List of Titles

A 3D approach to first year English education

- Zeegers, Margaret

Authors: Zeegers, Margaret
Date: 2013
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Quality Assurance in Education Vol. 21, no. 1 (2013), p. 54-69
Full Text:
Reviewed:
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.

Pedagogical concerns in doctoral supervision : A challenge for pedagogy

- Zeegers, Margaret, Barron, Deirdre

Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Barron, Deirdre
Date: 2012
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Quality Assurance in Education Vol. 20, no. 1 (2012), p. 20-30
Full Text: false
Reviewed:
Description: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on pedagogy as a crucial element in postgraduate research undertakings, implying active involvement of both student and supervisor in process of teaching and learning. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on Australian higher degree research supervision practice to illustrate their argument, the authors take issue with reliance on traditional Oxbridge conventions as informing dominant practices of supervision of postgraduate research studies and suggest pedagogy as intentional and systematic intervention that acknowledges the problematic natures of relationships between teaching, learning, and knowledge production as integral to supervision and research studies. Findings: The authors examine issues of discursive practice and the problematic nature of power differentials in supervisor-supervisee relationships, and the taken-for-grantedness of discursive practice of such relationships. The authors do this from the perspective of the student involved in higher degree research programs, a departure from the bulk of the literature that has as its focus the perspective of the supervisor and/or the institution. Originality/value: The paper examines the perspective of the student involved in higher degree research programs, a departure from the bulk of the literature that has as its focus the perspective of the supervisor and/or the institution. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Factors influencing student choice to study at private higher education institutions

- Shah, Mahsood, Nair, Sid, Bennett, Lorraine

Authors: Shah, Mahsood , Nair, Sid , Bennett, Lorraine
Date: 2013
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Quality Assurance in Education Vol. 21, no. 4 (2013), p. 402-416
Full Text: false
Reviewed:
Description: Purpose: This paper aims to make a contribution to the current lack of literature in the Australian context by reviewing qualitative feedback collected from students in five private higher education institutions. In particular, the paper seeks to examine factors influencing student choice to study at private higher education institutions and student perceptions of such institutions. Previous studies on this topic are mostly focussed on universities with lack of research with the booming private higher education sector. Design/methodology/approach: This study draws data from five different private for-profit higher education institutions in Australia. It involved feedback from 120 students undertaking higher education courses in different discipline areas at different stages of study. The study involved 15 focus group interviews with eight students in a group. The selection of students was based on the representation of different characteristics of student such as: male/female, domestic/international, and discipline areas. Findings: An analysis of the data collected from the students across these five institutions indicated that the main factors influencing student choice can be grouped in six domains. These are: student perception; access and opportunity; learning environments; quality of teachers; course design; and graduate success. This study reinforces that student perception of the private for-profit higher education institutions is an important factor in influencing student choice to study at the institution. Research limitations/implications: The limitation of the study was the ability to interview more students from larger colleges, across all discipline areas. However, the time and length of the focus group interviews was largely managed by the five institutions. Originality/value: The private higher education sector has experienced consistent growth in the last few years in Australia. Currently, there is no qualitative research done in Australian private higher education on factors influencing student choice to study with private institutions. The rise of such providers require research on insights about student choice, student expectation and their experience. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Showing items 1 - 3 of 3