Facilitated group mentoring develops key career competencies for university women: a case study

This article examines the effectiveness of a facilitated group mentoring program for university women. Content analysis across existing sources of data (questionnaires, a focus group, and interviews), collected over the five years of the program’s operation (1999–2003), suggested the program helped women to develop three ways of knowing—‘knowing why’, ‘knowing how’, and ‘knowing whom’—which contribute to enhanced career outcomes. Drawing on the experiences of the women in the case study program at the University of Canberra, and the career competencies literature, the article provides a framework for exploring the career outcomes of mentoring programs for both women and men.     

Reconceptualizing student evaluation of teaching: an ethical framework for changing times

Conversations about student evaluation of teaching are longstanding. Ethical principles in university teaching have been suggested. However, conversations that bring together the topics of ethics, teaching and student evaluation of that teaching are rare. New expectations in relation to the evaluation of teaching, for example, expectations about the role of evaluation of teaching in promotion and probation and about the public availability of student evaluation results on institution web sites, require a reconceptualization of evaluation of teaching policies and practice at many Australian universities. It is timely then, to present the issues raised (privacy, consent, interpretation, authorship and ownership, and accessibility) and the guidelines for practice that emerged from a series of conversations begun with a focus on the ethics of online student evaluation of online teaching. The outcome of conversations, an ethical framework for student evaluation of teaching, suggests a set of values, principles and practices to guide both individuals and institutions in relation to student evaluation of teaching in these changing times.     

Proofreading by students: implications of executive and non-executive components of working memory in the detection of phonological,orthographical, and grammatical errors

Reading and Writing - The present research studied the role of the non-executive and executive components of working memory in the detection of phonological, orthographical, and grammatical...     

Alternating current-dielectrophoresis driven on-chip collection and chaining of green microalgae in freshwaters

The capability of the AC dielectrophoresis (DEP) for on-chip capture and chaining of microalgae suspended in freshwaters was evaluated. The effects of freshwater composition as well as the electric field voltage, frequency, and duration, on the dielectrophoretic response of microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were characterized systematically. Highest efficiency of cell alignment in one-dimensional arrays, determined by the percentage of cells in chain and the chain length, was obtained at AC-field of 20 V mm⁻¹ and 1 kHz applied for 600 s. The DEP response and cell alignment of C. reinhardtii in water sampled from lake, pond, and river, as well as model media were affected by the chemical composition of the media. In the model media, the efficiency of DEP chaining was negatively correlated to the conductivity of the cell suspensions, being higher in suspensions with low conductivity. The cells suspended in freshwaters, however, showed anomalously high chaining at long exposure times. High concentrations of nitrate and dissolved organic matter decrease cell chaining efficiency, while phosphate and citrate concentrations increase it and favor formation of longer chains. Importantly, the application of AC-field had no effect on algal autofluorescence, cell membrane damage, or oxidative stress damages in C. reinhardtii.     

Spatial density as a setting event for the social interaction of preschool children

The effects of spatial density as a setting event on the social interaction of preschool children were examined in this review. A specific interest was the potential application of this setting event to children with special needs in inclusive settings. Twelve studies were examined revealing a range of methodological and technical difficulties in the extant research. Several studies reported significant effects, but results were inconsistent and very limited research examining students with special needs is available. Several suggestions for future research are offered including conduct of studies in typical preschool settings with representative group sizes, study of children with special needs, and use of research designs that allow idiosyncratic responses to interventions to be considered. Despite considerable recent interest and research on setting events, the body of research on spatial density is dated and methodologically problematic. It is suggested that renewed interest in this class of setting events might be appropriate.     

Developing research potential through a structured mentoring program: issues arising

Changes in higher education have meant that academics originally in institutions without a strong research culture are now being called upon to raise their level of research activity. These institutions have implemented a range of strategies to support their academic staff making this transition. One program to develop research potential of staff is reported in this paper. It involved matching inexperienced researchers with experienced researchers who acted in a mentoring role. The individual mentoring was supplemented with a two day workshop covering research skills and also providing an opportunity to focus on the issues, questions and projects of the participants. An evaluation of the program revealed that participants benefited from the support provided by their peers in the program as well as from the support provided by the mentors. The mentors assisted the participants with specific aspects of their research and also with the social and political aspects of research involvement. The program legitimated the helping relationship established between participants and mentors.     

