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Papers by Stephanie Beames
… 2010 SydneyAnnual Scientific Meeting & …, Jan 1, 2010
Traditional microbiology teaching is based on content-driven presentations. To transform how stud... more Traditional microbiology teaching is based on content-driven presentations. To transform how students engage with microbiology, a teaching approach was devised to motivate students and support deeper learning. By creating interactive and supportive atmospheres in both "lectorials" (lecture-tutorial hybrids) and in the laboratory, using higher-order learning activities, students are encouraged to actively engage, thereby influencing their learning. Multiple opportunities are provided for students to apply principles flexibly according to a given situation or context, to adapt methods of inquiry strategically, to go beyond mechanical application of formulaic approaches, and to self-appraise their own thinking and problem solving. The novel approach of commencing (dry) experimental work during lectorials with subsequent follow-up in the wet lab encourages students to better appreciate the critical linkages between theory and practice. Quantitative and qualitative data generated by multiple student evaluations confirm that this approach strongly influences student learning and engagement in the clinical bacteriology classroom. This provides evidence that this teaching practice assists students to learn, and achieve the standards and benchmarks expected at this undergraduate level. Aspects of this model could also be translated to teaching contexts other than microbiology.
Proceedings of the Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education, Aug 24, 2012
Biomedical Skills 1 is a new first semester unit that was introduced in 2012 into QUT's Bachelor ... more Biomedical Skills 1 is a new first semester unit that was introduced in 2012 into QUT's Bachelor of Biomedical Science. One of the main aims of the unit is to facilitate the competent learning of laboratory skills for the study and practice of biomedical science. Microscopy is one such laboratory skill that can prove challenging for some students and which has largely been taught in the wet laboratory. Time in the wet laboratory is often limited so learning needs to be maximized. By using a collaborative classroom with students working in groups of five with access to a networked PC, we employed an online virtual microscopy tutorial (courtesy of the University of Delaware) to reinforce the use of the compound microscope. The virtual microscope was able to be manipulated in the same ways as a real microscope. Students were given a group worksheet to complete which encouraged them to engage with each other as they progressed through the tutorial as well as conferring with each other as they answered the questions. Feedback from the students was overwhelmingly positive, with students commenting that they felt much more confident in using the microscope in the laboratory sessions following the virtual microscopy tutorial.
LINK: https://bpsoftware.net/covid-19-and-mental-health/ Covid-19 and mental health challenges... more LINK: https://bpsoftware.net/covid-19-and-mental-health/
Covid-19 and mental health challenges are, unfortunately, terms that have gone hand-in-hand over the past 2 years. Ongoing economic hardships, an alarming spike in syphilis cases and the drastic changes in drinking habits during extended lockdowns have all been put under the microscope as examples of the kinds of toll the pandemic has taken on our mental wellbeing.
Bp Premier features a number of clinical tools which can help. Let’s review some of them, and how they can assist you in supporting patients struggling at this time.
LINK: https://bpsoftware.net/gender-identity-in-bp-premier/ As reported by AusDoc earlier this... more LINK: https://bpsoftware.net/gender-identity-in-bp-premier/
As reported by AusDoc earlier this month, GPs have been advised that they must ensure a patient’s preferred pronouns are used – in the latest update to practice standards from the RACGP.
The new standards require GPs to record each patient’s gender identity, as well as the sex assigned at birth, in their patient records. GP clinics are also advised to use the preferred pronouns for their patients.
In the latest release of Bp Premier, Best Practice Software has included new fields to allow you to collect and record information about your patients’ gender, pronouns, preferred name, and sexuality. This has been done to support the RACGP’s aim to “enable general practice to be responsive to patient needs and deliver better patient outcomes.”
