Sara Hammer

Teaching generic skills: eroding the higher purpose of universities, or an opportunity for renewal?

This paper explores opportunities and challenges presented by the development of graduate skills in Australian universities. We challenge the dichotomy that conceives of a fundamental disjuncture between the idea of universities as institutions of vocational education and the more traditional conception of universities as key institutions in the formation of reflective practitioners, social critics and good citizens. Despite the challenges inherent in implementing the graduate skills project, we conclude that a consensus around the value of graduate skills represents a valuable opportunity for universities to regain control of the higher education agenda and renew their traditional, higher purpose.

Theorising Academic Development As an Academic Discipline? Exploring Academic Developers’ Ways of Knowing, Theorising and Use of Methods

In this chapter, we report on a meta-analysis of 30 refereed journal articles published between 1996 and 2015 by academic developers from Australasia, Britain and South Africa. We used a disciplinary lens to examine academic development research during this period. Specifically, we analysed the academic development literature to identify ‘ways of knowing’, the extent of explicit use of theories and research methods. Findings indicate that academic development research continues to be largely experiential, under-theorised and fragmentary. Articles analysed tended to fall within three research clusters, including education and educational psychology; professional learning and scholarship of learning and teaching; and sociology and philosophy. Qualitative research methods and psychological and sociological disciplinary lenses were dominantly referenced and adopted.

Legal educators' perceptions of lifelong learning: conceptualisation and practice

Lifelong learning appears frequently on university statements of desirable graduate outcomes. It is also referred to as a desirable outcome for Australian law graduates. This paper examines academic staff perceptions of lifelong learning as part of a broader study about assessment practices in a recently established Australian law school. Findings indicate that participants value lifelong learning, and that some of their perceptions of assessment principles and practice are broadly aligned with the lifelong learning paradigm. However, responses also indicate a lack of precision about how students’ capacity for lifelong learning ought to be developed, as well as a tendency for participants to conflate the ‘self-management’ component of lifelong learning with a more traditional, higher education concept of learner autonomy. The paper argues that imprecision and confusion about how to assess relevant skills and attributes will continue where lifelong learning is understood only in general terms, or as a sub-set of generic, graduate attributes. It therefore recommends that some unpacking of the concept be undertaken, at the institutional level, and that possible assessment models and exemplars be provided for the different lifelong learning domains, including: self-awareness; self-management and judgement; self-efficacy and motivation; and relevant generic graduate skills such as research and/or information literacy, critical thinking and problem solving.

Criterion referenced assessment as a form of feedback: Student and staff perceptions in the initial stages of a new law degree

Abstract Criterion referenced assessment (CRA) has become the preferred method of grading in higher education institutions in recent years. There has been a substantial amount of academic literature over recent years that has attempted to advocate, explain or outline best practice for CRA. This paper explores academic and student participants’ perceptions of CRA and related marking practices based on a study focused on assessment practices in a new Australian regional law school. Existing research proposes two broad rationales for the use of CRA: to increase the reliability and validity of assessment practices; and to provide greater transparency within grading of assessment items for students. The aim of the research discussed here was to discover whether the stated rationales for CRA in the literature aligned with the perceptions of and uses by academic staff and students. Preliminary findings are based on a small, qualitative sample of staff and students. They suggest that, whilst academic participants’ valuing of CRA does echo some of the researched rationales, they more strongly value this practice because of the time efficiencies that the use of CRA and marking rubrics can achieve for the provision of feedback. This finding is important because it stands in possible conflict with perceptions of students in our study, who appeared to perceive criteria sheets or marking rubrics as being distinct from individualised feedback. Implications of our findings are discussed.

Demonstrating quality outcomes in learning and teaching: examining 'best practice' in the use of criterion-referenced assessment

Abstract Australian universities are now required to meet a range of quality assurance indicators directly related to demonstrated excellence in learning and teaching, which are evaluated by the Commonwealth Government’s Learning and Teaching Performance Fund. Consequently, they must now develop ways to demonstrate attainment of these prescribed benchmarks. One pedagogical practice adopted by Australian universities, as a way of identifying and demonstrating stated learning outcomes, is the use of criterion-referenced assessment. Fundamentally, assessment criteria should do two things: first, they should clearly articulate the desired qualities or characteristics of students’ work that are relevant to the task being assessed; second, they should show the relationship between the stated learning objectives of a course and the type of assessment task being used. However, correctly applied, assessment criteria also potentially contribute to students’ learning by enabling them to develop a sense of judgement in relation to their own performance. They also potentially provide the means for articulating appropriate disciplinary standards at a course level. Yet the usefulness of assessment criteria is potentially undermined by issues such as vagueness, confusion over the relationship between criteria and standards, a lack of consensus over the interpretation of criteria within teaching teams and disciplines and the challenge of articulating desirable qualities for assessment tasks that require complex, higher order thinking. This paper addresses these issues by reviewing relevant higher education literature and proposing six principles of good practice for the use of criterion-referenced assessment.

