Australian Higher Education Context Research Articles

An artful becoming: the case for a practice-led research approach to open educational practice research

ABSTRACT Within the context of Australian higher education, Open Educational Practice (OEP) requires a collective response from researchers and practitioners to instantiate novel, sustainable, scalable, and evidence-informed educational practices. This article outlines practice-led research's (PLR) role in educational research in open education and its potential to drive transformation and knowledge creation for practice in and through practice itself. As a creative arts methodology, PLR foregrounds practice as the locus of research activities. Practice-led researchers are deeply embedded in the research process, and knowledge production occurs through the generation of artefacts, processes, and techniques. With a focus on real-time making and research, PLR promotes a culture of knowledge production through the active 'doing' of practice within a process-oriented framework. In this paper, OEP is reframed as a creative project, and PLR, with its stress on researcher/practitioner reflexivity, becomes a methodology capable of fostering open educational practices in becoming.

Giving voice to regional Australian academic librarians

Academic librarians deliver information literacy instruction (ILI) to students, engage with a range of stakeholders, and work in a range of learning environments that are continually changing. While past research has focused on the perceptions of librarians regarding their role in ILI, this has not been a significant focus of research in the Australian higher education context. This study set out to explore the perceptions of six practising academic librarians at a regional Australian university, seeking to understand their perceptions of information literacy (IL), their role in ILI and the challenges they face in this role. The participants did not have a consensus on the nature of IL, despite having a clear definition from the institution. Librarians felt they had both an educative and supportive role and that they brought expertise and authority to ILI. Librarians note­­d that their ILI supported the broader function of the university to meet internal policies and external regulatory requirements. Librarians suggested that an integrated approach to ILI at the institution would improve librarians’ agency in supporting students. The analysis of the findings led to the development of a model for the delivery of effective ILI for this institution. The findings of this study contribute to the existing body of IL research by (a) giving voice to the views of academic librarians working in a regional Australian university, and (b) highlighting the challenges that academic librarians face when delivering ILI at their institution.

Mapping the Core Concepts of Physiology Across Australian University Curricula.

Core concepts in physiology, designed by physiology educators to promote improved learning and teaching, have existed for over a decade. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which a set of 15 core concepts of physiology (derived by a USA team) are reflected in the Learning Outcomes (LOs) of units (subjects) comprising physiology majors in Australian universities. From publicly accessible online information, we identified 17 Australian universities that offered a physiology major for undergraduate degree students and downloaded 788 LOs from the 166 units that comprised the majors. Each LO was blindly mapped against the 15 core concepts by eight physiology educators from three Australian universities. Additionally, text matching software was employed to match keywords and phrases, (identified as descriptors of the 15 core concepts) against the LOs. The frequency of individual words and two-word phrases for each core concept was calculated and ranked. There was variability in rating LOs for the same university amongst academic mappers, nevertheless, many of the 15 core concepts did not appear to be adequately covered in the LOs. Two core concepts most matched manually were in the top three most mapped by the software. These were, from most common, Structure/function and Interdependence. Our findings suggest a lack of alignment of LOs with the current set of core concepts across Australian physiology curricula. This highlights the need for Australia-wide agreement on a set of core concepts in physiology as the first step in collaboratively improving assessment and learning and teaching practice in physiology.

Unpacking the homeostasis core concept in physiology: an Australian perspective.

Australia-wide consensus was reached on seven core concepts of physiology, which included homeostasis, a fundamental concept for students to understand as they develop their basic knowledge of physiological regulatory mechanisms. The term homeostasis is most commonly used to describe how the internal environment of mammalian systems maintains relative constancy. The descriptor "the internal environment of the organism is actively regulated by the responses of cells, tissues, and organs through feedback systems" was unpacked by a team of three Australian Physiology educators into 5 themes and 18 subthemes arranged in a hierarchy. Using a five-point Likert scale, the unpacked concept was rated by 24 physiology educators from 24 Australian Universities for level of importance and level of difficulty for students. Survey data were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA to compare between and within concept themes and subthemes. There were no differences in main themes for level of importance, with all ratings between essential or important. Theme 1: the organism has regulatory mechanisms to maintain a relatively stable internal environment, a process known as homeostasis was almost unanimously rated as essential. Difficulty ratings for unpacked concept themes averaged between slightly difficult and moderately difficult. The Australian team concurred with published literature that there are inconsistencies in the way the critical components of homeostatic systems are represented and interpreted. We aimed to simplify the components of the concept so that undergraduates would be able to easily identify the language used and build on their knowledge.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The homeostasis core concept of physiology was defined and unpacked by an Australian team with the goal of constructing a resource that will improve learning and teaching of this core physiology concept in an Australian Higher Education context.

