Teaching and learning centres : towards maturation

Approximately 70% of Australian Teaching and Learning Centres have been restructured and/or have undergone leadership changes in the last three years. The volatility of this environment reflects the number of significant challenges faced by Teaching and Learning Centres. In determining what makes Centres successful, the issues that are likely to impact on their ability to succeed were examined. It emerged that a myriad of factors influence whether or not a Centre was recognised as being an integral and valued part of the university’s teaching and learning community – a hallmark of having reached maturity. This paper identifies four factors as being critical to the ability of Centres to succeed, noting that a combination of other factors, appropriate to each unique context, must also be in place in order for Centres to maximise their value.

Developing the Deakin online teaching and learning repository

Slides for a report on the development of the Deakin online teaching and learning repository and the proposal to create a modern Deakin version of the 1991Najaden Collection of papers on collaborative learning through computer conferencing. The collection will be called Audio, Video, Disco - Look, Listen, Learn and contain 'best of breed' papers about Deakin's past and future as a distance edcuation - flexible learning university, from the Deakin online teaching and learning repository.

A systems analysis method for online teaching and learning systems

A Method for Educational Analysis and Design (MEAD) was developed to analyse and design online teaching and learning systems. The method is based upon a participational design approach focused on the requirements of the users (students)

Team teaching and communicative language teaching in Japanese secondary schools

Explores team teaching and communicative language teaching in Japanese schools. The study's first phase uses the ethnographic approach of participant observation. The second phase uses eleven case study interviews to discover the teachers' conceptions of communicative language teaching. Identifies elements of team taught lessons and elucidates the conceptions of communicative language teaching held by a sample of teachers.

Australian teaching and learning centres through the eyes of their directors : characteristics, capacities and constraints

This paper is based on research to identify common factors that contribute to the effective strategic leadership of teaching and learning centres. The second of three phases of data collection involved a survey of Directors of Australian teaching and learning centres. The data collected were quantitatively analysed using a range of descriptive, parametric and non-parametric techniques. Based on a response rate of 81.6 percent, we present a contemporary, comprehensive and representative quantitative snapshot of Australian teaching and learning centres, as seen through the eyes of their Directors. The time since last restructure, incumbency of the current Director and total Directorship experience of the current Centre Director all have mean values of ‘sometime in the previous one to three years’. Most Centres would consider their work in the areas of ‘recognition and reward’ and ‘professional development of staff’ as high impact functions, and they would be pleased with their efforts in the former area, and wish to perform better on the latter. The principal constraint identified by Centres was ‘lack of staff time’, both in the Faculties and in the Centre, to engage in teaching and learning improvement activities. Overall, Centres feel well included in relevant university committees and other activities.

Student-generated submicro diagrams : a useful tool for teaching and learning chemical equations and stoichiometry

This paper reports on a pedagogical approach to the teaching of chemical equations introduced to first year university students with little previous chemical knowledge. During the instruction period students had to interpret and construct diagrams of reactions at the submicro level, and relate them to chemical equations at the symbolic level with the aim of improving their conceptual understanding of chemical equations and stoichiometry. Students received instruction in symbol conventions, practice through graded tutorial tasks, and feedback on their efforts over the semester. Analysis of the student responses to formative test and summative exam items over consecutive years indicates that there was a consistent improvement in the abilities of the various cohorts to answer stoichiometry questions correctly. The responses provide evidence for diagrams of the submicro level being used as tools for reasoning in solving chemical problems, to recognise misconceptions of chemical formulae and to recognise the value of using various multiple representations of chemical reactions connecting the submicro and symbolic levels of representation. The student-generated submicro diagrams serve as a visualisation tool for teaching and learning abstract concepts in solving stoichiometric problems. We argue that the use of diagrams of the submicro level provides a more complete picture of the reaction, rather than a net summary of a chemical equation, leading to a deeper conceptual understanding.

