The effect of the introduction of teaching interventions and assessment strategies in first year management units

This Scholarship of Teaching research aimed to ultimately become a report and a series of recommendations on the teaching of first year Management units in universities. Many of the Australian universities benchmark themselves against the leaders in the Course Experience Questionnaires (CEQ) (Ramsden 1991) of graduating students in Australia. Most Australian universities have their own student satisfaction evaluation method. In this study the subject university uses the Student Evaluation of Teachers and Units (SETU) as their internal method of measuring the effectiveness of teaching on units on a cohort by cohort basis. This project, using one of the largest units in a Business and Law Faculty had specific measurable objectives; the results of the unit teams' interventions demonstrate that it is possible to increase student satisfaction during their transition year by as much as 11.5%. The ten recommendations ranging from changes to unit objectives, assessment methods and updated methods of marking, communication and student support, if acted upon, should have ongoing benefits for teaching and learning of first year management units.

First year pre-service teachers' mathematical content knowledge : methods of solution to a ratio question

In this article, pre-service teachers' mathematics content knowledge is explored through the analysis of two items about ratio from a Mathematical Competency, Skills and Knowledge Test. Pre-service teachers' thinking strategies, common errors and misconceptions in their responses are presented and discussed. Of particular interest was the range and nature of common incorrect responses for one whole-whole ratio question. Results suggested pre-service teachers had difficulty interpreting a worded multi-step, ratio (scale) question, with errors relating to ratio and/or conversion of measurement knowledge. These difficulties reveal underdeveloped knowledge of mathematical structure and mathematical connections as well as an inability to deconstruct key components of a mathematical problem. Most pre-service teachers also lacked knowledge of standard procedures and methods of solutions.

Starting out in STEM : a study of young men and women in first year science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses

In late 2011, first year university students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses across Australia were invited to participate in the international Interests and Recruitment in Science (IRIS) study. IRIS investigates the influences on young people's decisions to choose university STEM courses and their subsequent experiences of these courses. The study also has a particular focus on the motivations and experiences of young women in courses such as physics, IT and engineering given the low rates of female participation in these fields. Around 3500 students from 30 Australian universities contributed their views on the relative importance of various school and non-school influences on their decisions, as well as insights into their experiences of university STEM courses so far. It is hoped that their contributions will help improve recruitment, retention and gender equity in STEM higher education and careers.

Firsts: performing ways first year teachers experience identity transformation

This thesis reports on research showing the survival discourse of beginning teaching has shifted from sink or swim metaphors to describe surviving transition shock and classroom management concerns to surviving contract employment. Beginning teachers are neither sinking nor swimming in this liminal state. Rather, it is as though they are on a lifeboat where they cannot feel like a ‘real’ teacher until they can operate with certainty.

Interrogating the experiences of beginning teachers, and the transformation of their identity in their first year (1yr) of teaching, the thesis explores research participants’ firsts as epiphanic or revelatory moments of identity transformation. Participants were followed for three years from upon completion of their teacher education, through their first year of teaching, up to the beginning of their third year in the profession. The major finding was that while contemporary understandings of professional identity highlight the transformative nature of the phenomenon,  contract employment had the most impact on these teachers’ identity transformation.

Teachers’ perceptions of their own professional identity affect their efficacy and professional development as well as their ability and willingness to cope with educational change (Beijaard, Verloop & Vermunt 2000). It has been reported by the Australian Education Union (AEU) and in the Victorian media in recent years that up to 50% of beginning teachers are leaving the profession within their first five years. The reasons given for this level of
attrition include workload, pay, and behaviour management, among the top concerns of beginning teachers. These categories have positioned beginning teachers in a survival discourse for many years, yet there is more to beginning teachers’ intentions to leave than their struggles to survive in the classroom. More recently in Victoria what it means to ‘survive’ has shifted to surviving the pervasive contractual nature of beginning teachers’
employment conditions.

