Exploring tutors’ conceptions of excellent tutoring

With high numbers of new casual tutors in the Faculty of Economics and Business each semester, a program that addresses tutors’ preparation for teaching is essential. The tutor development program described here is underpinned by a ‘communities of practice’ model (Wenger 2000), where tutors engage in activities in order to share and develop their experiences of teaching. This paper discusses one such activity that was used in the early stages of the program to support the development of a shared repertoire about excellent tutoring. Tutors individually identified the characteristics of excellent tutoring and these were then grouped and discussed. The categories of comments addressed many of the recognised principles of excellent teaching, with student-centred aspects at the fore. The exploratory exercise highlights the importance of informal knowledge, and the role of reflective exercises in bringing forth that knowledge

Students as co-inquirers in Australian higher education: Opportunities and challenges

While the model of students and staff working in partnership to enhance university education is well-established internationally, it is still an emerging field in Australia where most of such initiatives involve only small numbers of students. This paper examines the opportunities and challenges for students-as-co-inquirers initiatives in Australia. Drawing on a review of the literature, a consideration of theory, and discussions with colleagues, I propose ways in which students as co-inquirers practice and research might move forward, both in Australia and globally

Looking for Professor Right: mentee selection of mentors in a formal mentoring program

Finding a suitable mentor is crucial to the success of mentoring relationships. In the mentoring literature, however, there is conflicting evidence about the best ways to support the pairing process in organisational mentoring programs. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the pairing process in an academic mentoring program that has implications for building a mentoring culture in higher education. The program which began with a pilot and has continued for five years with one hundred and twenty one participants, was conducted with mentees selecting their own mentor from a pool of mentors who volunteered to be part of the program. In the pilot program, where mentors and mentees first met as one group, some mentees reported that the process of selecting and approaching a mentor was uncomfortable and intimidating. Nine of twenty-three potential mentees did not form mentoring relationships. Analysis of subsequent program evaluation data pointed to the importance of two factors in the pairing process: personal connections and facilitation of the selection process. This study at a research-intensive university demonstrates that when the pairing process is tailored to individual mentees, they are comfortable selecting a mentor and to then develop a successful mentoring relationship

The benefits of peer observation of teaching for tutor development

Peer observation partnerships can help teachers improve their teaching practice, transform their educational perspectives and develop collegiality (Bell 2005). This paper describes the peer observation model used in the tutor development program in the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Sydney, and reports on the effectiveness of this exercise using quantitative and qualitative data from five sources. Results from 32 peer observations reveal both the common strengths and the areas in which tutors need to develop their teaching practice. Ninety four percent of participants found the exercise valuable and 88% said that they would change their teaching as a result of the exercise. This model can be applied in academic development programs in any discipline and suggestions for augmentation and improvement are provided

How tutors understand and engage with reflective practices

Interviews with six tutors revealed the ways in which they thought about reflection, and what forms of reflective practice were part of their teaching. The tutors saw a variety of benefits of reflection, including improving their teaching. There was a focus on reflecting before and after teaching, but few examples of reflection while teaching. Reflection was triggered by negative events and by positive feedback. Reflection on teaching was mainly an individual process; however some tutors engaged in proximal, informal discussions about their teaching. Implications for practice, such as how to support reflection-in-action, are considered

Supporting the reflective practice of tutors: what do tutors reflect on?

Effective self-reflection is a key component of excellent teaching. We describe the types of self-reflection identified in tutors’ reflective statements following a peer observation of teaching exercise. We used an adapted version of the categories developed by Grushka et al. (2005) to code text from 20 written statements as technical (26% of comments), practical (36% of comments) and critical (33% of comments). Tutors also wrote about the affective aspects of the exercise and the majority of such comments were positive. Most tutors reflected in a holistic way about their teaching, noting the importance of getting the technical aspects right while also being concerned about pedagogical matters and issues beyond the classroom. The exercise was an effective way to prompt tutors to reflect on their teaching and helped tutors articulate and formalise their learning from the peer observation activity. Suggestions for further exploration of the reflective practice of tutors are provided

