miri conference ''spectacular'' - herdsa · i issn 0157-1826 volume 26 no. 2...
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I
ISSN 0157-1826 VOLUME 26 No. 2 AUGUST 2004
Miri Conference ''Spectacular''
By Barbara Stauble, Frank Sheehy & Shamsul Kamariah
This brief report by the conference convenors gives a flavour of the conference described by one delegate as "spectacular".
The HERDSA 2004 conference was hosted by Curtin University of Technology, Sarawak Campus, and was the first HERDSA conference to be held outside Australia and New Zealand. The theme of the conference "Transforming Knowledge into Wisdom: Holistic Approaches to Teaching and Leaming " resulted in lively and thought-provoking presentations focussing on topics such as internationalisation, best practices in teaching and learning, nexus between policies and practice, and cultural aspects of knowledge among others.
A total of 170 delegates attended the Conference, representing countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain , Philippines, USA, Canada, India, Indonesia, South Africa, China, and Fiji.
The Opening of the conference was officiated by YB Dato Fu Ah Kiow, Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Malaysia. Also present was Professor John Deam , President of HERDS A and Pro Vice-Chancellor of Curtin University of Technology, Professor Graham Lodwick.
In his speech, YB Dato Fu Ah Kiow emphasised on the role of Malaysia as a hub of excellence in Higher Education within the region. He then proceeded with the hitting of
Official Opening Ceremony- traditional opening with the striking of the gong- from left to right Professor John Dearn, HERDSAPresident; YB Dato' FuAhKiow, Deputy Minister for Education; NP rofessor Frank Sheehy , Conference Convenor; & Profe ssor Graham Lodwick, PVC Curtin University Sarawak Campus .
continued page 3
Contents
Mlri Conference "Spectacular"
HERDSA Email List Information
From the Editor
Prize Winners at the HERDSA 2004 Conference
Minutes of the 31st Annual General Meeting
News from the HERDSA Executive Committee
Who'd Be A T~tor Anyway? By Maureen Bell
The Learning and Teaching Performance Fund: A Compelling Force for Excellence?
Student-Centred, Integrated, Multimedia Course Design
2
3
4
5
6
7
9
By Koenraad Kuiper 10
Enhancing the Experience of International Postgraduate Research Students By Jo Reidy
Teaching Large Groups: Touring the Learning and Teaching Web Sites By Graham Alsop & Lorraine Stefani
14
17
· --- --- ------- . -- I http://www.herdsa.org.au
1
m HERDSA NEWS
~ August 2004
HERDSA Executive President John Dearn
Vice President, Australia
Simon Barrie
Vice President, New Zealand
Kathryn Sutherland
Treasurer Maureen Bell
Occasional Publications Editor
Allan Goody
Journal Co-Editors
Margot Pearson ( convenor)
Linda Hort
Pam Roberts
Gerlese Akerlind
Mandy Lupton
Chris Trevitt
Newsletter Editor
Roger Landbeck
2005 Conference Convenor
Simon Barrie
Executive Members
Beatrice Johnson
Shelda Debowski
Juliana Kaya Prpic
Sharon Parry
Cristina Poyatas Matas
Mark Barrow
Kogi Naidoo
HER DSA Office
PO Box 27
ACT
NSW
NZ
NSW
WA
ACT
ACT
ACT
ACT
ACT
ACT
QLD
NSW
VIC
WA
VIC
NSW
QLD
NZ NZ
Milperra NSW 2214
Phone:
Fax:
Email:
Website
+612 9771 3911
+61 2 9771 4299
office(alherdsa.org.au
www .herdsa.org.au
HERDSANews
Editor Roger Landbeck
32 Monash Road, Tarragindi, Qld 4121
Phone +61 7 3848 0589
Fax +61 7 3892 5502
Email [email protected]
Editorial Committee
Christine Bruce & Linda Conrad
Issue Dates: April, August, November
Contributions for the next issue must reach
the editor by Monday 8 November 2004.
They should be sent to Roger Landbeck at
the above address.
Advertising rates. Under review please
contact the Office
Views expressed in HERDSA News are those
of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
the views of HERDSA. Written material
from HERDSA News may be reproduced,
providing its source is acknowledged.
Desktop publishing by Donna Bennett,
Office Logistics, Brisbane
Printed by Instant Colour Press, Canberra
2
HERDSA Email List Information HERDSA provides a weekly email service, which contains news
about the Society together with general information about
teaching and learning in higher education such as job opportunities,
conferences, research in progress and relevant websites. From
time to time it provides members with a way of contacting others
engaged in similar projects.
You will find information about the list at:
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/herdsa
When you arrive at this address you should see a page as
follows:
About Herdsa, Using Herdsa etc.
If you are a new subscriber fill out the form and click the
"Subscribe" button.
If you are already a subscriber and want to change any details go
to the bottom of the page to the section
"Herdsa Subscribers"
Go to the paragraph which begins "To unsubscribe from Herdsa,
get a password reminder, or change your subscription options ... "
enter your email address in the box and click the button
"Unsubscribe or edit options"
This should bring up a page headed
Herdsa list: member options for user <your email address>
To Unsubscribe Just click on the "Unsubscribe" button
To Edit Options (e.g. suspend mailings) you must enter your
password, which then opens a page headed
Herdsa mailing list options for "your name" .
You can then scroll through the various options and change
them.
If you have forgotten your password click on the button "Password
Reminder" and you will get a reminder by email.
HERDSA NEWS ~ August 2004 ~
Miri Conference ''Spectacular'' from page 1
the gong, thereby formally launching the conference.
Keynote addresses, refereed and non-refereed paper presentations, as well as numerous workshops provided a comprehensive program that highlighted a wide range of issues in Higher Education. The keynote speakers included Professor Craig Mclnnis (University of Melbourne), Professor Dato Sharifah Hapsah bt Syed Hasan Shahabudin (Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia), Professor Cheng Kai-ruing (University of Hong Kong) and Professor Patricia Johnston (Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, New Zealand).
The conference proceedings are available, both in book and CD-rom format, with refereed papers meeting DEST requirements (i.e. full papers were double blind refereed by peers).
Feedback received from a conference evaluation questionnaire was very positive. In particular,
participants were pleased with the organisation of the conference (99% rated it either "very good" or "good"), the quality and content of keynote presentations (97% answered either "very good" or "good"), and the quality of the conference publications (93% answered either "very good" or "good").
Open-ended Comments Included:
Excellent organisation on all levels - many (time) opportunities to network with others - good catering and entertainments - well organized travel to/from venues - most of all, the people! Friendly & collaborative
Excellent choice of Conference theme, superb organisation & wonderful hospitality. The keynotes - Sharifah, Kai-Ming & Trish were extraordinary. Built our knowledge but also gave us a cultural insight in the 3 areas. The organisers, local staff
From the Editor Many congratulations to the
organisers of the very successful 2004 conference held at the Curtin University campus in Miri, Sarawak. This issue contains reports of the conference together with news from the Executive meeting. For those who were unable to attend the conference, the papers, including the four keynote addresses, are available on the web at http ://herdsa2004. curtin.edu.my.
The second article in the Higher Education Policy Column series brings a perspective on the Leaming and Teaching Performance Fund, which is an important development in Australia. I am looking for someone in New Zealand who will be able to write
a similar, regular column on higher education policy in New Zealand to maintain a balance of views across the two countries.
There is another article reprinted by perm1ss10n from the Staff and Educational Development Association's magazine "Educational Developments", which is a review of international research into teaching large classes.
The article by Professor Koenraad Kuiper is particularly welcome as he shares with us a lifetime of experiences of teaching linguistics, bringing to us a mixture of theory and commonsense classroom experience.
and fantastic student helpers made Miri/Malaysian hospitality/culture/ competence real for all of us - Thank you!
Delegates also commented on the time constraints for paper presentations, particularly during parallel sessions, the need to review the format used for round table discussions and the refereeing process in general.
