Practical and profound: multi-layered benefits of a university enabling program and implications for higher education

This small-scale study focused on the University of Tasmania’s (UTAS) University Preparation Program (UPP) in Launceston, Tasmania. It set out to identify the benefits of UPP from the perspectives of former UPP students, once they were in a degree. The research approach is qualitative; former UPP students were interviewed one-on-one or in focus groups, and data were analysed thematically. The themes that arose were expected and practical, such as development of academic skills, confidence and connections, and understanding the expectations and demands of the university culture. In addition, some findings were unexpected and profound; former UPP students had taken on leadership roles in their first semester of undergraduate study, and had changed their long-standing attitudes towards, and understandings of, people from cultures different to their own. Enabling programs, such as UPP, have multi-layered benefits, influences and flow-on effects, which students carry into their degrees, benefiting other students and the university, as well as potentially influencing their families, friends, and communities. Such impacts prompt a reconsideration of the meaning of ‘success’ in higher education, and challenge the argument that widening participation risks decreasing course quality and lowering university standards. Furthermore, enabling programs are a transition strategy and social inclusion in practice

Anxiety in children with Williams syndrome : association with negative reactivity, self-regulation, and sensory modulation.

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a submicroscopic deletion of approximately 25 genes on chromosome 7q11.23 (Hillier et al., 2003). This genotype is associated with a characteristic set of phenotypic features including mild to moderate intellectual disability, a distinctive cognitive profile, facial dysmorphology, common personality traits, cardiovascular problems, and connective tissue disorders (Morris, 2010). In addition, behavioral difficulties such as anxiety symptoms (e.g., Leyfer, Woodruff-Borden, & Mervis, 2009), negative reactivity (e.g., Davies, Udwin, & Howlin, 1998), problems with self-regulation (e.g., Woodruff-Borden, Kistler, Henderson, Crawford, & Mervis, 2010), and sensory modulation difficulties (e.g., John & Mervis, 2010) are common. While anxiety as a behavioral concern for individuals with WS is well-documented, little is known about why these individuals are at an increased risk for this type of problem. Several features of the WS behavioral phenotype have been associated with child anxiety in the general population, specifically negative reactivity (e.g., Lonigan, Phillips, & Hooe, 2003), self-regulation problems (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 2001), and sensory modulation difficulties (e.g., Ben-Sasson, Cermak, Orsmond, Tager-Flusberg, Kadlec, & Carter, 2008). The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the relations of negative reactivity (NR), difficulties with self-regulation (SR), and sensory modulation difficulties (SM) to the increased prevalence of anxiety symptoms in children with WS. Study hypotheses are: (1) The shared variance between NR, SR, and SM will be adequately represented by a single underlying ‘behavioral phenotype’ factor. (2) This factor will share a significant relation with anxiety symptoms in children with WS. Participants were 115 children with WS aged 6 – 10 years. Primary caregivers completed four measures: (1) Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (Rothbart, Ahadi, Hershey, & Fisher, 2001). NR was measured using the Negative Affectivity factor score. (2) Short Sensory Profile (McIntosh, Miller, Shyu, & Dunn, 1999). SM was measured using the Total Sensory Modulation score. (3) Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (Gioia, Isquith, Guy, & Kenworthy, 2000). SR was measured using the Behavioral Regulation Index T-score. (4) Child Behavior Checklist 6 – 18 (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001). Anxiety symptoms were measured using the DSM-IV Anxiety Problems T-score. Exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis were conducted to test the study hypotheses. The results supported both hypotheses: The WS behavioral phenotype features of negative reactivity, difficulties with sensory modulation, and difficulties with self-regulation were adequately represented by one underlying factor; and this factor explained a substantial portion of the variance in anxiety symptoms for children with WS aged 6 – 10 years. Implications for future research and treatment of anxiety in children with WS are discussed

An academic’s role? Supporting student wellbeing in pre-university enabling programs