An initiative involving the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and Australia’s premier scienc... more An initiative involving the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and Australia’s premier science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Agency (CSIRO), connects first year students in a large enrolment physics service subject to research of national standing through a co-developed inquiry-oriented experiment. We describe the background to the initiative which we believe to be the first of its kind, how it was piloted, and our findings from the first running of the experiment with enrolled students. The initiative applies a previously published framework for designing and evaluating new and existing experiments with regard to student engagement and learning, laboratory logistics, and scale. Evidence from focus groups, student surveys, and classroom observations indicates that the experiment is regarded by students as: 1) a worthwhile, very valuable or outstanding learning experience; 2) engaging; and 3) benefitting their learning through group discussions. Student feedback during the development phase highlighted issues to be addressed, including allowing students greater time to design and carry out their own investigations, more explicit assistance for students in the use of supporting technology, and better guidance on the assessed component of the experiment.
Although the benefits of clickers for monitoring student understanding during lectures are wellco... more Although the benefits of clickers for monitoring student understanding during lectures are wellcost makes them inaccessible in many Faculties. Recently, several websites have been launched that offer academics the ability to monitor student understanding in a similar way, using any mobile internet enabled device (phone, tablet, laptop computer). We have trialed the use of one such system with first semester chemistry students and the results are reported here. There were some technical difficulties to be overcome and the importance of these should not be understated; in a timelimited setting with a very large class, a system needs to run flawlessly in every session. Student feedback was largely positive in other respects, but a significant drop in use was observed over the course of the trial and also during each lecture.
Australian Government Department of Education & Training, 2007
Enhancing the Training of Mathematics and Science Teachers project
At UTS students in science courses often struggle with the first year first semester mathematics ... more At UTS students in science courses often struggle with the first year first semester mathematics subject. This year we requested all commencing science students take a Readiness Survey so that we could advise them of suitable pathways for the mathematics subjects in their degree. One such pathway includes taking a one-semester subject of introductory calculus before the regular mathematics subject. This paper reports on the practicalities of running such a test before semester starts, and the pathways taken up with varying levels of success by Science students. Insights are offered from a parallel survey and pathway used for some years now with Engineering students in the same institution.
Beutel, Denise, Gray, Larina, Beames, Stephanie, Klenowski, Valentina, Ehrich, Lisa, & Kapitzke, ... more Beutel, Denise, Gray, Larina, Beames, Stephanie, Klenowski, Valentina, Ehrich, Lisa, & Kapitzke, Cushla (2014) Case Study 4: Education Doctoral Student - "An Exploratory Study of Online Social Networking within a Doctorate of Education Program". In Westover, Jonathan H. & Westover, Jacque P. (Eds.) Engaging Hybrid and Blended Learning in Higher Education. Common Ground Publishing LLC, Champaign, Illinois, USA, pp. 192-204.
Completing a PhD on time is a complex process, influenced by many interacting factors. In this pa... more Completing a PhD on time is a complex process, influenced by many interacting factors. In this paper we take a Bayesian Network approach to analyzing the factors perceived to be important in achieving this aim. Focusing on a single research group in Mathematical Sciences, we develop a conceptual model to describe the factors considered to be important to students and then quantify the network based on five individual perspectives: the students, a supervisor and a university research students centre manager. The resultant network comprised 37 factors and 40 connections, with an overall probability of timely completion of between 0.6 and 0.8. Across all participants, the four factors that were considered to most directly influence timely completion were personal aspects, the research environment, the research project, and incoming skills.
In large first year science subjects casual tutors often deliver up to half of the face-to-face t... more In large first year science subjects casual tutors often deliver up to half of the face-to-face teaching through practical classes and tutorials. A smooth transition for first year students can be influenced by interactions with tutors, particularly through improved engagement with subject content and understanding Graduate Attributes (GAs). Casual tutors may not be aware of the political changes that impact the diversity of students they teach; for example, widening participation strategies mean that in science we have students with a greater diversity of backgrounds, knowledge, literacy and numeracy skills. This raises questions of how to support casual tutors to deal with more diversity of student backgrounds. Subject coordinators are encouraged to embed GAs into subject content and assessments. Therefore, tutors need to understand faculty-wide GAs in the context of their discipline to effectively communicate these to students. We ran a training session for casual tutors teaching first year science subjects, to provide information on transition, diversity and faculty-wide GAs. Two follow-up surveys (early and late semester) enabled us to identifying the challenges faced by casual tutors and whether faculty-wide GAs were communicated to students. Future sessions will be tailored to support tutors as they assist our students through their first year transition.