This qualitative study seeks to question what remains concealed with regard to beginning teachers’ experiences through an investigation of the differences between and within individuals, allowing categories of description to emerge from the data rather than pre-determining categories of investigation. Data was collected from twelve participants through individual semi-structured interviews and written communication. A theatre-based research approach to representing the participants’ experiences was employed, culminating in a performance titled ‘The First Time’. The processes of scripting, rehearsing, and performing, were utilised to analyse and represent the data to expert audiences. In an aim to uncover questions that have been buried by answers, the research is oriented as a
phenomenographic inquiry. This mode of inquiry seeks to describe, analyse, and understand (Marton 1981) the qualitatively different experiences 1yr teachers undergo in their identity formation and transformation.

The results of this research reveal the destabilising effect of short-term contracts so prevalent in the current context; that status and belonging are central to 1yr teachers’ identity work. Status and belonging are positioned within survival, liminal, and hegemonic discourses; and expressed through artefacts as symbols of belonging. The low status ascribed to contractual work has a clear impact on beginning teachers’ commitment to the profession.

Reading, writing, crafting – Innovations in first year tertiary writing pedagogy

This paper will outline some of the rationale behind, and strategies contributing to, curriculum revision in first-year creative writing at Deakin University in 2012 – delivered in that year and currently running in 2013. The process aimed to produce two consecutive offerings, with distinct but strategically scaffolded preoccupations. This paper deals with the first of these. The design process for this offering, named ‘Writing Craft’, involved addressing two central concerns: (a) the need to unhook the initial encounter with tertiary creative writing pedagogy from a preoccupation with ‘genres’ or the ‘forms’ of creative writing (such as prose fiction, creative nonfiction, script, poetry, and so on) and instead to reorient efforts towards establishing an engagement with craft per se; (b) to address a perceived impoverishment in the range of texts to which students had been exposed prior to commencing study – in other words, to emphasise the practice of reading to facilitate the practice of writing. The curriculum design also involved reimagining assessment, noting the ‘messages about making’ sent to students via the framing of tasks and rubrics. Aiming instead to deemphasise the role of inspiration and ‘work arriving fully formed’, it sought to offer assessment that provided clear – and bounded – prompts for incidents of making and the practice of craft, as well as to provoke conversation with a broad range of texts as a way of courting intertextual inspiration and aesthetic formation.

Use of web-conferencing software to enhance practical learning for distance students in a first-year Engineering course

BACKGROUND : For many years, Deakin University has delivered an accredited undergraduate engineering course by means of distance education. One of the chief challenges is to provide the necessary practical instruction and experience in engineering to these students. In first-year physics and first-year materials science, off-campus students normally attend on-campus lab classes either on a Saturday or as part of a residential school. However, because some students live either interstate or overseas, it is sometimes impossible for small groups of students to attend an on-campus lab class. PURPOSE : This paper investigates whether web-conferencing software can be an effective means for delivering practical classes to small groups of distance students in first-year physics and also first-year materials. METHOD : Over three semesters in 2012, we employed the Elluminate-Live! software platform to broadcast six lab practicals in first-year physics, and one practical in first-year materials engineering. The students submitted practical reports as did all the other students in each unit. The students in each unit fell into three groups: on-campus students, off-campus students who performed their practicals on-campus, and off-campus students who performed their practicals “virtually” via an Elluminate-Live! session. RESULTS : The trials showed that it is possible to broadcast both physics and materials practical classes by means of web-conferencing software. Report marks of the students performing practicals by this method were comparable to those in the other groups. CONCLUSIONS : Our experience with four initial trials in delivering practical classes over the Internet was encouraging, and showed that the concept will work if done in an effective way.

Use and perceptions of worked example videos for first-year students studying mathematics in a primary education degree

Worked example videos have great potential to be useful for students when learning mathematics as they can work through the questions at their own pace, pausing as needed, but still learn from the way the demonstrator thinks and solves problems. We created worked example videos each week for a mathematics subject taught in the first year of a primary education degree and investigated student perceptions and their usage patterns. An additional aspect of this undertaking was the inclusion of subtitles to make the videos accessible to hearing impaired and ESL students. This report will reflect on the process of creating these videos, as well as some initial findings on their success.

