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Student parents and carers need graduate employability support: Recommendations for employability practitioners
Full text linkUniversities and their employability-related staff must address the inequities that claim diversity as a disadvantage and a barrier to securing work integrated learning and graduate employment. With increases in equity groups enrolling at university there is a need to ensure access to employability opportunities. Graduate employability should be an accolade for students however it is not accessible, and ubiquitous for all. Student parents and carers are an invisible cohort that needs to be identified, and supported with their employability as they are a significantly growing population in higher education. This provocation will present the current landscape at university and offer three recommendations: the integration of career development learning and work experiences; data-informed systems and procedures; and collaboration and research into ‘employability for inclusion.’ This is required to build staff capability and organisational capacity and prepare our future workforce that is representative of today’s society
Inclusion in the learning game: Applying considerations from cognitive neuroscience, educational psychology, and SLA to language learning activity and materials design
Full text linkConsidering the need for pedagogically effective learning activities and materials to support language learning, particularly within teacher-led instruction, it is curious that at present there is no overarching, research-based framework available to educators to draw from when designing and implementing such activities and materials. To address this gap, the authors of this paper have drawn from a host of relevant research pertaining to cognitive neuroscience, educational psychology, and second language acquisition to establish a framework for designing and implementing activities and learning materials capable of facilitating enhanced language learning outcomes within an inclusive classroom. Incorporating ten key considerations – attention and focus, desirable difficulty, depth of processing, deliberate practice, novelty and surprise, wakeful rest, visible learning, meaningful feedback, affective engagement, and strategic choice and use – this versatile framework not only provides teachers with necessary knowledge for designing language learning activities and materials in an engaging and efficacious manner but may also embolden them to do so
Editorial: TESOL in Context: Bridging theory and practice for inclusive education
Full text linkAs the global landscape of education continues to evolve, so too does our understanding of what it means to teach English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). The diverse array of five research articles and two book reviews presented in this edition of TESOL in Context, sheds light on the multifaceted nature of language education, offering fresh perspectives and innovative approaches that are essential for fostering inclusive and effective learning environments
Industry Perspectives on Project-Based Learning as a Form of Work-Integrated Learning in Science
Full text linkGrowing concerns about the employability of science graduates has led most Australian higher education providers to incorporate work-integrated learning (WIL) into their science curricula. Project-based learning (PjBL) is a student-centred approach to learning that focuses on the application of discipline specific skills and knowledge in real-world contexts. While a large body of research exists exploring PjBL frameworks and theories related to student experience, research into industry perspectives and viewpoints is limited. This study aimed to determine the views of industry professionals on PjBL as a form of WIL, and to ascertain whether industry professionals consider PjBL effective for the development of desirable graduate skills. The perspectives of industry partners were canvased through a mixed-methods approach comprising surveys and interviews. Participants (n=18) were asked to indicate their opinions regarding development of graduate skills through PjBL generally and in relation to two authentic examples of PjBL in WIL. The results of this study indicate that industry partners preferred longer-term, workplace-integrated industry projects for developing graduate skills and preparing graduates for the workforce. Industry partners interviewed generally exhibited positive views of PjBL, identifying students’ attitudes and communication skills as beneficial factors. Some industry partners indicated current graduate programs where insufficient in preparing students for employment. These results highlight the importance workplace integration in successful implementation of PjBL as a form of WIL, and the need for stronger collaboration between employers and academia to correct the current misalignment between graduate skills and industry requirements
Innovative progress tracking: Enhancing student achievement with effective interventions
Full text linkThis paper examines the efficacy of academic support interventions provided by the Swinburne College Student Hub for international students enrolled in the Postgraduate Qualifying Program (PQP) or English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS). Interventions for PQP students encompass plagiarism checking, paraphrasing, proofreading, referencing, and essay structure guidance, while ELICOS interventions are skill-based workshops focusing on reading, listening, and writing. The study highlights the importance of tracking student progress to refine interventions effectively. Program-specific student trackers were developed, leading to significant improvements in student success rates in assignments and unit completion, as revealed by analysis of empirical data from 2022. The findings underscore the effectiveness of tailored academic support, with implications for enhancing the delivery of support services and improving academic outcomes for PQP and ELICOS cohorts in academic settings
Where is the Real Sheep? Exploring the Baahd and Good Sheep Voices in Five Australian Picture Books.
