Building an online community to support the professional development of casual teachers

Abstract

With the burgeoning casualisation of the higher education workforce, the precarious nature of casual teaching has become increasingly well documented. Universities are recognising that enhancing quality learning and teaching must include attention to the provision of services, support, and professional development for teachers employed on a sessional or casual basis. This paper presents a study investigating an online course for supporting and connecting dispersed and diverse casual teachers at an Australian university. The study explores the role of community and the impact of professional development for casual teachers across discipline boundaries in an institution-wide online course.     

Monitoring online communication: can the development of convergence and social presence indicate an interactive learning environment?

More units of study are being offered flexibly, using distance education and online facilities, as a consequence of recent educational developments in higher education, with learner expectations of being able to study when they like and where they like, as well as increasing class enrolments and more students studying remotely or part‐time. However, the quality of the learning experience and the efficacy of placing learning activities that require student interaction and discourse in an online environment have been questioned. The concerns raised by educators regarding placing learning activities online are often about the types of learning environments that are being created and the tools available to support student communication in a virtual learning environment. Asynchronous computer‐mediated communication is one means of allowing students to communicate independently of time and place, and to communicate questions, opinions and queries when transferring interactive learning activities to an online environment. The use of threaded, online discussions that allow asynchronous communication has been criticised for not producing the perceived benefits for learners and educators. This paper assesses the use of asynchronous computer‐mediated communication and the degree of convergence and level of social presence as indicators of developing highly responsive and interactive learning environments in the context of an inquiry‐based learning activity, using a case study approach with problem solving and self‐directed research.     

Respecting and fulfilling the right of post-primary pupils to consent to participate in trials and evaluative research: a discussion paper

This paper provides an introduction to issues surrounding the participation rights of young people in research and the implications of their growing involvement in research as well as providing a discourse on the ethical implications related to consent. The unique contribution of this paper is that it considers children’s rights in respect to the increasing opportunities for young people to take part in evaluation research. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to acknowledge the growing involvement for young people in research and the implications of ensuring that their rights of participation are respected. Secondly, we will consider the children’s rights legislation and our obligations as researchers to implement this. Finally, we will explore consent as an issue in its own right as well as the practicalities of accessing participants. This paper will postulate that any research about young people should involve and prioritize at all stages of the research process; including participation in decision-making. We conclude by identifying five key principles, which we believe can help to facilitate the fulfilment of post-primary pupils’ ability to consent to participate in trials and evaluative research.     

Students’ strategies for learning identities as industrial workers in a Swedish upper secondary school VET programme

The aim of this article is to investigate the learning strategies vocational students use to become part of a work community, and how these strategies are related to the formation of a vocational identity at the workplace. Conducting qualitative interviews, data were collected from 44 industrial programme students from six upper secondary schools. The findings revealed five recurrent strategies used by the students for learning vocational identities as industrial workers. The students took individual responsibility for their own learning, asked questions to gain deeper vocational knowledge, searched for role models in the work community, positioned themselves as a resource to the work community, understood and used humour and jokes in order to become a member of the community. The conclusion is that the students actively develop learning strategies to adapt their behaviour to the norms and ideals of the industrial work community. In the process of develop the vocational identities as industrial workers, the students’ vocational habitus is transformed to better fit the industrial work community. The integration of the notions of agency and habitus demonstrates the dynamic nature of students’ participation in work communities; simultaneously, the students reproduce social structures that promote vocational identities.     

Review and Analysis of the Journal of College Counseling: 1998–2005

The Journal of College Counseling (JCC) began its life in 1995 with the appointment of a founding editor and its 1st editorial board. The 1st semiannual issue of the journal was published in spring 1998, and the journal has continued to be published twice each year since then. This article presents an analysis and discussion of the content of the first 15 issues of JCC. Implications and recommendations for the future of the journal are discussed.     

Transitioning to a more sustainable society: unpacking the role of the learning–action nexus

In recent years, action on sustainability has been highly influential around the globe and many now recognize the importance of individual and social learning for inspiring action and achieving sustainability outcomes. Transformative learning theory has been criticized, however, for insufficient development of the link between learning and action. The purpose of this paper is to deepen our understanding of the learning–action cycle among adult learners in the sustainability context. We consider this through insights from two studies in Kenya and Canada, utilizing a qualitative approach. Both studies employed semi-structured interviews as their primary data collection instrument and used other tools such as focus groups and journal writing. Three broad nodes of social action—individual, interpersonal and collective—are identified and defined based on the data collected. Results show that while all three types of action were evident in the outcomes of participants, individual social action was the most common and collective social action was the least. Barriers to applying learning in action are also derived from the data, including situational, personal, interpersonal, sociocultural and environmental obstacles. Factors that assist in overcoming such barriers include community support networks and skills training.     

