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Teaching students using technology : Facilitating success for students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds in Australian universities

- Devlin, Marcia, McKay, Jade

  • Authors: Devlin, Marcia , McKay, Jade
  • Date: 2016
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Australasian Journal of Educational Technology Vol. 32, no. 1 (2016), p. 92-106
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  • Description: Australian higher education has adopted a widening participation agenda with a focus on the participation of disadvantaged students, particularly those from low socioeconomic status (LSES) backgrounds. As these students begin to enter university in greater number and proportion than ever before, there is increasing interest in how best to facilitate their success. A recent national study employed semi-structured interviews to ask 89 successful LSES students what had helped them succeed. Twenty-six staff experienced in effectively teaching and supporting LSES students were also interviewed about what approaches they used in their work. Analysis of the study's findings indicates a strong theme related to the use of technology in effectively teaching and supporting LSES students. In particular, the use of a range of resources and media, facilitating interactive and connected learning, enabling personalised learning and assuring high academic standards were found to contribute to student success. The implications of these findings are discussed with a specific focus on promoting effective teaching practice and informing related policy. At a time when the diversity of the student cohort in Australian higher education institutions is increasing, the findings reported in this paper are both timely and critical for educators and institutions. © 2016 Australasian Journal of Educational Technology.

Modelling choice : Factors influencing modes of delivery in Australian universities

- Smith, Andy, Ling, Peter, Hill, Doug

  • Authors: Smith, Andy , Ling, Peter , Hill, Doug
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Research in Post-Compulsory Education Vol. 13, no. 3 (2008), p. 295-306
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  • Description: This paper reports the findings of a study of Multiple Modes of Delivery in Australian universities that was commissioned by Australian Universities Teaching Committee over the period 2001-2004. The project examined and described the various means of educational delivery deployed by Australian universities. It identified the pedagogical, organisational and environmental factors impacting on university decisions to diversify course delivery across more than one location or mode. In this paper the authors report briefly on the first matter - the modes of delivery employed by Australian Universities. The paper focuses on the second issue - factors influencing university decision-making about modes of delivery.
  • Description: 2003006065

Designing capacity : Broadening and deepening design capacity through design education

- Barron, Deirdre, Zeegers, Margaret

  • Authors: Barron, Deirdre , Zeegers, Margaret
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Conference paper
  • Relation: Paper presented at The European Conference on Educational Research: From Teaching to Learning?, Gothenburg, Sweden : 10th-12th September 2008
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  • Description: In this paper we canvass a shift in professional practice for teachers and teaching and learning as it focuses on Design Education. We acknowledge that changes in formal educational settings result from the scope and rapidity of changes in emerging technologies and understandings of pedagogical influences on teaching and learning. In canvassing the changes, in this paper we identify issues that emerge in relation a number of proposed solutions in dealing with gaps in teacher education in the field of Design Education. We suggest that these same solutions draw on traditional disciplines which ignore the possibilities of Design to engage 21st Century problems in teaching and learning. We draw attention to a neglect in current teacher education programs in relation to teachers of design and what this may imply for classrooms, teachers, and their work.
  • Description: 2003006590

Teaching law to non-law students : The use of problem solving models in legal teaching

- Richardson, Kristy, Butler, Jennifer, Holm, Eric

  • Authors: Richardson, Kristy , Butler, Jennifer , Holm, Eric
  • Date: 2009
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Studies in Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and Development Vol. 6, no. 2 (2009), p. 29-41
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  • Description: The use of problem solving models has been successfully applied and subject to evaluation in law school courses. However, the models have not been evaluated in terms of their application to law courses in which non-law (i.e., business) students are involved. This paper discusses the usefulness of such legal problem solving methods for non-law students from a technology use and acceptance framework, presenting data obtained from a pilot study which was the subject of a teaching and learning grant from CQUniversity Australia.
  • Description: 2003007346

Cicero’s children : The worth of economic history and economic thought for business students