Proceedings of the Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education, Sep 21, 2013
In large first year science subjects casual tutors often deliver up to half of the face-to-face t... more In large first year science subjects casual tutors often deliver up to half of the face-to-face teaching through practical classes and tutorials. A smooth transition for first year students can be influenced by interactions with tutors, particularly through improved engagement with subject content and understanding Graduate Attributes (GAs). Casual tutors may not be aware of the political changes that impact the diversity of students they teach; for example, widening participation strategies mean that in science we have students with a greater diversity of backgrounds, knowledge, literacy and numeracy skills. This raises questions of how to support casual tutors to deal with more diversity of student backgrounds. Subject coordinators are encouraged to embed GAs into subject content and assessments. Therefore, tutors need to understand faculty-wide GAs in the context of their discipline to effectively communicate these to students. We ran a training session for casual tutors teaching first year science subjects, to provide information on transition, diversity and faculty-wide GAs. Two follow-up surveys (early and late semester) enabled us to identifying the challenges faced by casual tutors and whether faculty-wide GAs were communicated to students. Future sessions will be tailored to support tutors as they assist our students through their first year transition.
We have established a community of practice focussed on student learning in first-year science. ... more We have established a community of practice focussed on student learning in first-year science. It is recognised that transition, whether from school to university or other possible transitions, is an issue that is a concern for the entire sector, and this is acknowledged both at Faculty and University level. One of the factors to which we attribute the success of this CoP is that we are working within the context of a well-established set of transition pedagogies which have been strongly promoted and supported within UTS. There is also an internal grants scheme that provides small amounts of funding for initiatives aimed at improving transition and engagement as part of the widening participation strategy. Another factor for the success of this group is the leadership and active engagement of a senior staff member. This CoP has not evolved organically as a grass-roots group, nor has it been commissioned from on-high. The Faculty of Science has also recently appointed an academic developer to support course renewal and the mapping of graduate attributes, and this role includes the support of initiatives like setting up CoPs.
We publicised a call for papers on the theme 'Art meets Science' for a special issue of The Inter... more We publicised a call for papers on the theme 'Art meets Science' for a special issue of The Interna;onal Journal of Science and Mathema;cs Educa;on. Accepted papers filling two issues. It appears scien;sts across the sciences are involved in transdisciplinary collabora;ons that engage with a broad range of the arts.
… 2010 SydneyAnnual Scientific Meeting & …, Jan 1, 2010
Traditional microbiology teaching is based on content-driven presentations. To transform how stud... more Traditional microbiology teaching is based on content-driven presentations. To transform how students engage with microbiology, a teaching approach was devised to motivate students and support deeper learning. By creating interactive and supportive atmospheres in both "lectorials" (lecture-tutorial hybrids) and in the laboratory, using higher-order learning activities, students are encouraged to actively engage, thereby influencing their learning. Multiple opportunities are provided for students to apply principles flexibly according to a given situation or context, to adapt methods of inquiry strategically, to go beyond mechanical application of formulaic approaches, and to self-appraise their own thinking and problem solving. The novel approach of commencing (dry) experimental work during lectorials with subsequent follow-up in the wet lab encourages students to better appreciate the critical linkages between theory and practice. Quantitative and qualitative data generated by multiple student evaluations confirm that this approach strongly influences student learning and engagement in the clinical bacteriology classroom. This provides evidence that this teaching practice assists students to learn, and achieve the standards and benchmarks expected at this undergraduate level. Aspects of this model could also be translated to teaching contexts other than microbiology.
Proceedings of the Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education, Aug 24, 2012
Biomedical Skills 1 is a new first semester unit that was introduced in 2012 into QUT's Bachelor ... more Biomedical Skills 1 is a new first semester unit that was introduced in 2012 into QUT's Bachelor of Biomedical Science. One of the main aims of the unit is to facilitate the competent learning of laboratory skills for the study and practice of biomedical science. Microscopy is one such laboratory skill that can prove challenging for some students and which has largely been taught in the wet laboratory. Time in the wet laboratory is often limited so learning needs to be maximized. By using a collaborative classroom with students working in groups of five with access to a networked PC, we employed an online virtual microscopy tutorial (courtesy of the University of Delaware) to reinforce the use of the compound microscope. The virtual microscope was able to be manipulated in the same ways as a real microscope. Students were given a group worksheet to complete which encouraged them to engage with each other as they progressed through the tutorial as well as conferring with each other as they answered the questions. Feedback from the students was overwhelmingly positive, with students commenting that they felt much more confident in using the microscope in the laboratory sessions following the virtual microscopy tutorial.
