Nation-building universities in a global environment: The case of Australia

The mass system of higher education in Australia is a product of the publicly financed nation-building strategies of the 1955–1990 period. The nation-building university is now undergoing a three way crisis brought on by the governmental retreat from nation-building and from the funding that sustained it, the stand-off between corporateand academic practices inside universities, andthe need for new strategies in a globalisingenvironment, in which national policies arerelativised but remain important. The crisis isexacerbated by Australia's location on theAmerican `periphery', associated with globalvulnerability and fluctuating economic andcultural dependence. In response the primarystrategy should not be to imitate Americanuniversities, a course of action which islikely to deliver modest returns, but tostrengthen the academic identity andplace-based identity of Australianinstitutions, enabling them to make adistinctive contribution to global highereducation underpinned by a renewed partnershipbetween nation and university.     

Development of a supported self-directed learning approach for anatomy education

The ability to deliver sufficient core anatomical knowledge and understanding to medical students with limited time and resources remains a major challenge for anatomy educators. Here, we report the results of switching from a primarily didactic method of teaching to supported self-directed learning for students studying anatomy as part of undergraduate medicine at the University of Edinburgh. The supported self-directed approach we have developed makes use of an integrated range of resources, including formal lectures and practical sessions (incorporating gross anatomy specimens, medical imaging technologies, anatomical models, clinical scenarios, and surface anatomy workstations). In practical sessions, students are provided with a custom-made workbook that guides them through each session, with academic staff, postgraduate tutors, and near-peer teaching assistants present to deal with misunderstandings and explain more complicated topics. This approach retains many of the best attributes of didactic teaching but blends them with the advantages associated with self-directed learning approaches. The switch to supported self-directed learning-initially introduced in 2005-resulted in a significant improvement in anatomy examination scores over the subsequent period of five years, manifesting as an increase in the average anatomy practical spot examination mark, less students failing to obtain the pass mark and more students passing with distinction. We conclude that the introduction of supported self-directed learning improved students' engagement, leading to deeper learning and better understanding and knowledge of anatomy.     

Interpretation,teaching and rationality

That processes of interpretation are unavoidable in any educational experience has not received serious attention in teaching and teacher education. One of the authors devised an exercise for her graduate class to help them understand practical aspects of hermeneutic theory in connection with rationality, truth and the nature of teaching and learning. The three co‐authors, each from a different cultural background, monitored and described their experiences of this exercise in order to explore the role of interpretation in teaching and learning. The students' interpretive activity was found to link subject matter to their past experience, reconstructing both. This process is described in detail and it is suggested that curricular spaces for interpretation be deliberately incorporated into teaching and learning situations.

Le fait que des processus d'interprétation sont inévitables dans des expériences éducationnelles n'a pas reçu d'attention sérieuse en enseignement ou en enseignement pédagogique. Un des auteurs a conçu un exercice pour aider sa classe graduée à comprendre les aspects pratiques de la théorie ‘hermeneutique’ par rapport à la rationalité, la vérité et la nature de l'enseignement et de l'apprentissage. Les trois co‐auteurs, provenant chacun d'une culture différente, analysent et décrivent leurs expériences de cet exercice a fin d'explorer le rôle de l'interprétation dans l'enseignement et l'apprentissage. L'activité interprétative des étudiants a démontré une tendance à lier les thèmes à leur expérience antérieure, reconstruisant tous les deux. Ce processus est décrit en détail et il est suggéré que des espaces curriculaires pour l'interprétation soient incorporés aux situations d'enseignement et d'apprentissage.

Los procesos de interpretación son inevitables en cualquier experiencia educativa que no ha recibido la debida atención, en la educación de la enseñanza y la educación pedagógica. Una de los autores ideó un ejercicio para que a su clase de graduados les ayude a entender aspectos prácticos de la teoría "hermeneutic" en conexión con la racionalidad, la verdad y la naturaleza de la enseñanza y el aprender. Las tres co‐autores, cada una de un diverso fondo cultural, analizan y describen sus experiencias de este ejercicio para explorar el papel de la interpretación en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. La actividad interpretativa de los estudiantes demostró un enlace del tema con sus experiencias previas, reconstruyendo ambos. Este proceso se describe detalladamente y se sugiere que los espacios curriculares para la interpretación estén incorporados deliberadamente en situaciones de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje.

