Ensuring student success : establishing a community of practice for culturally and linguistically diverse preservice teachers

This paper discusses the primacy of communities of practice within learning contexts at university and during practicum for culturally and linguistically diverse preservice teachers. The study illustrates that learning occurs when there are adequate opportunities for participation and practice. Data from interviews with 28 culturally and linguistically diverse preservice teachers illustrate that tensions created by social, cultural differences impact upon modes of identification and dimensions of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). The study concludes by reiterating the importance of establishing proactive communities of practice to ensure success in learning and practice for this group of preservice teachers.

Project success ideas

QUT Learning and Teaching Unit QUT Grants Workshops 2. Undertaking a Successful Project The purpose of this workshop was to assist QUT grant recipients to make connections, identify synergies and build a sense of scholarly community with each other; leverage grants outwards and possibly upwards; share factors that should be considered to undertake a successful project. Presenter: Shannon Satherley. "Initial Planning = Flexibility, Sanity & Success (or at least honourable failure) 1. Top & Tail 2. Divide and Delineate 3. Communicate Clearly & Consistently"

The place of higher education institutions in assessing student engagement, success and retention : a maturity model to guide practice

The perennial issues of student engagement, success and retention in higher education continue to attract attention as the salience of teaching and learning funding and performance measures has increased. This paper addresses the question of the responsibility or place of higher education institutions (HEIs) for initiating, planning, managing and evaluating their student engagement, success and retention programs and strategies. An evaluation of the current situation indicates the need for a sophisticated approach to assessing the ability of HEIs to proactively design programs and practices that enhance student engagement. An approach—the Student Engagement Success and Retention Maturity Model (SESR-MM)—is proposed and its development, current status, and relationship with and possible use in benchmarking are discussed.

Academic success in context-based chemistry : Demonstrating fluid transitions between concepts and context

Curriculum developers and researchers have promoted context-based programmes to arrest waning student interest and participation in the enabling sciences at high school and university. Context-based programmes aim for student connections between scientific discourse and real-world contexts to elevate curricular relevance without diminishing conceptual understanding. This interpretive study explored the learning transactions in one 11th grade context-based chemistry classroom where the context was the local creek. The dialectic of agency/structure was used as a lens to examine how the practices in classroom interactions afforded students the agency for learning. The results suggest that first, fluid transitions were evident in the student–student interactions involving successful students; and second, fluid transitions linking concepts to context were evident in the students’ successful reports. The study reveals that the structures of writing and collaborating in groups enabled students’ agential and fluent movement between the field of the real-world creek and the field of the formal chemistry classroom. Furthermore, characteristics of academically successful students in context-based chemistry are highlighted. Research, teaching, and future directions for context-based science teaching are discussed.

Planning for success : repurposing, retooling and reprioritising with results

This paper presents an organisational learning system implemented across a three year period within a multi campus tertiary library. It proposes a three stage system, framed within a reflective evidence based practice process to foster professional engagement and lifelong learning of staff.

Continuing success of a strategy to support accelerated nursing students at two diverse campuses

A strategy initiated in 2010 to support and improve the retention rate of diverse cohorts of accelerated nursing students at two QUT campuses continued to be successful in 2012. An additional procedure involving the formation of learning communities was trialled in 2012 to address the social dimension of learning and assist in enhancing the quality of accelerated nurse’s first year university experience. A supported formative assessment activity was planned to allow the students to collaborate in learning communities.

Sessional Academic Success : A distributed framework for academic support and development

