Teaching Reflective Learning in Higher Education : A Systematic Approach Using Pedagogic Patterns

This book is about understanding the nature and application of reflection in higher education. It provides a theoretical model to guide the implementation of reflective learning and reflective practice across multiple disciplines and international contexts in higher education. The book presents research into the ways in which reflection is both considered and implemented in different ways across different professional disciplines, while maintaining a common purpose to transform and improve learning and/or practice. Readers will find this book innovative and new in three key ways. First, in its holistic theorisation of reflection within the pedagogic field of higher education; Secondly, in conceptualising reflection in different modes to achieve specific purposes in different disciplines; and finally, in providing conceptual guidance for embedding reflective learning and reflective practice in a systematic way across whole programmes, faculties or institutions in higher education. The book considers important contextual factors that influence the teaching of forms and methods of reflection. It provides a functional analysis of multiple modes of reflection, including written, oral, visual, auditory, and embodied forms. Empirical chapters analyse the application of these modes across disciplines and at different stages of a programme. The theoretical model accounts for students’ stage of development in the disciplinary field, along with progressive and cyclical levels of higher order thinking, and learning and professional practice that are expected within different disciplines and professional fields. The book provides: • A conceptual model for the application of reflection across disciplines in a variety of contexts. • Empirical examples of different modes and pedagogic patterns for reflection. • Guidance and support for embedding systemic pedagogical and curriculum change.

Teaching and Assessing Reflective Writing in a Large Undergraduate Core Substantive Law Unit

The focus of higher education has shifted towards building students’ skills and self-awareness for future employment, in addition to developing substantive discipline knowledge. This means that there is an increasing need for embedding approaches to teaching and learning which provide a context for skills development and opportunities for students to prepare for the transition from legal education to professional practice. This chapter reports on a large (500-600 students) core undergraduate Equity law unit in an Australian University. ePortfolio has been embedded in Equity as a means of enabling students to document their reflections on their skill development in that unit. Students are taught, practice and are assessed on their teamwork and letter writing skills in the context of writing a letter of advice to a fictional client in response to a real world problem. Following submission of the team letter, students are asked to reflect on their skill development and document their reflections in ePortfolio. A scaffolded approach to teaching reflective writing is adopted using a blended model of delivery which combines face to face lectures and online resources, including an online module, facts sheets designed to guide students through the process of reflection by following the TARL model of reflection, and exemplars of reflective writing. Although students have engaged in the process of reflective writing in Equity for some years, in semester one 2011 assessment criteria were developed and the ePortfolio reflections were summatively assessed for the first time. The model of teaching and assessing reflective practice was evaluated in a range of ways by seeking feedback from students and academic staff responsible for implementing the model and asking them to reflect on their experiences. This chapter describes why skill development and reflective writing were embedded in the undergraduate law unit Equity; identify the teaching and learning approaches which were implemented to teach reflective writing to online and internal Equity students; explain the assessment processes; analyse the empirical evidence from evaluations; document the lessons learnt and discuss planned future improvements to the teaching and assessment strategies.

Tactics for teaching evidence-based practice : improving self-efficacy in finding and appraising evidence in a master's evidence-based practice unit

Universal application of evidence-based practice (EBP) is far from a reality with many clinicians feeling ill equipped to adopt this approach in their clinical practice (Melnyk Fineout- Overholt, Feinstein, Sadler, & Green-Hernandez, 2008; Sherriff, Wallis, & Chaboyer, 2007) and, thus, to be an intelligent consumer of evidence (Ciliska, 2005). While recognizing the benefit of EBP, many health professionals have low confidence in their skills for using evidence in clinical settings (Nagy, Lumby, McKinley, &Macfarlane, 2001). Educational initiatives are often recommended for promoting adoption of EBP with much of the focus being on providing knowledge of associated processes. Levin, Melnyk, Fineout-Overholt, Barnes, and Vetter (2011) demonstrated that providing knowledge of EBP process alone does not increase clinicians’ confidence in their ability to apply EBP to their practice...

Shared values : diverse perspectives – engaging engineering educators in integrating Indigenous engineering knowledge into current curricula