Proposition Testing: A Strategy to Develop Critical Thinking for Essay Writing

One of the proudest claims of the humanities and social sciences is that our disciplines develop the capacity of students for critical thinking. This is not a claim that is supported by research, and there are good reasons to be skeptical of it. Davies (2011) has suggested that universities are actually teaching very little critical thinking. In particular, there are serious doubts about the value of the most important student learning activity in most of our subjects, and especially those in second year and above: the student essay. Complaints about the shallowness of student essays are widespread.

Disability and study: layers of management

Abstract The findings of this paper are based on a 3-year study of students registered with disability services at an Australian, regional university between 2008 and 2010. The concept of self-management, in its various dimensions, was a key theme emerging from the study. We argue that participants in our study employ ‘layers of self-management’ in the pursuit of success in their studies at university. The first layer is a ‘negotiation of self ’ in which students manage their sense of self-efficacy and their identity as students, and as individuals in a social setting. The second layer is their ‘management of self,’ which involves the way they appear to others, as well as the impact of impairments, work, and families. The third and final layer is their ‘management of others,’ which involves managing the perceptions of others, as well as interacting with others as part of managing institutional processes and procedures. As part of our analysis, we examine the relationship of these layers of self-management with concepts such as Lifelong Learning, which enable us to position participants on a traits and capacity continuum with other student groups.

Use of My Career Chapter to Engage Students in Reflexive Dialogue

Higher education students provide many reasons for their taking a particular degree. These typically relate to their current vocational interests and future employment prospects. This is significant since students’ vocational identities and consequent decisions develop in a complex dynamic of vocational personality, characteristic adaptations, and life stories, all interacting with affordances in the social, economic, and cultural contexts of students’ lives. Using contemporary personality theory and vocational psychology theory, we focus on the third dynamism—life stories—to explicate a method that facilitates assessment for and of learning in the context of career. Here we describe the conceptual and methodological dimensions of “My Career Chapter—A Dialogical Autobiography” (McIlveen, 2006) as an exemplar of an innovative pedagogical method with its conceptual foundations in vocational psychology and the theory of dialogical self. We will describe examples of its application in postgraduate studies and elaborate on its teaching and assessment affordances for career education. Finally, we will outline practical implications for the continuing application and evaluation of My Career Chapter, and the curricular vision that drives it, in higher education and career development learning.

Developing a generic review framework to assure capstone quality

ABSTRACT Within the higher education context, capstone units can be viewed as a significant means of assuring intended learning outcomes for programmes. They provide students with the opportunity to consolidate and apply prior and new disciplinary learning, as well as employability skills and graduate attributes. This paper describes the first stage of an initiative in a regional, Australian university to develop a capstone quality review framework that can be applied across disciplines. A deductive, thematic analysis of relevant literature, guides and institutional strategic documents using a constant comparison method was used to develop a collectively agreed upon set of capstone quality domains and related criteria. These would enable reviewers to assess whether capstone curricula were fit-for-purpose. Capstone domains and criteria were validated and revised using a multi-stage, moderated review of 10 capstone units. This validation process affirmed that to avoid issues with reviewer inter-rater reliability, future use of our framework should emphasise calibrating reviewer interpretation to ensure greater levels of shared understanding of underlying concepts. It further suggested the desirability of incorporating aspects of teacher self-assessment, teacher feedback and student results. Provided these findings are accounted for, we conclude that the proposed capstone review domains and criteria could be used for quality review and enhancement, or capstone benchmarking processes, regardless of discipline area.

An examination of the instruction provided in Australian essay guides for students’ development of a critical viewpoint

Abstract The argumentative essay has endured as a popular form of university assessment, yet students still struggle to meet key intended learning outcomes, such as those associated with critical thinking. This paper presents the results of a study that examines the instruction provided by Australian essay writing guides to support students’ development of a questioning, critical viewpoint. Thirty publically available guides were chosen from a range of university types, and sourced from central student learning units and humanities disciplines. Findings of this documentary analysis show that some guides provide too little context for essay writing as an academic practice, and conceptualise definitional, instructional and procedural aspects of the task in ways that may not align with intended outcomes. The conclusion indicates a need for further research about the teaching of argumentative essay writing.