Stories return personal narrative ways of knowing to the professional development of doctoral supervisors

Storytellers have always known that there is more to a story than ‘just a good yarn’. It is through stories that individuals construct and reconstruct their sense of self as they learn ‘to be’ in the world. Learning through stories is common across a number of professional contexts. However, storied approaches are under-utilised in supervisor professional development programs. This paper argues that telling, receiving, reading, writing and re-writing stories can open to doctoral supervisors a way to negotiate the chaotic pedagogy of becoming and being a doctoral supervisor. Two examples of storytelling – interactive telling and reading of stories of research student experience and supervisor autobiographical writing – illustrate how the art of storytelling can return personal narrative ways of knowing to professional development in today's performance-driven higher degree by research context.     

‘Things fall apart so they can fall together’: uncovering the hidden side of writing a teaching award application

Teaching awards are now common practice in higher education. However, few award applicants and their writing guides have investigated their experience of writing a teaching award application, a writing process recognised as different from that required in research publication. To systematically research and analyse their personal experiences two successful Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation applicants (Robyn and Thea) and their guide (Coralie) undertook a process of self-inquiry from an autoethnographic perspective. This paper presents a narrative constructed by Coralie, Robyn and Thea to bring into one story their individual autoethnographies. This collective narrative takes the reader beyond the scholarly discussions of benefits and concerns about teaching award schemes prominent in the literature to date, to uncover a previously hidden view of award application writing. From this new viewpoint writing a teaching award application is seen as a process which moves the applicant from a position of certainty and comfort (‘homeliness’), through a period where ‘things fall apart’ as the applicant's sense of ‘unhomeliness’ (disorientation and confusion) increases, to a time where ‘things fall together’ as a newfound sense of ‘homeliness’ that represents growth in the individual as a teacher and a writer. Applicants develop a clearer understanding of their strengths and weaknesses as educators and the confidence to challenge their previous pedagogical practices. As writers they develop attitudes and skills to recognise and to set aside familiar, but limiting, writing strategies.     

The Effects of Variety of Activities on the Social Interaction of Preschool Children with Disabilities

Analysis of previous research has indicated that restricting the amount of equipment available may be a practical strategy to facilitate peer interaction in childcare, but a disadvantage is a possible increase in aggressive behaviour. An alternative approach is manipulating the variety of activities while holding the quantity and type of equipment consistent. The effect of such an intervention was examined on social interaction of two children with disabilities including severe language problems. A single case alternating treatment design was used to compare the effectiveness of eight activities, as opposed to four activities with the quantity of equipment doubled. There was no consistent clinically significant difference in social interaction when the variety of activities was varied for the children in this study. It is possible that the language delay of the participants may have attenuated the effect of the intervention, and this possibility warrants further investigation.     

Is non‐completion a failure or a new beginning? Research non‐completion from a student’s perspective

Today’s performance‐driven model of higher degree research has constructed student withdrawal and non‐completion as failure. This failure is often internalized by the student as their own failure. This paper draws on a longitudinal study that examined the experiences of four female Master’s by Research degree students—Anna, Carla, Grace and Lydia—who had either withdrawn, not completed or who had taken a very long time to complete their research. Their stories reveal that they experienced many of the factors recognized in the literature as likely to negatively affect a student’s chances of completion: isolation (social and intellectual); lack of resources; ‘absence’ of, or poor, supervision; and personal and/or professional crises; and additionally, in three cases, tensions arising from a mismatch between an individual’s understandings and institutional conceptions of postgraduate research. Rather than internalizing their experience as one of loss and failure, each of these women ‘wrote’ beyond this expected ending to reconstruct non‐completion of their postgraduate research as a beginning to a positive re‐storying of their lives.