© 2018, University of Wollongong. All rights reserved. Student wellbeing and mental health are increasingly a concern of universities. Most universities provide central counselling services and, in recent years, some have introduced wellbeing programs. However, an unrecognised source of support and pastoral care for students is academic staff. This pilot research project explored the experiences of academic staff in one university’s enabling programs in terms of the type of support academic staff provide (academic and/or non-academic), how equipped they perceive they are to support their students, and how this role impacts on them. The study is qualitative; interviews were conducted and a thematic analysis undertaken. It was found that academic staff viewed supporting their students as part of their role, particularly due to the diverse and complex nature of the cohort, and noted that students sought support from them for academic and non-academic issues because they had a rapport with them, trust and regular contact. A positive finding was that the academic staff had clear boundaries and lines of referral, which means they were not taking on pseudo-counselling roles. How equipped staff perceived they were and how the support role impacted on them varied depending on their teaching role. The findings in this exploratory study prompt a re-conceptualisation of the academic role. The article proposes a model of support that is holistic, student and course centred, and that integrates the centrally-located university counsellors. Furthermore, it posits that at the core of the enabling programs is a philosophy of care

Transitions to tertiary education: Measuring and minimising inequality between private and public school students in a university outreach program

Much of the literature concerned with evaluating public and private schooling focuses upon year 12 examination results. Investigating the transition to university, some studies have compared these results with first-year university marks. Very few researchers, however, have looked beyond students’ marks. This paper examines how “school type” affects student performance, participation, and experience in a university outreach program – SmARTS. SmARTS is run through The University of Western Australia’s (UWA) Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (FAHSS). It engages year 11 students in a six-month research project, facilitated by the use of both e-learning and more traditional face-to-face methods. This paper is based on research that evaluated the 2009, 2010, and 2011 programs. The methods employed include analyses of student completion rates and results, as well as 198 student surveys, ten school coordinator surveys, and three group interviews with tutors. Based on schools’ socio-economic backgrounds, fees, and examination results, we have divided schools into four types: top-tier private, second-tier private, top-tier public, and second-tier public. Our findings suggest that top-tier private and top-tier public school students have the highest levels of participation, the lowest drop-out rates, and gain the highest results in SmARTS, while the opposite is evident for second-tier public school students. We also found, however, that second-tier public school students reported to have gained more generic skills from the program than did other groups. Our findings suggest that analysing examination results provides only a limited picture of how students experience the transition to university. We argue that through research and practice such as ours, inequalities can be more accurately measured, and thus minimised, before students enter university

Exploring the potential of expatriate social networks to reduce HIV and STI transmission: a protocol for a qualitative study

Introduction HIV diagnoses acquired among Australian men working or travelling overseas including Southeast Asia are increasing. This change within transmission dynamics means traditional approaches to prevention need to be considered in new contexts. The significance and role of social networks in mediating sexual risk behaviours may be influential. Greater understanding of expatriate and traveller behaviour is required to understand how local relationships are formed, how individuals enter and are socialised into networks, and how these networks may affect sexual intentions and behaviours. This paper describes the development of a qualitative protocol to investigate how social networks of Australian expatriates and long-term travellers might support interventions to reduce transmission of HIV and sexually transmitted infections. Methods and analysis To explore the interactions of male expatriates and long-term travellers within and between their environments, symbolic interactionism will be the theoretical framework used. Grounded theory methods provide the ability to explain social processes through the development of explanatory theory. The primary data source will be interviews conducted in several rounds in both Australia and Southeast Asia. Purposive and theoretical sampling will be used to access participants whose data can provide depth and individual meaning. Ethics and dissemination The role of expatriate and long-term traveller networks and their potential to impact health are uncertain. This study seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the Australian expatriate culture, behavioural contexts and experiences within social networks in Southeast Asia. This research will provide tangible recommendations for policy and practice as the findings will be disseminated to health professionals and other stakeholders, academics and the community via local research and evaluation networks, conference presentations and online forums. The Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee has granted approval for this research

Are we all on course? A curriculum mapping comparison of three australian university open-access enabling programs.

