Anna Jones

Redisciplining generic attributes: the disciplinary context in focus

This article discusses the findings of a recent study which demonstrates that generic attributes are highly context‐dependent, and are shaped by the disciplinary epistemology in which they are conceptualised and taught. Generic attributes have, for a long time, been viewed as super‐disciplinary, and hence as separated from and overlayed onto disciplinary content. There has been considerable interest in generic skills or attributes over more than a decade, and there has also been interest in disciplinary culture, and yet there has been little research which has examined the importance of disciplinary epistemology in shaping generic skills and attributes. This study brings together these two strands of research. The study examined the teaching of generic attributes in five disciplines – physics, history, economics, medicine and law – in two Australian universities. The study is based on in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with academic staff. The findings demonstrate that skills such as critical thinking, analysis, problem solving and communication are conceptualised and taught in quite different ways in each of the disciplines. This article suggests that a de‐disciplined approach to generic skills has led to problems in the areas of educational policy and practice. Instead it proposes a re‐disciplined theorising of generic skills and attributes, which frames them as part of the social practice of the disciplines, and so understood as in and of the disciplinary culture. This new conceptualisation of generic skills and attributes acknowledges the integration of attributes with disciplinary epistemology.

Multiplicities or Manna from Heaven? Critical Thinking and the Disciplinary Context.

This paper explores the nexus between epistemic culture and academic conceptions of the generic skill of critical thinking. Although generic skills are seen as being of great importance in higher education, there has been little examination into the ways in which the knowledge culture of each specific discipline influences the academic staffs conception of generic skills. This paper investigates the ways in which critical thinking is understood by academic staff in two related but distinct disciplines, history and economics. It finds that while there are some similarities, critical thinking in economics is defined primarily as the use of economic tools whereas critical thinking in history is described from a range of perspectives. Thus the epistemic culture of the discipline appears to influence conceptions of critical thinking. This has implications for the ways in which generic skills are framed within the broader university community and indeed has implications for policy at both the university and the political level.

There is nothing generic about graduate attributes: unpacking the scope of context

This paper sets out to examine the situated nature of graduate attributes through using activity systems theory to explore their contextual nature. It builds on earlier work into graduate attributes by examining the reasons behind the significant variation in their interpretation, thus providing an analysis of the contextual nature of teaching and the implications this has for research and policy. The paper examines the local and individual factors which have a significant influence on the ways in which graduate attributes are understood by teaching staff. Rather than describing graduate attributes as generic, this paper suggests that the teaching of graduate attributes is embedded in local meanings and highly situated and this needs to be acknowledged in higher education policymaking, curriculum design and teaching.

Seeing the messiness of academic practice: exploring the work of academics through narrative

This paper illustrates the use of narrative as a means of examining the complex array of factors that shape academic practice. Through focusing on the personal, using the narrative voice of the participants, a series of situated perspectives on the journey towards academic life, and more specifically teaching, is presented. The paper argues that teaching is a highly complex enterprise that is shaped by a multitude of factors and so should be examined in a range of ways in order to uncover the richness of practice. The study is based on a set of qualitative interviews from which a small sample of narratives has been extracted. These narratives illustrate the multiple and often ambiguous nature of academic practice and of teaching in particular, and hence can inform the work of academic developers by providing a rich and more personal understanding.

Teaching critical thinking: an investigation of a task in introductory macroeconomics

This paper is an investigation of understandings of critical thinking from two teaching perspectives: academic staff and tutors. It explores critical thinking as situated within an assessment task in introductory macroeconomics. This study found that while the two academic staff conceptualized critical thinking as a set of concrete cognitive skills, the tutors challenged this notion. Although tutors used the way of understanding critical thinking identified by the academic staff in their teaching and marking, they also discussed broader notions of critical thinking that they saw as a fundamental aspect of the discipline. The paper examines the multiple constructions of critical thinking in this setting and its broader implications.This paper is an investigation of understandings of critical thinking from two teaching perspectives: academic staff and tutors. It explores critical thinking as situated within an assessment task in introductory macroeconomics. This study found that while the two academic staff conceptualized critical thinking as a set of concrete cognitive skills, the tutors challenged this notion. Although tutors used the way of understanding critical thinking identified by the academic staff in their teaching and marking, they also discussed broader notions of critical thinking that they saw as a fundamental aspect of the discipline. The paper examines the multiple constructions of critical thinking in this setting and its broader implications.

Not some shrink-wrapped beautiful package: using poetry to explore academic life

This paper explores teaching in higher education through poetic transcription in order to illustrate the range of influences that shape the ways in which we teach. Through using poetry, this paper examines dimensions such as the past, emotion, humour and uncertainty, which are important aspects of teaching that are sometimes sidelined by more traditional research methods. The paper evokes the richness and complexity of academic life through placing the personal and the particular at the centre in a way that highlights the complexity. In this way it invites participation in the lives of others through providing a window into the academic experience.

Implicit, stand-alone or integrated skills education for undergraduates: a longitudinal analysis of programme outcomes

This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal investigation into the effectiveness of skills education programmes within business and management undergraduate degree courses. During the period between 2005 and 2011, a large business school in the south-west of England was developed and implemented two distinct approaches to skills education. An analysis of final grades for the core modules for students within the business and management field exposes a clear divide in success between those who participated in an integrated skills programme during their first year and the comparatively poorer performance of those who attended either a stand-alone skills module or, in some cases, no skills module at all. The conclusion of the paper highlights the measurable value of privileging skills in the curriculum-planning process and ensuring that skills which educators agree to be important are practised in context by learners.

Examining the public face of academic development

Language is an important way of presenting an identity, either individual or group. This paper explores the language used in the presentation of the identity of academic development. The study is based on an analysis of websites from academic development centres in the UK and Australia and outlines the public ways in which academic developers present their work and the meanings that are attached to this presentation. It uses frame theory to analyse the language of academic development websites in order to explore some of the assumptions underpinning the public face of academic development. It explores the ways in which language is used to frame and persuade in order to establish the credibility of academic development as an expert and scholarly field.

Conceptualizing Impact in Academic Development: Finding a Way Through.

ABSTRACT This paper explores the notion of impact in the context of academic development programs and considers how it can be described and understood. We argue that impact has a range of meanings and academic development programs such as graduate certificates have a broad group of stakeholders and hence the impact is different for each group depending on how the program aims and objectives are defined and understood. In finding a way through the difficulties of evaluating impact in academic development we point to the importance of clearly conceptualizing the notion of impact, a careful identification of the assumptions underpinning any program and an understanding of who academic development will benefit and how. We suggest that impact in academic development cannot be understood without taking account of the range of possible impacts and the difficulty of attributing simple cause and effect to a complex environment.

Perspectives on change: a study of the multiple dimensions of changing teaching

This paper uses the notion of perspectives, derived from Activity Systems Theory as a lens through which to examine the process of change in one UK university. It argues that change is a multidimensional phenomenon and so examines the drivers and barriers towards change in teaching practices through the differing and at times conflicting viewpoints of those involved. This is a qualitative case study, based on in-depth interviews. It considers how groups interact and move towards new practices through examining three different perspectives and the associated disturbances that can either promote or disrupt change. It concludes that through a detailed examination of the multiple layers of change, this process can be better understood.