Developing a supportive culture for teaching and learning : a university, faculty and school perspective

In the early 1990's the University of Salford was typical of most pre-1992 Universities in that whilst students provided much of it's income, little attention was paid to pedagogy. As Warren Piper (1994) observed, University teachers were professional in their subject areas but generally did not seek to acquire a pedagogy of HE. This was the case in Alsford. Courses were efficiently run but only a minority of staff were engaged in actively considering learning and teaching issues. Instead staff time was spent on research and commercial activity.----- In the mid-1990's the teaching environment began to change significantly. As well as Dearing, the advent of QAA and teaching quality reviews, Salford was already experiencing changes in the characteristics of its student body. Wideing access was on our agenda before it was so predominant nationally. With increasing numbers and heterogeneity of students as well as these external factors, new challenges were facing the University and teaching domain.----- This paper describes how a culture which values teaching, learning and pedagogic inquiry is being created in the university. It then focuses on parts of this process specific to the Faculty of Business and Informatics, namely the Faculty's Learning and Teaching Research Network and the establishment of the Centre for Construction Education in the School of Construction and Property Management.----- The Faculty of Business and Informatics' Learning and Teaching Research Network aims to raise the profile, quality and volume of pedagogic research across the five schools in the faculty. The initiative is targeted at all academics regardless of previous research experience. We hope to grow and nurture research potential where it exists and to acknowledge and use the existing expertise of subject-based researchers in collaborative ventures. We work on the principle that people are deliged to share what they know but need appreciation and feedback for doing so. A further ain is to surface and celebrate the significant amount of tacit knowledge in the area of pedagogy evidenced by the strength of student and employer feedback in many areas of the faculty's teaching.----- The Faculty embraces generic and core management expertise but also includes applied management disciplines in information systems and construction and property management where internationally leading research activities and networked centres of excellence have been established. Drawing from this experience, and within the context of the Faculty network, a Centre for Construction Education is being established with key international external partners to develop a sustainable business model of an enterprising pedagogic centre that can undertake useful research to underpin teaching in the Faculty whilst offering sustainable business services to allow it to benefit from pump-priming grant funding.----- Internal and external networking are important elements in our plans and ongoing work. Key to this are our links with the LTSN subject centres (BEST and CEBE) and the LTSN generic centre. The paper discusses networking as a concept and gives examples of practices which have proved useful in this context.----- The academic influences on our approach are also examined. Dixon’s (2000) work examining how a range of companies succeed through internal knowledge sharing has provided a range of transferable practices. We also examine the notion of dialogue in this context, defined by Ballantyne (1999) as ‘The interactive human process of reasoning together which comes into being through interactions based on spontaneity or need and is enabled by trust’ Social constructionist principles of Practical Authorship (Shotter, 1993, Pavlica, Holman and Thorpe, 1998)) have also proved useful in developing our perspective on learning and knowledge creation within our community of practice.

The experiences of teacher aides who support students with disabilities and learning difficulties : a phenomenological study

Schools in Queensland, Australia, are undergoing inclusive education reform, following the report of the Ministerial Taskforce on Inclusive Education (Students with Disabilities) in 2004. The State government’s responses to the taskforce report emphasise a commitment to social justice and equity so that all students can be included in ways that enable them to achieve their potential. Teacher aides are employed in schools as ancillary staff to support students with disabilities and learning difficulties. Their support roles in schools are emerging within an educational context in which assumptions about disability, difference and inclusion of students with disabilities and learning difficulties are changing. It is important to acknowledge teacher aides as support practitioners, and to understand their roles in relation to the inclusion of students with disabilities and learning difficulties as inclusive education reform continues. This study used a phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of teacher aides as they supported students with disabilities and learning difficulties in primary schools. Four key insights into the support roles of teacher aides in primary schools in Brisbane, Queensland emerged from the study: 1) teacher aides develop empathetic relationships with students that contribute significantly to the students’ sense of belonging within school communities; 2) lack of clear definition of roles and responsibilities for teacher aides has detrimental effects on inclusion of students; 3) collaborative planning and implementation of classroom learning and socialisation programs enhances inclusion; and 4) teacher aides learn about supporting students while on-the-job, and in consultation and collaboration with other members of the students’ support networks.

