Josephine Palermo

Student Learning: 'the heart of quality' in education and training

This paper surveys the development of various approaches to quality that are essentially learning-centred: • In the Schools sector: a brief overview of the Victorian Quality in Schools project; • In Higher Education: work in progress at two Australian universities (Victoria University of Technology and Swinburne Universities of Technology in Melbourne); and • In Vocational Education and Training: work in progress in re-orienting the policy approach to Quality towards a more flexible and learning-centred model. This paper will argue that when looked at from the perspective of the individual learner, there is a strong case for student learning to be placed at the very heart of Quality Systems in all sectors of education, and also therefore in related sectoral Quality Assurance programs and processes.

Primary - and secondary - level organizational predictors of work ability

Australia has one of the worlds most rapidly aging workforces and will inevitably experience labor shortages as a result. It is therefore necessary to examine factors that promote ability to work among aging workers in order to sustain a healthy aging workforce. The aim of this study was to investigate the direct and indirect effects of primary- and secondary-level organizational factors on work ability. A total of 306 employees participated in an online survey for this cross-sectional study. The results demonstrated that organizational nurturance (culture) and vocational strain indirectly predicted work ability, with work satisfaction mediating these relationships. Findings are discussed within the context of strategies for promoting work ability for all workers and retaining aging workers.

Almost there : empirical insights into clinical method and ethics courses in climbing the hill towards lawyers' professionalism

Lawyers’ professional (ethical) behaviour is under challenge as a result of major public disclosures in recent years. In an effort to deal with such challenges, a focus on ethical fundamentals is called for. It is not unreasonable to assume that lawyers’ moral reasoning might play some role in the decisions that are made in everyday legal practice, especially those that lead to subsequent criticism. However, until now there has been a dearth of research into ethical responses of Australian lawyers or law students. A longitudinal study exploring the relationships between values and ethical behaviour for early-career legal practitioners has been concluded. This study situated participants within hypothetical contexts that provided for ethical dilemmas and comprised a representative Australian cohort of final year law students, tracking them through their first two years of employment or further study. Of particular interest in the conclusions reached in this study was the effect of gender, clinical experience and prior ethics education on changing responses. Findings suggested that there were significant differences over time in responses to ethical dilemmas, particularly for females and participants who experienced clinical and ethics-focused subjects during their law degree. Like females, participants who had completed a clinical placement and ethics course were more likely to exhibit significant changes in responses across the three years of the study. The direction of change could be said to be largely in the direction of better ethical conduct. This could be a consequence of greater exposure to ethical dilemmas and scenarios during clinical placement experiences and ethics courses. The implications of results are discussed in the contexts of ethics education in a tertiary educational environment, and postadmission to legal practice.

Linking student evaluations to institutional goals: a change story

For the past 30 years, beginning with the seminal work of Herbert Marsh in Australia and New Zealand, institutions of higher education have developed internal practices and procedures to collect and analyse student evaluations of teaching and learning. However, the question remains: has this development resulted in the achievement of institutional goals that maximise learning across all teaching contexts? As is the case in many other countries, a recent review of Australian national student evaluation data failed to conclude that student evaluations have improved overall teaching. However, these data have made student perceptions of teaching and learning more salient in the minds of tertiary educators. Certainly, teaching staff are aware of the impacts of student evaluations on informed decision-making, such as the continuation or discontinuation of courses, and on their promotion processes. This paper will review student evaluation practices according to criteria used in change theories, such as the transtheoretical change model (TTM). TTM construes organisational change as a process involving progress through a series of five stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. This paper will focus on organisational and behavioural outcomes that can be linked to the use of student data. It will recommend strategies for better aligning evaluation results to the stages of change.