From supervisor to mentor : Suggestive possibilities
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Smith, Patricia
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at AARE 2002 Conference, Brisbane : 1st - 5th December, 2002
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- Description: An age characterised by the sort of 'manufactured uncertainty' identified by Giddens (1994) throws up for scrutiny any number of taken-for-granted assumptions regarding professional practice experience in the Education field. This paper explores the suggestive possibilities of discourses of pre-service teacher practica in terms of naming, positioning and examination of taken-for-granted aspects of teacher education as they present at a regional university in Victoria, Australia. The University of Ballarat has introduced a new P-10 teacher education course. In the second year of its progress, traditional aspects of paid supervisory and assessment roles of practising teachers in relation to student teachers have been the focus of attention and activity based on reconfigured foci on the roles of both practising teachers and undergraduate students. One such focus is on what Schön (1987) describes as 'indeterminate zones of practice', and the result has been a research program exploring those zones in terms of mentorship in relation to mandated supervision and assessment requirements for graduate registration. The project is action-research based, with teacher, student, academic and semi-academic/teacher roles considered in the light of suggestive possibilities of mentorship and reflective practices as transformative possibilities in relation to roles associated with these.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003000135
From supervising practica to mentoring professional experience : Possibilities for education students
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Teaching Education Vol. 16, no. 4 (2005), p. 349-357
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- Description: This paper explores the possibilities presented in examining taken for granted aspects of pre-service teacher practicum practices, especially in terms of naming and positioning within teacher education, as they present at a regional university in Ballarat, Australia. The University of Ballarat has introduced a new P-10 teacher education course which is about to enter its fourth year. The course has focused some of its attention on traditional aspects of paid supervisory and assessment roles of practising teachers in relation to student teachers. As a result, changes have been made, with reconfigured foci on the roles of both practising teachers and undergraduate students, as well as those of other staff who support the new programme. One such focus is on what Schön described as "indeterminate zones of practice," and the result has been a research programme exploring those zones as part of mentorship in relation to mandated supervision and assessment requirements for graduate registration. Examination of data provided by transcripts of focus groups conducted with the students, mentors, community coordinators, and university teachers involved in the programmes suggests possibilities that may serve to inform efforts to meet a major part of the challenge to better prepare pre-service teachers in finding innovative and relevant ways to improve practicum experience from the outset of undergraduate education. Those involved in the programme at the University of Ballarat have examined assumptions underlying participants' roles in relation to partnerships within communities of practice in relation to the roles of university and educators in the field, as well as critically examining concepts of mentoring that guide reflection on practice and scaffold student learning. Such considerations go beyond concerns of individual pre-service teacher classroom performances, focusing on the generalizability of pre-service teacher experience in relation to the profession as a whole. © 2005 School of Education, University of Queensland.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001329
Focus groups and ELICOS evaluation
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: English Australia Journal Vol. 20, no. 1 (2002), p. 17-23
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- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000125
Critical pedagogy and situated practice : An ethnographic approach to pre-service teacher education
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Smith, Patricia
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Learning Vol. 10, no. (2004), p. 3455-3461
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- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000804
A 3D approach to first year English education
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Quality Assurance in Education Vol. 21, no. 1 (2013), p. 54-69
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- Description: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the suggestive possibilities of an approach to undergraduate English teacher education that the author has called the 3D Approach - Develop professional knowledge, Display professional knowledge, Disseminate professional knowledge - in relation to a number of groups of first year pre-service teachers (PSTs) engaging the teaching and learning materials of their English education course. Design/methodology/approach: The paper examines ways in which this approach has been assessed by the PSTs themselves, constructing this as an expression of their lived experience as PSTs. The author draws on Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, initiates a systematic and orchestrated program of explicit scaffolding of first year PST learning and draws on University-generated student assessment of their courses, focus groups and individual interviews to investigate ways in which the 3D approach may be considered as enhancing first year PST