Developing a culture to support peer review of teaching in higher education

This presentation addresses issues related to leadership, academic development and scholarship of teaching and learning, and highlights research funded by the Australian Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) designed to embed and sustain peer review of teaching within the culture of 5 Australian universities: Queensland University of Technology, University of Technology, Sydney, University of Adelaide, Curtin University, and Charles Darwin University. Peer review of teaching in higher education will be emphasised as a professional process for providing feedback on teaching and learning practice, which if sustained, can become an effective ongoing strategy for academic development (Barnard et al, 2011; Bell, 2005; Bolt and Atkinson, 2010; McGill & Beaty 2001, 1992; Kemmis & McTaggart, 2000). The research affirms that using developmental peer review models (Barnard et al, 2011; D'Andrea, 2002; Hammersley-Fletcher & Orsmond, 2004) can bring about successful implementation, especially when implemented within a distributive leadership framework (Spillane & Healey, 2010). The project’s aims and objectives were to develop leadership capacity and integrate peer review as a cultural practice in higher education. The research design was a two stage inquiry process over 2 years. The project began in July 2011 and encompassed a development and pilot phase followed by a cascade phase with questionnaire and focus group evaluation processes to support ongoing improvement and measures of outcome. Leadership development activities included locally delivered workshops complemented by the identification and support of champions. To optimise long term sustainability, the project was implemented through existing learning and teaching structures and processes within the respective partner universities. Research outcomes highlight the fundamentals of peer review of teaching and the broader contextual elements of integration, leadership and development, expressed as a conceptual model for embedding peer review of teaching within higher education. The research opens a communicative space about introduction of peer review that goes further than simply espousing its worth and introduction. The conceptual model highlights the importance of development of distributive leadership capacity, integration of policies and processes, and understanding the values, beliefs, assumptions and behaviors embedded in an organizational culture. The presentation overviews empirical findings that demonstrate progress to advance peer review requires an ‘across-the-board’ commitment to embed change, and inherently demands a process that co-creates connection across colleagues, discipline groups, and the university sector. Progress toward peer review of teaching as a cultural phenomenon can be achieved and has advantages for academic staff, scholarship, teaching evaluation and an organisation, if attention is given to strategies that influence the contexts and cultures of teaching practice. Peer review as a strategy to develop excellence in teaching is considered from a holistic perspective that by necessity encompasses all elements of an educational environment and has a focus on scholarship of teaching. The work is ongoing and has implication for policy, research, teaching development and student outcomes, and has potential application world-wide.

LeaD-In : a cultural change model for peer review of teaching in higher education

Peer review of teaching is recognized increasingly as one strategy for academic development even though historically peer review of teaching is often unsupported by policy, action and culture in many Australian universities. Higher education leaders report that academics generally do not engage with peer review of teaching in a systematic or constructive manner, and this paper advances and analyses a conceptual model to highlight conditions and strategies necessary for the implementation of sustainable peer review in higher education institutions. The model highlights leadership, development and implementation, which are critical to the success and formation of a culture of peer review of teaching. The work arises from collaborative research funded by the Office for Learning and Teaching to foster and advance a culture of peer review of teaching across several universities in Australia.

Teaching and learning Chinese: heritage language classroom discourse in Montreal

This paper explores issues of teaching and learning Chinese as a heritage language in a Chinese heritage language school, the Zhonguo Saturday School, in Montreal, Quebec. With a student population of more than 1000, this school is the largest of the eight Chinese Heritage Language schools in Montreal. Students participating in this study were from seven different classes (grade K, two, three, four, five, six, and special class), their ages ranging from 4 to 13 years. The study took place over a period of two years between 2000 and 2002. Focusing on primary level classroom discourse and drawing on the works of Vygotsky and Bakhtin, I examine how teachers and students use language to communicate, and how their communication mediates teaching, learning and heritage language acquisition. Data sources include classroom observations, interviews with students and their teachers, students’ writings, and video and audio taping of classroom activities. Implications for heritage language development and maintenance are discussed with reference to the findings of this study.

Teaching and learning online with wikis

Wikis are fully editable websites; any user can read or add content to a wiki site. This functionality means that wikis are an excellent tool for collaboration in an online environment. This paper presents wikis as a useful tool for facilitating online education. Basic wiki functionality is outlined and different wikis are reviewed to highlight the features that make them a valuable technology for teaching and learning online. Finally, the paper discuses a wiki project underway at Deakin University. This project uses a wiki to host an icebreaker exercise which aims to facilitate ongoing interaction between members of online learning groups. Wiki projects undertaken in America are outlined and future wiki research plans are also discussed. These wiki projects illustrate how e-learning practitioners can and are moving beyond their comfort zone by using wikis to enhance the process of teaching and learning online.

