The (mis)identification of ineffective classroom teaching practice : critical interrogations of classroom teacher effectiveness research

This paper critiques specific forms of classroom teacher effectiveness research. In doing so, the paper suggests that education policy-making deems and employs teacher effectiveness research as a promising and capable contrivance for the identification of ineffective classroom teaching practice. The paper engages with this policy debate by using a specific policy example from the Australian state of Victoria, the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) Blueprint for Government Schools (2003/2008). Moreover, the attention given to “teacher effectiveness” as the means by which school systems aim to reverse student under-achievement positions classroom teachers as the controlling authority over educational outcomes. Indeed, teacher effectiveness is the defining quality of a policy-making debate that at its core dispenses with broader considerations of possible influence thought to substantially affect the learning outcomes of public school students.

Redesigning learning through social media, Web 2.0 and F2F teaching : an action research study

The focus of this research was to explore how social and participatory media could be used to enhance the face-to-face teaching and learning process. Action research was used to design learning that valued the students’ own experiences and to encourage students to create, connect and form a partnership in the learning process: hence supporting students' strengths and abilities. To monitor and participate in the use of social media required an increase in the teacher's work time. As a partial counter-balance, it was found that the teacher/researcher successfully reduced her time spent on correction by implementing peer and self-assessment and by making more effective use of classroom observations. This led to a valuable triangulation of assessment data. Reviewing many of the screen clips collected in this study, one can see the diversity of roles and activities in which the students were engaged, and their development over time through the action research cycle. Combining Web 2.0, face-to-face teaching and social media, where students made online friends and used pseudonyms, provided students with more choices and flexibility when working, communicating and learning. This research may help curriculum developers interweave new technologies, new literacies and multimodal learning methods into day-to-day learning programs. The developed methods of learning and designs should also be transferable to other educational learning environments.

Teaching and research: establishing the vital link with learning

Much time and effort has gone into trying to demonstrate an empirical link between research activity and teaching performance. In general, the correlations between these factors have been shown to be low. This paper argues that the attempt to find such a link will always be confounded by different conceptions of the two enterprises. The debate about the relationships between teaching and research as presently conceived is not fruitful. It there is a link between the two it operates through that which teaching and research have in common; both are concerned with the act of learning, though in different contexts. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on the ways in which knowledge is generated and communicated. Those aspects of teaching which lead to learning and the learning which occurs through research provide the vital link. This is important if the debate is to progress beyond a political defence of the status quo and be of practical use to considerations of whether, in higher education, teaching without research is to be encouraged.

Uses of management control and performance measurement systems by Deans and Heads in Australian universities: their effects on research, teaching and networking capabilities

Invoking a resource-based view (RBV), this study investigates relationships between management control systems (MCSs) use, including information use from performance measurement systems (PMSs), and organisational capabilities in the context of academic units of Australian universities. Increased competition and attention to distinctive capabilities amongst universities, particularly at their strategic operating unit level of a Faculty1 or School2, provides the setting for application of this theoretic perspective. Based on a questionnaire survey of all Faculty Deans and Heads of Schools in all 39 universities in Australia, evidence is provided on relationships between diagnostic and interactive use of MCSs, attention given to imposed and discretionary types of PMS information, the strength of capabilities of the academic unit and, in turn, overall performance of the academic unit. Highlights of findings are that Heads/Deans conceived capabilities of their unit in functional dimensions, not in generic dimensions as found in prior literature; interactive MCS use and imposed performance measures, respectively, direct relate to several types of capabilities and indirectly to performance of the academic unit, but diagnostic MCS use does not. The findings have practical implications for styles of control systems use and performance information use by management in universities.