learning. Findings: PSTs' own informed evaluations of their own developing knowledge have made visible the teaching and learning that they have engaged and articulated. What the author outlines in this paper is not a "Eureka" moment for first year PSTs, but it is the result of careful scholarly considerations of what careful scholarly considerations by first years in Education courses may engage. For this cohort of PSTs, and for the author, it is a particular form of engagement with pedagogy. It is a pedagogy for teachers, part of active engagement on the part of the teacher and the learner, producing knowledge together. Research limitations/implications: Lack of generalisability from case study research may be considered as a limitation, but the author would argue that it is the details thrown up for careful examination in a case study which may serve to inform professional discussion and debate. Practical implications: Negative press of inadequate teachers emerging from universities, with their specious claims will not progress reasoned discussion; research on how the PSTs are themselves taught and how they develop as professionals will. PSTs' own informed evaluations of their own developing knowledge will go some way towards enabling this to happen. This sort of research opens up possibilities for starting with the right sort of questions, a shift from asking the wrong sort of questions, which the author would argue is that sort on which the media are basing their opinion pieces. Social implications: Continuing public discussions, usually conducted in and by the media, about teacher quality, particularly as this tends to be tied to notions of teacher pay, indicates a wider social concern about the need for quality teachers. This sort of social concern is also a major concern for teacher educators, and is to be addressed as such. This paper addresses some of those concerns. Originality/value: The paper engages issues about teacher education raised publicly in the media and ties these to the more private domain of university practice in a given teacher education course. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
An affective pedagogy success story: Sovereign Hill Museum school
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Technical report
- Full Text: false
- Description: This study will provide us with the tools to better communicate the unique attributes of learning that underpin the success we observe. It will enrich the discussion to include not only the charming insights of students and teachers, but also an intellectually rigorous framework for appreciating the innovation in learning outcomes." -- Foreword by Tim Sullivan : Deputy CEO and Museums director Sovereign Hill, page viii.
English as a foreign language curriculum reform in China : A Study in reconstructionism
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Zhang, Xiaohong
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Spotlight on China changes in education under China's market economy Chapter 4 p. 53-66
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- Description: China has experienced a number of reforms in EFL teaching and learning since 1949, when The People’s Republic of China was established after years of struggle between the losing Chiang Kai Shek Nationalists and the winning Mao Zedong Communist forces. Given the association of the English language with the western imperialism that China had just fought so hard against, competence in English was regarded as unpatriotic. A number of English-speaking countries, notably the United States of America (USA) insisting on a strong support of the Nationalist Party which had fled to Taiwan in 1949, did not recognise China. Indeed, the new Chinese government had its own concerns with illiteracy in mother tongues, at the time around 80% (Dietrich, 1986; Ministry of Education, 2002; Yang, 2010). English was hardly a priority for government then, although it had been in schools since the 19th century, the result of China’s encounters with the west at that time (Wang & Gao, 2008). Having eschewed all things western in 1949, the authorities took up Soviet models to inform their activities, receiving economic aid from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Yang, 2010). After the enormous upheavals of the revolution itself, China was in a period of reconstruction. The strong political influence of the relationship with the USSR on China’s foreign language education meant that Russian became the dominant foreign language taught throughout the country, with English removed from the secondary curriculum (Hu, 2002). Turning its attention to education, China found itself faced with problems that could be addressed through reconstructionism.
Beyond the curriculum documents: One learning community's contribution to integrating primary school curriculum
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Beales, Brad
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Applied Educational Studies Vol. 7, no. 1 (2010), p. 72-79
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- Description: In this paper we focus on the production of a local Catholic primary school Annual Concert by Grade 3-4 students, which took as its theme, Wauthaurong Heritage in the Region. The school approached the local University's School of Education to suggest one of its Bachelor of Education students who might be willing to work with the school on this production. With this initiative, we were presented with the basis for a community-based project which would incorporate the local Aboriginal Collective, a private Catholic primary school, and a School of Education within the University of the city in the form of the annual school concert. Combining the knowledge, expertise and experience from each of these organisations to deal with a variety of issues involved in education and community perceptions, the project was set to explore the ways in which these were to be dealt with.