Teaching and learning about force with a representational focus : pedagogy and teacher change

A large body of research in the conceptual change tradition has shown the difficulty of learning fundamental science concepts, yet conceptual change schemes have failed to convincingly demonstrate improvements in supporting significant student learning. Recent work in cognitive science has challenged this purely conceptual view of learning, emphasising the role of language, and the importance of personal and contextual aspects of understanding science. The research described in this paper is designed around the notion that learning involves the recognition and development of students’ representational resources. In particular, we argue that conceptual difficulties with the concept of force are fundamentally representational in nature. This paper describes a classroom sequence in force that focuses on representations and their negotiation, and reports on the effectiveness of this perspective in guiding teaching, and in providing insight into student learning. Classroom sequences involving three teachers were videotaped using a combined focus on the teacher and groups of students. Video analysis software was used to capture the variety of representations used, and sequences of representational negotiation. Stimulated recall interviews were conducted with teachers and students. The paper reports on the nature of the pedagogies developed as part of this representational focus, its effectiveness in supporting student learning, and on the pedagogical and epistemological challenges negotiated by teachers in implementing this approach.

Australian higher education institutions transforming the future of teaching and learning through 3D virtual worlds

What are educators‟ motivations for using virtual worlds with their students? Are they using them to support the teaching of professions and if this is the case, do they introduce virtual worlds into the curriculum to develop and/or expand students' professional learning networks? Are they using virtual worlds to transform their teaching and learning? In  recognition of the exciting opportunities that virtual worlds present for higher education, the DEHub Virtual Worlds Working Group was formed. It is made up of Australian university academics who are investigating the role that virtual worlds will play in the future of education and actively implementing the technology within their own teaching practice and  curricula. This paper presents a typology for teaching and learning in 3D virtual worlds and applies the typology to a series of case studies based on the ways in which academics and their institutions are exploiting the power of virtual worlds for diverse purposes ranging from business scenarios and virtual excursions to role-play, experimentation and language development. The case studies offer insight into the ways in which institutions are transforming their teaching for an unknown future through innovative teaching and learning in virtual worlds. The paper demonstrates how virtual worlds enable low cost alternatives to existing pedagogies as well as creating opportunities for rich, immersive and authentic activities that would otherwise not be feasible or maybe not even be possible. Through the use of virtual worlds, teaching and learning can be transformed to cater for an unknown future.

Changing technologies / renewing pedagogies : implications for university teaching and learning

This chapter describes a project that researched the use of Web Enhanced Learning (WEL) with postgraduate students from rural and remote communities who were studying through two Australian universities. We examine, in detail, the experiences of a university teacher using WEL in an off-campus course for the first time. As with many academic teachers, she was willing to use new technologies and integrate these into her teaching but required time, technical support and professional development to achieve this. Using a design-based rnethodological approach, the experiences and frustrations in introducing WEL are described from the teacher's perspective trough her progressive reflections at stages throughout the course. The findings and their implications for university policy and leadership are detailed with conclusions about how teachers and students are best supported in their engagernent with WEL.

Reflecting on contemporary accounting : teaching and learning social and critical perspectives

This paper provides a case description and analysis of an effort to enact accounting education change. The study reports on an attempt to renew the social and ethical worth of accounting education and practice in the post-Enron context of increased interest in how accounting may contribute to social responsibility and sustainability. The paper considers the organisation, aims, and content of a newly-developed unit on social and critical perspectives on accounting, and key elements of the pedagogy utilised. These include team teaching, the employment of research literature rather than a prescribed textbook, an expanded conception of accounting and accounting “knowledge”, the adoption of educational goals that encompass preparing students for economic and social life and for democratic participation, and a view that sees ethics, the environment, and society as central to accounting. It is concluded that accounting educational change must encompass the content and practice of classroom activity, but it also requires change to the self-consciousness of all actors involved. Explicit inclusion of the social, critical, environmental and ethical dimensions of accounting in our teaching and learning programs provides an avenue for academics to individually and collectively make a meaningful contribution.