Teaching in practice : work integrated design learning and practice readiness for architecture students

This literature review describes the theoretical basis for developing a pedagogical model of higher education/industry engagement for the built environment and related design disciplines, with a focus on architecture. In particular, attention is given to the conceptualisation informing the development of such a model as a form of work integrated learning (WIL). In the discussion, the use and development of WIL in architecture will be placed in the historical context of Cooperative Education as a whole. The objective of the paper is to present ideas about the way in which design education relocated to practice might better prepare students for professional life.

Aiming to capitalize on the work place as a location for authentic learning, the paper will propose a form of WIL that will be termed “Teaching in Practice” (TiP). A prime aim of such a model is to bridge the growing gap between academia and the profession by enabling students to learn design from practitioners within a practice environment. The paper will argue that TiP allows practitioners to have a direct influence on design education, and thus establishes connections between academia and the professions that ensure built environment education remains relevant to industry needs.

The role of representation in teaching and learning ideas about matter

The research described in this paper is designed around the notion that learning involves the recognition and development of students’ representational resources. This paper describes a classroom sequence in Ideas about Matter that focuses on representations and their negotiation, and reports on the effectiveness of this perspective in guiding teaching, and in providing further insight into student learning. Classroom sequences involving two experienced teachers (2008, Year 8 students) and an inexperienced teacher (2010, Year 7 students) were videotaped using a combined focus on the teacher and groups of students. Video analysis software was used to code the variety of representations used teachers and students, and sequences of representational negotiation. The paper reports on the effect of this approach on teacher pedagogy and on student learning of Ideas about Matter. The paper will present data from video of classroom activities, students’ work samples, student and teacher interviews and pre and post-unit testing, to explore what a representational focus might entail in teaching Ideas about Matter, and the role of representations in learning and reasoning and exploring scientific ideas.

The best of all worlds : immersive interfaces for art education in virtual and real world teaching and learning environments

A collaborative constructivist model of e-learning enabled second year undergraduate students and art educators to establish a community of learners within an augmented immersive learning environment. Artistic practice and work based learning was enhanced through the creation of digital artifacts to support shared knowledge building using authentic learning tasks and social networking.

Immersive interfaces for art education teaching and learning in virtual and real world learning environments

Comparative evaluation of PBL and traditional lecturebased teaching in undergraduate engineering courses : evidence from controlled learning environment

Project and problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely recognised as an active, collaborative, cumulative and integrative learning approach that engages learners, motivates team creativity and centres on practical education. On the other hand, traditional lecture-tutorial teaching is often criticised for being a passive, surface learning and exam-focused approach. In spite of these evidence-based observations and claims over the years, the traditional lecture-tutorial teaching approach still dominates as the preferred teaching approach at Australian universities. This study sets up a control environment to compare these two teaching and learning approaches by analysing data from students' actual performance, course evaluation and expectation in two large undergraduate engineering courses in 2009 and 2010. The evidence reported in this study is broadly interesting in that both courses were taught by the same teaching staff using two entirely different learning and teaching approaches to the same cohort of students in the same semester within the same degree program. The analysis shows that there are significant differences between the students' actual performance, course evaluation and their expectation. Such conflicting differences may be some of the reasons that may negatively impact teaching staff deterring them from switching to PBL from traditional lecture-tutorial teaching.

Immersive interfaces for art education teaching and learning in virtual and real world learning environments

Selected ubiquitous technologies encourage collaborative participation between higher education students and educators within a virtual socially networked e-learning landscape. Multiple modes of teaching and learning, ranging from real world experiences, to text and digital images accessed within the Deakin Studies Online learning management system and a constructed virtual world in which the user's creative imagination transports them to the “other side” of their computer screens is discussed in this paper. These constructed environments support interaction between communities of learners and enable multiple simultaneous participants to access graphically built 3D environments, interact with digital artifacts and various functional tools and represent themselves through avatars, to communicate with other participants and engage in collaborative art learning. A narrative interpretative research approach was used to profile the 21st century higher education student learner, to investigate the lived experience and multiple art learning perspectives documented in student visual journal entries and art educator observations to ascertain if an e-technology rich augmented learning environment resulted in the establishment of more effective e-learning communities of practice.

