Providing a law degree for the “real world” : perspective of an Australian law school

The Queensland University of Technology badges itself as “a university for the real world”. For the last decade the Law Faculty has aimed to provide its students with a ‘real world’ degree, that is, a practical law degree. This has seen skills such as research, advocacy and negotiation incorporated into the undergraduate degree under a University Teaching & Learning grant, a project that gained international recognition and praise. In 2007–2008 the Law Faculty undertook another curriculum review of its undergraduate law degree. As a result of the two year review, QUT’s undergraduate lawdegree has fewer core units, a focus on first year student transition, scaffolding of law graduate capabilities throughout the degree,work integrated learning and transition to the workplace. The revised degree commenced implementation in 2009. This paper focuses on the “real world” approach to the degree achieved through the first year programme, embedding and scaffolding law graduate capabilities through authentic and valid assessment and work integrated learning.

Service-learning within higher education : rhizomatic interconnections between university and the real world

This paper discusses Service-learning within an Australian higher education context as pedagogy to teach about inclusive education. Using Deleuze and Guattari’s (1987) model of the rhizome, this study conceptualises pre-service teachers’ learning experiences as multiple, hydra and continuous. Data from reflection logs of pre-service teachers highlight how the learning experience allowed them to gain insights in knowledge as socially just, ethical and inclusive. The paper concludes by arguing the need to consider Service-learning as integral to university education for pre-service teachers.

Developing a curriculum for the real world : a whole of institution approach

Keynote address at University of Surrey, Real World Education Symposium, 29 September 2010. Full-text in audio form only. Link to audio provided in Official URL field.

Providing a law degree for the 'real world' : perspective of an Australian law school

This paper focuses on the ‘real world’ approach to the degree achieved through the first year program, embedding and scaffolding law graduate capabilities through authentic and valid assessment and work integrated learning to assist graduates with transition into the workplace.

Providing a law degree for the real world : perspective of an Australian law school

As a result of a two year curriculum review, QUT’s undergraduate law degree has a focus on first year student transition, integration of law graduate capabilities throughout the degree and work integrated learning. A ‘whole-degree’ approach was adopted to ensure that capabilities were appropriately embedded and scaffolded throughout the degree, that teaching and learning approaches met the needs of students as they transitioned from first year through to final year, and that students in final year were provided with a capstone experience to assist them with transition into the work place. The revised degree commenced implementation in 2009. This paper focuses on the ‘real world’ approach to the degree achieved through the first year program, embedding and scaffolding law graduate capabilities through authentic and valid assessment and work integrated learning to assist graduates with transition into the workplace.

Bringing the real world into university learning

Introduction: As part of ongoing quality assurance, all university programs must be regularly reviewed to ensure curriculum is current, meets university and national standards, and for medical science, criteria for AIMS Accreditation. With recent developments at the national and international level also signaling change, a course design team (CDT) was assembled and tasked with developing and implementing a new four year Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science (BMLS) course at QUT. Method: A whole-of-course approach was adopted, incorporating inverted curriculum and Capstone experience. First, course vision and desired graduate profile are defined as course learning outcomes (CLO), i.e. skills, knowledge, behaviours and attributes graduates must demonstrate. CLO are then back-mapped into introductory, developmental and expected phases from fourth to first year on a course plan and assessment map. Unit learning outcomes (ULO) are then defined, and finally, each unit (subject) designed, directly aligned with assessment. Results: The resulting BMLS course represents a deliberate program of study across four years, which from day one, focuses on the professional aspects of MLS, clinical pathology disciplines, and incrementally developing and assessing the skills, knowledge, behaviours and attributes required to undertake the Work Integrated Learning Internship (WILI) and Capstone experience in final year, and subsequently, graduate from the program. Conclusions: At the start of the year, the BMLS commenced with higher than anticipated enrolments. To date, survey data and feedback is positive, with particular emphasis on the directed nature of the course. The method of course design also ensures university/national standards, and criteria for AIMS Accreditation have been met.

Design research for the real world : a design-led innovation model for action research

The aim of this paper is to aid researchers in undertaking action research within industry with a particular focus on the study of design-led innovation. This paper presents the research design of a case study shaped to solve real world problems concerning a major Australian Airport Corporation by bridging the chasm between academia and industry. The researcher’s role is one of design-innovation catalyst, facilitating the integration of design as a new strategic capability and innovation approach within an organisation’s fabric. A discussion of the researcher experience within industry will provide evidence on the challenges facing such a research role, with strategies for overcoming these barriers presented. Based on the authors’ experience as a researcher within industry and reflection within practice, a project progression model for action research is presented to enable the improved management of industry based research.

Bridging STEM in a real-world problem

Engineering-based modeling activities provide a rich source of meaningful situations that capitalize on and extend students’ routine learning. By integrating such activities within existing curricula, students better appreciate how their school learning in mathematics and science applies to problems in the outside world...

