scholarly journals Editorial - Becoming Well Read: Charting the complexities of academic reading and navigating the reading journeys of undergraduate and postgraduate students

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 2-6
Author(s):  
Angela Rhead ◽  
◽  
Christopher Little ◽  

Welcome to this special issue dedicated to the development of academic reading practices in higher education. We are particularly pleased to introduce this issue as it highlights a significant yet overlooked aspect of academic literacies. Emerging from our introduction of Academic Reading Retreats (Rhead 2019) and a UK-based ‘Becoming Well Read’ symposium in 2019, we seek, therefore, to shine a light on this area of academic practice with the curation of this collection of articles, which explore the learning and teaching of academic reading in more depth.

Author(s):  
Chrissi Nerantzi ◽  
Craig Scott Despard

In this paper we describe the use of LEGO® models within assessment of the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) offered at the University of Salford. Within the context of the PGCAP, we model innovative and contextualised assessment strategies for and of learning. We challenge our students, who are teachers in higher education (HE), to think and rethink the assessment they are using with their own students. We help them develop a deeper understanding and experience of good assessment and feedback practice in a wider context while they are assessed as students on the PGCAP. We report on an evaluation of how the LEGO® model activity was used with a cohort of students in the context of the professional discussion assessment. We share the impact it had on reflection and the assessment experience and make recommendations for good practice.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Lisa Garforth ◽  
Anselma Gallinat

This introduction sets the theoretical and historical context for this special issue on student engagement. Drawing on literatures about audit culture, governance and change in higher education institutions, and theories of practice, institutions and organisation, it sheds light on the current era of English higher education. The Browne Review led to the withdrawal in 2010 of the majority of the government teaching grant for English universities, and it tripled tuition fees in 2012. In the post-Browne era, ‘engagement’ emerged as an organising concept linked in multiple ways to other objects and discourses, in particular university league tables and measures of student satisfaction; and it was swiftly and often unreflexively translated into visions for developing learning and teaching. This special issue focuses on this specific shift in policy and discourse, exploring institutional change and everyday experience, and reflecting on the power and limits of policies.


Seminar.net ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Bligh ◽  
Rolf Wiesemes ◽  
Roger Murphy

Higher education throughout the world is undergoing various processes of change, pressurised by demands to provide education for greater numbers of students and to do so using a variety of models of increasing number and diversity. Among these changes, the use of new technologies to support learning is attracting significant amounts of attention as university teachers and students seek to make the best use of the opportunities which they provide to both modernise learning methods and make learning and teaching more effective.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-49
Author(s):  
Sally Baker ◽  
◽  
Caitlin Field ◽  
Jung-Sook Lee ◽  
Nicole Saintilan ◽  
...  

While embedding Academic Language and Literacies (ALL) instruction in discipline-specific courses is known to be effective, it is difficult to enact across the siloed university. Moreover, the move to online/ remote delivery during COVID-19 has necessitated greater focus on the development of online supports. This article reports on an effort to embed digital ALL support in a mandatory social research methods course, which we argue is particularly suited to academic literacies instruction. A series of digital videos were created to complement a literature review assignment, and were evaluated using video analytics, end-of-course student surveys, and individual interviews with tutors. Quantitative analysis of viewing patterns demonstrated that the majority of students accessed the videos multiple times, while qualitative data suggest that students generally had positive responses to the videos. However, thematic analysis of interviews with tutors showed that while they considered the content helpful, they also had reservations about the length and use of the videos. These findings clearly demonstrate the extent of the unmet need to integrate these types of approaches into undergraduate courses. We also argue that if universities wish to maintain currency in a shifting, globalised world, they must do more to foster the types of collaborative partnerships that facilitate effective ALL instruction in undergraduate coursework. These findings carry particular relevance for teaching and learning literacies in the wake of COVID-19, because digital video has become even more integral to higher education.


Author(s):  
Chrissi Nerantzi

This case study relates to a mixed-reality game that has been developed and used by the author in the area of Academic Development and specifically within the Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (LTHE) module of the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP). The game aims to provide a highly immersive learning experience to the players and opportunities to enhance their teaching in more creative ways as a result of their engagement and participation. The author shares details about this mixed-reality game and the pedagogical rationale on which it is based with other practitioners. The following also explores how this approach could be adapted and used in different learning and teaching contexts to transform learning in Higher Education into a more playful and creative experience which has potentially the power to motivate and connect individuals and teams combining physical and virtual spaces.