Research and teaching cultures in two contrasting UK policy contexts: Academic life in Education Departments in five English and Scottish universities

The paper explores academic staff and departmental research and teaching cultures in the Education Departments of five universities in Scotland and England, countries with increasingly diverging public policies in respect of education. The relationship between research and teaching, how the purposes of universities are defined and the status of research in Education are current UK higher education policy preoccupations. Data is drawn from interviews with 40 academics, observation of department settings, documentation and websites. The analysis draws on the work of Bourdieu, considering the changing habitus of individual academics, their departmental and academic subject context and the forms of symbolic capital now required in Scottish and English Education departments in response to new policies affecting their academic field. The paper also utilises recent literature on the research–teaching relationship. The career trajectories of respondents, their habitus and the forms of symbolic capital that they bring to academic life are examined, as are the extent to which the teaching and research cultures in each of the five departments studied mirror each other and whether these also reflect the two different policy contexts. The themes how academic cultures are shaped and research/teaching connections viewed have international as UK relevance.     

The use of virtual reality simulation to improve technical skill in the undergraduate medical imaging student

In recent years, simulation has increasingly underpinned the acquisition of pre-clinical skills by undergraduate medical imaging (diagnostic radiography) students. This project aimed to evaluate the impact of an innovative virtual reality (VR) learning environment on the development of technical proficiency by students. The study assessed the technical skills of first year medical imaging students. The learning experience by each student was either via traditional laboratory-based simulation or VR simulation, for two specified anatomical protocols. Following the learning experience, the students performed role-plays and were assessed on their technical proficiency. The type of learning environment, laboratory-based or VR simulation, was recorded for each radiographic procedure, as well as demographic data. Data demonstrated an improved total role-play skill score for those students trained using VR software simulation compared with the total role-play skills score traditional laboratory simulation. Demographic multivariable analysis demonstrated no statistically significant association of age, gender, gaming skills/activity with the outcome. The novel medical imaging VR simulation learning tool facilitated technical skill acquisition, equal to, or slightly better than traditional laboratory training. Ongoing data collection will evaluate the impact this VR software has on the undergraduate medical imaging student.

Abbreviations: QUT: queensland university of technology; VR: virtual reality; SLE: simulated learning environment; PA: posterio-anterior; DP: dorsi-plantar; CP: central point; CR: central ray; SID: source image distance; HWA: health workforce Australia     

From Data Collectors to Data Producers: Shifting Students’ Relationship to Data

This paper contributes a theoretical framework informed by historical, philosophical and ethnographic studies of science practice to argue that data should be considered to be actively produced, rather than passively collected. We further argue that traditional school science laboratory investigations misconstrue the nature of data and overly constrain student agency in their production. We use our “Data Production” framework to analyze activity of and interviews with high school students who created data using sensors and software in a ninth-grade integrated science class. To understand the opportunities for students to develop act with and perceive agency in data production, we analyze in detail the case of one student as she came to use unfamiliar technologies to produce data for her own personally relevant purposes. We find that her purposes for producing data emerged as she worked, and that resistances to her purposes were opportunities to act with and perceive her own agency, and to see data in new ways. We discuss implications for designing science learning experiences in which students act as agents in producing and using data.     

Effective practices for creating transformative informal science education programs grounded in Native ways of knowing

There are a growing number of informal science education (ISE) programs in Native communities that engage youth in science education and that are grounded in Native ways of knowing. There is also a growing body of research focusing on the relationship between culture, traditional knowledge, and science education. However, there is little research documenting how these programs are being developed and the ways in which culture and Western science are incorporated into the activities. This study outlines effective practices for using Native ways of knowing to strengthen ISE programs. These effective practices may also be used to promote change in formal education. The authors combine an overview of current research in informal science education with personal interviews with educators engaged in ISE programs offered to youth both on and off tribal reservations as well as experts in Indigenous education. Participating individuals and programs included Native communities across the United States, including Alaska and Hawai??i. Keeping in mind that each community is unique, ISE programs that are grounded in Native ways of knowing will benefit by utilizing the effective practices outlined here as a guide for starting or strengthening existing ISE programs relevant to the needs of their communities.