LINK: https://bpsoftware.net/covid-19-and-mental-health/ Covid-19 and mental health challenges... more LINK: https://bpsoftware.net/covid-19-and-mental-health/
Covid-19 and mental health challenges are, unfortunately, terms that have gone hand-in-hand over the past 2 years. Ongoing economic hardships, an alarming spike in syphilis cases and the drastic changes in drinking habits during extended lockdowns have all been put under the microscope as examples of the kinds of toll the pandemic has taken on our mental wellbeing.
Bp Premier features a number of clinical tools which can help. Let’s review some of them, and how they can assist you in supporting patients struggling at this time.
LINK: https://bpsoftware.net/gender-identity-in-bp-premier/ As reported by AusDoc earlier this... more LINK: https://bpsoftware.net/gender-identity-in-bp-premier/
As reported by AusDoc earlier this month, GPs have been advised that they must ensure a patient’s preferred pronouns are used – in the latest update to practice standards from the RACGP.
The new standards require GPs to record each patient’s gender identity, as well as the sex assigned at birth, in their patient records. GP clinics are also advised to use the preferred pronouns for their patients.
In the latest release of Bp Premier, Best Practice Software has included new fields to allow you to collect and record information about your patients’ gender, pronouns, preferred name, and sexuality. This has been done to support the RACGP’s aim to “enable general practice to be responsive to patient needs and deliver better patient outcomes.”
An initiative involving the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and Australia’s premier scienc... more An initiative involving the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and Australia’s premier science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Agency (CSIRO), connects first year students in a large enrolment physics service subject to research of national standing through a co-developed inquiry-oriented experiment. We describe the background to the initiative which we believe to be the first of its kind, how it was piloted, and our findings from the first running of the experiment with enrolled students. The initiative applies a previously published framework for designing and evaluating new and existing experiments with regard to student engagement and learning, laboratory logistics, and scale. Evidence from focus groups, student surveys, and classroom observations indicates that the experiment is regarded by students as: 1) a worthwhile, very valuable or outstanding learning experience; 2) engaging; and 3) benefitting their learning through group discussions. Student feedback during the development phase highlighted issues to be addressed, including allowing students greater time to design and carry out their own investigations, more explicit assistance for students in the use of supporting technology, and better guidance on the assessed component of the experiment.
Although the benefits of clickers for monitoring student understanding during lectures are wellco... more Although the benefits of clickers for monitoring student understanding during lectures are wellcost makes them inaccessible in many Faculties. Recently, several websites have been launched that offer academics the ability to monitor student understanding in a similar way, using any mobile internet enabled device (phone, tablet, laptop computer). We have trialed the use of one such system with first semester chemistry students and the results are reported here. There were some technical difficulties to be overcome and the importance of these should not be understated; in a timelimited setting with a very large class, a system needs to run flawlessly in every session. Student feedback was largely positive in other respects, but a significant drop in use was observed over the course of the trial and also during each lecture.
Australian Government Department of Education & Training, 2007
Enhancing the Training of Mathematics and Science Teachers project
At UTS students in science courses often struggle with the first year first semester mathematics ... more At UTS students in science courses often struggle with the first year first semester mathematics subject. This year we requested all commencing science students take a Readiness Survey so that we could advise them of suitable pathways for the mathematics subjects in their degree. One such pathway includes taking a one-semester subject of introductory calculus before the regular mathematics subject. This paper reports on the practicalities of running such a test before semester starts, and the pathways taken up with varying levels of success by Science students. Insights are offered from a parallel survey and pathway used for some years now with Engineering students in the same institution.