The best of all worlds: Immersive interfaces for art education in virtual and real world teaching and learning environments

A narrative interpretative research methodology was used to investigate collaboration between higher education students and an art educator with the aim of establishing a community of learners. Located, Cloud based and graphically built 3D virtual, socially networked, e-learning environments were used to encourage synchronous and asynchronous student participation in authentic learning and collaborative art practice. Discussion focuses on art educator observations, student visual journal entries, their virtual exhibition of artworks on Deakin Art Education Island in Second Life and student evaluations of the unit Navigating the Visual World. It was concluded that immersion in an e-technology rich blended learning environment resulted in the establishment of an effective e-learning community of art.

Framing and enhancing distributed leadership in the quality management of online learning environments in higher education

This article reports on the findings of senior leadership interviews in a nationally funded project on distributed leadership in the quality management of online learning environments (OLEs) in higher education. Questions were framed around the development of an OLE quality management framework and the situation of the characteristics of distributed leadership at the core of the framework. The project’s premise is that distributed leadership is a descriptive reality of managing OLEs given the various leadership parties involved and the complexities of the contemporary technological landscape. Leaders’ understandings of distributed leadership were examined—its nature, value and potential for advancing the quality management of OLEs. There was confirmatory evidence of its reality, but its meaning and value were not uncritically accepted. It can be concluded that building distributed leadership must start through deliberative formal leadership commitment and action starting at the highest levels of the institution.

The Impact of Teaching Presence in Intensive Online Courses on Perceived Learning and Sense of Community: A Mixed Methods Study

This mixed methods concurrent triangulation design study was predicated upon two models that advocated a connection between teaching presence and perceived learning: the Community of Inquiry Model of Online Learning developed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000); and the Online Interaction Learning Model by Benbunan-Fich, Hiltz, and Harasim (2005). The objective was to learn how teaching presence impacted students’ perceptions of learning and sense of community in intensive online distance education courses developed and taught by instructors at a regional comprehensive university. In the quantitative phase online surveys collected relevant data from participating students (N = 397) and selected instructional faculty (N = 32) during the second week of a three-week Winter Term. Student information included: demographics such as age, gender, employment status, and distance from campus; perceptions of teaching presence; sense of community; perceived learning; course length; and course type. The students claimed having positive relationships between teaching presence, perceived learning, and sense of community. The instructors showed similar positive relationships with no significant differences when the student and instructor data were compared. The qualitative phase consisted of interviews with 12 instructors who had completed the online survey and replied to all of the open-response questions. The two phases were integrated using a matrix generation, and the analysis allowed for conclusions regarding teaching presence, perceived learning, and sense of community. The findings were equivocal with regard to satisfaction with course length and the relative importance of the teaching presence components. A model was provided depicting relationships between and among teaching presence components, perceived learning, and sense of community in intensive online courses.

Chicana, Indian and Sudanese Perspectives of Teaching in the Academy: Three Levels of Experience in the Teaching-Learning and Social Environment

“Women of color from any culture or country face additional barriers in predominantly white institutions. This panel presents perspectives and experiences of three women from three cultures and three different levels of academia—a Chicana Latino visiting professor, a graduate teaching assistant from India, and a Sudanese graduate research assistant.”

"Innovatio educativa tertio millennio": 12 years evoluting from learning from learning to teaching in courses on educational innovation and collaboration with the UNESCO chair of mining and industrial heritage

Twelve years ago a group of teachers began to work in educational innovation. In 2002 we received an award for educational innovation, undergoing several stages. Recently, we have decided to focus on being teachers of educational innovation. We create a web scheduled in Joomla offering various services, among which we emphasize teaching courses of educational innovation. The “Instituto de Ciencias de la Educacion” in “Universidad Politécnica de Madrid” has recently incorporated two of these courses, which has been highly praised. These courses will be reissued in new calls, and we are going to offer them to more Universities. We are in contact with several institutions, radio programs, the UNESCO Chair of Mining and Industrial Heritage, and we are working with them in the creation of heritage courses using methods that we have developed.

A help to the Acts of the apostles : adapted to the lesson system of reading and teaching the Scriptures, and embodying the "Exercises on the Acts," used by children in learning that book.

Mode of access: Internet.