BACKGROUND Engineering is a problem-based practically oriented discipline, whose practitioners aim to find effective solutions to engineering challenges, technically and economically. Engineering educators operate within a mandate to ensure that graduate engineers understand the practicalities and realities of good engineering practice. While this is a vital goal for the discipline, emerging influences are challenging the focus on ‘hard practicalities’ and requiring recognition of the cultural and social aspects of engineering. Expecting graduate engineers to possess communication skills essential for negotiating satisfactory outcomes in contexts of complex social beliefs about the impact of their work can be an unsettling and challenging prospect for engineering educators. This project identifies and addresses Indigenous engineering practices and principles, and their relevance to future engineering practices. PURPOSE This Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) project proposes that what is known/discoverable about indigenous engineering knowledge and practices must be integrated into engineering curricula. This is an important aspect of ensuring that engineering as a profession responds competently to increasing demands for socially and environmentally responsible activity across all aspects of engineering activity. DESIGN/METHOD The project addresses i) means for appropriate inclusion of Indigenous students into usual teaching activities ii) assuring engineering educators have access to knowledge of Indigenous practices and skills relevant to particular engineering courses and topics iii) means for preparing all students to negotiate their way through issues of indigenous relationships with the land where engineering projects are planned. The project is undertaking wide-ranging research to collate knowledge about indigenous engineering principles and practices and develop relevant resource materials. RESULTS It is common to hear that such social issues as ‘Indigenous concerns’ are only of concern to environmental engineers. We challenge that perspective, and make the case that Indigenous knowledge is an important issue for all engineering educators in relation to effective integration of indigenous students and preparation of all engineering graduates to engage with indigenous communities. At the time of first contact, a rich and varied, technically literate, Indigenous social framework possessed knowledge of the environment that is not yet fully acknowledged in Australian society. A core outcome of the work will be development of resources relating to Indigenous engineering practices for inclusion in engineering core curricula. CONCLUSIONS A large body of technical knowledge was needed to survive and sustain human society in the complex environment that was Australia before 1788. This project is developing resource materials, and supporting documentation, about that knowledge to enable engineering educators to more easily integrate it into current curricula. The project also aims to demonstrate the importance for graduating engineers to appreciate the existence of diverse perspectives on engineering tasks and learn how to value - and employ - multiple paths to possible solutions.

Using personal construct theory and narrative methods to facilitate reflexive constructions of teaching physical education

This paper reports on two lengthy studies in Physical education teacher education (PETE) conducted independently but which are epistemologically and methodologically linked. The paper describes how personal construct theory (PCT) and its associated methods provided a means for PETE students to reflexively construct their ideas about teaching physical education over an extended period. Data are drawn from each study in the form of a story of a single participant to indicate how this came about. Furthermore we suggest that PCT might be both a useful research strategy and an effective approach to facilitate professional development in a teacher education setting.

ICT in teacher education in the age of AITSL

This paper is drawn from a 2012-2013 OLT National Teaching Fellowship investigating the agencies impacting on whole-of course curriculum design in initial teacher education. The chief of these is AITSL (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership) through the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at Graduate level and the Program Accreditation Standards. This paper will begin with a discussion of the requirements on both beginning teachers and initial teacher education programs in regard to ICT (both content and pedagogy). It will then present case studies from four universities whose degree programs have been approved for implementation in 2014. It will focus on how each institution has responded to the APST as well as accreditation requirements. This will be based on responses to surveys to selected institutions and with one on one interviews to capture rich data. From this, it will draw a contemporary profile of how institutions are rising to the real requirements of ICT pedagogy within the regulatory constraints now in place. The methodology employed is qualitative and is based on document analysis enriched by interview data. It is important to know, as a profession, how future teachers are being introduced to and immersed in digital learning environments.

Teaching young queers a lesson: How police teach lessons about non-heteronormativity in public spaces

This paper analyses qualitative data with LGBT young people to think about police-LGBT youth interactions, and the outcomes of these interactions, as pedagogical moments for LGBT young people, police, and public onlookers. Although the data in this paper could be interpreted in line with dominant ways of thinking about LGBT young people and police, as criminalization for instance, the data suggested something more complex. This paper employs a theoretical framework informed by poststructural theories, queer theories, and pedagogical theories, to theorise LGBT youth-police interactions as instruction about managing police relationships in public spaces. The analysis shows how LGBT young people are learning from police encounters about the need to avoid ‘looking queer’ to minimise police harm.

She’s done alright for a girl : strategies for teaching women artists

While evidence suggests that up to 65% of visual arts graduates in Australia are women, women artists are still dramatically under-represented in most sectors of the industry, from institutional exhibitions through to commercial gallery representation. Gender awareness in art school education was a prominent aspect of second wave feminist activism in this country, however the outcomes for women artists, particularly as their careers proceed, often remain discouraging. Over approximately the past ten years, the Visual Arts discipline at Queensland University of Technology has integrated a range of gender awareness strategies into its teaching program across both studio practice and history/theory areas, with relatively strong outcomes amongst female graduates, both as artists and arts workers. Employing practitioner reflection and praxis-based research, this paper takes stock of the approaches that have been trialled over this period and reflects on the combination of both explicit and implicit strategies employed, as well as student responses to them.