Establishing consensus for the core concepts of physiology in the Australian higher education context using the Delphi method.

A set of core concepts ("big ideas") integral to the discipline of physiology are important for students to understand and demonstrate their capacity to apply. We found poor alignment of learning outcomes in programs with physiology majors (or equivalent) from 17 Australian universities and the 15 core concepts developed by a team in the United States. The objective of this project was to reach Australia-wide consensus on a set of core concepts for physiology, which can be embedded in curricula across Australian universities. A four-phase Delphi method was employed, starting with the assembling of a Task Force of physiology educators with extensive teaching and curriculum development expertise from 25 Australian universities. After two online meetings and a survey, the Task Force reached agreement on seven core concepts of physiology and their descriptors, which were then sent out to the physiology educator community across Australia for agreement. The seven core concepts and their associated descriptions were endorsed through this process (n = 138). In addition, embedding the core concepts across the curriculum was supported by both Task Force members (85.7%) and educators (82.1%). The seven adopted core concepts of human physiology were Cell Membrane, Cell-Cell Communication, Movement of Substances, Structure and Function, Homeostasis, Integration, and Physiological Adaptation. The core concepts were subsequently unpacked into themes and subthemes. If adopted, these core concepts will result in consistency across curricula in undergraduate physiology programs and allow for future benchmarking.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first time Australia-wide agreement has been reached on the core concepts of physiology with the Delphi method. Embedding of the core concepts will result in consistency in physiology curricula, improvements to teaching and learning, and benchmarking across Australian universities.

Staying the Course: Strategies for Australian Student Veterans in Transition

The transition from military to civilian life is often challenging for veterans. International research shows higher education to be an important pathway that can help veterans navigate this change and improve their psycho-social wellbeing and career prospects. In this article, we examine how student veterans are being recognised and supported in the Australian higher education context. Our research finds the range of governmental and institutional support for student veterans to be limited, and in contrast to nations such as the United States. Nevertheless, we find recent examples of veteran-specific pathways and programs, and a growing momentum for change among university staff. Along with clear opportunities for the expansion and coordination of existing support, we highlight the need for a national framework that recognises higher education as an option for all those who have served in defence of the nation. We argue that supporting veterans is not only an equity issue, but also a matter of recognising how the skills and experience gained in the military make veterans valued members of the university community.

Boosting Career and Employability Outcomes Through Multiple Learning Abroad Experiences

While participation in learning abroad has increased rapidly over the last decade, short-term programs played an important role in boosting participation and widening access to learning abroad. The current study takes advantage of a new pattern of participation in learning abroad to examine self-reported career outcomes and employability development benefits based on program duration and the number of programs undertaken. Using a large-scale dataset of graduates of Australian universities, the study challenges conventional wisdom that a longer experience is better and explores the impact of multiple short-term program participation as a new intervention in graduate career outcomes. Although this study is based on the Australian higher education context, the results may be informative to educators and policy-makers from countries with comparable learning abroad programs in considering how short-term programs can be used more purposefully to foster positive careers and employability outcomes.

Utilising Online Gamification to Promote Student Success and Retention in Tertiary Settings

The role of gamification in Australian higher educational learning has gained increasing currency in recent years, with many proponents promoting its usefulness for improving the university student experience by increasing progression and lowering attrition, particularly among first year students (Charles, Charles, McNeill, Bustard, & Black, 2011). However, some students express reservations that the inherently competitive nature of some gamified learning activities negatively impact their learning experience, especially when compared to classic instructional methods (Charles et al., 2011). This discussion and instructional paper undertakes a review of the gamification literature within the Australian higher education context, concurrently exploring what it means and how to use gamification to enhance student learning. The paper provides a short biographic summary of the positive impact selected popular gamified activities has had on improving student engagement, participation and retention in tertiary settings.

Equity and STEM in elite contexts: challenging institutional assumptions and critiquing student support

ABSTRACT While there has been a sustained focus on widening participation in higher education internationally, there are few empirical accounts of the experiences and perceptions of ‘equity’ students in STEM subjects, and even less that examines this in the elite university context. Reporting from the Australian higher education context, this article outlines findings from an exploratory, mixed-method study of students enrolled in a Science Faculty in a ‘prestigious’ research-intensive university. The study involved a faculty-wide survey of students, collecting demographic data and perceptions of equity, and follow-up focus groups focusing on students’ perceptions of equity and their experiences of studying STEM in the elite context. The findings provide new insights into the composition of the Science student cohort and their lived experiences of feeling like outsiders in the elite context. This article reflects on how structural barriers, institutional assumptions, navigational experiences and staff engagement impact on equity students’ engagement and sense of belonging. We argue that supports must be visible, accessible and targeted, rather than limited to centralised services. We conclude by foregrounding the perceived importance of ‘care’ from Faculty staff and argue for more Faculty-embedded supports if we are to create a more diverse STEM student cohort and workforce.

