[Refereed Articles]
Changing the Meanings That Emerge in Practice, for the Better, through Humour - How I Changed Plagiarism from the Suppository of Good Scholarship to the Condom of
Good Scholarship and Lived Happily Ever After
Bernadette Lynch
pp. 4-17
In this paper, using core concepts from personal pedagogy, reflective practice and cognitive theory as a theoretical base, I examine the energising effect of humour and its
contribution to my development of new and useful meanings for what was otherwise a tired and tiring practice problem: the teaching of in-text referencing to undergraduate
Business students. The major contribution of this paper to theory is that it acknowledges the impact of cognitive depletion on reflective practice and posits the use of humour
as a partial remedy to this problem. The paper also contributes to practice by re-inventing the use of metaphor as a reflective practice strategy and, perhaps most importantly,
by giving academics permission to bring some much needed, energising irreverence and joy to their work.
Embedding Successful Pedagogical Practices: Assessment Strategies for a Large Diverse, First Year Student Cohort
Cassandra Star and Jacquelin McDonald
pp. 18-30
This paper argues that the transition to first year in a diverse, multi-campus, multimodal university provides significant difficulty and disorientation for
school leavers and mature age and international students. Consequently, curriculum design for first year students requires an awareness of the need to
provide commencing students with a framework for meeting the requirements of the academic environment. This paper illustrates how the successful practice of
teaching first year students addresses the learning issues and needs of first year university students through the use of scaffolding and developmental
assessment. The case study is from a first year Faculty of Business core course at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. It provides a range of
examples of successful pedagogical practices, including examples of scaffolding and developmental assessment embedded within the course materials to support
and meet student needs. The strategies to embed these support mechanisms included spreading the assessment across the semester using two assignments and a
final examination. In the second assignment of the course we utilise an incremental research and assignment process that includes an exercise to deconstruct
the assignment question, a short annotated bibliography, the concept mapping of the assignment argument and the assessment of a supplied essay before the
writing and submission of the student's final essay. As a result of these curriculum changes, we argue that preliminary indications are an improvement in
both student assignment performance and student retention.
Exploring Learning Style Preferences of Chinese Postgraduate Students in Australian Transnational Programs
Ting Wang and Leah Moore
pp. 31-41
In recent years there has been a rapid increase in the number of Chinese international students on Australian university campuses and in offshore programs.
Therefore there is a need to seek a better understanding of their learning styles in order to cater to their needs and support their transition to new
academic environments. This study explores the learning style preferences reported by two groups of Chinese students enrolled in two Australian offshore
Masters courses. Using the pre- and postquestionnaire method, this study examined the students' self-reported learning style preferences after exposure to
Western pedagogical practices. The study revealed limited changes in the students' self-reported learning style preferences after one intensive teaching
week. Comparison of the responses was made between the two groups located in different regions in China. The findings contradict the assumption that Chinese
learners from different places have homogeneous approaches to learning. The study also critically examined the widely held view that Chinese learners prefer
passive and teacher-directed learning. Australian academics should consider international students' learning style preferences and adapt their pedagogical
practices to students' needs.
The Challenge of Integrating Research, Action and Learning in the Workplace to Affect Organisational Change
Susan Bolt
pp. 42-51
The ability to learn and adapt to the challenges of new contexts was important to organisations, which invested in staff development to implement
organisational change and individuals who engaged in learning to satisfy career demands. A review of the literature indicated that change was difficult to
sustain and that the majority of change initiatives failed and that adult learning was diverse and complex, yet critical. Typically research into teaching
was in the context of teaching children and adolescents and did not reflect the complexity of the adult learning field. This study explored the relationship between
adult learners' professional development and organisations' change agenda. The adult learners' perspective was explored through survey research.
Interviews with staff provided information about their experiences with organisational change and professional development. Staff responses to a
questionnaire provided qualitative and quantitative data about their background, organisational change, and informal and formal learning in relation to their
employment.
Assessment for Learning - Why the Theory Needs the Practice
Jill Willis
pp. 52-59
Assessment for Learning is a pedagogical practice with anticipated gains of increased student motivation, mastery and autonomy as learners develop their
capacity to monitor and plan their own learning progress. Assessment for Learning (AfL) differs from Assessment of learning in its timing, occurring within
the regular flow of learning rather than end point, in its purpose of improving student learning rather than summative grading and in the ownership of the
learning where the student voice is heard in judging quality. Since Black and Wiliam (1998) highlighted the achievement gains that AfL practices seem to
bring to all learners in classrooms, it has become part of current educational policy discourse in Australia, yet teacher adoption of the practices is not a
straightforward implementation of techniques within an existing classroom repertoire. As can be seen from the following meta-analysis, recent research
highlights a more complex interrelationship between teacher and student beliefs about learning and assessment, and the social and cultural interactions in
and contexts of the classroom. More research is needed from a sociocultural perspective that allows meaning to emerge from practice. Before another policy
push, we need to understand better the many factors within the assessment relationship. We need to hear from teachers and students through long-term AfL case
studies both to inform AfL theory and to shed light on the complexities of pedagogical change for enhancing learner autonomy.
How to Develop 15 Multimodal Design Heuristics in 3 Easy (Not) Lessons
Michael Sankey
pp. 60-73
The necessity to establish a range of pedagogically sound delivery guidelines for the development of multimodal learning environments is proposed in this
paper. To support this discussion a summary of findings from four research projects investigating three multimodal learning environments delivered at the
University of Southern Queensland is used. These findings were also used to help refine a set of 15 multimodal design heuristics (or rules of thumb) to be
considered when designing multimedia enhancements for learning environments. In proposing these heuristics, this paper attempts to contextualise the
importance of multimodal delivery and considers how catering for a multiliterate clientele, by using a combination of multimedia enhancements, may improve
the learning opportunities of students. The studies described in this paper also demonstrate that higher levels of student engagement are possible when using
a range of multimedia enhancements in learning environments, whilst also maintaining a balance for more traditional learners.
Curriculum Leadership, Quality and Technology in a Suite of Australian Further Education and Training Teacher Education Programs: Making Meaning, Performing
Practice and Constructing New Learning Futures
P. A. Danaher, Mark A. Tyler and Catherine H. Arden
pp. 74-83
Constructing new learning futures is an ongoing challenge and opportunity for contemporary learners and educators alike. A crucial element of that
construction is making meaning by and for all participants in the educational enterprise. Such meaning making depends in turn on the performance of practice
– that is, on the regular, repeated enactment of situated learning and teaching in specific contexts and environments that turns abstract and hypothetical
ideas about education into experienced and lived realities. This paper applies and demonstrates this argument in relation to a suite of further education and
training (FET) teacher education programs at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia. The authors elaborate a set of evaluative questions for
the leadership, quality and technology dimensions of the curriculum of those programs. On the basis of those questions, the authors generate a conceptual
framework that they argue is productive in identifying the principles and strategies of making meaning and performing practice that are most likely to
promote the construction of new and enabling learning futures.