A university-based clinical exercise facility that serves as a clinical, teaching and research space

Deakin University opened its Clinical Exercise Learning Centre (CELC) in May 2011, initially staffed by four (now seven) Accredited Exercise Physiologists (AEP), and funded by the university. The main objectives of CELC are to provide (i) excellent clinical practicum learning opportunities for postgraduate students enrolled in the Master of Clinical Exercise Physiology that prepare students for subsequent external placements; (ii) learning opportunities that are vertically integrated with the preparatory components of the Masters, including pathophysiology units and pre-clinical units; (iii) learning opportunities that are also integrated with the external clinical practicum program that is embedded in the Masters; (iv) a clinical service to the community and strong referral networks with local GPs; (v) a research centre that is focussed on evaluating the efficacy of Accredited Exercise Physiology (AEP) services for a range of clinical situations, with a view to contributing to a future national evidence-based practice network supported by ESSA. Deakin University funds the CELC facility, equipment, consumables, limited car parking, practice management software and server and, most importantly, the staff. Therefore CELC runs at a loss even against fees charged and this was built into the original model. Staff include an AEP clinical practicum coordinator, two casual AEPs and several academic AEPs; the latter practise as a small part of their approved workloads. The practice model is for all AEPs to provide clinical services with referred clients who are billed as if CELC is a private practice, whilst concurrently teaching and mentoring students; the latter are expected to be active learners in CELC and have exposure to a wide range of pathologies and clinical situations. Billable hours are always provided by AEPs, not students, but students can assist. CELC provides clinical services 1:1:1 (client: AEP: student), 1:1:5 and 8:1:5. CELC was awarded national runner-up in the ESSA Exercise Physiology clinic of the year in 2011 and has grown its caseload to > 200 referrers in 2013. CELC recently designed a generic research platform and has begun to roll out research projects that are designed to translate 'traditional' research-based evidence of exercise benefits for chronic disease in order to evaluate AEP efficacy of practice in the Australian context. CELC provides a model for other universities, provided those universities see it for its learning value, and not to generate revenue or profit.

Recent trends in research literature on game-based approaches to teaching and coaching games

As suggested by Curry and Light in chapter nine, the expanding output of research on games-based approaches (GBAs) over the past decade has not been reflected in expanding utilisation of GBAs in school-based physical education programmes and club-based sport coaching environments. Reasons for this lack of ‘uptake’ are varied and range from a lack of exposure to effective GBA professional development opportunities to the prolonged acceptance of a performative culture often embedded within physical education and youth sport programmes (Harvey and Jarrett, 2012; Dismore and Bailey, 2010). The literature on games teaching published since Oslin and Mitchell’s review of GBAs in 2006 continues to acknowledge the many benefits of using GBAs, but also acknowledges, and to a lesser extent addresses, the key challenges associated with the employment of learner-centred and GBA pedagogies. This chapter provides an overview of post-2005 research trends in the GBA literature to identify and discuss the prominent themes that arose from this meta-analysis.

Adopting an active learning approach to teaching in a research-intensive higher education context transformed staff teaching attitudes and behaviours

The conventional lecture has significant limitations in the higher education context, often leading to a passive learning experience for students. This paper reports a process of transforming teaching and learning with active learning strategies in a research-intensive educational context across a faculty of 45 academic staff and more than 1000 students. A phased approach was used, involving nine staff in a pilot phase during which a common vision and principles were developed. In short, our approach was to mandate a move away from didactic lectures to classes that involved students interacting with content, with each other and with instructors in order to attain domain-specific learning outcomes and generic skills. After refinement, an implementation phase commenced within all first-year subjects, involving 12 staff including three from the pilot group. The staff use of active learning methods in classes increased by sixfold and sevenfold in the pilot and implementation phases, respectively. An analysis of implementation phase exam questions indicated that staff increased their use of questions addressing higher order cognitive skills by 51%. Results of a staff survey indicated that this change in practice was caused by the involvement of staff in the active learning approach. Fifty-six percent of staff respondents indicated that they had maintained constructive alignment as they introduced active learning. After the pilot, only three out of nine staff agreed that they understood what makes for an effective active learning exercise. This rose to seven out of nine staff at the completion of the implementation phase. The development of a common approach with explicit vision and principles and the evaluation and refinement of active learning were effective elements of our transformational change management strategy. Future efforts will focus on ensuring that all staff have the time, skills and pedagogical understanding required to embed constructively aligned active learning within the approach.