Competencies or capabilities in the Australian higher education landscape and its implications for the development and delivery of sustainability education

ABSTRACT The question of how to embed transformative change through the implementation of sustainability principles in our education systems has become increasingly important as complex situations, like pandemics and climate change, challenge societies. Education underpinned by a sustainability paradigm requires students to develop the ability to think critically about the nature of knowledge and about the ways in which knowledge is produced and validated. Educating for these skills will require shifts in educational practice, pedagogy and new approaches to learning and teaching. As the relationship between education and sustainability has matured, there has been increasing debate around whether capability or competence frameworks best underlie the type of education we seek to embed in sustainability professionals. Within an Australian context there is a philosophical difference between these two terms and an understanding of how this relates to different typologies of sustainability and education; Education about Sustainable Development, Education for Sustainable Development or Sustainability as Education (Sustainability Education) and this has yet to be fully explored. This is increasingly important as higher education is under pressure to be efficient producers of work-ready graduates. This paper provides an overview of the context of capability and competencies in the Australian higher education context and the associated implications for education, and sustainability education. It compares a competence approach with that of a capability approach and then situates this debate within the evolution of sustainability and education. Finally, it addresses some key consequences of the contemporary approaches to sustainability and education and emphasises the role of the capability approach.

Interpreting the Cultural and Academic Experiences of PhD Students from the Indian Sub-Continent and the Chinese Regions in Australian Universities

This study aims to identify factors that can improve the cultural and academic experiences of East Asian PhD students attending Australian universities. We focus on two key aspects of students’ academic performance in Australia: a sense of belonging and learning strategies applied by international students in Australian higher education. A systematic literature review is conducted to design a framework that can be applied to better understand the cultural and academic experiences of students from the two regions. The application of this framework highlights, how students from these regions are better equipped to succeed in research degrees in Australian universities when they know and understand the culturally appropriate learning strategies applied in the Australian higher education context and when they are supported to develop a new sense of belonging within the academic and wider culture. Paper concludes that a sense of belonging with Australian culture helps international to attain good cultural and academic experiences. In terms of learning strategies, a scientific learning strategy is more effective for East Asian PhD students from Chinese and the Indian sub-continent than participative learning strategies, adaptive learning strategies, and artistic learning strategies. This study suggests the Australian research supervisors must communicate East Asian PhD students to attain a sense of belonging with Australian academic culture and to follow the scientific learning strategy. Future East Asian PhD students should understand the Australian academic culture to avoid cultural shock during PhD candidature. Future researchers should verify the theoretically designed through qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method research design.

Beyond the Iron Triangle: improving the quality of teaching and learning at scale

ABSTRACT Massification is a reality facing universities around the world. While increased access to higher education has significant social and economic benefits, rapid growth in class sizes challenges institutions to maintain quality standards while teaching at scale, amidst ongoing cost pressure. This paper analyses this issue within the Australian higher education context. It employs the notion of the ‘Iron Triangle’ to examine the tensions between what appear to be mutually conflicting concepts of access, cost and quality. It also highlights key strategies that can be employed to potentially enhance quality without dramatically inflating costs.

Teacher and student interactions in the first year of university

ABSTRACT The first year of university is often considered challenging and difficult for students who are adjusting to different academic and social demands. In this context, teacher-student interactions can play a crucial role in fostering student motivation, engagement in learning, a sense of belonging to the university and academic persistence. Although the benefits of teacher-student interactions have been researched, to date few studies have examined in-depth the characteristics, role and value of these interactions from students’ perspectives in the Australian higher education context. Through semi-structured interviews, this study investigated the experiences of 21 undergraduate students who reflected on their interactions with teaching staff (lecturers and tutors) in the first year, particularly the type and frequency of interactions they had with teachers and the influences these interactions had on their learning and engagement in the subject as well as the broader university. Overall, students reported that the majority of interactions were positive and helpful in influencing their engagement in learning. However, the benefits of their interactions with teachers were not perceived to extend beyond the classroom to help them develop a sense of belonging to the university.

Developing a framework for university-wide improvement in the training and support of ‘casual’ academics

ABSTRACTWith the majority of undergraduate teaching in Australian higher education being undertaken by casual academics, ensuring adequate support for these staff to access support and professional development relating to teaching and learning is imperative. In this article, we profile the development and implementation of a university-wide strategic framework for training, support and recognition of the contributions of sessional teachers. The design of this framework was informed through an iterative process of research and consultation with key institutional stakeholders and has resulted in changes at a policy level as well as in the delivery of professional development programs for sessional teaching staff. The opportunities and challenges of this approach are discussed, as well as future directions and broader considerations for the support of sessional teachers in the Australian higher education context.