The story of Buninyong: Research report
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Technical report
- Full Text: false
- Description: The cover picture is the front of the program of the 2008 of the Story of Buninyong. It encapsulates the program that Buninyong Primary School has developed in its engagement with a larger and more complex history of the school and its positions in the physical and historical landscaper than European versions of Australian history allow. In this report, I have explored some of that complexity. "From introduction"
Exploring emotional and social competencies in undergraduate students: Perspectives from CALD and non-CALD students
- Authors: Yu, Mong-Lin , Brown, Ted , Hewitt, Alana , Cousland, Robert , Lyons, Carissa , Etherington, Jamie
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Educational Researcher Vol. 50, no. 3 (2023), p. 601-624
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- Description: With the internationalisation of higher education, students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds represent a significant proportion of the university student body in Australia. Research literature indicates that the unique cultural and linguistic challenges experienced by these students may adversely impact their academic performance and social integration in university settings. However, less is known about how the socio-emotional competencies of undergraduate CALD and non-CALD domestic English-speaking students compare. This cross-sectional quantitative study compares the emotional and social competencies in a cohort of CALD and non-CALD occupational therapy undergraduates. Data were collected at one Australian university from a group of 360 students enrolled in the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours) course. Participants completed the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory– University edition (ESCI-U). Multivariate regression analyses were used to compare between CALD and non-CALD students, controlling for students’ year level of study, age, and gender. Key findings from the regression analysis included the observation of indicate that non-CALD students having significant higher scores than CALD students on all the ESCI-U socio-emotional subscales, especially the Emotional Self-control, Achievement Orientation, Empathy and Teamwork from western perspectives. No difference was found between CALD and non-CALD student on two cognitive competencies- systems thinking and pattern recognition. These findings should be interpreted with caution considering CALD students may interpret the questions differently and demonstrate the competencies in different ways. Specific emotional and social competencies that need to be strengthened in students are discussed and recommendations are made to inform the preparation of evidence-based curricula.
The enduring issue of assessing nursing knowledge : Surgical nursing final examinations in Australia and New Zealand, 1905-1930
- Authors: Wood, Pamela
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Contemporary nurse : a journal for the Australian nursing profession Vol. 32, no. 1-2 (2009), p. 109-122
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- Description: Finding the most appropriate way to assess knowledge is an enduring issue. In the past, nurses seeking state registration or professional qualification through nursing association membership were required to pass state final or association examinations. This historical research describes final examinations in surgical nursing in Australia and New Zealand, 1905-1930, when the examination process and standards were first being established. A comparison shows more similarity than difference between the two countries' examinations. Not surprisingly, the most common topic in this pre-antibiotic period was prevention of wound infection. Despite the generally high pass rate, analysis of published examiners' comments in New Zealand reveals concern about areas of nurses' knowledge and level of general education. Examiners were concerned to ensure an effective examination but also provided advice on how to pass it. The research contributes to a consideration of surgeons' expectations of nurses, and relations and knowledge boundaries between the two professions.
