Finding order in chaos : a problem based collaborative assignment for 1300 students across 19 disciplines

The use of collaborative assignments for assessment is a risky undertaking for students and course designers. Yet the benefits, in terms of core learning outcomes, competencies, collaborative sense making and student involvement, suggest that the effort is worthwhile. Formal descriptions and rules do little to ameliorate the perception of risk and increased anxiety by students. (Ryan, 2007). BEB100 Introducing Professional Learning is a faculty-wide foundation unit with over 1300 students from 19 disciplines across the Faculty of the Built Environment and Engineering (“BEE”) at the Queensland University of Technology (“QUT”), Brisbane, Australia. Finding order in chaos outlines the approach and justification, assessment criteria, learning resources, teamwork tools, tutorial management, communication strategies, 2007-09 Student Learning Experience Survey results, annual improvements, findings and outcomes.

Students' attitudes and perceptions to online tutorials

The purpose of education is to facilitate learning. Online learning methods have grown substantially with students demanding increased flexibility. Many studies document positive learning outcomes, but do students understand this mode of learning? In this study a survey was conducted to determine student's att itudes and perceptions of online tutorials, because perceptions of learning environments vary.

Systemic racism: the hidden barrier to educational success for Indigenous school students

Explanations for poor educational experiences and results for Australian Indigenous school students have, to a great extent, focused on intended or conscious acts or omissions. This paper adopts an analysis based on the legislation prohibiting indirect racial discrimination. Using the elements of the legislation and case law it argues that apparently benign and race-neutral policies and practices may unwittingly be having an adverse impact on Indigenous students' education. These practices or policies include the building blocks of learning, a Eurocentric school culture. Standard English as the language of assessment, legislation to limit schools' legal liability, and teachers' promotions.

Australian Indigenous students: addressing equity issues in assessment

This article provides the background and context to the important issue of assessment and equity in relation to Indigenous students in Australia. Questions about the validity and fairness of assessment are raised and ways forward are suggested by attending to assessment questions in relation to equity and culture-fair assessment. Patterns of under-achievement by Indigenous students are reflected in national benchmark data and international testing programmes like the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Sstudy and the Program for International Student Assessment. The argument developed views equity, in relation to assessment, as more of a sociocultural issue than a technical matter. It highlights how teachers need to distinguish the "funds of knowledge" that Indigenous students draw on and how teachers need to adopt culturally responsive pedagogy to open up the curriculum and assessment practice to allow for different ways of knowing and being.

Education for all : providing curriculum for students with disabilities in a standards-based environment : implications for Queensland schools

This report investigates lessons learned by educators in the United States when providing a standards-based curriculum for all students including Students with Disabilities (SWD). Assumptions about implementation of these lessons are then made to the Queensland school system. Queensland mainstream schools currently provide a standards-based curriculum for over sixteen thousand-four hundred students with mild-moderate disabilities and appear to be challenged by this new educational reform and its implications to school and teacher practices, beliefs and attitudes. The analysis of US research, literature and educational policy for this report, has provided some implications for Queensland schools in the areas of student participation, achievement and curriculum planning to provide an “education for all”. The analysis and comparison of legislation and policy, which demonstrates some significant similarities, provides greater validity for the application of lessons learned in the United States to the Queensland context. The key findings about lessons learned provides Queensland schools with some assumptions as to why and how they need to refocus school leader and teachers’ practices, beliefs and attitudes to provide an “education for all”. These lessons infer that school leaders and teachers to explicitly focus on equity, expectation, accountability, performance, alignment and collaboration so that effective curriculum is provided for SWD, indeed all students, in the Queensland standards-based curriculum environment.

School students and part-time work: Workplace problems and challenges.

This paper uses data from a large national project on student-working to examine problems and challenges for school students working in part-time jobs. While literature has identified some potential problems and challenges, and some potential difficulties can be extrapolated from the nature of a young teenage workforce and the nature of the workplaces, these were largely absent in the two companies researched because the companies already had policies in place that addressed the potential problems. Some suggestions are made about how problems and challenges could be avoided in a wider range of adolescent workplaces.

