Courses In Australia Research Articles

A Quality Approach to Masters Education Using an Australian Case Study -- A Reflection

By the start of 2015 all University courses in Australia were required to be compliant with the new the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). Quality in higher education seeks to achieve three goals - quality of design, quality of conformance and quality of performance. This paper brings together a number of higher education principles such as double loop learning, team teaching and heutagogy in order to satisfy these quality requirements. A pilot program was established to satisfy the changes to the Australian regulatory framework for tertiary education. The paper streamlines integrated ways to bring these aspects together that have not previously been identified in higher education publications. The specific focus is for an MBA course delivered in an Australian regional university. The result is a reflection of the application of the newly devised quality principled based heutagogical double loop learning cycle. The model can assist educational administrators and course developers to facilitate students in becoming independent lifelong self-motivated capable learners while at the same time ensuring the quality assurance principles are met.

Why Muscles Look and Act the Way They Do: Uncovering the Nexus Among Form, Function, Behavior, and Evolution.

Why Muscles Look and Act the Way They Do: Uncovering the Nexus Among Form, Function, Behavior, and Evolution.

Human dimension of health service management.

This article identifies three relevant and valid constructs that are associated with personal and organisational performance that can be used in the training of current and future health service managers: personal engagement at work, emotional intelligence and conflict resolution. A review was undertaken of the literature in human resources management to identify key concepts that bind and strengthen the management of organisations. A curriculum content analysis was then performed of postgraduate health management courses in Australia to assess the extent of inclusion in these areas. Three concepts and practices of relevance to the human dimension of health management, namely personal engagement at work, emotional intelligence and conflict resolution, were found to: (1) have concept validity; (2) be associated with personal and organisational performance; and (3) be capable of being imparted by training. The analysis indicated that none of the competencies and/or skills identified has been given emphasis in postgraduate health management courses in Australia. Competence in the management of human relationships in health services has been given low priority in university postgraduate training in health management in Australia. The current situation poses challenges to all stakeholders of health services.

An exploration of assessment approaches in a vocational and education training courses in Australia

BackgroundThere is a compelling case for strengthening the strategies for assessment of competencies adopted in vocational and education training programs in Australia. A review of assessment in nationally recognised Vocation and Education Training (VET) courses identified a number of critical issues associated with competency assessment. For example, trainers were identified as having difficulties with interpretation, implementation and assessment of the competencies. Trainers are often viewed as capable of training diverse groups of learners, despite the fact that they may not possess in-depth knowledge of the competencies.MethodsThese issues gave rise to trialling three assessment strategies: diagnostic, scenario and simulated assessment in a project that investigated the teaching and learning of numeracy in Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses with high Indigenous student enrolments. The study adopted a mixed methods design participatory collaborative action research and community research to develop a series of case studies. Teachers/trainers/teacher aides (N = 39) and students (N = 231) participated in the project. Nine courses and seven sites were the focus of the study.ResultsThe results highlighted the outcomes of using three different assessment approaches to draw inferences about students’ competencies in VET courses. Whilst the CDAT diagnostic assessment did indicate the difficulties that students had in specific areas of maths, it also brought to light some students’ difficulties with reading and comprehension and understanding what the questions were asking. The use of the scenario-based assessment was trialled because of trainers indicating that scenarios were an effective way of assessing students, however this approach proved to a challenge for students. Students who experienced challenges with reading and comprehension found the text scenarios difficult to read and understand, limiting their opportunities to demonstrate their competencies. The simulated assessment allowed for students to demonstrate their understanding of mathematics, for example, surface area, applying what they had learned to a context such as a model.ConclusionsThe trial of the assessment approaches and their relationship to mathematics learning and training courses proved to be effective for the teachers, trainers and students. In doing so, the trial supports the literature about adopting a holistic approach to assessing competency as it provides a more comprehensive view of students’ capabilities.

Thirty Years of a Science Communication Course in Australia

Since 1985, the Science Circus program has recruited science graduates Australia-wide and provided them with science communication training leading to a university degree. On qualifying these graduates demonstrate highly diverse career paths reflecting the relevance of science communication training to other disciplines. Graduates, by their activities, have contributed to the growth of science communication as an academic discipline and an “industry”—both in Australia and abroad. It suggests that science communication training can have impact far beyond narrowly defined disciplines and skill sets, and this impact is worthy of further exploration.