Becoming numerate with information and communications technologies in the twenty-first century

This article draws on data from a three-year Australian Research Council-funded study that examined the ways in which young children become numerate in the twenty-first century. We were interested in the authentic problem-solving contexts that we believe are required to create meaningful learning. This being so, our basic tenet was that such experiences should involve the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) where relevant, but not in tokenistic ways. This article highlights learning conditions in which young children can become numerate in contemporary times. We consider ‘academic’ or ‘school-based’ mathematical tasks in the context of a Mathematical Tasks Continuum. This continuum was conceptualised to enable focused and detailed thinking about the scope and range of mathematical tasks that young children are able to engage within contemporary school contexts. The data from this study show that most of the tasks the children experienced in early years mathematics classes were unidimensional in their make up. That is, they focus on the acquisition of specific skills and then they are practiced in disembedded contexts. We suggest that the framework created in the form of the Mathematical Tasks Continuum can facilitate teachers thinking about the possible ways in which they could extend children’s academic work in primary school mathematics, so that the process of becoming numerate becomes more easily related to authentic activities that they are likely to experience in everyday life.

Teacher practice: a spotlight on the use of feedback and conferencing in the first year of schooling

With the prevalence of statements that refer to a need to “bridge”, “narrow” or “close” gaps in achievement it would appear that Government bodies have an appreciation for the fact that students need not be victims of circumstance. In addition to this, research has suggested that certain skills, such as the acquisition of phonemic awareness, need to be acquired in the early years to ensure that children do not fall behind their peers. Use of feedback is one way in which teachers have attempted to positively influence student outcomes. There are authors, however, who have suggested that not all forms of feedback are necessarily effective. In light of these perspectives, this study sought to investigate whether the incorporation of student/teacher conferences into a pre-existing program could be seen to support the development of phonemic awareness skills of students in their first year of schooling.

Exploring first year teachers’ identity transformation through theatre-based research

Why are beginning teachers leaving the profession in large numbers? Are they leaving because of their dissatisfaction with teaching? Are they leaving because of the conditions of their work that shape their identity? Teacher identity work emphasises it is important beginning teachers understand their professional identity as something shifting, fluid and emerging – not fixed. These and other water metaphors – such as ‘washout’, ‘sink or swim’, and ‘thrown in the deep end’ – are often used to describe beginning teachers’ experiences. Such words and metaphors assist to portray the fluid and unpredictable nature of identity transformation. However, these survival terms also influence beginning teachers to believe that their transition to teaching will be difficult. Recently there has been an increased concern over beginning teacher attrition linked to the difficulties they encounter in their early years of teaching. Yet the conditions of beginning teachers’ work in Victorian schools in Australia – including the contractual nature of employment of first year (1yr) teachers – encourage these 1yr practitioners to view their work as semi-permanent. As a result these 1yr teachers do not see themselves as teaching for extended periods of time, as was once the case. Throughout 2011 twelve 1yr teachers shared their experiences of identity transformation in semi-structured interviews with the researcher. Their interview data was analysed through a theatre-based research method, examining how first experiences shape teachers’ future practice and identity. This presentation includes excerpts from the theatre-based research performance ‘The First Time’, and expands on the methodological approaches taken to analyse the data in a way that reflects the fluid and unpredictable nature of teachers’ identity formation and transformation. This qualitative study allows categories of description to emerge from the data rather than pre-determining categories of investigation. As such the processes of scripting, rehearsing, and performing, were utilised to analyse and re-present the data. In an aim to uncover questions that have been buried by answers, the research is oriented as a phenomenographic inquiry. This mode of inquiry seeks to describe, analyse, and understand the qualitatively different experiences 1yr teachers undergo in their identity formation and transformation. The results of this research reveal that beginning teachers’ identity transformation through their first experiences have both individual features specific to each teacher’s roles and aspirations, and extra-individual factors such as interactions, affiliations, and status, which shape their identity. Categories of description that have emerged from the analysis include survival, liminal, and hegemonic discourses, artifacts as symbols of belonging, and the impact of the contractual nature of teaching. Implications of this research focus on the importance for beginning teachers to develop an understanding of the transformative nature of identity in relation to the practice of teaching, to counter the negative preconceptions beginning teachers are told to expect as rites of passage upon entering the profession. The research outcomes have implications for teacher educators and in-service teachers negotiating the waters of an ever-changing profession.