Battlefield visitor motivations: Explorations in the Great War town of Ieper, Belgium
- Authors: Winter, Caroline
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Tourism Research Vol. 13, no. 2 (2011), p. 164-176
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- Description: In this study a quantitative method was used to measure the motivations for education, holiday and remembrance for an international sample of visitors to the Great War town of Ieper in Belgium. Three clusters could be formed based upon different structure and intensity of their motivations. A small number of visitors could be identified as pilgrims, while the remainder were tourists, and they evidenced most of the characteristics of the pilgrims. The theory of thanatourism provides a framework through which the motivations and experiences of battlefield tourists for remembrance and education as well as leisure can be better understood. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Educational Dissonance: Reconciling a radical upbringing
- Authors: Wilson, Jacqueline
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Pedagogies for the future: Leading quality learning and teaching in higher education p. 125-139
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Muddling upwards : The unexpected, unpredictable and strange on the path from care to high achievement in Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Wilson, Jacqueline , Golding, Frank
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Young People Transitioning from Out-of-Home Care: International Research, Policy and Practice Chapter 7 p. 135-154
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- Description: Education is a key avenue to personal, social and economic success; and its lack can lead to lifelong deprivation and social exclusion. The chapter focuses on the specific educational challenges that confront children in out-of-home care (OHC), and those who have been discharged from Care as young adults. A very small percentage of care leavers complete education, and some of the core reasons for this are discussed. The two authors, themselves care leavers, provide emblematic case studies by recounting their own experiences. They conclude that many of the obstacles they had to surmount were, and are, common to care leavers of their generations and also those currently in OHC. The chapter closes with a brief summary of policy reforms necessary to ensure educational equity for care leavers. © The Author(s) 2016.
A review of cloud application assessment practices at the University of Ballarat
- Authors: Wilmott, Deirdre , Knox, Ian
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Education for Information Vol. 29, no. 3-4 (2012), p. 229-242
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- Description: It has been suggested that traditional assessment practices in tertiary institutions tend not to equip students well for the processes of effective learning in a learning society [1]. This paper reviews alternative Internet based assessment practices used in Library, Business and Education courses at the University of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia in 2011. © 2012 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved. © 2012 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.
Aspects of educational delivery within Sino-foreign educational alliances: Is this the real key to success?
- Authors: Willis, Mike
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Marketing for Higher Education Vol. 18, no. 2 (2008), p. 186-215
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- Description: The topic of educational alliances undertaken between Sino-foreign universities remains a contentious and much debated matter. This is an area of considerable and often very busy activity with a high rate of failure and frustration-yet, also one of reward, mutual satisfaction, and achievement. This paper evaluates a key aspect of these alliances often overlooked in research: educational delivery activities and projects that form the heart and core of alliances. The paper notes that the development and delivery of a range of programs beyond just degree or part degree courses but of research, seminar, and ancillary activities, lies at the very core of a successful alliances, particularly if these activities can be undertaken in a manner that melds two very different cultural and educational worlds, and in a way that can contribute to the Chinese students' sense of well-being and ability to take part in the globalization of the emerging Chinese market economy. © 2008 by The Haworth Press.
Why do Chinese universities seek foreign university partners: An Investigation of the motivating factors behind a significant area of alliance activity
- Authors: Willis, Mike
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Marketing for Higher Education Vol. 16, no. 1 (2006), p. 115-14
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- Description: Considerable research has been undertaken into the issue of Sino foreign strategic alliances in the area of higher education, particularly since the late 1990s, when universities in China signed an increasing large number of alliance agreements with foreign universities (Willis 2000, 2005a). Although there has been considerable research regarding various aspects of these alliances, including the types of activities undertaken, and the levels of alliances formed in this sector (Hayhoe 1989, 1996; Willis 2000), there has been less evaluation of the factors which have motivated the majority of Chinese universities to actively seek suitable foreign partners for collaboration particularly in regard to the delivery of activities and programs within China. This research identifies a range of factors driving the Chinese desire to form alliances with foreign universities. These in general relate to the special and somewhat idiosyncratic role of universities as agents of social and economic change in China. To effect this change they have often sought foreign partners who are able to assist China to develop a market economy. Universities