Dass in jeder erzieherischen Erfahrung Interpretationsvorgange unumgänglich sind, auch im Bereich des Lehrens und der Lehrerbildung,, erhielt noch keine ernste Beachtung. Eine der Autorinnen entwickelte eine Aufgabe fur ihre “graduate students” um ihnen praktische Aspekte der Hermeneutic verstandlich zu machen, besonders in bezug auf Rationalitat, Wahrheit , und die Art des Lernens und Lehrens. Ihre Co‐autorinnen, jede aus einem anderen Herkunftsland, beobachten und beschreiben ihre Erlebnisse mit dieser Aufgabe, um,die Rolle der Interpretation im Lehren und Lernen zu erforschen. Es war zu ersehen, dass die Interpretationstatigkeit dieser Studentinnen eine Verbindung herstellte zwischen Lehrinhalt und vergangenen Erfahrungen, und zugleich auch beide Bereiche rekonstruierte. Dieser Prozess ist im Detail dargestellt, und es wird vorgeschlagen, curiculare Freiraume fur Interpretationsprozesse zu schaffen und diese ganz bewusst in Lehr‐und Lernsituationen zu integrieren.     

Using causal models to bridge the divide between big data and educational theory

An extraordinary amount of data is becoming available in educational settings, collected from a wide range of Educational Technology tools and services. This creates opportunities for using methods from Artificial Intelligence and Learning Analytics (LA) to improve learning and the environments in which it occurs. And yet, analytics results produced using these methods often fail to link to theoretical concepts from the learning sciences, making them difficult for educators to trust, interpret and act upon. At the same time, many of our educational theories are difficult to formalise into testable models that link to educational data. New methodologies are required to formalise the bridge between big data and educational theory. This paper demonstrates how causal modelling can help to close this gap. It introduces the apparatus of causal modelling, and shows how it can be applied to well-known problems in LA to yield new insights. We conclude with a consideration of what causal modelling adds to the theory-versus-data debate in education, and extend an invitation to other investigators to join this exciting programme of research.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• ‘Correlation does not equal causation’ is a familiar claim in many fields of research but increasingly we see the need for a causal understanding of our educational systems.
• Big data bring many opportunities for analysis in education, but also a risk that results will fail to replicate in new contexts.
• Causal inference is a well-developed approach for extracting causal relationships from data, but is yet to become widely used in the learning sciences.

What this paper adds

• An overview of causal modelling to support educational data scientists interested in adopting this promising approach.
• A demonstration of how constructing causal models forces us to more explicitly specify the claims of educational theories.
• An understanding of how we can link educational datasets to theoretical constructs represented as causal models so formulating empirical tests of the educational theories that they represent.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Causal models can help us to explicitly specify educational theories in a testable format.
• It is sometimes possible to make causal inferences from educational data if we understand our system well enough to construct a sufficiently explicit theoretical model.
• Learning Analysts should work to specify more causal models and test their predictions, as this would advance our theoretical understanding of many educational systems.

     

Does speed-reading training work,and if so,why? Effects of speed-reading training and metacognitive training on reading speed,comprehension and eye movements

Background

Commercial speed-reading training programs are typically marketed with the promise to dramatically increase reading speed without impairing comprehension. From the perspective of reading psychology, it seems quite unlikely that speed-reading training can indeed have such effects. However, research on the effectiveness of modern speed-reading training programs on reading performance in typical readers is sparse. The present study had two goals. First, we sought to extend prior research on speed-reading by assessing the effects of a speed-reading application on reading performance in a pre-training and post-training design with a control group. Second, we aimed to identify the mechanism underlying speed-reading training programs.

Methods

We assessed reading speed, comprehension and eye movements of 30 German-speaking undergraduates (M_age = 22.77 years, SD_age = 3.41 years) before and after they received a commercial, app-based speed-reading training, a metacognitive training or no training.

Results

Results revealed higher reading speed in the speed-reading condition and metacognitive condition compared with the control condition, although not to the extent claimed in the application. Eye-movement data indicated that the increase in reading speed was due to fewer and shorter fixations in measures reflecting late but not early lexical processing. No differences in comprehension performance were observed between the three conditions.

Conclusions

We discuss our findings in support of the idea that the increase in reading speed was not caused by a change in basic characteristics of participants' reading behaviour, but rather by an increase in their awareness of their own reading process. Further research is needed to investigate whether the observed effects are maintained over time.