Recruiting the graduate voice: informing higher education initiatives to underpin an emerging,veterinary paraprofession in Australia

In Australia, the inception of veterinary technology, as a higher education discipline underpinning an emerging, mid-tier paraveterinary field, reflected global trends for more highly educated veterinary paraprofessionals to meet changing societal demands. In this study, veterinary technology graduates were surveyed about their experiences in the workforce and reflections on their education. Seeking feedback on how well a new programme has prepared graduates for the workforce is a useful quality assurance tool. Clinical veterinary practice was the primary employment sector with the majority of respondents in full-time employment. Career advancement, professional recognition and salaries were identified as key career challenges. The important roles of the veterinary and veterinary nursing professions, the university, government and graduates in the development of this mid-tier, veterinary paraprofession were elucidated. Graduates’ feedback on criteria that underpinned ‘work-readiness’ revealed seven key domains: communication skills, research skills, knowledge, critical thinking/problem-solving, employability, practical skills and professionalism. Veterinary nursing skills, work placement, practice management and production animal health were flagged as areas for curricular improvement. This study illuminated facilitators and barriers critical to establishing a mid-tier veterinary paraprofession, bridging the divide between the vocational and higher education sectors in Australia.

Abbreviations: AUD: Australian dollar; AVA: Australian Veterinary Association; AVBC: Australasian Veterinary Boards Council; AVMA: American Veterinary Medical Association; BVNA: British Veterinary Nursing Association; CSU: Charles Sturt University; DAF: Department of Agriculture and Fisheries; FWC: Fair Work Commission; GCA: Graduate Careers Australia; HE: Higher Education; NHMRC: National Health and Medical Research Council; QLD: Queensland; RCVS: Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons; UK: United Kingdom; UQ: University of Queensland; VN: Veterinary nursing; VNCA: Veterinary Nurses Council of Australia; VSB: Veterinary Surgeons Board; VT: Veterinary technology; WIL: Work-integrated learning.     

The Changing Role of Higher Education in the United States

The role of higher education has changed in the United States. It has become a learning society where egalitarian pressures for equal opportunities led to the expansion of educational services to broader and more representative segments of society. Five propositions illustrate the current pressures for change. (1) Institutions of higher education no longer enjoy a monopoly on the provision of educational services. The learning society has given higher education new competition for the growing adult market. (2) The roles of education providers are increasingly blurred. (3) Higher education no longer has the full‐time commitment of students or of faculty. (4) Lifelong learning has become a lifelong necessity for almost everyone, which demands flexibility and responsiveness to change on the part of higher education. (5) A change is needed in the methods of teaching and learning to accommodate adult learners and to provide for the long‐ range needs of the learning society.     

Illuminating and facilitating professional knowledge through case work

In the spring of 2002 the Ontario College of Teachers began a research project in order to foster awareness of the Standards of Practice for the 187 000 teachers in the province. Case work, in which 18 teachers representative of the College's membership wrote narratives describing their professional dilemmas, was the methodology chosen. Through reflection and collaborative group work these practitioners co‐created a set of cases, mapping them back to the standards in order to ascertain how the standards had been embedded or absent from their daily practice. To validate the effectiveness of this method, we used the cases in pre‐service, in‐service, principal and supervisory personnel venues. We also recorded the impact of the ‘case institute’ in a focus group session with the original writers. Augmented by commentaries from internationally known teacher educators, this text will be sent to all provincial school boards as part of a resource kit to educate teachers about the standards of practice.

Au printemps 2002, l'Ordre des enseignantes et des enseignants de l'Ontario amorçait un projet de recherche ayant pour but de sensibiliser les 187 000 enseignants de la province aux normes d'exercice de leur profession. L'étude de cas rédigés par 18 enseignants membres de l'Ordre est la méthode qui allait servir à présenter divers dilemmes professionnels. Ainsi, ces praticiens ont réfléchi et travaillé ensemble pour présenter des cas et les rattacher aux normes afin de déterminer la présence ou l'absence des normes dans leurs pratiques quotidiennes. Pour valider l'efficacité de cette méthode, nous avons mis les cas à l'épreuve lors d'activités organisées pour les étudiants des facultés d'éducation, des enseignants en perfectionnement professionnel, des directeurs d'école et des agents de supervision. Nous avons également réuni les 18 rédacteurs pour discuter de l'impact des ateliers de rédaction de cas. Le texte, auquel s'ajoutent les commentaires d'éducateurs de renommée internationale, fera partie de la trousse de ressources qui sera envoyée à tous les conseils scolaires de la province pour initier les enseignants aux normes d'exercice de la profession.

Im Frühjahr 2002, unternahm das Ontario College of Teachers einen Forschungsprojekt mit dem Ziel, das Bewußtsein der Normen der Praxis unter den 187,000 Lehrer des Bundeslandes Ontario zu fördern. Die gewählte Methodologie war die Untersuchung von spezifischen Fallberichten, in denen 18 Lehrer, die repräsentativ für die Mitglieder der Organisation dastehen, ihre Entscheidungen im beruflichen Alltag begründeten. In einem von Überlegung, Zusammenarbeit und Gruppenarbeit geprägten Verfahren schufen diese Lehrer und Lehrerinnen einen Korpus der Fälle, die sie anschließend zu den Berufsnormen zurückverfolgten, um festzustellen, wie die Normen sich in der täglichen Praxis eingebettet hatten oder das Gegenteil. Um die Wirksamkeit der Methode zu bestätigen, wurden Einzelfälle in vorberuflichen, beruflichen, Direktor‐ und Aufsichtsstellen‐bezogenen Umgebungen ausgesucht. Die Wirkung der Falluntersuchungen wurde auch in einer Diskussionsrunde mit den Autoren aufgenommen. Dieser Text, bereichert durch Kommentare von Lehrerausbildern von internationalem Ruf, wird an alle Schulverwaltungen im Bundesland Ontario als Bestandteil eines Ressourcen‐Compendiums versandt, mit dem Ziel, Lehrer über die Normen der Berufspraxis weiterzubilden.

