The role of radiotherapy patients in provision of student interpersonal skills feedback

Background At Queensland University of Technology, student radiation therapists receive regular feedback from clinical staff relating to clinical interpersonal skills. Although this is of great value, there is anecdotal evidence that students communicate differently with patients when under observation. Purpose The aim of this pilot was to counter this perceived observer effect by allowing patients to provide students with additional feedback. Materials and methods Radiotherapy patients from two departments were provided with anonymous feedback forms relating to aspects of student interpersonal skills. Clinical assessors, mentors and students were also provided with feedback forms, including questions about the role of patient feedback. Patient perceptions of student performance were correlated with staff feedback and assessment scores. Results Results indicated that the feedback was valued by both students and patients. Students reported that the additional dimension focused them on communication, set goals for development and increased motivation. These changes derived from both feedback and study participation, suggesting that the questionnaires could be a useful teaching tool. Patients scored more generously than mentors, although there was agreement in relative grading. Conclusions The anonymous questionnaire is a convenient and valuable method of gathering patient feedback on students. Future iterations will determine the optimum timing for this method of feedback.

Promoting law student well-being through the curriculum

The Australian tertiary sector is becoming increasingly concerned about the psychological well-being of its students.Empirical research in Australia indicates that more than one-third of law students suffer from psychological distress, and the competitive, isolated, adversarial learning environment at law school has been suggested as partly responsible (Brain and Mind Research Institute, 2009). This fellowship program has mobilised strategic change to improve the psychological health of law students. It has lead and stimulated advancement in the legal curriculum, its pedagogy, and assessment practice to better engage, motivate and support student learning of law, focussing on the potential of non-adversarial legal practice. A new conceptual framework for legal education has been developed, demonstrating the pursuit of excellence in the teaching of law, and raising the profile of learning and teaching in Australian law schools. In addition the fellowship has created a national community of practice around this issue through the Wellness Network for Law, and made significant contributions to research and scholarship in the field.

Student interactivity and teacher participation: An application of legitimate peripheral participation in higher education online learning environments

Lave and Wenger’s legitimate peripheral participation is an important aspect of online learning environments. It is common for teachers to scaffold varying levels of online participation in Web 2.0 contexts, such as online discussion forums and blogs. This study argues that legitimate peripheral participation needs to be redefined in response to students’ decentralised multiple interactions and non-linear engagement in hyperlinked learning environments. The study examines students’ levels of participation in online learning through theories of interactivity, distinguishing between five levels of student participation in the context of a first-year university course delivered via a learning management system. The data collection was implemented through two instruments: i) a questionnaire about students’ interactivity perception in the online reflective learning (n = 238) and then ii) an open discussion on the reason for the diverse perceptions of interactivity (n = 34). The study findings indicate that student participants, other than those who were active, need high levels of teacher or moderator intervention, which better enables legitimate peripheral participation to occur in online learning contexts.

The forgotten ones : a case study on conceptualising and implementing a peer mentoring program for postgraduate coursework students

We employed an action research approach to develop a context specific peer mentoring program (Postgrad Assist) that aids first year postgraduate coursework (PGCW) students in their transition to postgraduate study. We explored the transition literature and best practice approaches, undertook comprehensive surveys of both our students and staff, conducted student focus groups, formed a diverse working party, with strong representation from students and adopted an on-going evaluation program to develop and refine Postgrad Assist. The program substantially alleviated transitioning students’ cultural and academic shock, and social isolation. The program makes a contribution to the transition and mentoring research domain in that it challenges the common misconception that PGCW students are similar to undergraduate students with no particular distinguishing features that would suggest a need for a different approach to their mentoring.

Blended delivery and online assessment : scaffolding student reflections in work-integrated learning

This paper documents a teaching innovation addressing the challenges of embedding and assessing reflective practice in work-integrated learning, specifically marketing internships. We identify four issues relating to this problem: lack of knowledge or skill for reflection, limitations of physical journals, facilitation of different forms of reflection, and suitable models for teaching and assessing reflection. The paper outlines a blended approach combining face-to-face workshops and online resources, and using online reflective journals and digital stories as assessment. The approach and assessment tasks can be implemented in a variety of marketing and business units.

Synthesizing form and data : developing practices for student engagement and learning

We explore the relationship between form and data as a design agenda and learning strategy for novice visual information designers. Our students are university seniors in digital, visual design but novices to information design, manipulation and interpretation. We describe design strategies developed to scaffold sophisticated aesthetic and conceptual engagement despite limited understanding of the domain of designing with information. These revolve around an open-ended design project where students created a physical design from data of their choosing and research. The accompanying learning strategies concern this relationship between data and form to investigate it materially, formally and through ideation. Exemplifying student works that cross media and design domains are described.

