Education Commons^™

How Are They Going?: A Project To Monitor Student Engagement, Anthony Williams, Maria T. Northcote, John Reddin

Maria Northcote

The transition from school or work to university studies is not always a smooth change for many students. The university context may appear threatening, strange and isolating for some students, whether the courses be offered in on-campus or online contexts. While most modern day universities offer a raft of support services for students, including both academic and non-academic services, problems of low retention and high attrition rates still plague some institutions and some sections of particular institutions in the higher education sector. This paper presents an innovative program that uses technology-supported strategies within a regular learning management system (LMS) to …

Getting On The Online Education Train: The Journey Of A Small Higher Education Institution, Anthony Williams, Maria T. Northcote

Maria Northcote

Many universities have instituted professional learning centres that support academic teaching staff in their capacity to facilitate student-centred learning. Some of these centres also extend their reach to incorporate scholarship and research. This paper reports on one such case, in which a small higher education institution in Australia established what has become known as the Centre for Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL). From its inception, the CASTL’s intentions have been multi-dimensional, in that its programs, activities and resource development span the following areas of scholarship: 1) learning and teaching; 2) researcher education and support of postgraduate …

Integrating The Scholarship Of Teaching, Learning And Assessment Into One Institution’S Homegrown Professional Learning Resources, Maria Northcote, Anthony Williams, Kevin Petrie, John Seddon, Sherene Hattingh

Maria Northcote

Many professional learning (PL) programs in universities aspire to support tertiary educators to perform duties associated with teaching, student learning and assessment. Additionally, because much of a university academic’s work is associated with conducting scholarly research and supervising students’ research, PL programs also need to provide support associated with supervision and research activities. Faced with these multiple PL demands, one small Australian higher education institution developed a suite of resources to support faculty teaching staff and researchers in their professional capacities using a heuristic (self-determined) approach to resource development. The content of the resources drew on the principles of the …

The Educational Beliefs Of A Group Of University Teachers And Their Students: Identification, Exploration And Comparison, Maria T. Northcote

Maria Northcote

The quality of teaching and learning in tertiary education contexts is influenced by many factors including the educational beliefs of the university teachers and students who teach and learn in such contexts. Most belief research in the tertiary education sector has, to date, reported on the teaching or learning beliefs of just teachers or the teaching or learning beliefs of just students. Much less research has explored the connections between the educational beliefs of these two groups. This research has aimed to extend the parameters of previous research by investigating the point of intersection between the educational beliefs of a …

Engaging In Deep Cultural Learning Through The Intersection Of Multiple Contexts, Maria T. Northcote, Peter W. Kilgour, Daniel Reynaud, Phil Fitzsimmons

Maria Northcote

The type of learning that takes place in teacher education courses typically results in pre-service teachers developing a mixture of knowledge, skills and values that enable them to become effective teachers in schools in the future. During their journey to become qualified teachers, pre-service teachers typically engage in coursework and experiential-based learning.

By engaging in coursework experiences, an overseas practicum and an overseas study tour, students experienced a range of reflection-promoting activities and contexts during which they broadened and deepened their understanding of cultures other than their own.

Using a cross-case analysis approach, the data gathered in these three cases …

Bumpy Moments And Joyful Breakthroughs: The Place Of Threshold Concepts In Academic Staff Development Programs About Online Learning And Teaching, Maria T. Northcote, Daniel Reynaud, Peter Beamish, Tony Martin, Kevin P. Gosselin

Maria Northcote

In this article the authors address the situation in higher education of academic staff facing what they conceptualise as “bumpy moments and joyful breakthroughs” as they work through the process of becoming teachers in online learning environments. The article comes from a research project, which gathered and analysed data from systematic observations and questionnaires. The authors base their study on the known fact that while many academics have grounded experience in on-campus teaching and learning situations they do not necessarily have the skills required today for extending learning through on-line environments. The authors discover that when academics start teaching in …