Career development and personal functioning differences between work-bound and non-work bound students

We surveyed 506 Australian high school students on career development (exploration, planning, job-knowledge, decision-making, indecision), personal functioning (well-being, self-esteem, life satisfaction, school satisfaction) and control variables (parents’ education, school achievement), and tested differences among work-bound, college-bound and university-bound students. The work-bound students had the poorest career development and personal functioning, the university-bound students the highest, with the college-bound students falling in-between the other two groups. Work-bound students did poorest, even after controlling for parental education and school achievement. The results suggest a relationship between career development and personal functioning in high school students.

Teachers’ understandings of their relationships with students : pedagogic connectedness

This paper reports on a doctoral study that explored the nature of pedagogic connectedness and revealed the ways in which teachers experience this phenomenon. Pedagogic connectedness is defined as the engagements between teacher and student that impact on student learning. In this study, twenty teachers in an independent college in South-East Queensland, Australia, were interviewed and the interview transcripts analysed iteratively. Five qualitatively different ways of experiencing pedagogic connectedness emerged from the data. The findings of this phenomenographic-related study are instructive in developing a framework for changes to teachers’ pedagogic practices.

An instrument for assessing primary students’ knowledge of information graphics in mathematics

Information graphics have become increasingly important in representing, organising and analysing information in a technological age. In classroom contexts, information graphics are typically associated with graphs, maps and number lines. However, all students need to become competent with the broad range of graphics that they will encounter in mathematical situations. This paper provides a rationale for creating a test to measure students’ knowledge of graphics. This instrument can be used in mass testing and individual (in-depth) situations. Our analysis of the utility of this instrument informs policy and practice. The results provide an appreciation of the relative difficulty of different information graphics; and provide the capacity to benchmark information about students’ knowledge of graphics. The implications for practice include the need to support the development of students’ knowledge of graphics, the existence of gender differences, the role of cross-curriculum applications in learning about graphics, and the need to explicate the links among graphics.

Primary students’ spatial visualization and spatial orientation : an evidence base for instruction

This paper reports on the performance of 58 11 to 12-year-olds on a spatial visualization task and a spatial orientation task. The students completed these tasks and explained their thinking during individual interviews. The qualitative data were analysed to inform pedagogical content knowledge for spatial activities. The study revealed that “matching” or “matching and eliminating” were the typical strategies that students employed on these spatial tasks. However, errors in making associations between parts of the same or different shapes were noted. Students also experienced general difficulties with visual memory and language use to explain their thinking. The students’ specific difficulties in spatial visualization related to obscured items, the perspective used, and the placement and orientation of shapes.

Gender effects in orientation on primary students’ performance on items rich in graphics

This study investigated the longitudinal performance of 378 students who completed mathematics items rich in graphics. Specifically, this study explored student performance across axis (e.g., numbers lines), opposed-position (e.g., line and column graphs) and circular (e.g., pie charts) items over a three-year period (ages 9-11 years). The results of the study revealed significant performance differences in the favour of boys on graphics items that were represented in horizontal and vertical displays. There were no gender differences on items that were represented in a circular manner.

The influences of conceptions of learning and learner self-concept on high school students' approaches to learning

This study investigated the mediating effect of learner selfconcept between conceptions of learning and students' approaches to learning using structural equation modelling. Data were collected using a modified version of Biggs' Learning Process Questionnaire, together with the recently developed 'What is Learning Survey' and 'Learner Self-Concept Scale'. A sample of 355 high school students participated in the study. Results indicate that learner self-concept does mediate between conceptions of meaning and approaches to learning. Students who adopted a deep approach liked learning new things and indirectly viewed learning as experiential, involving social interaction and directly viewed learning as personal development. Implications for teachers are discussed, with consideration given to appropriate classroom practice.