Bedding down the embedding : IL reality in a teacher education programme

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is one of Australia's largest universities,enrolling 30,000 students. Our Information Literacy Framework and Syllabus wasendorsed as university policy in Feb 2001. QUT Library uses the AustralianInformation Literacy Standards as the basis and entry point for our syllabus. Theuniversity wide information literacy programme promotes critical thinking and equipsindividuals for lifelong learning (Peacock, 2002a). Information literacy has developedas a premium agenda within the university community; as documented by JudithPeacock, the university’s Information Literacy Coordinator (Peacock, 2002b).The Faculties at QUT have for the last few years, started to work through how theinformation literacy syllabus will be enacted in their curricula, and within theorientations of their subject areas. Attitudinal change is happening alongside arealisation that discipline content must be taught within a broader framework.Curricula and pedagogical reforms are a characteristic of the teaching environment.Phrases such as lifelong learning, generic skills, information revolution, learningoutcomes and information literacy standards are now commonplace in facultydiscussion. Liaison librarians are strategically placed to see the "big picture" ofcurricula across large scale faculties in a large scale university. We work withfaculty in collaborative and consultative partnerships, in order to implement reform. QUT Librarians offer three levels of information literacy curriculum to the university.The generic programme is characterised by free classes, offered around the start ofsemesters. The next level is integrated teaching, developed to answer a specificneeds for classes of students. The third level of information literacy is that ofembedding throughout a programme. This involves liaison librarians working toensure that information literacy is a developmental and assessed part of thecurriculum, sequenced through a programme in a similar way to traditional disciplineknowledge, and utilising the IL syllabus. This paper gives a glimpse of what ishappening as we attempt the process of embedding information literacy into theBachelor of Education programme

Factors affecting the programme completion of pre-registration nursing students through a three year course: a retrospective cohort study

© 2017 Students who leave pre-registration nurse education having failed to complete remain a concern for higher education institutions. This study identifed factors influencing completion using a retrospective cohort analysis to map student characteristics at entry against Year 3 completion data. The study was set in a nursing faculty in a higher education institution in northern England. Data were collected between 2009 and 2014 with five cohorts of students participating (n = 807). Multinomial logistic regression was used to model the dependent variable Progression Outcome with categories of; completion and non-completion (academic and non-academic reasons). Predictors included cohort, programme, branch, gender, age on entry, ethnic group, disability status, domicile, change of home postcode, change of term-time postcode, entry qualifications, previous experience of caring, and dependents. Age on Entry and Domicile or alternatively Dependents and Domicile emerged as statistically significant (p  <  0.05) in the multivariable analysis. Older students were less likely to be lost from the programme, as were students who lived locally at all times and those with dependents. There is currently little reliable, consistent information on nursing student attrition, progression and completion. This study contributes to the evidence base by identifying some of the factors that may contribute to successful programme completion

Fit for purpose: traditional assessment is failing undergraduates with learning difficulties. Might eAssessment help?

Recent years have seen unprecedented growth in the size, diversity and academic orientation of undergraduate student populations. There is evidence that the use of innovative pedagogies using information and communications technology has the potential to address such student diversity by offering opportunities for a more personalised student learning experience. However, ways of assessing student work in such personalised learning contexts have remained a challenge for most English universities, dominated by traditional high stakes, timed exercises. Being almost always text-intensive, these can prove particularly stressful and disadvantageous for the growing numbers of students with specific learning difficulties (SpLD). Such challenges are examined in relation to national requirements and exemplified in the SpLD strategies developed in two faculties of an English university. The paper defines key principles and practices to be realised in order for assessment to be considered fit for purpose. Using these as criteria, traditional assessment is compared to new ways of evaluating student progress that are personalised, integral to and embedded in the learning process. It is concluded that computer-based assessment (eAssessment) offers fairer and more inclusive ways of monitoring, diagnosing, supporting learning and reporting students' achievements

Supervision and Scholarly Writing: Writing to Learn - Learning to Write

This paper describes an action research project on postgraduate students’ scholarly writing in which I employed reflective approaches to examine and enhance my postgraduate supervisory practice. My reflections on three distinct cycles of supervision illustrate a shift in thinking about scholarly writing and an evolving understanding of how to support postgraduate students’ writing. These understandings provide the foundation for a future-oriented fourth cycle of supervisory practice, which is characterised by three principles, namely the empowerment of students as writers, the technological context of contemporary writing, and ethical issues in writing