The urgent need for career preview: Student expectations and graduate realities in music and dance

Unlike the work available in many creative disciplines, musicians and dancers have the possibility of full-time, company-based employment; however, participants far outweigh the number of available positions. As a result, many graduates become ‘enforced entrepreneurs’ as they shape their work to meet personal and professional needs. This paper first explores the career projections of 58 music and dance students who were surveyed in their first week of post-secondary study. It then contrasts these findings with the reality of graduate careers as reported by five of that cohort four years later. In contrast with the students’ overwhelming focus on performance roles, the graduate cohort reported a prevalence of portfolio careers incorporating both creative and non-creative roles. The paper characterises the notion of a performing arts ‘career’ as a messy concept fraught with misunderstanding. Implications include the need to heighten students’ career awareness and position intrinsic satisfaction as a valued career concept.

Becoming a pharmacist : students' perceptions of their curricular experience and professional identity formation

Introduction Student professional identity formation is important for enabling the successful transition between academic education and professional practice. Recognition of this has resulted in significant changes in professional education (e.g., the inclusion of experiential placements and authentic learning experiences). There is limited research that examines how the curricular experience influences pharmacy studentsʼ professional identity formation. Methods Using focus groups, comprising 82 students from all levels of a four-year Australian undergraduate pharmacy course, this study examined studentsʼ perceptions of their overall curricular experience and examined how these experiences influenced the construction of their professional identities. Results Our analysis found that the pharmacy students struggled with their professional identity formation. Many were entering the degree with little understanding of what being a pharmacist entailed. Once in the educational context, the nature of the role became both apparent and idealistic but not enacted. Students experienced dissonance between the idealistic notion of pharmacy practice and the realities of placements, and this may have been enhanced by a lack of patient-centered care role models. This struggle left them concluding that the role of the pharmacist was constrained and limited. Conclusions We argue that professional identity formation needs to be in the foreground from commencement of the degree and throughout the curriculum.

Case Study 4: Education Doctoral Student - "An Exploratory Study of Online Social Networking within a Doctorate of Education Program"

Introduction The professional doctorate is specifically designed for professionals investigating real-world problems and relevant issues for a profession, industry, and/or the community. The focus is scholarly research into professional practices. The research programme bridges academia and the professions, and offers doctoral candidates the opportunity to investigate issues relevant to their own practices and to apply these understandings to their professional contexts. The study on which this article is based sought to track the scholarly skill development of a cohort of professional doctoral students who commenced the course in January 2008 at an Australian university. Because they hold positions of responsibility and are time-poor, many doctoral students have difficulty transitioning from professional practitioner to researcher and scholar. The struggle many experience is in the development of a theoretical or conceptual standpoint for argumentation (Lesham, 2007; Weese et al., 1999). It was thought that the use of a scaffolded learning environment that drew upon a blended learning approach incorporating face to face intensive blocks and collaborative knowledge-building tools such as wikis would provide a data source for understanding the development of scholarly skills. Wikis, weblogs and similar social networking software have the potential to support communities to share, learn, create and collaborate. The development of a wiki page by each candidate in the 2008 cohort was encouraged to provide the participants and the teaching team members with textual indicators of progress. Learning tasks were scaffolded with the expectation that the candidates would complete these tasks via the wikis. The expectation was that cohort members would comment on each other’s work, together with the supervisor and/or teaching team member who was allocated to each candidate. The supervisor is responsible for supervising the candidate’s work through to submission of the thesis for examination and the teaching team member provides support to both the supervisor and the candidate through to confirmation. This paper reports on the learning journey of a cohort of doctoral students during the first seven months of their professional doctoral programme to determine if there had been any qualitative shifts in understandings, expectations and perceptions regarding their developing knowledge and skills. The paper is grounded in the literature pertaining to doctoral studies and examines the structure of the professional doctoral programme. Following this is a discussion of the qualitative study that helped to unearth key themes regarding the participants’ learning journey.

Improving criteria and feedback in student assessment in law

Spurred on by both the 1987 Pearce Report1 and the general changes to higher education spawned by the “Dawkins revolution” from 1988, there has been much critical self-evaluation leading to profound improvements to the quality of teaching in Australian law schools.2 Despite the changes there are still areas of general law teaching practice which have lagged behind recent developments in our understanding of what constitutes high quality teaching. One such area is assessment criteria and feedback. The project Improving Feedback in Student Assessment in Law is an attempt to remedy this. It aims to produce a manual containing key principles for the design of assessment and the provision of feedback, with practical yet flexible ideas and illustrations which law teachers may adopt or modify. Most of the examples have been developed by teachers at the University of Melbourne Law School. The project was supported in 1996 by a Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching grant and the manual will be published late in 1997.3 This note summarises the core principles which are elaborated further in the manual.