Beutel, Denise, Gray, Larina, Beames, Stephanie, Klenowski, Valentina, Ehrich, Lisa, & Kapitzke, ... more Beutel, Denise, Gray, Larina, Beames, Stephanie, Klenowski, Valentina, Ehrich, Lisa, & Kapitzke, Cushla (2014) Case Study 4: Education Doctoral Student - "An Exploratory Study of Online Social Networking within a Doctorate of Education Program". In Westover, Jonathan H. & Westover, Jacque P. (Eds.) Engaging Hybrid and Blended Learning in Higher Education. Common Ground Publishing LLC, Champaign, Illinois, USA, pp. 192-204.
Completing a PhD on time is a complex process, influenced by many interacting factors. In this pa... more Completing a PhD on time is a complex process, influenced by many interacting factors. In this paper we take a Bayesian Network approach to analyzing the factors perceived to be important in achieving this aim. Focusing on a single research group in Mathematical Sciences, we develop a conceptual model to describe the factors considered to be important to students and then quantify the network based on five individual perspectives: the students, a supervisor and a university research students centre manager. The resultant network comprised 37 factors and 40 connections, with an overall probability of timely completion of between 0.6 and 0.8. Across all participants, the four factors that were considered to most directly influence timely completion were personal aspects, the research environment, the research project, and incoming skills.
In large first year science subjects casual tutors often deliver up to half of the face-to-face t... more In large first year science subjects casual tutors often deliver up to half of the face-to-face teaching through practical classes and tutorials. A smooth transition for first year students can be influenced by interactions with tutors, particularly through improved engagement with subject content and understanding Graduate Attributes (GAs). Casual tutors may not be aware of the political changes that impact the diversity of students they teach; for example, widening participation strategies mean that in science we have students with a greater diversity of backgrounds, knowledge, literacy and numeracy skills. This raises questions of how to support casual tutors to deal with more diversity of student backgrounds. Subject coordinators are encouraged to embed GAs into subject content and assessments. Therefore, tutors need to understand faculty-wide GAs in the context of their discipline to effectively communicate these to students. We ran a training session for casual tutors teaching first year science subjects, to provide information on transition, diversity and faculty-wide GAs. Two follow-up surveys (early and late semester) enabled us to identifying the challenges faced by casual tutors and whether faculty-wide GAs were communicated to students. Future sessions will be tailored to support tutors as they assist our students through their first year transition.
Proceedings of the Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education, Sep 21, 2013
In large first year science subjects casual tutors often deliver up to half of the face-to-face t... more In large first year science subjects casual tutors often deliver up to half of the face-to-face teaching through practical classes and tutorials. A smooth transition for first year students can be influenced by interactions with tutors, particularly through improved engagement with subject content and understanding Graduate Attributes (GAs). Casual tutors may not be aware of the political changes that impact the diversity of students they teach; for example, widening participation strategies mean that in science we have students with a greater diversity of backgrounds, knowledge, literacy and numeracy skills. This raises questions of how to support casual tutors to deal with more diversity of student backgrounds. Subject coordinators are encouraged to embed GAs into subject content and assessments. Therefore, tutors need to understand faculty-wide GAs in the context of their discipline to effectively communicate these to students. We ran a training session for casual tutors teaching first year science subjects, to provide information on transition, diversity and faculty-wide GAs. Two follow-up surveys (early and late semester) enabled us to identifying the challenges faced by casual tutors and whether faculty-wide GAs were communicated to students. Future sessions will be tailored to support tutors as they assist our students through their first year transition.
We have established a community of practice focussed on student learning in first-year science. ... more We have established a community of practice focussed on student learning in first-year science. It is recognised that transition, whether from school to university or other possible transitions, is an issue that is a concern for the entire sector, and this is acknowledged both at Faculty and University level. One of the factors to which we attribute the success of this CoP is that we are working within the context of a well-established set of transition pedagogies which have been strongly promoted and supported within UTS. There is also an internal grants scheme that provides small amounts of funding for initiatives aimed at improving transition and engagement as part of the widening participation strategy. Another factor for the success of this group is the leadership and active engagement of a senior staff member. This CoP has not evolved organically as a grass-roots group, nor has it been commissioned from on-high. The Faculty of Science has also recently appointed an academic developer to support course renewal and the mapping of graduate attributes, and this role includes the support of initiatives like setting up CoPs.