Design thinking frameworks as transformative cross-disciplinary pedagogy

Final report for the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. "This seed project ‘Design thinking frameworks as transformative cross-disciplinary pedagogy’ aimed to examine the way design thinking strategies are used across disciplines to scaffold the development of student attributes in the domain of problem solving and creativity in order to enhance the nation’s capacity for innovation. Generic graduate attributes associated with innovation, creativity and problem solving are considered to be amongst the most important of all targeted attributes (Bradley Review of Higher Education, 2009). The project also aimed to gather data on how academics across disciplines conceptualised design thinking methodologies and strategies. Insights into how design thinking strategies could be embedded at the subject level to improve student outcomes were of particular interest in this regard. A related aim was the investigation of how design thinking strategies could be used by academics when designing new and innovative subjects and courses." Case Study 3: QUT Community Engaged Learning Lab Design Thinking/Design Led Innovation Workshop by Natalie Wright Context "The author, from the discipline area of Interior Design in the QUT School of Design, Faculty of Creative Industries, is a contributing academic and tutor for The Community Engaged Learning Lab, which was initiated at Queensland University of Technology in 2012. The Lab facilitates university-wide service-learning experiences and engages students, academics, and key community organisations in interdisciplinary action research projects to support student learning and to explore complex and ongoing problems nominated by the community partners. In Week 3, Semester One 2013, with the assistance of co-lead Dr Cara Wrigley, Senior Lecturer in Design led Innovation, a Masters of Architecture research student and nine participating industry-embedded Masters of Research (Design led Innovation) facilitators, a Design Thinking/Design led Innovation workshop was conducted for the Community Engaged Learning Lab students, and action research outcomes published at 2013 Tsinghua International Design Management Symposium, December 2013 in Shenzhen, China (Morehen, Wright, & Wrigley, 2013)."

Contesting spaces for Indigenous knowledge in university teaching and learning

Teaching and learning indigenous knowledge (as opposed to “modern” knowledge) is inherently a political and moral act. Indigenous Australian knowledges areas are as diverse as its geographical landscape. Making space for Indigenous knowledges in academia should not merely be a question of social justice or equity; the focus needs to shift to restoring pedagogical justice. This chapter provides insights for possible frameworks for embedding Indigenous knowledges and draws from experiences of teaching critical Indigenous Studies at one Australian university.

Creative graduate pathways within and beyond the creative industries

This special issue explores the nuances of graduate creative work, the kinds of value that creative graduates add through work of various types, graduate employability issues for creative graduates, emerging and developing creative career identities and the implications for educators who are tasked with developing a capable creative workforce. Extent literature tends to characterise creative careers as either ‘precarious’ and insecure, or as the engine room of the creative economy. However, in actuality, the creative workforce is far more heterogeneous than either of these positions suggest, and creative careers are far more complex and diverse than previously thought. The task of creative educators is also much more challenging than previously supposed. In this introductory article, we commence by providing a brief overview of the creative labour debates, and the evidence for each position. We present the latest literature in this area that starts to speak to how diverse and complex the landscape of creative work actually is. We then introduce each of the articles in this special issue and indicate how they contribute to a more multi-faceted picture of creative activity, and the lives and career trajectories of graduates from creative degrees.

The Threshold Learning Outcome on self-management for the Bachelor of Laws degree : a proposed focus for teaching strategies in the first year law curriculum

The Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Discipline Scholars for Law, Professors Sally Kift and Mark Israel, articulated six Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) for the Bachelor of Laws degree as part of the ALTC’s 2010 project on Learning and Teaching Academic Standards. One of these TLOs promotes the learning, teaching and assessment of self-management skills in Australian law schools. This paper explores the concept of self-management and how it can be relevantly applied in the first year of legal education. Recent literature from the United States (US) and Australia provides insights into the types of issues facing law students, as well as potential antidotes to these problems. Based on these findings, I argue that designing a pedagogical framework for the first year law curriculum that promotes students’ connection with their intrinsic interests, values, motivations and purposes will facilitate student success in terms of their personal well-being, ethical dispositions and academic engagement.

Dance teaching and learning in context : activating the head, heart and hands

Traditionally, the art of teaching dance has largely been a skill transferred from teacher to student. This master-apprentice paradigm encourages the passing on of technical and artistic traditions associated with the various genres of dance. Whilst this approach supports the passing of the flame of the art form from generation to generation, it has, in part, limited the teaching pedagogy that informs dance as an art form. The future of dance teaching is reliant on teachers’ engagement with the further development of inquiry learning and reflective practice skills within the dance studio. This paper charts one component of a reflective pedagogy, Head, Heart, Hands (Pstalozzi as cited in Rud 2006), developed as a result of an action research project, within a suite of three units across a three-year undergraduate teacher-training course for school, community and studio dance teachers.

Negotiating indeterminacy in studio teaching: Using the zones of material and immaterial play to shape pedagogies and practices in art

The processes of studio-based teaching in visual art are often still tied to traditional models of discrete disciplines and largely immersed in skill-based learning. These approaches to training artists are also tied to an individual model of art practice that is clearly defined by the boundaries of those disciplines. This paper will explain how the open studio program at QUT can be broadly understood as an action research model of learning that ‘plays’ with the post-medium, post-studio genealogies and zones of contemporary art. This emphasises developing conceptual, contextual and formal skills as essential for engaging with and practicing in the often-indeterminate spatio-temporal sites of studio teaching. It will explore how this approach looks to Sutton-Smith’s observations on the role of play and Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development in early childhood learning as a way to develop strategies for promoting creative learning environments that are collaborative and self sustainable. Social, cultural, political and philosophical dialogues are examined as they relate to art practice with the aim of forming the shared interests, aims, and ambitions of graduating students into self initiated collectives or ARIs.