ISSUE 31, JULY 2011

“Our work as teachers should meet the highest scholarly standards of groundedness, of openness, of clarity and complexity. But, it is only when we step back and reflect systematically on the teaching we have done ... in a form that can be publicly reviewed and built upon by our peers, that we have moved from scholarly teaching to a scholarship of teaching.” Adapted from Lee Shulman (2004)

institute for teaching and learning

aBout sYnergY

aBout sYnergY

Synergy is a magazine designed to support the ongoing professional

development of University of Sydney staff by providing a forum

for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. At Sydney, the

‘Scholarship of Teaching and Learning’ is understood in terms of the

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s definition:

“Our work as teachers should meet the highest scholarly

standards of groundedness, of openness, of clarity and

complexity. But, it is only when we step back and reflect

systematically on the teaching we have done ... in a form

that can be publicly reviewed and built upon by our peers,

that we have moved from scholarly teaching to a scholarship

of teaching”.

Produced by the Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL),

Synergy is published annually and circulated to staff in all

academic and research units.

aiMs and scoPe

Synergy’s purpose is threefold. Firstly, it is intended to showcase

the range of scholarly learning and teaching initiatives taking place

across the University. Secondly, it provides a forum where staff

can communicate the outcomes of their critical reflection on and

inquiries into teaching. Thirdly, Synergy acts as a vehicle for critical

peer review and public discussion of key learning and teaching

issues in higher education.

The Editorial Board welcomes submissions that critically

and systematically:

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comment thoughtfully on an aspect of education in the

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comprised of Education Portfolio staff, which in 2011 includes

Professor Keith Trigwell, Associate Professor Simon Barrie,

Associate Professor Tania Gerzina, Dr Graham Hendry, Dr Alison

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ISSN: 1325-9881

© 2011 Individual authors retain copyright of their papers.

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The views expressed in Synergy are not necessarily those of

The University of Sydney, the Editorial Board, or the Institute

for Teaching and Learning.

contact us

For further information about Synergy, contact the Editorial

Board at synergy@usyd.edu.au.

contents

04 do i have to write an essaY?

i’M going to Be a Maths teacher ...

Judy Anderson

09 through the looking glass:

reflections on the student exPerience 2002–2009

Rachel Symons

14 ethics for research students –

our resPonsiBilitY

Maryanne Large & Henriikka Clarkeburn

19 extending exPeriential learning:

showcasing a nursing ‘clinical hoMe’ Model

Heather McKenzie, Jennifer Hardy, Murray Fisher,

Melinda Lewis & Judith Kingston

24 “it’s a Practice thing”:

the annotated BiBliograPhY as a learning

activitY for arts students

Bridget Berry, Radhiah Chowdhury, Lindsay Tuggle &

Jacinta van den Berg

32 can international design coMPetitions

at conferences lead the waY to a higher

research degree?

Martin Tomitsch

39 develoPing an authentic role PlaY interview

for Music teachers

Rosemary Milburn, Jennifer L. Rowley & Susan Atkinson

46 exPloring how eleMents of studio teaching

can iMProve student engageMent

Rod Fiford, Martin Tomitsch, Colin R. Dunstan & Rebecca Plumbe

53 introducing wrise:

the write rePorts in science

and engineering weBsite

Helen Drury

60 e-learning for tv kids:

the storY of ecgteacher.coM

John Ryan

“Supporting the scholarship

of teaching and learning at the University

of Sydney”

introduction I love mathematics and so do my students – I also love teaching and hope my students will too. Indeed most tell me they want to teach secondary mathematics so they can share their passion for mathematics with their students. Most of you will remember your learning of mathematics at school and I’m sure some of you will think we are mad but others will agree with us. I believe we can make a difference but it requires deep reflection on practice, considerable patience, and willingness to question taken-for-granted practices in schools. My overall aim in the secondary mathematics curriculum units of study is to develop secondary mathematics teachers who are deep thinkers and problem solvers, who are capable of solving mathematical problems and solving issues about pedagogy and engagement in school-based issues associated with learning and teaching.

If our dreams of everyone loving mathematics are to be realised, we need to engage with research into students’ attitudes to mathematics and consider why so many school students turn off the subject early in their schooling (e.g., Boaler, Wiliam, & Brown, 2000; Di Martino & Zan, 2010). To that end, I provide a range of relevant articles for

students to read, ask them to interview school students, peers and other adults about their mathematical learning experiences at school, and have them write a paper recommending ways to address students’ negative attitudes.

Not many of my students like writing essays and they frequently challenge the purpose of the task. Writing essays is frequently outside their comfort zone – as my students are either in their third year of a combined degree or in the first year of post-graduate teacher education, some haven’t had to write essays since the Year 12 Higher School Certificate (HSC) examination in English.

When I completed the Graduate Certificate in Educational Studies (Higher Education) in 2007, I interviewed some of my students from non-English speaking backgrounds who had completed senior secondary education in Australia. All expressed their anxiety about completing the essay task with one student stating:

I haven’t had to write a lot of essays with a maths background so for me it is lack of experience … I am feeling more satisfied but I still need to learn better strategies …

do i have to write an essaY? i’M going to Be a Maths teacher ...JUDY ANDERSON* FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL WORK

*Corresponding author. Email: judy.anderson@sydney.edu.au

4 SYNERGY ISSUE 31 JULY 2011

Even with considerable support for the task including suggested subheadings, samples of past students’ responses, peer-reading of drafts, and a rubric identifying indicators for each of the assessment criteria, students’ responses are varied and most continue to worry about their writing, particularly those students from non-English speaking backgrounds. I had been contemplating new ways to address students’ concerns about essay writing for a while, and it was time to consider a new approach.

When using high school students’ solutions to mathematics questions as a focus for discussion, I noticed the students liked debating the accuracy of the solutions and how to allocate marks or grades to the work, so I thought why not try this approach with essays? Would the students enjoy marking essays and allocating grades? Would this strategy help to allay their fears of essay writing? This idea was further developed after a conversation with a colleague from the Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL) about recent research on the use of exemplars to assist students’ in understanding the standards of work expected in assessments. My ITL colleague and I discussed how this might work for my students.

recent research To further support student learning many universities now advocate the use of standards-based assessment so recent studies have focussed on how students come to understand the written descriptions of criteria and standards, for example, in unit of study outlines. Many students have difficulty understanding or applying assessment standards (Carless, 2006; Handley & Williams, 2009; Hendry, Armstrong & Bromberger, 2011; O’Donovan, Price, & Rust, 2004; Rust, Price, & O’Donovan, 2003).

However if students are provided with opportunities to read and review typical examples of work of each standard, or exemplars (Sadler, 1987; 1989), then their understanding is enhanced. In recent studies students have been helped to engage with exemplars by involving them in individually marking copies of assignment exemplars, e.g., credit and distinction standard assignments, using a marking sheet or ‘rubric’. They then discuss in class their marking decisions and the exemplars in small groups. The teacher leads a whole-class discussion of the results and explains why each exemplar was graded the way it was. Hendry, Bromberger and Armstrong (2011) found that an interactive style of teacher-led marking and discussion of exemplars in class is associated with higher student achievement.

Taking these findings on board, I duly set about re-reading my past students’ essays to identify exemplars which provided evidence of at least some of the assessment criteria and standards.

MY inquirY In Semester 1 2010, in collaboration with the ITL, I developed an inquiry project to trial the use of exemplars with a group of 26 students in a secondary mathematics curriculum unit of study. In the second week of the course, I provided the students with two exemplar essays (a credit and a distinction essay) and the marking rubric. They were asked to read each essay and use the rubric to determine a grade of pass, credit, distinction, or high distinction. Recording reasons for decisions was encouraged so that in week 3 students could discuss their decisions with a small group of class mates before a whole-class discussion. Data collection included the scored rubrics, responses to a short questionnaire and interviews with students.

The overall aim of this small qualitative study was to explore how students interpreted and made sense of their experiences of participating in marking and student and teacher-led discussion of exemplars. However, an important secondary aim was to determine whether the students engaged more with the task of essay writing, and felt more confident about writing an essay after reading, grading and discussing the exemplars in relation to the assessment criteria and standards.

student outcoMes From a learning and teaching perspective, this was one of the most animated lessons I had led for some time. Students readily engaged in discussions about each essay and had somewhat heated debates in their groups about the relative merits of each paper. They clearly enjoyed taking the ‘teacher’s role’ and indicated the class was useful for a range of reasons. In response to the question ‘what did you learn from assessing the two papers’, comments ranged from the challenge of marking essays to increased knowledge about the assessment criteria. The categories presented in Table 1 emerged as the questionnaire responses for 24 students were read and analysed. Some students wrote several comments which have been grouped into more than one category hence the total number of comments is greater than 24.

Do I have to write an essay? I’m going to be a maths teacher ...

6

table 1: students’ responses to the prompt of ‘what did you

learn from assessing the two papers?’ (n=24)

From the questionnaire responses, it was clear both the group discussions and the whole-class discussions helped to further clarify the purpose of the task, the expectations as presented in the assessment criteria, and the challenge of finding consensus when marking essays. Students reported judgements in group discussions varied greatly and we were able to have a discussion about how judgments might be made when examiners grade HSC essays. It was noted by one student that “people assess in different ways. It’s hard to come to a single mark”, although overall, they agreed the group discussions were useful. One student wrote the exercise “helped me critique my own essay structure, and my own essay writing skills, and expectations from markers”. The whole-class discussions quickly developed into students wanting to know ‘the answer’ or my judgement on each paper. This is not surprising given I would be marking their essays at the end of the semester. My assessment of each exemplar was a ‘low credit’ and a ‘distinction’.

All students agreed the use of the essay exemplars had enabled their learning – they were clearer about the nature of the task, the criteria and standards for assessment, the differences between grades, and how to better structure and organise the essay to communicate their thinking.

Several recommended I provide four exemplars next time so that they could see papers graded as a ‘pass’ and ‘high distinction’ as well. The final comments were reassuring and included ‘excellent task’, ‘more units should do this’, ‘very helpful’, and ‘useful and relevant’. Some wanted more time for discussion and for the approach to be introduced in first year Education units of study.

A colleague from the ITL interviewed two of my students to further investigate the efficacy of the approach. The first student was not confident about essay writing and indicated she had failed her essays in a first year Education subject. To support her learning at this time she went to the Learning Centre, and found her experience was beneficial for summarising articles and structuring essays. However, she found marking and discussing the exemplars more engaging, particularly given it was not an assessable task:

She [Judy] said it was not an issue if you mark it wrong ... it was just the thinking process ... when we got into the tute, she asked us to talk about what we gave them and at the end of that she went through it ...

This student indicated it was a “good experience” because she still didn’t feel confident in marking the essay but realised everyone had different ideas about what a good essay looks like. In particular, she commented on learning about avoiding long sentences, watching grammar and punctuation, and using appropriate language. She described differences in the strength of the arguments and structure of paragraphs. This student realised after talking to peers that she:

... does essays differently to everyone else ... all my friends seem to read all their papers and then after they’ve read everything, somehow it all gets into their heads and then they can just write their arguments and go back to their papers where they made notes. I don’t do that. The way I do it is I, as I go I summarise the papers or if it’s a journal article I will ... I’ll cut and paste the information and put in quotes. And um then after that I’ll put similar ideas together.

She was confident her results were better for this essay as a result of what she had learnt during the marking class. She enjoyed “taking the part of a teacher” and appeared to have gained more control over the outcome of writing an essay.

Judy Anderson

categorYnuMBer

of exaMPle

Interpretation of the task and/or the criteria and standards

11What the task was about.

What makes a good essay and what doesn’t.

Structure, format and style

8

The importance of signposting. Each paragraph should begin with an idea which you then

discuss ...

Assessment process

7 Assessing is hard!

Writing quality

5

The writing quality, the detail of explanations were quite

different and I could see how they varied in communicating

points to the reader.

Use of the literature

4... drawing in the literature and

research

Content of the papers

2 A lot about maths anxiety

Total 37

just a dense forest, and I was making my own way through. And I, I never forget that I kept having to flip from one page to the other, different paragraphs, to link the points that the author hadn’t linked.

teacher outcoMes What were the outcomes for me? Well for a start I needed to seek permission from previous students to use their essays, choose two essays representing different grades and with different strengths and weaknesses, and re-check my grading against the criteria. I removed student identification and reformatted both essays so that they had the same font and layout – this was important because I didn’t want different presentation styles to be a distraction and unduly influence the grading by the students. All of this was quite time consuming but well worth the effort given the overwhelmingly positive response from the students. The time to re-read and check the grades I had allocated also helped to clarify my thoughts for the class discussion and enabled some minor changes to be made to the assessment criteria on the rubric.

Given the limited number of hours available to prepare the pre-service teachers for secondary mathematics teaching, I was concerned about the time taken for class discussion about the essays and the assessment criteria. However, the level of engagement of the students with the task, their increased understanding of the assessment criteria, and the improved quality of their writing was well worth the time (and effort). So much so that I repeated the exercise in the following semester with a different group of students and had similar positive results. My advice is to consider this approach as a way to engage students with assessment criteria and establishing standards for quality responses. This could work for many different types of assessment tasks, not just essays; e.g., short reports of research, letters, …. As yet, I haven’t increased the number of exemplars beyond two because of the time it takes for the students to read and grade the papers. For shorter tasks, it may be possible to give students three or four exemplars.

final coMMents My aim of improving essay writing by giving students confidence was achieved. All students responded positively to the use of exemplars and fewer complained about “writing an essay”. Mathematics teachers need to be good at doing mathematics but they also need to be able to communicate clearly and effectively. All teachers need to develop the capacity to read and reflect on their practice, including mathematics teachers. I encourage discussion to develop

Do I have to write an essay? I’m going to be a maths teacher ...

The second student was far more confident with essay writing as he had gained high grades throughout his undergraduate degree. He indicated he thought he knew how to write an essay and was unsure whether the marking class would be worthwhile. However, he revealed that he “felt more confident afterwards” since “before my understanding was a bit unstructured and vague so I sort of knew what to do but it wasn’t explicit in my mind”. “Intuitive” was the word he used to describe his knowledge of essay writing before the marking class.

This student mentioned three main things he had learnt from marking the essay exemplars and discussing them with peers in class. He mentioned the use of “signposting” (his phrase) to present the main idea of a paragraph in the first sentence and then elaborate on the idea. In addition, he realised it was important to then provide support for the idea by referring to a range of references and finally the notion of ‘taking the reader on a journey’ so that the essay as a whole is coherent and well structured.

When I was forced to read someone else’s ideas I realised how difficult it could be, to read someone else’s work when it wasn’t well structured... so then it flashed right before me, the things that you shouldn’t do in an essay, the things... you know the signposting? The topic sentence, the logical structure, all those things came up and struck me as I read the two...umm... as I read the two essays and then with the reference of the rubric there...

He said he needed to read the two papers to be able to determine more clearly what a good paper was like.

... if I read the poor article in isolation it wouldn’t have been as clear as when I had them together. I could see that one was arguing a case, one wasn’t. One was linking ideas, one wasn’t. Um one had a logical progression, the other one didn’t.

This student indicated he had learnt more from the ‘poor article’ than the other exemplar. He described the experience of reading the paper:

I realised that ... you know, it was going to be much, much more than half an hour, and I happened to read, I think it was the credit standards essay first, and that took me at least two hours. I read it, and I went back over it, it was dense, it was like walking through a forest that had never been, you know, was

8

shared understandings and try to support the students as much as possible in critical reflection on their developing approaches to teaching. By engaging my students with essay exemplars and debating the qualities of the exemplars in class I believe I can support their critical thinking about translating research in secondary mathematics education into their classrooms.

referencesBoaler, J., Wiliam, D., & Brown, M. L. (2000). Students’

experiences of ability grouping—disaffection, polarisation and the construction of failure. British Educational Research Journal, 26(5), 631-648.

Carless, D. (2006). Differing perceptions in the feedback process. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), 219-233.

Di Martino, P., & Zan, R. (2010). ‘Me and maths’; Towards a definition of attitude grounded on students’ narratives. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 13, 27-48.

Handley, K., & Williams, L. (2009). From copying to learning: using exemplars to engage students with assessment criteria and feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 36(1), 95-108.

Hendry, G. D., Bromberger, N., & Armstrong, S. (2011). Constructive guidance and feedback for learning: the usefulness of exemplars, marking sheets and different types of feedback in a first year law subject. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 36(1), 1-11.

Hendry, G. D., Armstrong, S., & Bromberger, N. (2011). Implementing standards-based assessment effectively: Incorporating discussion of exemplars into classroom teaching. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. First published on: 15 February 2011 (iFirst).

O’Donovan, B., Price, M., & Rust, C. (2004). Know what I mean? Enhancing student understanding of assessment standards and criteria. Teaching in Higher Education, 9(3), 325-335.

Rust, C., Price, M., & O’Donovan, B. (2003). Improving students’ learning by developing their understanding of assessment criteria and processes. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 28(2), 147-164.

Sadler, R. D. (1987). Specifying and promulgating achievement standards. Oxford Review of Education, 13(2), 191-209.

Sadler, D. R. (1989). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science, 18, 119-144.

Judy Anderson

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax— Of cabbages—and kings—“ The Walrus and the Carpenter, Lewis Carroll 1872

“To the Looking-Glass world it was Alice that said ‘I’ve a sceptre in hand, I’ve a crown on my head. Let the Looking-Glass creatures, whatever they be, Come and dine with the Red Queen, the White Queen, and me.” Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll 1871

introduction Between 2002 and 2010 I was privileged to have a view into the world of the student that no other person in the University of Sydney could claim – a world with no faculty or disciplinary boundaries, a world where the totality of the student experience could be seen through my looking glass, to experience with them what it meant to be a student at the University of Sydney. My looking glass world was not that of either the Red and White Queens, Tweedledum, Tweedledee, and chessboard characters, but of the Student Course Experience Questionnaire (SCEQ) factors and the curriculum. Through the eyes of the student I learnt

what they expected from teachers, other students and university life as a whole; I saw changes in the way in which subjects were delivered; and I understood students’ hopes and frustrations as they tried to cope with the reality of balancing work and study. So come with me into my looking glass world as I reflect on the University of Sydney student experience, as seen through their eyes.

the tiMe has coMe: a historical PersPective Firstly, though, it is important to look at the development of the student experience reports, based on the SCEQ, and changes in the analysis and reporting processes that have led to this time of reflection – the time to talk of many things....

“You can take the girl out of the library, but you can’t take the librarian out of the girl” is something I have said many times when explaining how I came to be involved in the analysis and reporting of the qualitative data from the SCEQ, for it is this data that provided me with my looking glass into the student experience world. My professional skills of library classification and cataloguing were brought to the fore the minute I received my first set of comments for analysis.

through the looking glass: reflections on the student exPerience 2002–2009RACHEL SYMONS* OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY VICE-CHANCELLOR, EDUCATION

*Corresponding author. Email: rachel.symons@sydney.edu.au

SYNERGY ISSUE 31 JULY 2011

10

In 2002 when Paul Ramsden, then Pro Vice Chancellor, Teaching and Learning, asked me to provide team members for the first round of Academic Board faculty reviews with an analysis of what students were saying - my love affair with and entrée into the world of students began.

Over the next few years, I developed a comprehensive and evidence based structure for the analysis, evaluation and reporting of the student experience to faculties, senior management and internal and external stakeholders – a structure that has been presented at domestic and international conferences, and lauded as being best practice by peers in the student satisfaction survey analysis field. Between 2002 and 2010, the reporting structure changed from lists of relevant comments under broad statements such as “Students were appreciative of the standard of teaching” and “Students appreciated the relevance of the curriculum to their work/ career” to ones that were arranged by the SCEQ factors of Good Teaching, Clear Goals and Standards, Assessment, Workload, Graduate Attributes, Learning Community, and Overall Satisfaction. Given that the main topic of conversation in students responses to the SCEQ has always been the Curriculum, or programme of study, an additional section for this aspect of the student experience was included separately.

From 2008, reports incorporated both quantitative and qualitative data, highlighted key issues from the most recent survey, and included sample illustrative comments for each section. Simultaneously, the in-house taxonomy used in the analysis of the comments was constantly reviewed to ensure it encompassed all aspects of each SCEQ Factor, and incorporated emerging issues in the realm of the student experience of learning and teaching – for example, eLearning only came on board as a topic in 2005. Over the years analysis of the qualitative data moved from being wholly manual to a combined manual and automated process, using NVivo8 as the analysis tool, thereby shortening the time taken in the analysis.

value adding To backtrack a little, I will explain exactly what it is I mean by the qualitative data from the SCEQ and why it’s important that this information is looked at by those involved in learning and teaching, and the wider student experience, at the University. The SCEQ consists of two sections – a set of survey items to which students indicate their agreement or disagreement, and two open questions which ask them to indicate areas of best practice and areas in need of improvement – this is the qualitative data which provides

an insight into the student experience, and puts flesh on the bones of the quantitative data, or survey item responses. Respondents use these open questions to explain their answers to the survey, or to introduce totally new topics – e.g. the content and structure of their coursework. They add value to the quantitative data and should be used together in eliciting information about what is happening in the student-world.

