Aligning students and staff perspectives in an engineering design curriculum

This paper focuses on the alignment of students and staff perspectives in an engineering design curriculum. Deakin University recognised the importance of student learning with engagement in design-centred education. Staff across the university are committed to ensure that students are engaged at a fairly deep learning level. Engaging students is an important aspect of learning and teaching process because it enhances the student to be self directed active learners. To measure the student engagement and staff experiences in learning and teaching process, Deakin engineering has used design based learning as one of its engineering learning principle. This study examines students perceptions of DBL in their curriculum through a paper based survey given to a cohort of senior year undergraduate engineering students. The research also illustrates the staff perceptions of DBL in engineering curriculum by conducting face-to-face interviews with them. From the analysed results, this research shows that the students and staff have an adequate experience of learning and teaching engineering through design based learning approach in an engineering design curriculum.

An update of Murrayan needs: A pilot study among American college students

Much research work on motives has been based on the taxonomy of psychogenic needs originally proposed by Murray and his colleagues in 1938. However, many of these needs have received little attention, and some of them may be less relevant now than they were 70 years ago. Two studies were conducted to investigate current motives. In Study 1, we used the Striving Assessment to elicit the personal strivings of 255 undergraduate university students. Murray’s taxonomy was unable to account for 50% of the 2,937 strivings. These strivings were thematically groups into 11 new categories and combined with 7 Murrayan needs to form the Comprehensive Motivation Coding System (CMCS). In Study 2, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories produced by 143 undergraduate student participants were coded by these two systems. Murray’s system was unable to fully account for 42% of motives identified in the TAT stories, but the CMCS was able to account for 89%. These findings suggest that Murrayan needs may not adequately describe contemporary motivations and that the CMCS has the potential to do so. However, due to the limited demographics of our sample, further investigations are needed.

Evaluating objective structured clinical assessment (OSCA) in undergraduate nursing

The aims of this mixed methods study were to gain insight into how individual assessors determine an Objective Structured Clinical Assessment (OSCA) result for undergraduate nursing students and identify whether individual assessor perceptions and professional characteristics have an impact on students' results. Results from 25 participants showed that although less than half (44%) of the participants were teaching in the course that they were assessing, the participants were highly experienced clinicians and nearly three-quarters (72%) had completed formal teaching qualifications. There were wide variations in pass rates (16.7–90%) between assessors. The widest disparity was observed between assessors with and those without critical care experience (66% versus 39%), as well as assessors who were teaching the course and those who were not (68% versus 49%). Qualitative analysis revealed three dominant themes within participants' transcripts. The themes focused on determining student safety, and the use of personal perceptions and clinical experience to determine competency. Findings indicate that assessors' individual perceptions and clinical experience have the potential to influence and determine undergraduate nursing students OSCA results. Development of criteria standards and objective assessment may be enhanced by greater involvement of assessors and thorough education and training within the context of student assessments.

Enhancing critical analysis and problem-solving skills in undergraduate psychology: An evaluation of a collaborative learning and problem-based learning approach

Critical analysis and problem-solving skills are two graduate attributes that are important in ensuring that graduates are well equipped in working across research and practice settings within the discipline of psychology. Despite the importance of these skills, few psychology undergraduate programmes have undertaken any systematic development, implementation, and evaluation of curriculum activities to foster these graduate skills. The current study reports on the development and implementation of a tutorial programme designed to enhance the critical analysis and problem-solving skills of undergraduate psychology students. Underpinned by collaborative learning and problem-based learning, the tutorial programme was administered to 273 third year undergraduate students in psychology. Latent Growth Curve Modelling revealed that students demonstrated a significant linear increase in self-reported critical analysis and problem-solving skills across the tutorial programme. The findings suggest that the development of inquiry-based curriculum offers important opportunities for psychology undergraduates to develop critical analysis and problem-solving skills. © 2013 The Australian Psychological Society.

Understanding global student mobility: exploring new ways of capturing international experiences using in-county overseas students

Australian universities have large numbers of overseas students who do not engage meaningfully with local students about their international experience. The objective of this research, an initiative that was part of a project funded by Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), entitled the Global Canopy, was to develop pedagogy to promote local students’ awareness about international study based on an in-country teaching program. The research study aimed to develop new knowledge about how domestic students understand global mobility through interacting with international students enrolled in the same university. The initiative included two workshops that brought together a number of project team members, three overseas students and academic staff mentors, representatives from Deakin Global Student Mobility office, and 31 undergraduate domestic students. Data was collected from a series of in-depth interviews with students involved in the program. Initial findings suggested that the workshops were successful, with 12 undergraduate students enrolled in winter schools in India after completion of the program. The paper concludes with lessons learned from the initiative and calls for exploring new ways of identifying international experiences that can be facilitated within discipline curriculum of the home university.

