Deakin University: openjournals@Deakin
Not a member yet
1277 research outputs found
Sort by
Developing allied health collaborative practice capability for contemporary healthcare landscapes: serendipitous and deliberate
Full text linkCollaboration is key for success across multiple industries, including healthcare settings. In order to prepare students for contemporary and future healthcare landscapes, there is scope for higher education to embrace development of a range of capabilities for collaboration, including those that might be less visible and hard to measure. Using practice theories as a lens, this research explored collaboration in healthcare landscapes as ‘collaborative practice.’ Our research focussed on the preparation of allied health students for collaborative practice. As key contributors to collaborative models of healthcare, allied health professionals comprise a wide range of health professions, come from diverse origins and have a relatively flat hierarchical structure. This qualitative research informed by philosophical hermeneutics explored perceptions of allied health academics and students as people deeply entrenched in higher education and its role in enhancing employability. Our research found that capabilities for allied health collaborative practice are currently being deliberately and serendipitously developed. Deliberate development occurred across teaching strategies of case and problem-based learning and simulation-based scenarios. Serendipitous development largely occurred as part of work integrated learning (WIL). Use of practice theories highlighted how capabilities for collaborative practice, including the less-visible capabilities, can be more intentionally developed in allied health higher education. Educators and WIL supervisors are invited to reflect on their own practice and the roles they play in intentionally developing these capabilities with and for students. Further, including capabilities for collaborative practice as part of allied health registration and practice thresholds may help bring them into focus
The move to micro-credentials exposes the deficiencies of existing credentials: Provocation
No full textThe rush to short courses and use of micro-credentials prompted by responses to the pandemic has greatly accelerated a trend already underway. However, few studies have examined the impact of short courses or micro-credentials on skills or employment outcomes, and this hasty move draws attention to major problems in the ways in which higher education credentials - macro and micro -are designed and assessed
Languages and cultures in the regions: A tribute to Ruth Nicholls (1947-2024)
Full text linkMultilingual and multicultural Australia is typically represented in urban settings. This representation is challenged by half a century of languages and multicultural teaching and research originating in Armidale in the New England region of NSW. From the 1970s to the present, educational institutions in Armidale have been leaders in the multicultural, TESOL and languages education fields, a tradition recorded in a manuscript prepared by Ruth Nicholls (1947-2024), a lecturer in TESOL and Languages at the Armidale College of Advanced Education (ACAE) and at the University of New England (UNE) from the early 1970s until her retirement in 2013. This manuscript, which accompanies a carefully documented archive, records innovation in applied linguistics, TESOL, languages and cultures education over decades, as well as productive collaboration between Armidale-based specialists working in these fields. This paper draws on Ruth’s manuscript (Nicholls, ca. 2014) to trace TESOL, languages and cultures education and research in the New England region, extending the account up to the present and into regions beyond the New England.
The Disruptive Potential of Magic: Economic Worldbuilding and Critical Consciousness in Young Adult Fantasy Fiction
Full text linkFantasy realms are often sites of economic prosperity. Magic cultivates abundance by severing the explicit relationship between labour and capital, imbuing these fictional spaces with a disruptive potential that can be used to critique existing economic orders. This paper examines how economic worldbuilding in young adult fantasy texts enables the conscientisation of young readers. Guided by Paulo Freire’s concept of conscientização or critical consciousness, a comparative analysis of the Harry Potter (Rowling 1997-2007) and Scholomance (Novik 2020-2022) series exposes how magical economies can replicate or disrupt inequality. This article argues that, as the cost-of-living crisis continues and global financial systems become increasingly uncertain, it is pertinent to understand how young people are discouraged or empowered to critique economic ideologies in fictional spaces.
Does Google Translate enhance English writing skills? A mixed methods study of essay quantity and quality in Vietnamese higher education
Full text linkThis study examines the impact of Google Translate (GT) on the quantity and quality of essays written by Vietnamese students in academic settings. As GT use becomes increasingly common among L2 writers, its role in English essay tasks warrants closer investigation. Using a mixed methods design, 30 English majors from a public university in Southern Vietnam wrote two timed essays (250 words), one with GT assistance and one without, using a shared prompt unrelated to regular coursework. The writing processes were recorded using screen-recording technology, and follow-up interviews were conducted to explore student attitudes towards the use of Google Translate in essay writing and the factors influencing their utilization of the tool. A paired-samples t-test showed no statistically significant difference between the two essays in terms of word count or error frequency. Qualitative data revealed diverse attitudes towards the GT use, shaped by enactive mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological or affective states. These findings contribute to our understanding of the impact and students’ perceptions of using Google Translate in the writing process
Acknowledgement of Country
Full text linkThis includes the front cover of the edition, Acknowledgement of Country, ACTA Statement, and TESOL in Context editorial team details for the current issue 2025 Volume 34 Number 01 General Issue
Pedagogical translanguaging as "troublesome knowledge" in teacher education
Full text linkThis paper reports on the shifts in understanding experienced by participants in a postgraduate initial teacher education course designed around pedagogical translanguaging as a core theoretical and pedagogical concept. Throughout the semester-long unit, teacher education students engaged with culturally and linguistically responsive teaching approaches by reflecting upon and shifting their understandings of how plurilingual students’ home languages can be celebrated and included in classroom teaching, even when English remains the medium of instruction. However, adopting pedagogical translanguaging as a concept and practice was not without its challenges, with both monolingual and plurilingual teacher education students having to confront and overcome deep-seated beliefs that “English-only is best”.
Using a grounded approach to analyse teacher education students’ written reflections and transcripts from semi-structured interviews, our research found that learning about pedagogical translanguaging presented teacher education students with what Meyer and Land (2003) refer to as a threshold concept, which opened up new and previously inaccessible ways of thinking about linguistic diversity. Our teacher education students faced challenges in redefining their positions as they encountered counterintuitive beliefs about language and teaching, alongside the necessity to reevaluate their own language identities. Our analysis reveals that pedagogical translanguaging represents troublesome knowledge for these students, often leading them into an uncomfortable liminal space, with the practical application being the most troublesome hurdle
Microcredential learners need quality careers and employability support: Provocation
No full textProviders, industry, and governments have embraced microcredentialing as a solution to the volatility and velocity of changes in labour markets, workplace competencies, and the needs of the 21st century lifelong learner (Oliver, 2019). However, microcredentials do not, in and of themselves, guarantee career or employment success. Seeking a microcredential is one adaptive career behaviour that people might enact in pursuit of their career goals (Lent & Brown, 2013). Similarly, holding a microcredential is one form of employability capital that people might highlight when seeking employment (Tomlinson & Anderson, 2020)
From uncertainty to clarity: A career plan task empowering first-year university students
Full text linkThis study explored the development and implementation of a Career Plan assessment task within an undergraduate degree. The task was designed to support first-year university students in exploring and positively developing their professional identity and confidence in achieving their career goals. Embedded within the curriculum, the assessment required students to complete five structured steps: Source, Analyse, Identify, Develop and Reflect. Through these steps, students identified, explored and demonstrated their self- and career-opportunity awareness, recognised and developed their employability skills and career aspirations, and clarified their sense of purpose for their future career direction. Evaluation of this task highlighted its positive impact on students, revealing growth in their confidence and professional identity. The structured nature of the task provided a clear framework for career planning, equipping students with practical skills and fostering a deeper understanding of their career aspirations. Overall, the findings demonstrate that this career planning intervention was both effective and highly valued by students, supporting their vocational development and career readiness during their transition into university life