It is my experience that students are forthright in their opinions, and tell it exactly how it is. As consumers in an increasingly consumer driven society, they are becoming more and more aware of their rights and expectations as students at a University which has “world wide recognition” and where they are “very proud to be studying”. Students are technologically adept, expect value for money, and ‘want it now’. So how has this been reflected in their responses to the SCEQ? I will now look into my mirror for the answer.

what is on the Menu: quantitY and tYPe of coMMents Looking back over the past ten years, it is obvious that students are taking more time and effort in responding to the open questions in the SCEQ. This may be because they feel their opinions are important, it may be that they just like writing – I have no answers to this conundrum so I will just state some pertinent facts and figures from the survey results to illustrate the point.

Firstly, there has been a substantial increase in the percentage of students who provided written observation in response to either one or both the open questions. In 2000, 25% of all respondents provided written observations; this increased to 73% in 2001 – 2003, 78% in 2005, and currently sits at 86% (2009). Another important fact to note is that, contrary to usual practice, students are tending to write more about areas of best practice than areas in need of improvement.

Secondly, the type or nature of the comments has also altered. Comments are becoming more constructive, and often suggest reasons why they consider something to be of best practice or in need of improvement. Whereas in 2002 a student wrote

“The lecturers and tutors are good.”

in 2009, a student writing about the same topic expanded the detail considerably, providing a reasoned argument as to why the lecturers and tutors were good:

Rachel Symons

Through the looking glass: reflections on the student experience 2002–2009

“Within this department, it is very obvious that lecturers have listened to student concerns and continued to adapt and develop their courses accordingly. I get essays back covered in detailed and helpful comments, in a timely and professional way. There aren’t typographical errors in the course outline, there aren’t assignments due on public holidays, the assignments seem relevant and feedback is given in time to improve for subsequent tasks. The lecturers are really world class - every single one I’ve had has been fantastic.”

Another change that is occurring in the presentation of the comments is in their length and complexity. Whereas in the early years of the SCEQ, students wrote short sentences and very rarely mentioned more than one or two aspects of their experience in their responses; nowadays we have comments that can be up to half an A4 page in length, and which may mention up to six aspects of their experience of learning and teaching. So, what is it that students are writing about so expansively? What are the key issues being raised in students’ comments, and have they changed over time?

looking through the glass: focusing on keY issues Which is the greatest issue of all? – from a student perspective, based on the topics most often written about in their responses, one would have to say it is the content, structure, flexibility and relevance of the Curriculum. Topping the list of key issues for most faculty reports, this topic is consistently mentioned in over 40% of comments received in the SCEQ. Why is this so? My theory is that the SCEQ provides students with the only opportunity to comment on their degree ‘as a whole’ rather than on individual units of study. At an institutional level, the curriculum is the only area of the student experience of learning and teaching that regularly receives more positive than negative comments.

Flexibility, diversity, variety are terms which readily spring to mind when ascertaining what students consider to be outstanding about the curriculum at the University of Sydney.

“I am able to study anything that sparked my interest throughout my five years. It gave me incredibly broad scope to discover my own strengths and weaknesses”

“I like the way in which Sydney University placed like subjects together in order to make it easier on the students to grasp and link concepts”

On the other hand, they would appreciate help in structuring degrees, and more practicality:

“More guidance on structuring the combined degree and choosing subjects earlier in the course, because it is daunting to try and sort this out in the early years of study.”

“My degree course could also be much more practically focused to be actually useful in the workforce”

Within Good Teaching (one of the factor scales), the second highest area mentioned by respondents, there have been improvements in teaching, more lecturers are making use of eLearning, WebCT and BlackBoard; however, a common complaint is still that students want lecture notes uploaded prior to lectures not after.

Motivational, inspiring and engaging – these appear to be the qualities that students expect from lectures, together with the use of interactive and varied teaching methods:

“I am enjoying some lectures and subjects. Some lecturers are vibrant and spend time making their lectures interactive and engaging. These kinds of people and their content are memorable and give me a greater desire to learn and absorb all I can”

“The lecturers know the things which they are teaching well because this will help me understand the unit of study better particularly when I ask questions to them. One of the lecturers is particularly keen on helping students’ understanding and improving the University of Sydney experience”

Coming to the fore in recent years is an appreciation of lecturers who support and show concern for student learning, as well as having an understanding of both academic and personal problems.

“The lecturers, although all extremely busy in their own professional and personal lives, gave all of us the individual support and guidance we needed in both our studies and our personal lives, which made our studies easier.”

12

is like a community with all sort of people rather than just school”

On the downside, class sizes and physical facilities continue to be issues which affect the student experience across the University:

“I would prefer smaller class sizes for some of the courses as having too many people in tutorials often makes it difficult to stay on the topic or get everyone involved, particularly when there is 30 or more students in the tutorial class.”

“The limited number of computers and discussion rooms have always been a problem and seem not to be resolved yet, so I’m looking forward to this improvement in near future”

Given my previous life as a librarian, it would be unnatural for me not to take an interest in the student experience of the University library service. It is gratifying to learn that the staff, services and resources provided are valued by a high proportion of respondents.

“Library: amazing the resource available, the books and the e-journal database is broad and new.. The Endnote program was very useful and the staff has always been supportive.”

In 2009, the creation of the SciTech library, and the relocation of Law, resulted in some interesting reactions from respondents. On the positive side, students appreciate the large number of resources available:

“The Scitech library is an excellent resource where a large number of analogue items can be accessed whilst providing a stimulating place to do work.”

On the other hand, the opening up of the Law library to the wider University community is seen by some students as being disadvantageous:

“The Freehills Law Library is no longer accessible because of the number of non law students using it. It needs to be law students only so the books journals etc can be accessed”

It seems you can’t win them all!

Rachel Symons

The provision of timely, constructive and effective feedback on work has been a perennial area of concern since analysis of the qualitative data commenced:

“The feedback are sometimes too brief; they are too general and are aimed for the majority of the class. Hence they are unspecific and unclear. Beside just giving marks they should evaluate the students’ works and give specific and detail feedback thus they can learn from their mistakes and do well in final exam.”

Students are also quick to identify changes that could occur in the teaching practices of some lecturers:

“Some of the teaching, I believe, could be made more stimulating. I understand it is probably hard considering the content isn’t that interesting, but some lecturers are very good at making us understand topics, whilst others merely dish out facts and expect you to understand the concepts behind them all. perhaps lecturers could be given courses on how to give lectures and how to engage an audience”

To round out the top three issues, we have Learning Community, a topic which encompasses a wide range of areas – from the learning environment to location and physical facilities, from orientation to evaluation and feedback, and from social inclusion to library services. And the areas of best practice and suggested improvements are just as varied across the faculties, so much so that it is difficult to pinpoint those of significance. Suffice to say that students appreciate an interactive learning environment, where they feel part of a community of learners, and where the facilities are up to date and well maintained, viz:

“Equally, the interaction between staff and students in all of my subjects makes the learning experience a pleasure. It is not constructed on a hierarchical, ‘don’t speak unless spoken to’ basis, but rather is set up as a conversation and exchange of ideas among equals. This makes the learning experience more enjoyable as an active participant, but also ensures a higher degree of engagement and enthusiasm with the material and ideas presented.”

“Students and staff are friendly and welcoming, good and clean environment and the school itself

Through the looking glass: reflections on the student experience 2002–2009

through the looking glass: the reMaining PlaYers What’s left in the mix? What other things do students talk about in their responses? Students are developing a wide range of Graduate Attributes, particularly in the area of professional skills and experience, and analytical and problem solving.

The Overall satisfaction factor scale of SCEQ encompasses the quality of the degree, the staff and the students, as well as overall satisfaction with the degree experience. Whilst respondents value the privilege of studying at the University of Sydney, and being in contact with qualified, experienced, and knowledgeable academic staff, they expressed concern at the high cost of readers and photocopying on top of already high fees.

Assessment, Workload, and Clear Goals and Standards complete the menu, the leftovers – those aspects not mentioned by many students, but still of importance. Previously limited to being an area of improvement, assessment has recently become a best practice star, although group assessment continues to be problematic both in terms of group composition and equitable marking. To summarise, respondents would like a more even distribution of assignment due dates, less reading, and a clearer understanding of aims, objectives and standard of work required.

two waY looking glass: closing the looP During the course of my work with the SCEQ I have come in contact with students who fill in the SCEQ, who write copious comments, but who don’t know that someone reads, marks and inwardly digests what they have written. I can’t stress enough how important it is for us, the University community, to take on board the opinions of the students on their experiences, to embrace their bouquets, and act on their brickbats. In saying this, I acknowledge that the SEG Education Committee, in 2010, recommended that all faculties report on their responses to the SCEQ within three months of receipt of the results. What is important in this recommendation is that they also asked faculties to what measures are in place to inform students that their feedback is being listened to and being acted upon. This closing the loop in the evaluation and feedback process is very important. Students appreciate it when they are listened to, when faculties ‘close the loop’, and when changes, based on their feedback, take place:

“The lecturers always listen to our comments and suggestions and do their best to accommodate our concerns. They are often changing their initial guidelines to help students. This is a very good thing about my degree.”

“Faculty needs to listen more to students complaints and suggestions The opinion of students in unit feedback does not seem to be implemented”

It is therefore satisfying to see the programs that are being put in place across the University to respond to students feedback and let them know what is happening. The ITL is strongly committed to closing the loop, and in 2010 held meetings with students to ascertain the best and most expeditious way in which this could be achieved.

in conclusion Bidding farewell to my looking glass world, on the previous nine years of analysing and reporting on the student experience, I can truthfully say it has been challenging yet rewarding. It has also been an excellent way of learning about tertiary education in the 21st century, and seeing the student perspective. To use the words of one of our students in their response to the 2009 SCEQ:

“I feel that I have been given an exceptional privilege to feel a part of the University of Sydney community. On a qualitative scale of one to ten, I would rate my experience with ‘a billion’.”

acknowledgeMents My sincere thanks go to Paul Ramsden, for providing me with the initial opportunity to foray into this world of the student experience, and to Keith Trigwell, Simon Barrie, Paul Ginns (now at the Faculty of Education and Social Work) and Amani Bell and other members of the ITL, for providing valuable input into the process.

Note: Further information about the analysis, evaluation and reporting of the SCEQ qualitative data, together with faculty reports, and related publications, can be found at http://sydney.edu.au/learning/evaluating/coursework_reports.shtml

14

Although ethical competence is a graduate attribute required by this university, it is not always one that is successfully learnt. The Australian newspaper noted recently: “Universities are kidding themselves if they believe they produce ethical graduates” [1]. Indeed, in some courses ethics are never formally raised at all. A national survey found that amongst graduate attributes in postgraduate physics “ethical and social considerations are at the very bottom of the rankings, a significant distance from the next least developed attribute” [2], a result that has attracted concern [3]. Particularly since not all graduates even think that ethics is something that we need to worry about. One physics student noted: “Design, and ethical considerations were more emphasised in electrical engineering. I don’t think ethics needs to be considered as much in physics as other fields such as biology and psychology …” [2].

We suggest that ethics is essential to the functioning of all academic fields. Further we suggest that ethical skills should be explicitly developed with all students, including those entering research only programs.

current role of ethics in research degree PrograMs Ethics is currently taught in many professional degree courses, such as engineering and pharmacy. Such professions also have ongoing mechanisms to enforce ethical behaviour through professional boards. It is possible for an engineer, lawyer or doctor to be de-registered if their behaviour does not meet the required standards. No such mechanism exists for science, business or arts graduates, nor are ethics taught to them in any systematic manner. For students entering PhD programs, research ethics training and awareness raising is currently not part of the formal research training in most Australian Universities. This is unfortunate, given that their research may have significant input into public policy and to the understanding of scientific and social issues such as new technologies, climate change or the most effective responses to addiction.

Exactly this problem has been identified by a study of postgraduate students in Catalonia, Finland, Ireland and Sweden [4]. The report states: “ It is important for doctoral students to understand the value of good research ethics, not least in their future careers. Lack of knowledge and the failure to apply ethical standards could in the long run

*Corresponding author. Email: maryanne.large@sydney.edu.au

ethics for research students – our resPonsiBilitYMARYANNE LARGE1* & HENRIIKKA CLARKEBURN2 1SCHOOL OF PHYSICS2BUSINESS SCHOOL

research students in a laboratory

impair the confidence of fellow-researchers, the general public and the commercial sector in the research undertaken. It is disturbing that as many as half of the postgraduate students do not consider that they have enhanced their awareness of research ethics.” (italics added). Another study indicates that graduate students have an interest in learning about responsible conduct in research, but may not always get adequate opportunities to do so [5].

In the US, the National Academy of Sciences has stated “[S]cience has become so complex and so closely intertwined with society’s needs that a more formal introduction to research ethics and the responsibilities that these commitments imply is also needed - an introduction that can supplement the informal lessons provided by research supervisors and mentors.” The Academy subsequently produced a guide to ethical behaviour, for students entitled “On Being A Scientist” over 20 years ago [6]. The complexity of science has only increased since and it seems timely that we now consider our responsibilities as educators to introduce ethics to our students and guide them to develop skills to deal with ethical challenges.

research ethics and whY it Matters to everYone in acadeMia Truth is our University’s core value for research and is the priority above others [7]. Even if we ignore the philosophical arguments about the nature of truth and our ability to get to it, the quest for truth is a path bordered by ethical questions. Some of these seem easy to answer, while others are more subtle and challenging.

At the extreme end of the spectrum, there are some readily available examples. A prominent one is the case of the hacked emails from the University of East Anglia, which revealed that researchers had not disclosed uncertainties relating to some of their data. Other notable cases include the Professor Hall affair at the University of NSW (subject of TV investigation and four inquiries), Korean cloning researcher Woo Suk Hwang and Bell Labs scientist Jan Hendrik Schön. Hwang was a successful scientist who attracted attention for cloning a dog, but his subsequent claim to have produced cloned human stem-cell lines was found to be fraudulent. Schön was a young researcher who was found to have faked results that suggested that he had developed a molecular transistor.

Within the spectrum from excellent to unacceptable research practice, these examples clearly lie at the end of the unacceptable. It should be self-evident to all of those

working in research that these practices are unacceptable: results cannot be fabricated or falsified and we cannot represent work of others as our own. Research involving human or animal subjects clearly requires treatment with respect and securing consent whenever possible. To be a responsible institution excelling in research training, our minimum responsibility is to make sure our young researchers have no doubt on parameters of unacceptable research practice. Further, we need to make sure they not only know what the parameters are, but are motivated to avoid association with them. Such concerns are formally addressed at both the Institutional level [8] and through the formation of a new Australian Research Integrity Committee [9].

However, an awareness of blatant violations of appropriate research practice is only the beginning. The truly challenging ethical questions are found when we are not sure whether our action is in fact part of appropriate scientific practice. These questions are beyond simple compliance. As members of a research community we should continually ask ourselves questions about the ethical boundaries of our research activities. How appropriate was the choice of research topic? Was the research sponsored by vested interests? How should those vested interests be disclosed? Did the personal opinions or aspirations of the researchers influence the way they presented their work?

whY ethical research MaY not Be easY or self-evident Understanding the (often very human) path of self-justification for misconduct may help us avoid some of the pitfalls. The East Anglian scientists did not explain the complexity in their data because they wished to present a stronger case for global action on climate change. Sadly, their efforts created a political storm that probably had exactly the opposite effect. In contrast, it is clear the motives in the Hwang and Schön cases were self-interested. Academic success is measured in publications and grants, and for a research academic it is natural to want these measures to be as high as possible. This can lead to a range of behaviour that has exaggeration at one end and fraud at the other. Most research academics have probably worried at one time or other about the strength of the claims they have made in grants or in papers. Is the evidence strong enough to make the claim? On the other hand, if you are too diffident, will the paper/application be rejected?

In each of the cases we have described: the climate change scientists and the Hwang and Schön cases, there were clear breaches of professional ethics - even if, in the first

Ethics for research students – Our responsibility

16

avoided by establishing guidelines prior to the collaboration as to what constitutes an authorial contribution and then reviewing these agreements just before publication in case the expected contributions shifted during the process. Other common sources of conflict relate to recruiting research staff and students, allocation of university resources, sharing workload in a research team, and sharing opportunities for career advancement.

Above we have an extensive, though not exhaustive, list of ethical questions born from both doing research and being part of a research community. Answering these types of questions inevitably reveals the values we personally hold as research academics, and the conventions of our particular discipline. The answers further reveal and influence the values which drive our institution as the home of our research activity. Clarifying these values and identifying the boundaries of acceptable research practices are ongoing Institutional ethical challenges.

how to aPProach teaching ethics to research students? Young (and often more experienced) researchers may be genuinely unaware of the expectations of them as research academics and often have simply not had appropriate discussions with their colleagues to clarify shared working values. As an institution we should have a program which clearly outlines the boundaries of appropriate research practice and equips our young researchers with an ability to independently recognise and deal with the inevitable ethical challenges work in research will present.

To achieve this we should introduce a University wide initiative to include formal research ethics training for all our commencing research students. Dedicated ethics training has also been shown to improve both participants’ awareness in ethics and commitment to ethical practice [10]. Research strongly supports programs that offer participants an opportunity to actively engage and reflect on the process whether it is a course or an honour code [11,12]. We have further evidence that when ethics training is well-designed, our time investment does not have to be more than a day [13].

Ideally the training would be sequenced with an introduction to ethical guidelines in research followed up by a workshop one year into the research work to reflect and build on the guidelines and their meaning in each students’ individual research context. Engaging supervisors with the ethics training process would greatly enhance the outcomes by

Maryanne Large and Henriikka Clarkeburn

they might be considered “errors of judgement” rather than fraud. We believe the level of interest in these stories is merited. Academics can be grumpy, ill mannered and misanthropic (indeed many people consider these defining characteristics). But dishonesty in a research academic is more than an individual failing, it is a violation of the profession itself.

Research has many examples of situations where misconduct may seem surprisingly tempting. Under time pressure (for example a submission deadline) academics may censor or change unusual results to avoid difficult questions. The over-confident may be tempted to avoid the extra work of testing that they need to do - slight modifications of existing data may satisfy anyone who asks about repeat experiments. Perhaps consent (or authorship) may not really be required if you use someone else’s samples for your own purposes? Should the results be subjected to further statistical analysis or not? Other very common issues include failure to concede doubt, exaggerated claims and presenting results in a more positive light than they deserve (particularly in grant applications) and incomplete citations of previous work.

The desire to be successful can be a driving force for research activity, but it can also be the catalyst for misconduct. Our desire as an institution to encourage the former, should make us particularly vigilant to avoid the latter.

Our personal motivation to succeed also influences the ethical questions we face within our research community. As a research active academic it is often necessary to navigate traditions and power relations when deciding authorships for publications, applying for and managing funding, recruiting staff and students, and attending conferences. In these cases, right and wrong actions are sometimes difficult to identify: two researchers have relatively equal contribution to the research work, should authorship then be decided on need (for funding, promotion, graduation?), seniority, fair system of you-me-you-me or even at the toss of a coin? Should decisions to apply for funding be based on potential for funding, proportion of personal merit, maintaining boundaries of who studies what, the impact research can have on improving quality of life, creating opportunities for young researchers, or possibilities for high impact publications?

Authorship of papers or patents is an extremely common source of professional conflict, which in many cases could be

Ethics for research students – Our responsibility

creating a shared vocabulary to discuss ethical issues and a practice to deal with all upcoming ethical uncertainties and challenges.

The teaching of ethics to research students typically addresses the following issues [14,15]: data acquisition, management, sharing, and ownership; supervisor/student responsibilities; authorship; peer review; collegiality; human and animal subjects; conflict of interest; and research misconduct. These topics are much broader than avoiding scientific fraud. They cover a whole spectrum of issues associated with research practice and are relevant for almost all postgraduate students.

Teaching ethics does not make these issues go away or free us from what could loosely be termed research psychopaths, but acknowledging that ethical issues exist is a necessary first step in creating a strong culture for ethical and robust research. Students make actual decisions in their professional and academic lives as a result of a series of steps. One way to look at this would be to consider that first one needs to realise there is an ethical issue (awareness), second it is necessary to decide how to deal with the issue (reasoning), thirdly one needs a desire to act ethically (motivation) and finally it is necessary to have the strength to do it (character). We can definitely teach steps 1&2 and there is proof of that in the literature. Steps 3&4 are too complex to be achieved by any one course in University (or elsewhere), and they are deeply tied with personal values and views of life. While we should be cautious with the idea of setting out to modify personal values of our colleagues, we are working within an institution and that creates an obligation to work from a shared value basis. Creating this shared base is where ethics courses can contribute.

In addition to basic ethics training, the institution may wish to consider introducing a more public charter for research ethics. For example, US universities have a long history of using student-enforced “Honour codes” to enforce higher ethical standards. It is easy to be cynical about such an approach, except that the evidence in their favour is strong. A 1993 study [16] using a t-test found that self reported cheating was significantly higher at similar non-code schools than at code schools. A key aspect of this success is no doubt encouraging the students to accept responsibility for their own behaviour.

it is tiMe to act, Before it is too late While human frailty ensures that we will never be free from academic misconduct or more subtle ethical issues, it is necessary is to put in place structures to address them. But by the time disciplinary actions are necessary, it is often too late – damage has been done both to the individuals involved and to the scientific community as a whole.

Including ethics as a part of postgraduate induction would also send a powerful public signal of the value the University of Sydney places on professional integrity. It will also provide a safety measure for our upcoming research cohorts. They will be less likely to engage in unethical research unknowingly. In a good institution they will have also developed the courage and skill to approach difficult ethical questions proactively and openly. This will be not only in the interest of their own careers, but in the interest of the research community as a whole.

