Lecturing in Post‐Compulsory Education: profession,occupation or reflective practice?

Abstract

This paper argues that a new conceptualisation of teaching in post‐compulsory education is required. Taking into account the radical ideology‐driven change experienced in the sector in recent times, it is suggested that there are difficulties with the model of the lecturer as a ‘professional’, chief amongst which is that lecturers do not seem to think of themselves in this way. It is suggested that any alternative conceptualisation must: (i) take into account lecturers' own conceptions of their working practices, (ii) reflect the range of these practices, and (Hi) reflect the epistemological and ethical basis of teaching, in particular lecturers' sense of the value and worth of what they do. Finally, some implications of the proposed model of teaching for management practice and development, and the potential of the approach for theory practice and practitioners, are explored.     

WRITING AS DIALOGUE: THE COMPOSITION STUDENT AS WRITER,AUDIENCE, AND CRITIC

My Colleague, Dr. Eileen Landis‐Groom, and I are professors of English at Embry‐Riddle Aeronautical University, she on the Prescott, Arizona campus, and I on the Daytona Beach, Florida, campus. This past semester we began an experimental composition project that centers on the students’ exchanging papers and paper critiques between the two campuses. We believe that writing students engaged in the correspondence project have better realized particular instructional goals than they would have in the traditional closed‐classroom environment; student assessment of the project indicates that they, too, are confident that the method allowed them to improve their writing more than more traditional methods might have. The project has challenged their understanding of the audience‐purpose‐style relationship, demanded a much more concentrated effort in composing written evaluations of student writing, and allowed for a valuable exchange of place‐oriented information across a great geographic distance. The correspondence method of teaching writing insists on the nature of writing as dialogue by replacing the “general,” hypothetical audience with the concrete individual, combines key features of collaborative learning, peer review, and process orientation, and focuses on the critique as a composition in itself.     

Towards a Practice of Critical Teaching about Teachers' Work

Abstract

This paper represents our struggle to interpret the practical intent of critical theory as a resource for teaching in a postgraduate degree in education. In this paper we argue for the increasing need for critical teaching about teacher's work at a time when the possibilities of engaging in a curriculum making practice capable of delivering on commitments to social justice seem less likely. We describe the struggle to develop a practice which opens up opportunities for our students (experienced teachers) to connect the life‐worlds of their classrooms with the relentlessly changing surrounding sociocultural milieu. On this nexus teachers have an opportunity to investigate the possibilities for developing agency as the makers of culture as opposed to the delivers of somebody else's curriculum     

Students with disabilities and clinical placement: understanding the perspective of healthcare organisations

The Australian Disability Discrimination Act (1992) has challenged higher education to meet the increasing needs of students with different abilities. This may be more so in programmes that have practice components where students must demonstrate competency, regardless of their situation. This qualitative exploratory study undertaken at the University of South Australia (UniSA) investigated host healthcare organisations’ perspectives on providing clinical practice placements and supporting Bachelor of Nursing (BN) students with physical disabilities through their practice components. An advisory group consisting of the university’s legal officer, disability services representative, programme directors and other academics from the BN monitored the project. Directors of nursing from 50 randomly selected South Australian metropolitan and rural healthcare organisations that host student placements nominated a representative from their organisations to participate in a series of focus groups. Focus group discussion was guided by open questions developed from relevant literature, research team deliberations, advisory group recommendations and the previous focus group discussions. Data analysis consisted of manually identifying themes from each stage of the process, and the congregate data. The findings were bridging the reality gap through joint commitment, the right of disclosure versus confidentiality and proactivity through collaboration and communication.     

How do students misunderstand number representations?

We used both student interviews and diagnostic testing to reveal students’ misconceptions about number representations in computing systems. This article reveals that students who have passed an undergraduate level computer organization course still possess surprising misconceptions about positional notations, two's complement representation, and overflow. Contrary to common opinion, these misconceptions are widespread and reveal the need for instruction that specifically targets these misconceptions. In addition, these misconceptions will serve as the basis for the creation of a standard assessment tool called the digital logic concept inventory. This concept inventory will provide a rigorous and quantitative metric to assess the effectiveness of new teaching methods.     

Parents’ Individualist and Collectivist Strategies at the City Technology College,Kingshurst

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the attitudes to school choice and to City Technology Colleges of a sample of parents of children at the first CTC at Kingshurst, Solihull. In examining the views of these parents, wider questions about individualist and collectivist strategies towards education are raised.