Theme Issue Refereed Articles
Partnerships in Action: What's in It for Us?
Carol Butler-Mader, Jeanne Allen and John Campbell
pp. 6-21
This paper presents an analysis of the role and experiences of the teacher practitioner within the partnership arrangement in the Bachelor of
Learning Management (BLM) degree at the Rockhampton campus of Central Queensland University (CQU). The paper begins by discussing the concept of
partnerships and the background to current pre-service teacher education programs in Australia. It then introduces the BLM, documenting the
experiences of partner-teachers involved in the program and analysing this model of partnership. The paper concludes with some suggestions for
improving teacher–lecturer partnerships.
Refocusing Multiliteracies for the Net Generation
Henk Huijser
pp. 22-34
This paper questions assumptions which underlie two influential concepts associated with new directions in tertiary pedagogies. One of these concepts
(the 'Net Generation') is an attempt to pin down a series of characteristics of a new generation of students arriving at universities with different
skills and knowledge sets from previous generations. The other concept ('multiliteracies') attempts to design a pedagogy which equips students for the
demands of a rapidly changing world. Combining these two concepts raises some important questions. Although multiliteracies is essentially a philosophy of
teaching and learning, much of the writing on multiliteracies implies that it is something that should be taught, which in turn assumes that students do
not already have 'multimodal' abilities when they arrive in our university classrooms. However, one of the central characteristics to come out of the research
on the Net Generation identifies precisely that: a highly developed ability to negotiate among different modes of communication, and a fluency in imagerich
environments, rather than a text-only environment. But this raises the question: do 'fluency' and speed in reading images (or text) equal the ability to evaluate
those images critically? This paper explores these questions and makes some suggestions for future directions.
What Were You Thinking? Empowering Tomorrow's Professionals Today
Tim Davis, Theda Thomas and Alanah Kazlauskas
pp. 35-47
As students undertake their tertiary studies and subsequently face the challenges of their increasingly competitive professions, it is essential to recognise the
need to take a more active, early, formal and direct approach to the enhancement of their critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and communication skills. This
paper reports on a course, Reasoning and Critical Thinking for Information Systems (IS) Professionals, which provides a discipline focus to the development of these
skills and forms part of the core curriculum in the Bachelor of Information Systems degree at Australian Catholic University (ACU) National. The mechanisms introduced to
engage students actively in the development of their individual metacognitive processes are discussed and conclusions as to the effectiveness of the methods are drawn. The
paper goes on to provide a rich description of how the academic team involved in the curriculum development, presentation and assessment have used action research as the
means of informing their pedagogical practices. The paper finishes by providing insights into how the skills addressed in this course, as well as the pedagogical practices
that have evolved, may be used to inform other academics and courses offered in the degree program.
Constructing Meaning and Metaphor for Cultural Pedagogy
Debra Manning
pp. 48-62
Looking out at the sea of faces in the classroom, it was clear that there was no spontaneous interaction occurring between the 'Australian' and 'international' students. It
was as if they were invisible to each other. An opportunity for them to interact with each other and learn from the richness of each other's cultures was being wasted. A
learning environment was created that sought to value difference and to encourage students to share knowledge and ideas from their different cultural perspectives. The
outcome was at best problematic, at worst disastrous. Contributing to the development of pedagogy that explicitly values the cultural diversity of the classroom is the
focus of research that explores the practice and wisdom of lecturers experienced in multicultural classroom teaching using a phenomenographic approach enriched by metaphor
analysis. The imperative to internationalise Australia's tertiary education system, encouraging overseas students to come to study at Australian universities being one
strategy, is now well-established. Lecturers' experiences of multicultural classes, now with increasing numbers of international students, have been largely missing from
studies of internationalisation in tertiary education. The way that lecturers understand and approach tertiary learning and teaching in this changing, multicultural
environment will assist in developing a cultural pedagogy that contributes to cultural democracy and equips students for global citizenship.
The Future of Robot-Assisted Learning in the Home
Vicki Jones, Jun H. Jo and Jeonghye Han
pp. 63-75
Imagine a home system where children can have an educational assistant with them at all times – a helper to ensure that they understand and are understood. The concept of
robots interacting with humans is not new and was predicted in many movies and novels and on television long before the technology was available. With the robot revolution
upon us, small-scale household robots are becoming more accepted and widespread. The majority of current household robot applications take the role of service robots in the
home, undertaking menial tasks. However, their use in education has great potential. With human–robot interface (HRI) technology, this educational scenario is not only possible
but also probable. In the future, household robots will provide the physical interface and mobility for these home-based e-learning systems. It is also envisaged that
ubiquitous robots, which consist of embedded, mobile and software robots, will became essential in home network systems. In this paper we anticipate that the software robot,
a type of virtual robot, will become the core of many robot-based e-learning systems which will be integrated with household robots. These e-learning software robots can
traverse time and space and assist the child at any time and any place and connect to any device through a network. In this paper, we discuss the use of home robots, HRI and
software robot-assisted learning which constitutes an e-learning system for young children within the home environment.