We believe that by formally raising ethical issues in a thoughtful and interactive manner in the induction process for postgraduate students, we could improve the research environment within the University, and ultimately improve the standards outside it as well. By basing the examples on real situations, we could ensure that they were pertinent and that students could see the connection to their own work.

references[1] Byers P, (2010) “Ethics Lite Not a Path to Virtue” The

Australian Higher Educational supplement, October 13. [2] See: http://sydney.edu.au/science/physics/super/ALTC/[3] O’Byrne, J., Mendez, A., Sharma, M., Kirkup, L. and Scott,

D. (2008). Physics graduates in the workforce: does physics education help?, in electronic Proceedings of AIP Congress, Adelaide 2008, 143–146.

[4] Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (Högskoleverket) (2006). International Postgraduate Students Mirror: Catalonia, Finland, Ireland and Sweden. Report29 R, http://www.hsv.se/download/18.539a949110f3d5914ec800076986/0629R.pdf

[5] Fisher, C. B. , Fried, A. L. and Feldman, L. G.(2009). Graduate Socialization in the Responsible Conduct of Research: A National Survey on the Research Ethics Training Experiences of Psychology Doctoral Students. Ethics & Behavior, 19(6), 496–518

[6] See: http://www.pnas.org/content/86/23/9053.full.pdf[7] As stated on the front page for Research on our

University website: http://www.usyd.edu.au/research/about/index.shtml

18

[8] University policies can be found on http://www.usyd.edu.au/ro/performance/code_conduct.shtml

[9] See: http://www.arc.gov.au/media/releases/media_12Apr10.htm

[10] Langlois L. and Lapointe, C. (2010) Can ethics be learned? Results from a three-year action-research project. Journal of Educational Administration, 48(2), 147–163.

[11] Schmidt, C.D., McAdams, C.R. and Foster,V. (2009). Promoting the moral reasoning of undergraduate business students through a deliberate psychological education-based classroom intervention. Journal of Moral Education, 38(3), 315–334

Penn Jr, W.Y.(1990). Teaching Ethics -A Direct Approach. Journal of Moral Education, 19(2), 124–138

[12] Kidwell L.A. (2001). Student Honor Codes as a Tool for Teaching Professional Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 29: 45–49.

[13] Clarkeburn H., Downie J., Gray C. and Matthew R. (2003). Measuring Ethical Development in Life Sciences Student. Studies in Higher Education, 28(4), 443–456.

[14] See: http://www.ori.hhs.gov/education/products/montana_round1/research_ethics.html

[15] McGuffin, V.L. (2008). Teaching research ethics: it takes more than good science to make a good scientist. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 390:1209–1215

[16] McCabe, D. and L. Trevino (1993). Academic Dishonesty: Honor Codes and Other Contextual Factors. Journal of Higher Education (September/ October), 522–538.

Maryanne Large and Henriikka Clarkeburn

introduction Sydney Nursing School (SNS) has embarked on an innovative community engaged learning and teaching initiative to transform the clinical practice experiences of final year pre-registration nursing students through the incorporation of a ‘clinical home’ model into their final year clinical education program. The intention is to extend, immerse and engage students during the semester in clinical settings in the community while continuing their direct engagement with particular units of study and course requirements. This approach is closely aligned with the view expressed in the University of Sydney White Paper that ‘students should be given as much opportunity as possible for community engagement and cross-disciplinary interaction’ (p 21). This new SNS extended clinical home approach within an accelerated degree is unique in nursing education in Australia and may have relevance for other health disciplines with clinical placement requirements.

Background and context A report prepared for the Australian University Teaching Committee in 2002 noted the importance of long periods of practical placement to facilitate registered nurses’ preparedness for practice, and that supportive clinical

environments decrease attrition rates due to culture shock experienced by new graduates (Clare, Edwards, Brown & White, 2002). In addition, the Garling report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Acute Care Services in NSW Public Hospitals (2008) notes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration (across all healthcare providers and systems) and communication for patient safety.

Research demonstrates that supportive clinical learning environments are critical to student engagement and motivation and ultimately to retention of new graduates within the workforce. Transition to practice within the health workplace has been a major focus of several studies over the past decade (e.g., Duchscher, 2004; Le Maistre, Boudreau, & Pare, 2006; Wall, Bolshaw & Carolan, 2006; Cowin & Hengstberger-Sims, 2006; Hummell & Higgs, 2010) and specifically in nursing (Oermann, Alvarez, O’Sullivan & Foster, 2010), where it is acknowledged that workforce attrition is most common among new graduates.

accelerated Professional education in nursing + 800 hours of clinical In this program, students become registered nurses through a two-year, fast-tracked (or accelerated) graduate entry

extending exPeriential learning: showcasing a nursing ‘clinical hoMe’ Model HEATHER MCKENZIE*, JENNIFER HARDY, MURRAY FISHER, MELINDA LEWIS & JUDITH KINGSTON SYDNEY NURSING SCHOOL

*Corresponding author. Email: h.mckenzie@sydney.edu.au

SYNERGY ISSUE 31 JULY 2011

Judith kingston, Murray fisher, Jennifer hardy, heather Mckenzie, Melinda lewis

Master of Nursing (MN) program or a suite of four year Bachelor/Master combined degrees (for example, Bachelor of Arts/Master of Nursing). According to McNeish (2011), students in accelerated nursing degrees are confronted with ‘new physical demands, new equipment, new time patterns and most importantly, new ways of relating to people, all within a condensed time frame’ (p.197).

For registration to practice, a minimum of 800 clinical placement hours must be undertaken within accredited health care facilities. These placements, usually between two to four weeks duration, are aligned to units of study and usually taken at the end of semester rather than during the semester. This new education model is innovative because it conflates the theory and practice learning into an extended clinical placement supported by ongoing engagement in the clinical area with unit of study teachers. In 2011, SNS has about 140 final year students embarking on this extended clinical learning model.

In the SNS pre-registration programs, eleven of the sixteen units of study have clinical practice hours attached. In essence, this means that previously each student could undertake eleven different, short clinical placements, which could be in eleven different health care facilities. While this does enable students to work in a variety of specialty areas, overall, this way of organising placements can lead to very fragmented experiential learning experiences, with little or no development of an in-depth understanding of, and familiarity with, a health care institution.

It was in response to reports, research findings, student feedback, staff concerns about fragmented clinical experiences and curriculum design that SNS developed an extended experiential learning pathway (clinical home model) for final year students as a significant component of the 2009 Master of Nursing (pre-registration) curriculum review. It was also hoped that this model will lead toward lower attrition rates of new graduates once in the workplace.

the aiMs of this new aPProach The model involves creating learning environments which engender in students a sense of belonging and inclusion within the workplace setting, and ultimately a deeper engagement as a beginning health care clinician. The aims of this new model are to:

– better integrate on- and off-campus learning experiences; – build ‘readiness to practice’ capabilities in SNS graduates; – promote greater social integration within workplace settings

and opportunities for deeper professional enculturation and a sense of professionalism; and

– reduce student travel requirements and the number of clinical facilities students attend over the course of their degree.

the clinical hoMe education PathwaY In the first semester of the final year, each student has a twelve-week clinical practicum experience within one of the five Sydney-based hospitals where the University of Sydney has Faculty of Medicine Clinical Schools. These include Royal Prince Alfred, Westmead, Nepean, Royal North Shore and Concord Hospitals. Each student attends the practicum for 22 hours per week, and this is timetabled across the semester for each student for either Monday to Wednesday or Wednesday to Friday.

Immediately prior to the extended placement, students attend a two-week, on-campus intensive education program focussing on the four units of study taken in that semester. This intensive program involves lectures, tutorial classes, extensive clinical simulation learning activities, independent learning activities and consultation with staff. The intention is to clinically prepare students for their forthcoming placements and also to deeply engage them in theoretical learning related to each of the four units of study in which they are enrolled.

At the end of this intensive teaching program, students attend an orientation day at the hospital that will be their clinical home. This orientation to both the hospital environment itself, and also to the Clinical School is coordinated by SNS staff. Where possible, students are welcomed by hospital staff, including, if available, the Director of Nursing, clinical educators and key administrative staff, and also University of Sydney staff at the Clinical School. Administrative processes, including finalising required identification documentation are also completed on this day. During the placement, students have access to the clinical school facilities, including libraries and teaching and learning spaces.

During their twelve-week placement, each student is rotated through three different clinical settings. These rotations are organised through the NSW Health clinical placement system. Students are supervised by clinical facilitators who are either SNS employees or seconded to this role by the participating hospital. In addition, SNS has introduced a new teaching position, Clinical Education Specialist, a role in which the staff member works with students both in

20 Heather McKenzie, Jennifer Hardy, Murray Fisher, Melinda Lewis and Judith Kingston

their on-campus clinical simulation laboratory work and as a clinical facilitator during the twelve-week placements. This facilitates continuity of care for students, and it is intended that in the future staff employed in these roles will have key supervision responsibilities in one of the participating hospitals.

During the twelve-week practicum, students attend three-hour tutorial seminars every Wednesday in the Clinical School at their designated clinical home. SNS staff with teaching responsibilities in the four units of study for this semester travel to the five hospitals every Wednesday to take these classes. This enables face-to-face learning experiences for students across the semester as well as increased staff engagement with clinical settings and Clinical Schools.

iMPleMenting the new PathwaY, seMester one 2011 A great deal of preparatory work has gone into establishing this new model. To support the development, implementation and evaluation of the initiative, SNS was awarded a Teaching Improvement Project Scheme (TIPS) grant in 2010. The development phase focussed on building relationships with all five Sydney-based University of Sydney Medical Clinical Schools and with key nursing staff within the five hospitals where these Clinical Schools are located. Extensive consultation and structured engagement with these groups took place throughout 2010 to establish new cross-institutional partnerships and relationships that would enable the new model to be implemented. In 2011, SNS staff continue to engage with hospital staff, particularly those who have responsibility for the health care settings in which students have been placed.

The new education pathway involves a significant shift in the way the final year units of study are designed and delivered. The clinical home model is one example of curriculum embedding within pre-registration nursing education that supports inquiry and discovery-based learning. The model encourages learners to mingle and interact with the real world, explore theories and principles through problems and cases, and supports the use of simulation-based learning. Specifically, during the clinical home semester, students undertake self-paced, independent learning modules, build clinical portfolios, deconstruct problem-based case studies and construct patient scenarios, as well as undertake tasks required on placement. All activities lead toward the development of key competencies for employment as a registered nurse as well as meeting the graduate attributes

of the University. These include critical thinking and analysis, problem solving and reflection, all core components of health professional preparation.

In 2010, academic staff developed the four units of study to accommodate the initial two-week intensive learning experience on campus and then a combination of distance and face-to-face learning across the semester. Acknowledging the success factors of a blended learning framework (Stacey & Gerbic, 2008), students are invited to make best use of the virtual learning environment (online through Blackboard, student email and social networking platforms), formal (learning and teaching rooms and spaces) and informal (social) learning spaces throughout the semester. In addition to these modalities and platforms, final year students in 2012 will be offered ePortfolio software, Pebble Pad, to build their professional development portfolios. The blending of learning environments to support the clinical home model of education was a key consideration through the curriculum review and unit of study development and design phase to ensure coherence and integration for learners within and between environments.

earlY feedBack and Planned evaluation Final year students were introduced to their clinical home in March 2011 following their two-week intensive learning program at SNS. While still settling in, students are enthusiastic about the extended clinical placement experience and already believe they are reaping the benefits.

Anna Scott-Murphy and Madeleine McComas, for example, are two final year combined degree nursing students who are currently working in the Coronary Care Unit at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH). ‘I love it that we have one hospital to go to with rotating wards,’ Madeleine said.

‘I know we’re going to learn a lot in 12 weeks. It really gives consistency both to us as students and the hospital staff and it’s a real chance to become properly comfortable in one place. Previously, when we’ve done two-week clinical placements, you find that it takes up to one and a half weeks to settle in and then it’s time to move on.’

Jennifer Collis is a final year graduate entry Master of Nursing student currently undertaking her clinical placement in a Geriatrics Ward at Royal North Shore Hospital. Jennifer is similarly enthusiastic about the ‘clinical homes’ and says she has been welcomed on the ward.

Extending experiential learning: Showcasing a nursing ‘clinical home’ model

‘The RN’s I’ve worked with have established what stage I am at in my training and are eager, together with my facilitator, to help me achieve my objectives.’

Like her fellow nursing students, Jennifer agrees the extended clinical placements are beneficial.

‘It’s helping me retain my practical skills and enhance my organisational skills in a way that clinicals at the end of each semester, with a significant gap between, don’t. Now the time between learning and practicing is shorter and any shortfalls highlighted can be dealt with at the time rather than waiting until the next clinical experience. I also believe that we will also get exposure to a greater number of patients and therefore more experience of disease process and nursing care. The ward nurses I have spoken to feel that more regular clinical exposure is of greater value at this stage in our training,’

Another perceived advantage of the extended clinical practice experience is the development of friendships and collegial relationships. At RPAH, Anna was asked by a first year medical student if she could shadow her in the ward to see how nurses work and to observe the day-to-day running of the ward. And, at Royal North Shore Hospital, Jennifer cited the opportunity to get to know her colleagues better.

‘In my previous clinical experiences, I only met my co-workers by accident or if there was a debriefing which included all the students on my shift rotation. This meant that exchange of experiences was left

until we got back together for classes at the start of the next semester. Now, in just two weeks, I have met up and exchanged thoughts with students on different wards and shifts at our weekly tutorials. This kind of connection is particularly important in our final year, especially with the emphasis on a self-driven study load.’

One staff member teaching into this program generally felt that case-based learning comes to life for the students as it is situated within real-world settings. He claimed that ‘it is easier to engage students in high-acuity environments within hospitals. This is beyond case-based learning, it is real rather than hypothetical.’ Another felt that the approach was ‘legitimising content from the perceived (or imagined) environment for the student.’

Evaluation of the experiences of all key stakeholders involved in this new education pathway has commenced. SNS has modified the Clinical Learning Environment Evaluation Tools developed by Clare et al (2003) for this purpose. Evaluation with these tools will focus on (i) demonstrated successful partnerships between the University and health services; (ii) improved student engagement within workplace culture and sense of inclusion compared with 2010 final year student cohort; (iii) improved graduate perceptions of ‘readiness to practice’ compared with 2010 final year student cohort. In addition, interviews and focus groups will be conducted with all key stakeholders to develop a deep understanding of their experiences of this new education model. Final year student attrition rates and graduate retention rates in the first year of professional practice will also be monitored.

conclusion SNS staff believe that this model of extended, engaged and immersive clinical education will enable students to build relationships with other health profession students through informal opportunities for inter-professional practice and social mingling. It is the intention in the future to develop formal inter-professional learning opportunities to engage nursing students with other health care professionals in ways that mirror the reality of practice. It is also hoped that extended clinical placements will provide opportunities for students to develop richer nurse-patient-family relationships than are likely in the context of shorter, more fragmented clinical placement experiences.

Jennifer collis, Year 2 Master of nursing student

at royal north shore clinical school

22 Heather McKenzie, Jennifer Hardy, Murray Fisher, Melinda Lewis and Judith Kingston

referencesClare, J., White, J., Edwards, H., & van Loon, A. (2002). Final

report for the Australian universities teaching committee: Learning outcomes and curriculum development in major disciplines: nursing. School of Nursing & Midwifery, Finders University, Adelaide South Australia.

Cowin, L. S., & Hengstberger-Sims, C. (2006). New graduate nurse self-concept and retention: a longitudinal survey. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 43(1), 59-70.

Duchscher, J. B. (2004). Transition to Professional Nursing Practice: Emerging Issues and Initiatives. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Co.

Hummell, J., & Higgs, J. (2010). Professional development transitions. Focus of Health Professional Education: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 12(2), 1-13.

Le Maistre, C., Boudreau, S., & Pare, A. (2006). Mentor or Evaluator? Assisting and Assessing Newcomers to the Professions. Journal of Workplace Learning, 18(6), 344-354.

McNeish, S.G. (2011). The lived experience of students in an accelerated nursing program: Intersecting factors that influence experiential learning. Journal of Nursing Education, 50(4), 197-203.

Oermann, M.H., Alvarez, M.T., O’Sullivan, R.O., & Foster, B. (2010). Performance, satisfaction and transition into practice of graduates of accelerated nursing programs. Journal for Nurses in Staff Development, 26(5), 192-1999.

Stacey, E. & Gerbic, P. (2008). Success factors for blended learning. In Hello! Where are you in the landscape of educational technology? Proceedings ascilite Melbourne 2008. Retrieved on 21/03/11 from http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne08/procs/stacey.pdf

The University of Sydney. (2010). The University of Sydney 2011-2015 White Paper. The University of Sydney: Sydney. Retrieved on 21/03/11 from http://sydney.edu.au/strategy/white_paper/

Wall, D., Bolshaw, A., & Carolan, J. (2006). From undergraduate medical education to pre-registration house officer year: how prepared are students? Medical Teacher, 28(5), 435-439.

acknowledgeMents We would like to acknowledge the following:

– All SNS academic staff involved in the development of this model and teaching teams who are currently implementing it.

– The Office of the DVC (Education) for 2010 TIPS grant funding.

– All stakeholders who participated in the 2009 Master of Nursing curriculum review and their support for the new clinical home model.

Master of nursing

student orientation

day at royal north

shore hospital

Extending experiential learning: Showcasing a nursing ‘clinical home’ mode

24

“it’s a Practice thing”: the annotated BiBliograPhY as a learning activitY for arts studentsBRIDGET BERRY, RADHIAH CHOWDHURY*, LINDSAY TUGGLE, JACINTA VAN DEN BERG FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

aBstract This project investigates the usefulness and relevance of the annotated bibliography as a foundational learning activity in Arts higher education, in the departments of English and Sociology at the University of Sydney. There is a poverty of research into the annotated bibliography, while the research skills developed through annotated bibliography tasks are assumed in Arts assessment at this university. That is, the annotated bibliography is taken for granted by both researchers and teachers. This project investigates two related issues: the ways in which annotated bibliography tasks support student learning in first-year Arts Units of Study, and how such tasks help first-year Arts students develop disciplinary research practices. This inquiry has an interpretivist perspective. It investigates the experience and meanings that students ascribe to learning for a specific learning activity. The research design incorporates qualitative and quantitative methods - student surveys, student focus groups and tutor reflections on student learning from the task.

Combining our perception of the annotated bibliography with the small number of earlier studies, we propose that the annotated bibliography is significant in three

areas of student learning: skill building, developing critical thinking, and modelling disciplinary research practices. Overall, our perception of the annotated bibliography as fundamental to our disciplinary research practices corresponded with students’ perceptions of its effectiveness. Our inquiry supports the claim of previous research as to the effectiveness of incorporating the annotated bibliography assessment task into foundational level units to ensure that students entering upper level units have the requisite technical and critical thinking skills. Our research also indicates that the inclusion of an annotated bibliography assessment task in a staged assessment schedule promotes curriculum coherence and supports deep learning, as well as the development of technical research competencies. As a result of our inquiry, we propose changes to the existing Arts curricula in order to improve student learning with research-enriched teaching.

introduction The annotated bibliography is a tool that all scholars use, whether university students or professors, as a starting point for their research. It is a list of sources appropriate to a research question, accompanied by critical annotations concerning the pertinence of each source to the research

*Corresponding author. Email: radhiah.z.chowdhury@gmail.com

Jacinta van den Berg, lindsay tuggle and radhiah chowdhury (Bridget Berry absent)

question. These notes situate the research in its discipline but also require that the scholar evaluate these sources with regards to his/her line of argument. The annotated bibliography is the scholar’s opportunity to place his/her argument relationally as a contribution to the broader intellectual culture.

This project investigates the usefulness and relevance of the annotated bibliography as a foundational learning activity in Arts higher education in the departments of English and Sociology at the University of Sydney, research conducted as part of the 2010 Graduate Certificate in Educational Studies (Higher Education). Our inquiry was motivated by our sense that the annotated bibliography is taken for granted by both researchers and teachers: there is a poverty of research into the annotated bibliography and the skills developed through annotated bibliography tasks are assumed in Arts assessment at this University. The project investigates two related issues: the ways in which annotated bibliography tasks support student learning in first-year Arts Units of Study, and how such tasks help first-year Arts students develop disciplinary research practices.

In recent years, an annotated bibliography task has constituted the initial aspect of the assessment schedule in the foundational sociology unit SCLG1002: Introduction to Sociology. Students are asked to locate and explain, in 100-150 words, the usefulness of five scholarly articles to the idea of the everyday as a sociological category. They are required to present the citations in a recognised reference system and are given a template, as well as instructions on appropriate foci and things to avoid. In 2010, the students we surveyed were given a lot of direction with the annotated bibliography assessment task through printed guidelines, in lectures, and through question time with their tutor. This was a discrete skill-building task; the subject of the investigation was not directly linked to the essay question that constitutes the next assessment in the schedule. Students were marked on their ability to select and cite scholarly references and the appropriateness of their selection to the research question.

For the purposes of our inquiry, students in the foundational English unit ENGL1025: Fiction, Film & Power were given the option of completing an annotated bibliography exercise in the lead-up to their first research essay. They were given a short introduction to the annotated bibliography in their class time and encouraged to complete the task as preliminary work in the preparation of their research essays. For these students, the annotated bibliography was framed as the opportunity to pick apart each source and to agree or

disagree with any part of it, a habit that would help them avoid merely using sources as collections of quotes to back up their argument. The students were given written and verbal feedback from their tutor regarding their annotated bibliographies, but they were not marked as part of the overall Unit of Study. An annotated bibliography task is rarely included in course schedules in the English Department, where the majority of assessment is based around research essays.

