Student perceptions: Improving the educational experiences of high school students on the autism spectrum

Listening to and reflecting on the voices and personal stories of adolescent students with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is critically important to developing more inclusive approaches to their education. This article considers the experiences of nine adolescents with an ASD on their inclusive education in a large urban secondary school in Australia. These educational experiences were mapped onto four themes emanating from a similar study by Humphrey and Lewis from the United Kingdom. The results from both studies suggest that although students with ASD are having positive and enabling educational experiences, a number of common inhibitors continue to prevent them from taking full advantage of their schooling. By listening to the voices of students with ASD, specific enablers and inhibitors to promoting successful educational experiences are identified, and recommendations for practice are put forward to better support the education not only of students with ASD but all students.

‘Works well with others’ : examining the different types of small group learning approaches and their implications for law student learning outcomes

In the current regulatory climate, there is increasing expectation that law schools will be able to demonstrate students’ acquisition of learning outcomes regarding collaboration skills. We argue that this is best achieved through a stepped and structured whole-of-curriculum approach to small group learning. ‘Group work’ provides deep learning and opportunities to develop professional skills, but these benefits are not always realised for law students. An issue is that what is meant by ‘group work’ is not always clear, resulting in a learning regime that may not support the attainment of desired outcomes. This paper describes different types of ‘group work', each associated with distinct learning outcomes. It suggests that ‘group work’ as an umbrella term to describe these types is confusing, as it provides little indication to students and teachers of the type of learning that is valued and is expected to take place. ‘Small group learning’ is a preferable general descriptor. Identifying different types of small group learning allows law schools to develop and demonstrate a scaffolded, sequential and incremental approach to fostering law students’ collaboration skills. To support learning and the acquisition of higherorder skills, different types of small group learning are more appropriate at certain stages of the program. This structured approach is consistent with social cognitive theory, which suggests that with the guidance of a supportive teacher, students can develop skills and confidence in one type of activity which then enhances motivation to participate in another.

Teaching dispute resolution in the first year for law student well-being

At the QUT Law School, the most recent curriculum review responded to an increasing demand from the profession for law graduates to be equipped with dispute resolution knowledge, skills and attitudes. From 2015, a compulsory dispute resolution subject will be a critical part of an intentionally designed core first year curriculum. It is important for the Law School at QUT that no graduate of the new curriculum will leave our institution without real world dispute resolution knowledge and skills. This initiative is also grounded in evidenced-based research about the benefits for student well-being that derive from the subject content and pedagogy of dispute resolution. This paper explains why teaching dispute resolution in the first year of the law degree is an important strategy for promoting the well-being of law students.

Sessional academic success : the QUT Law School experience

Sessional academics are an important part of the provision of legal education in higher education with many institutions relying to a large extent on their sessional academics to deliver the teaching program, particularly in the first year. This is particularly relevant to Law Schools as many sessional academics are legal practitioners rather than HDR students. Therefore it is important for both the staff and student experience as well as to the attainment of the learning outcomes that consideration is given to the professional development and training of sessional academics. The QUT Law School has been a participant in a university pilot providing opportunities through the Sessional Academic Success program for academic development, support and developing a sense of belonging for sessional academics. This article will explain the program and initial outcomes and report on the results of surveys and focus groups of sessional academics as well as feedback from fulltime staff. The article will conclude with an analysis of the benefits to sessional academics, students and the School as a whole.

The arts and education for sustainability : shaping student teachers' identities towards sustainability

The Arts are acknowledged for their potential in providing learners with multiple 'languages' with which they might make their learning visible across all levels of education. This chapter explores how the integration of the Arts and education for sustainabilty can provide expanded opportunities for seeing, understanding and responding to the sustainability imperative. Such approaches encourage broad engagement and expression of ideas about sustainability that extend beyond more common approaches that have mostly responded to sustainability through the languages of the Sciences and geography. Traditionally, the Arts have been valued highly by the early childhood education field and typically lie at the heart of early childhood programs. Increasing engagement with the sustainability agenda in early childhood contexts suggests that teachers might find ways to integrate early education for sustainability with the Arts in meaningful ways. This chapter explores how an integrated Arts and Humanities subject in an early childhood teacher education course in Queensland, Australia provides a context for the integration of sustainability as a cross-curricular thread in teacher education, reflecting recent national curriculum innovation in Australia.