Accelerating mathematics learners : what counts?

This article elaborates on my statements quoted in The Age October 2014 article 'More students take on VCE mathematics subject early'. (http://theage.com.au/victoria/more-students-take-on-vce-subjects-early-20141024-11b4rv.html). This article was about accelerating mathematics students by allowing them to take year 11 Mathematics subjects in year 10, and year 12 Mathematics subjects in year 11. My statements were 'Although 'taking on Year 12 subjects early could help students prepare for the workload once they reach their final year ... based on my research and teaching experience, you don't take on early those subjects that are going to be key to your university studies' because 'going early means you are going to rely much more heavily on learning things faster.

Towards identifying factors underlying readiness for online learning: an exploratory study

To test the potential value of McVay's (2000) Readiness for Online Learning questionnaire for research and practice, the instrument was administered to 107 undergraduate university students drawn from a range of courses in the United States and Australia. The questionnaire was subjected to a reliability analysis and a factor analysis. The instrument fared well in the reliability analysis, and yielded a two-factor structure that was readily interpretable in a framework of existing theory and research. Factors identified were "Comfort with e-learning" and "Self-management of learning." It is suggested that the instrument is useful for both research and practice, but would be enhanced through further work on 5 of the 13 items. Additionally, further work is required to establish predictive validity.

The determination of urea with hypobromite: a theme for the discussion of numerous fundamental concepts in chemistry

Over the past century, numerous aspects of the reaction between urea and hypobromite have been exploited to quantify urea in clinical and industrial process samples. A review of these analytical approaches provides an interesting illustration of changes in a chemical system that indicate a reaction has occurred-the production of a gas, a color change, the release of heat, and the emission of light-and a variety of instruments that were developed to measure these changes and quantify a reacting species. In this paper we describe how we have used this material in a tutorial class for first-year undergraduate (freshman) students and a follow-up assignment, which we have included in the supporting material. In addition to the concepts exemplified by the above phenomena, we discuss the reaction pathway, which includes examples of ion and atom transfer. These are
often overlooked in favor of electron transfer in the teaching of redox chemistry.

The role of alcohol expectancy and drinking refusal self-efficacy beliefs in university student drinking

Aims: University student alcohol misuse is a considerable problem. Alcohol expectancy research has contributed significantly to our understanding of problem drinking in young adults. Most of this research has investigated positive expectancy alone. The current study utilized two measures of alcohol expectancy, the alcohol expectancy questionnaire (AEQ) and the drinking expectancy profile [consisting of the drinking expectancy questionnaire (DEQ) and the drinking refusal self-efficacy questionnaire] to predict severity of alcohol dependence, frequency of drinking, and the quantity of alcohol consumed per occasion. Methods: Measures of drinking behaviour and alcohol expectancy were completed by 174 undergraduate university students. Results: Positive alcohol expectancy factors accounted for significant variance in all three drinking indices, with the DEQ adding additional variance to AEQ scores on frequency and severity of alcohol dependence indices. Negative expectancy did not add incremental variance to the prediction of drinking behaviour in this sample. Drinking refusal self-efficacy and dependence beliefs added additional variance over positive and negative expectancies in the prediction of all three drinking parameters. Conclusions: Positive expectancy and drinking refusal self-efficacy were strongly related to university student drinking. The incorporation of expectancy as a means of informing prevention approaches in tertiary education shows promise.

Zero impact: are lawyers' values affected by law school?(Survey)

In 2001 approximately 700 Australian final-year undergraduate law students were surveyed as the first part of a three-year study of Australian lawyers' values. This study is being undertaken in an effort to understand what values are important in determining lawyers' attitudes to difficult behavioural choices confronting them in legal practice. It is hoped that knowledge of the actual values held by lawyers (in the context of critical professional choices) will enable better targeted values awareness education in both pre- and post-admission contexts.

The main quantitative survey employed a number of hypothetical scenarios. These were designed through the use of ethical dilemmas to examine issues of conflicting loyalties within a context of self-interest and lawyers' perceived obligations to the community, employers, family, friends and clients. (1)

Our approach in this paper is to set the scene by providing basic frequencies to responses in each scenario, followed by an analysis of themes elicited from respondents during the focus groups. Our immediate objective is to provide representative interviewee (that is, respondent) commentary designed to throw some light on the major choices of those respondents in the first year of the main quantitative survey. (2) Note that these focus groups were conducted some months after the quantitative analyses, and in particular after respondents had left law school. All respondents were, by that stage, working within a variety of legal workforce environments. In this analysis, it must be stressed, we have not attempted to match and compare individual respondents' comments with their earlier choices in the quantitative survey. That task awaits the longitudinal analysis now under way for the whole period of data collection during the three-year study.