- Millmow, Alex

  • Authors: Millmow, Alex
  • Date: 2009
  • Type: Text , Conference paper
  • Relation: Paper presented at ATEC 2009 : 14th Annual Australasian Teaching Economics Conference : What does the financial crisis tell us about teaching and learning economics?, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Queensland : 13th-14th July, 2009 p. 156-167
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  • Description: Despite talk about the first sightings of the ‘green shoots of recovery’ the Global Financial Crisis which began to unfold in August 2007 is likely to exert some impact upon the prevailing economic and political philosophy. The big question for economic and business instructors is to ponder whether it will lead to any significant changes in economic and business syllabus at Australian universities. The teaching of mainstream economics is durable and usually resistant to change. Yet the crisis has certainly caused rumblings in the teaching of first-year economics. As one ABC reporter recently asked ‘How do you teach economics at a time like this?’ There is certainly a great curiosity among the young about what went wrong. Moreover they wish to know why neoliberalism has failed and why state interventionism is resurgent. Young minds must be perplexed about the rapid revision of agenda from containing inflation in 2008 to coping with recession in 2008. To paraphase the lyrics to the old Talking Heads song ‘Once in a lifetime’ ‘You may ask yourself, well… how did we get here?’ This is what they and we are asking themselves. This paper argues that an introductory course in economic ideas could help tell them why.
  • Description: 2003007357

Diploma and advanced diploma qualifications in the community services and health industries

- Burke, Gerald, Smith, Andy, Dumbrell, Tom, Long, Michael

  • Authors: Burke, Gerald , Smith, Andy , Dumbrell, Tom , Long, Michael
  • Date: 2008
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Vol. , no. (2008), p.
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  • Description: This study investigated several aspects of the value and funding of diplomas and advanced diplomas in community services and health (CSH). It reviewed the extent of training at this level, various data on the employment of persons with these qualifications and the ways training is funded. A number of key questions are addressed in this paper. What is the value of diploma and advanced diploma qualifications in responding to the needs of the CSH industries? How are diplomas and advanced diplomas currently being funded? What is the best way to fund higher level qualifications within the CSH industries? Key findings include: student numbers in diplomas and advanced diplomas have been rising in CSH but declining in most other industries; employment in CSH has been rising rapidly and within CSH the proportion of persons with diplomas or advanced diplomas has been rising; the mandating of minimum qualifications for particular occupations has been an important factor in the increased employment of persons with diplomas in CSH; most of the training for diplomas is provided in government supported training, however, of the small numbers taking advanced diplomas, only a minority are in government supported places; about 13 per cent of all government recurrent expenditure on [vocational education and training] VET is made on CSH Training Package courses; and of that 13 per cent about a third is spent on training for diplomas and advanced diplomas.

Building partnerships through discovery - collaborative online teaching and learning

- Counsel, Rose

Developing simulations in multi-user virtual environments to enhance healthcare education

- Rogers, Luke

  • Authors: Rogers, Luke
  • Date: 2011
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: British Journal of Educational Technology Vol. 42, no. 4 (2011), p. 608-615
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  • Description: Computer-based clinical simulations are a powerful teaching and learning tool because of their ability to expand healthcare students' clinical experience by providing practice-based learning. Despite the benefits of traditional computer-based clinical simulations, there are significant issues that arise when incorporating them into a flexible, co-operative and collaborative learning environment. Unlike traditional technologies; immersive multi-user virtual environments such as Second Life can incorporate comprehensive learning materials with effective learning strategies, allowing healthcare students to obtain a simulated clinical experience in an immersive social environment. The purpose of this research was to investigate how a simulation could be optimised in Second Life to encourage teamwork and collaborative problem solving based on the habits, experiences and perceptions of nursing students towards Second Life as a simulation platform. The research was conducted by placing groups of nursing students in separate locations and exposing them to a series of clinical simulation developed in Second Life. The simulation involved a series of problem-based scenarios, which incorporated concepts of technical skills, patient interaction, teamwork and situational awareness. Using qualitative feedback from a series of evaluative case studies, the study determined good practices and issues involved with a virtual computer-based clinical simulation. A common theme which emerged from this research, which is discussed in this paper, was the student's ability to work in an artificial social structure where they could actively co-construct mental models of technical and interpersonal skills through experiencing human interaction in a computer-based simulated environment. British Journal of Educational Technology © 2010 Becta.