Such use of the annotated bibliography within undergraduate assessment is reflected in the few scholarly articles on the genre. The annotated bibliography is used extensively as a genre of research writing, but despite this importance it appears rarely as the object of academic research, and then only to describe an assessment exercise. It is discussed as a component of a larger assignment or as a stand-alone assignment (see Cameron et al., 2002; Coulson, 2007; Starks et al., 2003). This limited focus is consistent with Malcolm Tight’s observations of the poverty of research into documentary analysis despite its being “endemic” to research (2003: 188).

The same critical neglect is evident in relation to the “literature review,” a related genre of research writing that describes the first chapter of a doctoral thesis or similar academic practice, which—like the annotated bibliography—offers no primary research but reports on other primary sources. The literature review goes beyond the evaluation of the annotated bibliography to synthesise primary research into a critical history. As Cooper puts it in his influential definition, a literature review promises to “describe, summarise, evaluate, clarify and/or integrate the content of primary reports” (from Cooper 1988: 107, quoted in Bruce, 1994: 217). Christine Bruce, and John Swales and Christine Feak have made a signal contribution to the study of this genre in order to document and support the experience of graduate students (see Swales and Feak 2000; 2004). Bruce highlights the little research available, offering topography of student experiences of the literature review, and arguing for the relevance of various educative approaches to the genre (see Bruce 1994; 2001a; 2001b). Mike Metcalfe (2003) offers further creative insight. Metcalfe uses the courtroom as a metaphor to cast the subjects of a literature review as “expert witnesses” called upon to either support or counter the author’s thesis (2003). Significantly, he identifies the annotated bibliography as a useful starting point for a literature review, provided that the annotated bibliography is “made with a specific argument in mind, and thus, a specific audience” (2003).

“It’s a practice thing”: The annotated bibliography as a learning activity for Arts students

A distinction should therefore be made between the process of the literature review and that of the annotated bibliography; namely, that the latter, as a subset of the larger genre of research practice, has a different methodology to the former. This is made clear in Jane Webster and Richard T. Watson’s 2002 guide to the writing of a literature review. Although there is a shared ideology behind both research practices—namely, that “an effective review creates a firm foundation for advancing knowledge” (2002: xiii)—the annotated bibliography is a more brief medium than the literature review. As such, the methodology of the annotated bibliography is briefer than the literature review, and thus the methodology and lengthy process of review recommended by Webster and Watson does not directly apply to the annotated bibliography (see Webster & Watson, 2002: xv-xvii). We further posit that the briefer medium is well-suited to instruction in research practices among undergraduate students at an introductory level, and once laid as a foundational skill, can be built upon into the more complex skill of literature reviews.

Our inquiry investigates undergraduate studies in the humanities at the University of Sydney, where students are regularly expected to apply the skills of research and writing practiced in an annotated bibliography without consistent instruction in that genre. In the words of one English student surveyed –

I think it’s weird that apparently the annotated bibliography is so important in researching for English but we don’t do it in class … I think it’s weird that we need to use these databases but never get training in class. I appreciated this opportunity to familiarise myself with the resources but why wouldn’t it be compulsory for everyone?

To inform such curriculum change, our inquiry asked whether the annotated bibliography is an effective learning activity that models research-enriched teaching for Arts students. Building on peer and teacher feedback, we broke down this broad inquiry into two sub-questions:

1. does the annotated bibliography assessment task support student learning in first-year arts units of study?

This question addresses our teacher perception of the annotated bibliography as part of the first-year assessment strategy in Arts, leading us to reflect upon why we feel the annotated bibliography is an integral part of Arts disciplines

and research culture and a valuable learning experience for students, encouraging quality engagement. Our response to this question is influenced by the limited scholarship on the annotated bibliography and Arts disciplinary scholarship concerning research-enriched teaching (see for example Hutchings et al., 2002), as well as our reflections as humanities teacher-researchers.

2. does an annotated bibliography assessment task help first-year arts students develop disciplinary research practices?

This question requires us to engage with student perceptions and experience of the annotated bibliography, as a skill-building task in and of itself, but also as a fundamental step in the research practices of Arts Units of Study. Our inquiry aligns teacher and student perceptions in order to propose some revisions to current first-year undergraduate Arts courses. In this way, the inquiry supports the learning outcome of developing disciplinary specific analytical skills, an outcome shared by both foundation Arts units we surveyed. This project is embedded within Sydney University’s pledge, as articulated in the White Paper, to encourage “flexible and creative thinkers” whose intellectual identities are grounded in their research experience (White Paper ch. 3).

MethodologY This inquiry has an interpretivist perspective in that it investigates the experience and meanings that students ascribe to learning for a specific learning activity. Our research design incorporates qualitative and quantitative methods - student surveys, student focus groups and tutor reflections on student learning from the task. This triangulated method gave us findings that are both statistically sound and rich in meaning. The inquiry was conducted as follows:

The teaching and learning scholarship and discipline-specific literature on annotated bibliographies were reviewed and combined with our reflections.

First-year English students in ENGL1025 were offered a voluntary exercise in compiling an annotated bibliography as a preamble to their research essay. The thirty students who participated were briefly surveyed regarding the efficacy and relevance of the exercise. The survey used the Likert scale for quantitative data, and also included a section for the students to explain their answers, providing some qualitative data as well.

26 Bridget Berry, Radhiah Chowdhury, Lindsay Tuggle and Jacinta van den Berg

First-year English students also participated in focus groups in which they provided qualitative data. Questions were asked about their perception of the current curriculum and assessment strategy, areas for improvement, and what they would like to see in future units of study.

First-year Sociology students were surveyed for their perception of the efficacy of their annotated bibliography assessment. This survey used the Likert scale and was purely quantitative.

The English student focus group and questionnaire data for the inquiry was based on student and teacher perceptions and opinions of the efficacy of introducing an annotated bibliography task into first-year English assessment tasks next year. Issues emerging from these focus groups and surveys informed questions for the Sociology survey. Survey data gathered from Sociology students captured their experiences this semester of an annotated bibliography assessment task as a component of the overall Unit assessment.

teacher PercePtions of the annotated BiBliograPhY As already observed, despite the wealth of annotated bibliographies indexed in scholarly databases, there is an overall lack of scholarly discussion of the annotated bibliography. Our review of the scholarship of teaching and learning and related disciplines suggests that there is a tendency to take the genre for granted. In the context of Arts assessment, the annotated bibliography is part of a hidden curriculum, an assumed skill-set that students are expected to automatically develop throughout their undergraduate careers and is overlooked by the literature.

An important exception to this trend is Cameron et al.’s 2002 exploration of the usefulness of embedding an annotated bibliography assignment as a formative assessment task for first-year Sociology students to support deep learning. Cameron et al. observe that the annotated bibliography helps students achieve clear written communication, analytical thinking, information literacy, and “the sociological imagination” (418-9). The development of a diverse range of research experiences and disciplinary knowledges is significant to Arts research as subject and practice. Cameron et al. conclude that “performance-based, process-oriented, embedded assessments such as the annotated bibliography are characterised by an appreciation for the diversity of skills and knowledge individual students

bring to their learning experiences” (426).

We combined our perception of the annotated bibliography with the small number of earlier studies to suggest a number of ways that it might be used to support student learning. These proposals informed the questions we asked of our students in the surveys and focus groups and our final recommendations. Reflecting on our teaching contexts, we observed the capacity of the annotated bibliography to enhance our students’ learning. The first-year Sociology teaching experience is instructive. After marking two assessment tasks in the unit in 2009, Bridget Berry observed a significant improvement in the essay assessment task following the introduction of the annotated bibliography. Students were:

– Better able to identify scholarly sociological sources as opposed to sources from other disciplines

– Better able to cite sources correctly – More likely to make effective use of relevant library databases for the discipline

As a result of our reflections, we propose that the annotated bibliography is significant in three areas of student learning.

skill building: The annotated bibliography introduces first-year students to the online disciplinary databases that are integral to Arts research. It also introduces students to disciplinary referencing and citation practices. It complements the online unit of study for new Arts students, ARTS1000: eSearch to Research: Library Skills, designed to help new students to learn research skills and find information in the library.

critical thinking: The annotated bibliography prompts students to evaluate and interrogate existing scholarship. Students are encouraged to enter into a conversation with ongoing critical debates in the field and position themselves in relation to existing scholars. A key challenge for first-year learners is the development of their own critical voice, an imperative absent from secondary school learning.

Models disciplinary research practices: The annotated bibliography helps students become selective in their engagement with critical material. If embedded in a staged assessment strategy, it scaffolds essay writing by guiding students through the research and analytical skills needed to complete a research essay. These critical thinking and research skills are integral aspects of professional disciplinary research in the Arts.

“It’s a practice thing”: The annotated bibliography as a learning activity for Arts students

Presently, research skills of increasing sophistication are embedded in assessment tasks throughout the undergraduate and postgraduate Arts curricula as assumed knowledge. Effective learning in the Arts curricula and the research skills that are rewarded as good practice in assessment tasks are dependent on the student’s familiarity with the skill of compiling an annotated bibliography as a preliminary research task.

In summary, we assert that the annotated bibliography is a preliminary and vital step in research practices in Arts disciplines, as it positions the scholar’s research topic in relation to the disciplinary field and prompts critical evaluation of existing scholarship. If the annotated bibliography is integral to higher research, as suggested in the literature, we propose that it should be introduced at a foundations level (see Boote et al., 2005; Bruce, 2001a; Fink, 2005; and Hart, 2001). This utilisation of the annotated bibliography allows tertiary Arts subjects to approximately model their assessment tasks on the research practices of graduate and post-doctoral scholars.

student PercePtions of the annotated BiBliograPhY These conclusions were brought to bear on the questions asked of first-year students. Focus groups of 10 first-year English students revealed that most participants, while employing varying degrees of the annotated bibliography skill set in preparation for their research essay, had no perception of the annotated bibliography as a fundamental and organised task in Arts research practices. Thus, when asked whether they thought an annotated bibliography was relevant and useful to their learning, students replied “no” or were unsure how to answer. However, when the annotated bibliography was defined, the students unanimously responded that they thought the research and critical skills developed by the annotated bibliography were crucial to their performance and understanding of research tasks in first-year English.

Of these students, only three had undertaken an annotated bibliography in their student experience; the remaining seven were unsure how to approach the task effectively. This indicated that the task needed specific explication, preferably in the classroom setting. Students voiced their preference for consistent, formal instruction in the annotated bibliography. They suggested that this would alleviate the confusion and anxiety they experienced when reliant on the differing approaches of individual tutors and in the related area of critical thinking skills, where the inconsistent

attitudes of teaching staff were keenly felt.

The students also identified the annotated bibliography as a way to scaffold the development of their research and analytical skills. While they welcomed the opportunity to select their own sources for the research essay and critique these, they wanted clear, transparent information about the links between the stages of a phased assessment strategy. In the context of our research inquiry, this meant that students wanted the links between the annotated bibliography and the research essay to be clear and detailed.

The students noted that they were uncomfortable and unfamiliar with one of the key outcomes of an annotated bibliography: the critique of existing scholars. As one student commented, “That’s a hang-up from school … If we did that at school, the teachers would whale on us and we’d get really bad marks.” Confronted with this difficulty, students observed the importance of practicing research and writing skills such as is modelled in annotated bibliography tasks. One student observed:

It’s a practice thing. The more we do it, the betterwe get at it. I think if the annotated bibliography was part of classes, like some of the other guys said, it would be good practice. And if everyone did it as part of the tutes, then I’d know everyone was being told to do it, and I wouldn’t worry next semester or anything that the tutor was going to punish me for doing it in the essays.

Drawing on the limited scholarship, our tutor reflections and the focus group responses, we formulated a set of questions to survey the attitudes and experiences of students who had undertaken an annotated bibliography task. Thirty first-year English and 45 first-year Sociology students were surveyed following completion of an annotated bibliography task.

While this was a small sample, results from the two groups were similar. For instance, when asked whether the annotated bibliography task helped students find scholarly literature using databases specific to their disciplines, 73% of English and 79% of sociology students either agreed or strongly agreed. Qualitative data generated from the survey of English students indicated that generally speaking the annotated bibliography task was a good way to introduce students to library databases. However, students expressed a clear need for more hands-on practice to in order to feel confident with utilizing library databases, and were keen for structured opportunities to ‘practice’ in a lab setting with a teacher.

28 Bridget Berry, Radhiah Chowdhury, Lindsay Tuggle and Jacinta van den Berg

Three-quarters of Sociology and 80% of English students surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that linking the annotated bibliography assessment task with the essay for the unit would have or did help them to research for and write the following essay. Qualitative data from the English students on this issue indicated that practice tended to help students think more thoroughly about scholarly literature in relation to their research for the essay, and thus facilitated a deep approach to learning. As one student explained:

This task really emphasised how to be really selective about the sources we use and how to pick the stuff that’s useful to us and that we can build on for our own essays. Would’ve liked to have done more – five sources was actually hard to narrow down, but I can see how that’s also a skill.

Just over half the students surveyed (English 57% and Sociology 63%) indicated that they would be able to use the skills learned while completing the annotated bibliography task in future essay writing in the Arts. This was not a strong finding. However, when the students were asked whether the annotated bibliography assessment task helped them to search and find scholarly literature, 79% of Sociology and 90% of English students either agreed or agreed strongly. Further, 76% of Sociology students indicated that they could now cite sources correctly after doing the annotated bibliography assessment task.

These findings suggest that while students are in fact developing fundamental academic skills, they are not necessarily conscious of the connection between the assessment task and the general academic skills developed from the assessment task. The clarity of one English student’s statement that “I can see how this is the foundation to researching in the Arts” was overwhelmed by conflicting ideas of disciplinary practices. Nonetheless, the consistency with which students asked for more practice in such tasks attests to their perception of the tasks as valuable. A chorus of “More practice please!” rings through the student responses.

liMitations to our inquirY The major limitation of this research inquiry is the small sample of those students consulted. There is a demonstrated need for research into the effectiveness of the annotated bibliography on a larger cohort of students, in order to produce results that are widely credible. For this reason, we combined the responses of students who were required and students had voluntarily completed an annotated

bibliography exercise. The latter group had presumably seen some the value in this learning exercise before undertaking it. Nevertheless, the variety of their survey responses demonstrates that this approach was embedded in a diversity of motivations for undertaking the task.

conclusions and iMPlications Overall, our perception of the annotated bibliography as fundamental to our disciplinary research practices corresponded with students’ perceptions of its effectiveness. The student surveys clearly demonstrate that the annotated bibliography was an effective research tool and the majority of students found it helpful in essay writing. Feedback from focus groups indicates that the students perceived the annotated bibliography to be relevant to their learning, but were untutored in its methodology, which in turn suggests that specific instruction and practice should be embedded in the curriculum, particularly at the foundation level, in order to minimise the annotated bibliography’s inclusion in a hidden curriculum in the Arts.

From their study of the annotated bibliography for first-year sociology students in the US, Cameron et al make a claim for incorporating the annotated bibliography assessment task into first-year units to equip students with the skills they will need for upper-level units. Our inquiry supports this claim, demonstrating that the annotated bibliography provides a way to directly instruct Arts students in the technical and critical thinking skills that are requisite for arts study and research. Our inquiry also indicates that the inclusion of an annotated bibliography assessment task, when linked with an essay assessment task, promotes curriculum coherence and supports the development of technical research competencies.

As a result of our inquiry, we propose the following changes to be made to the existing Arts curricula in order to improve student learning through research-enriched teaching:

instruction and assessment on the annotated bibliography should be introduced at the first-year level in order to support subsequent student learning in senior units of study.

the function of the annotated bibliography as a fundamental component of arts research practices should be explicitly stated, not implicitly assumed.

the annotated bibliography should be formally incorporated into arts assessment strategies as a

“It’s a practice thing”: The annotated bibliography as a learning activity for Arts students

scaffolding exercise for research essay assessments. this would be an exercise that works on the relationship between formative and summative assessment, which is encouraged in the university of sydney “assessment and examination of coursework” policy.

as a preamble to the annotated bibliography assessment task, tutorials should be conducted on its methodology. in addition to the extant use of arts1000 in both english and sociology, we suggest some face-to-face library tutorials on database use. student feedback on the useability of databases also suggests the necessity of interactive online database tutorials in computer labs or the library tutorial rooms with a high student: teacher ratio (perhaps in smaller class groups).

Our inquiry is an initial gesture towards an area that is in sore need of further research. This work raises the question, for example, of whether annotated bibliography tasks embedded in staged assessment strategies might help to reduce the incidence of plagiarism among undergraduate students by giving students the opportunity to check their referencing practices before a major essay. This practice has been identified as helping to reduce the incidence of plagiarism (James et al., 2002: 35, cited in Le Masurier, 2010: 7). Furthermore, by scaffolding the research process, the annotated bibliography can help avoid, “the last-minute panic that can lead to unattributed cut and paste from websites or the purchase or ‘loan’ of assignments written by others,” as Megan Le Masurier explains in her discussion of the stages of student plagiarism (2010: 7). The annotated bibliography is one of a swathe of tasks that Le Masurier (2010) identifies as serving to discourage plagiarism by requiring students to document their research process. One English student’s comment is particularly poignant in this context: “I would have written my essay without secondary sources if I hadn’t done this exercise.”

As Cameron et al have shown and our inquiry confirms, the annotated bibliography is particularly useful in fostering humanities disciplinary perspectives. We would further posit that this genre of research writing is relevant to other disciplines, albeit in various incarnations of the task we assigned to our students in the humanities, due to its potential to develop students’ abilities to situate their own research in relation to the wider disciplinary field. This then suggests that similar curriculum and assessment redesign in foundational units across disciplines may offer areas for future consideration. As the first point of contact for most students in the frequently disorienting world of scholarship

and academia, we suggest that foundational units should adequately and transparently explicate and reflect the disciplinary research practices that students will be expected to use for the duration of their university careers.

While our inquiry suggests that the annotated bibliography is a critical learning tool, it also makes clear that it must be matched by adequate teacher support to help foundational students understand it, which in turn allows us to negate the assumption that students will develop the necessary skill set on their own. Clearly, guidance is needed—some students requested some time in computer labs, for instance, where everyone could be taken step-by-step through the process. This finding corresponds with calls for the particular significance of librarians’ expertise in teaching the skills of compiling a literature review (Bruce, 2001b).

works citedBoote, David N., and Beile, Penny (2005), ‘Scholars Before

Researchers: On the Centrality of the Dissertation Literature Review in Research Preparation’, Educational Researcher, 34, pp. 3-15.

Bruce, Christine Susan (1994), ‘Research Students’ Early Experiences of the Dissertation Literature Review’, Studies in Higher Education 19(2), pp. 217-29.

Bruce, Christine Susan (2001a), ‘Interpreting the scope of their literature reviews: significant differences in research students’ concerns’, New Library World 102(1163-4), pp. 158-65.

Bruce, Christine Susan (2000b), ‘Faculty-librarian partnerships in Australian higher-education: critical directions’, Reference Service Review 29, pp. 106-115.

Cameron, Jean, Stavenhagen-Helgren, Tina, Walsh, Philip and Kobritz, Barbara (2002), ‘Assessment as critical praxis: A community college experience” Teaching Sociology 30(4) pp. 414-429.

Cooper, Harris M. (1988), ‘The structure of knowledge synthesis,’ Knowledge in Society 1 pp. 104-126.

Coulson, Michelle, (2007), ‘Annotated bibliographies can help maximize benefit of literature research skills exercises’, Uniserve Science Teaching and Learning Research Proceedings, pp. 160-163.

Fink, Arlene (2005), Conducting research literature reviews: from the Internet to paper, California: SAGE.

Granello, Darcy Haag (2001), ‘Promoting cognitive complexity in graduate written work: using Bloom’s taxonomy as a pedagogical tool to improve literature reviews’, Counselor Education and Supervision, 40(4), pp. 292-307.

30 Bridget Berry, Radhiah Chowdhury, Lindsay Tuggle and Jacinta van den Berg

Hart, Chris (2001), Doing a literature search: a comprehensive guide for the social sciences. London: SAGE.

Hutchings, Bill, and O’Rourke, Karen (2002), ‘Problem-based learning in literary studies’, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 1, pp. 73-83.

James, Richard, McInnis, Craig and Devlin, Marcia (2002), Assessing Learning in Australian Universities. Ideas, strategies and resources for quality student assessment, University of Melbourne: Centre for Higher Education.

Le Masurier, Megan (2010), ‘Nine ways to reduce plagiarism: findings from The Plagiarism Project’, Synergy Issue 30, pp. 4-9.

Metcalfe, Mike (2003), “Author(ity): The Literature Review as Expert Witness,” Forum: Qualitative Social Research 4(1). Retrieved April 14, 2011, from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/viewArticle/761

Starks, Donna, and Lewis, Marilyn (2003), ‘The annotated bibliography: structure and variation within a genre’, Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 26(2), pp. 101-117.

Swales, John M., Feak, Christine B. (2000), English in Today’s Research World: A Writing Guide, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Swales, John M., Feak, Christine B. (2004), Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Tight, Malcolm, (2003), Researching Higher Education, Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.