Determinants of student readiness for flexible learning : Some preliminary findings

An exploratory study using a questionnaire and focus group interviews was conducted amongst a small sample of first-year, first-semester, undergraduate design students from the Faculty of Art and Design at Monash University, Australia, to determine their readiness for off-campus, flexible, independent learning. The study explores common problems, similarities and differences among learners from South East Asia, other international students, and local Australian students. Findings of the study are presented under five key themes: dependence on the teacher and the classroom environment; flexible learning and working alone; structure; communication; and work patterns. The article details approaches to study of first-year undergraduates taking a creative unit such as design and concludes by discussing the possible cultural attributes that have an impact on the learning as well as related concerns and problems.

Peer mentoring in an accounting setting : a case study of mentor skill development

This paper provides the background to the adoption of a peer mentoring program including the preparation of mentors and the classroom role of mentors. The paper also includes a discussion of alternative models of peer mentoring and an examination of factors to be considered in adopting mentoring as a teaching and learning resource. Using a case study of third-year undergraduate accounting students who were employed to mentor fellow students in a second-year accounting unit at an Australian university, the paper examines peer mentoring as a classroom resource in the teaching of accounting concepts. The study includes an evaluation of the perceptions of generic skill development by peer mentors illustrating how mentoring can be a reciprocal process, in that the mentor's skills can be enhanced while fulfilling a supporting role to junior students. The programme evaluation also demonstrated that accounting educators could contribute to the development of students' generic skills outside the traditional classroom setting.

What can student-generated diagrams tell us about their understanding of chemical equations?

Chemical equations are representations that use symbols to summarise the net changes occurring in a reaction whereas depictions such as drawings of the submicroscopic level provide representations of the chemical transformations. While the ability to balance and interpret chemical equations is key to understanding many concepts in chemistry, many undergraduate chemistry students struggle to master these skills. The equations contain a great deal of implicit information and novices may not be able to make the connection between the equation and the actual chemical transformations that are occurring. This paper reports on a study which used submicroscopic diagrams to probe students' understanding of chemical equations. Assessment tasks required students to interpret diagrams, construct diagrams and to relate diagrams to symbolic representations. The analysis showed that some students have misconceptions about the molecular nature and chemical formulae and could not distinguish between coefficients and subscripts when representing chemical formulae. While students were generally able to balance a chemical equation presented as a set of diagrams, a significant number could not generate the balanced equation based on a diagram of the progress of a reaction, The study has demonstrated the use of student-generated diagrams to provide insight into students' understandings of chemical equations.

Game situation information in video-based perceptual decision making : the influence of criticality of decisions

This study examined the effects of game situation information, manipulated in terms of time and score, on decisions made in a video-based perceptual test in basketball. The participants were undergraduate university students (n=159) who viewed 21 offensive basketball plays, under two test conditions (low decision criticality; high decision criticality). To manipulate the conditions, prior to each clip, the
participants were presented with a description of the remaining time and score differential. High decision criticality situations were characterised by a remaining time of 60 seconds or less and score differentials of 2 points or less. Low decision criticality situations were characterised by remaining time of 5 minutes or more and score differentials of 5 points or more. The participants indicated their decision (pass, shoot, dribble) after the visual display had been occluded for each clip. The results indicated that decision profiles differed under the low and high decision criticality conditions. More pass decisions were made under high decision criticality situations and more shoot decisions under low decision criticality situations. These variations differed according to the type of main sport played but not for the basketball competition level. It was concluded that game situation information does influence decision making and should be considered in video-based testing and training.

Clinical teachers' conceptions of nursing

Lack of knowledge exists about clinical teachers’ understanding of nursing. A likely relationship between teachers’ conceptions of nursing and what they focus on when teaching nursing students in the clinical setting means that the identification of different conceptions of nursing is important. This study investigated clinical teachers’ experiences of nursing and clinical teaching of undergraduate nursing students. This article reports on clinical teachers’ conceptions of nursing. Semistructured interviews of 20 nurses employed as clinical teachers in Australian universities were conducted. Data were analyzed using a phenomenographic approach. The findings suggest that nursing is conceived as performing tasks; providing appropriate care; providing individualized patient care aimed at achieving patient outcomes; or collaborating with health care team members to provide appropriate, individualized patient care aimed at achieving patient outcomes. Insights will assist with future preparation and support of clinical teachers, the education of nursing students, and improved curriculum design.