Producing Leisured Laborers: Developing Higher Education Courses for the Digital Creative Industries

ABSTRACTThis article attempts to detail the range of assumptions and challenges in designing an undergraduate university degree in digital creative industries. Leaders in digital industries, who bemoan the general skills shortage and lack of “industry-ready” graduates, have identified the need for post-secondary education in this area. But in developing these new courses, how do we reconcile the traditional reflective, critical modes of academic practice with the fast and dynamic pace of the dot.com industries? How can slower-paced higher education and lifelong learning be meaningful to the current and future generations of digital natives who thrive on “just-in-time” knowledge? These important issues are analyzed and built upon to showcase the unique qualities and opportunities associated with tertiary education in this area. Overall, the article develops these high-level considerations practically by applying them to a pioneering undergraduate course in Australia that was launched in 2014.

Designing an oral health module for the Bachelor of Midwifery program at an Australian University.

Maternal oral health is important yet many pregnant women are unaware of its significance. Midwives are advised to promote oral health during pregnancy and are supported to do this in Australia through the Midwifery Initiated Oral Health training program. However, limited undergraduate education is being provided to midwifery students in this area. The objective of this paper is to describe how an innovative oral health education module for an undergraduate midwifery course in Australia was designed using a multidisciplinary approach. Midwives experienced in curriculum development and key investigators from the Midwifery Initiated Oral Health program designed the module using existing literature. Constructive alignment, blended learning and scaffolding were used in the design process. The draft module was then reviewed by midwifery academics and their feedback incorporated. The final module involves 4h of teaching and learning and contains three components incorporated into first year course units. Each component is aligned with existing learning outcomes and incorporates blended learning approaches and tutorials/class activities as well as online quizzes and personal reflection. The module details key information (current evidence; basic anatomy/physiology; common oral conditions; and guidelines during pregnancy) that could better prepare students to promote oral health in clinical practice. This is the first time such an innovative, multidisciplinary approach has been undertaken embedding oral health in an undergraduate midwifery program in Australia.

On the validity of repeated assessments in the UMAT, a high-stakes admissions test.

The possibility that the validity of assessment is compromised by repeated sittings of highly competitive and high profile selection tests has been documented and is of concern to stake-holders. An illustrative example is the Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test (UMAT) used by some medical and dental courses in Australia and New Zealand. The proficiencies of all applicants who sat the UMAT from one to four sittings between 2006 and 2012 were estimated on the same metric using the probabilistic Rasch model. A fit index characterising each profile's degree of conformity to the model was also calculated. Confirming expectations, mean proficiencies increased with repeated sittings on all three UMAT scales with the greatest difference (which was nevertheless relatively small) between the first two sittings. The fit index showed that the increases in proficiency estimates arose from additional easier items being answered correctly on repeated sittings rather than additional more difficult ones, suggesting that improvements are not on the substantive construct of the variable of assessment but in skills in answering the questions. Although strategies for dealing with the increase in proficiency estimates on repeated sittings could be canvassed, these results suggest that the validity of results on repeated sittings was not compromised. Accordingly, it might be concluded that although particular individuals might improve substantially between sittings, any validity is not likely to be compromised with the possibility that for some applicants, the second sitting might be the most valid.

Inequalities and Agencies in Workplace Learning Experiences: International Student Perspectives

National systems of vocational education and training around the globe are facing reform driven by quality, international mobility, and equity. Evidence suggests that there are qualitatively distinctive challenges in providing and sustaining workplace learning experiences to international students. However, despite growing conceptual and empirical work, there is little evidence of the experiences of these students undertaking workplace learning opportunities as part of vocational education courses. This paper draws on a four-year study funded by the Australian Research Council that involved 105 in depth interviews with international students undertaking work integrated learning placements as part of vocational education courses in Australia. The results indicate that international students can experience different forms of discrimination and deskilling, and that these were legitimised by students in relation to their understanding of themselves as being an ‘international student’ (with fewer rights). However, the results also demonstrated the ways in which international students exercised their agency towards navigating or even disrupting these circumstances, which often included developing their social and cultural capital. This study, therefore, calls for more proactively inclusive induction and support practices that promote reciprocal understandings and navigational capacities for all involved in the provision of work integrated learning. This, it is argued, would not only expand and enrich the learning opportunities for international students, their tutors, employers, and employees involved in the provision of workplace learning opportunities, but it could also be a catalyst to promote greater mutual appreciation of diversity in the workplace.