Webster, Jane, and Watson, Richard T. (2002), ‘Analyzing the Past to Prepare for the Future: Writing a Literature Review’, MIS Quarterly 26(2), pp. xiii-xxiii.

“It’s a practice thing”: The annotated bibliography as a learning activity for Arts students

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can international design coMPetitions at conferences lead the waY to a higher research degree?MARTIN TOMITSCH* FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN AND PLANNING

introduction When I was a student I went through more than four years of undergraduate study without being exposed to academic research. There was no unit of study that integrated research relevant to my degree with teaching. I don’t remember reading a single academic research publication until I began working on my Master thesis in 2003. Before this, I had been preparing myself for a career in industry. When I had completed and submitted my Master’s thesis, I began to consider a research career. Still, my decision to take on a PhD position was to a large extent driven by the fact that my industry was slowly recovering from the dotcom crisis and job opportunities were scarce. It was only after my first conference experience that I was convinced about pursuing an academic career. Conveniently, in 2004, when I began my PhD candidature, the largest and most important conference in my field took place in the city I was living in. However, just having started with my PhD, I had no research findings to submit to the conference. The way into the conference, including being funded by my research group, was through participating in a student design competition, held for the first time at this conference. The competition provided the entire experience of doing academic research in a nutshell. We were given a brief for an academic research

problem, had to write and submit a paper about a proposed response to the brief, which was reviewed by international researchers, and presented our project at the conference. This was my first real experience of what it meant to do academic research.

The following three years I co-organised a research-enriched unit at my university, in which students worked on entries to the design competition under academic guidance. Of the two teams that were accepted to present their projects at conferences in subsequent years, three team members have continued to pursue a PhD and I occasionally meet some of them at conferences. Had they always planned to do a PhD, or were they, like me, captured by first hand conference experience?

It is crucial for a university’s academic reputation to maintain a stream of postgraduate research students (Kubatkin & Christie, 2006), which can be a challenge especially in fields where working in industry is attractive. This challenge has been recently identified in strategy nine in the University of Sydney’s White Paper. Strategy Nine emphasises the need “to develop and support research talent at each stage of the researcher career pathway, beginning from the

*Corresponding author. Email: martin.tomitsch@sydney.edu.au

undergraduate student” (University of Sydney, 2010).

There is good scientific evidence that intergroup competition in the classroom has educational benefits compared to individualistic work, such as positive impact on learning motivation and performance (see Attle & Baker, 2007 for an overview), although it can also have negative effects, such as individuals discouraging and obstructing each other’s efforts (Smith et al., 2005). Integrating professional design competitions into the curriculum has proven to enhance the learning experience and retention rates, for example in first-year engineering education (Bullen et al., 2007).

In contrast, little is known regarding the effect of international competitions for a conference (i.e. academic competitions) on students’ learning experience. In particular the question arising from anecdotal evidence is whether such competitions can lead the way to a higher research degree. When I started as a Lecturer at the University of Sydney in 2009, I took a structured approach to examining this question. The only problem I faced was that the largest Australasian conference in my field didn’t offer a student design competition. Together with academics from other Australian universities we therefore set out to introduce a competition format to provide our students with an opportunity to participate in an academic conference, which was held for the first time in 2009 (OZCHI, 2009).

The study presented in this article draws on several streams within higher education research, including approaches to research-enriched teaching and factors affecting students’ enrolment in postgraduate research degrees. These areas are discussed below, before describing the study, which involved surveys and interviews with students participating in the design competition. While the study is specific to interaction design and human-computer interaction (HCI) education, this article concludes with a generalisation of the findings and their relevance to other disciplines. On a wider scale, this article extends existing knowledge in the area of research-enriched teaching.

hci and interaction design education HCI has emerged from within computer science. It is concerned with human factors of computing systems, particularly with principles of interface and interaction design of such systems. It therefore requires a multidisciplinary approach, including aspects of psychology and sociology. With the growth of information and communication industries, HCI gained importance as an educational stream at universities (Strong, 1995). Interaction design on the other

hand, while concerned with many of the same issues as HCI, has emerged from the creative fields, such as graphic design, visual communication, and product design. Most interaction design programmes are therefore embedded within design schools. The programmes at the Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Planning within which the study described in this article was carried out, are the Bachelor of Design Computing and the Masters of Interaction Design and Electronic Arts. The teaching model used in these programmes has been adapted from other design disciplines, where students are taught in a studio environment with teachers as sources of information and guidance (Waks, 2001). In this model, students work on semester-long design projects by going through the iterative phases of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting as defined in action research (Carr & Kemmis, 1986). Design briefs given to students are typically based on real-world problems and the importance of process as well as product is acknowledged (Öztürk & Türkkan, 2006). Studio-based teaching is naturally a more practice-based form of teaching that prepares students for the challenges they will face in their future profession. It is less obvious how academic research can be integrated with design studio teaching (see Özdemir, 2007 for a case study).

integrating research and teaching Integrating teaching and research offers a remedy to the teaching-research nexus (Zubrick et al., 2001). Research-enriched learning and teaching “is about including research relevant learning outcomes in curriculum design” and means “that students are learning in research-like ways” (ITL, n.d.). Research-enriched teaching environments allow students to learn how academic research is organised and funded and to see themselves as members of a university culture where both teaching and research take place (Özdemir, 2007). There are different strategies for integrating research with teaching (Brew, 2006; Griffiths, 2004; Healey & Jenkins, 2009; ITL, n.d.). Griffiths (2004) proposed a classification of these strategies into research-led, research-oriented, and research-based teaching. Healy (2005) extended this classification to add what he called research-tutored teaching (see Figure 1).

Research-led and research-oriented strategies are both teacher-focussed and students are seen as audience. In research-led teaching, curriculum content is organised around faculty research interest. In research-oriented teaching, students learn about processes and methods of inquiry used by the research discipline. In contrast, research-based and research-tutored strategies are student-focussed and students are seen as participants. Research-based

Can International design competitions at conferences lead the way to a higher research degree?

learning environments engage students as active researchers through guided research processes, while research-tutored teaching encourages students to discuss content with faculty. Healy and Jenkins (2006) recommend emphasising student-focussed strategies, although they add that a combination of all four strategies represents the most effective form of learning.

Design competitions have the potential to address all strategies. Participation in international competitions has been mentioned as a form of research-enriched learning in a few reports (Angelo & Asmar, 2005; CLE, 2010), and Angelo and Asmar (2005) suggested that research-enriched teaching can lead to increased student enrolments in graduate research programmes. No study, until now, has examined the role of international academic competitions in research-enriched learning and in providing a path towards higher research education.

factors for Pursuing higher research education There is a large body of scholarly research available that covers principles and practices of research student supervision, however little is known about the factors contributing to students’ decision to enrol in a postgraduate research programme. Kubatkin and Christie (2006) conducted a case study at a Swedish university to investigate why students pursue a PhD. Using a survey, they asked PhD candidates about their motivations.

Results showed that students’ reasons for enrolling were approximately equally spread across completing their education, having better career options, and becoming a researcher. The case study did not investigate the factors that triggered the students’ decision to enrol, for example why they wanted to become a researcher. The study described in this article specifically investigates the value of experiencing academic conferences as a contributing factor.

designing the coMPetition HCI and interaction design programmes are typically taught at different schools, however researchers from these fields disseminate their research findings at shared academic forums. In fact, the closer integration of the two fields is increasingly acknowledged (e.g. Fallman, 2003), and new approaches to HCI research are grounded in action research and design thinking (Zimmerman et al., 2007). In our case, it therefore seemed logical to target an HCI conference for providing our undergraduate and postgraduate students with an opportunity to experience academic research.

Initially we considered designing the competition format in a way that would allow us and other academics to integrate the brief into regular teaching activities. However, this assumed a large commitment by academics and students over a long period of time and would have required a longer preparation phase to ensure academics from Australian universities would be able to plan their syllabus accordingly. With the risk of insufficient students participating in the

figure 1:

strategies for research-enriched

teaching (healy, 2005).

34 Martin Tomitsch

competition, aggravated by the fact that the competition would have run during university break in the northern hemisphere, we decided to organise the event as a one-day (24-hour) challenge instead.

I taught a second-year undergraduate design studio at that time, in which students learned about methods of inquiry specific to the disciplines of HCI and interaction design research. In the lectures I adopted a research-led approach to teaching (according to Healy’s 2005 classification), and showed examples of academic projects, in which similar methods had been used to investigate research problems. Rather than incorporating the competition fully into the syllabus, I established a basic understanding of academic research and methods through my teaching, engaging students in research-based activities. In addition, the competition introduced research-oriented and research-tutored approaches. Although the competition was not part of the syllabus I encouraged students to participate. I also distributed information in other units at our Faculty and to our research students. The first and second prizes were scholarships for attending the conference in Melbourne.

With support, four students from our undergraduate programme, five students from our postgraduate coursework programme, and two postgraduate research students participated in the competition. In total, 60 students from around the world registered for the one-day challenge. Submissions were evaluated by a panel of international experts, similar to the academic peer review process. The top three submissions were published in the form of short papers in the conference proceedings. In total, ten students from national and international universities (four undergraduate, three postgraduate, and three postgraduate research students) attended the conference due to their involvement in the competition.

the role of acadeMic design coMPetitions Once the competition was set up, we used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the role of the competition in research-enriched teaching and the value of participating in an academic conference for students not enrolled in a research degree.

Methods and Participants To investigate students’ motivation for participating in the competition and the effect of this experience on their career choice, we collected data using questionnaires and interviews. Immediately after the one-day challenge we asked participants to fill out an anonymous online

questionnaire to collect demographic data and information regarding their motivation to participate in the competition. Thirty-two of 60 participating students completed this questionnaire. At the conference, we asked the ten participants attending the conference to fill out a survey regarding their career plans. After the conference, we interviewed the eight participants who had not been to an academic conference before, to gain qualitative insights regarding their motivation to participate in the competition and what they learned from attending the conference. After one year we surveyed four of the participants who had not been to a conference before via personal communication to discover their chosen career path.

Of the 32 students who completed the online survey, 21 had not been to an academic conference and 11 had not heard of academic conferences before entering the competition. Thirteen students were enrolled in a Bachelor programme, twelve in a course-based Master, four in a research-based Master, and two in a PhD programme. Participants came from different parts of the world, with the majority (n=14) studying in Australia, of which ten studied at the University of Sydney.

the value of Participating in the competition To gain insights into the value of participating in the competition, we asked students a number of open-ended questions using an anonymous online questionnaire. We analysed the results to identify common themes, which we then used to code the individual answers. Students reported that they participated in the challenge to have the chance to attend the conference (n=6), to apply skills they have learned in their degree (6), to learn new skills and advance their understanding of the discipline (6), for social reasons like working together with friends and experiencing teamwork (5), because they liked the idea of solving a challenge (5), to receive academic credits (3), for fun (3), for personal development (2), and to meet new people (2). Students reported that the competition helped them to develop teamwork skills (6), to evaluate and reflect on their skills (4), to develop management skills (4), to advance their technical (4) and methodological skills (3), to gain insights into other cultures (3), and to advance conceptual thinking skills (2).

These results reflect the fact that the one-day challenge component of the competition was based on a design brief, i.e. it provided an inquiry-based learning experience. Only the three winning teams were invited to write an academic paper about their response to the brief and to present their

Can International design competitions at conferences lead the way to a higher research degree?

work at the conference. Therefore students perceived the learning benefits of the challenge mainly in terms of skill development. The results suggest that students learned how to apply their skills in a team-based project, but also to evaluate their skills and to learn about new approaches from team members. In contrast, the interviews with students who attended the conference emphasised the value of the competition to better understand academic research.

the value of attending the conference During the conference challenge, participants presented their submissions in the form of posters to conference attendees. In the post-conference interviews they confirmed that this form of involvement provided a great opportunity to talk to others, including well-known researchers in the area, with their competition entry acting as conversation

starter. They indicated that they learned a lot from talking to other conference attendees and attending talks and reading the proceedings: “I learned how multi-faceted design is; I didn’t know you could apply all these different design methodologies to different contexts” (undergraduate student). Students who were working on their own research at that time stated that attending the conference helped them to shape their research project and to gain a better understanding of scientific values. Another student, who was completing her coursework Master’s, mentioned that she had a better idea of the type of research she wanted to continue with: “I think it helped me think of different areas; because I went to … actually it was a women and computing conference I went to, where I saw someone from Microsoft Research presenting, and that’s what got me thinking I really want to do a PhD and now I am trying to decide what I want

figure 2:

factors for participating

in the competition.

figure 3:

learning experiences

from participating in

the competition.

36 Martin Tomitsch

to study exactly”. The same student added that working together with someone from a different discipline during the challenge helped her advance her knowledge in certain areas and understand how she could integrate these areas in her work. A student, who was about to begin his PhD, stated that he was not really sure what he would be doing before attending the conference and afterwards had a clearer understanding from seeing other people presenting their work. Generally, students who had not been to an academic conference before, reported that the experience provided them with a better understanding of scientific research and the discipline-specific community.

Four students of the ten students who attended the conference had not been to an academic conference before and were not enrolled in a higher research degree already. One of them had already decided to continue with a PhD, two were considering a PhD but uncertain, and one was not considering a PhD at that time. Of the two considering a PhD, one student has since enrolled in a PhD programme; the other student has enrolled in an Honours degree and plans to continue with a PhD.

discussion International academic competitions represent a promising strategy for integrating research with teaching. Our study showed that the top motivating factors for participating in the competition were the opportunity to attend a conference, applying skills learned in university degrees, learning new skills and advancing their understanding of the discipline. Indeed, other research showed that inquiry-based learning allows students to develop skills and confidence for solving problems they have never seen before (Smith et al., 2005). The analysis of the interviews suggests that attending a conference helps students to develop a better understanding of scientific research and an academic career.

To address all four types of research-enriched learning the competition needs to be fully integrated into the syllabus. That way, students become active participants, and not only learn about research processes (including reading, discussing, and writing research articles) but apply these processes with academics’ guidance. If the competition format does not allow for complete integration into the syllabus, academics can structure their unit outline to establish the required understanding of academic processes through research-led approaches and subsequently motivate students to participate in the competition outside class time. The range of motivational factors identified in this study can be used to encourage student participation. If an appropriate

student competition is not available, an alternative is to replicate a competition setting in the classroom. In this case, the emphasis should be on inquiry-based learning, e.g. supporting students to work on a discipline-specific research problem, and cooperative learning, e.g. through team work and peer feedback, while mitigating negative aspects of competition in the classroom (Smith et al., 2005). This strategy would not allow students to experience an academic conference, but they would benefit from the research-enriched learning experience.

Participation in academic competitions can lead to students enrolling in postgraduate research programmes as noted by Angelo and Asmar (2005). Their observation is supported by our findings, although the small number of participants means these should be considered indicative. More research is needed to truly understand the effect of experiencing an academic conference on students’ career paths in the context of other contributing factors. Research has only begun to investigate this field, and this study is limited by its small scale and specific focus on interaction design education. Future research should explore the effect of academic competitions in other areas. Another area to pursue is a study of coursework students that attend conferences without having participated in a competition.

The project described in this article focussed on postgraduate coursework students. To our surprise, the study revealed interested undergraduate students from different Australian universities. The integration of academic competitions is therefore not limited to postgraduate courses, but can and should be considered in undergraduate programmes to enrich the learning and teaching experience as well. This direction was expressed in the White Paper and in recent literature, which states that all undergraduate students should experience some form of research-enriched teaching (e.g. Healey and Jenkins, 2009).

acknowledgeMents I would like to thank Rob Saunders for his guiding support throughout the project as well as Andrew Vande Moere, Jeremy Yuille, and Jane Truna Turner for their help with setting up the inaugural competition. I would also like to thank the reviewers of this article for their feedback. The research was funded by the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning’s Research-enhanced Learning and Teaching Scholarships Grant scheme.

Can International design competitions at conferences lead the way to a higher research degree?

referencesAngelo, T., & Asmar, C. (2005). Towards a new definition of

research-led teaching – and learning – at VUW. Draft Discussion Paper. Retrieved from http://www.utdc.vuw.ac.nz/research/rlt/rlt.pdf

Attle, S., & Baker, B. (2007). Cooperative Learning in a Competitive Environment: Classroom Applications. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 19(1), 77-83.

Brew, A. (2006). Research and teaching: Beyond the divide. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

Bullen, F., Webb, E, & Brodie, L. (2007). Developing a national design competition through collaborative partnerships. ConnectED 2007: International Conference on Design Education.

Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (1986). Becoming critical. Lewes: Falmer Press.

CLE – Committee On The Learning Environment (2010). Teaching, Research, and Discovery Learning: Recommendations for a Great University. Retrieved from http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~varn/Documents/TeachResearchCLEJan10.pdf

Griffiths, R. (2004). Knowledge production and the research-teaching nexus: the case of the built environment disciplines. Studies in Higher Education, 29(6), 709-726.

Healey, M. (2005). Linking Research and Teaching: Exploring Disciplinary Spaces and the Role of Inquiry-Based Learning. In R. Barnett (ed.), Reshaping the University: New Relationships Between Research, Scholarship and Teaching. Maidenhead, United Kingdom: Open University Press, 67-78.

Healey, M., & Jenkins, A. (2009). Developing undergraduate research and inquiry. Heslington, England: The Higher Education Academy. Retrieved from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/ publications/DevelopingUndergraduate_Final.pdf

ITL – Institute for Teaching and Learning (n.d.). RELT Curriculum Framework. The University of Sydney. Retrieved from http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/projects/relt/framework.htm

Kubatkin, S., & Christie, M. (2006). Becoming a doctoral student. Why students decide to do a PhD. In M. Christie (Ed.), Shifting Perspectives in Engineering Education. Göteborg, Sweden: C-SELT.

OZCHI (2009). The Annual Conference of the Australian Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group (CHISIG) of the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia (HFESA). 24 Hour Design Challenge. http://www.ozchi.org/2009/mediawiki/index.php/24

Özdemir, A. (2007). Teaching and Research: Establishing a Link in Studio-based Learning. Bulgarian Journal of Science and Education Policy, 1(1).

Öztürk, M. N., & Türkkan, E. E. (2006). The design studio as teaching/learning medium – a process-based approach. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 25(1), 96-104.

Smith, K., Sheppard, S., Johnson, D., & Johnson, R. (2005). Pedagogies of Engagement: Classroom-based Practices. Journal of Engineering Education.

Strong, G.W. (1995). New Directions in Human-Computer Interaction Education, Research, and Practice. Interactions, 2(1), New York, NY: ACM.

University of Sydney (2010). The University of Sydney 2011-2015 White Paper. Retrieved from http://sydney.edu.au/strategy/white_paper/download.shtml

Waks, L.J. (2001). Donald Schon’s Philosophy of Design and Design Education. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 11, 37–51.

Zubrick, A., Reid, I., & Rossiter, P. (2001). Strengthening the Nexus Between Teaching and Research. Retrieved from http://www.dest.gov.au/

38 Martin Tomitsch

aBstract Final year Music Education students at Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM) requested interview preparation for DET (Department of Education and Training) graduate interviews. The pedagogical challenge was to create a learning experience that was authentic and approximated the experience of preparing for and carrying out an interview. A role play interview activity was developed and scheduled prior to the DET graduate interview date. It incorporated an online preparation activity, a panel of experts presentation, a “mock” interview, an individual and small group analysis and a debriefing session for the activity as a whole. Students reported increased confidence, familiarisation and increased understanding of the job application process and decreased anxiety about the upcoming real DET graduate interview. Their feedback indicated that the activity was appropriately authentic but also produced useful insights into improvements that could be made for the next iteration.

introduction Students in tertiary education today enjoy online assessment tasks and discussions in a technological and collaboratively rich environment. Online learning provides appropriate

learning for contemporary students while modelling well-researched and documented professional teaching practices (Ellis, Goodyear, O’Hara & Prosser, 2007; Long, 2005). The mix of technology, pedagogy and design results in more effective learning (Rowley & O’Dea, 2010), making the blended learning environment particularly effective for modelling best practice for pre-service teachers.

In the Music Education professional experience program at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music the aim has been to develop a cohesive program that incorporates a blended experience of face-to-face and online learning. The focus has been the development of specific blended activities that support the students’ professional experience over the three years that it occurs in the degree, creating learning designs that prepare students for placement in schools and develop skills in classroom management.

In the latest development cycle, the team developed a blended learning activity in response to feedback from students. Pre-service music teachers at Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM) indicated that they wanted specific training in applying for a music teaching position at a school. The comments included requests for “mock

develoPing an authentic role PlaY interview for Music teachersROSEMARY MILBURN1*, JENNIFER L. ROWLEY2 & SUSAN ATKINSON1

1SYDNEY ELEARNING2SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC

*Corresponding author. Email: rosemary.milburn@sydney.edu.au

SYNERGY ISSUE 31 JULY 2011

rosemary Milburn, susan atkinson & Jennifer rowley

interviews”; advice from experts who have served on panels for recruitment interviews; exposure to “typical” interview questions; and the opportunity to understand the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) perspective on the graduate recruitment interview. The students requested that this happen early in the final semester of fourth year to maximise their employment prospects upon completion of the music education degree.

Through a Sydney eLearning strategic eLearning project, educational designer hours were allocated to develop a blended learning activity in the newly created online unit of study MUED4601: Professional and Social Issues in Music Education in the University’s Learning Management System (LMS). The design team decided to engage students in role play interviews with associated self-reflection and peer feedback. These elements would be blended with online resources to assist interview preparation and an asynchronous discussion forum to support the process. It was hoped that participation in these would increase the students’ insight into the interview process for a music teacher’s position at a school and enhance their skills to carry it out.

