Issues surrounding the introduction of formal student contracts

This paper considers the appropriateness of introducing formal learning agreements in a higher education institution (HEI). It begins by examining the current legal nature of the student/university relationship and the legal status of formal learning agreements. The paper then explores the impact of such agreements on student satisfaction by reviewing the literature pertaining to student satisfaction and discussing the findings from a collaborative inquiry (CI) event, questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews. It also considers the title that such an agreement should bear and the possible content of such an agreement. The conclusion reached, is that a judiciously constructed learning agreement can potentially improve the service that students receive, promote the notion that a student is a member of a community, influence student expectations and thus increase student satisfaction. It is therefore an option that should be carefully considered, particularly as the vast majority of students who responded to the questionnaire distributed as part of the study supported the introduction of learning agreements.     

International experience and graduate employability: stakeholder perceptions on the connection

This paper reports the findings of an Australian qualitative study (N = 45) concerned with the way that employers, academics and students perceived connections between international experience and graduate employability. Drawing on the literature, the authors argue that increasing globalisation and internationalisation has heightened the need for graduates with the ability to operate in culturally diverse contexts. Universities have focussed upon exchange as part of internationalisation to prepare students for work but there is still limited literature on the nature of the relationship between international experience, more broadly and graduate employability. The findings suggest that all stakeholders identify clear connections between international experience and employability given outcomes associated with the forging of networks, opportunities for experiential learning, language acquisition and the development of soft skills related to cultural understandings, personal characteristics and ways of thinking.     

Researching the Practice, Practicing the Research, and Promoting Responsible Policy: Usable Knowledge in Mind, Brain, and Education

ABSTRACT—The theme of Usable Knowledge in Mind, Brain, and Education will be a special section that will appear regularly in the journal. The section will focus on the synergistic connections between biology, cognitive science, and human development on the one hand and educational thought, policy, and practice on the other. Efforts to create usable knowledge in mind, brain, and education focus on questions that relate research and theory to educational practice, involving pedagogy and learning, discussions of how best to conduct ethical and valid research that crosses disciplinary boundaries, and consideration of how to use such research to promote responsible policy.     

Using research evidence in mental health: user‐rating and focus group study of clinicians’ preferences for a new clinical question‐answering service

Background and objectives: Clinicians report difficulties using research in their practices. The aim of the study was to describe needs and preferences for a mental health clinical question‐answering service designed to assist this process. Method: Multi‐disciplinary clinicians participated in a focus group; users of the service supplied feedback. Results: Fifty‐four clinicians received answers to 84 questions about mental health treatments. User ratings showed that the answers had multiple uses: informing health care (43), education (22), staff development (28) and research (12), and were considered useful, clear, relevant and helpful. Focus group participants appreciated critically appraised summaries of evidence and stressed the time‐saving benefit of the service. Clinicians without a medical training were least confident in applying evidence. Attitudes to research were positive, but concern was expressed about its potential misuse for political purposes. This appeared to arise from an ambiguity around the term ‘insufficient evidence’, which participants felt is widely misinterpreted as ‘evidence of no effect’. Conclusions: A highly valued, responsive service has been developed. A range of clinicians find critically appraised summaries of research useful. Education about the use of research may help clinicians to be more evidence based.     

Developing Preschoolers’ Social Skills: The Effectiveness of Two Educational Methods

This study tested whether and how methods called ‘Play Time/Social Time’ and ‘I Can Problem Solve’ contribute to the improvement of social skills and the development of theory of mind (ToM) in children. The participants in the experiment were nearly 200 (N = 196) preschool children with low social functioning, with and without disabilities. The study showed that social skills and the level of ToM in children attending the lessons improved more than those of children from the control group. Both methods turned out to be effective in the case of social skills and ToM development among children with and without disabilities. It is worthwhile to popularise these methods among preschool teachers.     

Using life/work planning techniques for internship placements

This paper discusses the use of life/work planning techniques in internship placements. Specifically, it offers a way to help students mesh their individual interests, values, and skills with the proposed internship, work/study, or volunteer experience through the application process itself. The application, which is brief and eliminates the need for submitting a resume, has been found to be a valuable asset in clarifying needs and goals for the experiential project. Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive for the application, which centers on a broader, more holistic internship placement procedure than the traditional career and academic goals approach.     

‘We’re not the hottest ethnicity’: Pacific scholars and the cultural politics of New Zealand universities

ABSTRACT

Academic labour markets around the world are increasingly globalised and tied to transnational circuits of neoliberal capital. Universities in New Zealand are closely aligned with these trends and an academic labour force has developed over time that reflects these economic flows and currents. This labour force is characterised by an exceptionally high number of multinational academic staff, many of whom contribute to research and inquiry aimed at maintaining and broadening the influence of their institutions abroad. Pacific faculty, however, experience the micro-geographies of New Zealand universities in different ways from other migrant scholars, especially those who hail from the global North. They are rarely included in academic ‘prestige economies’ or elite scholarly networks and are often isolated in their academic departments. This paper draws on a study about the experiences of senior Pacific academics in Aotearoa New Zealand and explores how they formulate pan-Pacific solidarities within the neoliberal and settler-colonial milieu of higher education. We focus on the often fraught dynamics of encounters between Pacific scholars, white academic elites and indigenous Māori colleagues as they map academic identities on to institutional space.     

Understanding Pre-Service Teachers' Emerging Practices Through Their Analyses of a Multimedia Case Study of Practice

The limits inherent in field experiences and the difficulties in learning howto use student thinking in instructional practice are significant challengesin pre-service teachers' preparation. In this research, we haveinvestigated how multimedia case studies of practice can support pre-service teachers in making meaning of complex classroom experiences andin developing strategies and rationales for using student thinking to guideinstruction. In this paper, we present a brief review of the research on casestudies to situate our particular approach that builds on the notion that amultimedia case study can be a site for investigation, analysis andreflection by pre-service teachers. We then report the results of examiningthe issues that one cohort of pre-service mathematics teachers (grades 7–12) identified as meaningful for them in terms of their own emergingpractice and the ways in which they connected the case study teacher'spractice to their own practice. We found that the pre-service teachers wereable to use their perspectives on a common practice to highlight some of thedilemmas and tensions found in teaching. In particular, these pre-serviceteachers focused on the difficulties encountered when trying to usestudent thinking and to follow their own mathematical goals in a lesson.They were able to frame many of the issues that they encountered in theirown practice (such as checking for student understanding and the use ofquestioning) in terms of their analysis of the case study teachers' practice.