To Summarise in the Words of One of the Conference Delegates:
"Placing the atmosphere in an Asian setting threw a lot of the discussion into a relief that would not otherwise have been possible. "
The conference web address is http: //herdsa2004.curtin.edu.my
Barbara Stauble, Frank Sheehy & Shamsul Kamariah were co-convenors of the conference.
Jo Reidy contacted me to see if I was interested in an article about her work with postgraduate supervisors and students as an academic advisor in English language. Naturally I said "yes" because she describes an approach that I believe is worth trying elsewhere. Those interested should contact Jo.
So please can I have more people like Jo contacting me with ideas for articles. HERDSA News is a good place to write about work in progress and get your work known. I look forward to hearing from you.
Roger Landbeck
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t:r,i HERDSA NEWS
~ August 2004
Prize Winners at the HERDSA 2004 Conf ere nee
The Edith Cowan Authentic Learning Prize
Nan Bahr & Cynthia Rohner, The University of Queensland Their paper was entitled: "The judicious utilization of new technologies through authentic learning in higher education: A case study."
The Taylor and Francis Award New Researcher Prize
Nelson Oly Ndubisi & Nnaemeka C. Chukwunonso, University of Malaysia Sabah, Labuan
Their paper was entitled:
"On-line learning adoption intention: comparing the predictive power of two competing models'.
Abstract Adopting the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the technology acceptance models (TAM), the paper tries to compare the predictive power of the two competing models.
, .. . . . "" • • .Ji • •
Nelson Oly Ndubisi receives the Taylor and Francis Award from the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Malaysia.
A total of 300 students who were Three more HERDSA earlier introduced to £-learning were surveyed after a few months of exposure to the system. The purposive sampling method was used to select the participants. It was found that both TAM and TPB predict e-leaming adoption intention well, although the predictive power of TAM is more robust than the TPB.
The full text of the paper may be found at http:// herdsa2004. curtin. edu. my
Fellowships were awarded
to:
• Professor Lynne Hunt - Edith
Cowan University, WA
• Dr Richard Ladyshewsky - Curtin
University of Technology, WA
• Dr Leonora Ritter - Charles Sturt
University, NSW
Our congratulations to the three
new Fellows. Meanwhile there are
about 16 more academics who are
preparing their portfolios. Further
details about the Fellowships will
appear in the December News .
All Pro Vice-Chancellors of
Professor Lynne Hunt receives her HERDSA Fellowship from the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Malaysia'.
teaching and Leaming in Australia and
New Zealand have recently received a
letter from the HERDSA President
info1ming them of the scheme.
4
HERDSA NEWS m August 2004 ~
Minutes of the 31st Annual General Meeting of HERDSA Tuesday 6 July 2004, Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia
Apologies Roger Landbeck, Margot Pearson, Alan Goody, Belinda Tynan.
Confirmation of the Minutes of the Previous AGM Di Challis confirmed the minutes of the AGM held July 8, 2003 to be an accurate record. Seconded by Shelda Debowski.
President's Report John Deam thanked the Executive for its work over the year. John outlined that this year has been a very difficult year for the HERDSA Executive as it was not possible for the Executive to meet face to face as a Committee until the Miri conference.
John accepted with regret the resignations of Alison Viscovic and Pip Bruce Ferguson and thanked them for their excellent contribution to HERDSA while on the Executive. Pip has been on the Executive for quite a number of years and was presented with a token of appreciation from HERDSA.
Belinda Tynan, HERDSA Treasurer has moved overseas and is not in the position to fulfil the role of Treasurer. The Executive accepted an offer from Maureen Bell, a member of the Executive, to take on the role ofTreasurer. The members endorsed the appointment of Maureen Bell as Treasurer.
John thanked Jennifer Ungaro HERDSA Administration Manager for her excellent work and support over the past year.
John outlined the highlights of the year. HERDSA has forwarded submissions to NILT and LTPF. John thanked Shelda Debowski for her contribution to preparing these submissions on behalf ofHERDSA.
John reported HERD is back on track. There is an issue emerging concerning HERD which will need to be discussed. It involves finding a balance between focussing on papers emerging from funded research grants,
while keeping the journal inclusive for all HERDSA mell).bers.
John thanked Roger Landbeck (HERDSA NEWS Editor and Listserve) for giving up a great deal of his spare time as editor of the NEWS. HERDSA is looking into establishing a website discussion board for members.
John reported that bodies are recognising HERDSA as the peak body for those involved with teaching in higher education and are inviting HERDSA to be on key committees. John as HERDSA President has been invited to a lot of major events during the year on behalf ofHERDSA.
John introduced the Executive present at the AGM and reported that Simon Barrie would be Conference Convenor for the 2005 Conference in Sydney. Shelda Debowski will be looking after the 2006 Conference in Western Australia and local meetings at Universities under the name of HERDSA.
The Fellowship Scheme will continue to be developed and this will be a key area of HERDSA' S work. Funding will be sought for development of this scheme. Cristina Poyatos Matas will take the lead as the co-ordinator of the scheme. There are two separate elements - portfolios and assessment and ongoing professional development. Kogi Naidoo has agreed to take on the ongoing professional development area.
Kaya Prpic will be looking into the discussion board. Margot Pearson and CEDAM will continue to be the Editors of HERD, Roger Landbeck will continue with the NEWS and Listserve and Alan Goody will continue as Guides Editor. Maureen Bell will continue to monitor the website.
Budget Report John Deam reported on the budget on behalfofBelinda Tynan.
HERDSA met budget this year and managed to turn over a very small surplus. The expenditure for 2004-2005 is based
on realistic assessments. HERDSA are hoping the Fellowship Scheme will start
to generate its own income.
John spoke of the problems facing
HERDSA with the budget. John reported that much of HERDSA's work is
voluntary and volunteers are extremely
hard to find. The membership numbers have stabilised and finances have
stabilised, however HERDSA will be
faced with decisions on how to increase
memberships, or will have to look at
increasing membership fees.
Neil Haigh queried whether
HERDSA could get funding from DEST. John will look into this, especially in the
area of the Fellowships.
Lynne Hunt asked if there was
an opportunity for HERDSA to be represented on the National Teaching
and Leaming Association. John Deam
undertook to explore this ..
The motion to accept the 2004-2005 budget was accepted by Kaya Prpic and
seconded by Shelda Debowski.
Auditor's Report The members accepted the Auditor's
Report and appointed Douglas Thompson
as auditor for another 12 months. The
motion to accept the Auditor's Report
was passed by Maureen Bell and
seconded by Pip Bruce Ferguson.
HERDSA Publication's Reports HERD Journal-Editor's Report.
(* Attachment 4)
HERDSA News-Editor's Report.
(* Attachment 5)
Occasional Publications-Editor's
Report. (* Attachment 6)
The next AGM will be held at the
2005 Annual Conference in Sydney,
Australia.
* The attachments can be viewed in
the members section of the HERDSA
website.
5
•
',
lrlJI HERDSA NEWS
~ August 2004
News from the HERDSA Executive Committee The HERD SA Executive Committee met for a day prior to the opening of the 2004 conference in Miri.
The Members of the HERDSAExecutive Committee for 2004-5 are:
Name
JohnDeam President
Maureen Bell Treasurer
Simon Barrie Vice President, Australia
Beatrice Johnson
Shelda Debowski
Juliana Kaya Prpic
Kathryn Sutherland Vice President, New Zealand
Sharon Parry
Cristina Poyatos Matas
Mark Barrow
Kogi Naidoo
Roger Landbeck
Alan Goody
Margot Pearson
HERDSA's Office Manager is:
Jennifer Ungaro
6
Address
University of Canberra ACT 2601
University of Wollongong Wollongong NSW 2522
The University of Sydney NSW 2006
Australian Catholic University PO Box 650 Ballarat VIC 3350
University of Western Australia Stirling Highway Crawley WA 6009
Monash University 840 Dandenong Road Caulfield East VIC 3145
Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600 Wellington, New Zealand
Southern Cross University PO Box 157 Lismore NSW 2480
Griffith University Nathan QLD 4111
UNITEC Insitute of Technology Auckland, New Zealand
Massey University Palmerston North New Zealand
32 Monash Road Tarragindi QLD 4121
University of Western Australia Stirling Highway Crawley WA 6009
Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200
HERDSA Office PO Box27
Milperra NSW 2214
Kathryn . [email protected]
sparry@scu .edu.au
J.Ungaro@itl .usyd.edu.au
At the Miri meeting it was apparent that the current workloads on academic staff meant that in order for the society to continue to function efficiently the Executive needed to set priorities for its work. It therefore identified some core activities for the coming year and appointed co-coordinators for each activity. Members with interests in these activities should feel free to contact the co-coordinators with comments or questions.
The four core activities and the portfolio leader for each of the teams in these are:
Conferences • 2005 Sydney - Simon Barrie • 2006 Perth - Shelda Debowski
Fellowships • Fellowship Applications - Cristina
Poyatos Matas
• Professional Development - Kogi Naidoo
Communications • Email List - Roger Landbeck
• Discussion Forum - Kaya Prpic, who is exploring ways of setting up electronic discussion groups.
• Local Meetings Shelda Debowski
Publications • Journal - Margot Pearson
• News - Roger Landbeck
• Guides - Allan Goody
HERDSANEWS m August 2004 ~
• Website - Maureen Bell
The President, John Dearn,
will continue to develop links with
government departments. The two
Vice Presidents are a new portfolio
structure designed to support the
work and leadership of the President.
They provide liaison with other
organisations and groups, particularly
with a view to ensuring the
relevance of the Executive's work to
HERDSA's diverse and international
membership.
Who'd Be A Tutor Anyway?
At the beginning of the year we ran two "Tips for Tutors" workshops for casual teaching staff at the University of Wollongong.
We asked the workshop participants two key questions:
• what questions about teaching would you like to have answered in this workshop? and
what are the main issues or problems you face as a tutor/ demonstrator?
The questions and problems we received were not unexpected. It seems obvious that casual teaching staff in most Australian universities could do with a little help in working out how to become teachers overnight. Nevertheless the spread of issues gave us cause to think about how much is expected of casual teaching staff. Indeed one might wonder why a research student would willingly take on a such a responsible and difficult role.
On the other hand, the thoughtful approach shown by our workshop participants seems a healthy sign of
interest in effective teaching by some of our potential academics.
In Summary, The Issues Raised by the Participants Were: • working out the relationship
between tutor and student;
• students who don't prepare, participate, cooperate;
• developing guidelines and boundaries for behaviour and participation in class;
• establishing rapport with students from different cultures;
• working with students from other language groups who have strong accents;
• getting feedback from students on their learning and on the effectiveness of the tutoring; and
• keeping enthusiasm and motivation high.
These issues appear to be similar to, although a little broader than, those associated with the "dysfunctional behaviours" of students that were explored by Graham Hendry in
By Maureen Bell HERDSA News (2002). The issues Graham surfaced in his work with PBL tutors were:
• quiet students; • dominant students;
• lack of commitment by students; • lateness, absenteeism; and
• personality clashes.
Where to Next? At our University we are
developing a short course for casual teaching staff. Participation will be voluntary at least in the initial stages. Let's hope that the idea of training for casual teaching staff spreads - and that instead of being optional it is seen as essential. In the meantime, course and subject coordinators might ask their casual teaching staff if they share any of these concerns, and discuss ways to overcome them.
Maureen Bell is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Development and Interactive Resources (CEDIR) at the University of Wollongong She has just become the treasurer of HERDSA. Contact: [email protected]
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m HERDSA NEWS
~ August 2004
THE HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY COLUMN
The Learning and Teaching Performance Fund: A Compelling Force for Excellence?
Over the last year, the university sector has been exploring the proposed Teaching and Leaming Performance Fund initiative of the Department of Education, Science and Training. Meetings were held across the country in response to an initial discussion
paper. 1 While the scheme is still under development, and the final shape of the proposal is yet to be revealed, its central theme is that universities with strong teaching performance will be rewarded for that outcome.
There are two underlying premises evident in the draft scheme: first, that university inputs into teaching infrastructure lead to strong teaching outputs; and second, that teaching quality can be satisfactorily measured and compared across universities . While HERDSA supports initiatives that encourage the development of effective teaching and related infrastructure, the proposed process and outcomes raise some fundamental concerns about how the Australian higher education sector ensures that standards and quality of learning and teaching equal those of other national systems.
From a philosophical perspective, the notion of pushing systemic change through financial sanctions raises some interesting dilemmas. While there are precedents for influencing the sector's culture through financial rewards (as the various rounds of quality audits in the UK and here have shown), whether and how the specified measures support or reflect the desired outcomes is open to debate. One set of issues in this latest initiative concerns the five compliance criteria that institutions have to demonstrate
8
By Shelda Debowski & Sharon Parry
in order to be considered for the available funding. For example :
1. The initiative insists that each participating university has a teaching and learning management plan. This can be ticked off by most universities, as they are already required to demonstrate this level of planning on an annual basis. But does it really work as a planning tool? Unless there is another layer of monitoring within institutions, schools or departments are open to show either a tokenistic approach or blind disregard for such a university plan. Whether the existence of a teaching and learning plan in institutions equates to improvements m learning outcomes is yet to be demonstrated.
2. A second requirement is for evidence of systematic support for the professional development in teaching and learning for sessional and full-time academic staff. Universities are grappling with this issue. In the process, they have to address many different concerns, such as: how does one define systematic? is support envisaged as formal courses or as a more holistic approach which may be university, faculty or locally provided? what evidence of support will the process require? is it the provision of accessible support or the enforcement of attendance across the university community that must be demonstrated?
3. Evidence of promotion and probation practices that include criteria relating to teaching effectiveness will also be required.
Valuing teaching in explicit ways like this is important. But does it really have an impact? Performance indicators for research are well established, even though some are roundly criticised. But performance indicators for teaching are widely debated because teaching is a socially-related activity, more amenable to qualitative indicators than quantitative ones. Indeed, the Government does not define "good teaching" for this very reason. How do we identify teaching effectiveness? Good teaching should reflect leadership, as does good research. Should individuals be recognised for performance in the classroom or online or in printed study guides? Should they be recognised for their contribution to institutional processes or policies that support good practice? Are excellent teachers promoted, recognised, used as exemplars? Do they share their good practices? Are they offered opportunities to encourage sound teaching cultures? Systems are only good if they influence practice.
4. Evidence of systematic student evaluation of teaching and subjects will also be monitored. There are important developmental systems in most universities, but their validity and reliability is questionable at best. Mandated systems should yield increased reliability, but timing, field of study, year level, class size, enrolment category and assessment task impact are all potential elements of bias, as are the wording and intention of questions asked. Nationally comparable questions, such as
those derived from the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), might improve comparability across institutions, but then CEQ subscales are derived from a particular perspective on student learning, and, by inference, good teaching. With students increasingly demanding flexible learning options because they are earning while they are learning, dipping in and out of study as lifelong learners, returning to study and the like, teaching effectiveness now rieeds to embody a new set of domains to include distance learners, flexible learners, offshore learners, mature age learners and many other categories of diversity too numerous to mention.
5. The fifth entry criterion relates to the display of results from student evaluations for each university on the public website. The reliability and validity of instruments now becomes quite pressing, because what is calledfor is a nationally comparable set of data. If a nationally comparable set of items is to be identified for the Australian sector, what kind of reporting would be required of institutions? How might institutions be compared with respect to teaching effectiveness, given their diversity?
Many other issues have emerged during the ongoing debate relating to the impending Teaching and Leaming Performance Fund. The final fund criteria are yet to be seen, although there is general acceptance that these five entry criteria are unlikely to change. On the positive side, institutions have frantically reviewed their conformance to ensure they can tick the five criteria, and of course they have adopted different perspectives on each of the criteria in the absence of indications from government of definitions of key concepts.
On the negative side, the importance of identifying and maintaining standards across national systems seems to have been lost. It is important that government recognises the need for Australian higher education to be world class. It is far less important for it to be inward-looking, institutionally competitive and lacking in foresight. The focus is now on conformity rather than development. While there is a place for both, there is value in recognising the diversity of students that the Australian sector supports in their higher education, and in acknowledging and rewarding those institutions that perfonn well according to their student profiles.
Will the TLPF lead to busy but unproductive use of university teaching and learning resources,
HERDSA NEWS m August 2004 ~
or will it stimulate a positive and powerful approach to long-term institutional support for teaching and learning? It is hard to tell at this stage, but it remains to be seen whether the conformity approach can ever make much of a difference in terms of teaching practices. Remarkably, the TLPF does not encourage the existing diversity in the Australian sector that has attracted so many overseas students to its courses of study. It has not taken into account that, along with the changing nature of knowledge, teaching - or meeting the learning needs of students - is a new mix of activities in the 21 st century.
Shelda Dobowski is Director of Organisational and Staff Development Services at the University of Western Australia and Sharon Parry is Director of Teaching and Learning at Southern Cross University.
Contact: [email protected] [email protected]
Endnote l. http://www.dest.gov.au/highered/
learning_ teaching/p _fund_ default.htm
9
- m HERDSA NEWS
~ Augus t 2004
Student-Centred, Integrated, Multimedia Course Design
Introduction Teacher training is a largely
practical business involving the development of educational competencies in those who are to enter classrooms as teachers. However two more theoretical books stay with me from my period in teacher training: Frank Whitehead's The disappearing dais (Whitehead, 1966) and Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of educational objectives (Bloom, 1956). After teaching for over thirty years it is interesting to reflect on these two works in the light of experience. Whitehead begins by suggesting that "[t]he acquisition of information (knowledge about the English language ... ) can never be of more than marginal importance to it (English as a subject)" and "the notion of English as 'communication' is ... inadequate (Whitehead, 1966, p. 12). Bloom's taxonomy suggests that educational objectives can be categorised into distinct types on the basis of the cognitive tasks involved to provide a rational curriculum design. "Recall" is a bottom level task whereas "evaluation" is a top level task . These authors are not alone in suggesting that course and curriculum design is or should be a rational process. There are other factors. These have only become manifest to me over a period of years. One inevitably works with assumptions which are not as clear cut and logical as some might wish. One also constantly compromises, and serendipity plays a significant role. Futhermore, compromise and serendipity are not just inevitable but probably a good influence.
Course Design
Curriculum Design and Course Construction
I will illustrate these perhaps contrary views by looking at one course in which I have been involved
10
for about thirty years . The course is part of a spiral curriculum in linguistics where majoring students return over the three years of the programme to the same areas but at advancing levels. It is the foundation course for the core curriculum. Therefore all the major subject areas must be covered to provide the necessary groundwork for advancing students. Since a minority of students advance, the course must also provide a stand-alone introduction to the subject. It has both content and analytic components. Students must learn concepts and terminology as well as practical analytic techniques. While Bloom's taxonomy would be useful to differentiate these, the interplay between them is subtle in that knowing what and knowing how to are mutually reinforcing . Three distinct areas of content are involved, each of which has its own conceptual and technical apparatus. The curriculum should thus sequence these in the most accessible way. There are cross-content areas of similarity such as similarity of nomenclature like phoneme and morpheme with their -eme suffix in common . These areas of content similarity can be used to build better understanding.
The basic content and analytic techniques to be taught (and learned) are largely prescribed by the discipline. Languages are systems which relate the sounds that come from our mouths and go in our ears to meanings which reside in our brains. The systems which mediate between these two are complex. Speech sounds are analysed by the human brain in a number of different ways. The systems underlying this analysis constitute the phonetics and phonology of the language. The sounds are part of the symbolic nature of words. Words, like the language itself also connect sounds to meaning but in miniature. Words are placed into syntactic sequences by the grammar of the language and
By Koenraad Kuiper
sentences have meanings which are partly dependent on the meanings of the words of which they are constituted and the grammatical sequences in which the words are found. Over and above this, the uttering of a particular sentence( s) in a given setting can be further interpreted in a number of ways. A course on the English language should therefore cover the phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics of English and also allude to how pragmatic interpretation takes place in real world settings.
Selection and Sequencing Not everything one might want
to put into a first year course on the English language can be included. A one semester course is limited. Many first year courses about the nature of language include material on interesting, but arguably peripheral, topics. They are interesting because they are immediately accessible to students with no previous knowledge of the subject but they are peripheral in that a genuine understanding of the topic is only possible after more central issues are understood. So there is a trade off. To be student centred in placing central curriculum material early involves seeing students as having learning needs that they don't know they have. On the other hand, putting "sexy" topics like the language of chimpanzees into a first year course is also student centred in having them given access to interesting topics. "Basics first" is a fundamental of good curriculum design. Hence the first year course design outlined here teaches only the basic phonetics, phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics of English. The trade off involves students coming to understand why this material and not other material is central. That is where the spiral cutTiculum plays a role for advancing students. They realise later how important the material
they learned earlier is. That being so, genuine discovery learning, is impossible. Students do not yet know what they need to know.
But what order should the topics come in? There is a long-standing convention for dealing first with sound, then grammar and meaning last. But it does not have to be this way. Phonetics is a rather technical area. We are not very aware of what our faces do when we produce speech and it takes some degree of emotional distance to look into your mouth impersonally checking all the organs in there and what they might be doing when you talk. Phonetic transcription is also a relatively advanced skill. Words, on the other hand, are the most immediately accessible to students. Students know what words are having looked them up in dictionaries. Words are also in miniature what sentences are. Words have sounds, grammatical categories and meaning(s). They can also have internal structure provided by a word level grammar when they have prefixes and suffixes. So we start with lexis in a full way looking at parts of speech, word structure, word meaning and the nature of word use in vocabularies. But that leaves out the sound of words, so they come next. Grammar comes last and the meanings of words and grammar and the interpretation of utterances are woven into these three major sections to show how the bits and pieces of language are used.
Lectures Lectures are a necessary part of
the course. The course is taught to a big first year class. Given funding constraints, small sections on a North American model are impossible. Lectures are seen not so much as a content presentation device as a way of creating a relationship mediated by the lecturer between the students and the material. This mediating function is significant and complex. The lecturer(s) has designed the course and selected the material and presentation tools. He or she therefore becomes a presentation medium invested with particular responsibilities and representational value for students. In this sense all lecturers are "professors" if they have designed and taught a course. Even in large classes significant human
relationships are built. Students remember their teachers years later. (It may be all that they remember of a course.) Some students find the lecturer and what he or she provides in class attractive. Others do not. This is inevitable and unforeseeable in the particular case. Lecturers cannot change who they are ( even if they can change their presentational style to an extent). Nor can students. The success and failure of students and their dropping out of the course are undoubtedly connected with the nature of the rapport which lecturers establish. Again acknowledgement of this factor is part of being student centred.
I lecture using Powerpoint, controlling the presentation with a radio mouse so as not to be staring at a laptop screen thus losing contact with students. Previously I used Powerpoint to create mylar overheads. Now it is in the form of Powerpoint presentations on a computer and projector. The additional medium this provides to the rich medium of the live human voice and body was selected because it provides handholds for note taking. The Powerpoint presentation contains the major headings that can be used for taking lecture notes. That enables students to learn how to take lecture notes since the heads and subheads are provided. The Powerpoints also contain crucial examples and in-class exercises. In-class exercises punctuate the exposition providing "times out" from exposition and also provide various forms of student-generated talk and work. From time to time, the exercises lead to interchanges with students, which again provide a degree of student centredness.
In the past the lectures were recorded on cassette tape and the tapes and relevant transparency outlines were placed on short term loan in the University library where students could thus revisit the lecture in that form. Later I will outline a new technology which does the same thing in a more accessible form.
The Textbook Having taught this course for a
number of years it seemed sensible to turn it into a textbook. This was written with a co-author and published in 1996. The other author and I taught similar courses and had similar
HERDSA NEWS m August 2004 ~
approaches. The text is a different medium from the lecture course and its presentation is therefore based on the strengths that a book provides. With the aid of the publisher, care has been taken with layout, for example, wide margins, contrasting fonts for different activities: exposition vs exercises. Different kinds of exercise have been used: support for the exposition, extension, and application exercises. Large glossaries, one after each major section to aid revision, are included. The text is integrated into the course in that the lecture outlines indicate which part of the text it relates to. Students are told beforehand that they can prepare for the lectures by reading the corresponding section of the book or read the corresponding section of the book after the lectures to revise.
But the text is "drier", there are no jokes, no anecdotes, no excursions into related (and unrelated) areas. The text also cannot respond to a felt situation where it appears the material is not being understood. In a lecture, that happens. In the case of the text, students have been invited to provide feedback and the 2nd edition has had many changes made on the basis of student reaction. (The discovery of new typos has occasionally been rewarded with chocolate fish.) Again the aim has been to make the text as student centred as possible by taking student feedback into account.
Practical Classes Learning how to is best done
on one's own with direction and also under close supervision as is demonstrated in the use of labs in science classes. Leaming how to transcribe speech is facilitated through the use of a transcription workbook. The book was written by a colleague with whom the course was taught in the past as well as through exercises in the text where model answers are provided in both books. Practical classes are also devoted to this end. The tutor-to-student ratio is in practical classes is about 1: 12. All the material for practical classes is handed out at the previous class. Students get marks for doing the "homework" and are then able to do more practice in the group checking work in pairs and under supervision.
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Again this is student-centred work and all the practical work is co-ordinated with the exposition in the lectures and the relevant sections of the text.
Web-Based Presentation Where formerly lecture outlines
and tapes were available from the library, now the Powerpoint outlines for each of the three sections of the course are available for downloading before the section begins. The Powerpoints are listed by topic so that they can be integrated with reading the text and can be run off before the related lectures to provide the basis for student lecture notes.
During the lecture each lecture is recorded using the programme SnapzPro which captures both the Powerpoint and the voice of the lecturer in real time and saves them as a Quicktime movie. This allows each lecture to be played back as a Quicktime movie. Quicktime Pro is then used to convert the movie into a form that is placed on a streaming video server. Using any suitably equipped computer on campus, the lectures can be launched from the server by any student enrolled in the course. The whole set of 30 movies can fit on a single CDROM. This is also student centred in that someone playing the movie can fast forward it, stop it on a particular diagram or graphic, re-run bits of the lecture, run the lecture if they were absent, or as some international students do, run it again for note taking and comprehension. It also allows multiple access to the material and at any time, whereas the library tapes and text could only be taken out by one person at the time and only within the library's opening hours.
The medium of a movie used this way does not provide the body language of the lecturer but does provide the voice. It therefore shrinks the amount of input of the lecture and allows much greater control over it. It is also integrated with the course. Movies are available to students the day after the lecture and are listed by date. Frequently a topic covers less or more than a lecture hour and so the lecture is for the date and not the topic, unlike the downloadable Powerpoints which are by topic and provide only the outlines.
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Web-based Quizzes and Additional Practical Work.
Using the capacities of WebCT, old tests and exam questions are recycled to provide additional support material which becomes available as each section progresses allowing students to see how they are doing as well as providing additional exercise material.
Serendipity I have provided an account of
part of the rationale behind a course which is student-centred in that an awareness of the student has informed every aspect of the presentation of the course. It is integrated in that all the presentational avenues are explicitly linked to each other. It is multi-media in the broad sense that many media are used and many sensory modalities are exploited. The whole process looks, from such an account like a rational planning process that might have pleased Benjamin Bloom and other educational theorists of my training. But this is misleading.
I have not mentioned a number of factors which have had a material effect on the course. The course has been planned anew every year for over 25 years. Many colleagues have contributed to how it is today. Three lecturers used to teach it for three years (the A team) and then the B team took over for three years. It once had a third of it devoted to the history of the English language but those who taught that section have retired. Elements of what they taught are now integrated into other topics. The course formerly contained a section on New Zealand English which was a particular interest of a now retired lecturer. Some of that material is now alluded to in other sections. The selection of the material is therefore arbitrary to an extent, a result of historical accident rather than reason alone.
The textbook was an outgrowth resulting from teaching the course but not entirely. The final shape of the current text was the result of co operation between the two authors and the publisher. The fact that the lecture course is now based closely on the book and that the two are integrated as well as they are is partly an accident. I have become the sole lecturer only recently and have now
shaped the course to integrate with the book which in part arose out of teaching parts of the course. But decisions about the transcription system used in the book are the result of its market. The book uses a British standard system rather than the New Zealand one which is used in the transcription workbook. There is a non-optimal integration here, the result of marketing factors.
Originally the overhead transparencies were handwritten, then typed, then Powerpointed. Faster and better laptops and new programs have made it possible to replace photocopied handouts and tapes with Quicktime movies. However the idea of capturing the Powerpoint presentation and my voice together at exactly the point that SnapzPro appeared on the market was just chance. This technology makes it possible to provide better-integrated and more student-centred courses. It does not replace old technologies like lectures and texts. It augments them. (The lectures were and are, of course, also multimedia.)
Conclusions What have I learned from the
process and the planning and teaching of other courses?
Human beings can be interested in knowing about the language(s) they speak, knowing how language is used and it can be useful to know something about language(s), so student surveys report. (Pace Whitehead.)
Learning is Person Specific Different students learn in
different ways given their previous experience and personalities. It follows that one cannot be student centred in general and must be student centred in particular. This requires an imaginative construction of what a student might think or feel and how he or she might respond when one is teaching large classes of individual students. Such a construct is bound to be misconceived in a great many cases particularly when the years separating the ages of the learner and teacher are significant. In this sense all courses are student centred.
It is Safer to Provide a Large Variety of Ways by Which Students Can Learn Than a Small One
Some students learn well from lectures, some from books, some from videos, some from informal chat, some from practical work. Generally the more avenues a student has for learning the richer their opportunities and thus the more chances they have to learn. Cross-modal avenues are likely to be richer and thus more effective. With lectures alone, all courses are multimodal. With lectures and a text a course is multimedia . Media choice is hit and miss. The more media the more likely there is to be at least one hit.
Teaching is Done Partly in the Absence of Knowledge of How Students are Learning
The interaction between students, teachers , teaching materials and the processes of teaching and learning are not amenable to detailed real-time analysis in large classes . One can tell whether students respond to jokes, appear to be paying attention, tum up to classes. But that says little about the learning they are (individually) doing . It follows that guesswork, chance and serendipity are inevitable in course planning and execution.
Learning is Better if it Involves Human Relationships
Humans are social animals and learning in a social environment is more likely to be successful than if it is unmediated by direct human contact. Evolving human relationships are a significant form of human contact. Relationships with computers are second best. For these reasons I prefer teaching real people to writing courseware.
Some Kinds of Learning Outcomes are Easier to Test For Than Others
Normal testing procedures at the end of a course test for certain kinds of learning. Good tests can provide reasonable approximations of the achievement of such learning. They do not test long-term educative effects . The long-term effects of being educated are of more significance than short-term ones. It follows that one is frequently teaching for significant educational ends the achievement of which one will not be able to judge.
Are Wisdom and Age Correlated?
I think I have learned more from teaching them than my students have from being taught. It has taken a long time, longer than they have.
Course design, it seems, needs to be opportunistic and flexible. Some
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principles such as the notion of a spiral curriculum help . However experience has suggested that much that is valuable is not the result of overall planning but of small bits of common sense, intuition, personal interest, bias mixed with a beachcomber's nose for interesting data and a constant awareness of students. If this sounds post-modem, maybe it is, just as Whitehead and Bloom now read like a late romantic in Whitehead's case and a modernist in Bloom 's.
References Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of
educational objectives: The classification of educational goals . New York: Longmans: Green .
Whitehead, F. (1966). The disappearing dais: A study of the principles and practice of English teaching. London: Chatto and Windus.
Koenraad Kuiper is currently Professor of Linguistics at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He holds a PhD in linguistics from Simon Fraser University and was awarded a DSc by the University of Canterbury in 2001. He was awarded the University of Canterbury teaching medal in 2004. Contact: [email protected]
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~ August 2004
Enhancing the Experience of International Postgraduate Research Students: An exploration of the ways in which the work of language and learning advisers can contribute to successful, timely completions
At the recent conference, Quality in Postgraduate Research, held in Adelaide in April, papers covered a diverse range of issues relevant to the postgraduate experience. Several papers reported on the nature of the relationship between Research Higher Degree (RHD) students and their supervisors (see, for example, Lee & Green, 2004). In our own paper, Pam Green and I teased out the ways in which supervisors and students can set up a good working relationship, especially in the early stages of the student's research experience when ways of interacting, meeting and mentoring can be monitored and adjusted to achieve a better "fit" between the expectations of both students and supervisors (Green & Reidy, 2004).
However, one issue, that of the role of support staff in postgraduate education, was not covered in any great detail, although some of the most interesting posters and many of the materials made available at the conference highlighted the ways in which people outside the main relationship of student and supervisor( s) can contribute to the student's progress, completion and satisfaction with the experience.
In order to further the discussion of the place and significance of language and learning support in higher education, I would like to describe some of the ways in which I have worked with supervisors and postgraduate students since returning to my current position after
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completing my own doctoral studies. In doing so, I want to extend several of the points I made in my introduction to one of the workshops offered at the most recent Victorian Language and Learning Network (VLLN) Seminar held in June at The University of Melbourne. Although I have used some of the ideas I put forward in that discussion in this article, I have rounded these ideas out with specific examples of the ways in which I have been able to support postgraduate international students and their supervisors since the beginning of 2004. (As a plethora of terms are used to refer to the positions of English language support staff and learning advisers in Australian universities, I have used the generic term "adviser" or "language and learning adviser" most often in this article.)
Supervisors, Research Students and Support
According to Lee & Williams (1999), supervisors, or more specifically, their preferred ways of supervising research students, are often influenced by their own experiences of having been supervised as postgraduate students. Similarly, when I first took up my role as a person working in language and learning support, my own experiences of postgraduate research and supervision influenced the ways I saw the relationship between supervisor and student. Hence, it was taken as given that the supervisor encouraged, suggested and gave comprehensive
By Jo Reidy feedback on each draft that the student submitted . Such feedback covered points about written language and referencing as well as more substantive issues pertaining to the research questions and design. When I was given the opportunity to supervise international students undertaking Masters degrees, I felt very confident about supporting the students' English language development as this was one of my specialisations. Hence, the issue of how, or when, to work with language and learning support staff did not arise: I was the students' primary supervisor and assumed that I was also their first and most significant point of reference with regard to their English language support.
However, such an assumption can no longer be made . Both the context of Australian higher education and the ways in which postgraduate students undertake their research training are changing rapidly. Supervisors loads are greater than they have ever been so that it is now common for an experienced researcher to be responsible for the supervision of more than a dozen postgraduate students all of whom are working on different topics. Supervision panels are also becoming more common. However, just as the time given to students is shrinking and the way in which supervision can be offered is expanding, the postgraduate cohort is also diversifying. Although many students find that they are fully equipped to carry out the research and to extend the current state of
knowledge in their chosen field, they face certain difficulties when it comes to presenting a "polished" report, thesis or dissertation in academic English.
Hence, instead of their researchrelated interactions beginning and ending with the primary supervisor, postgraduate students can now be involved in a range of relationships , interacting on a regular basis with peer mentors, critical friends and other experts in their field of research. Postgraduate students can also attend tutorials, workshops and programs offered by staff from language and learning support units and, on the basis of evidence gathered in my own university, many international students would like to access ongoing English language assistance for the duration of their higher degree program.
With such a diversity of support being made available to international postgraduate students, it is imperative that the language and learning support offered complements the specialist feedback being given by the supervisor(s). While a domestic student who is used to the requirements of the local academic culture may simply choose between the different options offered by support staff, an international student may find the slight differences between the advice given quite disorienting. Faced with the pressure to achieve a "successful, timely completion", some students simply do not have the time, or the confidence, to choose between different sets of advice, or to try out one recommendation, and then another, in order to see which one is the preferred option.
Achieving High Quality Supervisor-StudentLanguage Support Interactions
It is possible to distinguish several different ways in which the RHO student, the supervisor, and the language and learning support staff members can interact. Their relationship can be differentiated according to a) who initiates the contact, b) who defines the student's "needs" and, c) who determines how the roles of supervisor and support person will complement each other. The duration of the degree can also
play a large part in determining the nature of the interactions between student, supervisor and language and learning support staff. The following questions can be used to characterise the various types of relationship that can be set up: • Who initiates contact with the
Language and learning adviser? (Student or supervisor?)
• Who defines the student's language and learning . needs? (Student? Supervisor? Adviser?)
• Over what period is the assistance offered? (Short- or long-term?)
• Who defines the roles that each will play?
Three Types of SupervisorStudent-Adviser Interaction
In the time that I have been employed as an Academic Skills Adviser, I have worked with postgraduate students and their supervisors in three main ways. When introducing the VLLN seminar described earlier, I differentiated between the various ways of working using the descriptive labels, "Bounded", "Extended" and "Collegial" . Although I now believe it is the "Collegial" model of working that creates the most opportunities for all concerned, each way of working has its own strengths.
A short description of the ways in which language and learning advisers can conceptualise their work with postgraduate students and their supervisors now follows . Of course, the descriptions are not meant to be either prescriptive or exhaustive, but are intended to foster further discussion of these important issues.
Bounded In this type of interaction, the
RHO student, the primary supervisor and the language and learning adviser play clearly defined roles. The role of the language and learning support staff member is defined by either the primary supervisor or by the student seeking assistance. Support tends to be limited to specific issues. For example, the student may seek assistance with the final draft of the links between chapters or with the precise referencing of an article drawn from an electronic database .
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Extended In this type of relationship, the
language and learning adviser plays a more significant role and assists the student at various times throughout his or her higher degree. The student attends tutorials run by support staff and may book further one-toone assistance with, for example, thesis writing or academic reading . Although the student chooses how to make use of the support on offer, both the amount and type of assistance available may be pre-set by staff at a Language and Learning unit or centre, especially if demand or student numbers are very high.
Collegial In this "model" , the primary
supervisor, the student and the support person all work together to enhance the higher degree student's research experience. The supervisor meets and talks with the student on a regular basis, but is also informed about the interactions that the student has with other support people, including language and learning advisers.
The Contribution of Language and Learning Advisers to the RHO Experience
Although I have many students who would like to attend generic introductory workshops or access language and learning support in order to discuss a specific issue regarding their thesis or dissertation, recent efforts to set up more collegial working relationships with research students and their supervisors have also borne fruit. Over the last few months, a more integrated, teambased effort between supervisors and language and learning advisers has been achieved . In order to work collaboratively, the language and learning adviser sends a short report to both the student and the supervisor after each one-to-one session or workshop . Supervisors can sit in on part of a session so that they can also discuss the linguistic demands of thesis writing or offer their answers to specific questions about languagerelated matters that a student may ask. Of course, not all sessions involve the supervisor, but the possibility is on offer if the students concerned are
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m HERDSANEWS ~ August 2004
agreeable and can see the advantage of everyone involved working more closely together.
Collegiality in Practice In order to illustrate the ways
in which a "Collegial" relationship between supervisor, student and support staff can strengthen the work of all involved, the following extract has been taken from a typical short report. The postgraduate student and her supervisor had sought assistance from the adviser on a range of issues pertaining to the student's research which had involved gathering a series of self-reports or "stories" from teachers in her own country. Questions that had to be discussed included the following:
• Should the translated "stories" that made up the data be registered in English using the past or present tense?
• Should the stories be presented in formal English or in a more colloquial English that seemed to better mirror the speakers' own usage?
• Should a list of translated items be included in the main body of the dissertation or appear as one of the appendices?
Using Reports to Ensure Good Communication
After I had discussed each of the questions with the postgraduate student, I sent a short report to the primary supervisor. (The report was sent as an email and has been edited slightly.)
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Dear Student and Supervisor, This is a short letter about the meetings on Monday 19/07 /04 and Tuesday 27/07/04. I have enjoyed both meetings very much. In the first meeting, Student A and I discussed her research study together and were later joined by the Supervisor. The issues discussed in the first meeting included the following:
I. Introducing the study, its context and aims;
2. Ways of emphasising the differences between data and commentary within the thesis;
3. The most appropriate tense to use when writing up the stories . In the second meeting, we discussed the following issues: I. The best way to write up the stories that have been translated 2. The differences between key terms such as "authority" and "authoritarian" 3. The slight differences between topic-specific, technical tem1s .. .
As a result of our discussion, I am going to send Student A some examples using the words "belief' and "believe" . I am also going to look at some studies in which translated interview data has been used and follow up that important issue. I have also suggested that all technical terms discussed might be listed in a separate appendix with their equivalents in Chinese characters placed beside them. This was a very useful meeting and I hope that Student A gained a great deal from it. Our next meeting will be held in a fortnight's time (03/08/04). You are both welcome to email me in the meantime .
Kind regards, etc.
In a different case, an emailed report was sent to both the primary and the secondary supervisors and also printed off for the student. In this particular instance, the language support person produced suggested chapter formats in order to give the supervisor and the student a choice of formats to discuss before the final write-up of the research data was undertaken.
The "Collegial" Model as one Amongst a Range of Choices
Hence, it is not surprising that I would now like to promote, explore and reflect on the "Collegial" way of working in future interactions with postgraduate students and their supervisors in my own university . Of course, RHD students who wish to keep their interactions with their supervisors and the language and learning advisers somewhat separate are free to choose that pattern of interaction, but it would seem that the students' research experiences can be
enhanced if supervisors, international postgraduate students and language and learning support staff all work together. Such collegiality has the potential to contribute a great deal to the successful, timely completions and satisfying research experiences that all postgraduate students would like to achieve.
References Green, P. & Reidy , J. M . (2004).
The search for richer metaphors: Research supervision reimagined. Paper presented at the Quality in Postgraduate Research Conference, Adelaide, 22-23 April, 2004 .
Lee,A. & Green, B. (2004). Mobilising metaphors : Research /Supervision/ Pedagogy . Paper presented at the Quality in Postgraduate Research Conference, Adelaide, 22-23 April, 2004.
Lee, A. & Williams, C. (1999). "Forged in Fire": Narratives of trauma in PhD supervision pedagogy . Southern Review, 32 (1) 6-26.
Jo Reidy has worked as an academic, a consultant and an Academic Skills Adviser at the Melbourne campus of the Australian Catholic University Her doctoral research focussed on the ways in which professional novices accessed and deployed various kinds of social support and material resources during their practicums in unfamiliar workplaces. Her completed dissertation won a 2004 RMIT Research Award. She is currently involved in a joint project with J. Kapnoullas (School of Nursing) and N. Love (Library and Information Resources) at ACU National. Their project focuses on the ways in which international Nursing students' experiences during, and perceptions of, the teaching and learning opportunities offered in one semester can be used to design jointly-run adjunct tutorials for the following semester's teaching and learning program. Interested readers are welcome to contact the project team via email: [email protected]
HERDSA NEWS m August 2004 Iii..!.!
Teaching Large Groups: Touring the Learning and Teaching Web Sites
This article first appeared in the June 2004 edition of 'Educational Developments', a publication of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) in the UK. It is
reproduced here under an agreement between SEDA and HERDSA. We are grateful to Graham and Lorraine for giving their permission to reprint the article here.
Jokes about room layout, circles, horseshoes and rows (with a lecturer at the front) affecting learning have been around since at least Plato's time. Yet how little we have learned or progressed. In the UK now it has been common for some years for lecture sizes to range from 50 to 800 turning what used to be a relatively intimate experience into one that can be alienating for the student and daunting for the lecturer. Stagecraft, good administration, signposting for learning outside of the lecture and tricks for interaction in poorly designed rooms have become essential rather than the remit of the few who contrasted the style of the 'dry' lecturer reading closely from their notes and reciting a difficult argument. This article offers a tour of web sites that offer advice, on how to lecture/teach when faced with large groups and keep the audience both on track and as engaged as possible within and outside of the room. It is a multicultural journey with stops in the UK, Australia, Canada and the United States of America. Rarely a site was found that asked what the students thought of the experience (if they are out there please let us know!) We have been reliant on Google (http: //www.google.com) for our searches and any omissions of sites are our fault. Please do let us know of any more -these can be added to the online version of this article.
By Graham Alsop & Lorraine Stefani From the UK (and Canada!) Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development (OCSLD) http:/ /www.brookes.ac.u kl services/ ocsd/teachingnews/tips.html Teaching tips - handouts, breaks and activities
OCSLD has long been the location of good resources to support the development of learning, teaching and assessment. This teaching tips page focuses on large classes with extracts from one of their 'Teaching More Students' publications and Newsletters all offering useful advice. However, it also provides a link to a piece of streaming video of Graham Gibbs (The Open University, UK) presenting a short piece on Lecturing to large groups. He offers an incisive reflection on the problems and strategies that can be used to improve learning in and outside of large lectures recognising the significant barriers that the room presents and the potential problems of setting up poor learning through such events. He also offers strategies to promote better learning inside and outside of the room. With a cup of coffee, biscuit and 15 minutes to spare it is well worth a watch! The video is held at Dalhousie University in Canada.
From the United States of America Pennsylvania State University Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Forum on Large Classes http://www. ps u. ed u/ dept/ celt/ largeclass/forum.shtml
Although some of the links here are out of date a variety of useful resources can be found here. In particular much of the information is built from both staff and students' experiences of teaching large classes. Students are given the opportunity to take staff teaching their 'large class' to lunch. Staff teaching large classes are also invited to lunch together. The conversations between
staff and students are shared by email to all local teachers of large classes and staff luncheons summarised for the web. The ideas are added to a growing Frequently Asked Questions area. This discursive and open approach to creating a useful resource brings with it confidence in the tips and ideas being useful, tried and tested.
The FAQ is well organised with sub-sections covering: Active Leaming, Assignments, Attendance, Planning, Exams, Feedback, Note taking, Resources, Student Participation, and Technology.
In addition there is a brief list of relevant publications and access to a select Bibliography for Teaching Large Classes. There is gold dust in the brief list of publications that link to old editions of their newsletters. For example, see "Teaching Large Classes Well: Solutions from your Peers".
From Canada University of Western Ontario Teaching Large Classes http://www.uwo.ca/tsc/tlc/
This is a very good website particularly for staff new to teaching in higher education. The authors highlight that the purpose of the site is "to get large class teachers in whatever discipline talking to one another, and learning from one another, forging a closer community with a common cause: to make learning in large classes as effective, productive and enjoyable as possible."
This is a heartening starting point because as we know there is no simple protocol or prescription for teaching in large classes. This web-site has 9 easily accessible sections to browse through. It is a simple no-nonsense, no frills site. It addresses the question "Why are we teaching large classes anyway?" While the given response to this question barely hides the author's cynicism regarding the pedagogical correctness or otherwise, regarding
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the task of teaching large classes, it is probably very helpful for staff new to the scenario of having to handle classes of up to 400 students, to recognise that they are not alone in questioning the efficacy of this. And besides, that is precisely what we want new staff to do - to reflect on the impact of their teaching on student learning.
A major section of this web-site comprises Allan Gedalf 's Green Guide: Teaching Large Classes. The Green Guides are reproduced with permission from the Society for Teaching and Leaming in Higher Education, which is similar in role to SEDA in the UK and HERDSA in Australasia. The Green Guide can of course be downloaded to become a resource-on-hand. It covers some excellent material on Classroom Strategies and Behaviours, Interactive Methods in the Classroom, Team Teaching and Suggestions for Further Reading. What the Green Guide does not cover is the use ofICT for teaching large classes. However, the web-site does cover this to some extent within a section entitled Best Practices, which provides 'Quick links' to using overheads, presentation software (which essentially refers primarily to Powerpoint), using simulations and demonstrations and online testing ( dealing mainly with setting up practice tests for formative assessment). Other issues covered in the web-site include a Powerpoint Primer giving basic advice on best use of Powerpoint, an Ask an Expert section and a section on Presentation Tips.
This site gives a good overview of some of the key issues relating to preparing to teach large classes. Without doubt the best aspects of it are the access to the Green Guide on Teaching Large Classes, its simplicity in terms of accessibility, and the section entitled Suggestions for Further Reading which gives an extensive list of good reference material. A criticism which can be levelled regarding the further reading is that they have not included any post 1996 references and that some of the earlier ones may not address some of the current issues arising in large classes given the constantly changing nature of the student population. I would have no hesitation in highlighting this site in a short introductory course on teaching in higher education, or as a further reading resource in a postgraduate
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professional development programme on learning and teaching in higher education. From Australia Teaching and Educational Development Institute University of Queensland http://www. tedi. uq.ed u. au/ largeclasses/
One of the better sites on Teaching Large Classes is that funded by the Australian University Teaching Committee (AUTC), the Teaching and Educational Development Institute (TEDI) based at the University of Queensland, web site as above.
The two main purposes of the website are 1. To serve as a resource for academics
and course managers involved in the teaching and or management of large classes and
2. To serve as a record of the project's activities.
For staff looking for inspiration, the website has four major quick links taking the reader to Resources, Large Class Teaching Guidelines, Case Studies and a Bulletin Board.
Taking the first 3 of these links in tum: the Resources section allows access to a range of files which address different issues relating to Large Class Teaching such as, "What's Different About Large Classes?", "Student Performance in Large Classes", "Teaching and Assessment in Large Classes" and several others. In addition there is a PDF file devoted entirely to an extensive list ofreferences.
The 'Large Class Teaching Guidelines' section is divided into four parts: Planning and Teaching, Planning and Conducting Assessment; Administration and Management and Tutoring and Demonstrating. These guidelines are derived from a vast range of related research and education literature, information to responses from a survey of over 40 lecturers and summaries of discussion on large classes from a workshop relating to the TEDI project. The guidelines are short, coherent points of advice on all aspects of teaching, assessment, management, etc of large classes. The reader may want to explore further and research other materials but one would look far and wide for an encouraging and supportive resource which is so easily accessible.
The Case Studies Section is superb with access to a range of PDF files on a great variety of topics such as : Flexible Assessment in a Business Course; Reflections on Large Class Teaching in the Social Sciences; The Use of Feedback in the Organisation of a Large Class, etc. All of the Case Studies provide a short abstract, then a mere click of the mouse lets you download the full text of the Case Study.
The site has clearly been well funded and is the result of a Teaching Development project. One of the final sections of it is a Report on a Survey of Large Class Teaching in Australia. There is a sense of this site being very much a 'live ' project. In fact it took me a long time to review this particular site because I kept on getting waylaid reading more of the case studies and dipping into sections of the resources.
This site could be recommended for staff new to Teaching Large Classes, more experienced staff, to encourage reflection and comparison with their own practice and for educational developers seeking materials to use to support staff in their disciplines. It would be an excellent resource to highlight for staff engaging in professional development programmes relating to learning and teaching in higher education.
What seems to be refreshing is that the problems seem to be so similar across the cultures: the administration of large groups, increasing feedback, and ensuring interaction. Furthermore, the solutions offered by all seem equally helpful as the age of the solutions also seems to not matter. If the problems remain the same, then why do we continually meet them? Is this a reflection of the mismatch of expectations of staff being largely (but not exclusively) research trained first and learning to teach second, or a wider reflection of a 'human condition', or an indication of the constant lack of access to sufficient teachers to support the ever growing student population?
Whatever the reasons these sites may help ... Graham Alsop is Associate Director of the New Technology Institute, Kingston University United Kingdom
Lorraine Stefani is Director of the Centre for Professional Development University of Auckland, New Zealand
Preparing academics for university teaching Colloquium
Critical issues and new trends
21- 22 October 2004
Flinders University of South Australia Adelaide
South Australia
You are invited to a colloquium focusing on preparation for university teaching programs that will follow up on the outcomes of the first colloquium held at Flinders University in April 2003. This initiative began as a collaborative venture between Flinders University and University of Western Australia at HERDSA 2002, and was later joined by the University of South Australia and University of Adelaide. Colloquium proceedings for 2003 which focused on the 'pedagogy, impact and the logistics' of foundation teaching programs are available at:
http://www.flinders.edu.au/teach/foundations /colloquium.htm
This year's colloquium will focus on 'critical issues and new trends' relating to these programs is aimed specifically at those who design, develop, deliver and/or administer foundation or preparation for university programs . The colloquium will be discussion-based and aims to generate practical decisions and collaborations for supporting the advancement of our efforts in providing effective preparation for academic teachers. You will have the opportunity to discuss key issues and practices with colleagues from Australia and New Zealand universities. There will be some input concerning national directions and the role of the National Institute for Leaming and Teaching in Higher Education. Issues and topics already raised by intending participants include: preparing teachers for different roles (sessional staff, clinical teachers, staff located offshore, research supervisors); the strengths and weaknesses of different programs; the research, scholarship and evaluation of this work; and specific issues relating to peer review, portfolios, hybrid/ blended programs, and workload.
The colloquium will be facilitated by Janice Orrell (Flinders University); Margaret Hicks (University of South Australia); Kerry O'Regan (University of Adelaide) and Allan Goody (University of Western Australia).
We look forward to many of you joining us for two days of discussion and interaction as we build a community of practice around these programs . We also hope that another University may offer to host a future colloquium in 2005 or 2006.
Further information and registration details can be obtained from
http://www.flinders.edu.au/teach/foundations/colloquium.htm
An email address has been set up for the colloquim and is:
Contact person: Susan Bergs
Email: susan. [email protected]. au Telephone (08) 8201 3180
Closing date for registration : 11 October, 2004
If you missed out going to Miri then plan to be in Sydney next year.
Preliminary announcement: HERDSA CONFERENCE 2005
HIGHER EDUCATION IN A CHANGING WORLD
3-6 July 2005
The University of Sydney, Australia
Our world is changing ... and so is our conference!
In 2005 we are going to bring you a conference that will be a vibrant scholarly space to critically and creatively engage with new ideas and research about teaching and learning. It will leave you re-invigorated and with new insights, as well as new friends and research collaborators! HERDSA 2005 will be a conference where our diverse and varied membership can meet and share their experiences, research, ideas and reflections on higher education in a changing world.
We invite you to start to think about how you might contribute and participate in this exciting conference. In September 2004 we will be calling for contributions in a variety of formats. As well as the traditional research and theory papers - with plenty of time for discussion - and showcases of innovative practice, have you ever thought about discussing your ideas over wine, cheese and a walk with the keynotes ... or in an 'ideas marketplace'? Maybe you should!
Visit Sydney for HERDSA 2005 and take advantage of all that NSW and the city has to offer. We will be arranging some great tour packages and of course if one conference is not enough ... next year's HERDSA conference will be co-located with the 2005 Pacific Rim First Year Experience Conference and the 2005 Australian Universities Quality Forum running from 6th-9th July.
There are three sub-themes to our conference. • Changing higher education communities: learners and teachers • New teaching for new students in a new context: pushing the boundaries • Higher Education and the public: participating in changing agendas
Visit the HERDSA 2005 website http://www.herdsa.org.au/2005 for details of the conference and more information on the themes or contact the conference
organising committee on [email protected]