Teaching and learning: flexible modes and technology applications

Australian universities face many challenges In providing postgraduate midwifery education opportunities for registered nurses, particularly for those residing in rural areas. This paper will describe the measures implemented by a team of midwifery academics of Deakin university, Melbourne campus, specifically for units of study within the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery. As a consequence of these measures, student travel to a campus of the university and separation from their families and communities have been reduced. These innovative measures include a blended teaching approach incorporating face-to-face and online teaching consisting of Deakin Studies Online based in Web CT Vista, and Elluminate Live, an interactive online synchronous communication tool. Over the past 20 years in Australia, Deakin university has led the way in computer mediated learning methods and the challenge was to provide appropriate teaching strategies for course content to meet the requirements of the regulatory authority, the Nurses Board of Victoria (NBV), while promoting pedagogical methods of teaching and learning.

Requirements for online teaching and learning at Deakin University : a case study

The dynamics of teaching and learning in higher education are being affected by a combination of educational, social, political and economic factors, and one of the most important changes is the extent to which Learning Management Systems (LMS) are forming the basis for online teaching and learning environments. Deakin University has just completed an extensive evaluation of learning management systems (LMS) to select an enterprise level online teaching and learning system. One of the important aspects of this process is that unlike other evaluations which focused on systems comparison, this evaluation was user-centred, taking into account teaching and learning needs to determine the LMS that would best align with those needs. This paper examines the methods and results of this collection of staff and student needs in online teaching and learning.

What have we learnt? Pre-service music teaching and learning

Making pre-service teacher education relevant to teaching through onsite visits is not new to tertiary institutions in Australia. "The merits of field based teacher education are frequently cited, concluding increased relevance for students and greater accountability for colleges through participation of local schools" (Elmore, 1979, p. 378). This article reports on a Deakin University initiative with a local school in semester one 2008 with the Bachelor of Teaching (Primary and Secondary) music methodology students. The school chosen has a specialist music teacher. Conkling (2007) points out, "when the experienced music teacher presents a compelling vision of music teaching, pre-service teachers not only attend to this exemplar of teaching practice, but they also recognize the influences of teaching practices on younger students learning" (p. 45). This article explores the concept of school based partnerships and professional development as a way to enhance pre-service music methodology students understanding of teaching and learning. This article highlights some of our reflections during our five-week visit. We discuss the benefits of the experience from the point of view of a university student and a music education lecturer. Whilst such an experience had benefits for the school and the university, we also highlight some limitations that were encountered.

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.

The scholarship of teaching in Australian higher education : a national imperative

The notion of ‘the scholarship of teaching’ has enjoyed a growing level of attention over the past decade and a half. This keynote will examine the congruence between the scholarship of teaching, and national and institutional values and priorities in relation to teaching in higher education. The presentation will conclude by offering some principles for guiding the development of an individual scholarship of teaching.

Professional midwifery education : blended teaching and learning approaches

Blended teaching and learning approaches are used in the postgraduate course of Graduate Diploma of Midwifery for students who are predominately women with family responsibilities residing in metropolitan, regional, or rural Victoria, a major state in Australia. The Virtual Maternity Clinic (VMC), a virtual learning experience (VLE) research project, was implemented during trimester 2, 2009. The purpose of the project was to expand the blend of teaching and learning activities to support students in their preparation for professional practice. The VMC includes four characters in early pregnancy and care provided by their midwife. All students enrolled in midwifery courses (postgraduate and undergraduate) at Deakin University were recruited to participate in a two-phase, pre- and post-use evaluation process related to the VMC. Findings from the pre-evaluation included that students 'had high expectations of the VMC in supporting their learning. The results from the post-evaluation of the VMC indicated that students 'were very satisfied that the VMC supported their learning. Future research directions include further development of the VMC.

Through the looking glass : teaching and learning in blended immersive multiuser virtual and real world environments

This paper reports on the participation of higher education students and educators in blended immersive multi user virtual (MUVE) environments and real life teaching and learning experiences. Selected next generation technologies engage students and educators within the virtual socially networked elearning landscape of Deakin Arts Education Centre , and support the interaction of communities of learners in multiple modes, ranging from text and images accessed within the Deakin Studies Online learning management system to the "through the looking glass" virtual world in which the user’s creative imagination transports them to the “other side“ of their computer screens.

These constructed environments 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 participate in collaborative art learning.

Immersive interfaces for art education teaching and learning in mixed reality virtual and real world 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.

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

Current issues and limitations in using the internet for teaching and learning

This paper acknowledges the new educational possibilities provided by the Internet, as well as identifying its current limitations as an educational medium. Issues of concern in using the Internet include equity and access, infrastructure considerations, intellectual property, development methodologies, implications for the delivery and administration of education, and the relationship between the Internet and other new media in education, including audio/video tapes, computer aided learning software, videoconferencing and CD-ROM. While the Internet offers valuable opportunities to enhance all modes of teaching and learning, and it is likely that most of the current limitations of the Internet in this regard will be overcome in time, those developers currently pursuing or investigating the Internet as a teaching resource should be aware of the potential difficulties. This paper draws on the experiences of the author in conventional and distance university teaching, and in using the Internet as an aid to teaching and learning in engineering and technology, but the issues addressed apply generally to those using the Internet in education.

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.