Building a supportive environment for teaching and learning : a reflective commentary

Universities are increasingly caught in the transition between college institutions of independant academics to become managed businesses of research and teaching and learning. This is introducing substantial issues with the work, approach and personal development needs of individual academics. It is causing even greater concerns for managers within universities. The developments in University Management have increasingly become driven towards issues of finance, quality and marketing. Organizational development in teaching and learning practices has been less commonly a point of focus. This paper outlines developments of this nature at the University of Salford. Through its combination of authors it does so at whole University, Faculty and School levels. It outlines the variety of ways in which teaching and learning developments can be supported within an organisation.

Work integrated learning for design : a scholarship of integration

Within an action research framework, this paper describes the conceptual basis for developing a crossdisciplinary pedagogical model of higher education/industry engagement for the built environment design disciplines including architecture, interior design, industrial design and landscape architecture. Aiming to holistically acknowledge and capitalize on the work environment as a place of authentic learning, problems arising in practice are understood as the impetus, focus and ‘space’ for a process of inquiry and discovery that, in the spirit of Boyer’s ‘Scholarship of Integration’, provides for generic as well as discipline-specific learning.

Learning, evaluation, action and reflection for new technologies, empowerment and rural sustainability (The LEARNERS project)

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MiLK: Transforming everyday places into dynamic learning spaces with mobile and web technologies

This paper explores how game authoring tools can teach processes that transform everyday places into engaging learning spaces. It discusses the motivation inherent in playing games and creating games for others, and how this stimulates an iterative process of creation and reflection and evokes a natural desire to engage in learning. The use of MiLK at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens is offered as a case in point. MiLK is an authoring tool that allows students and teachers to create and share SMS games for mobile phones. A group of South Australian high school students used MiLK to play a game, create their own games and play each other’s games during a day at the gardens. This paper details the learning processes involved in these activities and how the students, without prompting, reflected on their learning, conducted peer assessment, and engaged in a two-way discussion with their teacher about new technologies and their implications for learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of the needs and requirements of 21st century learners and how MiLK can support constructivist and connectivist teaching methods that engage learners and will produce an appropriately skilled future workforce.

MILK : the Mobile Informal Learning Kit. Collaborating to design successful mobile learning applications

This paper suggests ways for educators and designers to understand and merge priorities in order to inform the development of mobile learning (m-learning) applications that maximise user experiences and hence learning opportunities. It outlines a User Experience Design (UXD) theory and development process that requires designers to conduct a thorough initial contextual inquiry into a particular domain in order to set project priorities and development guidelines. A matrix that identifies the key contextual considerations namely the social, cultural, spatial, technical and temporal constructs of any domain is presented as a vital tool for achieving successful UXD. The frame of reference provided by this matrix ensures that decisions made throughout the design process are attributable to a desired user experience. To illustrate how the proposed UXD theory and development process supports the creation of effective m-learning applications, this paper documents the development process of MILK (Mobile Informal Learning Kit). MILK is a support tool that allows teachers and students to develop event paths that consist of a series SMS question and answer messages that lead players through a series of checkpoints between point A and point B. These event paths can be designed to suit desired learning scenarios and can be used to explore a particular place or subject. They can also be designed to facilitate formal or informal learning experiences.

ICT integration and teachers' confidence in using ICT for teaching and learning in Queensland state schools

Information and communication technology (ICT) curriculum integration is the apparent goal of an extensive array of educational initiatives in all Australian states and territories. However, ICT curriculum integration is neither value neutral nor universally understood. The literature indicates the complexity of rationales and terminology that underwrite various initiatives; various dimensions and stages of integration; inherent methodological difficulties; obstacles to integration; and significant issues relating to teacher professional development and ICT competencies (Jamieson-Proctor, Watson, & Finger, 2003). This paper investigates the overarching question: Are ICT integration initiatives making a significant impact on teaching and learning in Queensland state schools? It reports the results from a teacher survey that measures the quantity and quality of student use of ICT. Results from 929 teachers across all year levels and from 38 Queensland state schools indicate that female teachers (73% of the full time teachers in Queensland state schools in 2005) are significantly less confident than their male counterparts in using ICT with students for teaching and learning, and there is evidence of significant resistance to using ICT to align curriculum with new times and new technologies. This result supports the hypothesis that current initiatives with ICT are having uneven and less than the desired results system wide. These results require further urgent investigation in order to address the factors that currently constrain the use of ICT for teaching and learning.