Dissonance between conceptions of learning and ways of learning for indigenous Australian university students

This article reports on a phenomenographic investigation into conceptions of learning for 15 Indigenous Australian university students over the three years of their degree courses. The ways in which they went about learning were also investigated along with the relationship between individual students' 'core' conceptions of learning and the ways in which they learned. Results indicated that their conceptions and ways of learning were similar in some respects to those found for other university students. However, some students went about learning in ways that were incongruent with the core conception of learning they held. This can be regarded as dissonance between strategies and conceptions of learning. The implications of this for teaching and learning for such students are discussed.

From a Vicious Circle of Anxiety to a Virtuous Circle of Learning: Experience of Teaching to a Heterogenous Clientele

A considerable body of literature suggests that significant psychological barrier and anxiety characterize the teaching and learning process in statistics. This study investigates the incidence of statistics anxiety, the extent to which it can be overcome and the factors that contribute to the process of overcoming it. Self-study and overall teaching quality, amongst others, significantly contributed to this outcome. This study identifies factors contributing to overall teaching quality. The teaching and learning process typified a highly effective communication mechanism based on an appropriate diagnosis of individual needs. This cumulative change resulted from circular causation. It is argued that given appropriate conditions the vicious circle of anxiety can be transformed into a virtuous circle of learning.

'I never imagined I'd have to teach these children': Providing authentic learning experiences for secondary pre-service teachers in teaching students with special needs

This article describes a collaborative and cross-curricula initiative undertaken in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. The project involved developing an integrated approach to providing professional year pre-service secondary teacher education students with experiences that would assist them to develop their knowledge and skills to teach students with special needs in their classrooms. These experiences were undertaken in the authentic teaching and learning context of a post-school literacy program for young adults with intellectual disabilities. In preliminary interviews pre-service teachers revealed that they lacked experience, knowledge and understanding related to teaching students with special needs, and felt that their teacher education program lacked focus in this field. This project was developed in response to these expressed needs. Through participating in the project, pre-service teachers' knowledge and understanding about working with students with diverse learning needs were developed as they undertook real and purposeful tasks in an authentic context.

Spelling in adults: The combined influences of language skills and reading experience

One hundred and twelve university students completed 7 tests assessing word-reading accuracy, print exposure, phonological sensitivity, phonological coding and knowledge of English morphology as predictors of spelling accuracy. Together the tests accounted for 71% of the variance in spelling, with phonological skills and morphological knowledge emerging as strong predictors of spelling accuracy for words with both regular and irregular sound-spelling correspondences. The pattern of relationships was consistent with a model in which, as a function of the learning opportunities that are provided by reading experience, phonological skills promote the learning of individual word orthographies and structural relationships among words.

The role of the learning community in the development of discipline knowledge and generic graduate outcomes

In this paper we describe a study of learning outcomes at a research-intensive Australian university. Three graduate outcome variables (discipline knowledge and skills, communication and problem solving, and ethical and social sensitivity) are analysed separately using OLS regression and comparisons are made of the patterns of unique contributions from four independent variables (the CEQ Good Teaching and Learning Communities Scales, and two new, independent, scales for measuring Teaching and Program Quality). Further comparisons of these patterns are made across the Schools of the university. Results support the view that teaching and program quality are not the only important determinants of students' learning outcomes. It is concluded that, whilst it continues to be appropriate for universities to be concerned with the quality of their teaching and programs, the interactive, social and collaborative aspects of students' learning experiences, captured in the notion of the Learning Community, are also very important determinants of graduate outcomes, and so should be included in the focus of attempts at enhancing the quality of student learning.

Investigating Concept Mapping and Stimulated Recall to Reveal Academic Teacher Beliefs and how they are enacted through learning designs for the Web

Increasingly, academic teachers are designing their own web sites to add value to or replace other forms of university teaching. These web sites are tangible and dynamic constructions that represent the teachers thinking and decisions derived from an implicit belief system about teaching and learning. The emphasis of this study is to explore the potential of the research techniques of concept-mapping and stimulated recall to locate the implicit pedagogies of academic teachers and investigate how they are enacted through the learning designs of their web sites. The rationale behind such an investigation is that once these implicit belief systems are made visible, then conversations can commence about how these beliefs are transformed into practice, providing a potent departure point for academic development.

Heritage language loss and the implications for ethnic identity maintenance over time

Language has been seen as a central pillar to ethnic identity. When the possibility of heritage language loss becomes imminent, therefore, concern turns towards the consequences for feelings of ethnic group membership. Heritage language researchers have indicated that the heritage language is so strongly associated with the individual’s cultural background that heritage language loss could have negative implications for the sense of identity to the ethnic group. This study investigates the relationship between language and ethnic identity over time among Gaelic learners in Nova Scotia. In order to identify the specific processes of heritage language use, the Gaelic learners are compared to French (second language), learners living in the same English-speaking milieu. Path analyses reveal that, only among Gaelic learners, there is an initial separation of language and ethnic identity, but that, over time, ethnic identity is a direct outcome of language use. The results support Edwards’ (1985), contention, at least in the case of heritage languages, that language and identity are not always strongly linked. It is suggested that this may be especially true in contexts where there is little opportunity for contact with members of the heritage language group.

Coherence and understanding in informal conversations between native and non-native speakers of English

This study investigates informal conversations between native English speakers and international students living and studying in the UK. 10 NNS participants recorded themselves during conversations with native speakers. The audio-recordings were transcribed and a fine-grained, qualitative analysis was employed to examine how the participants jointly achieved both coherence and understanding in the conversations, and more specifically how the NNSs contributed to this achievement. The key areas of investigation focused on features of topic management, such as topic initiations, changes and transitions, and on the impact which any communicative difficulties may have on the topical continuity of the conversations. The data suggested that these conversations flowed freely and coherently, and were marked by a relative scarcity of the communicative difficulties often associated with NS-NNS interactions. Moreover, language difficulties were found to have minimal impact on the topic development of the conversations. Unlike most previous research in the field, the data further indicated that the NNSs were able to make active contributions to the initiation and change of topics, and to employ a range of strategies to manage these effectively and coherently. The study considers the implications which the findings may have for teaching and learning, for second language acquisition research, and for non-native speakers everywhere.