Muslim Student Expectations From Islamic Studies Courses in Australia

In 2009, the Islamic Sciences and Research Academy of Australia (ISRA Australia) partnered with Australia’s Charles Sturt University to establish the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation (CISAC). From 2011, CISAC began offering undergraduate and graduate courses combining traditional higher Islamic learning with the modern quality standards of tertiary-level education. Since the opportunity to study Islam in an Australian university is rare, CISAC has attracted students from a diversity of age, ethnic and educational backgrounds, and with wide-ranging academic skills and motivations. While such diversity sets a unique opportunity, it also poses challenges for educators in terms of course design, approaches to learning and student services. For this study, we surveyed 360 students from CISAC to determine their motivations for undertaking undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Islamic Studies and the expectations they had from those courses. It was found that, by providing a holistic Islamic higher education within a structured and measured university model, CISAC has filled a unique gap. Also, whilst the vast majority of students seek to gain a well-rounded Islamic education, a small number undertake CISAC courses with the aim of pursuing further study. In that context, we concluded that CISAC needs to supply supplementary traditional scholarly programmes for those students who wish to go further. The study also highlights the importance of student engagement and feedback as a means of adequately meeting the demands of those students pursuing Islamic Studies in the West.

Muslim Student Expectations from Islamic Studies Courses in Australia

Muslim Student Expectations from Islamic Studies Courses in Australia

Trust and the community of inquiry

This article investigates the place of trust in learning relations in the classroom, not only between teacher and student, but also between student and student. To do this, it will first examine a pedagogy called community of inquiry, espoused by John Dewey and used in most Philosophy for Children courses in Australia. It will then consider what different forms of trust are involved in other power relations in the classroom, particularly the rational structuralism of R.S Peters, or the experiential philosophy of Maria Montessori. It concludes that a community of inquiry shifts the ethical learning relation in significantly different ways because for educational growth, it values ethical trust more highly than a strategic trust in logical principle, duty, Truth, or cost/benefit analysis.

Using TPACK to develop digital pedagogues: a higher education experience

This paper explores the use of the TPACK model in two higher education e-learning courses in Australia that enhanced students’ ability to use technology in their learning and later in their professions. The courses focused on teaching students becoming digital pedagogues who could integrate technology and pedagogy and be more interactive teachers using the latest technologies. The aims of the two courses were to encourage students to become reflective learners and to create knowledge collaboratively. Newer technological tools, such as iPads, ePortfolios, and eBooks, were used to create digital pedagogies to enhance the students’ learning experience and obtain students’ reflections on the course. To maximize students’ learning, TPACK was used in the design of the course, the learning activities and the assessment. It was also used as a framework to analyze the data. Results from the survey data found that students increased their confidence and their understanding of the use of the different domains of TPACK. The study also found that the majority of students became digital pedagogues and took the opportunity to implement the TPACK model in their classrooms. It contributes to understanding the value of the overlapping area of TPACK and the conceptual space necessary to implement digital pedagogies.

Teaching Undergraduate Mathematics using CAS Technology: Issues and Prospects

The use of handheld CAS technology in undergraduate mathematics courses in Australia is paradoxically shrinking under sustained disapproval or disdain from the professional mathematics community. Mathematics education specialists argue with their mathematics colleagues over a range of issues in course development and this use of CAS or even graphics calculator technology in assessment is a serious sticking point. We review some of the issues in the literature and established local practice and prospects for change within tertiary mathematics with reference to international concerns and the experience in the secondary sector. Problems identified could argue for increased technology use in service courses.

Composing, Performing, and Reflecting: Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

This case study adds to a growing body of literature that focuses on preparing generalist teachers in music education for the primary classroom. As part of my wider research on “Pre-service teacher attitudes and understandings of Music Education,” this paper situates itself within the Bachelor of Education (Primary) teacher education course at a university in Melbourne (Australia). Drawing on student questionnaire data, observation notes, and anecdotal feedback gathered in May 2015, I discuss student understandings and perceptions of music teaching and learning in a core unit (Primary Arts Education: Music Focused Study). This paper highlights the opportunity and challenges of music composition and performance as a group assessment task. The findings show that student confidence and competence improved through the creative music process. It can be argued that music teaching and learning in a pre-service teacher context is most effective when composition, performance, listening, and reflection are interconnected. Follow up research need to be undertaken in relation to how students use songs and group work to foster creativity in their future classrooms. Limitations of the study are acknowledged and generalizations cannot be made to other pre-service teacher courses in Australia

Review of Indigenous Health Curriculum in Nutrition and Dietetics at One Australian University: An Action Research Study

