Category: Refereed article

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Just another student survey? – Point-of-contact survey feedback enhances the student experience and lets researchers gather data

Author: Warren Lake, William Boyd, Wendy Boyd and Suzi Hellmundt

Southern Cross University

Edition: Volume 57, Number 1, April 2017

Summary: When student surveys are conducted within university environments, one outcome of feedback to the researcher is that it provides insight into the potential ways that curriculum can be modified and how content can be better delivered. However, the benefit to the current students undertaking the survey is not always evident. By modifying Biggs’ revised two-factor study process questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F), we have provided students with immediate point-of-contact feedback that encourages students to consider their own cognitive processes. The main purpose of the modified tool is to provide immediate benefit to the student, whilst retaining the functionality of the survey for the researcher. Two versions of the survey were presented to students, a feedback version and non-feedback version, with results indicating that the participants of the feedback version had a significantly higher opinion that the survey helped them to be a better learner. In general, the importance students place on feedback, regardless of the version of the survey completed, was evident in the study. The point-of-contact survey model implemented in this study has successfully allowed a tool that was once exclusively researcher focused to be oriented towards current students, introducing an additional layer of feedback, which directly benefits the current student, whilst retaining its usefulness as a diagnostic research tool.

Keywords: Feedback, survey feedback, student feedback, point-of-contact feedback, immediate feedback, R-SPQ-2F

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 57_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Insights into attrition from university-based enabling programs

Author: Cheryl Bookallil and Bobby Harreveld
CQUniversity, Australia

Edition: Volume 57, Number 1, April 2017

Summary: High attrition rates from university-based enabling programs continue to be the subject of much research and administrative effort. Understanding the factors behind decisions to withdraw from such programs is difficult since those who do not successfully complete an enabling program may not readily agree to participate in research into their motivations for enrolling, and reasons for withdrawal, leaving them silent in the literature. Students who are relatively successful with enabling study have ‘insider’ perceptions to share concerning the motivations of their fellow students, and the barriers some face. They can provide unique insights into factors behind the intractable problem of high attrition from enabling programs and the low rates of articulation into university study.

Keywords: University-based enabling programs, attrition, articulation, barriers

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 57_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Second chance education: barriers, supports and engagement strategies

Author: Harry Savelsberg, Sylvia Pignata, Pauline Weckert
University of South Australia

Edition: Volume 57, Number 1, April 2017

Summary: Second chance education programs are now a well-established presence in institutions seeking to provide access and equity pathways for socio-economically disadvantaged groups. This paper focusses on the strategies used to support positive engagement in second chance equity programs, drawing upon evaluation research data from four TAFE sponsored programs. Interviews were held with service providers involved in the programs’ development and delivery, and focus groups were held to gather information from program participants. The findings highlight the complex and often multiple barriers facing participants and the importance of delivering programs with sustained and tailored approaches. While tangible educational and/or employment outcomes were delivered, it was the associated social and personal development that made these programs especially successful. Hence, there is a need for equity programs to be holistic, scaffolded, and tailored to practical and vocational pathways.

Keywords: Vocational pathways, second chance education, access and equity

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 57_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Second chance learning in Neighbourhood Houses in Victoria

Author: Tracey Ollis, Karen Starr, Cheryl Ryan, Jennifer Angwin and Ursula Harrison
Deakin University

Edition: Volume 57, Number 1, April 2017

Summary: Neighbourhood Houses in Victoria are significant sites of formal and informal education for adult learners. Intrinsically connected to local communities they play an important role in decreasing social isolation and building social inclusion. The focus of this research is on adult learners and adult learning that engages with ‘second chance’ learners who participate in adult learning programs in the Barwon and South West regions of Victoria. The greater Geelong region is characterised by declining car automotive and textile manufacturing industries and emerging new industries such as hospitality and tourism. The data from the research participants in the study include career changers, long term and recently unemployed, newly arrived and migrant communities, young people and older adults. This paper focuses on the learning practices of second chance learners who frequently have negative perceptions of themselves as unsuccessful learners, but are transformed through their learning experiences in Neighbourhood Houses. We argue the unique social space of the Neighbourhood House, the support and guidance offered by staff and teachers, the unique pedagogy and small group learning experiences, allows adult learners to reconstruct a new identity of themselves as successful learners.

Keywords: informal learning, formal learning, adult education, ACE, VET, training reform, Neighbourhood Houses

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 57_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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University Transition Challenges for First Year Domestic CALD Students from Refugee Backgrounds: A Case Study from an Australian Regional University

Author: Eric Kong, Sarah Harmsworth, Mohammad Mehdi Rajaeian, Geoffrey Parkes, Sue Bishop, Bassim AlMansouri, Jill Lawrence

University of Southern Queensland

Edition: Volume 56, Number 2, July 2016

Summary: Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) is used broadly and inclusively to describe communities with diverse language, ethnic background, nationality, dress, traditions, food, societal structures, art and religion characteristics. Domestic CALD people are either refugees or voluntary migrants and have obtained permanent residency or citizenship. This paper identifies the key issues, challenges and needs of first year domestic CALD students from refugee backgrounds at a multi-campus regional university in Queensland, Australia. The term refugee background is used in the paper as the students are no longer refugees having successfully transitioned from refugee status to being permanent residents. Qualitative data was collected through one-on-one semi-structured interviews and focus groups with domestic CALD students from refugee backgrounds, and from key informants including teaching, administrative, and senior management staff members. Other than language and differences in education styles, this cohort of students faced other challenges, particularly in a regional setting, including socio-cultural issues, technology issues, family and health challenges and limited staff awareness of refugee needs. The findings provide insights into how Australian regional university policy makers could develop effective strategies, practices, procedures and policies to support CALD students from refugee backgrounds and to improve their retention and progression.