An Exploratory Study of Mobile Learning for Tertiary Education: A Discussion with Students
Abdul Hafeez-Baig, Raj Gururajan and Vijaya Gururajan
pp. 76-88
The drive to understand and to improve the adoption of self-service, technology-based teaching and dynamic learning environments has created interest in recent years. Owing
to the availability, flexibility and convenience of wireless devices, learning/training programs appear to be providing benefits to instructors and students alike. Over the
years, wireless technologies have improved communication capabilities, videoconferencing, data management and live discussion forums. The reduction in the cost of hardware
and Internet services and the increased capabilities of wireless devices in conjunction with the capabilities of the World Wide Web are popular among students and academics.
While universities, Technical and Further Education colleges and other training providers realise the potential role played by wireless technologies in dynamic learning
environments, users of those technologies have indicated conflicting outcomes, claiming a failure of wireless technologies in learning environments. What appear to be
consistent factors in the success or failure of such technologies is the context in which these applications are used, the specific applications for learning and teaching,
infrastructure and change management. The literature indicates that sophisticated applications and features are constantly being developed for the wireless learning
environment. Australian institutions are using wireless technologies for specific objectives in educational environments, but the adoption of those technologies is a complex
and technical process. This exploratory research reports outcomes of a preliminary discussion with students about the influence of wireless technologies on learning purposes.
The prime focus of the discussion was to extract themes that can identify factors that have an impact on the adoption of wireless technologies in learning environments in
order to develop an initial conceptual model.
Pedagogical Implications of a Collaborative E-learning Environment with a Tutorial System
Chizuko Suzuki, Yoko Watanabe, Shota Yoshihara, Kyutae Jung and Sujung Min
pp. 89-98
Imagine a home system where children can have an educational assistant with them at all times – a helper to ensure that they understand and are understood. The concept of
robots interacting with humans is not new and was predicted in many movies and novels and on television long before the technology was available. With the robot revolution
upon us, small-scale household robots are becoming more accepted and widespread. The majority of current household robot applications take the role of service robots in the
home, undertaking menial tasks. However, their use in education has great potential. With human–robot interface (HRI) technology, this educational scenario is not only possible
but also probable. In the future, household robots will provide the physical interface and mobility for these home-based e-learning systems. It is also envisaged that
ubiquitous robots, which consist of embedded, mobile and software robots, will became essential in home network systems. In this paper we anticipate that the software robot,
a type of virtual robot, will become the core of many robot-based e-learning systems which will be integrated with household robots. These e-learning software robots can
traverse time and space and assist the child at any time and any place and connect to any device through a network. In this paper, we discuss the use of home robots, HRI and
software robot-assisted learning which constitutes an e-learning system for young children within the home environment.
Alternatives to Questions: Language Use in UNIPREP Classroom Discussion
Ann Dashwood and Lyndal Wood
pp. 99-113
Student talk is linguistic output with potential for developing communicative competence (Bachman, 1990; Canale, 1983; Canale & Swain, 1980). In language classrooms turns of
talk facilitate the meaning making process as students and teachers collaboratively come to understand the discourse of knowledge that they are co-constructing (Vygotsky,
1978; Wells, 1999) in their interactions together, teacher to student and student to student. Questions shape the essential teaching exchange IRE/F as a teacher initiates
(I) the first move, a student responds (R) and the teacher again takes up a turn and evaluates (E) in the follow-up (F) move. As common and useful as this exchange is for
managing classroom behaviour, during the pivotal third turn in the essential teaching exchange (Young, 1992) there is potential for teachers to facilitate student talk when
the teacher provides alternatives to a follow-up question (Dillon, 1988). This case study of young adult English as a Second Language (ESL) users in face-to-face interaction
in a university preparatory study skills course (UNIPREP) indicates a limiting influence of teacher questioning on student talk in discussions. Rather than talk being
generated by a teacher's questioning, alternatives to questions lead to the increased length of turns in students' collaborative talk. This study brings a discourse analysis
focus to whole class discussion between teacher and international UNIPREP students in the higher education sector and provides a context for second language acquisition
researchers, teachers and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) trainers.
In Search of Inclusive Pedagogies: The Role of Experience and Symbolic Representation in Cognition
Terry Wrigley
pp. 114-128
This paper examines the relationship between social class and low academic achievement in the light of recent developments in pedagogical theory. It revisits historically
influential theories (innate intelligence and language deficit) using the lens of situated cognition and activity theory as conceptualisations of knowledge and learning
which embed thinking within action, experience and context. Drawing on Wenger (1998) and others, it argues for a more skilful grounding of theoretical learning in
experience, so that good opportunities are given to exercise voice and agency. The paper includes positive examples from lesson observations in urban schools. The
methodology is that of a critical and historical review of key theories, followed by a theoretical discussion of recent pedagogical developments and specific examples
drawn from the writer¡¯s fieldwork studies of successful schools in areas of disadvantage.