With approximately half of Australian university teaching now performed by sessional academics, there has been growing recognition of the contribution they make to student learning. At the same time, sector-wide research and institutional audits continue to raise concerns about academic development, quality assurance, recognition and belonging. In response, universities have increasingly begun to offer academic development programs for sessional academics. However, such programs may be centrally delivered, generic in nature, and contained within the moment of delivery, while the Faculty contexts and cultures that sessional academics work within are diverse, and the need for support unfolds in ad-hoc and often unpredictable ways. In this paper we present the Sessional Academic Success (SAS) program–a new framework that complements and extends the central academic development program for sessional academic staff at Queensland University of Technology. This program recognises that experienced sessional academics have much to contribute to the advancement of learning and teaching, and harnesses their expertise to provide school-based academic development opportunities, peer-to-peer support, and locally contextualized community building. We describe the program’s implementation and explain how Sessional Academic Success Advisors (SASAs) are employed, trained and supported to provide advice and mentorship and, through a co-design methodology, to develop local development opportunities and communities of teaching practice within their schools. Besides anticipated benefits to new sessional academics in terms of timely and contextual support and improved sense of belonging, we explain how SAS provides a pathway for building leadership capacity and academic advancement for experienced sessional academics. We take a collaborative, dialogic and reflective practice approach to this paper, interlacing insights from the Associate Director, Academic: Sessional Development who designed the program, and two Sessional Academic Success Advisors who have piloted it within their schools.

Ensuring sessional academic success by rethinking the place of academic development

There has been growing recognition of the contribution that Sessional Academics make to student learning in higher education; with recent studies concluding that around half Australian university teaching is now performed by casual staff [Red Report 2008; May, 2013]. However, sector-wide research and institutional audits continue to raise concerns about academic development and quality assurance, as well as the recognition and retention of Sessional Academics. In response, universities offer academic development programs. However, while such centrally offered programs are undoubtedly useful, they are necessarily generic and cannot address the local contexts of faculties or provide ‘on the ground’ support. This paper presents a new, distributed model of academic support and development for Sessional academics at Queensland University of Technology. Entitled the Sessional Academic Success program, it employs the principles of distributed leadership. Experienced Sessional academics are trained and supported to assume roles as Sessional Academic Success Advisors within their schools. Complementing our central programs, they design bespoke, locally situated, peer-to-peer academic development for new Sessional teachers; provide ‘just in time’, safe and reliable advice; and build supportive communities of teaching practice in their local contexts. This distributed model re-envisages the forms and places of academic development and support. It helps ensure that new Sessional Academics are embraced by faculty life. And, recognizing that experienced Sessional Academics have much to contribute to the advancement of learning and teaching, it builds their capacity through leadership opportunities. As the designer/facilitator of the program and a Sessional Academic Success Advisor, the authors take a dialogic approach and together describe the design, implementation and outcomes of the program.

The Sessional Academic Success (SAS) project

The Sessional Academic Success (SAS) project is a sustainable, distributed model for supporting sessional staff at QUT. Developed by the Learning and Teaching Unit. SAS complements our Sessional Academic Program (SAP): a sequence of formal academic development workshops explained in complementary nomination. SAS recognises that while these programs are very well received and a crucial aspect of preparing and advancing sessional teachers, they are necessarily encapsulated in the moment of their delivery and are generic, as they address all faculties (with their varied cultures, processes and pedagogies). The SAS project extends this formal, centrally offered activity into local, ‘just in time’, ongoing support within schools. It takes a distributed leadership approach. Experienced sessional academics are recruited and employed as Sessional Academic Success Advisors (SASAs). They provide sessional staff in their schools with contextually specific, needs based, peer-to-peer development opportunities; one-on-one advice on classroom management and strategies for success; and help to trouble-shoot challenges. The SASAs are trained by the Learning and Teaching Unit co-ordinator, and ongoing support is provided centrally and by school-based co-ordinators. This team approach situates the SASAs at the centre of an organisation map (see diagram of support relationships below). The SAS project aims to support sessional staff in their professional development by: • Offering contextual, needs-based support at school level by harnessing local expertise; • Providing further development opportunities that are local and focal; SAS aims to retain Sessional Staff by: • Responding to self-nominated requests for support and ‘just in time’, safe and reliable advice in times of need; • Building sessional staff confidence through help with dealing with challenges from a trusted peer; • Building a supportive academic community for sessional staff, which helps them feel a part of faculty life, and a community of teaching practice. SAS aims to support sessional staff in the development of academic teaching careers by: • Recognising the capacity of experienced sessional staff to support their peers in ways that are unique, valuable and valued and providing the agency to do so; • Providing career advancement and leadership opportunities for sessional staff. SAS takes unique approaches within each school using strategies such as: • Welcomes and schools orientation by SASAs; • Regular check ins; face-to-face advice and online support; • Compiling local resources to complement university wide resources. • Sessional-to-sessional ‘just in time’ training (eg. assessment and marking when marking commences); • Peer feedback and mentoring (the opportunities to sit in more experiences sessionals’ classes; • Sessional staff awards (nominated by students); • Communities of practice to discuss topics and issues with a view to (and support for) publishing on learning and teaching. In these ways, SASAs complement support offered by unit coordinators, administrators, and the Learning and Teaching Unit. Pairing senior and ‘understudy’ advisors ensures a line of succession, sustainability and continuity. A pilot program commenced in 2012 involving three schools (Psychology and Social Work; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Media, Entertainment and Creative Arts). It will be expanded across schools in 2013.