This article describes a review undertaken in 2012–2013 by Nutrition and Dietetics, Flinders University, to assess the Indigenous health curriculum of the Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (BND) and Masters of Nutrition and Dietetics (MND). An action research framework was used to guide and inform inquiry. This involved four stages, each of which provided information to reach a final decision about how to progress forward. First, relevant information was collected to present to stakeholders. This included identification of acknowledged curriculum frameworks, a review of other accredited nutrition and dietetics courses in Australia, a review of Indigenous health topics at Flinders University, including liaison with the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and Well-Being (Indigenous health teaching and research unit), and a review of BND and MND current curriculum related to Indigenous health. Second, input was sought from stakeholders. This involved a workshop with practising dietitians and nutritionists from South Australia and the Northern Territory and discussions with Flinders University Nutrition and Dietetics academic staff. Third, a new curriculum was developed. Nine areas were identified for this curriculum, including reflexivity, approach and role, history and health status, worldview, beliefs and values, systems and structures, relationship building and communication, food and food choice, appreciating and understanding diversity, and nutrition issues and health status. Fourth, a final outcome was achieved, which was the decision to introduce a core, semester-long Indigenous health topic for BND students. A secondary outcome was strengthening of Indigenous health teaching across the BND and MND. The process and findings will be useful to other university courses looking to assess and expand their Indigenous health curriculum.

Quality assurance of assessment and moderation discourses involving sessional staff

Quality assurance is a major agenda in tertiary education. The casualisation of academic work, especially in teaching, is also a quality assurance issue. Casual or sessional staff members teach and assess more than 50% of all university courses in Australia, and yet the research in relation to the role sessional staff play in quality assurance of student assessment outcomes is scarce. Moderation processes are a pivotal part of robust quality assurance measures. Drawing upon previous work surrounding four discourses of moderation, this pilot project reports the results of research into the role and impact of sessional staff in moderation processes at tertiary level. Qualitative data were gathered through focus interviews. Results, in the form of various moderation discourses, indicate that sessional staff impact the formal quality assurance processes in numerous ways.

Delivering a very early nutrition intervention for cancer patients at home using technology: A pilot randomised trial

Delivering a very early nutrition intervention for cancer patients at home using technology: A pilot randomised trial

Collaborating to Focus on Children in Australian Social Work Education

Social work educators across the world are engaged in developing a curriculum that prepares students to be effective practitioners in a range of settings that involve working with children. This paper reflects on collaborative strategies and research that have influenced the child wellbeing content of social work courses in Australia. It presents a critical analysis of the tensions and challenges that can occur in (this) collaborative work. It then discusses an outcome of this advocacy to influence the child wellbeing content of social work education, an undergraduate module aimed at increasing students' knowledge and skills in communicating with children. This paper argues that Indigenous children (such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children) are over-represented in child protection systems and out-of-home care services, and that this needs to be acknowledged and given increased attention in the education of social work students internationally.

A cross-country comparison on the use of blended learning in property education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the use of blended learning in property education courses in different countries. The rationale for this study is to fill the research gap in this area. The focus of previous research on blended learning has been on individual countries only, and there is yet to appear any research on a cross-country comparison. The purpose of this study is to identity the differences as well as the good practices using blended learning as a delivery approach in different countries As a result, individual countries can learn experience from another country. It is expected academics interested in using blended learning as a delivery approach will benefit from the research findings of this paper, through gaining an understanding of the advantages and challenges of using blended learning in different countries. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the research findings of questionnaire surveys and interviews with academics teaching property courses in Australia and the UK. The questionnaire aimed to gather academics’ views on blended learning, their reasons for using blended learning as a teaching method, their design of blended learning courses and the support they provide to students on dealing with web technology. The aim of the interviews was to gain deeper insight into the successful factors and challenges in the use of blended learning. In total, 16 interviews were conducted. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded to identify similar themes. Content analysis was used as a method to analyse the interview data. The frequency of the answer in the questionnaire and comments from interviewees is presented. Findings – The Australian and UK property academics have similar views on many aspects of blended learning. Their definitions of blended learning are similar as their reasons to use it as a teaching method. The commonly used teaching and learning activities in their blended learning courses in both countries are, again, similar, such as the use of lectures, case studies and guest lecturers. On the other hand, the academics in the two countries face different challenges. A challenge faced by the Australian property academics is to deliver online courses to students who have limited internet downloading capacity and broadband width. Australia is a very large country and has more regional and remote areas. Another challenge faced by the Australian academics is keeping up with the constant introduction of new teaching and learning technology by their universities. On the other hand, the UK academics faced a different challenge, which was to sufficiently engage and encourage students to contribute in online Discussion Boards. The finding is possibly because the UK study was conducted two years prior to the Australian study and the idea of online discussions was relatively new to students at the time. The conclusion drawn from this research is that “time” and the size of the country influence the use of blended learning. Originality/value – This project is the first to conduct a cross-country comparison on the use of blended learning in professionally accredited property courses.