Difficult Dialogues in the South: Questions about Practice

This is a reflective opinion piece, on our efforts in Australia to achieve alignment between the goals of Indigenous self-determination, Indigenous studies programmes and decolonising theory for an open and critical dialogue in south–south scholarship agendas. In this spirit, extant approaches to Indigenous studies in the Australian higher education context are questioned, the scholarship recruited for this is challenged, and its advocated role in the education of all students is raised as a major concern.

Academic Language Support for At-Risk Students: REACHing Further

In the Australian higher education context, academic language competence is one of the keys to success for students in their degree programs. Students with underdeveloped communication skills in the relevant discourse community are at risk of not meeting minimum standards in their university courses. REACH (Retention – English for Academic Completion Help) is a set of aca-demic language modules embedding relevant language strategies into course content related to course assessment. It was developed at an Australian uni-versity for students at risk of not continuing their participation through failure in a first-year course. This article outlines the REACHing Further stage of the REACH project and presents data collected for part of the evaluation of the REACH approach while discussing the distinctive contextual academic lan-guage support in the academic disciplines. REACHing Further increased ac-cessibility to the REACH modules online and provided an online facilitator. This article reports that those students who were engaged with the REACH modules generally valued the support and expressed the view that they would recommend others to participate in future. Although the overall engagement by the identified target group was low compared with the mainstream students in the courses selected, examiners and tutors of the target courses indicated that the REACH modules were well linked to the course materials and suggested that students should use them more actively. It is recommended that a more interactive, systematic and personalised approach needs to be attractively presented to the target groups and individuals while also researching effective ways of offering academic language support.

Improving the participation and engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in business education

ABSTRACTMost Australian universities have among their goals to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at their institutions. In the Australian higher education context, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are seriously under-represented, particularly in business education compared to other disciplines. An understanding of why a larger proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students do not choose to study a discipline that provides promising employment opportunities, is fundamental to improving the status quo. This paper reviews the literature to identify key barriers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ participation and engagement in business education. Apart from multiple general barriers to participation in higher education, factors specific to business as a profession and as an academic discipline are also considered. The paper then discusses a number of strategies Australian educational institutions could pursue when seeking to increase participation and engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in business. Drawing on the review, the paper concludes with recommendations for higher education institutional policy to further improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student participation and engagement in business studies.

Internationalization of the Curriculum and the “New Normal’: An Australian Perspective

Globalization, as a disruptive force, challenges us to reconsider enduring assumptions that frame conceptualizations of internationalization in the Australian higher education context and internationalization of the curriculum more broadly. Drawing on the perspectives of Fazal Rizvi, we problematize the new normal and argue that, if the transformative potential of curriculum internationalization is to be realized, assumptions about what is considered normal need to be challenged. To accomplish this, individual faculty (academics), their disciplines, and their institutions need to engage in critically reflective new imaginings of the transformative possibilities and the rich potential the new normal affords, and respond reflexively with open minds.

Experiential learning in accounting work-integrated learning: a three-way partnership

Purpose – Work-integrated learning (WIL) helps improve the work readiness of accounting graduates. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role played by large and small-to-medium enterprise (SME) employers in providing experiential learning opportunities to accounting students in an Australian higher education context. Design/methodology/approach – Case-study data for this research were collected from the case university’s processes, semi-structured in-depth interviews with employer representatives and online survey with WIL students. Findings – The analysis reveals that both SMEs and large firms provide good training opportunities that enhance the student’s experiential learning particularly when proper WIL structures for pre-placement processes, training, supervision and performance reviews are in place. The results also confirm that WIL is seen as a positive experience by employers and students alike. Originality/value – There is a three-way partnership between the university, employers and students in a WIL contract. Calls for collaborative research involving all three parties have been made to enhance WIL programs. This study is a response to this call.

Who's marking my essay? The assessment of non-native-speaker and native-speaker undergraduate essays in an Australian higher education context

Assessment is a crucial factor in higher education where marks gained can determine future study and career options. Increasing student numbers, and an increasing proportion of international students, raises concerns regarding marking practices, and whether the same criteria are used to mark both native-speaker (NS) and non-native-speaker (NNS) essays. This paper examines the essays of five native and five non-native speakers written in English for the same undergraduate subject. The essays were marked by 10 experienced assessors. Results reveal distinct differences in the approaches taken by the assessors resulting in, in some cases, the same NS essay being awarded every grade level from the highest possible grade, to a failure. Similar results were found in the NNS essays although the variability was somewhat less. The paper examines reasons for this and discusses its implications for assessment in higher education and for potential approaches which might mitigate against this outcome.