Providing additional support for pre-service teachers to adequately prepare them for professional teaching practice in a school is a challenge for all teacher educators and online technology has become increasingly popular in addressing some of the challenges in the preparation and support of both pre-service and in-service teachers (Ferfolja, 2008; Holstrom, Ruiz & Weller, 2007; Schuck, 2003a).

In Australia, as in many countries worldwide, ICT is a mandatory component of teacher preparation programs (Whitton, Sinclair, Barker, Nanlohy & Nosworthy, 2010), and embedding technology into this curriculum is acknowledged as a critical component of pre-service teachers’ professional training (New South Wales Institute of Teachers, 2006). The benefits of online learning to the students in preparation for a teaching career have been thoroughly examined in previous research and support the conclusion that online learning assists the pre-service teacher to alleviate anxiety and develop competence in ICT because the technology allows learning and communication to occur asynchronously, enabling the pre-service teachers to interact and collaborate with peers and academics anywhere and at any time (Garrison & Anderson, 2003, cited in Rowley & Tindall-Ford, 2008). As Long (2005) suggests

Recent data shows that pedagogy using ‘interactive engagement’ methods results in higher learning gains than does the traditional lecture format and is usually accompanied by lower failure rates (Long, 2005, p. 60).

It was thought that role plays in blended format as preparation for graduate teacher interviews would be useful in addressing the development of generic graduate attributes through the pre-service teachers’ interaction with and use of technology. The promotion of new ways to communicate, engage with content and to research and develop as an individual, are all essential ingredients for well rounded graduates—and, indeed, school teachers (O’Dea & Rowley, 2010).

the Pedagogical focus of the activitY design Students were enthusiastic and vocal about their need for guidance and practice for their DET graduate interviews. The pedagogical challenge for the project team was to create a learning experience that would be authentic enough to give students the experience of preparing for and carrying out a real job interview but would provide sufficient structure to guide their skill development and build their confidence, rather than expose them to further anxiety. Gulikers et al., (2004) indicated that authentic tasks for learning might need to be an abstracted version of professional practice, particularly for less advanced students.

Lower-level learners may not be able to deal with the authenticity of a real, complex, professional situation. If they are forced to do this it may result in cognitive overload and, in turn, have a negative impact on learning (Gulikers et al., 2004, pp. 75-76).

The job interview role play activity that was developed consisted of five main sections:

1. Preparation for the interview (online)2. Presentation by expert panel (face-to-face) 3. The role play interview (face-to-face) 4. Self-reflection and peer feedback on individual

performance (face-to-face)5. Group discussion and debrief (face-to-face).

1. PreParation for the interview The first part of the activity took place online and formed the knowledge base required for the role play. A range of real job advertisements was sourced and presented and, using online sign-up sheets, students chose the position

40 Rosemary Milburn, Jennifer L. Rowley and Susan Atkinson

that most interested them and matched their skills. Groups of four students signed up for each job since these formed the complement of roles that would carry out the interview for each position.

When students read through the instructions online, they realised that they would be asked three questions relating to music teaching generally, and three questions unique to the job applied for. A list of sample questions was provided but specific questions were not revealed until the interviewee was taking part in the role play. This allowed students to prepare answers but also to experience the authentic atmosphere of a real interview where questions are usually not revealed. To guide their preparation, students were also asked to predict what questions might be asked during the interview and to prepare answers. In addition, they were required to prepare questions they might ask the interview panel about the job.

Students were encouraged to use asynchronous online discussions (one private forum per interview group) to talk about issues that arose during the online preparation activity. The activity included links to online resources to help with other aspects of interview preparation such as self-presentation, and type of supporting materials they would need to take to the interview. They were given the following resources: DET’s “Career Development Toolkit” (https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/career/teachers/apply/theinterview.html); “How to Use Nonverbal Communication to Impress” at http://jobsearch.about.com/od/interviewsnetworking/a/nonverbalcomm.htm, which has information on what to bring to an interview (and what not to bring) and effects of body language during an interview; and “Preparing for the Interview” at http://www.teachervision.fen.com/career-in-education/resource/5905.html for guidelines for preparing which has a music teaching interview.

2. Presentation BY exPert Panel Prior to engaging in the role play activity, students heard a panel discuss tips and tricks for successfully navigating the DET graduate interview process. This was undertaken formally as a whole group in a lecture theatre where four invited panel members prepared 10 minutes each on “what’s to be expected by an interview selection panel”. The panel comprised three school music teachers and a high school principal. The panel brought real life experiences to the task, as three had been interviewers on selection panels and one had recently successfully undergone a DET interview.

3. the role PlaY interview The role play interview was conducted face-to-face after the panel presentation during a two-hour seminar. During this activity students had the opportunity both to be interviewed and to interview others. Each student brought along a mobile phone or digital camera that was used to record his/her interview and though the pedagogical rationale for this was to aid self-reflection, it ended up contributing to the authenticity in a way the project team hadn’t anticipated. Members of each group conducted four interviews, taking turns to rotate through the four roles (applicant, time keeper, camera-operator, general panelist) to deepen understanding. Each interview group was provided with a kit containing the interview procedure notes (with which they should have already been familiar), a set of “role” cards and four envelopes of questions (one for each applicant). The kits formed an integral part of the role play process and provided students with the responsibility of undertaking the activity authentically.

Ten minutes was allowed for each interview, plus five minutes for self-evaluation and change-over. So, for each group of four students, an hour was allowed for the role play; it was set up as follows.

The first student to be interviewed left the room while the remaining students—who formed the interview panel—prepared for the interview by allocating roles and reviewing the envelope containing the questions. The applicant was invited back into the room, set his/her mobile phone/digital camera to record and handed it to the camera-operator, who recorded the applicant’s interview. The time keeper’s role was to notify the panel when five minutes and eight minutes had passed, and when the interview needed to end at 10 minutes. The general panelist asked the questions, answered the applicant’s enquiries and facilitated the pacing of the interview.

4. self-reflection and Peer feedBack on individual PerforMance When the interview was over, the recording was returned to the applicant with a list of questions asked. This list doubled as a self-evaluation form, allowing applicants to write down how they had responded to each question and what they might have answered differently. To provide guidance and structure for the students (who were novices at analysing interview performance), the self-evaluation form contained checklist suggestions of things that should have been avoided (e.g. fidgeting, saying “um”, slouching, being too casual, interrupting, arriving late, being too quiet/too loud)

Developing an authentic role play interview for music teachers

and things that might have been done well (e.g. appearing calm, making eye contact, appearing engaged and interested, dressing appropriately, maintaining an even voice tone, listening when appropriate, being punctual).

The students were also encouraged to review the video of their interview to assist them to complete the self- reflection, which required them to summarise what they had learnt about preparing, and conducting job interviews. To ensure that students had some control over the amount of challenge presented by the role play interview, constructive feedback from the panel was only given if students requested it.

5. grouP discussion and deBrief A post-activity debrief discussion, led by the lecturer, took place at the conclusion of the four interviews for each group. The debriefing activity allowed the cohort to reflect as a whole group on the role play and consolidate the learning experience through a different process. The lecturer was able to guide the debrief and reinforce essential components from the expert panel’s comments.

discussion The initiative provided pre-service teachers with a valuable learning experience that included not only developing skill in applying for jobs but also immersion in a blended learning design. Eighteen students took part in the role play activity, which was run for the first time in semester 2, 2010 with an entirely female group. An evaluation questionnaire was used to gain feedback (please email authors if you would like a copy of the questionnaire) and the questionnaire was part of the ongoing unit of study evaluation process with results used to improve the activity for the 2011 cohort.

The project team members were interested to discover whether the authenticity of the role play design was sufficient to effect meaningful development of student skills. Gulikers et al., (2008), investigating the subjectivity of authenticity, found that teachers tended to rate assessment activities as more authentic than students did. This was because the students’ “school-based frame of reference” (p. 17) frequently led to an idealised view of what an authentic task in a professional context should be.

As previously discussed, factors were included in the design to support authenticity—e.g. the real job advertisements—and factors that mitigated against it due to the need for scaffolding to support students at a novice stage of learning—e.g. providing the pool of questions. The physical

and social contexts contributing to authenticity (Gulikers et al., 2004) also needed to be considered. By necessity, the face-to-face components of the activity were completed within one tutorial session, making the interviews short. Members of the project team were aware that students acting as interview panel members were unable to give explanations or pose follow-up questions to the responses given by students being interviewed because they lacked knowledge and experience of the advertised positions and schools represented. There was also the likelihood that having peers as interviewers removed the performance-inhibiting nervousness that interview participants would normally feel, despite the authenticity of the job advertisements and the fact that the interview questions were kept secret.

did the activity mimic a real interview? In answering the evaluation question that asked whether students thought the activity closely mimicked a real interview, most “agreed” that it did. However, only two reported that the relevance of the questions was a contributing factor; more commonly noting that not knowing exactly what questions would be asked contributed to the realism.

It’s sometimes difficult to predict what the panelist would ask, having different sets of questions puts everyone in the group on the spot, which is the situation, mindset(?) in a real interview [student #5].

Over a third of students felt that the sense of pressure in the interviews helped make them more realistic.

It made you feel like you were in an interview, with someone watching you and asking questions—it put me on the spot [student #6].

Some thought that recording the interviews contributed to this sense of pressure.

I thought that videoing helped to re create that more pressure situation [student #18].

It was noted by some participants that the activity differed from a true interview because being interviewed by friends made it seem less like a real interview. Not surprisingly, some students thought they would get better quality feedback from a panel member who had experience being on an interview panel. However, there was evidence that the role play provided sufficient guide to the development of skills to handle a real situation.

42 Rosemary Milburn, Jennifer L. Rowley and Susan Atkinson

Obviously we were being interviewed by our friends, so I was quite comfortable with the interviewer. However, I was still nervous and felt that this gave me a good indication of how I would feel on the day [student #12].

While initially finding the recording of interviews disconcerting, students acknowledged that this helped to create a more realistic atmosphere. Seventy-seven per cent of students reported that watching the video helped them understand and improve the way they presented themselves and this was reinforced during the debriefing (whole class discussion) after the activity, when many students mentioned it as key to their self-evaluation.

Inclusion of a place on the questionnaire for students to suggest how to improve authenticity was provided, with five students recommending that including questions that were more specific to the school/job would make the activity more realistic.

more specific questions about the school, e.g. St Pauls --> Christian values, etc. [student #15].

did the activity increase students’ confidence with interviews? The questionnaire included questions that gauged the level of student confidence in undertaking an interview before taking part in the role play. How the students in this cohort rated their ability to prepare and carry out a DET graduate interview indicated whether they were embarking on the activity with a perceived information/skills deficit and the results supported the Unit Coordinator’s perception, gained from informal feedback, that this activity was one that the students needed. The “before” results indicated that prior to undertaking the activity, most students on average, were not very confident about taking part in a graduate interview. Later in the questionnaire, students were asked to rate their confidence level after the activity. The difference in ratings between the before and after questions was statistically significant (Spearman Rank Order Correlation) and provided evidence that the students perceived that one practice interview session effected a change in their skills.

Students reported a range of reasons for their increased confidence after completing the activity. Several reported that they had gained knowledge of the types of questions that could be asked, with one student noting that having different types of questions “really gets me thinking” [student #6] while some reported a greater awareness of

how much preparation is needed before an interview:

I have a much better idea of how much preparation I need for the real interview [student #5].

Other students reported having gained knowledge of what to expect during the interview, with one student noting that this helped to overcome some aspects of “the unknown” [student #12].

The evaluation demonstrated that the process of undertaking the activity and the exposure to other perspectives and ideas were the factors that students believed effected a change in confidence, rather than any individual aspects of the activity. It was noted, however, that for this activity to be as realistic as possible, students needed to complete the preparation activities prior to the role play. Students generally provided responses ranging “somewhat useful” to “very useful” for these items.

other insights into the learning design Students were asked to rate the usefulness of the individual components of the face-to-face role play to give some insight into whether there were elements of the activity design that were weak, troublesome or unpopular. The majority of students rated all components as equally useful.

Most students (72%) reported that the self-evaluation process of their interview performance was “quite useful” with 22% reporting that it was “very useful”.

The fourth step in the whole activity “Post-interview feedback” was generally seen as helpful, with one student reporting that it was

extremely helpful to discuss things with my classmates and get their point of view [student #1].

Some reported having found value in thinking about things that they hadn’t previously considered.

I got the opportunity to think about some vague ideas—philosophy, that I hadn’t already thought about [student #9].

Further, one student thought the multiple roles assigned within the group was useful.

I gained a lot of insight being both the interviewer and interviewee [student #18].

Developing an authentic role play interview for music teachers

Students were also asked to give feedback on whether the activity was of the right duration and generally commented that more time was required to undertake each component. Over two-thirds (67%) of students reported the length of the activity was “about right”. However, they commonly reported that more time was needed for feedback post-interview, as well as with the group generally.

Responses to the question asking for constructive criticism and ideas for general improvement showed that students’ experiences were enhanced by the interview preparation resources and by their participation in the activity.

future iMProveMents Clear recommendations for the development of the blended learning and the role play activity emerged as a result of this evaluation. These include: extending the length of the self-evaluation part of the activity; altering the roles designation of the interview panel; making enhancements to the review process; and increasing the post interview discussion time to 10 minutes. If the group size is limited to three in future—by combining the roles of “camera-operator” and “time keeper” by using the camera’s built-in timer to keep a track of the time—this will allow the group to complete the activity within one hour.

It would be beneficial to have a non-student member on the interview panel, ideally someone who is experienced in interviewing. This person would be able to respond to an interviewee’s answers, getting them to elaborate or clarify points, as well as provide better quality feedback. Having a non-student panel member would provide a more formal atmosphere to the interviews, bolster the social dimension of authenticity and might also lead to better quality feedback.

Sullivan (2007), who also conducted “mock interviews” for music students, chose the interview panelists from a pool of music supervisors, principals and experienced music teachers. She states that:

The interviewers are often eager to make time to participate, because a competent new hire will likely have a positive impact on a school’s music program. Some district music supervisors find it a good time to evaluate our graduating students’ strengths as well as to sell their district to our students … Consequently, it becomes a winning situation for all involved (Sullivan, 2007, p. 23).

The discussion time after each interview should be increased; perhaps 10 min of interview plus 10 min of discussion with students commenting strongly, particularly in the post-activity discussion, that more time for feedback/evaluation/discussion was needed.

In the debriefing session (whole class discussion) after the interview activity it is recommended that there be designated time for students to watch their videos and complete their self-evaluation forms as some students did not manage to complete this step. Consideration will also be given to editing the lists of sample interview questions to make some questions more appropriate to an Australian context and include questions specific to the advertised positions.

The pre-role play activity (online discussion task) in the LMS could be further developed to ensure that students engage more actively in this important component of the blended learning experience. In fact, it would be worth considering making this a more interactive space for each group by posting potential interview questions as discussion threads and asking students to post their answers. Students could be encouraged to start new threads based on interview questions they find challenging. If non-student panel members are available, they could also take part in the pre-interview online discussions (Sullivan, 2007).

The interview role play activity design—either in whole or part—is transferable and applicable to many other discipline areas. It could also be modified for other settings in music education such as teaching a new piece of music for the first time or conducting a parent-teacher-student conference when becoming a music teacher in schools.

The project team members have learned that a key factor in the success of the activity is scheduling adequate time for thorough student preparation for both the interview and reflection afterwards. It is also extremely important to give a clear overview of the activity and its aims. An advance briefing about how the interview will be run and the student role/s ensures that students can give their full attention to the activity and are not constantly departing from their role to check instructions. conclusion The outcomes of the students’ evaluation indicate that the role play interviews fulfilled many of the students’ perceived needs in preparation for the DET graduate interview as music teachers. The evaluation suggests that the learning design

44 Rosemary Milburn, Jennifer L. Rowley and Susan Atkinson

is effective and provides an appropriate level of authenticity that can be even further enhanced with the proposed alterations.

The role play interview provides material for students to engage intellectually in their knowledge and synthesis of the interview questions and responses as well as to understand the significance of the set procedures and routines for job interviews. Additionally, it models the careful planning and establishment of a realistic learning environment to pre-service teachers.

The project team intends to follow up the activity with students after they have attended an actual DET interview process to get feedback on how well this activity prepared them for the interview and obtain further information on how to strengthen the design of the activity. This process may also provide a source of external interview panellists for the role play activity as suggested by the students.

When the recommendations are implemented in the 2011 iteration a further evaluation may show more areas for improvement to continue supporting the student learning experience in authentic ways.

acknowledgeMents Thanks to Dr Rob Heard from the Faculty of Health Sciences for his guidance with the statistical tests.

The design and development of this role play activity formed part of the 2010 Strategic eLearning Project developed under the auspices of the DVC Education. For more information on the recruitment and selection process, email Susan Atkinson at susan.atkinson@sydney.edu.au.

referencesEllis, R.A., Goodyear, P., O’Hara, A., & Prosser, M. (2007).

The University Student Experience of face-to-face and online discussions: coherence, reflection and meaning. ALT-J, 15(1): 83–97.

Ferfolja, T. (2008). Building Teacher Capital in Pre-Service Teachers: Reflections on a New Teacher Education Initiative. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 33(2): 68–84.

Garrison, D.R. & Anderson, T. (2003). E-Learning in the 21st century: a Framework for research and practice. London: Routledge-Falmer.

Graff, M. (2006). The Importance of online community in student academic performance. The Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 4(2): 127–132.

Gulikers, J. T. M., Bastiaens, Th. J., Kirschner, P. A., & Kester, L. (2008). Authenticity is in the Eye of the Beholder: Student and Teacher Perceptions of Assessment Authenticity. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 60(4).

Gulikers, J., Bastiaens, T., & Kirschner, P. (2004). A five-dimensional framework for authentic assessment. Educational Technology Research and Development, 52(3): 67-85.

Holstrom, L., Ruiz, D., & Weller, G. (2007). A New View: reflection and student teacher growth through an epracticum model. E-Learning 4(1): 5–14.

Long, P.D. & Ehrmann, S.D. (2005). `Future of the Learning Space: Breaking Out of the Box’. EDUCAUSE Review 40(4): 42–58.

Murray-Harvey, R. (1999). Paper presented at the Colloquium in Field Based Education, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, 24–26 November, 1999.

O’Dea, J. & Rowley, J. (2010). A Quantitative Comparison of Change Over 12 months in Pre-service Music and PE Teachers Experiences and Perceptions of E-Learning and a Qualitative Analysis of Perceived Benefits and Enjoyment. 5th International Conference on e-Learning at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia 12–13 July 2010, pp. 307–316. Retrieved from http://academic-conferences.org/icel/icel2010/icel10-home.htm

Rowley, J.L. & Tindall-Ford, S. (2008). Professional Experience and WebCT at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Synergy, 28: 14–21.

Rowley, J. & O’Dea, J. (2010). Perception of how e-learning enhances the university learning experience among teacher education undergraduates. In D. Gibson & B. Dodge (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2010 (pp. 822–828). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/33447

Schuck, S. (2003a). Getting help from the outside: Developing a support network for beginning teachers. Journal of Educational Enquiry, 4(1): 49–67.

Singh, D.K. & Stoloff, D.L. (2007). Effectiveness of online Instruction. International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society, 2(6): 120–123.

Sullivan, J.M. (2007) Mock interviews for student teachers. Teaching Music, 14(4): p. 23.

Whitton, D., Sinclair, C., Barker, K., Nanlohy, P. & Nosworthy, M. (2010). Learning for teaching: teaching for learning. Southbank, Vic.: Thomson.