Establishing a framework for transforming student engagement, success and retention in higher education institutions [Final Report]

The perennial issues of student engagement, success and retention (SESR) in higher education continue to attract attention as key indicators of learning and teaching quality. This project aimed to establish and provide a holistic framework that would allow higher education institutions (HEIs) manage and improve their student engagement and retention strategies and programs. The framework and main project deliverable is a Maturity Model (MM) for Student Engagement, Success and Retention (SESR-MM). The project involved three Australian universities with experience and reputations in SESR activities: Queensland University of Technology (lead institution), the University of Queensland and Griffith University, working cooperatively to develop and trial the project deliverables. Project findings suggest that the SESR-MM has the potential to positively transform the holistic—academic, social and personal—engagement experiences of students in Australian universities, and that the SESR-MM is a useful mechanism for sharing good practice and improving programs designed to enhance the student experience.

A multidimensional model of client success when engaging external consultants

Too often the relationship between client and external consultants is perceived as one of protagonist versus antogonist. Stories on dramatic, failed consultancies abound, as do related anecdotal quips. A contributing factor to many "apparently" failed consultancies is a poor appreciation by both the client and consultant of the client's true goals for the project and how to assess progress toward these goals. This paper presents and analyses a measurement model for assessing client success when engaging an external consultant. Three main areas of assessment are identified: (1) the consultant;s recommendations, (2) client learning, and (3) consultant performance. Engagement success is emperically measured along these dimensions through a series of case studies and a subsequent survey of clients and consultants involved in 85 computer-based information system selection projects. Validation fo the model constructs suggests the existence of six distinct and individually important dimensions of engagement success. both clients and consultants are encouraged to attend to these dimensions in pre-engagement proposal and selection processes, and post-engagement evaluation of outcomes.

Sessional academic success : the QUT Law School experience

Sessional academics are an important part of the provision of legal education in higher education with many institutions relying to a large extent on their sessional academics to deliver the teaching program, particularly in the first year. This is particularly relevant to Law Schools as many sessional academics are legal practitioners rather than HDR students. Therefore it is important for both the staff and student experience as well as to the attainment of the learning outcomes that consideration is given to the professional development and training of sessional academics. The QUT Law School has been a participant in a university pilot providing opportunities through the Sessional Academic Success program for academic development, support and developing a sense of belonging for sessional academics. This article will explain the program and initial outcomes and report on the results of surveys and focus groups of sessional academics as well as feedback from fulltime staff. The article will conclude with an analysis of the benefits to sessional academics, students and the School as a whole.

“Success breeds success” or “Pride goes before a fall”? ☆: Teams and individuals in multi-contest tournaments

We study the impact of progress feedback on players' performance in multi-contest team tournaments, in which team members' efforts are not directly substitutable. In particular, we employ a real-effort laboratory experiment to understand, in a best-of-three tournament, how players' strategic mindsets change when they compete on a team compared to when they compete individually. Our data corroborate the theoretical predictions for teams: Neither a lead nor a lag in the first component contest affects a team's performance in the subsequent contests. In individual tournaments, however, contrary to the theoretical prediction, we observe that leaders perform worse—but laggards perform better—after learning the outcome of the first contest. Our findings offer the first empirical evidence from a controlled laboratory of the impact of progress feedback between team and individual tournaments, and contribute new insights on team incentives.