En la primavera del 2002, el Colegio de Profesores de Ontario inició un proyecto de investigación para crear conciencia entre los 187,000 maestros en la provincia sobre los estándares de práctica profesional. La metodología elegida fue el ‘Estudio de antecedentes’ en la que un grupo representativo de la membresía del Colegio, conformado por 18 maestros, redactó historias contando sus dilemas profesionales. Tras mucha reflexión y trabajo mancomunado de equipo, estos profesores crearon colectivamente un conjunto de casos, trazando un mapa vinculándolos a los estándares y así poder determinar de qué manera estos estándares habían estado arraigados en su práctica profesional cotidiana o si los habían dejado de lado. Para validar la eficacia de este método, aplicamos los casos en varios contextos docentes: estudiantes de la facultad de educación, capacitación profesional para docentes, directores de plantel y superintendentes de las juntas directivas escolares. También tomamos nota del impacto del ‘Taller para la redacción de casos’ en una sesión de enfoque grupal con los propios autores. Este texto, que ha sido complementado con comentarios de capacitadores de maestros conocidos internacionalmente, será enviado a todas las Juntas Directivas de las escuelas provinciales como parte del kit de recursos para educar a los profesores sobre los estándares de práctica profesional.     

Toward Developing a Behavioral Counselor Education Model

Counselor education currently does not have a training model that is systematically employed and contains provisions for individual differences or promotes the development of programs for facilitating transfer of training. In the proposed model, counselor educators must decide which of the counseling student's thinking, feeling, and acting behaviors will become the focus of training efforts. The staff creatively implements its conceptualized behavioral curriculum goals through the application of learning principles to specified counseling student behaviors that are assessed to determine if whether or not the desired behavior changes are occurring.     

Diversity as a natural occurrence: an enrichment strategy of peer learning

Business educators are concerned with integrating diversity-related topics and seek methods by which to teach them. This paper suggests that as classes become more heterogeneous, the opportunity to examine diverse perspectives and experiences naturally arises in the course of class assignments and activities. The differential experiences of majorities and minorities are revealed when students discuss and write about their own experiences related to the content of various business courses. The issues of self and group identity and perceptions of others emerge in the context of small group discussions when students share their experiences as recorded in learning logs, personal cases, research assignments, and typical class discussions. The opportunity for community learning in heterogeneous groups provides a forum for diverse perspectives and experiences to be shared. Students and professors learn about different perceptions and reactions to personal and current events as well as their own perspectives, creating a culture of inclusion in the class. Implications and suggestions for a wider application of our methods to a global context are also offered.     

Curriculum Design of a Flipped Classroom to Enhance Haematology Learning

A common trend in higher education is the “flipped” classroom, which facilitates active learning during class. The flipped approach to teaching was instituted in a haematology ‘major’ class and the students’ attitudes and preferences for the teaching materials were surveyed. The curriculum design was explicit and involved four major components (1) the preparation of the students; (2) the weekly pre-class work; (3) the in-class active learning strategies and (4) closing the learning loop using formative quizzes. Each of these components is discussed in detail and was informed by sound pedagogical strategies. Several different sources of information and several freely available software tools to engage the students are discussed. Two iterations are reported here, with improved pass rate for the final examination from 47 to 48 % in the traditional class to 56–65 % in the flipped classroom approach. The majority of students (93 and 89 %) came to the class prepared, after viewing the screencasts and engaged fully with the activities within the face-to-face time. The students perceived that solving case studies (93 %) was the most beneficial activity for their learning and this was closely followed by the production of essay plans (71 %). The majority of students recommended that this approach be repeated the following year (69 and 75 %).     

Parental reactions to children's negative emotions: longitudinal relations to quality of children's social functioning

Relations between self-reported parental reactions to children's negative emotions (PNRs) and children's socially appropriate/problem behavior and negative emotionality were examined longitudinally. Evidence was consistent with the conclusion that relations between children's externalizing (but not internalizing) emotion and parental punitive reactions to children's negative emotions are bidirectional. Reports of PNRs generally were correlated with low quality of social functioning. In structural models, mother-reported problem behavior at ages 10-12 was at least marginally predicted from mother-reported problem behavior, children's regulation, and parental punitive or distress reactions. Moreover, parental distress and punitive reactions at ages 6-8 predicted reports of children's regulation at ages 8-10, and regulation predicted parental punitive reactions at ages 10-12. Father reports of problem behavior at ages 10-12 were predicted by earlier problem behavior and parental distress or punitive reactions; some of the relations between regulation and parental reactions were similar to those in the models for mother-reported problem behavior. Parental perceptions of their reactions were substantially correlated over 6 years. Some nonsupportive reactions declined in the early to mid-school years, but all increased into late childhood/early adolescence.