Embedding sustainability in a real-world context: Developing a world class early learning centre

This symposium describes what is possible when early childhood professionals work with designers to develop a vision for an exemplary early childhood centre with a focus on Education for Sustainability (EfS). The symposium provides insights into cross-disciplinary initiatives between QUT Early childhood and Design staff and students, who have worked together with the iconic Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane, to explore imperatives around EfS, including leadership and professionalism. This practical, real world project has seen all stakeholders engage in a focus on sustainability which has opened new ways of thinking about early childhood centre design. Cross-disciplinarity has created space to re-think the potential of the disciplines to interweave, and in so doing opened different ways for thinking about early childhood centres – their operation and their function. For the first time in Queensland, this project creates strategic alliances between EfS, childcare, business and sustainable design. EfS is essential for addressing local and global environmental issues and early childhood EfS research has been gaining international momentum, with governments nominating this area as having significant capacity to empower communities and promote change. While models for collaboration exist in the early childhood programs in Reggio Emilia, we offer sustainability as a unique and contemporary focus with immense potential to generate international and national interest. To date Early Childhood degree students enrolled in a leadership and management unit/subject have worked collaboratively with Design students to explore the sustainable design of the proposed Lone Pine early childhood centre. Providing students with a ‘real world’ project sees them re-positioned from ‘novice’ to ‘professional’, where their knowledge, expertise and perspectives are simultaneously validated and challenged. These learning experiences are enabling students to practice a new model of early childhood leadership, one that is vital for leading in an increasingly complex world. The symposium will be comprised of three discrete, though interconnected presentations, that work together to tell the story of this project. Three key facets of the project will be explored during the 90 minute session, as the perspectives of key stakeholders are shared. The first presentation (A/Prof Julie Davis, Dr Lyndal O’Gorman& Dr Megan Gibson) will outline the role of QUT School of Early Childhood staff and students, with attention to the ways in which the project was embedded in students’ work in the final year of their degree program of study. The second presentation (Ms Lindy Osborne) will provide insights into the Design students’ collaborative work in the project. Finally, the key role of the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and their commitment for EfS (Ms Peta Wilson & Dr Sue Elliott) will map out the philosophy that underpins the project. Together, the authors will conclude key project outcomes that have been achieved through this real-world, cross-disciplinary work.

Real-World Social Cognition: Context Effects in Face and Threat Processing

As borne out by everyday social experience, social cognition is highly dependent on context, modulated by a host of factors that arise from the social environment in which we live. While streamlined laboratory research provides excellent experimental control, it can be limited to telling us about the capabilities of the brain under artificial conditions, rather than elucidating the processes that come into play in the real world. Consideration of the impact of ecologically valid contextual cues on social cognition will improve the generalizability of social neuroscience findings also to pathology, e.g., to psychiatric illnesses. To help bridge between laboratory research and social cognition as we experience it in the real world, this thesis investigates three themes: (1) increasing the naturalness of stimuli with richer contextual cues, (2) the potentially special contextual case of social cognition when two people interact directly, and (3) a third theme of experimental believability, which runs in parallel to the first two themes. Focusing on the first two themes, in work with two patient populations, we explore neural contributions to two topics in social cognition. First, we document a basic approach bias in rare patients with bilateral lesions of the amygdala. This finding is then related to the contextual factor of ambiguity, and further investigated together with other contextual cues in a sample of healthy individuals tested over the internet, finally yielding a hierarchical decision tree for social threat evaluation. Second, we demonstrate that neural processing of eye gaze in brain structures related to face, gaze, and social processing is differently modulated by the direct presence of another live person. This question is investigated using fMRI in people with autism and controls. Across a range of topics, we demonstrate that two themes of ecological validity — integration of naturalistic contextual cues, and social interaction — influence social cognition, that particular brain structures mediate this processing, and that it will be crucial to study interaction in order to understand disorders of social interaction such as autism.

Incidental Memory of Younger and Older Adults for Objects Encountered in a Real World Context

Effects of context on the perception of, and incidental memory for, real-world objects have predominantly been investigated in younger individuals, under conditions involving a single static viewpoint. We examined the effects of prior object context and object familiarity on both older and younger adults' incidental memory for real objects encountered while they traversed a conference room. Recognition memory for context-typical and context-atypical objects was compared with a third group of unfamiliar objects that were not readily named and that had no strongly associated context. Both older and younger adults demonstrated a typicality effect, showing significantly lower 2-alternative-forced-choice recognition of context-typical than context-atypical objects; for these objects, the recognition of older adults either significantly exceeded, or numerically surpassed, that of younger adults. Testing-awareness elevated recognition but did not interact with age or with object type. Older adults showed significantly higher recognition for context-atypical objects than for unfamiliar objects that had no prior strongly associated context. The observation of a typicality effect in both age groups is consistent with preserved semantic schemata processing in aging. The incidental recognition advantage of older over younger adults for the context-typical and context-atypical objects may reflect aging-related differences in goal-related processing, with older adults under comparatively more novel circumstances being more likely to direct their attention to the external environment, or age-related differences in top-down effortful distraction regulation, with older individuals' attention more readily captured by salient objects in the environment. Older adults' reduced recognition of unfamiliar objects compared to context-atypical objects may reflect possible age differences in contextually driven expectancy violations. The latter finding underscores the theoretical and methodological value of including a third type of objects-that are comparatively neutral with respect to their contextual associations-to help differentiate between contextual integration effects (for schema-consistent objects) and expectancy violations (for schema-inconsistent objects).

Beliefs and Conflicts in a Real World Multi-Agent System

In a real world multiagent system, where the agents are faced with partial, incomplete and intrinsically dynamic knowledge, conflicts are inevitable. Frequently, different agents have goals or beliefs that cannot hold simultaneously. Conflict resolution methodologies have to be adopted to overcome such undesirable occurrences. In this paper we investigate the application of distributed belief revision techniques as the support for conflict resolution in the analysis of the validity of the candidate beams to be produced in the CERN particle accelerators. This CERN multiagent system contains a higher hierarchy agent, the Specialist agent, which makes use of meta-knowledge (on how the con- flicting beliefs have been produced by the other agents) in order to detect which beliefs should be abandoned. Upon solving a conflict, the Specialist instructs the involved agents to revise their beliefs accordingly. Conflicts in the problem domain are mapped into conflicting beliefs of the distributed belief revision system, where they can be handled by proven formal methods. This technique builds on well established concepts and combines them in a new way to solve important problems. We find this approach generally applicable in several domains.