Author(s):  
Jenny Mackness ◽  
Marion Waite ◽  
George Roberts ◽  
Elizabeth Lovegrove

<p>Despite the increase in massive open online courses (MOOCs), evidence about the pedagogy of learning in MOOCs remains limited. This paper reports on an investigation into the pedagogy in one MOOC - Oxford Brookes University’s ‘First Steps in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education’ MOOC (FSLT12).</p><p>FSLT12 was an open and free professional development opportunity for people moving into HE teaching. It was a small course (200 participants registered from 24 countries) which was focused on introducing HE teaching skills, and, uniquely, to deliberately integrate open academic practice as a vital part of professional development for HE teachers. A qualitative, case-study approach was used in the research, based on surveys, interviews, and social media, to provide evidence about how people learned in this course and consider wider implications for teaching and learning in higher education.</p><p>The evidence shows that participants who completed the course were able to learn autonomously and navigate the distributed platforms and environments. The most challenging issues were acceptance of open academic practice and difficulty in establishing an academic identity in an unpredictable virtual environment. An interesting and significant feature of the course was the support for learners from a number of MOOC ‘veterans’ who served as role models and guides for less experienced MOOC learners.</p><p>The research shows that small task-oriented MOOCs can effectively support professional development of open academic practice.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Crawford ◽  
◽  
Martin Andrew ◽  
Jurgen Rudolph ◽  
Karima Lalani ◽  
...  

The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) that began in the late part of 2019 in Wuhan, China has created significant challenges for higher education. Since the inception of COVID-19 research and practice in the higher education discipline, there has continued to be a focus on exploring its effects in localised contexts. The place-based context, while useful in enhancing individual practice, limits the potential to examine the pandemic from a broader lens. There are for many of us, shared examples of good practice that can serve to collectively improve the higher education sector during and beyond the pandemic. This Special Issue came about as an effort to reinvigorate collaboration across jurisdictional boundaries in a discipline environment characterised by exponential growth in local case studies. This Editorial explores the role that we can play in supporting collaboration among researchers as both a process and end-product to support innovation in the university learning and teaching domain. We believe this Special Issue provides a curated cornerstone for the future of COVID-19 in higher education research. This work, contributed from each corner of the globe seeks to understand not just what is occurring now, but what might occur in the future. We find inspiration in the manuscripts within this Special Issue as they provide innovative responses to the pandemic and opportunities for us to collectively grow to better support academics, students, employers, and communities. We hope you find benefit in progressing through this knowledge dissemination project.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 54-61
Author(s):  
Anne A. Aseey ◽  
Agnes Anyango Andollo

Abstract The Fourth Industrial requires new concepts and skills to be acquired by learners at various levels. This has led to a new breed of learners joining our education institutions at various levels with prerequisite knowledge on technology which can be harnessed for learning and teaching purposes. This scenario has generated a lot of interest and more research on how first the process of knowledge acquisition is changing. There is excited attention among researchers, educators, education commentators and stakeholders on this aspect of learning. The new generations of techno savvy leaners joining institutions are a challenge to the old pedagogy of teaching. These young generations are creating a digital gap between the old ways of teaching and learning to new approaches in education. The nature of the generation change needs to bring some reforms in education especially in higher education in Kenya where electronic mobile devices penetration has escalated for the last ten years. This research paper, highlights issues around use of electronic mobile devices for knowledge acquisition purposes which if well utilized can aid the education systems in most African Countries in terms of access, affordability, ease of use and leaners wide interaction and independent study. The old pedagogy of the teacher being the absolute source of information is being transformed by the use of an array of emerging devices like Smartphone, ipads, laptops and others which are readily available to the leaner’s. The study was carried out among undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Nairobi, Kenya between 2016 to 2018.The researchers found out that, electronic mobile devices are with the students for ease of use. The study also found out that, some of leaners in higher institutions of learning are not well informed on how to utilize the mobile devices for learning purposes hence most of the time they are used for other purposes not related to learning. In general, most countries in Africa have tried to invest on internet connectivity, ICT Infrastructure, capacity building among others structure which can also be leveraged for Education needs.


Author(s):  
Anna Eva Magyar

In many Higher Education courses in the UK the ability to write extended academic prose is central to assessment and therefore to student success. One aspect of academic writing which students struggle with is incorporating the work and ideas of others, using appropriate attribution conventions. This can lead them to fall foul of  institutions’ plagiarism policies. Advice on plagiarism often consists of discussions around what is or is not plagiaristic behaviour while advice on attribution has tended to focus on referencing. This paper explores what an academic literacies approach to plagiarism might look like. It discusses and illustrates how an academic literacies approach was used in the design, analysis and application of a small-scale ethnographic research which set out to explore international postgraduate students' understandings of and questions about plagiarism across the disciplines in one UK university. The intention of the research was to use the findings in developing more culturally and context sensitive explanations of our attribution practices.    


2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-3
Author(s):  
Geraldine E. Lefoe ◽  
◽  
D. Boud ◽  

We welcome you to the first edition of JUTLP for 2008. This special edition is focussed on meeting the needs of practice through an examination of changes in assessment at the institutional, faculty, course and subject level. The Special Edition was prompted by a roundtable 'Assessing student learning: Using interdisciplinary synergies to develop good teaching and assessment practice' in Sydney on Tuesday 6th September, 2007 sponsored by the Carrick Institute (now renamed the Australian Learning and Teaching Council). The forum hosted 45 people from around Australia and New Zealand to discuss strategies for improving assessment in the higher education sector. Participants, and those who expressed an interest in the Forum, were invited to develop papers and submit them for consideration in this special issue.


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