Balancing the books : an assessment of financial stress associated with social work and human service student placements

This report presents the findings from a study of the financial impact of work-integrated learning commonly referred to as 'placement' among social work and human services students. Based on a survey of 214 respondants, 14 in-depth interviews and two focus groups, the findings indicate that two thirds of the surveyed group felt tired and anxious about their experience of balancing paid work and placement, with 2 in 5 reporting their learning experience was compromised as a result. The significant implications and potential solutions are also discussed.

When an eco-feedback system joins the family

The dynamic, chaotic, intimate and social nature of family life presents many challenges when designing interactive systems in the household space. This paper presents findings from a whole-of-family approach to studying the use of an energy awareness and management system called “Ecosphere”. Using a novel methodology of inviting 12 families to create their own self-authored videos documenting their energy use, we report on the family dynamics and nuances of family life that shape and affect this use. Our findings suggest that the momentum of existing family dynamics in many cases obstructs behaviour change and renders some family members unaware of energy consumption despite the presence of an energy monitor display in the house. The implication for eco-feedback design is that it needs to recognise and respond to the kinds of family relations into which the system is embedded. In response, we suggest alternative ways of sharing energy-related information among families and incentivising engagement among teenagers.

From music student to industry professional: An entrepreneurial learning design

This design-based research project addresses the gap between formal music education curricula and the knowledge and skills necessary to enter the professional music industry. It analyses the work of a teacher/researcher who invited her high school students to start their own business venture, Youth Music Industries (YMI). YMI also functioned as a learning environment informed by the theoretical concepts of communities of practice and social capital. The students staged cycles of events of various scales over a three-year period, as platforms for young artists to engage and develop new, young audiences across Queensland, Australia. The study found that students developed an entrepreneurial mindset through acquisition of specific skills and knowledge. Their learning was captured and distilled into a set of design principles, a pedagogical approach transferrable across the creative industries more broadly.

The effect of feedback from pupil to teacher on assessment for leaning and visible learning: An ethnographic case study in a community school in England and the outcome in a state high school in Queensland, Australia

This study shows that there is positive regulatory effect of feedback from pupils to teachers on Assessment for Learning (AfL), classroom proactiveness, and on visible and progressive learning but not on behaviour. This research finding further articulates feedback from pupil to teacher as a paradigm shift from the classical paradigm of feedback from teacher to pupil. Here, the emphasis is geared towards pupils understanding of objectives built from previous knowledge. These are then feedback onto the teachers by the pupils in the form of discrete loops of cues and questions, where they are with their learning. This therefore enables them to move to the next level of understanding, and thus acquired independence, which in turn is reflected by their success in both formative and summative assessments. This study therefore shows that when feedback from pupil to teacher is used in combination with teacher to pupil feedback, AfL is ameliorated and hence, visible and accelerated learning occurs in a gender, nor subject non-dependent manner.

Mini-Orb : A personal indoor climate preference feedback interface

The control of environmental factors in open-office environments, such as lighting and temperature is becoming increasingly automated. This development means that office inhabitants are losing the ability to manually adjust environmental conditions according to their needs. In this paper we describe the design, use and evaluation of MiniOrb, a system that employs ambient and tangible interaction mechanisms to allow inhabitants of office environments to maintain awareness of environmental factors, report on their own subjectively perceived office comfort levels and see how these compare to group average preferences. The system is complemented by a mobile application, which enables users to see and set the same sensor values and preferences, but using a screen-based interface. We give an account of the system’s design and outline the results of an in-situ trial and user study. Our results show that devices that combine ambient and tangible interaction approaches are well suited to the task of recording indoor climate preferences and afford a rich set of possible interactions that can complement those enabled by more conventional screen-based interfaces.