Full text linkFarmed animals, such as sheep, featured in children’s picturebooks usually lack their own voices. Since the emergence of the animal turn, there has been an increase in the examination of children’s animal stories from literary animal studies perspectives, which destabilises the human-animal binary by challenging the human domination of other species regarding human-animal relations depicted in literature. In relation to sheep, children’s stories often rely on tropes—such as counting/listing devices, sheep providing wool, or needing to belong to a flock—along with desentientization to limit or omit sheep voices from the narratives, thus distancing young readers from empathising with sheep and reinforcing the human domination of sheep. In this paper, I draw on and expand upon Janae Dimick’s And This Little Piggy Had None: Challenging the Dominant Discourse on Farmed Animals in Children’s Picturebooks to analyse sheep in Australian picturebooks and engage with the ongoing debate regarding representing animal voices in literature. This article analyses the depiction of sheep in five Australian picturebooks and argues that sheep voices are represented mostly in conversation with humans, either on-page human characters or the implied reader, and thus deny sheep individual voices
A WIL assessment meta-framework for discipline-specific employability learning
Full text linkWork integrated learning (WIL), particularly placement-based WIL (P-WIL), has gained momentum in Higher Education over the last decade as an educational strategy for enhancing student employability. However, there is very limited guidance on effective ways to embed and scaffold WIL assessments across courses (degree programs). We present the findings from an action-research study, purposed with building academic confidence to review and re-design existing assessments to have intentional and explicit employability foci. Key to the study was the sharing of existing WIL frameworks to build practitioner expertise. What arose was a notable intersection of similar, but unplanned assessments focused on career development learning, authentic assessment, and/or demonstrations of theory-to-practice performance during WIL activities. What was lacking was a means for designing an intentional holistic schema that tagged a suite of assessments dedicated to the development and demonstration of student employability across the course. An outcome was the creation of a novel meta-assessment WIL framework (WAM-F) that supported and purposefully integrated previously independent items: 1) career development learning; 2) transferable skills development; 3) reflections from professional practice theory-to-practice WIL experiences; and explicitly tethered these to the discipline orientation of the course. The overt tethering of discipline-specific learning outcomes to a range of WIL activities, via a course-wide approach, not only assures the regulatory requirement for all WIL experiences to contribute to, scaffold and develop the learning outcomes of a course, but also makes sense of emerging educational approaches for STEM teaching teams not always familiar or confident with how to embed fit-for-purpose employability learning
Finding the joy in complexity: Privileging the practitioner voice in graduate employability
Full text linkExploring the role of generic competencies in employability and academic performance of students of psychology
Full text linkThis paper analyses the relation between generic competencies of students of Psychology and their academic performance and employability. A sample of 43 students of Psychology in a Spanish university was used to measure their generic competencies, academic performance and employability. Correlational and regression tests were conducted to evaluate the relation between the variables. The generic competence ‘adhering to principles and values’ is positively related to employability, while the competencies ‘achieve results/client satisfaction’ and ‘socialise and create networks’ are positively related to academic performance. No significant relationship was found between academic performance and employability. Generic competencies favour both academic performance and employability. The competencies which influence only one of these aspects are different. Our research offers insights to teacher learning communities to engage in a profound reflection on the inclusion of methodologies that facilitate the development of competencies related to academic performance and those most in demand in the labour market within the field of Psychology. Generic competencies are essential part of the education of students of Psychology. These competencies are institutionally developed with the aim of orienting the education of psychologists towards their future professional practice. It is essential to understand how the development of generic competencies may facilitate academic performance and employability of graduates in Psychology
Predicting students’ work world awareness through their readiness and competency for the digital world
Full text linkIn the current fast-paced digital work environment, it has become crucial for individuals to cultivate a deep understanding of the constantly changing nature of the job market. With jobs and career paths becoming increasingly indistinct and unpredictable, developing awareness of the digital work world is more important than ever. This research empirically investigated the degree to which the world of work readiness and competency of distance learning students could serve as predictors for their digital work world awareness. Data were collected from (N = 486) full-time employed undergraduate students at a comprehensive South African distance learning institution. Regression analysis and structural equation modelling were used in the cross-sectional, quantitative study. The study emphasised the significance of developing job certitude, business ingenuity and socio-digital agility as part of students’ career development learning to improve their awareness of the digital work environment. The study enhanced comprehension of the implicit function of students’ work readiness and competency in relation to significant digital-era awareness