Adult learning experience : learning in mixed-mode forms of professional development in the Northern Territory of Australia

This qualitative research is an examination of the experience of learning within a mixed-mode teachers' professional development program. It examines how learning is affected by 'location' - geographic, institutional and personal, and how teaching may take location into account. Approaches to study, influences on learning and transformational learning are explored.

The learning experience of nursing students in a clinical setting

Analysed the experiences of nine baccalaureate degree nursing students in their final year of a School of Nursing in a small provincial acute hospital setting in New Zealand. The findings draw attention to the factors influencing the nursing student's learning experience, and create an awareness for favourable change.

Is this a meaningful learning experience? Interactive critical self-inquiry as investigation

What conditions enable educators to engage in meaningful learning experiences with peers and beginning practitioners? This article documents a self-study on our actions-in-practice in a peer mentoring project. The investigation involved an iterative process to improve our knowledge as teacher educators, reflective practitioners, and researchers. Data sets included: video-stimulated reflections; audiotaped reflexive dialogue; individual and shared reflective writings. Data analyzed through the iterative process revealed competing tensions that were not addressed by the triad, leading to a less than meaningful learning experience. We sought to name the dilemmas and document how they impeded meaningful learning; identifying tensions proved useful in data interpretation. The research led us to focus on the tension between collegiality and criticality. Managing this tension requires being authentic with and accepting of the other and working with cognitive dissonances. Collegiality and criticality together promote reflexivity and increase growth, leading to new professional knowledge.

Utilising the virtual learning environment to encourage faculty reflection and improve the student learning experience

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are the most frequent form of faculty performance in the classroom, though they tend to be used as summative rather than formative evaluations. In this chapter, a project involving the use of a virtual learning environment for formative, weekly SETs is explored from both the student and faculty point of view at a rural university college in the United Kingdom. This project encouraged student participation in creating the learning environment and faculty reflection on how to improve the student experience. From the student perspective, the weekly anonymous evaluations were useful for providing feedback; however, students tended to only respond if they were not satisfied with the faculty member. The exception to this was that some students were more motivated to complete the evaluation forms if they believed the faculty member was utilising their feedback. From the faculty perspective, the feedback was not as detailed as they had expected, and some questioned whether it was worth the effort of conducting formative evaluations if the response rate was so low. Others used the feedback for reflective purposes, and it was found that those that reflected on their work at higher levels tended to receive a greater year-on-year increase in their end of year teaching evaluations.

Online peer mentoring with pre-service teachers : a learning experience

In 2010, 34 pre-service teachers at Deakin University were invited to use Web 2.0 technologies to support practicum in rural and regional schools. Students in their final year of the Bachelor of Education Primary course were given access to an online forum, a ‗ning‘, to facilitate development of mentoring relationships within a community of peers. Access to the ning was presented as an optional extra available only to students undertaking their professional experience in rural and regional settings. Based on the work of Le Cornu (2005), mentoring was framed as a collaborative and collegial arrangement through which participants could hone the interpersonal and critical reflection skills crucial to practicum. A ning was selected as it: 1) allowed the creation of a closed, protected social network with customised options, and 2) requires little technological skills and investment of time from participants in terms of setting up a profile and participating in the online community. These features seemed to make it an ideal platform for pre-service teachers to analyse and reflect on professional experience. However, the small pre-service cohort did not choose to access the site. This unexpected outcome seems to challenge contemporary discourses about the current generation‘s attitudes to web based technology. It also highlights the importance of coupling use of template-based online tools, such as the ning, with awareness of Bourdieu‘s (1977) social capital to ensure uptake. In capturing the learnings from the project and systematically reviewing relevant literature, this paper provides a set of recommendations for conceptualising and engaging pre-service teachers in the use of online forums.

Students' perceptions on using iPods in accounting education : a mobile-learning experience

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to assess the benefits derived from the application of mobile devices as part of the students’ online learning experience and the extent to which the perceived benefits are linked to student learning styles.

Design/methodology/approach – A small group of students enrolled in an exclusively online graduate accounting program were issued with iPods as part of their learning materials. Two data collection instruments were issued: a questionnaire to elicit students’ opinions on the usefulness of the iPod as a tool for learning; and a questionnaire to establish their learning styles (using a VARK© questionnaire).

Findings – The findings indicate that the primary advantage of iPods lies in its portability, which, in turn, facilitated efficient and effective use of time and study planning. The portability attached to iPods allowed students to take advantage of what otherwise have been down-time, such as commuting. Students with a preference for visual learning rated the iPod as being important to their learning.

Research limitations/implications – The generalizability of the findings is limited due to the low sample size (23) that constrains the robustness of the results.

Originality/value – The exploratory nature of this study provides preliminary evidence on the perceived usefulness of handheld devices as a learning tool.

The impact of performance skills on students’ attitudes towards the learning experience in higher education

One way to assist in transforming a lecture experience into an occasion that can attract and engage students is via the use of performance techniques. Investigating the impact of certain types of performance skills on students' attitudes towards the learning experience can help better understand the relevance of such techniques in face to face and online learning experiences. This paper outlines a project which: i) surveyed students about their attitudes towards face to face and online recorded lectures, ii) surveyed students about their attitudes towards performance techniques, in particular, spatial awareness, vocalisation, eye contact and passion, iii) interviewed lecturers about the potential benefits of performance techniques to student learning in the lecture theatre, and iv) investigated which factors most affected a teacher's decision to incorporate performance techniques in the lecture theatre. The results suggest that students and lecturers value face to face delivery of content, recognising the benefit of performance techniques in the lecture theatre. Recommendations are made regarding ways to encourage a wider use and evaluation of performance techniques in teaching and learning at the university level.

Critical Indigenous pedagogy meets transformative education in a third space learning experience

This paper explores the philosophical and theoretical foundations of a first year unit in Aboriginal Studies offered at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle. It explains how the current approach is inclusive of transformative and critical Indigenous pedagogies and taught from an evolving ‘third space’. Each philosophical underpinning is considered briefly, with reference to informal feedback received from students in 2014. What is suggested is that AB100 is indeed transformational for students in ways that are potentially ongoing in both professional and personallives. Given the focus of the University of Notre Dame on training students for the professions this has implications for potential ways of teaching and learning that may require uncapping the usual teaching and learning frameworks to actively incorporate transformative and Indigenous pedagogies. Recommended is the need for further investigation and research into the impact of this approach to learning via an evaluation framework based upon the authors PhD outcomes

Development, evaluation and use of a student experience survey in undergraduate science laboratories: the advancing science by enhancing learning in the laboratory student laboratory learning experience survey

Student experience surveys have become increasingly popular to probe various aspects of processes and outcomes in higher education, such as measuring student perceptions of the learning environment and identifying aspects that could be improved. This paper reports on a particular survey for evaluating individual experiments that has been developed over some 15 years as part of a large national Australian study pertaining to the area of undergraduate laboratories—Advancing Science by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory. This paper reports on the development of the survey instrument and the evaluation of the survey using student responses to experiments from different institutions in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. A total of 3153 student responses have been analysed using factor analysis. Three factors, motivation, assessment and resources, have been identified as contributing to improved student attitudes to laboratory activities. A central focus of the survey is to provide feedback to practitioners to iteratively improve experiments. Implications for practitioners and researchers are also discussed.