within the Chinese top 100 university system have become increasingly selective in their choice of foreign universities and are requiring far higher levels of commitment than hitherto. It is now not unusual for foreign universities to deliver degree programs in China, and not just via study abroad and distance means. Gradually, over time, Chinese universities have become more discerning, particular and careful in the selection of foreign university partners. To this end, this paper identifies three distinct phases of Chinese university selection of foreign partners, dating back to 1978. The current phase, which emerged around 2000-2001 underscores the growing desire on the part of Chinese universities to select better quality, more committed and longer-term foreign partners-partly an issue of signing agreements with fewer, but better universities than in the past when a more “scattergun” approach was utilised.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003007125
What do Chinese and foreign universities value about their strategic alliances? Exploring a dimension of higher education alliances in a cross cultural context
- Authors: Willis, Mike
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Teaching in International Business Vol. 15, no. 2 (2004), p. 5-26
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- Description: There are now over 5,000 alliances between Chinese and foreign universities but there is little research on how managers from the two sides value the various aspects of their educational alliances. This research finds that both sides valued a range of alliance levels, types, activities, sizes and structures but there were significant differences. Chinese respondents tended to prefer larger and higher level alliances which they perceived as being more long term, viable and indicative of foreign commitment. Foreign alliance managers liked to start their alliance associations in China with smaller scale alliance models which could then be expanded into larger and more complex alliances. Chinese alliance managers preferred an alliance model which aimed to establish a benchmark educational standard in China; foreign staff preferred what has been termed pragmatic alliances which were cheaper to organize and manage. Chinese respondents liked alliances which ensured that at least a range of foreign academic and administrative staff were located in China: foreign respondents preferred to fly staff in and out for particular projects and activities. More generally, foreign respondents discussed the value of alliances in business and income generation terms while their Chinese colleagues conceptualized the key value of alliances in terms of their ability to assist China to develop a highly skilled workforce capable of taking its place in an internationalized market economy.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003007137
Investing in sustainable and resilient rural social space: Lessons for teacher education
- Authors: White, Simone , Lock, Graeme , Hastings, Wendy , Cooper, Maxine , Reid, Jo-Anne , Green, Bill
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian and International Journal of Rural Education Vol. 31, no. 2 (2021), p. 46-55
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- Description: Attracting and retaining effective education leaders and teaching staff for regional, rural and remote schools in Australia is a major sustainability and quality issue facing every State and Territory. It is also a major concern in pre-service teacher education, particularly for those universities which have a commitment to rural and regional areas.
Applied aspirations : design and applied art at the Ballarat Technical Art School during the early twentieth century
- Authors: Whetter, Elise
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- Description: Applied art and design schools operate at the nexus of art, industry, and education. During the early decades of the twentieth century, the regionally located Ballarat Technical Art School (BTAS) was the leading institution of its kind in Victoria, Australia, amid shifting economic, cultural, and pedagogical conditions. Emerging from a 1907 amalgamation of institutions, and subsequently administrated by the School of Mines Ballarat (SMB), BTAS was equipped with the assets, experience, and historic reputation necessary to surpass its provincial and metropolitan rivals. This micro-historical case-study employs qualitative analysis of primary sources to investigate the aims, outputs, and importance of BTAS, contextualised by the expectations and influences it operated under during the inaugural principalship of artist and educator, Herbert Henry Smith. Smith oversaw the training of designers, craftspeople, artists, and teachers from 1907 until his retirement in early 1940—a period of tumultuous events, fiscal obstacles, and social and cultural debate. The institution was accountable to diverse stakeholders and arbiters of taste, and successive cohorts learned in a contested space between tradition, origination, and modernisation. Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural theory serves to navigate this web of hierarchies, assumptions, and tensions, while secondary sources help contextualise findings. This thesis also discusses the suite of drawing, design and material-based disciplines delivered at BTAS as single subjects, full courses, and supplementary art-trade training. Throughout, featured students provide examples of regionally trained, Australian designer-maker and artist-teacher experiences. BTAS students learned from ambitious and skilled men and women, benefited from strong professional networks, and fostered a notable esprit-de-corps. The school was significant for its contribution to female technical training. The school’s pre-eminent position was modified during the late 1920s, when much art and art-teacher training was re-centred in Melbourne. Yet, the valuable, compelling, and widespread influence of Ballarat Technical Art School graduates resonated for decades.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy