Reflexive writers : re-thinking writing development and assessment in schools

Writing is a complex and highly individual activity, which is approached in different ways by different writers. Writers reflexively mediate subjective and objective conditions in specific and nuanced ways to produce a product in time and place. This paper uses a critical realist theory of reflexivity to argue that the teaching and assessment of writing must account for the different ways that students manage and make decisions in their writing. Data from linguistically and culturally diverse primary students in Australia are used to illustrate how four distinct reflexive modalities constitute the ways in which students approach writing. The paper offers a new approach to assessing writing for and of learning that considers writers as reflexive and agentic in different ways. It posits the importance of making visible and explicit the context and reflexive decision-making as writers shape a product for a purpose and audience.

An Investigation into the Options for Increasing the Extent of Energy Efficiency Knowledge and Skills in Engineering Education

Society is increasingly calling for professionals across government, industry, business and civil society to be able to problem-solve issues related to climate change and sustainable development as part of their work. In particular there is an emerging realisation of the fundamental need to swiftly reduce the growing demand for energy across society, and to then meet the demand with low emissions options. A key ingredient to addressing such issues is equipping professionals with emerging knowledge and skills to address energy challenges in all aspects of their work. The Council of Australian Governments has recognised this need, signing the National Partnership Agreement on Energy Efficiency in July 2009, which included a commitment to assist business and industry obtain the knowledge, skills and capacity to pursue cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities.2 Engineering will play a critical part among the professions, with Engineers Australia acknowledging that, ‘The need to make changes in the way energy is used and supplied throughout the world represents the greatest challenge to engineers in moving toward sustainability.’

Drama, storymaking and iPads in the early years

In this chapter we consider how the iPad and selected applications such as Draw and Tell (Duck Duck Moose, 2013), Popplet (Notion Inc., 2013) and Puppet Pals (Polished Play LLC, 2013) can assist children in collaborative storying, retelling and sequencing story moments that can assist young children in their acquisition of oracy and their understanding of the world, both real and imagined, and their personal relationships. The data gathered from the project will also analysed through the lense of “critical and creative thinking” (ACARA, 2013, p.20-21) skills articulated as one of the general capabilities required in all subject areas of the Australian national curriculum, but which has particular application to The Arts subject areas. In this chapter, we consider artefacts created by preschool children using iPads and selected apps and interviews conducted with preschool children and their caregivers during our research project. We then offer examples of practice to assist preschool teachers in supporting children in their storymaking using the iPad and discuss approaches for engagement that twins the live and mediatised representation of a story.

Class participation as a learning and assessment strategy in law : facilitating students’ engagement, skills development and deep learning

Assessment has widely been described as being ‘at the centre of the student experience’. It would be difficult to conceive of the modern teaching university without it. Assessment is accepted as one of the most important tools that an educator can deploy to influence both what and how students learn. Evidence suggests that how students allocate time and effort to tasks and to developing an understanding of the syllabus is affected by the method of assessment utilised and the weighting it is given. This is particularly significant in law schools where law students may be more preoccupied with achieving high grades in all courses than their counterparts from other disciplines. However, well-designed assessment can be seen as more than this. It can be a vehicle for encouraging students to learn and engage more broadly than with the minimums required to complete the assessment activity. In that sense assessment need not merely ‘drive’ learning, but can instead act as a catalyst for further learning beyond what a student had anticipated. In this article we reconsider the potential roles and benefits in legal education of a form of interactive classroom learning we term assessable class participation (‘ACP’), both as part of a pedagogy grounded in assessment and learning theory, and as a platform for developing broader autonomous approaches to learning amongst students. We also consider some of the barriers students can face in ACP and the ways in which teacher approaches to ACP can positively affect the socio-emotional climates in classrooms and thus reduce those barriers. We argue that the way in which a teacher facilitates ACP is critical to the ability to develop positive emotional and learning outcomes for law students, and for teachers themselves.

Self-regulation support through music

A critical dimension of early learning competence in the year prior to school is self-regulation. Self-regulation enables children to manage their emotions and direct their attention, thinking, and actions to meet adaptive goals. These skills enhance young children's readiness to learn.

An ePortfolio Approach: Supporting Critical Reflection for Pedagogic Innovation

This chapter investigates the capacity of a well-supported holistic ePortfolio program, the QUT Student ePortfolio Program (QSeP), to support critical reflection for pedagogic innovation in higher education, by exploring practice examples. The chapter looks across faculty and discipline areas to illustrate a range of ePortfolio learning case studies, which have led pedagogical innovation across a whole institution, to enhance student learning and support academic teaching. The ePortfolio strategies discussed support innovation in learning and teaching where academics use the ePortfolio approach in different ways to develop connectedness (productive pedagogies) within learning. Students are supported to develop awareness of the connections between formal and informal learning opportunities and between their learning and personal and professional goals. Students are guided to understand what they have learned and how they have learned in terms of generic employability skills or graduate attributes and also in relation to professional standards and competencies and personal goals. In essence, the ePortfolio-supported pedagogy creates capstone events enabling students to develop a professional identity and understanding of ongoing professional development. The examples are drawn from distinct discipline areas and illustrate the capacity of ePortfolio to underpin pedagogic innovation across discipline areas: • Bachelor of Information Technology—the ePortfolio approach supports students to explore the IT industry as a means of clarifying personal expectations and goals, thereby enhancing student potential in the course c• Bachelor of Nursing and Master of Nursing Science—students develop a professional ePortfolio to show development of the nursing competencies • Master of Information Technology—Library and Information students compile a Professional Portfolio for assessment in the Professional Practice subject • Bachelor of Laws—Virtual Law Placement (VLP) is a unit of study that challenges students to critically reflect on their performance and development duringthe work placement Each case study illustrates the academic teaching goal and student ePortfolio task in context. Issues, challenges and support strategies are identified. Comments from the students and their lecturers give an indication of the effectiveness of the ePortfolio approach to meet learning and teaching goals.

Orientations to Critical Literacy for English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) learners: A case study of four teachers of senior English

Recently, the debate around critical literacy has dissipated as literacy education agendas and attendant policies shift to embrace more hybrid approaches to the teaching of senior English. This paper reports on orientations towards critical literacy as expressed by four teachers of senior English who teach culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Teachers’ understandings of critical literacy are important given the emphasis on Critical and Creative Thinking as well as Literacy as General Capabilities underpinning the Australian Curriculum. Using critical discourse analysis and Janks' (2010) Synthesis Model of Critical Literacy, interview and classroom data from four teachers of English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) learners in two high schools were analysed for the ways these teachers constructed critical literacy in their talk and practice. While all four teachers indicated significant commitment to critical literacy as an approach to English language teaching, their understandings varied. These ranged from providing access to powerful genres, to rationalist approaches to interrogating text, with less emphasis on multimodal design and drawing on learner diversity. This has significant implications for what kind of learning is being offered to EAL/D learners in the name of English teaching, for syllabus design, and for teacher professional development.

Review: "Critical Lessons – What our schools should teach"

At a time when debate over critical education is still going on in Australia, Nel Noddings’ book “Critical Lessons, What Our Schools Should Teach” is a timely and important read.Emeritus Professor of Education at Stanford University, Noddings calls us afresh to consider the deeper questions about the purpose of education – teaching adolescents to think clearly, critically and creatively in times when controversial topics (like the Iraq war) are often taboo in school curricula. In the face of what Noddings calls a pervasive neglect of critical and reflective thinking in high schools, teachers and teacher educators are asked to reconsider what we teach and the way we teach it.

The literacy curriculum: A critical review

This is a critical review of the scope of the literacy curriculum in the twenty-first century, uncovering the strengths, controversies, and silences that have divided literacy researchers and educators. It conceptualizes the literacy curriculum as a particular set of socially organized symbolic practices that are always selective, and which are inextricably connected to the function and organization of schooling. We trace the political, historical, and ideological antecedents of literacy curriculum and schooling as a form of cultural apparatus of the nation-state, before tracing some of the major interpretive paradigms that have influenced the shape of the literacy curriculum in many parts of the world. These include debates about skills-based approaches, whole language, systemic functional grammar, and critical literacy. It then draws attention to noteworthy advances and shifts in the field over recent decades: debates about the role of orality in the literacy curriculum, home-school community literacy practices, teacher and student knowledge of language and grammar, and the role of curriculum area literacies. It anticipates the future of the literacy curriculum in online textual environments and the changing sensorial and material nature of literacy practices, while acknowledging that curriculum innovation is always limited in complex ways by historically established pedagogic discourses of schooling.

Design thinking pedagogy: The educational design ladder

As global industries change and technology advances, traditional education systems might no longer be able to supply companies with graduates who possess an appropriate mix of skills and experience. The recent increased interest in Design Thinking as an approach to innovation has resulted in its adoption by non-design-trained professionals. This development necessitates a new method of teaching Design Thinking and its related skills and processes. As a basis for such a method, this research investigated 51 selected courses across 28 international universities to determine what Design Thinking is being taught (content), and how it is being taught (assessment and learning modes). To support the teaching and assessment of Design Thinking, this paper presents The Educational Design Ladder, an innovative resource/model that provides a process for the organisation and structuring of units for a multidisciplinary Design Thinking programme.

Advancing practice in critical care: A model of knowledge integration

It could be argued that advancing practice in critical care has been superseded by the advanced practice agenda. Some would suggest that advancing practice is focused on the core attributes of an individuals practice progressing onto advanced practice status. However, advancing practice is more of a process than identifiable skills and as such is often negated when viewing the development of practitioners to the advanced practice level. For example practice development initiatives can be seen as advancing practice for the masses which ensures that practitioners are following the same level of practice. The question here is; are they developing individually.

Assessing performance in critical care nursing practice using the Benner Novice to expert model: A pilot study

Background It is often believed that by ensuring the ongoing completion of competency documents and life-long learning in nursing practice guarantees quality patient care. This is probably true in most cases where it provides reassurances that the nursing team is maintaining a safe “generalised” level of practice. However, competency does not always promise quality performance. There are a number of studies that have reported differences in what practitioners know and what they actually do despite being deemed competent. Aim The aim of this study was to assess whether our current competency documentation is fit for purpose and to ascertain whether performance assessment needs to be a key component in determining competence. Method 15 nurses within a General ICU who had been on the unit <4 years agreed to participate in this project. Using participant observation and assessing performance against key indicators of the Benner Novice to Expert5 model the participants were supported and assessed over the course of a ‘normal’ nursing shift. Results The results were surprising both positively and negatively. First, the nurses felt more empowered in their clinical decision making skills; second, it identified individual learning needs and milestones in educational development. There were some key challenges identified which included 5 nurses over estimating their level of competence, practice was still very much focused on task acquisition and skill and surprisingly some nurses still felt dominated by the other health professionals within the unit. Conclusion We found that the capacity and capabilities of our nursing workforce needs continual ongoing support especially if we want to move our staff from capable task-doer to competent performers. Using the key novice to expert indicators identified the way forward for us in how we assess performance and competence in practice particularly where promotion to higher grades is based on existing documentation.

Thinking critically about rural crime: The influence of William J. Chambliss

William J. Chambliss (Bill) is well-known for his path-breaking theories of lawmaking and for his innovative research on state-organized crime. However, rarely discussed is the fact that his study of the original vagrancy laws marked the birth of rural critical criminology. The main objective of this article is twofold: (1) to show how Bill helped shape contemporary rural critical criminology and (2) to provide suggestions for further critical theoretical and empirical work on rural crime and social control.