© 2019, Adult Learning Australia Inc. All rights reserved. The curricula in higher education not only provides guidance and direction for students, but aligns with industry standards to safeguard quality offerings in specific programs. While there has been increasing focus on the importance of the curriculum particularly for first year university students, very little is known about the curriculum and design principles that exist in open-access enabling programs in Australia. In the following paper, a comprehensive examination of the curriculum of three large open-access enabling programs is presented. The research team explored the curriculum design via a rigorous mapping exercise to establish potential principles to guide enabling curriculum design. In developing the curriculum-mapping tool for this research project, it became apparent that limited attention has been given to enabling curriculum design in the academic literature. Given increasing attention towards Australian enabling education, the findings of this study emphasise the importance of clarity between the intended and the enacted curriculum, such as in unit learning outcomes and program attributes

Strategies Leaders in the Retail Industry Use to Increase Employee Engagement

Lack of employee engagement increases expenses for organizational leaders. Retail leaders struggle with identifying successful engagement strategies to achieve performance outcomes. Grounded by the motivation-hygiene theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies retail leaders used to increase employee engagement. The participants comprised 5 retail leaders in South Florida who experienced an increase in employee engagement. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and documents that included publicly posted annual reports and strategic plans. The three themes that emerged using thematic analysis were employee incentives, effective communication, and affirmation from leaders. A key recommendation for business leaders is to conduct stakeholder listening sessions to receive feedback that could resolve concerns, increase morale, and guide change initiatives. The implications for social change include the potential for leaders of thriving companies to support local community projects that benefit the citizens of surrounding communities

Extreme Precipitation in the Eastern Canadian Arctic and Greenland: An Evaluation of Atmospheric Reanalyses

Extreme precipitation events are becoming more common in the Arctic as the climate warms, but characterizing these events is notoriously challenging. Atmospheric reanalyses have become popular tools for climate studies in data-sparse regions such as the Arctic. While modern reanalyses have been shown to perform reasonably well at reproducing Arctic climate, their ability to represent extreme precipitation events has not been investigated in depth. In this study, three of the most recent reanalyses, ERA-5, MERRA-2, and CFSR, are compared to surface precipitation observations in the Eastern Canadian Arctic and Greenland from 1980 to 2016 to assess how well they represent the most intense observed events. Overall, the reanalyses struggled to match observed accumulations from individual events (−0.11 ≤ r ≤ 0.47) but matched the observed seasonality of precipitation extremes. The region with the strongest match between observations and reanalyses was Southwest Greenland. Performance varies by event, and the best match between reanalyses and station observations may have a spatial/temporal offset (up to one grid cell or 1 day). The three products saw similar performance in general; however, ERA-5 tends to see slightly higher correlations and lower biases than MERRA-2 or CFSR. Considering the limitations of in situ observations, these results suggest that the reanalyses are capable of representing aggregate extreme precipitation (e.g., seasonal or annual time scales), but struggle to consistently match the timing and location of specific observed events

I probably have a closer relationship with my internet provider: Experiences of belonging (or not) among mature-aged regional and remote university students

While fostering a sense of belonging among university students is an objective of many universities, the landscape of belonging is complex and multifaceted. It is worthy of deeper interrogation, particularly for “non-traditional” students. This article draws on data from a national mixed-methods study that explored proactive ways of supporting the mental wellbeing of mature-aged students in regional and remote Australia. One of the overarching findings was students feeling invisible, misunderstood and undervalued. While this theme was relevant for many participants, it was also the case that other participants reported feeling visible, known and a sense of belonging. These inconsistencies prompted us to conduct further analyses of the quantitative and qualitative data, which were collected from a cross-sectional online survey of 1,879 mature-aged undergraduate students in regional and remote Australia and 51 interviews. We employed Yuval-Davis’s analytical framework for the study of belonging. In the quantitative analyses, several variables were found to have a significant association with inclusion/connection/belonging. They included: study mode; socio-economic status; having a diagnosed mental health condition; and supports. In the qualitative analysis, we explored students’ experiences in greater depth to gain insights into why some students experience belonging and others do not. Connections and relationships with university staff; familiarity with university systems and places; and feeling included and “part of” a subject/course/campus manifested in students feeling understood, known and a sense of belonging. Due to certain entrenched institutional approaches, in many cases, students’ experiences fell short of the supportive and caring learning communities that pedagogical approaches advocate