Exploring student engagement for Generation Y: a pilot in Environmental Economics

This paper reports on a pilot study involving the redesign of a third year Economics subject according to principles of engagement as they relate to the discursive Generation y student. The study involved a review of the literature, redesign of the subject to a blended learning format and evaluation of the design. The data collected included pre and post NSSE scores, subject grades, student surveys and qualitative feedback from individual students. While the redesign of the subject was constrained by available resources, and the implementation hindered by various systemic factors, it was found that in general the redesign did improve student engagement. In particular, it was found that the success of the scaffolded assessment tasks and the use of in-class activities as a means of revising for exams was significant. One issue that continues to perplex is the students’ mixed attitudes to attending lectures. Perhaps most importantly, the study indicates that by third year where traditional modes of teaching have characterised their curriculum, students have developed surface approaches to learning that cannot be corrected through individual third year courses.student engagement, elearning, generation y

Editorial: Social inclusion--are we there yet?

This special edition of the Journal of Academic Language and Learning arose out of a Forum titled Critical Discussions about Social Inclusion held at the University of Wollongong, Australia in June 2011. It was organised by academic language and learning educators from five different universities: Ingrid Wijeyewardene from the University of New England, Helen Drury from the University of Sydney, Caroline San Miguel from the University of Technology Sydney, Stephen Milnes from the Australian National University, and ourselves from the University of Wollongong. Initially funded by a grant from the Association for Academic Language and Learning, this funding was later supplemented by the University of Wollongong and the Forum became designated as a strategic priority

Learning advising practice and reform: a perspective from the University of Wollongong, Australia

The claim made in this paper is that higher education reform and learning advising practice are not simply part of a natural progression; rather, they are discursively constituted. To illustrate this argument we draw on the work of Michel Foucault to reflect on two iterations of learning advising practice in Learning Development at the University of Wollongong, Australia over the last decade. Our discussion will demonstrate how a multiplicity of discourses underpin educational reform and privilege particular learning advising practices in the Australian higher education context

Creating partnerships in suporting student learning: A paradigm shift in student learning support

The main focus of this paper is the creation of partnerships between learning development academics and curricula, faculty staff and the institution that seek to ensure students achieve at their potential. These partnerships are part of a paradigm shift in learning support that has replaced a remedial philosophy with a developmental philosophy. The paper also focuses on the value of these partnerships to curricula, discipline academics, faculties and the institution as well as to students. It highlights three issues: the creation of partnerships to ensure student learning; the benefits of these partnerships to learning across an institution; the benefits of these partnerships to teaching across an institution. Evaluation of the model and its partnerships has shown that: staff acquire a level of explanatory power about tertiary writing that allows them to rethink curriculum development and teach and assess skills as well as content; rich, inclusive curricula are produced that allow students to acquire skills quickly during the course of a semester; instruction can be integrated into core curricula across 3 or 4 year degree programs to ensure that degree programs produce quality graduates and that students progressively acquire the skills needed for success in the discipline; faculties can more easily teach and assess generic and professional skills within such a model; greater levels of student development in required skills are achieved than in a regular curriculum; significant development in generic and discipline-specific skills is achieved across the whole cohort of students within a subject; the institution is provided with an avenue for the development of both teaching and learning

Pedagogies of belonging in an anxious world: A collaborative autoethnography of four practitioners

The concept of belonging has found prominence in higher education learning environments, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an unprecedented impact on educational provision. In times of disruption, alienation and isolation, the most basic of our psychological and physiological needs have come to be almost universally recognised as critical factors that must be considered and examined. Experiencing belonging is integral to human existence, and knowing where, with whom, and how we belong, is a salient driver for learning and self-actualisation. We recognise there are a number of ways to frame and approach the idea of belonging in the educational experience. We also recognise that there are multiple understandings of what belonging means and therefore how it is enacted within the curricula and the “classroom” in its varying forms - physical, online, digital, work-based. This Editorial takes a critical perspective to our own intellectual standpoint in relation to pedagogies of belonging. As co-editors, we have outlined our respective conceptions and experiences of belonging as a collaborative autoethnography, capturing our individual views of pedagogies of belonging in a collaborative context. Our collaboration has allowed us to situate ourselves both theoretically and practically, as well as ontologically, and advance our understanding of practices that promote student belonging in all its possible forms within the higher education experience. We suggest that the possibilities for belonging offered by interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches are ripe for inquiry, and the place of non-traditional, Indigenous, iterative and emergent methodologies to examine belonging requires further exploration