We publicised a call for papers on the theme 'Art meets Science' for a special issue of The Inter... more We publicised a call for papers on the theme 'Art meets Science' for a special issue of The Interna;onal Journal of Science and Mathema;cs Educa;on. Accepted papers filling two issues. It appears scien;sts across the sciences are involved in transdisciplinary collabora;ons that engage with a broad range of the arts.
Welcome to the Special Edition of IJ-ISME on Science Communication in the Undergraduate Curricula... more Welcome to the Special Edition of IJ-ISME on Science Communication in the Undergraduate Curricula. As editors, we were delighted with the response to the call for papers for this special edition, and are pleased to present to you a showcase of quality research articles on curricula that build communication skills.
Welcome to the Special Edition of IJ-ISME on Science Communication in the Undergraduate Curricula... more Welcome to the Special Edition of IJ-ISME on Science Communication in the Undergraduate Curricula. As editors, we were delighted with the response to the call for papers for this special edition, and are pleased to present to you a showcase of quality research articles on curricula that build communication skills.
Journal of Learning Design, 2011
Journal of Learning Design, 2010
The papers selected for this Special Issue focus on the scholarly, personal and scientific value ... more The papers selected for this Special Issue focus on the scholarly, personal and scientific value of creative works generated formally within the curriculum, and informally. Poetry, visual arts, music, reflective prose and storytelling -the papers showcase "When Science meets the Arts", offering examples of how our colleagues across science and mathematics have blurred disciplinary boundaries to better support student learning. It is exciting to see the broad range of educational situations where this is occurring. Science, technology and mathematics disciplines addressed here include mathematics, biomedical science, botany, chemistry, microbiology, physics, psychology and zoology.
Welcome to the SaMnet Leadership Special Edition of IJ-ISME. We are delighted to present this bum... more Welcome to the SaMnet Leadership Special Edition of IJ-ISME. We are delighted to present this bumper edition showcasing nine projects from eight Australian universities. These projects represent not only scholarly endeavours in learning and teaching but also the challenges and joys of developing and maintaining teams of learning and teaching scholars in environments of competing time and research-focus demands. The reflective and innovative practices demonstrated in these pages all centre on enhancing student learning, delivered in effective and efficient manners relevant to their disciplines. These underlying conditions are critically relevant in the current Australian environment, where Universities are under increasing financial and regulatory pressures. With ongoing support, these projects and their leaders have the potential to assist their disciplines and universities navigate these external pressures to continue to deliver quality student learning experiences.
Welcome to the Special Edition of IJ-ISME on Science Communication in the Undergraduate Curricula... more Welcome to the Special Edition of IJ-ISME on Science Communication in the Undergraduate Curricula. As editors, we were delighted with the response to the call for papers for this special edition, and are pleased to present to you a showcase of quality research articles on curricula that build communication skills.
This issue presents six papers that share a concern for the development of teaching excellence th... more This issue presents six papers that share a concern for the development of teaching excellence through the employment of supportive technologies. While they are distinct, in terms of their contextual origins and research foci, the theme of community is commented upon in each. The notion that a well developed and supportive community, of practitioners, of academics, of learners provides a capacity to promote enhanced outcomes is not a new idea. For the past fifty years or more, the social dimension for learning and teaching has been acknowledged as fundamental for knowledge transactions and development. However, design for learning has often considered social framing as supplementary to the main game; that of the individual's learning. Websites have been constructed to lighten cognitive load, to sequence concepts, to provide measured feedback, progress charts, achievement profiles and to basically engage the individual. The papers in this issue variously show us that social context can be effectively used to launch the learner within a community of practice. The first paper by Doherty examines the use of online modules to engage Health academics in Professional Development to improve their teaching. His teaching performance rubric (page 3) considers peer connections through mentoring and peer review as key elements of teaching excellence, and the Scholarly Teaching (page 4) steps lead readers to understand the place of peer work in the teaching and learning connection. Doherty describes the introduction of an online and modular development system to prompt maturation as a teaching scholar aligned to an ePortfolio enabling academics to demonstrate their journey to themselves and colleagues. Owen and Davis, our second paper, discuss the benefits of cross-institutional collaboration. They report the impact of collaborative planning by a community of 30 Australian Law Schools to achieve specified Graduate Attributes. The national law graduate attributes professional learning process is described as being at the " starter " phase, yet Owen and Davis show comfortably that collaboration is a feature of success at all levels of learning design. The third paper, Schuetze, considers the benefits of carefully designing interactive software to reflect the needs of students in German language learning. The " spiral learning " concept drove the design architecture, where students regularly met high frequency words and where some recycling of words and phrases occurred as the students explored more difficult levels. Interestingly, the participants in this study were brought together rather than engaged through distance learning formats. Schuetze, made a conscious decision to gather the students together (page 29) even though this was an individual reading course, which was provided for by a self paced software package. While community aspect was backgrounded in this study, but there must have been a sense of shared endeavour framing the student's engagement with the package and which impacted upon the success of the innovation.
