description: Exercise and Sports Science (E&SS) programs at Federation University Australia provide work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for students to develop, apply and consolidate theoretical knowledge in the workplace. This study aimed to determine the influence of WIL experiences on achieving common graduate attributes for E&SS students. From a larger study cohort (N=80), semi-structured interviews (n=4) delved into participant perceptions of graduate attributes and the impact of positive and negative WIL experiences. Using constant comparative analysis, interviews were coded and arranged into lower and higher order themes using the Graduate Employability Skills publication as a framework and the process validated by a WIL colleague. Results showed three out of four essential graduate attributes were developed during all WIL experiences regardless of whether they were positive or negative. These findings have implications for E&SS higher education providers and WIL agencies in ensuring the development of key graduate attributes during all WIL experiences.
Transforming the teaching of report writing in science and engineering through an integrated online learning environment, WRiSE (Write Reports in Science and Engineering)
- Authors: Drury, Helen , Jones, Janet
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
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- Description: This paper describes an ALTC (Australian Learning and Teaching Council) funded project, which addresses the development of students‟ report writing skills in science and engineering across the undergraduate years. The WRiSE project grew out of concerns about student performance in written assessments, as well as the need to improve graduate writing emphasised by employers and government. The project approach involved a collaborative team across two institutions. The team comprised language and learning specialists and discipline staff who developed learning materials and technical and eLearning specialists who converted these into online materials. Development followed a feedback spiral, which also involved student users. WRiSE is an integrated, freely available, student centred, online learning environment for report writing in nine discipline areas within science and engineering. In each discipline area, interactive learning materials have been developed to address both the product and process of report writing, as well as the concepts and content behind the reports students have to write. WRiSE is designed to meet the needs of students from diverse backgrounds who have had varying writing experiences as it can be accessed according to student needs. Evaluation of WRiSE has been positive in the areas of user friendliness and improved understanding and confidence in report writing. Those students who used WRiSE have attained significantly higher grades in their reports than students who did not use WRiSE.
Food gardens : Cultivating a pedagogy of place
- Authors: Green, Monica
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
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- Description: Place-based education attempts to position the individual in relationship with the human and non-human elements of the life-world, at a place that is welcoming of educational experience and a knowledge base from which to construct a more ecologically sustainable culture. Food gardens, along with ecological restoration projects within schools are experiencing a significant renaissance and are important sites for place-based education. Many of these places are located in and around the immediate environment of a school ground and become significant educational portals through which children explore their world. This paper reports on the literature reviewed for a study on how a pedagogy of place is cultivated within garden experiences. There is limited research about the use of school gardens as an educational tool and the specific pedagogies that support learning in this context. A number of themes emerge from various bodies of literature that provide a conceptual framework for the study of food garden pedagogies. These themes include placebased education, ecological literary, and nature as teacher. It is useful to think about primary school gardens in the light of this literature because it helps frame a research question for a study into how pedagogies of place can be cultivated within food gardens. [Author abstract, ed]
The potential affordances of enterprise wikis for creating community in research networks
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola , Clarke, Rodney , Herrington, Jan
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
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- Description: In this paper, we describe some of the affordance, the (specific enabling features or characteristics) of an enterprise wiki to meet the needs of a developing community of practice. The Social Innovation Network (SInet) is a nascent research network that spans the social sciences, education and commerce at the University of Wollongong. It will use the enterprise wiki software Confluence to assist in the development of communities of practice across its groups and sub-groups. This paper, describes some of the features of the software and how it might be used to perform some of the common activties identified by Wenger (nd) as contributing to development of community.