Developing an authentic role play interview for music teachers

exPloring how eleMents of studio teaching can iMProve student engageMent ROD FIFORD1*, MARTIN TOMITSCH2, COLIN R. DUNSTAN1 & REBECCA PLUMBE3 1FACULTY OF ENGINEERING & IT 2FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN AND PLANNING 3FACULY OF ARTS

aBstract Studio teaching is a form of problem based learning, widely applied in Architecture, which emphasises group learning in the context of resolving real-life problems within a workplace-like context, enhanced by industry involvement. However, this approach has rarely been transferred to other disciplines, including those with strong similarities, such as Engineering. In this article we present the results from an exploratory project where we used focus groups, formal interviews and surveys to investigate the value of studio learning and the challenges in transferring this learning model to Engineering; with the aim of establishing its use in the teaching of a Professional Engineering course.

introduction In this article we describe an ongoing scholarly inquiry that started while the authors were completing the Graduate Certificate in Educational Studies (Higher Education) offered by the Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Sydney. The inquiry emerged from the multidisciplinary nature of our group. Each of us came from a different background and teaching environment, but we all agreed that increasing student engagement was one of our foremost goals as teachers, since earlier studies

showed this can lead to increased quality of learning in our students (Kuh et. al, 2007). In particular, we would see deeper understanding, higher levels of critical analysis and enhanced ability to think creatively as important outcomes of increased student engagement. In particular we were interested in the contribution of studio teaching elements (e.g. Öztürk & Türkkan, 2006) to increase student engagement in the classroom and ways for transferring these elements to another discipline, demonstrated through the example of Engineering. Below we provide an overview of studio teaching, followed by an analysis of initial findings from a triangulation-based inquiry including interviews, focus groups, and surveys with students from Architecture, Design Computing, and Engineering. The article concludes with a discussion of our findings in light of their applicability to other disciplines. In particular we identify generalised steps for transferring established teaching practices across disciplines. Our inquiry directly addresses one of the key areas for improvement identified by the University of Sydney:

“Our critical weakness in many areas is a failure to translate best practice teaching into a broader institutional framework. Teaching innovation often remains at the local level rather than being rolled out to other parts of the University.” (University of Sydney Green Paper, 2010)*Corresponding author. Email: rod.fiford@sydney.edu.au

46

colin dunstan, rebecca Plumbe (and libby), rod fiford and Martin tomitsch

studio teaching in architecture The studio as a type of learning environment has evolved from the classical apprenticeship model that is based on a master-student relationship (Armarego & Clarke, 2005). In this environment students undergo a series of graduated problems with the teaching staff serving as ‘coach’ (Waks, 2001). Studio teaching is considered best practice, and a core element, of the curriculum in Design-based disciplines, including Architecture. It can be considered a special subtype of problem-based learning (PBL). Key elements include: (Docherty et al., 2001; Öztürk & Turkaan, 2006; Pizarro et al., 2009)

– Intention to develop students as professionals – Working in small groups – Interactive problem solving – Peer review and feedback – Focus on real-world problems / design briefs – Students applying skills learnt in other courses to an open-ended design problem

– Iterative design process – Regular feedback from instructors – Involvement of practicing professionals in assessment and feedback

– Dedicated group or individual space for projects – Long blocks of teaching time (e.g. a whole day each week) – Valuing creativity – Acknowledging importance of process as well as product – Lectures are not the focus

At the University of Sydney, studio teaching is mainly practised at the Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) and the Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Planning. Before examining approaches to studio teaching in other disciplines, we want to outline the studio teaching practice used in the Architecture programs at the University of Sydney. The outline is based on one of the authors’ encounters with the architecture studio teaching model from teaching in the same Faculty and a case study on a Year 1 architecture studio (Anderson, 2009).

In architecture programs, students typically have one core studio each semester. The studio coordinator provides the theme for the studio, often in consultation with tutors and/or external organisations. Casual teaching staff are crucial for design studios to accommodate the large number of students enrolled in Architecture (in 2009 there were 172 students in Year 1). This large cohort is broken down into groups of approximately 15 students, each with a tutor, who they remain with for the entire semester. It is common

that practising architects act as tutors in these studios. Thus, the decision to join a tutor’s group can be based on the type of work they do professionally. In a typical studio setting, students receive a design brief at the beginning of the semester on which they work during the studio under the guidance of and in consultation with their tutor, and also outside of class time. Studios typically run for a full day per week. In some studios, this day starts with a lecture.

As part of the design brief students have to solve specific tasks each week, such as conducting background research or creating models, which they present to their group the following week. During the presentations, they receive feedback on their work from their tutor and peers, which they then take into account for the following iteration. This format emphasises the process, which is an important element in architectural practice. Consequently students’ final mark is determined not only by the quality of their final submission, but also by their ability to develop and iterate ideas in form of artefacts throughout the semester. For example, the studio in the second semester in Year 1 consists of a series of exercises conducted over the 13 weeks of the semester, including ‘contextualisation’, ‘formulation of a program’, ‘volumetric diagramming’, ‘revision and consolidation’, ‘presentation’, and ‘portfolio’, to name but a few (Anderson, 2009).

There are challenges that come with studio-based teaching environments, such as the necessity for students to be able to perform self-directed, independent learning, which is especially a challenge for Year 1 students, due to the transition from highly structured secondary school learning environments (Anderson, 2009). The weekly revision cycles, which ensure that students are continuously producing artefacts that contribute to their final product, help to address this challenge.

studio teaching in other disciPlines Despite the well-documented advantages of studio-based learning, studio teaching is little used in other disciplines. Docherty et al. (2001) described a studio-based Computer Science (CS) degree, which extended traditional CS courses with a series of design courses and studio projects. In these projects students had to work on open-ended design problems. Studio-based courses were further held in dedicated spaces designed to encourage collaboration and team-approaches to problem solving. In an evaluation of the studio-based CS degree, students expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to apply skills learnt in other courses to real-world problems during their studio projects.

Exploring how elements of studio teaching can improve student engagement

Barker et al. (2005) compared a traditional approach to teaching Information Technologies (IT) programs in a CS major to a fine arts approach used in an IT certificate (ITC) program. They observed that the instructor-centric approach used in traditional CS education led to very little collaboration and knowledge sharing among students. In contrast, the format of fine arts, or studio based, project courses with a more fluid transition between lectures and lab sessions and an emphasis on real-world problems encouraged students to collaborate and share knowledge with their peers.

A similar studio-based approach is used in an undergraduate degree at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning that sits between CS and Design. The degree, a Bachelor in Design Computing, uses an adaptation of the studio-centric teaching environment practised in the Faculty’s Architecture programs. In contrast to the Architecture studios, the Design Computing studio is equipped with computers, and uses a layout that encourages collaboration and exchange of ideas among students. In four out of the six semesters, students have to take a core studio, with each studio focusing on a different topic relevant to the discipline. Parts of the study described in this article were carried out in one of the design studios in the Design Computing degree.

aPPlication of studio teaching PrinciPles to engineering Up to the middle of the 20th Century, engineering education focused on the practical arts, with an emphasis on producing graduates who could be immediately useful to industry (Lamancusa, 2006). From the 1960s onwards, engineering curricula became more theoretically based, with an emphasis on calculus and science. This has led to graduate engineers that are strong in engineering theory, but weaker in professional skills. It has been argued that curricula need to change in a range of disciplines to respond to the challenge to produce graduates with appropriate professional skills (Savage, 2007; Meredith & Burkle, 2008).

Studio teaching methods have been used in Engineering to a limited extent, predominantly for design courses (Little, 2001). First year Professional Engineering in Aerospace Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering (AMME) is currently taught using elements of studio teaching, as is a final year Aerospace Design course that uses practicing Professional Engineers to judge the final designs. In both these AMME courses, students work together in small teams to solve a problem and conceptualise a solution with ongoing feedback from tutors and lecturers. Although these courses both use elements of studio teaching, they lack the incorporation of practicing professionals in the course.

coMMunitY-enhanced learning and teaching One of the key ways the engineering curriculum can be made more relevant to modern industrial needs and expectations is to involve industry professionals in the development, implementation and assessment of student learning, which is a component of Studio Teaching. An innovative project that has been in use in North American Universities for the past decade is “The Learning Factory”, a collaboration between industry and four Universities where industry professionals create real-world problem scenarios that interdisciplinary teams of students work to solve.

“The learning factory was founded on three beliefs: lecturing alone in not sufficient; students benefit from interactive hands on experiences; and experiential, team based learning involving student, faculty and industrial participation enriches the educational processes and provides tangible benefits to all.” (Lamancusa, 2008).

Meredith and Burkle (2008) found that the great majority of students who experienced industry involvement in their course felt that:

– it helped deepen their grasp of concepts taught in their course,

– applying knowledge in real situations helped them learn and remember course concepts.

Engineering as a profession in Australia recognises the importance of industry involvement in teaching. King’s review of Engineering Education in Australia, authorised by the Australian Council of Engineering Deans, included the recommendation (King, 2008):

“Engineering educators and industry practitioners must engage more intensively to strengthen the authenticity of engineering students’ education.”

This recommendation concentrates on greater engagement between educators and industry practitioners, whilst the concept behind studio learning focuses on promoting engagement between industry practitioners and students. Many courses in engineering currently use industry professionals as guest lecturers, drawing upon their real-world experiences to provide learning opportunities to students. The studio teaching environment however, provides closer contact between industry professionals and students, with the industry professional providing more of a mentoring role, improving student engagement with the subject matter.

48 Rod Fiford, Martin Tomitsch, Colin R. Dunstan and Rebecca Plumbe

evaluation of studio teaching for introduction to teaching in engineering In our Graduate Certificate project we set out to examine which elements of studio teaching could be applied in engineering, as an exemplary discipline that has seen little application of studio-based learning techniques. As specific context we chose the course Professional Engineering 2, as one of the authors teaches this subject. Unit of Study evaluations from previous years showed that there was a lack of student engagement, (e.g. low scores in response to the question “I am motivated to engage in the learning activities in this unit of study”), a problem that was confirmed in personal communication with tutors and students from previous years.

The aim of our study therefore was to:

1. Evaluate students’ experiences of Studio Teaching to identify positive and negative attributes and areas of potential difficulty for transfer across disciplines.

2. Identify elements of studio teaching that could be applied in the Professional Engineering course with the goal of increasing student engagement, which can lead to more effective student learning (Kuh, 2007).

3. Gauge engineering student responses to the concept of Studio Teaching

We began by reviewing relevant literature on studio teaching in traditional Design-based disciplines and case studies where studio teaching was applied in science or engineering-based programs (Phase 1 in Figure 1). In order to identify

elements of studio teaching that could be applied to increase student engagement in the engineering course we had to address the following questions: 1) which elements of studio teaching result in better student engagement in programs where studio teaching has been used for a long time; and 2) which of these elements are applicable to an engineering course.

In Phase 2 of the study, we examined these questions through the use of the student lens (Brookfield, 1995). Specifically, we conducted a focus group with two students from Design Computing and two students from Engineering, and two interviews with Architecture students, to identify and evaluate currently applied studio teaching practices. We also conducted informal unstructured interviews with colleagues and industry professionals from engineering regarding their views of studio teaching and community-enhanced learning.

The results from the focus group and interviews in phase 2 formed the basis for a survey (Phase 3) and showed that industry involvement in studio projects was generally favoured. Focus group participants expressed the importance of structuring industry involvement for achieving the best possible learning benefits, especially regarding feedback on their projects. Positive elements of industry involvement included the opportunity to establish contacts with industry, experiencing different perspectives, and receiving a better understanding of available jobs in the profession. The benefits of industry involvement were confirmed in interviews with Architecture students: “Often

figure 1:

Phases of the study

Exploring how elements of studio teaching can improve student engagement

the tutors are actually professional architects [...] it’s actually really fantastic when they are external because they are so involved in industry [...] so you sort of get an idea of practice.” While focus group participants generally favoured the studio teaching environment, they reported that sometimes it can be hard to get enough time with their teacher or tutors for individual feedback, and due to the less-structured nature of studio teaching, it can be difficult to know if one is making adequate progress.

In Phase 3, a class of Design Computing students were surveyed (approximately 2/3 of the way through semester 2, 2010) with CLASSE (Ouimet, 2005) questions via the real time Turning Point (TP) feedback system. All 20 questions yielded positive indicators of engagement (top 2 positive response options). The students indicated that the aspects of studio teaching that worked best were:

– Group work – 100% of students surveyed found the group work enjoyable

– Simulation of a workplace environment was perceived to enrich the learning experience – (100%)

– Overall studio teaching experience was enjoyed by 100% of the students

The positive overall response to studio teaching can most likely be attributed to the successful implementation of the studio teaching elements discussed above. Specifically, the design brief for the studio was put together in collaboration with a large non-profit organisation that plays an important role in the course-specific field. The studio featured two guest lectures by people working for this organisation and two lectures by industry professionals working in Sydney in the areas covered in the studio.

Phase 4 involved the implementation of a pilot session based around a short problem based learning exercise (a vital component of studio learning) on a real world scenario, designed to simulate tasks recent graduates may be asked to perform in industry. Students in the third year Engineering Management course worked in small groups in a tutorial session to develop proposed solutions to a range of real world problems, presenting their ideas to the rest of the class for discussion. The pilot session and subsequent survey aimed to gauge the students’ interest in participating in a similar activity as part of their assessment the following year in the final year Professional Engineering 2 course.

Students in the Engineering Management course were also surveyed using the TP real time software system,

with mostly the same questions as the Design Computing students. Six questions were removed as they were formulated to gather feedback on longer term engagement. 77 students were surveyed and of 14 measures of engagement (top 2 positive response options), the majority of students agreed or strongly agreed on 9. The aspects of studio teaching that worked best were:

– Increased enjoyment of the class due to group work, especially small group work (78%)

– Perceived increased diversity in teaching from having learning activities that simulate the workplace environment (73%)

The Engineering Management students were asked – “Having learning activities that simulated the workplace environment brought more diversity into the way I am taught at university”, with their responses plotted in Figure 2.

The Engineering Management students were also asked “Would you be more interested if the problem was real-world and defined by industry?” Figure 3 shows their response to be very positive.

Figures 2 and 3 indicate that the students were very interested in working on real world problems, as defined by practicing Professional Engineers, and believed that having activities that simulate the workplace would bring more variety into the way they were taught; a strategy that should help increase student engagement.

Phase 5 consisted of the planning of changes to the Professional Engineering course (170 students enrolled in 2011), based on student feedback and personal reflection. A four week component is to be introduced to Professional Engineering 2 at the end of the semester, with students working in small groups to develop a “solution” to a real world engineering scenario or problem. The students are expected to work together under the close supervision of tutors and submit a detailed report outlining their research and proposed solutions. The course coordinator will take an active role, acting as “supervisor” for the groups, requiring weekly meetings and progress updates via short reports and meeting minutes.

This new component will utilise most aspects of studio learning, but lacks the involvement of engineering professionals, necessary to make the task truly a studio teaching task. It was decided to not involve industry professionals the first time the task was introduced, but

50 Rod Fiford, Martin Tomitsch, Colin R. Dunstan and Rebecca Plumbe

rather to have tutors and the unit coordinator in the role of the practising professionals until any “teething” issues were identified and solved. The problems the students worked on were real world problems, defined by the unit coordinator.

Dependent on feedback from students and funding, it is hoped that practicing professionals will be able to be incorporated into the learning process in subsequent years. The role of the practising engineering professionals will be to define the problems, provide guidance and support to the groups throughout semester and assess the students’ work. It is very likely that sourcing enough practising professionals for approximately 40-50 groups of students will be problematic and it is expected that these professionals may initially only be able to provide assistance via email or other electronic methods.

evaluating the introduction of studio learning in engineering The survey of Design Computing students and focus groups indicated that students enjoy studio teaching as used in the Faculty of Architecture and have increased levels of engagement as a consequence. Engineering students were interested in the concept and could see the relevance of being exposed to current, real world engineering problems.

A true evaluation of the effectiveness of studio teaching techniques as a tool to increase levels of student engagement cannot yet be performed as the course is currently in session (Semester 1, 2011). Surveys and focus group sessions will be used to gain further insight into the students’ views and impressions of the trial project.

If students are found to be better engaged with the course after the trial project, further improvements to the course will hopefully be made by incorporating practising professionals in 2012.

conclusion Studio teaching techniques have successfully been used in the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning for a long time, the application of such techniques to Engineering disciplines would seem a logical progression. However, transferring good teaching practice between disciplines is not always easy. The main difficulty in transferring and applying concepts of studio teaching to engineering lies predominantly in sourcing sufficient practising professionals. The final year Professional Engineering class consists of approximately 170 students in 2011; a large number of practising professionals would have to be found to provide sufficient mentoring and guidance to small groups. A trial project was introduced in 2011 where small groups of students work to find solutions to current, real world problems. It is hoped that exposing small teams of students to real world problems similar to what they may encounter in graduate positions will increase their engagement with the course and improve their professional engineering skills.

acknowledgeMents Thanks to our individual and group project mentors Murray Thomson, Rob Saunders; plus the students from the Faculty of Architecture & Design Computing and the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering.

figure 2 - student response to statement - “having learning

activities that simulated the workplace environment brought

more diversity into the way i am taught at university”

figure 3 - student response to question: “would you be more

interested if the problem was real-world and defined by industry?”

Exploring how elements of studio teaching can improve student engagement

referencesAnderson, R. (2009). Continuous City: A First Year

Architecture Studio Project. Case Study for The Studio Teaching Project, funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. Available at: http://www.studioteaching.org/?page=design_contributions

Armarego, J., & Clarke, S. (2005). Problem-based Design Studios for Undergraduate SE Education. Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Software Engineering Education & Training (CSEET’05).

Barker, L. J., Garvin-Doxas, K., & Roberts, E.(2005). What can computer science learn from a fine arts approach to teaching? Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education (SIGCSE ‘05). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 421-425.

Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Docherty, M., Sutton, P., Brereton, M., &Kaplan S. (2001). An Innovative Design and Studio-based CS Degree. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 33(1): 233–237.

King, R (2008). Engineers for the Future: addressing the supply and quality of Australian engineering graduates for the 21st century. Australian Council of Engineering Deans.

Kuh, G. D., Cruce, T., Shoup, R., Kinzie, J., and Gonyea, R. M. (2007). Unmasking the Effects of Student Engagement on College Grades and Persistence. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

Lamancusa, J.S.,Zayas, J.L., Soyster, A.L., Morell, L., &Jorgensen, J. (2008). The learning factory: Industry-Partnered Active Learning. Journal of Engineering Education, 97(1).

Little, P. (2001). Cardenas, M. Use of “Studio” Methods in the Introductory Engineering Design Curriculum. Journal of Engineering Education, 90(3).

Meredith, S., & Burkle, M. (2008). Building bridges between university and industry: theory and practice. Education + Training, 50(3), 199-215.

Öztürk, M. N., & Türkkan, E. E. (2006). The design studio as teaching/learning medium– a process-based approach. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 25(1), 96-104.

Ouimet, J.A. & Smallwood, R.A. (2005). CLASSE– the Class-level Survey of Student Engagement. Assessment Update, 17(6), Nov-Dec, 2005.

Pizarro, R., Saunders, R., & Traini, D. (2009). Studio-Based Learning and Teaching. (Literature review and study proposal for Graduate Certificate in Education Studies (Higher Education). Copy obtained from author. University of Sydney, Australia.

Savage, R.N., Chen, K.C.,&Vanasupa, L. (2007). Integrating Project-based Learning throughout the Undergraduate Engineering Curriculum. Journal of STEM Education, 8(3&4), 15-27.

Waks, L.J. (2001). Donald Schön’s Philosophy of Design and Design Education. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 11, 37-51.

52 Rod Fiford, Martin Tomitsch, Colin R. Dunstan and Rebecca Plumbe

what is wrise? If you are looking for ways to help your students improve their report writing, then have a look at the WRiSE site http://learningcentre.usyd.edu.au/wrise.

WRiSE, as the name suggests has been developed to address the report writing needs of science and engineering students. Many students who choose to study in these fields struggle with the challenge of communicating their knowledge and understanding through writing. Often students have chosen these disciplines because they believe that there will be little required of them in terms of writing. Although extended writing may not be required in the early years of some science and engineering degrees, in the later undergraduate years, success increasingly depends on proficiency in writing. In addition, in a competitive employment market, graduates who can write effectively will have an edge on those who struggle to communicate in writing (AC Nielson Research Services 2000; King 2008).

The WRiSE site is the result of a collaboration between the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales. It involved staff in the Learning Centres and Schools and Departments in Science and Engineering at both institutions,

as well as an eLearning team from the School of Biological Sciences at Sydney. Altogether, the project team comprised 22 core members and covered 9 discipline areas (Biology, Molecular Biology Yr 2, Molecular Biology Yr 3, Chemical Engineering, Physiology, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Microbiology and Mining Engineering). The project took over two years to complete and was funded through a successful grant application from the ALTC (http://www.altc.edu.au/resources?text=online+writint+science+and+engineering).

theoretical Background and the design of wrise WRiSE is based on the broad theoretical approaches of Learning to write and Writing to Learn. A key language theory in Applied Linguistics which has informed the approach to teaching writing in WRiSE is Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) (Halliday 1985; Martin 1992). This theoretical foundation has given rise to a ‘genre-based’ pedagogy (Martin 1999; Martin and Rose 2008) which is widely used to inform practice in both face-to-face and online learning environments for teaching academic writing in the disciplines (Jones 2004; Drury 2004). In a genre-based pedagogy, the structure and language choices made by

introducing wrise: the write rePorts in science and engineering weBsiteHELEN DRURY* LEARNING CENTRE

*Corresponding author. Email: helen.drury@sydney.edu.au

SYNERGY ISSUE 31 JULY 2011

the writer are shaped by their discipline context and social purpose. Student writers engage in the genres of their discipline through a teaching/learning cycle where genre structure and language is made explicit and students are scaffolded through peer and individual writing practice and feedback (Gee 2004).

The theoretical foundation of SFL and a ‘genre-based’ approach to support ‘Learning to write’ is complemented by an approach which emphasises ‘Writing to learn’. In this approach, writing supports student learning of disciplinary knowledge (Scardamalia & Bereiter 2006) by deepening understanding of discipline concepts and promoting critical thinking and reflection (Curry & Hewings 2003). This approach is seen in Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) pedagogy, where students engage in both formal and informal writing to increase their understanding, synthesise knowledge and better retain it (Jones 2004).

The pedagogical design of WRiSE also takes into account key factors which influence learning outcomes in both face-to face and online environments, such as students’ prior learning experiences, their motivation and their current perceptions of and approaches to teaching and learning experiences (Prosser & Trigwell 1999; Laurillard, 2002).

