Using the web to encourage student-generated questions in large-format introductory biology classes

Students rarely ask questions related to course content in large-format introductory classes. The use of a Web-based forum devoted to student-generated questions was explored in a second-semester introductory biology course. Approximately 80% of the enrolled students asked at least one question about course content during each of three semesters during which this approach was implemented. About 95% of the students who posted questions reported reading the instructor's response to their questions. Although doing so did not contribute to their grade in the course, approximately 75% of the students reported reading questions posted by other students in the class. Approximately 60% of the students reported that the Web-based question-asking activity contributed to their learning of biology.     

教师成长初期的教育实践能力培养——基于澳大利亚拉筹伯大学教育实践课程考察的启示

教师成长初期的教育实践能力培养应当积极关注教师专业化、新课程实施以及高校教学改革的要求。文章以澳大利亚拉筹伯大学教育学院的实践课程考察为基础,思考我国教师职前教育实践能力培养,得到以下启示:优化课程设置与实施方式;以科学的知识观看待教育实践能力的建构;建立学习标准与评价反馈机制,关注教育实践能力培养的实效。     

Perceptions of the prevalence and seriousness of academic dishonesty in Australian universities

Academic dishonesty is a fundamental issue for the academic integrity of higher education institutions, and one that has lately been gaining increasing media attention. This study reports on a survey of 1206 students and 190 academic staff across four major Queensland universities in relation to student academic misconduct. The aim of the survey was to determine the prevalence of academic misconduct, and to investigate the extent to which perceptions of dishonesty are shared between students and staff, as preliminary steps toward developing effective strategies to deal with the academic dishonesty/misconduct problem. Results indicate a higher tolerance for academic misconduct by students in comparison to staff, particularly with respect to falsification of research results and plagiarism, as well as considerable underestimation by staff of the prevalence of virtually all forms of student academic misconduct. Overall, the study’s findings confirm the significance of the issue of academic dishonesty within the Australian tertiary sector, indicating considerable divergence between students and staff in terms of perceptions of the seriousness and prevalence of student academic misconduct. We suggest that university administrators need to examine this issue closely in order to develop mechanisms for managing and curtailing the level of academic misconduct, since a failure to do so may lead to a further undermining of the academic integrity of the Australian tertiary sector.     

Constructing the [parochial] global citizen

Cultural exchange is privileged in many higher education programs across the globe. The Australian government’s New Colombo Plan refers to a ‘Third Wave’ of globalisation which foregrounds global interrelatedness through developing student capabilities to live, work and contribute to global communities and aims to make the global an ‘everyday’ experience for students. Mobility programs are promoted as the main strategy for fostering global perspectives, contradicting the idea of the global as an everyday experience. This paper unpacks constructs of global citizenship that underpin Australia’s recent international and global engagement policies, and implications for the ‘global’ wave in ‘local’ parochial contexts.     

Promoting and Providing Expert Guidance in Work-intensive Clinical Settings

This paper discusses how expert guidance can be best provided in work intensive clinical settings. The adequacy for supporting learning in the clinical practicum for health care disciplines is often complicated by the intensive work practices in healthcare settings. Often, clinicians’ work is so intense that the scope for providing close guidance for students is quite restricted. The case advanced here draws on a range of empirical work to propose how clinician-student interactions might be optimized through the provision of a clinical supervisor to assist clinicians develop collegial relationships and acquire skills in guided learning such as demonstrating and role-modeling. These roles can contribute in essential ways to the development of learning environments where clinicians have the opportunity to facilitate the learning of others as part of their workload, and without being burdened by the requirements of teaching and assessment processes. It differs from other approaches because although clinicians partner students and provide feedback to them, clinicians are not expected to formally assess or award a grade for student performance. Assessment and remedial action, when required, is undertaken by the role of a designated clinical supervisor qualified to perform such activities.     

The re-creation and resolution of the ‘problem’ of Indigenous education in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cross-curriculum priority

This paper focuses on the ‘problem’ of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education represented in the Australian Curriculum’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures cross-curriculum priority. Looking beyond particular curriculum content, we uncover the policy discourses that construct (and reconstruct) the cross-curriculum priority. In the years after the Australian Curriculum’s creation, curriculum authors have moulded the priority from an initiative without a clear purpose into a purported solution to the ‘Indigenous problem’ of educational underachievement, student resistance and disengagement. As the cross-curriculum priority was created and subsequently reframed, the ‘problem’ of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education has thereby been manifested in policy, strategised as curriculum content and precipitated in the cross-curriculum priority. These policy problematisations perpetuate contemporary racialisation and actively construct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, histories and knowledges as deficient.     

Measuring the impact of the flipped anatomy classroom: The importance of categorizing an assessment by Bloom's taxonomy

The flipped classroom (FC) model has emerged as an innovative solution to improve student‐centered learning. However, studies measuring student performance of material in the FC relative to the lecture classroom (LC) have shown mixed results. An aim of this study was to determine if the disparity in results of prior research is due to level of cognition (low or high) needed to perform well on the outcome, or course assessment. This study tested the hypothesis that (1) students in a FC would perform better than students in a LC on an assessment requiring higher cognition and (2) there would be no difference in performance for an assessment requiring lower cognition. To test this hypothesis the performance of 28 multiple choice anatomy items that were part of a final examination were compared between two classes of first year medical students at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Items were categorized as requiring knowledge (low cognition), application, or analysis (high cognition). Thirty hours of anatomy content was delivered in LC format to 101 students in 2013 and in FC format to 104 students in 2014. Mann Whitney tests indicated FC students performed better than LC students on analysis items, U = 4243.00, P = 0.030, r = 0.19, but there were no differences in performance between FC and LC students for knowledge, U = 5002.00, P = 0.720 or application, U = 4990.00, P = 0.700, items. The FC may benefit retention when students are expected to analyze material. Anat Sci Educ 10: 170–175. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.