Web-TRECS: teaching electronic commerce

Effective Electronic Commerce (e-Commerce) education for students in such disciplines as Management Information Systems, Accounting and Marketing is paramount. This is because organisations globally need people who are skilled in e-Commerce, from a technical and/or organisational perspective, so that the firms can take advantage of such technologies as the Web. The challenge for business and e-Commerce educators, therefore, is the development of teaching tools and environments which provide tertiary students and business people with practically-based opportunities for learning about the potential of e-Commerce. Business simulation approaches to e-Commerce education are a particularly effective way in which to provide students with these pedagogic opportunities. This paper provides an overview of a Web-based e-Commerce business simulation called Web-TRECS (Teaching Realistic Electronic Commerce Solutions). It then describes how the software components of Web-TRECS have been designed to form the e-Commerce teaching tool. The paper then discusses how Web-TRECS could be used to teach a range of e-Commerce concepts and skills, based on six years of research into the use of e-Commerce business simulations. The paper finally concludes by outlining our future research plans to extend Web-TRECS so that additional e-Commerce concepts and skills might be taught using this tool.

Challenging the handover : recommendations for research and practice

Communicating nursing care during the patient's total hospital stay is a difficult task to achieve within the context of high patient turnover, a lack of overlap time between shifts, and time constraints. Clear and accurate communication is pivotal to delivering high quality care and should be the gold standard in any clinical setting. Handover is a commonly used communication medium that requires review and critique. This study was conducted in five acute care settings at a major teaching hospital. Using a grounded theory approach, it explored the use of three types of handover techniques (verbal in the office, tape-recorded, and bedside handovers). Data were obtained from semi-structured interviews with nurses and participant field observations. Textual data were managed using NUD-IST. Transcripts were critically reviewed and major themes identified from the three types of handovers that illustrated their strengths and weaknesses. The findings of this study revealed that handover is more than just a forum for communicating patient care. It is also used as a place where nurses can debrief, clarify information and update knowledge. Overall, each type of handover had particular strengths and limitations; however, no one type of handover was appraised as being more effective. Achieving the multiple goals of handover presents researchers and clinicians with a challenging task. It is necessary to explore more creative ways of conducting the handover of patient care, so that an important aspect of nursing practice does not get classified as just another ritual.

Numeracy across the curriculum: recognising and responding to the demands and numeracy opportunities inherent in secondary teaching

The 1998 Report of the National Standards and Guidelines for Initial Teacher Education Project, 'Preparing a Profession' illustrates the emphasis being placed in Australia on the development of numeracy skills amongst not only primary but also secondary school pupils. This report demands that graduates of all initial teacher training courses should not only be numerate themselves, but should also understand the contribution of numeracy to education and daily life, and be able to identify and respond to pupils' numeracy learning needs. This report and its implementation in Victoria through the 'Guidelines for the Evaluation of Teacher Education Courses' led to the introduction in 1999 of a compulsory unit 'Numeracy across the curriculum' for all Deakin University students in the final year of their secondary teacher training course. This paper discusses the nature of the current emphasis on numeracy. It also describes the rationale, development and delivery of the first year of the 'Numeracy across the curriculum' unit, provides a brief evaluation from the perspective of staff and students, and discusses what impact such teacher education programs might have on secondary schools' approaches to numeracy.

Part-time research students: are they producing knowledge where it counts?

Over the past twenty years, in Australia and overseas, there has been a steady growth in the numbers of part-time research students. It is possible to view this as substantially a product of "creeping credentialism" following from the previous growth in part-time coursework Masters degrees. However, research degrees are a different kind of credential and program to coursework degrees. They are not only about research training-- in the sense of teaching people how to conceptualise, plan, undertake, analyse and communicate research--but they are also "tested" by the candidate's production of some new and significant knowledge (especially in doctorates). Therefore, unlike coursework degrees, some new public "good" is created and added to the "stock of knowledge". Common criticisms of the "traditional" PhD research degree, in Australia and overseas, are that it is (now) too narrow and specialised for either the graduate or their research findings to be of utility beyond their specialism, the graduates are limited in their communication and workplace skills, and their employment opportunities are relatively weak, especially given the high costs of their research degrees. However, the rise of part-time candidature and of professional doctorates--commonly involving research in workplaces or professions-- suggests that, if this criticism is valid, it would be unlikely to be valid for part-time PhDs and professional doctorates. This article analyses these criticisms in relation to the ways in which part-time research students are positioned within the knowledge economy. It makes an argument for a greater understanding and analysis of the impact and benefits of part-time doctoral students to the knowledge economy and the public good.