Keywords: Domestic culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students, refugees, Australian regional university, higher education, equity

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 56_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Remaking education from below: the Chilean student movement as public pedagogy

Author: Jo Williams, Victoria University

Edition: Volume 55, Number 3, November 2015

Summary:  This article considers the Chilean student movement and its ten-year struggle for public education as an example of public pedagogy. Secondary and university students, along with the parents, teachers, workers and community members who have supported them, have engaged in the most sustained political activism seen in Chile since the democratic movement against the Pinochet military dictatorship between 1983 and 1989. The students have successfully forced a nationwide discussion on education, resulting not only in significant educational reform, but also a community rethinking of the relationship between education and social and economic inequality in a neoliberal context. Framed through Giroux’s conceptual definition of public pedagogies and drawing on field
research conducted throughout 2014 as well as existing literature and media sources, this article considers the role of the student movement in Chile in redefining the concept of ‘public’ and the
implications for radical perspectives on learning and teaching.

Keywords: students, activism, Chile, public pedagogy

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 55_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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“Come in and look around.” Professional development of student teachers through public pedagogy in a library exhibition

Authors: Anne Hickling-Hudson & Erika Hepple, Queensland University of Technology

Edition: Volume 55, Number 3, November 2015

Summary:  This paper describes a public pedagogy project embedded into The Global Teacher, a subject within the Bachelor of Education program for student teachers at an Australian university. The subject provides a global perspective on socio-political issues that shape education. In 2013, The Global Teacher introduced an approach that asked student teachers to create a museum-style exhibition depicting six global education themes. This exhibition was displayed in the State Library and the public were invited to engage with the installations and the student teachers who created them.

Our paper describes how the project was implemented by means of close collaboration between the QUT teacher educators, curators at the State Library of Queensland (SLQ), and student groups working
on visually translating their understandings of global educational issues into a public exhibition. We discuss what was learned by our students and ourselves, as teacher educators, by engaging in this public pedagogy.
Keywords: global education, public library, group work, transformative learning, social justice, public learning space.

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 55_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Protest music as adult education and learning for social change: a theorisation of a public pedagogy of protest music

Author: John Haycock, Monash University

Edition: Volume 55, Number 3, November 2015

Summary:  Since the 1960’s, the transformative power of protest music has been shrouded in mythology. Sown by musical activists like Pete Seeger, who declared that protest music could “help to save the planet”, the seeds of this myth have since taken deep root in the popular imagination. While the mythology surrounding the relationship between protest music and social change has become pervasive and persistent, it has mostly evaded critical interrogation and significant theorisation. By both using the notion as a theoretical lens and adding to scholarship in the field, this article uncovers understandings of the public pedagogical dimensions of protest music, as it takes place as a radical practice and critical form of contemporary mass culture. In doing this, this article provides a theorisation of public pedagogy as it encapsulates protest music, and those who are conceptualised as the critical and radical public pedagogues who produce this mass cultural form.

Keywords: public pedagogy, protest music, adult learning, education for social change

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 55_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Reaching for the arts in unexpected places: public pedagogy in the gardens

Author: Ligia Pelosi, Victoria University

Edition: Volume 55, Number 3, November 2015

Summary:  What constitutes public pedagogy? The term is broad and can be applied in so many situations and settings to the learning that occurs outside of formal schooling. In this article, the author explores how a community event – a painting competition held in a Melbourne suburb’s botanic gardens – constitutes public pedagogy. The event centres on appreciation of the gardens, and on fostering the arts in the community. Local schools and residents have shown their appreciation
of the competition through increased participation over the past five years. However, there is much learning that is unexpected and far less tangible, which flourishes beneath the surface of the event. Capturing a collective memory of the suburb is one aspect of such learning that is historically significant. The author argues that the event can also be seen as activist in a political sense, through the way it has restored the arts to the community in a way that education in a neo-liberal climate is currently unable to do.

Keywords: Arts, curriculum, community, public pedagogy

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 55_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Visual Communication Design as a form of public pedagogy

Author: Meghan Kelly, Deakin University

Edition: Volume 55, Number 3, November 2015

Summary:  This paper identifies visual communication design as a form of public pedagogy. Communication design practices aim to achieve the successful transmission of a message to a recipient in a visual mode. Understanding the theories and practices of visual communication design can assist in enhancing the reception of the communication, as these practices become a tool to increase the effectiveness of learning in a public space. To demonstrate this, I will use the example of museums
as an informal place of public learning, and argue design, and in particular visual communication design strategies, are extremely important in the creation of successful learning. If participants are
not engaged or entertained, their capacity for learning will diminish. Engagement depends on the representation of the information and the successful interpretation of that information by the visitor. Further, this paper will emphasise the vital role communication design plays in all forms of public pedagogy, not just within the museum context. However, non-designers create many public learning environments and although this paper argues the benefits of communication design to increasing the effectiveness of learning, it recognises the narrow opportunities of applying this knowledge.

Keywords: public space, visual communication design, museum, public learning

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 55_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.