AISHE-J - The All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
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Assessment as a Mediating Artefact for Students in Transition from College to University.
No full textThis paper presents research findings from a longitudinal study of students making the transition from colleges to a Scottish university. Data from interviews with staff and students suggest that although students are offered pre-entry transition support while they study at college, they face challenges, particularly in relation to assessment, when arriving at university. Findings indicate that lecturers who take time to make their requirements explicit and create opportunities for students to understand what is valued by the university provide the key to successful transition. Dialogue about the discipline and learning and teaching approaches benefits all students, and not just those coming from college.
Competence Development and Portfolios: Promoting Reflection through Peer Review.
No full textPortfolios are widely used in higher education to support students' competence development, especially in professional disciplines. A claimed strength is that by actively engaging in portfolio construction, and in reflecting on and assessing their current competences and future development, students will grow as self-regulating professionals. However, researchers argue that students require coaches to support their reflections. Yet coaching is time-consuming, and research shows that it often undermines the very reflective processes that it is meant to help develop. This article investigates peer review as an alternative approach to supporting reflection. Education students identified three competences and justified and evidenced them in a portfolio. They then reviewed the competence claims of peers and received feedback on their own claims from peers. Findings showed that both reviewing and receipt prompted deep reflective thinking as evidenced by changes in the students’ portfolios. The discussion focuses on the value of peer review in promoting reflection, on ways of extending this method, and on its relationship to coaching practices
Why Don’t We Want to Reduce Assessment?
No full textAssessment overload in higher education has received much attention in recent years. Discussions around this topic can relate to both staff and students’ assessment load. However, the term ‘overload’ is complex and contested and the solution to reducing assessment load is not as simple it first seems. There can be a reluctance to reduce assessment. This short conversation piece explores this topic and presents some ongoing actions to address this challenge at national and institutional level
“I can see what you mean”: Encouraging higher education educators to seek support from “outside agencies” to aid their work with visually impaired learners.
No full textThis article seeks to take the positive learning from the challenges faced by students with disabilities engaged in higher education - in particular those who are blind and visually impaired – and use it to shape practice for educators who seek to engage positively in their pedagogies with these very students and their peers. The article begins by citing some of the factors that have influenced the changes in the student demography within education since the turn of the century. The challenges faced by students with disabilities are well researched and the move from add-on supports to a more inclusive approach is afoot. This however now presents challenges to the professional educator and ‘begs’ the question – ‘Do I, as an educator, need to change my practice?’ Such questioning can realign the focus of education and further prompt us to ask ‘Is the learner the only learner in the education relationship?’While the result may be more questions than answers – the authors seek to position the learning so that educators ‘will be able to see’ where to position their professional development now and in the future.This article is not setting out to tell any educator how to do their job better. Rather it is reflecting and combining the experiences of three very different but engaged professionals. Mary Quirke is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Education Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Her primary research interest is professional practice development focusing on student inclusion and engagement in both transition and education. Dr Patricia McCarthy on the other hand brings the personal experience of a registered blind student. Dr McCarthy has also undertaken life-history research with blind and visually impaired people exploring their educational and transition opportunities. Finally Dr Conor Mc Guckin, an Assistant Professor in Educational Psychology at TCD, with special interests in Education, Inclusive Education, Social Media and Professionalism among Educators and allied professionals lends the voice of the professional academic. Dr Mc Guckin states ‘I am the average HE lecturer trying to learn how I can get better at my job ... because, like most HE lecturers, I have no teaching qualification. That is, there is an assumption that because you are a good researcher you can teach’.Each bring their own philosophy in the hope that they can convince others to consider how they engage in teaching practice.
Supporting teaching and learning transformations through the national professional development framework: establishing and recognising an inclusive community of practice for all who teach in Irish higher education
No full textThe National Forum (NF) for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning has recently completed an initial implementation of the National Professional Development Framework (PDF) for all who teach in higher education. Prior to the publication of the PD Framework in 2016, there was no mechanism or route in place nationally to give structure, focus and support to individual staff to avail of relevant professional development and utilise it to realise their full potential in their teaching role. This important work is deepening sectoral understanding of the PDF itself and leading towards national recognition of an individual’s commitment to their professional development across the universities, institutes of technology and private colleges. This article is written as a reflective commentary on this key national initiative in Irish higher education. It outlines the challenge in the development of the framework, that must be relevant in a diversity of institutional contexts and approaches of professional development across the sector. The framework, to be sustainable, required an inherent inclusivity and flexibility that enables all staff who teach, regardless of the context within which they work, to engage with the framework to support their professional development throughout their career. This paper explores other themes that emerged during the development and subsequent implementation of the framework including the personal and professional aspects of development for those who teach; change as a means of individual empowerment; an emergent community of practice supporting implementation, and supporting the emergence of transformations at institutional level
New Audiences and New Educational Stratifications in Brazilian Higher Education in the 21st Century
No full textThis article addresses the contradictions associated with the access of new audiences to higher education in Brazil in the last decade, aiming to describe and characterize the expansion of the system. Advances and limitations can be identified, as there are democratization movements and changes in patterns of persistent inequality. The discussion is based on studies about educational stratification, drawing on a Bourdieusian framework, and uses secondary statistical data on higher education and other Brazilian social indicators, collected by official agencies. The analysis indicates the increase in access to higher education in terms of income and ethnic group, allowing for a broader access to academic cultural capital and labour opportunities. However, it reinforces the argument that inequalities associated with educational stratification still remain in Brazil. The inclusion of these new audiences in Brazilian higher education is marked by categories of differentiation, such as the nature of institutions and funding of higher education, types of degree, teaching modality and shift. With that, despite the advances towards massification and retreat on vertical stratification, the forms of horizontal stratification in Brazilian higher education are increasing
A Critical Evaluation of the Integration of a Blended Learning Approach into a Multimedia Applications Module
No full textThe concept of blended learning is not new. While research articles have outlined blending learning approaches across a number of disciplines, research studies on how blended learning design principles are implemented into existing modules in the discipline of multimedia studies are limited. This research aims to address that gap by critically evaluating the integration of a blended learning approach into a multimedia applications module. The blended approach adopted is a pedagogical one which integrates synchronous online lectures with face-to-face learning in computer laboratories. Objectives of the study include a critical review of the existing literature relating to blended learning and student experiences of blended learning in higher education (HE). A responsive case study is conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating a blended learning approach into a multimedia applications module within GMIT and to evaluate the student learning experience. This study builds on the work of previous scholars including Graham et al., Wang et al. and Tseng & Walsh. The methodology adopted for this study combines constructivism and pragmatism as a basis for a mixed methods design using a single responsive case study. The key areas examined in this study include introduction, literature review, methodology, research findings and analysis, conclusion and recommendations. Overall research findings indicate positive perceptions of the blend adopted in the areas of pedagogical, social and technical design. The results are also positive in relation to perceived differences in modes of delivery. Findings suggest that the optimum blend has been reached in that theory is delivered synchronously online and students also have face-to-face practical classes in laboratories. Results in relation to whether students learn more in the synchronous online lecture than if it was delivered face-to-face are inconclusive. Further research is recommended in this area.