WRiSE is designed to improve student learning of the varying purposes, structure and language of the report genre across disciplines in science and engineering. At the same time it aims to increase student awareness of report writing processes and expectations in a range of disciplines by presenting student and staff insights on writing in their discipline context. While recognising that writing is a generic skill, the website firmly situates the writing task within its discipline context and provides content to help students improve their writing and understanding of discipline knowledge relevant to the report they have to write.

figure 1:

wrise home page

54 Helen Drury

As students enter the site (Figure 1), they can see immediately that the content is organised in terms of the different disciplines that many of them are studying. Each discipline area is identified with an image and colour which continues throughout the site, making it easy for students to know where they are. This approach also helps students to more easily compare and contrast the report requirements of different discipline areas, see student questionnaire comments, below.

A civil engineering lab report is similar to science (student comment, WRiSE questionnaire)

The sort of content expected to be addressed in a report in chemistry is different to biology (student comment, WRiSE questionnaire)

Each discipline area has two parts – a part that addresses writing issues ‘Help with Report Writing’ and a part that addresses discipline content ‘Help with Understanding Content’. Within the report writing area the menu items are organised in terms of the different parts of a report. These can follow the typical report sections of Abstract, Introduction, Methods etc. or present a different structure as is the case in the chemistry report. However what is important is that the menu items reinforce the appropriate macro level report structure. As the student moves down into the Help with report writing module, each report section is divided via sub menu items into structure and language and this format is repeated throughout the site. The structure and language parts of the module present students with interactive examples, explanations and exercises to support their understanding and provide them with feedback. All examples, explanations and exercises are based on real reports that students have written in each discipline area.

engaging students in learning aBout writing in their disciPline: the 3 ‘r’s As an online learning site, the WRiSE design needs to engage students in the learning process, otherwise students will simply not use the site. The design of the learning resources has been guided by three principles, the 3 ‘R’s (Relevant, Realistic and Rich). The learning materials for writing and discipline subject matter are highly relevant as they are aligned with the kinds of report writing assignments students have to write. In particular, the learning resources in the Help with Understanding Content part of the site are of direct relevance either to a particular experiment students are engaged in or to basic discipline concepts that

students need to understand in order to move forward in their learning.

The site was particularly helpful for me as my report was on flow tanks which is the subject/topic which the civil engineering module uses for examples (student comment, WRiSE questionnaire).

In addition, the audio extracts that are provided by students and staff clarify approaches to the process of report writing, ways to overcome difficulties and the expectations lecturers have and the criteria they use to judge student writing.

The lecturer explanations, easy and clear explanations were most helpful (student comment, WRiSE questionnaire)

The learning resources are realistic as they are based on real student writing rather than expert models, writing that is not necessarily perfect but has strengths and weaknesses that are pointed out in explanations, exercises and lecturer comments.

The modules provided details on the marking of the report and show you how the report needs to be written in what way it can be improved (student comment, WRiSE questionnaire)

Finally, WRiSE is a rich learning resource with materials covering nine discipline areas which are interactive in nature and use the affordances of an online environment to aid the learning process – visuals, animations, audio, colour etc.

figure 2:

example of animated screen: help with report writing Biology

Introducing WRiSE: The Write reports in science and engineering website

(Figure 2). In this way, the site can meet the needs of a diverse range of students.

Animations that detail what should be included in each section of a report (were most helpful) (student comment, WRiSE questionnaire)

The resources not only support students in learning about the structure and language of reports but encourage them to reflect on how writing practices build knowledge across a range of disciplines and in this way reflect on their own practice. ‘Reflection’ on practice is indeed the fourth design principle underlying WRiSE.

The module helped me by showing a lot of common mistakes. It allowed me to review my own work and appropriately critique my own report (student comment, WRiSE questionnaire)

student learning froM wrise WRiSE went live in 2009 and student usage was tracked from that time. In addition, users (n= 242) and non-users (n=175) across eight discipline areas were invited to complete questionnaires. Focus groups were also organised and report marks recorded. Tracking data has shown that WRiSE is well used by students within the participating disciplines and this trend continues. Usage patterns show peaks and troughs and as expected, peaks coincide with assignment deadlines. What is also pleasing is that WRiSE is used increasingly both nationally and internationally (now almost a quarter of usage) which tends to support its status as a truly unique resource (see email correspondence below).

I am in charge of this year’s Scientific English program at the United Graduate School of Veterinary Sciences, Gifu University in Japan, and I recently stumbled across the WRiSE Report Writing website. It looks like a wonderful tool with some great examples. I just wanted to thank you and say that I plan to introduce your site to my ESL students as something they can (and should) use outside of class (unsolicited email)

Quantitative data from student questionnaires (n=242) reveal strongly positive learning experiences and this has been supported by qualitative data. The majority of students who used the site reported improved understanding from their interactions with both modules as well as increased confidence in writing in their disciplines (Figures 3 and 4).

Almost three quarters of students surveyed agreed that WRiSE helped improve their understanding of the structure and language requirements of report writing in their disciplines as well as the concepts behind the specific report they were writing. In particular, they found the example report and the structure diagrams most helpful as well as the feedback on exercises in both modules.

It had a sample introduction and then it highlighted each component of each part of the introduction that you needed, which was really good (student focus group comment)

As expected, students were less sure about whether they were more confident in using appropriate content, structure and language in their reports after using WRiSE. However, as Figure 4 shows, more than two thirds agreed that their confidence in this area had increased.

Helped me write my report as I had no clue, increased confidence (student comment, WRiSE questionnaire)

figure 3:

student evaluation of their improved understanding from wrise

56 Helen Drury

As in all evaluations, a key area of interest is whether an intervention can be shown to result in improved performance in the student group sampled. Although the project team were convinced that using WRiSE would result in improved report marks for students, the evidence for this type of outcome is often inconclusive as in educational interventions there are many other factors involved. So it was an exciting outcome to be able to report that students who used WRiSE across all discipline areas gained significantly higher marks in their reports than those who did not (t (323=2.96, p=.01)). The demographic characteristics of user and non user groups were similar as was their past experience and confidence in writing. The only difference reported was that the user group had written longer academic texts. However even when controlling for this variable, the result remained the same in that those who used the website achieved higher marks (Figure 5).

staff exPerience of wrise The success of WRiSE is critically dependent on discipline staff approaches to implementing WRiSE as part of their

curriculum. This means that WRiSE is part of a blended learning curriculum which includes the experimental or field work that students are engaged in. Simply leaving the WRiSE link within a learning management system like Blackboard will not work. Students are often overwhelmed by the online resources they are referred to and have no way of distinguishing resources. It is telling that even when WRiSE was first implemented and well advertised and integrated into curricula, the majority of non-users reported that they did not use WRiSE because they did not know about it. This is why WRiSE needs to be part of a tutorial or lab session where students can have hands on experience or if this is not possible, WRiSE needs to be shown as part of a lecture, preferably early on in the semester. The WRiSE site contains guidelines for staff on how to get the best results from students using the WRiSE site.

Staff involved in the project also completed questionnaires and gave informal feedback throughout the project. Staff evaluations supported the positive student data.

‘I feel we definitely have a well-designed pedagogically sound website. Informal feedback from PhD demonstrators who mark the reports indicate meaningful improvements in student report writing skills. In response to the question “Have you noticed an improvement in student lab reports?”, their comments include “Yes !!! by far” ’(WRiSE staff questionnaire)

WRiSE has been widely recognised in education contexts and won the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AaeE) award for Programs that enhance

figure 4:

student evaluation of their increased confidence from wrise

figure 5: comparison of report marks between users

and non users by discipline

Introducing WRiSE: The Write reports in science and engineering website

excellence in ‘Learning, Innovation in Curricula, Learning and Teaching’ 2010.

lessons learned and future directions Online learning environments like WRiSE offer the advantage of flexibility and ease of access which is important for science and engineering students with crowded timetables. In addition, since students can follow their own learning pathway according to need, more in depth information on the use of scientific language in reports is included, particularly for students writing in English as their second language. However the screen environment has presented a challenging interface for teaching about text on screen and also limited the kind of interactive exercises on writing with associated computer-based feedback that students can engage in.

WRiSE represents a long history of collaboration among subject area specialists, language and learning specialists and eLearning specialists. The site demonstrates the culmination of the evolution of knowledge and practice in a number of areas ranging from online pedagogy to team building (Drury, Langrish and O’Carroll 2006; Taylor and Drury 2007; Muir, Drury and Carroll 2007). This iterative evolutionary process together with a rigorous feedback development cycle engaged in by team members and students has been critical for success (Ellis & Goodyear 2010). WRiSE has created a community of practice around writing in science and engineering across two institutions. The sharing of knowledge and expertise among community members has been essential in the development of such a high quality learning resource as WRiSE.

New working relationships and collaborative links with colleagues across the University - thankyou for the opportunity to be involved in this exciting project (staff questionnaire)

WRiSE is one way of supporting the development of student writing. WRiSE helps students to deconstruct the product and process of writing across disciplines in science and engineering and furthers their understanding of how language is used to communicate discipline knowledge. However, it is difficult for this kind of environment to replicate the social aspects of learning in face-to-face interactions. Nevertheless, it is possible to add a social element to online environments through discussion boards and blogs as well as through peer and group writing.

Our current project with the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies, also funded by the ALTC, extends the WRiSE approach but enables lecturers to group students together to review each other’s writing or to collaborate in writing activities. In addition, online software tools are being developed through text mining to help students reflect on their draft writing. These tools can for example identify possible problems of cohesion between paragraphs which may or may not need revising by the writer depending on the purpose and context of the text. Advances in text mining and computer based writing tools are changing writers’ practices as well as the writing product. While some of these tools can support writers in creating their own text others may well help writers to generate text which is not their own. As in all technological advances there are dangers!!

We encourage you to have a look at WRiSE, introduce it to your students and tell them that students who use the site get better marks!!!!

http://www.usyd.edu.au/learningcentre/wrise/

acknowledgeMents

The project team: university of sydney Learning Centre: Janet Jones, Peter O’Carroll; ELearning: Kathy Kuzmanovic, Aida Yalcin, Richard Massey; Discipline staff: Vanessa Gysbers, Dale Hancock, Jill Johnston, Peter McGee, Peter Rutledge, Stephen Butler, Timothy Langrish, Howard See, David Airey, Meloni Muir; Research assistant: Natassia Goode university of new south wales Learning Centre: Pam Mort, Sue Starfield, Melinda Cook Discipline staff: Paul Hagan, Kathy Takayama, John Wilson, Roseanne Quinnell

referencesAccreditation Board for Education and Technology (ABET)

(2011). Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.abet.org/

Curry M. J. & Hewings A. (2003) Approaches to teaching writing. In C Coffin, M J Curry, S Goodman, A Hewings, T Lillis and J Swann, Teaching Academic Writing: A toolkit for higher education. Routledge: London.

Drury H. (2004) Teaching academic writing on-screen: a search for best practice in L. Ravelli and R. Ellis (Eds) Analysing Academic Writing: Contextualised Frameworks. Continuum, London.

58 Helen Drury

Drury, H., Langrish, T. & O’Carroll, P. (2006) Online approach to teaching report writing in chemical engineering: Implementation and evaluation. International Journal of Engineering Education, 22(4) 858-867.

Ellis, R. & Goodyear, P. (2010) Students’ experiences of E-learning in higher education The ecology of sustainable innovation. Routledge:New York and London.

Gee J. P. (2004) Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. Routledge: London.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1985) An Introduction to Functional Grammar, Edward Arnold, London.

Jones, J. (2004) Learning to write in the disciplines: the application of systemic functional linguistic theory to the teaching and research of student writing in L. Ravelli and R. Ellis (Eds) Analysing Academic Writing: Contextualised Frameworks. Continuum: London.

King, R. (2008) ALTC Report Addressing the supply and quality of engineering graduates for the new century Retrieved May 15, 2011 from http://www.altc.edu.au/resources?text=Addressing+the+supply+and+quality+of+engineering+graduates+for+the+new+century

Laurillard, D. (2002) Rethinking University Teaching (2nd ed). Routledge/Falmer, London and New York.

Martin, J. R. (1992) English Text System and Structure, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam.

Martin, J. R. (1999) Mentoring Semogenesis: “Genre-based” literacy pedagogy, in F. Christie, Pedagogy and the Shaping of Consciousness: Linguistic and Social Processes. Cassell: London. pp. 123-155.

Martin, J.R. & Rose, D. (2008) Genre Relations: Mapping Culture, Equinox: London.

Muir, M., Drury, H. & Carroll, N. (2007) Introducing undergraduate science students and staff to an ePortfolio for report writing and feedback in E. Hartnell-Young (Ed) ePortfolio Australia Imagining new literacies Proceeding of the ePortfolio Australia conference, Melbourne 26-27 March, ePortfolio Australia, Melbourne: 72-76

Prosser, M. and Trigwell, K. (1999) Understanding Learning and Teaching. SRHE and Open University Press Buckingham.

Scardamalia M. & Bereiter C. (2006). Knowledge building: Theory, pedagogy, and technology. In K. Sawyer (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (pp. 97-118) Cambridge University Press, New York.

Taylor, C. & Drury, H. (2007) An integrated approach to teaching writing in the sciences in A. Brew and J. Sachs (Eds) Transforming a university The scholarship of teaching and learning practice Sydney University Press, The University of Sydney: 117-125.

Introducing WRiSE: The Write reports in science and engineering website

e-learning for tv kids: the storY of ecgteacher.coMJOHN RYAN* FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES

introduction Five years ago I met with Dr John Seery (a Consultant Physician and Lecturer at University College Dublin) to discuss a mutual interest in learning the complex and abstract field of electrocardiology. The electrocardiogram (ECG) is one of the most important diagnostic tools in acute medicine. There is a wealth of text-books and primers covering this field and none of them are what we considered easy to understand or clinically applicable. It is well-established that electrocardiology is quite a difficult area to learn and teach.

Mahler et. al. (2011) suggest that self-directed learning is inferior to workshop and lecture-based formats in courses on electrocardiology. With our website, ECGTeacher.com, we’re aiming to change this. In support of our endeavour are claims that computer-based methods are superior ways of learning electrocardiology (Burke et. al., 2008).

Beginnings John saw some cardiac simulation videos I created during my PhD at Trinity College Dublin and thought that this would be an interesting way of teaching electrocardiography. We put together a bold plan for creating a set of teaching videos

covering the basics of ECG interpretation right through to pathological interpretation. At that time we had not decided how we would make these available nor had we any idea how time-consuming the endeavour would be.

It took one year to get the first five videos completed. We would spend up to five hours of our free time once per week animating, scripting and designing the videos and website. Even though we both have backgrounds in ECG research and education, we each brought a unique set of skills to the project. John came from the clinical and theoretical side and I brought technological and design expertise.

We initially toyed with the idea of putting together a series of DVD releases, however since this is a relatively exclusive and old-fashioned mode of delivery, this was not in line with our all-inclusive and technically innovative aspirations. Our idea was to give students and clinicians a graphically-rich mode of learning that tapped into a technology-savvy era where students could learn complex theories through their iPhone whilst sitting on a bus.

We developed the first website using a basic design and hosting the videos on our own server. Each video is

*Corresponding author. Email: john.ryan@sydney.edu.au

60

approximately 30MB in size, so we quickly realised that in order to cope with the traffic and to save ourselves from personal bankruptcy, an alternative hosting solution needed to be explored. Cue YouTube.

YouTube.com provided us with the perfect solution for hosting the videos, whilst embedding them through our website. Immediately, we could receive feedback and track activity to inform us which videos were more popular and who was viewing what and where. Not to mention the broader reach and support for the ever-changing web environment. Nowadays, the average internet user is very much familiar with youtube’s functionality and navigation, so we chose this as the method for video deployment. It is important when designing a tool like this to consider all user types, ranging from a specialist in the field to your granny! (Unless your granny is a cardiologist of course!)

overview of ecgteacher.coM To give a brief overview, our website is split into five main sections, accessible from a main-menu that is present on each page. In section one we explain how the ECG readout is generated and presented. We explain why the readouts in each of the leads look the way they do and describe how the individual leads examine different anatomical regions of the heart. We also go through some basic ECG terminology and teach how to calculate the heart rate from an ECG and how to time the major events of the cardiac cycle. We then go on to explain how the ECG is used to diagnose diseases of the heart. The five sections of the site include the normal ECG, axis and chambers, MI and ischemia, arrhythmias and miscellaneous. These sections are structured to be studied in that order. Each of the five sections is further divided into a small number of videos. The videos in each section combine to form a single lecture and again are structured

to be viewed in the order indicated. At the end of each section there are a series of simple tests which are designed to consolidate the knowledge students will have acquired. Each video corresponds with a core concept, thus allowing students and physicians to revisit single concepts easily at any time. We have tried to emphasise aspects of ECG interpretation which we wish had been explained to us at the start of our careers. Some videos and quizzes are currently in development and will be available on-line in the coming year.

We started this project in Dublin, which made things much easier as we could animate and develop together, thus allowing effortless communication of ideas and concepts. This became somewhat challenging when I got offered a Senior Lectureship at the University of Sydney and initially we thought that the distance would hamper our project. However, simple free technology has made the 17,000 km distance much smaller. Everybody has heard of Skype, but what some people don’t know is that it allows you to share the screen that you’re currently working on. This has made our lives much easier. This technology has allowed us to work on a new video in real-time and chat about what we do or don’t like. The capabilities of our home broadband has sometimes been an issue, but normally one of us shuts down our video stream to free up some bandwidth whilst maintaining the voice interaction. The only problem with this method is the time of day. When it’s night-time in Dublin, it’s early morning in Sydney. We found a good balance when we realised that I’m very much an early-bird and John is a night-owl. Perfect trans-global e-learning compatibility.

iMPact We have been fortunate to fill a gap in the market where no-one has dared to go or had the time or persistence

figure 1: illustrations from ecgteacher.com

e-Learning for TV Kids: The Story of ECGTeacher.com

to succeed. For this reason, marketing has not proved necessary. ECG-Teacher has grown entirely by word of mouth and internet searches. In the last year, we have uploaded a Facebook page that is updated every-time a new video or quiz is created. The use of social media like this is another way to encourage traffic. For example, in the last minute cram for exams, medical students may post links on facebook or twitter within a single click.

After nearly two years of operation I became familiar with content management systems for managing large databases of articles and tutorials. This allowed us to make changes to the overall website that would be rolled out immediately across all web pages. I chose Joomla on a friend’s recommendation and found it relatively easy to implement with an intuitive front-end for administration. This system has also allowed easy incorporation of feedback features such as a user poll to get information on the demographics of the users and a feedback form on the front page of the website that allows users to report bugs, inaccuracies or boost our egos with compliments. Designing and maintaining a site like this requires a certain amount of programming expertise, as certain features will always be tricky, such as the incorporation of flash videos and graphics into the existing Joomla template.

We have made many changes based on the recommendations of our users. Comments tend to be

overwhelmingly positive and generally atypical in academia; “Awesome”, “Amazing” and “You Rock!”. We get feedback from around the world.

united states “I’m a CCU nurse for 10 years, and currently a nurse practitioner student. This is the first time I’ve ever felt that I fully understand ECGs, especially regarding axis and current implications to patterns on the ECG. Phenomenal explanation, done with clarity and brevity making this the best tutorial/class I’ve ever had or used. I’m recommending this to my faculty for future students and I plan to mark this in my favourites for return refreshers. I can’t wait to do the ischemia/infarction section to compare what I think I know, to reality! Keep up the great work!”

united kingdom “This website is absolutely fantastic and amazing thank you so much! Probably the only thing stopping me from failing first year medical exams. Thank you!!”

Initial investigations into our users’ demographics reveal interesting findings. More males (59%) watch our videos than females (41%). From our user poll, the most common occupation is medical student (64%), followed by nurse (9%) and then physician (7%) along with other medical

figure 2: screen-capture of the

ecgteacher.com homepage

62 John Ryan

professions. Interestingly, the YouTube subscribers’ most significant age-group is actually 45-54. The United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia are among the top downloading countries probably since these tutorials are in English. However, India, Philippines, Dominica and Brazil also show high download levels. Download rates are directly related to academic term time, particularly for the Northern Hemisphere. There is always a lull in downloads during mid-semester breaks and Christmas holidays.

concluding reMarks Undertaking a project like this has several obstacles and complications that one should be aware of. The first and most significant obstacle is time. Everyone knows that animation is a time-consuming process but this does not become fully apparent until after a year of production you only have a few minutes of video. Also, putting together a demo video and making it available online in a seamless fashion is far more than just animation. There is a huge amount of work involved in the production, sound-recording, web programming and final deployment phases. The next obstacle is funding, as there are annual hosting fees, domain registration fees, not to mention the amount of personal time invested in this type of project.

There is no doubt that the approach we have used for e-Learning in ECG education has been a success. Over 180,000 video downloads in one year is very satisfying. We feel that the personal investment put into this was well worth it and continue to create and update new material.

For more information please see: ecgteacher.com

referencesBurke ,J.F., Gnall, E., Umrudden, Z., Kyaw, M. & Schick, P.

(2008). Critical analysis of a computer-assisted tutorial on ECG interpretation and its ability to determine competency. Medical Teacher. 2008; 30: e41–e48

Mahler, S., Wolcott, C., Swoboda, T., Wang, H. & Arnold, T. (2011). Techniques for teaching electrocardiogram interpretation: self-directed learning is less effective than a workshop or lecture, Medical Education 2011: 45: 347–353

e-Learning for TV Kids: The Story of ECGTeacher.com

institute for teaching and learninglevel 3, carslaw Building (f07)

the university of sydney nsw 2006 australia

t: +61 2 9351 3725 f: +61 2 9351 4331 e: itl@sydney.edu.au w: www.sydney.edu.au/itl