This issue presents six papers from a wide range of disciplines and locations again reminding us ... more This issue presents six papers from a wide range of disciplines and locations again reminding us of the rich tapestry of teaching and learning in higher education around the world. The papers in this issue fit loosely into three categories that move from the macro in considering whole curriculum or course design, through to finer levels of evaluating teaching and learning materials, to end with the micro decisions made in the selection of teaching methods or technologies to support those methods. What is common to all papers in this issue is their tacit acknowledgement of the complexity of teaching and learning and an expression of the authors' profound interest in analysing and reifying its design. Where they differ is in their use of terminology, particularly in what constitutes a unit, course, or program. It is rather a case, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, where we are " separated by a common language. " Similarly, these papers provide differing perspectives of what are alternately called graduate attributes, competences, competencies or capabilities. Firstly as formal statements of learning outcomes in Readman's paper and secondly less formally, but with similar intent, in the paper by Bundsgaard and Hansen. Further, Bahr and Lloyd see graduate capabilities as one of several parameters influencing course design. The Macro level We begin this issue with three papers addressing the macro view of course design and evaluation. The first paper in this issue and the first at this level of overall course design, by Keshavarz, from Iran, addresses the measurement of learning outcomes through a quantitative tool. Here 'course' and 'program' are used interchangeably. The author contends that course learning outcomes can be used in both design and evaluation, here in terms of course accreditation. The second paper, by Readman, takes an original look at leading learning design at the beginning of a curriculum renewal process. The author has looked to graduate attributes as the means of designing a curriculum through a shared philosophy, or set of understandings about teaching and learning. Here the term 'program' is used to define a degree and the means to design it is the same as the means to evaluate it. What matters is how program leaders understand and interpret the gr In the third paper in this issue, Bahr and Lloyd, the co‐editors of this journal, address the complex and elusive issue of course cohesion and have attempted to identify the key elements needed to achieve this. Keeping a course – what Readman called a program ‐ as designed is, for them, a critical way to ensure better learning outcomes for students and a means to make curriculum renewal sustainable. Their paper was derived from a frustration and fatigue arising from a continual and somewhat erratic cycle of curriculum decay and renewal.