“Success in (Surviving) Bioscience and Pharmacology” – an eBook to improve the retention of diploma nurses transitioning to a Bachelor of Nursing course

Diploma students transitioning into the NS40 BNursing (BN) course at QUT withdraw from the bioscience and pharmacology units, and leave the university at higher rates than traditional students. The diploma students, entering in second year, have missed out on 2 units of bioscience taught to the traditional students in their first year, and miss out on a 3rd unit of bioscience taught to the traditional students in their 2nd year. Instead the diploma students receive one specialized unit in bioscience only i.e. a bridging unit. As a consequence, the diploma students may not have the depth of bioscience knowledge to be able to successfully study the bridging unit (LSB111) or the pharmacology unit (LSB384). Our plan was to write an eBook which refreshed and reinforced diploma students’ knowledge of bioscience aiming to prepare them with the concepts and terminology, and to build a level of confidence to support their transition to the BN. We have previously developed an intervention associated with reduced attrition of diploma nursing students, and this was our starting point. The study skills part of the initial intervention was addressed in the eBook, by links to the specialist services and resources available from our liaison librarian and academic skills adviser. The introductory bioscience/pharmacology information provided by the previous intervention involved material from standard textbooks. However, we considered this material too difficult for diploma students. Thus, we created simplified diagrams to go with text as part of our eBook. The outcome is an eBook, created and made available to the diploma students via the Community Website: “Surviving Bioscience and Pharmacology”. Using simplified diagrams to illustrate the concise text, definition to explain the concepts, the focus has been on encouraging self-awareness and help-seeking strategies and building students who take responsibility for their learning. All the nursing students in the second semester LSB384 Pharmacology Unit have been surveyed face-to-face to get feedback on their engagement with the eBook resource. The data has not been analysed to date. An important consideration is that the website be evaluated by the diploma students as they come into bioscience in first semester (LSB111), the student population for whom the eBook is primarily intended. To get a good response rate we need to do a face-to-face survey. However, we have not been able to do this, as the co-ordinator of the unit has changed since we started the project, and the present co-ordinator will not allow us access to these students.

The success of the diversified farm : resource-based view

Farms and rural areas have many specific valuable resources that can be used to create non-agricultural products and services. Most of the research regarding on-farm diversification has hitherto concentrated on business start-up or farm survival strategies. Resource allocation and also financial success have not been the primary focus of investigations as yet. In this study these specific topics were investigated i.e. resource allocation and also the financial success of diversified farms from a farm management perspective. The key question addressed in this dissertation, is how tangible and intangible resources of the diversified farm affect the financial success. This study’s theoretical background deals with resource-based theory, and also certain themes of the theory of learning organisation and other decision-making theories. Two datasets were utilised in this study. First, data were collected by postal survey in 2001 (n = 663). Second, data were collected in a follow-up survey in 2006 (n = 439). Data were analysed using multivariate data analyses and path analyses. The study results reveal that, diversified farms performed differently. Success and resources were linked. Professional and management skills affected other resources, and hence directly or indirectly influenced success per se. In the light of empirical analyses of this study, tangible and intangible resources owned by the diversified farm impacted on its financial success. The findings of this study underline the importance of skills and networks for entrepreneur(s). Practically speaking all respondents of this study used either agricultural resources for non-farm businesses or non-farm resources for agricultural enterprises. To share resources in this way was seen as a pragmatic opportunity recognised by farmers. One of the downsides of diversification might be the phenomenon of over-diversification, which can be defined as the situation in which a farm diversifies beyond its optimal limit. The empirical findings of this study reveal that capital and labour resource constrains did have adverse effects on financial success. The evidence indicates that farms that were capital and labour resource constrained in 2001 were still less profitable than their ‘no problems’ counterparts five years later.