Teacher presence through the lens of kindness

In March 2020, one Australian higher education provider, like many others, found itself pivoting into fully online teaching as the nation managed the COVID 19 pandemic and campuses closed. Bespoke professional learning workshops were offered to all staff, many of whom demonstrated the professional willingness to change their practices in order to offer students the highest quality learning experience that was possible in the demanding and unexpected conditions inherent in the pandemic. There were many challenges revealed through ongoing discussions amongst staff as a community of learners. Throughout the discussions, the concept of presence (Garrison, 2007, 2017) was recurring - teacher and student presence in the newly mandated online teaching context. The centrality of kindness was identified as a second concept that mediated academic discussions and emotions. Both concepts form the focus of this paper. The positioning of kindness within Garrison’s framework of inquiry (2017) will be proposed as a proposition that is worthy of further research particularly if higher education in Australia continues to be uncertain and fraught with change

Increasing the capacity of open-hearth plants by the use of oxygen: technical and financial considerations of various methods

The Great Majority of the steel produced in the world is steel made in open-hearth furnaces and because of the immense amount of capital invested in these plants, there can be no question of scrapping many of them for some time to come. For this reason great interest has been focused in the last few years on the problem of increasing output from existing OH plants by the use of oxygen. The object of this paper is to examine some methods of achieving this, (section 1), and to compare the cost of applying 02 direct to the OH furnaces with the cost of changing over to one of the pneumatic processes for the increased output required, (section 2). For the purposes of this paper, the authors have taken as an example a plant of 1 m. tons capacity which it is desired to increase to 1.5 m. tons

Nuclear Translocation of Extradenticle Requires homothorax, which Encodes an Extradenticle-Related Homeodomain Protein

AbstractWe show that homothorax (hth) is required for the Hox genes to pattern the body of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. hth is necessary for the nuclear localization of an essential HOX cofactor, Extradenticle (EXD), and encodes a homeodomain protein that shares extensive identity with the product of Meis1, a murine proto-oncogene. MEIS1 is able to rescue hth mutant phenotypes and can induce the cytoplasmic-to-nuclear translocation of EXD in cell culture and Drosophila embryos. Thus, Meis1 is a murine homolog of hth. MEIS1/HTH also specifically binds to EXD with high affinity in vitro. These data suggest a novel and evolutionarily conserved mechanism for regulating HOX activity in which a direct protein–protein interaction between EXD and HTH results in EXD's nuclear translocation

Unless you become like a child: Psychological type and Christian becoming at Messy Church

This study addresses a major concern in the debate surrounding Messy Church regarding its ability to nurture Christian discipleship in people who rarely attend traditional church. As a work of practical theology, empirical data and theological reflection are combined in order to generate increased understanding concerning Messy Church as a crucible for discipleship as child-like becoming. Discipleship is conceptualised as a dual process of intersubjective relationship and experiential learning. The concept of intersubjectivity in relationship is informed by Martin Buber’s seminal work I and Thou. Experiential learning is approached through psychological type preferences, learning styles and basic value theory which come together in Conversational Learning Theory (Baker, Jensen and Kolb 2002). The Messy Church values of hospitality, creativity and all age inclusion are shown to be potentially conducive to Christian becoming, provided that dialectical tensions within learning and relating are balanced. A sample of 260 helpers and 203 adults from 41 different Messy Churches completed questions designed to assess attitudes towards Messy Church values, religious, spiritual and relational outcomes and psychological type. Age profiles suggested that helpers were predominantly over 50 and adult participants were predominantly in their 30s and 40s. Psychological type profiles were similar to previous studies of conventional church (predominantly sensing and judging). The significant predictors of outcomes among adults who are not regular attenders of conventional church were intuition, feeling and judging along with active participation and duration of attendance. Participation stood out as the main significant predictor of outcomes in regular church attenders. Among helpers, hospitality was significantly predicted by extraversion, socialisation and child-led learning, creativity was predicted by being female, young, a leader and child-led learning, and all age inclusion was predicted by being a leader. Recommendations are made based on a wider inclusion of difference and a balance of dialectical tensions in learning