EDITORIAL Emphasising the learning in Learning Design This issue presents four papers that have i... more EDITORIAL Emphasising the learning in Learning Design This issue presents four papers that have independently looked at how students learn – and how teaching can be framed by an understanding of this ‐ through a number of diverse disciplines. As with our previous issues, the commonalities of effective teaching and learning overcome potential differences in context or methodological approach. The papers here are from Policing Studies, Law, Architecture, and Education and respectively consider problem‐ based learning, authentic assessment, metaphorical reasoning and the social presence generated in online communication. Each of the papers in this issue is based on a differing approach to learning which, as an ontology, " can have far‐reaching significance … can create new ways of being that previously did not exist and a framework for actions that would not have previously made sense " (Winograd & Flores, 1986, p. 560). The authors in this issue have made new " sense " from new settings but each is strongly founded in concern for student learning outcomes. The first paper in this issue, by Shipton, is drawn from the teaching of police force recruits through problem‐based learning. It transcends its context and addresses issues of teaching and learning applicable to all. Shipton, who is also a valued reviewer for the Journal, begins his paper by identifying the nuances and complexities of what seem to be simple divisions between teacher‐ or content‐centred and student‐ or learning‐ centred practice. It then describes the findings of a survey, based on Åkerlind's (2007) framework, which seem to indicate that while the majority favour student‐centred approaches in theory, their descriptions of practice evidenced a more teacher‐centred approach. This apparent mismatch – between theories‐in‐use and espoused theories ‐ has been reported elsewhere in the literature and perhaps will give readers cause to interrogate their own practice more closely. Our second paper, by Burton, is based in the ontology of authentic assessment positioned in a Law faculty. It challenges the notion that authenticity is somehow fixed and recommends fluidity in academics' calculation of what makes for authentic assessment. She also provides a critical synthesis of six approaches identified in current research including fidelity of task to the real world, collaboration and complexity. This leads to the formulation of a diagnostic framework where ten scaffolded questions can assist academics to calculate the authenticity of the assessment through a simple fractional measure. A case study is provided to show how the calculation can be made and, from this, how academics can make some informed judgements about the assessments they set and how these impact on student learning. Casakin, our third paper, addresses the concept of metaphorical reasoning in a school of architecture. Here, students in a design studio setting make use of a creative connection to what they know and have experienced to take a step into the culture of their discipline. Casakin has found, through empirical research, that metaphorical reasoning is of greater value to beginning students than to those in later stages of their study. In this, and aligned to the thematic connection between the papers in this issue, he has shown the subtleties of student learning and perhaps cautions that there is no single rule to apply. Teachers need to frame their instruction and assessment to a finely‐grained understanding of how students learn.
Welcome to a new volume for JLD and its first issue in its new home, courtesy of the Library at t... more Welcome to a new volume for JLD and its first issue in its new home, courtesy of the Library at the Queensland University of Technology. The journal has changed its URL and its working processes: it now resides in an Open Journal Systems platform. Despite these changes, the journal remains concerned with innovative evidence-‐driven approaches to teaching and learning designed to meet the specific needs of students. The authors in this issue from across Australia all share this concern – and have provided us with a unique view into Fashion Studies, Education, IT, and Creative Industries as well as specific work done to support international and transnational students. The theme for this issue is embedded in the title of its final paper, by Baird (Curtin University), that is, targeted timely learning support. The first four papers in this issue describe how academics in differing disciplines have purposefully brought theory to their practice and have systematically reviewed the outcomes of their efforts. While this is not seemingly different from what is happening in institutions everywhere, each of these has added – again purposefully – an authentic link to their parent disciplines and their students' entrée to their chosen professions. Further, each has looked for transferability to other disciplines as either generalised understandings or as formalised models. The final two papers in this issue are concerned with direct support for students, specifically international students; again purposeful yet practical approaches are offered. There is much to be taken from this issue in terms of informed practical and tested experience and advice, irrespective of your discipline. There is also a wonderful mix here of creativity and critique as learning designs are developed and tested to benefit students in differing settings. The first paper in this issue, by Ryan and Brough (Queensland University of Technology), describes and reviews a deliberate program of scaffolded student reflection in Fashion Studies. Building on established theoretical bases, these authors provide students with a scaffolded process and model for action which makes purposeful use of available technologies. The authors have also spoken to how their learning design has " mirrored industry practices for design evaluation " and its potential for " applicability across undergraduate courses in a variety of discipline areas. " In the second paper, Myers and Monypenny (James Cook University) and Trevathan (Griffith University) appropriate lessons from POGIL (Process-‐Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) to " overcome the glassy-‐eyed nod " of students enrolled in an undergraduate Information Technology degree. As with the first paper in this issue, a specific learning need has been pro-‐actively and systematically addressed. The identified needs in this paper will resonate with other institutions and other disciplines. They are the need to: improve student engagement, foster interaction, develop required skills and to effectively gauge attention and comprehension within lectures and large tutorials. Clearly, these authors have also sought to provide targeted timely learning support for their students. They have achieved this through appropriating POGIL, more typically adopted in the teaching of Chemistry.