From e-teaching to online learning: Evolution in engineering course design

- Ibrahim, Yousef, Brack, Charlotte

Welcome to the real world…I haven’t reached those dizzy heights yet

- Brown, Maryann

  • Authors: Brown, Maryann
  • Date: 2007
  • Type: Text , Conference paper
  • Relation: Paper presented at 2007 Biennial conference of the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching , ISATT, Brock University, Ontario, Canada : 5th-9th July 2007
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  • Description: This paper explores the author’s transition from university lecturing and course coordination to secondary teaching and curriculum leadership: a return and also a taboo. It draws on the personal experience of the author and also on her recent doctoral work around teacher development of a disposition for enquiry into professional practice (Reid & O’Donoghue, 2001) and ‘care-full research’ (Brown, 2006). Preparing beginning teachers to enquire into practice is one thing; introducing experienced teachers to the concept will pose different issues. While it is very early days of transition, the paper will be an autoethnography which makes use of narrative methods of enquiry to explore the terrain of returning to secondary school teaching and working with experienced teachers to build a culture of professional learning. The paper connects the concept of ‘care-full’ research (an analytical framework developed in the doctoral work) and ‘care-full’ teaching. It will be argued that the need for care in research of and with teachers, should be developed into a more sophisticated disposition of care for pedagogy, content knowledge and people within the teaching profession. In this way the myth that higher degree research has little impact on school classroom practice will be explored. The totems are my beliefs about teaching and learning and professional practice. The taboos are my actions (moving from tertiary to secondary teaching) and this fits with the concept of risk taking within teaching.
  • Description: 2003006722

Crossing over: Collaborative cross-cultural teaching of Indigenous education in a higher education context

- Morgan, Shirley, Golding, Barry

  • Authors: Morgan, Shirley , Golding, Barry
  • Date: 2010
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: The Australian Journal of Indigenous education Vol. 39, no. (2010), p. 8-14
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  • Description: This paper explores the dynamics and outcomes from a collaborative cross-cultural approach to teaching an Indigenous education elective unit in a Bachelor of Education (Primary) undergraduate degree at the University of Ballarat in 2009. The three facilitators, one non-Aboriginal and two Aboriginal were a lecturer, an Aboriginal Centre Manager and Local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group member from the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative respectively. The paper explores the open-ended and collaborative approach used to facilitate the learning, including pedagogies, activities and assessment. The paper, and the collaborative cross-cultural teaching approach it arguably embodies, is presented as a model of desirable practice with undergraduate education students, in particular for pre-service teachers undertaking a P-10 Bachelor of Education degree. As we describe later in the paper, these pre-service teachers, with some exceptions, in general had very limited and often stereotyped knowledge and experience of Aboriginal education, Aboriginal students or Aboriginal perspectives in other areas of the school curriculum. The teaching process we adopted and that we articulate in this paper attempted to address this previous lack of engagement with the subject matter of Indigenous education by actively modelling the processes of local Aboriginal consultation and collaboration that we were trying to teach.

Shedding ideas about older men's learning

- Golding, Barry

  • Authors: Golding, Barry
  • Date: 2011
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Lifelong learning in Europe Vol. 16, no. 2 (2011), p. 119-124
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  • Description: Men, particularly older men, are largely missing as adult learners in Europe. The same problem persists on the opposite side of the globe. In Australia older men have many learning needs, yet are put off by explicit attempts to include them in learning. In this article Australian researcher Barry Golding presents a working solution to getting older men into learning. In community-run 'men's sheds' men engage in hands-on activities such as woodwork. At the same time they develop their identities as men and with men and learn to stay healthy in settings beyond work. The learning and wellbeing benefits work best for men if the activities and the outcomes are not named or fore-grounded. Now men's sheds practices are spreading also to European countries, assuming local forms and themes.
  • Description: 2003009277

Leading sustainable improvement in university teaching and learning : Lessons from the sector

