Ursula McGowan

‘Teach us how to do it properly!’ An Australian academic integrity student survey

The results of a large online student survey (n = 15,304), on academic integrity at six Australian universities, indicate that a majority of respondents reported a good awareness of academic integrity and knowledge of academic integrity policy at their university and were satisfied with the information and support they receive. Response varied across cohorts, with international students expressing a lower awareness of academic integrity and academic integrity policy, and lower confidence in how to avoid academic integrity breaches. Postgraduate research student respondents were the least satisfied with the information they had received about how to avoid an academic integrity breach. The results from this survey provide an opportunity to explore the student perspective and inform the higher education sector in relation to communicating with and educating students about academic integrity. The students have indicated that Australian universities need to move beyond the mere provision of information to ensure a holistic approach that engages students about academic integrity.

The Colleague Development Program: a multidisciplinary program of peer observation partnerships

Background: As an introduction to peer observation of teaching, a multi-disciplinary program of peer observation partnerships was implemented across Faculty of Health Sciences. The ‘Colleague Development Program’ focussed on formative feedback and on promoting collegiality within and across traditional discipline boundaries. Aims: To describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Colleague Development Program. Methods: Participants asked a trusted colleague to observe their teaching. Feedback on good practice and suggestions for improvement were sought. Colleague observations were guided by specific learning objectives articulated by participants. Following the teaching observation/s, the colleague observer and the participant discussed the extent to which the participants learning objectives had been achieved. A written summary of mutually agreed outcomes was prepared. Program evaluation included anonymous participant questionnaire and focus group discussions. Results: Forty-two staff enrolled in the program with 23 completing all elements and participating in the evaluation. Participants reported increased confidence in teaching, confirmation of good practice, exposure to new ideas, and a greater sense of institutional support and collegiality. Conclusions: Situating peer evaluation within a collegial partnership overcame participants’ concerns about being the subject of ‘evaluation’ and ‘criticism’ by emphasising existing collegiality and trust amongst peers.

A collaborating colleague model for inducting international engineering students into the language and culture of a foreign research environment

Practitioners of research in a particular field have extensive knowledge of how to operate successfully in that field and communicate effectively with others, within the boundaries of their own language and culture. However, when it comes to inducting novice researchers into these skills, difficulties are often encountered, and more so when the novice comes from a different language and cultural background. At the same time, specialists in English teaching or cross-cultural communication aiming to prepare novices to enter such a research environment often lack access to the details of how things are really done there. At The University of Adelaide, South Australia, this situation is being addressed through a new program for international postgraduate students in their first semester of enrolment. This Integrated Bridging Program (IBP) relies on collaboration between the discipline specialist researcher and language and learning specialists and is informed by the perspectives of systemic functional linguistics (SFL). This paper presents an overview of the IBP, followed by details of its operation in the Faculty of Engineering. Information is included on outcomes of the collaboration in specific instances, and how SFL theory has been applied to develop a flexible and effective induction which is highly valued by both staff and student participants.