Judith E. Smith

Enhancing the transition of commencing students into university: an institution-wide approach

The importance of the first year experience (FYE) to success at university is well documented and supported with the transition into university regarded as crucial. While there is also support for the notion that a successful FYE should have a whole-of-institution focus and models have been proposed, many institutions still face challenges in achieving institution-wide FYE program implementation. This paper discusses the origins, theoretical and empirical bases and structure of an institution-wide approach to the FYE. It uses a case study of the Transitions In Project (TIP) at the Queensland University of Technology to illustrate how institution-wide FYE program implementation can be achieved and sustained. The TIP had four interrelated projects focusing on at-risk students, first year curriculum, learning resources and staff development. The key aim of TIP was to identify good practice and institutionalise it in a sustainable way. The degree of success in achieving this is evaluated.

THE USE OF COHESION BY UNDERACHIEVING READERS

A sample of 18 Grade 6 male poor readers was assigned to one of two expository passages to read aloud. Miscues were analyzed according to the RMI system of Goodman and Burke. A comparison was made of miscues on cohesive items with miscues in general. Readers were also asked to recall the passage. Recall protocols were scored for central and peripheral elements based upon a cohesion map of the recall. An ANOVA indicated no differences between passages, but showed that students made miscue responses to cohesive items which were less similar graphically and phonoloqically to the target words than the errors made in general. Also they lost meaning and syntax more frequently on cohesive items. Recall of central items was poor. Overall recall was related to the grammatical relationships and meaning relationships aspects of the RMI analysis. Inability to use cohesion appears to adversely affect recall. The semantic aspect of cohesion appears worthy of further research as it affects comprehension and recall.

Coherence and the Sharing of Meaning: Supporting Underachieving Readers

Readers may experience difficulty because they lack sociocultural experiences assumed by authors of texts. Such difficulty lies not with decoding print but with constructing cohesive representations of the meaning of text. Paradigmatic and syntagmatic codes for signifying meaning are briefly reviewed, and data are presented from a study of students at three age levels (10, 12 and 14 years). Both syntagmatic and paradigmatic aspects were important for creating coherent text representations. Underlying comprehension problems was a lack of prior experience of text topics. Ways are suggested in which teachers can prepare students through developing shared meanings in various classroom activities.

Embedding external referencing of standards into higher education: collaborative relationships are the key

Abstract External referencing of assessment and students’ achievement standards is a growing priority area within higher education, which is being pressured by government requirements to evidence outcome attainment. External referencing benefits stakeholders connected to higher education by helping to assure that assessments and standards within courses are appropriate and comparable among institutions. External referencing takes many forms, which have different resourcing requirements, outcomes, and operational strengths and challenges. This paper describes the External Referencing of Standards (ERoS) approach developed, tested and adopted by a university consortium. ERoS draws on the strengths of existing methodologies to produce an evolved model that is effective, efficient, transparent and open, capability building and sustainable. The model enables participants to communicate directly and construct peer relationships, and findings suggest this is a significant design strength. The process facilitates capability building, such that participants garnered insights valuable to enact quality assurance and enhancement of existing courses, and fosters connections that facilitate collaboration and peer-learning. ERoS successfully used open source collaborative tools to review work samples, which can be used to benchmark costed systems.

Practice-based learning in community contexts: A collaborative exploration of pedagogical principles

The primary focus of this chapter is an exploration of four pedagogical principles emerging from a practice-based learning lab. Following an overview of community engaged learning and the Lab approach, the chapter is structured around a discussion of pedagogical principles related to (1) collaboration, (2) interdisciplinarity, (3) complexity and uncertainty and (4) reflection. Through a participatory action research (PAR) framework, students, academics and community partners have worked to identify and refine what it takes to support students negotiate complexity and uncertainty inherent in problems facing communities. It also examines the pedagogical strategies employed to facilitate collaboration across disciplines and professional contexts in ways that leverage difference and challenge values and practices.