- Devlin, Marcia, Smeal, Georgia, Cummings, Rick, Mazzolini, Margaret

  • Authors: Devlin, Marcia , Smeal, Georgia , Cummings, Rick , Mazzolini, Margaret
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article , Report
  • Relation: Vol. , no. (2012), p. 1-64
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  • Description: Overall, the investigation found that universities that wish to improve the quality of teaching and learning should take an approach that aims to be: collaborative and developmental; embedded; sustainable; and focused on enabling innovation and enhancement. The seven interlinked insights characteristic of sustainable, positive change in teaching and learning in Australian universities are as follows. 1. Efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning are aligned with the strategic direction of the university The evidence indicates that efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning within an institution should be aligned with the strategic direction of the university. While this might seem self evident, the findings indicate that there are sometimes tensions between overall institutional priorities and efforts to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. Careful strategic thinking can ensure efforts to enhance teaching and learning provide a means through which universities can enact aspects of their strategic plans. 2. Senior executives support teaching and learning enhancement, and resources for those improvements are allocated as part of the universityʼs planning and budget cycle The study found that embedding and sustaining good teaching and learning practice requires high-level support within an institution. In addition to providing stable representation and championing of teaching and learning, effective support was found to also incorporate institutional investment in the form of funding and resourcing positions and initiatives. It was found that sustainability relies on institutional funding that ensured ongoing impetus for, and successful work in, enhancing teaching and learning. 3. Staff workload allocations allow time for innovation, enhancement and improvement in teaching and learning The project findings indicate that the major factor inhibiting efforts to improve teaching and learning is high staff workloads and the consequent lack of time to engage with, and contribute to, teaching and learning enhancement efforts. This finding mirrors those of several other recent Australian studies of the changing academic profession, although this current project notes the applicability of workload matters to both academic and professional staff. If leaders in Australian universities wish to enhance teaching and learning, fresh thinking, policy and planning is needed around academic and professional staff roles and workload allocation. 4. Effective leadership proactively manages tensions between discipline research endeavours and efforts to improve teaching and learning This research found that a major cultural impediment to enhancing teaching and learning is the privileging of research over teaching and learning within an institution. The findings suggest that effective leadership and management of the tensions that arise between research endeavours and efforts to improve teaching and learning are critical if the latter are to be successful. The findings suggest that the reconciliation of research and teaching and learning can be achieved to some extent through a range of means, including the facilitation of research and scholarship around teaching and learning. Leading sustainable change in university teaching and learning: Lessons from the sector 6 5. Teaching and learning are supported by relevant research and scholarship conducted within the institution and in collaboration with other institutions and relevant bodies The study findings indicate the importance of research and scholarship in the area of teaching and learning. External interface, networking and exchange with stakeholders and bodies outside the institution are critical to ensuring enhancement efforts fit with the broader context in which they are occurring. Some of the benefits of engaging in such research and scholarship were: increased reflection on practice; a heightened awareness of the link between an individualʼs own teaching and their studentsʼ outcomes; increased innovation in teaching; improved morale; enhancing the quality of teaching and learning both within an institution and more broadly; and opportunities to both benchmark and improve teaching performance. The potential for research into teaching and learning to contribute to resolving the tensions between discipline research and teaching and learning was also noted. 6. A distributed teaching and learning support structure exists within the institution and is coordinated from the centre The findings of this research showed that a distributed institutional support structure for teaching and learning enhancement, coordinated from the centre, was perceived to be the most effective approach. Most commonly this involved cooperation between a central teaching and learning centre and one or more of: teaching and learning committees; the associate deans (teaching and learning) or equivalent; educational development and other staff located in the faculties; and a critical mass of people with a commitment to teaching and learning improvement and enhancement who have the capacity to lead. 7. Mechanisms to recognise excellence in teaching and learning and to enable teaching and learning career pathways are in place This study found that professional development, reward and recognition mechanisms and enabling career pathways for those committed to teaching and learning are important components in the successful leadership of teaching and learning enhancement. The project findings indicate the centrality of linking efforts to enhance teaching and learning with promotion opportunities. The research findings indicate that university promotion criteria that incorporate excellence in teaching and learning scholarship and practice allow appropriate recognition, enable the sustainability of excellent practice and help embed enhancement.
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