Referencing as evidence of student scholarliness and academic readiness

This exploratory study investigates the student experience of referencing a law essay in a first-year undergraduate business degree. Over two hundred students took part in the study which identifies qualitatively different ways of thinking about, and approaching, referencing in essay. Variations in the student experience of referencing are logically and positively related to academic achievement. The study provides a rich description of the variations which have implications for teachers who seek to improve how teachers teach, and how students understand, the importance of referencing as evidence of the scholarly nature of student learning

A critical evaluation of the usefulness of a coding scheme to categorise levels of reflective thinking

The use of reflective learning journals to encourage higher order learning outcomes is a growing area in higher education research and practice. However, without a unified and clear definition of reflection, identifying and assessing reflection is problematic for educators. In an attempt to address this issue Kember et al. (1999) devised a coding scheme based on the work of Mezirow (1991), to identify and assess levels of reflective thinking in students’ written journals. We evaluated the usefulness of this coding scheme in a business education context. Findings revealed that the scheme was useful in identifying categories of reflective thinking. Initial inter-coder agreement ranged from 50-79%. On average, 65% of the journal content was coded as non-reflection and 35% as reflection. A further outcome of the research was to refine the coding scheme and to provide suggestions for its application in teaching practice

Revisiting Brown Versus Board of Education: Differences in School Context and the influence of Racial Attitudes on Academic Attainment and Civic Engagement among Black Americans across the Lifespan

Since Brown versus the Board of Education 60 years ago, educators and social and behavioral scientists have tried to identify factors related to better achievement for Black Americans. Since the desegregation of schools in the U.S., Black American students have reported lower grade point averages, standardized test scores, and graduation rates (Allen, 1992). Previous research has investigated school context and climate as well as the influence of racial attitudes on academic achievement. Findings suggest that positive student perceptions of school climate and context (e.g., pride, social support, relationships with a teacher, access to resources) were related to better academic outcomes (Hurley & Lustbader, 1997). However, the research on the influence of racial attitudes have been inconclusive (Chavous et al., 2003; Fordham & Ogbu 1986). Thus, the purpose of this study is two-fold. First, to explore whether racial attitudes were related to academic attainment and civic engagement, and second, to examine whether there are differences in perceptions in school pride and school climate for students in historically black high schools and historically white high schools. To assess the aforementioned research questions, thirty-three Black American high school graduates from a historically white high school and eighty-two Black Americans from historically black high schools were sampled. Spearman Rho correlations and Independent sample T-tests were run to assess the relationship between the following. 1) Racial attitudes, educational attainment, and civic engagement. 2) Differences in perceptions of school climate for Blacks at historically White and Black high schools. Findings reveal statistically significant associations between racial attitudes and educational attainment as well as civic engagement. Moreover, differences were also found in perceptions of climate across school types. Given these results, further research is needed to explore the influence of students’ perception of their school experience and racial attitudes upon educational and life outcomes

In Conversation Together: Student Ambassadors for Cultural Competence

Amani and Tai: We’re academic developers interested in working in partnership with students. In 2014, we trialled partnership through working with six Student Ambassadors as part of the Sydney Teaching Colloquium. The Colloquium is the university’s annual teaching conference and usually draws around 300 participants, mainly academics, to discuss teaching and curriculum practices. The theme of the 2014 Colloquium was ‘Is our assessment up to standard?’ The Student Ambassadors: • developed a social media campaign to engage the Sydney student community in the Colloquium; • designed a session on assessment to present at the Colloquium; • devised and executed a Colloquium evaluation strategy; • curated and developed resources; and • contributed to the planning and writing of a co-authored journal publication (Peseta et al., 2016). The experiences and outcomes from the trial gave us courage to try again and so the following year, we engaged another six Student Ambassadors for the 2015 Colloquium. This time the theme was ‘Cultural competence is everyone’s business,’ which linked with the university’s new strategic focus on cultural competence (The University of Sydney Strategic Plan, 2016-2020). We followed the 2014 model described in Peseta et al. (2016), where students were selected via an expression of interest and interview process. We were mainly looking for undergraduate students interested in learning about cultural competence (CC), who could see the relevance of CC to students’ experiences of university more broadly and had creative ideas about how to do it, and who wanted to develop their knowledge of university CC initiatives. The students were paid for their time spent as an ambassador, which involved approximately 40 hours of face-to-face meetings, preparation, participation in the Colloquium, and a post-Colloquium focus group over 3-4 months